The next night, he began with a suggestion that the rest do the talking,
adding: “I’ll listen and answer questions.” After some discussion
of purpose, in its personal application, and inquiries concerning
other members of the family on his plane, Mr. Wylie asked whether his
grandfather could talk to him in this way.
“I can get him, I think, by to-morrow,” Frederick replied. “He’s
sheltering a lot of poor, undeveloped wretches who have come out of
conditions not making for fitness or growth. He teaches, and urges, and
offers them opportunity, and is too busy and helpful to come away often.”
After this had been written, I was told that this man, during his earthly
life, had devoted time and money to providing opportunity for others;
never offering charity, but building roads that the unemployed might
have work, exchanging some commodity needed by a poor man for some other
of which he had enough and to spare, and always encouraging his less
fortunate fellows to retain and develop their self-respect.
Of another on his plane, now a healer, Frederick said: “I haven’t seen
him. Every healing force here, as with you, is occupied with war-stricken
forces. They come so dazed, and sometimes terrified—and almost always
startled, if they come from battle. And all our healing forces are
required every minute.”
This reminded Mrs. Gaylord of an experience of her own, a few days
before, when her pencil had written detached words, suggestive of battle.
“Lost ... many lost ... another dead ... shot ...” etc. She asked whether
this came from a friend, and was answered in the negative. To her
inquiry, “Did you live here?” the reply was: “Near.” She asked for the
name, and it was written clearly, “K——.” A few days later the name of
Lieutenant K——, of a neighboring city, headed the American casualty list.
“K—— caught his one chance before his consciousness dimmed,” Frederick
commented. “He is now too bewildered to talk. Just after what people who
don’t know call death, there is a moment of singular clarity and vision.
He happened to catch you in that moment.”
We fell to wondering, then, whether these messages could be flashed to us
from a distance, or whether the person communicating must be present,
and I asked Frederick whether he could send me a message from a distance.
“No, but we travel in a flash.”
We who had had some experience in receiving these communications spoke of
the fear we all had lest we might unconsciously influence the pencil, at
times, to write our own imaginings.
“You people have such a fear of imagining things that you shut out a
lot we try to tell you,” Frederick interpolated. “We can’t get through
doubt, bitterness, resentment, or selfish grief. Fear can be conquered,
but doubt shuts the door in our faces. Please relax a little of this too
rigid vigilance, and at least entertain the idea we are trying to put
over.”
“Do I shut things out by too much vigilance?” I asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive