home | what's new | other sites | contact | about

Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

W.T. Stead

fallacy #10:

Getting rid of the spoiled self:

the impersonal self 

Return to the "Flint Recordings" main-page

Editor's note: The reader is encouraged to review the first nine fallacies before proceeding here. 

W.T. Stead (1849-1912)

Wikipedia:

William Thomas Stead (5 July 1849 – 15 April 1912) was a British newspaper editor who, as a pioneer of investigative journalism, became a controversial figure of the Victorian era. Stead published a series of hugely influential campaigns whilst editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, including his 1885 series of articles, The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon. These were written in support of a bill, later dubbed the "Stead Act", that raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.

Stead's "new journalism" paved the way for the modern tabloid in Great Britain. He has been described as "the most famous journalist in the British Empire". He is considered to have influenced how the press could be used to influence public opinion and government policy, and advocated "Government by Journalism". He was known for his reportage on child welfare, social legislation and reformation of England's criminal codes.

Stead died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Stead, an afterlife researcher, almost immediately after the ship's foundering, began to transmit messages of the ordeal.

Dr. Keith Parsons, in a video-documentary, reviews Stead's life and achievements.

See the Documentary

Wikipedia:

Ten years after the Titanic went down, W.T. Stead's daughter Estelle published The Blue Island: Experiences of a New Arrival Beyond the Veil, which purported to be a communication with Stead via a medium. In the book, Stead describes his death at sea and discusses the nature of the afterlife.

A free copy of the book can be found online.

‘live one life at a time’ and ‘I’ll worry about that later’ – failed schemes of the dysfunctional ego

Almost immediately, the book treats us to a first-hand account of the chaos that was the sinking of the Titanic. Stead asserts, concerning the hundreds floundering in the icy waters:

The whole scene was indescribably pathetic. Many, knowing what had occurred, were in agony of doubt as to their people left behind and as to their own future state. What would it hold for them? Would they be taken to see Him [Christ]? What would their sentence be?

Others were almost mental wrecks. They knew nothing, they seemed to be uninterested in everything, their minds were paralysed. A strange crew indeed, of human souls waiting their ratings in the new land.

A matter of a few minutes in time only, and here were hundreds of bodies floating in the water — dead — hundreds of souls carried through the air, alive; very much alive, some were. Many, realising their death had come, were enraged at their own powerlessness to save their valuables. They fought to save what they had on earth prized so much.

The scene on the boat at the time of striking was not pleasant, but it was as nothing to the scene among the poor souls newly thrust out of their bodies, all unwillingly. It was both heartbreaking and repellent.

agony of doubt, mental wrecks, minds paralyzed, enraged at their own powerlessness

On the “sensibility” page, I recount an incident at a business dinner-meeting. An individual sat across the table from me, to whom I inadvisedly commented concerning my afterlife research. The previously friendly expression now evaporated, replaced by an offering of tired clichés, which, she thought were original: “I’m going to live one life at a time” and “There’s time enough to worry about that later.”

But it doesn’t really work that way. Repressing one’s fears in a surfeit of disingenuous self-talk might reap for oneself a psychological harvest of terror, not unlike that experienced by the “floating bodies” in the Atlantic.

creating worlds

As discussed in the prefatory comments, mind-stuff can create world over there. But these worlds are more than solid ground and birds singing in trees, as “the blue island,” but thought-worlds, worlds designed to provide meaning to a substratum of metaparadigm.

In the “reason behind the reason” article, we spoke of the “Joker is wild” principle. The Joker card can fill any set, complete any series, and a “Joker is wild” concept – such as “Satan did it” – is regularly pulled out of a hat to suffuse a checkered theory with some semblance of logicality.

People do this all the time. And they do it, as Dr. Frankl intimated, in order to create a “story”, a narrative, which we tell ourselves, and others, concerning why what we’re doing makes sense. It’s way of manufacturing meaning.

And if the dysfunctional ego does this in the next world, it sometimes finds itself with the power to assemble a kind of “world system” which seems to answer the big questions of life. They may be answered, but are we convinced?

In the following, I’d like to provide statements by Stead, which he finds persuasive in terms of building a life-philosophy, but which seem to me as schemes of the ego, a contravention of natural law. I’ll explain what I mean.

