INTRODUCTION
The speed of propagation of the strange spiritist manifestations, all over the world, is a
demonstration of the interest they attract. Starting as a simple object of curiosity they soon drew the
attention of serious investigators who, since the beginning, perceived the inevitable influence they
would have on the moral condition of society. The new ideas which stem from them become more
popular daily and nothing can stop their progress as everybody, or almost everybody can reach out
for these phenomena, and no human power will impede their manifestation. If muffled in one point,
they appear in one hundred others. Those, therefore, who would find any given inconvenient in such
manifestations, would be embarrassed to suffer their consequences by the force of the facts, as the
same happens to new technologies which may hurt particular interests in the beginning but gets
naturally accommodated with time.
What was not said and perpetrated against magnetism! However, every blow against it, every
weapon which hurt it, including ridicule, collided with reality and only served to give magnetism
more evidence. Magnetism is a natural force and facing natural forces man is like a pygmy, like
these little dogs barking against everything that scares them away.
What happens to somnambulism also happens to the spiritist manifestations: if they do not take
place in daylight and publicly, nobody will preclude them from happening in the intimacy, as each
family may find a medium in the household, from the children to the elderly, as they can also find a
somnambulist. Thus, what if the first to be found is a medium and a somnambulist? Who can
preclude that? There is no doubt that the skeptics did not think about it. We insist that when a force
is part of Nature, it can only be temporarily stopped but never eliminated! Its course, however, may
be only deviated. Well, the force revealed in the phenomena of manifestations, whatever its cause
may be, is part of Nature, and, like magnetism and its accompanying electric force, will also not be
destroyed. It is therefore necessary that those manifestations be observed and studied in all their
phases in order to realize their governing laws. If it is an error and an illusion, time will tell; if it is
the truth, like compressed steam, will expand the more it is compressed. Is it a surprising fact that,
in the Americas, only in the USA, there are seventeen journals dedicated to the subject, not counting
a large number of non-periodical publications whereas in France, the European country where the
ideas mostly found support, do not have one?* It would be unnecessary to dispute the utility of a
special organization to make the public aware of this new science and prevent it against the
excesses of credulity, as well as skepticism. This is the blank which we propose to fill out with the
publication of this Review, aiming at providing a communication media to those interested in these
questions and to connect, through a common bond, those who understand the Spiritist Doctrine,
from its true moral point of view: practice of good and evangelical charity towards everyone.
* Up until now there is only one journal in Europe dedicated to the Spiritist Doctrine—the Journal de l’âme—published in Geneve by Dr. Boessinger. In the USA the only journal in French is the Spiritualiste de la Nouvelle Orléans, published by Mr. Barthès.
If it were only a simple collection of data the task would be easy. These multiply everywhere with
such a speed that it would yield endless subject matter but the facts, on their own, would become
tedious by repetition and specially by similarity. What is necessary to the thoughtful person is
something that resonates to their intelligence. It was only a few years ago that the first phenomena
manifested themselves and already we are far away from the “turning and speaking” tables which
represented their infancy. Today it is a Science which uncovers a whole world and exposes the
eternal truths that were already sensed within our own spirit. It is a sublime doctrine that shows the
path of duty to mankind and uncovers the widest field never presented to the observation of the
philosopher. Had we stayed inside the narrow limits of an anecdotal Review our work would be
incomplete and sterile, as the interest would have soon passed.
It is possible that the denomination of Science which we gave to Spiritism will be contested. That
Science would not have, without a doubt and in any case, the characteristics of an exact Science and
it is precisely in this aspect that those who intend to judge and experiment are in error, as if they
were dealing with a chemical analysis or a mathematical problem; The fact that it is a philosophical
Science is already enough. Every Science must be based on facts but those, by themselves, do not
constitute the Science which is born from the coordination and logic inference of the facts: it is the
set of laws which govern those facts. Has Spiritism arrived at the state of Science? If that means a
completed Science, no doubt it is premature to positively answer that question but the observations
are already in large numbers today to allow, at least, the deduction of the general principles and
where the Science begins.
The thoughtful examination of the facts and its resulting consequences is, thus, a complement,
without which our publication would be of mediocre use and only offer a secondary interest to the
thoughtful person and those who want to understand what they see. Nevertheless, as our aim is to
get to the truth, we will welcome all observations directed to us and, as much as allowed by the
acquired knowledge, we will try to resolve the doubts and clarify the still obscure points. Our
Review will thus be a tribune where the discussion will never distance itself from the standards of
the strictest conveniences. In one word, we will discuss but will not dispute. Language
inconveniences have never been good arguments to the eyes of wise people: it is the weapon of
those who do not have something better to offer and which turn against those who use it.
Although the phenomena with which we occupy ourselves have been more recently produced in a
broader way, everything demonstrates that they have been occurring since the remotest ages.
Natural phenomena do not follow the same path as the inventions which follow the progress of the
human spirit, while those are in the order of all things, their cause is as old as the world and their
effects must have been produced at all times. Therefore, what we witness today is not a modern
discovery. It is the awakening of the ancient times; ancient times cleared from the mystic enclosure
that generated superstition; ancient times enlightened by civilization and progress in the field of
positive things.
