VERNA ON THE AIMS OF THE CIRCLE

8.4.86.

Opening Meditation.

Start with a star in the middle of the forehead - the third eye position. And the star is getting bigger. It is a lovely silver-white star. And as it gets bigger so the points of the star link up with the stars of the people on each side of you. So we have this sort of a chain connected through all our heads. Imagine it sparkling. And the stars are getting bigger and encompassing all your body and expanding, and now we have a solid silver band. And this is our safe place tonight. We are going through the centre of that band, we are going through the point in the centre, and out. And now, we are the stars, we are the stars, constellations, shining in the sky, so many shining stars, revolving there. And the paradox is, as we are there expanding through space, at the same time you are still here safe in our silver band. We have both expanded and contracted. This is to loosen up your sense of space and identity. You are both an individuality and connected with a greater, bigger, whole. And because of that connection you will always be safe, there is nothing to fear on your path of progress. Step firmly and joyfully, the path that lies ahead, the path of the mountain on which you will be guided by that star, the star of Bethlehem that guided the Wise men to their destination - you, too, will be guided to your destination. Just absorb that feeling and keep it with you always.

(After a short break Verna came through.)

We were going to have someone else come through tonight but we thought that some of you were going into that meditation quite deeply and so I should come through because I am a bit quieter.

We thought we would talk with you tonight about the purpose of this circle. We think we have talked about this now and again, over the past couple of years, but as we have some new people, we thought it might be a good idea to talk about our aim and what we are hoping to do.The first aim which we have is to bring through to you more information about the Spirit World and how you can progress through it and what you can do in your material life to help you when you come over to join us.

As we have explained to you, many of your recent scientific discoveries have made this process easier for us, because you are now gaining concepts which you haven't had in the past, and this made bringing through a lot of the information difficult. It's so much easier when you already have some concepts and you can liken those to what we are trying to explain to you.

So working through this particular medium, we have been able to bring through more information than has come through in the past. We also need a particular type of person to work with. We feel this medium has just enough knowledge to enable her to assist us when we get into difficulties, but not too much (knowledge). Sometimes too much knowledge can also get in the way of what guides would like to bring through.

One of the things that you gain by being in the material world is a sense of individuality - it is one way in which you can experience that. This is a bit of a contradiction because when you come over this side you have to gradually lessen your sense of individuality. Now, we find very often that people who have too much scientific knowledge, sort of, get stuck with it, and are not so freely open to the influence from spirit.

A second aim that we have is to help spirits on this side who are having difficulty, and this we do, as you know, in the form of rescues. Rescues need a form of interaction, and we are also having to train you to deal with rescues. We also feel the training which you are getting in this way also helps you in your daily life - we hope so anyway.

The third aim, and because I am putting this last, does not necessarily mean that it is inferior or less important than the others. This is to help you to progress now. This occurs naturally with people like yourselves, who are interested in a little bit more than the purely material world. This is a contradiction, because you will progress more easily if you are firmly rooted in your world while you are in your body. While you are in the world you need to operate in the settings in which you have placed yourselves. Unless you are firmly rooted in that reality you will not be able to operate so well, and what would probably happen is that the people around you will not react well to you, and you may find that negative thoughts and vibrations are being directed towards you.

The individuality which you are experiencing is also a protection for you from spirits which we term 'mischievous spirits'. But, as we have explained to you, there are no really evil spirits, but there are spirits who are a bit confused or mixed up, and they can attach themselves to certain types of people. Because they are drawn back into material conditions, they keep trying to get the person they have attached to, to behave in ways which they think are appropriate, because they are remembering the ways that their society operated when they were in the material world and they don't realise that this (way) is inappropriate for the conditions that that person is in. They have not let go of the material world, and, naturally, you will find some behaviours which they are trying to influence could be dangerous to that particular person.

So you will very often find that a person will not start developing their spiritual gifts until they are in a stable, settled condition. The typical situation would be someone who has married, raised a family, have their own home, this kind of setting. Because that particular setting provides a safe place, you have your own vibrations there. The person going through these life experiences will have a certain amount of confidence in themselves, they will be strengthened and all this sort of thing. Now, this is only one example, the clearest one that we can describe to you. It is NOT the ONLY setting, please don't think that. This seems to us to be the one that you would most readily understand and use as your analogy.

