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Over the decades, hundreds of people visited the Hannen Swaffer home circle to receive counsel and advice from Silver Birch. His medium was Maurice Barbanell, who founded “Psychic News.”
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SILVER BIRCH: “How can that which is cruel be right?” |
Never once did Silver Birch show impatience or annoyance or judge those who consulted him. Apart from his knowledge, kindness and compassion, another particularly noteworthy aspect was the beautiful way in which Silver Birch expressed himself.
Here, Silver Birch gives a spirit world view of the animal kingdom.
The first point he answers is “Do you believe that vivisection can be right when it is undertaken with a good motive?”
NO. How can that which is cruel be right How can that which causes pain, which inflicts torture, be right It is contrary to all that we teach. It is wrong to experiment on those who are not capable of resisting.
I would say that you can help people through vivisection, but it is not right to do so because it is contrary to everything spiritual to inflict cruelty and suffering on creatures who have done nothing to deserve it.
Man is responsible for what he does. His motive may be good in many cases and that will affect his spiritual development. That is how the law works.
It is not part of the divine plan that the children of the Great Spirit should become healthy through exploitation and cruelty to the animals in your world.
This is where doctors have taken the wrong path. They justify themselves by saying that man is more important than the animal. Therefore he has the right to improve his health and wellbeing by experimenting on these creatures. But that is wrong.
The law is co-operation. Responsibility should engender mercy and compassion. You cannot exploit others without you suffering as a consequence.
Cruelty is bad for the one who performs the cruelty. When you manifest love, you are the better for it. When you manifest hatred, you are the worse for it. This is how the natural law works.
It is right to strive to lessen the cruelty inflicted on animals, to show there is a better way, a way of mercy, and by teaching people how to order their lives aright, to live in harmony with the natural law, they will become well, healthy and radiant.
What is spiritually wrong can never be condoned, but in an imperfect world there will always be abuses and excesses.
You must fight to promote the welfare of all who should dwell together in amity, peace, concord and love. For love is the fulfilling of the law. You cannot have love if you wreak cruelty on others.
Why are some animals naturally cruel to one another? A cat will play with a mouse for hours. A fox will kill all the hens in a coop?
Should this question not be addressed to the Great Spirit It is the law of evolution at work. The law of evolution is development from the lower to the higher. It is the law of polarity in action.
Just as you can have excessive cruelty you can also have excessive kindness. It is the gradual development of the animal through its evolution and the human through his evolution.
If the reason for life is to learn love and compassion, why does nature set such a bad example by allowing predators?
Nature does not set anyone a bad example. Nature is an expression of the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is perfect. The laws of the Great Spirit are perfect.
Nature left to its own devices will always achieve the right balance and harmony. If man lived in harmony with nature your world would be a paradise, a kingdom of heaven.
There are predators, but that is part of the way nature ensures the survival of the fittest. Yet that is only one aspect of natural law at work. The essence of nature is co-operation. Nature is symbiotic.
You, for example, are a gardener. If you prepare your garden and co-operate with nature, the results are beautiful. Man is the predator, the greatest destructive creature that has been known for many millions of years.
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"There are predators, but that is part of the way
nature ensures the survival of the fittest. Yet
that is only one aspect of natural law at work."
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Is it wrong to spray with insecticides to try to prevent malaria, etc?
Of course you must have respect for all life, but this is a question of motive and of degree.
If you have conditions where, due to certain circumstances, there are the kind of insects that cause disease, then your motive in using sprays is a good one. Respect for life must be tempered with the necessity of ensuring there are conditions in which it can flourish.
Similarly, if you have houses infested with bugs, it is easier to spray and get rid of them if your motive is to improve the health of those who dwell there.
If an animal develops human qualities, such as noble sentiments and intelligence, will it remain an animal without any chance of further evolution or may it in time step into the human realm?
Evolution is part of a natural law. It has a main stream and many tributaries, but all are part of the same law.
The spirit within you is in essence the same spirit within the animal. There is no difference in essence, but only in degree.
Potentially, being infinite the spirit can achieve the tremendous expression latent in man or animal, but spiritually it is all of one path.
Who is to determine where spirit has branched off to be expressed through an animal as distinct from branching off to be expressed through man I do not see the problem there at all.
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"Is it wrong to spray with insecticides to try
to prevent malaria, etc?"
