　　　　　Chapter Seven

HEALING, THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL

Healing is a soul process, not a physical one. When a soul is ready the healing will take place. It must be so, it cannot be any other way. Healing is the power of life applied to its receptacle, the soul in the earthly body. It is the stimulus, the rejuvenation, the reinvigorating power applied to the centre of life in the physical body.

SILVER BIRCH

Ulyndu and Amenra are the pseudonyms adopted by two healers who put into practice the precept of self-sacrifice. Both renounced their commercial careers to devote their time to healing the sick. The world is now their parish; they have worked in Central and South Africa and India. With complete dedication, they never charge for their healing, demonstrating in their daily lives "the unfailing source of God's supply."

　Living from day to day on their travels, sometimes their money has completely run out and they have had to tighten their belts. But they say each day their needs were supplied with no prompting. Often the channels were "as un-expected as they were extraordinary." On a visit to this country from South Africa, they fulfilled a long-cherished dream, to meet Silver Birch, whose teaching they had followed for many years.

❝ Nothing affords us greater pleasure than to be of any help to those who are instruments of the spirit. If those whose lives are untiringly concerned with serving others feel that any words from me can help them, then I am privileged to be the mouthpiece of those who sent me.

　We are all engaged in the same mission, charged with a duty of trying to help a sick world to heal itself, to prevent it from performing acts of reckless folly, to abandon practices of selfishness and greed that cause misery to millions and to allow the spirit to shine with lustre and beauty as is the intention of the supreme power.

　I do not have to tell you that the road is not easy. I do not have to say that it is not strewn with roses. Suffering is an inevitable part of the progress and attunement of the soul. It is only in suffering that the soul can come into its own. The man who lives only on the surface of life does not give his soul a chance to find itself. The soul finds itself only when man has exhausted all earthly channels and seemingly believes there is nowhere else to turn.

　When the extremity of matter is reached the spirit comes into its own and the tiny seed of divinity begins to grow and blossom and gradually to burgeon in all its beauty. Suffering is the other side of the coin. You cannot have light without cold, sunshine without storm. You know this.

　You are richly blessed. You have never been overlooked, or forgotten, or neglected, or left entirely to your own devices from the time you set your hands to the plough of service and decided to follow wherever it went. It is a tremendous spiritual adventure that enables you to bring the power, the light and the healing of the spirit to those who otherwise would know nothing of its beneficence.

　You are greatly privileged to be the instruments of the mightiest power in the universe. There is no mightier power than the Great Spirit. All it demands of you is loyalty, co-operation, fidelity, trust and perfect confidence founded on a faith which exists because of knowledge.

　Do I have to tell you that long before you incarnated into the world you volunteered for this service? Do I have to tell you that all this was but a prelude, a training ground, a school to learn the lessons to be equipped and fortified and prepared to fulfil the purpose of existence?

　Do not falter; do not allow at any time the slightest suggestion of fear to find a lodgment within your being. The power that has brought you where are will not fail you. It cannot fail. If it could, the universe would cease to exist, for its motive power, its dynamic, its very susten-ance would be withdrawn.

　You are equipped with the greatest armoury of all, the power of the spirit. Let it be your strength, your haven, your refuge, your sanctuary and your ever-abiding inspira-tion. It will not lead you astray, it will seek only to inspire you to give the utmost service to those who cross your path.

　You know that your material needs will be provided. You will not go hungry, you will not go thirsty, you will find the raiment that you need as clothing and protection. It will not be lavish, but the desire for luxury is not the hall-mark of an evolved soul.

　The physical body has primary needs which must be satisfied. The Great Spirit is aware of all that is required by bodies created to be the means through which this divine spirit would be expressed. Just go forward. Live for today and know that as the past proves the guidance of the spirit, so unerringly will the future enable you to give the service which you asked to perform.

　Go on with your work. Raise up the sick so that they realise what has quickened them and made them well is the power of the spirit and nothing else. Then, if the healing touches their soul, you have gained a spiritual victory.

　If the spirit is right and the mind is right, the body will be right. That must be so. The body is the servant, the spirit is the master. The body is the subject, the spirit is the king. Foolish people allow the body to be master and king. Their spirit never comes into its own to enjoy the domination which is its natural right.

