Posted on 18 April 2011, 14:23

On August 23, 1853, a spirit identifying himself as having been Francis Bacon, the 17th Century English philosopher when in the material world, took control of the hand of Dr. George T. Dexter, (below) a New York physician, and wrote, “Now we will try and give you views of the true mission of Christ on earth.”  Bacon reiterated a previous message that he was not at a level where he had access to all truth and believed it would many thousands of years in earth time before he reached that level.  “We are giving our opinions – opinions formed from the circumstances existing in the spheres where we dwell, the facts which come under our observation, and the ideas gleaned from those spirits in advance of us, who occasionally have intercourse with us.”  Moreover, Bacon said he had never seen Christ because Christ was in a sphere much more advanced than the one he found himself at.

Dexter and John W. Edmonds, Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court, were the key figures in a circle that met regularly to receive messages from the spirit world, many of the messages purportedly coming from the spirits of Bacon and Emanuel Swedenborg, the 18th Century Swedish scientist turned mystic.  Both Edmonds and Dexter began as skeptics out to debunk mediumship.  However, they quickly became believers and both turned into mediums themselves.  Both Bacon’s and Swedenborg’s handwriting differed from each other and differed from Dexter’s.
Bacon (below) pointed out that the Jewish nation had been agitated upon the fulfillment of certain prophesies about the birth of a man who would restore the glory of the Jewish kingdom and establish a dynasty which would exist forever.  “They ascribed to this personage attributes at once both earthly and divine – a being who would subdue all the nations who had oppressed their race,” Bacon began his explanation”…” 

Bacon’s further explanations are abridged below.

“[The Jewish priesthood] could not submit to a limitation of power which had been for ages universal, and it became a matter of serious import to them that the very nature of Christ’s mission should be misunderstood.  Thus, when we are told that Christ was to be born, we are also told that he was to elevate the people, he was to institute laws which would restore the might and power of the nation, and he was to rule as king, possessing powers derived from and almost equal to God. It was the policy of the priests to inculcate the material mission of Christ, the establishment of a material kingdom, and the institution of laws which should affect the material condition of the nation alone.”

“It is not strange, therefore, that when Christ was born in the lowly manger, that he was not recognized by priest or noble, that he was insulted, reviled, and at last crucified.  It is not strange either that his true mission was by the masses misunderstood, and that when he stood in the highways and byways, discoursing on the true nature of man, his duties to himself, to others, and to the world, he could not be comprehended by those who expected him in pomp, in glory, and with all the power and magnificence of a sovereign.” 

“To ascertain what was the true mission of Christ, we should attentively consider the character of the man as given in sacred history, and also in profane, and view his daily life and action in reference to the great work he was called to perform.  The earliest indication of any positive ministration was his teaching in the temple when yet a child, and when he confounded the Priest and the Pharisee.  At this time he reasoned of life, death, and eternity, and the groundwork of all his teaching was, that the moral purity of man’s life on earth was the guarantee of his happiness after death.  From this period until the time of his death, he sought out every opportunity to utter those sentiments; and were we take the sermon on the Mount as the solitary evidence in support of our argument, we should triumphantly claim that Christ’s mission was the reformation of the moral condition of the world; that he taught all that we teach; that love, purity, truth on earth, are the incipient steps of progression; that eternity develops no sentiments more consonant with the nature of God than progression from these principles.”

“But what was the effect of Christ’s teaching on earth?  He says, I came not to destroy but to fulfill.  Let us ask what this fulfilling means.  Does it not mean the fulfillment of the great design for which man was created?  Before his advent, the world’s conscience was pinned on the sleeve of the priesthood; their faith was the faith of all, and what they chose to inculcate as religion or truth was implicitly recognized by the people.  What did Christ teach?  He taught men to examine their own hearts,  that by the fruits of a man’s life was his moral condition to be tested.  He says, Can a good tree bring forth evil fruit?  Can the association with evil develop good?  No; he charges his disciples to be humble, and merciful, and truthful, to regard others in all the relations of life as they would be regarded when similarly circumstanced.  He presents the spirit as a part of God, and says it was from God in the beginning, and he requires that spirit to be pure even as God is pure, that it might dwell with the father forever.”

“Christ taught the doctrine of forgiveness, and when asked when man should pray, and for what he should pray, he refers him to God.  He does not associate himself in any with the adoration of the Father, but says, Our Father which art in heaven.  In every act of Christ, in every reference made to his power, or to the power of God, he distinctly refuses to be regarded as any other than a man and the son of man.”

“True, he says, I and the Father are one, but he conclusively refers to the accomplishment of the object for which he came on earth; that in spirit they assimilated, he in the holy and intense desire to elevate his race, and God in the boundless benevolence by which he had permitted man this opportunity for progression.  Even when arrested in the garden, he says, I could pray to my Father, and he would send legions of angels to my aid; emphatically here he admits no power belonging to himself – he refers everything to God.”
“Christ found a world buried in ignorance.  No true idea had been given of their destiny; and not until he dispelled the darkness which shrouded his whole moral nature did man make the effort to understand his true relationship to himself, the world, or to God.  Looking back to Christ, we see the light which has been poured through the vista of years till it has now illuminated the whole civilized world, flickering as a spark, and scarcely affording a ray to guide the benighted footsteps of man.  Now we feel its genial influence; now we walk in the glorious beams which lighten up life and death, and send its rays into eternity.”

“Christ opened the portals of the dark grave, and exposed the life beyond as one of progress. He brought man near to God, and bid him understand his connection with the Father.  His conditions were, Repent, and in this he sums up all of spiritual doctrines.  Repentance is progress, and progress the eternal happiness of the spirit.”

“How profoundly he understood the human heart!  And in the picture which he drew of man’s disposition he leaped over centuries of time, and identified the man of his own day and generation with man of the present age in all his attributes and properties.”

“To me, in the consideration of this whole subject, there is a most beautiful thought in this mingling of his own elevated nature with the grossness and ignorance and perverseness of the common people.  Teaching them by trite and simple parables, he descended to their comprehension, and came to the very door of the hearts which were not closed against him.”

“But there is one feature of his mission which has not been apprehended, or even noticed, by all the divines of every sect who have pretended to explain his teachings since his death, and that is, he spoke, when on earth, to the very feelings and thoughts which could and would improve by the knowledge which he taught.  He kindled a fire in the hearts of all men, slumbering though it has.  While ages have passed and nations have been born, and have been buried, too, with the past; while laws have been established and temples have been built; while those laws have passed away, and those solid temples have crumbled into dust, still this fire has slumbered, but it has been the slumbering of the fires in the mighty volcano of time.”

“In the teachings of Christ we have the fundamental principles of every revolution which has succeeded in establishing the rights of man on earth.  In this we have an illustration of the mission of the Savior as a Reformer, and the effect of the progress of man.  And we have, too, the first point of earnest inquiry which his teachings elicited, What is man’s destiny after death, and for what was he created?”

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.

Cristin,

Thank you for your comment.  John Edmonds developed some psychic and mediumistic abilities, but I don’t recall him developing the ability to “see into the spirit world.”  However, if he did, I don’t see any reason why being a skeptic in the first place would conflict with that.  I don’t think he was still a skeptic when he developed his psychic and mediumistic abilities, however.

Thank you for all the superb information on this blog. I was wondering how John Edmonds, initially a skeptic, could develop an ability to see the spirit world.

Michael,

Now that I know links are permitted, my Kindle version is here: My Kindle Version and the printed version here: Geoffs books on Lulu

That ridiculous price is an opportunist, getting in before Lulu wakes up. Happens all too often on Amazon.

There is no connection between Padgett and “Life and Teachings”. In fact there would be “conflicts” because in Padgett one gets the idea Jesus has not materialized on Earth, yet it seems he did. While Padgett remains my most favourite source, I read very widely. And am prepared to take on board “contradictions”

take care,

Michael,
I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you.  Where do you live on Oahu?  I live in Kailua, but I often meet friends in downtown Honolulu for lunch. Please contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call me at 262-6604.

Michael Tymn

Geoff,
Thank you for the additional information, including the Hyslop/Bacon reference.  I read the “Life & Teachings of the Masters of the Far East” more than 20 years ago, but I didn’t quite get the connection with the Padgett material.  Also, I tried to find your book on the Internet, but could only find it at around $154 or so.  Is it available somewhere else?

Michael Tymn

Aloha Michael,
I enjoyed reading your blog. There are so many souls searching for the Truths that have been hidden for centuries. Now that people are once again looking inward and accepting alternative forms of communication (mediumship) the truths are coming to the forefront. Like Geoff, I am a supporter of the communications received by James Padgett. In fact, I believe them to be of the highest truths ever received. Volume III is an interesting read but I would recommend Angelic Revelations of Divine Truth, Vol I or II. or New Testament Revelations of Jesus of Nazareth which speaks directly about Jesus’ mission here on earth. Or better yet, I am also a resident of Hawaii (Oahu) and would be happy to discuss what the messages received through James Padgett speak about misunderstood teachings of Jesus. I could offer a volume to add to your library. Blessings and Love to you.

Thought I might just add that James Padgett also channeled Francis Bacon, four communications were published, on Nov 20th, 1918, Dec 1st, 1918, Jan 6th 1919, and May 26th, 1919.

He has some interesting things to say. He appeared to be be very interested in studying the Laws of the Universe. I am not sure if links are permitted, but I will try to link a message:

Comments on an article written by James Hyslop on Christianity and Spiritualism regarding laws which operated in certain miracles of Jesus.

To comment on a number of other posters who have a reluctance to accept that Jesus represented anything special. I can well understand this, but if you have access to the range of channelings that I do (unpublished, or at best web-published) it seems we have had a few “avatars” here, and that he was at the very least, an “avatar”. And to be honest, the events witnessed by scientifically trained Americans in “Life and Teachings of the Masters of the Far East” over 100 years ago would seem to surpass anything written in the Bible.

A curious but very satisfying aspect of The Padgett Messages, is that Jesus himself states what his main teaching was, and sets out how you personally can experience this. It is simply a matter of making the effort to test the Truth of his words.

take care.

Geoff,

Thank you for your comments. I know of James Padgett.  In fact, I have had Volume III of his books for some time now, but it is one of perhaps 20 books in my library that I have yet to read. You have prompted me to pull it out, wipe the dust off it, and start reading it as soon as I finish the two books I am now reading.  I’ll also plan to check out the Padgett site and get your book.  I appreciate your bringing these to my attention.    Mike

Mike,

Just finished your book “The Afterlife Revealed” which I enjoyed. I tend to think I have read widely on this subject, but I acknowledge that you have beaten me on numbers. You had many references I simply have not yet found. Nevertheless I doubt I disagreed with any of your statements, except in a minor way.

But I did want to ask something. Obviously you may have discarded sources along the way. I know I have. Yet I cannot help but think there is an enormous gap in your knowledge base, which would have been filled by the 1250 (published) communications received by an American Lawyer called James Padgett in 1914 to 1923. I expect this blog does not allow links, as that is common. You could find my own web site by Googling “James Padgett medium”. I also have a book out in Kindle, which you could find by title “Getting The Hell Out of Here” and its much shorter than yours, (my purpose in writing it was clearly different from yours) yet I think benefits greatly from the material delivered by Padgett.

Actually, James Padgett is also the answer to this particular blog, IMHO.

Take care,
Geoff Cutler

Dear sir i have not read the books but i am a medium and believe that all spirit is god that comes in to the flesh to experience what it nos. i believe Jesus came back to earth and awaken us to who we are for he sad be like your farther who his in heaven

Michael, I have a question unrelated to your blog post but could not find an email for you.  I was doing research on James H. Hyslop and came across an “interview” by Michael E. Tymn.  I gather you wrote this, is that correct?  I assume you put together some of his quotes and used an interview format.  Is that right?  Are those his comments? 

I am an author of several books related to spirit communication.  To Dance With Angels by Don and Linda Pendleton; Whispers From the Soul by Don and Linda Pendleton; Three Principles of Angelic Wisdom; and others. 

I look forward to your comments.

Linda Pendleton
http://www.todancewithangels.com
http://www.lindapendleton.com
http://www.worldofspirit.blogspot.com

I’m glad to hear you have a new book in the works, Michael! I really enjoyed The Articulate Dead and have read it twice (so far). I look forward to The Afterlife Revealed.

If Christ was speaking for God, he could not have been asking us to think about “life” in terms of linear time (as in, ‘during this lifetime/after this lifetime, etc)... From the point of view of eternity, there is no life before, or life after death.. there is only one life that is and always has been.. therefore there is no ‘shift’ in REALITY. What is real is always real. What is illusion never existed.  So there is no real transition from one thing to another thing, in Reality. It might be maybe what it is like to wake up from a dream state into a waking state, but nothing that is REAL can be lost—Real is God. God is eternal and undying. so we can say there is no such thing as death, at least in terms of how most people think of it, as an “end” or loss of something—the movement from existence into non-existence. This is what Jesus was teaching about—the non-existence of God’s son is not possible… life IS regardless of what happens in/to a physical form. Life does not come from the body, but from the eternal Source. “I will die” is the illusion minds recreate every day so as to hold on to the larger illusion that they exist separate or apart from God. Only imagining ourselves as somehow living apart from an eternal God can we think of ourselves as temporary things. But how could we exist apart from the infinite and eternal?  Not possible. Yet this is the assumption/ misunderstanding most minds we meet are rooted in. This is what Jesus was uprooting.  “Christ” is the status of any mind when it realizes it is not separate and never was. This is the state of mind Jesus was in, and tried to tell us about, guide us toward. It has nothing at all to do with death, except that it proves that the body is, of itself, meaningless, NOT-SELF, thereby the loss of it is truly the loss of nothing.  The Resurrection is the statement that “I am not a body, I am free, because I am still (eternal and infinite) as God created me.” Self is the Mind, which is eternal, and always in God regardless of the forms it may take up along the way in it’s various detours into dreams.

Keith,

Thanks for your additional comments.  For the most part, I agree with you.  Here are a couple of paragraphs from Chapter I of my upcoming book:

“Debunkers and skeptics seem to assume that communication between the spirit world and the material world should be as clear as if it were coming over the telephone.  However, it is obvious from a number of messages that there are significant obstacles confronting the communicating spirits.  To begin with, with the possible exception of the direct voice and direct writing, the messages must be filtered through the medium’s mind.  This results in unintentional distortion of the messages.  Second, where a “spirit control” is involved, the control must interpret the thought images being given to him or her by the communicating spirit and may not interpret them correctly.  When this spirit control passes on the messages, there may be further misinterpretation of the symbols or images being received by the medium.  There are also indications that the communicating spirit is limited by intelligence of the medium.  Thus, if Einstein were trying to communicate a complex formula or a cure for cancer, he probably would not succeed unless the medium’s intelligence is capable of grasping it.  Moreover, one of the recurring messages of modern revelation is that we don’t become all-knowing after death.  For the most part, the spirits in the lower realms don’t know much more now than they did when alive in the flesh.
“Adding to the confusion, it appears that the more a spirit advances, the greater the difference in vibrational frequency between the spirit and the earth realm and the more difficult it is for that spirit to communicate with those of us on earth.  In order to communicate, the advanced spirit must relay messages through spirits in lower realms.  This can result in a distortion of messages as they are handed down to and through the earthly medium.” 

There is much indirect evidence connected with spiraling (channeled) messages.  For example, there were a number of levitations connected with Dr. Dexter, suggesting that some spirit involvement was there, unless we want to believe that Dexter made it all up.  But then we have John Edmonds, a chief justice of the New York Supreme Court, attesting to the Dexter phenomena.  It might be argued that he collaborated with Dexter so they could right a book about it, not realizing what it would do to their reputations.  There is no end to the arguments.

And, yes, if it wasn’t Bacon and Swedenborg communicating through Dexter, it could have been an impostor spirit of some kind. Perhaps that is why Imperator and Silver Birch are pseudonyms for apparently advanced spirits or spirit groups.  They came to realize from Dexter’s experience and Kardec’s experience that in representing themselves as deceased people there was less chance of them being believed. 

If we throw out all “channeled” material, including the Bible, we have absolutely nothing to give us any hints or clues as to the meaning of life and what awaits us.  I think the New Testament’s warnings about “testing the spirits whether they are of God” and “discerning” the messages must be heeded. 

