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More Philosophy of Silver Birch


More Philosophy of Silver Birch. Compiled by Tony Ortzen, 1979 Spiritualist Press London.
In easy to read question-and-answer for, of especial interest are two chapters which trace man from birth to what lies Beyond. Social problems, reincarnation and science are amongst other subjects examined. This title ends with inspiring bite-sized "Points to ponder".




Publisher: White Crow Books
Re-Published July 2014
159 pages
ISBN ISBN 978-1-910121-20-7
See Availability


Powerful Quotes from the book


1.“Something I never understand is why they prefer ignorance to knowledge, superstition to truth, and theology to inspiration. This is a human frailty that is past my comprehension.”MORE PHILOSOPHY OF SILVER BIRCH, 1979 ed. p.12.

2.“It is very, very difficult to leave spheres of radiance and brilliance where you enjoy the company of evolved beings to work in your dark, dank, unattractive physical world. But fortunately we have been able to make friends in many lands. Now through this co-operative effort we can find warmth in hearts and minds here and elsewhere, so that working close to earth has its brief moments of consolation.” (ibid p.16).

3.“People can delay, hinder and obstruct, but they cannot prevent the divine plan from fulfilling itself in your world. People are the greatest obstacles to their own progress. Stupidity, ignorance, superstition, greed, the lust for power, these rule and prevent your world from being the kingdom of heaven that it could be.” (ibid p.18).

4.“The whole of life is regulated by natural laws. Nothing is left to freakishness, to miracles or to chance. All is cause and effect, sowing and reaping, otherwise the universe would be chaotic. You have evidence of the infinite plan of an infinite intelligence in the operation of natural laws wherever you look.” (ibid p.23).

5.“Where does the individual soul come from? Then I say that at the moment of conception a particle of spirit incarnates to begin to express individuality on earth.” (ibid p.30)

6.“Karma is only a word that means the operation of natural law. Sowing and reaping are part of the law of cause and effect. No one can evade the operation of natural law. This is the means devised by the Great Spirit to ensure that ultimately divine justice must be forthcoming. If it were possible to abrogate this natural law and to interfere with the sequence of cause and effect, it would make a mockery of divine justice.” (ibid p.38)

7.“The natural law ensures that each receives spiritually exactly that to which he is entitled, no more and no less. This law applies not only to individuals but to nations, which after all are assemblies of individuals.” (ibid p.39).

8.“The purpose of your earthly incarnation … you can read all the books in your world, but that knowledge must be reinforced by experience. It is experience and your reaction to it which determines the growth which you will achieve. This is the whole purpose of your earthly incarnation.” (ibid p.40).

9.“Similarly the more you learn, the more you learn there is to be learned. Progress, like knowledge, truth and wisdom, is infinite. No period can be put to progress. If you have made one step, two, three, or even four, that is an achievement. Each step means more understanding of life’s purpose, its reality, the eternal principles on which it is founded, a greater perception of those eternal verities and with that comes a closer attunement – to bringing into harmony.” (ibid p.42)

10.“What has to be accomplished is the harmony between body, mind and spirit so that these three parts of a whole work in unity, all the time ensuring health, well-being, serenity, confidence, resolution and peace.” (ibid p.43).

11.“You have in your Spiritualism a set of seven principles. One of them is personal responsibility. That is probably the most important one of all. It enshrines a truth which no one can contradict cannot be deny. You are personally responsible for what you do, not for what anybody else does. There is nobody and nothing that can absolve you from your responsibility. If you do not pay heed you must pay the price. That is the natural law of cause and effect.” (ibid p.52).

12.“Your world regards death as a tragedy, but it is not a tragedy to us. Death is liberation because it is the spiritual birth of a soul. It is its release from all the problems of your world. It is, in the vast majority of cases, a reward, not a punishment. People must not regard death as something to be avoided at all costs, but to recognise it as an integral part of life, the means by which the soul must come into its own.” (ibid p.54).

13.“Why do you think death is such a disaster? You rejoice when babies are born into your world, but we often cry. We rejoice when people come into our world, but you cry. Death for the majority is not a tragedy for those who die. There may be a temporary problem while adjustment is made, but death brings liberation. Death is the end of the thraldom that earth imposes on the spirit.” (ibid p.55).

14.“You cannot escape all the advantages and disadvantages of living in your world. You must experience its darker as well as its brighter sides. The soul will develop not in good times. The soul will come into its own in times of difficulty, struggle and crisis. I appreciate you cannot understand this because you are measuring according to your earth-time.” (ibid p.56).

15.“But for the majority it is a release from prison. It is a new-found freedom in which there are the means of expressing all latent gifts. They are able to live in the sunlight of knowledge instead of the darkness of ignorance.” (ibid p.57).

