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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864 > May
May
How can one know about the future? One can understand forecasts of events that are consequence of the present condition but not those that no connection to them and even less those that are attributed to chance. People say that future things do not exist and that they are still in the void then how can we know if they are going to happen? Nonetheless large is the number of predictions that became reality from which one can conclude that there is a phenomenon whose understanding we lack the key since there is no effect without a cause. Such a cause that we are going to try to find is provided by Spiritism that in itself is the key to so many mysteries and that will show us that the event of prediction itself is not outside the laws of nature.
As a comparison let us take an example of common things that will help us understand the principle that we will have to develop. Suppose a person placed at the top of a mountain, contemplating the vast extension of the prairies. In such a situation one mile will not be much and the person will be able to see from a glance the accidents of the terrain from the beginning to the end of the road. The traveler that follows that road for the first time knows that she will get to the end. That is a simple forecast of the consequence of the journey. But the accidents of the march, the ascents and descents, the creeks to be transposed, the forests to cross, the cliffs to avoid, the hiding thieves, the lodgings to rest, all of that will depend on the person. For that person future is unknown because her sight does not go beyond the little circle around. As for the duration of the trip it is measure by the time taken to cover the path. If the reference points are removed the duration disappears. For the observer on the top that eyes the traveler everything is present. Suppose now that the observer comes down to meet the traveler and say: “At a given time you will find such a thing; you will be attacked and helped.” The observer will be predicting the future. To the traveler that is future. To the observer that is present. If we now leave the circle of the purely material things and in our mind enter the domain of the spiritual life we will see that such a phenomenon takes place in a much greater scale. The dematerialized Spirits are like the person on the top of the mountain. Space and time do not exist to them. The extension and penetration of their vision are proportional to their depuration and elevation in the spiritual hierarchy. Regarding the inferior Spirits they are like a person holding a powerful telescope side by side with others that only observe with their naked eyes. The latter ones have a limited vision not only because they can hardly move away from the globe to which they are connected but also because the dense nature of their perispirit covers things that are faraway, like the fog does to the eyes of the body.
It is then understood that according to their degree of perfection a Spirit may embrace a period of a few years, a few centuries and even many thousands of years for what is a century when compared to eternity?
Before the eyes of such a Spirit the events do not take place in succession like the incidents of the traveler’s path. The start and finish are seen simultaneously. All the events that constitute the future to mankind on Earth are the present to that Spirit that could say with certainty: Such a thing will occur at such a time because that event is seen like the person on top of the mountain sees what is ahead of the traveler on the road. If such a Spirit does not say anything it is because such a knowledge of the future is harmful to people. It would preclude the use of one’s free-will and paralyze the work of progress. The good and bad ahead of us are unknown as part of the trial.
If such a faculty, even restrict, may be the attribute of a creature how about at the level of the Creator that embraces the infinite? There is no time for God; the beginning and the end of the world are the present. In such a scenario what is the life of a person, of a generation, of a people?
Nonetheless and since each one must concur to the general progress and certain events must result from their cooperation, in certain cases it may be useful that a person may foresee those events to pave the way and be ready to act when the time is right. That is why sometimes God allows the tip of the veil to be lifted but that is always with a useful objective and never to satisfy futile curiosity. Thus such a mission may be given to certain Spirits, not to all of them since some do not know more about the future than people do, but to sufficiently advanced Spirits for that matter. It must be said that such revelations are always done spontaneously and never or at least very rarely in response to a direct question. Such a mission may equally be given to certain persons and here is how.
Someone that has been assigned with the task of revealing something that is occult may unpretentiously receive it by inspiration of the Spirits that have that knowledge and then transmit it mechanically, unnoticeably. Besides, it is a known fact that be it during the sleep or vigil or even in cases of ecstasy of double vision, the soul detached from the body and has in a more or lesser degree the faculties of the free Spirit. If that is an advanced Spirit and most importantly if, like the prophets, had received a special mission in that respect, at that moment of emancipation of the soul the Spirit enjoys the capacity of embracing a more or less extensive period and sees events of the future as if in the present. The Spirit may then reveal them immediately or keep their memory when waking up. If those events must be kept in secret the Spirit will lose that memory or just keep a vague intuition that is sufficient for an instinctive guidance. That is why we can see such a faculty providentially developing in certain occasions like in cases of imminent danger, great calamities and in revolutions where the majority of the persecuted sects had numerous clairvoyants. That is also why we see great commanders marching resolutely against the enemy with the certainty of victory as well as geniuses like Christopher Columbus, for example, chasing an objective and somehow predicting the time of reaching it. The reason is that they saw that objective that is not unknown to their Spirit. Every phenomena whose cause was unknown was considered marvelous. Once the law behind them is known they enter the rank of natural things. The gift of prediction is not more supernatural than a large number of other phenomena because it is founded on the properties of the soul and in the law of relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds that became known through Spiritism. But how to admit the existence of an invisible world if the soul is not admitted or its individuality after death is not accepted? The skeptical that denies prescience is consistent with herself. There is still the need to define if that person is consistent with herself when it comes to the natural law.
The theory of prescience may not solve all cases of prediction of the future in absolute terms but one must not deny the fact that it establishes its fundamental principle. If not everything can be explained that is due to the difficulty that human beings have in placing themselves in that kind of extraterrestrial stand point. Given the natural inferiority our thoughts are incessantly dragged to the material life and are frequently powerless to elevate above ground. With that respect certain persons are like those new birds whose wings are ever so weak that they can hardly fly or the short sighted ones that cannot see far away or finally like some others that lack a sense for certain perceptions. Nevertheless with some effort and the habit of meditation one can get there and the Spiritists do that faster than the others because they can better identify with and understand the spiritual life.
In order to understand spiritual things, that is, to have an idea as clear as that that we have about a landscape that stands before our eyes we do lack a sense, exactly like the blind person lacks a sense to understand the effects of light, colors and vision at a distance. We then only achieve that through an effort of our imagination, helped by comparisons that we make with familiar things. Material things, however, can only give us very imperfect images of spiritual things. That is why the comparisons should not be made word by word and believe, for example, that in the case that we are discussing the reach of the perceptive faculties of the Spirits are in proportion to their elevation and that they need to be on the top of the mountain or above the clouds to embrace time and space. Such a faculty is inherent to the level of spiritualization or, if you want, dematerialization. In other words spiritualization produces an effect that can be compared, although very imperfectly, to the vision of the whole of a person standing on the top of the mountain. That comparison only aimed at showing that events that are in the future to some may be in the present to others and in that case can be predicted but that does not mean that the effect is produced in the same way.
Therefore to enjoy such a perception the Spirit does not need to be transported to a given point in space. The one that is on Earth by our side may have it in its plenitude in the same way that the Spirit would have it even if located thousands of miles away, whereas we cannot see anything beyond the visual horizon. Since the vision of the Spirits is not produced neither in the same way nor with the same elements that it occurs with humans their horizon is very different. Well, that is precisely the sense that we miss to conceive it. Compared to an incarnate the Spirit is like a normal vision person compared to a blind one.
Besides, it is necessary to take into account that such a perception is not limited to the extension but it also incorporates penetration into all things. It is, and we repeat, a faculty inherent and proportional to the state of dematerialization. Such a faculty is lessened by incarnation but is not completely annulled because the soul is not contained in the body as if in a box. The incarnate has it in proportion to the evolution of the Spirit although always in a lesser degree than when separated from the body. That is what give to certain persons a power of penetration that others lack completely, a fairer moral assessment, a better understanding of the material things. The Spirit not only perceives but also remembers what was seen as a Spirit and that memory is like a picture that remains in their minds. During incarnation the Spirit sees but only vaguely like through a veil. In the state of freedom the Spirit clearly sees and conceives. The principle of vision is not outside but inside the Spirit. That is why there is no need for light.
The circle of ideas and conception broadens through the moral development; the Spirits purifies from the dense elements by the progressive dematerialization of the perispirit and that alters the subtlety of the perceptions and from that it becomes easy to understand that the extension of all faculties are a consequence of the progress of the Spirit. It is the degree of extension of the faculties that during the incarnation makes the Spirit more or less apt to conceive spiritual things. Such aptitude, however, is not a necessary consequence of the intellectual development because it is not given by common science. That is why we see people of great intelligence and knowledge that are as blind to spiritual matters as others are to material things. They reject those things because they do not understand them. That happens because their progress has not happened in that direction yet whereas there are people of common intelligence and education that learn them with great ease demonstrating that they had a previous intuition of them.
The possibility of changing their stand point seeing things from above not only gives the solution to the problem of prescience but also the key to a true and solid faith. It is also the most powerful element of strength and resignation because since life appears as a single point in the infinite one understands the little importance of things that seen from below seem so important. The incidents, miseries and vanities of life are belittled before the immense and splendid horizon of the future that unveils ahead. Someone that look at things in that way is hardly reached by vicissitudes and for that very reason is as happy as possible down here. One must then feel sorry for those that concentrate their minds in the narrow sphere of Earth because they feel the full power of the counter action of every tribulation that like so many other spearheads incessantly hurt them.
When it comes to the future of Spiritism, as it is well-known, the Spirits are unanimous in predicting the near ahead triumph despite the barriers that are imposed. Such a prediction is easy to them first because its propagation is the result of their personal work and consequently they know what must be done and second because all they need is to observe a period of short duration and in that period they see powerful supporters recruited by God and that will soon manifest.
Since they are not discarnate Spirits, the Spiritists must only look thirty years ahead and observe the new generation; consider what is happening today; follow the tracks and they will see the useless efforts of those that are called in to destroy Spiritism turning into ashes. They will see those efforts disappearing gradually side by side with the tree whose roots expand daily. This study will be completed by the references available between prediction and fatality. Meanwhile we refer the reader to what was said about the last point in The Spirits’ Book, item 851 and beyond.
As a comparison let us take an example of common things that will help us understand the principle that we will have to develop. Suppose a person placed at the top of a mountain, contemplating the vast extension of the prairies. In such a situation one mile will not be much and the person will be able to see from a glance the accidents of the terrain from the beginning to the end of the road. The traveler that follows that road for the first time knows that she will get to the end. That is a simple forecast of the consequence of the journey. But the accidents of the march, the ascents and descents, the creeks to be transposed, the forests to cross, the cliffs to avoid, the hiding thieves, the lodgings to rest, all of that will depend on the person. For that person future is unknown because her sight does not go beyond the little circle around. As for the duration of the trip it is measure by the time taken to cover the path. If the reference points are removed the duration disappears. For the observer on the top that eyes the traveler everything is present. Suppose now that the observer comes down to meet the traveler and say: “At a given time you will find such a thing; you will be attacked and helped.” The observer will be predicting the future. To the traveler that is future. To the observer that is present. If we now leave the circle of the purely material things and in our mind enter the domain of the spiritual life we will see that such a phenomenon takes place in a much greater scale. The dematerialized Spirits are like the person on the top of the mountain. Space and time do not exist to them. The extension and penetration of their vision are proportional to their depuration and elevation in the spiritual hierarchy. Regarding the inferior Spirits they are like a person holding a powerful telescope side by side with others that only observe with their naked eyes. The latter ones have a limited vision not only because they can hardly move away from the globe to which they are connected but also because the dense nature of their perispirit covers things that are faraway, like the fog does to the eyes of the body.
It is then understood that according to their degree of perfection a Spirit may embrace a period of a few years, a few centuries and even many thousands of years for what is a century when compared to eternity?
Before the eyes of such a Spirit the events do not take place in succession like the incidents of the traveler’s path. The start and finish are seen simultaneously. All the events that constitute the future to mankind on Earth are the present to that Spirit that could say with certainty: Such a thing will occur at such a time because that event is seen like the person on top of the mountain sees what is ahead of the traveler on the road. If such a Spirit does not say anything it is because such a knowledge of the future is harmful to people. It would preclude the use of one’s free-will and paralyze the work of progress. The good and bad ahead of us are unknown as part of the trial.
If such a faculty, even restrict, may be the attribute of a creature how about at the level of the Creator that embraces the infinite? There is no time for God; the beginning and the end of the world are the present. In such a scenario what is the life of a person, of a generation, of a people?
Nonetheless and since each one must concur to the general progress and certain events must result from their cooperation, in certain cases it may be useful that a person may foresee those events to pave the way and be ready to act when the time is right. That is why sometimes God allows the tip of the veil to be lifted but that is always with a useful objective and never to satisfy futile curiosity. Thus such a mission may be given to certain Spirits, not to all of them since some do not know more about the future than people do, but to sufficiently advanced Spirits for that matter. It must be said that such revelations are always done spontaneously and never or at least very rarely in response to a direct question. Such a mission may equally be given to certain persons and here is how.
Someone that has been assigned with the task of revealing something that is occult may unpretentiously receive it by inspiration of the Spirits that have that knowledge and then transmit it mechanically, unnoticeably. Besides, it is a known fact that be it during the sleep or vigil or even in cases of ecstasy of double vision, the soul detached from the body and has in a more or lesser degree the faculties of the free Spirit. If that is an advanced Spirit and most importantly if, like the prophets, had received a special mission in that respect, at that moment of emancipation of the soul the Spirit enjoys the capacity of embracing a more or less extensive period and sees events of the future as if in the present. The Spirit may then reveal them immediately or keep their memory when waking up. If those events must be kept in secret the Spirit will lose that memory or just keep a vague intuition that is sufficient for an instinctive guidance. That is why we can see such a faculty providentially developing in certain occasions like in cases of imminent danger, great calamities and in revolutions where the majority of the persecuted sects had numerous clairvoyants. That is also why we see great commanders marching resolutely against the enemy with the certainty of victory as well as geniuses like Christopher Columbus, for example, chasing an objective and somehow predicting the time of reaching it. The reason is that they saw that objective that is not unknown to their Spirit. Every phenomena whose cause was unknown was considered marvelous. Once the law behind them is known they enter the rank of natural things. The gift of prediction is not more supernatural than a large number of other phenomena because it is founded on the properties of the soul and in the law of relationship between the visible and the invisible worlds that became known through Spiritism. But how to admit the existence of an invisible world if the soul is not admitted or its individuality after death is not accepted? The skeptical that denies prescience is consistent with herself. There is still the need to define if that person is consistent with herself when it comes to the natural law.
The theory of prescience may not solve all cases of prediction of the future in absolute terms but one must not deny the fact that it establishes its fundamental principle. If not everything can be explained that is due to the difficulty that human beings have in placing themselves in that kind of extraterrestrial stand point. Given the natural inferiority our thoughts are incessantly dragged to the material life and are frequently powerless to elevate above ground. With that respect certain persons are like those new birds whose wings are ever so weak that they can hardly fly or the short sighted ones that cannot see far away or finally like some others that lack a sense for certain perceptions. Nevertheless with some effort and the habit of meditation one can get there and the Spiritists do that faster than the others because they can better identify with and understand the spiritual life.
In order to understand spiritual things, that is, to have an idea as clear as that that we have about a landscape that stands before our eyes we do lack a sense, exactly like the blind person lacks a sense to understand the effects of light, colors and vision at a distance. We then only achieve that through an effort of our imagination, helped by comparisons that we make with familiar things. Material things, however, can only give us very imperfect images of spiritual things. That is why the comparisons should not be made word by word and believe, for example, that in the case that we are discussing the reach of the perceptive faculties of the Spirits are in proportion to their elevation and that they need to be on the top of the mountain or above the clouds to embrace time and space. Such a faculty is inherent to the level of spiritualization or, if you want, dematerialization. In other words spiritualization produces an effect that can be compared, although very imperfectly, to the vision of the whole of a person standing on the top of the mountain. That comparison only aimed at showing that events that are in the future to some may be in the present to others and in that case can be predicted but that does not mean that the effect is produced in the same way.
Therefore to enjoy such a perception the Spirit does not need to be transported to a given point in space. The one that is on Earth by our side may have it in its plenitude in the same way that the Spirit would have it even if located thousands of miles away, whereas we cannot see anything beyond the visual horizon. Since the vision of the Spirits is not produced neither in the same way nor with the same elements that it occurs with humans their horizon is very different. Well, that is precisely the sense that we miss to conceive it. Compared to an incarnate the Spirit is like a normal vision person compared to a blind one.
Besides, it is necessary to take into account that such a perception is not limited to the extension but it also incorporates penetration into all things. It is, and we repeat, a faculty inherent and proportional to the state of dematerialization. Such a faculty is lessened by incarnation but is not completely annulled because the soul is not contained in the body as if in a box. The incarnate has it in proportion to the evolution of the Spirit although always in a lesser degree than when separated from the body. That is what give to certain persons a power of penetration that others lack completely, a fairer moral assessment, a better understanding of the material things. The Spirit not only perceives but also remembers what was seen as a Spirit and that memory is like a picture that remains in their minds. During incarnation the Spirit sees but only vaguely like through a veil. In the state of freedom the Spirit clearly sees and conceives. The principle of vision is not outside but inside the Spirit. That is why there is no need for light.
The circle of ideas and conception broadens through the moral development; the Spirits purifies from the dense elements by the progressive dematerialization of the perispirit and that alters the subtlety of the perceptions and from that it becomes easy to understand that the extension of all faculties are a consequence of the progress of the Spirit. It is the degree of extension of the faculties that during the incarnation makes the Spirit more or less apt to conceive spiritual things. Such aptitude, however, is not a necessary consequence of the intellectual development because it is not given by common science. That is why we see people of great intelligence and knowledge that are as blind to spiritual matters as others are to material things. They reject those things because they do not understand them. That happens because their progress has not happened in that direction yet whereas there are people of common intelligence and education that learn them with great ease demonstrating that they had a previous intuition of them.
The possibility of changing their stand point seeing things from above not only gives the solution to the problem of prescience but also the key to a true and solid faith. It is also the most powerful element of strength and resignation because since life appears as a single point in the infinite one understands the little importance of things that seen from below seem so important. The incidents, miseries and vanities of life are belittled before the immense and splendid horizon of the future that unveils ahead. Someone that look at things in that way is hardly reached by vicissitudes and for that very reason is as happy as possible down here. One must then feel sorry for those that concentrate their minds in the narrow sphere of Earth because they feel the full power of the counter action of every tribulation that like so many other spearheads incessantly hurt them.
When it comes to the future of Spiritism, as it is well-known, the Spirits are unanimous in predicting the near ahead triumph despite the barriers that are imposed. Such a prediction is easy to them first because its propagation is the result of their personal work and consequently they know what must be done and second because all they need is to observe a period of short duration and in that period they see powerful supporters recruited by God and that will soon manifest.
Since they are not discarnate Spirits, the Spiritists must only look thirty years ahead and observe the new generation; consider what is happening today; follow the tracks and they will see the useless efforts of those that are called in to destroy Spiritism turning into ashes. They will see those efforts disappearing gradually side by side with the tree whose roots expand daily. This study will be completed by the references available between prediction and fatality. Meanwhile we refer the reader to what was said about the last point in The Spirits’ Book, item 851 and beyond.
This book is already well-known today hence it dismisses the need for an analysis. We will limit ourselves to the analysis of the author’s point of view and deduce its consequences. The author makes a touching dedication to the soul of his sister at the top; although too short it is a fundamental text because it is a profession of faith. We show the full text because it gives rise to important observations of general interest.
-o-
To the pure soul of my sister Henriette, deceased in Biblos on September 24th, 1861
“Do you remember, from the heart of God where you rest, those long days in Ghazir where with you alone I wrote these pages inspired by the places that we had just visited? You quietly read and copied them by my side while the ocean, the villages, the ravine and mountains unfolded under our feet. When the extenuating light replaced the innumerable army of stars your smart and kind questions, your discrete doubts redirected me to the sublime object of our common thoughts. One day you said that you would love this book first because it had been written with you and it pleased you. If sometimes you feared the narrow opinion of frivolous people you were also persuaded that the true religious souls would finally like it. Among such sweet meditations death came to hurt us both with its wing. The fever made us sleep at the same time. I woke up alone! You now sleep in Adonis’ land near the sacred Biblos and the sacred waters where the women of the old mysteries came to spill their tears. Reveal to me, oh good genie, the one that you loved, reveal to me those truths that dominate death, impede fear and almost have it loved.”
Unless one does believe that Mr. Renan is unworthy joking it is impossible that such words may come out form a pen of someone that believes in the void. We certainly see writers of elastic talent playing with the most contradictory beliefs to the point of confusing people about their own feelings. They have the skill of imitation. To them an idea does not need to be an article of faith. It is a theme that they work irrespectively if that may or may not excite imagination, but that they modify in a way or another according to the circumstances. But there are subjects that even the most hardened skeptical cannot touch without feeling sacrilege.
Such is Mr. Renan’s dedication. In similar cases a generous person abstains instead of speaking against her own convictions. This is not one of those subjects that are picked to impress people.
Considering the form of dedication as an expression of the author’s mind we find there more than a vague spiritualist thought. It is not about the soul lost in the depth of space absorbed by an eternal and blessed contemplation or in endless pain; it is not the soul of the pantheist either annihilated in the ocean of universal intelligence. It is the picture of the individual soul with the memory of its earthly affections and occupations, returning to the habitual places near the loved ones. Mr. Renan would speak like that about a myth or someone lost in the nothingness. For him the soul of his sister is by his side. She sees and inspire him and is interested in his work. There is an exchange of thoughts, a spiritual communication between them. Like many others he performs a true evocation unnoticeably. What is missing for it to become a complete Spiritist belief? Material communication. Why does Mr. Renan put it in the row of superstitious beliefs? Because he does not accept the marvelous and the supernatural. If he acknowledged, however, the real state of the soul after death as well as the properties of the perispirit he would understand that the phenomenon of the Spiritist manifestations does not distance itself from the natural laws and that for that it is not necessary to resource to the marvelous; that if the phenomenon must have been produced in all periods and with all peoples it has been the source of a number of events certainly classified as supernatural by some and by others attributed to imagination; that nobody has the power to block such manifestations and that in certain cases it is possible to provoke them.
What is it that Spiritism does other than revealing to us a new law of nature? It does to a certain order of phenomena what others did the discovery of the laws of electricity, gravitation, molecular affinity and so for. Would science then have the pretension of having said the last word about nature? Is there anything more astonishing and more wonderful than corresponding with someone five hundred miles away in a matter of minutes? Before the knowledge of the laws of electricity similar communication would have been considered magic, witchcraft, a devilish thing or miracle. A wise person that would have heard it would have undoubtedly denied it and that person would not lack excellent reasons to demonstrate that it was physically impossible. Impossible, no doubt, according to the known laws but perfectly possible according to a law that was not known yet. Why then would that be easier to communicate instantaneously with a living being whose body is five hundred miles away than with the soul of that same creature that is by our side? People will say that it is for the fact that there isn’t a body any more. But who can assure you that? It is precisely the opposite that Spiritism demonstrates, proving that if the soul no longer has a material, dense and ponderable envelope it does have a fluidic, imponderable body but that still is some kind of matter; that such envelope, invisible in its natural state, can in certain circumstances and through some sort of molecular modification, become visible like vapor in condensation. As one can see that is a very natural phenomenon whose key Spiritism provides through the law that governs the relationships between the visible and the invisible world.
Persuaded that the soul or Spirit, same thing, of this sister was close to him, Mr. Renan saw and heard her and hence he should believe that such a soul was something. If someone had come to tell him: that soul, whose presence is guessed in your mind, is not a vague and undefined creature; it is a limited, circumscribed being, with a fluidic body and invisible like the majority of the fluids; for her was only the destruction of her corporeal envelope but she kept her ethereal and indestructible cover so much so that your sister is by your side as she was when alive but without the body that was left behind, like the butterfly leaves its chrysalis; dying she had only undressed from the dense garment that can no longer serve her and that kept her on the surface of the planet, but she kept the light outfit that allows her to transport to wherever she wants and transpose distances with a lightning speed; from a moral point of view it is the same person with the same ideas and affections, the same intelligence but with new, broader and more subtle perceptions for her faculties are no longer compressed by the dense and heavy matter through which they had to communicate. Tell us if such an image is irrational at all! By proving that this is real, is Spiritism ridiculous as some pretend? What is it that Spiritism does, after all? It demonstrates in a positive way the existence of the soul. Demonstrating that she is a defined being Spiritism gives a real objective to our memories and affections. If Mr. Renan’s thoughts were not but a dream, a poetic fiction, with Spiritism such thoughts transform from fiction into reality.
In all times philosophy struggled in the search for the soul, its nature, faculties, its origin and destiny. Countless theories were created about it but the issue had always remained undefined. Why? Apparently because none of them found the knot to untangle the problem and did not resolve it satisfactorily in order to convince everyone.
Spiritism, in turn, brings that solution. It is based on experimental psychology and studies the soul both during life and after death; it isolate the soul and studies it; it follows the soul and its actions in a free state while ordinary philosophy only sees the soul united to the body, enduring the obstacles of matter, reason why cause and effect are frequently confounded. Ordinary philosophy tries to demonstrate the existence of the soul and its attributes by the use of abstract formulas, unintelligible to the crowds, whereas Spiritism provides positive proofs of its existence allowing it to be in a way tangible to the eyes and fingers. It explains that clearly and understandable by anyone. Would the simplicity of its language subtract its philosophical character as intended by certain scholars?
Nevertheless the Spiritist philosophy contains, to the eyes of many, a serious mistake expressed in a single word. The word soul, even to the nonbelievers, has something of respectable and powerful. The word Spirit, on the contrary, excites in them the marvelous ideas of the legends, the fairy tales, the will-o’-the-wisp[1], the werewolf, etc. They accept in good faith that someone may believe in the soul although they don’t believe themselves but they cannot understand that someone may believe in Spirits out of common-sense. Hence the prevention that makes them look at the science as something puerile and unworthy of their attention. Judging it by the name-tag they believe it to be inseparable from magic and witchcraft.
How about this if Spiritism had abstained from using the word Spirit and if in all cases had it replaced by the word soul their impression would have been absolutely different. Strictly speaking those profound philosophers and free-thinkers would admit, without any issue, that the soul of a loved one hear our cries and come to inspire us but will not admit that the same happens to their Spirit. Mr. Renan placed this at the top of his dedication: “To the pure soul of my sister Henriette”. Couldn’t have him said this: To the pure Spirit of my sister Henriette? Now then, why has Spiritism utilized the word Spirit? Is that a mistake? Not at all and much to the contrary. First of all since the first manifestations and even before the creation of the Spiritist philosophy that word was already used. Since it was about the deduction of the moral consequences of those manifestations, it was useful to keep a usual word to show the connection between the two parts of the science. Moreover it was evident that the prevention associated to that word, circumscribed to a special group of persons, should fade away with time. The inconvenience was just momentary. Second, if on one side the word Spirit was repulsive to some on the other it was attractive to many and should contribute more than any other to the popularization of the Doctrine. Hence it was preferable to choose the larger number rather than the smaller.
