The Life Beyond the Veil Volume I: The Lowlands of Heaven - George Owen, Kenroy Hunter, Geoff Cutler (best novels for beginners .TXT) 📗

“However, we stand a little apart from you, because the presence of us combined would overmatch you. You could not write down what we would give, and our purpose in

coming is to give you such narrative of words as you and others may read with intelligence.

“You glance at the dial of your timekeeper. You call it a watch. Why? That is one little instance of our preference for our older way of speaking. Timekeeper seems to us more explicit than the other word. The meaning of your glance is clear, whatever we call the thing on which it fall. So we bid you good night, good friend....

“We find sometimes, when we read what message we have given, that much which we tried to impress is not apparent there, and some lesser quantity of what we had not in mind appears.

“This is but a natural consequence of the intervention of so thick a veil between the sphere from which we speak and that in which the recorder [i.e. Mr. Vale Owen] lives, his life.

“The atmosphere of the two spheres is so diverse in quality that, in passing from one to the other, there is always a diminution of speed, so sudden and so marked that a shock is given to the stream of our thoughts, and there is produced, just on the border-line, some inevitable confusion. This is one of the many difficulties we find.

“Here is another. The human brain is a very wonderful

instrument, but it is of material substance, and, even when the stream of our thoughts reaches and impinges upon it, yet, because of its density, the penetration is impeded and sometimes altogether brought to a stop. For the vibrations, as they leave us, are of high intensity, and the fineness of their quality is a hindrance to their effecting a correspondence in the human brain, which is, gross by comparison.

“Once again: there are many things here for which there are no words in any of the Earth languages to express their meaning.

“There are colours which your eyes do not see, but are present in your spectrum; there are more colours which are of higher sublimity than could be reproduced by the medium, which shows both the Earth colours to you and registers those invisible to you, but present withal.

“There are also notes and tones of sound of like nature, and too fine for registration by the atmosphere of Earth.

“There are forces also, not available with you, not able, to be expressed to you….

“These and other matters are interpenetrating all our life and forming our environment. And when we come to speak of our life here, or of the causes we see in operation, of

which you behold the effects alone, we are much perplexed and strive continually to find just how to say it so that it shall be both understood of you and also not too wide of a target as known to us.

“So you will see that we have a task to do in speaking into your sphere from this of ours which is by no means easy. Still, it is worth the doing of it, and so we essay our best and try to rest content."

Mr. Vale Owen’s Comments

In view of the above description, it is interesting to have the following remarks from Mr. Vale Owen, descriptive of his mental and physical condition during the time he was actually receiving the communications, In a letter to the Editor of this volume, Mr. Vale Owen wrote:

“You point out to me the fact that, while in the script itself my communicators give not a little information as to the methods employed in the transmission of messages from their side to ours, yet, on my own part, I have never given you any definite description of the effect produced upon myself.

“The effect of what, perhaps, we might term the more mechanical operations, as these impinge upon the

organism of the human brain, the transmitters themselves describe in some detail. Vibrations, initiated by them and projected through the Veil, find their target in the mentality of the human instrument and are reproduced, on this side, in what is, in effect, a kind of inner clairvoyance and clairaudience. Viewed inversely, from the standpoint of the instrument himself, it assumes an aspect something like this: the scenes they describe seem to come along a kind of X-ray stream of vibrations and are received by means of the faculty of visualization. That is, he sees these scenes in his imagination as he, by a similar process, is able to visualize his garden or house, or other well-known place, when at a distance.

“The words of the messages seem to travel on a celestial-mundane telephonic current. He can hear them interiorly in much the same manner as he is able to hum over a well-remembered tune, or to reproduce a speech he has heard with all its inflections and cadences, pathetic or uplifting—all this also interiorly, and without himself uttering a sound. In addition, however, there is a deeper content in the operation. It is that effect upon the human instrument produced by the more or less intimate contact of spirit with spirit. This is actual ‘Spiritual Communion,’ and is recognized in the Creed of Christendom in the article ‘The Communion of Saints.’

“Here enters in an essentially spiritual element which,

as our spirit-communicators repeatedly tell us, it is not possible adequately to contain in any earthly form of words. It is uplifting to the boundaries, and on occasion, into the very domain, of ecstasy.

“At times such as these earth and earth’s affairs retreat into the background, and glimpses are had of what eternity and infinity mean, and of the Presence of God.

“Then Christendom assumes an enlarged aspect and occupies a broader room. It is seen that the whole Church on Earth is but a small portion of the Divine Kingdom, which includes within itself, not alone all races and all systems of religion here below, but also that realm of interstellar glories and powers in the mere contemplation of which the human heart grows faint and the reaches of human imagination fade into the boundless infinities pulsating with the heart-love of the One Ineffable Light.

