Chance or Guidance?

Many people are convinced that chance has played a huge role in their lives, its events and the direction it has taken. From the accident of birth through the means by which they made a living to the way in which they met their spouse, many claim to see nothing but mere chance. They explain away strange anomalies that led to big changes in their lives as just coincidence. I believe this is a misleading and totally erroneous way of looking at what happens in our lives.  In my experience, we are all subject to a far greater degree of guidance than is generally assumed. I very much doubt the role of chance in any human affairs

Explaining every unusual occurrence as chance or accident ignores a basic fact about human beings which Spiritualists understand more clearly than most. This is that each of us is a spirit being spending a limited period of time encased in a physical body in a world of matter. The spirit within us and the spirit world, which is its natural element, vibrate at much higher frequencies than our physical bodies. This coincides, I think, with open-minded scientific thinking. Albert Einstein, for instance, insisted that there is no such thing as matter for everything in the universe consists of energy. What we consider to be matter he explains, is energy moving at a particularly slow vibration. Everything is in motion and the rate at which that motion vibrates determines its apparent solidity or otherwise to those whose bodies are vibrating at that same level.  So solidity is subjective, for things only appear solid to us human beings when they vibrate at a similar or lesser vibration than our physical bodies. This principle, people who have spoken to us from the spirit world say, explains why to us spirit people often appear to our physical eyes as insubstantial ghosts or apparitions. It also explains why to the spirit people, everything in their world seems as solid to them as everything in our world appears to us.  We know that even on a physical level, our five senses are in some instances, far inferior to those possessed by animals. A dog can use its nose to detect smells completely impossible for us to smell. Elephants call to each other at sound frequencies far below the ability of our ears to detect, etc., etc.  As spirit beings, whether we acknowledge it or not, we are linked, both to friends and loved ones now passed to the spirit world as well as to every other living being on Earth. That is so whether the other being is human, animal, fish or bird. This is because all life is spirit. Life cannot exist except it be energised by the power of spirit.

Throughout her life, my dear wife Maria has been consistently guided by occurrences that many would say were chance or coincidence.  These have happened in connection with her health care, with significant changes to her life and with receipt of emotional support during particularly stressful times. Let me give some examples.  

Her brother Dirk, to whom she was very close, moved to South Africa from Germany. At one point he decided to travel back to Europe for a visit by journeying through the length of Africa, with a rucksack on his back like a globetrotter. He went through Namibia and then on to Zimbabwe and so forth.   After she moved to South Africa, years later, Maria decided to try to retrace her by then, late brother’s steps for at least part of that journey. In all she travelled some 8,000 kilometers.  When she reached the border between Namibia and South Africa, she drove into a petrol station to fill up before crossing the border.  Suddenly she saw a huge truck driving towards her with a big sign across the top of its cab, which announced in huge letters,“GLOBETROTTER”!  Written on the windscreen was the name DIRK! (clearly the driver’s name)   Coincidence?  I think not.  On her return journey, as she moved into South Africa from Botswana she drove through the beautiful Swartberg Pass. It was so strikingly beautiful it took her breath away and she cried out aloud voicing her feelings.  Suddenly she had to stop. There, lying in the road was a beautiful white ostrich feather!  Since passing to spirit, Dirk had often announced his presence by leaving white feathers for Maria. It had become a sort of personal symbol between them.  How wonderful then, that just as Maria reached the end of her trip of homage to her brother, there should be his own personal symbol. Just a single, large white feather. She has that feather to this day!

It was an enormous comfort to her at that point in her life and I completely agree with her interpretation.  

At another juncture in her life, when facing a decision to leave her native Germany, the spirit people took over again. Here, in her own words is what happened:

“For years I had lost contact with and was vainly searching for some Namibian friends who had left Germany and returned to their home country.  Unexpectedly, I received a newsletter from some tour company in Namibia, even though I was still living in Germany. The newsletter was signed ‘Jimmy and Heidi’,  the names of the friends for whom I was searching. I wrote back, “Is it you?’ Hallellujah! ‘Yes it is’ came the reply. I was so thrilled. That was around October/November 2002. At the beginning of that very year, I had been travelling in New Zealand and Indonesia for four months. On Bali, I briefly met a German who gave me a contact to someone who later became a very important art teacher in my life. This German and I had spoken twice, for about twenty minutes each time, on very formal terms (Mr & Mrs as we do with strangers in Germany). His name was Gustav and he was a friend of the Balinese artist. Months after my return to Germany from Asia, around the beginning of November, I received a phone call from Gustav. It was quite late in the evening and for a whole hour, this relative stranger tells me that he had returned just yesterday from a beautiful holiday in South Africa.  He set about trying to convince me to go to live and work there. I was indeed looking for a new direction and for work but he was unaware of this. I was completely flabbergasted. I said, “I was away travelling for four months, Why on earth are you telling me all this?” I would have thought that after just returning from a long absence he would instead be talking to close relatives or friends. His answer was, “I don’t know, I was just on my way into  the kitchen to make myself some dinner and turned around on the threshold to call you.” 

