The Spiritist Review - JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES - 1861

Excerpts from the minutes Friday, November 16th, 1860 (Private session)

Admission of two new members.

MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:

1st – Several dissertations obtained outside the sessions are read.

2nd – Letter received from Mr. de Porry, from Marseille, who sends the second edition of his poem Uranie as a gift to the Society. The Society thanks the author and is happy to see he has taken the same appreciation of his talent and applied them to spiritist ideas. These ideas adorn a graceful form of poetry and have a charm that makes them more easily accepted by those who could be shocked by the severity of dogmatic expressions.

3rd – Letter from Mr. L… providing new details about the rapping and obsessing spirit that has already been discussed by the Society (see report below).

WORKS CARRIED OUT IN THE SESSION:

This book was announced long ago but its publication was postponed due to the importance of the subject, to finally be released between January 5th and 10th by Mr. Didier & Co. editors and booksellers, Rue Quai des Augustins, 35 * . It is the complement of The Spirits’ Book and contains the experimental part of Spiritism, as the first contains the philosophical part.

In this book are the results of long experiences and laborious studies, as we try to clarify all questions related to the practice of the manifestations. It contains the theoretical explanations of all phenomena and the conditions required for their occurrence, according to the spirits. The part related to the exercise and development of the mediumship, however, was the object of special attention from our side.

Experimental Spiritism is prone to many more difficulties than generally thought and the hurdles that we find are innumerous. That is the reason for so many deceptions from the part of those who get involved with such practice without experience and without the required knowledge. Our objective was to forearm against such hurdles that are not always free from inconveniences by those who venture themselves through this new terrain without caution. We could not have forgotten such a capital point and as such we gave the subject the attention equivalent to its importance.

The inconveniences are almost always originated from the lightheartedness with which such a serious issue is handled. The spirits, all of them, are the souls of those who have already lived. Sooner or later we will infallibly share their environment. Thus, every spiritist manifestation, intelligent or not, has the objective of putting us in touch with those very souls. Since we pay respect to their physical remains, with even more reason we must respect the surviving intelligent being who is the true individuality. When we transform the manifestations into pastime games we fail them with the respect that perhaps we ourselves may demand one day, and that never goes unpunished when violated.

The initial moment of curiosity caused by these strange phenomena is over; now that we know the source, let us avoid its profanation with inappropriate jokes and let us strive to find in them the necessary teachings that will ensure our future happiness. The field is really wide open and the objective very important to deserve our full attention. Up until now our efforts have been dedicated to drive Spiritism through this serious avenue. We will be plentifully rewarded for our care and vigilance if this new book can contribute to avoid having Spiritism veered off from its providential objective by making it even better understood.

This book, no doubt, will raise criticism from those who are displeased by the severity of its principles, as from those who already accuse us of creating a school of Spiritism, since they see things from another point of view. If creating a school of this science is a way to find a valuable and useful objective to humanity, we believe to have the right of feeling flattered by the accusation. However, such a school does not require any other leader besides the common sense of the masses and the wisdom of the good spirits who created it, regardless. That is why we reject the honor of having founded it; nonetheless we are happy for being under its flag; aspiring the modest title as its promoter.

If a name is needed we will then write on its facade: School of Moral and Philosophical Spiritism, and invite all those in need of hope and consolation.

Allan Kardec

_________________________________________

* Equally found in the office of the The Spiritist Review, at Rue de Sainte-Ane, 59 – passage Sainte-Ane, large volume, in-18, 500 pages, Paris 3.5 francs, by mail 4 francs.

Up until now Spiritism had not been seriously attacked. When certain writers of periodicals in the press gave it an air of their attention, in their leisure time, they did so to ridicule it. Whether it be about filling out the space of a column, producing an article of a given number of lines, regardless of the subject and as long as it fits the space properly. “What can I say about it? Should I discuss this or that? That is what the editor of the entertaining journal asks himself. No, not this: it is too serious. The other one is something overly spoken about. Should I invent an authentic adventure of high society or a popular one? Nothing comes to mind in those fifteen minutes and the column with the scandal of the week is still empty. Ah! I had an idea! I found the subject! I saw somewhere the title of a book talking about the spirits and everywhere there are people foolish enough to take it seriously. What are the spirits? I know nothing about it. But who cares! It must be funny. For starters I don’t believe absolutely in spirits since I have never seen them and even if I had seen them I would not have believed because that is impossible. Hence, no man of wisdom may believe in such things. Either this is illogical or I don’t know myself. Let us then talk about the spirits since they are in fashion these days. This matter as any other will entertain our readers. The subject is very simple: There is no spirits; they cannot and must not exist, then everyone who believes in them is mad. Now, time to get to work and embellish this. Oh! My good spirit! How can I thank you for such inspiration! You spare me a great embarrassment since I need this article for tomorrow and I had nothing.”

Then comes a serious person and says: “One must not joke about serious things; this is more serious than initially thought; nobody should believe that this is something that disappears easily. Such belief is inherent to humanity which has always believed in the marvelous at all times, in the super natural, in the fantastic. Who would doubt that in the XIX century, in this century of enlightenment and progress, even after Voltaire had clearly demonstrated that the emptiness waits for us, and after so many wise people had sought and not found the soul, who would guess that people still believe in spirits; in turning tables; in witches and wizards; in the power of Merlin, the enchanter; in the divining rod; in Mademoiselle Lenormand, the fortune teller? Oh Humanity! Oh Humanity! Where shall you go if I don’t come to help you and pull you away from the swamp of superstition?

They unsuccessfully tried to kill the Spirits by ridicule. Far from that, the contagious disease made unceasing progress; ridicule seems to revive it and if it is not eliminated it may soon have all of humankind infected. Since this method, usually so effective has become powerless, it is now time for the scientists to get involved and stop it once and for all.

Bantering is not the reason. We speak on behalf of science. Let us demonstrate that human beings have been foolish in all epochs for believing that there is a power above them, that they could not overpower nature. Let us demonstrate to them that everything attributed to supernatural forces can be explained by the simple laws of Physiology: that the survival of the soul and its ability to communicate with those alive is an illusion and that the belief in an afterlife is sheer madness. If people are not convinced after digesting four volumes of good reasons, we can only regret the fate of humanity that instead of progressing, quickly moves backwards towards the barbarism of the Middle Ages and shortly then to its downfall.

One of our colleagues, Mr. Canu, formerly a devout materialist who learned from Spiritism to have a healthier appreciation of things, accused of having been the propagator of doctrines that he now considers subversive of the social order. Aiming at the reparation of what he considers to be his fault, and so as to enlighten those who he had mislead, he wrote a letter to one of his friends, requesting our advice. The letter seemed so attuned to his intentions that we decided to request his permission to have it published here, something that will certainly please our readers.

Instead of discussing the issue of Spiritism up front, which would have been repelled by those who don’t admit the soul as a principle, and particularly instead of placing before their eyes the strange phenomena that they could deny or attribute to vulgar causes, he goes back to the origin. He rightly tries to make them spiritualists before spiritists. He arrives at the spiritist idea as a consequence through a perfectly logical train of thoughts. This is obviously the most rational path. The scope of this letter obliged us to share it in this publication.

“Paris, November 10th, 1860

My dear friend,

One of our subscribers sent us some very interesting details about manifestations that have occurred and still do in a town located in the Aube region. We will hide the name of the person involved to protect their anonymity in order to avoid being surrounded by flocks of curious visitors who might destroy his peace of mind. These noisy manifestations have already attracted more than an inconvenience; moreover, our correspondent tells us what he has seen and we do know him well enough to trust his testimony. The reader will find below the most interesting passages of his report:

“Four years ago (in 1856), in the town where I live, at the house of Mr. R… there were manifestations that up to a certain degree were similar to those of Bergzabern. At that time I did not know that gentleman; it was only later that we became acquainted and that is how I learned about the facts that had already occurred. The manifestations had stopped long ago and Mr. R… thought that he was free from them when all of a sudden they started again, the same as before. I was then able to witness them for several consecutive days. I will tell you what I saw with my own eyes.”

“The person who is the target of these manifestations is Mr. R’s…sixteen year old son, who was therefore only twelve when they occurred for the first time. The boy is mentally challenged; he cannot read or write and rarely leaves his home. As for the manifestations that occurred before my eyes, with the exception of the rocking bed and the magnetic levitation, the spirit more or less reproduced everything that happened in Bergzabern: the knocks and scratches were the same; he whistled, imitating the sound of a tree being sawed, and threw pieces of charcoal that would come from who knows where into the bedroom, since there was no coal to be found anywhere else in the house. The phenomenon starts when the boy lies down and begins to fall asleep. During his sleep, he speaks to a spirit with authority, assuming the perfect voice of command of a superior officer, despite the fact that he had never watched any military exercises. He then simulates a combat, commands the maneuvers, conquering victoriously and believing that he has risen to the rank of general on the battlefield. When he commands the spirit to knock a few times it sometimes happens that the spirit knocks more than requested. The boy then asks: - How do you intend to remove the additional knocks? The spirit then starts to scratch, as if erasing something. When the boy commands the spirit, he seems very agitated and sometimes screams so much that his voice trails off into a sort of groaning sound. Following the command, the spirit then knocks every French or foreign military march, even Chinese ones. I could not attest their accuracy since I don’t know them. But the boy often said: - That is not right. Start all over again. And the spirit obeyed. I must say and in-passing that the boy sounds really rude during his sleep and when commanding.”

