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Spiritualism is the oldest science, religion and philosophy, and although its naming as such as the modern movement dates back only to the middle of the Nineteenth Century in North America and Europe, its principles and techniques have been in operation for ten thousand years or more.
Also, since animals have psychic sensitivities, it could be said that the gifts of spirit preceded us humans, in the early hominids, and in animals. That would not go against evolutionary theory, either. Then going back even further to the beginning of time, across this vast, expanding universe, there again must have been spirit in the origin of it all.
So how DARE a small-minded scientist or parapsychologist tell us that there is nothing more beyond death? He or she cannot PROVE any contrary
argument, either.
So, rather than get hot under the collar and into an
interminable dispute over theories and beliefs, let’s
go back to the RECORDS, which is the chief reason for
compiling these series of posts. Because we are lucky
to have records which go back thousands of years, and
which corroborate the psychical events which have been
closely studied in more modern times. Not only do we
have public records of mediums such as the Curate of
Ars, or Theophila Dittus, who immediately preceded the
modern Spiritualist movement with their spirit
healings and clairvoyance and all kinds of physical
phenomena, but we also have ancient records from
Egypt, Persia, Africa, India and China which show that
spirit communications were taking place way back
before Biblical times. For example, we have the Shu
King documents which date back to the third millennium
B.C.E. In one of these the ruler Pan-kang gives
evidence of spirit communication, and the belief in
immortality, during the course of his address to his
subjects as follows:
“My object is to support and nourish you all. I
think of my ancestors who are now the sovereigns in
spirit. Were I to err in my government, and remain
long here, my high sovereign [in spirit], the founder
of our dynasty, would send down on me great punishment
for my crime, and say, ‘Why do you oppress my people?’
“If you, the myriads of the people, do not attend
to the perpetuation of your lives, and cherish one
mind with me, the One man, in my plans, the former
kings will send down on you great punishment for your
crime, and say, ‘Why do you not agree with our young
grandson, (your present ruler) but go on to forfeit
your virtue?’
“When they punish you from above, you will have
no way of escape…Your ancestors and fathers will now
cut you off and abandon you, and not save you from
death.”
[“The Sacred Books of the East” edited by James
Legge. Volume III pp109-110].
However, we don’t have to go back to browse in
these musty volumes for long in order to prove a
point. Spirit is ever around us, and we can safely
ignore the skeptics. It is a shame, however that the
BBC still continues to offer time to broadcast so much
misinformation and bigotry if not outright denial of
the truth.
So let’s continue with Sister Briege McKenna’s
story, which was broadcast on CBC Radio’s “Open
House” in the 1990s in Canada and across the USA. In North America there is less censorship and more spiritual and religious tolerance than in many other countries.
With a group of friends Sister Mckenna went to
visit a New Age guru. He turned out to have very bad
vibrations. After he had interviewed Briege with
dubious, intrusive and rather personal questions, she
felt confused and much revulsion, and started doubting
her vocation, and the very existence of God. A
little later she went to visit Ralph Wilkerson, the
charismatic evangelist. He told her, ‘Sister, your
hands are anointed for the work of God.’ She told him
that she didn’t know anything about prophecy. He
interrupted her and said, ‘Sister, you went to the
false prophet. He has destroyed many of the people of
God, and has led many people out of the church.’
Briege then went back to the Episcopalian priest
who had told her she had the gift of healing. He said
that someone had told him Briege was going to see the
false prophet, and had wanted to stop her to protect
her, but he felt he should not intervene, as she had
three lesson to learn from the experience, and that
the Lord himself [or her Guides?] would protect her.
He was led to pray for Briege while she went there,
and it was probably his prayers that saved her from
the onslaught.
Briege writes of the three lessons she learned:
“First, I should not have gone to a ‘prophet.’ I was
trying to see the future. It was like
fortune-telling, like seeking a false god. My life
must be centered in God; I must leave the future
completely to him.
