Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865

“Dear Mr. Kardec,

As a Spiritist, I come to appeal to your kindness and request some advices with respect to the practice of healing mediumship by the imposition of hands. I am certain that a simple article about this matter in the Spiritist Review with some developments would be welcomed with great interest, not only by those that like myself are heavily involved with this subject, but also by many others that after reading the article would be inspired to get involved with that. I always remember the words of a somnambulist that I had formed. During her magnetically induced sleep I used to send her to visit a distant patient and when I asked her about the ways we could heal that patient she said: - There is a person in your village, Mr. Joe Doe, that could do it. He is a healing medium, but he is not aware of that.

I do not know how special this faculty is. It is up to you, more than anybody else, to clarify it. But if indeed it is, even more desirable that you would bring this to the attention of the Spiritists. Many out there, even the ones that do not share our opinions, and that could read you would feel no rejection for carrying a faculty that only requires faith in God and prayer. What can be more general and universal? It is not a matter of Spiritism, and everyone may keep their convictions in their own fields. How many sisters in charity, how many country healers, how many thousands of good people of strong faith could be healing mediums! That is a dream I have in all religions and sects. Once accepted everywhere, that faculty, that divine gift from our creator’s goodness, instead of staying as the apanage of some, would in a become of public domain, if I can say so. It would be a great day to those in suffering; and there are so many of them!

But in order to practice that mediumship, in addition to a strong faith and prayer, there could be other conditions to attend, processes to follow, in order to proceed as efficiently as possible. What is the role of the imposition of hands? What is the role of the Spirits? Is a good will needed like in magnetic operations or just the prayer and allowing a hidden influence to act? Is that faculty really special or accessible to all? Does the physical organization play a role there? Which one? Can it be developed? In which sense?

It is here that you long lasting experience, your studies about the fluidic influences, the teaching of the superior Spirits that assist you, and finally the documents that you collect from all corners of the world may allow you to clarify and instruct us. Nobody else is placed in that unique position, but you. All of those that deal with this matter, like myself, would like to have your advices, I am certain about that and I do believe to be the interpreter of them all. What a fecund mine healing mediumship is! The body could be relieved or healed and by that relief or cure the path of the heart is founds, a path many times failed by logic. How resourceful Spiritism is! What a wealth of means to serve! Let us keep them all productive; may everything contribute to elevate and propagate it. You neglect nothing to support all that, dear Kardec, and after God and the good Spirits, Spiritism owes you what it is. You have already been granted your award in this world by the sympathy and affection of millions of followers that pray for you, not to mention the true award that waits for you in the better world.

It has been an honor…etc.”

A.D.



What the honorable corresponding member asks for is nothing short of a treaty about the subject. The subject was sketched in The Mediums’ Book and in many other articles of the Spiritist Review, regarding cases of cure and obsession; it is summarized in The Gospel According to Spiritism, regarding the prayers in favor of ill persons and the healing medium. If a complete and regular treaty has not been produced yet it is due to two causes: the first is that despite all the activity developed in our work, it is impossible to us to do everything at the same time; the second and more serious is the insufficiency of our own knowledge about the subject. The knowledge about healing mediumship is one of the conquests due to Spiritism; but Spiritism that begins cannot have said everything; it just cannot suddenly show us everything that is encompassed; it shows us new things on a daily basis, from which new principles are derived and that come to corroborate or complement the already known ones, but there is a time for everything. Healing mediumship should have its turn. Although a component of Spiritism it is a whole science on its own because it is linked to magnetism, involving not only the so-called diseases but also all the varieties of numerous and complex obsessions that, in turn, influence the body. Therefore, such a vast subject cannot be developed in a few words. We are working on that as in many other parts of Spiritism, but since we would not like to introduce there anything personal or hypothetic, we only follow the path of experience and observation. Since the scope of this article would not allow the development that is required, we summarize a few fundamental principles demonstrated by experience.

The readers will undoubtedly remember the case of an almost instantaneous cure of a sprain operated by the Spirit of Dr. Demeure, a few days after his death, reported in our Spiritist Review of last March, as well as the description of the touching scene that took place on that occasion. That excellent Spirit comes again to reinforce his good will through an even more wonderful cure, in the same person. Here is what was sent to us from Montauban, on July 14^th, 1865:

“The Spirit of Dr. Demeure has just given us one more proof of his solicitude and profound knowledge. Here the details of the event.

In the morning of May 26^th last, Mrs. Maurel, our clairvoyant and mechanical writing medium, suffered a terrible fall and broke her forearm, a little bit below the elbow. The fracture, complicated by distensions in the wrist and elbow, was well characterized by the cracking of the bones and swelling, the most common signs. Still under the first emotions caused by the event, Mrs. Maurel parents were about to send for the first doctor possible when she stopped them, took a pencil and wrote the following with her left hand: - Do not look for a doctor; I will take care of that. Demeure. They then waited confidently.

