Mediumship
The Laws of Rapport and Communication.
The Laws of Rapport and Communication concern the issues relating to communication with spirit. John the Apostle covers these issues in a number of messages. On January 4th 1918, John the Apostle said:
“As you may know, it has been sometime since I wrote anything of a formal character and I regret very much that so much time has gone by without my being able to communicate some of the spiritual truths, and also regret that your condition has been such that I was unable to make the rapport with you that is necessary in order that I may deliver to you these messages of the nature mentioned. I have explained to you in a former recent letter, in a brief way, the law of communication and rapport, and that law, if you will try to understand it, will enable you to comprehend the reason why we have not been able to communicate these higher truths.”
Here John complains that he has not been able to make a sufficient rapport to communicate higher Truths to James Padgett. He goes on to say:
But, as we have told you before, rapport and our ability to use your brain are governed by laws, and one of these laws is that a high thought cannot be transmitted through a human brain which is not in the condition that qualifies it to receive the thought, just as the brain, in matter pertaining to mere material knowledge cannot receive a conception or comprehension of some intellectual truth with which it has not had acquaintance, and transmit it. A brain cannot be used by the mind of the human to make known or present a problem in geometry, when that brain has never been used by the mind to acquire an acquaintance with or knowledge of the principles of geometry. This is an incomplete analogy but it may serve to illustrate what I mean.
In essence, because Padgett had not spent sufficient time in prayer for Divine Love, or perhaps because he had allowed the worries of his material existence to overly intrude, he was not in a sufficiently good spiritual condition. And, although spirit communication could be made, it would not include higher Truths. This is a law pertaining to the communication of higher Truths. In fact, in the message referred to within the above message as: “in a former recent letter” he goes into more detail. This was received on November 2nd, 1917:
Well, you have not been in that condition of mind that has enabled us to make the necessary rapport with you. We must have a mind that is filled with thoughts of the higher things of truth, even though we do not use those thoughts. Our thoughts are all spiritual, and our truths can be received only by the mind in a spiritual condition, and you, lately, have not had so much of this spiritual mind as formerly. Our contact has not been so close, and our rapport, necessary to enable us to express through your mind these spiritual truths, has not been so perfect. And when I say mind I merely mean the organs of the brain as influenced by the thoughts of the mind; for I will tell you what you may not know, that these component organs of the brain are not always and under all conditions receptive of the same control by the minds of spirits. You may receive through your brain a long and profound message of things pertaining to what you may call the material, and yet under similar conditions of these organs, not be able to receive messages of the higher truths; and the conditions of these brain organs are caused by the condition of the soul in the possession of things spiritual. It is difficult for me to express just what I intend to convey but this you will understand, that upon the development and possession by the soul of things spiritual, depends the capacity of the human brain to receive the various kinds of messages. A medium who is merely intellectual and morally good cannot receive those messages of the highest truths, because there can be no rapport between the brain of such a medium and the mind of the higher spirit who may desire to communicate. And thus you will understand why it is that the messages from the earth-bound spirits or from those who have merely the intellectual development, are so vastly more frequently received by mediums than messages from spirits of the soul development.
In fact John goes on to say that one can search through the history of spirit communication, and not find messages similar to those delivered through Padgett. So, this Law of Rapport which enables Higher Truths to be communicated is extremely important.
It seems that if the mortal exercises his mind in a highly spiritual way, his brain is altered in some subtle way. This allows advanced spirits to communicate at the more advanced level. Interestingly this brain condition is not permanent, but needs to be kept in tune, as it were. Or perhaps it is just as the spiritual thoughts alter the brain, returning to lesser thoughts may return the brain to its former condition. He goes on to extend this idea to the ability of the mind to possess thoughts which it cannot express to the brain. That is precisely the parallel to the advanced spirit having spiritual thoughts it cannot express.
However, this does not apply to purely intellectual truths, and a spirit can take complete control of a human brain, and communicate things, or even languages the mortal has no concept of. As:
But this law, applying to and controlling the relationship of the mind and brain possessed by the same man, does not so absolutely apply to and control the relationship of mind and brain, where the mind is that of a spirit and the brain that of a mortal, for in such case the mind may take such complete control of the brain, that the former’s manifestations are not governed or limited by the special experiences or want of experiences which the brain may have had in its use by the mind of the mortal along specific lines of expression or manifestation. Thus, as you may know and as it has been demonstrated by the work and experience of many human mediums, the minds of spirits have controlled the brains of these mediums, so that such brains have transmitted from these spirits expressions of various kinds of languages and mathematical truths with which such brains never have had any acquaintance or become exercised in expressing. In these instances the brain is used merely in the sphere of intellect and the spirit who takes possession of that brain and uses it to express and make known the knowledge of the spirit’s mind, is doing no different thing in essentials, to what the human mind, controlling its own brain, could have done had the brain been exercised in those directions. The capacity of the brain, whether exercised or not by the human mind controlling its own brain, limits the power of the spirit to control in the manner and for the purpose mentioned. But this law has a further phase, and that is, the greater the general experience of the brain in its exercise by the human mind, the more perfectly can the spirit mind control it. All this is dependent upon facts which I cannot linger here to explain, such as the mediumistic qualities and susceptibilities of the human whose brain is attempted to be controlled by the spirit.
