HOW SILVER BIRCH CONTROLS HIS MEDIUM

This was easy to replace after Zerdini removed it because it was also posted in another place upon the forum

HOW SILVER BIRCH CONTROLS HIS MEDIUM

Silver Birch is always anxious to answer our questions and when, at one sitting, a sitter asked him to explain how he controlled his medium, the guide went into great detail in his explanation. He said:

I am not inside this body. Around this body there is an aura - you know the aura is what is depicted in the pictures of saints - and I come into that aura with my aura. But your pictures only show the aura as white. In reality, it is full of colours, and these colours are a complete indication of everything that you do, what you think and what you are. Those who can see the aura know you better than you know yourselves. They know the sort of person you are - what you think, what you have achieved, where you lack and where you succeed. The aura is the permanent record of everything that you are.

I come as close as I can, whilst the instrument makes himself receptive. He must not set up any vibrations because they disturb. He must be quiet. If he runs about I cannot come into his aura. As he sits passively, so his consciousness slips away and I, harmonizing myself with the aura, try to achieve a perfect union. The more perfect the union between his aura and mine, the more perfect is the control that I have over him.

I become, for the time being, and with his permission and co-operation, the tenant not of his body but of his mind. His consciousness has abdicated in my favour and I am his conscious mind, whilst I reign. Because all the cells of the body are controlled by the mind, through the brain, my control gives me complete mastery over the body. I can speak with his lips, I can move his hands and his legs. If you touch him, he does not feel it. If you pinch him, or stick pins or needles in him, he does not feel it. People have done that. It does not register.

I am now the tenant, and I throw a shaft of light on to the back of his neck. That gives me control of all the nerves in the body as well, so that I have mental control, control over the nerves and complete physical control whilst I am using this instrument.

When I first began to use him, I had to search through his vocabulary to find words, learning them all the time like you have to when you learn a foreign language. I had to learn the words and then find them in his vocabulary and, as it were, press the key of a typewriter to make the words rise to his lips.

Then the trouble was that when I hit one key tofind a word, his subconscious mind, which was not then properly trained, would interfere, because of the association of ideas that always exists.

So I had to learn, while I was mastering this language, so to control this subconscious mind that when I wanted one word that word only registered and nothing else came with it. That took me a long time, but now I find any word I want and even words that he has forgotten, and sometimes words he never uses. That is only a question of practice. At the same time as I am doing that, I have to tune in to a series of’ power stations so that the knowledge I want to transmit is ready to be “connected”.

One of the troubles, and this is a great difficulty, is that once you get into the aura of the medium you have slackened your vibrations down, so that you are gradually cutting yourself off from the vibrations of the world of spirit to which you are normally accustomed. The threads that hold you become attenuated and, unless you have practised very diligently, they snap.

You can maintain contact with the physical world and lose the contact with the world of spirit. So, whilst I have the mastery over the body of the medium, at the same time I have to learn to retain my connections with all those power houses which supply me with the information I want to transmit to your world. That information is in record form, actually prepared, so that when I desire to tap one source the line is kept open for me.

In that I am assisted by many here, so that there is no interference. For there are attracted many thousands to such a gathering as this, all trying to make an opportunity of registering themselves, or else attracted out of curiosity, or else jokers who want to play tricks, or else those who are organised to try and interfere with us - and there is an organisation.

Also there are brought here those who do not believe that it is possible to communicate with your world so that they can see it is true. We have as much trouble in our world as you have in yours, because there are a lot of people who do not believe they are “dead”, and there are those who know that but do not know you can reach the world of matter.

All those others who help me are at work all the time to make sure I can receive the message. If I am to talk to you about, for example, the failure of the Churches and all institutional religion, all that knowledge is already prepared, for we know exactly what we think about the failure of the Churches. The line is kept open; I tune in - or plug in, to use your phraseology - and it pours through me and through the medium.

It is very complicated and there is a lot of work attached to it, and many have to labour arduously so that you can get this message. That should enable you to understand what I mean when I say I am only an instrument. That is all I am - an instrument of this higher power as it seeks to use me, as it seeks to use all of you.