There are three eternal characters in the world. The great writers depicted them as they were in their times, correctly guessing that they would always exist. These are the characters: first it is Hamlet, who tells himself in a monologue: to be or not to be, that is the question; then comes Tartuffe who moans his prayers while thinking of evil things; finally there is Don Juan, that tells everyone: I believe nothing. Molière alone found these two characters. He stigmatized Tartuffe and chastised Don Juan.


Man remains in doubt like Hamlet without the truth, without conscience like Tartuffe and without a heart like Don Juan. Hamlet doubts, it is true, but he seeks, he is unhappy, disbelief bothers him, his kindest illusions vanish, and the ideal and the truth that he seeks fall into the great abyss, and like Ophelia it remains lost forever. He then becomes mad and dies in desperation. God will forgive him though, because he had a heart, loved and it was the world that took away what he wanted to keep.


These two characters are atrocious; they are selfish and hypocritical, each in their own way. Tartuffe wears the mask of virtue, making him hateful. Don Juan believes nothing, not even in God.


Have you ever had the impression of seeing in that famous symbol of Don Juan and in the statue of the Commander, the skepticism before the turning tables; the corrupted human spirit before the most brutal manifestation? Up until now the world has only seen a human figure in them. Don’t you think that you should see something more? That the incomparable genius of Molière showed common sense in his work with respect to spiritual things as he always had with respect to human faults?

Gérard de Nerval

Summary of the minutes

Friday, December 21st, 1860

(Private session)

Admission of two new members.

SEVERAL COMMUNICATIONS:

1st – Multiple communications obtained outside the session were read.

2nd – Mr. Allan Kardec reads a letter from Bordeaux with a proposal to evoke Ms. H… who died a short time ago. The Society accepted the proposal.

WORKS CARRIED OUT DURING THE SESSION:

1st – Spontaneous dissertation signed by Lazarus, obtained by Ms. Costel; another signed by Gerard de Nerval, obtained by Mr. A. Didier. The spirit develops the thesis based on the communication about the Three Characters: Hamlet, Don Juan and Tartuffe, on December 14th. The spirit elaborates about Hamlet’s character. He is requested to provide his opinion about La Fontaine. Another dissertation signed by Torquato Tasso, received by Ms. H… The spirit also gives his opinion about La Fontaine.

Friday, December 28th, 1860

(General session)

MULTIPLE COMMUNICATIONS:

WORKS CARRIED OUT DURING THE SESSION:

Friday, January 4th, 1861

(Private session)

Admission of Mr. W…, painter, as a member.

Several newspapers, as usual, mocked this new medium who is a fellow country man to Mr. Home, under whose influence multiple phenomena of up to a certain degree of exceptional nature have also been produced. A particular characteristic is that they only occur in absolute darkness, a circumstance duly observed by the skeptical. As we all know Mr. Home produced a variety of phenomena, among which the most remarkable was that of the tangible apparitions. We described them in detail in our February, March and April 1858 issues of this Review. Mr. Squire produced only two, or even better, only one type with certain variations, but not less worthy of our attention. Since darkness is an essential condition to obtain the phenomenon it goes without saying that every precaution is taken in order to ensure the authenticity of the events. Here is what happens:

Mr. Squire positions himself across from a 35-40 kg table, similar to a reinforced kitchen table. His legs are strongly tied up together, to avoid their use. In such a condition his muscular strength is considerably diminished in case he needed it. Another person, any person and even the most skeptical, holds one of his hands, the other remains free. He then uses that free hand to gently touch the edge of the tabletop. Next the lights are turned off, immediately followed by a movement of the table that lifts it off above his head, landing upside down behind his back onto a couch or a set of previously positioned pillows to protect the table. Once the phenomenon is produced the lights are turned on immediately. It all happens in a few seconds. The experiment may be repeated at will several many times if one wishes in the same session.

Although it was only recently that it was published, The Mediums’ Book has already given rise to the formation of private spiritist groups in several places, as we advised. They tell us, however, that they have to stop given the lack of mediums. That is why we see it as our responsibility to give them some advice on how to face that issue.

A medium, particularly a good medium, is incontestably one of the essential elements of any meeting that deals with Spiritism; but it would be a mistake to think that in their absence there wouldn’t be anything else to do and that we should sit back and cross our arms or adjourn the session. We don’t absolutely share the opinion of a person that compares a spiritist session without mediums to a concert without musicians. We believe that there is a much more appropriate comparison – it is that of the Institute of all scientific societies that know how to use their time without the need to have before their eyes the elements of experimentation.

One goes to a concert to hear music. It is then evident that if the musicians are not there than the objective will have failed. However, we go to a spiritist meeting – or at least we should – to learn, to get instructed. The question now is if we can do that without the medium. For someone who attends such gatherings with the sole objective of seeing effects, the medium would be as indispensable as the musicians in the concert; however, those who seek enlightenment, who want to gain in-depth understanding of the several parts of the science, those will have more than one way of achieving that even in the absence of an instrument of experimentation. That is what we will try to explain.

For starters we say that if mediums are common, good mediums in the true meaning of the word are rare. Experience constantly demonstrates that it is not enough to have the mediumistic faculty in order to receive good communications. It is then better to lack an instrument than to have a defective one.

It is certain that those who seek more the fact than the quality in the communication; that take part more for distraction than clarification, the choice of a medium is indifferent, and the one who produces the greater amount of effects will then be the most interesting one. But we speak of those who have a more serious objective and see farther; it is to them that we are addressing, since we are sure to be understood. On the other hand the best mediums are subjected to more or less lengthy intermittences, during which there is partial or total suspension of the mediumistic faculty, not to mention the high number of accidental causes that may momentarily deprive them from their participation. Let us still add to the fact that the perfectly flexible mediums, those malleable to all sorts of manifestations, are even rarer. They usually have special skills from which they should not be diverted from. You see then, if we don’t have enough spare supply of mediums, we can suddenly be unprepared when least expected, and it would be unfortunate to have our work interrupted on such occasions.

The fundamental teaching that is sought in serious gatherings is, no doubt, the one given by the spirits. However, what would be the benefit taken by a pupil from if a more skillful teacher was by his side and he did not have to work himself? If he did not give any thought to the lessons? What would be the advancement of his intelligence if the teacher were permanently by his side, spoon-feeding him each task and sparing him from the effort of thinking?

The spirits play two roles in the spiritist meetings: some are the teachers who develop the principles of the science, clarifying all doubtful points, particularly teaching the laws of true morality; others operate as material of observation and study, and serving as examples of application. Once the lesson has been given, their task ends and ours begins, that is, to work on what we were taught, so that we can better understand its meaning and scope. This is to allow us time to do our duties (if we may make this classical comparison) that spirits sometimes suspend their communications. They get tired of endlessly and uselessly repeating the same thing. They warn us, if we do not listen they will leave so that we take time for reflection.

There are spirits since the day humans began to exist on Earth. Therefore, the spirits have been manifesting to human beings since those days. History and tradition are full of evidence on this subject, whether it was because some did not understand the phenomena of such manifestations; while others were discouraged to talk about them out of fear of imprisonment or burning at the stake; or because such events would be considered superstitious or coming from charlatans by very prejudiced people or from those who were not interested in the enlightenment of others; or finally because the phenomena were attributed to the devil, by another kind of interest, the fact of the matter is that even up until recently the phenomena had not been explained in a satisfactory way, or at least the true theory had not yet become of public domain, probably due to the fact that humanity was not sufficiently mature for that as for many other wonderful things that take place in our days. It was reserved for our time to see the emergence of the steam engine, electricity, animal magnetism from the point of view of applied sciences, as well as Spiritism, being the most remarkable of them all not only for the material proof of our immaterial existence and immortality, but also for the establishment of a somehow material and permanent communication between the invisible world and us.

Mr. J.B.D… was an educated man saturated to the highest degree of materialistic ideas, believing in neither his soul nor God. He deliberately drowned two years ago. He was evoked following the request of one of his relatives.

1. Evocation – A. I suffer. I am condemned.

2. We were asked to call you by one of your relatives who wanted to know about your fate. Could you tell us if the evocation is pleasing or painful to you? – A. It is painful.

3. Was your death voluntary? – A. Yes.

Observation: The spirit shows extreme difficulty to write. The writing is large, irregular, convulsive and almost unintelligible. He showed rage in the beginning, tore the paper off and broke the pencil.

4. Calm down. We will pray for you. – A. I am forced to believe in God.

1. Does the incarnate spirit keep the memory of previous existences as well as in the errant state while in a superior world like Jupiter or any other? – A. No. The moment the spirit takes on a material body it no longer has the memory of previous existences.

However, the physical envelope on Jupiter has very little material and for that reason, isn’t the spirit freer? – A. Yes, but it is dense enough to remove the memory of the past from the spirit.

