Channeling — 'Bertrand Russell' On Human Individuality Amidst Society
"After breathing my last breath in my mortal body, I found myself in some sort of extension of existence that held no parallel, as far as I could estimate, in the material dimensions I had recently experienced. I observed that I was occupying a body predominantly bearing similarities to the physical one which I had vacated forever; but this new body in which I now resided seemed virtually weightless and very volatile, and able to move in any direction with the minimum amount of effort. I began to think I was dreaming and would awaken all too soon to that old world, of which I had become somewhat weary, to find myself imprisoned once more in that ageing form which encased a brain that had waxed weary also and did not always want to think when I wanted to think."Several times in my life, I had thought I was about to die; several times I had resigned myself with the best will that I could muster to ceasing to be. The idea of B.R. no longer inhabiting the world did not trouble me unduly. I felt the world had had enough of me, and certainly I had had enough of the world. Befitting, I thought, to give the chap (myself) a decent burial and let him be. Now here I was, still the same I, with the capacities to think and observe sharpened to an incredible degree. I felt earth life suddenly seemed very unreal almost as though it had never happened. It took me quite a long time to understand this feeling until I realised at last that matter is certainly illusory although it does exist in actuality; the material world seemed now nothing more than a seething, changing, restless sea of indeterminable density and volume. How could I have thought that that was reality, and the last word of Creation to Mankind? Yet it is completely understandable that the state in which a man exists, however temporary, constitutes the passing reality which is no longer reality when it has passed."
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CHAPTER 17
Identity, its root and its meaning
The title of this chapter has been suggested by Bertrand Russell, but it will not consist entirely of quotations from him.
I will begin by repeating his opening remark on the subject.
"Identity is a far more complex matter than the casual observer believes; it has its roots in Man's distant past, and its ramifications are so diffuse as to defy total analysis. There is the question of personal identity which is of paramount importance to the average individual. To lose one's personal identity is to become nonexistent to all intents and purposes; one is a nonentity in actual fact under such circumstances, a mere object, and an exile in the land of the living.
"The need for a sense of identity is easily recognised in the human being. Hence the struggle for the infant to draw attention to himself, not only for the satisfaction of his bodily requirements, but to be acknowledged per se. In later life, if an insufficient degree of acknowledgement is demonstrated, the individual may react by cultivating a persecution complex, or delusions of grandeur, which are possibly to be regarded as two sides of the same coin. There may be attempts to overdramatise one's self, or one's situation, and we are all familiar with the type who always has something wrong with his health and expatiates at great length on his symptoms. Attempts to draw attention by those who feel that their identity is overlooked or submerged can take on so many different disguises that it is not possible to elucidate them in detail. The most common form of defence is portrayed in the over-self-centred person, who may be feeling that he is ignored, and compensates by focusing his attention on himself."
Now that Russell has set the ball rolling, let us pause to think for a moment just how much a sense of our own identity means to us, and how much a sense of the identity of others also means to us. The whole of human life revolves around the question of identity and relating identities with other identities. It is identity which gives meaning and shape to life, and a sense of continuity through posterity without which life would become unintelligible and disjointed.
If we go into the highways and byways of civilisation, we will find that this sense of identity varies widely in its quality. In the Twentieth Century, thanks partly to the birth of modern psychology, the sense of identity has become marked by a high degree of self-awareness, and the tendency towards the practice of meditation can enhance this sense.
Jung [1875-1961] has asserted a precept to me which he says many a religious teacher has also postulated: that is, that to become absolutely aware of one's identity is to become aware of God. But this awareness of God can only come about when all the false aspects of the personal identity have been shed. The process of self-awareness is one demanding continual vigilance, he warns, because negative ideas, like weeds in a garden, are constantly being thrown into the mind or self-engendered; they must be systematically removed to make way for the true growth of self-awareness which is a selfless condition as opposed to its counterfeit condition, self-aggrandizement.
The continuance of life after death without retaining one's identity would fail to be a bona fide continuation. If identity were not retained, one would become something or someone else — a different entity, not one's self. Perhaps this is why those who communicate from beyond frequently display a wish to prove their identity in any way they can demonstrate, by referring to their own past life and characteristics, to their memories and feelings, and trying to show that they have remained the same person. They can, of course, progress and modify, it must be reminded, just as we can progress and modify in this our present world.
It is obviously of great importance to the Christian Religion that Jesus demonstrated after his death that he was the same person, that he was essentially the same character the disciples had come to know and love. It was this that made such an impact on them; had he appeared in a different guise, they would not have known him, and would not have been able to cry in exultation. "He is risen."
It is notable that major religions usually revolve round an individual, illustrating the recognition of the significant role of identity. And large numbers of people can only conceive of God as an individual, as a person they can identify.
The second significant statute in most religions is the exhortation to link or merge one's identity with the God identity. It is Mankind's humble admission that his own identity is limited, isolated, and insufficient, and he seeks to overcome the limitations by identifying with that which he regards as greater than himself, that which he believes to be all-sufficient, that which is whole. He becomes aware, so some religions teach, that he is separate from God, cast out from the garden of Eden where he lived within the sphere of God's influence; and, having become aware of himself as a separated identity, he is driven, more often than not, to seek reunion with the Absolute Identity. If he does not himself seek this reunion, he will be liable to be urged or coerced or even bullied into seeking it by some of his fellow-beings.
So it becomes apparent that there is in human nature, generally speaking, a basic need to be recognised as an individual, and a secondary need, perhaps more fundamental than the first, to join this identity with another or others. We identify ourselves throughout life with various people, with all kinds of beliefs, movements, with the family we were born into, or else with an outside group which is after all a substitute for the family. Even the Buddhist, seeking non-attachment, is attaching himself to something: to his beliefs; he is still identifying with something although this something may be an abstract idea. The normal person is bound to develop self-consciousness (consciousness of self) as he grows; in fact, self-consciousness unfolds to a certain extent without any apparent effort on his part. But the step out of this separated consciousness into a consciousness integrated with a fuller, or absolute consciousness, requires an effort which in some cases seems almost insurmountable.
Human consciousness, as Jung describes it, can be likened unto a tide which flows out of the deep on to the shore of the earth plane, and then appears to be drawn back again into the mighty depths. But while lapping the shore of earth life, it is still part of the great ocean of consciousness, or of the fuller expanse of the spirit life. This is where the "meeting of the waters" of the spirit takes place with the shore or fringe of matter. The ebb and flow of the tide exemplifies the fluctuation of the outer consciousness breaking on the beach of the material world and receding back into the full flood of collective or absolute inner consciousness.
To turn to Russell's comments, he asks what is identity in relation to the human species? Definition of the essential identity of a person is much more difficult to achieve than the mere description of outer appearance by which we recognise those whom we know. The outer appearance, as we know, can be changed either by the passage of time or the onslaught of disease, or by artificial means such as the use of cosmetics and plastic surgery. We see, therefore, that the identity of a person is not the outer covering, but the inner self. Thus, when the body perishes; the real identity, the self that is intangible as far as the material world is concerned, survives and continues to evolve.
Now, the intriguing question, Russell stipulates, is where and how does identity commence? The materialist will presume that identity commences at conception or perhaps with actual birth. He cannot demonstrate that this is not so, but can only argue that what is now in manifestation must always have been incipient, for you cannot have something developing from nothing. Granted that identity becomes aware and palpable during the course of evolution or incarnation or unfoldment, but we cannot say categorically that there was a time when it did not exist at all in some form. In a sense, therefore, we date back to the beginning of time: we were in the beginning, and have advanced with the stream of life to the present. One begins to get the feeling of timelessness and continuity which are so difficult for the human mind to imagine.
The chronological development of identity gives us more clearly a picture of our continuing evolution. It is useless to try to trace specific developments, but we can perceive the general unfoldment that has taken place and continues. The text, As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be begins to take on a new, deeper meaning. Before Abraham was, I am. We can perceive life as a whole and gain a sense of unity. We can attach a purpose to life without which we feel lost, insecure, and futile.
Continuing Russell's line of thought, it might almost seem that one of the purposes of evolution is the cultivation of a sense of identity. It is this sense that distinguishes Mankind from the Animal Kingdom. But at the present time, identity is threatened by mass-orientation to material values which can easily overwhelm it through distracting it from its own stabilisation.
To grasp all the implications of our own identity (Russell says), and to become fully acquainted with our own identity, we need to know a great deal more about human nature in general. It is by comparison that we come by most of our knowledge in many fields, not least in the field of self-knowledge. We are taught so little about ourselves in the majority of cases, and so little is explained to us about human nature, that we often know ourselves no better in old age than we did in youth. It is hardly surprising that there are so many misunderstandings between people, that so many find it difficult to live with others, and that so little tolerance is sometimes displayed between groups or between individuals.
Humanity's greatest problem is itself. Much of the suffering of human beings is inflicted on them not by "acts of God," but by other human beings. Many illnesses, both of the body and the mind, are caused by the thoughtless acts of others, by their cruelties and neglectfulness and disregard. Humanity's fight for survival and welfare is not a simple matter of dealing with the elements, of overcoming famine and drought, of controlling the pests which are Mankind's enemies, of finding and administering cures for its sicknesses, but of overcoming the inherent selfishness and greed of its nature, and learning to live at peace with one another.
There is a ruthlessness in human nature, Russell comments, which drives some members of the human race to stop at nothing to get their own way, and to have no scruples in employing violence to obtain their needs. It often seems futile to appeal to people's better natures which seem virtually nonexistent in many cases. In their blind determination to achieve their goals, they are totally deaf to reason, apparently without any qualms of conscience, and devoid of compassion. It is as if the spark of divinity which we like to believe is contained in every human being has been extinguished and will not respond to any effort to rekindle it. In a word, it is as if a disease is eating into their very souls.
As long as the human race exists, it is bound to contain some disruptive elements, and there will always be the bigots, the aspiring dictators, the wanton destroyers. Peace-lovers must have prayed to heaven for peace so much that those very heavens must be endlessly reverberating with the clamour of their petitions. God does not wave a magic wand and turn the violent-natured into peaceable creatures, said Russell, and it is evidently heaven's edict that we ourselves must work on our own peace. Let us recognise that human nature changes little if at all, and having admitted that, we may find ourselves in a better position to negotiate with one another. We will be dealing realistically with the situation instead of escaping into idealistic daydreams. This may sound depressing, but the only effective way to cope with human nature is to face up to its weaknesses as well as its strengths.
We know there is much that is fine in human nature; we know it holds within itself a fundamental and prevailing urge to improve itself and its surroundings; and this urge must triumph ultimately. But the triumph will be reached only by consistent and united endeavours on the part of the human race itself, and by its response to the Creative Good or God.
The next section is a direct quote from Russell.
"I am far less of a cynic than I was, although I remain to be convinced of many things. I am, however, still very cynical as regards human nature, the more so, perhaps, because I can now see its pettiness in sharper detail. I am not sorry that I have left your world, for although it gave me a generous measure of success and worldly goals, it is hardly the place for the idealist which is what I was at heart. It does, however, provide much material for the philosopher; it is a rueful thought that a perfect world would be prone to make philosophy superfluous. Bernard Shaw pointed out to me one day that a perfect world might also make God superfluous. 'In fact,' quoth he, 'If God did not already exist, Man's wickedness would make Him a virtual necessity.'"
"Shaw has a habit of expressing succinctly in a few words ideas that I myself would describe more ponderously and probably more ambiguously. That particular pithy remark of his did more to convince me of the existence of God than did many a churchman. How ironic that the wickedness of Man should strike a blow for the truth which the goodness of Man had failed to do as far as I personally am concerned.
"Do I believe in God now? Many people will want to know my answer. Yes, I now believe without equivocation, and with a positive intellectual comprehension which was and is the sole acceptable proposition as far I am concerned. Have I seen God? That poses the next inevitable question. Not in that sense have I seen God. The eye cannot behold the glory of the countenance of God! Have I seen Jesus? This time I can answer in the affirmative. I have seen this Man was was God's representative on earth. In his presence I am awed, for his purity and compassion so flood his being that I feel I am in the presence of God. It is a disconcerting feeling to one who measures things by the intellect.
