In 1932, just four years into her move from South Africa to New Zealand, a British woman called Kathleen Long stumbled upon a remarkable ability. While trying out as a medium for a conventional Spiritualist Circle, she found herself instead channelling spirits of a very high order indeed. The resulting revelations, delivered over 28 years (from 1932 to 1960), make extraordinary claims, and revelations, . Despite the efforts made to interest a wider public than the original Circles supporting her, the records of these openings were originally only made available to the immediate families of those who had originally participated; until in the 1990s, a chance event led to their being published on the worldwide web. That was where after some revelatory experiences of his own, in 2004, the author of this book found them. He became convinced that he had a duty to help make them still more widely known. His first attempt, 'Credulous Fools?' (published on Kindle in 2012, and on Kindle Direct in 2018), which covered the first three years, was primarily directed to the one question, whether these extraordinary accounts were to be believed. After an exhaustive, even obsessive examination of the available evidence, he concluded (with some surprise) that they were. This book, the third he has so far published on THE TEACHING, looks at a key transitional year in which Kathleen Long lost three people close to her in a short space of time, none of them to actual physical death. In the author's view, Kath's role as 'seer' became from then a more lonely and challenging one, although support from others around her was to continue, at least sufficient for her to complete her mission. Two of these stand out as having given the most sustained support: her close friend, known to these pages as 'The Doctor', who stood by her even at times of personal doubt; and his son, named by the spirits themselves as 'The Man that Sees', whose real earthly identity was revealed in the two previous works as Richard Washbourn; who after many years at the British Admiralty, became the second Chief Admiral of the New Zealand fleet after independence . In these men, the archetypal struggle between calls to a spiritual life, and a worldly career, were played out, subject to guidance and criticism from mentors in spirit. The author's main thesis is that these somewhat painfully preserved accounts ensure that the lessons of these events were equally directed at the rest of us, rather as Jesus' teaching, and actions, soon became object lessons for anyone seeking truly to follow his way. Although written for an earlier generation, with very different preoccupations and expectations in this then remote corner of the British Empire, the book abounds in practical lessons, just as relevant today for us all. The struggles and disappointments that happened in this one year were a necessary prelude to a unique system of teaching, which future books will hopefully continue to make known in the coming years.
