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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1862 > April
April
Spiritualist and Spiritist PhrenologyPerfectibility of the black race[1]
“Is the black race perfectible? According to some the question is judged and resolved negatively. If that is the case, if the race is devoted by God to an eternal inferiority it follows that it is useless to worry about the issue, limiting ourselves to see the black as a kind of domestic animal dedicated to the culture of sugar and cotton. However, humanity and social interest require a more detailed examination. That is what we try to do. Since a conclusion about the subject cannot be reached lightheartedly in one direction or another and must be based on serious thoughts we ask for permission to develop some preliminary considerations that will help to demonstrate once more that Spiritism is the only possible key to a number of insoluble problems with the support of data from Science. Phrenology will operate as our starting point. We will explain its foundations for a better understanding of the subject.
As it is well known, Phrenology is based on the principle that the brain is the organ of thoughts like the heart is of circulation, the stomach of digestion and the liver secrets the bile. Such idea is accepted by everybody because one cannot attribute thoughts to any other part of the body and each person feels that one thinks in the head and not in the arm or leg. Besides, there is an instinctive feeling that the seat of thoughts is located in the frontal rather than the occipital lobe: that is the place reached by the hand to indicate the occurrence of a new idea. Everybody believes that the development of the frontal part of the brain indicates more intelligence than a lower or depressed region.
On another hand anatomical and physiological experiences have clearly demonstrated the special role of certain parts of the brain on vital functions and the difference produced by a lesion of one region or another. Scientific researches leave no doubt with that respect. Those carried out by Mr. Flourens, in particular, demonstrated the specialization of the functions of the brain.
Therefore it is admitted in principle that all parts of the brain don’t have the same function. It is further recognized that neural cords that stem out from the brain, ramifying to all parts of the body like the filaments of a root, are affected in different ways, according to their destination. That is how the optical nerve that reaches the eye and spreads over the retina is affected by light and colors, transmitting that sensation to a particular region of the brain; that the acoustic nerve is affect by the sounds and the olfactory nerve by the smells. If any of these nerves lose their sensitivity for any given reason the sensation is terminated: one becomes blind, mute or insensitive to odors. Those nerves, consequently, have distinct functions and cannot be replaced absolutely although a more careful examination does not show the slightest difference in their texture.
Phrenology, based on these principles, goes further: it locates all the moral and intellectual faculties, assigning each one with a special place in the brain. That is how it affects an organ with a destructive instinct that in excess becomes cruelty and ferocity; another with firmness whose excess and without the balance of judgment results in stubbornness; another with maternal love; others with the memory of places, numbers, forms, poetic feelings, the harmony of sounds, colors, etc., etc.
This is not the place to make an anatomical description of the brain. We only say that a longitudinal section of the cerebral mass shows fibrous bunches departing from the base and spreading towards the surface, presenting more or less the appearance of a vertically chopped mushroom. Each bundle corresponds to one of the convolutions of the outer surface, from which it follows that the development of the convolution corresponds to the development of the fibrous bundle. According to Phrenology, since each bundle is the seat of a sensation or a faculty it follows that the energy of the sensation or faculty is proportional to the development of the organ.
The osseous cavity is not yet formed in the fetus; in the beginning it is just a film, a very flexible membrane which is molded, therefore, on the projecting parts of the brain and maintains the footprint, as it hardens by the deposition of calcium phosphate that is the foundation of bones. From the projections of the skull, Phrenology concludes the volume of the organ, and from the volume of the organ the development of the faculty.
That is in a few words the principle of the Phrenology science.
Although it is not our objective to develop it here a few words are still necessary with respect to the method of assessment. It would be a serious mistake to believe that one can surmise the absolute character of a person by the simple inspection of the projections of the skull. The faculties balance out or attenuate with respect to each other, so that in order to judge an individual one does need to take into account the degree of influence of each faculty, given its development, and then consider temperament, environment, habits and education.
Take a man whose organ of destruction is very pronounced, showing atrophy of the organs associated to the moral and affective faculties. He will be miserably ferocious. However if benevolence, love and intellectual faculties are added destruction will then be neutralized, having the effect of giving more energy to that person who can then be a much dignified person, while a superficial observer led to judge him only based on the first organ will take him by a murderer. It then becomes clear all changes in character that may result from the influence of other faculties, like shrewdness, circumspection, self-esteem, courage, etc.
The sensation of color will make the colorist but not the painter; the sensation of forms alone will not make the drafter; the two together will make good copyist if not added by the feeling of idealism and poetry, plus the faculties of analysis and comparison.
This is enough to show that the practical observations of Phrenology present great difficulties and are based on philosophical considerations that are not available to everybody.
Having these preliminaries established, let us see the subject from another point of view.
Since the beginning two radically antagonist systems divided the Phrenologists into materialists and spiritualists. By not admitting anything beyond matter the former say that thought is the product of the cerebral substance; that the brain secrets thoughts as the salivary glandules secret saliva and the liver secrets bile. Now, as the amount of secretion is generally proportional to the volume and quality of the organ they say that the amount of thoughts is proportional to the volume and quality of the brain; that each part of the brain secretes a particular kind of thoughts and that the multiple feelings and skills are in direct proportion to the organ that produces them.
We will not contest this monstrous doctrine that converts man into a machine, without any responsibility for his bad actions and without any merit for his good qualities and whose genius and virtues are serendipitous attributes of his physical organization.[2] With a similar system every punishment is unfair and every crime is justified.
The spiritualists, on the contrary, say that the organs are not the cause of the faculties but the instruments of their manifestations; that the thought is an attribute of the soul and not of the brain; that since having multiple aptitudes, the predominance of this faculty upon the other entails the development of the correspondent organ like the exercise of an arm determines the development of the muscles of that arm. It then follows that the development of an organ is an effect and not a cause. Therefore, a man is not a poet because he has the organ of poetry. He carries the organ because he is a poet, and that is very different.
This brings, however, another difficulty that stops the Phrenologist: if spiritualist he will say that the poet carries the organ of poetry because he is a poet but he does not say why the person is a poet; why, instead of a brother, although both were educated in the same conditions? And the same applies to all other skills.
Only Spiritism can provide the explanation.
In fact had the soul been created at the same time as the body and the soul of the scholar from the Science Institute would be as new as that of the uncivilized savage. Then, why do we find on Earth savages and members of the Institute of Sciences? You will say that it depends on the environment that surrounds them. Be it but then why do we have people who are born in the most hostile environments that become geniuses whereas there are others who feel the taste of science from breastfeeding and are stupid?
Don’t the facts widely demonstrate that there are instinctively bad and good, intelligent and stupid people? Thus, it is necessary the existence of a seed in the soul. Where does it come from? Can we reasonably say that God has made it of all kinds and that some come without effort whereas others never do even after a systematic work? Would there be goodness and justice in that? Evidently not.
There is only one possible solution: the pre-existence of the soul; its existence before the birth of the body; the acquired development in accordance with an actual lived time span and the multiple migrations of the soul.
Thus, on uniting to the body, the soul brings along the good or bad qualities that were acquired. Hence the instinctive predispositions that allow us to say with certainty that the one that was born poet had already cultivated poetry; the one who was born a musician had already cultivated music and the other who was born criminal had already been worse. Such is the source of the innate faculties that produce in the organs affected by its manifestations an inner, molecular work that determines its development.
This leads us to the analysis of the important issue of the inferiority of certain races and their perfectibility. To begin with we establish as a principle that all faculties, passions, feelings, and skills are part of nature; they are necessary to the general harmony because God does not create anything useless; wickedness is the result of the abuse and lack of counter weight among the multiple skills. Since the faculties don’t develop simultaneously it results that the equilibrium is only established slowly; that the lack of balance produces imperfect people momentarily dominated by wickedness.
As an example let us take the instinct of destruction. It is necessary since nature requires that everything be destroyed in order to renovate. That is why every living species is simultaneously a destructive and reproductive agent. However, in isolation the instinct of destruction is blind and brutal. It dominates primitive peoples, savages whose souls have not yet acquired their own reflective faculties to regulate destruction at the right measure.
Will the savage acquire the missing faculties in one existence only? Regardless of the education they receive since birth can you make a St. Vincent, a scientist, a lecturer or an artist out of them? No, because that is physically impossible. However, that savage person has a soul. What is the fate of that soul after death? Is it punished for the barbarian acts that were reproached by nobody? Is it leveled with the soul of a good man? One is not more rational than the other. Is that soul then condemned to remain in a mixed state which is not that of happiness nor disgrace? That would not be fair since the achievement of further perfection was beyond that soul.
Such a dilemma cannot be solved without admitting the possibility of progress. However, how can that soul progress without other existences? One could say that the soul could progress as a spirit, without returning to Earth. But then why do we, the enlightened and civilized, are born in Europe and not in the Oceania? As white people instead of bearing black bodies? Why such a different starting point if one can only advance as a spirit? Why has God spared us from the long route endured by the uncivilized savage? Would our souls be different from theirs in nature? Why trying to make them Christians? If you make them Christians it is because you see them as equals before God. If they are equals before God why has God privileged you?
However much you try you will not reach a solution unless admitting a previous progress to us and a future progress to them. If the soul of the uncivilized must progress in the future it means that they will catch up with us. If we have progressed earlier it means that we were savages also given the fact that if the starting points were different then there is no justice and if God is not just then it is not God.
We then forcibly have two extreme existences: that of the uncivilized savage and that of the super civilized. However, wouldn’t there be a midpoint between these two extremes? Check out the scale of the peoples and you will see that there is an unbreakable chain, without interruption. Once more, all these problems are unsolvable without the plurality of the existences. Say that the aborigines will reborn in a little less barbarian people and so on up until civilization and everything is explained; that instead of climbing the steps of the stairway he jump over and without a transition he arrives at our level he will provide the hideous spectacle of a Dumollard who is a monster among us but who would not be so abnormal among the tribes of Central Africa from where he should not perhaps have never left. That is how everything is darkness if limited to a single existence, everything is an unsolvable problem, whereas with reincarnation it is all clarity and everything has a solution.
Let us go back to Phrenology. It admits special organs to each faculty and we think that it is correct. But we go further. We saw that each organ of the brain is formed by a bunch of nervous fibers. We think that each fiber corresponds to a nuance of the faculty. It is true that this is just a hypothesis but that can open up the door to further observations. The hearing nerve receives the impressions of the sound and transmits that to the brain but how can a single nerve distinguish so many different tones? It is then licit to admit that each nervous fiber is affected by a different sound, in a certain way vibrating in synchronism like the strings of a harp. All sounds are part of nature. Let us imagine a hundred of them, from the highest to the lowest pitch. A person who had one hundred corresponding fibers would detect all of them; another who only had fifty would be able to detect half of them, letting go the others that would go unnoticed. The same applies to the vocal chords to express sounds, with the optical fibers to observe colors and with the olfactory fibers to feel the odors. The same train of thoughts may be applied to all kinds of perceptions and manifestations.
Every animated body carries, unarguably, the principle of all organs although in certain individuals some are found in such a rudimentary state that are not susceptible to development and consequently as if they did not exist. Therefore these individuals cannot present manifestations and perceptions corresponding to those organs. With respect to these faculties those individuals are like the blind before light and the deaf before music.
The phrenological exam of not so much advanced peoples demonstrate the predominance of instinctive faculties and the atrophy of the organs of intelligence. Something that is an exception to the most advanced peoples is the rule to certain races. Why? Would that be an unfair preference? No, it is wisdom since nature is always provident; there is nothing useless. It would be useless to provide a complete instrument to someone that would be unable to use it. That savage spirits are still children if we can say so. They still have many latent faculties. What would an uncivilized savage do in the body of an Arago? It would be like someone completely ignorant of music standing before an excellent piano. Now, the flip side would be what the spirit of Arago would do in the body of an uncivilized savage? It would be like Liszt before a piano with just a few broken strings from which his talent would never be able to produce nice sounds. Arago’s genius amongst the savage would be as intelligent as a savage can be and nothing else. He would never be a member of the Institute under a black skin. Would his spirit entail the development of the organs? The weak organs, yes; not the rudimentary ones.[3]
Thus, nature has adapted the bodies to the degree of advancement of their incarnating spirits. That is why the spirits of the primitive races have less vibrating strings than those of the most advanced ones. A man then has two very distinct beings: the thoughtful being, the spirit, and the body, the instrument for the manifestation of thoughts, more or less complete, potentially rich in its capabilities, according to the needs.
We now arrive at the perfectibility of the races. In a way this issue is resolved by the preceding one: we only have to deduce a few consequences. The races are perfectible by the spirit that develops through several migrations, gradually acquiring the missing faculties in each one of them. However, as the faculties amplify the spirit requires an adequate instrument, like a growing child that demands larger clothes. Now, since the actual bodies are no longer sufficient given their primitive state the spirits need to incarnate in better conditions and so forth, according to the progress.
