Recent Thoughts

As many in here know as part of my involvement with Spiritualism I am the leader (now for 9 years and about to extend for another 3 years with Lis the leader for 11 years before me) of the Unley Spiritualists Association (also registered as the New Age Spiritualist Mission Inc) which has been in existence for 97 years. Randomly I also facilitatew groups worksas a medium and speaker and teacher. As a voluntary role this takes up a lot of time while I also have to forage in normal work for the money to live on. Part of this also involves updating teh Associations web site (nasm.org.au) and its facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Unley-Spiritualists-Association-New-Age-Spiritualist-Mission-Inc-184377468263278/?ref=bookmarks  . As a result I have not managed recently to keep the flow of material up to this site which is entirely separate to the centre and run by Lis and I. However, this memory popped up on facebook and I thought it worth posting here.

On the Unley Spiritualist Association’s page a committed Christian wrote, in response to a post about an event we held where a lot of phenomena appeared, caused by both telekinetic and Spirit action. (the interaction of a human pendulum answering questions, seeing Spirit in mirrors, table tipping, small movements of the Speaking Trumpet and transfiguration over several people)
The comment was made
“Umm where does Jesus Christ Son of the living God fit in here? Anywhere?
The only Spirit is the Spirit of Truth ......”

I replied to this but thought, as many people see me posting on Spiritualism, I should re post my explanation of what I mean as a separate item on Facebook. This represents my personal view which is common with the grouping known as rational Spiritualists, which can be seen within the Spiritualist National Union of Great Britain (SNU) and the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC) in the USA. It is also that which the Unley Spiritualist Association has always followed. In the SNU there are seven defining principles, identifying what philosophy of life Spiritualism reflects whilst in the NSAC there are nine.

There are Christian Spiritualist Centres which vary from acknowledging the importance of Jesus as the a key figure but where the belief may extend all the way to Jesus having a role as saviour, even to allowing in the ideas of vicarious atonement, original sin, some even allowing heaven and hell. These may follow the Principles used by the NSAC or the SNU but could equally use a totally different set such as those adopted by the Greater World Christian Spiritualist Association.

Within either of the above groupings there is an expectation that members will adopt those principles and become Spiritualists. However, in some centres, like ours, it is only expected that they uphold them in relation to our centre, but the right to be part of another religion, say Catholic would be respected.

At the core our philosophy is based upon the truth that life continues beyond death and communication with Spirit takes place. Indeed the organisations grouped above will have a special focus on mediumship to prove survival beyond death. Were all religions to accept this fact, reflecting it in their theology and then understanding that all people go to the same Spirit World, from where they can communicate with us, then our movement may well be redundant. However, they do not accept our reality, so Spiritualism remains the one place where you can freely explore this contact with your loved ones who are in Spirit. Indeed the likelihood of conventional religion ever accepting that idea seems remote because it would mean that the differences of either theology, prophet, God or creed between each religion or religious sect would be meaningless.

There are other groups that mix the concept of Spiritualism, but not necessarily the philosophical principles, with a wide array of beliefs or concepts. In many cases these involve more metaphysical ideas, encompassing everything from Christianity through to Buddhism, New Age and Paganism. Individuals within these will hold their own ideas strongly and the common denominator tends to be more about mediumship or channelling Spirit (or Aliens) than in the fundamental Spiritualist Principles. A broader approach to mediumship may appear more generally in this arena, with personal messages , without the need to really prove either that Spirit is communicating (personal communications can easily be made through a psychic connection to the individual with no involvement with Spirit,) or that the loved ones are near.

Years ago a significant pioneer in our movement Andrew Jackson Davis, speaking at the 30th anniversary of the communications at Hydesville, the first contact with Spirit by the Fox Sisters 31st March 1848 which created Modern Spiritualism, defined the three elements; Rational, Christian and Magical.

The variation, which is especially noticeable in Australia, where there has never been any National Organisation for Spiritualism, means that when you visit a Centre you probably need to ensure you are aware of what you are seeking. This should enable the right choice of centre.

So onto my reply to the question

There are many more beliefs than Christianity and each may well contain much value.

We are a Spiritualist Centre that believes in God, in the love of our creator, the Great Spirit. However, we do not accept Jesus as our saviour, we realise that this is our personal responsibility dependent upon the acts, or inactions, we do in our life, by deed or thought, which impact upon others in either a positive or negative way.

We see the role of Jesus as one of the many wise men from the past, who we all could learn from. Remember Jesus said he was not the son of God as unique but only in the same way each one of us is. He also taught us that we should treat everyone as brothers, including those who believed differently.

Spiritualism accepts the Brotherhood of Man, to specify; all mankind, all religions, all tribes, all races all sexes. Spiritualism is not about a heaven or hell. It rejects concepts like the Trinity, original sin and vicarious atonement.

We know from the facts, gathered over time by communication from Spirit and verified scientifically, that in the right conditions the Spirit our loved ones can communicate with us, this proves they  survive what we wrongly call death. They retain their memories, character and personality and can communicate with us.

We understand from this we have freewill to choose what we do but it our own personal responsibility to save ourselves with the aid of those in Spirit. From this we know that after death we deal with the events in the physical life we lived, with the support of loved ones and Spirit. In this time we reflect on all the good and bad we have done, sensing and feeling the impact upon others. There may be no hell but this period may feel like it if the life you lived was a terrible one.

However we know that eternal progress is open to any who wish to tread its path in a Spirit world. We are aware that this is populated by a kaleidoscope of people in Spirit who have lived a physical life in all corners of the world and represent every section of human life on our planet.

What started as a short summary ends up much longer but still just paraphrases what is a very complex topic. It is my own experiences as a seeker, receiving messages or observing phenomena, as a medium, psychic, researcher, teacher, historian and philosopher that ensures my adherence to the rational Spiritualist Philosophy I have chosen to follow. By force of circumstances it is a Religion but one which is inclusive of all, it can hardly be otherwise, we know that no man is excluded from Spirit for any reason.


I just thought this is worth sharing because it is important to understand the range of views which now exist and behind which Spiritualism gets lost.

Yes, from the first paragraph where the events at a physical seance were questioned, I am still running  these physical seances 3 this year with our 4th Christmas Tree seance to come all in a mix of half dimmed halogen and red light. Certainly the tables, wher communication from loved ones is a highlight and the transfiguration, where we are seeing a few recognisable faces, are stand outs. However, we are also getting writing from the planchette (indeed the first item was the infinity sign which was drawn whilst the person who had asked Spirit to give this proof was actually elsewhere in the room on a moving table) and last year's Christnas tree seance was highlited by a basketball being rolled, by unseen hands, to the person who had donated it.

Hello ,
I have read your thoughtful piece and it is exactly what I feel is the truth of the matter even though I have never been to a spiritualism meeting .
There seems to have been many teachers throughout human history and are we to believe that people who lived and died before Jesus arrived are locked out of heaven , I believe we go on after death and the state where we go as befits our level of awareness and also whether people believe in a God or nothing at all we still survive in some form their is no choice in the matter .
My own personal belief is that whoever Jesus was the Empire under Constantine took on board Jesus's teachings and effectively stole it from the people and stuck it on top of the already religious trappings and that is what we have today a mismatch of pagan worship but the original truth by Jesus must have been powerful because despite punishments it seemed popular and was dangerous to the state , the church creed was decided by the council of Nicaea 325 where Jesus was turned into a Supernatural being to replace the Roman gods and the whole thing went on as before so the truth has been lost but it must have been fantastic , what a Physical medium this man must have been and so had to die .