The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863

Without referring here to the several phenomena that come out of experimental Spiritism and demonstrate with the latest evidence the independence between Spirit and matter, we will draw your attention to a common fact whose consequences, as far as we know, have not been completely exhausted and that, nevertheless, has characteristics that impress every serious observer.

We want to discuss what happens during natural and artificial somnambulism and the strange outcomes that occur with the cataleptic such as double sight. This will illustrate, even to nonbelievers whose cause to discredit Spiritism, although worthwhile, is not justified.

A distinct doctor of Tarn sent us the letter below, demonstrating the train of thought of a person going from incredulity to belief just supported by reason and observation carried out in good faith.

“Dear Sir,v

Confused in the crowd of doubters and unbelievers, the reading of The Spirits Book produced a lively sensation in my soul. The sooth satisfaction that remained after the reading gave rise to the very natural desire to believe, without restrictions, in all teachings of the Spirits given in the book. I wanted to attest the reality of the communications myself to achieve such objective. Hence, I struggled to become a medium but it did not work out and I had to stop the researches. Tired of living my own uncertainties I decided to refer to other people’s observations. However, since I have a personal trait that makes it hard to persuade I had the need to get to know those phenomena to be able to evaluate their authenticity.



After having gone through the four initial years of the Spiritist Review and particularly after having noticed the precaution used to report the events there and that the manifestations of the Spirits and their communications are always attested by respectable, selfless and truthworthy persons, it is no longer possible to have any doubt about their authenticity. Once admitted the communications, however, I wanted to have an idea of the degree of confidence that one should attribute to the revelations, particularly those that constitute the foundation of the Spiritist doctrine. In those observations, I could not be stopped by the flames of hell unless I denied the infinite benevolence of God. The difference in religions did not create an obstacle to my logic either since according to common sense by doing good one cannot harvest bad. The essential point of reincarnation, however, was still missing. In that case somnambulism was a great help to me and, if it does not entirely solve the problem in my opinion, it makes it so likely that one does need a great dose of ill-faith in order to deny it.



To begin with, if the existence of the soul had not been sufficiently demonstrated by the manifestations and communications of the Spirits, it would be clearly proved by the remote sight and sight through opaque bodies that cannot be explained otherwise. Furthermore, leaving aside the faculties of the soul when separated from matter such as remote sight, transmission of thoughts, etc. somnambulism leads the sensitive to discoveries that are much more extensive than when in the state of vigil. The consequence of that is preexistence of the soul to the body because if it were created at the same time it could not acquire knowledge beyond the knowledge of the body. But, after attesting that the soul is older than the body there is no rejection of the idea of reincarnation because, if the current life is not the beginning, there is nothing to prove that it is the last one; on the contrary, they become very natural and even indispensable. There is more: the somnambulist, in the state of vigil, has no memory of what was said or done during the sleep but during the sleep recovers the memory of not only what was done during the preceding sleeps but also during vigil. Isn’t that the accurate picture of the existence of the soul in their numerous states in Iranicity and incarnate with their memories and forgetfulness?

I am a son of the people, with an extremely mediocre education, self-taught that has only been granted in the latest 1/3 of my life of forty two years. Hence it seems that a much more experienced pen would explain the truths that I discovered more clearly. However imperfect the approximations they sufficed to determine my conviction and I would be happy if you consider them worthy of having he same influence upon others.

Although my conviction is very recent it has started to produce effects and irrespective of the fortunate changes in my behavior it is a source of kind consolations to me. These happy changes are sole result of your books. Thus, Sir, I ask you to receive the eternal recognition of the one that in the future would like to count among your keenest followers.

G.”

Remote vision, the impressions felt by the somnambulist, and, according to the place that is visited, prove that part of the being is transported. Well, if it was not the physical, visible body that changed places, it can only be the invisible and sensitive body. Isn’t that the most positive proof of double physical and spiritual existence?

But leaving aside that singular faculty that is not wide spread it is enough to observe what happens to the most common somnambulists. The duality occurs in a not less positive way, as observed by our correspondent in the phenomenon of forgetting at the wake up. No one that has observed magnetic phenomena has not notice the instantaneous nature of such obliviousness. A somnambulist speaks and the conversation is perfectly logical and sequential. If suddenly awaken in the middle of a word or an unfinished sentence and that person is asked about the conversation the answer is that there is no memory of the word or that nothing was said.

If thought was the result of the cerebral material, why such an oblivious if matter is always there and it remains unchanged? Why an instant is enough to change the train of thoughts? But what is even more characteristic is the absolute memory in a new event of what was said in the preceding sleep, sometimes with the interruption of a year. Only this would prove that there is the life of the soul side by side with the body and that the soul may act and think independently. If the soul can manifest such independency during the life of the body more or less suffering the effects of the obstacles even with more reason what can the soul do when enjoying total freedom! The consequences that our correspondent draws from these phenomena to demonstrate the preexistence of the soul and the plurality of the existences are perfectly logical. The somnambulistic phenomena, like many others, seems to be brought about by the Providence to direct us to the route of the mysteries of mind. Science, however, does not consider them worthwhile.

With the purpose of looking at them, it will not veer its eyes from a polyp, a mushroom or a nervous ramification. It is true that the soul cannot be seen at the tip of a scalpel but since the causes are assessed based on the effects the effects of the soul are before your eyes and you don’t see them. You would drive a hundred miles to see an astronomical phenomenon without any practical utility while you only show sarcasm and disdain when the subject is the phenomena of the soul that are at your reach and are of the interest of the whole humanity, in its present and its future.

If official science hardly renounces to its prejudices it would be unfair to blame all scientists. There is a positive movement manifesting among them with respect to the new ideas. The tactical and individual adhesions are innumerous but perhaps even more than others they are afraid of being in evidence. It will be enough to have a few celebrities holding the flag to mute the scruple of others, impose silence to the scorners of bad taste and give food for thought to the selfish aggressors. That is what we will soon see.

As a response to the calumnies that the adversaries of Spiritism like to spread against the Society we believe it is right to publish the requests for admission expressed in the two letters below followed by some observations.

“To the President of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies

Dear Sir,

Would I be allowed to aspire to be admitted as a member of the illustrious Society that you preside?

I was also fortunate to get to know Spiritism and experience its beneficial influence in all its plenitude. I have been suffering physical difficulties and consequently the moral pain that follows when there is, for compensation, only doubt and uncertainty. The Spirits’ Book came to my house as the savior whose helping hand rescued us from the abyss like the doctor that cures instantly. I read and understood it and soon the moral pain gave rise to a huge happiness before which the physical suffering disappeared because since then I only see it as the effect of the divine will and wisdom that only sends us pain for our own good.

