Mythbusting: Talking With Spirits. Part 2

We return to part two of this three part series in which Todd questions how members of a church based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg could harbor as much fear about contact with spirits as the New Church seems to. He examines communicating with the other world from a fresh perspective. Find the opening essay here. - Editor.

Speed limits in the USA are designed to be safe for everybody. Even a poor driver can navigate the road safely at the set speed limit. The Writings take a similar approach when it comes to communication with spirits. They say, “Don’t do it,” because if you don’t do it, you’re certain not to crash. Evil spirits are out there trying to destroy you, so why take the chance. Seems logical.

However, contact with spirits, good spirits, does happen. It certainly seems that way in the case of Edgar Cayce. If you’re not familiar with him, Cayce is the world’s most documented psychic and lived from 1877-1945. Most of his readings were used to help people heal their illnesses, and many patients testified to the effectiveness of his recommendations. Not convinced they were good spirits? The contacts and Cayce always encouraged a good, pious life, focusing on sacrificing our worldly desires even to the extent that we have to consider what and how much we eat. But they also warned Cayce that doing too much psychic work would be detrimental to his earthly health, as would prophesying about the stock market and horse trading. They sure seem like good spirits working with him.

But how can this be? The Writings do leave the possibility open, even if just a little. “We are allowed to talk with spirits (though rarely with angels of heaven), and many people have been allowed to for centuries” (Divine Providence 135). What gets overlooked is that, on rare occasion, we do have contact with angels of heaven. How fabulous is that! Where things get tricky, is how “rare” is rare? Are we talking Indiana Jones rare (artifacts of which only one exists) or pharmaceutical rare (nasty side effects occur in 1 in 10,000 patients, which really isn’t all that rare when millions are on the drug)? There’s a big difference. As a car guy, I have my own take on “rare.” Ferrari’s are rare cars, but if I’m driving in LA, I see them. If I go to the right car show, there are lots of them. They’re still rare, but they do exist, and can even exist in bunches.

This is comforting information for many people who have lost a loved one. At least it should be. People throughout the world have reported dreams, visions, or some other contact from loved ones who have passed over into the next life. Strangely, despite all that the Writings teach about life after death, the people who are most afraid of this contact are the people who study the Writings. Their dear Aunt Edna will pass, and they’re not sure what to think when she says, “Hi! How do you think I look now?” referring to her youthful appearance. The visited person thinks, “Surely it’s an evil spirit bent on destroying me that is pretending to look like Aunt Edna!”

Nonsense. I think that if a loved one comes back to see you, that’s a rare communication that is good. Now trying to contact Aunt Edna via a Ouija board would be a different story, but when she comes to you… well maybe I’m biased. After my mother passed, about six years ago, she visited me a few times in dreams. She told me how much she loves my father. Was that a deceptive, evil spirit, conniving to orchestrate my destruction? Doubtful. I think she also just wanted to hear how I was doing. She wasn’t interfering with my freedom, or telling me how to run my life, or to open a new age book store and unfortunately no winning lottery numbers. Actually, I think I did most of the talking. In the scope of my life, these communications were rare. Now if she had said to go out and kill my brother, I like to think I would have questioned whether or not it was a good contact.

I know of other people who have not been contacted by close family after death, and they wonder why. The prevailing principle on contact with good spirits is that they do not want to interfere with our freedom. Therefore the answer to those people is that the contact would have affected their freedom. My mother saying she loved my father wasn’t exactly news. Pleasant yes, but it didn’t change my life. My father wasn’t going to remarry, whether or not Mom said that to me, so it didn’t impact his freedom either. One man I know who was widowed several years ago has not heard from his dear wife since she passed. I think it is her gift to him. He has since remarried, and has a happy life. If she had come to visit him, would he have been in freedom to remarry? Would he have been miserable when he didn’t have to be? Certainly the Lord is in charge, and while the widower might think he would have liked a visit, the lack of one isn’t an indictment on the marriage, rather it is my guess that the Lord is doing what is best for him whether he knows it or not. But aside from rare, good occurrences, what does the future hold for general communication with the spiritual world? We’ll wrap up with that next time.

Todd Beiswenger

Legend has it that when Todd passes on, he we will be an associate spirit to the Phillies left-fielder and hopes that all cars, not dogs, go to heaven. All we know is that Todd is a third year Theological School student who is happily married with one child and is looking forward to his posting in Hurstville, Australia.

Comments

[Karin Childs]

Thanks, Todd. A loving communication from someone who has passed on to the spiritual world is indeed a gift from heaven.