{"product_id":"2940015482379","title":"SPIRIT TEACHINGS","description":"PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSOME apology may be deemed necessary for the publication of this book. My excuse is to be found in the following facts.\u003cbr\u003eWhen these communications first saw the light they attracted a large amount of attention, and brought me much correspondence. Many found in them words which were suitable to their own experience, and more or less helpful to themselves. It seemed that no case is quite singular, and that the record of my own spiritual education was not merely of private application.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince that time many requests have been made for the publication of these Teachings in a connected form. The compliance, however, did not rest with me, and it is only lately that I have been enabled to present the complete series, duly revised, by the same method as was originally employed in writing them, and arranged in such order as was possible with so disconnected a mass. For these are but specimens taken from a great bulk, and from them are excluded some of the most striking by reason of their purely personal application.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey are now strung together on a thread that is strong enough, perhaps, to hold them together in some sort of relation. But no attempt of mine can even faintly reproduce their force and coherence when originally given. They must go forth, a curious record of an educational influence brought to bear, from without and unsought, on a mind that endeavoured strenuously to sift and probe what was said. They pretend to no dogmatic authority, to no literary completeness. They will be to each reader only what he makes them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e***\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn excerpt from the beginning of the:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eINTRODUCTION \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe communications which form the bulk of this volume were received by the process known as Automatic or Passive Writing. This is to be distinguished from Psychography. In the former case, the Psychic holds the pen or pencil, or places his hand upon the Planchette, and the message is written without the conscious intervention of his mind. In the latter case, the writing is direct, or is obtained without the use of the hand of the psychic, and sometimes without the aid of pen or pencil.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAutomatic Writing is a well-known method of communication with the invisible world of what we loosely call Spirit. I use that word as the most intelligible to my readers, though I am well aware that I shall be told that I ought not to apply any such term to many of the unseen beings who communicate with earth, of whom we hear much and often as being the reliquice of humanity, the shells of what once were men. It is no part of my business to enter into this moot question. My interlocutors call themselves Spirits, perhaps because I so called them, and Spirits they are to me for my present purposes.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThese messages began to be written through my hand just ten years since, 30th March 1873, about a year after my first introduction to Spiritualism. I had had many communications before, and this method was adopted for the purpose of convenience, and also to preserve what was  intended to be a connected body of teaching. The laborious method of rapping out messages was manifestly unfitted for communications such as those which I here print. If spoken through the lips of the medium in trance, they were partially lost, and it was, moreover, impossible at first to rely upon such a measure of mental passivity as would preserve them from admixture with his ideas.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eI procured a pocket-book, which I habitually carried about with me. I soon found that writing flowed more easily when I used a book that was permeated with the psychic aura, just as raps come more easily on a table that has been frequently used for the purpose, and as phenomena occur most readily in the medium’s own room. When Slade could not get messages on a new slate, he rarely failed to get one on his own seasoned one. I am not responsible for the fact, the reason for which is sufficiently intelligible.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAt first the writing was very small and irregular, and it was necessary for me to write slowly and cautiously, and to watch the hand, following the lines with my eye, otherwise the message soon became incoherent, and the result was mere scribble.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn a short time, however, I found that I could dispense with these precautions. The writing, while becoming more and more minute, became at the same time very regular and beautifully formed. As a specimen of calligraphy, some of the pages are exceedingly beautiful. The answers to my questions (written at the top of the page) were paragraphed, and arranged as if for the press: and the name of God was always written in capitals, and slowly, and, as it seemed, reverentially. The subject-matter was always of a pure and elevated character, much of it being of personal application, intended for my own guidance and direction. I may say that throughout the whole of these written communications, extending in unbroken...","brand":"OGB","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47084422136048,"sku":"2940015482379","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015482379_p0.jpg?v=1763620668","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015482379","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}