The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

The phenomena of apparitions are now presented in a kind of new aspect, shedding a powerful light over the mysteries of life beyond the grave. Before moving into the strange facts that we will report, we find it appropriate to recap the explanations given earlier and complete them.

One should keep in mind that during its life the spirit is united to the body by a semi-material substance that forms the first covering called perispirit. The spirit thus has two coverings: one dense, heavy and destructible – the body; the other, ethereal, vaporous, indestructible – the perispirit. Death is nothing but the destruction of the gross covering; it is like the worn clothes that we abandon. The semi material covering persists and constitutes, per say, a new body to the spirit.

Such ethereal matter – interesting to point out – is not the soul, absolutely; it is nothing more than its first covering. The intimate nature of that substance is not yet perfectly known to us but the observation has led us to understand some of its properties. We know that it represents a fundamental role in every spiritist phenomena; that after death it is the intermediary agent between the spirit and matter, as the body is during its life. This allows for the explanation of a large number of phenomena hitherto inexplicable. We shall see in a following article the role that it plays in the sensations of the spirits. Besides, the discovery of the perispirit, if we can say so, led the Spiritist Science into a huge step in an entirely new route.

But the perispirit, some may argue, isn’t that a fantastic creation of imagination? Wouldn’t that be one of those suppositions made several times to explain certain effects? No. It is not the work of imagination since it was revealed by the spirits themselves. It is not a fantastic idea since it can be verified by the senses and can be seen and touched. It does exist; we only gave it a name. We need new words to describe new things. The spirits also adopted it in the communications that we have established with them.

By nature and in its normal state the perispirit is invisible to us but it can go through changes to allow us to see it, both by a kind of condensation as well as by an alteration in its molecular structure. It is then that it can appear to us in a vaporous state. The condensation (we should not take this term formally hence we only employ it for the lack of a better one) can be such that the perispirit acquires the properties of a solid and tangible body. It can, nevertheless, instantly return to its ethereal and invisible state. We can have an idea of that effect by the vapor that can pass from the invisible to a foggy state then to liquid and then to solid and vice-versa. Those different states of the perispirit are the product of the free-will of the spirit and not of an exterior cause. When visible to us it is because the spirit gives to the perispirit the necessary property to make it visible. That property can be extended, restricted and ceased, according to their wishes.

Another property of the perispirit is its penetrability. It cannot be blocked by any matter, passing through them all, like the light passes through the transparent bodies.

The perispirit, separated from the body, takes a determined and limited form which normally is the human body, but that is not constant. The spirit can give it a variety of forms at will, including that of an animal or a flame. As a matter of fact, this capability can be easily understood. Don’t we see people that make the most diverse expressions, imitating the voice and the facial looks of other people, to the point of deceiving us; pretending to be fat, disabled, etc? Who can recognize around town those actors that we only see playing a characteristic role on a stage? If man can thus give to his material and rigid body such contradictory appearances, with even more reason the spirit can do it with a covering, which is eminently flexible and can yield to all caprices.

The spirits generally appear to us showing a human form. In its normal state such a form does not have anything very characteristic, anything that markedly separate one from the others. With the good spirits that shape is, by a rule of thumb, beautiful and regular: long and fluctuating hair over their shoulders, ample mantles surrounding their bodies. But whenever they want to be identified they assume all traces by which they were known, including the outfits, if necessary. That is for example like Aesop who is not disabled as a spirit but if evoked as Aesop, considering that he had several existences prior to that, he will show up ugly and with a hunchback, as well as traditionally dressed. It is perhaps the dressing that is most intriguing; if however we consider that the dressing is also part of the semi material covering, we then understand that the spirit can give to that covering the appearance of this or that outfit as with this or that facial looks.

The spirits can appear in dreams as well as in the waking state. The apparitions in the waking state are neither rare nor new; they have happened at all times and history records them in great number. Without going back to the past, however, they are very frequent nowadays and many people have, at first, taken such visions as hallucinations.

The apparitions are particularly frequent in cases of death from individuals that come to visit relatives and friends. They do not often have a determined objective but one can generally say that the spirits that appear to us are attracted by mutual sympathy.

We know a young lady that appear many times in her house, in her bedroom, with or without light, men that would come and go, despite the fact that the door would be closed. She would feel so scared that she showed an almost ridiculous cowardice. One day she distinctly saw her brother who was alive in California, giving proof that the spirits of the living beings can cover the distances and show up in a place when the body is in another.

Once that lady was initiated into Spiritism she is no longer be afraid since she is aware of the visions and she knows that the spirits that come to visit her cannot do her any harm. It is likely that her brother was asleep when he appeared to hear. If she only knew that she could have established a conversation with him, of which he could have kept a faint impression when awaken. It is also likely that he would then have thought to have dreamt of being close to his sister.

We said that the perispirit can become tangible. We spoke of that when describing the manifestations produced by Mr. Home. It is a known fact that he has made hands appear several times, hands that could be touched as if they were alive, but that would suddenly disappear as shadows, although no complete bodies had yet been seen under such a tangible form. Yet, this is also possible.

In one of our member’s family, a spirit has been associated to the daughter of this family. This daughter is a ten to eleven year old child who has befriended a handsome young man of the same age. He is visible to her and willingly becomes visible or invisible to the other persons. He does all sorts of errands; he brings toys and chocolates to her; cleans the house; go to the stores for groceries and more expensive items. This is not a legend of the German mystic neither a medieval story. It is an actual fact that happens at this very moment while we write, in a French town, in the core of a very respectable family. We have even carried out interesting studies about this case which provided us with the most original and unexpected revelations. We will address this subject with our readers in a more thorough article to be published soon.

Every person that can see the spirits without the help of others is thus a clairvoyant medium. But the apparitions are generally accidental and fortuitous.

We didn’t know yet anybody capable of seeing the spirits permanently and at will. That is the remarkable gift of Mr. Adrien, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies. He is simultaneously sensitive, clairvoyant, and psychographic and can also hear the spirits. Through psychgraphy he writes what the spirits dictate but rarely in a mechanical way, like the totally passive mediums, that is, even when writing something alien to his own thoughts he is aware of what he is writing. As a hearing medium he hears occult voices that speak to him. We have in our Society two other mediums that enjoy such a faculty in its highest level and, at the same time, are psychgraphy mediums. Finally, as a sensitive medium, he feels the contact with the spirits and the pressure they exert on him. He even feels electric shocks that affect other people around. When he magnetizes someone he can, at will, and since that is required to the health treatment, produce the discharge of an electric battery.

A new faculty that has just manifested in him is the double vision. Not being a somnambulist and although completely awake, he can see at an unlimited distance, what happens in a given place, even overseas. He sees the persons and what they are doing; describes the places and facts with precision and confirmed accuracy.

Let us say, for starters, that Mr. Adrien is not one of those weak persons that easily yield to their imagination. On the contrary, he is a man of cold character, very calm and takes all this in the most cold-bloodedly way, but not with indifference; far from that, since he takes his faculties very seriously, considering them as a gift from Providence, given to him for the well-being of others and thus he only uses them for the serious things, never to satisfy the vain curiosity. He is a person of a distinct family, very honest, of a kind and benevolent character, whose refined education is revealed in his language and in all of his attitudes. While in the military he has already visited part of Africa, India and our colonies as a member of the Navy.

From all his faculties of medium the most remarkable and precious to us is his clairvoyance. The spirits appear to him as we have described in our previous issue regarding the apparitions. He sees them with a precision that we can figure out from the portraits given at some point later from the widow of the Malabar and from the Beautiful Weaver of Lyon.