16.“When you come into this world you do not have physical bodies. You have their replicas, but you do not have (verbal) speech. Except in the comparatively lower realms you realise there is a superior method of communication, mind to mind direct, without the necessity of using language which is a very clumsy substitute for thought. Thought is superior to language.”(ibid p.60).

17.“Why do we need bodies when we pass over to your world? Because the spirit must have some form through which to manifest, to cohere, to express itself in individual fashion. Spirit, per se, has no individual forms. Spirit is life. But life to be manifested has to assume form…” ibid p.64)

18.“When you slough off the physical body you take on the etheric counterpart, which you have always had, and express yourself through it because that has the proper rate of vibration to enable you to function. (ibid p.67).

19.“The purpose of evolution is to achieve perfection, but its attainment is an infinite process. As you progress and eliminate one imperfection you become aware of another that has to be expunged, and so the process goes on for ever.” (ibid p.69).

20.“You are subject to the whole range of spirit influence from the lowest to the highest. But you attract only those at the spiritual stage you have reached. Evil can be attracted only by evil. Saintliness will always attract saintliness. That is how the natural law operates. (ibid p.70).

21.“Whatever the difficulty, the obstacle, the handicap, the opposition, whatever the stupidity, the ignorance and superstition you may encounter, all will be divinely well because truth is on the march and none can prevent it from attaining its goal. So hold your heads high and know that the power which is behind us is greater than any that can be encountered in your world.” (ibid p.71)

22.The process of dying and arriving in the spirit world.
“It is the sloughing off of the physical body as the spirit body gradually emerges. It is never a painful process. There may be some physical reactions when there is illness or disease. If the transition is not a simple one, then the equivalent of your doctors stand by. They help those who love this individual to accomplish his or her birth into our world until the cord connecting spirit and matter severs itself and separation is assured for all time.” (ibid p.73).

23.“Spirit is the reality; spirit is the life force; spirit is the dynamic. Spirit is part of the ‘Great Spirit’. …. The soul is the Divine spark, that part of the Great Spirit that is within you.” (ibid p.a75)

24.“The whole purpose of life itself is evolution, development, growth, attainment. As you evolve, so automatically you discard the body which has served its purpose and assume the one that is fitted for your stage of evolution.” (lbid p.76)

25.“ … Those who love you are with you. They are aware of your passing long before you are. They stand there waiting to help in the transition. Love is the greatest attracting force in the universe. Those who love you cannot be separated from you.” (ibid p.79).

26.“Spirit life is graduated, with each sphere, plane or expression blending and shading into the next one higher in the evolutionary sense but not in geographical location. As the soul progresses and fits itself for higher stated of being, so automatically it occupies those states. All this is an example of the perfect operation of the perfect plan. You will find that nothing is left to chance.” (ibid p.80)

27.“By love I mean compassion, the desire to serve, to sacrifice, to help, to do all within your power for those who are less fortunate than you are. This is the love that ignores self and wants to do what it can for someone who needs the service you can give.” (ibid p.86)

28.“Suffering is often the means to enable you to appreciate what your life is all about. It is through suffering, sorrow, illness, crisis and bereavement that spiritual eyes can be opened. To many people, these are the means by which they come to understanding eternal realities.” (ibid p.93)

29.“Love is expressed in service, mercy, goodness, compassion, kindliness. Love means helping wherever you can. Love means forgetting self. Love seeks nothing for itself but only to redeem itself by serving others. All you can do is to set example and hope that others may follow.” (ibid p.101)

30. “Greed, avarice and selfishness, all the products of materialism, are responsible for the violence, ugliness and squalor that unfortunately are too rampant in your world. That is why we strive to enunciate these spiritual truths and principles which, if put into practice, enable people to find themselves and change their lives and as a result change the world in which they live.” (ibid p.102.

31.“All your troubles derive from the fact that ignorance of spirit truths leads people to pursue materialistic gospels; selfishness, exploitation, greed, lust for power, war, cruelty, all these are the antitheses of spiritual principles.” (ibid p.109)

32.“To say that you are religious, that you believe in God and you praise the God in song and word and regularly attend services of worship does not necessarily achieve anything spiritual. It should be the means of inspiring you to help others, so that they can live in the light and not the darkness.” (ibid p.109-10)

33.“You can have spiritual loneliness because the soul is treading the path towards self-mastery and attainment which means automatic divorcing it from others. It depends how you interpret loneliness. Physical loneliness means being bereft of the companionship of others. Spiritual loneliness can be an ideal worth of attainment. (ibid p.117)