Very often a developing medium, let's use the word medium at the moment to cover any type of gift that may be developing, it may not be strictly mediumship like we are working through this medium. Now, the medium will be fairly busy. They will be accomplishing a lot in their daily life, and we think this will become evident if you read the biographies of well-known mediums in the past. You will see that when they were developing they were at quite a busy stage of their life. It has been said that mediums typically have had a tragic life. We would suggest though, that if you look at the lives of as many people as you can, you will find that every person has had some sort of tragedy in their life. We would rather emphasise the aspect of busy-ness, they have a lot to accomplish, they will have a lot of energy. It may necessarily really be physical activity, although that, of course, may occur. But they will be people who do a lot and accomplish a lot, because they have that extra energy there and they will use it and, of course, the more you use it the more is there available for you. There will, naturally, be the limitation of the type of body, the smaller, frailer, person will be doing less physical work than, say, a strong man. So when I am talking about physical activity it is not necessarily working the body, it can be mentally, using the hands, that type of thing. They will, typically, have a strong sense of self - I am not talking about being selfish - but they are aware of themselves and can centre in themselves. And this is a sign of being, strengthening the aura.

This is one of the reasons why it is not advisable to try to force development. Wait until it starts and see where you are lead. It may be necessary for you to try out different ways, but do not force yourself to stay with anything. Only go with those things that feel comfortable to you and right to you. Don't force yourself into anything. Try not to have preconceived ideas of what should be happening or what you should be doing. When you do this you limit the expression of the Godness which is acting through you, and what is right for you may not be right for another person. So do not try to impose your ideas on another person. Naturally, you will discuss what you are doing and may suggest trying something, but do not try to impose on the other person, or on any other person. And, in the other way, you may try out something that they say they are doing, and only in that way will you know if it is helpful for you.You may find that at one stage of your development, one approach or activity is helpful, at another stage it may not be. Realise that you will grow through things and so attending circles like this one, and your church services, will be automatically developing your gifts, even though you may not realise it. We, too, particularly, try to emphasise the meditations like you had tonight, and the kind of activities that you had last week, as a more particular way of helping you sitters to develop. We are also willing to give anyone who wants to practice a gift, (time) to try out if they have this gift. We are also willing to provide time and advice and any other help we can give to that person. We do not impose anything, we will encourage anyone to try out their gifts if they wish.

We have also in the past made general comments about attitude to the life in the material world. Again, we are not laying down firm rules of what you should do. We are more interested in your general attitude towards the world, towards other people and, especially we have emphasised, towards yourself.

We would like you to be open to other people, do not close off from people because they are in a different 'box' to yourselves. Really, the phrase 'be open to other people' is the best one we can give you. But, again, you see, you get this opposite, because you also need to think of yourself as well. Remember that everyone has a drop of the 'Godness' deep within them and that applies to yourself. So you, too, need consideration, and the type of consideration which you give yourself will vary from person to person, because you are all an expression of the Godness and so there will necessarily need to be all these different variations. And this is an important reason to be open to other people, to other customs, to other ways. And this isn't necessarily to people from cultures other than your own. Do not be closed in from differences in your own society. Do not think that things always have to be in one set way. There is a wide variation even within the same society and culture.

Now, this consideration for yourself which I mentioned before, there is no reason why you should not take care of your body and its immediate surroundings. That is one form of taking consideration of yourself. Another person may take that same idea of consideration for the self, but express it in the form of ignoring or neglecting the body and its surroundings, and immersing oneself in work for others. Both approaches are a type of consideration for yourself. This is where things start to get so blurred, the boundaries are so blurred. We are not advocating that you should only work for yourself, but there is no reason why 'yourself' should not be cared for as much as for other people, but the expression of that caring is open to very wide interpretations. And one of the messages which we repeatedly try to tell you is, forgive yourself as much as you would forgive other people. There is that drop of divine Godness within you, and it is also operating through a material body, a body which has had certain experiences and has adopted certain patterns of reaction. Accept the creatureliness of that expression of Godness because there is something of Godness within you should not vilify yourself. If you feel you have done something which you dislike, or which you would even label as 'sin', forgive yourself for that, and there are many ways in which you can work out that 'sin' if you feel it necessary. You can, if you wish, come back to this material world and punish yourself, but that is not necessary. You can work out things on this side too. You can make a form of reparation, you do not HAVE to punish yourself to do that. You can work with others, you can try to be just an expression of that Godness which is within you. And this is an important message which we are trying to bring through to you.

There is always something a little sad when someone comes on this side and really hedges themselves in with guilt. There are people who have done grievous things and for whom it would be natural to feel guilty, but it is better for those people to work to help those whom they may have wronged than to just be frozen with guilt.

There is another type of rescue we have occasionally asked you to do, and I would like to spend a few minutes now doing this, because there is someone here who very badly needs it. Just think of a person who you consider to be one of the wickedest people you can imagine. And now send love to that person.

(Pause for a few moments.)

That love may be the first that that person has ever experienced. It could break that shell, so that they can make good what they have done. As Jesus was able to forgive on the cross so you, too, can forgive.(Pause.)

