Tranquil Spirit, Northwich, Cheshire, UK - Spirit Communications: Religions

Spirit Communications:

Religions

Religion & Peace

Q: Is there any hope in our lifetime of the different religions living together in peace?

Hai: There is hope of this, the different religions living together. There is hope. There is the possibility of this. The people must look beyond their identity; must look beyond their belonging to a group, their attachment to a group. Identity also is a trapping of a particular incarnation. It is nothing to do with the soul within, the Divine Essence. People would do better to ask themselves about this Inner Identity, this Essential Identity. If they ask themselves about this; if they pressed home to themselves: "What is my Essential Identity;" there is only one conclusion they could reach because they share their Essential Identity with all of human kind.

Therefore, if they would only realise this their allegiances to religion, country and so on would fall away. I have given a comparison before, I think. It is as if the branches of a mighty tree all fight with each other - yet they are fed by the same trunk, their sustenance fills them through the same trunk. Without the trunk they are as nothing; they would die. And the trunk needs the branches. The branches, full of leaves, could symbolise human beings along the different branches, which symbolise different religions or different countries. The trunk of the tree needs these as much as they need the trunk. And so we have once more the One Mind, the Essential Unity. Does it make sense to war with each other when this is the Reality, the Unity, the One Mind? It is madness surely to imagine that we should war with each other. It is against our Essential Reality. It is against our interest. It is against our life.

The communication below is interesting because it demonstrates the importance of letting go of attachments. Joshua told us that he was of the Jewish faith when last on the earth plane about three hundred years ago. He lived in what was known as Palestine at the time. He told us that he was preparing to re-incarnate but this time into a different country and religion. Although Joshua was from the Jewish faith the lesson here is that anyone from any faith could become stuck if they continue to rebirth to a similar situation just because it seems safe and comfortable and they become attached to it.

The communication yet again demonstrates spirit humour and has its usual share of jokes from Davia in the background. We've typed this up very much as Joshua said it so we hope you can understand the grammar. Joshua told us he was a scribe when last on the earth plane so had to learn scriptures to be able to write them down. He added:

Joshua: I had to pray it, describe it and to reveal it. So it was desirable and necessary to have it internalised in my head that I could (laughs) astound people with my knowledge of the scripture. I was never short of a quotation, a reference, a revealing of a paragraph here, one there and so on. They were stuck for words.

Q: Have you always come back to earth in the Jewish faith?

Joshua: Yes. In the previous incarnations that I am privileged to remember, but not all of those incarnations which I am not privileged to remember. But as I cannot remember all of my previous incarnations I will say to you that I can only remember those ones where I was born a Jewish person.

Q: Did you have a particular reason for reincarnating again in the Jewish faith?

Joshua: It felt good. It felt sure and familiar.

Someone in the group asked if Joshua used to pray at the wailing wall. He confirmed that he did and asked:

Joshua: Are you all good praying people?

Q: Well we probably don't pray like you would have done.

Joshua: (Laughs). You pray second-rate prayer then. (laughs again). He (referring to Davia) do this to me. He pull the plug if I do not behave myself. (Laughs again heartily).

Q: Did you not want to come back in another religion for the experience?

Joshua: No. He,(referring to Davia), sent me through to let me explain something to you, which is about what you ask me. You clever person because you put finger on button (referring to the previous question). He say that it is important for you to know that people who go spirit land may not necessarily be so clever, may not necessarily be so spiritual or what you call, evolved soul, spiritual being, even if they are keen on religion. I visit earth plane many times. I come to same part of world. I come into same religion because I have attachment to place and religion. So I go round in what you call "ever-decreasing circles", getting more and more fixed as the water goes down the plughole - yes? More and more concentrated and focused as water goes down the plughole (laughs.) Is not good; end up going down the plughole. So I learn eventually that I must choose another religion, another place to be born, another country to hold the flag up. I am going to be reborn in a new place. I have made a decision to be reborn in new place.

Q: Can you tell us which place?

Joshua: No.(Laughs). I am looking forward to it because it is going to be a new experience, not a repeat of old experiences but a new experience, enlightening experience, freeing up the locks, the chains that bind me.

Q: Are you coming soon?

Joshua: Mm soon.

Q: Have you chosen your parents yet?

Joshua: No, but it is enough to have chosen country. It's a big step forward choosing somewhere new.