Following the instructions of the Spirit, slings and a device were immediately built and applied. It was followed by a spiritual magnetization given by the good Spirits that ordered her to rest momentarily. In the evening of that same day some followers solicited by the Spirits gathered in the home of Mrs. Maurel that entered into a somnambulistic sleep helped by a magnetizing medium. Dr. Demeure then continued the treatment that he had initiated in the morning, acting mechanically upon the fractured arm. Our patient then immediately and without any other help but her left hand removed the first device, leaving only the slings, when we saw the affect limb moving around in a proper way to facilitate the reduction of the fracture. It seemed to be the object of intelligent touches, particularly at the point where the soldering of the bones should take place; after that it extended, by the action of longitudinal tractions. A few moments after that magnetization, Mrs. Maurel herself applied the slings and the device again, a device that consisted of two little wooden boards connected to each other by a strap. It all happened as if an experienced surgeon had operated all that materially; curiously during the works one could hear these words from the patient’s mouth by the effect of pain: - do not tighten so much… you hurt me!... She could see the Spirit of the doctor and was talking to him, begging for him to alleviate her. It was therefore a being invisible to everybody but to her that touched her arm, using unconsciously her own left hand. What was the role of the magnetizing medium during those activities? To us he seemed inactive, however, with his hand resting on her shoulder blade, he contributed to the phenomenon by the emission of fluids that were necessary to the process. In the evenings of the 27^th and 28^th Mrs. Maurel for the first time presented elevated fever for having disarranged her arm during the sleep. It was an urgent situation that had to be attended. They gathered again on the 28^th and after the somnambulistic sleep the magnetic chain was formed once more by request of the good Spirits. After several passes and manipulations, very similar to the described above, the arm returned to good condition, not before the poor lady experienced terrible pains. Despite the new incident the arm was already feeling the healthy effect produced by the earlier magnetizations. What follows below, in fact, demonstrates that.

Momentarily disentangled from the little boards, the arm was resting on some pillows when suddenly it raised a few centimeters horizontally and moved smoothly to the left and to the right; it was then lowered at an angle and was submitted to a traction. The Spirits then started to turn it in all directions, from time to time, making it work correctly the articulations of the wrist and elbow. Such automatic movements, imposed on a fractured and inert arm, contrary to all known laws of gravity and mechanics, they could only be attributed to the fluidic action. If we were not certain about the fracture of that poor lady, as well as hearing her painful screams, I confess that it would have been very hard for me to admit the fact, one of the most impressive that science can register. I can then say, in all honesty, that I am glad for having been able to witness such phenomenon.

On the 29^th, 30^th, 31^st and next days the successive spiritual magnetizations, followed by thousands of varied manipulations, brought a noticeable improvement to the general state of our patient. The arm improved its condition on a daily basis. The 31^st in particular marked the first step in the recovery. That evening two Spirits that were noticed by their radiation assisted our friend doctor Demeure. They seemed to give him advices that he promptly applied. One of them, from time to time, worked directly and under his influence there was an observable instantaneous relief. At the end of that night the little boards were definitely removed, and only the slings remained to hold the arm and keep it in a given position. I must add that a device to produce suspension was added to give solidity to the bandage. Finally, after the sixth day of the fracture and despite the relapse of the 27^th, the fracture was so much healed that the techniques utilized by doctors for thirty or forty days became useless. We gathered again on June 4^that night by the call of the good Spirits and for the reduction of the fracture that had complicated due to distensions. As soon as Mrs. Maurel fell in the somnambulistic sleep she started removing the slings herself, rotating her other hand so fast that was difficult for us to follow her actions. From that moment onwards, she used the arm normally. She was cured. At the end of that session there was a touching scene that needs to be reported here.

The good Spirits, counting thirty of them, in the beginning formed a magnetic chain similar to the one that we formed ourselves. Mrs. Maurel was surrounded by and in the middle of the two magnetic chains, linked by her right arm, receiving their good influence. Radiant of satisfaction she then took the occasion to thank the powerful support she had received for her cure. In turn she received encouragement to continue to persevere on the good path. After that she tried her strength in a thousand ways: she presented her arm to those present, she made them touch the scars at the points of soldered bones; shook their hands with force, happily announcing her cure operated by the good Spirits. When she woke up and seeing that she had recovered all her movements she passed out, taken by profound emotion!

When we witness such facts, we must proclaim them out loud since they do deserve the attention of serious people. Why then, in the intelligent world, there is so much resistance to the acceptance of the idea that the Spirit may exert influence upon matter? Why we find people that believe in the existence and individuality of the soul but refuse the possibility of their manifestation? It is because they are not aware of the material faculties of the Spirit, that seems to be totally immaterial to them. Experience demonstrates, on the contrary, that for its very nature, the Spirit acts upon the imponderable fluids, and consequently upon the ponderable ones, and even upon our tangible bodies. How does an ordinary magnetizer work? Let us suppose, for example that he wants to act upon an arm. He concentrates his whole attention on that limb and by simple movements of his own fingers, executed at a distance and in all directions, acting as if the contact with the hand was real, he directs a fluidic current onto the desired spot. The Spirit does not act differently. Their fluidic action takes place from perispirit to perispirit and from that to the material body. The somnambulistic states facilitate that action considerably, thanks to the detachment of the perispirit that better identifies with the fluidic nature of the Spirit, then suffering the spiritual fluidic influence, elevated to its maximum power.

The whole city was involved with that cure, obtained without the help of the official science, and everyone had their own opinion. Some pretended that the arm was not broken, but the fracture was well attested by several witnesses, among them Dr. D… that visited the patient during the treatment. Others said: - It is really impressive – and stopped there. Useless to say that some believed that Mrs. Maurel had been cured by the devil. If she were not amongst blasphemous hands they would have seen a miracle there. The Spiritists that get the phenomenon simply see the action of a natural force up until now unknown, that Spiritism came to reveal to humanity.”



Observations: If there are Spiritist facts that can be attributed to imagination, as for example the visions, in this case it would not be possible. Mrs. Maurel did not dream that she had broken her arm, as with several other people that followed her treatment; the pain that she felt was not hallucination; her cure in eight days is not an illusion, since she can use her arm. The positive fact is there, before which we must necessarily bend over. It confuses sciences, it is true, because in the current state of affairs it seems impossible, but hasn’t it always been like that when new laws were revealed? Is it the speed of the healing that scares you out? But hasn’t science found so many agents more active than it was known before, to speed up certain cures? Weren’t means of healing certain ulcers almost instantaneously found recently? Weren’t means of activating vegetation and fruitification found? Why couldn’t we have a means of activating the soldering of bones? Do we already know all the agents of nature? Hasn’t God kept any secrete from us? There is no more logic in denying today the possibility of a cure faster than that of the previous century, of denying the possibility of walking in a few hours the path that we used to walk in ten days.

