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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1860 > December
December
To the Readers of The Spiritist ReviewThree years in existence were enough to let the readers of this Review
know about the mind frame that presides over its publication. The
best proof of your support is in the constant increase in the number of
subscriptions, notably augmented in this last period. However, the testimonies
of sympathy and satisfaction that we receive every day are infinitely
more precious to us. Their approval gives us the encouragement to
continue our task, bringing to our work every improvement whose utility
has been demonstrated by experience. As we did in the past, we will continue
with the rational study of the principles of science, from the philosophical
and moral stand point, without neglecting the facts; however,
when citing facts we don’t stop at the simple narrative, perhaps entertaining,
but certainly sterile if we don’t add the research of possible causes and
the deduction of their consequences. Hence we address serious people,
who are not satisfied by seeing things only but who want to understand
them, before anything else. The succession of facts are otherwise empty, if
we do not fall into tedious repetition because they all roll more or less inside
the same circle, and we would not tell anything new to our readers by
saying that in this or that house people are making the tables turn more
or less just fine. For us facts have another character: they are not stories
but subjects of study, and those of simpler appearance may sometimes give rise to the most interesting observations. Things here behave like in
ordinary science in which a small piece of leaf contains as many mysteries
to the observer as a gigantic tree. That is why we take much more into
account the instructive side of the facts than the entertaining side, dedicating
our attention to those that can teach us something, irrespectively
of how strange they may be.
Despite the considerable number of subjects that we have already discussed,
we are far from having strained the series of all that are related
to Spiritism, because the more we advance in that science, the more the
horizon is enlarged. The subjects whom are still to be investigated will
provide material for a long time to come, not counting the new ones. We
have been pushing them off on purpose for a long time now so that they
can be discussed, as the state of art of the current knowledge allows for the
better understanding of their reach. That is why, for example, today we
give much more space to the spontaneous spiritist dissertations because
most of their instructions can be much better appreciated than in a time
when only the first elements of the science were known. Years ago they
would be analyzed on their literary merit only and a number of profound
and useful thoughts would go unnoticed, because they were dealing with
matters still unknown or not much understood. The method has not been
excluded by the diversity of matters and the lack of organization is just apparent
since each thing has its determined place. Variety calms the spirit
down but logical order facilitates understanding.
We struggle to avoid turning our Review into something lackluster.
We certainly do not have the pretension of making something perfect but
we do hope that our intention is at least taken into account.
NOTICE: The subscribers that do not wish to receive The Review
late in 1861 please renew your membership before January 1st next.
Bulleting of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies
Friday, October 26th, 1860
(General Session)
MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:
1st – A communication received by Mrs. M… was read, about the following question: If God created every soul alike how can there suddenly be such a large gap between them?
(General Session)
MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:
1st – A communication received by Mrs. M… was read, about the following question: If God created every soul alike how can there suddenly be such a large gap between them?
2nd – Multiple communications received by Mr. P…, medium
from Sens were read. One signed by Homer that presents a remarkable
fact that can be considered proof of identity. It reveals
the name “Melesigenes” primitively used as Homer’s nickname, a
fact unknown to the medium.
3rd – Analysis of a letter from Mr. L…, from Troyes, in which
he reports remarkable events of physical manifestation that took
place in 1856, with a person from that town, which recall the
events of Bergzabern.
4th – Letter from Dr. Morhéry, reporting several singular facts
of spontaneous manifestations that occurred with Ms. Désirée
Godu in his presence, coinciding with the arrival of a letter from
Mr. Allan Kardec.
STUDIES:
1st – Several questions addressed to St. Louis;
2nd – Evocation of Mr. Morhéry’s son, who informs to have
participated into the manifestations that took place in his father’s
house;
3rd – Spontaneous essay received by Mr. Alfred Didier about
despair, signed by Lamennais;
4th – Several questions addressed to Lamennais about multiple
cases of suicide; about the relationships among the spirits
and about Homer’s identity in the Sens’ communications.
Friday, November 2nd, 1860
(Private Session)
MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:
1st – A second communication of Homer was read, obtained by
Mr. P… from Sens, and several questions and answers about the
same subject;
2nd – Drawings obtained by a medium from Lyon, remarkable
by their originality, if not by their execution. Once questioned
about it, St. Louis said that the drawing have their value
because they are really produced by the spirit but don’t have a
very precise meaning since the medium and the spirit are not yet
well identified with one another. He adds that the medium will
become excellent with time.
STUDIES:
1st – Questions to St. Louis: a) about the formula to confirm the
identity of the spirits; b) about human’s role in the moralization of imperfect spirits; c) about the apparition of spirits under the form
of a flame; d) about the value of the drawings sent from Lyon;
e) about the transportation of objects by the spirits, their lifting
from the ground and their invisibility;
2nd – Analysis of the question if the spirits can transport objects
to a closed room and through material obstacles;
Mr. L… comments that such questions are related to the
phenomena of physical manifestations which should not be dealt
with by the Society.
Mr. President responds that the research about the causes is
an important point, directly linked to the study of the Doctrine,
thus it belongs to the main frame of the subjects of the Society.
All parts of the science must be clarified. One thing is to deal
with these theoretical researches and another thing is to turn
those phenomena into an exclusive object of study. As a matter
of fact, we can implore St. Louis to tell us if he considers the
discussion that has just took place a waste of time. St. Louis
responds: “I am far from considering your conversation a waste
of time.
3rd – Evocation of Charles Nodier who was requested to continue
the work that he had started, responding that he will continue
next time and reminds us about the day’s celebration with a
nice spontaneous essay. He attends a request and provides a short
prayer regarding the event.
4th – A general appeal is made, without special designation, to
the inferior spirits that can eventually be present, inviting them
to identify themselves. The spirit of a highly positioned man
communicates spontaneously, testifying through his, at the same
time, simple and dignified language the good feelings that he
now carries, and the little importance he gives to human greatness.
He responds to the questions addressed to him with complacency
and benevolence.
Friday, November 9th, 1860
(General Session)
Mr. Allan Kardec makes some observations about what was said in the
previous session relatively to the physical manifestations. He brings back
the instruction given by St. Louis in November 1858, regarding the objective
of the works of the Society. The instruction was given as below:
“They mocked the turning tables but they will never mock the philosophy,
the wisdom and the charity that shines out of the serious communications.
The turning tables were the introduction to the Science;
that is, by entering one must leave his prejudices as to leave his coat. You
will never be advised enough to turn your meetings into serious centers.
May the physical demonstrations be done elsewhere; that one may see and
hear somewhere else but that among you, may there be love and understanding.
How do you expect to be seen through the eyes of the superior
spirits when you make a table turn? Ignorant! Does the scholar spend his
time reviewing fundamental Science? If you, on the contrary, are seen in
search of intelligent and instructive communications, you will then be
considered serious individuals, searching for the truth.
St. Louis
Mr. Allan Kardec adds: Don’t we have here, ladies and gentlemen, an
admirable program, outlined with the accuracy and simplicity of expression
that characterize the really superior spirits? May this be understood
by all, that we must do an in-depth investigation of everything, to be
aware of everything; “may there be love and understanding among you”
meaning that charity and mutual benevolence must be the object of our
efforts, the link that unites us, so as to show through our example the true
objective of Spiritism. We would be mistaken about the Society’s objective
by thinking that everything that is done elsewhere is neglected. Nothing
is useless and the physical manifestations also have their advantage and
that none of us can dispute. If we don’t deal with them it is not because we have another cause. We have our specialty studies like others have
theirs but all that mixes up in a common objective that is the progress and
propagation of the science.
MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:
1st – Reading of communications received outside of the Society;
2nd – Letter from Mr. L… from Troyes, reporting facts that
occurred in his presence, produced by the obsessing spirit that was
discussed in the previous session. These facts that had stopped
since 1856 started happening again under remarkable circumstances
that will be the object of a study by the Society.
STUDIES:
1st – Multiple questions about obsession; about the possibility of
reproducing through photographic means the image of the visible
and tangible apparitions; about the physical manifestations
of Mr. Squire.
2nd – Questions about the spirit that manifests in Troyes, and
notably about the magnetic effects produced in that case.
3rd – Five spontaneous essays received by four different
mediums.
4th – Evocation of the disturbing spirit of Troyes. This spirit
reveals one of the lowest conditions.
Pagan, Christian and Spiritist Art
The following question was addressed to the spirit of Alfred de Musset
(see detail below in the session “Spiritist dissertations received or
read by several mediums at the Society”) in the session of the Society on
November 23rd, when he manifested spontaneously:
• Painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry have been successively inspired by the Pagan and Christian ideas. Could you tell us if after the Pagan and Christian art there will be spiritist art? – A. You ask a question which is already answered. The larva is a larva. It becomes the silkworm, then the butterfly. What is lighter, more gracious than a butterfly? Then! Pagan art is the larva; Christian art is the cocoon; spiritist art will be the butterfly.
The more one deepens the meaning of that graceful comparison, the more one admires its accuracy. At first glance one could suppose that the spirit wanted to belittle Christian art, placing the spiritist art on the top of the edifice, but that is not the case and it is sufficient to meditate about that poetic image to capture its accurate meaning. In fact, Spiritism is fundamentally based on Christianity. It does not come to replace Christianity. Spiritism complements Christianity and adorns it up with a shiny outfit. The germs of Spiritism are found in the infancy of Christianity. If they repelled one another one would disown the child, the other would reject the father. Comparing the first one to the cocoon and the second to the butterfly the spirit describes perfectly well the relationship that bonds them together. There is more: the image itself paints the character of the art that has inspired one and will inspire the other. Christian art had to find inspiration mainly in the terrible trials of its martyrs and paint the severity of its maternal origin. The spiritist art, represented by the butterfly, will find inspiration in the misty and splendid images of the unveiled future existence. It will fill the soul with joy, a soul that was filled by admiration and fear by the Christian art. It shall be the song of joy after the battle.
• Painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry have been successively inspired by the Pagan and Christian ideas. Could you tell us if after the Pagan and Christian art there will be spiritist art? – A. You ask a question which is already answered. The larva is a larva. It becomes the silkworm, then the butterfly. What is lighter, more gracious than a butterfly? Then! Pagan art is the larva; Christian art is the cocoon; spiritist art will be the butterfly.
The more one deepens the meaning of that graceful comparison, the more one admires its accuracy. At first glance one could suppose that the spirit wanted to belittle Christian art, placing the spiritist art on the top of the edifice, but that is not the case and it is sufficient to meditate about that poetic image to capture its accurate meaning. In fact, Spiritism is fundamentally based on Christianity. It does not come to replace Christianity. Spiritism complements Christianity and adorns it up with a shiny outfit. The germs of Spiritism are found in the infancy of Christianity. If they repelled one another one would disown the child, the other would reject the father. Comparing the first one to the cocoon and the second to the butterfly the spirit describes perfectly well the relationship that bonds them together. There is more: the image itself paints the character of the art that has inspired one and will inspire the other. Christian art had to find inspiration mainly in the terrible trials of its martyrs and paint the severity of its maternal origin. The spiritist art, represented by the butterfly, will find inspiration in the misty and splendid images of the unveiled future existence. It will fill the soul with joy, a soul that was filled by admiration and fear by the Christian art. It shall be the song of joy after the battle.