Thus, the spirits from Jupiter that communicated with us were they in a state of resting? – A. Certainly. Since the spirit is much more advanced in this world, it understands God and the universe very well but their past is erased, otherwise their intelligence would be obscured; he would not take the time to comprehend more about himself; instead he would be the man from Africa, Europe or America; or from Earth, Mars or Venus?

Observation: If it is necessary to forget the past in a much more advanced world like Jupiter then there is even more reason for that in our material world. It is obvious that the memory of our preceding existences would cast a painful confusion in our ideas, not speaking of all the other inconveniences already mentioned about it. Every act done by God imprints His wisdom and benevolence. It is not up to us to criticize Him, especially because we don’t understand the objective.

St. Louis

The year that ends has seen a substantial progress in the belief in Spiritism. It is a reason for great happiness to humankind since it moves humanity away from the border of the abyss that threatens to drag the human spirit. The New Year will be even better as it will see serious material changes and a revolution of ideas, and Spiritism will not be forgotten, believe me; on the contrary, people will cling to it as a stone of salvation. I will pray that God may bless your work and make it advance. St. Louis


OBSERVATION: In an intimate session another medium spontaneously received the following communication about the same subject: The year will begin and it contains folds of the greatest things. Head first; the reaction will fall into its own tender trap. Why do you think Earth is covered by railroads and the seas are open to electricity if it was not for the spread of the good news? The truth, the good and the beautiful will finally be understood by all. So, do not get weary, true spiritists, for your task is marked in the work of regeneration. Happy will be those capable of accomplishing it!


Leon J… (Medium’s brother)

Regarding the article published in the Journal des Débats, by Mr. Deschanel

Mr. Emile Deschanel, whose name was unknown to me, wanted to dedicate twenty four columns of the Journal des Débats to us, in the numbers 15 and 29 of last November. We thank him for that or at least for the intention. In fact after the articles “Bibliographie Catholique” and the “Gazette de Lyon”, which regurgitated strong detestations and sharp insults from the mouth in a manner reminiscent of the fifteenth century, we don’t know anything more malicious, less scientific and particularly long-winded than Mr. Deschanel. Such a violent attack must have led him to believe that Spiritism would be dead and buried forever, since it was wounded by his spear and sword. Now, due to the fact that we did not respond to him; because we have not summoned him or have not initiated any controversy, he might be mistaken about the reasons for our silence: we will now explain our motives.

The first reason is that in our opinion there was nothing urgent to be dealt with and we were very comfortable with the wait in order to assess the effect of such an attack, and then respond accordingly. Now that we are perfectly aware of the issue we will say a few words. The second reason is a direct consequence of the first. In order to refute the whole article it would be necessary to reproduce it in its entirety to show the attack and the defense, and that alone would have taken a full issue of our Review. The refutation would take at least two issues. We would then have used up three issues of The Review to object to what? Reasons? No, just mockeries by Mr. Deschanel. Frankly, it was not worth it and our readers do prefer something else. Those willing to get to know his logic will be satisfied by reading the referred texts. Furthermore, our response would have definitely been a repetition of what we have been saying, responding to the Univers, to Mr. Oscar Comettant, to the Gazette de Lyon, to Mr. Louis Figuier and to the Bibliographie Catholique * since all those attacks are nothing more than variations of the same theme. It would then be necessary to repeat the same thing in different terms to avoid being boring and we do not have time for that. What we would have to say would be useless to the followers and not good enough to convince the disbelievers; so, it will be a waste of time. We prefer to reference our works to those who really want to learn. They then can balance the arguments in favor and against. Their own reason will do the rest. As a matter of fact, why should we respond to Mr. Deschanel? To convince him? But we have no interest absolutely in doing that. Some people might say that it would be one follower more. However, what is the actual importance of Mr. Deschanel as a person? Which weight does he bring to the scale when membership reaches in the thousands, starting from the top of the social echelon? But he is a reporter and if instead of attacks he had praised the Doctrine, wouldn’t it have been much better? This is a more serious issue. Let us then discuss it.

* To Univers, May and July 1859; to Mr. Comettant, December 1859; to the Gazette of Lyon, October 1860; to Mr. Figuier, September and December 1860; to Bibliographie Catholique, January 1861

***See The Spiritist Review, June 1859

The Siècle edition of February 4th contains a letter from Dr. Riboli who went to Caprera to examine Garibaldi’s head, from a phrenological perspective. Our intention is not to assess the doctor’s opinion and even less the politician. Nevertheless, by reading the letter we were led to some reflections that are naturally in order here. Dr. Riboli believes that Garibaldi’s cranial structure corresponds perfectly well to his distinguishing intellectual and moral faculties, adding:

“You may laugh at my fanaticism but I can assure you that the time I spent examining that remarkable head was the happiest of my life. I saw, my dear friend, I saw that great man and he gave me everything that he was asked. I held that head that is the size of the whole world in my own hands, and for more than twenty minutes, feeling the inequalities and contrasts of his genius sticking out under my fingers everywhere. Garibaldi is 5’4” ft. tall. I measured all proportions: the width of the shoulders, the length of the arms and legs, the body circumference. In short, he is a well-proportioned man, strong body and of an uneasy temperament. The volume of his head is remarkable. The main aspect is the height of the skull, measured from the ear to the top of the head, yielding 20 cm (approx. 8 in). Such particular dominance of the whole upper part of the head indicates, at first sight and without a more thorough examination, an exceptional structure. The development of the skull on the top, the seat of feelings, indicates a balance of all the noble faculties against basic instincts. After examination, the craniology of Garibaldi immediately shows an extremely rare structure and I can even say that it is unprecedented. The harmony of all organs is perfect and the mathematical resultant of the whole thing shows: abnegation before anything else; prudence and cold blood; austerity; almost continual meditation; serious and precise eloquence; prevalent loyalty; an incredible deference to his friends to the point of suffering with it; his perceptibility in regard to everyone around him was especially dominant. To summarize, my dear friend, and without boring you with every comparison, causality, habitability, constructivism and destructivity *, it is a wonderful, organic, flawless head that science will use as a model, etc.

The mystery that still surrounds this deplorable event led many people to think that the evocation of the spirit of the victim could establish the truth. We received a large number of letters about it and since the subject involves a serious principle we found it useful to let all readers know our answer. We never thought of evoking Mr. Poinsot since for us Spiritism has never been an object of curiosity. Nevertheless, following an adamant request from one of our corresponding members that supposedly had a communication from him and wanted to know if that communication was authentic, we tried to carry out the evocation a few days ago. As usual, we asked our spiritual guide if such evocation was possible and if he was the one who communicated with our correspondent. Here are the answers:

• “Mr. Poinsot cannot answer your appeal. He has not communicated with anybody yet. God does not allow him at this point in time.”

1. Can you tell us why? – A. Yes. Because revelations of such kind would influence the conscience of the judges who must act with total freedom.

Deceased on February 7th, 1881 and evoked at the Society on the 15th of the same month


Note: Mrs. Bertrand was a serious student of Spiritism, acknowledged the doctrine and understood all its philosophical implications.


1. Evocation. – A. I am here.


2. Having learned to admire you from your correspondence and knowing your sympathy towards the Society, we thought you may not mind, if we evoked you at such an early date. – A. As you see, I am here.


3. There is another personal reason that leads me to do so. I intend to write to your daughter regarding the event that has just hurt her and I am sure that she would feel very happy to know about this conversation. – A. She certainly expects that since I had promised her to communicate as soon as I was evoked.


4. Enlightened as you were about Spiritism and impregnated by the principles of this Doctrine, your answers will have double the educational effect. To begin with, will you tell us if it took you long to recognize yourself and if you have already recovered the plenitude of your faculties? – A. The plenitude of my old faculties, yes; the plenitude of my new ones, no.


5. It is usual to ask people how they are doing. However, we ask the spirits if they are happy. We ask that question with a profound feeling of sympathy. – A. Thank you my friends. I am not happy yet in the spiritualist meaning of the word. However, I am happy for the renovation of my spirit, overwhelmed by the ecstasy; by the sight of things that are revealed to us, but that we still don’t understand completely, however good medium or spiritist we may be.


6. You had an idea about the spiritual world from the study of the Doctrine. Could you tell us if you found things as you had imagined them? – A. More or less, as when we see things in the vagueness of twilight. However, how different they become when revealed by the brightness of daylight!


7. Thus, the image that we are given about the spiritual life has no exaggeration, no illusion! – A. It is diminished by your spirit that you cannot understand divine things but only when tweaked and veiled. We behave towards you as you do with children to whom you only show part of what is available for them to learn.


8. Have you witnessed the time of death of your body? – A. Worn out after a long suffering period my body did not have to go through a difficult struggle. My soul detached from the body like the ripe fruit that falls from the tree. The complete annihilation of my being precluded me from feeling the last agony of the torment.


9. Could you describe your sensations at the first moments of your wakening? – A. There is no wakening, or I should say, it seemed like a continuation to me. Like when you get back home after a short absence, it seemed as if it was just a few minutes after I left it all behind. Wandering around my bed, I saw myself stretched out lying there, transfigured, incapable of moving away, at least as it seemed to be and attached by the last link to that corporeal wrapping that had made me suffer so much.