You may say that such a means is not in the codex; it is true; but before the vaccine was introduced there, wasn’t its inventor called a mad man? Homeopathic medications are not there either, but that does not preclude homeopathic doctors to cure and be found everywhere. As a matter of fact, since we are not dealing with a pharmaceutical preparation here, it is more likely that such a means of cure does not enter official science for a long time.

But, some will say, if the doctors exert their profession after death, they come to compete with the living doctors; it is well possible; nonetheless, the latter may rest assured; if they are subtracted from a few patients it is not to overcome them but to demonstrate that they are not absolutely dead, and to offer a selfless help to those interested in accepting it. To help them understand better, to show them that in certain cases one could go without them. There has always and there will always be doctors; only those that take advantage of the novelties brought by the discarnate ones will that a great advantage upon the ones left behind. The Spirits come to help in the development of human science and not to suppress it.

In the cure of Mrs. Maurel, a fact that might perhaps be even more surprising than the quick soldering of the bones is the movement of the fractured limb, that seems to be contrary to all known laws of mechanics and gravity. Contrary or not, the fact is there; it does exist, has a cause; if it repeats it means that it is submitted to a law. Well, that is the law that Spiritism unveils to us by the properties of the spiritual fluids. That arm, once submitted to the laws of gravity only, could not be raised; now supposing it immersed in a fluid whose density is much higher than that of air, even fractured as it is, once it is sustained by that fluid that reduces its weight, it will be able to move effortlessly, and even be raised. That is how during a bath an arm seems to be much lighter inside than outside the water. Replace the liquid by a fluid that has similar properties and you will have the same situation as in the present case, a phenomenon that is based on the same principle of the turning tables and persons that are lifted in the air without a supporting point. That is the perispiritual fluid, that is guided by the will of the Spirit, and whose properties he modifies by the simple action of his will. In the present case one must then imagine Mrs. Maurel’s arm immersed in a fluidic medium that produces the effect of hot air in balloons. Someone asked if in the cure of the fracture in question Dr. Demeure had acted with or without the help of electricity and heat.

We respond to that, as in all cases of spiritual magnetization, that the cure was produced by the action of the fluid emitted by the Spirit; that such a fluid, although ethereal, is still matter; that the current that is produced may impregnate and saturate all molecules of the sick part of the patient; that the Spirit may modify its properties, like the magnetizer modifies that of water, giving it a healing virtue proper to the necessity; that the energy of that current is proportional to the number, the quality and homogeneity of the elements that constitute that chain of people called to provide their portion of fluid. That chain is likely to activate the reaction that produces the soldering effect of the bones and therefore lead to a faster cure than when it is left on its own.

Would electricity and heat play a role in such phenomenon? That is more likely if we take into account that the Spirit did not cure out of a miracle, but through a more judicious application of the laws of nature, given his enlightenment. If, as science must acknowledge, electricity and heat are not special fluids, but modification or properties of an elemental universal fluid, they must be part of the elements that constitute the spiritual fluid. Their action, in the present case, is implicitly understood, absolutely like when one drinks wine one also drinks water and alcohol.

in the symptoms of rabies



One of our colleagues transmitted to the Society the following summary of a report read in the Academy of Medicine, by Dr. H. Bouley, about the symptoms of canine rabies.

“At the early stage of the disease and when it is completely diagnosed, in intermittent accesses, the dog shows a kind of delirious state that one could call canine rabies delirium, first mentioned by Youatt that described it perfectly. The delirium is characterized by strange movements, indicating that the animal sees things and hear noises that only exist in what we can rightfully call their imagination. In fact, the animal sometimes retreats and remain put, attentive, as if ambushing; it suddenly jumps and bites the air, like a healthy dog does when trying to catch a flying insect. On other occasions it jumps against the wall, furiously and howling, as if it had heard threating sounds from the other side. Reasoning by analogy we are led to admit that these are signs of true hallucination. However, an uninformed person would not give importance to those symptoms that are very quick and just require the voice of command of the owner to disappear. It is then followed by a period of rest; the eyes close slowly, the head falls down, the front legs seem to disappear under the body and the animal is about to collapse. It then suddenly stands, and ghosts come to surround it again; it looks around with angry looks, bites as if reaching something near the teeth and dashes up to the extremity of the chain, towards an enemy that only exists in its imagination.”

That phenomenon, carefully observed by the author of that memory, as we can see, seems to indicate that the dog is tormented by the vision of something invisible to us. Is it a real vision or a fantastic creation of its imagination, or in other words, hallucination? If it is hallucination it cannot certainly be by the eyes of the body, since they are not real objects; if they are fluidic beings or Spirits, since they do not produce any effect upon the senses of vision, it is then a spiritual vision that they perceive. In one case as in the other the dog would then have a sense up to a certain extent similar to that in man. Science had not yet ventured into the imagination of animals. From imagination to a principle that is independent of matter is not a great distance, unless one admits that brute matter like wood, rock, etc. may have imagination.

All the phenomena of visions are attributed to a super excited imagination by science. However, there has been reports of children at an early age and that cannot yet speak running after invisible beings, smiling to them and reaching out the them with their arms, trying to get them. In the rabies analogy, hasn’t this gotten a great similarity with the dog cited above? The boy has not started speaking yet but those that can speak positively tell those around that they see invisible beings. We have seen them describing their dead grandparents that they had not met. Super excitation is understandable in a person that is worried about something, but that is certainly not the case of a little child. A super excited imagination may revive a memory; fear, love, and enthusiasm may create fantastic images, we agree; under the impression of certain beliefs an exalted person may see the appearance of someone that is dear, the virgin or saints, we still agree; but we consider only those cause, how to explain the fact that a three or four year old child describing her grandmother that she never met? It cannot certainly be the product of a memory, nor a concern or not even any belief.