Q: I suppose you could still come back in the same religion even if you come back to a different country, could you?

Joshua: No. Must change religion, must change country. Must change country must change religion.

Q: Are you going to be a man again?

Joshua: There you put finger on button again. I don't know for sure yet but he (Davia) thinks I need to change sex. (Laughter).

Someone in the group commented that from an earth point of view this whole conversation sounded quite bizarre. Joshua laughed and replied:

Joshua: He, (referring to Davia again), say to me: He thought that too when he set this up but he was not bothered because he say to himself: "They are used to bizarre conversations now. And anyway he says, no use complaining because they start plenty of them themselves." (Laughter).

Q: Where did you go to choose your country, did you go somewhere special in the spirit world?

Joshua: I had a look around real countries.

Q: So you simply visited the countries yourself to decide?

Joshua: Yes.

Q: Will you have to go to a special place in order to be reborn?

Joshua: Yes, earth. (Much laughter).

When the laughter had died down Eileen continued:

Q: I mean a special place in the spirit world.

Joshua: No need. Someone come with you sometimes to help you with process but there is no need to go somewhere special. The special place is in womb of woman.

Q: Will you miss the spirit world?

Joshua: No, once I am here I will not remember. I am going to have good time on earth though. Good time.

Q: You know that do you?

Joshua: I am confident; I feel I will have a good time. Even if I don't have such a good time I will have a good time because I am going to learn things now. (Tone changes) I am going to grow now.

Note: It is interesting that Joshua was confident that he would have what he described as a "good time", but he did not necessarily view a good time as we would, but thought of his future life as a growing experience and therefore 'a good time.'

On a number of occasions spirits have come through to share their experiences gained through past earthly lives in order to give us another perspective on the subject. One of the most poignant of these was a visit from a spirit who stated that he had been an Aztec Leader in a previous life.

Q: Were there times when you made offerings to your Spirit?

Aztec: Offerings to the Great Spirit. Yes, offerings at festivals to the Great Spirit. But this is a sadness, because we mistake the nature of the Great Spirit. We believed Great Spirit needed our blood to live, to be appeased. We did not understand Great Spirit is in all of us. Great Spirit love each person. Our minds twist meaning, of life, of Great Spirit, of eternity. The human mind is dangerous, very dangerous. The human mind takes all manner of things and distorts them and makes them a reality in its own image, as if they were a reality. This is terrible danger, terrible disaster. You have this here recently. The human mind takes an idea and works on it. Works on it to a fever. Works on it till it is as if it is a concrete building, a reality that cannot be questioned. Then they act. You must put people at centre of worth, centre of existence, and all things must come from this. The valuing of each individual person. The loving of each individual person. All else must be built on this and nothing else. No religion, no principles, no nothing. Only this love of each individual person. Even high sounding principles go astray, go wrong. They must be tested and questioned against love. Do they support, do they manifest love of each individual person?

Q: Did your civilisation last for a long time?

Aztec: Yes, till Spanish come. They came for our gold and our land. But they also had wrong ideas, distorted ideas, harmful ideas. They come with more wrongful ideas, distorted ideas, disastrous ideas. Their "reality" was as bad as our "reality"! All in the quagmire!

Q: Did they try to change your people to their religion?

Aztec: Yes and they succeeded. But more distortion! All religion, throw down! Look at your brother, your sister, with loving eyes and all is done. No more needed! All is done! And follow through with that love. Simplicity, simple love is what is needed. A straight road. Your religions, they are a myriad of roads stretching out in every direction, exploring they know not what. A straight road of love is all that is needed. Is all that is! 

"The Only Way to the Father is though Me."

Q: Some people say, that Jesus said, “The only way to the Father was through Him” Did he say that?

Hai: No he does not mean this. He means the only way to the Father is through His spirit, in sense of loving spirit. The only way to the Father is through encapsulating the Christ Spirit within you. But this is not Christ Spirit in the way some talk of it, no. This is Christ Spirit in the sense of loving spirit, which is in all of us. If we adopt Christ Spirit we are at one with Loving Spirit of all; of Christ Himself and all loving spirits, we are at one. Therefore to approach Father, we must embrace loving spirit, Christ Spirit, yes. Therefore this must be done to make yourself Christ like, yes. For if you cannot make yourself Christ like, how can you approach Father anyway. For it is not like you knock on the door of Christ and ask for introduction to Father, yes? To God, yes? This second hand stuff (with laugh). What we must do is make ourselves Christ like, loving spirit like; we knock on door for first hand experience.