A third reason is more serious than the two preceding ones. The words soul and Spirit, although synonyms and employed indifferently, do not express exactly the same idea. The soul is, as a matter of fact, the intelligent principle, a principle that is undefined and imperceptible like a thought. In our current state of knowledge we cannot conceive the Spirit isolated from matter in absolute terms. The perispirit, although formed by a subtle matter, turns it into a limited being, defined and circumscribed to its own spiritual individuality from which we can formulate the following proposition: The union between the soul, the perispirit and the body constitute a human being; the soul and the perispirit separated from the body constitute the being called Spirit. Consequently it is not the soul alone that shows up in the manifestations. The soul is always covered by its fluidic envelope and that envelope is the necessary intermediary through which the soul acts upon dense matter. In the apparitions it is not the soul that is seen but the perispirit, in the same way that when a person is seen it is the body that is seen instead of the thought, the force and the principle that make that body move. In short the soul is the simple, primitive being; the Spirit is the double being; a person is the triple being. If we add clothes to a person we have the quadruple. In the circumstance discussed here the word Spirit is the one that best correspond to what one intends to express. One can conceive the Spirit in one’s mind but not the soul.
Convinced that the soul of his sister saw him and understood him Mr. Renan could not suppose that she was alone in space. A simple thought should tell him that the same must happen to all those that leave Earth. The souls or Spirits spread like so in the immensity constitute the invisible world that surrounds us and in whose environment we live so that that world is not composed of fantastic creatures, gnomes, elves and demons with their horns and paws but composed of the same beings that formed earthly humanity. What is absurd about that? The visible and invisible world are therefore in perpetual contact thus resulting in a permanent reaction of one upon the other. From that a large number of phenomena enter the order of natural events. Modern Spiritism has not either discovered or invented them. It studied and observed them better. It sought their laws and for that very reason subtracted them from the order of marvelous phenomena. Facts related to the invisible world and its relationships with the visible more or less observed in all times belong to the history of all peoples and in particular to their religious history. That is why many profane as well as sacred writers refer to them in many passages. The lack of knowledge about those relationships made so many passages to remain unintelligible and interpreted so diverse and falsely. It is for the same reason that Mr. Renan was so strangely wrong with respect to the nature of the events reported in the Gospels and about the meaning of the words said by Jesus Christ, their role and true character as we will demonstrate in our next article. These thoughts to which we were led by his dedication, were necessary to appreciate the consequences that he saw from his standpoint.
[1] Something deceptive, deluding (TN)
-o-
To the pure soul of my sister Henriette, deceased in Biblos on September 24th, 1861
“Do you remember, from the heart of God where you rest, those long days in Ghazir where with you alone I wrote these pages inspired by the places that we had just visited? You quietly read and copied them by my side while the ocean, the villages, the ravine and mountains unfolded under our feet. When the extenuating light replaced the innumerable army of stars your smart and kind questions, your discrete doubts redirected me to the sublime object of our common thoughts. One day you said that you would love this book first because it had been written with you and it pleased you. If sometimes you feared the narrow opinion of frivolous people you were also persuaded that the true religious souls would finally like it. Among such sweet meditations death came to hurt us both with its wing. The fever made us sleep at the same time. I woke up alone! You now sleep in Adonis’ land near the sacred Biblos and the sacred waters where the women of the old mysteries came to spill their tears. Reveal to me, oh good genie, the one that you loved, reveal to me those truths that dominate death, impede fear and almost have it loved.”
Unless one does believe that Mr. Renan is unworthy joking it is impossible that such words may come out form a pen of someone that believes in the void. We certainly see writers of elastic talent playing with the most contradictory beliefs to the point of confusing people about their own feelings. They have the skill of imitation. To them an idea does not need to be an article of faith. It is a theme that they work irrespectively if that may or may not excite imagination, but that they modify in a way or another according to the circumstances. But there are subjects that even the most hardened skeptical cannot touch without feeling sacrilege.
Such is Mr. Renan’s dedication. In similar cases a generous person abstains instead of speaking against her own convictions. This is not one of those subjects that are picked to impress people.
Considering the form of dedication as an expression of the author’s mind we find there more than a vague spiritualist thought. It is not about the soul lost in the depth of space absorbed by an eternal and blessed contemplation or in endless pain; it is not the soul of the pantheist either annihilated in the ocean of universal intelligence. It is the picture of the individual soul with the memory of its earthly affections and occupations, returning to the habitual places near the loved ones. Mr. Renan would speak like that about a myth or someone lost in the nothingness. For him the soul of his sister is by his side. She sees and inspire him and is interested in his work. There is an exchange of thoughts, a spiritual communication between them. Like many others he performs a true evocation unnoticeably. What is missing for it to become a complete Spiritist belief? Material communication. Why does Mr. Renan put it in the row of superstitious beliefs? Because he does not accept the marvelous and the supernatural. If he acknowledged, however, the real state of the soul after death as well as the properties of the perispirit he would understand that the phenomenon of the Spiritist manifestations does not distance itself from the natural laws and that for that it is not necessary to resource to the marvelous; that if the phenomenon must have been produced in all periods and with all peoples it has been the source of a number of events certainly classified as supernatural by some and by others attributed to imagination; that nobody has the power to block such manifestations and that in certain cases it is possible to provoke them.
What is it that Spiritism does other than revealing to us a new law of nature? It does to a certain order of phenomena what others did the discovery of the laws of electricity, gravitation, molecular affinity and so for. Would science then have the pretension of having said the last word about nature? Is there anything more astonishing and more wonderful than corresponding with someone five hundred miles away in a matter of minutes? Before the knowledge of the laws of electricity similar communication would have been considered magic, witchcraft, a devilish thing or miracle. A wise person that would have heard it would have undoubtedly denied it and that person would not lack excellent reasons to demonstrate that it was physically impossible. Impossible, no doubt, according to the known laws but perfectly possible according to a law that was not known yet. Why then would that be easier to communicate instantaneously with a living being whose body is five hundred miles away than with the soul of that same creature that is by our side? People will say that it is for the fact that there isn’t a body any more. But who can assure you that? It is precisely the opposite that Spiritism demonstrates, proving that if the soul no longer has a material, dense and ponderable envelope it does have a fluidic, imponderable body but that still is some kind of matter; that such envelope, invisible in its natural state, can in certain circumstances and through some sort of molecular modification, become visible like vapor in condensation. As one can see that is a very natural phenomenon whose key Spiritism provides through the law that governs the relationships between the visible and the invisible world.
Persuaded that the soul or Spirit, same thing, of this sister was close to him, Mr. Renan saw and heard her and hence he should believe that such a soul was something. If someone had come to tell him: that soul, whose presence is guessed in your mind, is not a vague and undefined creature; it is a limited, circumscribed being, with a fluidic body and invisible like the majority of the fluids; for her was only the destruction of her corporeal envelope but she kept her ethereal and indestructible cover so much so that your sister is by your side as she was when alive but without the body that was left behind, like the butterfly leaves its chrysalis; dying she had only undressed from the dense garment that can no longer serve her and that kept her on the surface of the planet, but she kept the light outfit that allows her to transport to wherever she wants and transpose distances with a lightning speed; from a moral point of view it is the same person with the same ideas and affections, the same intelligence but with new, broader and more subtle perceptions for her faculties are no longer compressed by the dense and heavy matter through which they had to communicate. Tell us if such an image is irrational at all! By proving that this is real, is Spiritism ridiculous as some pretend? What is it that Spiritism does, after all? It demonstrates in a positive way the existence of the soul. Demonstrating that she is a defined being Spiritism gives a real objective to our memories and affections. If Mr. Renan’s thoughts were not but a dream, a poetic fiction, with Spiritism such thoughts transform from fiction into reality.
In all times philosophy struggled in the search for the soul, its nature, faculties, its origin and destiny. Countless theories were created about it but the issue had always remained undefined. Why? Apparently because none of them found the knot to untangle the problem and did not resolve it satisfactorily in order to convince everyone.
Spiritism, in turn, brings that solution. It is based on experimental psychology and studies the soul both during life and after death; it isolate the soul and studies it; it follows the soul and its actions in a free state while ordinary philosophy only sees the soul united to the body, enduring the obstacles of matter, reason why cause and effect are frequently confounded. Ordinary philosophy tries to demonstrate the existence of the soul and its attributes by the use of abstract formulas, unintelligible to the crowds, whereas Spiritism provides positive proofs of its existence allowing it to be in a way tangible to the eyes and fingers. It explains that clearly and understandable by anyone. Would the simplicity of its language subtract its philosophical character as intended by certain scholars?
Nevertheless the Spiritist philosophy contains, to the eyes of many, a serious mistake expressed in a single word. The word soul, even to the nonbelievers, has something of respectable and powerful. The word Spirit, on the contrary, excites in them the marvelous ideas of the legends, the fairy tales, the will-o’-the-wisp[1], the werewolf, etc. They accept in good faith that someone may believe in the soul although they don’t believe themselves but they cannot understand that someone may believe in Spirits out of common-sense. Hence the prevention that makes them look at the science as something puerile and unworthy of their attention. Judging it by the name-tag they believe it to be inseparable from magic and witchcraft.
How about this if Spiritism had abstained from using the word Spirit and if in all cases had it replaced by the word soul their impression would have been absolutely different. Strictly speaking those profound philosophers and free-thinkers would admit, without any issue, that the soul of a loved one hear our cries and come to inspire us but will not admit that the same happens to their Spirit. Mr. Renan placed this at the top of his dedication: “To the pure soul of my sister Henriette”. Couldn’t have him said this: To the pure Spirit of my sister Henriette? Now then, why has Spiritism utilized the word Spirit? Is that a mistake? Not at all and much to the contrary. First of all since the first manifestations and even before the creation of the Spiritist philosophy that word was already used. Since it was about the deduction of the moral consequences of those manifestations, it was useful to keep a usual word to show the connection between the two parts of the science. Moreover it was evident that the prevention associated to that word, circumscribed to a special group of persons, should fade away with time. The inconvenience was just momentary. Second, if on one side the word Spirit was repulsive to some on the other it was attractive to many and should contribute more than any other to the popularization of the Doctrine. Hence it was preferable to choose the larger number rather than the smaller.
A third reason is more serious than the two preceding ones. The words soul and Spirit, although synonyms and employed indifferently, do not express exactly the same idea. The soul is, as a matter of fact, the intelligent principle, a principle that is undefined and imperceptible like a thought. In our current state of knowledge we cannot conceive the Spirit isolated from matter in absolute terms. The perispirit, although formed by a subtle matter, turns it into a limited being, defined and circumscribed to its own spiritual individuality from which we can formulate the following proposition: The union between the soul, the perispirit and the body constitute a human being; the soul and the perispirit separated from the body constitute the being called Spirit. Consequently it is not the soul alone that shows up in the manifestations. The soul is always covered by its fluidic envelope and that envelope is the necessary intermediary through which the soul acts upon dense matter. In the apparitions it is not the soul that is seen but the perispirit, in the same way that when a person is seen it is the body that is seen instead of the thought, the force and the principle that make that body move. In short the soul is the simple, primitive being; the Spirit is the double being; a person is the triple being. If we add clothes to a person we have the quadruple. In the circumstance discussed here the word Spirit is the one that best correspond to what one intends to express. One can conceive the Spirit in one’s mind but not the soul.
Convinced that the soul of his sister saw him and understood him Mr. Renan could not suppose that she was alone in space. A simple thought should tell him that the same must happen to all those that leave Earth. The souls or Spirits spread like so in the immensity constitute the invisible world that surrounds us and in whose environment we live so that that world is not composed of fantastic creatures, gnomes, elves and demons with their horns and paws but composed of the same beings that formed earthly humanity. What is absurd about that? The visible and invisible world are therefore in perpetual contact thus resulting in a permanent reaction of one upon the other. From that a large number of phenomena enter the order of natural events. Modern Spiritism has not either discovered or invented them. It studied and observed them better. It sought their laws and for that very reason subtracted them from the order of marvelous phenomena. Facts related to the invisible world and its relationships with the visible more or less observed in all times belong to the history of all peoples and in particular to their religious history. That is why many profane as well as sacred writers refer to them in many passages. The lack of knowledge about those relationships made so many passages to remain unintelligible and interpreted so diverse and falsely. It is for the same reason that Mr. Renan was so strangely wrong with respect to the nature of the events reported in the Gospels and about the meaning of the words said by Jesus Christ, their role and true character as we will demonstrate in our next article. These thoughts to which we were led by his dedication, were necessary to appreciate the consequences that he saw from his standpoint.
[1] Something deceptive, deluding (TN)
Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues:
The Society has entered its seventh year and such a period has significance when dealing with a new science. A fact of not minor importance is that it has always followed an ascending march. However, ladies and gentlemen, we know that its progress has taken place more in the moral than in the material sense. It not only did not open its doors to the first one that showed up but also did not solicit to take part any one in particular; It was more concerned with limitation than an indefinite expansion.
The number of active members is in fact secondary to any society that is not greedy. The Society does not seek sponsors hence it is not attained to numbers. That is demanded by the very nature of its works that are exclusively scientific for which calm and seriousness are necessary and not the movement of the crowds. The sign of prosperity of the Society is not therefore in the number of people or their position. It is entirely in the progression of its studies, in the respect that it has gained, in the moral ascendance that it has out there and finally in the number of followers that are in line with the principles that it promotes, even if they are not part of the Society. With that respect, ladies and gentlemen, you must know that it has gone beyond our forecasts. And, this is remarkable, it is not only in France that it has found its place but also abroad because for the true Spiritists all men are brothers irrespective of their nations. The material proof is the number of societies and groups that from several countries place themselves under the sponsorship of the Society asking for its advice. That is a remarkable fact and the more characteristic the more such a convergence occurs spontaneously since it is not less remarkable that the Society hasn’t provoked or solicited that convergence. It is then voluntarily that they come to gather under the flag raised by the Society. What are the causes for all that? The causes are multifold. It is useful to examine them because that will be part of the history of Spiritism. One of the causes is naturally the fact that it was the first regularly formed and also the first to enlarge the scope of its studies, embracing all parts of the Spiritist science. When Spiritism had just left the period of curiosity and the dancing tables it entered the resolutely philosophical period that in a way was inaugurated by the Society. For that very reason it attracted the attention of serious people from the beginning. But that would have done no good if it had remained alien to the principles taught by the generality of the Spirits. If the Society had only professed its own ideas it would never had imposed such ideas to the immense majority of followers in every country. The Society represents the principles formulated in the Spirits’ Book and being those principles taught everywhere people connected themselves to the center that irradiated those principles while those that remained away from that center stayed isolated for not finding echoes amongst the Spirits. I will repeat here what I said elsewhere because it is never too much to repeat.