10. Were you immediately aware of other spirits around you? – A. They soon came to welcome me. I then veered my thoughts off my earthly self, and my transported spiritual self was overwhelmed by the exquisite pleasure of new things and known things that I met again.


11. Were you around your family members during your funeral? – A. I saw my body taken away but I left soon after. Spiritism dematerializes in anticipation and makes the transition from the terrestrial to the spiritual world subtler. I had not brought any useless sorrow or vain curiosity from my passage on Earth.


12. Would you like to say anything in particular to your daughter, who shared your beliefs and wrote to me several times in your name? – A. I recommend her to take her studies more seriously; to transform her sterile pain into a compassionate and productive memory; to not forget that life moves on uninterruptedly and that the world’s frivolous interests fade away before the great word eternity! As a matter of fact, my kind and intimate memory will be transmitted to her soon.


13. In January I sent you a picture-card. Since you had never seen me, can you tell me if you recognize me? – A. No, I don’t recognize you. I see you. - You did not receive that card? – A. I don’t remember.


14. I would still have several important questions to ask you about extraordinary events that took place in your house and that you told us about. I believe that you could give us interesting explanations about them. However, the late hour and the fatigue of the medium advise me to adjourn. I will limit myself to just a few questions before stopping. Although your death is recent have you had the chance to travel open spaces and visit other worlds? – A. The word visit doesn’t correspond to the very fast movement that allows us to discover other sites with the speed of thought. Distance is only a word, like time for us is only a moment.


15. When we prepare the questions to be addressed to a spirit we generally have an anticipated evocation. Thus, could you tell us if you were forewarned of our intention and if you were by my side yesterday when I formulated the questions? – A. Yes, I knew everything that you would say today and will easily answer those questions which are reserved.


16. You would have made us very happy if you were among us in life but since it was not possible we are equally happy for having you in spirit, and we thank you for the consideration in responding to our questions. – A. My friends, I followed your studies with interest and now that I can live with you as a spirit I advise you to give more importance to the “spirit than to the letter”. Good bye.


The letter below was sent to us regarding this evocation.


“Dear Sir,


It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I want to thank you on behalf of my father and me, for anticipating our desire to receive news from the one that we cry for through your intermediary.


The multiple moral and physical trials that my dear mother had to endure during her life, her patience to bear with them, her devotion, her complete abnegation of herself, gave me the hopes that she was happy. However, the assurance that you have just given us, Sir, is a great consolation to those who loved her so much and who wish her happiness more than our own.


My mother was the soul of the house, Sir. Needless to tell you the emptiness that she left; we suffer for no longer seeing her, more than I could express and yet we feel some sort of quietness since we no longer see her suffering the atrocious pains. My poor mother was a martyr. She must have found a great reward for the patience and kindness with which she supported all the anguishes. Her life was nothing more than a long torture of spirit and body. Her elevated feelings and faith in another existence sustained her. She had a kind of presentiment and a hidden memory of the spiritual world; I saw her often looking at the worldly things with compassion, saying: nothing down here can suffice me; I feel the nostalgia of another world.


We recognize my dear and adorable mother in the answers that she gave you, Sir, her way of thinking and expressing herself. She liked to employ images. I am just surprised that she could not remember your picture-card that had given her so much pleasure. I should have thanked you on her behalf. My busy days during the last days of my venerable mother did not allow me to. I believe that she will remember later. Right now she is overwhelmed by the splendors of the new life. The life that has just finished for her seems to be just a bad dream, already far away from her. We also hope my father and I that she may come to bring us a few affectionate words, which we badly need. Would it be an indiscretion, Sir, to ask you to please let us know when she will speak to you again? It was so good that you brought us news about her and that she is no longer suffering! Thank you once again, Sir! I pray to God that you may be recompensed for that, from the bottom of my heart and my soul.


By leaving me, my mother deprives me from the best of all mothers, the kindest friend. I need the assurance of knowing that she is happy and also need my belief in Spiritism to gain some strength. God sustained her. My courage was greater than I thought.


Observation: May the disbelievers laugh as much as they wish at Spiritism. May the more or less interested adversaries ridicule it! May they even say vulgarities, but none of that will remove its consoling power that brings happiness to the unfortunate, making them triumph over the illfaith of the indifferent, despite their effort to abate it. Human beings are thirsty for happiness; when it is not found on Earth, isn’t that a great relief to have the certainty of finding it in the next life, once they did what is needed to deserve it? What is it that offers more relief to the evils of Earth? Is it materialism, with the horrible perspective of the nothingness? Is it the expectation of the eternal flames, to which not one in a million can escape? Make no mistake. Such a perspective is even more terrible than the emptiness, and that is why those whose reason refuses to believe are led to materialism. When the future is presented to the individual in a rational way, there will no longer be materialists. Don’t be surprised by seeing the spiritist ideas welcomed with so much enthusiasm by the crowds, because these ideas give more courage instead of diminishing them. The example of happiness is contagious. When everyone sees happy people around them because of Spiritism they will throw themselves into its arms as a salvation since they would rather have a doctrine that smiles and speaks to reason than those that terrify them.


The example that we have just mentioned is not one of a kind; they are offered to thousands and the great joy that God has reserved to us here is to testify the benefits and progresses of a belief that we help to propagate with our efforts. The people of goodwill, those that come here to draw the consolations are so numerous that we could not take our time from them, dealing with those who are indifferent and have no desire to be convinced. Those who come to us are sufficient to absorb all of our time and that is why we don’t seek anybody else. That is also why we don’t spend that time sowing on sterile land. Their time will come when God decides to remove the veil that blinds their eyes, and that time will come sooner than thought, for the glory of some and shame of others.



Yours sincerely, etc.

One of our subscribers from Mulhouse sent us a letter with the following communication:


“I take this opportunity to send you a communication that I received as a medium from my guardian spirit and that seems interesting and educational from all aspects. If you agree with my judgment I authorize you to use it in any way that you may consider useful. Here is how it started. I am Jewish by religion and thus I am naturally guided by the principles that I was taught. I had noticed that in every communication received from the spirits the only moral that was mentioned was that of Jesus, and Moses was never mentioned. Nevertheless I used to say to myself that God’s commandments, revealed by Moses, seemed to be the foundation of the Christian moral; that Jesus might have broadened the horizon and elaborated about the consequences but the germ was present in the law given at the Sinai. Then I asked myself if the reason wouldn’t be the fact that most communications we received were from spirits who had belonged to the dominant religion and if that would not be a memory of their earthly life. Absorbed in those thoughts I evoked my guardian spirit who was one of my close relatives by the name Mardoqueu R… Below you will find the questions that I addressed to him and his answers, etc.”


1. In every communication given at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies Jesus is considered to be the one who taught the most beautiful moral. How should I see that? – A. Yes. Christ was the initiator of the purest moral, the most sublime: the Christian Evangelical moral that must renovate the world, bringing every people together like brothers and sisters; the moral that will make charity and love to the neighbor stream out of everybody’s hearts; that must create a common solidarity among humanity; and finally the moral that must transfigure Earth, creating the conditions for the dwelling of spirits who are superior to those who live here now. That is the natural law of progress in action; and Spiritism is one of the living forces used by God to facilitate the advancement of humanity on the path of moral progress. The time has come in which the moral ideas will develop in order to realize the progress that is in God’s designs. They must follow the same route taken by the ideas of freedom that were their precursors. However, one must not expect such a development without a fight. No. They need to be shaken and tested to achieve maturity and to attract the attention of the masses; then the beauty and sacred nature of that moral will touch the spirits who will devote themselves to the science that gives them the key to the future, opening up the doors of eternal happiness. God is unique and Moses is the spirit sent by God in order to become known not only by the Hebrews but also by the Pagan people. The Hebrew people were the instrument that God used for his revelation through Moses and the prophets, and the vicissitudes of that remarkable people were the means of tearing off the veil that used to hide God from people.


2. In which points is Moses’ moral inferior to that of Jesus? – A. Moses’ moral was adequate to the degree of advancement of the people that were destined to be regenerated by that. Those people, were sort of semi-savage regarding the progress of the souls, would not have understood that it was possible to worship God by means other than burnt offerings or that it was necessary to forgive the enemy. Their intelligence was remarkable from a material point of view, and even from the arts and sciences, but that intelligence was well behind in morality and would not have converted under the domain of an entirely spiritual religion. They needed a semi material representation, like the one given by the Hebraic religion. That is how the burnt offerings spoke to their senses while the idea of God spoke to their souls. God’s commandments received by Moses are the seeds of a broader Christian moral, but the comments found in the Bible narrowed its meaning since if it were practiced in its whole purity it would not have been understood. Nonetheless, God’s Ten Commandments are still a brilliant frontispiece, like the lighthouse that must illuminate the path that must be walked by humanity. Moses led the way; Jesus continued the work; Spiritism will finish it.


3. Is Saturday a holy day? – A. Yes. Saturday is a day dedicated to resting and praying. It is the symbol of eternal happiness, aspired by all spirits who will get there after having perfected through their work and after thoroughly eliminating the impurities from their hearts through the incarnations.


