THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER

 
October 17, 2009

I am re-reading a very interesting book recommended by my friend Jeff Kane. (Life as a Novice… http://www.amazon.com/Life-As-Novice-Jeffrey-Kane/dp/0913057428/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255794342&sr=1-1one)

I had to search rather deeply on the net for this book, and it is well worth the trouble it took to find it. Today, as I write, I notice that one can now find it on Amazon, so I have put the link in below. It’s The Bridge Over the River: Communications from the Life After Death of a Young Artist Who Died in World War I. Translated from the German by Joseph Wetzl. Anthroposophic Press, N.Y. ….”Published with the kind permission of the Heirs and Verlag die Kommenden”… http://www.amazon.com/Bridge-Over-River-Joseph-Wetzl/dp/0910142599/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1255795947&sr=1-2-fkmr0

Although the communications relayed took place in 1915, this book was published by The Anthroposophic Press in 1974. So much for time…or time warp…I find the time is always now…so immediate and engrossing are these conversations between the spirit of a young soldier/musician , Sigwart, and his sister, who misses him very much.

From the book:

Sigwart was intimately connected with one of his sisters during his lifetime, and it was with her that he tried to communicate immediately after his death. Finally, after almost two months striving, he was able to convince her of his identity. The sister experienced her brother’s initial attempts to reach her in the form of an inner unrest, which eventually culminated in the strong feeling that her brother Sigwart expected something of her, but she could not bear the thought of associating his memory with mediumistic or spiritistic practices. After some time, however, an inner awakening enabled her to establish contact with her brother in full consciousness.
She described the experience thus to another sister: “In the seclusion and quietness of these past days I have come to recognize what Sigwart expects of me, which is not to guide my hand and influence it externally; rather, I myself must open a door in my mind; then I shall hear the words I have to write down.” (Joseph Wetzel, p.vi)

Wetzel goes on to discuss for a bit the concept of the work of the medium and how it might differ from the kind of transmissions contained in this experience with Sigwart:
The difference between this kind of communication and those of mediums cannot be emphasized forcefully enough. This was confirmed by a message from Sigwart himself on July 28, 1916, almost a year later, which read in part: “You know well that my kind of communication can never be as perfect as a message written verbatim on paper via a medium. My kind of transmission, however, is far more sublime than that of automatic writing. For the latter any average medium has the ability, whereas here a certain degree of spiritual development is necessary, or else it would be impossible.” (ibid)

I conclude here no measurement or judgment of the level of spiritual development of the medium. It may be inferred that the medium is communicating with souls who are still earth-bound, separated by a thin veil from those still living on earth, whereas there is the implication that Sigwart is communicating from a higher spiritual dimension, so to speak.

For me the reflection is that, as our human evolution progresses, we become more porous, as it were, to the spiritual dimensions. The ‘veils’ thin as we, more and more begin to live “in the presence of the whole”—as Teilhard de Chardin was so fond of saying. The whole of consciousness is more than pragmatism might suggest.

From cosmic distances, across time and space, his words sounded timidly at first, then more distinctly, first in the heart of the sister who had been closest to him in life. He called on the souls who could receive his words in lucidity of spirit and in wakeful consciousness. (M. and L. in the Preface, ix)


So then, in Jeff Kane’s words:

There is nothing but love that binds us to those who have passed. Thoughts that come from that source only strengthen the bridge. As I read the new book, I never once felt it was about death, but about life that transcends death.

Much food for thought here…these books are not about dying, but rather they offer hints from the beyond for understanding at a deeper and broader level…this life on earth.

--Barbara Smith Stoff
www.thesoulwillout.blogspot.com