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The Spiritist Review - JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES - 1861 > May
May
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies Allan Kardec’s SpeechBeginning of the new social year. Given at the session of April 5th, 1861
Ladies and gentlemen,
At the time when our Society initiate its fourth year I believe that a
special thanks is due to the good spirits who have kindly assisted us and
in particular to our spiritual President whose wise advices have helped us
to avoid several dangers and whose protection allowed us to overcome the
difficulties along the way, which have certainly occurred in order to test
our resolve and dedication. Their benevolence – we must acknowledge –
has never failed us and thanks to the current elevated spirits of the Society
it has triumphed over the ill-faith of its enemies. Allow me a few retrospective
observations about this subject.
Experience had showed us regrettable blanks in the bylaws of the
Society, blanks that opened the door to some abuse. The Society worked
around them and it is to be congratulated ever since. Is it perfect? We
would not be spiritists if we proudly believed so. However, when the foundation
is good and all the rest depends on the free-will than all we need is
the support of the spirits so that we do not stop half-way through.
Among the most useful changes we place at the top of the list, the
institution of free members, giving easier access to candidates, allowing
them to be known and assessed before their effective admission as
full members of the Society. Participating in all works and studies of the
Society, they take advantage of all activities but since they have no administrative
responsibility they cannot compromise the Society’s liability.
Then comes the measure whose objective was to limit the number of attendees
to the sessions, with a more strict choice of participants; then the
prohibition of reading any message received outside of the Society before
its prior analysis, followed by an authorization; finally, those who forewarn
the Society against whoever might be a cause of disturbance or who
tries to impose their views.
There are others which would be superfluous to mention and whose
utility is not less important and whose fortunate results we can appreciate
every day. However, if such state of affairs is understood inside the
Society the same cannot be said about the outside – and there is no need
to dissimulate – where we don’t count on friends only. We are criticized
on several aspects and although we don’t have to worry about it considering
that the maintenance of order at the Society is of our interest only,
it might not be perhaps totally useless to discuss the points that are criticized
because if these are founded we should definitely take them into
account. Some people criticize our very restricted admission of observers.
They say that if we want to make converts we need to inform the public
and for that, we must open the doors to our sessions and authorize any
questions and interpellations; that if we don’t admit anyone but believers
there is no merit in convincing them. This is a tricky argument and if we
were to achieve the supposed result by opening the doors then we would
be making a mistake by not doing so. Nevertheless, the result would be
the opposite and hence we don’t do that.
As a matter of fact it would be very unpleasant that the propagation
of the doctrine depended on the publicity of our sessions. However large
the auditorium might be it would always be very restrict, unnoticeable,
when compared to the mass of the population. On another hand we know from experience that true conviction is only acquired through the study,
thoughts and continual observation, and not by attending a couple of sessions,
regardless of how interesting they may be. Proof of that is the fact
that the number of believers who have seen nothing but who have studied
and learned is huge. There is no doubt that the desire to see things is very
natural and we are far from criticizing it, but we want the conditions to
be adequate for people to see. That is why we say: Study first and see later,
because you will understand better.
Had the skeptical given more thought to such condition they would
have seen, for starters, the best guarantee of our good faith, followed by
the strength of the doctrine! The biggest fear of charlatanism is to be
unveiled; it fascinates the eyes and is not stupid enough to challenge intelligence
that would easily discover the hidden card. Spiritism, on the
contrary, does not admit any blind belief; it wants to be clear in all points;
wants people to understand everything and be aware of everything. When
we recommend study and meditation we are requesting the support of
reason, demonstrating that the spiritist science does not fear examination,
for one must understand before believing.
Since our sessions are not designed for demonstrations, its publicity
would not achieve the objective and would have grave consequences.
With a random crowd, carrying more curiosity than the true desire for
instruction, and even further, willing to criticize and make fun of things,
it would be impossible to find the necessary silence and reverence required
by any serious manifestation.
A somewhat malevolent controversy mostly based on the ignorance of
the most elemental principles of the science would establish endless conflicts,
when dignity could then be compromised. What we actually want
the observers to take away when leaving the Society is that the meeting
is dignified, serious, that respects others and expects to be respected, discussing
matters with serenity and moderation; that it carries out careful
examination, investigating everything with the eyes of a mindful observer
who seeks enlightenment, instead of the simple lightheartedness of curiosity.