But our loving spirit is itself the key to open the door to God. Our loving spirit is the key to God. And this loving spirit is identical with the spirit of Christ. Yes, loving spirit. It is great error this; those who speak of, ‘by Christ alone’ because this is second hand imitation of what Christ means. This is not the way to God. By emulating Christ we put ourselves on the road, but we must become as Christ to unlock the door. Some would see this as blasphemous. Yes? But in truth it is the only way to God. To say that we must make ourselves ‘Christ like’ is not blasphemous. It is a statement of fact, a statement of reality. We are not saying that we are ‘Christ like’ now, but that we are on the road to the wish to become Christ like, for we know this is the only way to love all.

Eileen went on to tell Hai about an email she’d received, regarding her Reiki healing, from someone purporting to be a Christian. The person suggested that she should renounce sin, and say the prayer that accompanied the email. This was Hai’s response.

Hai: This second hand religion; is counterfeit religion. The way this person speaks and acts is counterfeit religion. Not real thing, not real religion. Real religion must change heart inside, must turn around heart; awaken heart. It must be like an experience you have on your earth plane of putting hand into cold mountain stream. It must be that kind of experience, that kind of reality. Not trading in words, not trading in books, not pretend religion, but real religion which you must experience through your hearts, yes, through your hearts.

Q: Will someone like that, when he goes to the spirit world, stay with like-minded people?

Hai: Yes stay with (with amusement) tight-minded people. Yes until he learns to unfold his mind like the lotus.

While our group were still discussing the above conversation, Sam came through. He eventually told us that he had been a preacher when last on the earth plane. It soon became evident that what he had to tell us followed on the theme from the previous discussion. The theme was about rules and control.

Sam the Preacher

Sam: Yes you speak true. I have a particular experience of what you’ve been talking about for I was born in the deep south of the USA where we were mighty religious, mighty religious. We had so much religion it was coming out of our ears. And God help you folk if you weren’t mighty religious, with it coming out of your ears. Yeah siree. Not a pretty sight, religion coming out of your ears.

Q: Did you find it difficult to adjust when you went to the spirit world?

Sam: Well I did so find it mighty difficult to adjust when I came up here. Up here being a manner of speaking. But yeah I sure did. I was talking to this guy soon after I came here. And he was talking to me and I said to him: "Well where are all these folks I heard about, where are all these happenings I heard about when I was on the earth plane?" And he said to me: "What you on about? What kind of happenings? What kind of folk are you looking for?" So I told him I was looking for all those folk in the bible. So he said to me: "Well they’ve all gone on their way my friend." So I said: "Well where are they?" and he said: "Well they’ve gone on their way up a level or two." So I said: "Well I thought they’d be here. I thought I’d see them and talk to them, but they ain't here." So he said: "Well no, so what you going to do now?" So I said: "Well what do folks do now?" So he said: "Well you just get on with life. There’s plenty of folk to talk to without those biblical folk, plenty of interesting folk." So that’s what I did. I got on with my life.

Q: Is it easier now that you don’t have to worry about religion?

Sam: It is. It was such a burden. I did not realise it at the time, but it was such a burden, yes. It was like you had to wear it on your lapel all the time. It was an effort. It was an encumbrance. It was a heavy load, yes. But I didn’t see it that way at the time. I did not recognize it that way at the time, no siree.

Q: Were you drawn to people of like mind when you first went to the spirit world?

Sam: Yes I was drawn to some people of like mind. Yes at first I was. They were all looking all around the place too, for all these biblical folk. Thinking well, "Where are we? Where is this place? It’s not what we thought it to be. Not where we thought we were coming." So we all talked about it. We all bounced ideas around a bit to work out what was going on. We all looked around a hell of a lot to find out what was going on and where we were, but you get tired of that after a while. Yet some of them are still looking you know, sure are; got their compasses out and going round in circles. (Laughs)

Q: Didn’t someone come and tell them that there were no biblical folk around?