The strength of Spiritism is not on the opinion of a single man or Spirit. It is in the universality of the teachings of the Spirits. The universal control, like the universal suffrage, will solve all the litigation issues in the future. It will establish the unity of the Doctrine much better than a council of persons. You may rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, that this principle will open its path like the “there is no salvation but through charity” because it is based on the strictest logic and on the abnegation of personality. It will not oppose but the adversaries of Spiritism as well as those that only have faith in their own knowledge.
The Spiritist Society of Paris conquered that position because it has never moved away from the path designed by a sound logic. People trust it because they know that it does not make any move lightheartedly; that it does not impose its own ideas and that by its position and more than anybody else it may attest the direction of its pronouncement in what can be fairly called the universal suffrage of the Spirits. If one day the Society would position differently from the majority it would forcibly no longer be the point of connection. Spiritism would not fall because its supporting point is everywhere but since the Society would not have its own supporting point it would fall.
In fact due to its exception nature Spiritism does not depend more on a society than on an individual. The Parisian Society has never said: - there is no Spiritism but through me – because it would cease existing if said so while Spiritism would not stop following its course because its roots are in the uncountable multitude of interpreters of the Spirits around the world and not in any given meeting whose existence is always eventual. The testimonies received by the Society demonstrate that it is liked and respected and that is what is more cherished. If the first cause of that is in the characteristics of its works it is fair to add that it is in the good judgement they carried from its sessions the large number of foreigners that came to visit it. The order, dignity, seriousness and the fraternal feelings that they witnessed here, more than all words, convinced them about its eminently serious character.
That is, ladies and gentlemen, the position that as a founder of the Society I promptly attested. That is also the reason why I have never yielded to any incitement that would veer it off from the path of caution. I let the impatient speak in good or bad faith. You know what became of them whereas the Society is still standing. The mission of the Society is not to solicit followers on its own and that is why it has never invited the public. The objective of its works, as explained in its name, is the progress of the Spiritist science. To achieve that the Society utilizes not only its own observations but also those that are done elsewhere. It collects documents that come from all sides, study, investigate and compare them in order to deduce their principles and extract the teachings that it propagates but not lightheartedly. That is how everyone benefits from its works and if they acquire certain authority it is for reason that everybody knows that they are achieved consciously, without any systematic prevention against people or things. You must then understand that to achieve such an objective a more or less considerable number of members is irrelevant. The result would be achieve with a dozen persons as well as or even better than with a few hundreds. Since it has no material interest that explains why it does not aim at a number. It does nothing out of curiosity and its objective is solemn and serious. Finally, considering that the elements of science would not teach it anything new the Society does not waste time by repeating what it already knows. As we have said, its role is to work towards the progress of science through the study. The Society is not sought after by those that know nothing and want to be convinced but by the already initiated followers that come to gather new instructions. That is its true character. What the Society really needs, what is really indispensable to the Society are broad relationships that allow it to see the general movement from above, to assess the whole, to align to the general movement and make it known. The Society does have those relationships that came to be spontaneously and that grow by the day as you have the proof through our correspondence.
The number of groups that are formed under its auspices and that require its sponsorship by the reasons above is the most characteristic fact of the social year that has just ended. This is not just an honor to the Society but something of capital importance for it demonstrates at the same time the reach of the Doctrine and the direction in which the unity must be established. Those that know us know the relationships between the Parisian Society and the others but it is of the essence that everybody else knows to avoid mistakes that could be brought up by smearing.
Therefore it is not superfluous to repeat that the Spiritists do not form among themselves neither a congregation nor an association; that among the multiple societies there is no material dependence or affiliation, occult or ostensible; that they do not obey any secret commandment; that those that are members are always free to leave if they wish to do so; that if their doors are not open to the public that is not because there is secrecy or hidden phenomena there but because they do not wish to be disturbed by curiosity or trouble makers. Far from acting in the shadows there are, on the contrary, always open to the investigation of proper authorities and to follow the requirements of the law. The Parisian Society only has moral authority upon the others due to its position and to its studies and because such authority is conferred by the others. It provides advices that are requested from its experience but do not impose itself to any of them. The only commandment that it gives, like a password amongst the Spiritists, is this: charity to everyone eve towards the enemies. It would therefore decline any moral support to any other society that would move away from such a principle; that were driven by material interests; that instead of keeping the union and good harmony they would tend to spread division among the followers because that very action would set them apart from the Doctrine.
The Parisian Society cannot take responsibility for the abuse that, out of ignorance or other causes, people can do to Spiritism. It does not intend in any shape or form to cover under its blanket the abusers as it cannot nor it should defend them before law enforcement in case of persecution because that would be an approval of something that the Doctrine rejects. When criticism is addressed to such abuses we must not rebuff but just respond: if you were to take the burden and study Spiritism you would understand its message and would not accuse it of doing something that it condemns. Therefore it is up to the Spiritists to carefully avoid anything that can give rise to founded criticism. Everyone will certainly achieve that by keeping aligned to the precepts of the Doctrine. It is not just because a meeting has the title Spiritist group, circle or society that it must necessarily have our full support. The tag has never been an absolute guarantee of the quality of the product but according to the maxim: “the tree is known by the fruit it bears” we assess them by the feelings that guide them, their driver, and we judge them by their works.
The Parisian Society is glad when able to add to the list of its members those gatherings that offer all the desired guarantees of order, good attitude, sincerity, devotion and personal abnegation and that can be offered as a role model to their brothers in faith. The position of the Parisian Society is consequently exclusively moral and it has never ambitioned any other. Those among our opponents that pretend that every Spiritist pays fees to the Society; that it enriches from their contributions, subtracting money from their little resources and that it evaluates its profit by the number of followers give proof of a remarkable ill-faith or of the most absolute ignorance about what they speak. There is no doubt that it has its own conscience and its archives to speak for itself but also to confound imposture and always give the testimony of truth in the present as well as in the future.
Without a premeditated role and by the force of things the Society became a center to where teachings of all kinds related to Spiritism converge. It is in what can be called an exceptional condition in that respect for the elements that it has to base an opinion. It can, better than anybody else, determine the real state of progress of the Doctrine in each country and appreciate the local causes that can it favor it or delay its development. That statistics will not be one of the less precious elements to the history of Spiritism and at the same time allows for the study of the maneuvers of the adversaries and calculate the reach of their blows that try to knock Spiritism down. This observation would be enough to allow for the prediction of the definitive result of the struggle as one judges the result of a battle by the movement of the two armies.
It can be said with absolute truth that we occupy the first row for the observation of not only people’s tactics but also those employed by the Spirits. In fact we see from the part of the latter a unity of views and plan that are providentially combined against which every human effort must forcibly shatter for the Spirits can reach and hurt mankind but the opposite is not true. As we can see the game is unequally balanced.
History of modern Spiritism will be something really curious because it will be about the fight between the visible and the invisible worlds. People in antiquity would have said: the fight between people and the gods. It will also be about facts and in particular about people that played a role in those events as true supports or adversaries of the cause. It is necessary that future generations know who those that deserve a fair tribute of acknowledgement are. They need to pay tribute to the true pioneers of the regenerating work and that no glory be stolen. What will give that history a very particular aspect is that instead of being consolidated many year or centuries after the fact based on traditions and legends it occurs while the events take place and based on authentic data from which we have, thanks to our unstoppable correspondence with every country where the Doctrine penetrates, we have the most complete archive that exists in the world.
Spiritism cannot and undoubtedly be reached by the lies and allegations of its adversaries with which they try to make it a fantasy. They could, however, give a false idea of its origins and its means of action, casting false testimonies against the actions and characters of people that may have cooperated with the Doctrine, if they were not officially countered. In the future these archives will be the light that will dissipate doubts, a mine from where the commentators of the future will certainly resource from. You now see, ladies and gentlemen, the importance of this work in the interest of true history. Our Society itself will be interested in this considering its own participation in the process.
The proverb says: “Nobility obliges”. Society’s position also imposes the obligations of preserving its credit and moral ascendance. The first one is that of not moving away from a theoretical point of view of the guidelines followed so far considering that the fruits are now being picked; the second one is the good example that it must give, justifying by its practice the excellence of the Doctrine that professes. It is a fact that such example, by demonstrating the moralizing influence of Spiritism, is a powerful element of propagation and, at the same time, of keeping the mouth of its detractors shut. A nonbeliever that only knew the philosophical part of the Doctrine said that with “such principles the Spiritist must necessary be a good person.” These words are profoundly true but to complement them we need to add that a true Spiritist must necessarily be good and benevolent towards their fellow human beings, that is, practice the evangelical charity in its broadest expression.
That is the grace that all of us must ask God to give us, making us receptive to the advices given by the good Spirits that assist us. Let us equally ask them to continue to protect us during the year that begins and that they may give us the strength to become worthy. That is the safest way of justifying and maintaining the position conquered by the Society.
A.K.
The Society has entered its seventh year and such a period has significance when dealing with a new science. A fact of not minor importance is that it has always followed an ascending march. However, ladies and gentlemen, we know that its progress has taken place more in the moral than in the material sense. It not only did not open its doors to the first one that showed up but also did not solicit to take part any one in particular; It was more concerned with limitation than an indefinite expansion.
The number of active members is in fact secondary to any society that is not greedy. The Society does not seek sponsors hence it is not attained to numbers. That is demanded by the very nature of its works that are exclusively scientific for which calm and seriousness are necessary and not the movement of the crowds. The sign of prosperity of the Society is not therefore in the number of people or their position. It is entirely in the progression of its studies, in the respect that it has gained, in the moral ascendance that it has out there and finally in the number of followers that are in line with the principles that it promotes, even if they are not part of the Society. With that respect, ladies and gentlemen, you must know that it has gone beyond our forecasts. And, this is remarkable, it is not only in France that it has found its place but also abroad because for the true Spiritists all men are brothers irrespective of their nations. The material proof is the number of societies and groups that from several countries place themselves under the sponsorship of the Society asking for its advice. That is a remarkable fact and the more characteristic the more such a convergence occurs spontaneously since it is not less remarkable that the Society hasn’t provoked or solicited that convergence. It is then voluntarily that they come to gather under the flag raised by the Society. What are the causes for all that? The causes are multifold. It is useful to examine them because that will be part of the history of Spiritism. One of the causes is naturally the fact that it was the first regularly formed and also the first to enlarge the scope of its studies, embracing all parts of the Spiritist science. When Spiritism had just left the period of curiosity and the dancing tables it entered the resolutely philosophical period that in a way was inaugurated by the Society. For that very reason it attracted the attention of serious people from the beginning. But that would have done no good if it had remained alien to the principles taught by the generality of the Spirits. If the Society had only professed its own ideas it would never had imposed such ideas to the immense majority of followers in every country. The Society represents the principles formulated in the Spirits’ Book and being those principles taught everywhere people connected themselves to the center that irradiated those principles while those that remained away from that center stayed isolated for not finding echoes amongst the Spirits. I will repeat here what I said elsewhere because it is never too much to repeat.
The strength of Spiritism is not on the opinion of a single man or Spirit. It is in the universality of the teachings of the Spirits. The universal control, like the universal suffrage, will solve all the litigation issues in the future. It will establish the unity of the Doctrine much better than a council of persons. You may rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, that this principle will open its path like the “there is no salvation but through charity” because it is based on the strictest logic and on the abnegation of personality. It will not oppose but the adversaries of Spiritism as well as those that only have faith in their own knowledge.
The Spiritist Society of Paris conquered that position because it has never moved away from the path designed by a sound logic. People trust it because they know that it does not make any move lightheartedly; that it does not impose its own ideas and that by its position and more than anybody else it may attest the direction of its pronouncement in what can be fairly called the universal suffrage of the Spirits. If one day the Society would position differently from the majority it would forcibly no longer be the point of connection. Spiritism would not fall because its supporting point is everywhere but since the Society would not have its own supporting point it would fall.
In fact due to its exception nature Spiritism does not depend more on a society than on an individual. The Parisian Society has never said: - there is no Spiritism but through me – because it would cease existing if said so while Spiritism would not stop following its course because its roots are in the uncountable multitude of interpreters of the Spirits around the world and not in any given meeting whose existence is always eventual. The testimonies received by the Society demonstrate that it is liked and respected and that is what is more cherished. If the first cause of that is in the characteristics of its works it is fair to add that it is in the good judgement they carried from its sessions the large number of foreigners that came to visit it. The order, dignity, seriousness and the fraternal feelings that they witnessed here, more than all words, convinced them about its eminently serious character.