"You may not believe that it is I, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, who am saying these things, and perhaps there is no conclusive proof that I can offer through this somewhat restricted medium. Those with an ear to hear may catch the echo of my voice in my phrases, the tenor of my tongue in my tautology; those who do not wish to hear will no doubt conjure up a whole table of tricks to disprove my retrospective rhetoric.
"There will come a time, already inaugurated, in human affairs, when mind will be able to reach mind independent of material means. The mind-to-mind process will be the key to extended communication with discarnate minds. I am able to contact many minds in your world, but this is done without their knowledge because their minds do not recognise the interpolation of thought which they misinterpret as their own. As a rule, it is possible only to touch in thought those whose minds have a similar attunement. You need not fear that you are all being subjected to a continual bombardment of thought from discarnate (and incarnate) beings of all kinds; you have your own wavelength and can only receive upon that frequency.
"Experiments supervised by your present scientists will demonstrate that an interchange of thought is a far more common occurrence than envisaged. There is a network of thought-waves the same as there is a network of radio waves, and the two in your world are closely interwoven. You are on the verge of startling discoveries in this field, and it will take some time for the world to adjust to the disclosures. The need for a sensible and balanced approach will rapidly become apparent, and the charlatans on the scene will be able to take advantage of the discovery until a system of detection is sufficiently organised to discriminate between valid operations and simulated ones.
"Working with Mrs. Brown has been an interesting experiment in communication for me. I have been able to observe that the "line" of communication sometimes carries whole phrases in their entirety without so much as the loss of a single syllable. At other times, words have been mutilated or obliterated altogether, through no fault of mine or the receiver. Both she and I have sometimes been aware of these deficiencies, and endeavoured to correct them. She has been very doubtful whether she registered certain words accurately, and has queried several with me. Trying to check back with me has proved helpful, I believe, but we cannot guarantee a foolproof manuscript or what she and Tovey has dubbed a 'foolproof proof.' ['Donald Francis Tovey' is another of the communicators representing the ascended realm of existence.]
"I have aimed at plain speech because I wish to be intelligible to as many as possible and not address myself specifically to the highbrows. The highbrows often consider it their exclusive prerogative to assess everything and interpret everything. I hope the populace will not allow themselves to be overridden by this small and often circumscribed section of their community. The populace may not have acquired the same expertise in logic and argument as their highbrow counterparts, but they have a natural intelligence which is often quite as capable of grasping an understanding of the obstruse. Intelligence is not the monopoly of the rich nor the aristocratic, which is a fortunate thing for them because if it were, the structure of society, which is based on a framework of labour, would speedily collapse.
"I have taken a great deal of Mrs. Brown's time and energy, and hope that readers will feel it has been worthwhile. The world in which I now live is a world of ideas, but is, nevertheless, a very real world. There is, in fact, a permanence in this world where I now dwell which contrasts strongly with the material world, and the latter appears quite unsubstantial from my present dimensions. You can certainly understand that your world is a transient world where everything is subject to change and decay. It is so transient, in fact, that you would expect more people to seek for permanent values and for the stream of everlasting life.
"The material world is a world of ideas also — ideas being expressed in terms of matter or material substance. But matter has a relatively very slow frequency which responds only in a crude fashion. It has a clogging effect on mind and spirit which dulls the intelligence and weights the soul. Through struggling towards freedom from this clogging effect, mankind's intelligence will become more powerful, and his soul will rise.
"I wish to mention another matter which could be of some assistance to many with their work or problems. Mrs. Brown could scarcely believe me when I drew her attention to the fact that a mental technique which she frequently employs was one that I, too, employed. She told me that as far as she can recall, she stumbled on this technique as a child. Having become aware of the fact that life consists of more than the material aspect, (through her inborn psychic nature), she realised that she could draw knowledge from other planes, other levels of consciousness. As she grew up, she developed the habit of referring to the "Supreme Wisdom" for guidance and enlightenment. If she wished or needed to know what course to pursue with regard to some particular concern, she would (to use her own words) "tell God about it and wait for his answer." She was using the same technique as I used, although expressing it in different terminology. I had a practice of implanting my problems, especially in connection with my work, in my subconscious mind by holding them firmly for a time in my conscious mind; I would then leave the problem to gestation, and in due course, the subconscious would give birth to the solution. It is such a simple process that any one could adopt it, although it requires a great deal of concentration and practice to perfect it.