Forgiveness is the real key to progress.

(Pause.)

Thank you. There was a tremendous amount of love here tonight, and we have helped several people.

Now, let us try to deal with your questions.

Bob: Can you offer any advice on the process of developing during, say, meditation during the week between circles, where help may be required.

Verna: We have recommended that some sort of meditation each day would be beneficial to your progress and this is the kind of thing you can do in between the circles.

Bob: Sometimes during meditation, self-evaluation questions come up, sometimes sparked by events during the day. now insights come up, and it can be confusing for some considerable time. Is there a way of seeking help from one's guides other than just attending the circle?

Verna: Whenever you think of Spirit, in any context whatsoever, you will open up to Spirit. Now this may be in your meditation which you set aside, it may just be in daily conversation, something like that. Generally, that sort of thing will automatically strengthen the links with your guides making it easier for them to bring advice through to you when you ask for it. There are, naturally, always some of them with you, and they will always be trying to influence you. More suggestions to you, is possibly a better phrase than 'influence' because 'influence' implies trying to get you to act in a way. Whereas we suggest things. To quite a large degree it is necessary for you to find your own way of making that contact. Some people can feel the contact in the solar plexus, other people may feel it in the spine or what you usually term the 'third eye', or even the hands. There are different ways of feeling that link, and this is the sort of visualisation, visualising that link. Usually the connection is made, facilitated, with some degree of relaxation. If you are tense it is very difficult for the link to operate - or more difficult. It is possible to very momentarily, for a split second, to just quickly relax, throw the thoughts to your guides and no-one around you will be aware of what you are doing. Even a split second of that will be enough to increase that link. It is a sort of 'centering technique'.

Bob: For a while I have been thinking that one of the major purposes of life in this material world is a learning experience, but that learning experience is not just for our individual selves. People on the other side also observe and also share that learning. Some people choose, through free will to be completely insulated and learn their lessons without any due consideration for others, while others become mediums and otherwise make themselves available. I feel it can be a conscious co-operation venture too. We can make ourselves available on a daily basis so that people on the other side can also share, at least to the degree that our guides are willing to let those other people see what happens. Our bodies are really cosmic property aren't they?

Verna: Not really the body but the sphere around it. It is true that there are spirits who will attach themselves to you for a while just to experience your life. We can think of one spirit, well-known to you, who wanted to experience driving a car, because cars hadn't been around so much when he was in the world. This sort of thing. There will be other spirits, we have used the phrase free-lance spirit, who will come to you for a while to help with something. We have also thought often of our analogy of the tree, where you have the little twiglets that combine to make a twig, and the twigs combine to make a branch, and the branches combine to form a trunk - the trunk, of course, is the Godness, and you are the little twiglets. And so there is this linking up so that several individual spirits can link up for a spirit, in your terms, higher level. And so the spirit at that level has all these other life experiences from which to draw, to help them in the work at that level, and so it can go on. One of the contributions to the idea of reincarnation have been people who have reincarnated from the highest level before the merging with Godness, come back into a material world to help people here in a more direct way, have brought back with them memories from those other shared lives. And this has been interpreted that they had lived all those lives. It is possible that they had lived some of them, but some of them were shared experiences from linked spirits. And this too, is something that we are anxious to stress - that reincarnation can occur, it does occur, but it doesn't HAVE to occur.

Bob: Another part of the question : Where it is a previously agreed or understood situation, whether a person makes himself available at various times in a situation particularly where we may find our individual selves on this side in a strange situation, come to realise that somebody else may want to experience that situation, and agree to go through with it. It may be a situation where, if one took that line, one would accumulate some bad karma. But by making himself available, is this still going to cause bad karma for the individual, or is it perhaps shared, or is it eliminated.

Verna: First, let us think about your concept of bad karma. You can only have bad karma if you accept it. As I have said before - forgive your, and you will not have any bad karma. You only have what you accept. If you think you have bad karma, you will want to punish yourself. And as I said, you can make all reparation on this side that you may think is necessary. You see, when you are over here, at some point you will go through a life review. This may occur at the moment of so called 'death', it may occur later, it depends on the individual. Nothing is ever completely set. Now, you go through that life review, when you are able to accept your actions, and because it is a life review, you will understand the pressures that were put on you, that influenced your actions. And you are the one who will judge yourself, and you will have greater understanding. We are very fond of quoting St. Paul who said : Now I see as through a glass darkly, but then I shall know, even as I am known. And this is that type of thing. with that further understanding, if you realise that you do not have to punish yourself to relieve any guilt that you may feel, you will have a lot more understanding about yourself. And you will then be able to undertake more suitable ways of relieving feelings.

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