Under the influence of this beneficial belief my physical condition improved significantly and I hope God will complete the work because if I wanted to be cured now it is not like in the past when it was to enjoy life only but to solely dedicate it to good, that is, to use it exclusively to march to the future, working hard and with all available means to the betterment of my neighbors and, in particular, dedicating my life to the propagation of the sublime Doctrine that God, in His infinite benevolence, sends to the poor humanity to have it regenerated. Praise the Lord for the divine light that in His mercy decided to send it to His blind creatures! Praise you Sir, who was chosen by God to bring the sacred focus of light!

If you deign Sir, to accept my request, I will be profoundly thankfully to you for transmitting it to your honorable colleagues. I do not have the honor of knowing you in person since my health condition has always precluded me from visiting you. But my colleague, Mr. Canu, may put a word for me.

Receive, dear Sir and master, my sincere feeling of respect and devotion.

Hermann Hobach”



“Dear Sir and venerable master,

Confident in your benevolence, I address you with a request that if accepted will give me a lot of joy. I had the honor of writing to you already, some time ago, with the double objective of expressing me in a way new feelings produced by the reading of The Spirits’ Book and to obey a sacred duty of a venerable man who extends courage to the vacillating and weak of this world in whose rank I counted a short while back given the ignorance of these sublime principles that finally show man a mission to accomplish according to their strength and capabilities. You gave that letter an answer full of amenities, inviting me to come and attend the general sessions of the Society as a listener. Those sessions and the reading of The Medium’s Book gave me more and more strength and courage and inspire in me the desire to join a Society founded on the same principles that have just sent away from me agitation, dispersion and the chaos that presided over all my actions.

I had even supposed that the enigma of life must be very insignificant because my soul had not allowed me to understand that there was a spiritual world beyond the material one that surrounded me, marching shoulder to shoulder with our world for the betterment.

Thus, Sir, I reaffirm my intent to gladly demonstrate before the whole world of disbelief and the skeptical that the Spiritist Doctrine has brought such a radical change to my behavior and such a change could be certainly classified, without exaggeration, of a miracle because by opening my eyes to all the good that one can do and does not do I noticed an objective to our lives, to begin with, and then full of sins of all sorts I finally saw that the providence had not let us go without work and that a single existence was not enough to perfect the Spirit working first to dominate the body and then to dominate oneself.

If you find it adequate to receive me, Sir, as a member of the Spiritist Society, despite my early age, I ask you to forward my request to the council and let them know how honored I would be to be received at the heart of the Society, something that I would appreciate with the highest feeling of recognition.

With the highest veneration,

Paul Albert”



If such letters honor their authors, they also honor the Society to which they are addressed, gladly seeing the requests from those who want to join it, animated by such feelings. It is a proof of how much they understand the exclusively moral objective proposed by the Society since they are not driven by an empty curiosity that, in fact, would not be our purpose to satisfy.

The Society only welcomes serious people and letters like those published above illustrates its true character. It is among followers of that caliber that the Society is happy to recruit and it is the best response that it can give to the detractors of Spiritism who strive to present it as its sisters from other counties and abroad that march under the same flag as dangerous focus to reason and public order or as a huge speculation. It was God’s will that there would not be other sources of disturbance.

As we have said, modern Spiritism will have its history, the report of its phases, struggles and successes, its defenders and its martyrs and adversaries for it is necessary that posterity knows the weapons that were used to attack it. It is necessary, above all, that it registers the people of heart that devoted to its cause with total abnegation, complete moral and material selflessness so that it can pay them back with a just tribute of recognition. To us it is a real joy when we can inscribe a new name, glorious for its modesty, courage and virtues in these archives that confuses the worker and the prince, the poor and the rich, people of all countries and religions, since there is only one cast for the good, only one cult, only one nationality and only one flag: the universal fraternity.

The Spiritist Society of Paris, the first one to be founded and officially recognized; the one that we can say gave the impulse and from which so many other societies were formed; that became, by the force of things and however small the number of members, the center of the Spiritist movement, for its principles are of the almost universality of the followers, this Society, we were saying, will also have its archives for the instruction of those to whom we pave the way and for the confusion of its slanderers.

It is not only far away that calumny spits its poison but to our door steps. A few days ago, someone told us that he had the greatest desire to attend some sessions of the Society but that he had stopped when he was told that he had to pay ten francs. His was greatly surprise, and we can say, also very happy when he learned that such a rumor was incorrect; that since the time of creation of the Society that not a single listener had to pay one cent; that there is no monetary commitment in any form or shape, not even as subscription to the Spiritist Review or for the purchase of books; that none of our mediums are paid for since all of them without exception do their service out of pure devotion to the cause; that the members and associated are the only ones to contribute to the material expenses but that the corresponding and honorary members have no obligation, having the limited budget of the Society applied to current expenses, restricted as much as possible and without capitalization; that Spiritism is a purely moral doctrine and that it cannot, like any other sacred thing, be an object of exploitation that we have always repudiated verbally and in writing; that therefore only a remarkable malevolence is capable of attaching similar ideas to the Society.

We must add that the author of this pseudo-official information said that he had paid the ten francs, demonstrating that he was not innocent in the spread of these rumors. The Spiritist Society of Paris, given its position and role, will have a later repercussion. It is then necessary to our brothers of forthcoming times to guarantee that its objective and tendencies are not denatured by malicious maneuvers and for that it is not enough to provide a few individual refutations that only have effect in the present, and then lost in the crowds. The obtained retractions are no more than temporary satisfactions whose memories will soon disappear. It is necessary a special, authentic and lasting monument and such a monument will be built in due course. While we wait let our adversaries to belie one another through their lies. Time will judge them.

For some time now people talk about a fantastic play that is on at the Theater du Châtelet where by a new and secret process they make impalpable shadow-ghostly forms to appear at the stage. As it seems the secret was unveiled for Mr. Robin exploits it at this time. Since we have not seen it we cannot assess the merit of the imitation. We hope that they are less gross that those imagined by the Girroodd couple, from Canada, that some translate as Girod de Saint-Flour, to simulate the transmission of thought through walls and that would be the hopeless death of the mediums and somnambulists alike. We wish his invention does not bring him the same disaster that it has brought to the latter ones.

Nevertheless Mr. Simond is absolutely right when thinking that such maneuvers are harmless because by the simple fact that something can be imitated it does not follow that such a thing does not exist. False diamonds take nothing out of the fine jewels and artificial flowers do not preclude natural flowers from existing. The intent of demonstrating that certain phenomena do not exist because they can be imitated would undoubtedly be like the one that makes champagne out of Seltzer water wanted to prove with that that champagne and sloth only exist in our imagination.

