- 43 - Therefore, I shall add a brief explanation: You cannot possibly overestimate the human character of the good spirits’ communication with you. They are the best friends you have, and are always present in large numbers at your religious gatherings. In most cases they are spirits that were mortals like you, and that have progressed toward God in the Beyond. They have been assigned as your guides, counsellors and guardians. • They have the most fervent desire to lead you as far as possible along the path toward God while you are still on earth, so that, when you leave the earth, you may enter as high a sphere as possible in the spirit world. Many of your spirit friends lived in other countries and spoke the languages of those countries while they were on earth. Some of them cannot speak your native tongue, for spirits, too, must learn those human languages they did not know while on earth. All of them, however, are eager to speak a good word to you, and they crowd about the mediums to use them for speaking or writing. To preserve order, there is, at each gathering devoted to communication with good spirits, a ‘controlling spirit’ that decides which of the spirits may speak and how long they may do so, taking into account thereby also the rules and resolutions adopted by the assembly participants. If, for instance, the participants agree not to allow communications in a language unknown to them, the controlling spirit will admit no spirit unable to express itself in the mother tongue of those present. The mediums, too, have the power to refuse a spirit being entry into their bodies, for a state of ‘trance’ occurs only when no resistance is offered on the part of the mediums. Hence, as Paul says: ‘the prophetic spirits obey the prophets’, that is, the ‘mediums’. There is one passage of Paul’s teaching that is obscure, partly in itself and partly because of its incorrect translation. This passage reads: ‘Whenever you come together, each one has something ready: a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a speech in tongues, an interpretation. Let all this be done to enlighten the congregation’. First of all, the translation is wrong. The text should read: Whenever you come together, each of you receives a psalm, and so forth.’ Each one receives whatever it may be through the mediums present. He does not have it ready beforehand, as though he brought it with him; rather the spirits present these various things through the mediums in the course of the gathering. One may present a hymn, another an instructive teaching, a third a revelation, another a message in a foreign language, and yet another a translation of that message into the native tongue. Out of the great variety of spiritual fare offered, everyone present may choose what will best satisfy the immediate needs of his soul, for the goal is the enlightenment of the whole congregation, rather than that of only one or another of its members. So many different things are offered because the spiritual needs of the participants are so different. When much is presented, there is something for everyone. Someone who has experienced particularly good fortune personally, or whose family has done so, will be able to express his feelings best with words of praise to the Lord, which will be presented by a spirit through a medium. Someone else may feel downcast and will be cheered by a message of consolation. A third may be assailed by doubts as to whether the things he is witnessing are indeed the workings of the spirit world and will be relieved of these doubts when he hears a medium speak in a foreign tongue.
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