'those of us who could understand realised that we were being taken to the place destined for all those people who pass over suddenly'

No, there is no special preliminary world for those suddenly ejected from the Earth-plane. We have numerous reports of battlefield soldiers, passing over suddenly, whose vibrational essence fitted them for Summerland, and they go directly to that land of endless sunshine. Some of the violently dispatched may sleep in a hospital for a short while, but, if one has decently good character, it's a hospital in Summerland.

As we've discussed earlier, the sorting out process upon transition, in terms of where one goes, occurs naturally as a function of essential vibrational essence. In other words, we go to where matter/spirit of the environment vibrates at a rate matching our own. No need for a warm-up because you can't go to where you don't fit in.

Stead says that you need the “blue island” for "acclimatization" prior to Summerland. No, you don’t. There’s nothing in Summerland that “mars and jars,” as they say. Jump right in, the water's fine. But you’ll get a different story in the “dark regions” as they manufacture meaning to explain why they're not in the best place.

‘There were people of all conditions, of all colours, all races and all sizes; all went about freely together, but there was a great sense of caring only for oneself, self-absorption... a necessary thing here, both for the general and individual good. There would be no progress or recovery in this land without it.  As a result of this absorption, there was a general peace amongst these many people, and this peace would not have been attained without this self-centredness. No one took notice of any other. Each stood for himself, and was almost unaware of all the others.’

While a healthy sense of self-respect will always be part of the maturing spirit, “self-absorption” and “self-centeredness” goes too far into negative territory and widely misses the mark of any notion of healthy outlook.

These citizens of the "blue island" were so into themselves that they walked zombie-like with virtually no ability to see others. One cannot enter Summerland thus involuted.

zombie invasion

The reason why they were "zombies" there is because they had lived as "zombies" while on the Earth - totally self-centered, "it's all about me," unable to perceive others as fellow human beings, brothers and sisters.

This inability to see others, this diminishment of critical faculties, is an easy clue that we're dealing here with inhabitants of the spiritual-psychological "dark" regions. See hundreds of such cases documented on the "sensibility" page.

The “blue island”, despite its pleasant scenery, is nothing more than an “upscale” version of a shadowland; a “purgatorial” region where people must decide if they will become service-minded. Stead’s justification for self-absorption is merely an ego talking, attempting to sell you a narrative as to why “we’re doing well, we're just fine, even though we're in this holding area.”

These people of various races, sizes, conditions - so different from each other, yet - had one big thing in common: they were all stone-cold self-centered and materialistic, and that's why they landed where they did.

Not everyone on the Titanic entered "the blue island," only those beset by spiritual poverty; for example, the brave fellows who played their violins on deck as the frenzied mob rioted around them, would have gone, we have little doubt, straight to Summerland; no detour to the "blue island" required, no "acclimatization" needed.

'I want you first to realise that by the change of death you do not become part of the Godhead immediately.'

“Godhead” is one of those religious words that has no basis in reality. There is no Godhead. By Godhead some mean the Trinity or becoming equal with God, or some aspect of bureaucratic-anthropomorphic vision of God. None of this is true. The most we can say is that God is Spirit, the Great Spirit, Universal Consciousness and Intelligence, the ground of all being.

When the “insane 500” speak of becoming one with God, they mean jumping off the existential cliff into Nirvana nothingness, ridding oneself of self, like a drop of water losing identity in the ocean. This will never happen.

This reference to "immediately," to a time-frame, is a favorite ploy by "the 500" in terms of hiding, taking refuge, in a remote, unverifiable future; in other words, because there is no evidence for their propositions, they are wont to say, "It'll happen in a bazillion years, just you wait and see."

There is no future “becoming part of the Godhead.” This moment, right now, one is as much a part of God, via one’s inner soul-energies, as one will enjoy even a million years from now. We already have it, but “the 500” are oblivious to “the inner life.”

