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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Dr. Frederic Myers

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apprentice to your own soul

Editor's note: How poetically, with such philosophical splendor, speaks this man. How taken I am by this entire passage but, especially, the phrase "ambitions for the sake of others." I've never been prompted to create a family coat-of-arms but these few words move me so deeply that I might seek for such an emblem in order to highlight that which would be a most admirable and high-minded family motto: "ambitions for the sake of others."

A leading theoretician during the first generation of psychical research. He was born February 6, 1843, at Keswick, Cumberland, England, and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. For 30 years Myers filled the post of an inspector of schools at Cambridge. Here his resolve to pursue psychical investigation was born in 1869 after a starlight walk and talk with Henry Sidgwick.

His theory was that if a spiritual world ever manifested to humans, a serious investigation must be made to discover unmistakable signs of it. For "if all attempts to verify scientifically the intervention of another world should be definitely proved futile, this would be a terrible blow, a mortal blow, to all our hopes of another life, as well as of traditional religion'' for "it would thenceforth be very difficult for men to be persuaded, in our age of clear thinking, that what is now found to be illusion and trickery was in the past thought to be truth and revelation.''

Myers had in mind an empiric method of deliberate, dispassionate, and exact inquiry. It was in this spirit that, in 1882, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), London, of which he was a cofounder, came to be established. He devoted all his energies to its work and concentrated with a deep grasp of science on the psychological side. The words "telepathy,'' "supernormal,'' "veridical,'' and many others less in use today were coined by Myers.

"I never knew a man so hopeful concerning his ultimate destiny,'' wrote Sir Oliver Lodge in memoriam. "He once asked me whether I would barter--if it were possible--my unknown destiny, whatever it might be, for as many aeons of unmitigated and wise terrestrial happiness as might last till the secular fading of the sun, and then an end. He would not.''

Myers died January 17, 1901, in Rome, Italy. After his death, a flood of claimed communications from his spirit came from many mediums.

In 1907, Eleanor Sidgwick obtained good identity proofs through Leonora Piper. On her behalf, Verrall asked some questions to which she did not know the answer and received correct replies as regards the contents of the last conversation that had taken place between Mrs. Sidgwick and Myers.

Many other impressive indications of his surviving self were found in cross-correspondences, especially during Piper's second visit to England in 1906-07. The whole system of cross-correspondences appears to have been elaborated by him, and the wealth of classical knowledge displayed in the connected fragments given by several mediums raises a strong presumption that they emanated from Myers' mind.

The Road to Immortality (1932), a book written by Myers through Geraldine Cummins, a stupendous vista was opened up, apparently by Myers, of the soul's progression through the after-death states. As regards the authorship of the book, Sir Oliver Lodge received independent testimony through Gladys Osborne Leonard from "Myers'' of his communications through Cummins.

Vanishing Night

1923

Frederic Myers, from the afterlife, via Juliet Goodenow

(excerpts)

develop your inner guidance system; trust yourself... your True Self

You should cultivate your impressions, your intuitions—trust them as your guide where you travel and discover by sense. This faculty is easy of cultivation, when the student applies himself to the task. The cultivation of the spiritual will be slow as learning a foreign language; the material must be held in abeyance, or the dross of matter will obscure the transcendent realities awaiting discovery...

Nations that overdevelop materialistic ideas lose the necessary spiritual balance to retain sufficient equilibrium. I deviate somewhat from my subject, to prove the essential things we should endeavor to obtain—knowledge throws upon experience a searchlight. We have learned that within is the universal way leading to this Wisdom.

EmmyLou Harris

• Editor's note: Once again we are encouraged to develop and to trust our inner guidance system. These soul energies, now and to the unending future, shall be our prime compass! How ironic that Orthodox Religion emphasizes something else: "Do not trust yourself! The small voice within is Satan trying to deceive you! You must listen only to the Church for your guidance!" Is this not Evil? 

Space, the first frontier of the afterlife. Engage!

• Editor's note: I have grouped together Myers' several references to recreational space travel and discovery. How cool is that?

"I may be traveling thousands of miles in some foreign planet unknown to the world, when a thought holds me spellbound and I get the import of it and respond in the same way, my thought attuned to one of my vibrations—by this I mean one who has traveled along the same line of research or one who may be interested in the things I am interested in. To all such, thought is instantaneous...

"People engaged in the discovery of worlds and exploration in science, teaching, traveling and listening to discourses from teachers unparalleled in learning...