Spiritism is entirely found in the Pagan theosophy, and mythology
is nothing more than a poetic and allegorical picture of the spiritual life.
Who would not identify life in Jupiter with the Elysian Fields, with
the ethereal bodies of their inhabitants; the inferior world of Tartarus; the
errant souls in the Manes; the protecting spirits of families and homes in
the Penates; in the Lates, the forgetfulness of our past at birth; in the foretellers,
our clairvoyant and speaking mediums; in the oracles, the communications
with those beyond the grave?
Art has owed its necessary inspiration in the productive source of
imagination, but to elevate to the sublime it was missing the most import
sentiment: Christian charity.
Human beings only knew the material life. Art sought the perfection
of form, before anything else.
Physical beauty then was the first of all qualities. Art was bonded to
its reproduction, its idealization, but it was only Christianity that was
destined to highlight the beauty of the soul over the external form. Thus,
Christian art took over from the Pagan art by adding the expression of a
new feeling, unknown in ancient times.
Nevertheless, as it was said, Christian art had the feel the severity of
its origin and was inspired by the suffering of the first followers; persecution
impelled human beings to isolation and reclusion, and the idea of hell to the ascetic life. That is why painting and sculpture are in three quarters
of the cases inspired by the image of moral and physical tortures; architecture
takes a grandiose and sublime character, although somber; music
is grave and dull like a death penalty; eloquence is more dogmatic than
touching; beatitude itself is something of boredom, of idle, of personal
satisfaction. As a matter of fact, it is placed so far away from us, so high
up that it seems inaccessible and thus it almost does not touch us when we
see it reproduced in screens or on marble.
Spiritism shows a future illuminated by a light closer to our reach;
happiness is near us, by our side, present in the very creatures that surround
us and with whom we can communicate; the dwelling of the elected
ones is no longer isolated; there is continual solidarity between Earth and
Heaven; beatitude is no longer a perpetual contemplation which would
then be eternal and useless indolence; it is in constant activity towards
good, before God’s eyes; it is not in the quietness of a personal satisfaction
but in the reciprocal love of all creatures who have reached perfection.
The evil one is no longer exiled into the burning furnaces since hell
resides in the heart of the wicked, who finds punishment inside; but God,
in His infinite benevolence, leaves open the door to the path of regret and
at the same time of hope, the sublime consolation of the miserable.
What fertile sources of inspiration for art! What masterpieces cannot
be created by such ideas, reproducing so varied scenes, and at the same
time so kind or pungent from the spiritual life!
How many themes simultaneously poetic and thrilling with respect
to the permanent relationship between the mortals and the beings from
beyond the grave; in the presence of our loved ones!
It will no longer be the representation of cold and inert remains.
It will be the mother having the loving daughter by her side, in her
ethereal and radiant form of happiness; a son carefully listening to the
advice of his father, who wakes for him; the being for which one prays
that comes to show recognition. And in another order of ideas, the bad
spirit whispering the poison of passions, the naughty one avoiding the
eyes of the prey who forgives him; the isolation of the evil one amidst the crowd that rejects him; the confusion of the spirit at the time of death,
awakening and surprised by the sight of the cold body from which he is
now separated; the spirit of a cadaver among their avid heirs and hypocrite
friends; and so many other subjects which are the more impressive the
more they touch real life.
Does the artist want to elevate above earthly grounds? They will find
not less attractive themes in those worlds that the spirits like to describe,
true Eden from where evil has been banished and those other inferior
worlds, true hell, sovereignly governed by all passions.
Yes, we repeat, Spiritism opens up a new field to Art, an immense and
still unexplored field, and when the spiritist artist work with conviction,
as the Christian artists do, they will harvest the most sublime inspirations
from that source.
By saying that the spiritist art will be a new kind of art, we want to
say that the ideas and the spiritist beliefs will give a particular mark to the
productions of the genius, as happened to the Christian beliefs and ideas,
and we don’t mean that the Christian matters will fade away; far from
that; however, when a field is saturated, the farmer will harvest somewhere
else and will harvest abundantly in the field of Spiritism.
This has already been done, no doubt, but not in a special way as it
shall be done later when encouraged and excited by the general acceptance;
when these ideas are popularized, which cannot be long, since the
blind ones of the current generation daily disappear from the scene, by the
force of things, and the new generations will face less prejudices. Painting
has more than once found inspiration in similar things. Poetry, above all,
has plenty of those, but not isolated, lost in the crowds.
There will be a time when they will yield the production of masterpieces,
and the spiritist art will have its Raphaels and Michelangelos, as
Pagan art had its Apelles and Phidias.
History of the Marvelous
(by Mr. Figuier)
II *
II *
Talking about Mr. Louis Figuier, in our first article we tried to verify,
before all, what his point of view was and the basis of his argumentation,
and we demonstrated that in his own words that he denies any force
of extra-corporeal origin.
His premises must indicate his conclusions. His fourth volume in
which he should discuss the subject of turning tables and the mediums
had not been published yet and we waited to see if he would give to
those matters a more satisfactory explanation than that of Mr. Jobert (de
Lamballe).
We read it carefully concluding that there is clear evidence that the
author dealt with a subject that he absolutely does not know. We don’t
need an additional proof of that other that the two initial lines written
in the following terms: “Before touching the history of the turning tables
and the mediums, whose manifestations are entirely modern, etc…”
How can the author ignore that Tertullian explicitly talks about
the turning and speaking tables? How can he ignore that the Chinese
knew this phenomenon since immemorial times; that it is practiced by
the Tartarus and Siberians; that there are mediums among the Tibetans;that there were mediums among the Assyrians, Greeks and Egyptians;
that every fundamental principle of Spiritism is present in the Sanskrit
philosophies?
Hence, it is false to say that these manifestations are “entirely modern”.
Modern people have invented nothing about it and spiritists are supported
by ancient knowledge and in the universality of their Doctrine,
which should be known by Mr. Figuier, before having the pretension of
creating an “ex profeso” (deliberate) treaty about it. This has not precluded
his work from receiving a distinction from the press that has promptly
paid tribute to this champion of materialistic ideas.
A reflection is in order here whose reach will escape nobody. It is
said that nothing is more brutal than a fact. Well, here is one that has
a lot of value: it is the incredible progress of the spiritist ideas, to which
certainly no press, large or small, has given their contribution. When
it decided to speak of those poor ignorant individuals who think to
have a soul that is still in some relationship with the living beings after
death, this is an outrage! An outrage against them and to those sent
to the asylums, a bleak perspective to the general public that ignores
the subject.
Spiritism has not played the trumpet of publicity; it has not filled
up the newspapers with expensive ads. How can it be then that without
noise, without shining, without the support of those who turn themselves
into judges of the general opinion, how can it infiltrate into the masses
and according to the graceful expression of a critic whose name we don’t
remember, saying: after having infested the educated classes it now penetrates
the working classes?
Tell us then how come, without employing the normal means of
propaganda, the second edition of The Spirits’ Book has sold out in four
months. They say that people are enthusiastic about the most ridiculous
of things. That may be but people are excited about entertaining things
like a story, a romantic novel. Well then, The Spirits’ Book has no intention
of being amusing. Wouldn’t that be because public opinion finds in those
beliefs something that challenges criticism?
Mr. Figuier found the solution to the problem: it is, he says, the love
for the marvelous. And he is right. Let us use the word “marvelous” with
the meaning he gives it and we will agree. In his opinion, since nature is
only material, every phenomenon that is supernatural is marvelous. There
is no salvation outside matter. Consequently, the soul and everything else
that is attributed to the soul, its state after death, all that is marvelous.
Like him, let us call it marvelous. The remaining question is to determine
if such marvelous exists or not.
Mr. Figuier, who does not like the marvelous and admits in the story
of Bluebeard, it does not exist. However, if Mr. Figuier does not wish to
outlive his body; if he neglects his soul and his future life, not everybody
shares his taste and he does not need to displease others because of that.
There are a lot of people to whom the perspective of nothing is not attractive,
and who expect to find up there or somewhere, their father, mother,
sons and friends. Mr. Figuier does not appreciate those things. It is a matter
of taste and it should not be questioned.
The human being is instinctively horrified by the idea of death, and
we must agree that the desire to live on forever is very natural. One can
even say that it is a general weakness. Well, how can we outlive the body
if we don’t have that marvelous called soul? If we do have a soul it must
have some properties, since without properties it would not be something.
To certain people, unfortunately, these are not chemical properties and
one cannot hold it in a flask to keep it in the museums of anatomy, like
it is done with a skull. The Great Creator made a real mistake here for
not having made it tangible. It is likely that he did not know Mr. Figuier.
Nevertheless, it must be one out of two possibilities: that the soul, if
the soul does exist, lives or does not live after the death of the body; it is
something or nothing; there is no midterm. Does it live forever or just
for some time? If it is supposed to disappear at some point, it is the same
as disappearing immediately; a little bit sooner or a little bit later, and
yet man would not have advanced more. If it lives, it does something or
nothing. But how can one admit an intelligent being that does nothing,
and for the whole eternity? Without any activity future life would be very boring. By not admitting that something accessible to the senses may produce
any effect, Mr. Figuier is led, due to his starting point, to this conclusion
that every effect must have a material cause. That is why he places
in the domain of the marvelous, or out of pure imagination, its properties,
its effects and its acts from beyond the grave. The simple minded ones
who are foolish enough to want to survive death are naturally inclined to
everything that may satisfy their desires, confirming their hopes. That is
why they love the marvelous. Up until now hearing satisfied them: “Not
everything dies with the body; rest assured; take our word for that.” This
would be undoubtedly comforting but a small proof would not do it any
harm.
Well then, Spiritism comes to give them that proof with its phenomena,
and they gladly accept it. That is the whole secret of its speedy propagation.
In reality, Spiritism pumps up a hope with reality: the hope of
living, or even more, the hope of living happier. Meanwhile, you Mr.
Figuier, you struggle to demonstrate to them that all that, is nothing more
than an illusion; Spiritism gives encouragement while you abate. Do you
still believe that there is any doubt about the choice to be made?
The human being’s desire to revive after death is then the source of
his love for the marvelous, that is, for everything that links him to life
beyond the grave. If some people are seduced by sophisms were capable of
doubting the future, don’t you think that they have given a lot of thought
to that? No, because such an idea horrifies them and it is with that horror
that they probe the depths of the emptiness.
Spiritism sooths their inquietudes and dissipates their doubts. What
was vague, indecisive, and uncertain, takes a form and becomes a consoling
reality. That is why in a few years it has gone around the world, for
everybody wants to live and every person will always prefer the doctrines
that comfort him or her to those that frighten them.
Let us return to Mr. Figuier’s work and say for starters that his fourth
volume, dedicated to the turning tables and to mediums, has three quarters
full of stories that have nothing to do with the subject, so that the
principal part becomes the accessory in that work. Cagliostro and the issue of the necklace are there for an unknown reason; the electrified girl
and the sympathetic snails, all these things occupy thirteen out of the
eighteen chapters. It is true that those stories are treated with profusion
of details and erudition, which will make them read with interest, leaving
aside any spiritist opinion.