Let us say, in passing and as a corollary to what precedes, that clairvoyant mediumship seems to be frequent and even general in little children. Our guardian angels would come to guide us, like by the hand, taking us to the doorway of life, so that the transition from one life to the other is not too abrupt. As the child grows and is capable of using her own forces, the guardian angel keeps an eye only, allowing the free-will to take over. It is as saying: “I came to be with you at the port, taking you to the ship that will transport you through the sea of the world; now it is time to sail; fly with your own wings; but up there, from heavens, I shall watch you; think of me and when you return I will be there welcoming you.” Happy is the one that does not forget their guardian angel during the crossing!

Let us return to the main subject that lead us to this development. As long as we admit an imagination to the dog we could then say that the illness super excites it to the point of producing hallucinations. But many examples tend to prove that the phenomenon of vision do occur in certain animals, in their normal state, in particular with the dog and the horse. At least it is with them that we have observed more. Thinking by analogy, we can suppose that it is the same with the elephant and other animals whose intelligence is closer to man. It is certain that dogs do dream. Don’t we sometimes see them simulating movements in their sleep that resemble running; moaning or manifesting happiness? Their thoughts are then active, free and independent of their instinct properly saying. What is the dog doing? What is it that they see? What can the dog see in their dreams? Unfortunately, they cannot tell us, but the fact is there.

Up until now we were not much concerned with the intelligent principle of the animals and even less with their affinity with the human species, unless from the exclusive point of view of their material organization. Today one tries to reconcile their state and destiny with Dog’s justice; but with that regards only more or less logical systems were created, that are not always in agreement with the facts. If the question remained undefined for a long time it is for the fact that we lacked the elements necessary to its comprehension, like in many other cases. Spiritism that gives the key to so many misunderstood or badly observed and unnoticed phenomena, cannot go without facilitating the solution of this serious problem, to which we give all the attention that it deserves, because it is the solution of continuity of the chain that connects all beings in the harmonious whole of creation.

Why hasn’t Spiritism then immediately solved the issue? It would be the same as to ask a physics professor why she does not teach the laws of electricity and optics since lesson one. She starts from the fundamental principles of the science, by those principles that must serve as the basis for the understanding of the others, keeping for later the explanation of the subsequent laws. That is how the great Spirits that direct the Spiritist Movement act; in good logic, they start from the beginning and wait until we are educated in one point before touching the next. Now, what should be the starting point of their teaching? The human soul. We must be convinced of their existence and immortality. We must know their true attributes and destiny. In a word, we needed to understand our soul before that of the animals. Spiritism has already taught us a lot about the soul and its faculties; it daily teaches us more and casts light upon a new point. But how much still to be explored!







As we move on in knowledge with respect to our spiritual state, our attention is called to every question that may be related, near or far away, and that of the animals is not of minor interest. Man understands the analogies better; tries to understand what he sees; seeks the consequences; tests theories, one after the other, confirmed or belied by observations. That is how, out of the efforts of his own intelligence, he gradually approaches the objective. Here, as in everything else, the Spirits do not preclude us from the work of research, because we must use our own intelligence; they help, guide and that is a lot already, but they do not provide us with the finished science. As long as it is on the path of truth, they come to clearly reveal, muting uncertainties and annihilating false systems. But while wait, the Spirit is better prepared to understand and accept it, and when truth shows up, there is no surprise since it was already in the depth of thoughts. See the path walked by Spiritism. Has it arrived out of improvisation? Certainly not, and not to mention the facts that are present at all times since it is part of nature. Like electricity, from the point of view of the principle, it had prepared its appearance; Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, the theosophists, Charles Fourier, Jean Reynaud and so many others like Mesmer that brought the knowledge of the fluidic force, Puységur, the first to observe somnambulism, all raising the tip of the veil of the spiritual life; all of them circulated around and got more or less closer to light; all of them paved the way and prepared the spirits, so that in a way Spiritism only had to complete what had already been sketched. That is why it promptly conquered so many sympathizers. We do not speak of the other multiple causes that came in support, proving that certain ideas were no longer at the level of human progress, giving rise to the presentiment of a new order of things, because humanity cannot remain stationary. That is the same with every great idea that change the face of the world. None of them has come as a fascination, like a lightning. Haven’t Socrates and Plato sown the seeds of the Christian ideas five centuries before Christ?

Another reason had made us postpone the solution relative to the animals. This issue touches long lasting and strong prejudices and that would have been unwise to attack, being that the reason why the Spirits did not do it. The subject is discussed now; it is mentioned everywhere, even outside Spiritism; the discarnate take part in the discussion, each one according to their personal opinions; those several theories are discussed, examined; a number of facts, like for example the one in this article, and that would have gone unnoticed in the past, today call our attention, for the very reason of preliminaries studies that have been carried out.

Without adopting an idea or the other we become familiar with the idea of a contact between the animality and humanity, and when the final solution comes, whatever its direction, it will be supported by solid arguments that will not allow any doubt. If the idea is true, it would have been presented; if it is false, it means that we found something more logical to replace it. In nature everything is connected, chained and in harmony. Spiritism came to give a mother-idea and we can see how fecund that idea is. Before the light that Spiritism cast onto psychology we would have difficulty in believing that so many considerations could have been brought about by a raving dog.

After the summary above about the report by Dr. Bouley was read at the Society, a Spirit gave the following communication.



Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, June 30^th, 1865 – medium Mr. Desliens

Do the dog and some other animals have the vision in which the phenomena described by Mr. Bouley may be produced? To me there is no doubt about it. Yes, the dog and the horse do see the Spirits. Haven’t you ever witnessed the disgust that sometimes these animals show by passing by a place where they did not know there was a buried body? You will say that their senses are excited by the odor of the rotten bodies. Then, why would they go quietly when the body is of another animal? Why is it that they say the dog presents death? Haven’t you heard a dog howling by the window of an agonizing and unknown person? Outside the super excitation of rage, don’t you see several animals refusing to obey their owners, stepping back before an invisible obstacle that seems to block their passage, infuriating them, and later on they will pass calmly through the same path that terrified them before, as if the obstacle had been removed? Animals have been seen saving their owners from imminent danger by refusing to go in a given direction where they could have died. Facts of animal vision are found in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, as they are in our days. Animals, therefore, do see the Spirits. In fact, by saying that they have imagination, isn’t that an assumption that they do have a point of similarity with the human spirit, and isn’t their instinct a rudimentary intelligence appropriate to their needs, before they go through the modifying crucibles that wil transform them and give them new faculties? A man also has instincts that make him act unconsciously, in the interest of one’s own preservation. But as intelligence and free-will are developed, the instinct weakens giving rise to reason, because a blind guide is less necessary.

The instinct that has all of its power in the animal, perpetuating in man where it gradually fades away, is certainly a common trace between the two species. The subtleness of senses in the animal, like in the savage and primitive man, replacing in them the absence of a moral sense, is another point of contact. Finally, the spiritual vision that is evidently common to them, although in some varying degrees, also com to reduce the distance that seemed to erect an unsurpassable barrier. However, do not make any absolute conclusion but carefully analyze the facts because it is from that observation alone that truth will come one day.

Moki



Observation: This is a very wise advice because evidently a solid theory can only be founded on facts. Beyond that it is only opinions and systems. Facts are arguments without replica whose consequences, sooner or later, when they are attested, will have to be accepted. That was the principle that created the foundation of the Spiritist Doctrine and that allows us to say that it is a science of observation.

The Grand Journal of June 18^th, 1865 brings, with the title Letter from an Unknown, the explanation given below about the fact reported in the Spiritist Review, July 1865, with respect to the Aria of Henry III revealed in Mr. Bach’s dream. The author bases his explanation exclusively on somnambulism and seems to completely abstract from the intervention of the Spirits. Although we disagree in that respect, his explanation is not less wisely reasoned; and if it is not accurate in all points, in our opinion, it still contains points that are incontestably true and worth of attention. Contrarily to certain magnetizers, the so called “fluidists”, that only see the effect of a magnetic fluid in all effects, not taking the soul into account, Mr. Bertelius instead gives the soul a fundamental role. He represents the soul in its emancipation state, detached from matter, enjoying faculties that are not present in the vigil state. It is therefore an explanation from a completely spiritual point of view, if not totally Spiritist, and that is something on its own for the possibility of the fact by means that are not purely material, and that from an important journal. It is noticeable that a movement is forming among the detractors at this time, a kind of reaction, or even better, a third opinion that can be considered as a transition. Today many acknowledge the impossibility of explaining certain phenomena only by the laws of matter, but they cannot yet admit the intervention of the Spirits. They seek the causes in the exclusive action of the incarnate soul, acting independently from the material organs. It is incontestably a step forward that must be considered as a first victory against materialism. There isn’t a great distance between the isolated and independent action of the soul during life and the same action after death. They will be led to this by the evidence of the facts and by the impossibility of explaining everything just with the help of the incarnate Spirit.

Here is the article from The Great Journal:

“The issue before the last one of the Great Journal brings the singular case that happened to Mr. G. Bach, with these questions at the end: “- Had the harpsichord belonged to Baltazzarini? Was the Spirit of Baltazzarini that wrote the Sarabande? A mystery that we dare not investigate!”

Please explain to me why a man that has no prejudices, as I believe, steps back before the search for the truth? A mystery, you will say. – No Sir, there is no mystery. It is just a God given faculty to certain persons, like others are gifted with a beautiful voice, others with the genius of poetry, calculation, a rare perspicacity, all faculties that can be awaken, developed and improved by education. On the other hand there is an infinite number of other faculties conferred to mankind that civilization, progress and education annihilate, instead of favoring their development. Isn’t that true, for example, that indigenous peoples have an auditive sensitivity that we do not? That they can distinguish the step of man from several men, a horse from several horses or detect a wild animal at a great distance by holding the ear to the ground? Isn’t that also true that they measure time accurately without a pendulum or a clock? That they walk through virgin forests or navigate the rivers and oceans in their canoes oriented by the stars, with the help of a compass or without notions of Astronomy? Finally, isn’t that also true that the heal their diseases without doctors; cure the bites of the most venous animals with simple herbs, distinguishing them from so many others? Isn’t that a fact that they cure the most dangerous ulcers with clay? A red-skin chief in the middle of nowhere told me in the United States: The Great Being places the medicine by the side of the illness.

Those truths became banal by the force of repetition, but some use them to disguise their ignorance and others, that constitute the majority, use them to feed controversy. It is so easy to play the role of a strong mind just by denying everything! It is so difficult to explain the works of God whose secret we seek in books when the solution would be found in nature! There we have the great book, open to all intelligences; but not all of them are cut to decipher those mysteries because some read it through their preventions and prejudices and others through their insufficiency or the pride of pseudo-wise people.

Use the simplest means to investigate the mysteries of nature and the solution will be found, up to the limits imposed to our human intelligence by a superior one.

You said that Mr. Bach is not a somnambulist. What do you know about it and what does he know about it? Without the honor of having ever met him or known him I affirm that Mr. Bach is a somnambulist. It was in a latent state in him; an exceptional circumstance was necessary, a very lively and persistent sensation, an emotion understood by all of those that love curiosity and search, to have a faculty revealed to himself, a faculty that may have given him many unnoticeable examples in his life, but that he can certainly remember now if he wants to question and think about his past.