Imitation has never been more ingenious, more perfect and witty than the double sight by Mr. Robert Houdin. That has not, however, discredited somnambulism. Much to the contrary because after having seen the imitation people wanted to see the original.

Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd had the intention of killing the mediums by making every Spiritist phenomena to look like a deception. Well, since those phenomena are the nightmare of certain persons, they collected the adhesion published in their prospects from several “Spiritophobic” priests and bishops, delighted by the blow swung against Spiritism. But in their happiness those gentlemen had not reflected that such Spiritist phenomena could demonstrate the possibility of miraculous events and that if they can be demonstrated they are not magical tricks and the same could be done to the miracles; that consequently the discredit of ones would be the discredit of the others. One can never think of everything. Will Mr. Girroodd cut a deal with Mr. Robin considering that his tricks are a bit worn out now?

The Indépendence Belge that does not like Spiritism, and we don’t know why exactly, since Spiritism has never done it any harm, when speaking of this new scenic trick in a June issue says: “That is the religion of Mr. Allan Kardec going down the drain. How can Spiritism answer to that now?”

Notice that such a question has been framed many times by all those who pretended to swing the fatal blow against Spiritism, not excluding Father Marouzeau, and Spiritism has not left those cases in a worse condition. We say to the Indépendence that the supposition that it is founded on apparitions is prove of the most complete ignorance about the foundations of Spiritism and that if such a foundation is subtracted then the soul is also subtracted.

If it were demonstrated that the facts of apparitions are a deception then religion would suffer more than Spiritism since three quarters of the most important miracles have only that foundation.

Scenic art is the art of imitation by excellence from the paper chicken to the most sublime virtues and from that one cannot deduce that we should not believe in chickens or in virtues.

This new kind of spectacle, given its originality, will excite public imagination and will be repeated in every theater because it brings money; it will make people talk about Spiritism perhaps even more than the sermons, precisely due to the analogy that the journals will try to establish. One does need to understand that everything that attracts public opinion forcibly leads to the examination even if out of pure curiosity and it is from such examination that the followers come.

The sermons present Spiritism with a serious and terrible aspect, like a monster that is invading the world and threatening the Church in its groundwork. The theaters will address the crowds of curious people so that the ones who don’t hear about Spiritism in the sermons will do in the theaters and the ones that do not go to the theater will hear the sermons. As we can see, there is a place for everyone.

It is really a remarkable thing to see the means utilized by the hidden forces that guide this movement to make it penetrate everywhere, using the very ones who wish to destroy it. It is true that without the sermons on one side and the fallacies of the papers on the other the Spiritist population would be today ten times smaller than it is in fact.

Thus, we say that the imitations, even admitting them as perfect as possible, cannot do any harm. We even say that they are useful. As a matter of fact, here is Mr. Robin producing remarkable things to his spectators by any given process and saying that they are the same as those of Spiritism produced by mediums. Some in the audience will say: “Since it is possible to do the same with Spiritism let us study it, let us learn how to become a medium and we can see it done at home whenever we wish and for free.” Among these there will be many who will acknowledge the serious side of the issue and that is how unwillingly they serve the interests that they wish to harm.

Serious people are afraid that these antics will deceive certain persons about the true character of Spiritism. That is undoubtedly the bad side but the inconvenience is not important since the number of those who are going to be trick is tiny. The ones who say: “That is all it is about!” will sooner or later will have the opportunity to recognize that it is something else. And while they wait the idea spreads, we get familiarized with the word that penetrates everything with a burlesque name; they pronounce it with confidence and when the word is everywhere the thing is close too.

Be it a maneuver of the adversaries of Spiritism or simply an individual action to reinforce someone’s income we must admit that it is clumsy.

It would be wiser from the part of Mr. Robin and his associates to deny any analogy with Spiritism or magnetism because the claim of parity is the acknowledgment of competition – we speak of their commercial interests – exciting people’s imagination to see the competition and acknowledge that they can both be forgotten.

Since we are trailing the terrain of ineptitudes this is one more as there have been many others. We regret to place them side by side with those of Mr. Robin and Mr. Girroodd but it is the analogy of results that takes us there. In fact, considering that the dignitary of the Church did not think that they were diminishing themselves by sponsoring a conjurer against Spiritism they cannot be caught by surprise if they find a sermon about it.

A corresponding member of Bordeaux writes:

“Dear master, I have just received a letter from my sister that lives in a little town of B… She was desperate for not having anybody to talk to about Spiritism when the adversaries of our dear doctrine came to rescue her. Some people had just heard about it and sought the Carmelite to find out. The latter, not happy by just veering them off, preached four sermons about it whose main conclusions are the following:

“The mediums are possessed by the devil. They only act selfishly and use their power to find treasures and precious objects that were lost but when they find a sacred relic you see them twisting in horrible convulsions. The times predicted in the Gospels are here. The mediums are not but false prophets announced by Jesus. Their boss will soon be the anti-Christ. They will make remarkable miracles and prodigies and through that they will attract three quarter of the population of the globe to their cause which will be the sign of the times because Jesus will ride a celestial cloud and his breath will throw them onto the flames of hell.”

The result was that the whole city was shaken. People talk about Spiritism everywhere. People are not satisfied with the explanations of the priest and want to know more and my sister that had nobody to talk, receives more than thirty visits on given days. She always refers them to The Spirits’ Book that will soon be in every hand and many of those who already have it say that it has no similarity to the picture painted by the priest because he said the opposite. We now count of several serious followers thanks to those sermons without which Spiritism would not have penetrated into those remote regions.”

Weren’t we right when we said that it was inept? Aren’t we right by wishing so well to adversaries that work so much for us? But that is not the last one. We wait for the greatest of all, the one that will crown the work. They have been engineering a serious one for a year now, one that we prefer not to reveal because it is necessary that it reaches its end but whose consequences we will one day see. About two years ago we asked one of our spiritual guides what would be the means that would take Spiritism to the country side. The answer was:

The first part of the prediction, as we can see, occurs in the best possible way. In fact, all phases that have been covered by Spiritism were announced to us and all those who still have to be covered are equally announced and every day witnesses an event.

