This is further backed up by some of the analysis in Stuart Holroyd's "Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth", and by my own personal experience when developing my mediumship (i.e., by my inadequacies as a medium :) ). Those problems are not insurmountable (I consider the books "Mr God This is Anna", by Fynn, and "Jonathaon Livingstone Seagull", by Richard Bach illustrate that), but it is harder for the spirit when the medium is less literate.
I don't normally quote directly from books, but have a read of the following and see what you think. I apologise for the length, but there are some social biases which I think need to be taken into consideration here, and the second part of the quote from Kardec is included to show those (possible?) biases. With regard to Mr Holroyd's analysis, earlier in the book the channelling entities attributed their difficulty in finding words to some damage that they had caused the medium many years previously.
224. The disincarnate spirit undoubtedly comprehends all languages, because all
languages are the expression of
thought, and it is thought that a spirit comprehends ; but, in order for him to transmit
thought, an instrument is indispensable : the medium is that instrument. The soul of the
medium, which receives the communication of the disincarnate spirit, can only transmit
that communication through his bodily organs; and those organs cannot be so flexible
to an unknown tongue as to the tongue with which he is at present familiar. A medium,
who understands only his native tongue, may, occasionally, be made to reply in some
other tongue, if it pleases the communicating spirit to perform that feat ; but spirits,
who find human language too slow for their rapidity of thought, and who abridge that
language as much as possible, chafe under the mechanical resistance which they
encounter in their mediums, and therefore do not always give themselves the trouble to
speak in the language that may be desired by us. For the same reason, a medium,
during his novitiate, writing slowly, and with difficulty, even in his native tongue,
generally obtains only short and simple answers ; the spirits themselves recommending
questioners to put only very simple questions when they employ the medianimity of a
beginner. For the treatment of questions of high import, spirits require a fully
developed medium, presenting no mechanical obstacle to their action. An author does
not employ, as his amanuensis, a child who is only learning to spell. A good workman
does not like to work with ill-made or unsuitable tools.
To sum up the foregoing statements: - With few exceptions, a medium transmits
the thought of the communicating spirit by such mechanical means as are at his
disposal, and the expression of the thought thus transmitted is necessarily, in most
cases, more or less impaired by the imperfection of those means; for which reason the
uncultured medium, though he may be made to transmit the grandest, sublimest, most
philosophical thoughts, will usually do so in language reflecting his lack of culture.
This fact furnishes an answer to the objection sometimes brought against spirit messages,
on the score of the incorrectness of
style and orthography observable in some of them, but which proceed as often from the
medium as from the spirit. It is puerile to attach undue importance to trifling and
superficial imperfections of this kind, and no less puerile to take pains to reproduce
such inaccuracies with minute exactness, as we have sometimes seen done, under the
impression that, coming from a spirit, they ought to be respected. Such inaccuracies of
diction may therefore be corrected without scruple; those, at all events, which do not
mark, on the part of the communicating spirit, some distinguishing characteristic that it
may be useful to preserve as a proof of identity. For instance, we have seen a spirit
constantly write the name James as Jame (without the s) when speaking to his
grandson, because he had been in the habit of writing it thus during his earthly life,
although the latter, who was his medium, knew perfectly well how to write his own
name.
225. The following dissertation, dictated spontaneously by a disincarnate
intelligence, who has constantly shown his superiority by the excellence of his
communications, gives a clear and complete summary of the explanations hitherto
made, by our friends in the other life, in regard to the part performed by the medium in
the work of spirit manifestation.
"Whatever may be the specialty of writing-mediums - whether mechanical,
semi-mechanical, or merely intuitive, - our mode of communicating through them does
not essentially vary. In point of fact, we communicate with incarnate spirits, just as we
do with disincarnate ones; that is to say, solely by the radiation of our thoughts.
"Our thoughts have no need to be clothed in words in order to be understood by
spirits, for all spirits perceive the thought which we desire to communicate, through the
mere direction of that thought towards them, and they perceive it in the ratio of the
development of their own intellectual faculties; that is to say, such and such a thought
will be understood by such and such spirits, because their own advancement enables
them to understand it, while that same thought will not be perceived by other spirits,
because it awakens no remembrance, no answering consciousness, in their feeling or their mind,
and is therefore not perceptible by them. This being the case, an incarnate spirit, even
if of slight advancement, is better fitted to serve as our intermediary, for the
transmission of our thought to other spirits in flesh, than a disincarnate spirit of the
same degree of advancement could be; for the incarnate spirit lends us a fleshly body as
an instrument, which cannot be done by a disincarnate spirit.