According to your report Mr. Bach spent part of his day admiring his precious harpsichord; he found out the age of the instrument (April 1564). He was thinking about it when he lied down and even when he was about to sleep he thought of that.

The somnambulist works in stages. When you want him to see what is going on in London, for example, you must tell him that he is boarding a carriage, then he is taken to the railroad and takes a train that moves, that he boards a ship and crosses the ocean (he will sometimes feel seasick), that he disembark, takes another train and gets to the end of the journey.

Mr. Bach followed the commonly path of the somnambulists. He had checked, disassembled, turned up and down and examined his harpsichord; he was taken by that idea and must have said to himself: whose instrument was this? There was a magnetic connection established between him and the instrument – and the strong minds cannot deny such connection. He fell asleep naturally and that was followed by the somnambulistic state. He then searched, excavated the past and established an intimate relationship with the harpsichord; he must have turned it, touched and placed his hand where three centuries before that the former owner had his own hand. He then questioned the past – something that is infinitely easier than predicting the future – and found himself in contact with a being that no longer exists. He saw him dressed and executing the aria that the instrument had executed so many times; he heard the words and dragged by that magnetic force called electricity Mr. Bach wrote the aria with his own hand, as clearly as one can send a message to Lyon today, written by your hand and with your writing. Mr. Bach wrote it in a somnambulistic state, I repeat, the music and lyrics that he had never heard before. He then woke up tearful and touched by such a lively emotion.

You can go and say that it is impossible. That is okay. But hear this case: I myself sent a somnambulist to England; she traveled not in a complete somnambulistic state but in an intermediary condition between the natural sleep and total somnambulism. I just ordered her to sleep the necessary time in her natural sleep and that she wrote whatever was reachable in her trip. She did not know a word in English. She knew nobody there. It was a serious task… She traveled and every night she wrote what she was supposed to do, the people that she should see and the addresses where she should meet them. She followed strictly the indications that were given to her. She visited the homes of people that she did not know and had never heard about, precisely the ones that could do it all… After eight days her mission was over, a task that would have required years for a complete satisfaction; my somnambulist came back after having accomplished wonders. In her natural state this extraordinary woman is a very common person.

Check this out: in her sleeping state her writing is very different from her natural way of writing. Words were written in English, unknown to her. She talks to me in Italian, but she could not say two words in that language in her vigil state.

Mr. Bach himself wrote and annotated the aria of Henry III with his own hand, although he cannot perhaps recognize his own writing. Something even more extraordinary is that he may doubt his own magnetic faculties, like my somnambulist who is radically skeptical about magnetism, to the point that whenever this is mentioned in her presence she promptly declares to be a non-believer.

And perhaps you may even say that Mr. Bach did not have paper and pen. My somnambulist in London found her indications written in pencil on her desk. She had no pencil… I am certain that she sought the pencil in the hotel, found it and brought it to her room with that almost supernatural and vaporous agility, accuracy and precaution, common to the somnambulists.

I could describe facts that are more remarkable than those of Mr. Bach but that is enough for today. I even hesitate in sending you these notes, serendipitously written by the pen.

For twenty years that I magnetize, I have hidden the result of my discoveries, even from my best friends. It is so easy to charge a man with madness; there are so many people interested in putting the light under the bushel, and above all it must be said, there are so many charlatans who have abused magnetism, that it would require a superhuman courage, to declare that I am involved with that. It would be better to proclaim that one has murdered his own father and mother, than to confess such a belief.

As a general rule, though: never ever believe in public experiments, in somnambulists that give consultation for a fee, that work like the ancient sibyl, speaking at the slightest command and at the scheduled time, in front of a large audience, like a skillfully prepared robot. It's trickery! Nothing is more unpredictable, capricious, voluntary, unstable, suspicious, rancorous than a somnambulist. The tiniest thing paralyzes their faculties of second sight; the tiniest thing makes them lie maliciously; the tiniest thing disturbs them and makes them deviate, and that is conceivable. Is there anything more susceptible than electric current?

I separated myself from an illustrious scientist (Dr. E ..., well-known in London), with whom I began my first magnetic experiments, precisely because I always considered the abuse of magnetism as a serious fault. Driven by the miraculous results we obtained, he one day wished to graft the phrenological system onto magnetism; he claimed that by touching certain bumps in the head, the somnambulist felt the sensation of that seat. By touching the presumed hump of music, the subject sang; that of gluttony, he chewed the emptiness, saying that such food had good or bad taste; and so on. I felt that it was pushing the experience to the point of abuse, sitting the problematic science of phrenology on the real fact of somnambulism. I wanted to extend the field of magnetic discoveries, but not to abuse them, as it is generally done.

I had the irreverence of declaring to my professor that he was going off course, and I maintain that it is the duty of all those who know the magnetic phenomena to rise against all these experiments, whose sole purpose is to satisfy an ignorant curiosity, to exploit some human weaknesses and not to achieve a practical result for humanity and useful to all.

But it is more difficult than one thinks to maintain oneself in these honorable limits, when one has arrived at marvelous results. The strongest magnetizers let themselves be carried away, and an even more remarkable phenomenon, when one gets to the point of always demanding public experiences of his subject, he seems to be out of order, he no longer has this unpredictability, this lucidity, that clairvoyance which distinguished him; the subject becomes an automatic machine, which responds on a given theme, and whose faculties are impoverished to the point of disappearing.

Unfortunately, people who would not dare to attempt a simple experiment in recreational physics, who would admit to being unfit to perform the slightest trick of prestidigitation, never hesitate, without the least preparatory study, to make magnetic experiments.

Ah! If I were not afraid of lulling the readers of your Grand Journal of a less interesting sleep, but louder than that of my sleepwalkers, I will soon be talking about eminently curious facts. But before anything else we must know how you will receive this first letter, and that's what I'll learn on Saturday by flipping the pages of my paper.”