It is in vain that they try to dissuade people from Spiritism presenting it with horrible colors. As we can see the effect is quite the opposite of the expected. For every ten people that are veered off there are another hundred that become connected. This demonstrates the existence of an irresistible attraction on itself, not to mention that of the prohibited fruit. That brings us the memory of the following anecdote:

One day a landowner brought home a barrel of excellent wine but because he was afraid of his servant’s betrayal he attached a label to the barrel with these large letters: Horrible vinegar. Well, the barrel had a small leak and one of them had the curiosity of trying it out with the tip of his hand, concluding that it was a good vinegar. The word spread and soon each servant would come to collect some of the vinegar until the whole barrel was empty. As the owner used to give them cheap booze to drink they said: “this is not close to the horrible vinegar”!

However much they say that Spiritism is a vinegar they cannot make those who taste it to believe that it is not sweet. Now the ones who taste it will tell the others and soon everyone will want it.

The president of the Constantinople Spiritist Society, an honorary member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, sent us the letter below on May 22^nd last:

“Dear Mr. Allan Kardec and Spiritist brother,

Since long ago I intended to send you news from my side but please don’t you believe that we are resting with respect to the Spiritist propaganda. On the contrary, there is more activity than ever before. Believe me that in this entirely fanatical country, already recruited by the sects, Spiritism finds obstacles everywhere that perhaps it would not find in other places, but its roots are so lively and productive that despite the odds they gradually find fertile terrain and will soon sprout vigorously, indestructible by any human power.

Constantinople already counts on several followers of Spiritism and I can attest that they are in the highest ranks of society. I only noticed that they keep it to themselves, afraid of being compromised.

Allow me to mention a fact that is taking place here and that illustrates the rooting of Spiritism: several book stores that import Spiritist books, notably The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book, sell them immediately and to whom? We, the well-known and openly confessed Spiritists don’t know. We are sure about the fact that I just described because when someone among us wants to buy your books the bookseller responds: “I got them but they were sold out immediately”. The question is who has the monopoly on those books at the time they are unpacked to the point that when our people want them they are already sold out…

Here another no less interesting news for you:

Our friend and Spiritist brother Paul Lombardo, a drawing medium, from whom I sent you a few flowers, executed a watercolor painting depicting a beautiful bouquet of flowers among which there is a velvety dahlia in a magnificent effect; all other flowers, roses, carnations, tulips, lilies, camellias, daisies, poppies, cornflowers, etc. show a perfect finishing touch and naturalness. I took him to present the painting at the National Ottoman Exhibition that is open now and the painting was admitted there with the following inscription:

Executed by Mr. Paul Lombardo, from Constantinople, who ignores the art of drawing and painting.



At this time, the painting is showing at the Palace of Exhibitions on the right-hand side of the area reserved to paintings and works of engraving. The price tag was established as 20 Turkish pounds or 460 francs. This is something that thousands of people see with their own eyes.

I received letters from several points of Europe, Asia and Africa but my answers are sober unless it is to stimulate a serious and profound study of our great and beautiful science. I then refer them to your excellent publications, The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book.

We always have sessions for the physical experiments and for the psychological studies. Although the former almost always wear us out, we cannot abandon them completely for they serve to convince the unbelievers that wish to see and touch.

I ask you to please forward to the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies the fraternal and respectful compliments from our Spiritist brothers of Constantinople and, in particular, from this one that is also said to be your devout brother,

Repos Son, lawyer”



The significance behind the exhibition of the painting by Mr. Lombardo in Constantinople is that it was admitted and ostensibly presented as a mediumistic piece of work, much like the Spiritist fables that were crowned in the Floral Games of Toulouse.

It was said elsewhere that if the Toulouse Academy had known the origin of the fables they would have been rejected. That is the grossest calumny; it is also a misrepresentation of the fact that the works sent to that kind of contest must not bear a signature or any other sign that may identify authorship or be excluded. Hence Mr. Jaubert could not add his name or that of a Spirit not even mention that it was the works of a Spirit because he would have violated the regulations of the event that requires the most absolute secrecy. That is the answer to those who accuse Mr. Jaubert of having deceived by keeping his silence about the origin of the fables. Nevertheless, an official sanction is given to works from beyond the grave in the two extremes of Europe.

Similar facts would suffice to demonstrate the irresistible power of Spiritism if, in fact, it had not become evident for everything that has taken place before our eyes from some time now and by uselessness of the efforts to fight against it. And why are such efforts useless? Because, as we have been saying, it has a character that turns it different from all other philosophical doctrines that is the fact that it is not a single focus and of not depending on the life of any single person. Its focus is everywhere, on Earth and in space, and it they attack it here it surges elsewhere. As declared by the Spiritist Society of Palermo Spiritism stands up by the facts themselves that each person may verify and by a theory that has its roots in inner sense of each person. One cannot silence it by compressing one point on the globe or a village or a town or even a whole country but the whole world. Even in such a case it would be a temporary pause because the forthcoming the generation brings the intuition of the new ideas that sooner or later will prevail. Look at what happens to a neighboring country where a cover is placed on top of these ideas and from where they escape through multiple fissures.

We have the pleasure to announce the appearance of a new vehicle of Spiritism in Palermo, Sicily, published in Italian under the title The Spiritism, or Journal of Experimental Psychology.

The multiplication of specialized journals in this matter is an unequivocal indication of the terrain that has been conquered by the new ideas despite, or even better, due to the attacks that are carried out against them. These ideas that have been implanted in all corners of the world in a few years, count on numerous and serious representatives in Italy. In that homeland of intelligence, as everywhere else whoever probes their reach understands, they contain all elements of progress; that they hold the flag under which all peoples will one day congregate; that they are the only ones capable of resolving the fearsome problems of the future and in a way that satisfies reason. Our sympathetic acknowledgement is naturally extensive to every publication of such a nature, prone to second our efforts in the great and laborious task that we undertake. The following letter that accompanied the journal announces, at the same time, the formation of the Spiritist Society of Palermo, under the title Società Spiritista de Palermo.

“Sir,

A new Spiritist Society has just been formed here in Palermo under the presidency of Mr. Joseph Vassallo Paleologo. It already becoming popular: The Spiritism, or Journal of Experimental Psychology whose two initial editions have just been issued. Kindly accept a sample that I take the liberty of offering you the one who has been given the task of advancing humanity through the new ideas under the providential impulse of Spiritism.

Yours sincerely, etc.

Paolo Morello,

Professor of History and Philosophy, University of Palermo



Each number of the journal begins by the citation of some aphorisms in the form of epigraphs extracted from The Spirits’ Bookand The Mediums’ Book, like for example:

“If Spiritism is a mistake it will fall by itself; if it is a truth not even all diatribes of the world will be able to turn it into a lie.”