"The immensity of space invites exploration, and after a while the earth soul becomes disenthralled and reaches through desire to higher levels. The world here is actively engaged in exploration of space and discoverers are making charts of new systems of worlds...

"I do not often visit New York, but usually compile my data from some distant star or planet...

Summerland is very earthlike, with nothing unnatural

"Mind attracts like mind, and we draw to us those whom we wish. In my garden the flowers I love bloom and birds sing; the same birds that flutter about your gardens; the same butterflies also come into my garden that light on your trellises; the same bees make honey here that contribute to your table the sweets of the hive; the same grass that you have in your lawns, and the [same] trees abound. There is nothing unnatural here. Little toads hop along my path; and frogs leap and bound here in the pools about the garden; grasshoppers fly about and daddy-long-legs attract little children as they did on Earth...

his cozy home in Summerland, with all his favorite things

"I knew that I had seen my home before—it seemed very natural. Here I found several of my favorite books—a friend had placed them there. Shortly after my home-coming, a number came in for a friendly chat; nothing seemed strange or unnatural here ...

we advance in the afterlife as a function of our readiness to serve others

"We find our station in life here, as there, and find our homes according to our wealth; but the coin of exchange is not barter in the market places, as you anticipate. It is measured by what a man has gained of spiritual worth... This does not mean so much the spiritual knowledge or education he may have received in his college course or academic training—but it means self-sacrifice for others, for the sake of others—not for earthly gain—but for the love of others, preferably to self.

outreach efforts to help those in the dark realms

"To these people dwelling in darkness, we often go. They love to welcome us for the shining light of those of us who have been able to gain admittance to the light by means of what may be a different environment, or a right starting point, is most brilliant. These poor souls are anxious to begin their study as the physical and the material is all they have. The spirit came naked and starved. Ministering angels are always about them, giving themselves to the work of instruction and leading them into the light of assimilation...

you haven't learned of your destiny, how glorious and powerful you are: 'the empire within'

"He is himself the sovereign of his destiny, the master of his fate. Created in the Image of God, he is the Son of the Most High. Lighted by the lamp of conscience, he builds an empire within himself; his lordly possessions reach within to Infinitude...

"Why has man proceeded so far on his way without recognition of his destiny, his inheritance with the eternal nature of things? His vista of mind has encircled the globe; he reaches out and girdles the earth with the strength of his thought... You have the ability to think the thoughts of God, after Him, in conformance to this law—your mind is therefore the mind of a god, analytical—powerful.

Myers instructs us concerning Twin Soul love and marriage

• Editor's note: We are indebted to Prof. Myers for offering us straightforward and plain comments about the future of romantic love in heaven!

"MARRIAGE is the uniting of twin souls. This is the only spiritual marriage and the only marriage that survives bodily death.

"This is a broad statement, but it will be substantiated by truth...

"Throughout the universal creation, sex seeks completion in mating; in lower creatures, instinct leads to the choice and is followed by the amours of love responding to the laws of reproduction.

The soul-companionship was beautiful and inspiring and intense in its spirituality

the stars travel through space in quest of love

"Material creation follows the laws of reproduction in vegetable product, in forestry, in flowers. The shells of the sea contain twin embryo, while the stars travel through space in quest of love...

• Editor's note:  Myers speaks metaphorically here, indicating that all creation, in a sense, seeks for dualistic consummating union. Regarding those love-struck stars, the History Channel's Universe informs us that 70% of the stars in the cosmos exist in blissful binary togetherness. In fact, a most plausible hypothesis, with highly suggestive evidence, has been advanced positing that our very own Sun lives in stellar marital union with a red dwarf, its orbit so elliptical and so extended that these secret lovers meet in relative proximity only once every 26 million years.

"[The ancient Genesis document speaks of the] divine origin of man and his companion, woman: bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. This creation typifies the relationship between man and wife.

• Editor's note: The Genesis account, as I've elsewhere written, refers to love between Twin Souls. Myers' referencing of this verse, in the present context of his discussion of Twin love, suggests that he agrees with my assessment concerning the elemental importance of Twin love. He is saying that the Genesis story "typifies" and speaks of the ideal and archetypal romance, Twin Soul love.

the mysterious meaning of "made in the image of God"

"The oneness of marriage is the essential to harmony, and therefore to family life indispensable. The cradle of the human family was wrought in perfection, calculated to preserve the beauty of the form divine ...