That is, ladies and gentlemen, the position that as a founder of the Society I promptly attested. That is also the reason why I have never yielded to any incitement that would veer it off from the path of caution. I let the impatient speak in good or bad faith. You know what became of them whereas the Society is still standing. The mission of the Society is not to solicit followers on its own and that is why it has never invited the public. The objective of its works, as explained in its name, is the progress of the Spiritist science. To achieve that the Society utilizes not only its own observations but also those that are done elsewhere. It collects documents that come from all sides, study, investigate and compare them in order to deduce their principles and extract the teachings that it propagates but not lightheartedly. That is how everyone benefits from its works and if they acquire certain authority it is for reason that everybody knows that they are achieved consciously, without any systematic prevention against people or things. You must then understand that to achieve such an objective a more or less considerable number of members is irrelevant. The result would be achieve with a dozen persons as well as or even better than with a few hundreds. Since it has no material interest that explains why it does not aim at a number. It does nothing out of curiosity and its objective is solemn and serious. Finally, considering that the elements of science would not teach it anything new the Society does not waste time by repeating what it already knows. As we have said, its role is to work towards the progress of science through the study. The Society is not sought after by those that know nothing and want to be convinced but by the already initiated followers that come to gather new instructions. That is its true character. What the Society really needs, what is really indispensable to the Society are broad relationships that allow it to see the general movement from above, to assess the whole, to align to the general movement and make it known. The Society does have those relationships that came to be spontaneously and that grow by the day as you have the proof through our correspondence.
The number of groups that are formed under its auspices and that require its sponsorship by the reasons above is the most characteristic fact of the social year that has just ended. This is not just an honor to the Society but something of capital importance for it demonstrates at the same time the reach of the Doctrine and the direction in which the unity must be established. Those that know us know the relationships between the Parisian Society and the others but it is of the essence that everybody else knows to avoid mistakes that could be brought up by smearing.
Therefore it is not superfluous to repeat that the Spiritists do not form among themselves neither a congregation nor an association; that among the multiple societies there is no material dependence or affiliation, occult or ostensible; that they do not obey any secret commandment; that those that are members are always free to leave if they wish to do so; that if their doors are not open to the public that is not because there is secrecy or hidden phenomena there but because they do not wish to be disturbed by curiosity or trouble makers. Far from acting in the shadows there are, on the contrary, always open to the investigation of proper authorities and to follow the requirements of the law. The Parisian Society only has moral authority upon the others due to its position and to its studies and because such authority is conferred by the others. It provides advices that are requested from its experience but do not impose itself to any of them. The only commandment that it gives, like a password amongst the Spiritists, is this: charity to everyone eve towards the enemies. It would therefore decline any moral support to any other society that would move away from such a principle; that were driven by material interests; that instead of keeping the union and good harmony they would tend to spread division among the followers because that very action would set them apart from the Doctrine.
The Parisian Society cannot take responsibility for the abuse that, out of ignorance or other causes, people can do to Spiritism. It does not intend in any shape or form to cover under its blanket the abusers as it cannot nor it should defend them before law enforcement in case of persecution because that would be an approval of something that the Doctrine rejects. When criticism is addressed to such abuses we must not rebuff but just respond: if you were to take the burden and study Spiritism you would understand its message and would not accuse it of doing something that it condemns. Therefore it is up to the Spiritists to carefully avoid anything that can give rise to founded criticism. Everyone will certainly achieve that by keeping aligned to the precepts of the Doctrine. It is not just because a meeting has the title Spiritist group, circle or society that it must necessarily have our full support. The tag has never been an absolute guarantee of the quality of the product but according to the maxim: “the tree is known by the fruit it bears” we assess them by the feelings that guide them, their driver, and we judge them by their works.
The Parisian Society is glad when able to add to the list of its members those gatherings that offer all the desired guarantees of order, good attitude, sincerity, devotion and personal abnegation and that can be offered as a role model to their brothers in faith. The position of the Parisian Society is consequently exclusively moral and it has never ambitioned any other. Those among our opponents that pretend that every Spiritist pays fees to the Society; that it enriches from their contributions, subtracting money from their little resources and that it evaluates its profit by the number of followers give proof of a remarkable ill-faith or of the most absolute ignorance about what they speak. There is no doubt that it has its own conscience and its archives to speak for itself but also to confound imposture and always give the testimony of truth in the present as well as in the future.
Without a premeditated role and by the force of things the Society became a center to where teachings of all kinds related to Spiritism converge. It is in what can be called an exceptional condition in that respect for the elements that it has to base an opinion. It can, better than anybody else, determine the real state of progress of the Doctrine in each country and appreciate the local causes that can it favor it or delay its development. That statistics will not be one of the less precious elements to the history of Spiritism and at the same time allows for the study of the maneuvers of the adversaries and calculate the reach of their blows that try to knock Spiritism down. This observation would be enough to allow for the prediction of the definitive result of the struggle as one judges the result of a battle by the movement of the two armies.
It can be said with absolute truth that we occupy the first row for the observation of not only people’s tactics but also those employed by the Spirits. In fact we see from the part of the latter a unity of views and plan that are providentially combined against which every human effort must forcibly shatter for the Spirits can reach and hurt mankind but the opposite is not true. As we can see the game is unequally balanced.
History of modern Spiritism will be something really curious because it will be about the fight between the visible and the invisible worlds. People in antiquity would have said: the fight between people and the gods. It will also be about facts and in particular about people that played a role in those events as true supports or adversaries of the cause. It is necessary that future generations know who those that deserve a fair tribute of acknowledgement are. They need to pay tribute to the true pioneers of the regenerating work and that no glory be stolen. What will give that history a very particular aspect is that instead of being consolidated many year or centuries after the fact based on traditions and legends it occurs while the events take place and based on authentic data from which we have, thanks to our unstoppable correspondence with every country where the Doctrine penetrates, we have the most complete archive that exists in the world.
Spiritism cannot and undoubtedly be reached by the lies and allegations of its adversaries with which they try to make it a fantasy. They could, however, give a false idea of its origins and its means of action, casting false testimonies against the actions and characters of people that may have cooperated with the Doctrine, if they were not officially countered. In the future these archives will be the light that will dissipate doubts, a mine from where the commentators of the future will certainly resource from. You now see, ladies and gentlemen, the importance of this work in the interest of true history. Our Society itself will be interested in this considering its own participation in the process.
The proverb says: “Nobility obliges”. Society’s position also imposes the obligations of preserving its credit and moral ascendance. The first one is that of not moving away from a theoretical point of view of the guidelines followed so far considering that the fruits are now being picked; the second one is the good example that it must give, justifying by its practice the excellence of the Doctrine that professes. It is a fact that such example, by demonstrating the moralizing influence of Spiritism, is a powerful element of propagation and, at the same time, of keeping the mouth of its detractors shut. A nonbeliever that only knew the philosophical part of the Doctrine said that with “such principles the Spiritist must necessary be a good person.” These words are profoundly true but to complement them we need to add that a true Spiritist must necessarily be good and benevolent towards their fellow human beings, that is, practice the evangelical charity in its broadest expression.
That is the grace that all of us must ask God to give us, making us receptive to the advices given by the good Spirits that assist us. Let us equally ask them to continue to protect us during the year that begins and that they may give us the strength to become worthy. That is the safest way of justifying and maintaining the position conquered by the Society.
A.K.
Some people have asked why the Spiritist Doctrine is not the same in the old as well as in the new continent and what is the difference. It is what we are going to try to explain.
As everyone knows the manifestations took place everywhere both in Europe as well as in America and in these days that people are more aware of that they remember a large number of events that had gone unnoticed and that are abundantly registered in authentic texts. Those facts, nonetheless, were isolated. They have recently produced in the United States in a much ample scale to call people’s attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The extreme freedom that exists in that country favored the flourishment of the new ideas and that is why the Spirits chose that country as the first theater for their teachings.
Well, it is common that an idea be born in one country and develops in another as we see in sciences and technology. The American intelligence gave proof of that and must not envy Europe in any way. However if that country sticks out in all matters of commerce and mechanical arts they must not deny Europe its prominence in moral and philosophical sciences. Due to that difference in the normal features of the peoples experimental Spiritism was in its habitat in America while the theoretical and philosophical part found in Europe a more adequate environment for its development. That is how it was born there and soon conquered the first place. The facts there initially attracted curiosity but as soon as curiosity was satisfied people got tired of the material experiments without positive results. The same did not happen from the time when the moral consequences of those events for the future of humanity unfolded. It was the time when Spiritism found its place among philosophical sciences. It advanced at gigantic strides despite the obstacles that were placed on its path because it satisfies the aspirations of the masses and because it was promptly understood that it had come to fill up the immense void of beliefs and resolve what up until then seemed insoluble.
Thus, America was the crib of Spiritism but it was in Europe that it was raised and made its humanities. Should America be jealous for that? No, because was in advantage in other aspects. Wasn’t that in Europe that the steam engine was born and wasn’t in America that it found better conditions? Each one has their role according to their skills and each people theirs according to their own particular ingenuity.
As everyone knows the manifestations took place everywhere both in Europe as well as in America and in these days that people are more aware of that they remember a large number of events that had gone unnoticed and that are abundantly registered in authentic texts. Those facts, nonetheless, were isolated. They have recently produced in the United States in a much ample scale to call people’s attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The extreme freedom that exists in that country favored the flourishment of the new ideas and that is why the Spirits chose that country as the first theater for their teachings.
Well, it is common that an idea be born in one country and develops in another as we see in sciences and technology. The American intelligence gave proof of that and must not envy Europe in any way. However if that country sticks out in all matters of commerce and mechanical arts they must not deny Europe its prominence in moral and philosophical sciences. Due to that difference in the normal features of the peoples experimental Spiritism was in its habitat in America while the theoretical and philosophical part found in Europe a more adequate environment for its development. That is how it was born there and soon conquered the first place. The facts there initially attracted curiosity but as soon as curiosity was satisfied people got tired of the material experiments without positive results. The same did not happen from the time when the moral consequences of those events for the future of humanity unfolded. It was the time when Spiritism found its place among philosophical sciences. It advanced at gigantic strides despite the obstacles that were placed on its path because it satisfies the aspirations of the masses and because it was promptly understood that it had come to fill up the immense void of beliefs and resolve what up until then seemed insoluble.
Thus, America was the crib of Spiritism but it was in Europe that it was raised and made its humanities. Should America be jealous for that? No, because was in advantage in other aspects. Wasn’t that in Europe that the steam engine was born and wasn’t in America that it found better conditions? Each one has their role according to their skills and each people theirs according to their own particular ingenuity.
What particularly distinguishes the American Spiritist School from the European one is the predominance of phenomena in the former more specially related to that and the latter that is more relate to the philosophical part. The Spiritist philosophy from Europe spread straight away because it offered a consolidated theory since the beginning; because it showed the objective and incontestably broadened the horizon of the ideas and that is the one that prevails today in the whole world. Up until now in the USA they have not moved away from the primitive ideas. Does it mean that they will remain alone in the back end of the general movement? That would be an offense to the intelligence of that people. As a matter of fact the Spirits are there to push them in the common avenue giving them the teachings that they give somewhere else. They will gradually overcome the resistances that may arise from a national pride. If the Americans repel the European theory because it came from Europe they will accept it when it shows up in their environment by the voice of the Spirits themselves. They will give in not to the opinion of a few people but to the universal control of the Spirits, this powerful criterial as demonstrated in our article about the authority of the Spiritist Doctrine. It is just a matter of time particularly when personal issues have disappeared.
From all principles of the Doctrine the one that found the most opposition in America, and by America here we only mean the USA, is that of reincarnation. It can even be said that this is the only fundamental divergence because the others are more related to the format than the meaning and that because this has not been taught yet by the Spirits there and we have already explained why.
The Spirits proceed with wisdom and caution everywhere. They avoid abruptly shocking pre-established ideas to have their own accepted. The dogma of reincarnation in the USA would crash against prejudices of color that are so much entrenched in that country. The essential was to have the fundamental principle of the communication between the visible and invisible world accepted. Issues of detail would come at the right time. There is no doubt that such an obstacle will end up disappearing and that one of the results of the current Civil War will be a gradual weakening of prejudices that are an anomaly in such a liberal nation.
If the idea of reincarnation is not widely accepted in the USA it is by some if not as an absolute principle at least with certain restrictions that it is already something. As for the Spirits they already start to teach that principle in certain places undoubtedly seeing that the moment is adequate and in other places more openly. Once the issue is raised it will follow its own course. In fact we have in our hands old communications received in that country in which without being formally expressed the plurality of the existences is the obvious consequence of the principles that were taught. The idea can be seen under development there. Therefore there is no doubt that what is called American school today will soon merge with the great unity that is established everywhere. As a proof of the statements above we will cite the article below published in the Union, a San Francisco journal with a summary of the letter that followed it.
“Dear Mr. Allan Kardec,
Although I did not have the honor of getting to know you as a medium I take the liberty of sending you the attached news that those gentlemen from the newspaper summarized a bit. Despite that, however, lots of people seem to want more. All of your books, therefore, spread out and our bookstores will soon have to place new orders.
Sincerely… Pauline Boulay
From all principles of the Doctrine the one that found the most opposition in America, and by America here we only mean the USA, is that of reincarnation. It can even be said that this is the only fundamental divergence because the others are more related to the format than the meaning and that because this has not been taught yet by the Spirits there and we have already explained why.
The Spirits proceed with wisdom and caution everywhere. They avoid abruptly shocking pre-established ideas to have their own accepted. The dogma of reincarnation in the USA would crash against prejudices of color that are so much entrenched in that country. The essential was to have the fundamental principle of the communication between the visible and invisible world accepted. Issues of detail would come at the right time. There is no doubt that such an obstacle will end up disappearing and that one of the results of the current Civil War will be a gradual weakening of prejudices that are an anomaly in such a liberal nation.
If the idea of reincarnation is not widely accepted in the USA it is by some if not as an absolute principle at least with certain restrictions that it is already something. As for the Spirits they already start to teach that principle in certain places undoubtedly seeing that the moment is adequate and in other places more openly. Once the issue is raised it will follow its own course. In fact we have in our hands old communications received in that country in which without being formally expressed the plurality of the existences is the obvious consequence of the principles that were taught. The idea can be seen under development there. Therefore there is no doubt that what is called American school today will soon merge with the great unity that is established everywhere. As a proof of the statements above we will cite the article below published in the Union, a San Francisco journal with a summary of the letter that followed it.