4. Then, what was the reason that led each sect to consecrate a different day? – A. It is true that each sect has consecrated a different day but that is not a reason for surprise. God accepts the prayers and the formats of every religion as long as the teachings are followed by actions. Prayer always pleases God however it is said and as long as with pure intention.


5. Should we expect the establishment of a universal religion? – A. No. Not on our planet or at least while it has not made the progress that not even thousands of generations will see.


Mardoqueu R…

From the Journal des Débats

In the previous issue of The Spiritist Review the readers could see our personal letter to Mr. Deschanel with our thoughts about his article. The very short letter was aimed at the rectification of a serious error by Mr. Deschanel and we sought his agreement to have our response inserted in that periodical. He presented the Spiritist Doctrine as if based on the grossest materialism that was a total distortion of its true nature since the Doctrine tends, on the contrary, to destroy the foundations of materialism. His article had many other mistakes that could be pointed out but the latter was too important to let go without an answer; it was really serious because it did a disservice to the so many followers of Spiritism. Mr. Deschanel decided not to accept our request and below is his answer to us:

“Dear Sir,

I had the honor of receiving your letter dated February 25th. Your editor, Mr. Didier, was kind enough to assign me with the task of explaining to you that I had given in to his reiterated requests to give a review about your The Spirits’ Book, allowing me to criticize it as much as I wanted. That was the agreement. I thank you for your understanding that the use of your right of replica would be strictly legal but certainly not as kind as the abstention with which you agreed, according to what I was informed this morning by Mr. Didier.

Yours…etc.

E. Deschanel”

• This striking proof two fables now shall prove;

• Matter enough is here your faith to move

Since we are talking about journalists with respect to Spiritism let us not stop on the way. We are not generally spoiled by those gentlemen and considering that we don’t hide their criticism they must allow us to present our counterpoint and arguments against the opinion of Mr. Deschanel and others like a writer whose celebrity and influence are unquestionable, and without being accused of self-serving interest. The praises in fact are not directed to us, personally; at least we don’t take them personally and always address them to our spiritual guides that kindly supervise our work. Therefore we could not benefit from any merit that might be found in our work; we accept the praise not as a confirmation of our personal worth but as a recognition to the endeavor that with the help of God we hope to take on successfully for we have not finished yet and the most difficult part is yet to come. From that point of view, Mr. Louis Jourdan’s opinion has some weight because everyone knows that he does not speak lightheartedly just to fill out the columns of a newspaper with empty words. He can certainly be wrong, like anyone else, but his opinion is always conscientious.

It would be premature to uphold that Mr. Jourdan is a confessed follower of Spiritism. He himself declares that he has not seen any manifestation and that he is not in touch with any medium. He analyzes from his own personal thoughts and since he does not base his opinion on the denial of the soul or any other extra-human power, he sees in the Spiritist Doctrine a new phase of moral life and a means of explaining what was inexplicable up until now. Behold, by admitting the foundations his reason does not absolutely refuse to admit their consequences while Mr. Figuier cannot admit such consequences since he repels the fundamental principle.

“I don’t think that it is impossible to establish communication between the invisible world and us. Don’t ask me how and why; I know nothing about it. That is more a question of feeling than mathematical demonstration. Hence, I am expressing my feeling, but it is a far from a vague feeling, a feeling that leaves a well-defined impression in my heart and in my spirit.”

After the citation of a few questions about marriage and divorce that he finds trivial and not handled according to his personal taste, Mr. Jourdan finishes his article as below:

Mr. Jourdan asks a question, or even better, makes an objection motivated by his limited knowledge about the subject as below:

“…Thus, it is not absolutely impossible that some of those beings may accidentally get in touch with us but what does seem trivial is the need for a material support of a table, a basket or a medium so that those relationships may be established.” “Those communications are either useful or pointless. If useful then the spirits must not need to be mysteriously evoked and questioned in order to teach people what people need to know. If useless, why resort to using them?” In his book A Philosopher by the fire, he adds: “That is a dilemma that the spiritist school will hardly solve.”

No. There is no difficulty for the spiritist school to solve it since it was proposed and solved long ago and if according to Mr. Jourdan that is not the case it is because his knowledge is limited with that respect. We believe that had Mr. Jourdan read The Mediums’ Book that deals with the practical and experimental part of Spiritism and he would have a different idea about the subject.

Yes, there is no doubt that it would be trivial, and this word used by Mr. Jourdan would be weak; we say that it would be ridiculous, absurd and unacceptable, that in order to establish such serious relationships like those between the visible and the invisible worlds the spirits would need to resource to such common utensils like a table, a basket or a planchette to transmit their teachings to us, because the natural consequence of that, would be that once those utensils were not available we would also be deprived of their lessons. No. That is not the case. The spirits are just the souls of people, without the dense covering, and the spirits exist since there have been people in the universe (we don’t say on Earth). These spirits form the invisible world that populates the space that surrounds us; space in which we live unsuspectingly, as we do amidst the microscopic world. The spirits have exerted influence upon the visible world at all times; those who are good helped the people of genius with their inspiration, while the others provide us with guidance in our day to day lives. But those inspirations that occur by the transmission of thoughts are invisible and leave no material trace.

In the articles that we published about this work we tried to identify, before anything else, the standpoint of the author, a not so difficult endeavor once we demonstrate that it is based on materialistic ideas quoting his own words. Since the basis is false, at least from the point of view of the large majority of humankind, he arrived at wrong consequences from facts that he classifies as marvelous; hence his conclusions are full of mistakes. That fact did not preclude some of his comrades of the press from praising his merit, the depth and acumen of his work. Not everybody shares that opinion though. We found an article in the La Mode Nouvelle *, a newspaper that is more serious than its title, as remarkable for its style as fair in its analysis. Its extension prevents us from reproducing the whole text. Besides, the author also promises to publish more since he only deals with the first volume here. The readers can appreciate the fragments below.

_________________________________

* Office at Rue Sainte-Anne, 63 – February 22nd, 1861 Edition – price 1 franc

Mr. Michelet must be on guard since all the maritime gods of Antiquity are about to cause harm to him. That is what we learn from Mr. Taxile Delord in his witty article published in the Siècle last February 4th. His language is worthy of the Orpheus in the Underworlds of the Parisian operettas and here is a sample: “Neptune suddenly appears at the door of Amphitrite’s home and says: You sent for me, here I am Neptune. You did not expect me now, dear Amphitrite. It is time for my nap but I cannot close my eyes since the arrival of that devilish book entitled ‘The sea’. I wanted to browse it but it is full of nonsense. I don’t know which seas he wants to talk about. As for me, I cannot recognize myself. Everybody knows very well that the sea ends at the Pillars of Hercules. What else can be beyond that…?”

It goes without saying, that Mr. Michelet is a winner from all points of view. Well, after his adversaries disappeared Mr. Taxile Delord tells him: “You would perhaps be glad to know what became of the maritime gods after they were expelled by the sea from its empire. Neptune is a large scale fish breeder; Glaucus is a swimming teacher at the Ouanier’s baths; Amphitrite works as a receptionist in one of the Mediterranean baths in Marseille; Nereus has accepted the position of cook on one of the transatlantic liners; several Tritons died and others are exposed in fairs.”

The Siècle from March 2nd, 1861 reports the following:

“In a vacant lot on the corner of a road called The Arcade which leads to Conflans and Charenton, yesterday in the morning the body of a man who had committed suicide was found by workers, hanging from a very tall pine tree. Once informed, the Charenton Police Chief went to the scene, followed by Dr. Josias, carrying out the full examination. The Droit says that the man was apparently around fifty years of age, of distinct looks, well dressed. A handwritten note was taken from one of his pockets and it read: ‘It is 11:45pm; I ascend to end my torture. May God forgive my errors.’ In the same pocket a letter was found without signature or addressee, containing the following: ‘Yes, I fought to the limit! Promises, guarantees, I lacked everything. I could get there; I had everything to believe in, everything to expect; lack of words kill me; I cannot go on. I now leave this so painful life. Full of strength and energy I am obliged to resort to suicide. God is my witness that I seriously wanted to pay back all those who helped me in my disgrace. Fatality crushes me. Everything is against me. Suddenly abandoned by those that I represented I now suffer my fate. I die without bitterness, I confess, and however much they say, the slanders will not preclude me from having a few moments of noble sympathy towards myself. Insulting the man that has been reduced to the last of all resolutions is an abuse. It is enough to be reduced to this. I am not all ashamed of myself. Selfishness would have killed me.’ According to other documents, the man was a so called Alfred Leroy, fifty years old, from Vimoutier, Orne. His profession and residence are unknown and after the customary formalities the unclaimed body was sent to the morgue.”


1. Evocation – A. I don’t come as a tortured man. I am saved! Alfred.


OBSERVATION: The words “I am saved” astonished the majority of the audience. The explanation was requested in the sequence of the conversation.


2. We learned from the papers about the desperate act in which you have succumbed to and although we don’t know you, we are very sorry because religion teaches us that we must have pity on all our unfortunate brothers and it is to testify our sympathy that we invoked you. – A. I need to shut out the real motives that led me to that desperate act. I thank you for what you are doing for me. It is a reason for joy, a message of hope. Thank you!