The races are physically perfectible but it is only through cross marriages with more advanced races that bring new elements, so to speak, implanting the seeds of new elements. Such cross combination takes place in the migrations, wars and settlements. Under this point of view the races are like families that bastardize when there is no injection of new blood. As a consequence one cannot say that there is a pure primitive race for without cross-marriages that race will be always the same and since its state of inferiority depends on its nature. After certain time it would degenerate and disappear instead of advancing.
People say about the black slaves: “These are brute creature, very little intelligent, and it would be useless to try to educate them. That is an inferior race, unchangeable, profoundly incapable.” The theory above allows us to look at it from a different prism. Regarding the improvement of the races we must always take two forming elements of man into account: the corporeal and the spiritual. It is necessary to get to know both and only Spiritism can clarify us with respect to the nature of the spiritual element, the most important one since that is the one that thinks and outlives the body which in turn disappears.
Thus, as a physical organization the blacks are always the same. As spirits they are undoubtedly an inferior race that is primitive. They are true children to whom very little can be taught. However, through intelligent means it is always possible to modify certain habits, certain tendencies, representing an actual progress that will be carried to the next existence, later on allowing them to take an envelope in better conditions. Working towards their betterment one works less for their present than their future and however little is achieved it is always an acquisition to them. Each progress is a step forward that facilitates new progresses.
Given the same physical structure, that is, the same instruments of manifestation, the races are only perfectible within narrow limits for the very reasons given above. That is why the black race, while black race, physically speaking, will never reach the levels of the Caucasian races but that is a different story from the point of view of the spirit: they can become and will become what we are. It is just a matter of time and better instruments. That is why the savage races, even in contact with civilized races, are always savage. However, the savage races diminish as the civilized races advance, up until their total disappearance, like the disappearance of the Caribbean, the Guanche and others. The bodies disappeared but what has been made of the spirits? Some may perhaps be among us.
We have said so and repeat: Spiritism unveil new horizons to all sciences. When the scientists consider the spiritual element in the phenomena of nature they will be surprised by the disappearance of great difficulties like from a magic touch. However, it is likely that many will require a renovation of habits. On their way back they will have had time to think and will bring new ideas. They will find things different here on Earth. The spiritist ideas that they repel today will have been sprout everywhere and will the basis of every social institution. They will themselves be educated and fed by that belief that will open new horizons to their geniuses for the advancement of science. While they wait, while they are still here, may they seek the solution to the following problem: Why the authority of their knowledge and denials do not halt, at least for a moment, the ever faster march of the new ideas?
[1] See the July 1860 issue of the Spiritist Review: Phrenology and Physiognomy
[2] See the March 1861 issue of the Spiritist Review: Garibaldi’s head.
[3] See the Spiritist Review, October 1861 – The mentally challenged (cretinism)
“Is the black race perfectible? According to some the question is judged and resolved negatively. If that is the case, if the race is devoted by God to an eternal inferiority it follows that it is useless to worry about the issue, limiting ourselves to see the black as a kind of domestic animal dedicated to the culture of sugar and cotton. However, humanity and social interest require a more detailed examination. That is what we try to do. Since a conclusion about the subject cannot be reached lightheartedly in one direction or another and must be based on serious thoughts we ask for permission to develop some preliminary considerations that will help to demonstrate once more that Spiritism is the only possible key to a number of insoluble problems with the support of data from Science. Phrenology will operate as our starting point. We will explain its foundations for a better understanding of the subject.
As it is well known, Phrenology is based on the principle that the brain is the organ of thoughts like the heart is of circulation, the stomach of digestion and the liver secrets the bile. Such idea is accepted by everybody because one cannot attribute thoughts to any other part of the body and each person feels that one thinks in the head and not in the arm or leg. Besides, there is an instinctive feeling that the seat of thoughts is located in the frontal rather than the occipital lobe: that is the place reached by the hand to indicate the occurrence of a new idea. Everybody believes that the development of the frontal part of the brain indicates more intelligence than a lower or depressed region.
On another hand anatomical and physiological experiences have clearly demonstrated the special role of certain parts of the brain on vital functions and the difference produced by a lesion of one region or another. Scientific researches leave no doubt with that respect. Those carried out by Mr. Flourens, in particular, demonstrated the specialization of the functions of the brain.
Therefore it is admitted in principle that all parts of the brain don’t have the same function. It is further recognized that neural cords that stem out from the brain, ramifying to all parts of the body like the filaments of a root, are affected in different ways, according to their destination. That is how the optical nerve that reaches the eye and spreads over the retina is affected by light and colors, transmitting that sensation to a particular region of the brain; that the acoustic nerve is affect by the sounds and the olfactory nerve by the smells. If any of these nerves lose their sensitivity for any given reason the sensation is terminated: one becomes blind, mute or insensitive to odors. Those nerves, consequently, have distinct functions and cannot be replaced absolutely although a more careful examination does not show the slightest difference in their texture.
Phrenology, based on these principles, goes further: it locates all the moral and intellectual faculties, assigning each one with a special place in the brain. That is how it affects an organ with a destructive instinct that in excess becomes cruelty and ferocity; another with firmness whose excess and without the balance of judgment results in stubbornness; another with maternal love; others with the memory of places, numbers, forms, poetic feelings, the harmony of sounds, colors, etc., etc.
This is not the place to make an anatomical description of the brain. We only say that a longitudinal section of the cerebral mass shows fibrous bunches departing from the base and spreading towards the surface, presenting more or less the appearance of a vertically chopped mushroom. Each bundle corresponds to one of the convolutions of the outer surface, from which it follows that the development of the convolution corresponds to the development of the fibrous bundle. According to Phrenology, since each bundle is the seat of a sensation or a faculty it follows that the energy of the sensation or faculty is proportional to the development of the organ.
The osseous cavity is not yet formed in the fetus; in the beginning it is just a film, a very flexible membrane which is molded, therefore, on the projecting parts of the brain and maintains the footprint, as it hardens by the deposition of calcium phosphate that is the foundation of bones. From the projections of the skull, Phrenology concludes the volume of the organ, and from the volume of the organ the development of the faculty.
That is in a few words the principle of the Phrenology science.
Although it is not our objective to develop it here a few words are still necessary with respect to the method of assessment. It would be a serious mistake to believe that one can surmise the absolute character of a person by the simple inspection of the projections of the skull. The faculties balance out or attenuate with respect to each other, so that in order to judge an individual one does need to take into account the degree of influence of each faculty, given its development, and then consider temperament, environment, habits and education.
Take a man whose organ of destruction is very pronounced, showing atrophy of the organs associated to the moral and affective faculties. He will be miserably ferocious. However if benevolence, love and intellectual faculties are added destruction will then be neutralized, having the effect of giving more energy to that person who can then be a much dignified person, while a superficial observer led to judge him only based on the first organ will take him by a murderer. It then becomes clear all changes in character that may result from the influence of other faculties, like shrewdness, circumspection, self-esteem, courage, etc.
The sensation of color will make the colorist but not the painter; the sensation of forms alone will not make the drafter; the two together will make good copyist if not added by the feeling of idealism and poetry, plus the faculties of analysis and comparison.
This is enough to show that the practical observations of Phrenology present great difficulties and are based on philosophical considerations that are not available to everybody.
Having these preliminaries established, let us see the subject from another point of view.
Since the beginning two radically antagonist systems divided the Phrenologists into materialists and spiritualists. By not admitting anything beyond matter the former say that thought is the product of the cerebral substance; that the brain secrets thoughts as the salivary glandules secret saliva and the liver secrets bile. Now, as the amount of secretion is generally proportional to the volume and quality of the organ they say that the amount of thoughts is proportional to the volume and quality of the brain; that each part of the brain secretes a particular kind of thoughts and that the multiple feelings and skills are in direct proportion to the organ that produces them.
We will not contest this monstrous doctrine that converts man into a machine, without any responsibility for his bad actions and without any merit for his good qualities and whose genius and virtues are serendipitous attributes of his physical organization.[2] With a similar system every punishment is unfair and every crime is justified.
The spiritualists, on the contrary, say that the organs are not the cause of the faculties but the instruments of their manifestations; that the thought is an attribute of the soul and not of the brain; that since having multiple aptitudes, the predominance of this faculty upon the other entails the development of the correspondent organ like the exercise of an arm determines the development of the muscles of that arm. It then follows that the development of an organ is an effect and not a cause. Therefore, a man is not a poet because he has the organ of poetry. He carries the organ because he is a poet, and that is very different.
This brings, however, another difficulty that stops the Phrenologist: if spiritualist he will say that the poet carries the organ of poetry because he is a poet but he does not say why the person is a poet; why, instead of a brother, although both were educated in the same conditions? And the same applies to all other skills.
Only Spiritism can provide the explanation.
In fact had the soul been created at the same time as the body and the soul of the scholar from the Science Institute would be as new as that of the uncivilized savage. Then, why do we find on Earth savages and members of the Institute of Sciences? You will say that it depends on the environment that surrounds them. Be it but then why do we have people who are born in the most hostile environments that become geniuses whereas there are others who feel the taste of science from breastfeeding and are stupid?
Don’t the facts widely demonstrate that there are instinctively bad and good, intelligent and stupid people? Thus, it is necessary the existence of a seed in the soul. Where does it come from? Can we reasonably say that God has made it of all kinds and that some come without effort whereas others never do even after a systematic work? Would there be goodness and justice in that? Evidently not.
There is only one possible solution: the pre-existence of the soul; its existence before the birth of the body; the acquired development in accordance with an actual lived time span and the multiple migrations of the soul.
Thus, on uniting to the body, the soul brings along the good or bad qualities that were acquired. Hence the instinctive predispositions that allow us to say with certainty that the one that was born poet had already cultivated poetry; the one who was born a musician had already cultivated music and the other who was born criminal had already been worse. Such is the source of the innate faculties that produce in the organs affected by its manifestations an inner, molecular work that determines its development.
This leads us to the analysis of the important issue of the inferiority of certain races and their perfectibility. To begin with we establish as a principle that all faculties, passions, feelings, and skills are part of nature; they are necessary to the general harmony because God does not create anything useless; wickedness is the result of the abuse and lack of counter weight among the multiple skills. Since the faculties don’t develop simultaneously it results that the equilibrium is only established slowly; that the lack of balance produces imperfect people momentarily dominated by wickedness.
As an example let us take the instinct of destruction. It is necessary since nature requires that everything be destroyed in order to renovate. That is why every living species is simultaneously a destructive and reproductive agent. However, in isolation the instinct of destruction is blind and brutal. It dominates primitive peoples, savages whose souls have not yet acquired their own reflective faculties to regulate destruction at the right measure.
Will the savage acquire the missing faculties in one existence only? Regardless of the education they receive since birth can you make a St. Vincent, a scientist, a lecturer or an artist out of them? No, because that is physically impossible. However, that savage person has a soul. What is the fate of that soul after death? Is it punished for the barbarian acts that were reproached by nobody? Is it leveled with the soul of a good man? One is not more rational than the other. Is that soul then condemned to remain in a mixed state which is not that of happiness nor disgrace? That would not be fair since the achievement of further perfection was beyond that soul.
Such a dilemma cannot be solved without admitting the possibility of progress. However, how can that soul progress without other existences? One could say that the soul could progress as a spirit, without returning to Earth. But then why do we, the enlightened and civilized, are born in Europe and not in the Oceania? As white people instead of bearing black bodies? Why such a different starting point if one can only advance as a spirit? Why has God spared us from the long route endured by the uncivilized savage? Would our souls be different from theirs in nature? Why trying to make them Christians? If you make them Christians it is because you see them as equals before God. If they are equals before God why has God privileged you?
However much you try you will not reach a solution unless admitting a previous progress to us and a future progress to them. If the soul of the uncivilized must progress in the future it means that they will catch up with us. If we have progressed earlier it means that we were savages also given the fact that if the starting points were different then there is no justice and if God is not just then it is not God.
We then forcibly have two extreme existences: that of the uncivilized savage and that of the super civilized. However, wouldn’t there be a midpoint between these two extremes? Check out the scale of the peoples and you will see that there is an unbreakable chain, without interruption. Once more, all these problems are unsolvable without the plurality of the existences. Say that the aborigines will reborn in a little less barbarian people and so on up until civilization and everything is explained; that instead of climbing the steps of the stairway he jump over and without a transition he arrives at our level he will provide the hideous spectacle of a Dumollard who is a monster among us but who would not be so abnormal among the tribes of Central Africa from where he should not perhaps have never left. That is how everything is darkness if limited to a single existence, everything is an unsolvable problem, whereas with reincarnation it is all clarity and everything has a solution.
Let us go back to Phrenology. It admits special organs to each faculty and we think that it is correct. But we go further. We saw that each organ of the brain is formed by a bunch of nervous fibers. We think that each fiber corresponds to a nuance of the faculty. It is true that this is just a hypothesis but that can open up the door to further observations. The hearing nerve receives the impressions of the sound and transmits that to the brain but how can a single nerve distinguish so many different tones? It is then licit to admit that each nervous fiber is affected by a different sound, in a certain way vibrating in synchronism like the strings of a harp. All sounds are part of nature. Let us imagine a hundred of them, from the highest to the lowest pitch. A person who had one hundred corresponding fibers would detect all of them; another who only had fifty would be able to detect half of them, letting go the others that would go unnoticed. The same applies to the vocal chords to express sounds, with the optical fibers to observe colors and with the olfactory fibers to feel the odors. The same train of thoughts may be applied to all kinds of perceptions and manifestations.
