Berwick Masonic Hall, 106 High Street, Berwick, Victoria, 3806.
	Services: Every second Sunday 2:30pm (see Schedule), with Healing and Absent Healing during Service. President: Rev. Dorothy McLean. Phone (03) 9702 1662. Namings, weddings and funerals by appointment. Lectures & Writings -----------------------------------[Go back to list of other lectures & writings] • Submitted: 6/11/2006 Lecture given at Berwick Spiritualist Church - 29th October 2006, Berwick Masonic Hall. Medium ship & Lecture by : Michael Withington The Process of Life Good afternoon friends. As always, it is a great pleasure to have been honoured with this opportunity to share some thoughts with you. These thoughts relate to the process of life and our life. Many of you will already be only too familiar with the process of commencing a life within a physical body. The spirit chooses to enmesh itself into physical matter at the moment of conception, so begins for many yet another journey into the physical universe. There is perhaps less who are familiar with the process of spirit bringing itself from the higher realm, in order to facilitate this journey. Before entering physical matter, spirit was then at that point in an astral body clothed as it were in a body not unlike the ones we wear now, but simply constructed of a much more refined material. At the moment of conception when the spirit projects itself into physical matter it does not rush to the wardrobe in the astral and hang up its astral body leaving it there to await its return. Rather the spirit already clothed in an astral body simply puts a physical one on over the top of it. If we stop for a moment to consider that at some point the spirit must have entered astral realm and clothed itself in an astral body, where did it come from prior to its entry to the astral realm? It came from yet a higher dimension of life often referred to as the thought plain that sphere of creation where the inhabitants dwell in bodies that are constructed out of pure thought energy. Once again the spirit does not hang up its thought body in a thought closet awaiting its return from the astral, but simply yet again puts an astral body on over the top of its thought body. So by the time the spirit projects itself into physical matter it has in fact clothed itself for the third time. Each one of us are currently spirit inhabiting these three vehicles, each one facilitating life in a slightly different way, making it possible for the spirit to interact with these various dimensions of life. It is the thought body that facilitates our process of thinking here in the physical and in the astral. It is this thought body that is also responsible for many of the more subtle functions of life within the physical realm. We don’t for instance have to give any concern to the beating of our heart and yet it is most certainly regulated. And this very process along with so many others such as the digestive system, the regulation of blood flow through the body, many other aspects of life. These are dealt with by the spirit through these higher vehicles. It is perhaps fortunate because were we to have to govern all of these functions with the limitations of our physical consciousness we might make a bit of a mess of it quite frankly. There are so often so many distractions and disruptive influences that are brought to bear upon our thinking and also upon our emotions. This thought body is constantly with us as is our emotional body. That one afforded us by the astral vehicle. These are responsible for the higher thoughts and the higher emotions. But once the spirit clothes itself into physical matter the influences of these higher vehicles become drawn into the vibration of the physical universe and often thoughts and emotions can become very much tainted by the energies of this dimension of life. It is the physical realm that gives rise to the lower emotions and lower thought patterns that are often entertained by our fellow travellers who inhabit this world with us. If we were to look at these three vehicles of the spirit in perhaps a symbolic context, we could liken them to placing over the top of your head something akin to a glass fish bowl. First you put on one that is of such a refined and subtle nature that its virtual presence is almost indistinguishable from not wearing one. If we were to then place a second of these spherical chambers, quite transparent like a glass fish bowl, place a second one over the top of the first and then again a third, you could imagine that as we look out on life we look through these three layers that we have placed over our sight faculties. They are of course placed over all of these sensory mechanisms so that it is not only sight, but sound and taste and feeling and so forth. All of these are influenced by our abilities to reach out into the world around us through these three layers that we are captured within. Some have likened it to the three jars or the three bottles. We the spirits are like then the genie in the bottle waiting one day to find release. Now as we go about our activities in the physical realm, we are indeed often like children in our tendencies to play. Anybody who’s ever sent children out to play in fresh clean clothes knows that they don’t stay that way too long. It’s the nature of children to interact freely with the environment around them. That often means sitting in the dirt, tasting it, interacting with other substances and materials that are very soon all over the hands and then wiped all over everything else. Well, even though we’ve come to regard ourselves as the adults of this world, that child is still very much within us and our childlike nature still often finds expression in our tendencies at life. As we interact with the nature of the physical universe, we often find that these three layers start to lose some of their transparent qualities