"But, when we find a medium with a brain well-furnished with knowledge
acquired in his present life, and a spirit rich in latent acquisitions, derived from his
anterior existences, and of a nature to facilitate our communication, we naturally prefer
to make use of such a one; because, with such a medium, we communicate much more
easily than with a medium of narrow intelligence, and whose stock of anterior
knowledge is small.
"We will try to illustrate our meaning by a few concise explanations.
"Through a medium whose intelligence has been sufficiently developed by the
experiences of present and anterior lives, we are able to flash our thought,
instantaneously, from our soul to his, by a faculty inherent in the very nature of the
soul. We are able to do this, in such a case, because we then find, in the medium's
brain, the elements fitted to give to our thought its appropriate clothing of words,
whether the medium be intuitive, semi-mechanical, or purely mechanical. Thus,
whatever may be the diversity of the spirits who communicate through a given medium,
the communications obtained by him, though proceeding from various spirits, usually
present a characteristic peculiarity of form and colour due to his own personal individuality.
Although the thought transmitted may be entirely foreign to him, although the
subject treated of may be beyond his usual range of ideas, although what he says may
not have proceeded in any way from his own mind, the form of our communication
will, nevertheless, be modified by tile influence of the qualities and properties which
constitute his own personal individuality. It is precisely as when you look at landscapes or
other objects through coloured spectacles, whether green, white, blue, or red; though
the landscapes or other objects thus seen are altogether different from one another, they
all assume, nevertheless, a uniform tint imparted to them by the colour of the glasses
through which you see them. We are the light, lighting up those landscapes or other
objects, moral or philosophical, through glasses of various colours; so that our
luminous rays (forced, as they are, to pass through media more or less colourless and
translucent, that is to say through mediums more or less intelligent and manageable)
cannot reach the object we desire to light up, without borrowing the tint, that is to say,
the peculiar personal form, of the medium. Let me illustrate my meaning by yet
another comparison: - We, spirits, are like musicians who wish to play an air of our
composing, and who may have, at hand, either a piano a harp, a violin, a bassoon, or a
flute. It is evident that we might execute our air on either of these instruments, and that
it would be understood by our auditors, no matter on which instrument we played it
although the various instruments differ greatly in the quality of the sound they emit, our
composition, on whichever instrument we played it, would be identically tile same,
except in the special quality of the tone derived from the nature of the instrument
employed. But if we had at our disposal only a penny whistle, we should find it very
much more difficult to execute our air so that our audience could comprehend it.
"In the same way, when we are obliged to make use of unadvanced mediums,
our work is much more complicated, difficult, and tedious, because, in such a case, we
are forced to employ inadequate means; and because we are then compelled, so to say,
to set up our thoughts, as though putting them into type, communicating them, not only
word by word, but letter by letter, which is tiresome and fatiguing for us, and
constitutes a restraint on the rapidity and completeness of our manifestations.
"We therefore rejoice when we find mediums who are already prepared, well
furnished with the requisite tools, and provided with materials ready for use; in a word,
good instruments, for then our perispirit, acting instantaneously on the perispirit of him
whom we medianimise, has only to give an impulsion to the hand which serves us for
holding the pen or the pencil; while with inferior mediums, we are obliged to perform a
task similar to that which we perform when we communicate by raps, that is to say, by
pointing out, letter by letter, each word of the sentences which constitute the
translation, into human language, of the thought we desire to impress upon you.
