by Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya Book Presentation Overview Wisdom

Question: In the Theosophical literature we read much about invoking spirits and about mediums receiving answers to questions. Can we rely upon the answers received through this source?

Answer: Spirit mediumship is a phenomenon which is in no way false. At the same time it has its own limitations just like anything else in the world. The degree of accuracy depends upon the following factors:

1. If the medium is pure in intention, free of motive and has a sweet will to serve as an impersonal vehicle, his mind and hand receive impressions and passages that are true to the transmitting source. If the medium has his own fancies and inclinations, they will adulterate the message with his own thoughts.

2. If the source is supra-mental (which can be invoked only by a medium who is a disciple of higher degree of discipline) the answers convey information which is accurate in all its shades. In such a case one can receive useful information about the various sciences, arts and humanities including their values in the past, present and future. In such a case the medium should be able to enter his Buddhic plane which is above and beyond what he knows and believes. Then it is desirable that he invokes personalities like Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Anjaneya, Buddha, etc. Since these spirits are Eternal and belong to the Impersonal plane of existence, the information received is bound to be true though the personalities invoked do not really exist on the objective plane. They are true to the medium, but this is not at all a limitation to the absolute truth.

3. If the medium is one who has succumbed to the weird influence of a recently disembodied soul, then the accuracy is questionable. It has many limitations. It carries all the imperfections of the knowledge of a recently dead person. The effects are misleading, if the soul is mischievous by nature. Remember that no one knows more than what he knew before his death. The passage of death never adds to his real wisdom. Many a time a disembodied soul may declare itself as Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Einstein, or any other notable person of the past. Such a soul can gather accurate personal information about the deceased notable personalities since the information is registered in space. It can give details of the most intricate personal aspects of the notable personality which can be verified and found correct. At the same time the transmitting mind cannot probe into the future which is registered nowhere in space. Any question concerning the future that is answered by such a spirit need not give correct information about the future. It may not be better than the prophecy of the three witches in Macbeth, and the fate of the layman who receives and follows it will be that of Macbeth. No remarkable change takes place in the basic behaviour of a person after death. A mischievous one remains mischievous and such a one wantonly misguides the medium. It is therefore neither reliable, nor desirable to invoke a disembodied soul for guidance in whatever glorious name.

Even when the medium sincerely invokes a great soul of the past there is the possibility of a trickish soul interfering and playing the counterfeit. To prevent this, the medium should have a calm mind, clean intentions and a previously established contact with his real Guru through the power of the invocation of his name. A medium should, therefore, begin his transaction with invoking his Guru first, and then any other spirit. This filters the undesirable presence, and the degree of accuracy can be tolerable, reliable, according to the quality of the mind of the medium. The invocation of the Guru also wards off the parasitism of many a vampire feeding upon the ectoplasm of the medium which is in no way different from his vital essence. Otherwise the personality of medium will be gradually sapped until it grows weak giving way to many incurable diseases.

Of course it cannot be denied that there are many glorious souls who lived on this earth and left their bodies and now go round the earth space to serve as real helpers to the medium. They respond readily and give reliable answers and revelations. All depends upon the capacity of the medium to filter undesirable intrusions through his noble intentions - on the whole the practice has doubtful status and the ancient seers deem it not commendable. There is only one real, reliable source of unblemished wisdom and that is the higher mental plane of the soul of this earth. It can be approached only by the pure Buddhic plane of a disciple and this can be done only after a regular spiritual discipline. This source is called either God or a notable personality of the past. No doubt, it is God but in its secondary or tertiary manifestation. It is also called the Library of the Akasic records, where everything of the past is stored as the impression of the earth, as its past experience, the sea of past wisdom.