“It is a mistake to believe that certain classes of unbelievers only need to see the phenomena in order to be convinced. The ones who do not admit the soul or the Spirit cannot admit it outside of the body. That is how by denying the cause they deny the effect.”

“Frivolous meetings have a serious inconvenience to rookie attendees because they give them a false idea of Spiritism.” We add: and that, while not frivolous, are not held with the proper order and dignity.”

The first number contains an exposition of principles in the form of manifesto from which we extracted the following passages:

“Every science is founded on two points: facts and theory. According to what we have read and seen we are in a position to affirm that Spiritism has the materials and qualities of a science because on one side it stands on peculiar facts that result from experience and observation, absolutely like any other experimental science, and on the other side it stands on its theory, logically deduced from the observation of the facts.”

“Considering it from the facts or from the theory Spiritism has not come out of a human brain but it derives from the very nature of things. Given the creation of intelligences, as well as the spiritual existence, what has received the name of Spiritism presents itself as a necessity from which and given the current condition of science and humanity we are witnesses rather than judges, a necessity that generates a complex fact that needs to be seriously studied before being assessed. Everyone is free to not study it but that does not give anybody the right of mocking those who do.”

“The founding society of this journal does not intent to promote its belief or its doctrine. Since it is convinced that there is nothing that belong less to human invention than Spiritism the Society then proposes to expose the doctrine but not to impose it. The Society reserves itself, in fact, the entire freedom of examination and the most complete independence of conscience in the appreciation of the facts, not allowing itself to be influenced by the opinion of any individual or any corporation. It is only through the honesty of the facts that it becomes responsible before its own conscience, before God and men.”

The following communication that holds the signature The Dante, extracted from the second issue, bears witness of the nature of the teachings given to that society.

“No one can become a good medium if not able to strip away from the degrading vices of humanity. All those vices have their origin in selfishness and since the denial of selfishness is love, every virtue is summarized in this word: charity.

Charity is taught by the precept: “Quod tibi non vis”^[1], etc. God has not only printed it indelibly in people’s heart but sanctioned it by a fact given us His own Son as the role model of charity and abnegation. If it must be every one’s guide, irrespective of their social condition, it is above all the “sine qua non”^[2] condition of every good medium.

Anyone can become a medium but the question is not to be a medium but a good medium, and that depends on moral qualities. It is true that the Spirits communicate with persons of any condition but with the mission of perfecting them, if their qualities are good, and they realize that betterment by submitting the mediums to the hardest trials to purify them, trials that good people withstand without denying the moral feeling of their consciences and without veering off from the good path by temptations. The Spirits communicate with those whose qualities are bad to take them by the hand and guide them through a more rational behavior and in more harmony with the objective that must be the aim of any person persuaded that the objective of this life is atonement. When there is a mixture of good and bad the Spirits provoke betterment by intermediary processes.

Many will be left behind by their Spirits if they are not willing to understand that charity is the only path of progress. Therefore, miserable is the one who did not want to hear the voice of truth! God forgives ignorance but not the one that knowingly does evil things. The objective of our mission is your moral betterment and your duty is equally your progress but do not expect any type of improvement without charity.”

(Extracted from the works of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies)



“Mr. A… from Paris, a twenty-three-year-old young man that was initiated in Spiritism, only two months ago, assimilated it with such a speed that even without seeing anything he accepted it in all its moral consequences. Some will say that there is no surprise given the age of the man and his tendencies towards lightheartedness and insensible enthusiasm. Be that as it may, let us continue.

That insensible young man had, as he acknowledges himself, a large number of defects of which the most important was an irresistible predisposition to rage since his childhood. The least upset and due to futile causes like when getting home and not finding what he was looking for; if something was not in its habitual place; if what he had ordered was not ready in a minute all that would make him fierce, to the point of breaking everything around him. It was so much so that one day, at the apex of his rage, he threw himself against his mother and said: “Go away or I will kill you!” Then, worn out by the hyper excitation he would fall unconscious. It must be added that neither the advices of his parents nor the exhortations of religion were able to stop that indomitable character yet opposed by a vast intelligence, a well-cared for education and the noblest feelings.

Others will say that it is the effect of a bilious-bloody-nervous temperament, resulting from his physical organization and consequently with an irresistible action. Such a system leads to the fact that if he had committed a crime during one of those fits of wrath he would be perfectly excusable because it would have been due to an excess of bile. It would also result that unless he changed his temperament, changing the normal state of liver and nerves, the young man would be predestined to all of the dismal consequences of rage.

“That being must have a willpower that matter does not have. It can then dominate matter.” Followed by this other train of thought: “The result of my rage was to make me sick and unhappy and it does not give me what I need hence it is useless because it took me nowhere. It is bad to me and gives me nothing good in turn. Besides, it makes me do reproachable and even criminal things.”

He wanted to succeed and did so. Since then he faced a thousand situations that would have made him mad but instead he was calm and indifferent for the astonishment of his mother. The blood would boil in his veins and blow his head but his willpower would abate and force it down. A miracle would not have done better but Spiritism has done many others that our Spiritist Review would not be able to register if we wanted to report all of those that come to our personal knowledge related to moral transformations of the most inveterate habits. We mention this one as a remarkable example of the willpower and also because it raises an important problem that only Spiritism can solve. With that respect, Mr. A… asked us if his Spirit was responsible for the fits or if only suffered the influence of matter. Here is our answer:

Your Spirit is so much responsible that when you seriously wanted to stop the bloody actions, you did so. Thus, if you had wished to stop before the fits of rage would have ended earlier and you would not have threatened your mother. Besides you, who is the one that becomes enraged? Is it the body or the Spirit? If the fits would happen without reason, they could be attributed to the blood flow, however, futile or not, their cause was an upset. It is then evident that it was the Spirit and not the body that was troubled. The Spirit reacted on top of an irritable organic system that would remain quiet if it had not been provoked.

Let us offer a comparison. You have an impetuous horse. If you know how to ride the horse properly it becomes obedient. If you maltreat the horse it dashes away and takes you down. Whose fault is that? Yours or the horse?

To me, your Spirit is naturally bad-tempered but since each one brings their own original sin, that is, the remainder of the former tendencies, it is not less evident that in your preceding life you must have been an extremely violent man that may have paid a very dear price, even with your own life. In the spiritual world your good qualities helped you to understand your mistakes. I made the resolution to change this and fight against it in your new life. However, if you had chosen a weak and lymphatic body, your Spirit would not have found any difficulty and would gain nothing, resulting in the need of a new beginning. That was the reason why you have chosen a bilious body, so that you would have the merit of the battle. The victory has been conquered now. You won over your enemy and nothing can hinder the free exercise of your qualities. As for the easiness, with which you accepted, Spiritism that is explained by the same cause. You were Spiritist long ago. The belief was innate within you and materialism was only the result of the false direction given to your ideas. Muffled in the beginning, the Spiritist idea remained in a latent state and a simple spark was enough to wake it up. Praise the Providence that allowed that spark to arrive at the right time to stop an inclination that could have perhaps cause bitter displeasures whilst you now have a long road ahead to walk the good path.