• Editor's note: This entire section of Myers' writing subsumes his bold statement, "MARRIAGE is the uniting of twin souls. This is the only spiritual marriage and the only marriage that survives bodily death." Adam and Eve, "the cradle of the human family," the allegorical first Twin Soul marriage partners, represent that human family created in "perfection." Notice the implications: The image of "beauty," the aesthetically pleasing "form" of the divine, which the first Twin Souls were to "preserve," was not some notion of a physical male-female external body of God, but the inward person of God. How can we know this from Myers' statement? See his preceding words. The "form of the divine" to be preserved is related to lovers' "oneness" which is "essential to harmony." "Oneness" is an inner quality of mind and heart, not of outward forms. I think the message is clear. The intense love, the sense of harmony, of oneness, characteristic of the Male-Female God, was to be revealed in Adam and Eve, the first sacred Twin Souls - revealed, not only to the world but to each other.

"Of all the mistakes and the sorrows of ill-guided unions and unhappy homes, of illegitimate children defrauded of their just heritage, of all that make up the sorrows of life, this is the most lamentable and far-reaching in its effect on life and society. Degeneration of the race is inevitable when marriage is debased...

• Editor's note: We must allow ourselves to feel the full impact of Myers' testimony. Let us keep in mind that he is speaking from the afterlife, now imbued with clearer perspective than most. Again, his statements fall under the heading of "MARRIAGE is the uniting of twin souls. This is the only spiritual marriage and the only marriage that survives bodily death." Myers speaks of the debasement of common earthly marriage. How is it debased? The context of his argument informs us. All nuptial contracts which do not represent a union of Twin Souls debase the marriage institution; further, Myers, casting aside polite language, warns that these common marriage-accords provide for the "degeneration of the race." These are strong words, but, again, they come from someone with an other-worldly viewpoint, able to see much farther than we. Myers is saying that Twin Soul love was meant to reveal and preserve the beauty of the image of God - which is the perfected harmony of oneness. But, when parents who are not soul-wedded to each other bring children into the world, these offspring are "defrauded" in the sense that they will not be exposed to that intense and divine affection, that sacred Joy, naturally exhibited in Twin love, which should have been the children's heritage and pedagogue. Myers and other spiritual writers say that this injustice to offspring is the cause of the "degeneration" of society and the race. This, indeed, is heavy. A related topic might help us here. We read of those who, either by near-death experience (NDE) or by some other mystical venue, receive a brief taste of heaven - and are instantly changed by the revelation. And I think that it is this brief glimpse of the next world that soul-linked parents, by their mutual fervent love, were meant to implant within their children. The young ones would receive this preview of heaven's joys simply by observing and sensing the energy of the wonderful love-dynamic between their parents. With the receipt of this gift, like the NDEers, the children would be given a spiritual seed of intense divine Joy that would grow and develop, motivate and sustain them, their entire lives.

• Editor's note: With the substantial help of Frederic Myers, I have discovered and come to understand what I consider to be a clear and unmuddied meaning of "made in the image of God." This phrase has been a battleground of debate, and propaganda, for thousands of years! yet, while there is always more to learn, I feel that, with the help of afterLife guides, I have come to see the core essence of this enigmatic saying. As I review the many traditional theological meanings of "made in the image of God," I note that, in the main, they are dry as dust, too sterile to be fruitful, the kinds of compromise-explanations that might be devised by some bureaucratic church committee. I have learned that, oftentimes, the best answer is the simplest one, and the most natural. Genesis instructs that to be "made in the image of God" is to be made male and female, and even this much should arrest attention! There is nothing dry as dust about this highly suggestive metaphor. The natural and obvious meaning here, of course, will relate to romantic and erotic love. With these provocative sexual icons, male and female bodies, how could it be otherwise? If God, or the psychic-channeling writer of Genesis, had intended for us to receive some sort of clinical, pedantic - and chilled - message here, s/he could easily have done that without reference to gendered entities designed to make love to each other. Do you see the obvious? I think Myers is exactly on track when he says that the sense of romantic oneness and harmony of these Twins, made in the divine image, male and female, was to serve as a living parable, a small-scale model, of the inner beauty, perfection, and Joy ever experienced by the exalted Divine Male-Female Essence. To denote less than this is to corrupt the natural inferences to be drawn from the text, and to inject some dry-as-dust theology. Allow me to clarify: "Made in the image of God" means to reveal - as much as might be apprehended by mortals - the Joy of God via Twin Soul romantic bliss.