"Mrs. Brown discovered that she could apply this process to many fields, including the psychic ones. By focusing her attention intensely she managed to achieve effectual communication with a number of musicians in my world, subject, inevitably, to variations in the degree of success. She would sit in deep meditation, seeking enlightenment, or in contemplation of God awaiting divine inspiration, and this prepared the channel for her to draw forth the hidden wisdom and achieve rapport with inspired beings or with the source of inspiration itself.
"I knew, even in my lifetime on earth, that I was somehow tapping the roots of a universal intelligence, but this implied the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, which people would classify as God. As this conception was somewhat untenable to me, I dismissed it and gave my subconscious mind the entire credit for the solutions I received, which certainly took the form of revelations.
"One does need the application of a certain amount of intelligence, of course, in this practice of sowing problems into the subconscious and reaping the solutions. There are some schools of psychology now giving instruction in the practice; some people will find that they possess a natural talent for the process, but others may find the required effort demands too much exertion if they are unaccustomed to mental concentration.
"In the world, people turn their attention to the conscious mind almost exclusively, and ignore the substrata of the deep intelligence latent within the subconscious. The conscious mind is like the top of an iceberg; submerged below the surface of the greater bulk of the mind floats unseen. Most people remain on the surface all their lives; few have the time or inclination to plumb the depths and raise the treasures that await there."As a parting remark, I should like to tell people that they are far more fearfully and wonderfully made than they suspect. They are gods in the making, but the making has to be of their own. The tragedy is that so few make it."
APPENDIX I
A message received by Rosemary Brown from Bertrand Russell in which he comments on current tendencies
The future of any country, it is manifest, depends largely upon its economic and social development. It does not rest, as some may believe, entirely in the hands of a minority. Yet there is always the need, if not the desirability, of governing controls and distributive maintenance if a balanced production and subsistence level is to be retained.
Surplus profits on the one hand can lead to a deficiency on the other hand with a concomitant collapse in national economy unless the profits are devoted at least in part to the furtherance of a general increase in prosperity instead of remaining an individual source of advantage.
Capitalism as we have known it during the past few decades may well be dying a natural death through the recognition of those whom we may label "capitalists" of the expediency of permitting employees to equate their labours with the value of their products or services instead of being apportioned an arbitrary wage for the work performed. This is no idle sentimentality, but a practical approach to the encouragement of goodwill between employers and employees without which co-operation is likely to become stultified. Co-operation, beside being keyed to be the password to a sustained and evenly distributed prosperity, available to all, could prove to be the indispensible element in the survival of the human species.
All nations have a history of fluctuating fortunes which may have seemed frequently unavoidable, and which were certainly unplanned. It is only in recent times, that is, since the turn of the century, that a worthy proportion of thought and effort has been given to the welfare of the masses upon whom the entire economy of the country depends.
Religion was exploited to exhort people to accept their lot and their so-called place in society as the Divine Will: an empiric mandate since no one can define the Divine Will with conclusive argument. As a result, the oppressed, hypnotized into acceptance of this situation, were generally unprotesting and obsequious, defeated by their poverty and social impotence from negotiating for fairer treatment.
The spread of education has enabled the masses to become more articulate and capable of calling into question much that was formerly accepted as inevitable in working conditions and pay. The challenge to current Capitalism stems to a large extent from the workers' increased awareness of the structure and function of business concerns, and their growing recognition of their own essential role as the very basis on which the tycoons build their financial empires. At the same time, those situated (however haphazardly or hazardously) at the summit of the class and wealth pyramid may affect less indifference by the lot of their less fortunate brethren, partly throw a growing realisation that a nation, to keep the wheels of industry running smoothly, must look after its workers on all levels, and partly to appease the demands of public opinion which is now a force to be reckoned with due to its power to make itself heard via the news media.
