FlintSpiritual.com © 2009 All Rights Reserved
FlintSpiritual.com © 2009 all rights reserved
In the last issue of Bridging the Gap, I took the position that there is something missing from Spiritualism, and that what is missing is a message. If we are to have a message, what would the characteristics of that message be?
In the last article, I left the reader with three thoughts to consider. First, since we talk to the dead, why don’t we know more about what goes on there? Why do we talk to Mary’s grandmother about when she is going to start a new relationship, instead of talking to Jesus or Moses about how to live a spiritual life, and to learn the secrets of that experience? Second, that we should be focusing on leading a spiritual life. Third, that a spiritual life requires a positive mental attitude.
Behind a message lies a belief system, or a theology. We will not get into the theology very deeply today, but will instead explore the characteristics of the belief system and its message.
1. What we teach must be true.
2. The focus of our teaching should be to connect us to God, rather than to connect us to Uncle Fred.
3. We define Mediums as a telephone between this world and that. We need to redefine Mediumship in a way that presents us with the ability to communicate with Spirit World for our own benefit. There is currently very little emphasis on getting our own answers from Spirit, and a great deal of emphasis on getting answers for other people. It is almost as though, if someone goes directly to God for answers, he is cheating. We need to change that- to encourage direct contact with God. Is there a better definition for “Communion”?
4. There is very little emphasis on working with higher guides. It is assumed that we have a band of guides who work with us all our lives. My personal experience is that there are some guides who are with us for a time, and then move on for various reasons. What this means is that as we become clearer spiritually, we are able to receive from higher guides, and learn from them.
5. What we teach must be progressive, in the sense that as we learn from higher guides, the religion must be open to the new understandings. We are not static as a species. People of today are different in many ways from the Israelites or the Jews of the bible. We have a different capacity for understanding. We have learned things that they had no capacity to know, and have forgotten other things that were common knowledge in earlier times.
6. As individuals work to obtain answers to their own questions and issues, and obtain insight by working with higher guides, the information obtained should illuminate sacred writings, such as the Bible. As someone works to become closer to direct experience of God, working with higher guides, this process will inevitably lead to experience which redefine otherwise familiar texts.
For instance, everyone knows The Lord’s Prayer. Within the prayer is a short phrase that we mention in passing: Thy Will Be Done. What if we understood the implications of that statement, ans said it and meant it? Can you see how that experience would change your understanding not only of the prayer itself, but of the entire New Testament?
We said in the last issue that the teachings of Unity are compatible with spiritualism. Those teachings are based upon the insights of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. The Fillmores were an insightful couple and their teachings have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands. That teaching has become progressively flatter as their students have passed. Their teachings are not progressive and while the Fillmores shed new light on the scriptures, that light is gone.
This presents a seventh principle.
7. The new message has to work. If you teach someone how to make the connections for themselves, the tools you teach must work for them.
This is a tall order. Is it even possible?
In the last article, I left the reader with three thoughts to consider. First, since we talk to the dead, why don’t we know more about what goes on there? Why do we talk to Mary’s grandmother about when she is going to start a new relationship, instead of talking to Jesus or Moses about how to live a spiritual life, and to learn the secrets of that experience? Second, that we should be focusing on leading a spiritual life. Third, that a spiritual life requires a positive mental attitude.
Behind a message lies a belief system, or a theology. We will not get into the theology very deeply today, but will instead explore the characteristics of the belief system and its message.
1. What we teach must be true.
2. The focus of our teaching should be to connect us to God, rather than to connect us to Uncle Fred.
3. We define Mediums as a telephone between this world and that. We need to redefine Mediumship in a way that presents us with the ability to communicate with Spirit World for our own benefit. There is currently very little emphasis on getting our own answers from Spirit, and a great deal of emphasis on getting answers for other people. It is almost as though, if someone goes directly to God for answers, he is cheating. We need to change that- to encourage direct contact with God. Is there a better definition for “Communion”?
4. There is very little emphasis on working with higher guides. It is assumed that we have a band of guides who work with us all our lives. My personal experience is that there are some guides who are with us for a time, and then move on for various reasons. What this means is that as we become clearer spiritually, we are able to receive from higher guides, and learn from them.
5. What we teach must be progressive, in the sense that as we learn from higher guides, the religion must be open to the new understandings. We are not static as a species. People of today are different in many ways from the Israelites or the Jews of the bible. We have a different capacity for understanding. We have learned things that they had no capacity to know, and have forgotten other things that were common knowledge in earlier times.
6. As individuals work to obtain answers to their own questions and issues, and obtain insight by working with higher guides, the information obtained should illuminate sacred writings, such as the Bible. As someone works to become closer to direct experience of God, working with higher guides, this process will inevitably lead to experience which redefine otherwise familiar texts.
For instance, everyone knows The Lord’s Prayer. Within the prayer is a short phrase that we mention in passing: Thy Will Be Done. What if we understood the implications of that statement, ans said it and meant it? Can you see how that experience would change your understanding not only of the prayer itself, but of the entire New Testament?
We said in the last issue that the teachings of Unity are compatible with spiritualism. Those teachings are based upon the insights of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. The Fillmores were an insightful couple and their teachings have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands. That teaching has become progressively flatter as their students have passed. Their teachings are not progressive and while the Fillmores shed new light on the scriptures, that light is gone.
This presents a seventh principle.
7. The new message has to work. If you teach someone how to make the connections for themselves, the tools you teach must work for them.
This is a tall order. Is it even possible?
By Rev. Daniel Kivel
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