Every animated body carries, unarguably, the principle of all organs although in certain individuals some are found in such a rudimentary state that are not susceptible to development and consequently as if they did not exist. Therefore these individuals cannot present manifestations and perceptions corresponding to those organs. With respect to these faculties those individuals are like the blind before light and the deaf before music.
The phrenological exam of not so much advanced peoples demonstrate the predominance of instinctive faculties and the atrophy of the organs of intelligence. Something that is an exception to the most advanced peoples is the rule to certain races. Why? Would that be an unfair preference? No, it is wisdom since nature is always provident; there is nothing useless. It would be useless to provide a complete instrument to someone that would be unable to use it. That savage spirits are still children if we can say so. They still have many latent faculties. What would an uncivilized savage do in the body of an Arago? It would be like someone completely ignorant of music standing before an excellent piano. Now, the flip side would be what the spirit of Arago would do in the body of an uncivilized savage? It would be like Liszt before a piano with just a few broken strings from which his talent would never be able to produce nice sounds. Arago’s genius amongst the savage would be as intelligent as a savage can be and nothing else. He would never be a member of the Institute under a black skin. Would his spirit entail the development of the organs? The weak organs, yes; not the rudimentary ones.[3]
Thus, nature has adapted the bodies to the degree of advancement of their incarnating spirits. That is why the spirits of the primitive races have less vibrating strings than those of the most advanced ones. A man then has two very distinct beings: the thoughtful being, the spirit, and the body, the instrument for the manifestation of thoughts, more or less complete, potentially rich in its capabilities, according to the needs.
We now arrive at the perfectibility of the races. In a way this issue is resolved by the preceding one: we only have to deduce a few consequences. The races are perfectible by the spirit that develops through several migrations, gradually acquiring the missing faculties in each one of them. However, as the faculties amplify the spirit requires an adequate instrument, like a growing child that demands larger clothes. Now, since the actual bodies are no longer sufficient given their primitive state the spirits need to incarnate in better conditions and so forth, according to the progress.
The races are physically perfectible but it is only through cross marriages with more advanced races that bring new elements, so to speak, implanting the seeds of new elements. Such cross combination takes place in the migrations, wars and settlements. Under this point of view the races are like families that bastardize when there is no injection of new blood. As a consequence one cannot say that there is a pure primitive race for without cross-marriages that race will be always the same and since its state of inferiority depends on its nature. After certain time it would degenerate and disappear instead of advancing.
People say about the black slaves: “These are brute creature, very little intelligent, and it would be useless to try to educate them. That is an inferior race, unchangeable, profoundly incapable.” The theory above allows us to look at it from a different prism. Regarding the improvement of the races we must always take two forming elements of man into account: the corporeal and the spiritual. It is necessary to get to know both and only Spiritism can clarify us with respect to the nature of the spiritual element, the most important one since that is the one that thinks and outlives the body which in turn disappears.
Thus, as a physical organization the blacks are always the same. As spirits they are undoubtedly an inferior race that is primitive. They are true children to whom very little can be taught. However, through intelligent means it is always possible to modify certain habits, certain tendencies, representing an actual progress that will be carried to the next existence, later on allowing them to take an envelope in better conditions. Working towards their betterment one works less for their present than their future and however little is achieved it is always an acquisition to them. Each progress is a step forward that facilitates new progresses.
Given the same physical structure, that is, the same instruments of manifestation, the races are only perfectible within narrow limits for the very reasons given above. That is why the black race, while black race, physically speaking, will never reach the levels of the Caucasian races but that is a different story from the point of view of the spirit: they can become and will become what we are. It is just a matter of time and better instruments. That is why the savage races, even in contact with civilized races, are always savage. However, the savage races diminish as the civilized races advance, up until their total disappearance, like the disappearance of the Caribbean, the Guanche and others. The bodies disappeared but what has been made of the spirits? Some may perhaps be among us.
We have said so and repeat: Spiritism unveil new horizons to all sciences. When the scientists consider the spiritual element in the phenomena of nature they will be surprised by the disappearance of great difficulties like from a magic touch. However, it is likely that many will require a renovation of habits. On their way back they will have had time to think and will bring new ideas. They will find things different here on Earth. The spiritist ideas that they repel today will have been sprout everywhere and will the basis of every social institution. They will themselves be educated and fed by that belief that will open new horizons to their geniuses for the advancement of science. While they wait, while they are still here, may they seek the solution to the following problem: Why the authority of their knowledge and denials do not halt, at least for a moment, the ever faster march of the new ideas?
[1] See the July 1860 issue of the Spiritist Review: Phrenology and Physiognomy
[2] See the March 1861 issue of the Spiritist Review: Garibaldi’s head.
[3] See the Spiritist Review, October 1861 – The mentally challenged (cretinism)
Consequences of the Doctrine of Reincarnation on the Propagation of Spiritism
“The fast propagation of Spiritism is a fact that nobody can deny. When something propagates it means that it is convenient. If Spiritism propagates it is then convenient. There are several reasons for that. The first one, and without contradiction, is the moral satisfaction given to those who understand and practice it. But even the strength associated to this very reason is partially influenced by the principle of reincarnation. That is what we shall try to demonstrate.
Every wise person will always give some worthwhile thought to a future life after death. Who on Earth would give more importance to a few days than to a number of years? Even more: during the first stage of life we work, endure and suffer all kinds of restrictions so that, in the second stage, one can enjoy some rest and wellbeing.
If we are so careful with respect to some undefined years isn’t that rational to be even more so with respect to our life beyond the grave, whose duration is unlimited? Why is that the majority of people work more for the volatile present than for the endless future? Fact is that we believe in the reality of the present and doubt the future. Now, one can only doubt what is not understood. Once the future is understood the issue is over.
Even to the eyes of those taught by common beliefs and who are better convinced about a future life it presents itself so vaguely that faith is not always enough to sink in that idea which is more characteristically hypothetical than reality.
Spiritism comes to destroy such uncertainty by the testimony of those who have already lived and by proofs that are in a way material.
Every religion is necessarily based on a future life and all dogmas forcibly converge to that unique end. That is the objective of the practice of those dogmas and one’s faith in them is directly proportional to the efficacy that one attributes to them in order to achieve that goal.
The theory of a future life is then the keystone of every religious doctrine. If that theory has a faulty foundation; if it opens up the door to serious objections; if it is contradictory; if the impossibility of certain parts is demonstrated, everything else falls apart. To begin with doubt is established. It is then followed by absolute denial and the dogmas are dragged down with the wreckage of faith. Some thought that banning the discussion and prescribing blind faith, as a virtue would avoid the danger.
The imposition of a blind faith, however, is ignorance of the times in which we. Willing or not people think; examine by the force of things; people want to know how and why. The development of sciences and technology shows the best terrains where one must set foot on. That is why we probe that one where we shall walk after death. If we do not find it sturdy enough, that is logical and rational, we leave it alone. However much they try they will not be able to neutralize this
tendency that is inherent to the moral and intellectual development of humanity. According to some this is good. According to others, this is bad. Regardless of how we see it we must accommodate to the situation since there is no way out.
The need to be aware and understand things goes from the material to moral life. Future life is certainly not the most touchable thing like a railroad or a steam engine but it can be understood through reasoning. If the train of thoughts employed to understand it does not satisfy reason then premises and conclusions are abandoned. If we question those who deny a future life and they will all say that they were lead to disbelief by the very picture that was shown to them with its entourage of devils and flames and endless suffering.
All moral, psychological and metaphysical questions are more or less connected to the issue of the future. It thus follows that this issue depends in a way on the rationality of the philosophical and religious doctrines. Spiritism in turn does not come as a religious but as a philosophical doctrine, bringing its doctrine founded on the fact of the manifestations. It does not impose itself; it does not demand a blind faith; it meddles with people and say: “Analyze, compare and judge. If you find anything better than what I give you than take it.”
Spiritism does not say: “I come to destroy the basis of religion and replace it by a new cult”. It does say: “I do not address the believers and those who are happy with their beliefs, but those who have abandoned their ranks in disbelief and for the fact that you did not know how or could not retain. I come to provide a rational interpretation to the truths that they reject, leading them to accept those truths. The number of souls that I take out of the swamp of disbelief is the proof that I can do it.”
Listen to them when they all say: “Had I been taught these things since my childhood and I would have never doubted. Now I believe because I understand.”
Should they be sent away for the fact that they do not accept the letter, but the spirit; the form but the principle? You are free to do so. If you feel that it is a duty to your conscience, nobody will violate that. However, I wouldn’t say that this is a lesser mistake. I say more: it is unwise.
As we said, future life is the essential objective of the moral life. Moral life has no foundation without future life. The triumph of Spiritism is precisely in the way it presents future life. Besides the proofs given by Spiritism, the picture that is painted is so clear, so logical and according to the goodness and to the justice of God that people say: “Yes, that is how it must be; that is how I had envisaged it and if I did not believe it the reason is the fact that I was taught differently.”
However, what is it that gives such a power to the theory of the future? What is it that makes it so attractive? We say that it is its inflexible logic that solves all the up until now unsolvable issues and that it is owned to the principle of the plurality of the existences. In fact, remove that principle and there will immediately appear thousands of problems, each more unsolvable than the next. In every step of the way we are faced by many objections. Such objections were not raised in the past because nobody thought about them. Now that the child has grown up the adult wants an in-depth understanding of things; the path must be clear; people probe and balance the actual value of the arguments and if these do not satisfy their reason, leaving them in darkness and uncertainty, they are then rejected until something better shows up.
The plurality of the existences is a key that opens new horizons; that gives meaning to many things that were misunderstood; that explains what was inexplicable. It conciliates the events of life with God’s justice and benevolence. That is why those who had doubted such justice and goodness now acknowledge the hand of Providence where it was ignored before.
In fact without reincarnation what can explain the innate ideas? How to justify cretinism, mental diseases, and barbarism side by side with the genius and civilization? The deep misery of some next door to the happiness of others? The premature deaths and so many other things?
From a religious point of view certain dogmas like the original sin, the fallen angels, the eternity of the penalties, the resurrection of flesh, etc. find in that principle a rational interpretation that leads to its acceptance, even by those who used to reject the word.
To summarize, modern civilization wants to understand. The principle of reincarnation illuminates what was obscure before. That is why we say that such a principle is one of the reasons that favor people to welcome Spiritism.
One could argue that reincarnation is not necessary to believe in Spirits and their manifestation. A proof of that is the fact that there are believers who do not admit such principle. It is true. We do not say that one cannot be a good Spiritist without that. We are not among those who throw stones at people that do not think like us. The only thing we say is that they have not discussed all the problems raised by the system of a single life, otherwise they would have recognized the impossibility of finding a solution to all of them.
In the beginning the idea of the plurality of the existences was received with surprise and mistrust. People then gradually familiarized with that as they recognized the impossibility of solving many difficulties without that principle, difficulties raised by psychology and future life.
There is one thing for sure. This system gains terrain every day while the other loses it. The adversaries of reincarnation these days in France – we speak of those who have studied the Spiritist science – count on a tiny number when compared to those who accept it. Even in America where they are in larger numbers for the reasons that we gave in our previous issue, such a principle begins to popularize. From that one the day when there will be no disagreement about this point.
Every wise person will always give some worthwhile thought to a future life after death. Who on Earth would give more importance to a few days than to a number of years? Even more: during the first stage of life we work, endure and suffer all kinds of restrictions so that, in the second stage, one can enjoy some rest and wellbeing.
If we are so careful with respect to some undefined years isn’t that rational to be even more so with respect to our life beyond the grave, whose duration is unlimited? Why is that the majority of people work more for the volatile present than for the endless future? Fact is that we believe in the reality of the present and doubt the future. Now, one can only doubt what is not understood. Once the future is understood the issue is over.
Even to the eyes of those taught by common beliefs and who are better convinced about a future life it presents itself so vaguely that faith is not always enough to sink in that idea which is more characteristically hypothetical than reality.
Spiritism comes to destroy such uncertainty by the testimony of those who have already lived and by proofs that are in a way material.
Every religion is necessarily based on a future life and all dogmas forcibly converge to that unique end. That is the objective of the practice of those dogmas and one’s faith in them is directly proportional to the efficacy that one attributes to them in order to achieve that goal.
The theory of a future life is then the keystone of every religious doctrine. If that theory has a faulty foundation; if it opens up the door to serious objections; if it is contradictory; if the impossibility of certain parts is demonstrated, everything else falls apart. To begin with doubt is established. It is then followed by absolute denial and the dogmas are dragged down with the wreckage of faith. Some thought that banning the discussion and prescribing blind faith, as a virtue would avoid the danger.