All philosophies have been shattered against these mysteries of human life that seemed unreachable up until the time when Spiritism illuminated them with its focus. In the presence of such facts can one still ask the utility of Spiritism? Can’t we make good predictions about the future of humanity when it is understood and practiced by everybody?

“Dear Father Morezeau,

You are surprised that after two years I have not responded to your brochure against Spiritism. You are mistaken because I have addressed most of the questions that you raised since its release in several articles of our Spiritist Review. I recognize that you would have preferred a personal response, a counter publication; that I would take on your arguments one by one to give you the pleasure of my replys. Well, I made an irreparable mistaken by not even mentioning you but I am certain that your modesty will not consider that as a crime. Today I fix that omission but do not think that I intend to engage in a controversial discussion with you; no, my only intention is to offer you some simple reflections and to explain my reasons.

To begin with, I must tell you that I did not respond directly to your brochure because you had announced that it would bury us alive. I wanted to give you time since that article so that I could have the pleasure to tell you that we are not dead; that Spiritism itself is stronger than before; that the number of societies multiply in all countries; that in all corners where it was preached against the number of followers increased; that such a growth is directly proportional to the violence of the attacks. These are not theories but facts given my position. Furthermore I attest that the homeless people, who were forbidden by zealous priests to receive the bread of life from the charitable Spiritists because they were the bread of the devil, they did not die for having eaten that; that the bakers who were told not to receive the Spiritists because they would be robbed by the devil, did not lose anything; that the workers who were subtracted from their bread winning activities just out of pure evangelical zeal found compensation with the new customers that in turn increased the number of followers.

I have no doubt that you disapprove such a way of attacking Spiritism but the facts, nonetheless, are the facts. You must agree with me that such means are not the most adequate to bring back to religion the ones that have been away. Fear may momentarily stop but it is a fragile link that breaks at first contact; the only strong bonds are those of the heart, cemented by conviction. Conviction, though, cannot be imposed by force.

You must know, Father, that your article was followed by many others. Above many of them yours has the merit of civility. You want to kill us politely and I thank you for that but the arguments are the same everywhere, stated more or less politely and in a more or less correct French. In order to refute them all, article per article, it would be necessary that I would repeat myself incessantly and frankly speaking I have more serious things to attend. In fact, it has no use and you will understand why.

I am a positive person, without enthusiasm, that analyzes everything with reasonableness; I reason according to the facts and say: considering that the Spiritists count on a number that is larger than ever before, despite Father Marouzeau’s brochure and all others, despite all sermons and commandments, it means that the arguments that they presented did not convince the masses but had the opposite effect. I believe to be elemental logic to judge the value of a cause based on its effects. Hence, why refuting them? If they are good to us instead of causing us harm we should avoid to create obstacles to them. I see things differently from you, Father. Like a general that observes the movement of the battle, I analyzed the power of the blows, the effect that they produce and not the noise that they make. I look at the whole picture. The whole picture is satisfactory and that is all I need. Hence individual answers would not have utility.

When I deal in general terms with questions that are raised by a given adversary it is not to have him convinced because that is not my concern, absolutely, and even less to make him renounce his belief that I respect when it is sincere. It is exclusively to the instruction of the Spiritists and because I found a point that needs to developed or clarified. I refute principles not individuals because the principles remain and the individuals disappear. That is why I give little importance to personalities that may not even exist tomorrow and from whom nobody will hear about whatever the importance given to them.

I see the future much more than the present; the whole and important things more than the isolated and secondary facts. Redirect people to the good path is the true conversion to us. A man that is yanked from his bad tendencies and redirected to God and to charity towards everyone by Spiritism is to us the most useful victory; that is the one that brings us true joy and we thank God for having had that so many times.

To us the most honorable victory is not in moving people away from this or that cult, of this or that belief by violence or fear but to deviate people from evilness by persuasion. We appreciate all sincere convictions and not those obtained by fore or just apparent.

That is how, for example, when you ask in your brochure about the miracles that Spiritism can invoke in its favor. I answered that question in our February 1862 issue of the Spiritist Review in the article entitled “Is Spiritism demonstrated by miracles?” On that occasion, I responded to all others who framed the same question.

You ask about the miracles of Spiritism but is there a greater one than its incredible propagation despite everything and against everything, despite the attacks that it suffers; despite, above all, the terrible attacks that you yourself has launched against it? Isn’t that a fact that demonstrates the will of God?

“No, you will say, it is the will of the devil.” You must then agree that the will of the devil is stronger than the will of God, that it is stronger than the Church since the Church cannot stop it. But this is not the only miracle made by Spiritism. It does it every day by bringing unbelievers to God and converting those who do bad to good, given them the strength to succeed over their bad passions.

Father, I like time and space. On another occasion, I will say a few words that may serve you in the new book that you are working on and that must annihilate Spiritism and the Spiritists forever. I wish this one better luck than the previous one. A few passages of this current issue may perhaps clarify you about the difficulties that you are going to face in order to succeed.

Yours sincerely,

Allan Kardec

Around 1850 in Bavaria, an almost centenary old man known as Father Max died. Nobody knew for sure what his origin was since he had no family. For about half a century, constantly challenged by problems that made it difficult for him to support himself through work, he had no other resource but to appeal to public charity where he disguised himself by going to farms and castles to sell almanacs and small objects.

He was given the nickname Count Max and the children only called him Mr. Count after which he smiled and took no offense. Why the title? Nobody knew since it was a name that passed on through the years. It could perhaps be for his manners and physiognomy whose distinction were in contrast with his rags.

Several years after his death he appeared in the dreams of the daughter of a castle proprietor where he used to stay at the horse’s stable since he was homeless. He told her: “Thank you for having remembered the poor old Max in your prayers for they were heard by the Lord. You wanted to know who I was, charitable soul that took care of the unfortunate beggar. I will satisfy you and this will be a great lesson to everybody.”

