March 15th, 1917.
Received by:James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, Helen:
Well dear, I was with you, of course, at the séance, and what has been told you is true, and I need not repeat what has been said, but will add only, that you and the Doctor must take the advice given you. It is absolutely necessary.
Your work is different, and only you can do it. No other medium can do it, and if you were like them you could not do it, either. So you and the Doctor must remember that you have been selected for a higher work than helping to bring spirits and mortals together in communications, such as it is supposed the mediums of tonight brought to the people who were present.
The spirits who the medium said were your grandparents, were not such, but were merely spirits who attend her séances and delight in inducing the expectant visitors to believe are really the spirits of their departed friends or relatives. I saw that the whole thing made no impression on you, except one of pity for the medium that she would be subjected to such imposition and evil influences.
When the howling Indians, as the medium described them, came to the Doctor he must have been surprised to learn that he had a new spirit band of such lively antics to help him in his work of love of curing the sick, and Mary said that she would not let such spirits get in rapport with her sweetheart, even if she had to call on all his guides and yours too, to keep them away. She said that there was nothing about the Doctor to attract such beings to him, and that she would pity him if he had to have such companions around him.
Well, there were all kinds of spirits present, but none of them whom the medium supposed that she saw or heard talk, belonged to either you or the Doctor, and we rather enjoyed the thoughts that he had when his new friends were introduced to him.
But, dear, these séances do you no good, and it is only a waste of time to attend them, and I want to advise that you do not; and further I want to say, that the messages that the Doctor reads do no good, for the people who hear him look upon them as mere stories of the imagination, interesting, but without effect on the spiritual understanding. They are not in condition to grasp the significance of them, and their chief interest is in receiving some message that the medium may transmit to them from their spirit friends. So, these messages do no good at such places. They are like the teachings of Jesus that fell on stony ground, they will not take any root.
So, I do not think it best to read them to these people. The Doctor is doing a good work when he tells them to the individuals with whom he comes in private conversation, and who listen to him with a view and desire to learn the truth, or even when they have not such desire, because as they listen some of the truths may find a lodgment, and germinate.
So with my love, I will say good night,
Your own true and loving,
Helen.