“It is almost needless to add that any one who has ever experienced such contact as this has no room in his heart any more for any paltry sentiment of self-exaltation, or of spiritual pride. I know of no better teacher of humility than this realization of the smallness of the individual earth-dweller amid the myriads of those so much brighter ones who, with himself, form the one family of the Creator.

“On the other hand, the sense of security, of comrade

ship, of oneness with them, and of the sweet intimacy of their love, is a sure warrant of protection to us lesser ones to whom our angel friends bend down for our uplifting. Be a man prayerful, clean-living and of a humble mind, and no danger of ‘devils’ can enter in between him and them.

“Sincerely your friend,

“G. VALE OWEN.

“P.S.—For all this, yet so intimate and so perfect must be the sympathy of aim and affection existing between transmitter and receiver, that whenever any thought comes through which seems to be at variance with what is true, immediately a shock is felt and the instrument faces about, as it were, with a query in his mind, which on the part of the communicator is as immediately observed and noted.

“This sympathy is quite apart from the difference in status, both in mental and spiritual capacity, between the spirit-communicator and the human instrument, and is not affected by it. As I have said above, they ‘bend down’ to us, and thus bridge over any such inequality.

“G. V. O.”

About Those who Communicated

Mrs. Owen, the Vicar’s mother, from whom the major portion of the messages in this volume came, died on June 8, 1909 at the age of 63. She had not during her life shown any interest in the question of spirit communication.

Her life was spent at Birmingham, where her husband, at first practising as an architect and surveyor, was compelled by a breakdown in health to change his occupation to that of a chemist. She visited Orford little, and was never during her lifetime on Earth in the vestry of the church where the messages were received.

Kathleen and Ruby

Kathleen was first heard of on July 28, 1917, when, as Mrs. Vale Owen, the Vicar’s wife, was using the planchette,3 the following interchange took place, the words written being shown in ordinary, and the questions asked in italic type:

“Kathleen.”

“Who is Kathleen?”

“A friend of Ruby’s. Would you like to make my acquaintance?”

"Very much, if you are Ruby’s friend.”

“Ruby told me to come. She said she was sure you would welcome me for her sake.”

(“Ruby,” it should be explained, was the daughter of the Rev. G. Vale Owen. She was born at Fairfield, Liverpool, on August 26, 1895, and died at the same address on November 21, 1896.)

Kathleen, in answer to questions, said she had been a seamstress, living in Walton Breck Road, Anfield, Liverpool, and had “passed over” at the age of 28, about three years before Ruby. Ruby, she said, was taken to a home where Kathleen looked after, or "mothered” her.

According to her story, the child subsequently brought her frequently to visit Mr. Vale Owen’s home, under the care of a guardian. Kathleen from that time constantly came with friends when Mrs. Vale Owen was using the planchette.

Astriel

Intermingled with the messages from Mr. Vale Owen’s mother, given in this volume, came others from Astriel, who had been headmaster of a school at Warwick in mid-eighteenth century. His messages touch upon religious faith, philosophical and scientific matters. They have been

separated from those of Mrs. Owen and placed in their proper order at the end of this volume.

Presence Form

The meaning of the term “Presence Form,” which appears in various places in this volume and for the first time in the message dated Monday, September 29, 1913, is explained in the following communication received by Mr. Vale Owen, in answer to his request that the term be defined:

“A presence form is the form in which a person becomes localized and visible in form at a distance from himself essentially. The form is not an empty sign or symbol, but is alive with, the life of the person it so manifests, action and expression being responsive to the thought, will, action and spiritual state of its original. The personality is projected and becomes visible in any place where God (or those of His angels who are so authorized) wills the manifestation to take place.

“By this method the wishes, prayers, thoughts and the whole spiritual state of any one in the Earth life, or in any of the regions of the spiritual world, may be manifested in any place or sphere at any moment which those to whom this high gift is entrusted shall will that it

be so.4

“A person is not always so manifested in the same presence form, which, from time to time, may be given a different aspect and take a different shape, Under whatever aspect he manifested, however, that form is, for the time being, his real self projected.”

1 Question by G.V.O. These are in Italics.

The text of the above manuscript will be found on here, commencing "Our onward way...”

NOTE.—Above is a reproduction of a sheet from the actual script written down by the Rev. G. Vale Owen at the sitting of October 6, 1913. It will be noticed how the words and sentences have flowed from the pencil in a swift and steady stream. They are joined together as if the writer were striving to keep pace with the communication which was being impressed upon his mind.

This page of the MS. is particularly interesting, for it shows a question written down by Mr. Vale Owen, and the answer to it immediately following in a steady flow of words.

Mr. Vale Owen always numbered