The capital consequence arising from these phenomena is the communication that men can
establish with the beings of the incorporeal world and, within certain limits, the knowledge which
can be acquired regarding their future state. The communication with the invisible world is a fact,
unequivocally found in the biblical books. The Bible, however, on one hand, is not sufficiently
authoritative to some skeptics; on another hand, to the believers, these are supernatural facts, given
by a special favor of Divinity. Had we not found those manifestations in a thousand of other diverse sources, they would not then represent a proof of generality to everyone. The existence of the spirits
and their intervention in the corporeal world is attested and demonstrated, not as an exceptional fact
but as a general principle, in St Augustine, St Jerome, St Chrysostome, St Gregory of Nazianzus,
and in many other Fathers of the Church. That belief forms, moreover, the basis of all religious
systems. The wisest philosophers of the ancient times admitted them: Plato, Zoroaster, Confucius,
Apuleius, Pythagoras, Apollonius of Tyana, and many others. We find them in the mysteries and
oracles, among Greeks, Egyptians, Hindus, Chaldeans, Romans, Persians, and the Chinese. We see
them surviving all vicissitudes of the peoples, to all persecutions, challenging all physical and moral
revolutions of humanity.
We find them later among the soothsayers and witches of the Middle Ages; in the Willis and
Valquirias of the Scandinavians, the Elves of the Teutonic, the Leschios and Domeschnios Doughi
of the Slavs, the Ourisks and Brownies of the Scottish, the Poulpicans and Tersarpoulicts of the
Bretons, the Cemis of the Caribbean; in one word: the whole phalanx of nymphs, good and evil
geniuses, gnomes, fairies and elves with which all nations have filled the space.
We find the practice of evocation in the peoples of Siberia, Kamchatka, Iceland, among the native
Indians of North America and aborigines of Mexico and Peru, Polynesia and even among the
primitive savages of New Holland.
The ignorance of a common principle, more or less modified, cannot be due to some absurdities
which surrounded or enclosed that belief during various times and places. In truth, a doctrine does
not turn universal, survive thousands of generations, implant from one corner of the planet to the
next, among widely diverse peoples, from all degrees of the social scale, if it is not based on
something positive. What should that be? This is what the recent manifestations show us. Searching
for the possible relationships between those manifestations and all those beliefs is to search for the
truth.
The history of the Spiritist Doctrine is, somehow, the history of the human spirit. We will have to
study it from all angles, providing an inexhaustible source of observations, as much instructive as
interesting, about facts that are generally not well known. This will give us the opportunity to
explain a number of popular legends and beliefs, which have their part of truth, allegory and
superstition.
Concerning the current manifestations, we will report all pertinent phenomena that we witness or
those that come to our knowledge, whenever we recognize they deserve the attention of our readers.
We will do the same in response to the spontaneous effects, sometimes produced among people
ignorant of the spiritist practices from those who may reveal an occult power or the independence of
the soul, such are the visions, apparitions, clairvoyance, premonition, intimate warnings, secret
voices, etc.
To the reported facts we shall add the explanations, as highlighted from the set of principles. With
that respect we shall reinforce the fact that these principles are derived from the teachings of the
spirits, always making abstraction of our own ideas. They do not come, therefore, from a personal
theory but from what was communicated to us and of which we are simple interpreters.
Large space will also be reserved to the written or oral communications of the spirits, as long as
they have a useful purpose, as with the evocations of past or current personalities, well known or
unknown, without neglecting the intimate evocations which, many times, are not as instructive. In a
word: we will encompass all phases of the material and intelligent manifestations of the incorporeal
world. The Spiritist Doctrine finally offers us the possible and rational solution to a number of
moral and anthropological phenomena that we witness daily, whose explanation we would uselessly
search for in all other known doctrines. In that category we place, for example, the simultaneity of
thoughts, the anomaly of certain characters, sympathies and antipathies, the intuitive knowledge, the
aptitudes, the tendencies, the destinies which look like hallmarks of fatality and, in a broader
picture, the distinctive character of the peoples, their progress or their degeneration, etc.
To the citation of the facts we will add the research on the possible causes which could have
produced them. From the appreciation of the actions, useful teachings will naturally sprout
regarding the line of conduct mostly in agreement with sound moral. In their instructions the
superior spirits always have the objective of awakening in men the love for the good, for the
practice of the evangelical precepts; hence they shall guide our thoughts that will preside over the
writings of this collection.
Thus, the scope of our work comprehends everything related to the knowledge of the metaphysical
side of man. We will study them in their present as well as future states, considering that studying
the nature of the spirit is to study man, as man will one day participate of the world of the spirits.
That is the reason why we will add to the main title the subtitle “journal of psychological studies”,
allowing for the understanding of its comprehensive scope.
NOTE: Despite the abundance of our personal observations and the sources from where we collect
the facts, we do not underestimate our difficulties for the task or our insufficiency. In order to
supplement them we count on the benevolent support of all of those interested in such problems. We
shall thus be thankful for the communications transmitted to us about the several subjects of our
studies. With that respect we draw attention to the following ten points about which documents can
be provided:
1) Material or intelligent manifestations obtained in meetings where the person was
present;
2) Facts about lucid somnambulism or ecstasies;
3) Facts of clairvoyance, predictions, premonitions;
4) Facts relatively to the occult power attributed, with or without reason, to certain persons;
5) Legend and popular beliefs;
6) Facts of visions and apparitions;
7) Particular psychological phenomena that sometimes occur at the moment of death;
8) Moral and psychological problems to be solved;
9) Moral facts, notable acts of devotion and abnegation whose propagation may serve as
useful example;
10) Indications of past or modern publications, French or foreign, in which one can find facts
relative to the manifestations of occult intelligences, with the designation and, if
possible, citation of texts. The same regarding the issued opinions about the existence of
the spirits and their relationships with men, from former or contemporary authors, whose
names and wisdom give them authority.