"This is why we have preferred to address ourselves, for the promulgation of
spiritism and the development of medianimity, mainly to the educated classes, although
it is in those classes that we find the greatest number of the incredulous, the recalcitrant,
the immoral. But, just as we leave the production of tangible manifestations, rappings,
carryings, &c., to backward and juggling spirits, * so the
__________
* The following facts, communicated to the translator by a clergyman of the Church of England
(a seeing medium), would seem to prove that ''juggling spirits" also give their aid, on some occasions, to
their brother-jugglers in the flesh: -
"Some years ago, I was present at the performance of Signor Bosco, at R. He called two lads,
young gentlemen of R., on to the platform, and placed them about twelve feet apart. He then put a
shilling into the hand of one of the lads, and told him to hold up his hand, tightly shut, and to keep the
money safe in his closed fist. He then told the other lad to close his hand, and to hold it up like the first
lad. Bosco next told the first lad, who held the shilling in his fist, to repeat the words : 'Spiriti infernali,
ubbidete!' (Infernal spirits, obey!) The lad repeated these words, and, as he spoke, the shilling passed
out of his closed fist into the closed fist of the other lad. The lad whose fist had been empty opened it,
and there was the shilling; while the fist of the lad who had used the adjuration was empty. Bosco then
made the second lad repeat the same adjuration, when the shilling was instantly found again in the fist of
the lad who had held it at first, and the shilling was thus bandied about, several times, between the closed
fists of the two lads. We knew one of these lads; he walked home with us, and was as much astonished as
we were at what had happened ; his astonishment being all the greater when I told him
less serious among you prefer those phenomena which strike the eyes or the ears, to
communications which are purely intellectual and spiritual.
"When we desire to dictate a spontaneous communication, we act upon the brain of the
medium, upon the materials that we find therein ; and we blend our own materials with
the fluidic elements which we thus procure from him: and we do this without his
knowing anything about it. It is as though we took from his purse the
the meaning of the words he had been made to repeat without understanding them, and which it
was really abominable to have put into the mouth of a child.
"Two years ago, I went to Dr Lynn's, one afternoon, in broad daylight, arriving there early for
the three o'clock performance. On going in, I stopped for a moment to talk with his sister, who took the
money at the door. Seeing that I was a spiritualist, and, I suppose, sympathetic, she became confidential,
told me that she 'could turn tables,' and said to me: - 'Go and sit on the sofa, on the platform, close to my
brother, and perhaps something peculiar may occur.' I took the hint, and placed myself on the sofa
accordingly.
''During the performance Dr. Lynn turned to me and said: - 'I think you are a spiritual gentleman
?' to which I assented. Very well,' he rejoined, and added, addressing another gentleman, unknown to
me, who was also on the platform: - 'I have got you and another spiritual gentleman here, and I think that
I can therefore take my fish among the audience.' He usually has a glass globe of gold-fish, which he
covers with a black cloth, on the platform; and suddenly, at the word of command, the globe of fish
vanishes, leaving the black cloth only in his hand. But on the occasion to which I am referring, something
more than this occurred. He got the other spiritualist to help him carry the globe of fish-not, I
suppose, for the weight, but for the fluidic force he would obtain from his co-operation -and the two
passed close by me into the middle of the audience. The water kept dropping from the globe as they
carried it alone. Then Lynn held up the globe of fish (and remember, this was in the middle of the
audience), covered it with the black cloth, and told it to begone; whereupon it vanished instantaneously,
and nothing but the black cloth remained in his hands. To me, the globe seemed to pass through the black
cloth, and to flash past me as it came back to the stage ; but the flash was so instantaneous that it might
have been an illusion, as I was expecting something of the kind. The flash, however, seemed to me to
come just as the globe had passed through the black cloth, rather than when it passed me." - TR.
money it contains, and arranged the different pieces in the order that suits ourselves.
"But when a medium wishes to consult us on any particular subject, he should
reflect on that subject beforehand, in order to be able to question us methodically ; thus
facilitating for us the work of answering his questions. For, as you have already been
told, your brain is often in inextricable disorder; and it is then both troublesome and
difficult for us to move in the maze of your thoughts. When questions are to be asked
by a third party, they should be communicated beforehand to the medium, so that he
may identify himself with the spirit of the person who is to evoke us, thus impregnating
himself, so to say, with his thought; and we are then enabled to reply with much greater
ease, because, through the affinity existing between our perispirit and that of the
medium, we are thus brought into a nearer relation with the party by whom we are to be
questioned.