People may ask, however, what is the proof that he sees and that he is not the victim of an illusion. The proof is that when someone that he does not know evokes a relative or a friend through him who he has never seen before, he describes that person with a remarkable accuracy, as we had the opportunity to verify. Thus, we have no doubt whatsoever with respect to that faculty that he manifests while awaken and not as a somnambulist.

What is still even more remarkable is that he does not see only the evoked spirits. He sees all those that are present, evoked or not. He sees them coming and going, listening to what we say, laughing at us or taking us seriously, according to their character. Some are grave, others show a teasing and sardonic face; from time to time one of the them approaches a person who is present, resting a hand on their shoulder or just staying behind them, while the others remain at a distance. In one word, in every gathering there is always an occult assembly, composed of spirits who are attracted by sympathy to those present and by the subjects of their interest. He sees crowds in the streets since beyond the familiar spirits that follow their protégés, there is, as among us, the masses of indifferent and idle ones. He says that he is never bored or alone at home since there is always a whole community that distracts him.

His faculty is not limited to the spirits of the dead but also of the living ones. When he sees a person he can make an abstraction of the body; then the spirit of that person shows up to him as if separated from the body and can talk to him. Hence with a child, for example, he can see the incarnated spirit, appreciate its nature and know what the spirit was before the incarnation. This faculty, elevated to such a level, can teach us more than all written communications about the nature of the spirits; it shows us what the spirit actually is, and if we don’t see it with our own eyes, his description leads us to see through our thoughts.

The spirits are no longer abstract beings, becoming real creatures around us; touching us every step of the way. As we now know that their contact can be material, we understand the cause of a number of sensations that we have, without realizing it.

Therefore we place Mr. Adrien among the most remarkable mediums and in the first row of those who have provided us with the most precious elements for the understanding of the spiritual world. We locate him in the first level, particularly for his personal qualities, that are of a good man by excellence, making him eminently sympathetic to the spirits of a more elevated order, what is not always the case with the mediums of purely physical influence. No doubt that there are those among the latter that will make more sensationalism; that will better captivate public opinion, but to the observer, to someone that wishes to probe the mysteries of this wonderful world, Mr. Adrien is the most powerful support that we have ever found.

As a result, his faculty and support serve our personal instruction, be it in the intimacy, in the sessions of the Parisian Society, or even through visitations to several public places. We have been together into theaters, balls, leisurely strolls, in hospitals, in the cemeteries and churches. We were together at funerals, weddings, baptism ceremonies and sermons. We observed the gathering of spirits in all those places. We have established conversations with some of them, questioning them and learning many things that we shall make useful to our readers considering that our objective is to help them and ourselves to penetrate into such a new world to all of us.

The microscope has revealed to us the unsuspected world of the infinitely small, although it had always been at the reach of our hands. The telescope has revealed us the infinity of the celestial worlds of which we did not suspect either. Spiritism uncovers the world of the spirits that are everywhere around us and in space, a real world that incessantly interacts with us.

The spirits have always told us that the separation between the soul and body does not happen instantly. Sometimes it starts before real death, while the body is in agony. The detachment is not yet complete at the last heartbeat. It happens more or less slowly, according to the circumstances and up to the moment of its liberation the soul experiences a perturbation, a confusion that hinders the awareness of their actual condition. The soul is in the state of a person that wakes up with confusing ideas. Such a state is not painful to the man whose conscience is pure; not understanding completely what he sees, he is calm and fearlessly waits for the thorough wake up. It is, on the contrary, full of anguish and terror on those who fear for the future.

The duration of that perturbation, we say, is variable. It is much shorter to the one who has elevated his thoughts during his life, purifying his soul; two or three days are enough whereas to others it may take eight or ten. We have many times witnessed this solemn moment and have always seen the same thing. It is not thus a theory but the result of observation because it is the spirit who describes and paints their own situation.

Here is an example of a well characteristic and very interesting case considering that it is not related to an invisible spirit who writes through a medium but to a spirit who is seen and heard next to his own body, both at the burial chamber as well as in church, during the funeral services.

Mr. X... had just been victimized by a stroke. A few hours after his death Mr. Adrien, one of his friends, was in the mortuary chamber with the wife of the deceased. He clearly saw the spirit walking in all directions; alternatively looking to the body and to those around it, later sitting on a chair. He had the exact same appearance as he had when alive. He dressed in the same way: black overcoat and pants. He had his hands in his pockets, looking suspicious.

During that time the wife had been looking for a piece of paper on a desk. The husband looked at her and said: “Don’t bother looking; you will find nothing”. She did not suspect anything as Mr. X... was only visible to Mr. Adrien. On the following, day during the funeral service, Mr. Adrien saw the spirit of his friend again, wandering by the side of his coffin, but no longer wearing the clothes of the other day, now covered by a kind of tunic. The conversation bellow was established between the two men. Let us be clear that Mr. Adrien is not a somnambulist and that he was perfectly awake at this time as on the previous day and that the spirit appeared to him much like one of the guests of the funeral.

Q. Tell me my dear spirit: what do you feel now? A. Comfort and suffering.

Q. I don’t understand that.

A. I feel that I am living my real life, however I see my body here in this casket; I touch myself and don’t feel a thing, nevertheless I feel that I am alive, that I exist. Will I then be two beings? Ah! How I want to exit this darkness, this nightmare.

A. Death? I am not dead my son! You are mistaken. I was just standing up when suddenly I was taken by a darkness that covered my eyes; then I stood up and imagine my amazement by seeing myself, feeling alive, having my other self lying on the cold floor. My thoughts were confused. I unsuccessfully tried to put myself together. I saw my wife arriving at the wake, mourning for me, but I asked myself why. I offered her consolation, speaking with her but she did not reply nor understand. That was what tortured me and made my spirit even more perturbed. Only you lessened my pain as you heard me and you understand what I want. You helped me to clarify my thoughts and did me a great deal. But why don’t the others do the same? That is what tortures me... My mind is smashed by that pain... I will see her. She might understand me now... So long my dear friend. Call me that I will come to see you... I will pay you a friendly visit... Will surprise you... so long.

Then Mr. Adrien saw him approaching his son, who was crying. He bent over him and remained a few moments in that position. He was not understood but he no doubt imagined that he had produced a sound. “I am convinced, says Mr. Adrien that his message got across to his son’s heart. I will prove that to you. I saw him later and he was more relaxed.”

OBSERVATION: This description is in agreement with everything that we had observed about the phenomenon of separation of the soul; it confirms, in very special circumstances, the following truth: the spirit is still present after death. We believe that we have only an inert body before our eyes whereas he sees and understands everything that happens around him; penetrates the thoughts of those who are present and sees that the only difference between him and them is the visibility and invisibility. The false cries of the heirs do not touch them. What a disappointment may the spirits experience in such a moment!

One member of our Society sent us a letter from one of his friends from Boulogne-sur-Mer, dated July 26th, 1856 in which one can read the following passage:

“After having magnetized my son, following an order from the spirits, he became a very rare medium; this according to the revelation he gave in a somnambulistic state, which I have induced him into from his own request, on May 14th last and on other four or five occasions.”

“There is no doubt to me that, when awake, my son freely speaks with the spirits that he wishes to, through his guide who in the intimacy he calls his friend; that he transports himself wherever he wishes to, in spirit. I will report a case for which I have the written proof in my hands.”

Once this tale was told one of those attending the meeting said that history registers several similar cases. He mentioned St. Alfonse of Liguori, who was canonized before the required time, for having simultaneously appeared in two different places, fact that was then considered a miracle.