“Dear Mr. Allan Kardec,
Although I did not have the honor of getting to know you as a medium I take the liberty of sending you the attached news that those gentlemen from the newspaper summarized a bit. Despite that, however, lots of people seem to want more. All of your books, therefore, spread out and our bookstores will soon have to place new orders.
Sincerely… Pauline Boulay
One does not need more than say something out loud that not everyone understands to be treated as deranged, extravagant or mad. One does not need to be a wise person to write something that comes from the soul and from the heart. A person of strong personality asked a lady medium:
- How come you, an intelligent person, believe in invisible Spirits and in the plurality of the existences? To which the lady replied:
- Maybe I believe because I am intelligent; what I feel gives me more inspiration than what I see for what we some sometimes is deceitful but what we feel does not ever deceive us. You are free to not believe. Those that believe in the plurality of the existences are not bad people and are more selfless than the ones that don’t believe. The nonbelievers call them mad people but that does not prove that they tell the truth, on the contrary, for doubting God’s power is an offense and denying the existence of something that we cannot touch is an insult to the Creator. When something extraordinary happen to us we usually attribute that to chance. Here is my question: what is chance? Nothing, responds the voice of truth. Since the void cannot produce something whatever does exist must come from a productive source. It would be very fair to think that what happens independent of our will must be the works of the Providence directed by the Lord of our destines. Irrespectively of what you say and irrespectively of what you do, strong minds, you will never destroy this Doctrine that has always existed. The ignorance of primitive souls imagine that it is all over after this life since they cannot fully understand it. That is mistake! We, the more or less advanced mediums, will finally convince you. Spiritism is not only a consolation; it also develops intelligence; destroy every egoistic and greedy thought; put us in contact with the loved ones and prepares progress, an immense progress that with time will destroy abuse, revolutions and wars. The soul does need to reincarnate to improve. It cannot learn everything to understand the works of the Almighty in a single material life. The body is just a temporary envelope in which God sends the soul to advance and endure the necessary trials to its own development and to the realization of the great work of the Creator that we all are called to serve when we are done with our trials and acquired the perfections. All of our contemporary celebrities are another group of souls that progressed through renovated incarnations. Many among them are writing mediums, geniuses that in every new existence bring progress to science and arts. The list of geniuses grows every year. These are so many other guides that God brings to our environment to enlighten and educate us, in a word, to teach us what we ignore and that is absolutely necessary to know. They show us the social ulcer; try to destroy our prejudices; bring to the light and before our eyes all the wickedness produced by selfishness and ignorance. These geniuses are animated by superior Spirits. They have done more for progress and civilization than all of your rifles and canyons and bring to our faces more tears of kindness and recognition than everything you have done with your weapons. Think seriously about Spiritism, intelligent men, and you will find great teachings there. There is no charlatanism in that great divine law. Everything there is beautiful, great and sublime. It only tends to lead us to perfection and to the true moral happiness. The book written by mediums and dictated by superior Spirits is a book of high philosophy and an as much subtle as profound teaching. It handles everything. It is true that not everyone is ready for that believe and that to understand it the soul must have reincarnated several times. When everybody understands Spiritism better our great poets will be better appreciated and read with more attention and respect. Every writer will be understood and admired by all peoples and without envy because causes and effects will be known. The study of science is the noblest occupation and Spiritism is its divinity. We associate ourselves to the genius through Spiritism and as said by one of our scientists after the genius comes the one that understands the genius. Education does to the Spirit what a skillful jeweler does to the diamond, polishing it, bringing out the enchanting and seducing charm, enhancing its value. The soul has not shape as to speak. It is like a spark that changes according to its intensity and according to the degree of acquired perfection. The more it progresses, the more it shines. When all of you are mediums you will be able to deal with the Spirits as we already do and they will tell you that they are happier than us. They see us, hear us and attend our gatherings, talk to us during the sleep, transport from place to place and are everywhere according to God’s wishes.
Pauline Boulay”
NOTE: The principle of reincarnation is equally found in a manuscript that was sent to us from Montreal, Canada, that we will talk about in the near future.
- How come you, an intelligent person, believe in invisible Spirits and in the plurality of the existences? To which the lady replied:
- Maybe I believe because I am intelligent; what I feel gives me more inspiration than what I see for what we some sometimes is deceitful but what we feel does not ever deceive us. You are free to not believe. Those that believe in the plurality of the existences are not bad people and are more selfless than the ones that don’t believe. The nonbelievers call them mad people but that does not prove that they tell the truth, on the contrary, for doubting God’s power is an offense and denying the existence of something that we cannot touch is an insult to the Creator. When something extraordinary happen to us we usually attribute that to chance. Here is my question: what is chance? Nothing, responds the voice of truth. Since the void cannot produce something whatever does exist must come from a productive source. It would be very fair to think that what happens independent of our will must be the works of the Providence directed by the Lord of our destines. Irrespectively of what you say and irrespectively of what you do, strong minds, you will never destroy this Doctrine that has always existed. The ignorance of primitive souls imagine that it is all over after this life since they cannot fully understand it. That is mistake! We, the more or less advanced mediums, will finally convince you. Spiritism is not only a consolation; it also develops intelligence; destroy every egoistic and greedy thought; put us in contact with the loved ones and prepares progress, an immense progress that with time will destroy abuse, revolutions and wars. The soul does need to reincarnate to improve. It cannot learn everything to understand the works of the Almighty in a single material life. The body is just a temporary envelope in which God sends the soul to advance and endure the necessary trials to its own development and to the realization of the great work of the Creator that we all are called to serve when we are done with our trials and acquired the perfections. All of our contemporary celebrities are another group of souls that progressed through renovated incarnations. Many among them are writing mediums, geniuses that in every new existence bring progress to science and arts. The list of geniuses grows every year. These are so many other guides that God brings to our environment to enlighten and educate us, in a word, to teach us what we ignore and that is absolutely necessary to know. They show us the social ulcer; try to destroy our prejudices; bring to the light and before our eyes all the wickedness produced by selfishness and ignorance. These geniuses are animated by superior Spirits. They have done more for progress and civilization than all of your rifles and canyons and bring to our faces more tears of kindness and recognition than everything you have done with your weapons. Think seriously about Spiritism, intelligent men, and you will find great teachings there. There is no charlatanism in that great divine law. Everything there is beautiful, great and sublime. It only tends to lead us to perfection and to the true moral happiness. The book written by mediums and dictated by superior Spirits is a book of high philosophy and an as much subtle as profound teaching. It handles everything. It is true that not everyone is ready for that believe and that to understand it the soul must have reincarnated several times. When everybody understands Spiritism better our great poets will be better appreciated and read with more attention and respect. Every writer will be understood and admired by all peoples and without envy because causes and effects will be known. The study of science is the noblest occupation and Spiritism is its divinity. We associate ourselves to the genius through Spiritism and as said by one of our scientists after the genius comes the one that understands the genius. Education does to the Spirit what a skillful jeweler does to the diamond, polishing it, bringing out the enchanting and seducing charm, enhancing its value. The soul has not shape as to speak. It is like a spark that changes according to its intensity and according to the degree of acquired perfection. The more it progresses, the more it shines. When all of you are mediums you will be able to deal with the Spirits as we already do and they will tell you that they are happier than us. They see us, hear us and attend our gatherings, talk to us during the sleep, transport from place to place and are everywhere according to God’s wishes.
Pauline Boulay”
NOTE: The principle of reincarnation is equally found in a manuscript that was sent to us from Montreal, Canada, that we will talk about in the near future.
The subject here is not, like some might suppose, the probative demonstration of the Doctrine but, on the contrary, a new form of attack with an attractive a bit deceiving title because someone that believed in the propaganda and thought to find lessons about Spiritism there would be greatly disappointed.
The sermons are far from having achieved the expected results. In fact they address faithful people only. Besides they require a very solemn format, exclusively of the religious type, whereas the teaching pulpit allows for more freedom of speech, more common to all. Here the ecclesiastic speaker makes abstraction of his priesthood and becomes a teacher. Will it achieve the desired result? Future will tell.
Father Barricand, professor at the Faculty of Theology of Lyon, started a series of public lessons about, or better against, Magnetism and Spiritism at the Petit-College. The Vérité in its April 10th, 1864 issue analyzes a session dedicated to Spiritism and raises several questions to the speaker. It promises to keep the readers posted about the continuation and at the same time takes the opportunity to refute them what we have no doubt will be wonderfully done considering the first part. The honesty and moderation that they have so far demonstrated in the controversy give us assurance that will remain unchanged even if the contradictor does not follow suit. As long as Father Barricand remains in the terrain of the discussion of the principles of the Doctrine it will be his own right. We cannot criticize him for not sharing our opinion, for saying it and for trying to demonstrate that he is right. We just would like the clergy to be in general as much in favor of free examination as we are. What is beyond the scope of a civil discussion are the personal attacks and above all malicious personal comments when, to justify their points, an adversary blemishes the facts and principles that are fought against as well as the words and actions of those that defend them. Such means are a proof of weakness and testify about the lack of confidence that they have on their own arguments. These deviations of truth must be raised on the spot but everything within the limits of respect and civility.
Here is how the Vérité summarizes part of Father Barricand’s argumentation:
“As for the Spiritists that are in large number I equally endeavor to demonstrate that they step down from their pretentious pedestal today on which Mr. Allan Kardec enthroned himself in 1862. In 1861 Mr. Allan Kardec traveled around France a trip that he complacently brought to public knowledge. Well, everything was great since the followers in Lyon alone counted about thirty thousand, two or three thousands in Bordeaux, etc. Spiritism seemed to have invaded the whole of Europe. What happens in 1863 then? Mr. Alan Kardec did not travel any more… nor did he provide fantastic reports! The may have likely attested a good number of desertions and in order not to discourage the number of Spiritists that there still remains due to an unfortunate situation he then judged it to be wise and correct to abstain. Forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Allan Kardec dedicates some pages of his Spiritist Review (January 1864) to give us some general information about the 1863 campaign. But here it is no longer about ambitious numbers! He avoids them and not without reason! Mr. Allan Kardec is satisfied to announce that Spiritism is always flourishing and more flourishing than ever! As a demonstration of support he mentions the creation of two supporting journals, the Ruche in Bordeaux and La Vérité in Lyon and in particular the Vérité in Lyon that says come to position itself as a fearful athlete for its articles of such a hermetic logic that allows no criticism. I hope, ladies and gentlemen, to be able to demonstrate to you on Friday that the Vérité is not that terrible as they pretend to be. It is easy, Mr. Allan Kardec, to state the following: “Spiritism is stronger than ever” and then mention the appearance of Ruche and Vérité as proof of that! That is a comedy, ladies and gentlemen!
Couldn’t those two journals exist without the conclusion that Spiritism has moved one step ahead? If you tell me that they have costs and that is the reason why they need subscribers or that they need great sacrifices I will still tell you: It is a comedy! Mr. Allan Kardec’s budget is very good from what I hear. Isn’t that fair and rational to expect him to help his disciples?”
The Vérité’s Editor, Mr. Edoux, added the following note to the citation above: “At the end of the course we had a quick talk with Father Barricand that as a matter of fact was very courteous to us. Our intent was to offer him a collection of the Vérité so that he could talk about it as much as he wished.”
Time will tell if Mr. Barricand will be more successful than his comrades and if he will find what so many others sought unsuccessfully: undisputable arguments against Spiritism. Why worry though and work so much if he is dying? Supposing that Father Barricand believe in that let us leave it up to him to keep such a soothing belief because it will not become more or less than what it is. We are not absolutely interested in persuading him. All we say is that he has no more serious reasons than those that he is pointing out; his arguments are not convincing and if all that he has got has the same impact that we can sleep in peace. It is really astonishing that a serious person may take away such lighthearted consequences of a trip that we did last year and get involved in our private matters guessing the thoughts that crossed our mind and motivated our in doing or not doing something. From a hypothesis he then come to an absolute conclusion, something that is not advisable by a rigorous logic, for if the premises are not correct the conclusion will not be either. Some may say that we are not responding but it is not our intention to satisfy anybody’s curiosity. Spiritism is a humanitarian issue. Its future is in God’s hands and does not depend on the maneuvers of anyone. We regret the fact that Father Barricand sees it from such a restricted point of view.
With respect to his opinion about our bank account balance it seems that he is guessing about what someone is carrying in the pocket when he was not given the right to do so and that could be considered an indiscretion. Now, publicizing that is in violation of the privacy law. Supposing that someone may have used something that is supposed that the person has may, according to the circumstances, go much beyond the borders of calumny. It seems that Mr. Barricand chose to proceed by suppositions and insinuations. With such a system he is exposed to be belied. We can formally answer all of his allegations, suppositions and deductions above. We can discuss as much as he likes the principles of Spiritism but what we do or do not do or what have or do not have is out of question. A course is not a diatribe. It is a comprehensive, complete and serious explanation about the subject that is at hand. If contradictory, loyalty demands the pros and cons so that the public may judge its reciprocal value. One must oppose stronger proofs against the other proofs. What he does is a poor impression of the power of his arguments when trying to discredit other people. That is how we understand a course in particular when it is given by a Professor of Theology that, before anything else, must seek the truth.
Bordeaux also has its course of Spiritism, meaning against Spiritism, by Father Delaporte, Professor at the Faculty of Theology in that city. The Ruche announces it in the following terms:
“Last Wednesday 13th of the current month we attended the public course about the dogma in which Father Delaporte dealt with the following subject: The hypothesis of a new religion revealed by the Spirits, or Spiritism. Since the renowned professor has not finished yet we will follow his lessons attentively and will keep you posted about it with impartiality and moderation that must always characterize a true Spiritist.”
