A Beginner's Guide to Spiritualism

Modern Spiritualism - now usually just called ‘Spiritualism’ - is a legally constituted religion in the United Kingdom, one which does not expect faith or belief from those who follow its teaching. These require an unquestioning acceptance of something which can not be demonstrated or for which there is no evidence. Neither are necessary in Spiritualism.

Enquirers find evidence of all it teaches. After a time, this evidence can become personal proof; proof of the survival of humankind beyond death. Sometimes, through mediumship, those who have passed on return to show their continued love and concern for friends and relatives still in this world.

A medium is someone able to hear or see those individuals who have died. Messages for loved ones may be passed on by the medium in either direction. Mediums can only communicate with individuals who choose to come – they can not be summoned.

There is nothing spooky in this because those who have passed on are not spooks. Although these individuals are often called ‘spirits’, more correctly they are people in spirit form. They are as real as you and me, still look human and retain their characters and characteristics which are recognised when they communicate with us.

They are still the people we knew although they are no longer restricted by their old, physical bodies. But they do still have bodies which are as solid and real to them as ours are to us. They live in a world which also is as real and solid to them as our world is to us. They become healthy, appear younger, and pain and suffering no longer occur.

When people die, they do not change into angels or saints - how they were in this world is how they will be immediately after passing. There are no such things as evil spirits, only the spirits of persons seen as evil when alive in this world.

An individual is made up of physical and spiritual forms, the spirit controlling and evolving alongside the physical body. When death occurs, it results in the separation of the physical and spiritual parts. The body decays but the spirit form lives on undamaged. Earth life is often said to be a vital element in our spiritual evolvement yet others say that it has not been experienced by all spirits. More than one physical existence may be chosen but it is not vital - spiritual progress may be made elsewhere.

After we pass on, our first step will be into a world not too dissimilar, in form or appearance, to that of our own. We will not become wholly different persons and if we choose to communicate with those left behind, we will still be able to project the familiar things about ourselves which can be remembered and recognised by loved ones. It is often the simple and trivial details that bring realisation and comfort to the bereaved.

Life in the more spiritually advanced worlds has a pleasure and beauty we can scarcely imagine yet all will move towards, into and beyond these places in time. We can only guess at what more we may learn about this world and the myriad worlds elsewhere. We are definitely not ‘the only ones’.

Many refuse to consider arguments for the existence of spiritual life and intercommunication despite what is experienced and reported. They may say such things are supernatural and avoid aspects which are challenging and inconvenient. They can, however, offer no alternative, credible, scientific explanations.

Eternal progress is open to all, this progress being solely dependent on the power of the will and the desire to move forward. Even the worst are progressing, albeit slowly. This may be particularly hard to accept and understand but is, nonetheless, a fact. It can not be prevented although progress can take a long time.

Spirit people who return to communicate through mediums are attracted to those they love or to like-minded individuals. They may try to help, warn, protect or influence them. But they do not become all knowing on passing and their judgement may be as unreliable as that of anyone else. Any advice or opinion should be carefully considered and evaluated before acting upon it.

Spiritualism substitutes real, practical knowledge for vague and unsatisfying belief; knowledge on a matter of vital importance to all humankind, although those thought of as the wisest and most advanced thinkers have declared that no such level of knowledge was attainable.

Spiritualism demonstrates that the so-called dead are still alive; that mind, intelligence and emotion continue after the death of our physical bodies. It provides the proof of a future life, craved by so many and for want of which they may live and die in anxious doubt or positive disbelief...