An important  spiritual lesson

Len Jason-Lloyd recounts an important spiritual lesson learned early in life: things are not always as they seem...

One of the first things I learned from The Aetherius Society during the early 1960s is that 'truth is where you find it'. One often finds it in the most unlikely places: great spiritual deeds can be performed in very strange circumstances. So I discovered when a mere lad of 16 on my early quest for truth.

I was a schoolboy earning a small amount of money delivering newspapers at an unearthly early hour of the morning. The newsagent who ran the business knew of my recently-found interest in spiritual healing which had been kindled through joining The Aetherius Society. One morning as I turned up for work, feeling sleepy as ever, the newsagent said 'Do you know that Mr D****** is a spiritual healer?'

'What?', I replied, 'You mean the man who runs the second-hand furniture shop? ' I was rather surprised. He was a well-known local figure, but as a shop proprietor–certainly not as a healer. His shop was one of the last places where one would expect to find a healing sanctuary! The newsagent then went on to tell me of her visit to his sanctuary and the very contrasting worlds within which this man operated.

A few days later I went to visit Mr D who had been told to expect me. He was, as he was usually to be seen, standing outside his shop watching traffic and pedestrians go by on what was a very busy road. I introduced myself and extended my hand to which he did not respond but smiled in a friendly fashion and invited me in. I was shown through a rather gloomy shop full of old tables, chairs, wardrobes and other used furniture. 'Where on Earth is he taking me?' I thought.

We suddenly reached the end of a dark corridor leading from the main part of the shop, and he opened a door on the left. We entered a room which was in such sharp contrast to the rest of the premises that I almost gasped. This was the healing sanctuary! It was scrupulously clean, beautifully decorated in gold and blue with some tastefully draped furniture including an altar. The psychic atmosphere was both very uplifting and powerful. Walking through that rather gloomy shop into such a wonderful sanctuary was like entering a different world.

I then noticed some religious paintings including one of an oriental person. 'That's one of my guides' said Mr D. He then told me that he had been giving spiritual healing in that place for about twenty years. 'But I don't know anyone who knows you are a healer' I retorted. 'Those who need to know usually find out' he smiled. He then went on to show me a large pile of correspondence containing letters of thanks from many patients who had received very potent healing through him. 'I am just a channel' he said firmly as I read page after page of testimony to his outstanding healing ability. This included a fairly recent feat of healing where a man suffering from throat cancer had been instantly healed during his one and only visit to this sanctuary. The atmosphere in that room was evidence in itself that work of a high spiritual nature had taken place there for many years.

I then asked him why, except when he was dealing with customers, he could always be found standing outside his shop watching the world go by. 'That's where most of my patients come from' he smiled enigmatically. 'I see dozens of sick people pass my shop every day, so I send them healing whenever I can.' He pointed in the direction of the busy main road. 'That's my other healing sanctuary', he declared. We left the room after about half an hour and walked through the shabby furniture shop where a couple had just walked in to enquire about a table. As I bade him farewell and walked into the noisy street outside he said 'I live in two worlds!'

The significance of that statement became more meaningful as I later gained more knowledge and experience through The Aetherius Society. Over the last forty years, in my own small way, I have learned from the example of our Master, who operated on many levels, that as spiritual workers we often have to live a double life, sometimes under very contrasting conditions. That early experience of the spiritual healer in that busy high street was the forerunner of many similar experiences to come!

Len Jason-Lloyd