In the April issues number 17 and 24 the Sauveur de peoples reports the two first lessons and provides a comprehensive criticism about them that may have caused some embarrassment to the speaker. There we have two professors of theology of incontestable talent that have started a war against Spiritism in the two most important centers in France and that find themselves entangled by two champions that have answers to them. The fact is that today we find what was rare in the past: people that have studied the Doctrine seriously and are not afraid of exposing themselves. What shall result from that? The first inevitable result: a deeper examination of the subject around the world. Those that have not read it yet will be willing to read it. The second consequence will be that Spiritism will be taken seriously by those that only see mystification since the illustrious professors consider the matter to be the subject of serious public discussion. Finally, a third result will be to stop people from being afraid of ridicule that still holds them back. When something is discussed publicly by important people, in favor or against, one is no longer afraid of talking about it.
From the religious cathedra it will soon move on to the philosophical and scientific cathedra. Such a discussion carried out by the highest intelligences with extenuate the contradictory arguments that will not be able to resist the evidence of the facts.
There is no doubt that the Spiritist idea is still a lot foggy but we can say that it is still in the condition of personal opinion. What happens today tends to give it general acceptance and will soon give it an official place among the acceptable beliefs.
We gladly take the opportunity that we are given to congratulate and send our encouragement to all of those that resolutely and fearlessly take in their hands the cause of Spiritism. We are happy to see their number grow every day. Have perseverance and you will soon see the support multiplying around you but be assured that the struggle is not over yet and that the battle in the open field is not the one that must be feared the most. The fiercest enemy is the one that moves in the shadow and is frequently hiding behind a false mask. We then say: Be suspicious of appearances. Do not judge people by their words but by their actions. Watch out in particular for the traps.
The sermons are far from having achieved the expected results. In fact they address faithful people only. Besides they require a very solemn format, exclusively of the religious type, whereas the teaching pulpit allows for more freedom of speech, more common to all. Here the ecclesiastic speaker makes abstraction of his priesthood and becomes a teacher. Will it achieve the desired result? Future will tell.
Father Barricand, professor at the Faculty of Theology of Lyon, started a series of public lessons about, or better against, Magnetism and Spiritism at the Petit-College. The Vérité in its April 10th, 1864 issue analyzes a session dedicated to Spiritism and raises several questions to the speaker. It promises to keep the readers posted about the continuation and at the same time takes the opportunity to refute them what we have no doubt will be wonderfully done considering the first part. The honesty and moderation that they have so far demonstrated in the controversy give us assurance that will remain unchanged even if the contradictor does not follow suit. As long as Father Barricand remains in the terrain of the discussion of the principles of the Doctrine it will be his own right. We cannot criticize him for not sharing our opinion, for saying it and for trying to demonstrate that he is right. We just would like the clergy to be in general as much in favor of free examination as we are. What is beyond the scope of a civil discussion are the personal attacks and above all malicious personal comments when, to justify their points, an adversary blemishes the facts and principles that are fought against as well as the words and actions of those that defend them. Such means are a proof of weakness and testify about the lack of confidence that they have on their own arguments. These deviations of truth must be raised on the spot but everything within the limits of respect and civility.
Here is how the Vérité summarizes part of Father Barricand’s argumentation:
“As for the Spiritists that are in large number I equally endeavor to demonstrate that they step down from their pretentious pedestal today on which Mr. Allan Kardec enthroned himself in 1862. In 1861 Mr. Allan Kardec traveled around France a trip that he complacently brought to public knowledge. Well, everything was great since the followers in Lyon alone counted about thirty thousand, two or three thousands in Bordeaux, etc. Spiritism seemed to have invaded the whole of Europe. What happens in 1863 then? Mr. Alan Kardec did not travel any more… nor did he provide fantastic reports! The may have likely attested a good number of desertions and in order not to discourage the number of Spiritists that there still remains due to an unfortunate situation he then judged it to be wise and correct to abstain. Forgive me, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Allan Kardec dedicates some pages of his Spiritist Review (January 1864) to give us some general information about the 1863 campaign. But here it is no longer about ambitious numbers! He avoids them and not without reason! Mr. Allan Kardec is satisfied to announce that Spiritism is always flourishing and more flourishing than ever! As a demonstration of support he mentions the creation of two supporting journals, the Ruche in Bordeaux and La Vérité in Lyon and in particular the Vérité in Lyon that says come to position itself as a fearful athlete for its articles of such a hermetic logic that allows no criticism. I hope, ladies and gentlemen, to be able to demonstrate to you on Friday that the Vérité is not that terrible as they pretend to be. It is easy, Mr. Allan Kardec, to state the following: “Spiritism is stronger than ever” and then mention the appearance of Ruche and Vérité as proof of that! That is a comedy, ladies and gentlemen!
Couldn’t those two journals exist without the conclusion that Spiritism has moved one step ahead? If you tell me that they have costs and that is the reason why they need subscribers or that they need great sacrifices I will still tell you: It is a comedy! Mr. Allan Kardec’s budget is very good from what I hear. Isn’t that fair and rational to expect him to help his disciples?”
The Vérité’s Editor, Mr. Edoux, added the following note to the citation above: “At the end of the course we had a quick talk with Father Barricand that as a matter of fact was very courteous to us. Our intent was to offer him a collection of the Vérité so that he could talk about it as much as he wished.”
Time will tell if Mr. Barricand will be more successful than his comrades and if he will find what so many others sought unsuccessfully: undisputable arguments against Spiritism. Why worry though and work so much if he is dying? Supposing that Father Barricand believe in that let us leave it up to him to keep such a soothing belief because it will not become more or less than what it is. We are not absolutely interested in persuading him. All we say is that he has no more serious reasons than those that he is pointing out; his arguments are not convincing and if all that he has got has the same impact that we can sleep in peace. It is really astonishing that a serious person may take away such lighthearted consequences of a trip that we did last year and get involved in our private matters guessing the thoughts that crossed our mind and motivated our in doing or not doing something. From a hypothesis he then come to an absolute conclusion, something that is not advisable by a rigorous logic, for if the premises are not correct the conclusion will not be either. Some may say that we are not responding but it is not our intention to satisfy anybody’s curiosity. Spiritism is a humanitarian issue. Its future is in God’s hands and does not depend on the maneuvers of anyone. We regret the fact that Father Barricand sees it from such a restricted point of view.
With respect to his opinion about our bank account balance it seems that he is guessing about what someone is carrying in the pocket when he was not given the right to do so and that could be considered an indiscretion. Now, publicizing that is in violation of the privacy law. Supposing that someone may have used something that is supposed that the person has may, according to the circumstances, go much beyond the borders of calumny. It seems that Mr. Barricand chose to proceed by suppositions and insinuations. With such a system he is exposed to be belied. We can formally answer all of his allegations, suppositions and deductions above. We can discuss as much as he likes the principles of Spiritism but what we do or do not do or what have or do not have is out of question. A course is not a diatribe. It is a comprehensive, complete and serious explanation about the subject that is at hand. If contradictory, loyalty demands the pros and cons so that the public may judge its reciprocal value. One must oppose stronger proofs against the other proofs. What he does is a poor impression of the power of his arguments when trying to discredit other people. That is how we understand a course in particular when it is given by a Professor of Theology that, before anything else, must seek the truth.
Bordeaux also has its course of Spiritism, meaning against Spiritism, by Father Delaporte, Professor at the Faculty of Theology in that city. The Ruche announces it in the following terms:
“Last Wednesday 13th of the current month we attended the public course about the dogma in which Father Delaporte dealt with the following subject: The hypothesis of a new religion revealed by the Spirits, or Spiritism. Since the renowned professor has not finished yet we will follow his lessons attentively and will keep you posted about it with impartiality and moderation that must always characterize a true Spiritist.”
In the April issues number 17 and 24 the Sauveur de peoples reports the two first lessons and provides a comprehensive criticism about them that may have caused some embarrassment to the speaker. There we have two professors of theology of incontestable talent that have started a war against Spiritism in the two most important centers in France and that find themselves entangled by two champions that have answers to them. The fact is that today we find what was rare in the past: people that have studied the Doctrine seriously and are not afraid of exposing themselves. What shall result from that? The first inevitable result: a deeper examination of the subject around the world. Those that have not read it yet will be willing to read it. The second consequence will be that Spiritism will be taken seriously by those that only see mystification since the illustrious professors consider the matter to be the subject of serious public discussion. Finally, a third result will be to stop people from being afraid of ridicule that still holds them back. When something is discussed publicly by important people, in favor or against, one is no longer afraid of talking about it.
From the religious cathedra it will soon move on to the philosophical and scientific cathedra. Such a discussion carried out by the highest intelligences with extenuate the contradictory arguments that will not be able to resist the evidence of the facts.
There is no doubt that the Spiritist idea is still a lot foggy but we can say that it is still in the condition of personal opinion. What happens today tends to give it general acceptance and will soon give it an official place among the acceptable beliefs.
We gladly take the opportunity that we are given to congratulate and send our encouragement to all of those that resolutely and fearlessly take in their hands the cause of Spiritism. We are happy to see their number grow every day. Have perseverance and you will soon see the support multiplying around you but be assured that the struggle is not over yet and that the battle in the open field is not the one that must be feared the most. The fiercest enemy is the one that moves in the shadow and is frequently hiding behind a false mask. We then say: Be suspicious of appearances. Do not judge people by their words but by their actions. Watch out in particular for the traps.
Varieties
The rumors that had the town of Poitiers moved had completely stopped from what we heard but it seems that the noisy Spirits have transferred the stage of their actions to other places. That is what we can read in the Pays about it:
“The rapping Spirits of Poitiers begin to create a school and reach neighbor lands. This letter was sent from Ville-au-Moine to the Courrier de la Vienne (do not confuse it with the Journal de la Vienne) on February 24th:
Dear Mr. Editor,
For some days now our region is worried about the presence of rapping Spirits in Bois-de-Doeuil that spread terror around our villages. Their meeting point is the home of Mr. Perroche. Every night, around eleven and midnight the Spirit manifests through nine, eleven or thirteen knocks followed by two and another one and six am the same happens again. Notice, Sir, that the knocks take place at the headboard of a bed where a lady lays terrified stating that she receives communications from her husband’s uncle that died about a month ago in our village. It is incredible. I and several friends wanted to get to the bottom line and find the truth to the point that we spent a night in Bois-de-Doeuil where we ourselves witnessed the facts that we had heard before. We even saw a kid’s cradle swinging longitudinally, apparently not touched by anybody. In the beginning we laughed at the situation but when we noticed that all the investigation carried out to uncover the tricks were unsuccessful we then left feeling more astonished than amused! If the noise continues Mr. Perroche’s house will not be able to accommodate every curious person from Marsais, Priaire, Migré, Doeuil and even from Villeneuve-la-Contesse that crowd over to spend the night there and try to resolve the mystery.
Sincerely, etc.”
A short comment about the events. The Journal de la Vienne reported them and reiterated that they were following a lead to catch the author or authors of those disturbances that would soon be brought to justice. Since they did not they cannot accuse law enforcement of negligence. How can that be having a house occupied from top to bottom by their agents and people were still unable to discover their maneuvers before their eyes and were unable to catch them? One must acknowledge that they were at the same time very audacious and skillful since they faced a whole brigade but remained unseen. Besides, that group of jokers must be very large since they do the same tricks in several cities with years separating them and still were never caught. The cases of Rue des Grès and Rue des Noyers, in Paris, the Grandes-Ventes, near Dieppe, and so many others were also unfruitful. How come the police with so many great resources, capable of catching the most astute and skillful criminals, cannot stop a few jokers? Have you thought about that? As a matter of fact those events are not new as confirmed by the report that follows.
“The rapping Spirits of Poitiers begin to create a school and reach neighbor lands. This letter was sent from Ville-au-Moine to the Courrier de la Vienne (do not confuse it with the Journal de la Vienne) on February 24th:
Dear Mr. Editor,
For some days now our region is worried about the presence of rapping Spirits in Bois-de-Doeuil that spread terror around our villages. Their meeting point is the home of Mr. Perroche. Every night, around eleven and midnight the Spirit manifests through nine, eleven or thirteen knocks followed by two and another one and six am the same happens again. Notice, Sir, that the knocks take place at the headboard of a bed where a lady lays terrified stating that she receives communications from her husband’s uncle that died about a month ago in our village. It is incredible. I and several friends wanted to get to the bottom line and find the truth to the point that we spent a night in Bois-de-Doeuil where we ourselves witnessed the facts that we had heard before. We even saw a kid’s cradle swinging longitudinally, apparently not touched by anybody. In the beginning we laughed at the situation but when we noticed that all the investigation carried out to uncover the tricks were unsuccessful we then left feeling more astonished than amused! If the noise continues Mr. Perroche’s house will not be able to accommodate every curious person from Marsais, Priaire, Migré, Doeuil and even from Villeneuve-la-Contesse that crowd over to spend the night there and try to resolve the mystery.
Sincerely, etc.”
A short comment about the events. The Journal de la Vienne reported them and reiterated that they were following a lead to catch the author or authors of those disturbances that would soon be brought to justice. Since they did not they cannot accuse law enforcement of negligence. How can that be having a house occupied from top to bottom by their agents and people were still unable to discover their maneuvers before their eyes and were unable to catch them? One must acknowledge that they were at the same time very audacious and skillful since they faced a whole brigade but remained unseen. Besides, that group of jokers must be very large since they do the same tricks in several cities with years separating them and still were never caught. The cases of Rue des Grès and Rue des Noyers, in Paris, the Grandes-Ventes, near Dieppe, and so many others were also unfruitful. How come the police with so many great resources, capable of catching the most astute and skillful criminals, cannot stop a few jokers? Have you thought about that? As a matter of fact those events are not new as confirmed by the report that follows.