34.“It is not possible to have an earthly existence freed from problems, difficulties or troubles because that is why you are born into your world. What is important is the way you face them and call on the indwelling, latent divinity to provide the strength to find the solutions and draw you to do what is right.” (ibid p.121)

35. “But it is only in the darkness that you find light. It is only in sorrow that you can find joy. It is only when all seems lost that you can find the way. It is only when the world of matter has nothing to offer that the power of the spirit can step in and show there is a rich bounty awaiting you.” (ibid p.122)

36. Progress is achieved because you have earned it. There are no instant methods of achieving spiritual mastery. Every step must be taken successively. You become what you have made yourself to be by the way you live. No one can deflect or change in any way the immutable sequence of cause and effect in your lives. That is how the law works. Thus does the Great Spirit ensure that justice always will be done, not necessarily in your world of matter, but it will operate when you come to our side of life.” (ibid p.126)

37.“That seed of divinity is implanted from the moment of conception. You have the opportunity in your daily life to allow it to flower, to bloom and to manifest its hidden richness. … So the Great Spirit is not a vengeful deity with partiality for some and punishment for others. The law operates to ensure that effect will follow cause. The Great Spirit is within you … (ibid 133)

38. “The Great Spirit is not three in one as it is said somewhere. The Great Spirit is everything, everywhere. The great Spirit comprises all universal life. If you believe that the Great spirit can be separated into three parts of a trinity, then what you believe is wrong.” (ibid p.134)

39.“There are millions of despairing individuals who do not know where to turn. They have lost faith in the old religions and philosophies because they feel these have let them down and cannot answer all the questions they have to ask. Where is the religion that can explain to them who and what they are, why they are placed on earth and what happens when they come to our world? (ibid p.142)

40. “One of the primary reasons that beings like myself were asked to return and proclaim our teaching, philosophy, and ethics and enunciate the true spiritual principles on which religion should be based, is because your many religions had failed to their task and were unable to guide those who looked to them for direction.” (ibid p.146)

41. “It is pathetic to realise that there are millions, like moles burrowing in the dark, who have no understanding of life, its dynamic, its purpose and how they should order their existence so as to derive from it all exhilaration, mental, spiritual and physical, that could be theirs.” (ibid p.147)

42. “The essence of dogma is to accept without reason. What we say is that you should test all spirit teaching by your intelligence. If it measures up to that strict examination accept it; if not reject it. How else shall we win, with offers of reward or punishment? No, we must win by love, by common sense and by finding that we can meet on common ground.” (ibid p.157)

43. “Unfortunately, people who should be spiritual leaders in churches are just as ignorant as their congregations because they too are blind, deaf and dumb to spiritual reality. The power of the spirit does not operate in their churches because their religions are now theological doctrines which take priority as far as they are concerned. Theology emanated from the mind of humans. The power of the spirit, because it emanated from the Great spirit, is divine. Thus revelation always must take priority over theology.” (ibid p.159)

44. “I tell you with all the strength that I can command that all of you who strive to serve have access to the greatest power in the universe, one that is life itself. It is a responsibility. Use it diligently, wisely. Help all who come within your orbit. If there are some with whom you cannot share this knowledge, let them go their way. Continue with the task as you see it according to your light and conscience. Motive determines all matters. If the motive is right, no matter what happens you will emerge triumphant.” (ibid p.102)

45. “I do not seek to condemn those who do their best in their religions, but they have nothing to offer a world in travail. Their creeds are barren; their dogmas are sterile; they are antiquated in their outlook, and the world is passing them by.” (ibid p.164)

46. “Truth cannot enter closed minds. Truth can find a lodgment only when there is an ability to receive it. Truth like the Great Spirit, is infinite. The amount you can receive depends on your capacity. If you increase your capacity you can receive more truth. You can never reach the stage that you know everything about the universe in which you dwell.” (ibid p.179)

47. “I think it is fair to say that one of the great curses in your world has been the constant dissemination of theological, meaningless doctrine which has caused division instead of unity, which leads to bloodshed, violence, conflict, wars and separation, instead of being the foundation on which all can unite in recognition of their common spiritual nature.” (ibid p.180)

48. “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.” (ibid p.190)

49.”We are warriors if necessary for war to be waged. After all, are we not engaged in one of the biggest of all wars? This is the war against ignorance, stupidity, selfishness, superstition, all the forces of darkness that resist the light. It is a war against oppression, cruelty, exploitation, needless suffering. This is a tremendous battle that has to be won.” (ibid p.203)

50. “The great thing is to have no fear. Fear is an obstacle which is very difficult for us to conquer. Fear is negative, fear is corrosive. Fear and worry and apprehension, these disturb the physical, mental and spiritual atmosphere around you, making it far more difficult for us to get close to you.” (ibid p. 207)