January 4th, 1918
Received by James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, John.
I desire to write for a short time tonight upon a subject that I consider important, and you may consider interesting. As you may know, it has been some time since I wrote anything of a formal character and I regret very much that so much time has gone by without my being able to communicate some of the spiritual truths, and also regret that your condition has been such that I was unable to make the rapport with you that is necessary in order that I may deliver to you these messages of the nature mentioned.
I have explained to you in a former recent letter, in a brief way, the law of communication and rapport, and that law, if you will try to understand it, will enable you to comprehend the reason why we have not been able to communicate these higher truths. It may seem to you that if we control your brain and not use or transmit your thoughts but only the thoughts which come from our minds, it would be immaterial what the nature of our thoughts might be, and that as your brain is used by us as a mere instrument we, having possession of your brain, would have the power to write anything we might desire. And upon a mere superficial glance at the assertion, it could be reasonably supposed to be true.
But, as we have told you before, rapport and our ability to use your brain are governed by laws, and one of these laws is that a high thought cannot be transmitted through a human brain which is not in the condition that qualifies it to receive the thought, just as the brain, in matter pertaining to mere material knowledge cannot receive a conception or comprehension of some intellectual truth with which it has not had acquaintance, and transmit it. A brain cannot be used by the mind of the human to make known or present a problem in geometry, when that brain has never been used by the mind to acquire an acquaintance with or knowledge of the principles of geometry. This is an incomplete analogy but it may serve to illustrate what I mean.
In the conception by the human mind of a truth, material or spiritual, the brain must be used in order to manifest or make known that conception. This is absolutely true where the idea or thought originates in the mind of the man who is using his own brain to formulate or manifest that idea or thought. The mind may have the thought or knowledge of some branch of learning, and yet when it has never used the brain to put that thought or knowledge into concrete form the brain cannot manifest or transmit it. This law applies specifically to the capabilities of the brain where it is attempted to be used or controlled by the mind of the man who owns the brain. And from this you will see that it is possible for the human mind to have thought and knowledge of things which it cannot use the brain to express.
In many of your material things of life, such as great invention, the knowledge of these inventions is in the mind, it may be, for a long time before it is formulated and expressed by the brain, and sometimes it never gets through the brain at all. The mind and the brain are not one and equivalent things; the one is the operator, the other is the thing used to operate with, so that the possessions of the operator may become manifested to others.
But this law, applying to and controlling the relationship of the mind and brain possessed by the same man, does not so absolutely apply to and control the relationship of mind and brain, where the mind is that of a spirit and the brain that of a mortal, for in such case the mind may take such complete control of the brain, that the former's manifestations are not governed or limited by the special experiences or want of experiences which the brain may have had in its use by the mind of the mortal along specific lines of expression or manifestation. Thus, as you may know and as it has been demonstrated by the work and experience of many human mediums, the minds of spirits have controlled the brains of these mediums, so that such brains have transmitted from these spirits expressions of various kinds of languages and mathematical truths with which such brains never have had any acquaintance or become exercised in expressing.
In these instances the brain is used merely in the sphere of intellect and the spirit who takes possession of that brain and uses it to express and make known the knowledge of the spirit's mind, is doing no different thing in essential to what the human mind, controlling its own brain, could have done had the brain been exercised in those directions. The capacity of the brain, whether exercised or not by the human mind controlling its own brain, limits the power of the spirit to control in the manner and for the purpose mentioned.
But this law has a further phase, and that is, the greater the general experience of the brain in its exercise by the human mind, the more perfectly can the spirit mind control it. All this is dependent upon facts which I cannot linger here to explain, such as the mediumistic qualities and susceptibilities of the human whose brain is attempted to be controlled by the spirit.
And the same laws apply to the disclosure of truth and principles along the moral planes. A spirit cannot possibly use the brain of a mortal to convey or transmit through it moral precepts or truths that that brain is not capable of receiving. And I do not mean by this that the brain must have had any acquaintance with any or many particular moral truths, or must have been used by the human for the purpose of receiving or imparting these precepts, but must be in its essential capacity, potentially be able to transmit and receive these truths. And so the capacity of the brain to receive and transmit these moral truths, limits the control of the spirit over the brain to express through it, these truths.
The rapport of the spirit with the human is determined by the development of the brain and the moral qualities of the human at the time the rapport is attempted to be made - and this means the actual development of these conditions and not what they may appear to be to other humans, or even to the individual himself. And this development determines to a large extent the power of the spirit to use the brain to disclose the truths, either intellectual or moral.