For the most part, the messages coming through Dexter agree with those coming through Stainton Moses (Imperator), and Maurice Barbanell (Silver Birch), Geraldine Cummins (Myers), Gladys Osborne Leonard (various, )and other credible mediums.  That is not to suggest that they represent truth, whatever truth is, only that we get some clues as to what truth is or might be, especially if they all agree.  In the end, it is a matter of individual discernment.

I did not suggest that the Dexter material represented Truth.  It was offered for individual discernment.

Keith, I do appreciate your comments and understand your point of view.

I think one of the issues for me is how much credence we should give to channeled material in general. How evidential is it, really? It cannot be cross-checked against anything in our world as, say, past lives can be, or statements from mediums about psychically derived information the medium had no way of knowing regarding people in this world, e.g. Leonore Piper. 

It is true that one can interpret channeled statements that disagree with each other about the nature of the ‘Other Side’ as being similar to the statements one might expect from flies sitting on different parts of an elephant reporting what an elephant is like. The fly sitting on its foot would report a different reality from the one sitting on its tusk or adjacent to its mouth. So although each fly’s report differs, they may all be correct according to their limited perspective.

On the other hand, there is a risk with channeled books that one can pick and choose to find those whose statements agree with your own sentiments. For example, I find Anthony Borgia’s ‘Life in the World Unseen’ suits me very well. It fits in with how I would like it to be. But that does not mean that it is evidential or true, and there is no objective way of judging the matter. Can I trust its authenticity? How can we ever trust the origin or contents of any material like this? Doesn’t it bring their ‘evidentiality’ into question? I would welcome Mike’s views on this, perhaps in response to this or in another blog. I think we should be very careful about accepting or interpreting any channeled material, whether it purports to come from Bacon or anybody else. And that is why I feel uncomfortable about it. Personally I have not accepted the claims that Jesus was an agent of ‘God’, nor that ‘God’ has an anthropomorphic personality or particular interest in human beings over the rest of nature. For me the origins of any ‘intelligent design’ as there might be in the universe, remains a complete mystery, and channeled works do not help in this respect if we want to judge the matter objectively. If we don’t value objectivity then we are into religion, and like Heinz soup, there are 57 varieties of that.

Keith and Elene,

Thank you for your comments. I’m not sure I understand the “discomfort” aspect.  I don’t consider myself a “Christian” in the mainstream sense of the word, or, as I should say, mainstream Christians would not consider me a Christian as I definitely reject the atonement doctrine, which seems to be at the crux of Christianity.  Nor do I see Jesus as God, per se.
I do believe, however, that Jesus is, pretty much, the “Chairman of the Board” on the Other Side, if not that, at least on the Board of Directors.  Unless I misread it, I don’t think the Bacon-Dexter commmunications support the atonement doctrine or the “Jesus is God” belief.

As Elene has pointed out elsewhere, many people need an anthropomorhpic God as they cannot conceive of some “cosmic consciousness” as God. Thus, Jesus was adopted as the image of that cosmic consciousness and apparently serves a purpose in that regard At least that is the way I see it.

Mike, as you know, the subject of “the true mission of Christ” is of great interest to me and still, in many ways, very much a mystery to me.  This message from Bacon (or from someone purporting to be Bacon) is as sensible as any such material can be, it seems to me. 

Like Keith P, I am uncomfortable with material that implies that Christianity is the only way.  However, one must realize that this message is coming from and through persons steeped in Christianity, who can be expected to take a Christian point of view.

Mainline Christians, perhaps yourself included, might be uncomfortable with the statements about Jesus saying that he was man and not God, yet from what little we can tell from the historical record, this is in fact what he said—he did not claim to be God himself, any more than other people were.  It would have been a heretical idea in Bacon’s own time, but now it is far more acceptable to state publicly.

I feel less comfortable with this blog than with any other Michael has written. While Judge Edmonds was an interesting character in his own right, and worth writing about, this article is less concerned with him and more with interpretations of Christianity based on the assumption that Bacon really was being channelled. Mike normally writes about evidence for survival, and I feel this does not add anything about the nature of such afterlife as there may be - without our first accepting Christianity itself - which after all is a belief system not embraced by all.

Fascinating information. I am looking forward to reading “The Afterlife Revealed.”