Silver Birch Speaks

These wonderful recordings have turned up acknowledgements to the SCR who found them first

Do you know I have found one thing I cannot accept on these recordings. At the start of part 5 Silver Birch state he is opposed to transplants. Whilst I may agree with the overarching philosophy espoused the part of me living a human existence would find the lack of humanity in denying procedures which are now common place unnaceptable.

Admin wrote:Do you know I have found one thing I cannot accept on these recordings. At the start of part 5 Silver Birch state he is opposed to transplants. Whilst I may agree with the overarching philosophy espoused the part of me living a human existence would find the lack of humanity in denying procedures which are now common place unnaceptable.

I've just listened to the piece you mention, Jim, and can understand your concerns. I'm unsure how I feel about the matter - as a human I feel almost as you do but after hearing SB's simple words I wonder what else there is to know..... Sadly SB does not enlarge on his thoughts but he doesn't say something without there being sound reasons.

Later in the discussion he explains how life can not be extended when the time to die has arrived. It is reasonable to conclude, then, that successful transplantation comes about when the latter situation does not apply, whatever reservations he has on the actual technique.

In response to a later question about the speed with which bodies are dealt with, however, he does say that the soul/spirit may experience temporary difficulty in adjustment when the individual has no knowledge of "spiritual matters". The necessary, swift removal of donor organs might be his concern for such individuals?

We can only speculate unless anyone knows of additional guidance from him on this subject????

I found the following comments from Silver Birch in reply to questions put to him at a circle meeting:

What are the spiritual aspects of heart-transplant surgery?

Motive is always the important consideration. Undoubtedly in some cases the motive is to sustain earthly life. It can be that experimentation encourages an enthusiasm for more experimentation which in the end is not concerned with the prolongation of earthly life. Also it must be said that subjecting helpless animals to cruelty in order to learn from them is not an act that can be considered to have any spiritual value. Not through cruelty will man find health. Not through exploitation will he learn the secrets of nature that have so far eluded him.

I am not in favour of the transfer of any bodily organ from one to another. Indeed, I am not in favour of the transfusion of blood. I do not think, from my point of view, and I speak only for myself that the sustaining of the physical body must be the be-all of every endeavour. I maintain that man should be instructed how to live aright, spiritually, mentally and physically. If he thinks right, then he behaves right and his body will be right.

The solution is not the transfer of bodily parts. The solution is for every man to order himself to live as the Great Spirit intended.

Man must have compassion for other men and for all the creatures with whom he shares this planet. They were not placed here by the Great Spirit to be used as experiments, to prolong the physical life of man.

Is it right to say at this stage that heart transplants must be doomed to failure?

It is conceivable that there may be some successful experiments. What I am concerned with is that the experiments are taking the wrong spiritual turning. This is not the direction in which those who should be dedicated to man’s well-being should be working. They will not bring health. Health is harmony.

These are merely attempts at a temporary patching up of bodies.

You must understand the simple essence. You are created body, mind and spirit. These are indivisible; they are not exchangeable parts. You are a whole individual. To achieve health you must have wholeness, harmony, rhythm, concert, between your tripartite being. This is the only way that you can get health, not through drugs, not through medicines. These are temporary reliefs. Your world is full of ignorance. Death is the dread monster to be evaded.

Death is feared, but death is part of the natural law. Physical immortality is not the object of earthly existence. The earth is the training ground, the school to learn your lessons for the greater life that must inevitably be yours.

And yet we are faced with situations such as the failure of a child's vital organ(s) where there appears not to have been any opportunity as in.... "I maintain that man should be instructed how to live aright, spiritually, mentally and physically. If he thinks right, then he behaves right and his body will be right."

Yes, I realise that there may be more than just these apparently simple aspects to consider but I wonder how many of even supposedly-knowledgeable Spiritualists would refuse a transplant for a child?

Karma in action where the young life is at risk....? (kidding - I don't do karma!)

Surgeons are devoting their skills to transplanting corneas, kidneys and even hearts of the newly dead to replace diseased organs in the living.
Silver Birch gave his views on this controversial subject when he was asked:

“Are you against the transplant of corneas? Surely there is nothing spiritually wrong about that?”

As a principle I am opposed to transplants. I don’t question the sincerity of the motive of those who offer bodily parts to be used in the service of others.

The Great Spirit has endowed every human with a physical body to express the spirit that is responsible for its life.

This is an intimate relationship between the body and the spirit. If it were necessary for transplants then you would not have the failures when hearts and kidneys are transplanted into other bodies.

The question of corneas is very difficult. I don’t want it to appear that I am indifferent to suffering. But sometimes there is a karmic condition involved. I know this can be regarded as the easy way out of the problem, yet nothing happens by chance in your world or in mine. The law is supreme and regulates everything.

Where there is blindness it is a result of cause and effect. Whether it is spiritually better for the blind person to have sight is a matter that could be debated for a very long time.

Physically there could be a benefit, but not necessarily a spiritual one. I, from my vantage point, can stress only the spiritual aspect as the one that is the most important.

“Would you apply that principle to ordinary illnesses?”

Only if it is a karmic condition. Then the healing will not succeed, and similarly the cornea will not produce sight.

“But if transplants were not meant to be used, people would not be able to do operations."

You have free will. You are not puppets. You can take the road to the right or to the left: you have a choice. If the Great Spirit wanted you to be merely marionettes you would have been created that way.
You have within you the power to help what I call the infinite processes of creation. Similarly you have the power to delay, to hinder, to hamper; but you cannot alter them.

“It could well be spiritually wrong to develop along a road of science whereby ordinary human beings are patched from one another. Everybody has a spiritual basis."