St. Anthony of Padua was in Spain and while giving his sermon his father was about to be executed in Padua, accused of murder. At that very moment Anthony shows up, demonstrates his father’s innocence and reveals who the true assassin was, who later suffered the penalties. It was verified that St. Anthony was preaching in Spain, at the same time.

St. Alfonse of Liguori was evoked so that we addressed him with the following questions:

“During the months that Vespasian spent in Alexandria, waiting for the seasonal return of the dry winds and the time when the sea becomes favorable, several prodigies took place through which the favor of heaven and the interest that the gods seemed to have for that prince manifested...Such prodigies reinforced Vespasian wishes to visit the sacred dwelling of the god, to consult with him about the issues of the empire. He commanded that the temple be closed to everyone. Having entered the temple, his mind totally concentrated on what the oracle would say, he noticed one of the main Egyptians behind him, a man by the name of Basilide, who he knew had been sick for several days in Alexandria. He inquired the priests if Basilide had come to the temple that day; he asked around to the passers-by whether they had seen him in town; he finally sent men on horse backs to find him and certify that he was eighty miles away at that very moment. Then he no longer doubted that his vision was supernatural and that Basilide had taken the oracles’ place. (Tacitus, Histories, Book IV, chap. 81 and 82, Translated by Burnouf).”

Since that fact has been communicated to us we have received several others of the same kind, from reliable sources. Among them there are some very recent ones that have occurred, say, in our environment, taking place in very interesting circumstances. Their explanations allow for a significant broadening of the psychological observations. The subject of the double men, left to the fantastic stories of the past, thus seems to have some truth in it. We shall return to this subject soon.

Do the spirits suffer? Which sensations do they experience? Such questions are naturally addressed to us and we try to answer them. Initially we must say that we do not limit ourselves to the answers of the spirits. We had somehow to consider the sensation as a fact, through observations.

In one of our sessions, soon after having received a beautiful essay from St. Louis regarding greed, published last February, one of our associates described the following fact with respect to that dissertation:

“We were evoking spirits in a small group of friends when suddenly and without been called, a spirit that we had known very well presented himself; he could have served as a model to the picture of the greedy one, painted by St. Louis: one of those men that live miserably surrounded by their fortunes; deprived of everything not to the benefit of others but just to accumulate more, uselessly. It was winter and we were by the fireplace. Then that spirit brought his name back to us, name that was far from our thoughts, requesting our permission to come to warm up by our fireplace, for three days, saying that he felt a horrible cold that he voluntarily endured during his life, and that he forced others to withstand, out of greed. This would be a relief, he added, if you allow me to.”

That spirit was experiencing a painful sensation of cold. But how could that he? That was the difficulty. We then directed the following questions to St. Louis:

1. Could you kindly tell us how the spirit of that greedy man, who no longer had a material body, felt cold and asked for help to warm him up?

- You can imagine the sufferings of the spirits by their moral sufferings.
2. We understand the moral sufferings like sorrow, remorse, shame, but heat, cold and the

physical pain, these are not moral effects. Do the spirits experience that kind of sensation? - Does your soul feel cold? No, but it is aware of the sensation that it causes in the body.

4. If we got it right one could explain things like this: The body is the instrument of pain. If it is not the first cause it is at least the immediate cause. The soul has the perception of that pain. That perception is the effect. The memory retained by the soul can be as painful as reality but it cannot have a physical action. Neither intense heat nor cold can disorganize its constitution. The soul cannot feel cold or heat. Don’t we daily see the memory or apprehension of a physical illness producing the actual effect of reality? Even causing death? Everybody knows that amputees feel pain in the non-existent limb. That limb is certainly not the center or even the origin of the pain. The brain has kept the impression and that is all. One can thus believe that there is something analogous with the suffering of the spirits after death. Are such considerations correct?

- Yes. Later you will understand even better. Wait for other facts that will provide you with new points of observation. You will then be able to arrive at comprehensive conclusions.

This was happening in the beginning of 1858. As a matter of fact, since then a more in depth study of the perispirit that represents a more important role in all spiritist manifestations, and that was still unnoticed, has taken place: the vaporous or tangible apparitions; the state of the spirit at the time of death; the so frequent idea in the spirits that they are still alive; the impressive portrait of the suicidal, of the executed, of those embedded in the material pleasures and so many other facts that brought light onto this question and that paved the way for explanations that we summarize below:

The perispirit is the link that unites the spirit to the material body; it is taken from the environment, from the universal fluid; it simultaneously has something of electricity, of the magnetic fluid and, up to a certain extent, of the inert matter. One could say that it is the quintessence of matter: it is the principle of the organic life, but not of the intellectual life. The intellectual life resides in the spirit. Besides, the perispirit is the agent to the exterior sensations. In the body those sensations are localized in the organs that operate as channels. Once the body is destroyed, the sensations become generic. That is why the spirits do not say that they have more pain in their head than on their feet. Furthermore it is necessary not to confuse the sensations of the perispirit, which became independent, with those of the body. The last ones have to be taken only comparatively and not as an analogy. Any excess of heat or cold may disorganize the very fabric of the body; however it cannot reach the perispirit. Once detached from the body the spirit can suffer but such a suffering is not that of the body. Nevertheless, it is not an exclusively moral suffering, like remorse, since the spirit complains about heat or cold; the spirit does not suffer more in the winter than in the summer; we have seen them going through the flames without any suffering. Thus, temperature cannot exert any impression on them. As a consequence, the pain they feel is not properly physical. It is a vague intimate feeling that the spirit himself is not always precisely aware of, since the pain is not localized and is not produced by any external agent. It is more of a memory than a reality, although it can be a really painful memory. There is, however, something else besides the memory, as we will see below.

Experience teaches us that at the time of death the perispirit detaches more or less slowly. At first the spirit is not aware of the situation; does not consider him dead; feels alive, sees the body by the side; acknowledges his own body but does not understand how it can be separated. Such a state lasts for as long as there is a bond between the body and the spirit.

Take the evocation of the person who committed suicide in the Samaritan baths described in our June issue. As everyone else, he said: “No, I am not dead.” But added: “However, I feel the worms devouring me.” Well, the worms cannot absolutely devour the perispirit, let alone the spirit. They only destroy the body. As the separation between the body and the perispirit was not complete, the result was a kind of moral repercussion that gave him the sensation of what was happening to the body. Repercussion might not be the correct word since it could lead to the supposition of a very material effect. It was, on the contrary, the vision of what was happening to his body, to which his perispirit was attached, that produced the illusion taken by reality. Thus, it was not a memory as he was not devoured by the worms while alive. It was an actual feeling.

From that we see the deductions that can be taken from the facts, when observed with attention. During life, the body receives exterior impressions transmitted to the spirit, through the perispirit that probably constitutes what is called nervous fluid. Once dead, the body no longer feels, as there is neither spirit nor perispirit. Once detached from the body the perispirit experiments the sensation. However, as that sensation does not arrive through a specific channel, it is then generic. Now, as in reality, there is only one transmitting agent, since it is the spirit that has consciousness, it results that if there could be a perispirit without spirit, it would not feel more than the dead body. In the same way, if the spirit had no perispirit it would be inaccessible to any painful sensation. That is what happens to the spirits who are completely depurated. We know that the more they depurate the more ethereal the essence of the perispirit becomes, from what follows that the influence of matter diminishes with the progress of the spirit, that is, as the perispirit becomes less materialized.