as the substances of life become affixed to them. If you can imagine that you’ve managed to wipe these muddy hands over all three layers and then you start to look out into the world around you through what was once perfectly clear vision, now dampened, discoloured, tainted and some what diminished in its potential simply by the fact that we’ve managed to cloud these layers through which we endeavour to perceive life. It is little wonder that there are some in this world who have so clouded their vehicles that they stumble around in what is for them a valley of shadows. They stumble around with a very limited perception of life because they are only capturing small glimpses of life through these greatly diminished vehicles that were once afforded them in this pristine state that we spoke of. The process of navigating our way through life is often one of endeavouring to avoid the pitfalls, to avoid some of the situations in life that will bring pain or hardship to us. At times it can be quite difficult to navigate around these obstacles and extreme difficulties. But how much more difficult is it made when our sensory mechanisms have been diminished by the energies that have tainted them from the previous experiences that we’ve had of this world. If, for instance, we’ve experienced shock. It may be the shock that comes from the sudden parting of a dear loved one, that shock that can be associated with any level of grief, or it could simply be shock that is brought about through some type of accident. If the shock is of a substantial nature it tends to impact on the consciousness and our abilities to think clearly are often gravely disrupted during those times of shock. If you’ve ever seen someone go into shock, you realize how numb their thinking has become in that state and as we then struggle to regain our receptive faculties, the imprint of that shock is often not so much cleansed away, but rather buried deep within us, pushed down where its less of an obstacle to the moment we are in. But ultimately those disruptions embed themselves in the natural flow of energy through the physical body and become an impediment to the spirits ability to shine a little clearer through the vehicles in which it is encased and so there is then a tendency for the spirit to wish to free itself from these disruptive influences that have been imprinted on to our energies as a result of shock. The same can be said of emotional experiences. Some bring great pleasure and upliftment and yet others can imprint deeply onto the emotional side of our nature, particularly if its something for instance regarded with trust. If we put a great deal of trust in someone that we believe we can trust, we may perhaps love them dearly and then one day discover that that trust has in some way been abused and the level of vulnerability that we’ve created in our openness in loving that person allows that influence of that particular situation to be like a stab in the heart, something that can be of an extremely traumatic emotional impact on any human individual. There are many types of emotional trauma that can be brought on through any number of life’s circumstances and they also can deeply influence the emotional vehicle, the astral body through which the spirit is endeavouring to project itself. Over a period of time, for some life times, we can develop quite a collection of these experiences of life. Some of them we may have already resolved and released and freed from our vehicles and yet others are perhaps still being carried, awaiting a time when we feel a little stronger and more capable of dealing with these difficult and challenging circumstances. And so we are endeavouring to navigate our way through the processes of life, trying to direct our foot steps in life with the care that will afford us the quality of life that we desire and seek and yet we are endeavouring this process of navigation through cloudy and often distorting influences over our thoughts and emotions. These, naturally enough can flow on into the physical as well, but even the physical vehicle can offer its own impediments to the processes of life. If our health is in some way diminished, some part of our body removed as a result of accident or surgery. Any of these can create situations in life, which will greatly impact on the spirits ability to project itself. These physical experiences can also greatly colour the emotional and thought side of our nature. In fact all three levels are constantly interacting with the others. If we get to a point in life of realizing that we are challenged by these conditions and we also have, perhaps, accepted that in order to navigate through life with greater clarity, it is going to become necessary to clean up these layers of our being in order to afford a clarity of perception through any of the sensory mechanisms out into the world around us, we then perhaps will reach a point of deciding that there may be some merit in undertaking specific lines of activity that will help facilitate this cleansing process. Some people for instance will engage in meditation in an effort to free the thought body from some of its discolouration to bring a greater calmness into the thoughts, clears the thought energy, allowing it once again to become much more transparent offering less distortion to the light of the spirit that seeks to project through the thoughts. There are also other types of experience that can help to bring this same calmness and clarity into the emotional side of our nature. The emotions are often likened to a bucket that has clay suspended in water. If you take a big stick and stir up that clay into the water it can become so cloudy that you cannot see the bottom of the bucket. In fact you can often put your hand just a few inches below the surface and not be able to see it at all. And yet given time and a freedom from