Very, very rarely, something goes wrong. Perhaps they have not allowed for the climatic conditions, perhaps one of the engineers - if you like to call them such - has not calculated properly, and the line snaps. That has happened, and I have to plug in or tune in to another source that is waiting there. There is always another onestanding by in case one breaks down..
zerdini


Posts: 1431
Joined date: 2008-01-01

What a wonderful explanation!

It puts into perspective the nonsense put about by those who say they are in touch with elevated guides or, more preposterously, conveying wisdom from entities who are alleged to be even more advanced than SB. (and I know personally two such persons who I allowed to mislead me once )

What a dreadful delusion such individuals are under and how they may mislead those who look to them for help....

Hi Z,

That is a great explanation.

As I was reading this thread, I became so engrossed in what was being said I personally felt as if SB was talking to me in the room. A bit like you do when our grandparents relay a tale of their lives!
Absolutely wonderful Z. Thank you for posting.

So it is not only us who has great trouble communicating with spirit.
They have their problems as well.
I suppose it is similiar to a telephone line breaking down.
Or a medium who is not well connected to the spirit world.


I note how SB states that our mind must be calm for spirit to link,also to let our consciousness slip away.
Just how far do we allow our consciousness to slip away?
That thought rather makes me feel afraid.
Petal

[Also there are brought here those who do not believe that it is possible to communicate with your world so that they can see it is true. We have as much trouble in our world as you have in yours, because there are a lot of people who do not believe they are “dead”, and there are those who know that but do not know you can reach the world of matter.
quote]

I've enjoyed reading this, in particular the paragraph above.

I have never thought of spirit not believing that it's possible to contact us.

Jutta

Very interesting, can anyone provide some context to the comments about having to learn to untangle subconscious connections to certain words? I would hope that this was succesfully done before Silver Birch went "public" so that all the wonderful words and ideas we have in print are all from Silver Birch and not coloured by Barbanell's subconscious in any way.

Hi Wes, I copied a bit from Barbanell's Own Obituary




To test the state of trance Silver Birch once asked Swaff to stick pins into me. Though blood
was drawn I felt nothing. There are critics calling themselves psychic researchers who
dismiss guides as the medium’s secondary personalities. I am aware of all the problems
involved in trance mediumship. Mainly they stem from the fact that a guide has to control the
medium’s subconscious mind.


This, unlike a telephone, is a living thing and, therefore, is bound to colour to some extent
whatever is transmitted from the spirit world. Development consists in obtaining mastery
over the subconscious mind.


In my working life I use words every day. I have never yet written or dictated an article with
which I was satisfied when I read it. Inevitably I find, when looking at the typed material, that
I can improve it by altering words, phrases and sentences.


No such problem arises with the guide’s teachings. These flow perfectly, requiring usually
only commas, semicolons or full stops. Another interesting aspect is the occasional use of
words that I regard as archaic and do not form part of my normal vocabulary.

Wes wrote:Very interesting, can anyone provide some context to the comments about having to learn to untangle subconscious connections to certain words? I would hope that this was succesfully done before Silver Birch went "public" so that all the wonderful words and ideas we have in print are all from Silver Birch and not coloured by Barbanell's subconscious in any way.

Wes, after reading much Birch I have always been under the impression that there were no public sessions until he could completely control the output thru Barbanell.

Certainly the consistency of his teachings from beginning to end would suggest the same.

Ultimately, we have to lay out a level of trust in SB, Barbanell and the other great spirit guides, yes?

MU!! wrote:

Wes wrote:Very interesting, can anyone provide some context to the comments about having to learn to untangle subconscious connections to certain words? I would hope that this was succesfully done before Silver Birch went "public" so that all the wonderful words and ideas we have in print are all from Silver Birch and not coloured by Barbanell's subconscious in any way.

Wes, after reading much Birch I have always been under the impression that there were no public sessions until he could completely control the output thru Barbanell.

Certainly the consistency of his teachings from beginning to end would suggest the same.

Ultimately, we have to lay out a level of trust in SB, Barbanell and the other great spirit guides, yes?