　Go forward. If anything that I can say encourages you, then I shall have considered it a great privilege to be the instrument for doing so. You are richly blessed to have the guidance of a being who has an exalted stature in our world.

He is charged with great power and wisdom, and his understanding is profound. Try to earn the right to achieve the closest possible co-operation.

　If you can carry your load with a faith born of knowledge, the load becomes lighter and it disappears. The trials and troubles that beset your path are challenges that you must face and conquer. You will come through and all will be well.

　Do not allow any material circumstance, however seemingly large, to overwhelm you. There is nothing in the whole world of matter that is stronger than the power of spirit which gave it birth. You will come through. Your hearts will sing, you will see the pieces fall into their appointed place. Time is eternal. Your responsi-bility is to live for the now, for the moment.❝

　　　　　★ ★ ★

When true healing has been accomplished there can be no relapse. The law is unalterable, the law is perfect. I would not for one moment seek to avoid the exercise of compassion, mercy, kindness and tolerance which are all aspects of the spirit. But the law is neutral, automatic, inflexible, divinely ordained.

　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH

　Rose Baston, faithful housekeeper and friend of Hannen Swaffer for over thirty years, is another who discovered her healing gift. She now has a sanctuary in Swaffer's old home at Clapham, South-West London, where they moved when he had to vacate his famous Trafalgar Square flat. Silver Birch dedicated it a few years ago. Here is his encouraging message on her healing work, when she later paid a visit to the home circle:

　❝Ever since you invited me to dedicate your healing sanctuary it has established a closer link between us. It exists for the supreme purpose of helping the unfortunates and the sufferers. I do not have to tell you that your life is guided.

　This is the purpose for which you were born. You had to wait a long time to be disciplined through difficulty and trouble, through treading the thorny path. You had to be tested and tried to qualify for the task for which you incarnated.

　Now, as you look back, you can see how everything that has happened is part of the mosaic. There is a pattern, at first not to be discerned, but now revealing that all fits into its appointed place. How happy should be your heart that you are fulfilling yourself, acting as an instrument of the spirit, bringing relief, betterment and alleviation, not only of the body, but of the mind and spirit, a task which is more important.

　Let the plan unfold as it has been doing. It is not easy. I do not think you would have liked it if it had been easy. Better to be tested and to win than not to be tested and so be un-aware of latent strength and inner power. So many want a gift they have not got and take for granted what they have. But you were not aware of the healing power for a long time. When you were first told about this gift you were surprised.

　It is not the ability to diagnose conditions that is impor-tant. Diagnosis, too often, is merely a physical assessment, whereas the root cause is not to be found in the body but in the mind and spirit. Don't be in a hurry, be patient. You cannot force spirit power. It can flow only as the channel is ready to receive it. It has to adapt itself to what is at its disposal. It is a very very subtle process; any attempt to force it does not help.

　If ever you become dismayed, and it is very human to be cast down occasionally, just pause. Reflect on what has been achieved in seemingly miraculous fashion and know, because of what you have seen, the rest will follow. All that is asked is that you should discharge your responsibility with faithfulness and confidence in the power that has brought you to where are.

　Just do the best you can; strive for the utmost that lies within your power. There is nothing for you to fear. There are difficulties, but these will be surmounted. Each morrow that dawns is an opportunity for another spiritual adventure.

　This is very important. Nothing will be allowed to interfere with that work. I know it is not easy, but the path of the faithful servant cannot be easy. You find yourself, despite your name, not on a bed of roses.

　The soul comes into its own when it is confronted with a challenge. Then the dormant, latent strength and power can rise to the surface and be expressed. You have always been faithful to the light which was revealed to you. Never by a single action have you betrayed the trust reposed in you. We are all very proud of you.❝

　　　　　★ ★ ★

Prizes of the spirit must be earned, they cannot be gained in an earthly lottery. The riches of the spirit come as you deserve them. As you unfold so automatically you are equipped to receive a little more than you had before.

　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH

　Gordon Turner is well known not only as a healer but also for the great impetus his services gave to the National Federation of Spiritual Healers. He and his helper, Jo Prince, were particularly moved when they first met Silver Birch.