He then provided the report below with more or less the following terms:

“About a century and a half ago I was a rich and powerful owner in this region but frivolous, proud and fatuous of my nobility. My immense fortune served nothing but to my own pleasures of gambler, lewd, spending time in orgies. My vassals were servants that I used like animals in the farm just to serve my luxuriousness. I was deaf to their laments as those of all unfortunate people and in my opinion they should feel much honored for serving my whims. I died early, worn out by the excesses but without having experienced any true hardship. On the contrary, everything seemed to smile to me to the point that people saw me as one of those happy persons in the world. My condition rendered me a pompous funeral; the baggy ones were sorry for the portentous master but not a single tear was dropped in my tomb; not a single heart felt prayer was said in my behalf and my memory was damned by all those whose misery I had aggravated. Ah! How miserable the malediction of those that we make unfortunate! It never stopped vibrating in my ears for long years that seemed like eternity to me! The death of each one of my victims would bring a new threatening or sarcastic figure to my face, incessantly chasing me without a hiding place. No friendly sight. My former friends of debauch, now miserable like me, ran away from me as if saying with disdain: “You can no longer pay for our pleasures.”

Oh! How much I would have paid for an instant of rest, for a glass of water to quench the scorching thirst that devoured me! But I had nothing on me anymore and all the gold that I had spread on Earth had not brought me a single blessing. Not one, my child, hear me out!

Then, finally abated by fatigue and worn out like a wasted traveler that cannot see the end of the journey, I exclaimed:

Then I heard a voice, the first after having left Earth that said:

A few years later I was born again, but his time into a family of poor peasants. My parents died when I was still a child and I was left alone in the world, without support. I made my living as I could, sometimes as a worker, sometimes as a servant in a farm, but always honestly because this time I believed in God. At the age of 40 I was taken ill by a disease that paralyzed all my members forcing me to beg for another fifty years in the same land that I had been the absolute owner; I had to ask for a piece of bread in farms that had been mine and where, out of bitter irony, I had been given the title of Mr. Count; many times, I felt happy in the stables of the castle that had been mine.

In my dreams, I enjoyed visiting the same castle that I commanded like a tyrant. How many times I saw myself in my dreams amidst the former fortune! Those visions would bring me an indefinable feeling of bitterness and sorrow when I woke up, but I never complained and when God felt that it was time to take me back I praised Him for having given me the courage of enduring this long and painful trial without moaning and whose reward I receive now. And you, my child, I give you my blessings for having prayed for me.”

OBSERVATIONS: We refer this case to those who pretend that people would no longer have brakes if they did not have to face the challenges from eternal penalties, asking them if the perspective of a punishment like that of Father Max is less able to stop evil than that of the endless tortures in which people no longer believe.

Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, June 19^th, 1863

(Medium Mr. Vézy)



NOTE: This communication was given with reference to a blind lady that was present at the session

“My good friends, it has been a long time since I last came here but here we are. I thank God for that and to the good Spirits that come to help you walk the good path. Why have you called me? To pass my hands onto the poor lady that is in suffering and cure her? And what a suffering, good Lord! She lost her vision and it became all darkness for her! Poor child. She must pray and wait! I cannot make miracles without God’s consent. All the healings that I was able to obtain and that have been reported to you can only be attributed to the Father of us all. When suffering you should always look above and say from the bottom of your heart: “My Father cure me but have my soul cured before the illnesses of the body. May the flesh be punished, if needed, so that my soul can rise to you with the whiteness it had when created by you!” After this prayer my dearest friends, that our good God will always hear, you shall be given strength and courage and perhaps also be granted the cure that you have so humbly requested as a reward for your carnal abnegation. But since I am here in this assembly where before anything we study, I must tell you that those precluded from sight should consider themselves like the blessed ones of atonement. Remember that Jesus said that it was necessary to pull the eye if the eye was bad and that it would be preferable to have it thrown into the fire than have it as a cause of your condemnation. How many among you on Earth that will one day, in darkness, be sorry for having seen light! Oh! Yes, how fortunate in their atonement the ones who have their vision damaged? Their eyes will not be reason for scandal and ruin! They can live entirely the life of the soul. They can see better than you do you who have the light… When God allows me to open the eyelids of some of these miserable ones and give them your light I say to myself: “Dear soul, why don’t you live all the joys of the Spirit that lives in contemplation and love? It would not demand to see images that are less pure and kind that those that they see in their blindness.

Oh Yes! Blessed be the blind who want to live with God! That person feels and touches happiness more than you who live here. They see the souls and can live in the spiritual spheres and reach regions that not even the predestined of Earth can. The open eye is always ready to ruin the soul.

The closed eye, on the contrary, is always ready to guide the soul to God. Believe me, my dear and good friends, the blindness of the eyes is frequently the light of the heart whereas vision is sometimes the terrible angel of death.

And now a few words to you, my poor and suffering soul. Wait and have courage! If I told you: “My child, your eyes will open”, how happy you would be! And who knows such a happiness would not be the cause of your loss? Have trust in our good God who made happiness and allows sadness. I will do everything in my power but you must pray and above all think about everything I have just said.

Before I leave, all of you here receive my blessings, my dear friends. I give them to all: to the mad ones, to the wise, to the believers and to the unfaithful of this assembly. May it be useful to each one of you!

Vianney, Cure d’Ars.”



OBSERVATION: We were asked if this is the language of devil and if one offends the Cure d’Ars by attributing such thoughts to him. An uneducated peasant who is also a natural somnambulist who sees the Spirits very well attended the session and was in a somnambulistic state. She did not know the Cure d’Ars, not even by name, however she saw him by the medium and described him with perfection of details.

Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mrs. Costel



Repentance reaches God and it is more pleasing to him than some sacrifices and the smoke of incense spread around sacred rooms. It is a productive suffering, a reactive and acting force like the storms that purify the air. Jesus sanctified his virtues and Magdalene’s tears spread like dew upon the hardened hearts that ignored the grace of forgiveness. The sovereign virtue proclaimed the power of regret reverberated along the centuries and weakening the word of Jesus.

Time has come when Spiritism must renovate and vivify the very essence of Christianity. Thus, in all places and forever take the cruel sentence down that strips the guilty soul from regret. Repentance is a lively, strong virtue that only advanced Spirits or kind hearts can feel. The momentary and scorching sorrow of a fault does not carry along the atonement that leads to the knowledge of God’s justice, a strict justice in its conclusions, that applies the “eye for an eye” sentence to the moral as well as physical life, punishing by the logic of the events, all resulting from the good or bad use free-will.

You must love those in suffering and support repentance for this is the God given sign and expression impressed on every intelligent being to rise up to and approach Him.

