Spirit Truth

In Through the Mists, Chapter 6 – A Magnetic Chorale, Fred describes the healing ceremony held for those who have been forced into dogmatic bonds, oppression and disfigurement by their families. He describes the gruesome effects on the spiritual body of such oppression and bondage, and the incredibly beautiful ceremony held for such unfortunate souls, in order to remove their shackles and restore them back to life.

Here Fred also explains the reality of what happens to us when we have lived a life of oppression enforced by others: “…spiritual restrictions arbitrarily forced upon an enquiring mind with a view of preventing it from overstepping dogmatic limits, produce upon the soul a disfigurement in growth as tangible and real as if they were surgical appliances purposely designed to effect such horrible shapes….”

He describes the changes that take place in the time of death; “In the process of dissolution[1] everything is altered except yourself; old things pass away and all things become new, but you will remain unmoved, unchanged, as the one world makes its exit and another its entrance in the theatre of your life. This transformation is effected in the twinkling of an eye when the wand of the Magician-Death, is waved”

“….He (Siamedes) approached a couch upon which lay a young woman deformed almost past recognition of the human form. She had appliances to nearly every part of her body, not fitted to help or render support, but rather to torture and force her in dwarfish and unnatural shapes. The eyes had been purposely turned to make her sight uncertain, while her limbs were so pressed and malformed in order to prevent the possibility of unaided movement.

Let it be here distinctly remembered that this deformity was spiritual, but to my astonishment at that time, confirmed by later and considerably extended experience, I found that in the persons of these recent arrivals from Earth, for whose benefit and assistance the chorales are specially held, spiritual restrictions arbitrarily forced upon an enquiring mind with a view of preventing it from overstepping dogmatic limits, produce upon the soul a disfigurement in growth as tangible and real as if they were surgical appliances purposely designed to effect such horrible shapes; and the Great Father in His all-embracing provision has designed this process of restoration, that such oppressed and struggling souls should be at once restored to their normal condition, and enter upon the immortal life free from the disabilities under which they have hitherto laboured. Further, let it not be supposed that I am seeking to create a poetic fiction, for which purpose I allow my fancy to roam in search of novelties or situations; truth is far more strange than any such ideal the mind could frame, and in this record I am satisfied to state the simple facts of God’s eternal law, as I have found – and you will find by-and-by.

My descriptions may jar upon your senses by their seemingly vulgar materiality; they may even cause a shock by what appears a coarse portrayal of, and as being antagonistic to, your cherished conception of the nature of this life. For that I cannot hold myself responsible. My attempt is to translate into Earth’s prosaic vocabulary, so far as circumstances and means will allow, some slight idea of the realities and truths to be found in the poem and the music of this after-life. If the result is but a thick and guttural jargon , void of melody, and disappointing to your hopes, blame me not; the extent of my desire is but to indicate a very brief outline of what the picture might be if the facilities were at my disposal; but that outline is true to scale, as you yourself will find it one day by experience. Should you attempt to re-translate my record from the physical into the spiritual, that you may comprehend the truth as I behold it, let me offer one suggestion, by attention to which at least half your difficulty will be cleared away. Death works one change, and it is this:

In the process of dissolution[1] everything is altered except yourself; old things pass away and all things become new, but you will remain unmoved, unchanged, as the one world makes its exit and another its entrance in the theatre of your life. This transformation is effected in the twinkling of an eye when the wand of the Magician-Death, is waved. The material will fade away ‘like the baseless fabric of a vision,’[2] ever after to appear as a vague and shadowy substance which must be sought for and be but dimly visible to the newly acquired state; while that world upon whose eternal shores your feet will rest, will leap from the realm of vision into a solid and startling reality, having foundations which never can be removed since they are laid deep down in the bosom of infinity, and whose inhabitants have solved the birth-pangs of immortality. Bear this in mind, and read the following pages in the light of this suggestion, then you will understand why I have not hesitated to use that language – however unworthy for the other reasons – which conveys to you the idea that the scenes among which I move are, to me at least, as real and solid as the Earth at present appears to you.

Just another thought which offers food for meditation and reflection, and may help to remove the impression that my statement of spiritual deformity is erroneous and imaginative. Parental profligacy[3], immorality, ignorance, accident, and a hundred other pre-natal influences produce physical and mental distortions in a child. Why then should it be illogical to assert that in like manner, spiritual errors, unnatural ideas, and bigoted  restrictions, generate corresponding malformations and disfigurements in the soul, when it is set free from the flesh in which its shape and lineaments[4] have been moulded. Whether you may be able to satisfy yourself on the reasonableness of this point or not, the fact remains the same, and the time is not far distant when you will recognise its truth and appreciate the justice of the law by which it is governed. Be not deceived, the diseases of the soul resulting from personal sin are only removed and cured by slow and painful processes; but the unavoidable defects caused by other’s sin or force of circumstances, have a speedy rectification in such chorales as that to which I draw your attention.”

[1] Dissolution; formal ending

[2] William Shakespeare (1564–1616) “The Tempest” Act 4 Scene 1. Play thought to have been written in 1610 or 1611, first performed in 1611, and published in 1623

[3] Profligacy; an extremely extravagant or wasteful person, extremely low moral standards

[4] Lineaments; a characteristic feature, especially of something immaterial