"It is true that we are sometimes able to treat, say, of mathematics, or some
other subject, through a medium who appears to be ignorant of it but, in such cases,
the knowledge required is often possessed by the medium's spirit, in a latent state, that
is to say, stored up in the personality of his fluidic being, although it is not included in
the consciousness of his human personality, for the reason that his present human body
is an instrument ill-adapted, or even antagonistic, to that particular branch of
knowledge. It is the same with our communications in regard to. astronomy, poetry,
medicine, your various languages, and all the other branches of knowledge in your
world. But when we have to employ mediums who are really ignorant of the subject to
be treated of; we are obliged to resort to the troublesome method alluded to just now,
viz., that of putting together the letters of each word, as is done by the type-setter.
"As I have already said, spirits, among themselves, have no need to clothe their
thoughts in words; thought is perceived and communicated by spirits, simply because
thought exists, in them, as an attribute of their spiritual being.
Corporeal beings, on the contrary, can only perceive a thought when it is clothed upon
with words, or some other forms of expression. While you need letters and words, the
substantive, the verb, the sentence, in order that a thought may thus be conveyed to your
understanding, no visible or tangible sign is needed by us.
"ERASTES AND TIMOTHY."
Remark. - This analysis of the part performed by mediums, and of the processes
by the aid of which spirits communicate, is as clear as it is logical. It shows us that
spirits derive, not their ideas, but the material necessary for expressing their ideas,
from the medium's brain; and that, consequently, the richer this brain is in materials, the
easier is it for them to communicate through its possessor. When a spirit expresses
himself in the language familiar to the medium, he finds, already formed, in the
medium's brain, the words with which to clothe his ideas; if he would express himself
in a language which the medium does not understand, he does not find the needed
words, but simply letters, and he is therefore obliged to dictate his message, letter by
letter, exactly as we should have to do, if we tried to make a man, who does not know a
word of German, write in that language. If the medium can neither write nor read, he
does not possess even the letters required for the formation of words; and the
communicating spirits are then obliged to guide his hand, as we do with a child who is
learning to write. In such cases, there is evidently a greater amount of physical
difficulty, and difficulty of another order, to be overcome. Phenomena of the kind we
are considering, are possible, and, as we know, often occur; but such a mode of
procedure is ill adapted for the giving of lengthened communications, and spirits
naturally prefer instruments more manageable, or to employ their own expression,
mediums "provided with good tools and materials" for their special purposes. If those
who ask for such phenomena, as proofs of spirit-action, had studied the subject
theoretically beforehand, they would understand the exceptional character of the
conditions required for obtaining them.
And from Briefing:
It was a strange inconsistency that in many of the communications there was an excess of ’thats’ and ’ofs’ and a number of circumlocutions which sounded like a deliberate attempt to avoid literacy, whereas in others the language was incisive, uncluttered and sometimes even quite eloquent and aphoristic.
***
The energy principle involved in channelled healing was difficult to explain in present circumstances, because 'This brain [Phyllis's] has not the words'
***
'We're trying to find out what the nature of the energy is,' said Andrija. 'Is there any way of giving us a hint? ... Is there a true science of polarities? . . . Could you give us an elementary exposition of that science? ... What would opening up mean to the person who was opened? What would they experience? What would they feel? What would their motivations be?' Ryr tried to cope with his barrage of questions, but said, 'I have difficulty with this brain,'
***
'Welcome back, Tom,' Andrija said, and there followed abut fifteen minutes of normal communication on a variety of topics. In the course of this there occurred a brief and amusing exchange which nicely illustrates the difficulties the communicators have in finding appropriate terminology in Phyllis's brain.
Andrija said, 'May I be so bold as to ask for some characterisation of the nine beings that Phyllis went and talked to? Who are they, in our simple language?' He was particularly interested in this information because of his previous communications with 'The Nine' through Dr Vinod.
'In your world, to use one of your phrases,' Tom answered, 'they would be nine bananas.'
Andrija laughed. 'We don't quite understand the meaning of that phrase. Is it a Mafioso expression or something.'
'They are tops, 'Tom said.
'Oh, I see, they're the top bananas!' Andrija said.
***
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
Tags: mediumship
First published: Sunnudagr, 16th October, 2011
Last edited: Sunday, 16th October, 2011