Sam: Yeah well you know, you can tell some folk, but they don’t listen. They say: "You’ve all got it wrong. We must just be a little out from where we should be." They say: "Well if it’s right what you say, you’ve got to prove it." But I can’t prove it to them ‘cause I can’t take them by the hand and find all those biblical folk who’ve gone up a level or two. So I can’t prove it, so they wander around the place you see.

Q: Did you realise straight away that you had left your earthly body behind?

Sam: No you don’t realise straight away sometimes, because you just sort of stand around the place like you would here, you see. It all seems so natural. You see all these places, all these people. It looks sort of a bit different, but it still seems natural somehow. You don’t think too much of it. You think: "Oh this is a nice place", but then you start to think: "Well where am I, and where is this place? Where are all these people from?" All this kind of stuff. You wonder how you got there and then you start to realise you must be dead, but you don’t feel dead. "If this is dead then what’s alive?" Yeah you feel more alive than when you were alive; that’s the truth of the matter, yeah.

Q: When you were alive did you ever discuss Spiritualism?

Sam: Oh yeah, the work of the devil (laughs). I ain’t seen the devil by the way. I don’t even know if he’s around. I ain’t heard anything of him too so I’m wondering if he’s really existing.

Q: Did someone meet you when you passed over?

Sam: Oh yeah, lots of folk came to meet me. They came looking for me ‘cause they heard I was coming and they were members of the congregation when I was down here. They were looking for some guidance; trying to find things the way they should be.

Q: What did you do when you were last on the earth plane?

Sam: I was a full time preacher and when I say "full time", I mean "full time".

Q: You mean twenty-four hours a day?

Sam: You bet you. Full time. Inside the cloth and outside the cloth; inside the church and outside the church; in the parks, on the sidewalks, in the streets.

Q: Were you a hard liner?

Sam: Fire and brimstone.

Q: Did you put fear into everyone?

Sam: They needed it you see. They needed that fear to keep them on the straight and narrow. I did it for their good. Yeah (laughs heartily). I knew what was good for them. You see the ego?

Q: And now you are in the spirit world do you think you did so them some good?

Sam: No, no. I gave some of them some structure; that did some of them a bit of good; some of them needed a bit of structure. Yeah, I did some good. But for most I did no good, for I got their minds down a tram track and their minds stuck there, yeah. And you can’t have your minds down a tram track ‘cause your mind has gotta go off exploring to find the way.

You gotta try things out; you gotta test things out; you gotta do a bit of meandering here and you gotta do a bit of meandering there, because you gotta learn the hard way. You go reading these books of rules and just follow the rules and you learn nothing. The time will come my friend; and you can tell everyone this for me and I would heartily beg you to; time will come when you’ve been sticking to your rule book and you’ve been trying to act out your rule book, then your understanding of that rule book will get sorely tested. And if you haven’t been meandering around a bit; if you haven’t been exploring the territory; if you haven’t been testing yourselves out a bit and learning the hard way, you won’t follow that rule book anyway, ‘cause you’ll find the rules will break you. ‘Cause you gotta learn the hard way, through life, not through the rule book; no not through the rule book. You follow me? So therefore you gotta be allowed and you gotta make some mistakes in your lives for it’s only by making mistakes, some big, some not so big, that you really learn things and you internalise them into the heart and you make the experience, the knowledge, the wisdom, your own, yeah.

Q: But you did it with the best of intention, didn’t you?

Sam: Oh yeah (laughter), I did it so, with the best of intentions. There are so many folk up here who have done so much with the best of intentions (laughs). I met a guy who used to screw some poor souls' thumbs, "for their own good". Now how does that one work? You tell me.

Q: Is that because some people want to control others rather than wanting to do good?

Sam: The power of the mind. You see folks we have responsibility for keeping control of our minds, ‘cause our minds are deadly powerful my friends. Power of thought is deadly powerful. So if we allow our minds to go down some road, some road of concrete that we can’t turn back from, that we can’t see any roads going off to the side because we think: "This is the straight road; this is the long straight road."

Sam’s voice became very loud and he sounded just like an evangelical preacher

"Yeah I gotta follow, yeah. You hear me brothers and sisters, we all gotta be on this road to the sun, to the Light. You must not deviate down Satan's byways. You gotta stick to the straight narrow road that heads to the Light my friends.

After we’d all recovered, Sam was asked:

Q: Is that how you gave it to them?