A medium can receive only such truths as his condition according to the nature of the truths, is susceptible to the forming of a rapport by the spirit. The possibility of rapport, and the kind thereof, lie at the foundation of mediumship, and determines and limits the power of the spirit to convey its thoughts and the capacity of the mortal to receive them.
When the medium is in a certain condition of development the spirit, writing, can form the rapport according as that condition harmonizes with the condition of the spirit; and it is impossible unless the harmony exists, for the spirit to write these things which require a greater degree of development than the medium at the time possesses. Hence, you will in a way understand why so few of the higher spiritual truths have ever been delivered to the world through the mediumship of any mortal who has been possessed of gifts of either automatic writing, as it is called, or clairvoyance or inspirational powers.
As to those truths which did not require a higher degree of development than was possessed by the medium, there arose no difficulty in transmitting the same, and many mediums have been very successful in receiving the truth suited to their condition. And this fact, and law also, will explain to you why the same spirit may communicate through several mediums, and yet the communications be of a dissimilar character; that is, the communications through one medium contain higher or lower character of truth than those transmitted through some other medium; and with the result that those mortals who have heard or read these different communications, especially when critical, have been prone to believe that the same spirit was not making both communications. But this is not a just conclusion, for while the spirit was in the same condition, possessing the same knowledge at the time of both communications, yet the mediums, because of their difference in development, were unable to receive the same character of messages.
You may search the whole history of spirit communications and of mediumship and you will not find any messages of the character of those that have been transmitted through you, and for the reasons that I have stated.
Swedenborg was the last and nearer perfect instrument for receiving these higher truths, and yet he, because of his want of soul development and his being bound, to a more or less extent, by his orthodox beliefs and scientific knowledge that caused him to coordinate and fit in these truths with his ideas of correspondence and such like conceptions, was a failure, and could not be successfully used to transmit these truths which we have been communicating through you. And after him other gifted and, in some respects, successful mediums were used by spirits, of the higher knowledge and progression to convey truths, but their conditions were such that, under the workings of the laws governing rapport, these mediums could receive only those truths which their conditions of development permitted them to receive. The workings of this limitation was not dependent upon the condition and ability of the spirits to impart these higher truths, but upon the capacity of the mediums to receive them.
You, yourself, have had experience as to how this law works and controls communication and rapport, for, as you know, it has been a long time since you were able to receive any spirit messages of these higher truths, although the spirits have been present with you many times, ready and anxious to make the rapport and deliver their messages; and you have been willing, intellectually, to receive them, but because of your condition or want of condition, the spirits could not deliver them and were compelled to wait until you get into the necessary condition. From all this you will comprehend why so very few messages containing high spiritual truths, or even moral truths, come through mediums. The mediums, mostly, are so developed that they can receive only messages dealing with the material affairs of life, and which kinds of messages I am compelled to and can truthfully say, are those that are largely desired by the mortals seeking information from the spirit world.
Again, in your reading of spiritual literature you may have observed the great diversity of opinions of spirits upon the same subject, and sometimes contradictory opinions, thus causing doubt on the part of mortals, as to what are the facts existing in the spirit world as to the subject of inquiry. Well this is due very largely to the condition of the mediums, and also to the knowledge of the spirits who attempt to communicate, for the knowledge of spirits is limited by the extent of their progress and development.
Many spirits believe that what they have learned is true, and so give authoritative expression to the facts of their knowledge, and often believe what they know is all that may be known of the subject on which they communicate. And these are mostly honest in their beliefs and truthful, as they think, in their messages. And thus it is well for mortals to understand that everything written or spoken by spirits, at all times, is not to be accepted as the finality of truth. And on the other hand apparently contradictory statements should not be taken as fraudulent merely because they are contradictory. A spirit with greater knowledge using a medium in harmony with itself, can convey to men the more exact and greater extent of truth than can a spirit with less knowledge and development using a medium in harmony with itself.
Now, from what I have written, it is apparent that in order to get the greater truth, and more extended knowledge of the spirit world, mediums should make the effort to obtain larger and more intensive development of their spiritual natures as well as of their intellectual capacities. This acquirement is absolutely necessary to the reception of the higher truths which are so vital to mankind.
So, you see, communication and rapport depend upon the condition of both spirits and mortals working in unison; though more I may say upon the condition of the mortal, for, if the medium is in the proper state of development, there being always many spirits present with that medium in condition and readiness, a rapport can be made.
The Master is here tonight and has heard my communication and unites with me in saying: have faith and seek with all your soul for this Love. Believe that I am your special angel friend.
Your brother in Christ,
John.