John, disciple

Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies,

December 26^th, 1862, medium Mr. d’Ambel



NOTE: This communication was given with reference to a report given at the Society about the new Spiritist societies in formation everywhere, in France and abroad.

Progress in regenerating ideas that we bring to your world today occurs in a clamorous fashion because it does need to be demonstrated now. Blind is the one that does not see the triumphant march of our ideas! When the most eminent persons, in the most liberal functions, people of study and science, doctors, philosophers and magistrates resolutely throw themselves onto the search for the truth in the avenues opened by Spiritism. When the working class come to find new forces and consolations, who among humans would be strong enough to oppose a barrier to the development of this new philosophical science? Lamennais said the other day in his concise and eloquent style that you are aware that the future points to Spiritism. Today I have the right to say: Isn’t that an accomplished fact? The road actually becomes broader; yesterday’s creek becomes a river and from the transposed valleys its majestic course will laugh at the feeble gates and late barricades that a few late inhabitants of the riverbanks will try to build to block its flow to the great ocean of infinity. Poor people! The currents will drag you along and soon we will also hear your screams: “It is true! Earth turns!”

If the bloody waves that spill over America did not draw the attention of every serious thinkers and of every friend of peace whose hearts bleed before the reports of those fratricide and bloody fights; if the weak, established nations were not seeking normality in their whole territory; finally if everyone’s aspirations did not tend to the moral and physical betterment that has been sought for so long one could then deny the utility of moral cataclysm announced by some Spirits of vanguard. But all these characteristic signs are very evident for not recognizing the need, the urgency of a new lighthouse that can save the endangered world. In the past when the pagan world undermined by the most absolute demoralization, vacillating on its own foundation, prophetic voices announced everywhere the soon arrival of a redeemer. Haven’t you heard, oh Spiritists, the same prophetic voices for a few years now? Ah! I know. None of you forgot. Rest assured then that the time has come and let us scream together like one day in Judea: - Glory to God in the highest heaven!” Erastus

Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies,

June 19^th 1863, medium Mr. Alfred Didier



The centuries of transition in the history of mankind are similar to vast landscape spotted by terrain features that looked sporadic and unorganized. The facts are that the integration of these features are understood in the detail not in the whole. The centuries abandoned by faith and hope are somber pages in which mankind ,guided by skepticism, consumes itself in the deafness of refined civilizations arriving at reactions that frequently replaced them by other civilizations.

The researchers of thought, more than the scientists, in our time and through a rational eclecticism, study in depth this concatenation of history, the darkness in its uniformity cast upon civilizations not long ago still lively and fertile like a thick fog and cloud. Strange destiny of peoples! It is almost near the birth of Christianity, in the most opulent cities, headquarters of the greatest Sea of the East and West that the devastations of decadence begins. It is amongst civilization itself, before the intelligent splendor of Arts, Sciences, Literature and the sublime teachings of Christ that the confusion of ideas and religious dissent begin. It is in the very cradle of the Roman Church, proud and stained by the blood of the martyrs that heresy, generated by the superstitious dogmas and by the ecclesiastic hierarchy, sneaks like an imminent serpent to bite the human heart, infiltrating into their veins amidst political and social chaos the most profound of all scourges: doubt.

The downfall this time is immense. The religious apathy of the priests, added to the heresy of the fanatical, removes any political strength, any love for the country and the Church of Christ becomes human but no longer humanitarian. It is useless to compare here, I believe, the horrific reports of those days with our time. The same commotions shake our civilization living side by side with the traditions of Christianity and the hopes for the future; the divide is present in the same ideas and the same doubt torments humanity, precursor signs of a social and moral renovation that is in preparation.

Ah Pray, Spiritists! Your troubled and blasphemous time is a rough time that the Spirits come to instruct and reassure.

Lamennais

Spiritist Group of Sétif, Algeria



You are frequently surprised when finding mental or physical mediumistic faculties that, in your opinion, should be a proof of personal merit in people that, given their moral character, are placed at a level below such a gift. That is due to the false idea you have about the laws that regulate such things and you want to consider them constant. The question is what is constant. The means vary to infinity so that your freedom may be respected. This one has a skill, the other has another one; one is led by pride, the other by greed and a third one by fraternity. God employs the capabilities and passions of each one, in their respective spheres and from evil itself He knows how to produce good. The actions of men that seem so important to you are nothing to God. It is the intention that carries merit or demerit to His eyes. Hence fortunate is the one that is guided by fraternal love.

Providence has not created badness. Everything was made aiming at the good. Badness only exist by the ignorance of man and the bad use made of passions, tendencies and the instincts acquired by the contact with matter. Great God! When you have them inspired by the wisdom of having in their own hands the direction of this powerful instrument – passion – how much badness will disappear! How much good will be produced by that power that today he only knows the bad side, his own work! Eagerly continue your work my friends! Finally, may humanity foresee the route that one day it will follow in order to achieve the happiness that is allowed on Earth!

Don’t be surprised if the communications that you are given by the elevated Spirits, entirely supported by the moral of the Savior, confirming and developing it, offer you so many points of contact and similarity with the mysteries of antiquity. The former peoples had the intuition of things of the invisible world and of what was to come and several of them were assigned with the mission of paving the way.

Observe and study carefully the received communications; accept what is not rejected by reason; repel what shocks it; request clarification about those who leave doubts. You have here the guidelines to be followed and to transmit to future generations, without fear of seeing the truths denatured, truth that you will separate effortlessly from its unavoidable entourage of mistakes.


Work, become useful to your brothers and to yourselves. You cannot envisage the happiness that the future spares you after the contemplation of your works.

Saint Augustine

OBSERVATION: This communication was obtained by a young man, an illiterate somnambulist. It was sent to us by Mr. Dumas, a dealer in Setif, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, informing that the sensitive person ignores the meaning of most words and provide us with the names of ten renowned persons that attended the session.

Illiterate mediums that receive messages above their intellectual reach are freqent. A short while ago we were shown a message that was received in Lyon by a lady that cannot read or write and does not know a single word of what she writes. Her husband, who is almost like her, deciphers it out of intuition during the session but that becomes impossible on the following day. The other persons read them without much difficulty.

Isn’t that the application of Jesus’ words: “Your wives and your daughters will prophesize and make prodigies?” Isn’t that a prodigy to write, paint, draw and compose music and poetry without the skills?

You demand material signs? Here you have them. Will the unbelievers say that it is the result of imagination? If it is they should know that such persons have imagination in their hands and not in their brains. Still once more a theory is only good with the condition that it can explain all the facts. If it is contradicted by a single one it means that it is false or incomplete.

Allan Kardec^[1]