‘…remember that I do know considerably more than you do, because I am in more intimate touch with the Main Source of knowledge, and I have passed through an experience which is still ahead of you all’

No, this is absolutely not true, and only a dysfunctional ego would preach this. One’s degree of intimacy with God has nothing to do with one’s zip-code. So many times “the 500” will attempt to bolster their propagandas with assertions, “We’re over here, so we really know.” They will know the colors of the flowers in a way that we cannot, but in terms of understanding natural law, how the universe really works, and anything truly important, we gain these insights by direct inspiration from God via one’s “made in the image” soul-energies. Geography cannot help us with this.

And this is why, as we’ve seen quotations from the ancient Guides, those on the other side can actually learn about God from ones on planet Earth, if the terra-citizen is plugged into the best Source of knowledge. God has no favorite kids, and S/he will teach whoever is willing to be taught, no matter their current address. It shall always be so.

‘When you are over in this life you will not be continually associated with people who are not of interest to you. On earth you eliminate, as far as practical, the people who tire and try you - but here that can be done effectively because those feelings and instincts are entirely mutual.’

This statement is correct, as far as it goes. It is correct that we will not be ever associated with those who are not like us, those who might have certain shortcomings. However, I detect too much relish in this putting away of others. These “others,” who might be disadvantaged, are our “clients,” so to speak, as these are the ones sometimes needing a helping hand. I love the quotation from the ancient Spirit Guide who works as a missionary in the Dark Realms; notice the tone of conciliation, of reaching out, if that were possible, to wayward brothers and sisters:

There is no limit to our progress and even the longest earthly life [with its sufferings] and the longest probation of these dark spheres are but stepping-stones for man to mount to the thrones of angels. Progression is ever possible, even to the most degraded soul. This great truth we preach. And as you have been strengthened and taught, so do you feel bound by the obligations of gratitude and ties of universal brotherhood to help others [achieve the same]. Testimony of a missionary Spirit Guide; A Wanderer In Spirit Lands, A. Farnese

‘After a period of time, during which they must make specified progress in general development [and] make forward steps in their evolution. If they don't progress, they lose their [current standing and] re-qualify for it.’

The principle on display here is generally true: one has free will and it’s possible to “backslide.” However, as a practical matter, this would occur in the shadowlands, the probationary realms, and not in Summerland. Once one is mature enough to warrant entrance to Summerland, there is no continual fretting, a standing in jeopardy, “Will I be asked to leave? What if I don’t measure up?" That pretty much doesn’t happen on that higher level.

An incident comes to mind, reprinted from the Summerland page, featuring this quality of having attained a state of settled mind:

‘On being established here … each one is interviewed by one of the Advanced Spirit Instructors and the whole record of earth is discussed and analysed - reason, motive and result.’

There is no “one size fits all” kind of life review. And if you’ve been introspective during the Earth-life, there may be no specific official review at all. That of which Stead speaks, this being hauled somewhat-unwillingly before a tribunal, would much more likely occur in the shadowlands where people are not that interested in becoming more spiritual or aware.

'But after that state [of life review and paying debts] is passed … then we can each one settle down to live here in freedom… Once free, we can travel at will over our own world and over yours… There is a great truth in the saying that as ye sow, so shall ye reap [but we can get past paying our debts].'

Again, the principle offered is true enough. There are, indeed, consequences for one’s misdeeds, and we are required to make amends, as much as possible. But the attitude here by which we’re informed leaves us feeling flat.

The purpose of the life-review, among those “living in the spirit,” those beginning to take on the perspective of God, is not one of, “Let’s get this over and done with so we can be free to indulge ourselves in a life of non-stop pleasure.” Well, there will be a great deal of pleasure in the offing, but this perspective of “Are we done yet, have I paid enough yet?” is how people in the dark realms think. This notion of payment recalls the question of Jesus' men, "How much do I have to forgive? - seven times?"

The maturing person wants to make amends, dearly wants to set right what went wrong during a time of one’s immaturity. Embarking upon a program of “repayment” is not characterized by “Let’s drink the bitter medicine quickly so we can have a high old time,” but, rather, this will be an inaugural event leading one into an eternal life of service toward the disadvantaged.

See, once more (above) the advice of the ancient missionary Guide: We offer our service, on a continual basis, as a natural result of having received, for oneself, that helping hand; and now, in gratitude toward Mother-Father God, we desire to share our joy with others. This is the start of a whole new way of life, even, eternal life - but these thoughts are too high for the well self-absorbed.