Bertellius

Moral Spiritist study



One of our corresponding members from Lyon sent us the following report on January 10^th, 1865:

“We know a person from a neighboring town whose name we shall not declare to avoid slander and because the name has nothing to do with the fact. He was a Spiritist and had improved himself by the influence of that belief, however he had not taken the most advantage of that considering his intelligence. He used to live with an aunt that loved him like a son and that would do any work and sacrifice for her dear nephew. She would take care of the house in order to save money. It was all good up to that point. What was not so natural was the fact that the young and healthy nephew would allow her to do painful tasks for her age, like the transportation of heavy loads and similar things. He would not touch a piece of furniture in the house as if he would count on servants at his services. When foreseeing some hard job ahead he would find excuses to be away, afraid that he would be asked to do something that he could not refuse. Nonetheless he had received many lessons about that, not to say reproaches, but he remained insensitive. One day the aunt was extenuated while splitting wood and he calmly smoking his pipe. A neighbor came by and fired at him with his eyes, saying: This is a man’s job, not a woman’s. He then took the axe and began cutting the wood while the other observed. He was considered a righteous man, of good conduct but he did not show empathy and perseverance and for that he was not liked, and the majority of his friends had stayed away. We, the Spiritists, suffered for that lack of feelings and used to say that one day he would pay dearly for that. The forecast did occur recently. We must say that due to the efforts the old lady was taken ill with a very serious hernia that brought her a lot of pain, but she would have enough courage to not complain. During these latest cold days, the nephew left early to avoid the hard work, but he did not return. He was crossing a bridge when he was hit by a vehicle that slid from a hillside and died two hours later. We wanted to have him evoked and here is what our good guides said:

The one you want to call will not be able to communicate for some time. I came to respond in his place and tell you what you want to know. He will confirm this later. At this time, he is very disturbed by the thoughts that agitate him. He sees the aunt and the disease she acquired as a consequence of the physical fatigue and from which she will die. He is tormented by that since he considers himself the murderer. And he is in fact since he could have spared her the work that will be the cause of her death. It is a terrible remorse for him and that will persecute him for a long time, until he has atoned his fault. He wanted to do it now; he is always with her, but his efforts are useless and becomes desperate. His punishment will be to see her dying as a consequence of his indifference for his behavior is a kind of selfishness. Pray for him so that he can bear his regret that later on will save him.

Question – Can our dear guide tell us if other defects that he fixed as a consequence of Spiritism will not be taken into account, and if that has not serve to mitigate his situation?

Answer – There is no doubt that such improvement is taken into account since nothing escapes the in-depth eyes of the divine providence. But that is how each of our good or bad actions have their natural, inevitable consequences, according to these words of Jesus Christ: - For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds.^[1] The one that corrected oneself from some faults is spared from the punishment that would result from them, receiving, on the contrary, the awards for the qualities that replaced them, but one cannot escape the consequences of the defects that still persist. Therefore, one is not punished but in proportion and according to the seriousness of the latter. The less defects that remain the better one’s position. One quality does not atone another fault; it reduces their number and consequently the total punishment. Those that are corrected form start are the easiest to eliminate and egotism is the hardest to get rid of. People think that they did a lot for moderating their violent character, have resigned to their fate or eliminated a few bad habits. There is no doubt that they will benefit from that, but it does not preclude them from paying the tribute of depuration for the rest.

My friends, selfishness is what we see best in others, because we feel the impact, and the egoist hurts us; but the egoist finds in himself his satisfaction, that is why he does not perceive it. Egoism is always a proof of dryness of the heart; it dulls sensitivity to the sufferings of others. The man of heart, on the contrary, feels the suffering and is moved by it; that is why he devotes himself to spare or mitigate them in others, because he would like others to do the same for him; so he is happy when he spares a pain or suffering to someone; having empathy towards the suffering of a fellow human being, he feels real relief when the suffering no longer exists. Count on his gratitude if you do him a favor; but of the egoist expect only ingratitude; the gratitude in words does not cost him anything, but in action, it would tire him and disturb his rest. He acts for others only when he is forced to do so, but never spontaneously; his attachment is because of the good he expects from people, and this sometimes without his knowledge. The young man of whom we spoke certainly loved his aunt and would get upset if he had been told otherwise, and yet his affection did not go so far as to tire himself for her; it was not a premeditated plan on his side, but an instinctive repulsion, following his native selfishness. The light he could not find in his lifetime appears today, and he regrets not having benefited better from the teachings he has received. Pray for him.

Egotism is the rodent worm of society, and more or less of each one of you. I will soon write a dissertation in which it will be faced in its multiple nuances; it will be a mirror: look at it carefully and try to find in any corner a reflex of your own personality.

Your spiritual guide

---

[1] Mathews 16:27

Out for sale

Heavens and Hell or the Divine Justice According to Spiritism, by Allan Kardec



Content: compared examination of the doctrines about the passage from the corporeal to the spiritual life, future penalties and rewards, angels and demons, eternal punishments, etc., followed by a large number of examples about the actual condition of the soul during and after death.

Since it is not up to us to praise or criticize this work we limit ourselves to explain its objective and to reproduce a summary of the preface.

The title of the book clearly indicates its objective. We gather there all the elements proper to enlighten people about their destiny. As with the other writings about the Spiritist Doctrine there is nothing there that is the result of a preconceived system or from a personal conception that would have no authority. Everything in the book is deduced from observation and the agreement of facts.