One would say, however, that the pleasant sensations are transmitted to the spirit through the perispirit, as well as the unpleasant ones. Thus, if the pure spirit is inaccessible to some, he must be equally to the others as well. Yes, no doubt, to those that uniquely come from the influence of the matter that we know. The sound of our instruments, the perfume of our flowers causes no impression on them. However, there are intimate sensations, of an indefinable enchantment, that we cannot have any idea about as, for that matter, we are like born blinds with respect to light. We know that it exists but through which media? Our knowledge stops here. We know that there is perception, sensation, hearing and vision; that such faculties are attributes of the whole being and not like with man, of a given part of the body. However, and once more, through which channel? That is what we ignore. The spirits themselves cannot enlighten us with that respect because our language is not capable of expressing ideas that we do not have, as a blind people would not have words to describe the effects of light, or the language of the savage would not have means of describing our arts, sciences and our philosophical doctrines.

When we say that the spirits are inaccessible to the impressions of our matter we refer to the very elevated spirits, whose ethereal covering has no analogy here on Earth. The same does not apply to those whose perispirit is denser. Those perceive our sounds, odors, but not through a limited part of their beings, as with when alive. One could say that the molecular vibrations are felt in their whole self, reaching the sensorium commune, which is the spirit itself, since by a different mode and even maybe with a different impression, that produces a modification in the perception. They hear the sounds of our voices but they understand us without the support of the word, through the simple transmission of our thoughts, supporting what we have said that the more dematerialized the spirit the easier that perception.

As for the vision, it is independent of light. Sight is an essential attribute of the soul. There is no darkness to the soul. Nevertheless, it is more extensive and penetrating in those that are more depurated. Thus, the soul, or spirit, has the faculty of all perceptions in itself. In the corporeal life they are obliterated by the grossness of our organs. In the extracorporeal life they are less and less obliterated, as the semi-material covering depurates.

Taken from the environment, that covering varies according to the nature of the globes. Moving from one world to the next the spirits change coverings as we change clothes from winter to summer and from the pole to the equator. When the more elevated spirits come to visit us they take by covering their terrestrial perispirit and since then their perceptions are similar to ours, common spirits. But all of them, the inferior as the superior ones, do not feel nor hear all but what they want to feel or hear. Without sensitive organs they can activate or void their perceptions at will. There is only one thing that they are obliged to hear: the advice of the good spirits.

Their vision is always active but they may become mutually invisible to one another. According to their position they can hide from those who are their inferiors but not from those who are their superiors.

Just after death their vision is always confused and perturbed. It becomes clearer as the spirit detaches and can achieve the same clearness as during life, irrespective of its penetration through the bodies that are opaque to us. As for its extension through the infinite space, towards the past as the future, it depends on the degree of purity and elevation of the spirit.

Some will say that such a theory is not very reassuring. We thought that once detached from the gross covering, instrument of our pains, we would no longer suffer. Here you are telling us that we will still suffer. Either way there will not be less suffering. Pity on us!

Yes, we can continue to suffer, and a lot, and for a long time, but we can also stop the suffering, even at the moment when we leave the corporeal life.

The Earthly sufferings are sometimes independent of us. Many, however, are consequence of our free-will. Let us go back to the source and we will see that the majority of the sufferings result from causes that we could have avoided. How many evils, how many illnesses does not man owe to his own excesses, ambition, in one word, passions?

A man that had lived a sober life; that had not abused of anything; that had always been simple in his tastes and modest in his desires, would spare himself of many tribulations.

The same applies to the spirit. The sufferings the spirit endures are always consequences of the way they lived on Earth. They will certainly no longer suffer from gout or rheumatism but will endure other sufferings which are not less painful. We saw that their sufferings are the result of the still existing link between them and matter; that the more separated from the influence of matter or, on another word, the more dematerialized, the less painful sensations they will have. Thus, it depends on the spirit to liberate from such influence, already in this life. The spirit has the free will and consequently the choice between doing or not doing something. Let the spirit dominate the animal passions; let there be no hatred, no envy, no jealousy or pride; let the spirit be free from selfishness; let the spirit purify its soul through the good feelings; may the spirit practice the good deeds and give to the things of this world the importance they deserve and then, even in the corporeal covering, they will already be depurated and untied from matter. On leaving such a material covering the spirit will no longer suffer its influence. The physical sufferings that he may have experimented will not leave a painful memory. There will remain no unpleasant impression because those would have affected the body, not the spirit; he will be happy for having freed himself and the calmness of his conscience will spare him from any moral suffering.

We have interrogated thousands of spirits that belonged to all echelons of society and attained all social positions; we studied them in all periods of their spiritual life, since the moment when they left the body; we followed them, step-by-step in this life beyond the grave, so as to observe the changes in their ideas and sensations. With that respect it was not the most vulgar creatures that offered us less interesting material for study. We have always seen that the sufferings depend on the conduct, whose consequences they suffer, and that this new existence is a source of ineffable happiness to those who have followed the right path, and consequently those who suffer, suffer for what they wanted and should not complain about anything but themselves, be it in this world or in the other one.

Certain critics ridicule some of our evocations, as for example of the assassin Lemaire * , finding it strange that we get involved with such insignificant creatures, when we have so many superior spirits available to us. They forget that it is exactly because of those that we, somehow, scrutinize the nature of the fact or, better said, in their ignorance of the Spiritist Science, they don’t see in such dialogues anything beyond a more or less funny conversation, whose reach is beyond them. We read somewhere that a philosopher has said, after talking to a peasant: “I learned more with this rustic man than with all scientists.” It is that he could see beyond the surface. Nothing is lost to the good observer. He finds useful teachings even in the spores that grow in the manure. Does the doctor refuse to touch a horrific wound when looking for the cause of the illness?

Another word about this subject. The sufferings beyond the grave have a term. We know that the most inferior spirits can elevate and purify themselves through new trials. This can take long, very long, but it depends on the spirit to abbreviate such a painful time, because God always listen to him, as long as he submits to His will. The more dematerialized the spirit is, the ampler and lucid their perceptions; the more subjugated by the empire of matter, which entirely depends on his Earthly life style, the more limited and obscure they will be. The more one's vision extends to infinity, the more the others become restricted.

Hence the inferior spirits have only a vague, confusing, incomplete and sometimes null vision of the future. They cannot see the end of their sufferings and thus think that they will suffer for eternity, which is a penalty to them. If the position of some is afflictive, even terrible, it is not nonetheless, desperate. The position of the others, however, is eminently comforting. The choice is up to us. This is of the highest morality.

The skeptical have doubts about our fate after death. We show them exactly what happens by which we consider to be doing them a service. We have thus seen more than one retreating from their mistake or, at least, beginning to seriously consider what they only joked about before. There is nothing better than when we realize that something is possible. Had it always been like that there would not be so many incredulous people. In addition, both religion and public moral would gain insights from these facts. The religious doubt, for many people, comes from the difficulty in understanding certain things. These are positive spirits, not predisposed to blind faith, that only admit something that has a reason to them. Make these things accessible to their intelligence and they will accept them, as in the end they do not require more than that to believe. This is because skepticism to them is a more painful situation than we can imagine or they dare not confess.

There is no system or personal idea in everything that we have said. Also, it was not a group of privileged spirits that dictated such a theory to us. It is the result of studies done on individuals, corroborated and confirmed by spirits whose language would give us no doubt with respect to their superiority. We judged them by their words and not by their names or the names they have attributed to themselves.

______________________

* See the Spiritist Magazine, Volume 1.

Poor men! How little you know about the most ordinary phenomena that exist in your life! You think highly of yourselves; you think that you have a vast knowledge and remain speechless before these simple questions framed by all children: “What do we do when we are asleep? What is the meaning of dreams? I don’t have the pretension of making you understand what I want to explain, since there are things that your spirit cannot yet submit to, because one can only admit what one can comprehend.

