ABC of Spiritualism 35 & 36 & 37/100

35. Are all unreliable messages from lying spirits? By no means. Many messages express the opinions, possibly the sincere beliefs of the spirit communications, and these are proved by future events to have been founded on misconception and error. Spiritualism has never claimed any infallibility for spirit messages.

36. Are there any other explanations of the failure of spirit messages and spirit prophecies to come true? Undoubtedly there are many other explanations of the failure of spirit messages. The whole method and practice of spirit communication is still in an experimental stage. In the first place the communicating intelligence must possess clear knowledge of the facts to be transmitted. Secondly, the medium must be in perfect condition to properly receive the message sent. Then the medium must present the message perfectly to the sitter. And lastly the sitter must clearly sense and receive the message. On any of the above lines a failure is possible and through lack of perfect conditions the message as originally formulated does not reach the intelligence of the sitter. No doubt many failures (?) of spirit messages can be accounted for in this way.

37. But if Spirit advice and prophecy may prove unreliable, what benefit can men receive from them? The same benefit that you can receive from the advice of the lawyer, doctor or earth friends. None of these are infallible and yet their counsel is often very valuable. Spirit messages have never been advocated by Spiritualism as an infallible source of guidance. All representative Spiritualist teachers urge people to gain all the advice and knowledge possible from friends in both worlds, and then determine their own conduct according to the reason and moral sense God has given them.