3. Can you first tell us if you are aware of your present situation? – A. Perfectly. I am relatively happy. I did not commit suicide for purely material causes and my last words demonstrate that. I was taken by an iron fist. When I incarnated on Earth I saw that suicide would be in my future. It was a trial that I had to fight. I wanted to be stronger than fatality but I succumbed.


OBSERVATION: It will be seen soon that this spirit does not escape the fate of all suicides, despite what he says. As for the word fatality, it is evident that there is a memory of Earthly things. People consider their destiny as every disgraceful event that cannot be avoided. For him suicide was the test that he had to pass. He yielded to the call instead of resisting, given his free-will, and he assumed that it was in his destiny.


4. You wanted to escape an unpleasant situation through suicide. Have you gained anything from that? – A. Here is my punishment: confusion of my pride, awareness of my weakness.


5. According to a letter that was found with you, it seems that people’s cruelty and lack of word have led you to your self-destruction. What is your feeling now towards those who were the cause of you fatal resolution? – A. Oh! Don’t you tempt me, don’t tempt me, I beg you.


OBSERVATION: This is a remarkable answer. It paints the situation of the spirit fighting the desire of hatred towards those who did him harm, and the feeling of good, pushing him to forgiveness. He is afraid that this question may provoke an answer that might be reproached by his conscience.


6. Do you regret your action? – A. I told you: my pride and my weakness are the cause.


7. When alive did you believe in God and in a future life? – A. My final words demonstrate that: I walk to my punishment.


OBSERVATION: He begins to understand his situation, about which he could have had an illusion in the beginning, because he could not be simultaneously saved and walked to his punishment.


8. When you took that resolution, what was in your mind? – A. I was very much aware of the justice to understand what makes me suffer now. For a short time I entertained the idea of the void but I soon rejected that. If I had such an idea I would not have killed myself. I would have sought revenge.


OBSERVATION: This answer is at the same time very logical and very profound. If he believed in the nothingness after death instead of killing himself he would have revenged or at least he would have started from vengeance. The idea of the future precluded him from committing a double crime. With the idea of the nothingness what was there to be afraid of if he wanted to take his own life? He would no longer fear people’s justice and would enjoy the pleasure of vengeance. Such is the consequence of the materialistic doctrines that certain wise people try to propagate.


9. If you were convinced that the cruelest vicissitudes of life are trials of too short a duration before eternity would you still have succumbed? – A. Very short, I know that, but despair does not give space to reason.


10. We beg God for His forgiveness in your favor and send Him our prayers, all of us united: “Almighty God, we know the fate of those who shorten their days and we cannot obstruct your justice. But we also know that your mercy is infinite. May that mercy be extended upon the soul of Alfred Leroy! May also our prayers show him that there are people on Earth who care about him, thus mitigating his sufferings for not having had the courage to endure the hardships of life! Good spirits, whose mission is to alleviate the unfortunate ones, take him under your protection; inspire regret in him for his actions and the firm desire of progress through new trials that he will withstand better. – A. Your prayers make me cry hence I feel happier.


11. In the beginning you said: I am saved. How can we reconcile those words with what you said later: I walk towards my punishment? – A. And how do you see God’s benevolence? I could not live. It was impossible. Wouldn’t you believe that God sees that impossibility in such a case?


OBSERVATION: Amidst some notably sensible answers there are others, and this last one is in that group, through which the spirit shows an imperfect idea of his current situation. There is no surprise here if we consider the fact that he has been dead for a few days only.


12. (To St. Louis) – Could you tell us what is the fate of the unfortunate spirit that we have just evoked? – A. Expiation and suffering. No, there is no contradiction between the first words of that unfortunate spirit and his pains. He says he is happy. He is happy for the termination of life. Since he is still attached to the Earthly bonds the only thing he feels is the absence of the bad things from Earth, but when his spirit is totally separated from the horizons of pain, a slow and terrible expiation will unfold before him, and the awareness of infinity, still hidden to his eyes, shall be the punishment that he had foreseen.


13. Which difference can you establish between this suicide case and the other one of the Samaritan? Both killed themselves out of despair, however their situation is very different: this one is perfectly conscious of himself; speaks clearly and does not suffer yet while the other one did not see himself dead and from the very initial moments he suffered a cruel pain, feeling the decomposition of his own body. – A. Huge difference. The suffering of each of those men reflects the individual character of their moral progress. The latter, a weak and broken soul, held up as much as he believed. He doubted his own strength and God’s benevolence, but he cannot be charged with blasphemy or slander; his inner, slow and profound suffering shall have the same intensity as the pain of the former suicide. It is just that the law of expiation is not uniform. NOTE: The story of the Samaritan suicide can be found in the issue of The Spiritist Review, June 1858.


14. To the eyes of God who is most to blame and who will suffer the greatest punishment: the one who succumbed to his own weakness or the other who was led to despair for the stiffness of his heart? – A. Surely the one who succumbed to the temptation.


15. Can the prayers on their behalf be useful to them? – A. Yes. Prayer is like a beneficial mist.

Dear Sir,

I have been involved with spiritist manifestations for about four years now and I am glad to have a good medium in the family that give us communications of a superior order. We have read and read again your work ‘The Spirits’ Book’ that is cause of happiness and consolation to us, giving us the most sublime and admissible notions of our future life. If I could have any doubt about them, the current proofs I have now are more than enough to reaffirm my faith. I lost persons who were very dear to me and I have the inappreciable happiness of knowing that they are happy and I am able to communicate with them. I cannot express my joy when I had that experience. The first time when they gave me real signs of their presence I said: Then it is all true that not everything dies with the body! I owe our Lord for having entrusted me. Believe in my eternal gratitude by the good that it does to me and for the reason that I was unwillingly tormented by the future. The idea of nothing terrified me and beyond the void there was only an oppressing uncertainty. There is no doubt any more. It seems that I was reborn for life. All my apprehensions are gone and my trust in God came back stronger than ever. I do hope that my sons, thanks to you, will not experience the same torments since they are fed by your truths and their mounting reason has to gain in strength.

Count X…”

What is that painful moaning that reverberates in my heart, vibrating every single fiber of my soul? It is humanity struggling through the rude and painful work, preparing to give birth to light. Come, spiritists, surround its suffering bed. May the strongest among you stretch their stiff arms to support the convulsions of pain, and may the others wait the birth of that child, receiving it in their arms when it comes to life. The supreme moment arrives; in a last breath of effort it escapes from the conceiving heart, the mother left dazed behind abated by her weakness for some time. However, it was born healthy and robust and life breathes plentiful at full power. You, who have witnessed its birth must follow it every step of the way. Behold! The joy of having given birth resurrects the mother’s strength and courage, and with a maternal tone she calls all people to gather around the blessed child, for she foresees that with his powerful voice the scaffoldings of lies will fall in a few years, and immutable like God, truth will unite humanity under its flag through Spiritism. Triumph, however, will only come after the fight since its bloodthirsty enemies conspire against it. These enemies are pride, selfishness, greed, hypocrisy and fanaticism, almighty foes that have ruled sovereignly so far and will not be dethroned without a fight. Some laugh at its weakness, but others are scared of its arrival predicting their own ruin. That is why they try to eliminate it, like Herod sought to eliminate Jesus through the massacre of the innocent. That child has no homeland. It is all over the planet, looking for the people that will be the first to sustain its flag. Such people will be the most powerful among all peoples because that is the will of God.


Massilon

Beginning of the new social year. Given at the session of April 5th, 1861

Ladies and gentlemen,

At the time when our Society initiate its fourth year I believe that a special thanks is due to the good spirits who have kindly assisted us and in particular to our spiritual President whose wise advices have helped us to avoid several dangers and whose protection allowed us to overcome the difficulties along the way, which have certainly occurred in order to test our resolve and dedication. Their benevolence – we must acknowledge – has never failed us and thanks to the current elevated spirits of the Society it has triumphed over the ill-faith of its enemies. Allow me a few retrospective observations about this subject.

Experience had showed us regrettable blanks in the bylaws of the Society, blanks that opened the door to some abuse. The Society worked around them and it is to be congratulated ever since. Is it perfect? We would not be spiritists if we proudly believed so. However, when the foundation is good and all the rest depends on the free-will than all we need is the support of the spirits so that we do not stop half-way through.

As a matter of fact, ladies and gentlemen, you must not think that the voice of criticism against the Society comes from friends of Spiritism; that is not the case. That voice is from the adversaries who feel hurt for seeing the Society advancing calmly and with dignity even through the traps that were laid out and still are. They regret the fact that it is difficult to be accepted as a member for they would love to come here to spread disruption. That is another reason why they criticize since their circle of influence is reduced, thus they say that the scope of the matters are insignificant and unimportant because the Society abstains from discussing political and religious issues. They want to see the Society treading on the dogmatic controversy. Well, that is precisely where they betray themselves. The Society has prudently protected itself against malevolence. By hurting its pride they wanted to drag it through a dangerous path but that will never happen. Since it is only involved with questions of scientific interest it has sheltered itself against the attacks and will remain so. Through prudency, moderation and wisdom the Society reconciled the support of the true spiritists and its influence extends to overseas countries from where people aspire for the honor of membership.