Sleep entirely frees the soul from the body. When we are asleep we are momentarily in the same state that we shall definitely be after death. The spirits that have quickly detached from matter, on the occasion of their death, had intelligent dreams; those, when sleeping, meet again with the society of other beings that are superior to them; that travel, talk to them and are enlightened by them. They even work on tasks that they find finalized when they die. This, once more, must teach us that we should not fear death, as we die every day as once stated by a Saint.

All this was said with respect to the superior spirits. The large majority of men, however, who may remain in that perturbation for long hours, in that uncertainty that you were told about, those individuals go to worlds that are inferior to Earth, attracted by old affections, or to look for pleasures that are even of a lower level than those found here. They will then learn doctrines that are even more vile, ignoble and harmful than those that they profess among you. What establishes the sympathy on Earth is nothing else but the fact that we feel attracted by the heart, as we wake up, to those with whom we have just spent eight or nine hours of pleasure or happiness. What also establishes the irresistible antipathy is that, deep there in the heart, we know that those creatures have a different conscience, with respect to us; hence we know them not having ever setting our eyes on them. It is this that also explains the indifference, since we don’t seek to make friends when we know that we have others that love us and wish us well. In one word, the sleep influences your lives more than you think.

Through sleep, the incarnated spirits are always in contact with the spiritual world, allowing then that the superior spirits, without much repulse, do agree to come to incarnate in your environment. God wanted that during the contact with vices they could reinforce their virtues in the source of goodness, so as not to fail, as they come to instruct others. Sleep is the door that God opened to them to meet their friends from heaven; it is the break after the work, waiting for the great liberation, the final liberation that should reintegrate them back to their real world.

A dream is the memory of what your spirit saw during the sleep. Notice, however, that you do not always dream since you do not always remember some of what you have seen or everything that you have seen. It is not your soul in its full detachment; often it is nothing more than the memory of the perturbation that follows our departure or arrival, added to the memory of what you have done or that worries you during the waking state. Without that, how can we explain those absurd dreams, of the scholars as well as of the simplest person? The evil spirits also use the dream to torment the weak and pusillanimous souls.

As a matter of fact you will soon see the development of a new kind of dreams. It is as old as the one you know but ignored by you. It is the dream of Joan of Arc, of Jacob, of the Jewish prophets and of some Indian foretellers. Such a dream represents the memory of the soul, entirely separated from the body; the memory of that second life that I was telling you about, some time ago.

For the dreams that you retain the memory try to distinguish well between those two kinds, as without it you shall fall into contradictions and cause dismal mistakes to your faith.

OBSERVATION: When required to provide his name, the spirit who dictated the communication answered: “What for? Do you think that it is only the spirits of your great men that come to tell you good things? Then, all of those that you don’t know and that do not have a name in your world are worthless? Know this that many just use a name to satisfy you.”

OBSERVATION: This communication and the following one were obtained by Mr. F..., the same that we talked about in our October issue with respect to the obsessed and subjugated. One can see the difference regarding the nature of his communications now and those from that time. His free- will completely triumphed from the obsession that victimized him, and his bad spirit no longer showed up. These two dissertations were dictated to him by Bernard Pallissy. *

“Flowers were created in the world as symbols of beauty, purity and hope.”

“How come man who watches the unfolding petals every spring and the flowers fading to bear delicious fruits doesn’t think that his life, in the same way, will wither but will eventually yield eternal fruits? What does it matter to you the storms and torrents? These flowers will never perish nor the most delicate work of the Creator. Have courage then you men that fall in the streets; stand up as the lily does after the storm, purer and more radiant. As with the flowers, the winds shake you right and left from all sides; they knock you down and drag you over the mud, but when the sun is up again raise your heads as the noblest and the greatest.”

“So, love the flowers. They are the emblem of your life and do not be ashamed to be compared to them. Have them everywhere, in your gardens, in your houses, in your temples even, as they are pleasant everywhere. They always inspire poetry and elevate the soul of whoever understands them. Wasn’t that in the flowers that God has manifested all of his magnificence? How would you know the sweet colors with which the Creator has brightened nature if it were not for the flowers? Before man had searched the guts of Earth to find the ruby and topaz, he had the flowers before him, and the infinite variety of shades already consoled him from the monotony of Earth’s surface. So love the flowers then: you will be purer and kinder; you will eventually become like children but you will be the beloved children of God, and your soul simple and spotless will be accessible to all His love, to all joy with which He will warm up your hearts.”

“Flowers wish to be treated by enlightened hands. Intelligence is necessary for their prosperity. You have been doing wrong on Earth since long ago by leaving such a care to unskillful hands that mutilated them when trying to embellish them. There is nothing sadder than those round or pointed trees in some of your gardens, pyramids of greenery that look more like a haystack. Let nature flourish on a thousand of different ways: that is the grace. Happy is the one that can appreciate the beauty of a simple branch that swings, spreading the fertilizing dust. Happy is the one who sees the infinity of grace in their brilliant colors, finesse, shades, nuances that escape and seek one another, flee and reunite. Blessed is the one that can understand the beauty of the graded shades! From the dark root that marries Earth to the blending colors of the scarlet tulips and poppies (why such harsh and weird names?). Study all this and notice the leaves that sprout from one another, like endless generations, until their complete blossom under the celestial dome.”

“Doesn’t it seem like the flowers germinate from Earth to launch themselves towards other worlds? Doesn’t it seem like many times they painfully lower their heads for being incapable of rising even further? Don’t we think that, for their beauty, the flowers are closer to God? Thus, imitate them and become greater and more beautiful.”

“Your way of learning botany is defective. It is not enough to know the name of a plant. I shall call you again when you have time to work on a book of that kind. I defer to a later time the lessons I wanted to give you today. They will be most useful when we have the opportunity to apply them. Then we will talk about the kinds of culture, the places that suit them; the arrangement of the buildings for ventilation and sanitary conditions of the dwellings.”

“If you publish this, remove the last paragraphs so that they are not seen as propaganda.”

“Woman is more finely chiseled than man, naturally indicating a more delicate soul. That is how in a similar condition, in all worlds, the mother will be prettier than the father, for she is the first to be seen by the child. The child always turns her eyes onto the angelical figure of a young lady. It is for the mother that the child dries the tear, staring at her with those still weak and uncertain eyes. The child thus has the natural intuition of beauty.

A woman knows how to become noticed by the kindness of their thoughts, by the grace of their gestures and words. Everything that comes from her should harmonize with her being, beautifully created by God.

The long hairs, lying on the shoulders, are the actual image of kindness and the easiness with which it bends without breaking, before the trials. They reflect the lights of the suns, like the woman’s soul should reflect the purest light of God. Young ladies, allow your hairs to float. God created them for that. You shall simultaneously have the most natural and ornate appearance.

A woman should dress in a simple way. She left God’s hands sufficiently beautiful to spare the embellishments. White and blue should merge over your shoulders. Allow also your dresses to float.

May your outfits be seen extending behind you like a long runway of gauze, like a cloud that immediately reveals your presence!

Nevertheless, what is the meaning of the ornaments, the dresses, the waving or fluctuating hairs, up or down, if that sweet smile of mothers and lovers do not shine on your lips? If your eyes do not sow goodness, charity, and hope in the tears of happiness that they allow to roll, in the lightning that shines from that brazier of unknown love?