That is the purpose of our teaching. The body is important because it is the temple of the spirit. If, because one has in some way transgressed the natural law, an illness results, you must pay the price for it; you cannot avoid it.

I am not opposed to the surgeons’ work. I am not against skin grafting. I am not against any sincere motive to serve. But I can approach all the problems involved only from the viewpoint of the underlying spiritual motivation.

To a healer who survived the horrors of a concentration camp, the guide said:

It is not possible while you are in your world to have the answers to all the questions that arise in your minds. It is impossible for you to have the fullness of knowledge because you are circumstanced in a world of three dimensions, and occasionally the problems that beset you can be appreciated only when you are able to manifest outside these limited dimensions.

These problems involve considerations of a spiritual nature that you cannot solve, because perforce you can look at them only from the viewpoint of earthly life. You cannot measure them in relationship to the infinity of living which is compulsory for every human being.

So this is where the element of faith arises.

You begin by adding knowledge to faith. Then you arrive at the stage when you must add faith to knowledge. You are in the realm of what is speculation, because you cannot get the answers that would appeal to your reason.

When I say faith, I do not mean credulous, irrational faith. I mean the faith that is founded on knowledge, a faith founded on that sure base of incontrovertible evidence that cannot be gainsaid, and leaves you in no doubt about the spiritual realities which are the basis of all being.

I cannot promise even those I love that they will be exempt from problems. By the very nature of earthly life you must endure these problems. You must grapple with them. You must call on latent, divine power within yourself to help you. If that is insufficient, go one step higher and call on the greater wisdom that streams from the infinite storehouse.

If you have had no problems, you would be akin to spineless automatons, puppets, marionettes. You have infinite possibilities that have to be developed to their fullest extent whilst you are on earth.

The only way this can happen is not when the sun is shining, not if you are living in a bed of roses, not when all is quiet and peaceful and tranquil, but when the storm is raging. It is then that the challenge calls forth this latent power, and you develop. You unfold the spiritual nature within.

In reality your troubles are your greatest friends. They are the means by which you find yourself. Therefore, paradoxically though it may seem, you must welcome troubles when they arise, and realise that in reality they wear the mask of friendship for you.

I always say, “Look back when crisis comes, and see how the signposts of the spirit have always pointed the way, even in the darkest hours when it seemed that no answer could be forthcoming.” Look back in your own life, the tragedies that embroiled you, the situations that seemed impossible of relief or even escape, the difficulties that posed their greatest challenges.

Even in the worst of your earthly experiences you were led unfailingly to where you are today, and that guidance will never desert you.

There is a pattern in all human life, and it repeats itself. Especially is this the case in the lives of those who have a service to render. There are no chances, no coincidences, no miracles. The supreme fact about the whole of life in its infinite variations is that the law runs throughout the vast universe, and nothing and nobody is outside the operation of natural law.

thanks, Z.

I read your pieces a long time back. Still plenty to ponder...

Hmm elements of the Jehovah's witness here in no blood transfusions. the proof of the pudding is in the many great achievements of transplant/trnasfusion recipients after the event. I agree with you Ma cclearly it was not their time to die so the medical treatement was appropriate.

Not being a believer in preordination I actually believe there may be several times in a pathway when it could be the "time to die" but our own free will can come into play.

These were lengthy recorded sessions and I understand that in any trance work the subconscious of the medium may appear in some of the work. Does anyone know what Maurice Barbanell's own position was on this work especially as transplants were in their infancy.

Of course one wonders at the death toll in the First and Second World War without blood transfusions.

Jim

Barbanell's own views were often different to those of Silver Birch nevertheless SB made the point: "Physically there could be a benefit, but not necessarily a spiritual one. I, from my vantage point, can stress only the spiritual aspect as the one that is the most important."

It is interesting and would also rule against Chemotherapy and almost any treatment aimed at "artificially" sustaining life. Sadly in this area my own feelings must veer away from the teachings of Silver Birch. I doubt, if the passing is meant to be, they will stop it, however, in other cases they will and who knows what may accrue from this.

I know that we always teach healers to never countermand the human doctors and seek to work in harmony with conventional treatments. I still believe physically and spiritually this is right. We have enough problems getting world acceptance to the survival of life if we included a Spiritual position suggestive that the use of transplants and transfusions was Spiritually incorrect I guess we would just get further behind. Indeed at what point do we stop medically helping because it interferes with the Spiritual aspects of this life without being trite one could raise an argument, on this basis, that glasses were wrong.

As Mac says a lot to ponder on but my place is with the postion of those existing in this human life and the treatments. Luckily, as Silver Birch says, we have this freedom of choice

Jim

I can understand what you are saying Jim and have no argument with it. That is your view.

SB stated: "I have said constantly that if I propound sentiments which insult your intelligence or make your reason revolt, reject them."

My own view is that - as quoted in Corinthians - For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

At my present state of spiritual evolution I know very little and understand even less.

These postings truly leave one in deep thought. I find this paragraph to be most interesting to me:

I am not opposed to the surgeons’ work. I am not against skin grafting. I am not against any sincere motive to serve. But I can approach all the problems involved only from the viewpoint of the underlying spiritual motivation.

"Sincere motive to serve"... I can see it as that in our world, as I see most health care workers are doing their work due to a desire to help and serve their fellow human beings. That is their human motive. Perhaps we can be hopeful as we eventually....... progress spiritually to begin to approach an understanding of the underlying spiritual motivation.

My true feelings are that it would be wrong not to use every possible means to try to save a human life. To me it seems like there would be many new lessons to learn in life as a result of repairing a broken body. Opportunities of growth by the patient, their family, if it was a transplant - the family of those that lost a loved one, friends, etc.

Thanks for an interesting discussion,
lynn