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Does an animal evolve in a similar way to man?
It follows its own path of evolution. It is part of the same pattern which is behind all evolution; it is development.
If I say to you, “Do all children evolve in the same way as their parents” the answer is “Yes” and “No.” They have a predestined pattern which they must follow, but within that there is a certain amount of free will regulated by the awareness reached at stages of unfoldment.
Everything which has spirit is capable of infinite development… Animals follow their line of evolution according to the part they play in the whole process.
The law of cause and effect is immutable. Whatever is must be the result of what was. The animal is an essential part of the evolutionary plan, just like the tree, the ocean and everything in nature.
The link is in the unifying spirit. All life is one. You have a relationship not only with animals, but with all wherever there is life. They will follow their preordained paths.
The extent to which they develop is governed by that part of the law which applies to them as it applies to a flower, a tree, a bird, to the beasts of the field or to a human being.
Can an animal therefore break its own law?
Only in the sense that you contravene a law, but it will operate just the same. You can transgress, but you cannot break the law in the sense of preventing effect from following cause. You can only kick over the traces.
Could an animal ever do anything for which it can be blamed spiritually?
Yes, if it transgressed the operation of the natural law. There are rogue animals just as there are rogue human beings.
It has been said that when an animal dies it returns to a group soul. However, there is considerable evidence for animals surviving death. Can you enlighten us on this apparent paradox?
There is individual survival for domestic animals that have had association with humans. Thus they have been helped to achieve an individual evolution that is not possible with animals who are still in a group soul, or soul group, even on earth.
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"The spirit within you is in essence the same
spirit within the animal. There is no difference
in essence, but only in degree."
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It is part of the wonderful relationship that can exist between humans and animals, each helping the other to develop spiritually.
You help the animal that comes into your surroundings to achieve a consciousness that is more personal and individual than it otherwise would have been.
It is that which survives death. But where there is not this more evolved “human” expression, it joins the soul group or group soul.
Would an animal reincarnate?
No, though there is a theory about the transmigration of souls.
Is the intention that animals shall gain individuality in association with human beings, that all animals shall have consciousness in their own right?
Yes, as man radiates love in his thinking and his actions towards all the animals, then in return they will radiate love and, as it says in your Bible about the wolf and the lamb, man will lie down with them at the same time.
In order to sustain life, man has no alternative but to take plant life, filch fowls’ eggs and cows’ milk or, more savagely, slaughter animals.
How can such robber sustenance be reconciled with an all-beneficent Creator without offence to that reason which you, often enough, have bidden us not to disregard?
Do not blame the Creator because you kill animals. The choice is yours. You do not have to kill them, but in any case the answer is very simple.
Your evolution will decide for you what you should do in these matters. If you have any doubts, your conscience will give its added answer.
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"Do not blame the Creator because
you kill animals."
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You are responsible for what you do, and all your actions will affect your spiritual nature.
An added factor is your motive. If your motive is clearly good and you have to kill, then that obviously produces an ameliorative result in your development.
You cannot cheat the spiritual laws because they are based on cause and effect, reaping and sowing. Everything you do, think and say has an automatic, inflexible result; no cheating is possible.
If you do wrong consciously, then you are responsible for it. Your shoulders must bear the burden that results.
If you do good because you desire to do so not for vanity’s sake, because the motive then is poor, but because your soul desires to serve, then by the very fact of that happening you must be spiritually better for it. This is the law that will always operate.
I have always said that it is preferable not to be involved in consuming food that bears the mark of Cain upon it. Killing is wrong, though sometimes motive must of necessity be taken into account.
Those who desire spiritual mastery must be prepared to pay the price and live in harmony with the natural laws of the universe.
These are spiritual in origin. The aspects of the spirit are always the same – love, compassion, tolerance, sympathy and
co-operation.
If you follow these principles, you will find that you are being led to eat aright, to drink aright and to live aright. But yours is the responsibility for deciding because the Great Spirit has endowed you with the gift of free will.
■ For a full list of Silver Birch books which are available, please visit: www.silverbirchpublishing.co.uk/books.php
Details of how to obtain e-book versions of Silver Birch’s teachings can be found at: whitecrowbooks.com
Over the decades, hundreds of people visited the Hannen Swaffer home circle to receive counsel and advice from Silver Birch (right). His medium was Maurice Barbanell (left), who founded “Psychic News.”
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