As his objective is to demonstrate the passion of the human being
for the marvelous, he seeks every story that has already been given a fair
value over time, struggling to demonstrate their absurdities, and to what
nobody objects.
He then exclaims: “There you have Spiritism annihilated!” Hearing
this, it is possible to believe that Cagliostro’s prowess and the tales of
Hoffmann are articles of faith to the spiritists, and that the sympathetic
snails have all their sympathies.
Mr. Figuier does not reject all facts, far from that. Contrary to other
critics, who systematically deny everything, since it is easier to dismiss
any explanation, he totally admits the turning tables and mediumship but
with wide margin to deception. The Fox sisters, for example, are notable
conjurers because ungallant American journalists derided them. He even
admits magnetism as a material agent, let us have it well understood;
the fascinating power of the will, of the eyes, somnambulism, catalepsy,
hypnotism, and all other phenomena of Biology. Be aware! He is going to
be taken by someone illuminated to the eyes of his companions. But he
is consistent with himself since he wants to reduce everything to the laws
of Physics and Physiology. It is true that he cites some authentic witnesses
and of the greatest respectability that support the spiritist phenomena, but
expands with satisfaction about every contrary opinion, particularly of the
scholars like Mr. Chevreul and others who sought proofs of the subject.
He thinks highly of the theory of the cracking muscle from Mr. Jobert
and his accomplices. His theory, like the magical lantern in the fable, fails
in a capital point: it gets lost in a warren of explanations that need other
explanations to be understood. Another defect is that at each step it is
contradicted by facts that he cannot explain and which he remains silent,
for a very simple reason: he doesn’t know them. He saw nothing or saw very little on his own. In short, he did not deepen anything “de visu”, with
the sagacity, patience and the independence of ideas of a conscious observer.
He was satisfied with reports more or less fantastic found in books
that are not well known for impartiality. He does not take into account
the progress made lately by science, since he takes it from its beginning,
in a period where science was still trial and error; when each one used to
bring a premature and uncertain opinion, and that it was still far from
knowing all facts, as if he wanted to assess contemporary Chemistry based
on what it was over Nicolas Flamel’s time. In our opinion, Mr. Figuier,
however wise he may be, he lacks the first quality of a critic: that of having
an in-depth knowledge about the discussed subject, an even more necessary
condition when one wants to explain the subject.
We will not follow him in all his arguments. We prefer to recommend
his work that spiritists may read without any danger to their convictions.
We will only cite the passage in which he explains his theory for
the turning tables that more or less summarizes the theory of every other
phenomenon:
“Then comes the theory that explains the movement of the turning
tables by the spirits. If the table turns after a quarter of an hour of
reverence and attention from the part of the experimenters, it is because,
they say, the spirits, good or bad, angels or demons, have gotten inside
the table, making it oscillate. Does the reader expect us to discuss such
hypothesis? We don’t think so. If we decided to prove, with great effort
of logical arguments that the devil does not enter into the furniture to
make it dance, we would also have to demonstrate that it is not the spirits
that, inserted in our bodies, make us act, speak, feel, etc. ** All these facts
are of the same kind, and someone that admits the intervention of the
devil to make a table turn must resort to the same supernatural influence
to explain actions resulting from our will and with the support of our organs. Nobody has ever seriously wanted to attribute the effects of human
will upon our organs, however mysterious may be the essence of that
phenomenon, to the action of an angel or a demon. It is, however, to that
consequence that those who want to connect the rotation of the tables to
a superhuman cause arrive.”
“Let us say that, to cut this discussion short, reason forbids reaching
out to a supernatural cause whenever there is a sufficient natural cause.
Can a natural, normal and physiological cause be evoked to explain the
movement of the tables? That is the whole question.”
“Here we are then to lead and lay down the arguments that seem to
explain the phenomenon studied in the latter part of the book.”
“The explanation of the facts of the turning tables, considered in
its simplest form, seem to come from those phenomena whose name
has changed up until now, but whose bottom line nature is identical,
and hence successively called hypnotism by Dr. Braid; biologism by Mr.
Philips and suggestion by Mr. Carpenter. Let us keep in mind that as a
consequence of the strong cerebral stress, resulting from the long lasting
contemplation of a given object, the brain falls into a particular state
which has successively received the names magnetic state, nervous sleep
and biological state, different names which designate certain variations of
a generally identical state.”
“Once arrived at that state, through the passes of a magnetizer, as
it is done since Mesmer, or by the contemplation of a shiny object, as
operated by Braid, later imitated by Mr. Philips, and how it is still operated
by the Arabic and Egyptian sorcerers; or finally simply through a
strong moral contention that we have provided more than one example,
the individual falls into that automatic passivity that constitutes the
nervous sleep. He looses the strength to drive and control his own will
and remains in the domain of a foreign will. A glass of water is presented
and he is told that it is a delicious drink, and he drinks thinking that
it is wine, liquor or milk, according to the wishes of the one that has
strongly taken his being over. Thus, denied of his own judgment, the
individual remains almost foreign to his own actions, and returning to his natural state he loses the memory of his actions during that strange
and transient withdrawal of himself. He is under the influence of suggestion,
accepting a constant idea, imposed by a strange will, he then
acts and is forced to act unwillingly, and consequently unconscious.”
“This system raises a great question of Psychology, because the individual
loses free-will when influenced in such a manner and no longer has
responsibility for his actions. He acts under the influence of intruding images
that obsess his brain, analogous to those visions that Cuvier proposes
is permanent in the sensorial of bees that represent the forms and proportions
of the cell, driven to be built by the instinct. The principle of the
suggestion explains perfectly the phenomena, so varied and sometimes so
replete with terrible hallucinations, and at the same time shows the short
interval that separates the hallucinated from the monomaniac. It will not
come as a surprise if in a large number of table turners hallucination survived
the experiences but converted into definitive madness.”
“The principle of suggestion under the influence of the nervous sleep
seems to provide us with the explanation of the phenomenon of the rotation
of the tables, considered in its simplest form. Let us consider now
what happens in the case of a group of people gathered for that kind of
experience. Those persons are attentive, worried, strongly moved by the
expectation of the phenomenon that is about to be produced. A strong
concentration, a total spiritual reverence is recommended to them. As
the wait drags on and the moral contention retains for a long time, their
brains experience fatigue and the thoughts are slightest altered. When we
took part in the experiences of Mr. Philips in the winter 1860; when we
saw the ten or twelve person to whom he entrusted a metallic disc, with
the request that the person should have their eyes fixated on the disc,
placed on the palm of their hands for half-hour, we could not avoid seeing
in those activities everything that is needed for the manifestation of the
so called hypnotic state, the same image portrayed by those who form the
so called chain of thoughts in order to make the tables turn. In one as in
the other there is a strong concentration of the mind, a single idea that
is strongly sought for a considerable amount of time. The human brain cannot withstand the excessive pressure for a long period, producing an
abnormal accumulation of nerve impulses. From the ten or twelve people
dedicated to the experiment the majority gave up, forced to quit by their
nervous fatigue. It is only one or two that persevere, tied to the hypnotic
or biological state, then giving rise to the multiple phenomena that we
have discussed all along in this book when we discussed hypnotism and
the biological state.”
“In such a meeting when people remain focused for twenty or thirty
minutes, forming a chain, hands stretched out on the table, without the
freedom of getting distracted from the operation for any instant, the majority
does not feel any particular effect. However, it is very difficult that
at least one of them would not fall prey of a hypnotic or biological state
for some time. Such state does not need to last more than a second for the
expected phenomenon to take place. The element of the chain that falls
into that nervous half-sleep unconsciously produces the effect of turning
the furniture, without any other thought but the fixed idea of doing
it. A considerable muscular strength may develop at that point and the
table moves. Given such impulse realized by the unconscious act, there
is nothing left to be done. Hence, temporarily bio-energized, the individual
may return to his normal state because as soon as the mechanical
movement begins all components of the chain stand up and follow its
path, or on other words, make the table march, thinking that they just
follow it. As for the individual, involuntary and unconscious cause of the
phenomenon, since he keeps no memory of his actions carried out in that
nervous-sleep state, totally ignores his deeds and becomes outraged when
accused of having pushed the table. He even suspects that the other members
are kidding him, with a tasteless joke, given their accusation. Hence,
the occurrence of frequent discussions and even serious squabbles that
passes the time which the turning tables have caused.”
“This is the explanation that we consider appropriate for the
turning tables, in its simplest mode. As for the motion of the table
responding to questions, the feet, which lift up under command, responding
by the number of hits, the same system is applicable if we admit that among the members of the chain there is one that can keep
the nervous sleep for longer periods. Such individual, unwillingly hypnotized,
responds to questions and obeys orders addressed to him, inclining
the table or making it lift up and hit back the floor, according
to the request. Returning to the normal state it will all be forgotten
like any other hypnotized individual would lose memory of their actions
during that state. The person who is unconsciously taken to that
role is a kind of sleepy-awaken; is not absolutely sui compos (legally
competent state); it is in a mental state which is part of somnambulism
and fascination. The person does not sleep; they are enchanted or fascinated
given the imposed strong moral concentration: that person is a
medium. Since the latter is of superior order compared to the former, it
cannot be obtained in all groups. In order to have the table responding
to the framed questions by lifting one of its feet and hitting the floor,
it is necessary that the individuals who are used in the process have
practiced the phenomenon of the turning table a number of times, and
that there is one among them susceptible to fall onto that state, falling
faster with practice and may remain in that state longer: in short, an
experienced medium is required.”
“However, some will say that twenty minutes or half hour is not always
needed to obtain the phenomenon of rotation of a “guéridon” or a
regular table. Several times the table starts to turn after four or five minutes.
We respond to this observation by saying that when a magnetizer
works with his usual sensitive or with a professional somnambulist, he
leads the subject into the somnambulistic state in a couple of minutes,
without passes or devices and by a simple stare. Then, it is the habit that
makes the phenomenon easier and faster. Trained mediums can also
reach that nervous-half-sleep that induces the rotation of the table or
any other movement, according to the request.”
We don’t know how Mr. Figuier would apply his theory to the movements,
to the noises that are heard, to the motion of objects, without
any contact of the medium, without the participation of their will, even
against their will. But there are other things that he does not explain. As a
matter of fact, even accepting his theory we would have an extraordinary
physiological phenomenon, worthy of receiving the attention of the scholars.
Why have they neglected it then?
Mr. Figuier finishes his Dissertation of the Marvelous providing
short instructions about The Spirits’ Book. He judges it from his point of
view, naturally; “the philosophy, he said, is outdated and the moral part
is sleep-inducing.” I would undoubtedly rather have a mocking and lively
moral. What can one do? It is a moral to be used by the soul; as a matter
of fact, it would always have an advantage: make people sleep. It is a recipe
in case of insomnia.”
_____________________________________________
* See the September 1860 issue of The Review
** It is not the spirits that make us act and think but one single spirit that is our soul.
Denying the spirit is the same as denying the soul; denying the soul is the same as proclaiming
pure materialism. Mr. Figuier apparently thinks that everybody else thinks like him and
believes that they don’t have an immortal soul or he believes that he is everybody else.