❝ Nothing gives me greater pleasure in all the years I have laboured in your world than to welcome here those who are servants of the spirit. I know the pattern which their lives on earth must follow. I know the heartaches, hardships, pains and the inner emotions which cannot be shared with the outside world. I know the price that must be paid, sometimes amounting to mental and spiritual crucifixion.

　But this is the hard road that leads to spiritual attainment and to spiritual mastery where prizes have to be earned, where there are no short cuts, where every step that is really an advance has to be secure so that no retreat is possible. If it is an easy life that you want, then you cannot give service. It is only through toil, hardship, discipline and restraint that the soul comes fully into its own, to express itself as it is intended, to manifest those gifts with which it is equipped so that others who are drawn to you can be helped by those faculties with which the Great Spirit has endowed you.

　But there is a corollary. It is not all sombre, dark and unrelieved gloom. There must inevitably be light and shade, cold and warmth, storm and sunshine, otherwise no advance is possible. The corollary is that as the soul comes into its own, latent gifts of the spirit begin to burgeon and their inner beauty is more and more outwardly expressed, so attunement with the divine is more closely established.

　There is a reward which is the natural sequence of the law of cause and effect. It is the inner realisation that however stony the road, or prickly the thorns, or seemingly difficult the obstacles, the pilgrim is following his appointed path and gradually coming into his own.

　You cannot measure what is being achieved. There are no instruments, no apparatus, no appliances in your world which can measure soul-growth and spiritual attainment. You are bringing light to souls in darkness. You are giving food and drink to those who are hungry and thirsty. You are bringing the divine power, the life force itself, to bodies, minds and spirits that are presented with an opportunity to find true health. This is a wondrous serviceーand a great responsibility. It is not lightly that divine gifts are bestowed on human instruments. The measure of their responsibility is greater because they are the custodians of a divine power.

　It is, alas, true that you are dealing with human beings. Sometimes those who should be your closest allies seem to become your most hostile foes. You become the victims of friction and misunderstanding even in the ranks of those who should be united by the same aims and endeavours. But it is not possible for all to see with the one single eye, even if they are engaged in the same pursuits.

　It matters not what others say, think, or do. It matters only what you say, think, or do. The Great Spirit will not hold you responsible for the actions, words or thoughts of others. Your responsibility is to live in the light of what has been revealed to you. The greater the light the greater the responsibility. There are no escape clauses in this divine agreement.

　The sick man is at a spiritual crisis when he comes to you. It is then he has to make the supreme decision. It is the turn-ing point. Now he has a chance to begin to live as was intended. The sickness is a means of bringing him to spiritual understanding. If you heal the body and his spirit does not begin to express itself, then you have not succeeded, though it is not your fault. But if you can touch the soul, if you can allow the spirit to come into its own, then you are doing something no doctor, no clergyman, no scientist, no philosopher can possibly do.

　You are enabling the seed of divinity to begin to express itself. As it does so, its association with the power that gave it birth begins to manifest and that soul begins to fulfil itself. Do not be disheartened if you cannot help all who come to you. The fact that they have come is their opportunity. You can only strive to serve.

　　　　★ ★ ★

If they think it is a good thing, a healer and his patient can tune in at the same time for absent treatments. But as the healer unfolds, and his development reaches a higher stage of attainment, it is not necessary. He has made his link. He can tune in and withdraw at any moment and allow the power to flow through him. I am not opposing the idea, but it is creating a limitation to say the power of the spirit will flow only at ten o'clock.

　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH

　It is fitting to include in this chapter on healing, Silver Birch's comments on psychic surgery, as performed by healers in Brazil and the Philippines. From Mexico came a series of questions on the subject from its most prominent Spiritualist, Kenneth Bannister. After a successful com-mercial career, he devotes his time to healing and spreading psychic knowledge. Silver Birch readily became a one-man brains trust.

The success of an instantaneous healing depends on the patient's spiritual development, karma and other attributes. What happens in that respect in the case of a surgical "operation" as performed by spiritual healers in Brazil and in the Philippines?