Silver Birch more than once suggested that we reject anything he said that did not ring true to us. So I would rather exercise my own knowledge, reason and judgement when dealing with his and other's teachings, than take anything on trust. After all he did say "it's good to have an open mind, but not an empty one".

An example would be his thoughts on organ transplants, which go against my own moral sensitivities.

Starling wrote:Hi Wes, I copied a bit from Barbanell's Own Obituary




To test the state of trance Silver Birch once asked Swaff to stick pins into me. Though blood
was drawn I felt nothing. There are critics calling themselves psychic researchers who
dismiss guides as the medium’s secondary personalities. I am aware of all the problems
involved in trance mediumship. Mainly they stem from the fact that a guide has to control the
medium’s subconscious mind.


This, unlike a telephone, is a living thing and, therefore, is bound to colour to some extent
whatever is transmitted from the spirit world. Development consists in obtaining mastery
over the subconscious mind.


In my working life I use words every day. I have never yet written or dictated an article with
which I was satisfied when I read it. Inevitably I find, when looking at the typed material, that
I can improve it by altering words, phrases and sentences.


No such problem arises with the guide’s teachings. These flow perfectly, requiring usually
only commas, semicolons or full stops. Another interesting aspect is the occasional use of
words that I regard as archaic and do not form part of my normal vocabulary.

This doesn't quite settle my mind, as even though Barbanell acknowledges the problem, he refers how his conscious mind is expressed,
rather than what his subconscious mind might be up to while he was in trance. Jim had sme thoughts on this, and with some digging I
might be able to find his post..

Silver Birch more than once suggested that we reject anything he said that did not ring true to us. So I would rather exercise my own knowledge, reason and judgement when dealing with his and other's teachings, than take anything on trust. After all he did say "it's good to have an open mind, but not an empty one".

He said exactly that Wes but that does not equate that what SB related to be untrue or less than factual in this instance. See

Hannen Swaffer Rebutts The Truth

Swaffer and Barbanell both fell to their own bias of Spiritualist dogmatics ...or was Silver Birch lying? If he was lying about reincarnation then, when was he not lying about other stated facts?

Personally, if MU!! has to be the detective to ascertain when a spirit guide is lying, or a medium is coloring, I just as soon dismiss both medium and spirit guide and move on. There is far too greater evidences of survival and the afterlife than to have to play Sherlock Holmes with DV mediumship.

An example would be his thoughts on organ transplants, which go against my own moral sensitivities.

Birch often stated he had opinions on things and that he was not perfect in those opinions. This was his opinion on organ transplants unlike the fact that he claimed reincarnation (of himself Swaffer, many others).

Determining opinion and stated fact is not very difficult to do with SB. When you see fact, then you are left with two choices. All-in or all-out. Rejecting fact is one thing, rejecting opinion an entirely different fish kettle.

IMO.

Of course.

Back to topic. Was Barbanell coloring SB's messages? I don't believe so unless SB states it as fact and, in fact, SB went to great lengths to explain that their co-development was intensive and extensive and was so, perhaps primarily, to omit the possibility of undue influence.

If you cannot accept that premise, then dismiss Birch and move on.

Wes wrote:This doesn't quite settle my mind, as even though Barbanell acknowledges the problem, he refers how his conscious mind is expressed, rather than what his subconscious mind might be up to while he was in trance.

Isn't the premise of direct voice that the spirit guide is direct and without influence? Why trance the medium if not?

If direct voice is nothing more than a hypnotic/hypnogogic, better mannered and literate Theresa Caputo , what is all the fuss about?

A. W. Austen "Yet, if you were to gag the medium, tie him up, sit him on the fire, put him in a cage or boil him - there seems to be no limit as to what “psychical researchers” desire - none of it would prove that the words he spoke in trance were anything but something coming from the subconscious mind. The real test is the gradual building up of a personality other than the medium’s.

Now Silver Birch, who regularly controls his medium at my circle, is as real a person as any one of the sitters.

His nobility of character far transcends any previous conception I had. The remarkable combination of the deep philosophy of his mind and the simple utterance of his speech exceeds any human being’s powers of invention.