The imposition of a blind faith, however, is ignorance of the times in which we. Willing or not people think; examine by the force of things; people want to know how and why. The development of sciences and technology shows the best terrains where one must set foot on. That is why we probe that one where we shall walk after death. If we do not find it sturdy enough, that is logical and rational, we leave it alone. However much they try they will not be able to neutralize this
tendency that is inherent to the moral and intellectual development of humanity. According to some this is good. According to others, this is bad. Regardless of how we see it we must accommodate to the situation since there is no way out.
The need to be aware and understand things goes from the material to moral life. Future life is certainly not the most touchable thing like a railroad or a steam engine but it can be understood through reasoning. If the train of thoughts employed to understand it does not satisfy reason then premises and conclusions are abandoned. If we question those who deny a future life and they will all say that they were lead to disbelief by the very picture that was shown to them with its entourage of devils and flames and endless suffering.
All moral, psychological and metaphysical questions are more or less connected to the issue of the future. It thus follows that this issue depends in a way on the rationality of the philosophical and religious doctrines. Spiritism in turn does not come as a religious but as a philosophical doctrine, bringing its doctrine founded on the fact of the manifestations. It does not impose itself; it does not demand a blind faith; it meddles with people and say: “Analyze, compare and judge. If you find anything better than what I give you than take it.”
Spiritism does not say: “I come to destroy the basis of religion and replace it by a new cult”. It does say: “I do not address the believers and those who are happy with their beliefs, but those who have abandoned their ranks in disbelief and for the fact that you did not know how or could not retain. I come to provide a rational interpretation to the truths that they reject, leading them to accept those truths. The number of souls that I take out of the swamp of disbelief is the proof that I can do it.”
Listen to them when they all say: “Had I been taught these things since my childhood and I would have never doubted. Now I believe because I understand.”
Should they be sent away for the fact that they do not accept the letter, but the spirit; the form but the principle? You are free to do so. If you feel that it is a duty to your conscience, nobody will violate that. However, I wouldn’t say that this is a lesser mistake. I say more: it is unwise.
As we said, future life is the essential objective of the moral life. Moral life has no foundation without future life. The triumph of Spiritism is precisely in the way it presents future life. Besides the proofs given by Spiritism, the picture that is painted is so clear, so logical and according to the goodness and to the justice of God that people say: “Yes, that is how it must be; that is how I had envisaged it and if I did not believe it the reason is the fact that I was taught differently.”
However, what is it that gives such a power to the theory of the future? What is it that makes it so attractive? We say that it is its inflexible logic that solves all the up until now unsolvable issues and that it is owned to the principle of the plurality of the existences. In fact, remove that principle and there will immediately appear thousands of problems, each more unsolvable than the next. In every step of the way we are faced by many objections. Such objections were not raised in the past because nobody thought about them. Now that the child has grown up the adult wants an in-depth understanding of things; the path must be clear; people probe and balance the actual value of the arguments and if these do not satisfy their reason, leaving them in darkness and uncertainty, they are then rejected until something better shows up.
The plurality of the existences is a key that opens new horizons; that gives meaning to many things that were misunderstood; that explains what was inexplicable. It conciliates the events of life with God’s justice and benevolence. That is why those who had doubted such justice and goodness now acknowledge the hand of Providence where it was ignored before.
In fact without reincarnation what can explain the innate ideas? How to justify cretinism, mental diseases, and barbarism side by side with the genius and civilization? The deep misery of some next door to the happiness of others? The premature deaths and so many other things?
From a religious point of view certain dogmas like the original sin, the fallen angels, the eternity of the penalties, the resurrection of flesh, etc. find in that principle a rational interpretation that leads to its acceptance, even by those who used to reject the word.
To summarize, modern civilization wants to understand. The principle of reincarnation illuminates what was obscure before. That is why we say that such a principle is one of the reasons that favor people to welcome Spiritism.
One could argue that reincarnation is not necessary to believe in Spirits and their manifestation. A proof of that is the fact that there are believers who do not admit such principle. It is true. We do not say that one cannot be a good Spiritist without that. We are not among those who throw stones at people that do not think like us. The only thing we say is that they have not discussed all the problems raised by the system of a single life, otherwise they would have recognized the impossibility of finding a solution to all of them.
In the beginning the idea of the plurality of the existences was received with surprise and mistrust. People then gradually familiarized with that as they recognized the impossibility of solving many difficulties without that principle, difficulties raised by psychology and future life.
There is one thing for sure. This system gains terrain every day while the other loses it. The adversaries of reincarnation these days in France – we speak of those who have studied the Spiritist science – count on a tiny number when compared to those who accept it. Even in America where they are in larger numbers for the reasons that we gave in our previous issue, such a principle begins to popularize. From that one the day when there will be no disagreement about this point.
Demoniacal Epidemic in the Savoie
Some time ago the papers reported an epidemic monomania that took place in the Savoie region and against which all the resources of medicine and religion failed to address. The only means that produced a more or less satisfactory result was the spreading of the individuals throughout several towns. With that in mind, we received the letter below from Captain B…, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, currently living in Annecy:
“Annecy, March 7th 1862
Mr. President,
Willing to be useful to the Society I have the honor of sending you a brochure received from one of my friends, Dr. Caille, assigned by the minister to follow the enquiry carried out by Mr. Constant, inspector of the houses of the mentally ill, about the large number of cases of devil-mania observed in the Morzine neighborhood, Thonon county, High Savoie.
Still today that miserable population is under the influence of an obsession, despite the exorcisms, medical treatments, actions taken by the authorities and taking the patients to county hospitals. The number of cases has diminished a little bit but has not ceased and the illness is in a latent stay, so to speak.
“Annecy, March 7th 1862
Mr. President,
Willing to be useful to the Society I have the honor of sending you a brochure received from one of my friends, Dr. Caille, assigned by the minister to follow the enquiry carried out by Mr. Constant, inspector of the houses of the mentally ill, about the large number of cases of devil-mania observed in the Morzine neighborhood, Thonon county, High Savoie.
Still today that miserable population is under the influence of an obsession, despite the exorcisms, medical treatments, actions taken by the authorities and taking the patients to county hospitals. The number of cases has diminished a little bit but has not ceased and the illness is in a latent stay, so to speak.
With the objective of exorcizing those unfortunate people, mostly children, the priest has them sent to the church by strong men. He had just pronounced a few words in Latin when a terrifying scene took place: screams, fierce jerks and seizures, etc. to the point that the police and an arm regiment were called in to reestablish order. I could not obtain all the information that I wanted to send you today but the facts seemed serious enough to me and worthy of your examination.
Dr. Arthaud from Lyon, an alienist doctor, wrote a report to the medical society of that city published by the Gazette Médicale de Lyon and that you could obtain through your corresponding member there. We have two ladies from Morzine undergoing treatment in that city.
Dr. Caille concluded that there is an epidemic nervous infection in town that is resistant to any kind of treatment and also to exorcism. Only isolation produced good results.
All the unfortunate ones affected by the disease pronounce dirty words in their crisis: they jump prodigiously over tables; they climb on trees, roof tops and sometimes prophesize.
If similar facts have taken place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at monasteries and in the country side, it is no less certain that in our nineteenth century they offer the Spiritists a subject of study from the point of view of collective epidemic, generalizing and persisting for years, given that the first observed case happened five years ago.
It will be an honor to send you every document and piece of information that I can find.
Dr. Arthaud from Lyon, an alienist doctor, wrote a report to the medical society of that city published by the Gazette Médicale de Lyon and that you could obtain through your corresponding member there. We have two ladies from Morzine undergoing treatment in that city.
Dr. Caille concluded that there is an epidemic nervous infection in town that is resistant to any kind of treatment and also to exorcism. Only isolation produced good results.
All the unfortunate ones affected by the disease pronounce dirty words in their crisis: they jump prodigiously over tables; they climb on trees, roof tops and sometimes prophesize.
If similar facts have taken place in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at monasteries and in the country side, it is no less certain that in our nineteenth century they offer the Spiritists a subject of study from the point of view of collective epidemic, generalizing and persisting for years, given that the first observed case happened five years ago.
It will be an honor to send you every document and piece of information that I can find.
Yours, etc. B.”
The two communications that follow about the subject were given by our customary Spirits at the Society:
“It is not doctors but magnetizers, spiritualists or spiritists that should have been sent to dissipate the legion of malevolent Spirits, misplaced in your planet. I say misplaced because they are just passing. However, the unfortunate population that was stained by their contact will suffer morally and physically.
Where is the remedy, you ask? It will leave by replacing the bad Spirits with the healthy contact from the good Spirits who will succeed them, like the dawn succeeds darkness. That poor population, unaware of any intellectual work, would not have gotten to know the intelligent communications and would not even have noticed them. The initiation and the inconveniences caused by that impure mob opens the otherwise shut eyes and the uproar, the acts of madness are only the prelude to the initiation, since everyone must enjoy the Spiritist light.
Do not be sorry for the cruel way that things develop. Everything has a useful objective and the sufferings must yield fecund results like the storms that destroy a crop here and fertilizes another one somewhere else.
Georges, medium Mrs. Costel
“The cases of devil-mania that now take place in the Savoie are also produced in other places, particularly in Germany and most importantly in the East. This abnormal fact is more normal than you think. In fact to a careful observer it reveals a situation analogous to the one that took place during the last years of Paganism. Everybody knows that when Christ, our beloved master, incarnated in the region of Judea taking the personality of Jesus, the carpenter, that region had been invaded by legions of bad Spirits that through possession, like in our days, they took over the most ignorant social classes; controlled the weakest and least advanced incarnate Spirits, in one word the simple people that watched the herds or who were dedicated to farming work.
Do not you see a great analogy in the reproduction of these identical phenomena of possession? Ah! There is a very profound teaching in this! From that you must conclude that the predicted times are even closer and that the Son of the Man will soon expel again the mob of impure Spirits that have taken Earth and revive the Christian faith, giving His high and divine sanction to the reassuring revelations and regenerative teachings of Spiritism.
Going back to the present cases of devil-mania it is necessary to remember that the scientists and doctors of the century of Augustus treated diseases according to the methods of Hippocrates, the unfortunate possessed of Palestine, and that their whole science failed before that unknown power.
Well! Still today all of your health inspectors; the most renowned doctors, wise professionals highly skilled in pure materialism, they also fail before that exclusively moral disease; before that exclusively spiritual epidemic.
But, never mind! My friends, you who were touched by the new grace, you must know how much these transient illnesses are curable by those who have faith. Thus, wait. Wait with confidence the return of the one who has already rescued humanity. Time is near. The precursor spirit is already incarnate. The complete development of this doctrine will soon be effective; this doctrine whose insignia is: there is no salvation but through charity!
Erastus, medium Mr. D’Ambel
From the preceding we must conclude that the illness is not physical but from an occult influence. We do not need much to believe this, given the testimony of a large number of identical isolated cases due to the same cause. A proof of that is the fact that the means taught by Spiritism were sufficient to stop the obsession.
Experience demonstrates that the evil Spirits not only act through minds but also upon the body with which they sympathize and use as if it were theirs. They provoke ridiculous actions, screams and confusing movements with the whole appearance of madness or those of the devil-mania.
The explanation to all that is found in The Medium’s Book, in the chapter about the obsession. In a future article we will mention a few facts that demonstrate that unequivocally. In fact it is a kind of madness considering that this name can be given to every abnormal state in which the mind does not act freely.
It is then necessary to distinguish between the pathological madness from obsession. The latter is produced by a disorganization of the organs associate to the manifestation of thoughts. We must notice that in such a state it is not the spirit that is mad since the faculties remain complete as demonstrated by observation. However, since the instrument for the manifestation of one’s mind the expression of the thoughts is then incoherent.
In the obsessive madness there is no organic defect. It is the spirit that is affected by the subjugation of an alien spirit that dominates and commands the other. In the first case it is necessary to try to cure the faulty organ; in the second case it is just a matter of freeing the dominated spirit from the unwelcome guest, recovering the patient’s freedom.
Similar cases are very frequent and are considered madness when in fact they are just obsessions to which moral means should be employed instead of showers. Due to the physical treatment and more importantly due to the contact with true mentally ill person, the obsessed have frequently acquired a real disease where there was none.
By opening new horizons to all sciences, Spiritism comes also to clarify the very obscure issue of mental diseases, indicating a cause that up until now was not taken into account, a real and evident cause, demonstrated by experience and whose truthfulness will later be acknowledged. However, how to convince about such a cause those who are always ready to send to the mad houses anyone who has the weakness of believing that we have a soul? How to convince them that the soul has a role in our vital functions, and that it outlives the body and can act upon the living beings?
Thank God the Spiritist ideas make more progress among medical doctors than one would expect, for the good of humanity, and then indications are that in a not so distant future Medicine will finally depart from a materialistic routine.
Once the isolated cases of physical obsession or subjugation are analyzed we see that, like a plague of grasshoppers, a herd of bad Spirits may descend upon a number of people, controlling them and producing a kind of moral epidemic.
Ignorance, weakness of the faculties, and a lack of intellectual culture nature offer them greater facilities and that is why they preferably act upon certain social classes although smart and enlightened persons may not always be immune.