　All this is regulated by cause and effect which is the natural law in operation. Whenever the soul of the indi-vidual is ready, then that person is influenced so that he or she is brought into the region where the healer is to operate. If the soul is ready, then the operation is a success. But, whatever occurs, even if a growth has been removed and the body is now free, it does not automatically follow that the patient will spiritually come into his own. It only means that he has spiritually arrived at the stage where he is ready,

and this is his great chance for the spark now ignited to be fanned into a flame.

　So there are two factors in operation. The patient is spiritually ready, and that means he has been brought to the healer who can achieve the result. The patient now has the opportunity of spiritually coming into his own and living in the light of a spiritual awareness. If this does not happen then there has been a physical success but a spiritual failure.

　　　　　　. . .

Is that kind of spiritual surgical healing a good way to heal?

By their fruits ye shall know them. The wind is tempered to the shorn lamb. All the outbreaks of spirit power are conditioned to the place and the time when they occur. The whole of the operation of mediumship and the outpouring of the power of the spirit are part of a planned, concerted effort.

　It is done primarily to meet the physical, mental and spiritual needs of the people to whom this applies. It is a question of temperament, education, environment, under-standing, so that always the phenomena must take the form that will be most appropriate to those for whom they are intended.

　　　　　．　　 . .

Why are these spirit operations done in Brazil and the Philippines and not in Britain?

　The spiritual climate is different; the mental environment is different. The needs are for more spectacularly striking results where minds are not yet conditioned to the more subtle influences of the spirit. It is somewhat similar to the conditions prevalent in your world just over one hundred years ago when it was necessary to demonstrate that kind of physical mediumship which would make the spiritual understandable in earthly terms.

　It is not necessary to do this now in Britain. But it still obtains in those countries where the standards of education, culture and appreciation are vastly different from those prevailing in this land. It must be suited to the people who dwell there.

　　　　　　. . .

But there are a great number of people in this country who would very much like to see this type of operation and are unable to do so. Is climate an important factor?

　It is partly climatic because the atmosphere is more conducive. But it is also a spiritual conditioning because it is not primarily suited for the people dwelling in your land. It is not a question of what people want to see but what is spiritually best for them. Too many prefer to have the highest spiritual elements reduced to the lowest physical level. This is not the way for advancement or progress.

　　　　　. . .

The purer the instrument the more healing power can flow through him or her. Does that apply also in psychic surgery?

　The question is not correctly stated. It is not true that the purer the instrument the more power can flow through him. Power can flow through an instrument that is not so pure. The quality of the power is affected by the purity of the instrument. Spirit power is infinite, like the Creator, the Great Spirit. Because it is infinite it has an infinite number of gradations, variations, combinations.

　The individual tunes in to that stage for which he is spiritually ready. He cannot get any higher spiritually because he could not receive it and naturally he would not want to go lower. No, it is the quality of the power that is affected by the development, the attainment, the stage that the instrument has reached, not the quantity.

. . .

Would it be a good thing for all healers to be able to perform psychic surgery, even if it were possible?

　No, there is not one road for all the instruments of the spirit. It is not uniformity that is desired but versatility and variety. Spirit is infinite and therefore has an infinite number of possible manifestations. It is all conditioned by the receptivity of the instrument. For that reason it is affected by the medium's temperament, upbringing, educa-tion, heredity, environment and even past incarnations.

　All these affect and qualify the kind, amount and type of spirit power that can function through any instrument. It is not for all to follow the same path. You will find the answer in the Bible where it says, "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit."

　　　　　　. . .

What would healers need that they have not got now to be able to treat patients by psychic surgery?

　You must not think in terms only of achieving demon-strable physical results with healing. Healing is primarily a spiritual happening. The object of healing is to touch the soul of the patient. If the patient's soul is ripe, the mind will be right and the body will be right. True healing leads to a correct alignment of spirit, mind and body so that they function in harmony. That is what health means, wholeness,

harmony.

　　　　　★ ★ ★

To remove a growth is not the objective, it is to touch the soul. You can have cancer of the spirit in that sense. Selfishness and all the wrong growths persist within, and until these are eradicated there can be no true spiritual progress. It is the spirit that must be paramount in all life. Until the spirit rules there will never be harmony, health, happiness or the fulness of living.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　SILVER BIRCH

2024.05