Sam: Yeah this is how I gave it to them, but if you can only see that long straight road to the light that you have tarmaced (laughs); well my friends, your minds are trammelled; your minds are trammelled from either side. All you can see is that straight road of concrete, which you have laid yeah. And God forbid, if that straight road of concrete, that you think is headed to the light, is headed to another place, God help you. You understand me? You follow me in all this?

Sam was back in his preacher mode again

So I say to you my friends, there are many a person on your side of life who has created a straight road for themselves which they think heads for the Light, but they are headed for the darker realms yeah, the darker realms is where they will be headed. For they have mixed in this straight road with their own ego, their own ill intent to their poor brothers and sister. So this is the test. This is the acid test. Do our actions lead to the welfare, the true welfare of our brothers and sisters?

I do not say by some imaginary criteria, that in the after life this will have done you good my friend. I mean here and now. Does it do them good, here and now? Does it cause them pain, here and now? Does it cause them enlightenment, here and now? Does it cause them feelings of love and enjoyment, here and now? This is the test my friends. So I would say to keep your minds open yeah, keep your minds open, tolerant and patient, tolerant, patient, tolerant, patient. I cannot emphasise those words more than I should. I repeat this for effect, tolerant, patient. So you gotta get tolerant, patient minds. You gotta resist your mind getting into some kind of straight jacket, narrow road that you cannot see from. You cannot see the scenery of life. You gotta keep your mind open. Test things out. I don’t say go exploring here there and everywhere, with no thought of what will come of it, but I say you gotta explore, you gotta look around a bit, you gotta test things out a bit. This is what you gotta do, but you gotta resist the temptation to adopt some catechism, just following the sayings by rote. Just following it blindly is not leading you anywhere, is leading you down a hole.

Q: Do you mean anything?

Sam: I mean anything but especially religion, ‘cause religions got the most powerful thoughts of all yeah, especially religion.

I had a strong powerful mind and a strong powerful voice to go with it. So when I spoke from my pulpit, my God I reached out to those souls who were sat down there in front of me and by God they listened to me. By God yeah. But I should have listened to them. I should have encouraged them to say what they thought.

Q: Did you, and others like you, do it because you enjoyed the control you had over other people?

Sam: I enjoyed the limelight. I enjoyed the authority, but I also truly did believe that I was doing them a service. But they looked up to me. They saw me as someone who had authority, who had wisdom, who could give guidance. Therefore I did it with good intent, but I was misguided, for I should have helped them to explore their own way, their own path and not go laying the road ahead for them of my own making.

Q: Isn’t that sort of...?

Sam: Arrogance my friend, arrogance. Not big mindedness; it was narrow mindedness. You think your interpretation is the right interpretation, but the fact of the matter is, those books that we read, those bibles, those others books we read, were based on someone else’s interpretations of someone’s else’s interpretations and so on. Then we come along, and we make our interpretations, and so it goes on. Truth of the matter is we know what the truth is in here (pressing chest). We know what the reality, the heart of the matter is in here (pressing chest).

Q: Will you come back to the earth again?

Sam: Yes well I think I’m gonna have to come back and make some amends. I don’t mind too much, because I think the time will come when I have to come back. Not yet but it’s gonna have to be.

Q: Will you go to the same place?

Sam: No, but I think I will go to a similar kind of place which has got the problem of this place, and put across a different perspective, if you see what I mean. So it doesn’t matter too much that it’s geographically where I was, but more mentally where I was. You understand me, yeah? So I can bring along another mental way of looking at things. Yeah that’s what I’ll do. Yeah, speak it as it should be spoken. Except now I am trying to do that truly, yeah. I spoke it like I thought it should be spoken, but I had my eyes opened when I came up here yeah. But now, I am truly speaking as I think it aught to be spoken; to the best of my ability, without preference, without pretext, yeah. So I’ll leave you folks. Sometime our paths might cross again. Well I’ll be seeing you. May the Radiant Light shine on you all.

Cindy from North Carolina in the USA asked the following question:

Q: Do you have any advice on how to get along with someone of a differet religion? How to let them know you do not want to convert to their religion and just want to be friends without hurting their feelings?