disruption the clay suspended in that water will settle to the bottom of the bucket and once again the water becomes clear and you’re able to see through it. So that it becomes apparent from this symbolic interpretation that by freeing the emotional side of our nature from certain types of disruptive influences that we can maintain greater calmness and therefore clarity within that side of our selves. It’s a challenge though isn’t it because so often other people push our buttons and stir the bucket for us? We’re having to learn to free ourselves from those external disruptions as well as coming to terms with often the disruptive influences of our own thoughts and physical nature. This is quite indeed a challenging process for each and every one of us, as is so often said to be in this world, but not of it, to interact with the energies in this world, filled at times with so much hatred, anger, greed, and all of the other lower aspects of humanity of which unfortunately we are only too familiar. These are providing an environmental influence on us, every moment of our time here, whether we are awake or asleep we are immersed in a thought pattern that surrounds this world, in an emotional energy, which also surrounds this world. Although it may be invisible to the physical eye, it is imprinting itself on us in the respective layers of our being. We can see at times, when specific instances are made public knowledge, like the sudden death of someone who’s dearly loved and known the world over. Princess Diana as an example, when her death hit the media there was a shock wave that rippled around the world and the thought energy that built up in response to the contributions made by everyone of those human beings who responded in their own way to that incident added to that overall thought and emotional energy which we then, each one of us, found ourselves immersed in and becoming a product of. And this is perhaps a more pronounced incident, but it serves well as an example of what’s being spoken of here today. How then can we possibly clean these layers of our being and live here in an environment that is constantly endeavouring to imprint its own influence onto the nature of ourselves? It can seem an incredibly daunting task accept for one important fact. We are none of these layers. We are the inhabitant of them. We are spirit before we are anything else. Although we have clothed ourselves in these three vehicles and come to relate to them so strongly as to think we are these layers, the truth is that we are spirit and we are always connected to the infinite spirit. How could we be anything but? Which means that we are constantly availed of infinite resources. Infinite power. Divine power is always at our command and if we choose to harness those energies from the core of our being and to put them to a dedicated task of cleaning up our act and making possible these, some what, idealistic intentions for life, good news, we will succeed regardless of how obstinate these obstacles appear. It’s a little bit like the Zen poidery. What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object? The question that is often posed to the novice. If you are to think that there is such a thing as an immoveable object and yet it is met by an unstoppable force, what happens? Some more good news. There is no such thing as an immoveable object. We can all be moved. When the power of the spirit is focused on an obstacle it can be transformed instantly or over time depending on how easily you can adjust to the rate of change. There is another force at work constantly available to us. It’s also of infinite potential. Love. When we bring love into our life, tap into that side of our nature and bring it forward as it was truly meant to be in an unconditional, free flowing expression, the voice of the spirit. Then it flows into the emotions and readily cleanses away any disruptive impediments. When we choose to work with love and choose to guide ourselves through life with the light of the spirit then we may truly navigate ourselves through a pathway of certain success for the formula of life. It may not always be free from challenges, but we will always have access to everything we will ever need to meet those challenges and succeed. No one can ever take this away from you. Some have tried. Others will try again. But nobody can ever stop you from being spirit and you will always be spirit and you will rise above the incarceration of not only the physical, one day completely mastering life in the physical universe, but then go on to free yourself from the other two vehicles as well, rising supremely into an ultimate divine state to shine like a blinding light with powers to create your own universe. A little further down the track perhaps, but we’re on our way. When we come back to our life in the here and now, surrounded by these often regarded insignificant, incidental moments of life, please understand that every moment of life is precious. Every moment. There are no such things as mundane experiences in life. They are all sacred and they are all a part of this great journey. Shine your light; warm them with your love each moment and you will soon have wings that will lift you above and up and allow you to sore to your true nature. Do not take on the dark and dismissive influences of those who would subdue this potential for one day they will realize their own foolishness and join with you. Shine now. The world needs people to shine now. It’s so easy. It just means choosing to do it. We’d like to thank you for this opportunity to share these thoughts with you this afternoon. It may not yet be your truth, but we offer them to you for your consideration, as it is believed that they are profoundly worthy of considering. We offer these thoughts to you with much love. Thank you.

Last updated 2012
©2006 Berwick Spiritualist Church