We got this from St. Petersburg:
“Venerable master, after I read about the case of a rapping Spirit of the sixteenth century in the first issue of the Spiritist Review 1864 I remembered another one that you may perhaps consider proper for publication in a small section of your journal. I refer to the life and character of Tasso, written by Mr. Suard, perpetual secretary of the French and Literature classes and included in the translation of Freed Jerusalem, published in 1803.
-After saying that Tasso’s religions feelings, exalted as a result of a broken heart and the unfortunate consequences of that, seriously persuaded him that he was the object of a persecution by a Spirit that would knock everything down in his house; that stole his money and removed everything he needed from the table, before his eyes… The historian then adds: Here is how Tasso himself reports that persecution:
-Brother R… (he asks him to tell a friend) brought me two letters from you but one of them disappeared just after I read it and I believe that it was the elf that took it away particularly for the reason that you were talking about him in that one. It is one of those prodigies that happened so many times in hospital not given space for any doubt about the magical powers of which I have so many other proofs. On this very day a piece of bread was taken away from me and the other day a plate with fruits.
-He then regrets the books and papers that were taken from him adding: the stuff that was taken from me while I was not here could have been taken by people that had keys to all of my boxes so much so that I feel defenseless against my enemies or the devil with the exception of my own will that would not learn anything from them or their followers or make friends with them or their magicians.
-In another letter he says: It is all very bad. That demon that was always on my neck whenever I was resting or strolling around and that knew that he would never get to good terms with me made the decision of openly stealing my money.
-On other occasions, continues the writer of the article, he believed to have seen Holy Mary and Father Sevassi tells us that in a period when he was ill in prison Tasso devoted himself so much to the Holy Virgin that she came to him and had him cured. Tasso payed tribute to that act in a sonnet.
- Moving on, the elf transformed into someone more malleable and with whom Tasso could speak friendly and from whom he learned marvelous things. Nonetheless, dissatisfied with that strange exchange Tasso attributed its origin to some evildoings of youngster when he composed a dialogue in which he was supposedly talking to a Spirit. “…something that I would not have seriously wanted to do”, he adds, “even if that was at all possible”.
Mr. Suard finishes his report saying: “One cannot avoid the thought that at the age of thirty years old and after having written an immortal piece the miserable man was chosen to give the most pathetic example of weakness of the mind.
As for you, Sir, however, thanks to the lights of Spiritism you can assess it differently and I am sure that you will see in those phenomena one more link in the chain of the Spiritist phenomena that connect the past to the present days.”
There is no doubt that the events that take place today and that are perfectly verified and explained demonstrate that Tasso could have been dominated by one of those obsessions that we see daily and that have nothing of supernatural.
Had he known the true cause and he would not have been more impressed than people are in our days but then the idea of the devil, of witches and magicians was widespread and since instead of combating people actually entertained such idea it could then interact badly with weak minds. It is then more than likely that Tasso was not crazier than the obsessed of our days to whom we must give moral support rather than medication.
“Venerable master, after I read about the case of a rapping Spirit of the sixteenth century in the first issue of the Spiritist Review 1864 I remembered another one that you may perhaps consider proper for publication in a small section of your journal. I refer to the life and character of Tasso, written by Mr. Suard, perpetual secretary of the French and Literature classes and included in the translation of Freed Jerusalem, published in 1803.
-After saying that Tasso’s religions feelings, exalted as a result of a broken heart and the unfortunate consequences of that, seriously persuaded him that he was the object of a persecution by a Spirit that would knock everything down in his house; that stole his money and removed everything he needed from the table, before his eyes… The historian then adds: Here is how Tasso himself reports that persecution:
-Brother R… (he asks him to tell a friend) brought me two letters from you but one of them disappeared just after I read it and I believe that it was the elf that took it away particularly for the reason that you were talking about him in that one. It is one of those prodigies that happened so many times in hospital not given space for any doubt about the magical powers of which I have so many other proofs. On this very day a piece of bread was taken away from me and the other day a plate with fruits.
-He then regrets the books and papers that were taken from him adding: the stuff that was taken from me while I was not here could have been taken by people that had keys to all of my boxes so much so that I feel defenseless against my enemies or the devil with the exception of my own will that would not learn anything from them or their followers or make friends with them or their magicians.
-In another letter he says: It is all very bad. That demon that was always on my neck whenever I was resting or strolling around and that knew that he would never get to good terms with me made the decision of openly stealing my money.
-On other occasions, continues the writer of the article, he believed to have seen Holy Mary and Father Sevassi tells us that in a period when he was ill in prison Tasso devoted himself so much to the Holy Virgin that she came to him and had him cured. Tasso payed tribute to that act in a sonnet.
- Moving on, the elf transformed into someone more malleable and with whom Tasso could speak friendly and from whom he learned marvelous things. Nonetheless, dissatisfied with that strange exchange Tasso attributed its origin to some evildoings of youngster when he composed a dialogue in which he was supposedly talking to a Spirit. “…something that I would not have seriously wanted to do”, he adds, “even if that was at all possible”.
Mr. Suard finishes his report saying: “One cannot avoid the thought that at the age of thirty years old and after having written an immortal piece the miserable man was chosen to give the most pathetic example of weakness of the mind.
As for you, Sir, however, thanks to the lights of Spiritism you can assess it differently and I am sure that you will see in those phenomena one more link in the chain of the Spiritist phenomena that connect the past to the present days.”
There is no doubt that the events that take place today and that are perfectly verified and explained demonstrate that Tasso could have been dominated by one of those obsessions that we see daily and that have nothing of supernatural.
Had he known the true cause and he would not have been more impressed than people are in our days but then the idea of the devil, of witches and magicians was widespread and since instead of combating people actually entertained such idea it could then interact badly with weak minds. It is then more than likely that Tasso was not crazier than the obsessed of our days to whom we must give moral support rather than medication.
Summary of Cyropaedia[1], by Xenophon of Athens, Book VIII, Chapter VII
“I invoke you, my children, in the name of the gods of our homeland, to show consideration to one another if you have any intention of pleasing me for I don’t think that you believe that when I cease to live I will become nothing. Up until now my soul was hidden to your eyes but through its actions you shall acknowledge that it did exist. Haven’t you even noticed the terrifying thoughts that torment the minds of murderers brought up by the souls of their victims and the vengeances cast upon the impious by those souls? Do you believe that the cult to the dead would have kept as is if people believed that their souls have no power? As for myself, my children, I could never be convinced that the soul that lives while in a mortal body would be extinguished when leaving that body because I see that it is the soul that vivifies these destructive bodies while inhabiting them. Also I could never be persuaded that the soul loses its ability to think at the time when it leaves a body that cannot think. It is then natural to believe that the soul, when purer and detached from matter, plentifully enjoys its intelligence. When a person dies one can see the several parts that formed the body uniting to the very elements that formed the body initially. It is only the soul that escapes our eyes both while inhabiting the body and beyond. You know that during the sleep, image of death, the soul approaches the divinity and that in such a state the soul can frequently foresee the future, undoubtedly because in such a state the soul is entirely free.
Well, if things are the way I see them and the soul outlives the body that is left behind, do what I ask you with respect to my own soul. If I am wrong; if the soul remains with the body and dies with the body you must at least respect the gods that don’t die, that see everything, that are able to do everything and sustain in the universe this immutable, inalterable order, whose magnificence and majesty are indescribable. May such a fear keep you from any action, any thought that may hurt goodness and justice… But I feel that my soul leaves me and I feel that through the symptoms that commonly announce our dissolution.”
OBSERVATION: A Spiritist would have little to add to these remarkable words, worthy of a Christian philosopher in which we find remarkably well written the special attributes of the body and the soul: the material body, destructible and whose elements disperse to return to the similar elements and that during life only acts driven by the intelligent element; then comes the soul, outliving the body, keeping its individuality and enjoying greater perceptions when separated from the body; the freedom of the soul during the sleep; finally the influence of the dead upon the living ones. One can also detect the distinction made between the gods and the divinity itself. The gods were not more than the Spirits at several stages of elevation in charge of presiding over all things of this world, according to their specialties, in the spiritual as well as in the material order of things. The gods of the homeland were the protector Spirits of the homeland as the gods of the homes were the protector Spirits of the family. The gods, or superior Spirits, did not communicate with mankind but through inferior Spirits, the so called demons. The crowds would not go beyond this but the philosophers and the initiated ones acknowledged a Supreme Being, creator and commander of all things.
[1] The Cyropaedia, sometimes spelled Cyropedia, is a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, written around 370 BC by the Athenian gentleman-soldier, and student of Socrates, Xenophon of Athens. Wikipedia, TN
“I invoke you, my children, in the name of the gods of our homeland, to show consideration to one another if you have any intention of pleasing me for I don’t think that you believe that when I cease to live I will become nothing. Up until now my soul was hidden to your eyes but through its actions you shall acknowledge that it did exist. Haven’t you even noticed the terrifying thoughts that torment the minds of murderers brought up by the souls of their victims and the vengeances cast upon the impious by those souls? Do you believe that the cult to the dead would have kept as is if people believed that their souls have no power? As for myself, my children, I could never be convinced that the soul that lives while in a mortal body would be extinguished when leaving that body because I see that it is the soul that vivifies these destructive bodies while inhabiting them. Also I could never be persuaded that the soul loses its ability to think at the time when it leaves a body that cannot think. It is then natural to believe that the soul, when purer and detached from matter, plentifully enjoys its intelligence. When a person dies one can see the several parts that formed the body uniting to the very elements that formed the body initially. It is only the soul that escapes our eyes both while inhabiting the body and beyond. You know that during the sleep, image of death, the soul approaches the divinity and that in such a state the soul can frequently foresee the future, undoubtedly because in such a state the soul is entirely free.
Well, if things are the way I see them and the soul outlives the body that is left behind, do what I ask you with respect to my own soul. If I am wrong; if the soul remains with the body and dies with the body you must at least respect the gods that don’t die, that see everything, that are able to do everything and sustain in the universe this immutable, inalterable order, whose magnificence and majesty are indescribable. May such a fear keep you from any action, any thought that may hurt goodness and justice… But I feel that my soul leaves me and I feel that through the symptoms that commonly announce our dissolution.”
OBSERVATION: A Spiritist would have little to add to these remarkable words, worthy of a Christian philosopher in which we find remarkably well written the special attributes of the body and the soul: the material body, destructible and whose elements disperse to return to the similar elements and that during life only acts driven by the intelligent element; then comes the soul, outliving the body, keeping its individuality and enjoying greater perceptions when separated from the body; the freedom of the soul during the sleep; finally the influence of the dead upon the living ones. One can also detect the distinction made between the gods and the divinity itself. The gods were not more than the Spirits at several stages of elevation in charge of presiding over all things of this world, according to their specialties, in the spiritual as well as in the material order of things. The gods of the homeland were the protector Spirits of the homeland as the gods of the homes were the protector Spirits of the family. The gods, or superior Spirits, did not communicate with mankind but through inferior Spirits, the so called demons. The crowds would not go beyond this but the philosophers and the initiated ones acknowledged a Supreme Being, creator and commander of all things.
[1] The Cyropaedia, sometimes spelled Cyropedia, is a partly fictional biography of Cyrus the Great, written around 370 BC by the Athenian gentleman-soldier, and student of Socrates, Xenophon of Athens. Wikipedia, TN
A war to the devil and to hell – the inability of the devil, the devil converted; by Jean de le Veuze. Brochure 18-in, price 1 franc. Bordeaux, Ferrei bookstore. Paris, Didier & Co., Quai des Augustins, 35. Ledoyen, Palais Royal.
Starting from the principle that Spiritism is a conception of the devil with the objective of attracting a larger number of souls the author produces a quick sketch, from the manifestations in America up to our current days, shows that the devil miscalculated because he saves the souls that were lost and unfortunately allows those that were his to escape. By seeing all that the devil converted and well as part of his entourage. It is a witty and entertaining criticism of the role that was given to the devil lately but from which stands out in a funny tone serious, profound and perfectly fair thoughts. We have no doubt that the little book will be read with great pleasure by many.
-o-
Letters to the ignorant, philosophy of common sense, by V. Tournier. Brochure, 18-in, price 1 franc. Dentu, Palais-Royal. The author, an enlightened and keen Spiritist, reproduced in verses the fundamental principles of the Spiritist Doctrine according to The Spirits’ Book. We sincerely congratulate him for the intention that guided his work. Whatever the way the Doctrine is presented it is always a sign of popularization of the idea and so many other seeds that are spread out will fructify according to the format that follows them. The essential point is that the fundamentals are correct as is the case here.
Starting from the principle that Spiritism is a conception of the devil with the objective of attracting a larger number of souls the author produces a quick sketch, from the manifestations in America up to our current days, shows that the devil miscalculated because he saves the souls that were lost and unfortunately allows those that were his to escape. By seeing all that the devil converted and well as part of his entourage. It is a witty and entertaining criticism of the role that was given to the devil lately but from which stands out in a funny tone serious, profound and perfectly fair thoughts. We have no doubt that the little book will be read with great pleasure by many.
-o-
Letters to the ignorant, philosophy of common sense, by V. Tournier. Brochure, 18-in, price 1 franc. Dentu, Palais-Royal. The author, an enlightened and keen Spiritist, reproduced in verses the fundamental principles of the Spiritist Doctrine according to The Spirits’ Book. We sincerely congratulate him for the intention that guided his work. Whatever the way the Doctrine is presented it is always a sign of popularization of the idea and so many other seeds that are spread out will fructify according to the format that follows them. The essential point is that the fundamentals are correct as is the case here.