Hai: Well this difficult subject. This difficult matter. For religion is a troublesome thing, this religion, is it not? A troublesome thing. It evokes the emotions. It evokes the person to their deepest depths. This difficult question. Well we must try to answer difficult question. Difficult questions along with easy questions. Well this is the most important thing to do. Is to love other person, is to respect other person, is to respect beliefs of other person, without giving up, without changing your own convictions, your own beliefs, your own values, own deep feelings. We must respect the religions of others but be true to ourselves.

Therefore the bridge which we may build between ourselves, between each other of different religions, is a bridge based on love and respect. If we can build this bridge of love and respect we will bridge the divides of the different religions and we will forge relationships, loving relationships with each other in spite of our differences. Trouble is people often want other people to believe as they do, to believe as they think, because they cannot cope with people having different beliefs, different feelings, different thoughts to their own. Because they think "if these people have different thoughts, different beliefs, different feelings to my own, they are not with me, they are not close to me, they are not of one heart with me". But this is error. This is error. For we are all joined together at the most fundamental, deepest level in a unity of love. We are all of the One Heart. We are all of the One Heart. And no amount, no number of different beliefs, different religions, different values, different feelings can change this one iota. Nothing can change this one iota. It is as if you would carve the ocean with a sword. What use would there be to try to carve the ocean with a sword? A futile exercise eh, a futile exercise. And yet the ocean is like the ocean of our hearts. We are indissoluble, indivisible. We are a vast unity, a vast Oneness, a vast Suchness. There can be no true division placed between us. The ideas of men, the religions of men, the beliefs of men, the values of men are as nothing. But we must discover this of course. We must discover this through our own voyage of discovery, this vast Oneness. But in truth these religions which divide cannot divide. In the Essence of things they cannot divide.

Therefore I would say to this young person, I would say to her to show love and compassion towards her friend, to respect the religion and beliefs of her friend, but to make it clear that love transcends such religious beliefs. To make it clear that she loves this person regardless of their religion and beliefs. Whatever religion and beliefs they have they are worthy of love, worthy of love in full, in the deepest sense. Therefore she should try to convey this message to this person. That her love is unquestioning. It is full of acceptance for this person. And this love does not depend upon her converting her beliefs to theirs in order for this love and companionship to take place and to be full and to be rich. 

Alpha Course

Q: I watched a programme about the Alpha Course which shows youngsters how to find God. Will this manifest itself further?

Hai: There are many paths, many paths. What is suitable for one is not suitable for another. We need many paths in order to attract, to welcome people of a certain disposition. We need many paths that they may follow to find their way. So, there is no one path which can meet the needs of all. But if there are many paths to choose from, then we may find one to our liking, which can lead us in progress. Lead us to our spiritual heritage.

When I was in China, when I lived on the earth last time, there used to be many who used to fish in the rivers and the ponds and the lakes. And the fishermen used their line and they baited their hooks with all manner of things. And they knew that if you wish to catch one kind of fish you must use a certain bait. But this bait would be no use for another species of fish. So it is with human beings. We each like a particular bait to bite on. And so, if we provide the right bait to our liking, then we will bite and we will tread the path which suits us. 

Can Different Religions Live Together in Peace?

Q: Is there any hope in our lifetime of the different religions living together in peace?

Hai: There is hope of this, the different religions living together. There is hope. There is the possibility of this. The people must look beyond their identity; must look beyond their belonging to a group; their attachment to a group. Identity also is a trapping of a particular incarnation. It is nothing to do with the soul within, the divine essence. People would do better to ask themselves about this inner identity, this essential identity. Because if they ask themselves about this; if they pressed home to themselves: "What is my essential identity?"; there is only one conclusion they could reach. They share their Essential Identity with all of human kind and their allegiances to religion, country, and so on would fall away. I have given a comparison before, I think. It is as if the branches of a mighty tree all fight with each other. Yet they are fed by the same trunk, the sustenance fills them through the same trunk. Without the trunk they are as nothing. They would die. And the trunk needs the branches, the branches full of leaves, which could symbolise human beings, if you wish ,along the different branches which symbolise different religions or different countries. The trunk, the tree, needs these as much as they need the trunk. And so we have once more the One Mind, the Essential Unity. Does it make sense to war with each other when this is the reality: the Unity, the One Mind? It is madness surely to imagine that we should war with each other. It is against our Essential Reality. It is against our interest. It is against our life. 

