The 5756 Readings

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Part Two: Spirit as the Creative Source of All Life

As the 5756 series develops, it moves beyond communication with departed souls and asks a much greater question: What is Spirit itself? Reading 5756-10 says that the subject must be approached from its beginning: “How did the influence known as Spirit move upon the various matters that came into existence?” (5756-10). This question changes the direction of the series. Spirit is no longer considered only in relation to death. It is presented as the creative influence behind all matter, life, consciousness, and existence.

The readings teach that Spirit is not one force among many. Spirit is the source of every force. The same divine influence operates through the sun, the planets, the elements, living cells, human beings, and the soul. Reading 5756-10 explains that the proper understanding of Spirit must apply both to “the gaseous forces that constitute the Sun” and to “the single cell” in the waters of the earth (5756-10). Nothing is completely outside the activity of Spirit.

Reading 5756-11 describes matter being acted upon by “the Spirit of God.” Through this divine movement, matter began to share in the force and purpose assigned to it by the Creator. The reading concludes, “Hence we see all become impregnated with the spirit of the Creator; hence are of the one source or power” (5756-11). Creation is therefore not spiritually empty. Every part of creation carries something of the life, energy, and order of its Source.

This does not mean that a stone, plant, animal, and human being possess the same degree of consciousness. It means that the one creative power works through all levels of existence. Spirit expresses itself differently according to the form through which it operates. Just as electricity may produce light, heat, sound, or movement through different instruments, the one Spirit may produce different forms of life and awareness.

Reading 5756-4 uses a similar illustration. It compares spiritual force to the power coming from a central powerhouse and lighting many individual lamps. Each lamp has its own connection, form, and capacity, but the energy comes from the same source. “Each apply, manifest, according to that as is builded in the individual,” the reading explains (5756-4). Each soul expresses the one spiritual power according to what it has developed.

The soul is therefore both individual and connected to the whole. We remain responsible for our choices, yet our life comes from the same divine Source as every other soul. Spiritual growth is the process through which the individual gradually becomes conscious of this unity. The reading describes development as continuing “until each is made one in the Great Whole—the Creative Energy of the Universal Forces” (5756-4). This oneness does not necessarily mean the destruction of individuality. It means that the soul brings its will, purpose, and desire into harmony with God.

According to the readings, the central spiritual problem began when souls turned away from this harmony. Reading 5756-11 speaks of spirits that “rebelled against that law of love” and “turned in self upon self,” separating themselves from their first companionship with God (5756-11). This is a powerful description of selfishness. Separation begins when the soul uses spiritual power only for itself rather than in harmony with divine love.

Matter then becomes part of the soul’s opportunity to return. Physical life allows the soul to experience the results of its choices and to change its direction. It can become trapped in selfish desire, or it can use the material world as a place of learning, service, love, patience, and cooperation. The entry of spirit into matter could therefore produce both good and bad, depending upon how each soul applied the influences around it (5756-11).

The purpose of life is not to reject the material world as evil. It is to spiritualize our use of it. Money, possessions, relationships, work, knowledge, and physical abilities may all serve selfish desire or divine purpose. The important question is whether we worship the created thing or recognize the Spirit that gives it life.

The reading illustrates this through the worship of the sun. Some people worshipped what the sun produced instead of worshipping “that which produced the sun” (5756-11). The reading says, “There’s a difference!” (5756-11). The visible result should lead us toward the invisible Source, but human beings often become absorbed in the result and forget the Creator.

This distinction is used to explain Spiritism and Spiritualism in the special language of this reading. “Spiritism” is described as that which “acknowledges, that acts, that comprehends, the source of the activity,” while “Spiritualism” is described as that which understands “only the result, than the source” (5756-11). Whatever terms we use today, the central lesson is clear: spiritual phenomena are not the final goal. The soul should seek the divine Source behind them.

This is why the 5756 readings should not be understood mainly as instructions for contacting the dead. Their greater purpose is to teach us how Spirit operates through life. Psychic experiences, visions, voices, and communications are secondary. They are results or signs. The most important question is whether they help the soul become more loving, truthful, unselfish, and aware of God.

Thought has an important part in this spiritual process. The readings teach that “thoughts are things and may be miracles or crimes” (5756-8). Thought is not presented as something powerless or private. Thoughts help form character, influence other people, strengthen movements, and build the soul’s future condition. Reading 5756-9 explains that an idea may continue gathering strength even after its human leader has passed from physical life. Souls who share that idea may add their influence to its momentum.

This gives every person a serious responsibility. Our thoughts contribute either to constructive or destructive forces in the world. A thought of love, hope, forgiveness, courage, or service may strengthen those qualities in others. A thought of hatred, fear, revenge, or selfishness may strengthen the opposite forces. Spirit supplies life and power, but the individual chooses how that power will be directed.

The 5756 readings therefore connect true spirituality with daily conduct. Reading 5756-12 gives a brief but meaningful statement: “Mental man, spirit man, is the sum of that he does in the light of the Lamb” (5756-12). We are not made spiritual merely by what we claim to believe or by the unusual experiences we have. Our spiritual condition is revealed through what we do in the light of divine love.

The final emphasis is upon constructive living. Reading 5756-14 says that a person becomes more spiritually minded by dwelling upon “those things that build for CONSTRUCTIVE forces in the experience of others” (5756-14). This is Spirit made practical. We draw nearer to God when we become a source of encouragement, healing, patience, understanding, and hope in the lives of others.

The 5756 readings are therefore deeply focused on Spirit. They begin with the survival and communication of the soul, but they lead to a much larger teaching. Spirit is the one divine life behind creation. The soul is an individual expression of that life, developing through thought, desire, choice, and action. Matter is the field in which the soul learns to use spiritual power. Death changes the form of life but does not end it. Love continues beyond the grave, and every soul is ultimately being called away from selfish separation and back into conscious unity with its Creator.