Women! Do not be afraid of delighting men by your beauty, by your grace, by your superiority. However, men need to know that to become worthy of you, they have to be as great as you are beautiful, as wise as you are good, as instructed as you are original and simple. They need to know that they must deserve you; that you are the award of virtue and honor, but not of that honor covered by a helmet and a shield, shining on tournament jousts, holding a foot over an overthrown enemy’s head; no, but God’s honor.

Men! Be useful and when the poor bless your name, women shall be your equal. Then you shall form a wholesome bond: you will be the head and they will be heart; you will be the beneficent thought, they will be the liberal hands. Therefore, unite not only for love, but also for the good deeds that you can do together. These good thoughts and good actions performed by two loving hearts are the links of these gold and diamonds chain called marriage. Then, when the links are in a large enough number, God will call you near Him and you will continue to bond new links together, links that were made of heavy and cold metal on Earth but that will be made of light and fire in heavens.”


Spirits’ Poetry




Note: These verses were spontaneously written through a basket, touched by a young lady and a boy. We thought that many poets would feel honored by having written them. They were sent to us by one of our subscribers.

Awakening of a Spirit

“How beautiful nature and how sweet the air is!
Lord, I say grace praising you on my knees!

May the joyful hymn of my acknowledgement,
like incense, rise to Thy supreme entitlement!

Thus, before the eyes of the sisters grieving
you sent Lazarus out of his coffin;

Distraught Jairus, his daughter, beloved,
on her deathbed by Your voice revived.

Also, mighty God! You reached me the hand of thou reign;
Stand! Thou said, You have not said in vain.
Why am I not, alas, a vile stack of mud?
I would like to praise You with the voice of a cherub;
Your work never seemed so awesome!
To the one that comes from the darkness of the tomb.

The day seems pure, and the light is shining,
the sun is more radiant and life exciting.

The air is then sweeter than milk and honey;
every sound is a word in the concerts of the holy.

The muffled voice of the wind breathes harmony
that grows in space and becomes infinity.

What the spirit conceives, or reaches the eyes,
what we can read in the book of paradise,

In the space of the seas, below the tides,
in all oceans, cliffs, and globes,

All rounds into a sphere, and we feel that in the midst
God is in the center of these converging axises.

And You, whose eyes hover the starry trails,
who are You hiding in the sky, like a King in his sails

What is Your greatness, if this vast universal face
is not but a point to Your eyes, and the submerse space
of the seas is not even a mirror of its magnificence?
What is then Your greatness, your essence?

What such a great palace have You built, Oh King!
The stars cannot separate You from us, sure thing

the sun at Your feet, immeasurable power,

like the onyx attached to the prince’s slipper.

It is what I most admire in You, Oh Majesty!
Much less than greatness, Your generosity

That reveals in everything, a shining light
that hears the impotent, yielding to the prayer’s might.”

JODELLE

Spirits’ Poetry

Note: These verses were spontaneously written through a basket, touched by a young lady and a boy. We thought that many poets would feel honored by having written them. They were sent to us by one of our subscribers.

Awakening of a Spirit

“How beautiful nature and how sweet the air is!
Lord, I say grace praising you on my knees!
May the joyful hymn of my acknowledgement,
like incense, rise to Thy supreme entitlement!
Thus, before the eyes of the sisters grieving
you sent Lazarus out of his coffin;
Distraught Jairus, his daughter, beloved,
on her deathbed by Your voice revived.
Also, mighty God! You reached me the hand of thou reign;
Stand! Thou said, You have not said in vain.
Why am I not, alas, a vile stack of mud?
I would like to praise You with the voice of a cherub;
Your work never seemed so awesome!
To the one that comes from the darkness of the tomb.
The day seems pure, and the light is shining,
the sun is more radiant and life exciting.
The air is then sweeter than milk and honey;
every sound is a word in the concerts of the holy.
The muffled voice of the wind breathes harmony
that grows in space and becomes infinity.
What the spirit conceives, or reaches the eyes,
what we can read in the book of paradise,
In the space of the seas, below the tides,
in all oceans, cliffs, and globes,
All rounds into a sphere, and we feel that in the midst
God is in the center of these converging axises.
And You, whose eyes hover the starry trails,
who are You hiding in the sky, like a King in his sails
What is Your greatness, if this vast universal face
is not but a point to Your eyes, and the submerse space
of the seas is not even a mirror of its magnificence?
What is then Your greatness, your essence?
What such a great palace have You built, Oh King!
The stars cannot separate You from us, sure thing
the sun at Your feet, immeasurable power,
like the onyx attached to the prince’s slipper.
It is what I most admire in You, Oh Majesty!
Much less than greatness, Your generosity
That reveals in everything, a shining light
that hears the impotent, yielding to the prayer’s might.”

JODELLE

We wanted to interrogate one of those women from India, subjected to the tradition of being burnt over the cadaver of their husbands. As we did not know any of them we had asked St. Louis to send one to us, who could be capable of satisfactorily responding to our questions. He said that he would gladly do so in due course. In the Society’s session on November 2nd, 1858 Mr. Adrien, clairvoyant medium, saw one woman that wanted to speak, giving us the following description of her:

“Large black eyes, with a yellow sclerotic; round face; salient and fat faces; saffron brunet skin; long eyelashes, black arched supercilious; a bit large nose, slightly flattened; large and sensual mouth; uniform, beautiful and large teeth; long wavy hair, black, abundant and greasy. She had a fat body, big and stubby. Silken outfit that left the breast somewhat uncovered. She was wearing bracelets on arms and legs.”

1. Do you remember more or less over which time you have lived in India and where you were set on fire together with your husband’s body?
- She shook her head, as she did not remember. St. Louis answered, indicating that it was about one hundred years ago.

2. Do you remember your name from that time?
- Fatima.
3. What was your religion?
- Muslim.

4. But doesn’t Islam prohibit such sacrifices?
- I was born Muslim but my husband’s religion was Brahmanism. I had to comply with the customs of the religion of the region where I lived. Women do not belong to themselves.

5. How old were you when you were killed?
- I believe I was about twenty years old.

OBSERVATION: Mr. Adrien explained that she seems to be between twenty-eight and thirty years old, but mentioned that women age faster in that country.

6. Did you sacrifice voluntarily?
- I preferred to have married someone else. Think about it and you will see that all of us think like that. I followed the customs but bottom line is I would rather not have done it. I waited for another husband for several days but nobody showed up. Then I obeyed the law.

7. Which sentiment may have established such a law?
- A superstitious idea. They think that by burning us to death they please the divinity; that we redeem the faults of the one we lost and that by doing so we will help him to be happy in the other world.

8. Was your husband happy with your sacrifice?
- I have never tried to see my husband again.

9. Are there women that do such a sacrifice in good faith?
- There are a few: one in a thousand. The reality is that they would not wish to do it.

10. What happened to you at the time that your corporeal life was extinguished?
- Perturbation. I felt that all went dark, and then I don’t know what happened. My ideas were confused for a long time after that. I went everywhere, however, I could not see properly. Still now I do not feel completely lucid. I will have to go through many incarnations to elevate myself but I will no longer burn... I don’t see the need to burn people, to thrown oneself into the flames so as to improve... particularly for faults that were not ours. Besides, I was never pleased with that... As a matter of fact, I never wanted to know about it. Would you kindly pray a little bit for me? I believe that there is nothing like the prayer to give us courage to withstand the trials that are sent to us... Ah! If I had faith!

11. You ask us to pray for you but we are Christians. How could our prayers be pleasant to you? - There is only one God to all men.

OBSERVATION: The same woman was seen among the spirits present in several of the following sessions. She said that she came to be instructed. It seems that she was touched by the interest that we demonstrated towards her, as she followed us on several other meetings and even in the streets.