As Erastus says, it is likely that an epidemic took place during Christ’s time and the Gospels frequently talk about that. However, why His word was sufficient to send the demons away? That demonstrates that the illness could only be cured by a moral influence. Now, who could deny the moral influence of Jesus? Nonetheless, some will say, exorcism that is a moral remedy was employed and no result obtained. If it produced nothing it means that the remedy was inefficient and another one must be evidently found. If you study Spiritism you will understand the reason. Only Spiritism can provide the means of combating the damages of such a nature by pointing to the true cause of the ailment.
But when we advise people to study it we mean a serious study and not browsing around with the hopes of finding a banal recipe to be used by the first one that shows up.
What happen in Savoie and calls people’s attention will possibly accelerate the time when the action of the invisible world will be recognized as being part of the phenomena of nature. Once arriving at that avenue science will hold the key to many mysteries and will witness the downfall of the most formidable barrie at restricts the circle of observation instead of enlarging it.
The two communications that follow about the subject were given by our customary Spirits at the Society:
“It is not doctors but magnetizers, spiritualists or spiritists that should have been sent to dissipate the legion of malevolent Spirits, misplaced in your planet. I say misplaced because they are just passing. However, the unfortunate population that was stained by their contact will suffer morally and physically.
Where is the remedy, you ask? It will leave by replacing the bad Spirits with the healthy contact from the good Spirits who will succeed them, like the dawn succeeds darkness. That poor population, unaware of any intellectual work, would not have gotten to know the intelligent communications and would not even have noticed them. The initiation and the inconveniences caused by that impure mob opens the otherwise shut eyes and the uproar, the acts of madness are only the prelude to the initiation, since everyone must enjoy the Spiritist light.
Do not be sorry for the cruel way that things develop. Everything has a useful objective and the sufferings must yield fecund results like the storms that destroy a crop here and fertilizes another one somewhere else.
Georges, medium Mrs. Costel
“The cases of devil-mania that now take place in the Savoie are also produced in other places, particularly in Germany and most importantly in the East. This abnormal fact is more normal than you think. In fact to a careful observer it reveals a situation analogous to the one that took place during the last years of Paganism. Everybody knows that when Christ, our beloved master, incarnated in the region of Judea taking the personality of Jesus, the carpenter, that region had been invaded by legions of bad Spirits that through possession, like in our days, they took over the most ignorant social classes; controlled the weakest and least advanced incarnate Spirits, in one word the simple people that watched the herds or who were dedicated to farming work.
Do not you see a great analogy in the reproduction of these identical phenomena of possession? Ah! There is a very profound teaching in this! From that you must conclude that the predicted times are even closer and that the Son of the Man will soon expel again the mob of impure Spirits that have taken Earth and revive the Christian faith, giving His high and divine sanction to the reassuring revelations and regenerative teachings of Spiritism.
Going back to the present cases of devil-mania it is necessary to remember that the scientists and doctors of the century of Augustus treated diseases according to the methods of Hippocrates, the unfortunate possessed of Palestine, and that their whole science failed before that unknown power.
Well! Still today all of your health inspectors; the most renowned doctors, wise professionals highly skilled in pure materialism, they also fail before that exclusively moral disease; before that exclusively spiritual epidemic.
But, never mind! My friends, you who were touched by the new grace, you must know how much these transient illnesses are curable by those who have faith. Thus, wait. Wait with confidence the return of the one who has already rescued humanity. Time is near. The precursor spirit is already incarnate. The complete development of this doctrine will soon be effective; this doctrine whose insignia is: there is no salvation but through charity!
Erastus, medium Mr. D’Ambel
From the preceding we must conclude that the illness is not physical but from an occult influence. We do not need much to believe this, given the testimony of a large number of identical isolated cases due to the same cause. A proof of that is the fact that the means taught by Spiritism were sufficient to stop the obsession.
Experience demonstrates that the evil Spirits not only act through minds but also upon the body with which they sympathize and use as if it were theirs. They provoke ridiculous actions, screams and confusing movements with the whole appearance of madness or those of the devil-mania.
The explanation to all that is found in The Medium’s Book, in the chapter about the obsession. In a future article we will mention a few facts that demonstrate that unequivocally. In fact it is a kind of madness considering that this name can be given to every abnormal state in which the mind does not act freely.
It is then necessary to distinguish between the pathological madness from obsession. The latter is produced by a disorganization of the organs associate to the manifestation of thoughts. We must notice that in such a state it is not the spirit that is mad since the faculties remain complete as demonstrated by observation. However, since the instrument for the manifestation of one’s mind the expression of the thoughts is then incoherent.
In the obsessive madness there is no organic defect. It is the spirit that is affected by the subjugation of an alien spirit that dominates and commands the other. In the first case it is necessary to try to cure the faulty organ; in the second case it is just a matter of freeing the dominated spirit from the unwelcome guest, recovering the patient’s freedom.
Similar cases are very frequent and are considered madness when in fact they are just obsessions to which moral means should be employed instead of showers. Due to the physical treatment and more importantly due to the contact with true mentally ill person, the obsessed have frequently acquired a real disease where there was none.
By opening new horizons to all sciences, Spiritism comes also to clarify the very obscure issue of mental diseases, indicating a cause that up until now was not taken into account, a real and evident cause, demonstrated by experience and whose truthfulness will later be acknowledged. However, how to convince about such a cause those who are always ready to send to the mad houses anyone who has the weakness of believing that we have a soul? How to convince them that the soul has a role in our vital functions, and that it outlives the body and can act upon the living beings?
Thank God the Spiritist ideas make more progress among medical doctors than one would expect, for the good of humanity, and then indications are that in a not so distant future Medicine will finally depart from a materialistic routine.
Once the isolated cases of physical obsession or subjugation are analyzed we see that, like a plague of grasshoppers, a herd of bad Spirits may descend upon a number of people, controlling them and producing a kind of moral epidemic.
Ignorance, weakness of the faculties, and a lack of intellectual culture nature offer them greater facilities and that is why they preferably act upon certain social classes although smart and enlightened persons may not always be immune.
As Erastus says, it is likely that an epidemic took place during Christ’s time and the Gospels frequently talk about that. However, why His word was sufficient to send the demons away? That demonstrates that the illness could only be cured by a moral influence. Now, who could deny the moral influence of Jesus? Nonetheless, some will say, exorcism that is a moral remedy was employed and no result obtained. If it produced nothing it means that the remedy was inefficient and another one must be evidently found. If you study Spiritism you will understand the reason. Only Spiritism can provide the means of combating the damages of such a nature by pointing to the true cause of the ailment.
But when we advise people to study it we mean a serious study and not browsing around with the hopes of finding a banal recipe to be used by the first one that shows up.
What happen in Savoie and calls people’s attention will possibly accelerate the time when the action of the invisible world will be recognized as being part of the phenomena of nature. Once arriving at that avenue science will hold the key to many mysteries and will witness the downfall of the most formidable barrie at restricts the circle of observation instead of enlarging it.
Answers to the questions about the fallen angels
Observation: We received answers to the questions proposed in our January issue from all over the place. The extension of the material does not allow a simultaneous publication of all of them. For now we limit ourselves to the subject of the fallen angels.
Bordeaux, medium Mrs. Cazemajoux
My friends, the theory contained in the summary that you have just read is the most logical and rational. A justified reason cannot admit the creation of pure and perfect Spirits rebelling against God and trying to be His equal in power and greatness.
Before achieving perfection, ignorant and weak, the spirit is allowed to follow the path of free will and is frequently dragged by corruption, drowning in an ocean of iniquities. But it is pride that definitely loses the spirit. The spirit denies God and attributes to chance his own creation, the wonders of nature and the universal harmony. Then, ala! That spirit is a fallen angel. Instead of moving forward towards happier worlds the spirit is even exiled from the home planet, going to atone the endless revolt against God in inferior worlds.
Brothers, refrain from following them. Those are the bad angels. Do your best to avoid increasing their number. May the focus of the Spiritist faith clarify you with respect to your current duties and your future interests so that one day you can avoid the fate of the rebellious Spirits and move up in the Spiritist scale that leads to perfection.
Your spiritual guides
The Hague, Holland, medium Baron de Kock
I do not have much to say about this article other than the fact that it contains the sublimity of truth. I have nothing to add or to remove. Happy are the ones who have faith in these beautiful words and accept the doctrine written by Allan Kardec. Kardec is the man chosen by God for the instruction of those in the present times. His are the words inspired by the good Spirits, very superior Spirits. Have faith. Read and study the whole doctrine. It is a good advice that I give you.
Your spiritual guide
Sens, medium Mr. Pichon
Q. What must we think of the doctrine of the fallen angels that Mr. Kardec published in the last issue of The Spiritist Review?
A. That it is perfectly rational and that we ourselves would not have explained it in a better way.
Arago
Paris, private communication – medium Ms. Stephany
It is well explained but one must be honest: there is something that bothers me. Why speak about the dogma of the Immaculate Conception? Have you had any revelation about Jesus’s mother? Leave these discussions to the Catholic Church. I regret that comparison as much as the priests will believe that you are willing to attract them.
A spirit sincere friend of the medium and of the director of The Spiritist Review
Lyon, medium Mrs. Bouillant
We formerly believed that after having inhabited the most radiant of the worlds the angels would have rebelled against God and deserved their expulsion from the Eden, their God given dwelling. We sang about their downfall and weakness and embellished them with every known flower of rhetoric by believing in this fable of the lost paradise. It offered us a theme with special charm. That first man and that first woman expelled from their oasis, condemned to live on Earth and victimized by all the ailments that surround humanity, all that was a great source of inspiration to authors and the subject was particularly useful to our melancholic ideas.
Like the others, we believed the mistake and joined our word to all others that had been said before us. Now that our lives in space allow us to judge things from a true stand point; now that we can understand how absurd it is to conceive that the spirit, after having achieved the highest degree of perfection, could suddenly fall back, revolting against his own creator, fighting against God; now that we can assess how many filtering steps are required to depurate the liqueur to become essence and quintessence, we can tell you what are the fallen angels and the lost paradise.
In His immutable law of progress God wants humanity to advance, advance incessantly, from century to century, at times that God determines. When the majority of the Spirits that inhabit Earth become much superior to those who inhabit their region God then commands a migration of Spirits and those who accomplished their missions with conscience are sent to designated regions but the stubborn or lazy spirit, the one that stains the picture, that one is forced to stay behind. In the process of depuration that spirit is repelled as it is done by the Chemists with the substances that were not purified. The spirit is then in contact with other inferior ones thus feeling the imposed embarrassment.
Intuitively the spirit remembers the happiness that was one day enjoyed among his equals but now the spirit feels like the exotic flower that had suddenly been transplanted to an uncultivated terrain. Such spirit revolts when understanding his superiority and tries to dominate the others around. Such rebellion transforms itself into a fight against the Creator who gave him life, unknown to him. If his thoughts could be seen he would convert the overflowing acrimony of this heart into bitter complaints, like the prisoner in his cell, suffering tremendously until the laziness and selfishness that blocked him from following his equals are atoned. These, my friends, are the fallen angels, and these are the ones who regret for their lost paradise.
You must strive to stay ahead and to avoid being left behind when the trumpet of return is played. Remember what you owe yourself. You must remind yourself of your free will.
The personality of the spirit explains why the son of a scientist is sometimes educationally challenged and why one cannot transform intelligence into inheritance. A great man may well transfer the strength of his character to his decedents but will never be able to transmit his genius. You may rest assured that every genius that came to develop their talents here was out of their own work like a wise man said: “The mothers of Patay, Letronne and the great Arago raised those great men innocently.” No, my friend, the mother who gives birth to an illustrious talent has no influence upon the spirit that animates the son. That spirit was already well advanced when came to reincarnate in this crucible of purification.
Follow then the steps of the staircase, steps that are brilliant and shiny like the suns for they are illuminated by the light of God, and remember that now that you know the path you will be very guilty if you become a fallen angel. As a matter of fact, I believe that nobody would dare feel sorry for you and sing the lost paradise song to you again.
Milton
Frankfurt, medium Mrs. Delton
The only thing I will say about this interpretation of the fallen angels is that it is part of the teachings that you must receive in order to provide you with the true meaning of those things that are misunderstood. You must not think that the author of that article wrote it without assistance, as he wondered himself. He believed to have issued his personal opinion and that is why he was suspicious about it, whereas in fact he only gave form to ideas that he received out of inspiration.
Yes, he is right when he says that the rebel angels are still here on Earth and that they are the materialists and the impious that dare deny God’s power. Isn’t that extreme pride? All of you who believe in God and who say hosannas are outraged by such audacity of a human being and you are right. However, check your own conscience and verify if you yourself are not constantly revolting and thus forgetting the sacred laws of God.
You who believe in the superiority of your merit; you who are proud of the gifts that you have been endowed; you who show jealousy and envy towards the higher position, favors and authority of your neighbor?
