IN ONE of the INNER LIFE numbers was an article on “Automatic Writing” that was very interesting to me, and tallied with an experience I had, so much so that I am going to give you an outline of it.

Spiritualism usually is the first step up the ladder to higher things, and eighteen years ago I started searching around through the maze of this branch of study for some proof of something beyond this life. After about six months I began fooling with an Ouiga Board and from that into the writing. I wrote page after page of stuff, none of it worth the paper it was written on; but I kept on in the hope I would get something worth-while.

It wasn’t long before a condition fastened itself on me that was anything but pleasant. I heard voices almost incessently and they were not nice things they said. Had I not been terribly strong in health and rather stubborn-natured they probably would have conquered; but I was determined not to be bested, although it took me over two years to free myself entirely.

From the Inner Self, to me then unknown, I have realized since that the only way to remove them was to rise above the source of those voices, and so I tried the best I knew how to do this. It was a long battle and I learned a very valuable lesson. But even then I didn’t realize it was the writing had brought this on.

It was through this experience, though, that I began a deeper study of all the phenomena I had come across during the “spiritualist reign.” Much stuff and nonsense I had contacted, but I knew that there must be a deeper truth beyond, and I was determined to reach that and was led from one thing to another in my search.

I still now and then would try the writing and although I never had the bad results again, I cannot say I ever received anything worth-while.

Three years ago I heard Manly P. Hall in his lectures here, and he touched on this subject and said that any one who persisted in this would be born in the next life with a shriveled arm, because the substance that went into the building of the next body would be burned up. Needless to say I have never since that day tried it again.

When I look back over those years I have so very much to be grateful for, for in all my stumbling around there was always that guiding Presence, leading me carefully through the maze and out into the light of true understanding. How glad I am that I went through it all; each lesson was worth a king’s ransom to me now, and I feel sure as I advance further up the ladder their value will increase with each ascending step.

Just now I have very little time for concentration, but each morning before I leave the house I have a few minutes and place myself in the hands of my Higher Self for the day. I give the day and my work entirely into the Father’s Hands, and while disturbances of all kinds come up around me none of it seems to touch me. My home life seems actually to shine with harmony, and at work it is the same.

Thursday of this week I had a wonderful experience. I seemed to get into a Light during my morning devotion that was beyond describing. I have to walk just a short distance to the car line, and I left the house filled with joy and walked to the corner, where I met a young neighbor, and said, “Good morning, isn’t this a grand morning!”

She smiled but looked sort of puzzled; and then I noticed that it was foggy and drizzling. Until then I had walked there from the house, and it was as bright and cheerful as though the sun was shining fully.

I was so thrilled over this it stayed with me all day. I had seen through to the “Real.”
—V. G.

THE Commercialized world knows there is a gold mine in the human stomach and exploits it to such a degree as to keep the whole world sick—all for the love of a dollar.—Neil Place.

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