But while the sphere of intellect may be easy to circumvent, in the sphere of the moral and in the sphere of the spiritual, things are different. This has presented problems in transmitting higher spiritual truths to the world, as John said on January 4th, 1918:
You may search the whole history of spirit communications and of mediumship and you will not find any messages of the character of those that have been transmitted through you, and for the reasons that I have stated. Swedenborg was the last and nearer perfect instrument for receiving these higher truths, and yet he, because of his want of soul development and his being bound, to a more or less extent, by his orthodox beliefs and scientific knowledge that caused him to coordinate and fit in these truths with his ideas of correspondence and such like conceptions, was a failure, and could not be successfully used to transmit these truths which we have been communicating through you. And after him other gifted and, in some respects, successful mediums were used by spirits, of the higher knowledge and progression to convey truths, but their conditions were such that, under the workings of the laws governing rapport, these mediums could receive only those truths which their conditions of development permitted them to receive. The workings of this limitation was not dependent upon the condition and ability of the spirits to impart these higher truths, but upon the capacity of the mediums to receive them. You, yourself, have had experience as to how this law works and controls communication and rapport, for, as you know, it has been a long time since you were able to receive any spirit messages of these higher truths, although the spirits have been present with you many times, ready and anxious to make the rapport and deliver their messages; and you have been willing, intellectually, to receive them, but because of your condition or want of condition, the spirits could not deliver them and were compelled to wait until you get into the necessary condition. From all this you will comprehend why so very few messages containing high spiritual truths, or even moral truths, come through mediums.
So we see that in order to communicate higher truths, the mortal must spend a lot of time with his/her mind turned to things spiritual. It is unfortunate that this subtle but critical issue is not more widely known.
One of the things that is particularly interesting is that one can discover that Padgett came in and out of condition. One might think that once in condition, the brain would be ready to receive higher truths from then on. But that is not the case. In fact in yet another message through John, received October 22nd, 1918, he notes that Padgett has still not understood the import of the two messages referred to previously:
I have explained to you the law controlling rapport and communication, and endeavored to make it as plain and understandable as possible, so that you, at least, might grasp its meaning; but, I see there are some things that you do not understand, and because thereof, you have had the recent experience of not being able to receive the many messages that were waiting to be delivered through your brain and hand. As I have said, the first and important requirement is that you be in that condition of soul which will, because of its qualities, enable the spirits who may desire to write the higher messages to form a rapport or union with you, which means simply to take charge and control of your brain - a brain which because of certain qualities and thoughts having possessed it, will be in harmony with the thoughts that these spirits desire to transmit through it, just as it is absolutely necessary that the medium through which it is desired that the electric fluid shall flow, must be a medium possessing such nature and qualities as will permit the fluid to flow through it. A wire or medium may be made of wood, and the electric fluid be present, ready to flow through it, but cannot. And why? Not because the wire or wood may not be perfect in itself as such wire; but, because the wire has not that nature and quality that will permit the electric fluid to make a union with it and thus control it. And so it is with the brain of the mortal, that such brain has the possibility of possessing, when properly prepared, those qualities that will admit of this union and control, while the wood has not. But the brain, when devoid of this preparation, is just as non-receptive to the union with and control of these spirits - as is the rapport - as is the wooden wire to the union with the electric fluid. You have been told on numerous occasions that you were not in condition and that the spirits could not make the rapport, and that you must make the effort to get in condition; and this assertion and advice are all true. You were told to pray more to the Father and think of spiritual things, and then you would become in that condition. This is true, and the advice is helpful. But you were not told what this praying to the Father or thinking of spiritual thoughts means, and, hence, you may do these things in a way and yet not get in the condition.