Are you charitable, you who criticize your brother; you who cast upon him defamation and slander; who instead of kindly concealing the defects feel pleasure in bringing them up to public knowledge in order to humiliate? I truly tell you that the believers, in particular the Spiritists who behave like that are more to blame than the atheist and the materialist for the former have the light and do not see. Yes, you are also rebellious angels because you do not obey God’s laws. When the big day comes, God will ask you: What have you done with my teachings?
Paul, protector spirit
Bordeaux, medium Mrs. Cazemajoux
My friends, the theory contained in the summary that you have just read is the most logical and rational. A justified reason cannot admit the creation of pure and perfect Spirits rebelling against God and trying to be His equal in power and greatness.
Before achieving perfection, ignorant and weak, the spirit is allowed to follow the path of free will and is frequently dragged by corruption, drowning in an ocean of iniquities. But it is pride that definitely loses the spirit. The spirit denies God and attributes to chance his own creation, the wonders of nature and the universal harmony. Then, ala! That spirit is a fallen angel. Instead of moving forward towards happier worlds the spirit is even exiled from the home planet, going to atone the endless revolt against God in inferior worlds.
Brothers, refrain from following them. Those are the bad angels. Do your best to avoid increasing their number. May the focus of the Spiritist faith clarify you with respect to your current duties and your future interests so that one day you can avoid the fate of the rebellious Spirits and move up in the Spiritist scale that leads to perfection.
Your spiritual guides
The Hague, Holland, medium Baron de Kock
I do not have much to say about this article other than the fact that it contains the sublimity of truth. I have nothing to add or to remove. Happy are the ones who have faith in these beautiful words and accept the doctrine written by Allan Kardec. Kardec is the man chosen by God for the instruction of those in the present times. His are the words inspired by the good Spirits, very superior Spirits. Have faith. Read and study the whole doctrine. It is a good advice that I give you.
Your spiritual guide
Sens, medium Mr. Pichon
Q. What must we think of the doctrine of the fallen angels that Mr. Kardec published in the last issue of The Spiritist Review?
A. That it is perfectly rational and that we ourselves would not have explained it in a better way.
Arago
Paris, private communication – medium Ms. Stephany
It is well explained but one must be honest: there is something that bothers me. Why speak about the dogma of the Immaculate Conception? Have you had any revelation about Jesus’s mother? Leave these discussions to the Catholic Church. I regret that comparison as much as the priests will believe that you are willing to attract them.
A spirit sincere friend of the medium and of the director of The Spiritist Review
Lyon, medium Mrs. Bouillant
We formerly believed that after having inhabited the most radiant of the worlds the angels would have rebelled against God and deserved their expulsion from the Eden, their God given dwelling. We sang about their downfall and weakness and embellished them with every known flower of rhetoric by believing in this fable of the lost paradise. It offered us a theme with special charm. That first man and that first woman expelled from their oasis, condemned to live on Earth and victimized by all the ailments that surround humanity, all that was a great source of inspiration to authors and the subject was particularly useful to our melancholic ideas.
Like the others, we believed the mistake and joined our word to all others that had been said before us. Now that our lives in space allow us to judge things from a true stand point; now that we can understand how absurd it is to conceive that the spirit, after having achieved the highest degree of perfection, could suddenly fall back, revolting against his own creator, fighting against God; now that we can assess how many filtering steps are required to depurate the liqueur to become essence and quintessence, we can tell you what are the fallen angels and the lost paradise.
In His immutable law of progress God wants humanity to advance, advance incessantly, from century to century, at times that God determines. When the majority of the Spirits that inhabit Earth become much superior to those who inhabit their region God then commands a migration of Spirits and those who accomplished their missions with conscience are sent to designated regions but the stubborn or lazy spirit, the one that stains the picture, that one is forced to stay behind. In the process of depuration that spirit is repelled as it is done by the Chemists with the substances that were not purified. The spirit is then in contact with other inferior ones thus feeling the imposed embarrassment.
Intuitively the spirit remembers the happiness that was one day enjoyed among his equals but now the spirit feels like the exotic flower that had suddenly been transplanted to an uncultivated terrain. Such spirit revolts when understanding his superiority and tries to dominate the others around. Such rebellion transforms itself into a fight against the Creator who gave him life, unknown to him. If his thoughts could be seen he would convert the overflowing acrimony of this heart into bitter complaints, like the prisoner in his cell, suffering tremendously until the laziness and selfishness that blocked him from following his equals are atoned. These, my friends, are the fallen angels, and these are the ones who regret for their lost paradise.
You must strive to stay ahead and to avoid being left behind when the trumpet of return is played. Remember what you owe yourself. You must remind yourself of your free will.
The personality of the spirit explains why the son of a scientist is sometimes educationally challenged and why one cannot transform intelligence into inheritance. A great man may well transfer the strength of his character to his decedents but will never be able to transmit his genius. You may rest assured that every genius that came to develop their talents here was out of their own work like a wise man said: “The mothers of Patay, Letronne and the great Arago raised those great men innocently.” No, my friend, the mother who gives birth to an illustrious talent has no influence upon the spirit that animates the son. That spirit was already well advanced when came to reincarnate in this crucible of purification.
Follow then the steps of the staircase, steps that are brilliant and shiny like the suns for they are illuminated by the light of God, and remember that now that you know the path you will be very guilty if you become a fallen angel. As a matter of fact, I believe that nobody would dare feel sorry for you and sing the lost paradise song to you again.
Milton
Frankfurt, medium Mrs. Delton
The only thing I will say about this interpretation of the fallen angels is that it is part of the teachings that you must receive in order to provide you with the true meaning of those things that are misunderstood. You must not think that the author of that article wrote it without assistance, as he wondered himself. He believed to have issued his personal opinion and that is why he was suspicious about it, whereas in fact he only gave form to ideas that he received out of inspiration.
Yes, he is right when he says that the rebel angels are still here on Earth and that they are the materialists and the impious that dare deny God’s power. Isn’t that extreme pride? All of you who believe in God and who say hosannas are outraged by such audacity of a human being and you are right. However, check your own conscience and verify if you yourself are not constantly revolting and thus forgetting the sacred laws of God.
You who believe in the superiority of your merit; you who are proud of the gifts that you have been endowed; you who show jealousy and envy towards the higher position, favors and authority of your neighbor?
Are you charitable, you who criticize your brother; you who cast upon him defamation and slander; who instead of kindly concealing the defects feel pleasure in bringing them up to public knowledge in order to humiliate? I truly tell you that the believers, in particular the Spiritists who behave like that are more to blame than the atheist and the materialist for the former have the light and do not see. Yes, you are also rebellious angels because you do not obey God’s laws. When the big day comes, God will ask you: What have you done with my teachings?
Paul, protector spirit
Family conversations from beyond the grave
Girard de Codemberg - Bordeaux, November 1861Mr. Girard de Codemberg, a former student at the Polytechnic School, is the author of the book entitled: “Le monde spirituel ou Science chrétienne de communiquer intimement avec les puissances célestes et les âmes heureuses”. This book contains eccentric communications with strong indication of obsessions and whose publication is lamented by the serious Spiritists. The author died in 1858 and was evoked at the Parisian Society on January 14th, 1859. The result of the evocation can be found in the April 1859 issue of The Spiritist Review. The evocation below was carried out on November 1861 in Bordeaux. There is a remarkable coincidence between the two evocations.
1. Could you answer a few questions that I would like to ask? – A. It is my duty
2. What is your situation in the spiritual world? – A. Happy, relatively to that on Earth, since I could not see the spiritual world but through my foggy thoughts and now I see the magnificent works of God unfolding before my eyes.
3. There is a passage in your book that I hold here in my hands that says: “The table is asked about the name of my guardian angel who, according to the American belief, is a happy soul that had lived on Earth and consequently had a name in our human society.” You say that such belief is a heresy. What do you think now of that heresy? – A. I said that my thoughts were unclear because I had accepted as truth things that were dictated to me by frivolous and imposter Spirits. However, in the presence of sincere and earnest Spiritists gathered here tonight I confess that the guardian angel or protector spirit is someone that has reached a moral and intellectual progress through the multiple stages of incarnations in several worlds and that the reincarnation, that I used to deny, is the most sublime and the greatest proof of justice of our Father in heavens and who wishes for our happiness instead of our loss.
4. You also mention purgatory in your book. What was the meaning that you wanted to give to that world? – A. I used to think, and rightly so, that people could not reach happiness without purifying from the stains carried over from the material life. However, instead of an abyss of flames, like I used to see it, or even better, like fear made me see it through a blind faith, purgatory is nothing more than the inferior worlds whose ranks count on our Earth and where all miseries that still slave humanity present themselves in all shapes and forms. Isn’t that the explanation to the Latin word “purgare”?
5. You also say that with respect to fasting, you guardian angel said: “Fasting is the complement of a Christian life and you must comply with that.” What is your opinion about it now? – A. Complement of a Christian life! How about the Jews and Muslims who also fast? Fasting is not appropriate to a Christian life only. Nonetheless it is sometimes useful since it can mitigate the influence of the body and the demands of the flesh. Believe me, a simple and frugal life is better than every fasting done with the intent of showing off to others but that in fact do not change one’s bad tendencies and inclinations. I see what you want from me. A complete disclaimer of my writings. I owe that to you because some of my contemporaries, who are fanatics, have a blind faith in my writings as if it were the rightful expression of truth. I am not punished for that since I acted in good faith and I was under the fearful influence of the lessons I learned in my youth that constrained my freedom of thoughts and action. Trust me, though, that very few will abandon the path delineated by Mr. Kardec to follow me. These are people that one cannot count on and who will be marked by the angel of freedom to be dragged by the maelstrom of renovation that must transform society. Yes, my friends, be Spiritists. It is Girard de Codemberg that invites you to take your place in this great fraternal banquet of brothers and reincarnation brings us together by tightening the links of fraternity in God.
2. What is your situation in the spiritual world? – A. Happy, relatively to that on Earth, since I could not see the spiritual world but through my foggy thoughts and now I see the magnificent works of God unfolding before my eyes.
3. There is a passage in your book that I hold here in my hands that says: “The table is asked about the name of my guardian angel who, according to the American belief, is a happy soul that had lived on Earth and consequently had a name in our human society.” You say that such belief is a heresy. What do you think now of that heresy? – A. I said that my thoughts were unclear because I had accepted as truth things that were dictated to me by frivolous and imposter Spirits. However, in the presence of sincere and earnest Spiritists gathered here tonight I confess that the guardian angel or protector spirit is someone that has reached a moral and intellectual progress through the multiple stages of incarnations in several worlds and that the reincarnation, that I used to deny, is the most sublime and the greatest proof of justice of our Father in heavens and who wishes for our happiness instead of our loss.
4. You also mention purgatory in your book. What was the meaning that you wanted to give to that world? – A. I used to think, and rightly so, that people could not reach happiness without purifying from the stains carried over from the material life. However, instead of an abyss of flames, like I used to see it, or even better, like fear made me see it through a blind faith, purgatory is nothing more than the inferior worlds whose ranks count on our Earth and where all miseries that still slave humanity present themselves in all shapes and forms. Isn’t that the explanation to the Latin word “purgare”?
5. You also say that with respect to fasting, you guardian angel said: “Fasting is the complement of a Christian life and you must comply with that.” What is your opinion about it now? – A. Complement of a Christian life! How about the Jews and Muslims who also fast? Fasting is not appropriate to a Christian life only. Nonetheless it is sometimes useful since it can mitigate the influence of the body and the demands of the flesh. Believe me, a simple and frugal life is better than every fasting done with the intent of showing off to others but that in fact do not change one’s bad tendencies and inclinations. I see what you want from me. A complete disclaimer of my writings. I owe that to you because some of my contemporaries, who are fanatics, have a blind faith in my writings as if it were the rightful expression of truth. I am not punished for that since I acted in good faith and I was under the fearful influence of the lessons I learned in my youth that constrained my freedom of thoughts and action. Trust me, though, that very few will abandon the path delineated by Mr. Kardec to follow me. These are people that one cannot count on and who will be marked by the angel of freedom to be dragged by the maelstrom of renovation that must transform society. Yes, my friends, be Spiritists. It is Girard de Codemberg that invites you to take your place in this great fraternal banquet of brothers and reincarnation brings us together by tightening the links of fraternity in God.
OBSERVATION: Such a thought that within the great movement there must operate the renovation of humanity, those who try to hinder it and who do not take advantage of the God given warnings will be expelled to inferior worlds, such a thought is now reproduced in communications from the Spirits all over the place. The same happens to this one: The time for such transformation is now and its symptoms may be felt already. The idea that Spiritism must be the basis of that transformation is universal. Such a coincidence has something of remarkable.
A.K.
6. You say that you had evoked the Virgin Mary who gave you advices. Was that manifestation real? – A. How many among you mistakenly believe to be inspired by her? Be your own and my judge.
7. You addressed the Virgin with the following question: “Is there, at least in the fate of the punished souls, the hope sustained by several theologians of the gradation of the punishments?” You say that her answer was: “The eternal punishments have no gradation. They are all the same and the flames are the executioners.” What is your opinion about it? – A. The punishments inflicted upon the bad Spirits are real but not eternal. You have the daily testimony of that given by your parents and friends who attend your calls and give you teachings of all sorts that just confirm the truth.