I sat in my chair totally gobsmacked following that phone call. I asked myself, “What on earth was this for?” The next day I decided to call a travel agent to check on flights to Windhoek, Namibia, where lived the old friends I had just rediscovered, and then to fly from there to Cape Town. All of it over Christmas and New Year, when flights were normally fully booked, as I discovered later. It was a curious enquiry I realised. Three hours later the phone rings. It was the travel agent saying, “ I’ve booked your flight”. I say, “Are you crazy, this was just an enquiry.” She replied, “Don’t worry, you can cancel again within three days.”  Next day when I met a travel agent in the town where I was living, who I’d been helping with translations three times a week, I asked her about this very strange experience.  She became upset that I hadn’t asked her instead, so I suggested she call the airlines to see if she could book flights for me as the other one had. She called every possible airline and not one seat was available!  Now I knew I had to go to South Africa and it ultimately led to me emigrating there.”

Another interesting episode occurred in the summer of 1997 and again, here is the story in Maria’s own words:

“It was a difficult period of my life and I felt like getting away and visiting an old friend Ulrike in Kenya, where I myself had lived for many years. I was now back in my native Germany and called Ulrike in Mombasa. She said, “Sorry, you cant come because I’m flying to Europe.” I replied, “But I want to see you, where will you be?” “At some spiritual seminar at a castle in England. Someone recommended it.” This was typical of Ulrike flying thousands of kilometers without having a clue what it was about!  “There’s apparently a beautiful park with gorgeous big trees,” she adds and gives me the address of a lady to contact in England. I decide I am going to see her and if the seminar turns out to be rubbish, I’ll read a book under those trees and will see my friend.! I call the lady in England, “Oh, we’re fully booked, but… I’ve just had ONE cancellation!” “Please book me then”, I say,  But could you maybe tell me what it’s all about?” “We are doing workshops and demonstrations,” she replies.  “Demonstrations of what?” I want to know. “Err you know, I’m just an old lady organising this from my bedroom. Just give me your address and I’ll send you a brochure.”  

Now I need to book a flight to England. The brochure arrives just a few minutes before I leave for the airport and I put it, unopened, into my handbag. The flight is from Basel to London, Stansted and the plane is completely full. There is one empty seat next to me. A young, dark haired lady takes it.  Actually she claims it from another lady who had begun to install herself there. Once we are airborne, I decide to find out where I’m going.  I take the envelope out of my handbag to read the brochure when I hear, “We’re obviously going to the same thing,” pipes the young lady next to me. Her name is Angelika Gueldenstein and she proceeds to put me in the picture. What she told me was a complete mystery to me and frankly not all that believable.  Of course now it was too late to change my mind in any case. Arriving at Stansted Hall, where the so called seminar was the Fraternal Week of the InternationalSpiritualist Federation (ISF), Angelika takes me by the hand and leads me to a big and noisy dining room, where lunch is in full swing.  We sit down at a table with eight people, one of whom will become quite important to me for a while. She, Joan Shergold, gives me the first inkling of what these people are up to.  She is a ‘psychic artist’. I did not have the slightest clue what that was.  Being German, I thought, ‘a psychological artist but that made me none the wiser. When only Joan and I remain at the table a few days after our first encounter, I ask her. Her explanation was,” If I had to draw a picture for you now, (‘Ah a painter I thought,) “I would draw a picture of a big, black dog..!” “Why on earth would you do that?” I ask because I am truly amazed. “Because,” she replies, You walked in here with a big black dog by your side… Have you ever had a big black dog?” I can hardly reply because I double up and burst into tears. My dog, Moritz, who I found as a puppy while living in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, had been my permanent companion until his passing a few years earlier. I was totally overwhelmed that he should still be around me and just could not understand what was happening.  Too late – someone invisible took me by the hand. 

 I had experienced quite a bit of tragedy involving death; three loved ones dying within a period of just two years. During the following days at Stansted they all ‘came back’ to me – an indescribably overwhelming experience that changed my life forever.  The then President of the ISF, the aforementioned organisation, was one Lionel Owen. He and I became friends there and then, neither of us knowing that later we were to become husband and wife!  Chance or guidance?  That is the question. 