‘Looking back on it all since I first came to the Blue Isle, I have great satisfaction in seeing the advance I have made.’

There’s nothing wrong with feeling satisfaction for one’s progress, but “the 500” have a way of making it wrong.

As we’ve seen during our travels through the first nine items of “getting rid of the spoiled self,” they seem to be ever cognizant of their rank, position, level of authority, and so-called “advancement.” However, like the fish that doesn’t know it’s in water, the truly advanced person doesn’t continually think about “advancement” but only the joy of living and being of service.

‘Many people … ask the question, To where is it all leading? What is to be our ultimate state?  … When here you will qualify for a further state… From that, you will go to a further state, another sphere’

Well, yes, there is eternal advancement - but not the way "the insane 500" have it. Notice how they talk about "trading up": "from that... a further state... another sphere." They're already dissatisfied with an imagined future accomplishment, they're already craving for "more"; they don't really know what they want except that it'll be "more."

“The 500” see the future as a staircase to advancement, and "advancement" for them primarily means "more." There is little perception of enjoying what one is or has at the moment. Instead, in their existential neediness, to fill up the bottomless pit of "emptiness," they seek for “more and more,” as the ancient Chinese man observed.

“Where is it all this leading?” – not to some glory of self-adulation, not to perceptions of advancement, because the truly advanced don’t think that way. All this is leading, for the healthy individual, as we learned from Father Benson’s account, to a heightened ability to “enjoy one’s own rose garden”. Where is it all leading? – to an ability to sit quietly in a room alone, simply enjoying one’s own existence; a spectacular feat of self-mastery almost no one is able to accomplish.

And in one of those highest worlds, ‘you will be given the choice of returning to earth again. Reincarnating… you will be directed either to return or to continue, according to what the Teachers — the Purified — consider will afford you most opportunity for re-creating yourself and cleansing yourself’. [And in that higher sphere] each becomes impersonal. Impersonal in the sense that they are no longer Jack Brown or Madge Black, they are now pure spirit people, and their former [feeling of] love, which had been a personal and individual thing, is no longer for one but equally for all. All are alike to all. The purest tissue of God-Love binds one and all.'

We take note of this supreme empty god-talk, this dystopia of the affective domain but wrapped in faux platitudes.

There is so much wrong with this paragraph-proposition, one hardly knows where to begin the autopsy.

First, there is no “choice” to return to the Earth, as there is no choice to become Peter Pan or the Easter Bunny. But on that “wrong side of the tree of life,” the denizens thereof convince themselves, by way of “consensus reality,” that these things are real.

Editor's note: On the "reincarnation" main-page the following was put forward:

there is but one, only one, choice open to us

But reincarnation is not an option, no matter how much one wishes for its bizzaro-world meaning. Each soul is required, with open heart, to forthrightly and honestly judge oneself concerning one’s failings, and then to resolve to make amends by choosing – and this is the only choice open to oneself – choosing to live a life of service, of soul-perfection, of sacred introspection, of opening a channel to be taught, of moving forward toward one’s destiny as a mature son or daughter of God.

Now, they have no evidence, they’ve never really seen anyone “wave goodbye at the 'R' train station", but their inner neediness, their self-loathing, demands of them the creation of this theory, allowing them to manufacture a particle of meaning for their tortured spirits.

And we also take note that their "teachers" tell you what to do. This doesn't happen in Summerland, there no one tells you what to do, but this could happen in a shadowland.

Notice how they define the word “purified.” For them “purified” means getting rid of loathsome personality so that one can become “impersonal,” no longer with an identity, no name, no specific essence.

This atrocity seems justified to them - all in the service of losing one's checkered self to the Being of God; so they comfort, and delude, themselves.

However, if this mad-hatter dynamic were true, what would be the point of decades and a lifetime nurturing one’s sense of autonomy and moral growth, plus the furnishing of the mind with knowledge, if it all were to be ignominiously flushed away at the end?

Editor’s note: This re-defining of common words is an old propaganda technique, today commonly called “fake news.” We encountered this refashioning of words in the article on “The Secret”; therein, the term “zero identity” was sold as a great personal cleansing and advancement. However, as we read the fine print, we discover it to be one more lame effort to “be rid of oneself.”