The most important message is not that we can communicate with another world. It is that Spirit is already present in this world, within life, within the soul, and within every opportunity to love and serve. The spiritual path is to recognise that Source and allow it to become visible through the way we live.

The 5756 Readings: Spirit as the Source of Life

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Part One: Spirit, Soul, and Life Beyond the Physical Body

The 5756 readings begin with questions about communication with people who have passed from physical life. However, their deeper subject is not simply communication with the dead. They are concerned with the nature of Spirit, the continuing life of the soul, and the relationship between the physical and spiritual worlds. The readings teach that death does not destroy the individual. It only changes the conditions through which the individual lives and expresses consciousness.

To understand these readings, it is helpful to distinguish between spirit and soul. The spirit is the eternal divine life within us. It is the part of us that comes from God and remains connected with God. The soul is the developing individual. It carries the memory of what we have thought, desired, chosen, and done. While the spirit is divine and everlasting, the soul develops through its experiences and its use of free will.

The readings describe a living person as a combination of body, mind, soul, subconscious mind, and “the superconscious mind, or the spirit” (5756-4). The physical body is our temporary instrument in the material world. The mind directs our choices, the soul becomes the record of those choices, and the spirit remains the highest divine influence within us.

When the physical body dies, the spirit does not die, and the soul does not lose everything it has become. The reading explains that the soul leaves the physical body carrying the results of its earthly experience. It says, “That builded by thought and deed becomes the active particles, atoms, that make up that soul body” (5756-4). In simple terms, our thoughts and actions help form the spiritual condition in which we later find ourselves.

This means that heaven and hell are not presented only as places to which someone sends us. They are also conditions we help create within ourselves. The subconscious mind “never forgets,” and the thoughts, deeds, and desires of earthly life remain present to the soul (5756-4). The reading therefore asks us to consider “what a hell digged by some, and what a haven and heaven builded by many” (5756-4). Our spiritual surroundings reflect what we have loved, desired, and developed.

The 5756 readings repeatedly teach that the physical and spiritual worlds are not completely separate. They are different expressions of the same creative energy. One reading states that “things spiritual and things material are but those same conditions raised to a different condition of the same element—for all force is as of one force” (5756-4). Matter is therefore not separate from Spirit. It is Spirit expressed through a denser form.

The physical world is also described as a pattern of the spiritual world. The reading says, “There is in the conscious physical world every—EVERY—pattern of the spiritual world” (5756-3). This helps explain why the readings compare spiritual communication with ordinary forms of communication such as a telephone or radio. A signal may exist, but communication cannot occur unless the receiver is properly connected and tuned.

Communication between the physical and spiritual worlds depends upon this kind of attunement. The reading explains that people in both conditions must be receptive: “Those in the astral plane are not always ready. Those in the physical plane are not always ready” (5756-4). Communication cannot be forced. There must be a suitable connection, a shared desire, and a condition in which the minds and souls involved can meet.

Desire is especially important. A change from physical life to spiritual life does not immediately remove the desires a person has developed. The reading says, “Because there are changes in the dimensional conditions does not alter that which is known in the earth plane as desire” (5756-8). If love, concern, or a desire to help continues on both sides, communication may become possible when an appropriate channel is available.

The readings use the radio as an illustration. Different stations may be broadcasting at the same time, but we hear only the station to which the radio is tuned. In the same way, “the attunement of an individual in the material or earth plane to the attunement of the entity in the spirit or fourth dimensional plane is necessary” (5756-8). The reading adds that “desire [is] the ruling one,” but that desire must be attuned to the same spiritual vibration (5756-8).

Love is one of the strongest forces maintaining the connection between souls. When explaining why a father attempted to communicate with his family, the reading says, “LOVE goes far beyond what ye have called the grave” (5756-14). Physical death may end the visible relationship, but it does not end genuine love. Those who have passed may remain concerned about the spiritual and emotional welfare of those they love.

However, the readings do not encourage people to become dependent upon spirit communication. Communication may help or hinder spiritual progress, depending upon its purpose. When asked whether communication assists or delays the development of those in spirit, the answer was, “It does all!” (5756-8). If the communication offers love, comfort, guidance, or constructive service, it may help. If it encourages fear, curiosity, selfishness, control, or attachment to material life, it may hold both sides back.

The correct test is therefore not simply whether a communication appears supernatural. Its value must be judged by what it produces. The reading teaches, “Those that signify, testify, glorify the Giver of life are in the proper course. Those that glorify self are in that class that must be put away” (5756-8). True spiritual experience should turn the mind towards God, love, service, humility, and constructive living.

In fact, the readings suggest that “spirit communication” would be more correctly called “SOUL communication” (5756-14). The spirit itself is the divine life from God, while it is the individual soul, with its memories, personality, desires, and development, that attempts to communicate. The physical body is described as a “house of clay,” and death is “only the release of the soul body” from that temporary house (5756-14).

Personality and individuality also need to be distinguished. Personality is the outward character we develop in a particular life. Individuality is the deeper identity of the soul. According to the reading, the souls of those who have passed continue to live, while their personalities are gradually transformed “in the oneness of the purpose and desire” toward what they have spiritually developed (5756-14). The soul remains individual, but its selfish and temporary personality may slowly give way to a greater awareness of unity with God.

The purpose of these teachings is not to make us fascinated with death. It is to help us understand the importance of life. If thoughts and deeds become part of the soul, then every earthly choice contributes to our spiritual condition. The readings therefore bring the subject back to service. They say that the individual possesses little true power until reaching “that ability to GIVE of self in service” (5756-4). Spiritual growth is shown not by unusual experiences, but by what we give to others.