Family Conversations from Beyond the Grave The Education of a Spirit
Balthazar, the Gastronome Spirit2nd conversation
One of our subscribers read in The Spiritist Review last November about the evocation of the spirit known by the name Balthazar and thought that he could be a person of his acquaintance, whose life and character coincided perfectly in all details. He was likely to be the one who had also used a pseudo name in another manifestation, thus he asks us to verify in the next evocation. According to him, Balthazar was no one but Mr. G… de la R…, known for his eccentricities, his fortune and gastronomical tastes.
1. Evocation. – A. Ah! I am here. But you never have something to offer me. You are not, definitely, very kind.
2. Could you tell us what we can offer you to please you? – A. Oh! Not much: some tea; a little and sophisticated dinner; I would enjoy that better and the ladies here, not forgetting the gentlemen, would not reject that either, you must agree. 3. Have you met a certain Mr. G… de la R…? – A. I think you are curious.
4. No; it is not curiosity; please tell us if you knew him. – A. You then want to know my secret.
5. Then, are you Mr. G… de la R…? Well! Yes, but without lunch.
6. It was not us who discovered the secret. It was one of our friends, present here. – A. He is a chatterbox. He should have stayed quiet.
7. How can this upset you? – A. It cannot but I would have preferred not to be identified so soon. That is okay. I will not hide my tastes because of that. If you only knew about the dinner parties that I used to throw you would agree that they were good and had a value that is no longer appreciated.
8. No, I don’t know. But let us speak more seriously, please, and let us leave the dinners and feasts aside, since they teach us nothing. Our objective is to learn and that is why we ask you to please tell us what was the feeling that led you to make your colleagues to have dinner, on the day of your graduation as a lawyer, in a room decorated like a mortuary chamber? – A. Don’t you notice from all my eccentricities of character a stain of sadness caused by the mistakes of Society, particularly the pride of the one in which I lived since birth, enjoying fortune? I tried to baffle my heart through all imaginable crazy things, and that is why I was called mad, extravagant. I couldn’t care less. Each time when I left those original feasts I would promptly do a good deed, ignored by all, and that was okay with me: my heart felt better and men were also happy. I laughed at myself while making fun of them. What would you say about a dinner in which each guest had a coffin behind their backs! I had a lot of fun with their horrified faces. As you see, it was apparent madness added to a sad heart.
9. What is your current opinion about the Divinity? – A. I did not wait until I left the body to believe in God. The only thing is that the body that I loved so much has materialized my spirit to a point that it will take a long time for me to be able to break all earthly bonds, every passion that attached me to Earth.
OBSERVATION: As it can be seen, from an apparently frivolous subject we can still obtain useful teachings. Isn’t there something eminently instructive about this spirit, that by keeping his corporeal instincts in the spiritual world he acknowledges that the abusive passions have in a way materialized his spirit?
One of our subscribers read in The Spiritist Review last November about the evocation of the spirit known by the name Balthazar and thought that he could be a person of his acquaintance, whose life and character coincided perfectly in all details. He was likely to be the one who had also used a pseudo name in another manifestation, thus he asks us to verify in the next evocation. According to him, Balthazar was no one but Mr. G… de la R…, known for his eccentricities, his fortune and gastronomical tastes.
1. Evocation. – A. Ah! I am here. But you never have something to offer me. You are not, definitely, very kind.
2. Could you tell us what we can offer you to please you? – A. Oh! Not much: some tea; a little and sophisticated dinner; I would enjoy that better and the ladies here, not forgetting the gentlemen, would not reject that either, you must agree. 3. Have you met a certain Mr. G… de la R…? – A. I think you are curious.
4. No; it is not curiosity; please tell us if you knew him. – A. You then want to know my secret.
5. Then, are you Mr. G… de la R…? Well! Yes, but without lunch.
6. It was not us who discovered the secret. It was one of our friends, present here. – A. He is a chatterbox. He should have stayed quiet.
7. How can this upset you? – A. It cannot but I would have preferred not to be identified so soon. That is okay. I will not hide my tastes because of that. If you only knew about the dinner parties that I used to throw you would agree that they were good and had a value that is no longer appreciated.
8. No, I don’t know. But let us speak more seriously, please, and let us leave the dinners and feasts aside, since they teach us nothing. Our objective is to learn and that is why we ask you to please tell us what was the feeling that led you to make your colleagues to have dinner, on the day of your graduation as a lawyer, in a room decorated like a mortuary chamber? – A. Don’t you notice from all my eccentricities of character a stain of sadness caused by the mistakes of Society, particularly the pride of the one in which I lived since birth, enjoying fortune? I tried to baffle my heart through all imaginable crazy things, and that is why I was called mad, extravagant. I couldn’t care less. Each time when I left those original feasts I would promptly do a good deed, ignored by all, and that was okay with me: my heart felt better and men were also happy. I laughed at myself while making fun of them. What would you say about a dinner in which each guest had a coffin behind their backs! I had a lot of fun with their horrified faces. As you see, it was apparent madness added to a sad heart.
9. What is your current opinion about the Divinity? – A. I did not wait until I left the body to believe in God. The only thing is that the body that I loved so much has materialized my spirit to a point that it will take a long time for me to be able to break all earthly bonds, every passion that attached me to Earth.
OBSERVATION: As it can be seen, from an apparently frivolous subject we can still obtain useful teachings. Isn’t there something eminently instructive about this spirit, that by keeping his corporeal instincts in the spiritual world he acknowledges that the abusive passions have in a way materialized his spirit?
The Education of a Spirit
One of our subscribers whose wife is an excellent writing medium cannot communicate with relatives and friends, in spite of that, because a bad spirit interposes and intercepts, so to speak, every communication, causing them great distress. Notice the fact that it characterizes simple obsession and not subjugation since the medium is not absolutely deceived by the spirit that, as a matter of fact, is frankly bad and does not try to hide his game. He asked for our advice and heard that he would not get rid of that spirit by rage or threats but by patience; that she should try to dominate him through her moral ascendency and try to make him better through her good advice; that it is a mission entrusted to her soul and whose difficulty will result in merit for her.
Following our advice, husband and wife had undertaken the process of educating the spirit and we must say that they are doing remarkably well and if they are not successful there will be nothing to regret. We extracted some passages from their instructions which we provide below as an example of that type of spirit and because his nature is shown here in a characteristic manner.
1. Do you need to suffer to be bad like that? – A. Yes, I suffer and that is why I am bad.
2. Don’t you ever regret the bad things you do or try to do? – A. No; I never regret, and the bad things I do give me pleasure, because other people’s happiness make me suffer.
3. You don’t believe then that it is possible to be happy with other people’s happiness instead of finding happiness in their disgrace! Haven’t you ever thought about that? – A. I have never done that… I think you are right but I cannot … I cannot do good; I am…
OBSERVATION: The periods indicate doodle marks made between the words when he couldn’t write or did not want to write the word.
4. Anyway, wouldn’t you like to listen to me and try the advice that I could give you? – A. I don’t know because everything that you tell me makes me suffer even more, and I don’t have the courage to do good.
5. Well, will you promise me to try, at least? – A. Oh No! I cannot because I would not do it and therefore I would be punished. You still have to ask God to change my heart.
6. Let us pray together then. Let us ask together for God to help you better. – A. I am telling you that I cannot; I am very bad and that gives me pleasure.
7. But honestly, did you want to do that to me? I don’t consider your mystifications a really bad thing because so far they have been more beneficial than harmful to us, since they served the purpose of our instruction; Well, you know you are wasting your time. – A. Yes, I did as much as I could and if I don’t do more it is because I can’t.
8. What is it that stops you? – A. Your good guardian angel and your Mary, without whom you would see what I am capable of doing.
OBSERVATION: Mary is the name of a young lady who they evoke unsuccessfully and that cannot communicate because of this spirit. One can see, however, from the very answer of the spirit that if she cannot manifest in material terms it does not preclude her from being there like the guardian angel, watching over them. Such fact raises a serious issue that is how come an inferior spirit may hinder the communications of a good one. The inferior spirit impedes the material communications but cannot oppose the spiritual ones. It is not that the inferior spirit is more powerful than the good one, but the medium that is not strong enough to fight the obstinacy of the bad one, and it is the medium who must strive to win over him through the ascendency of good, improving progressively. God allows such trials to our own benefit.
9. What would you do to me then? – A. I would do a thousand of things, some more unpleasant than others; I would do…
10. Let us see poor spirit; don’t you ever do something kind? Don’t you ever entertain a single desire of doing something good, even if it is a vague desire? – A. Yes, a vague desire of doing something bad. It cannot be different. You must pray to God so that I am touched, otherwise I will certainly continue to be bad.
11. You believe in God then? – A. It cannot be different since he makes me suffer.
12. There you go! If you believe in God you must trust his perfection and his benevolence. You must understand that he does not create the beings to have them devoted to disgrace; that if they are unhappy it is their own fault and not God’s, but that those creatures can always improve and reach happiness; that God has not created us intelligent without an objective and that such objective is to make all creatures to concur to the universal harmony: charity and love to our fellow human beings; that the person who stays away from that objective disturbs the harmony and that person is the first victim to suffer the effects of such disturbance. Look around you and above you. Don’t you see happy spirits? Don’t you wish to be like them since you suffer? God has not created them more perfect than you; like you they may have suffered as well but they repented and God forgave them. You can do as they did. – A. I begin to understand that God is just. I had not seen that yet. You are opening my eyes.
13. There you are! Aren’t you feeling already the wish to improve? – A. Not yet.
14. Wait, this will come. I will wait. You told my wife that she was torturing you while evoking you. Do you believe that we want to torture you? – A. No, I know it is not the case but it is not less true that I suffer more than ever and you are the cause of that suffering.
OBSERVATION: Once interrogated about the cause of such suffering a superior spirit responded: “The cause is in his internal struggle, against himself; he feels something dragging him to a better path, inexorably, but he resists and it is that fight that makes him suffer. Who is going to come out as the winner: good or evil? Good, but the fight shall be long and difficult. It is necessary to persevere and show great devotion.
15. What could we do to avoid your suffering? – A. You must pray so that God may forg… (he crosses out the final letters) have pity on me.
16. There you go! Pray with us. – A. I cannot.
17. You said you have to believe in God since he makes you suffer. However, how do you know that he is the one to make you suffer? – A. He makes me suffer because I am bad.
18. If it is true that you believe that it is God who makes you suffer you must acknowledge the reason for that, so you cannot suppose that God is unfair. – A. Yes, I believe in God’s justice.
19. You said that we open your eyes. Be it true or false, the fact is that you cannot hide the truth of what we tell you. Well then, irrespective if you have learned about that truth from us or from before the time you met us, the essential point is that you know it. The big thing for you today is to take advantage of that. Tell us honestly if the satisfaction you feel to bad, leaves you nothing to desire? – A. All I want is that my sufferings end, that is all. And they shall never end.