The Spirits’ Book contains the foundations of Spiritism; it is the cornerstone of the edifice; all principles of the doctrine are presented there, up to those that must constitute its coronation; it was necessary, however, to give their developments, deduce all of their consequences and applications, as they were provided by the complementary teaching of the Spirits and by their observations. That is what we did with The Mediums’ Book and the Gospel According to Spiritism, from special points of view; that is what we do with the current book, by another point of view and what we will do successively with those that we still have to publish and that will come when the time is right.

The new ideas will only fructify when the terrain is right to receive them. For prepared terrain one must not understand a few premature minds that would only give isolated fruits, but a certain whole in the general predisposition, leading not only to a more abundant production of fruits but also give those ideas a larger number of supporting points, finding less opposition and being stronger against the attack of the adversaries. The Gospel According to Spiritism was already a step forward; Heavens and Hell According to Spiritism is one step further and its reach will be better understood because it openly discusses certain questions, but it should not have come earlier. If we take into account, the time when Spiritism appeared we shall recognize without much effort that it came at the right time, not too early, not too late. Had it come earlier it would have been aborted, since it would have capitulated before the attack of the enemies for not having gathered enough sympathizers; had it come later, it would have let go the opportunity to spread out; the ideas might have taken a different route, hard to change. It was necessary to allow the old ideas to wear out and demonstrate their insufficiency, before new ones were presented. Premature ideas are aborted because one is not mature to understand them and the need for a change has not been felt yet. Today it is evident to everyone that there is an immense movement of opinion; a formidable reaction takes places, in the progressive direction, against the stagnant or backward spirit of routine; the ones that were satisfied on the eve are the impatient ones on the following day.

It is labor and birth to humanity; there is something in the air, an irresistible force that pushes it forward; it is like a young person just out of adolescence that foresees new horizons but is not able to define them, still shaking the diapers of childhood. We see something better, a more solid food to reason. But that is still in the emptiness; we seek it, everybody works to find it, from the believer to the skeptical, from the worker to the scientist. The universe is a vast seedbed; some build, other destroy; everyone carries a stone to the new edifice, whose definitive plan is only seen by the Great Architect and whose economy will only be understood when it begins to take shape above ground. That was the time when the sovereign wisdom chose for the appearance of Spiritism.

The Spirits that preside upon the great regenerating movement, therefore, act with more wisdom than people would do because they oversee the general march of things, whereas we only see the limited circle of hour horizon. Since the times of renovation have come, according to the divine designs, it was necessary that mankind could foresee the new order of things, amongst the ruins of the old edifice and to avoid losing courage; the sailor had to see the polar star that would guide him to the port. The wisdom of the Spirits since the appearance of Spiritism, revealed almost instantaneously in all corners of Earth, when the time was right, is not less evident in the order and logical succession of the complementary revelations. It is not up to anybody to force their will about it because they do not gauge their teachings by the level of our impatience. We cannot simply say: we would like to know this, to have it given to us; it is even less convenient for us to tell God: “we believe the time is right for you to give is this or that; we believe to be advanced enough to get it”, because that would be the same as saying: “we know better what is the right thing to do”. The impatient ones hear this from the Spirits: “Begin by doing well, understanding well and above all by practicing well what you know, so that God may judge you worth of receiving more; then, when the moment is right, we shall know how to proceed and to choose our instruments.”

The first part of this book, named Doctrine, contains the comparative examination of several beliefs about heavens and hell, angels and demons, future penalties and rewards; the dogma of the eternal penalties is analyzed there in a special way, refuted by arguments taken from the laws of nature themselves, demonstrating not only their logical side, already done hundreds of times, but also its material impossibility. With the eternal penalties fall also the consequences that people believed could have followed them.

The second part contains numerous examples that support the theory, or even better, that served to the establishment of the theory. They found their authority in the diversity of times and places where they were obtained, because had they come from one single source and they could be considered to be produced by the same influence. Besides, they are taken from the agreement that is obtained daily from all over the place where people deal with the Spiritist manifestations, from a serious and philosophical point of view.

These examples could have been multiplied to infinity because there isn’t a Spiritist Center that could not provide a remarkable contingent. We had to choose the most instructive ones to avoid a fastidious repetition. Each one of those examples is a study in which every word has its reach to whoever wants to meditate with attention, because from each point there is a light cast upon a situation of the soul after death, and about the up until now obscure and feared passage from the corporeal to the spiritual life. It is the guide to the traveler, before entering a new country. Life beyond the grave unfolds there in all of its aspects, in a vast portrait; everyone will find reasons for hope and consolation there, and new supports to their faith in the future and in the justice of God.

In those examples, in their majority taken from contemporary facts, we concealed people’s names, whenever considered appropriate, for convenience and obvious reasons. Those touched by those examples will recognize them easily. To the public in general there would be no additional benefit in the instruction by providing names more or less known, sometimes obscure.

These are the titles of the chapters:

FIRST PART: Doctrine. I. The future and the emptiness. II. The apprehension of death. III. Heavens. IV. Hell. V. Comparative chart of the Pagan and Christian hells. VI. The purgatory. VII. The doctrine of the eternal penalties. VIII. Future penalties, according to Spiritism. IX. The angels. X. The demons. XI. Intervention of the demons in modern manifestations. XII. About the prohibition of evoking the dead.

SECOND PART: Examples. I. The passage. II. Happy Spirits. III. Spirits in average condition. IV. Suffering Spirits. V. Suicidal. VI. Regretting criminals. VII. Hardened Spirits. VIII. Earthly atonements.

by Mrs. Émilie Collignon, from Bordeaux



It is with satisfaction and carrying out a duty that we call the attention of our readers to this brochure, just announced in the last issue of our Spiritist Review, that is a pleasure to us to include in the list of the recommended books. It is a complete, although summarized, exposition of the true principles of the Doctrine, in a colloquial language, in an attractive format, reachable by everyone. The analysis of this book would be the same as that of The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book. We therefore recommend this book not as for containing new ideas but for the propagation of the Doctrine.