One of our corresponding members in Warsaw sent us the following:

“… I dare call your attention to a fact that is so extraordinary that it would be necessary to classify it as absurd if the character of the person that reported it to me were not a guarantee of its reality. All of us who know everything that has been so carefully analyzed by you regarding Spiritism, and who believe that understand it well, we cannot find an explanation for this fact. Thus, we pass it on for your discretion, hoping that will forgive the time required to read it all in case you don’t find it worthy of a more serious examination. Here are the facts:

“The person that I mentioned above was in Vilnius in 1852, a city of Lithuania, then devastated by cholera. Her beautiful twelveyear-old daughter was gifted with every quality that characterizes a great nature. Her outstanding intelligence was noticed at a very young age combined with a truly angelical kindness and goodness of heart. She was one of the first to enjoy a mediumistic faculty in our land always supervised by spirits of higher order. She frequently had premonitions of what was about to happen, and not in a somnambulistic state, always predicting with accuracy. The details above seem relevant to give you a proper assessment of her honesty. One evening, when the candles had just been put out, the girl who was still perfectly awake saw an enraged and bloody figure of an old woman standing by her bedside, notably giving her the shivers. The woman approached the girl and said: ‘I am cholera and I come to demand a kiss from you. If you kiss me I will leave for good and the city shall be free from my presence.’ The heroic girl did not step away from the sacrifice. She pressed her lips against the frigid and humid face of the old woman and the vision, if that was a vision, vanished. The girl could only find consolation in her father’s arms. Her father could not understand a thing but he believed that she was telling the truth. They said nothing to nobody though. Around noon they received the visit of a doctor friend of the family who said: ‘I come to bring you good news. Not one patient was taken to the cholera hospital last night and I just came from there.’ In fact since that night there was no more new cholera cases. About three years later the same person and her family visited the same town again. During their stay the cholera reappeared and the number of victims was in the hundreds. One night the same old woman showed up again to the young lady who was perfectly awake, asking her for the same thing, adding this time that if she obeyed her wishes the cholera would disappear for good. Like in the first event, the girl did not refuse. She then saw a grave opening up and then consuming the old woman. The cholera faded away like in a miracle and I am not aware of any other case in Vilnius. Was it hallucination or a real apparition? I don’t know. All I can say is that I don’t have any reason not to believe the young lady and her parents.”

This phenomenon, no doubt, constitutes one of the most extraordinary among the spiritist manifestations, and also the rarest. It consists of the transportation of a foreign object to appear at the place where we are. We have heard about it for a long time, but only recently were we able to witness the phenomenon and we can now speak about it from experience. For starters we must say that this is one of those phenomena more prone to mystification and consequently everyone is strongly advised to be on guard against fraud.

The art of deception may travel long ways when considering events of such a nature and someone who is not familiar with people involved in that kind of work could easily fall victim of fraud. The best guarantees is first, the character of the persons involved, their known honesty and the absolute disinterest Of individuals who experiment with similar effects; second, in the careful examination of every detail and circumstances in which the phenomena is produced; and finally, an enlightened knowledge of Spiritism, the only force capable of uncovering if there is anything suspicious about the phenomena.

We said that the phenomenon is one of the rarest and perhaps produced even less than the others according to someone’s wishes or following a given schedule. It can very rarely be provoked but most of the time it is spontaneous and whoever may boast about being able to produce it at will and at a given time could easily be called ignorant and be under the suspicion of fraud; this would be even more reinforced if there would be any material interest behind it. A medium that takes any advantage of their faculty may be truly a medium but since it is subject to intermittences and since the phenomena depends exclusively on the spirits who are not submitted to our caprices, it follows that a greedy medium may easily resource to deception to avoid failure or to produce more effects, according to the circumstances. For this kind of medium, the spirit must always act or it is replaced by deception, sometimes hidden under the simplest disguises. These initial thoughts aim at helping the observers to be on guard, taking us back to our subject. Before that, it is our duty to publish the letter below, sent from Orléans dated February 14th last:

36. Are there effects that are considered to be natural phenomena and that in fact are due to the action of certain spirits? – A. Your days are full of those facts that you don’t understand because you have not given any thought to that but a little reflection would allow you to see with clarity.

37. Among the transported objects aren’t there some fabricated by the spirits that are spontaneously produced by the modifications that the spirits may produce on the universal element? – A. Not by me since I don’t have the permission. Only an elevated spirit can do that.

38. Could an object produced like that have stability and become an object of common use? For example, if a spirit produced a snuffbox could I make use of that? – A. It could if the spirit wished so but it could also exist only to be seen and disappear after a few hours.

OBSERVATION: The phenomena that took place at Rue des Noyers described in the August 1860 issue of The Spiritist Review may be classified in the category of transportation phenomena. The difference is in the fact that in that case, they were produced by a bad spirit that only wished to cause disruption, while the ones discussed here are produced by benevolent spirits that wish to please and demonstrate sympathy.

NOTE: See The Mediums’ Book about the theory of formation of objects, chapter entitled “Laboratory of the invisible world”.

Born in Lyon and deceased on February 21st, 1861, at the age of 35 and a half years old

(Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, April 5th, 1861)

Dr. Glas was a devout spiritist. He succumbed after a painful and long lasting disease where his suffering was only softened by the hope which Spiritism comforted him with. His laborious and eventful life was full of bitter concerns and an initially unknown accident shortened his existence. He was evoked after his father’s request.

1. (Evocation) – A. I am here.

2. For us it is a real pleasure to be able to communicate with you, first in order to attend your father and your wife’s wishes but also considering your knowledge which we hope can benefit us all. – A. I hope this communication can give consolation to those who have sympathy for me and that it may be instructive to you.

3. It seems that you have succumbed after enduring a cruel disease. Could you give us some explanations about its cause and its nature? – A. My disease – now I see clearly – was totally moral and ended up painfully taking my whole body. As for my sufferings, they are still very present and I cannot forget. Persistent work, added to a continual agitation in my brain, which was the true source of my disease.

OBSERVATION: That answer is confirmed by the following passage from a letter by his father: “His laborious and eventful life was full of bitter concerns and an initially unknown accident shortened his existence.” – This letter had not been read before the evocation and neither the medium nor the attendees were aware of that.

4. It also seems that your beliefs helped you to endure the suffering with courage, for that we congratulate you. – A. I had the consciousness of a better life. That says it all.

5. Have those beliefs also helped you to speed up your separation? – A. Infinitely because those spiritualist ideas are the necessary understandings that keep you away from any terrestrial influence.

6. We kindly ask you to describe to us as precisely as possible the nature of mental confusion that you have experienced, the duration and your sensations when you became aware of your condition. – A. When I died I was perfectly aware of myself and I could glimpse calmly what so many others fear with much dread. My passage was short and there was no change in my self-awareness. I don’t know how long the confusion lasted but when I woke up I was really dead.

7. At the time when you acknowledged yourself were you isolated? – A. Yes. As a matter of fact in my heart I was still entirely connected to Earth. It was only gradually that I saw spirits around me.

8. What is your opinion about your comrades who want to demonstrate through science that man is formed only by matter and that there is only the nothingness waiting out there? – A. Pride! They will perhaps be quiet when the time of their death is near; it is what I wish. Ah! As Lamennais said not long ago there are two sciences, the good one and the bad one. Theirs is the science that comes from man, the bad one.

We received the following letter from Mr. Jobard of Brussels, with the answers he has obtained to several questions.

“My dear Mr. President,

Since Brussels is as far away from Paris as the Moon is from the Sun, the rays of light from Spiritism have not brought warmth to us yet. However Mr. Nicolas B… has been with us for two days, and he indicated a first class intuitive writing medium that delights us here, so much so that he is surprised himself with the magnificent essays given by the spirit of Tertullian who wants him to write a book with explanations about the creation of the worlds, from chaos to God. Yesterday I read them to Wiertz, the great painter, who got the message and wants to dedicate a 100 ft. painting to it. I cannot send you these sublime essays before you can provide proof of identity. I have enclosed a few passages extracted from the mediumistic drafts that I keep with great care.

We evoked Cabanis, the materialist, who is as unhappy as your atheist and all other pencil breakers. Then we evoked Henri Mondeux to learn about the long line of mathematicians that he may have inhabited. Everybody wants to have Jud revealed, the assassin of Mr. Poinsot. The reediting of Gaete was announced eight days in advance. I was also asked to write a book but don’t know where to start from, since I am not a medium and cannot use a medium under the pretext that it is no longer necessary. Your Lyon speech is remarkable. I had it read to the more advanced humanimals of our Moon. There aren’t many over here. What a pity! When might I be able to warm myself from your sun? Farewell my dear Master.

Jobard

NOTE: Since some criticism was made about a communication given by Mrs. de Girardin in a previous session, she gave a spontaneous answer to them. She indicates the circumstances around that communication.