20. Do you understand that it depends on you, that they end? – A Yes, I do.
21. Did you devote yourself to the bad things in your previous existence, like you do now? – A. You must realize that I am filthier than a monster. I am a miserable who has done everything, even…
22. Was it me or my wife who did you harm? Do you have anything against us from a previous existence? – A. No; I don’t…
23. Then, tell us why you take more pleasure by attacking innocent people like us, who wish you well, instead of doing that against evil people, who may be or might have been your enemies? – A. I don’t envy them.
OBSERVATION: This answer is characteristic: it portrays the hatred of evil against those men that are knowingly better than they are. It is blindness by envy that sometimes leads them to actions completely in opposition to their own interests. The same happens here on Earth where the mistakes of a man are often his merit to the eyes of certain people. Aristides is an example of that.
24. Were you happier on Earth than now? – A. Oh yes! I was wealthy and missed nothing. I did all sorts of mischievous things and all the evilness that is possible when there is money and miserable people at your service.
25. Why did you say to me the other day that I should leave you alone? – A. Because I did not want to answer questions. But I am okay now that you evoked me and I wanted to write, because boredom kills me. Oh! You don’t know how it is to be continually before your own faults and crimes, as I am!
26. What is your feeling when you witness a good deed? – A. I feel spiteful. I wish I could destroy it.
27. Haven’t you done any good deeds in your last existence, whatever the reason might have been? – A. I did for ambition and pride; never for benevolence. That is why it was not taken into account.
OBSERVATION: These conversations prolonged for many sessions and still happen at this point in time, unfortunately without much noticeable result. Evilness is always dominant in this spirit that only from time to time reveals some flashes of good feelings, thus turning into a tough task to his instructors. Nevertheless, we hope that they shall tame that rebellious nature with perseverance, or at least God will take their effort into account.
Following our advice, husband and wife had undertaken the process of educating the spirit and we must say that they are doing remarkably well and if they are not successful there will be nothing to regret. We extracted some passages from their instructions which we provide below as an example of that type of spirit and because his nature is shown here in a characteristic manner.
1. Do you need to suffer to be bad like that? – A. Yes, I suffer and that is why I am bad.
2. Don’t you ever regret the bad things you do or try to do? – A. No; I never regret, and the bad things I do give me pleasure, because other people’s happiness make me suffer.
3. You don’t believe then that it is possible to be happy with other people’s happiness instead of finding happiness in their disgrace! Haven’t you ever thought about that? – A. I have never done that… I think you are right but I cannot … I cannot do good; I am…
OBSERVATION: The periods indicate doodle marks made between the words when he couldn’t write or did not want to write the word.
4. Anyway, wouldn’t you like to listen to me and try the advice that I could give you? – A. I don’t know because everything that you tell me makes me suffer even more, and I don’t have the courage to do good.
5. Well, will you promise me to try, at least? – A. Oh No! I cannot because I would not do it and therefore I would be punished. You still have to ask God to change my heart.
6. Let us pray together then. Let us ask together for God to help you better. – A. I am telling you that I cannot; I am very bad and that gives me pleasure.
7. But honestly, did you want to do that to me? I don’t consider your mystifications a really bad thing because so far they have been more beneficial than harmful to us, since they served the purpose of our instruction; Well, you know you are wasting your time. – A. Yes, I did as much as I could and if I don’t do more it is because I can’t.
8. What is it that stops you? – A. Your good guardian angel and your Mary, without whom you would see what I am capable of doing.
OBSERVATION: Mary is the name of a young lady who they evoke unsuccessfully and that cannot communicate because of this spirit. One can see, however, from the very answer of the spirit that if she cannot manifest in material terms it does not preclude her from being there like the guardian angel, watching over them. Such fact raises a serious issue that is how come an inferior spirit may hinder the communications of a good one. The inferior spirit impedes the material communications but cannot oppose the spiritual ones. It is not that the inferior spirit is more powerful than the good one, but the medium that is not strong enough to fight the obstinacy of the bad one, and it is the medium who must strive to win over him through the ascendency of good, improving progressively. God allows such trials to our own benefit.
9. What would you do to me then? – A. I would do a thousand of things, some more unpleasant than others; I would do…
10. Let us see poor spirit; don’t you ever do something kind? Don’t you ever entertain a single desire of doing something good, even if it is a vague desire? – A. Yes, a vague desire of doing something bad. It cannot be different. You must pray to God so that I am touched, otherwise I will certainly continue to be bad.
11. You believe in God then? – A. It cannot be different since he makes me suffer.
12. There you go! If you believe in God you must trust his perfection and his benevolence. You must understand that he does not create the beings to have them devoted to disgrace; that if they are unhappy it is their own fault and not God’s, but that those creatures can always improve and reach happiness; that God has not created us intelligent without an objective and that such objective is to make all creatures to concur to the universal harmony: charity and love to our fellow human beings; that the person who stays away from that objective disturbs the harmony and that person is the first victim to suffer the effects of such disturbance. Look around you and above you. Don’t you see happy spirits? Don’t you wish to be like them since you suffer? God has not created them more perfect than you; like you they may have suffered as well but they repented and God forgave them. You can do as they did. – A. I begin to understand that God is just. I had not seen that yet. You are opening my eyes.
13. There you are! Aren’t you feeling already the wish to improve? – A. Not yet.
14. Wait, this will come. I will wait. You told my wife that she was torturing you while evoking you. Do you believe that we want to torture you? – A. No, I know it is not the case but it is not less true that I suffer more than ever and you are the cause of that suffering.
OBSERVATION: Once interrogated about the cause of such suffering a superior spirit responded: “The cause is in his internal struggle, against himself; he feels something dragging him to a better path, inexorably, but he resists and it is that fight that makes him suffer. Who is going to come out as the winner: good or evil? Good, but the fight shall be long and difficult. It is necessary to persevere and show great devotion.
15. What could we do to avoid your suffering? – A. You must pray so that God may forg… (he crosses out the final letters) have pity on me.
16. There you go! Pray with us. – A. I cannot.
17. You said you have to believe in God since he makes you suffer. However, how do you know that he is the one to make you suffer? – A. He makes me suffer because I am bad.
18. If it is true that you believe that it is God who makes you suffer you must acknowledge the reason for that, so you cannot suppose that God is unfair. – A. Yes, I believe in God’s justice.
19. You said that we open your eyes. Be it true or false, the fact is that you cannot hide the truth of what we tell you. Well then, irrespective if you have learned about that truth from us or from before the time you met us, the essential point is that you know it. The big thing for you today is to take advantage of that. Tell us honestly if the satisfaction you feel to bad, leaves you nothing to desire? – A. All I want is that my sufferings end, that is all. And they shall never end.
20. Do you understand that it depends on you, that they end? – A Yes, I do.
21. Did you devote yourself to the bad things in your previous existence, like you do now? – A. You must realize that I am filthier than a monster. I am a miserable who has done everything, even…
22. Was it me or my wife who did you harm? Do you have anything against us from a previous existence? – A. No; I don’t…
23. Then, tell us why you take more pleasure by attacking innocent people like us, who wish you well, instead of doing that against evil people, who may be or might have been your enemies? – A. I don’t envy them.
OBSERVATION: This answer is characteristic: it portrays the hatred of evil against those men that are knowingly better than they are. It is blindness by envy that sometimes leads them to actions completely in opposition to their own interests. The same happens here on Earth where the mistakes of a man are often his merit to the eyes of certain people. Aristides is an example of that.
24. Were you happier on Earth than now? – A. Oh yes! I was wealthy and missed nothing. I did all sorts of mischievous things and all the evilness that is possible when there is money and miserable people at your service.
25. Why did you say to me the other day that I should leave you alone? – A. Because I did not want to answer questions. But I am okay now that you evoked me and I wanted to write, because boredom kills me. Oh! You don’t know how it is to be continually before your own faults and crimes, as I am!
26. What is your feeling when you witness a good deed? – A. I feel spiteful. I wish I could destroy it.
27. Haven’t you done any good deeds in your last existence, whatever the reason might have been? – A. I did for ambition and pride; never for benevolence. That is why it was not taken into account.
OBSERVATION: These conversations prolonged for many sessions and still happen at this point in time, unfortunately without much noticeable result. Evilness is always dominant in this spirit that only from time to time reveals some flashes of good feelings, thus turning into a tough task to his instructors. Nevertheless, we hope that they shall tame that rebellious nature with perseverance, or at least God will take their effort into account.
Spiritist Dissertations - Received or read by several mediums at the Society
A Culprit Spirit Arrives in the Spiritual World(Medium Mrs. Costel)
I will tell you what I went through on the occasion of my death. My spirit retained my body through physical connections and it took great pains to free it. I felt so strong at the age of twenty-four that I could hardly believe that I had left such a life behind. I sought my body and that surprised me, terrified me, for finding myself lost in that multitude of shadows. Then the consciousness of my state and the revelation of my faults in all my incarnations suddenly struck me. An inexorable light illuminated the most remote corners of my soul, and I felt naked and a sensation of overwhelming shame. I tried to escape, looking for other things familiar to me, surrounding me. The radiant spirits floating in ether gave me the feeling of an unreachable happiness. Shadow-like forms, devastated, drowned in despair, some sarcastic, others furious, all circulating around me and I felt stuck to the ground. I saw humans coming and going and I envied their ignorance. A total new order of things, or things that I had to meet again, suddenly invaded my soul. Dragged by a relentless force, trying to escape that relentless pain, I traveled distances; the elements, the material obstacles, the splendorous nature or celestial splendors couldn’t calm for a moment the excruciating pain in my conscience, or the horror caused by the revelation of eternity.
A mortal can sense the physical torments by the shivering of the flesh, but your fragile pain, softened by hope, tempered by distractions, annihilated by forgetfulness, will never translate the anguishes of a soul that suffers unremittingly, without hope or regret. I spent a time whose duration I cannot determine just envying the selected ones, in which I could see them glimpse the splendor; hating the bad spirits who continued to persecute me with their mockery, despising human depravity, whose nastiness were clear to me, made me move from a profound depression to an insane rebellion.
Then, you soothed me. I heard the teachings of your guides. The truth penetrated my soul and I prayed and God listened. It was revealed to me by God’s mercy, as it was revealed by God’s justice.
Novel
I will tell you what I went through on the occasion of my death. My spirit retained my body through physical connections and it took great pains to free it. I felt so strong at the age of twenty-four that I could hardly believe that I had left such a life behind. I sought my body and that surprised me, terrified me, for finding myself lost in that multitude of shadows. Then the consciousness of my state and the revelation of my faults in all my incarnations suddenly struck me. An inexorable light illuminated the most remote corners of my soul, and I felt naked and a sensation of overwhelming shame. I tried to escape, looking for other things familiar to me, surrounding me. The radiant spirits floating in ether gave me the feeling of an unreachable happiness. Shadow-like forms, devastated, drowned in despair, some sarcastic, others furious, all circulating around me and I felt stuck to the ground. I saw humans coming and going and I envied their ignorance. A total new order of things, or things that I had to meet again, suddenly invaded my soul. Dragged by a relentless force, trying to escape that relentless pain, I traveled distances; the elements, the material obstacles, the splendorous nature or celestial splendors couldn’t calm for a moment the excruciating pain in my conscience, or the horror caused by the revelation of eternity.
