A measure of personal growth...

Spirituality


HOW ENLIGHTENED ARE YOU?


If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend's more limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can always be non-judgemental,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can be ever-forgiving,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, colour, religion, gender preference, or politics:

Congratulations - - you have almost reached the same level of spiritual attainment as your dog.

I love it,Hiorta!

I have come to the conclusion I am not perfect!

Petal

Whit? A wummin admitting imperfection? Ah jist cannae believe that.

hiorta wrote:Whit? A wummin admitting imperfection? Ah jist cannae believe that.

Why aye,man!
A Geordie lass is always truthful to the end!

I enjoyed this. My own little cat is very wise and loving .

One of the things I noticed about Spiritualism here in the two years that I attended the churches every week was the lack of a consistent discussion about the spiritual paths which people follow .

Every week there would be demonstrations of mediumship and talk of some kind, sometimes by a spirit communicator but more often just a talk, sometimes interesting sometimes not.

It all seemed a little patchy to me (my fault, nobody else's). I think I might inherently belong in a monastery of some kind, where the path is mapped out . Fantasy, that, however. I'm not in a monastery and have to find my own path.

I enjoy formal study because the path is mapped. Because of my need for more formal boundaries, I have decided to reread Silver Birch carefully and to journal my thoughts about what I read, taking the liberty to read more widely as intuition suggests.

I've found already that a lot of what Silver Birch suggests has parallels in other philosophies. For instance, his comments about karma are expanded in Annie Besant's work on that subject and her expositions of theosophy and Hinduism. Actually, I read Annie Besant before reading Silver Birch. I was tempted to look at Hinduism but such really requires a teacher and supportive fellow students. There is a local Hindu temple which I might visit, however. It might be a little late for me to explore that path from the very beginning, but who knows?

Would others care to share more deeply about their own spiritual paths? I am just curious but acknowledge some excitement about the realisation that I must find and tread my own path within the boundaries of the 'law' as Silver Birch puts it. He is ultimately profound and simple at the same time.

Julian of Norwich & Joanna Southcott both do it for me Q.
Julian (a clairvoyant) for her simplicity
'Alle shalle be well and alle shalle be well and alle manner of thinge shalle be well'

and Joanna (clairaudient and automatic writer) because she bucked the trends of the times to carve out two careers one as a successful upholsterer the other as a 'prophetess' (old name for a medium).
Bot well before the Fox sisters too.
Post-Fox then the incarcerated medium Minnie Oppenheim (passed 1919) but you haver to dig around for Minnie's poetry. Some one's writing a biog of Minnie but that'll take some time.
Plenty online about 'Mother' Julian and you can usually find Joanna's poems on t'internet. She was huge here in the East Midlands and her descendant followers still own a huge chunk of prime real estate in the middle of Bedford.
Also of course Ann Lee the Shakler foundress, they were spiritualists before the word was thought of. Have a look at the songs and 'mother Ann's work and Shakers' in inverted commas via Google online. That's where today's 'circle dancing' comes from.
It's all good stuff.
Good luck with your search.
:-)

Thanks KK .

Yes, I have some of Mother Julian's work and think it is quite beautiful. As a teenager, I loved Teresa of Avila as well and recently bought some of the work of my patron saint, Catherine of Siena. Both of these women were real mystics and I think that Catherine may also have been a healer. It is interesting to read these women at this stage in my life.

I haven't heard of Joanna Southcott, Minnie Oppenheim or Ann Lee but will follow up.

I love poetry by the way. Where does one begin to speak about the riches there?

Trance dance picture. Engraving of Ring Dance,Niskeyuna Shaker Community USA

There's one of the Catholic saints instruments played themselves around her. Apports astral travel the works I reckon they either canonised their mediums or burnt 'em. That Francis of Assisi,definite medium. St Padre Pio a spiritualist healer. The list goes on.
I'd plump for St Jude [lost causes] if spiritualists went in for patron saints.
Agree with you on poetry Q.
Sublime.
Minnie Oppenheim was the spinster sister of E Phillips Oppenheim the Ian Fleming of his day. He had her committed first in Leicester Asylum just because she was a medium plus so he could gain sole control of their joint inheritance. When Leicester wanted to discharge MInnie as she was as sane as the day is long the stinker had her committed to the more amenable Northampton asylum where she passed in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1919. Her case was not unusual for spinster mediums with financial prospects in the late 19h and very early 20h centuries. It was a medium called Louisa Lowe who suffered similarly that fought the system and eventually saw the law changed so that family members and amenable quacks could no longer have siblings locked away.