“I come to thank the member that kindly came out in my defense and moral rehabilitation before you. In fact when alive I used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy I tell you from my heart, given my gender during that time. After my death God allowed me to raise to higher levels and to practice with simplicity the duties of charity that unite us all, people and spirits. With this explanation, I will not discuss the communication that bears my name since criticism and censorship are neither suitable to me nor to the medium. Thus, believe me that I will come whenever I am evoked but I will never get into futile discussions. I spoke about the children. Let me go back to that subject that was the painful ulcer of my life. Women need the double crown of love and maternity to fulfill the mandate of self-sacrifice entrusted by God when sending them to Earth. Alas! I never knew those sweet and tender worries that imprint in our soul by those frail submissions. How often I have gazed at those playful children touching my dress with bitter tears in my eyes. I felt the anguish and humiliation of my failure. I shuddered, waited, listened, and my life filled with worldly success, was a fruit filled with ashes, that left me a bitter and disappointing taste.”


Delphine de Girardin


OBSERVATION: There is a lesson in this message that cannot go unnoticed. Mrs. Girardin said that when alive she used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy, making reference to certain passages of her preceding communication that had provoked some objections. She also says that she preserved those feeling after her death. Consequently she rejects everything that may bear her name and denies those feelings. The soul mirrors the qualities and defects that are shown during their corporeal life with the exception of eventual progress that may have occurred but the soul is never inferior to its prior condition. Therefore there are sometimes very subtle nuances to be observed in the communications from the spirits so as to distinguish between what could be a replacement and what is really from that spirit. The really superior spirits are never caught in contradiction and one can boldly reject anything that may betray their character. This assessment is more difficult since a perfectly authentic communication may be mixed with thoughts from the medium, who does not clearly express the idea, or a strange spirit that interposes his thoughts between the medium and the communicating spirit. Hence, communications that denies the character of the communicating spirit in all points and in the essence of his ideas must be considered of doubtful authenticity. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to condemn the whole text due to some partial stained remarks that may come from the causes above.

(Given on Easter Sunday, 1834 after the death of one of his friends)

We have been given a number of times in this Review, spontaneous communications from the spirit Channing that does not contradict his superiority of character and intelligence. Our readers will appreciate below some passages of his texts when alive, using fragments of one of his speeches, whose translation we owe to the kind support of one of our subscribers. Considering that his name is not much known in France we provide a short biography below as an introduction to his discourse.

William Ellery Channing was born in 1780 in Newport, Rhode-Island, New York State. His grandfather, William Ellery, signed the famous declaration of independence. Channing was educated at Harvard College, to attend the medical school but his tastes and talents drove him towards a religious career when in 1803 he became the minister of the Unitarian Chapel of Boston. He then remained in that city where he professed the Unitarian Doctrine, a protestant sect that counts on many followers in England and in the USA, at the highest social echelons. He became known for his broad and liberal views and is counted as one of the most prominent individuals in the US given his remarkable eloquence, his many publications and his philosophical depth. A self-declared follower of peace and progress he relentlessly preached against slavery and for that he initiated such a fierce war against that institution, many liberals felt his exceeding enthusiasm was harmful to his own popularity, sometimes seemingly out of place. His name granted him authority among those who fought slavery. He died in Boston at the age 62. He was replaced by Gannet as leader of the Unitarians.

The letter below was sent by Mr. Roustaing, Attorney at the Imperial Court of Bordeaux and former President of the Bar Association. The principles expressed in that letter by such an educated man, given that he is placed amongst the most enlightened, may perhaps give pause to some of those who consider themselves as having the exclusive privilege of reason and place all the followers of Spiritism as fools.

“My dear Sir and highly distinguished spiritist leader, I received the influence and collected the benefits of these words from Jesus to Thomas: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’, profound, divine words that show the safest, the most rational path, the one that leads to faith according to St. Paul’s maxim accomplished and realized by Spiritism: ‘Rationabile sit obsequium vestrum’.

When I wrote to you for the first time last March I said: I saw nothing, but I read and got it and I believed. God rewarded me well for having believed without having seen; later I saw and I saw well; I saw under favorable circumstances and the experimental part came to excite, if I may say so, the faith that I had gotten from the Doctrine, strengthening and giving life to that faith.

The following poem was sent to us by one of our corresponding members from Lyon. He is so deeply-rooted in the Spiritist Doctrine that we cannot let go of the opportunity of giving it a space in our Review.

How can I, oh mortals, with my weak accents,

Give your hearts the most sublime incense!

You will learn from these verses during this career,

How to pray and the meaning of prayer.

It is a surge of love, of fluid fervor,

That escapes the soul and rises towards our Savior.

Sublime effusion of the humble creature,

Returning to his source, ennobling his nature!

Praying does not change the Creator’s art,

Always immutable; but the paternal heart

Spreads its divine stream upon the one who implores,

And doubles the heat of the fire it devours.

He then feels elevated, growing,

Through the love to the neighbor, the heart is pounding.

The more he grows in love the more the Sublime Being

Fulfills his heart with the blessings of learning.

Then comes a holy desire to pray for the dead,

Carrying their burden of pain, a bitter regret,

Showing the needs their condition claims.

He then addresses to them his invisible balms,

Whose efficacy, consoling remedy,

Penetrates their souls, giving them liberty.

They revive; it is a new hope, a glimmer

Helping in their struggle; freedom they conquer.

Like the mortals overwhelmed by evil,

That a supreme balm returns to normal,

They regenerate before this impulse, occult

From the majestic and ardent prayer, and its divine cult.

Let us multiply the enthusiasm; nothing is lost my friend;

Prayers, prayers for them, prayers to the end;

Prayer, it is always prayer, the divine star

That becomes a focus of love, and overwhelms afar.

Let us pray for the dead, yes, and before long and from above

Outpours upon us their rays of love!

Joly

It is a mistake to believe that there is nothing to gain from conversations with the spirits of common people and that it is only the nobility that offers useful teachings. There are certainly many useless lessons among them but sometimes a serious observer obtains unforeseen revelations from those when one least expects it. As a matter of fact, there is a point that is of great interest to us for it touches us closely: the passage, the transition from the current to the future life, a feared passage that only Spiritism can help us face it fearlessly, and that we can only know by studying the current cases, that is, from those who have just made that transition, famous or not famous.


Marquis de Saint-Paul was a member of the Society, deceased in 1860 and evoked following a request from his sister on May 16th, 1861.


1. Evocation. – A. I am here.


2. Your sister has asked us to evoke you, and although she is a medium she does not feel confident enough in the current development of her mediumship. – A. I will do my best to respond.


3. First, she would like to know if you are happy. – A. I am still in an errant state and in this transient state there is no absolute happiness or unhappiness.


4. Has it taken you long to become aware of yourself? – A. I spent a long time in a confused state and only emerged from it to bless those who had not forgotten me and who prayed for me.


5. Can you estimate the time you spent in this confused state? – A. No.


6. Which relatives did you promptly recognize? – A. I recognized my mother and my father who welcomed me when I woke up. They were the ones who initiated me in my new life.


7. How could it be that towards the end of your illness it looked like you were speaking with your loved ones from Earth? – A. Because I had the revelation of the world I was about to enter before I died. I became clairvoyant before I died and my eyes were veiled during the definitive transition and separation from the body, because the corporeal links were still very strong.


OBSERVATION: The phenomenon of early separation of the soul is quite frequent. Many people foresee the world of the spirits before they die. That certainly happens to smooth out the pain of leaving life behind through hope. But here the spirit adds that his eyes were veiled at the time of separation. It is a common occurrence; at that very moment when the spirit loses consciousness. The spirit never witnesses the last breath of the body and the actual separation occurs unsuspectingly. The agonizing convulsions are purely physical whose sensation is almost never experienced by the spirit. We say almost because it may happen that the suffering may be imposed onto the spirit as a punishment.


8. Why were your memories mainly of your childhood? – A. Because the beginning is closer to the end than is the center of life.



9. What do you mean? – A. I mean that those in agony remember and see the pure and young years as a reassuring mirage.


OBSERVATION: It is likely that seniors usually have more accurate and detailed memories of their early days for the same providential reason.


10. Why did you always use the third person when referring to your own body? – A. Because, as I said, I was clairvoyant and clearly felt the differences between the physical and the spiritual. Those differences, interconnected by the fluid of life, become very distinct to the eyes of the agonizing visionary.


OBSERVATION: Here we have a singular particularity presented by the death of this gentleman. In his last moments he used to say: - ‘He is thirsty, he needs to drink something, he is feeling cold, one needs to warm him up; he suffers this or that, etc.’ - When asked: But is that you who are thirsty? He replied: - ‘No, it is him.’ – Here the two lives are perfectly drawn: the thinking self is in the spirit and not in the body; once feeling separated, the spirit considered his body as another person, as if it were not him. Hence, it was his body that needed attending to and not him, the spirit.


11. What you just said above about your errant state and the duration of your confusion would lead us to believe that you are not happy. However, your character must lead us to a contrary opinion. As a matter of fact there are errant spirits who are very happy as there are others very unhappy. – A. I am in a transient state. Human virtues acquire their true value here. There is no doubt that my current condition is a thousand times preferable than that of my Earthly incarnation, but I have always carried the aspiration of true good and true beauty and my soul will only be satisfied when it has reached the feet of our Creator.