News – Luísa Charly, known as Labé, also known as “The Beautiful Weaver”, was born in Lyon, during the time of Francis I. She was of a perfect beauty, a finely educated lady. She knew Latin, Greek, spoke Spanish and Italian, and even wrote poetry in those languages that would not discredit the national writers. She was familiar with all kinds of physical exercises, capable of horse riding, gymnast and the handling of weapons. She had a very energetic character, distinguishing, together with her father, among the bravest fighters in 1542, during the siege of Perpignan, where she fought disguised under the cover name Captain Loys. Failed the siege, she renounced her career and returned, with her weapons, to Lyon with her father. She married a rich rope manufacturer by the name of Ennemond Perrin and soon became only known as “the beautiful weaver”, name by which she was recognized in the street where she lived and where her husband’s factory was located. She organized cultural gatherings in her house, for which she invited the most brilliant minds of the province. She left a collection of poetry. Her reputation as a woman and her beauty attracted to her the masculine elite, exciting the envy of the Lyonnais ladies, who tried to revenge with calumny. Her conduct, however, was always irreproachable.

She was evoked in one session of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies on October 26th, 1858 when we were told that she could not come yet for reasons that were not explained. On November 9th she attended our appeal and here is the description given to us by Mr. Adrien, our clairvoyant medium:

“Oval head, pale mate skin; lively, beautiful black eyes; arched eyebrows; developed and intelligent forehead; fine Greek nose; medium mouth, lips indicating goodness of spirit; beautiful, small and good looking teeth; extremely black hair, slightly curled. Noble pose of head, slender, handsome appearance. Wearing white outfit.”

OBSERVATION: There is no doubt that nothing proves that such a picture, like the preceding one, is not just the result of the medium’s imagination, since we cannot control it. But when he does the same with such an amount of precise details with respect to contemporary people that he had never seen, recognized by relatives and friends, we can no longer doubt his authenticity. Therefore one can conclude that if he unarguably sees some of those he can also see the others. Another circumstance worth mentioning is that he sees the same spirit over many months and the portrait does not change. It would be necessary to assume that he has a phenomenal memory such that he was able to remember the minor details of every spirit that he had already described. This would amount to a number in the hundreds by now.

1. Evocation
- I am here.

2. Could you kindly respond to some of our questions?
- With pleasure.

3. Do you remember that time when you were known as “the beautiful weaver”?
- Yes.

4. Where have you taken the virile qualities that made you embrace a career with the weapons that are, according to the natural laws, an attribute of men?

- It was pleasing to my spirit that was eager of great things. Later it turned into another level of more serious ideas. The ideas that we bring since birth that do certainly come from previous existences,. These are a reflection, however greatly modify by our own resolutions or by God’s will.

5. Why haven’t you persisted on those military tastes? How come they so promptly gave rise to the feminine pleasures?
- I saw things that I wish you don’t ever see.
6. You were a contemporary of Francis I and Charles V. Could you give us your opinion about those men and establish a parallel? - I don’t wish to judge. They had imperfections that you know; their virtues were less plentiful: a few traces of generosity and that is it. Leave all that behind because their hearts could still bleed: they suffer a lot!

7. What would have been the source of such a privileged intelligence that made you capable of receiving an education superior to the women of your time?
- Painful existences and God’s will!


8. You had then accomplished a previous progress?
- It could not have been different.


9. Has that instruction made you evolve as a spirit?
- Yes.


10. It seems that you were happy on Earth. Are you still happy now?
- What a question! However much one may be happy on Earth, heavens’ happiness is something very different! What treasures and richness you shall one day know. Those riches that you do not even suspect or completely ignore!

11. What do you understand by heavens?
- Heaven to me is represented by the other worlds.

12. Which world do you inhabit now?
- I inhabit a world unknown to you but I am not much bonded to it. Matter does not attach us much there.

13. Is it Jupiter?
- Jupiter is a happy world but do you think that among all worlds it is the only one that is favored by God? They are as plentiful as the grains of sand at the beach.

14. Have you kept the poetic vein that you had here?
- I would respond with pleasure but I am afraid this could shock other spirits or place me below my position, what would make my answer useless, falling into the emptiness.

15. Could you tell us in which class we could place you among the spirits?
- No answer.

16. (To St. Louis) Could St. Louis respond to that?
- She is here. I cannot say what she does not wish to say. Don’t you see that she is among the most elevated among the spirits that you ordinarily evoke? As a matter of fact, the spirits cannot precisely define the distances that separate them. They are incomprehensible to you, but those are immense.

17. (To Luisa Charly) – Under which form are you among them?
- Adrien has just described me.

18. Why this and not another form? Finally, why in the world where you are now you don’t look like you were on Earth?
- You evoked me as a poet; I came as a poet.


19. Could you dictate some poems to us or any literary text? We would feel happy to have something from you.
- Find my old writings. We don’t like these tests, particularly in public. However, I will do that on another occasion.

OBSERVATION: Everyone knows that the spirits don’t like to be submitted to tests and requests of such a nature always have more or less that character. That is no doubt why they almost never agree. Spontaneously and when we expect the least they sometimes give us surprising proofs that we would have uselessly requested. But almost always it is enough to ask them something in order not to obtain it, particularly if the request conceals a sentiment of curiosity. Thus, the spirits, and particularly the elevated ones, want to demonstrate to us that they are not at our service.

On the very next day, through the medium that had served her as interpreter, the Beautiful Weaver wrote the following:

“I will dictate what I promised. It is not poetry that I don’t wish to do. In reality I don’t remember what I did and you would not like that. This will be prose, of the modest kind.”

“I exalted love, sweetness and good feelings on Earth; I spoke a little of what I did not know. It is no longer of love that I speak here but of a broad, austere and enlightened charity; a strong and constant charity that has only one example on Earth.”

“Oh Men! Consider that your happiness depends on you, as does the transformation of your world into one of the most advanced of the sky: just eliminate hatred and hostility, forget resentments and rage; lose pride and vanity. Leave all that as a burden that sooner or later is necessary to abandon. Such a burden is a treasure to you on Earth, I do know well, that is why you will have merit for abandoning it, leaving it behind; however, it is an obstacle to your happiness in heaven. So, believe me: speed up your progress. True happiness is the one that comes from God. Where will you find pleasures that are worth the joy it gives to the elected ones, the angels?”

“God loves men that seek progress in their paths. You can then count on His support. Don’t you trust Him? Do you think it is perjure, that you should not give yourself entirely and without restrictions? Unfortunately you don’t want to understand or only a few among you do understand; you prefer the present day to the next one; your narrow vision limits your feelings, your heart and your soul and you suffer to move on, instead of naturally and easily walking through the good path, out of your own free will, hence suffering is the means employed by God to moralize you. Do not avoid such a safe route, but terrible to the traveler. I shall finish by exhorting you to no longer see death as a scourge, but as the door to the real life and true happiness.”

LUÍSA CHARLY

An issue of the Gazette de Mons publishes the following:

“An individual afflicted by religious monomania, taken to the institution of Mr. Stuart since seven years ago, presenting himself very calm up to now, was able to deceive security and get hold of a knife. Because the guards were unable to recover the weapon the director of the institution was informed.”

“Mr. Stuart then immediately approached the furious man and, armed only with his courage, attempted to unarm the man. Mr. Stuart had hardly moved a few steps when the mad man dashed like a lightning towards him, stabbing him multiple times. The murderer was dominated with great difficulty. From the seven stabbing wounds inflicted on Mr. Stuart one was mortal: the one that reached his lower belly. He succumbed as a consequence of a hemorrhage from that cavity wound on Monday, at three thirty.”