Good pic thanks Jim.
Q these look interesting...
Schwebel L.J [2004] Apparitions Healings and Weeping Madonnas. Christianity and the Paranormal. New York. Paulist Press
and
White R. [1982] An analysis of ESP phenomena in the Saints. Parapsychology Review. Vol. 13 [1] pp 15-18
White finds 30% of saints studied presented with paranormal 'effects'.

David Richmond who planted the first spiritualist church in England [Keighley 1853 and still going] was a Shaker.

hiorta wrote:Spirituality


HOW ENLIGHTENED ARE YOU?


If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend's more limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can always be non-judgemental,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can be ever-forgiving,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, colour, religion, gender preference, or politics:

Congratulations - - you have almost reached the same level of spiritual attainment as your dog.

Dogs DO complain, though: you should hear the dog next door when he's unhappy about something, and starts howling. Truly pitiful!

Ah the Shakler Group Quakers? Or am I thinking Quakers and Shakers?


I love the Quakers. Went to a few of their meetings 10 years ago, before I found Spiritualism, and enjoyed then so much.

I like the companionable silence, and people just getting up when the spirit moved them.. Nobody ever seemed to abuse that privilege.

Quakers believe that there is something of God in everybody and that each human being is of unique worth. This is why Quakers value all people equally, and oppose anything that may harm or threaten them.
Quakers seek religious truth in inner experience, and place great reliance on conscience as the basis of morality.
They emphasise direct experience of God rather than ritual and ceremony. They believe that priests and rituals are an unnecessary obstruction between the believer and God.
Quakers integrate religion and everyday life. They believe God can be found in the middle of everyday life and human relationships, as much as during a meeting for worship.

One of the reasons, I didn’t stay was that they seem to be Christians and I didn’t see myself in that way then.

Lots of parallels to the Spiritualist philosophy, eh?

Have to say this, but I think that this philosophy is to me a clearer one than the Spiritualist equivalent and I like the Quaker philosophy of social justice in action as well.

KatyKing wrote:David Richmond who planted the first spiritualist church in England [Keighley 1853 and still going] was a Shaker.

He must be knocking on a bit now.

Remmeber Obi he was a Spiritualist and there is no death.

Hi Quiet, at some stage I will do a write up about the shakers, in the early days there was a fair amount of contact with Spiritualism.

Jud Bueschler's excellent site Spirit History had some great material about them. Sadly he decided to close it down, I believe because too many people were borrowing material without any acknowledgement.

Admin wrote:Remmeber Obi he was a Spiritualist and there is no death.

Lol

I've suggested on this week's PN that David Hopkins latest article (he suggests taking demonstration out of our meetings to be replaced by....) is a 'de facto' description of Quakerism rather than Spiritualism.
They have some good gigs at their Woodbrooke College a lot cheaper than AFC too.
There's an outfit called 'Julian Meetings' in England follows a Quaker like modus, visisting speaker then sit in silence for half an hour or so but then talk about 'what they got'. I spoke at one a while ago. Nice people mainly well helled lady Anglicans of a certain age. It was held next to the cathedral they claim to be non denominational, may have been a Methodist or two in amaongst 'em (hard to tell) no black pentecostals that's for sure (and there's loads of those in our nearest city). Twin sets & pearls seemed to be the order of the day and they were most welcoming. 'Curious rather than intrigued' I'd say. Paid well but I've not been asked back since.

Admin wrote:Hi Quiet, at some stage I will do a write up about the shakers, in the early days there was a fair amount of contact with Spiritualism.

Jud Bueschler's excellent site Spirit History had some great material about them. Sadly he decided to close it down, I believe because too many people were borrowing material without any acknowledgement.

I'd be interested in that Jim....also in anything about the Quakers.

well -heeled they were. NOT 'helled'.
Then again come to think of it.....................

I'd heard Bueschler became a 'born again' hence spirithistory demise. It's an Arab footy site these days. Hoped that was wrong. It was a good site. His two books are good although strongly Universalist/Unitarian in focus but that's what he did his doctorate on.
He's a CIA chap (or was) worked for Voice of America.

KatyKing wrote:I'd heard Bueschler became a 'born again' hence spirithistory demise. It's an Arab footy site these days. Hoped that was wrong. It was a good site. His two books are good although strongly Universalist/Unitarian in focus but that's what he did his doctorate on.
He's a CIA chap (or was) worked for Voice of America.

A "spook" all-around, eh?

LOL