Susan from Denver, Colorado, asked the following question about Edgar Cayce.

Q: I have a question regarding Edgar Cayce, the well-known psychic. Much of his information seems incredibly accurate and helpful, but on the other hand a lot of it seems steeped in Christian doctrine. I've found that the Bible is simply not the book for me. How can a psychic be right on in one area, but not so accurate in another? How can you ever know who to trust for information?

Hai: We have said before that we use what vehicle is available to us. Therefore, some vehicles have been indoctrinated into Christian faith, someone else into Buddhist faith and so on and yet each in their way may be suitable vehicles to transmit the truth, to transmit wisdom, to transmit teachings. Therefore we use them as best we can to convey our messages. They for their part are acting in good faith; believe in the religion of their choice, which they were brought up in perhaps. They are committed to their religion. They have put that shoe on their foot and they walk with it through their lives. So that is fine, that is ok. We can work with that.

But you must distinguish the communication that comes through from the background, dogma, context in which it may be spoken. It may not be a problem, but sometimes it may be, depending upon how ingrained, how committed the person is to their particular religion and their version of truth. It may affect the message, sometimes it may not.

Therefore, there is no easy answer to the second part of the question, about how we should choose, how we should know, how we should identify when truth has been spoken. It is rather that we already know the truth in our inner most heart. And when it is spoken it resonates in our heart and we know it to be true; we know it for the truth it is. Therefore, we know when it resonates with our own hearts. We cannot put aside the responsibility for making this judgement, this assessment. We must take responsibility for ourselves, for divining what is the truth and what is not. We should not accept what anyone has to say, no matter how saintly, no matter how benevolent, no matter how learned they appear. We should not accept anything from anyone unless it resonates in the truth of our own hearts, when truth is honestly sought.

Hai was asked to comment on the recent controversy over a gay Anglican minister in the USA who was being proposed for appointment as a bishop.

Hai: Well it is true that where you rely upon doctrine, where you rely upon legality, this will put you into difficulty in such cases. For if you are abiding by the letter of the law; if you are abiding by what is written; what is written of old; if you are interpreting in this light, then you will have no option but to follow the ruling, to follow what is written. But this is why you get into difficulty. Because you people in human society you are always trying to write things down. And once you write things down you live by what is written and therefore you create a corner for yourselves out of which you cannot extricate yourselves. Therefore you box yourselves in; you cannot turn; you have nowhere to turn.

Yet there are other criteria which we may put here. Well, what should be done out of love for this person, those people etc. We should ask ourselves: "What should be done out of love, what should love tell us to do?", yes? Love tells us tolerance. Love tells us compassion. Love tells us embracing. Therefore it becomes more a question of how this person would fulfil their role; how they would fulfil their role in this church to render service; to fulfil their mission in this framework. So the fundamental question is: Can this person fulfil their duties? - Rather than any the other consideration. But because you have boxed yourselves in with your doctrines, with your rules and your regulations, they will not find it so easy to come to this conclusion, for they say it is written, yes?

Q: Who would put that into the bible, Hai? Jesus surely wouldn’t have said that would he?

Hai: Well, what Jesus said or did not say is not so much the point, for even those things which are reported of what Jesus said are what people remember of what Jesus said. So therefore you are on dangerous ground if you try to say: "This sentence Jesus say, that sentence Jesus say." What you can say is that the flavour, the fundamental principles, the essential meaning of what Jesus said come through those parts of the bible which relate to Jesus. But you must interpret this in the light of your world, in the light of your times. For if you say: "Jesus say this, Jesus say that", you are on shifting sand, for no one who is on your earth knows what Jesus said anyway. All you can say is it is the essence of his message. You have the essence of his message and loving compassion. The Truth, the Essential Reality, is to be found in the hearts of living men and women not in the dead books of yesterday. And therefore Jesus’ message also is to be found in the loving hearts of men and women of today, not in what are his supposed words of yesterday.

Q: Surely though these bishops realise that the writings of the bible have been distorted over time. So it is not as though the bible is a true record anyway.

Hai: But how will you know which bits were said and which bits were not said? So therefore you must make some sound judgement about this. As I say you must go to the essence and make your own judgment accordingly.

Q: A judgement must have been made that this person is suitable to be a bishop.

Hai: Yes, in his own place, in his own time, yes.

Q: What do you mean, Hai?