A mortal can sense the physical torments by the shivering of the flesh, but your fragile pain, softened by hope, tempered by distractions, annihilated by forgetfulness, will never translate the anguishes of a soul that suffers unremittingly, without hope or regret. I spent a time whose duration I cannot determine just envying the selected ones, in which I could see them glimpse the splendor; hating the bad spirits who continued to persecute me with their mockery, despising human depravity, whose nastiness were clear to me, made me move from a profound depression to an insane rebellion.
Then, you soothed me. I heard the teachings of your guides. The truth penetrated my soul and I prayed and God listened. It was revealed to me by God’s mercy, as it was revealed by God’s justice.
Novel
Punishment of the Egoist
(Medium Mrs. Costel)
Note: The spirit that signed the three following communications was a woman who was an acquaintance of the medium when alive, and whose conduct and character justify well her ongoing sufferings. She was particularly dominated by an exaggerated selfishness, and by a personality which is reflected in the last communication, given her pretentious desire to have the medium totally dedicated to her, having her quitting her regular studies.
I
Here I am the unfortunate one. What do you want me to teach you? Your resignation and your hope are just words to someone that knows that your sufferings will last the endless sequence of centuries, like the grains in the sand of a beach. You say that you can smooth them out. Meaningless words! Where would you find the courage, the hope for that? Then, oh simple mind, try to understand what is a never ending day. Is it a day, a year, a century? What do I know? Time does not go by; the seasons are dull; eternal and slow like the water seeping out of a rock, this hated day, that wretched day that weighs on me like an urn made of lead… I suffer!
Nevertheless, I know that above such misery God governs sovereignly, our Father, our Lord, and the aim of everything. I want to think about it. I want to beg for God’s help.
I struggle and drag myself like the mutilated that travels the long journey. I don’t know the power that entices me towards you. Perhaps you are the salvation. I move away from you a little bit soothed, a little bit warm again, like the shivering old man in the sun light beam. My frozen soul draws a new life near you.
Clara
II
My disgrace grows every day; it grows, as I understand eternity. Oh misery! How much I curse you and all the guilty hours, hours of selfishness and forgetfulness, ignoring all charity, all devotion, only thinking to my own well being! Be cursed human arrangements! Vain preoccupations of material interests! Curse you who has blinded me and lost! I am destroyed by the endless regret of lapsed time. What can I tell you, you that are listening to me? Watch yourself incessantly; love the others more than yourself; don’t stay long in the path of easiness; don’t fatten your body up to the price of your soul; be vigilant, as the Lord demanded the disciples to be. Do not thank me for this advice, which was never heard by my heart. Like a chastened dog, fear makes me trudge on but I still don’t know pure love! Its divine dawn breaks slowly. Pray for my withered and wretched soul!
Clara
III
Note: The two essays above were received at the medium’s house. The one below was given spontaneously at the Society, a fact that explains the meaning of the first phrase.
I come to find you here, since you forgot me. Do you believe then that isolated prayers and having my name pronounced will sooth my suffering? No, a hundred times no. I roar of pain; I wander without rest, without shelter, without hope, feeling the eternal spike of punishment penetrating my revolted soul. I laugh when I hear your complaints, when I see you slaughtered. What are your feeble miseries?! What are your tears?! What are your torments that prevent you from sleeping?! Did I sleep, me? I want to, do you hear me? I want you to think of me, leaving behind your philosophical dissertations; make the others also think of me. I cannot find an expression to provide you with the image of this anguish, of this time that goes by in the stationary clock of eternity. I only see a faint ray of hope, and I got that hope from you; don’t leave me.
Clara
IV
Note: The communication below is not from the same spirit but from a superior spirit, one of our guides, responding to our request to provide his opinion about the preceding communications.
This picture is very true and it is in no way exaggerated. You may perhaps ask me what this woman has done to be in such a terrible condition! Has she committed any horrible crime? Has she stolen? Was she a murderer? No. She did nothing to deserve man’s justice. On the contrary, she enjoyed what you call earthly happiness: beauty, fortune, pleasures, and adulation. She had everything, lacked nothing and people used to say about her: What a happy woman! She was the cause of envy by others. What did she do then? She was selfish; she had everything but a good heart. She may not have breached man’s law but she did breach God’s law since she ignored charity, the first of all virtues. She only loved herself. Now nobody loves her. She gave nothing; now she gets nothing. She is isolated, tired, abandoned, lost in space, where nobody thinks of her, nobody gives any attention to her and that is her torture. Since she only sought mundane pleasures, and such pleasures no longer exist, the void was created around her. She only sees emptiness and that seems like eternity to her. She feels no physical torture; the demons do not come to torment her, which is not necessary. She torments herself and suffers even more because those demons would still be creatures that would think of her. Egotism was her happiness on Earth; she chased it. Now it is the worm chewing her heart, the true devil.
Ah! If people only knew how much they will pay for their selfishness! However, God teaches you every day, because if God sends so many selfish spirits to Earth, it is that they will punish one another in this very life, and then you will have a better understanding by the contrast that charity is the only antidote to this leprosy of humanity.
Note: The spirit that signed the three following communications was a woman who was an acquaintance of the medium when alive, and whose conduct and character justify well her ongoing sufferings. She was particularly dominated by an exaggerated selfishness, and by a personality which is reflected in the last communication, given her pretentious desire to have the medium totally dedicated to her, having her quitting her regular studies.
I
Here I am the unfortunate one. What do you want me to teach you? Your resignation and your hope are just words to someone that knows that your sufferings will last the endless sequence of centuries, like the grains in the sand of a beach. You say that you can smooth them out. Meaningless words! Where would you find the courage, the hope for that? Then, oh simple mind, try to understand what is a never ending day. Is it a day, a year, a century? What do I know? Time does not go by; the seasons are dull; eternal and slow like the water seeping out of a rock, this hated day, that wretched day that weighs on me like an urn made of lead… I suffer!
Nevertheless, I know that above such misery God governs sovereignly, our Father, our Lord, and the aim of everything. I want to think about it. I want to beg for God’s help.
I struggle and drag myself like the mutilated that travels the long journey. I don’t know the power that entices me towards you. Perhaps you are the salvation. I move away from you a little bit soothed, a little bit warm again, like the shivering old man in the sun light beam. My frozen soul draws a new life near you.
Clara
II
My disgrace grows every day; it grows, as I understand eternity. Oh misery! How much I curse you and all the guilty hours, hours of selfishness and forgetfulness, ignoring all charity, all devotion, only thinking to my own well being! Be cursed human arrangements! Vain preoccupations of material interests! Curse you who has blinded me and lost! I am destroyed by the endless regret of lapsed time. What can I tell you, you that are listening to me? Watch yourself incessantly; love the others more than yourself; don’t stay long in the path of easiness; don’t fatten your body up to the price of your soul; be vigilant, as the Lord demanded the disciples to be. Do not thank me for this advice, which was never heard by my heart. Like a chastened dog, fear makes me trudge on but I still don’t know pure love! Its divine dawn breaks slowly. Pray for my withered and wretched soul!
Clara
III
Note: The two essays above were received at the medium’s house. The one below was given spontaneously at the Society, a fact that explains the meaning of the first phrase.
I come to find you here, since you forgot me. Do you believe then that isolated prayers and having my name pronounced will sooth my suffering? No, a hundred times no. I roar of pain; I wander without rest, without shelter, without hope, feeling the eternal spike of punishment penetrating my revolted soul. I laugh when I hear your complaints, when I see you slaughtered. What are your feeble miseries?! What are your tears?! What are your torments that prevent you from sleeping?! Did I sleep, me? I want to, do you hear me? I want you to think of me, leaving behind your philosophical dissertations; make the others also think of me. I cannot find an expression to provide you with the image of this anguish, of this time that goes by in the stationary clock of eternity. I only see a faint ray of hope, and I got that hope from you; don’t leave me.
Clara
IV
Note: The communication below is not from the same spirit but from a superior spirit, one of our guides, responding to our request to provide his opinion about the preceding communications.
This picture is very true and it is in no way exaggerated. You may perhaps ask me what this woman has done to be in such a terrible condition! Has she committed any horrible crime? Has she stolen? Was she a murderer? No. She did nothing to deserve man’s justice. On the contrary, she enjoyed what you call earthly happiness: beauty, fortune, pleasures, and adulation. She had everything, lacked nothing and people used to say about her: What a happy woman! She was the cause of envy by others. What did she do then? She was selfish; she had everything but a good heart. She may not have breached man’s law but she did breach God’s law since she ignored charity, the first of all virtues. She only loved herself. Now nobody loves her. She gave nothing; now she gets nothing. She is isolated, tired, abandoned, lost in space, where nobody thinks of her, nobody gives any attention to her and that is her torture. Since she only sought mundane pleasures, and such pleasures no longer exist, the void was created around her. She only sees emptiness and that seems like eternity to her. She feels no physical torture; the demons do not come to torment her, which is not necessary. She torments herself and suffers even more because those demons would still be creatures that would think of her. Egotism was her happiness on Earth; she chased it. Now it is the worm chewing her heart, the true devil.
Ah! If people only knew how much they will pay for their selfishness! However, God teaches you every day, because if God sends so many selfish spirits to Earth, it is that they will punish one another in this very life, and then you will have a better understanding by the contrast that charity is the only antidote to this leprosy of humanity.
Alfred de Musset
(Medium Ms. Eugenie)
A spirit spontaneously communicated in our November 23rd session, writing the following: “Since before anything else I want to please you, my question is; what would like me to talk about. If you have a subject, let me know. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, I am all yours.” Alfred de Musset
• Considering that your visit is unexpected, we don’t have a subject prepared beforehand. We then ask you to kindly choose one yourself. Whatever it is we will appreciate it very much.
• “You are right. Yes, because as I am a spirit, in particular, as well as every other spirit, in general, we know your needs better thus we can choose the subject better than you would.
What should I talk about? I am confused amidst so many interesting subjects. Let us begin by talking about those who strongly wish to become spiritists, but seem to step back before what they believe to be an apostasy. Let us then talk about those who retreat before the idea of finding themselves in contradiction with Catholicism. Hear me well: I say Catholicism and not Christianity.
Are you afraid of disowning your parent’s beliefs? It is a mistake! The forefathers, those who founded that sublime religion since its origin, they were more spiritist than you. They preached the same doctrine that is taught to you today. As your religion does, whoever uses the word Spiritism says: charity, benevolence, forgetfulness and forgiveness of all offenses! Like Catholicism, it teaches the abnegation of oneself. You can then, timorous consciences, without scruples, gather around the table and talk to the beings that you grieve. Like your parents, be charitable, good, compassionate and you shall all meet at the end of your paths, the scale which will assess your actions will indicate the same weight, give the same worth to your deeds. I call you to come fearlessly. Come graceful women with plenty of illusions in your hearts; come and those illusions will be replaced by a more beautiful and shiny reality. Come, wives of hardened hearts, suffering their dryness, come to find here the water which softens the rock and quenches the thirst. Come, loving women who seek happiness during your entire lives; who feel the depth of the emptiness in your hearts and desperately try to fill it up. Come women of eager intelligence. Science flows here, pure and transparent. Come and drink out of this rejuvenating source. And you, bending elderly, come and laugh at that youth which scorns you, because the sanctuary doors are open to you; birth will restart to you, bringing the happiness of your early days. Come and we will help you see the brothers who reach out to you, waiting for you. Come all of you because there is consolation to all. As you see, I am here in good faith. I shall gladly be your server.”