And let's understand, as well, there is no such thing as a "pure spirit person." Even those a million years old are well aware of the dysfunctional ego, latent and dormant, though it may be, but always ready to spring to life with the power of misguided choice. All of us, high and low, no matter where we currently stand on the ladder of being, fall short of God's perfection, and are on our way to becoming something more. It shall always be so. 

But the worst is yet to come. Not to worry, they say, in this make-over for you, this vaunted impersonalization, you’ll have a higher form of love, they purr, a love which loves all equally. Obviously, those who espouse such nonsense have never experienced real love, the mystical revelation of authentic romantic oneness. They know nothing of true intimacy. For these insane ones, it is the "dog that didn't bark."

neutered and nameless, gray-gruel and equal, affection for all

In the documentary, Dr. Parsons points out that the personal diaries of the married Stead reveal that he entertained sexual affairs. And so, in this malaise of questing for the illicit 5-second bio-pleasure, little wonder that Stead, in a spirit of self-loathing, self-condemnation, and self-exculpation, wanted to believe that a “more advanced” state would remove the nettlesome and problematic sexual desires:

In this sterile new world of gray-guel, equal affection for all, there exists no dearest one, no darling companion, no "what we stay alive for" - all of which becomes utmost loss in favor of some safe and robotic, a neutered and nameless, an equally-divided impoverished amity, with every face in a crowd and no one in particular.

Well, we can hardly wait.

profiling the ‘insane 500’

Editor's note: Over the years I’ve reviewed, probably, many scores of channeled books, revealing attitudes on the other side. Gradually, and somewhat reluctantly, I came to see that almost all of the reporters were to be classified among the dysfunctional 500. This realization shocked me.

But then, maybe it shouldn’t have. When I originally surveyed the 500 tape-recordings, I discovered that only about 1% -- say, 5 – of those coming through had “eyes in their heads.” The vast majority spoke with a materialist orientation.

Later, it also occurred to me that it’s really not so different in this world. I’ll bet you fifty-cents that you could count on one hand the truly spiritually-minded among your friends and acquaintances. Sanity is a most rare commodity, no matter one’s present world.

How, in my opinion, does one identify a card-carrying member of the “insane 500”? There are hard-core and light versions. There was a time when I thought, “if they understand that ‘R’ is a fraud, that the true marriage is eternal, and that the ‘true self’ is the locus of one’s personhood, then I’ll count them as ‘sane’.”

But not so fast. With a little more reflection on this winnowing process, I perceived that some of the biggest names over there in terms of afterlife research are, in fact, not-so closet members of the impaired 500. I just re-read a classic book, a great book, by one of these stellar names, and he gets it right on the three major touchstones of authenticity. Even more, he specifically emphasizes and admonishes that one needs to “go within” to find the inner riches. And yet, all the way through his book, there’s this dismaying prophecy (written a hundred years ago) of “world peace is just around the corner” and “a new golden age is soon to engulf the Earth.” Instead we got WWII and today's totalitarianism.

This is more than a little disturbing. You can have a great teacher, in many areas, and yet, because he's substantially out of touch with his own "true self," he get's it really wrong about the nature of things.

And all of this refocused the question, “how can we tell who’s who” over there? Actually, the quick answer, and the best answer, is that you’ll be able to “feel the vibes” of a materialistic spirit. But apart from this mystical awareness, how can we know?

There are those, even in this world, who actually preach about the false and true selves, have a measure of understanding about these things, and yet there’s a certain smell of materialist thought emanating. They’ve peeled back one layer of the onion, but the really good stuff remains hidden a few layers deeper.

How can we tell? Just listen to them, and eventually, rather soon, they reveal themselves. The New Testament is correct on this item: "remove the beam from your own eye, and then you'll see clearly the small speck in your brother's eye." If you do this in the right way, it becomes pretty obvious.

What does all this mean for us? Whether we live on Earth or in Summerland, just because someone is a little crazy spiritually is no reason to dislike them or to count them as an enemy. If we truly do “see,” and then, as we progress, a day will very likely come when “upper management” will call upon us to serve as authentic counselors to this immature group of wanna-be teachers.