What wouldn’t be said if that individual had been troubled by a spirit’s monomania, or if he had, in his madness, spoken of spirits? However, this would be possible considering that there are several religious monomanias and that all sciences have already given their contribution. What could rationally be concluded against Spiritism other than the fact that man, as a consequence of the fragility of his own organization, can exalt himself in that particular aspect as with others? The way by which one can prevent such exaltation is not by combating the idea, otherwise we would take the risk of seen the prodigies of Cévennes renovated. We would see Spiritism propagating remarkably had no campaign been organized against it. How to oppose a phenomenon that has neither favorite time nor place; that can happen everywhere, in all families, in the intimacy, under the most absolute secrecy, even better than in public? We have indicated the means to prevent the inconvenience in our Practical Instruction: Make Spiritism so much understood that one can see only a natural phenomenon, even with events that seem most extraordinary.

Mr. Ch. Renard, a subscriber of our Review, from Rambouillet, sent us the following letter:

“Dear Sir and dignified comrade in Spiritism.

I read, or better saying, I devour with unspeakable satisfaction your review issues, as I receive them. This is not surprising in my case since my relatives were foretellers, from generation to generation. One of my great-great-great-grandmothers was even condemned to die at the stake as contumacious in the murder of Vauldrie, and a regular of the Sabbath. She was only able to avoid the stake by hiding in one of her sister’s house, an abbess of a secluded religious group. Hence I have inherited some crumbs of occult Sciences, fact that did not preclude me from going through the materialistic belief, if there is a belief there, and skepticism. Finally, exhausted, ill of negativism, then the works of the ecstatic celebrity Swedenborg brought me to the truth and good. Becoming myself an ecstatic I was convinced ad vivum about the truths that the materialized spirits of our globe cannot understand.

I had communications of all kinds: phenomena of visions, tangibility, transportation of lost objects, etc.

Would the brother kindly publish the note below in one of your next issues? It is not a question of self-love but of my condition of French man.

Sometimes the small causes lead to great effects. Around 1840 I had established a friendly relationship with Mr. Cahagnet, plumber and engraver, who had come to Ramboillet for health reasons. That high-class worker of refined intelligence was initiated by me in human magnetism. One day I told him: I am positive that a lucid somnambulist is capable of seeing the souls of the dead and establish conversation with them. He was impressed. I induced him to carry out such experiment when he could count on a lucid somnambulist. He was successful and published a first book on necromantic experiences, followed by other volumes and brochures which in the USA were translated under the title Celestial Telegraph. Later the ecstatic Davis published his visions or excursions through the spiritual world. About the dematerialized, Franklin did researches that achieved manifestations and communications easier than in the past. The first persons that he magnetized in the USA were the Fox widow and her two daughters. There is a remarkable coincidence between that name and mine since the English word fox means “renard”.

Since long ago the spirits told me that it was possible to communicate with spirits of other globes, from which we would receive drawings and descriptions. I exposed the subject to Mr. Cahagnet but he did not go beyond our satellite.


I am yours.... Etc


Ch. Renard.”


OBSERVATION: The issue of priority, in matters of Spiritism, is unquestionably secondary. But it is not less remarkable that since the importation of the American phenomena, a number of authentic facts, ignored by the public, revealed the production of similar phenomena, both in France as well as in other European countries, in the same period or earlier.

We know that many people were involved with spiritist communications well before the turning tables were visited, and we have proofs of that we specific dates. It seems that Mr. Renard is part of that group and, according to him, his experiments would not have been different from those produced in America. We register his observation is an interesting fact to the history of Spiritism and to prove once more that this Science has roots all over the world, denying any chance of success to those who wish to impose a barrier to Spiritism. If they smother it here it will appear stronger in a hundred of other places, exactly at the time when it shall conquer a place among the common beliefs, since the doubt is no longer viable. Then, willing or not, the adversaries will have to take its position.

The Spiritist Review has just completed its first year and we are happy to announce that its publication will continue, since its very existence is ensured by a number of subscribers that increases daily. The demonstrations of sympathy that we have received from everywhere and the support of men that are distinguished by their knowledge and social positions are signs of encouragement in the laborious task that we have initiated. May all those who have helped us with the realization of our enterprise receive our warmth gratitude!

Had we not been faced by criticism and contradictions we would be before an unprecedented fact in the chronicles of publicity, particularly considering that it is all related to such new ideas. Those are, in fact, surprisingly less frequent than the signs of support that we have been given. That is due, no doubt, much less to the merit of the writer than to the attractiveness of the analyzed subject and to the credit that it daily conquers in the highest social echelons; we owe that also – and we are completely convinced of that – to the dignified approach we have maintained before our adversaries, allowing the public to judge between moderation, from one side, and inconvenience from the other.

Spiritism marches at gigantic steps all over the world. It daily reconquers some dissidents by the force of things and if we can add some tiny bits to the scale of this inexorable movement that takes place, that will register our time as a new era, it shall not be by irritating or frontally attacking those very persons that we wish to attract, but by reasoning with them instead of telling injuries that will make us heard.

The superior spirits that assist us give the precept and example of that. It would be unworthy of a Doctrine that preaches nothing but love and benevolence to go down to the arena of personalism. We leave that task to the ones that do not understand it.

Then nothing will detour us from the line that we have been following, from the calmness and cold blood that we will always maintain in the thoughtful examination of all questions; since we know that by so doing we conquer more serious adepts to Spiritism than by discourtesy and acrimony.

In the introduction with which we opened the first issue we established the plan that we proposed to follow: cite all facts but also analyze and submit them to the scalpel of observation; appreciate them and deduce their consequences.

In the beginning all the attention was concentrated on the natural phenomena that fed public curiosity then, but which has its time; once satisfied that curiosity, we left it alone, like a child that abandons a toy. The spirits then said: “This is the first period; it will soon pass to give way to more elevated ideas. New facts shall be revealed, defining a new period, the philosophical, and the Doctrine will grow in a short time, like the child that leaves the crib. Don’t be disturbed by the mockery since they will mock the mockers themselves and tomorrow you shall find zealous defenders among the strongest adversaries of today. God wishes it to be so and we are assigned with the task of executing His will. The ill intent of some men shall not prevail against it. The pride of those who pretend to know better than God will be abated.”

We are effectively far from the dancing tables that no longer amuse, since everything comes to saturation. Only those things that speak to our reason do not bore us, thus Spiritism sails full wind in its second period. Everybody understood that it is the foundation of a whole Science, a whole new order of ideas. Such a trend should be followed. More than that, it was necessary to give it our contribution; otherwise we would be soon left behind. That is why we strive to catch up, avoiding the narrow limits of an anecdotal bulletin.

Once elevated to the heights of a philosophical Doctrine, Spiritism has conquered many experts, even among those who have never witnessed a material fact. Here is why: Man appreciates anything that speaks to reason, anything that he can understand. He finds in the Spiritist Philosophy something different from a simple amusement, something that fills up the pungent emptiness of his uncertainty. By penetrating the extracorporeal world through the observation, we wanted to introduce our readers into that, helping them to understand it. It is up to them to say if our objective has been achieved. We will proceed with our task in the year that is about to begin and that we foresee to be a plentiful one. New facts of a strange order take place now, revealing new mysteries to us. We shall carefully register them and seek the enlightenment it may provide with as much perseverance as in the past, since everything presages that Spiritism shall enter into a new phase, more grandiose and still more sublime.