THE SPIRITS THAT I CALLED...

…I can lose no more. Why spiritualist séances are not advisable, and the physical and mental dangers faced by mediums.

Unwittingly playing with fire: Throughout history, people have tried to call up the dead in spiritualist séances—with incalculable consequences.

Unwittingly playing with fire: Throughout history, people have tried to call up the dead in spiritualist séances—with incalculable consequences.

It is logical to assume that the reports about life after death must come from people who live on the other side of the veil. However, communicating with the dead is not to be taken lightly, as we can gather from the warning words of the clairvoyant Erhard Bäzner. Even today there are countless self-confessed mediums, gurus and alleged “enlightened souls” who claim to have a direct link to the world of the Beyond. Yet unbeknownst to them, the beings they usually encounter are in fact lower spirits from the astral world simply impersonating a “space brother”, “spirit guide”, “redeemer” or “archangel”. The evil excrescence of this kind of false “channelling” has run so wild that the heavenly realms have now withdrawn almost completely from such contact. Communication with the dead is often exploited by this type of lower astral spirit, or even by the discarded astral body of a deceased person which is drifting around the spheres closest to Earth and behaving as if this empty shell was its former host.

On account of this danger, we took the greatest care when selecting the deceased whose messages feature in our article “Very Much Alive—the Land of the Dead”. All the selected contacts took place before the dawn of the so-called “New Age”, and all such statements mutually confirm the nature of, and life in, the worlds of the Beyond. Plus, all those who answered from the Beyond were characterised in earthly life by their strong morality, discrimination and well-developed consciousness; two also engaged with the Beyond in their last earthly life and experienced a certain degree of clairvoyance. Their descriptions are therefore extremely clear and rich in detail; in no way do they resemble the blurry proclamations of the zealous astral entities in today’s “New Age”, which turn out to be practically all hot air when examined more closely. All the people we cite came forward of their own accord and conveyed their message through people who were trained in “automatic writing” and who also led a virtuous, pure life. They recorded the words of those who passed over just like a dictation and wrote down exactly what they had heard within. These people had no ambition to work as mediums, and did not otherwise do so.

For however tempting it may be to peek behind the veil, this kind of undertaking is dangerous and ­ultimately destructive if exploited by a lifestream out of personal desire. The findings of the clairvoyant theosophist and author, Erhard Bäzner, who died 50 years ago, reveal the dangers of mediumship:

Mediumship Is Not Always Equal to Spirituality

“Mediumship springs from a loosening of the inner vehicles, brought about by a weakness of will. A lack of independent thought, a strong but one-sided mental predisposition, fixed ideas, musings, scepticism, frequent agitation, an extreme and forced ascetic lifestyle, personal isolation, religious fanaticism, superstition and un­belief, selfish prayers, idolatrousness, blind worship, a largely uncontrolled or unrestrained emotional life, lack of willpower, disinterest, permanent sadness, despondence and aimlessness, injudicious actions, fervid hobbies, the yearning for a guide in the Beyond and for leadership, the desire for the ability to leave the body at will—all these can be the causes and beginnings of mediumship.

A medium can cause his or her astral vehicle to step out of the physical body through a certain emotion or mental attitude; they will then go into a trance state. In this state, the consciousness withdraws into the astral vehicle the way it does during ordinary sleep. Just like empty shells, the physical and etheric body are left over to other entities, which use them as a tool for their own devices. As a rule, the me­­di­­um is not aware of who or what reveals itself through their discarded body.

Whenever there is a wish to connect with the worlds of the Beyond, astral guides, as well as the great army of elemental beings and deceased earthbound people, are attracted by such rising thoughts and desires. All those who indulge in too much musing or hateful thoughts and appetites are pursued by entities from the astral world. The elementals attempt to weaken their prey like vampires, but also strengthen their own unnaturalness. They hunt anyone that lives a one-sided or narrow life—the as­cetic, the fanatic, the fanciful. Each instance of animosity, each hate-filled, sorrowful, care-worn or desirous thought, each indulgence of passion, each moment of excitement, each personal or selfish desire, may be enough to attract such astral entities.

The Power of Thought

As all thoughts in the astral world have their own particular shape, colour, lumin­osity, current and vibration, they are easily noticed and tracked by evil entities to their originator. Hostile thoughts take on a form that matches their character and glow garish red or grey. The thought stream swerves towards whomever it is being directed and thus has an effect on the target. If the person affected is vulnerable and defenceless, and unable to ward off the attack with their own flow of thoughts and willpower, these hostile thoughts will penetrate them like missiles, provoking tormented dreams or a piercing or burning headache upon wa­­king. Their etheric and astral brain will resemble a finely meshed net punctuated by countless holes.

If, however, they are able to deflect these foreign vibrations with a harmonious, joyful and loving attitude, these thought elementals will return to their originator with redoubled force and try to harm them in any way possible. This often happens weeks or months later, meaning that the destructive effect is even stronger, since the power of the ­elementals has grown significantly due to the magnetic attraction of related thought streams. At this juncture, we should particularly emphasise the devastating consequences of hateful, disharmonious thoughts, and the great importance of benevolent thinking.

The medium can only reach those de­ceased people dwelling in the lower spheres of the astral world, except on very rare occasions. However, if they have ma­naged to enter the higher spheres—be it summer land with its air of blissful contentment, or even the peace and quiet of the heavenly world (Devachan)—neither the strong longing of those left behind nor the passionate cravings of a medium and curious séance participants will be able to reach them. No hypnotist can influence these spheres, either; they are closed off to wilful demands. The coarser substance of his inner shells makes it impossible for him to enter, as the finer, much faster vibrations of the heavenly world would simply dissolve his form.

Falling Into a Trance

Let’s take a look now at the inner workings of a spiritualist séance. As soon as the medium falls into a trance, their etheric body steps out of the physical body to­­gether with the astral body. This does not take place automatically, as when falling asleep; rather, they are forced out by foreign violence—perhaps by a deceased per­­­­­­son filled with craving, a non-human creature from the astral world or the forceful direction of will of an embodied person. The etheric body remains bound to the individual organs of the physical body (particularly the lower parts) via the etheric-magnetic band. The astral body, however, is locked out of its physical in­­strument, shunted aside and surrounded by astral entities with an artificially-created etheric shell to prevent it from re-occupying the physical body ahead of time. The astral entities form this shell by encircling the astral bodies while in a specific vibrational state. The forced exit of the etheric body manifests itself externally in convulsive shudders and the shrinking of the physical body. Initially, the astral body puts up an energetic resistance and is thus, together with the etheric body, separated from the physical body for a short time only. Gradually, the medium grows accustomed to this condition; he feels well again and reinvigorated. As the physical body is repeatedly left, the astral eye may gradually begin to open wider and the astral world with its varied scenery becomes ever more visible to the me­­dium, giving him the erroneous impression that he is more highly developed in his abilities. Interest in the images grows steadily, particularly when very intellectual “guides” appear and foster conversation in a bold, skilful and loquacious way. All kinds of entities from the astral world then gradually appear in the séances, making them all the more interesting for the curious participants.

As previously mentioned, every thought glows in a particular shape and colour in the Beyond, so it does not take much for visitors from the astral world to guess the desires of those taking part in the séance.