“I have a few simple truths to teach,” he said, “simple but important.” That is all. The way in which, week after week, he says the same thing in a different way amazes me who, as an old reporter, has had to listen all his life to parsons seeking every Sunday a new way of saying the same old thing.

They bore you.

Silver Birch illumines and inspires.

My understanding is SB communicated through Barbanel using trance, not direct voice. The implication of that seems to me that he used the medium's faculties to communicate, but that barbanell's 'personality' was suppressed in some way or quiescent whilst this happened

Absolutely Obi Trance is not direct voice by any means. Almost all Trance mediums, who approach the subject objectively, will acknowledge that the communications can be distorted by the mediums own sub conscious mine especially when they hold very strong views.

This has been the subject of very much research in the past. It was the reason that psychology and psychiatry walked hand in hand with Spiritualism for a while (William James, Jung among many others).

I have a very interesting piece in train on this for the Trance section of the forum based particularly on the views of Cammille Flammarion, once member of Allan Kardec's circle, speaker of the eulogy at Kardec's funeral past president of the Society Of Psychical Research. It also encompasses some work on subconscious influences from the Swiss psychologist Theodore Flournoy.

It is a crucial area to look at because trance is very difficult to verify. In the case of Red Cloud and Silver Birch they never verified their existence but on balance the work itself has integrity (with a few dodgy bits like blood transfusions and organ transplants but remember Barbanells Jewish background and look at their orthodox position and you see the possibility of the mediums sub conscious bias equally you may see this in relation to positions taken before World War 2 about the war).

I say this because it is important because to much poor or misleading trance work exists. The fact people still take David Thompsons pronouncements from Guide William as valid is a good example given he did claim and earthly life which was proved to have not existed and has made several dangerous suggestions to his listeners.

Trance always leaves me concerned although I have personal experience of extremely good trance work. However, it is strange to think that at one stage proof of survival mediumship was often done in trance Gladys Osborne Leonard being a classic example when in trance Feda stepped in acting like a mental medium.
https://www.spiritualismlink.com/t303-gladys-osborne-leonard?highlight=gladys+osborne

I keep getting close to a trance state but never at a suitable time, I regard correct controls, such as at the Hannen Swaffer circle, as vital.

Jim

obiwan wrote:My understanding is SB communicated through Barbanel using trance, not direct voice. The implication of that seems to me that he used the medium's faculties to communicate, but that barbanell's 'personality' was suppressed in some way or quiescent whilst this happened

I use the terms "direct voice" to mean that the spirit guide speaks directly through the voice mechanisms of the medium. I use this terms as such to differentiate it from channeling which has a New Age overtone to it and is typically the use of the medium's own larynx.

The term "direct voice" is Barbanell's definition so I use his definition when posting about Barbanell.

Direct Voice Develops by Maurice Barbanell

Independent direct voice may or may not be trance and uses an ectoplasmic voice box typically in low or red light ala Leslie Flint.

With all deference to Barbanell the work of Silver Birch is more correctly defined, alongside all other example like Red Cloud, by the term Deep (or Full) Trance i.e. trance where the medium is so removed that they neither hear or know what is being said. They only find out by listening to a recording, or in Barbanell's case reading what the stenographer recorded.

I have had some interesting experiences when I first became involved with Spiritualism 29 years ago. Listening to recordings of Lis's trance work, professionally recorded on top quality tapes by an expert based outside the room and listening through the microphone placed in the circle room. At times despite the machine functioning properly nothing was recorded and on another the recording was completely different to the communication that took place in the room although the same Spirit controls were involved.

Got some tape of the last trance session Lis did last year which was interesting, she rarely does trance now. I tend to agree with her about its limitations given the residual effect it tends to have.

MU!! wrote:

obiwan wrote:My understanding is SB communicated through Barbanel using trance, not direct voice. The implication of that seems to me that he used the medium's faculties to communicate, but that barbanell's 'personality' was suppressed in some way or quiescent whilst this happened

I use the terms "direct voice" to mean that the spirit guide speaks directly through the voice mechanisms of the medium. I use this terms as such to differentiate it from channeling which has a New Age overtone to it and is typically the use of the medium's own larynx.