Hai: His place of origin (America.) So there is no problem here you see, he just has to do a Henry the Eighth (split from the church.)

Q: Surely though if the person is a priest already then what difference does it make because he is going to be made a bishop?

Hai: Yes this is true.

Q: I know I am showing my intolerance now, but it made me quite cross to hear the exisitng Bishops talking about leaving the church over this issue.

Hai: You must have compassion for where these people have come from; what their influences are upon their life; what their thinking is influenced by; how it is shaped. You must have tolerance for them also. We are all prisoners of our own concepts, of our own teachings, of our own doctrines, of our own backgrounds.

Q: Were there any homosexual monks at your monastery, Hai?

Hai: Yes, there were.

Q: But you weren’t allowed to have partners or marry were you?

Hai: No, not generally so, but yet there were some who could, yes. This was ok.

Q: Were you tolerant about homosexuality between monks?

Hai: Yes we were tolerant, but the human body is built to function in certain ways.

Q: From what you say then does it mean that homosexuality is a contradiction of nature because it does not follow the normal course of how the body works?

Hai: It is contradictory to the essential plan. Yet the contradiction in itself creates some purpose because it contradicts the plan. It contradicts the expectancies of men and women. It contradicts the preconceptions of what human love is about. And in contradicting the conceptions of what human love is about it creates confusion, it creates a challenge to their thinking, to their understanding and therefore it challenges their understanding of love also. And in challenging their understanding of love it serves a purpose. It must make them embrace wider concepts of what human love is, of its variety, its variation. But yet there are practices which run counter to the human condition, to the human body and its functions. I speak of the sexual act.

Q: Is the human body designed to eat meat?

Hai: The human body is designed to eat lots of things, Tim. Some good and some not so good, but it is designed to eat lots of things. It can cope with a variety of foods. There is no fundamental problem with the nature of food which people ingest. There is simply a condition, a desirability, that people should move to vegetarian food, but this is more to do with insight and understanding, with development, rather than any need of the human body to ingest certain food.

Q: Could you compare a homosexual to somebody who eats meat, but would be better if they were a vegetarian or is there more to it than that?

Hai: No, it is not like this, no.

Q: Is it possible that when same sex people are drawn to each other they have shared a life before where there has been love?

Hai: No, not necessarily so. It is to do with the nature of the human body which they have taken on themselves upon this earthly life in particular. But there is a complication here also, for there are those who could turn in either direction, to be attracted to male or female. This is not to do with anything other than experiences, which mould them as they grow up, as they develop, and to a point you could say that this is potential distortion of their original path. So there are those who will be attracted to those of same sex on this earthly life because of their genetic makeup, because of the way their body has been formed, yes. So this is a physical thing. There are also those who may be attracted to people of same sex because of the conditioning which they have experienced upon this earth life. It is a matter of experience, yes. They may choose and yet they do not choose because they have been conditioned. So there are many factors as always here; many things, which may influence events.

Q: Does every person have what could be described as a soul mate?

Hai: No. You have many soul mates so there is not one soul mate. There are many soul mates.

Q: Are there such things as twin souls? I was reading a book that refers to twin souls. Do soul mates exist?

Hai: It exists but it exists in abundance. (Laughs)

Q: I am even more confused.

Hai: It is simple. There are many who are on your wavelength, on your thought pattern, who are on your heart strings. There are many who are your potential soul mates.

Q: I was wondering that if there were soul mates and if both came here as the same sex, could this be the reason for homosexuality?

Hai: No, but what does sex mean when we are looking at the reality of eternity? You could meet soul mate of same sex while you are here, John. You can meet soul mate of female sex. You are close to wife, yes? But you do not need to enter a physical relationship with soul mate of male sex. You can feel closeness. You can feel bond and comradeship with this person, but there is no need for a physical relationship because physical relationship is peculiar to man and woman relationship in most circumstances. So we can have soul mates of different sexes.

Q: But it sounds as though we could have a lot of different soul mates.

Hai: Yes this is true. We are all mates at one level yes.

Q: I thought we always just had one soul mate.

Hai: But yet we are all One.

Q: Now you’re getting clever on me, Hai.

Hai: What need is there for twin souls? This is an earthly concept to do with earthly birth, physical birth. What need is there of speaking of twin souls in spirit lands?