“Second, I had to learn the difference between
judging and discerning. The first time I went to the
prophet, I knew something was wrong, but I thought I
should not judge him. I had sensed the presence of
evil, but I did not know what it was. I thought it
might be my own attitude. I learned from this
experience that I must pray for the gift of
discernment.
“Third, I learned that my vocation was not a gift
from me to God, but that it was his gift to me, to
liberate me, not to bind me. I learned that I must
daily thank the Lord for the gift.”
As she got up to speak at a prayer meeting back
in Florida, a lady jumped up and said, ‘Excuse me,
Sister, I want to say something. You have the gift of
healing. You know about it, but you are more worried
about the approval of people than you are about God’s
will.’ Briege looked at the woman and said, ‘I’ve
never seen you in my life before. Who are you?’
She was a freelance writer from Canada. She said
that when she woke up one morning, an image of the
Sister’s face appeared on her wall and she said, ‘It
was revealed to me that God had given you the gift of
healing but that you were afraid of it. You know God
wants to use you in a ministry of healing.’
Sister McKenna was still unable to accept her
healing mission. Over a month later she went to talk
at a women’s guild, and spoke for an hour on the
subject of prayer, without mentioning anything to do
with healing. Two days later a woman who had attended
the meeting phoned and said she had walked out while
Briege was giving her talk, thinking she was too young
to know anything about prayer. She began to
contemplate suicide, but that night she saw Briege
walk into her room and stand beside her bed. But
Briege was at home in bed at the time. The caller
insisted that Briege had been in her room, and she
couldn’t get rid of her. She said that Briege had
spoken to her asking, ‘Why do you not believe in
Jesus?’ She said that whether her eyes were opened or
closed she could see her and if she turned away from
her, there she was on the other side of the bed! She
had obviously been used to rescue the lady from
suicide.
Over the next six months Sister Briege did as
a priest she consulted advised, and went back to her
regular work as a sister of St. Clare. Healings began
to take place, but she was still skeptical that Jesus
could be working through her. On one occasion, a
lady stood up at a prayer meeting and said she wanted
prayer for a woman who was both blind and paralyzed.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘Blind and paralyzed?
That’s too big a job for me, Lord.’ I was only
starting out. I still didn’t realize I was only the
instrument. I felt the Lord saying I should go over
to pray with the sick lady. I did.
“When I went to see this woman I realized that
sickness can do two things. It can make you a saint
or you can become very bitter, depending on your
attitude and disposition to prayer.
“When I went in, this woman was very angry and
had given up on God. When I put my hand on her, I
said a little prayer with her and I felt the sensation
of pins and needles, exactly as I had in the chapel
when I had been given the gift of healing.
“As I was praying, I was say to myself, ‘Now
Briege, don’t go telling this woman she’ll be healed.
You know this is all psychological and she’ll get
disappointed. These tinglings in your hands are just
your imagination.’
“I said the prayer with her, which at the time I
thought was a harmless prayer and couldn’t do much. A
few days later she went for me. She said that she had
been very skeptical of me. No nun had ever prayed
like this and when I put my hands on her paralyzed
arm, she thought I had stuck pins in her to make a
good impression. She had felt something to through
her arms. In the middle of the night, she got the
power back into her arms. A few days later, she got
her sight.
“The woman’s spiritual attitude totally changed.
The Lord taught me that the inner healing, spiritual
healing, was more important. If the spirit isn’t
healed, if a person is not brought closer to Jesus [or
spirit, and knowing oneself] what’s the point?”
In other words, treating the cause of disease is
the first step towards healing, call it “sin” or
attitude, or wrong thinking. Those conditions have
to be understood and resolved first, THEN the physical
healing takes place, as in the New Testament story
(Mark Chapter 2, verses 1 – 12) Jesus first said to
the sick man lowered through the roof ‘Your sins are
forgiven’ before healing him physically.
[I am not of the opinion that a Spiritualist
must ignore the New Testament, or any other religion’s
scriptures, when illustrations of the working of the
power of spirit are to be found therein. Richard R.]
Excerpts reviewed from Briege McKenna’s “Miracles
do Happen” Charis Books, 1987.
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