This is quite late on in Padgett’s history, and after he had delivered a significant number of higher messages. Sadly, he never did regain the same degree of rapport. While a few “higher” messages follow this date, eventually Jesus stopped delivering messages. John goes on:
I know that during a long period in the past you have been receiving many messages of the higher truths, and for the delivery of which a brain highly prepared was necessary to receive the same, and the thought has come to you, why were you able to receive these messages at the time of their delivery and not be able to receive them now because, as you further think, your brain is in as good condition now as it was at those times. Well, in the latter thought you are mistaken, and the fact of such mistake should be sufficient to convince you that your inability to receive the messages should not surprise you. During the periods mentioned you prayed more often for the inflowing of the Divine Love and your longings were intense, and the desires to possess this Love, which is so vital to the preparation of your brain, were so much more active. And also your thoughts of things spiritual were so much more frequent. In other words, you were then seeking with your whole heart to learn the truths of God and to possess His Love; and, hence, your brain was continually in that condition which enabled the spirits to make the union and control it for the purpose of their higher expressions. Lately you have not had the longings or prayed the prayers for the Love as frequently and, as a consequence, the qualities and elements of thought that have possessed your brain were not such as to put your brain in that condition which made it receptive to the passing through it of those thoughts of the higher truths. Now from this, you must not infer that this condition is a mere matter of brain condition, produced by itself, for it is not. You have had the intellectual desire to write and receive the messages as much as you ever had, and also to receive messages of the higher truths that should be new as well as edifying to you, and your desires were real, and you were disappointed because they were not realized. And this merely demonstrates to you that there is something more than the mere mental or intellectual necessary to prepare the brain for the reception and transmission of that which partakes of the nature of truth that has its source in something else than the mere human mind. These higher truths come from spirits whose minds, as you might say, are of the soul, and as only soul can deal with soul, it requires that the preparation of the brain should come from the exercise of soul powers upon the organs of that brain. And, hence, the necessity for your soul being in that condition that will produce in the brain the qualities that will unite and permit the truths of the soul to be received and transmitted. You must not only pray to the Father for the inflowing of this Divine Love but you must pray often, until you realize almost constantly the possession of this Love in your soul; and also, you must turn your thoughts, and I do not mean the merely intellectual thoughts, but the thoughts of the soul, which as you have already had you may have again, to the spiritual truths which have been revealed to you, and to the spiritual realm where you believe other spiritual truths are waiting to be revealed. If you will thus pray and think, you will find coming to you the desires and expectations of the fulfillment of these desires and an enthusiasm which will come from the development of your soul by the possession of this Love, and also the soul thoughts. This is what is meant by the condition necessary to enable the spirits to make the rapport.
He concludes by telling us once again that in order to deliver “lesser” messages, no special soul condition is required. Dr Dave Lampron received a message from Jesus concerning this Law, on June 25, 1987:
Now, as to Laws of Rapport and Communication, yes, indeed, these play a most important part in terms of the limit or limits of spirit influence. As you know, there is a Law of Attraction where like is attracted to like, and this law is most fixed or specific in the spirit world and somewhat less in operation on earth. On earth, one cannot always easily choose his associations; he must live with and among those of varying soul conditions. But on the spirit side of life, as you have been told, the exact condition of the soul determines the exact locality of the spirit. Now, with regard to spirit influence, those of evil disposition do attempt to influence mortals. But it must be kept in mind that they are essentially attracted to those mortals who they feel some affinity with. And mortals, in turn, by their own thoughts and feelings, add to this attraction. You have heard, for example, that when a mortal activates his animal or lower desires, at the same time, he attracts many spirits who have or have had similar desires as mortals, and who still retain these desires as spirits, whether or not these desires can still be exercised in the same manner as was exercised while they were still mortals. And, so, when given the opportunity by the “calling” of mortals seeking such indulgences, these spirits of similar inclination attempt to participate in these indulgences, even if only vicariously. And, of course, knowing of the mortal’s similar desire, every attempt is made to intensify this desire in the mortal to persist in the indulgent activity so that both spirit and mortal can exercise and attempt to fulfill their appetites for these things jointly. Earth life is the great period of probation. And, indeed, it can be a period of great temptation or a period of relative freedom from corruptive influences from the spirit side of life. It all depends upon the mortal who must come to recognize that he does not live to himself alone, but is ever exposed to both spirit and mortal influence until such time that his advancement carries him beyond the evil influence exposures encountered on lower planes of existence. But if and when desired, during these formative stages of living and soul progression, the mortal recognizes and knows of the help he may ever receive from the Father and His angels through sincere prayer, and he exercises his desire for assistance and protection in this manner, then he will indeed receive this assistance, protection, and freedom from evil spirit influences through the intervention of those good spirits charged with that mortal’s care.
This is interesting, because here we find the Law of Attraction brings spirits and mortals into proximity, and then the Law of Rapport and Communication may allow those spirits to impress thoughts into the minds of mortals. If indeed these mortals were more aware of this, they would recognize that they have a spirit associate, albeit one possibly attracted for no good end, if they are not of good spiritual condition.