Taking advantage of the good will of the spirit Alfred the Musset, we addressed him the following questions:
1. What will be the influence of Spiritism on poetry? – A. Poetry is the balm applied onto the wounds. It was given to human beings as a celestial manna. Every poet is a medium, sent to Earth by God, to regenerate his people a little, not allowing them to become entirely callous. What can be more beautiful? What can speak more to the soul than poetry?
2. Painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry were, one by one, influenced by Pagan as well as Christian ideas. Can you tell us if after Pagan and Christian arts, there will be one day a spiritist art? – A. You ask a question that answers itself. The germ is the germ; it becomes the silkworm and later the butterfly. What is lighter, more gracious than a butterfly? Then! Pagan art is the larva; Christian art is the cocoon; spiritist art will be the butterfly. (About this see the earlier article Pagan, Christian and Spiritist Art)
3. What is the influence of women in the nineteenth century? Note: This question was asked by a young man alien to the Society.
A. Ah! That of progress. The question was asked by a young man. That is nice and I would be amateurish for not responding. I am sure that everyone here wants to hear that.
The influence of women in the nineteenth century! Would you believe that they have waited this time to raise their hands, poor and weak men that you are? If you tried to lesser them it was for fear; if you tried to muffle their intelligence it was because you were afraid of their influence. You were only unable to oppose barriers to their hearts. Since their hearts were a God given present, they remained master and sovereign. But behold, the woman also becomes a butterfly; she wants to leave her cocoon; reclaim her divine rights; like the butterfly, she throws herself in space, breathing the air of her fair value. Don’t you think that I want them to become erudite, scholars, poets! No. But I do want, it is wanted here in this world where I live, that the one who must elevate humanity be worthy of her role; that the one who must form men starts to know themselves, and to give her since her early days the love for what is beautiful, grand and just, it is necessary that she have this love on a higher level. She needs to understand it. When the educating agent of society is reduced to nothing, it hesitates. That is what you must understand in the nineteenth century.
A spirit spontaneously communicated in our November 23rd session, writing the following: “Since before anything else I want to please you, my question is; what would like me to talk about. If you have a subject, let me know. Thus, ladies and gentlemen, I am all yours.” Alfred de Musset
• Considering that your visit is unexpected, we don’t have a subject prepared beforehand. We then ask you to kindly choose one yourself. Whatever it is we will appreciate it very much.
• “You are right. Yes, because as I am a spirit, in particular, as well as every other spirit, in general, we know your needs better thus we can choose the subject better than you would.
What should I talk about? I am confused amidst so many interesting subjects. Let us begin by talking about those who strongly wish to become spiritists, but seem to step back before what they believe to be an apostasy. Let us then talk about those who retreat before the idea of finding themselves in contradiction with Catholicism. Hear me well: I say Catholicism and not Christianity.
Are you afraid of disowning your parent’s beliefs? It is a mistake! The forefathers, those who founded that sublime religion since its origin, they were more spiritist than you. They preached the same doctrine that is taught to you today. As your religion does, whoever uses the word Spiritism says: charity, benevolence, forgetfulness and forgiveness of all offenses! Like Catholicism, it teaches the abnegation of oneself. You can then, timorous consciences, without scruples, gather around the table and talk to the beings that you grieve. Like your parents, be charitable, good, compassionate and you shall all meet at the end of your paths, the scale which will assess your actions will indicate the same weight, give the same worth to your deeds. I call you to come fearlessly. Come graceful women with plenty of illusions in your hearts; come and those illusions will be replaced by a more beautiful and shiny reality. Come, wives of hardened hearts, suffering their dryness, come to find here the water which softens the rock and quenches the thirst. Come, loving women who seek happiness during your entire lives; who feel the depth of the emptiness in your hearts and desperately try to fill it up. Come women of eager intelligence. Science flows here, pure and transparent. Come and drink out of this rejuvenating source. And you, bending elderly, come and laugh at that youth which scorns you, because the sanctuary doors are open to you; birth will restart to you, bringing the happiness of your early days. Come and we will help you see the brothers who reach out to you, waiting for you. Come all of you because there is consolation to all. As you see, I am here in good faith. I shall gladly be your server.”
Taking advantage of the good will of the spirit Alfred the Musset, we addressed him the following questions:
1. What will be the influence of Spiritism on poetry? – A. Poetry is the balm applied onto the wounds. It was given to human beings as a celestial manna. Every poet is a medium, sent to Earth by God, to regenerate his people a little, not allowing them to become entirely callous. What can be more beautiful? What can speak more to the soul than poetry?
2. Painting, sculpture, architecture and poetry were, one by one, influenced by Pagan as well as Christian ideas. Can you tell us if after Pagan and Christian arts, there will be one day a spiritist art? – A. You ask a question that answers itself. The germ is the germ; it becomes the silkworm and later the butterfly. What is lighter, more gracious than a butterfly? Then! Pagan art is the larva; Christian art is the cocoon; spiritist art will be the butterfly. (About this see the earlier article Pagan, Christian and Spiritist Art)
3. What is the influence of women in the nineteenth century? Note: This question was asked by a young man alien to the Society.
A. Ah! That of progress. The question was asked by a young man. That is nice and I would be amateurish for not responding. I am sure that everyone here wants to hear that.
The influence of women in the nineteenth century! Would you believe that they have waited this time to raise their hands, poor and weak men that you are? If you tried to lesser them it was for fear; if you tried to muffle their intelligence it was because you were afraid of their influence. You were only unable to oppose barriers to their hearts. Since their hearts were a God given present, they remained master and sovereign. But behold, the woman also becomes a butterfly; she wants to leave her cocoon; reclaim her divine rights; like the butterfly, she throws herself in space, breathing the air of her fair value. Don’t you think that I want them to become erudite, scholars, poets! No. But I do want, it is wanted here in this world where I live, that the one who must elevate humanity be worthy of her role; that the one who must form men starts to know themselves, and to give her since her early days the love for what is beautiful, grand and just, it is necessary that she have this love on a higher level. She needs to understand it. When the educating agent of society is reduced to nothing, it hesitates. That is what you must understand in the nineteenth century.
Intuition of Future Life
(Medium Ms. Eugenie)
Note: The medium writes in an old notebook, which was used by another medium and where there was a message written and signed by Delphine de Girardin. This fact explains the beginning of the communication.
“I find my actual name; it will serve as my signature, before even starting.”
“I want to speak to all of you now and demonstrate that you are spiritualists; that is why I only need to address your reason. Why do you go to the cemeteries on November 1st, if it only keeps the remains of the loved ones that you lost? Why do you waste your time taking fragrant flowers, it reminds you of friendship and kind memories? Why do you evoke their memories if they no longer live? Why the rolling tears, asking for their consolation or to be taken by them? Answer now, you who whisper – because those who don’t speak in whispers, whisper in their thoughts – matter is the only thing that exist there. After us, it is the nothingness. Tell me now: aren’t you in contradiction there? Nevertheless, cheer up since you have more faith than you think. God that has created you imperfect wanted to give you hope, and in spite of that, and without your understanding, unconsciously, you speak to those loved ones; you ask them to feel the smell of the flowers that you lay before them; you beg for their friendship and protection. Mother! You call your daughter an angel, asking for her prayers. Daughter, you ask for your mother’s protection and advice. Many among you say: I feel the truthfulness of your words in my heart, but that is in disagreement with what I learned from my parents, and your scrupulous spirits shut up in your own ignorance. Go then and act fearlessly because the spiritist faith is in agreement with all religions, since it says what is repeated by all: Love, charity, humility. See and believe all that comes from your hesitation.”
Delphine de Girardin
OBSERVATION: The contradiction mentioned by the spirit in the beginning is seen all the time, even on those that more strongly deny a future life. If everything ends with the corporeal life, then why the celebration of the dead if they can no longer hear? We were told about the case of a gentleman in the highest possible stage of absolutely materialistic ideas. He had lost a son not long ago and his sorrow was such that he felt like committing suicide in order to join him. Well, join what? The bones that are no longer his?
Note: The medium writes in an old notebook, which was used by another medium and where there was a message written and signed by Delphine de Girardin. This fact explains the beginning of the communication.
“I find my actual name; it will serve as my signature, before even starting.”
“I want to speak to all of you now and demonstrate that you are spiritualists; that is why I only need to address your reason. Why do you go to the cemeteries on November 1st, if it only keeps the remains of the loved ones that you lost? Why do you waste your time taking fragrant flowers, it reminds you of friendship and kind memories? Why do you evoke their memories if they no longer live? Why the rolling tears, asking for their consolation or to be taken by them? Answer now, you who whisper – because those who don’t speak in whispers, whisper in their thoughts – matter is the only thing that exist there. After us, it is the nothingness. Tell me now: aren’t you in contradiction there? Nevertheless, cheer up since you have more faith than you think. God that has created you imperfect wanted to give you hope, and in spite of that, and without your understanding, unconsciously, you speak to those loved ones; you ask them to feel the smell of the flowers that you lay before them; you beg for their friendship and protection. Mother! You call your daughter an angel, asking for her prayers. Daughter, you ask for your mother’s protection and advice. Many among you say: I feel the truthfulness of your words in my heart, but that is in disagreement with what I learned from my parents, and your scrupulous spirits shut up in your own ignorance. Go then and act fearlessly because the spiritist faith is in agreement with all religions, since it says what is repeated by all: Love, charity, humility. See and believe all that comes from your hesitation.”
Delphine de Girardin
OBSERVATION: The contradiction mentioned by the spirit in the beginning is seen all the time, even on those that more strongly deny a future life. If everything ends with the corporeal life, then why the celebration of the dead if they can no longer hear? We were told about the case of a gentleman in the highest possible stage of absolutely materialistic ideas. He had lost a son not long ago and his sorrow was such that he felt like committing suicide in order to join him. Well, join what? The bones that are no longer his?
Reincarnation
(Medium Ms. Eugenie)
Note: In the session of the Society when the message above was received, the spirit of Ms. Girardin was requested to give another one about reincarnation, then responding: “Oh! I wish; this medium is used to seeing me doing things that she is not always pleased with, and you are right.” This last sentence is an allusion to certain particular ideas of the medium about reincarnation.