• Editor's note: Such is the simple and natural intended meaning of Genesis' psychic-shaman author. And in Myers' instruction here, another afterlife transmission (as, in part, especially in the opening section, was Genesis), we are given one more of those simple and natural explanations: God reveals him/her Self in the form of human Twin-Soul male and female - and the ensuing natural, romantic attraction between these two cosmic lovers becomes a universal placard to all, featuring and revealing the oneness and harmony, the intense extreme delight and fervent ardor, the ecstatic joy for living, experienced by the creator Parents.

"Love is spiritual, and in its truest embodiment brings into life, heaven, which it creates . This is the marriage which survives bodily death.

without you, Beloved, there will be no heaven

• Editor's note: Myers is relentless and will not stop. He is intent upon pounding us into the dirt with one blow of heavy philosophical revelation after another. The spiritual love of which Myers speaks is romantic love. In the previous section I said that children are offered a "brief taste of heaven" when they are exposed to parental Twin-Soul romance. Myers continues this theme here. Notice: This spiritually-based romantic love, which is "the image of God," brings "heaven" "into life." The children are meant to live in this "heaven," bask in the warm, nurturing sunshine-joy of their parents' Twin-Soul romantic love. Myers is still not done: Not only does the true romantic love bring heaven into life, but, in a very real sense, it "creates" heaven itself. This does not mean that Summerland will disappear if one does not soon experience romantic love - but, it does mean, "Without you, Beloved, there will be no heaven, for me."

"They shall be one flesh, one spirit, one mind. The multiple mind transcends the material existence. The two souls blend into one soul.

• Editor's note: This is the very definition of marriage of which the psychic-mystics, Wright and Davis, spoke. Marriage is the blending of two souls into one... into One Person , as per the ancient Genesis document.
   

each soul has its Twin Soul

"There shall be no marriage [ceremony] in Heaven - because Nature [itself] is the [officiating marriage] minister of the human family, uniting souls destined to be one - each soul has its Twin Soul. Cohesion attracts and unites them, as the dawn blends into the day.

• Editor's note: Many spiritual teachers, on this side of life and that, rail against the hubris of Big Religion which presumptuously asserts that it has the power to irrevocably join any two, and with mere words and magic hand-sign. Myers castigates such illusion as violation of natural law. "Each soul has its twin soul"; each individual, in a real sense, was born married to that special other. These Two are drawn to each other by unseen soul forces, a "cohesion," which "attracts and unites them" in a natural marriage of co-mingled soul energies, as natural "as the dawn blends into the day." And this is why there are no marriage ceremonies in heaven. Nature, itself, has already performed the ceremony, has joined these Sacred Two, even in the "soul nursery." But, while ritualism of ceremony might be consigned to the dustbin of misguided earth-practices, as discussed earlier, in the next world there will be many wedding parties. Silver Birch tells us, along with others, that it is quite common for Twins who have found each other to enjoy great wedding celebrations. All of their friends and family, generations of them, will be invited to this, the most wonderful celebration of their eternal lives. And the well-wishing crowds, in their great numbers, will, of course, come to enjoy the merriment; but, even more, to witness, to thrill to, to receive spiritual instruction concerning, the reality of Twin Soul ecstatic joy - an inspiration, a living hope, a very image of God, to the many who have not yet attained to such deepest-heart's desire ... and,  amidst the teasing shouts, the tinkling wine glasses, the raucous laughter, the impolite whistling, the blaring music, and the exaggerated stories exchanged by guests concerning I-knew-them-when-they-were-only-this-high... radiant, stunningly beautiful, of perfect body, appearing to be 20-something (or maybe 18); the new royals, a Disney fairytale come to life; slowly dancing in the shimmering spotlight, lightly embracing each other; she, adorned in exquisite white satin gown, the epitome of universal grace and loveliness, caught in his steadfast gaze; he, almost superhero-like in his commanding demeanor, subservient to none but her, entranced by her hypnotic and cooing-melodic tone; these envied and glamorous Two, little noting the insistent crowd's clamoring din, begin to allow themselves that long sought-for, but long-denied, luxury; the realization, that, at long last, after so long a time of mourning the loss of each other, of interminable pain, anguish, and confusion - now, finally, they dare to believe that they might be together! unendingly so, sharing an unbreakable forever-bond, a never-fading mutual attraction, in that most intimate secret-garden of unending One-Person romantic love.

 

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