Worldwide changes in the structure and conduct of economic priorities are inevitable and advisable. Workers must participate more fully in the life of the nation both for their own sakes and for the sake of the nation as a whole. Privilege must always walk hand-in-hand with responsibility or run the risk of becoming license. And it should always be remembered that the smallest cog in a machine can bring it to a standstill if it is not given due attention and care.
Since the ideal of government by the people for the people has emerged in opposition to government by a despotic individual or a group of tyrants, endeavours to create a perfect system of government still continue and should continue for improvements can always be made. Retaining a system that is sufficiently fluid to allow desirable adjustments to be made is the nearest to a truly democratic norm that it is perhaps possible to attain. A system that is totally inelastic is doomed to snap because of its political inability to expand its scope to measure up with world expansion.
Government by the people can be conducted only by an indirect process, since it is palpably impossible for all the people to govern by direct means. It may not always be easy for the average person to decide who will best represent his interests or his will because each political candidate will do his utmost to persuade the electorate that he stands for the most desirable party. It is a great pity that an outline of planned policies of each party cannot be drawn up and presented to the electorate by a totally disinterested committee: but where could one find a totally disinterested committee? (Since everyone is involved in — and affected by the results of any election.)
If each candidate could and would adequately promote the interests of each and every member of the electorate, the need for opposing parties would in all probability become superfluous, for the aims then of every party would be identical. Conflicting interests constitute an almost unavoidable feature of any nation, especially when that nation is absorbing a quantity of mixed immigrants with different cultures and needs. The ideal candidate would be one who could reconcile these conflicting interests to the satisfaction of all concerned which is a task in which he is unlikely to succeed.
The politician must become a master of compromise if he is to balance the needs of all sections of the community, but compromise will not be easy to achieve if he has well-defined aims to pursue. He walks upon a tightrope which will throw him if it is either too taut or too slack. His motives may be admirable but his performance poor which may lead to the electorate substituting him with a candidate who has less worthy motives. Benevolence of spirit is not enough in a politician; the public look for results, expecting a member of Parliament to be something of a magician at times.
Politics nowadays cannot be confined to national issues; they are speedily becoming a matter of international bearing. This makes the politician's task more onerous, but he may be able to turn this to advantage if he can grasp the general situation and gain acceptance on an international as well as a national scale. There is no longer any room for insular policies, but he may find some of the electorate show to realise this fact.
The world needs men of vision and courage, men who will not court popularity at the expense of wise and long-sighted policies that may not meet with the approval of the impatient who clamour for immediate results. Yet if they do not draw some measure of popularity, they will not be elected in the first place; or, if already elected, they will not remain in power longer than the populace will tolerate.
A cool head, a steady hand, and a warm heart: these are the attributes which are perhaps the most essential to the present-day successful politician. Men of such stature are rare, and if we find any amongst us, we should be wise to heed them.
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For readers knowledgeable about channeling case chronologies among the variety of transcendental communication forms that have been documented in modern times, one sees the failure of contemporary social conditions in preserving awareness of people such as Rosemary Brown beyond the years of their own lifetimes. And as well there are many people who find themselves a channel for Divine Dispensations only to find it impossible to inform the public about their experiences due to individual journalist and editor assumed imperatives, which may involve commercial priorities that altogether result with ill-fated corruption of the journalistic mission and unfortunate or tragic social consciousness considerations due to each individual member of a corporate hierarchy being fearful about showing any semblance of nonconformity with the 'status quo' — regardless of how much travail one's own society is exhibiting. Today with nuclear Armageddon a concern routinely addressed in daily news media war reporting along with the consequences arising from the ongoing international coronavirus pandemic among a plethora of social and environmental challenges requiring immediate solutions, one can only hope and pray that there are readers who grasp the profound opportunities that each one of us is continuously encountering to serve others and help society evolve while being spiritually aware of the innumerable other people serving one's own individual needs each day. What together may be achieved will manifest love to the Source that created all that is in existence so that the desire to manifest Love can find reciprocal expression and fulfillment.