The latest guidance received by Maria was quite recent. She had been feeling a lack of energy for some time. When friends, who visited her just before Christmas contracted Covid after one of them had similar symptoms to Maria, she thought she’d better double check and called her GP to arrange a Covid test immediately.  He said, “You have to come to the surgery, collect a form, take it to another town where there are medical services, take a test and if it’s negative, I will see you. All of which would defeat the object of finding out quickly if she was infected. That same afternoon, Maria unexpectedly meets a lady who runs an animal sanctuary where she lives on a nearby farm. After the usual greetings, Maria discovers that all of them on the farm had Covid over Christmas. They were the people her friends who visited her, had gone to visit AFTER they left Maria. This seemed to solve the mystery of  where her friends’ Covid had originated.  Maria was suddenly prompted to ask the same lady where she had taken her Covid test.  The lady gave her the name of a nearby doctor, who not only gives my wife an immediate (and negative) test but also, on examining her, discovers another health problem, which is probably the root cause of her lack of energy. It needs to be investigated by a specialist and would not have been discovered without this  ‘unknown’ doctor’s intervention. Maria is so grateful and also convinced those unexpected deviations which led to successful treatment, were the work of Spirit people and I totally agree with her.

Our loved ones and friends in the spirit world will always find ways of letting us know they  are there with us.  It may be hearing, quite unexpectedly, a favourite song or piece of music that was loved by a person we know who is now in spirit.  It might be a small item in our homes, such as a photograph or ornament being moved from its accustomed position or it could even be receiving information in our minds during meditation or in dreams. Our minds belong to our spirit self, they are not part of the physical body, despite what scientists would have us believe. Our minds are always on the alert and can detect the tiniest psychic emanations both from other people and from inanimate places such as rooms or buildings.  It is not uncommon for people to become  aware of some sad or violent happening in a room or building. This is usually due to events that involved strong emotions, which leave an imprint on the psychic fabric of the room.  All matter, whether animate or inanimate, has an invisible or psychic part to it and that is where such events are recorded. If we are sensitive or even just happen to be in an unusually contemplative mood when arriving at such a place, our invisible self will detect these psychic remains of past, highly emotional or violent occurrences.  

In our early days together, I took Maria to London to show her the sights. At one point during our walk she said she suddenly felt terrible and could not understand why. Neither could I until I happened to glance around and noticed we were just walking past the Tower of London!  The place which was the scene of so much misery and violent death centuries ago!  The same thing can happen when we meet someone for the first time or come across a stranger unexpectedly in unusual circumstances. Our invisible self will reach out to their invisible self and detect whether or not we are in harmony with them. I have known people who have avoided violence themselves by recognising an extreme negative reaction in such circumstances. They did so by ensuring they distanced themselves from the person concerned. This is not guidance by a spirit friend or relative but one’s own psyche protecting us.  It is so important never to forget that we are spirit beings, complete with all the psychic sensitivity with which we are born.  Many choose to ignore such factors which is most unwise.  Just because it is not visible to us does not mean the psychic or spirit self does not exist. Out of sight is not out of mind!  It certainly does exist and we should try to make ourselves more aware of the information it passes to our conscious mind regarding our surroundings, the people we meet and even about our future.  We are not complete if we choose only to pay attention to our physical self. It is sometimes claimed that one day mediums will not be needed because each of us will become our own medium. In the sense I have described above, THAT IS ALREADY THE CASE! 

The Challenge of Covid

The last two years have tested human ingenuity, patience and understanding: Thrown into sharp relief our powerlessness against forces we do not understand: Elevated scientists to the level of saviours whilst  tempting them into an arrogance far from justified by their knowledge and shown the best and the worst of human behavior. These same scientists have used statistics and often dubious computer models to cow people into obedience.

Our perilous grip on dominance in the physical world has rarely been challenged so effectively as it has by the virus we call Covid 19. It is a challenge to us to work together in harmony with a common aim but it seems instead to have demonstrated our inability to bury self interest in order to conquer a common threat. Time and again, those countries with power and money have chosen to focus almost exclusively on their own citizens, ignoring the fact that Covid is a universal enemy. To provide vaccines for their populations they have done too little to ensure the poorer nations are similarly provided for.

Conquering the pandemic needs trust, co-operation and understanding on a personal, national and international level. What have we seen?  Those in power almost everywhere ignoring the need for co-operation when it seemed expedient to grasp every possible advantage for themselves.  The use of compulsion, refusing to recognise that individuals are capable of making their own decisions when faced with great challenges. Thus have free and open societies been transformed into little more than dictatorships. On a personal level, extortion and fraud have been manifested in taking advantage of emergency regulations and shortage of supply. 

Where political power has been at odds with accepting responsibility, power has triumphed. China refused to allow a fair and open investigation into what started the pandemic because of political dogma and a basic insecurity that is unable to accept challenge and the possibility of error. In the early days, some commercial organisations did not disclose the presence of infections because it might lead to financial losses. All in all  humanity is not emerging from the viral challenge with much to commend it. The exception of course are the dedicated health care workers who have worked tirelessly to help sufferers.

