Spirit Presence

What follows is taken from a little booklet ”The Souls Deepest Questions” by George P. Young and if allowance is made for the rather archaic (to us) use of the English language, Mr Young has some interesting and helpful points to make I think:

An interesting and illuminating spirit communication received and recorded by a near relative revealed much to me of the fact that nothing we experience is ever really forgotten. Like all Spiritualists, I have been misunderstood and misrepresented by relatives and acquaintances who live the narrow and fear-regulated mode of life of conventionality and respectability. Their unkind accusations, their unjust criticism, shrinking horror and cheap ridicule were apt to hurt, repel and disgust one of a sensitive nature. Recollections of their actions and dispositions were not of the pleasantest and were not calculated to make them welcome guests in one’s surroundings, either in the earthly state or after death in the spiritual condition.
One who had misunderstood and occasioned me much keen pain during earth life, had the blinding scales removed from the vision by physical death. Then regret was expressed, and a desire for undoing and recompense was evinced. Although conscious at times of the nearness of the newly deceased, the old antipathies naturally asserted themselves, and the spirit was projected from my surroundings. Regarding this, my relative at a séance had the following message spelled out by the repentant spirit: “When I try to get near those whom on earth I misunderstood, I feel repelled as by a pressure of a volume of water. I cannot get near.” What a light that throws upon spirit presence. No spirit can harm us if we live good lives and assert our wills. They cannot get near. The familiar warning from the mouths of the timid, hysterical and ignorant of “evil” spirits is a mere bogey cry, and cannot stand rational examination.

On the other hand, if we desire to draw to us the lofty intelligences of spirit life our motives must be noble, our ideals high and our lives healthy and pure. Otherwise we cannot provide the congenial atmosphere in which they can incarnate so as to directly influence us. This points out the rationale and naturalness of spirit spheres and spirit bands. On earth we are protected by the armour of flesh, and thought-force is deadened in intensity. Were we all completely and keenly responsive to the thoughts of others, were telepathic percipience developed to a high degree, how many friendships would be severed, how many agonised minds and broken hearts would result!

Even with our best friends we feel at times inharmonious and at disagreement. Suppose, as in spirit life, our inharmonious thoughts could repel them and waft them away, what a desert the earth would be for us all. No, thank God! Having a body, as it were, weights us down, and compels us to enter the atmosphere of those whom we, at first, misunderstand, and from whom we instinctively shrink. We are then compelled to look on matters with their eyes and from their point of view, and they in turn, are similarly influenced. This is mutually educational and beneficial, and leads to a more full and rounded life.