8. Someone attending our session asks if the fire burns physically or morally. – A. It is a moral fire.
7. You addressed the Virgin with the following question: “Is there, at least in the fate of the punished souls, the hope sustained by several theologians of the gradation of the punishments?” You say that her answer was: “The eternal punishments have no gradation. They are all the same and the flames are the executioners.” What is your opinion about it? – A. The punishments inflicted upon the bad Spirits are real but not eternal. You have the daily testimony of that given by your parents and friends who attend your calls and give you teachings of all sorts that just confirm the truth.
8. Someone attending our session asks if the fire burns physically or morally. – A. It is a moral fire.
The spirit then continues spontaneously: Dear friends in Spiritism, God have chosen you for the sacred propagation. More fortunate than I was, a spirit on a mission on Earth has delineated a path that you must walk steadily and with determination. Be kind and fear nothing for this is the path of progress and morality of the human race. As for myself who had only sketched the actual work that you master has designed, given my lack of courage to move away from the solid terrain, I have the task of guiding you in your condition of spirit in the good and safe path that you chose. I will then be able to repair the bad I did for ignorance and help with my weak possibilities the great transformation of society. Do not worry about the brothers who move away from your beliefs. On the contrary, act in such a way that those will no longer contaminate the herd of the true believers for they are the rancid ssheep and you must avoid infection. Good bye. I will return with this medium. So long.
Girard de Codemberg
NOTE: We consulted about the identity of the spirit and our guides responded: “Yes, my friends, he suffers for the bad influence caused by the doctrine that he published. He had, however, atoned the mistake already on d and the disease that killed him resulted from that obsession.”
Girard de Codemberg
NOTE: We consulted about the identity of the spirit and our guides responded: “Yes, my friends, he suffers for the bad influence caused by the doctrine that he published. He had, however, atoned the mistake already on d and the disease that killed him resulted from that obsession.”
De La Bruyère Bordeaux Society - Medium, Mrs. Cazemajoux, November 1861
1. Evocation – A. I am here.
2. Does our evocation please you? – A. Yes since very few of you think of this poor playful spirit
3. What is your situation in the spiritual world? – A. I am happy.
4. What do you think about the current generation of people that live on Earth? – A. I think that they have not advanced much in morality and if I lived among you I would be able to utilize my characters with the same shocking truth that I used to do when alive. I find my excesses, my selfish and my arrogant people in the same condition as when I died.
5. Your characters enjoy a much-deserved reputation. What is your current opinion about your work? – A. I do not think they have the merit that you attribute to them otherwise they would have led to a different result. But I understand that when people read it they do not compare themselves to those portrayals given the fact that they carry a shocking truth. You all have a certain dose of self-love sufficient enough to defer to others your own personal defects and you never recognize yourself when you are portrayed with your true traces.
6. You have just said that the characters could have been applied today with the same veracity. You do not see a progress in humanity? – A. In general, intelligence has advanced but moral betterment has not moved a foot forward. If Moliere and I could still write we would still do the same thing that we did: useless works that warned but did not correct you. Spiritism will have a better luck. You will gradually comply with its doctrine and will reformulate the vices that we pointed out when alive.
7. Do you believe that humanity will still rebel against the warnings given by the incarnate Spirits on a mission on Earth and by the Spirits that come to help them? – A. No. Time has come for the progress and renovation of planet Earth and its inhabitants. That is why the good Spirits come to help you. I have said enough tonight. In a few days I will prepare one of my characters.
8. Could your characters also be applied to certain errant Spirits driven by identical feelings?
– A. To everyone that in the condition of spirit still bear the same passions that dominated them when alive. Forgive me for my honesty but whenever you call me I will respond without going around the bushes. Good-bye.
Jean de La Bruyère
2. Does our evocation please you? – A. Yes since very few of you think of this poor playful spirit
3. What is your situation in the spiritual world? – A. I am happy.
4. What do you think about the current generation of people that live on Earth? – A. I think that they have not advanced much in morality and if I lived among you I would be able to utilize my characters with the same shocking truth that I used to do when alive. I find my excesses, my selfish and my arrogant people in the same condition as when I died.
5. Your characters enjoy a much-deserved reputation. What is your current opinion about your work? – A. I do not think they have the merit that you attribute to them otherwise they would have led to a different result. But I understand that when people read it they do not compare themselves to those portrayals given the fact that they carry a shocking truth. You all have a certain dose of self-love sufficient enough to defer to others your own personal defects and you never recognize yourself when you are portrayed with your true traces.
6. You have just said that the characters could have been applied today with the same veracity. You do not see a progress in humanity? – A. In general, intelligence has advanced but moral betterment has not moved a foot forward. If Moliere and I could still write we would still do the same thing that we did: useless works that warned but did not correct you. Spiritism will have a better luck. You will gradually comply with its doctrine and will reformulate the vices that we pointed out when alive.
7. Do you believe that humanity will still rebel against the warnings given by the incarnate Spirits on a mission on Earth and by the Spirits that come to help them? – A. No. Time has come for the progress and renovation of planet Earth and its inhabitants. That is why the good Spirits come to help you. I have said enough tonight. In a few days I will prepare one of my characters.
8. Could your characters also be applied to certain errant Spirits driven by identical feelings?
– A. To everyone that in the condition of spirit still bear the same passions that dominated them when alive. Forgive me for my honesty but whenever you call me I will respond without going around the bushes. Good-bye.
Jean de La Bruyère
Spiritist poetry
Spiritist Society of Bordeaux – medium Mrs. CazemajouxBelieve in the Spirits of the Lord
Believe in us; we are the spark,
the shiny beam from a godly heart,
projecting a new era upon the souls,
who claim heavens from down below.
Believe in us; kindly flame,
errant spirit through friendly graves,
passed barriers, defeated hurdles,
placed before us by the Eternal.
Believe in us. Darkness and lies
fade away when from the skies
we see your dreams embrace
the sweet nectar of peace.
Believe in us. Here from space
we guide you.
It is an instance
of our love for you… Every new hour,
Oh! Exiled, brings us closer and closer.
Elisa Mercoeur
Voices of heaven
Voices of heaven whisper in the breeze,
moan in the air, murmur in the waves,
sighs echoing from the forests
and from the grey mountains.
Voices of heaven murmur under the leaves,
in the prairies, in the woods and fields.
The poet of timid rhymes
cries by the spring, shy.
Voices of heaven sing on trees,
in the golden wheat, in the flowery garden,
in the smiley and misty blue,
in the spectral colors of the rainbow.
Voices of heaven cry in silence.
Silence! They speak to the heart.
And the Spirits, the new kingdom initiators
lead you to your Creator.
Elisa Mercoeur
Spiritist Dissertations
The Martyrs of SpiritismRegarding the questions about the miracles of Spiritism that had been proposed to us and that we discussed in our last issue there is also the following question:
“The martyrs have sealed the truth of Christianity with their blood. Where are the martyrs of Spiritism?”
You are very kin on having the Spiritists burning at the stake or thrown to feed the beasts! This leads to the assumption that you would be willing to do so in case it was possible. You want to sneak Spiritism in on the same level as a religion! Notice, however, that has never been the intent; that it has never pretended to rival Christianity, on the contrary naming itself the child of Christianity; that it combats its cruelest enemies: atheism and materialism.
We attest once more that Spiritism is a philosophy that rests on the fundamental basis of every religion and on the moral of Christ. If Spiritism renegaded Christianity it would be betraying itself, it would be suicidal. It is the enemies of Spiritism that present it as a new sect, giving it priests and a high clergy. They shall scream so many times that Spiritism is a religion that we will end up believing that it is.
Do martyrs require a religion to exist? Haven’t sciences, arts and other disciplines had their own martyrs side by side with their discoveries? When the Spiritists are pointed at as condemned people, people to be avoided, the scum of society, when ignorance is incited against us to the point of subtracting people means of subsistence in the absence of better arguments, aren’t they helping to create martyrs?
Nice victory had them triumphed! However, the seed has been sown and blossoms are everywhere. If uprooted in one place it flourishes in a hundred others. You must then try to harvest the whole planet but allow the Spirits to speak, those on a mission to answer the questions.
I
You have asked for miracles. Today you demand martyrs. You already have the martyrs of Spiritism. Get inside the homes and you will see them. You ask for persecuted. Open the heart of those eager followers of the new idea who fight against the prejudices of the world and even and frequently that of the family! Ah, their broken hearts expand and embrace a father, a mother, a brother or a wife only to find the reciprocity of sarcasm, disdain and neglect. The martyrs of Spiritism are those who hear these insulting words every step of the way: mad, senseless, lunatic! And for a long time they shall have to withstand such attacks of incredulity and other even more bitter sufferings.
Nonetheless, their reward will be beautiful as Christ has prepared a delightful place for the martyrs of Christianity and the one prepared to the martyrs of Spiritism is even more wonderful. The martyrs of the infancy of Christianity marched resigned and courageously to the martyrdom expecting to suffer for only a few days or hours, aspiring for death as the only barrier that separated them from a celestial life.
The martyrs of Spiritism must not even seek death. They must suffer for as much time as it pleases God to have them on Earth and dare not judge themselves worthy of the pure celestial pleasures as soon as they leave life. They pray and wait whispering words of peace, love and forgiveness to those who did them harm, waiting for new incarnations in which they will be able to atone previous faults.
Spiritism will be erected as a superb temple. The first steps will be difficult to climb. Nevertheless, once the first steps are covered the good Spirits will help to overcome the others up until the simple and righteous place that leads to God. Go, go children and preach Spiritism!
Martyrs are requested. You are the first ones marked by God for you have been duly appointed and you are treated as mad and senseless because of the truth! I tell you, however, that the time of light is near when there will no longer be persecuted and persecutors. You shall all be brothers and sisters and the same feast will unite oppressed and oppressors!
Saint Augustine, medium Mr. E. Vézy
II
The progress of times has replaced physical torture by the martyrdom of conception and the birth of new ideas, daughters of the past and mothers of the future. When Christ came to destroy the barbarian costume of sacrifices; when he came to proclaim equality and fraternity between the simple clothes of the worker and the noble outfit the altars were still smoking the blood of the immolated victims; the slaves trembled before the caprices of their master and the peoples ignored God’s justice, forgetting his greatness.
In such a low moral state Jesus’ words would have been impotent and neglected by the crowds if they had not been screamed out of his injuries and become sensitive by the ulcers of the martyrs. In order to be accomplished the mysterious law of similarities required that the blood gushed out of the ideas was rescued by the bloodshed of brutality. Today peaceful people ignore physical torture. It is only their intellectual being that suffers in the struggle between the traditions of the past and the aspiration to new horizons.
Who could describe the anguishes of the present generation, its pungent doubts, uncertainties, impotence and its extreme lassitude? Uneasy presentiments of superior worlds, pains ignored by the material antiquity that only suffered when unable to enjoy; pains that are the modern torture and which will transform in martyrs those inspired by the Spiritist revelation who will believe but will not be believed; they shall speak and be censored; they will march and be repelled.
Have no fear. Your enemies themselves prepare you an award that shall be the more beautiful the more they have sowed in your way.
Lazarus, medium Mrs. Costel
III
As you correctly say, the beliefs have always had martyrs, at all times. However, one must say that fanaticism was frequently on both sides and almost always there was bloodshed. Today, thanks to the moderators of passions, to the philosophers or even with this philosophy that began with the writers of the eighteenth century, fanaticism put its fire out and laid down its weapon down. In our days one can hardly imagine the spade of Mohamed; the gallows of the Middle Ages; the burning at the stake and tortures of all kinds, in the same one that magicians and witches are no longer invoked.
Other times other costumes says a wise proverb. The word costume here is very elastic, as you see, and according to its Latin etiology it means habits, way of life. Well, it is not our costume to cover ourselves in cilice in our century, as it is not our habit to pray hidden in the tombs and dissimulate our prayers to the powerful and to the magistrates of Paris.
Hence Spiritism will not see the axe swinging and the fire devouring its followers. The blow of ideas, books, commentaries, eclecticism and theology now abates people but St. Bartholomew shall not happen again.
Certainly there could be victims in the underdeveloped world but the civilized nations will only see the struggle of ideas and ridicule.
Therefore, no more axes, bundled wood and the boiling oil but to be aware of the badly understood spirit of Voltaire. That is the executioner. It is necessary to prevent it but not defy it. It laughs instead of threatening; it casts ridicule instead of blasphemy and its sufferings are the tortures of the spirit that succumbs when braced by modern sarcasm.
Nonetheless, not displeasing the little Voltaire of our days, the youth will easily understand these three magic words: freedom, equality and fraternity.
As for the sectaries these are more terrible because they are always the same, regardless of time and anything else. They can sometimes do harm but they are lame, masked, old and grumpy. Now you who met the source of youth and whose soul flourish and renew, have no fear for they shall lose to their own fanaticism.
Lamennais, medium Mr. A. Didier
“The martyrs have sealed the truth of Christianity with their blood. Where are the martyrs of Spiritism?”