Instead of this pandemic being used as an opportunity to re-examine our priorities on all levels and seriously consider radical change, it has widened the gulf between haves and have nots wherever one chooses to look. It has been seen by the most powerful as an opportunity to extend their power and influence. Furthermore, commercial interests have used the pandemic to vastly increase their profits instead of sharing their expertise more freely for the common good. 

The spirit world tells us that we come to Earth in order to learn lessons and grow in spiritual understanding.  Because our spirit selves are subjected to domination by our five senses, lessons can be learned here in a way that is much more difficult in the spirit world. The growth in materialism driven by science and consumerism has undoubtedly made our Earthly task more difficult.  Yet conversely, it also provides enormous opportunity to do better. Because our ingenuity has relieved us of many onerous and time consuming everyday tasks, modern humanity has much more time to focus on improving the comfort and living conditions of all people. Yet what we see is ever worsening living conditions in poorer communities and a burgeoning of wealth and power among a minority. This is especially the case in poorer countries where the political class has been so corrupted by power it has used it to increase its own wealth enormously at the expense of the general population. 

Pandemics, such as Covid 19 give us the opportunity to re-evaluate our role both as individuals and as nations. During the first lockdown, there was much talk of the impact it was having upon our lives. People commented on the sudden absence of noise, such as road and air traffic. Many claimed to be experiencing a healing calmness in their lives which they had never known before. The need to rush everywhere was gone and they felt much better for it. People began to question the systems that seemed to lead to an increasingly manic pace of ordinary life. It also led many, as they lost loved ones to the virus, to pose philosophical questions about the purpose of life.  Of course it also caused severe psychological problems, especially amongst the elderly, as they thought themselves abandoned by family and friends.

 

I believe it is not too late to grasp the opportunity presented by Covid to re-examine our values, to say, “Stop, there must be a better way.” For instance, it is almost certain the pandemic began as a result of a leak from a laboratory in China that was experimenting with ways to genetically alter viruses that are normally only present among animals and birds. We know also that such laboratories pursue much more sinister experiments. Experiments to give their countries a military advantage in the international power game that typifies modern power politics. Should we allow fear, which is what often drives the military mind, to have such an all powerful influence? I think it was John F Kennedy who said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

The military arguments put forward for the need to protect a country’s strategic interests with military might have been put forward in nearly all societies for millennia. The problem is that our inventiveness produces ever more sophisticated means of annihilation that we are urged to increase our military might still further and so ad infinitum. It is easy to see the futility of war as an instrument of political policy and the foolishness of ever believing in an ultimate weapon that will ensure peace. But …The problem is trust. Disarmament needs a conviction that the other person will also disarm. We are back to fear again!

I believe the root of our inability to disarm universally is the same thing that has led to the fear of death. We are looking at the problem from a purely physical standpoint! Humanity  labours under the illusion that we are merely physical beings who are victims of chance, having been created accidentally in the primordial mud in the far distant past. I say this despite official lip service paid to religion and to everlasting life, subject to believing in a particular creed or dogma.

The truth is very different. Human beings are creatures of spirit spending a few years encased in physical bodies in a physical world. We are everlasting spirits and each spirit is a part of the Great Spirit, or God. This is true no matter what creed, dogma, or none an individual professes.  The spirit is vastly superior to any form of matter however substantial that may be.

Our spirit possesses powers beyond imagination.  If only we would use our minds to tap that power, materialism and militarism would quickly disappear. To do so we need to accept who we truly are.  Our mind is part of the spirit, it does not die when our physical body dies. Science has been able to make many incredible advances in easing the physical burden of life on Earth but has made no meaningful attempts to investigate the mind. This is due to the scientific obsession that the mind is part of the physical brain. It refuses to countenance the existence of our eternal spirit. Until this attitude changes, it is difficult to see us progressing.

However there is hope. Particle physicists have discovered the theoretical existence of several dimensions beyond those we know of. It is only a matter of time before these dimensions are established as fact and in my view, they will prove to be spiritual. 

What a revolution in thought such a discovery will bring about! It will be at least comparable to the impact Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species had when it was published. That is when people will be forced to look within and to seek the help of the unseen world in order to create a new way of life and a new understanding for all humanity. Spiritualism will have the opportunity to come into its own and use our experience to give people the tools with which to fashion this new world. In the meantime Spiritualists can use the power of the spirit to shed more light on the darkness with which we have surrounded the Earth in the last two hundred years especially. Never has the power of prayer and the focus of our inner light been a greater necessity. Spiritualism must become a great deal more than the provider of evidence that we survive death and the giver of messages of comfort to the bereaved, wonderful though they are.

Lionel Owen.                                                                                                        January 2022