Humans have been blessed with numerous spiritual writings for decades if not for centuries. Where do these spiritual writings come from? What is spiritual writing? While spiritual writing can be in the form of an article, an essay, a paper, or a letter, this article focuses on spiritual book writing.

Since the word “spirit” is inside the phrase “spiritual writing”, isn’t it a clue that spiritual writing involves a spirit? In terms of writing a physical book, spiritual writing is to write a book with a body that is connected to a spirit. If a book is written with a body only (i.e. the body is not connected to a spirit), it may be considered as physical or non-spiritual writing. For a body connected to a spirit, you may well ask who is the spirit? The spirit can be your own spirit, sometimes referred to as the soul, or a higher spirit, sometimes referred to as God. So, for an author to write a spiritual book, there are two parts: (1) body, and (2) spirit. And the author recognizes and acknowledges both. While writing a book with the body, the author is very much aware of the non-physical spirit. In fact, within the body-spirit paradigm, the body is considered a vehicle for the spirit to do the physical writing. As such, the writing is not solely for the benefit of the body. Just like the idea of keeping a vehicle in good condition is not solely for the benefit of the vehicle. It is for the vehicle to do work for the custodian of the vehicle. So, for an author to write a book, the body is devoted to writing for the spirit, and the spirit is the commander. Just like the driver is the commander of the vehicle. The driver decides where to go and the vehicle takes the driver to the destination. The driver also decides when and how to go, i.e. which route to take. The vehicle simply does the physical work according to the driver’s decision. In writing a spiritual book, the body simply does physical writing according to the spirit’s intention. This is “let go, let God” in action. Spirit first, body second. The body is simply assisting the spirit to write a book in the physical world.

When writing a book within the body-spirit paradigm, there are two types of spiritual writings: (1) by channeling, and (2) by inspiration. For a book written through channeling, the spirit actually takes over the body and uses the body to do the writing or to speak out the words. The body may or may not be conscious of what it writes or what it speaks. For the spoken words to end up in a book, the words are either written down manually by another human or recorded and then transcribed into a book. For a channeled book, the words are the words of the spirit. Examples of channeled books are the books of Jane Roberts, whose spirit is Seth; the book of Helen Schucman “A Course in Miracles”, whose spirit is Jesus Christ; and the books of Lee Carroll, whose spirit is Kryon.

For a book written through inspiration, the body receives ideas from a spirit. The mind in the body then processes the ideas and chooses its own words to express the ideas. So, for an inspired book, the words are not the words of the spirit. With this type of spiritual writing, the mind in the body acts as an interface that converts the ideas into words, and the body writes the words. Examples of inspired books are the books of Neale Donald Walsch, whose spirit is God; and books by Tommy Wong, whose spirit is the Great Spirit.