Chapters 3 to 5 - Communication with Spirits during the Post-Apostolic Period and in Modern Times

- 11 - As regards mediumistic writing, many leading Christians of the time assert that they were inspired by the spirit world in their writing. The development of mediums in the post-apostolic age was the same as in the first Christian congregations, taking place at the gatherings for Divine service. According to Hermas, a prophet would enter the “pneumatic” state while the congregation prayed together, all of those present joining hands to symbolize unity. The closed circuit of odic current thus formed furnished the spirit world with the material it needed for developing mediums and for delivering its messages through those mediums who were already developed. Anyone who has witnessed the development of mediums will readily understand the description of the mediumistic proceedings of those times, since they were the same as today. When Eusebius reports that the Church did not permit its adherents to allow themselves to be developed as prophets by others, or to undertake it on their own, this, too, is perfectly clear to anyone familiar with the subject. Just as a person could become a medium at meetings held for Divine worship, the same end could be accomplished by a psychically inclined individual if he got together privately with a few others for Divine worship, or if he merely sat down by himself for spiritual concentration, the only difference being that the development of a medium progressed much more rapidly at harmonious larger gatherings than in the presence of only a few others or if he were completely alone. The combined odic power of a large congregation is far more effective in sustaining the work of the spirit world than the much less powerful odic force of a handful of people or that of a single individual. Nevertheless, little by little, the odic power of an individual who knows how to achieve inner concentration will become so great that he may develop into a medium, although in this case much more time is required. The prohibition by the later Christian Church, or more accurately the Catholic Church, of the selfdevelopment of a medium or development with the help of others was issued at a time when communication with spirits had ceased, even at gatherings for Divine service, because the leaders of the Church forcibly suppressed such activities. Their reasons for this opposition to spiritism were the same as those of today’s Christian churches when they act hostile towards Spiritism and Spiritualism. The leaders of a church that has become a closed worldly organization are not willing to tolerate the competition of a spirit world. Even in the days of Irenaeus the old Church had become an established worldly body, in which clerical officialdom ruled the faithful. The bishops were no longer named by the manifesting spirit world, but were appointed or elected by human agencies. They were also no longer content with the serving role of the “episkopos” of the first Christians, but regarded themselves as the bearers of the traditional doctrinal truths and as their legitimate interpreters. But whenever mortals who were not chosen for the task by a spirit of God lay hands on things that are holy, desecration follows hard on its heels. The same applies to the “presbyters” [elders] of later days contrasted with the “presbyters” of apostolic times. If, then, one wants, purely from the history of religion, to characterize in a few

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