The term "direct voice" is Barbanell's definition so I use his definition when posting about Barbanell.

Direct Voice Develops by Maurice Barbanell

Independent direct voice may or may not be trance and uses an ectoplasmic voice box typically in low or red light ala Leslie Flint.

Fair enough. The description given by barbanel and SB sounds like trance mediumship would you agree? If so, I am not sure why you'd expect there to be no interference from the medium's personality. In fact SB explains why if memory serves. Perhaps I have misunderstood the point you are making.

Admin wrote:

I have had some interesting experiences when I first became involved with Spiritualism 29 years ago. Listening to recordings of Lis's trance work, professionally recorded on top quality tapes by an expert based outside the room and listening through the microphone placed in the circle room. At times despite the machine functioning properly nothing was recorded and on another the recording was completely different to the communication that took place in the room although the same Spirit controls were involved.

Got some tape of the last trance session Lis did last year which was interesting, she rarely does trance now. I tend to agree with her about its limitations given the residual effect it tends to have.

Interesting. What residual effects Jim?

A feeling of some displacement and disconnection which can take a while to go. Although no ectoplasm is involved there is also a problem if someone jerks an entranced medium or shouts to pull them back, headaches nausea etc.

I think there is also the extreme fact that for a period of time you have no idea what is going on and have to place your entire trust in Spirit that what is said is valid, coherent and worthwhile. You also can only then rely on others validation when you come out of trance

This latter point is one of my reservations about going into deep trance, were I to do so it would only be for some worthwhile purpose not to just experience it and get random light weight material.

Thanks Jim

Years ago I used to do this in a non-public way and the strange feeling of two individuals using the one physical organism - two folk simultaneously looking through one pair of eyes - was slightly disorientating, but not unpleasant. What was familiar and commonplace to one might be totally new and strange to the other, which brought about some 'different' types of experience.
When a vastly superior Mind linked the effect was truly awesome - sudden expansion of outlook, but without the knowledge. The residual feeling of 'some displacement' describes the sensation perfectly.

Admin,, I am glad I am not the only one that feels that,,, I remember once being told that when I come out of trance I should feel happy and full of life ect... but for me that simply isnt true.. not that im miserable,,, but i am definitely disconnected.. foggy.. I think of it as being away with the fairys... But I do know there is a feeling of vulnerability there with me,,, less so now than there used to be.. but its still there.. and cold too..
When going into trance though I feel totally different. when the main communicator that works with me comes forward.. I feel the presence 1st. and with this presence I am completely comfortable.. I have a knowing and a trust that everything it going to be ok. Then I feel the personality of him 1st... drifting into my mind.. There is at this time sometimes a combination of thoughts... but then comes the reassurance.. and like a clock my thoughts and consiouness begin to give way... in the way the big hand moves on the clock... except its not going forward but backwoulds... 12..11 10..9.8 7 6. ect before I go through what I call the blackness.
With other communicators I am still learning... I go 12 .11.10.9.8. what they gonna say.. ha.. so dont have the confidence I suppose to go through the black... But that i think will come with development.. and spirit in the meanwhile will often bring my main communicator 1st... cos they know i will give way.. and bring others on the back off him.. Anyway sorry for rambling on

No Bravo thanks for the rambles, with Lis its her main and trustworthy guide who starts proceedings then the other communicators come through and I can understand your feelings.

At the moment the only group I am attending is the open development group I run and beginning trance there is definitely no go territory. Hopefully we may get something happening later in the year but that depends on Lis's availability preparing her weeks teaching course as one of the Australian Tutors for Tony Stockwell's week of mediumship training in Victoria is occupying most of her time.

Jim

obiwan wrote:The description given by barbanel and SB sounds like trance mediumship would you agree? If so, I am not sure why you'd expect there to be no interference from the medium's personality. In fact SB explains why if memory serves. Perhaps I have misunderstood the point you are making.

Trance, certainly.

My point is that how are we to know what to trust, or what not, if the Spirit Guide is being colored? We can't.