“Reincarnation is a logical thing; it makes sense. Thus, it is all about giving some thought to that, of wanting to take a good look of what is around us. You only need to look inside, into our inner self, to find evidence of reincarnation. You see a good father at the table; he has several beautiful children, some of remarkable intelligence, others in an almost abject state. Where does the difference come from? The same father, the same mother, the same education, so many contrasts though! Think about your memories; don’t you find there the intuition of facts from which you have no knowledge about and yet they come back to you as if they had actually existed? Aren’t you shocked when you see someone for the first time and have the strong impression of having already known that person? You are, aren’t you? There you go! That demonstrates a previous life to you, one in which you participated; it demonstrates that the intelligent boy must have gone through several existences, hence improved, and that the other may well be in the initial ones; that the person who you meet may have been close to you and the fact that you remember did actually happen in another life. Besides, it is necessary to be perfect to enter the kingdom of God. Let us see that! Do you believe that you lack so little that three or four months in the celestial spheres after your death will be enough for you? * No, I don’t believe in such a pretension. Perfection is acquired after work and moral fortune is not inherited from material wealth. In order to purify you do need to animate several bodies and each of them keeps part of your impurities. If you think about it you will not be able to resist to the evidence.
Delphine de Girardin
_________________________________________
*Reference to some people’s opinion about the future life
Note: In the session of the Society when the message above was received, the spirit of Ms. Girardin was requested to give another one about reincarnation, then responding: “Oh! I wish; this medium is used to seeing me doing things that she is not always pleased with, and you are right.” This last sentence is an allusion to certain particular ideas of the medium about reincarnation.
“Reincarnation is a logical thing; it makes sense. Thus, it is all about giving some thought to that, of wanting to take a good look of what is around us. You only need to look inside, into our inner self, to find evidence of reincarnation. You see a good father at the table; he has several beautiful children, some of remarkable intelligence, others in an almost abject state. Where does the difference come from? The same father, the same mother, the same education, so many contrasts though! Think about your memories; don’t you find there the intuition of facts from which you have no knowledge about and yet they come back to you as if they had actually existed? Aren’t you shocked when you see someone for the first time and have the strong impression of having already known that person? You are, aren’t you? There you go! That demonstrates a previous life to you, one in which you participated; it demonstrates that the intelligent boy must have gone through several existences, hence improved, and that the other may well be in the initial ones; that the person who you meet may have been close to you and the fact that you remember did actually happen in another life. Besides, it is necessary to be perfect to enter the kingdom of God. Let us see that! Do you believe that you lack so little that three or four months in the celestial spheres after your death will be enough for you? * No, I don’t believe in such a pretension. Perfection is acquired after work and moral fortune is not inherited from material wealth. In order to purify you do need to animate several bodies and each of them keeps part of your impurities. If you think about it you will not be able to resist to the evidence.
Delphine de Girardin
_________________________________________
*Reference to some people’s opinion about the future life
The Day of the Dead
(Medium Ms. Huet)
Note: In the session of the Society on November 2nd, Charles Nodier once requested to carry on his already initiated work, responded: “Allow me, my dear friends, to talk about something else tonight. Next time I will continue the initiated work.”
“The date today is so personally dedicated to us that we cannot help it but call your attention to death and the prayers claimed by the majority of those who have come before you. This week is a period of fraternization between Earth and Heaven, the living and the dead. It is the time when you must think of us in a more particular way and think of yourself as well, because the living ones will soon pray for you as they do to us, and such a thought must help you to become better. You shall be received before God according to the way you have lived there. What is life, after all? It is a very short migration of the spirit on Earth, yet sufficient enough time though to stack up a real treasure of graces and be prepared for tough sufferings. Think about it. Think of heaven and life will then seem very light, whatever it is.”
Charles Nodier
The following questions were addressed to the spirit regarding the communication above:
1. Do the spirits come in larger number to the cemeteries today than usually? – A. We return more spontaneously to the places where our remains are in this period, because your thoughts, your prayers are there with you.
2. The spirits that come to their tombs on those days and find nobody praying for them, do they suffer for feeling abandoned, whereas others have relatives and friends who remember them? – A. Aren’t there devoted people who pray for the dead in general? Then! Those prayers reverted to the forgotten spirit. They are the celestial manna, falling upon the lazy as on the active man. It reaches the celebrity and the unknown. God shares it equally and delivers them to those in need, through the good spirits who no longer need them.
3. We know that the formula of the prayers is indifferent; yet, many people need a formula to concentrate their ideas. Hence we would thank you if you could dictate one to us for that occasion. We would join our thoughts and destine it to the spirits in need. – A. I want to do that too. God, creator of the universe, have mercy on those creatures; take their wakenesses into account; shorten their earthly trials, if beyond their strengths; have compassion on the sufferings of those who have left Earth, inspiring in them the desire to advance towards the good.”
4. No doubt there are several spirits here to whom we can be useful. We would ask them to reveal themselves. – A. What a request! You will be overwhelmed.
5. We are not afraid, absolutely. If we cannot hear them all, what we tell one can be used by all of them. – A. Be it then! Do as demanded by your heart.
A general appeal was made, without any particular designation, to any spirit who was present and willing to communicate and request assistance; a very known character who died two years ago manifested, showing feelings very different from those in his life, and that was unsuspected by everyone.
Note: In the session of the Society on November 2nd, Charles Nodier once requested to carry on his already initiated work, responded: “Allow me, my dear friends, to talk about something else tonight. Next time I will continue the initiated work.”
“The date today is so personally dedicated to us that we cannot help it but call your attention to death and the prayers claimed by the majority of those who have come before you. This week is a period of fraternization between Earth and Heaven, the living and the dead. It is the time when you must think of us in a more particular way and think of yourself as well, because the living ones will soon pray for you as they do to us, and such a thought must help you to become better. You shall be received before God according to the way you have lived there. What is life, after all? It is a very short migration of the spirit on Earth, yet sufficient enough time though to stack up a real treasure of graces and be prepared for tough sufferings. Think about it. Think of heaven and life will then seem very light, whatever it is.”
Charles Nodier
The following questions were addressed to the spirit regarding the communication above:
1. Do the spirits come in larger number to the cemeteries today than usually? – A. We return more spontaneously to the places where our remains are in this period, because your thoughts, your prayers are there with you.
2. The spirits that come to their tombs on those days and find nobody praying for them, do they suffer for feeling abandoned, whereas others have relatives and friends who remember them? – A. Aren’t there devoted people who pray for the dead in general? Then! Those prayers reverted to the forgotten spirit. They are the celestial manna, falling upon the lazy as on the active man. It reaches the celebrity and the unknown. God shares it equally and delivers them to those in need, through the good spirits who no longer need them.
3. We know that the formula of the prayers is indifferent; yet, many people need a formula to concentrate their ideas. Hence we would thank you if you could dictate one to us for that occasion. We would join our thoughts and destine it to the spirits in need. – A. I want to do that too. God, creator of the universe, have mercy on those creatures; take their wakenesses into account; shorten their earthly trials, if beyond their strengths; have compassion on the sufferings of those who have left Earth, inspiring in them the desire to advance towards the good.”
4. No doubt there are several spirits here to whom we can be useful. We would ask them to reveal themselves. – A. What a request! You will be overwhelmed.
5. We are not afraid, absolutely. If we cannot hear them all, what we tell one can be used by all of them. – A. Be it then! Do as demanded by your heart.
A general appeal was made, without any particular designation, to any spirit who was present and willing to communicate and request assistance; a very known character who died two years ago manifested, showing feelings very different from those in his life, and that was unsuspected by everyone.
Allegory of Lazarus
(Medium Mr. Alfred Didier)
Christ loved a man called Lazarus. He suffered when he heard about his death and asked to be taken to his tomb. Lazarus’ sister begged the Lord, saying: “Is it possible to bring my brother back from the dead? Oh you, who loved him so much, give his life back!”
Nineteenth century world, you are also dead. Faith, which gives life to people, extinguishes gradually. Some believers uselessly tried to wake you up from your agony. It is too late. Lazarus is dead. Only God can save him.
Christ was then led to the grave. The stone was lifted, showing bandages that dressed the cadaver, and the horror of death. Christ raised his eyes to heaven, hand in hand with Lazarus’s sister, he lifted his arm and declared: “Lazarus, stand up!” Despite his bandages and shroud he awoke and stood up.
Oh World! You are like Lazarus. Nothing can bring you back to life. Your materialism, your turpitudes, your skepticism are the bandages around your cadaver, and you smell bad for you have been dead for a long time. What is that, which will make you cry out, just as Lazarus: Do you rise up in the name of God? It is Christ, obeying the appeal of the Holy Spirit. For ages, the voice of God was heard. Are you more decomposed than Lazarus?
Lamennais
Christ loved a man called Lazarus. He suffered when he heard about his death and asked to be taken to his tomb. Lazarus’ sister begged the Lord, saying: “Is it possible to bring my brother back from the dead? Oh you, who loved him so much, give his life back!”
Nineteenth century world, you are also dead. Faith, which gives life to people, extinguishes gradually. Some believers uselessly tried to wake you up from your agony. It is too late. Lazarus is dead. Only God can save him.
Christ was then led to the grave. The stone was lifted, showing bandages that dressed the cadaver, and the horror of death. Christ raised his eyes to heaven, hand in hand with Lazarus’s sister, he lifted his arm and declared: “Lazarus, stand up!” Despite his bandages and shroud he awoke and stood up.
Oh World! You are like Lazarus. Nothing can bring you back to life. Your materialism, your turpitudes, your skepticism are the bandages around your cadaver, and you smell bad for you have been dead for a long time. What is that, which will make you cry out, just as Lazarus: Do you rise up in the name of God? It is Christ, obeying the appeal of the Holy Spirit. For ages, the voice of God was heard. Are you more decomposed than Lazarus?
Lamennais
Familiar Little Leprechaun
(Medium Mrs. Costel)
I have never communicated with you and I am very happy for being able to enlarge your literary understanding. You know well the opinion I had about the so-called fantasy world, you who so eagerly read me. Often alone, during long winter nights, in one corner of my lonely home, I would hear the moaning and sorrowful notes of the wind. While my distracted eyes vaguely followed the pictures formed by the flames in the fireplace, the familiar little leprechaun was certainly entertaining me, thus I did not invent Trilby: I just repeated what he had whispered into my attentive ears. What a marvelous thing, feeling these invisible guests living around us! No mystery with them. They do love you, regardless, and do know you better than you do yourselves. In my scholarly life, in my life as a man, I owe to these invisible friends my best successes and my dearest consolations. It is my turn now to whisper to friendly ears things guessed by the heart and that are not repeated. I want to say, dear medium, that I shall often have the kind privilege of talking to you.
Charles Nodier
I have never communicated with you and I am very happy for being able to enlarge your literary understanding. You know well the opinion I had about the so-called fantasy world, you who so eagerly read me. Often alone, during long winter nights, in one corner of my lonely home, I would hear the moaning and sorrowful notes of the wind. While my distracted eyes vaguely followed the pictures formed by the flames in the fireplace, the familiar little leprechaun was certainly entertaining me, thus I did not invent Trilby: I just repeated what he had whispered into my attentive ears. What a marvelous thing, feeling these invisible guests living around us! No mystery with them. They do love you, regardless, and do know you better than you do yourselves. In my scholarly life, in my life as a man, I owe to these invisible friends my best successes and my dearest consolations. It is my turn now to whisper to friendly ears things guessed by the heart and that are not repeated. I want to say, dear medium, that I shall often have the kind privilege of talking to you.
Charles Nodier