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Chapter XV: “Spirit Communication”2249
the very nature of the case. We wish to be distinctly understood as having
nothing but good to say regarding this form of “spirit-communication”
between persons bound by ties of love and friendship, one out of the flesh
and the other still in earth life. What we shall now proceed to condemn, is
something of an entirely different nature.
Advanced occultists are practically unanimously agreed that the practice
of recalling the attention of disembodied spirits for mere entertainment,
curiosity, or general “exhibition” purposes is most deplorable. The best
authorities condemn the practice in the strongest terms. In the first place,
the result is always unsatisfactory, for very good and sufficient occult reasons.
In the second place, the effect of such recalling is apt to be detrimental to
the disembodied soul, by reason of withdrawing its spiritual attention from
the things of the higher planes, and turning them back to the things of the
material plane, thus retarding its development and unfoldment, and also
confusing its mind. It is akin to directing the mind of the growing child back
to the things of its prenatal condition, if such a thing were possible. And, to
the soul which does not understand the nature and character of its Astral
Life (and none but the most advanced souls so do understand) the mixing
of the things and phenomena of the material and Astral Planes is most
perplexing, confusing, and distracting. The soul should be left to unfold
naturally on its new plane, and not called back to earth to satisfy curiosity or
to furnish entertainment. The result arising from the latter course is akin to
that which would arise were one to persist in pulling up a plant each day to
see whether its roots were sprouting and growing.
Another form of recalling the disembodied soul—that of calling it back to
comfort and inform loving friends and relatives—is scarcely less undesirable.
The disembodied soul, drawn back by the pull upon its sympathetic bonds of
connection, comes back like a person walking in his sleep, for such is almost
precisely its condition. Sleep walking is not a desirable thing to induce in
persons on earth, and is no better when it is induced in a disembodied
soul. It comes from its Astral experiences in a dazed condition, and gives