The Serenity Association is part of a well established religious tradition, called Spiritualism, which is the science, religion, and philosophy of continuous life. Many fine organizations and churches are linked to that beautiful religion. Listed below are a few excerpts from the teachings of the Living Light philosophy regarding Serenity’s understanding of Spiritualism.
“If it is truth we are desiring, if it is freedom from the bondage of creation, if it is the peace that passeth all understanding that you are seeking, you have within your being this very moment the power and the way to find it. As our little booklet states, “Give the people light and they will find their way.” Spiritualism is not interested in building giant cathedrals. It is not interested in converting humanity to its membership. It is interested and striving to serve the spiritual light of truth. Spiritualists number in the millions, but they do not tag it Spiritualism because they do not know.
“We can go to church on Sunday, but unless—and have a wonderful spiritual awareness—but unless we alone make the effort to stay in that level, we are not serving God, the Divine. Man serves God in a multitude of ways, whether it’s digging a ditch or preaching sermon. This church does not question who comes and who goes because we are not concerned or interested in those things. We are concerned and interested in serving a Power to which all things are possible. And when that Power is truly served, we accept what comes and what goes without any feeling or any concern.” CL 5
“And our purpose in Spiritualism is not to convert the masses to any dogma or creed. We are not concerned with numbers and building cathedrals of this world. Our interest is in building cathedrals of the soul and that is built through our own consciousness. The greatest temple that man will ever know is not made of stone and mortar. It is made of a mind of peace. There, man has freedom. There, man will see the light of eternal truth. He won’t have to spend his hours and his years in getting, getting, getting substances that will disintegrate into the nothingness. Not that he will not use them, but remember, when the tools, the tools in life no longer serve the worker, the worker begins to serve the tools. That’s when we become the victims of our own creations.” SC 3 |
“This Association presents Spiritualism ever in accord with its own understanding. And that is the great blessing of the philosophy, the religion, and the science of Spiritualism. It recognizes and it accepts that each individual has a divine right to their level of awareness, to their expression at any given moment. And so it is that you will find in the movement of Spiritualism indeed a wide variety of thought and of understanding. But there is a common ground upon which we all stand and that common ground is very simple: to respect and grant the right to investigate spiritual matters as we spend so much time investigating mundane matters.” CL 20
“Mediumship and Spiritualism are not concerned with your so-called tomorrows. It is concerned, my friends, with your today. For we know if you truly apply the philosophy of Spiritualism, if you make the effort to apply it, you will transform your life, for you will have transformed your thinking. We teach in this understanding that all experiences are the direct effect of a level of consciousness or an attitude of mind of each and every individual. My friends, that teaching must be repeated endlessly, for it is the repetition of error that has placed us where we are today. And so through the same Law of Repetition do we make a slight change in our thinking.” CL 34
“Now, my understanding I can share with you to a degree, concerning Spiritualism, the religion of Spiritualism, its science and philosophy. To me, Spiritualism is the three things mentioned, but it is more than that. It is a way in which a person may find their own soul and express their understanding of their God. Whenever we define God and these things and we impose that upon the human soul—the world is filled with religions. The world is filled with philosophies. The world is filled with sciences. But what it is truly seeking is a way to find its own soul, to learn to think.
“Our children go to school and they’re filled with all kinds of facts. What we are truly seeking is initiative thinking—that we can think for ourselves. What we have become in the world are parrots: parroting what we have read, parroting what we have had confirmed as our own opinions. And we are losing—and in many areas have lost—initiative thinking. Therefore we have placed our soul into bondage, the bondage of the masses; that this is the way to think because that one agrees with me and that one and that one and that one. We’re not seeking, truly seeking, truth, which would free our soul and find our own God and express that God.
“As long as I’m in the movement of Spiritualism, I shall constantly strive to prevent it from coming under the shackles and bondage of dogma and creed. For the moment that happens, you have lost Spiritualism, because you no longer respect the right of a human soul to find God in their own way, in their own thoughts, and in their own expression. Now, that is also one of the many reasons that true Spiritualism is not a strong organization, because you cannot strongly organize truth. It’s very, very individual. I hope that has helped you with your question. I am very free in my thought and I hope that all of my students will remain so also.” CC 26
“Our purpose in Spiritualism is science, philosophy, and religion. If you don’t have the philosophy and the understanding of the laws, how the science works, then you will remain ignorant and therefore never be free. So we must have balance between our science and our philosophy or we will never find the religion of Spiritualism.” CC 2
“What pulls the people to Spiritualism? What is the Light? What is the magnet that attracts them out of the atmosphere to Spiritualism? It is the science of Spiritualism. Without the science, we would not have the philosophy, for the philosophy came to Spiritualism through its science.” CC 5
“To me, Spiritualism is a religion of practicality, common sense, down-to-earth, and reason, here and now. We’re not just interested in all those eternal hereafters: we’re interested in what we can do this moment.” CC 15 |