You are very kin on having the Spiritists burning at the stake or thrown to feed the beasts! This leads to the assumption that you would be willing to do so in case it was possible. You want to sneak Spiritism in on the same level as a religion! Notice, however, that has never been the intent; that it has never pretended to rival Christianity, on the contrary naming itself the child of Christianity; that it combats its cruelest enemies: atheism and materialism.
We attest once more that Spiritism is a philosophy that rests on the fundamental basis of every religion and on the moral of Christ. If Spiritism renegaded Christianity it would be betraying itself, it would be suicidal. It is the enemies of Spiritism that present it as a new sect, giving it priests and a high clergy. They shall scream so many times that Spiritism is a religion that we will end up believing that it is.
Do martyrs require a religion to exist? Haven’t sciences, arts and other disciplines had their own martyrs side by side with their discoveries? When the Spiritists are pointed at as condemned people, people to be avoided, the scum of society, when ignorance is incited against us to the point of subtracting people means of subsistence in the absence of better arguments, aren’t they helping to create martyrs?
Nice victory had them triumphed! However, the seed has been sown and blossoms are everywhere. If uprooted in one place it flourishes in a hundred others. You must then try to harvest the whole planet but allow the Spirits to speak, those on a mission to answer the questions.
I
You have asked for miracles. Today you demand martyrs. You already have the martyrs of Spiritism. Get inside the homes and you will see them. You ask for persecuted. Open the heart of those eager followers of the new idea who fight against the prejudices of the world and even and frequently that of the family! Ah, their broken hearts expand and embrace a father, a mother, a brother or a wife only to find the reciprocity of sarcasm, disdain and neglect. The martyrs of Spiritism are those who hear these insulting words every step of the way: mad, senseless, lunatic! And for a long time they shall have to withstand such attacks of incredulity and other even more bitter sufferings.
Nonetheless, their reward will be beautiful as Christ has prepared a delightful place for the martyrs of Christianity and the one prepared to the martyrs of Spiritism is even more wonderful. The martyrs of the infancy of Christianity marched resigned and courageously to the martyrdom expecting to suffer for only a few days or hours, aspiring for death as the only barrier that separated them from a celestial life.
The martyrs of Spiritism must not even seek death. They must suffer for as much time as it pleases God to have them on Earth and dare not judge themselves worthy of the pure celestial pleasures as soon as they leave life. They pray and wait whispering words of peace, love and forgiveness to those who did them harm, waiting for new incarnations in which they will be able to atone previous faults.
Spiritism will be erected as a superb temple. The first steps will be difficult to climb. Nevertheless, once the first steps are covered the good Spirits will help to overcome the others up until the simple and righteous place that leads to God. Go, go children and preach Spiritism!
Martyrs are requested. You are the first ones marked by God for you have been duly appointed and you are treated as mad and senseless because of the truth! I tell you, however, that the time of light is near when there will no longer be persecuted and persecutors. You shall all be brothers and sisters and the same feast will unite oppressed and oppressors!
Saint Augustine, medium Mr. E. Vézy
II
The progress of times has replaced physical torture by the martyrdom of conception and the birth of new ideas, daughters of the past and mothers of the future. When Christ came to destroy the barbarian costume of sacrifices; when he came to proclaim equality and fraternity between the simple clothes of the worker and the noble outfit the altars were still smoking the blood of the immolated victims; the slaves trembled before the caprices of their master and the peoples ignored God’s justice, forgetting his greatness.
In such a low moral state Jesus’ words would have been impotent and neglected by the crowds if they had not been screamed out of his injuries and become sensitive by the ulcers of the martyrs. In order to be accomplished the mysterious law of similarities required that the blood gushed out of the ideas was rescued by the bloodshed of brutality. Today peaceful people ignore physical torture. It is only their intellectual being that suffers in the struggle between the traditions of the past and the aspiration to new horizons.
Who could describe the anguishes of the present generation, its pungent doubts, uncertainties, impotence and its extreme lassitude? Uneasy presentiments of superior worlds, pains ignored by the material antiquity that only suffered when unable to enjoy; pains that are the modern torture and which will transform in martyrs those inspired by the Spiritist revelation who will believe but will not be believed; they shall speak and be censored; they will march and be repelled.
Have no fear. Your enemies themselves prepare you an award that shall be the more beautiful the more they have sowed in your way.
Lazarus, medium Mrs. Costel
III
As you correctly say, the beliefs have always had martyrs, at all times. However, one must say that fanaticism was frequently on both sides and almost always there was bloodshed. Today, thanks to the moderators of passions, to the philosophers or even with this philosophy that began with the writers of the eighteenth century, fanaticism put its fire out and laid down its weapon down. In our days one can hardly imagine the spade of Mohamed; the gallows of the Middle Ages; the burning at the stake and tortures of all kinds, in the same one that magicians and witches are no longer invoked.
Other times other costumes says a wise proverb. The word costume here is very elastic, as you see, and according to its Latin etiology it means habits, way of life. Well, it is not our costume to cover ourselves in cilice in our century, as it is not our habit to pray hidden in the tombs and dissimulate our prayers to the powerful and to the magistrates of Paris.
Hence Spiritism will not see the axe swinging and the fire devouring its followers. The blow of ideas, books, commentaries, eclecticism and theology now abates people but St. Bartholomew shall not happen again.
Certainly there could be victims in the underdeveloped world but the civilized nations will only see the struggle of ideas and ridicule.
Therefore, no more axes, bundled wood and the boiling oil but to be aware of the badly understood spirit of Voltaire. That is the executioner. It is necessary to prevent it but not defy it. It laughs instead of threatening; it casts ridicule instead of blasphemy and its sufferings are the tortures of the spirit that succumbs when braced by modern sarcasm.
Nonetheless, not displeasing the little Voltaire of our days, the youth will easily understand these three magic words: freedom, equality and fraternity.
As for the sectaries these are more terrible because they are always the same, regardless of time and anything else. They can sometimes do harm but they are lame, masked, old and grumpy. Now you who met the source of youth and whose soul flourish and renew, have no fear for they shall lose to their own fanaticism.
Lamennais, medium Mr. A. Didier
Attacks to the new idea
As you see people are now discussing the Spiritist ideas even in courses of theology and the Catholic Review has asserted that current Spiritism is the works of the devil, as one can see in the article entitled “Satanism in Modern Spiritism” in the magazine mentioned above. Ala! Let them speak! Let them act! Spiritism is like steel and all serpents will try to bite it with their fangs.
Nevertheless there is something worth mentioning: it is the fact that in the past they refused to get involved with those who moved tables and chairs whereas in our days they are really involved with those innovators whose ideas and theories are raised to the level of a doctrine. Ah! The fact is that such a doctrine; such a revelation opens cracks in all previous doctrines, in every old philosophy insufficient to satisfy the needs of human reason. Hence, priests, scientists and journalists come down to the arena holding their pens to reject the new idea: progress. Never mind! Isn’t that an undeniable proof of the propagation of our teachings? Well, one cannot discuss and combat but those ideas that are really serious and sufficiently well engrained not to be treated as utopias, like chimeras coming out of sick minds. As a matter of fact, better than anybody else you can see the speed with which Spiritism recruits followers every day and that even in the enlightened military ranks among officers of all arms. Do not be afraid of all these unfortunate people who roar for nothing since they ignore their actual condition. They are embarrassed. Their certainties and probabilities fade away under the lights of Spiritism because from the bottom of their hearts they feel that we are the ones with the truth. I say we because today Spirits and incarnate Spirits we have only one objective: the destruction of the materialistic ideas and the regeneration of the faith in God, to whom we owe everything.
Erastus, medium Mr. d’Ambel
Nevertheless there is something worth mentioning: it is the fact that in the past they refused to get involved with those who moved tables and chairs whereas in our days they are really involved with those innovators whose ideas and theories are raised to the level of a doctrine. Ah! The fact is that such a doctrine; such a revelation opens cracks in all previous doctrines, in every old philosophy insufficient to satisfy the needs of human reason. Hence, priests, scientists and journalists come down to the arena holding their pens to reject the new idea: progress. Never mind! Isn’t that an undeniable proof of the propagation of our teachings? Well, one cannot discuss and combat but those ideas that are really serious and sufficiently well engrained not to be treated as utopias, like chimeras coming out of sick minds. As a matter of fact, better than anybody else you can see the speed with which Spiritism recruits followers every day and that even in the enlightened military ranks among officers of all arms. Do not be afraid of all these unfortunate people who roar for nothing since they ignore their actual condition. They are embarrassed. Their certainties and probabilities fade away under the lights of Spiritism because from the bottom of their hearts they feel that we are the ones with the truth. I say we because today Spirits and incarnate Spirits we have only one objective: the destruction of the materialistic ideas and the regeneration of the faith in God, to whom we owe everything.
Erastus, medium Mr. d’Ambel
Persecution
Well done! Bravo my children! Seeing you gathered, eagerly and persistently fighting satisfies me. Courage! Work hard in the field of our Lord for I tell you that time will come when one will have to preach the sacred doctrine of Spiritism beyond closed walls. The flesh has been beaten. It is time to work on the spirit. Truly I tell you that when that happens you will be ready to sing grace in unison and it will be the eve of the day when we will hear the same voice around the world. But I tell you this: before the age of gold and the kingdom of the spirit great suffering will come in tears and teeth grinding.
Persecution has begun. Spiritists! Be firm and stand up. You are marked by the unction of the Lord. You shall be called senseless, mad and visionary. The oil will not boil, the gallows will not be erected and the stake will burn no more but the fire that will be used to lead you to renounce your beliefs will be even more intense and vivid.
Hence, Spiritists, get rid of the old self for it is the old self that they will make suffer. May your new tunics be white! Adorn your own heads with the crowns and be prepared to the struggle. You shall be cursed. Let your brothers show contempt; in turn pray for them and keep away the punishment that Jesus promised to whoever showed contempt towards their brothers and sisters!
Be prepared for the persecutions through the study, prayer and charity. The servants will be expelled from the houses of their masters and treated like mad people but at the door they shall find the Samaritan and although naked and poor they will share their garments and the last piece of bread. Before such a spectacle the masters will ask: “But who are these people who we expelled from our house? They only have a piece of bread for tonight and they still give it away! They only have one house and still share it with a stranger!”
Their doors will then open again for you are the servants of the Lord. But this time they will welcome you and will embrace you. They will ask you to bless them and to teach them to love. They will no longer call you slaves or servants but will say: “Brother, come and seat at the table with me. There is only one and the same family on Earth and there is only one and the same God in heavens.”
Go, go my brothers! Preach and above all be united. Heaves is ready for you.
St. Augustine, medium Mr. Vésy
Persecution has begun. Spiritists! Be firm and stand up. You are marked by the unction of the Lord. You shall be called senseless, mad and visionary. The oil will not boil, the gallows will not be erected and the stake will burn no more but the fire that will be used to lead you to renounce your beliefs will be even more intense and vivid.
Hence, Spiritists, get rid of the old self for it is the old self that they will make suffer. May your new tunics be white! Adorn your own heads with the crowns and be prepared to the struggle. You shall be cursed. Let your brothers show contempt; in turn pray for them and keep away the punishment that Jesus promised to whoever showed contempt towards their brothers and sisters!
Be prepared for the persecutions through the study, prayer and charity. The servants will be expelled from the houses of their masters and treated like mad people but at the door they shall find the Samaritan and although naked and poor they will share their garments and the last piece of bread. Before such a spectacle the masters will ask: “But who are these people who we expelled from our house? They only have a piece of bread for tonight and they still give it away! They only have one house and still share it with a stranger!”
Their doors will then open again for you are the servants of the Lord. But this time they will welcome you and will embrace you. They will ask you to bless them and to teach them to love. They will no longer call you slaves or servants but will say: “Brother, come and seat at the table with me. There is only one and the same family on Earth and there is only one and the same God in heavens.”
Go, go my brothers! Preach and above all be united. Heaves is ready for you.
St. Augustine, medium Mr. Vésy
Bibliography
Spiritism, in its simplest expression, which has already sold about ten thousand volumes, has a new print right now with several important corrections. We know it has been already translated into German, Russian and Polish. We invite the translators to adapt to the text of the new edition. We have received the German translation from Vienna, Austria, where there is a Society organizing under the auspices of the Parisian Society
-o-
The second volume of “Revelations from beyond the grave” by Mrs. H. Dozon is printing.
-o-
We call the attention of our readers again to the interesting brochure by Ms. Clemence Guerin, entitled: Biographic essay by Andrew Jackson Davis, one of the main spiritualist writers of the United States of America. Ledoyen Edition, price 1 franc.
Allan Kardec
-o-
The second volume of “Revelations from beyond the grave” by Mrs. H. Dozon is printing.
-o-
We call the attention of our readers again to the interesting brochure by Ms. Clemence Guerin, entitled: Biographic essay by Andrew Jackson Davis, one of the main spiritualist writers of the United States of America. Ledoyen Edition, price 1 franc.
Allan Kardec