Furthermore, ladies and gentlemen, believe me, such opinion does better to the propaganda than if the observers had left the Society with
the thought of having satisfied their curiosity, because the impressions
caused by the former lead them to think and the opposite would render
them more inclined to laugh than to believe.
I said that our sessions are not for demonstration but if we did that
to educate and convince the neophytes, everything would take place
in an ambient of seriousness and reverence, as in our ordinary sessions.
Controversy would still exist but orderly, instructive rather than tumultuous,
and whoever showed a non-civil behavior would be excluded; the
focus would not be lost and the discussion would be helpful to everyone.
That is what we will probably do one day. People may ask why we don’t
do that earlier in the interest of propagation of science. For a simple reason:
we wanted to proceed with prudence and not like the careless who
are more impatient than thoughtful. Before instructing others we wanted
to instruct ourselves. We want to base the teachings on an overwhelming
mass of facts and observations and not on a few isolated experiments,
superficially and lightheartedly observed. Every science forcibly meets
facts in the beginning that seem contradictory and only a detailed and
thorough study may demonstrate their connection. It was the common
law of those facts that we sought in order to show an as broad as possible
range, allowing minimal margin for contradiction. It was with that objective
that we collected facts, heard and examined them in their inner most
details, discussed and commented them with exemption, without enthusiasm.
That is how we uncovered the remarkable links between all parts
of this vast science that touches the greatest interests of humanity. That
was, ladies and gentlemen, the objective of our works, objective that is
perfectly characterized by the simple title that we adopted at The Society
of Spiritist Studies.
We meet with the objective of instructing ourselves, and not with
that of entertainment. Since we don’t seek entertainment we don’t want
to entertain others and that is why we only want to have serious observers
around, instead of having curious ones who might expect to find spectacles
here.
Spiritism is a science and as any other science one does not learn it
jokingly. Besides, it would be a lack of respect to take the souls that left
our world by objects of distraction; speculate about their presence and
intervention would be unrighteous and profane.
These thoughts address the criticism of some people when they say
that we go back to well-known facts and don’t always seek new things. At
this point in time it is difficult that the facts don’t permeate in the same
circle; people forget that facts as important as those that may affect the future
of humanity cannot achieve the status of absolute truth but through
a large number of observations.
It would be levity to formulate a law only based on a few examples.
A serious and prudent person is more circumspect; something must be
seen not once but many times. That is why we don’t back up before the
monotony of repetitions, since the confirmation results from that and
sometimes instructive nuances and when contradictory facts are presented
we look for their causes.
We are not in a hurry to give our opinion about the initial data, which
is necessarily incomplete. We harvest when the time is right. We may
be marching on a slower pace than some people would like however we
march with more confidence, and we don’t get lost in a maze of systems.
We may eventually know less but we know better which is preferable and
we can attest what we know based on the testimony of experience.
As a matter of fact, ladies and gentlemen, you must not think that
the voice of criticism against the Society comes from friends of Spiritism;
that is not the case. That voice is from the adversaries who feel hurt for
seeing the Society advancing calmly and with dignity even through the
traps that were laid out and still are. They regret the fact that it is difficult
to be accepted as a member for they would love to come here to spread
disruption. That is another reason why they criticize since their circle of
influence is reduced, thus they say that the scope of the matters are insignificant
and unimportant because the Society abstains from discussing
political and religious issues. They want to see the Society treading on the
dogmatic controversy. Well, that is precisely where they betray themselves. The Society has prudently protected itself against malevolence. By hurting
its pride they wanted to drag it through a dangerous path but that will
never happen. Since it is only involved with questions of scientific interest
it has sheltered itself against the attacks and will remain so. Through prudency,
moderation and wisdom the Society reconciled the support of the
true spiritists and its influence extends to overseas countries from where
people aspire for the honor of membership.
Now, such tribute paid by people that only know the Society by name
or by its works or by the achieved respect is a hundred times more valuable
than the hastily opinion of the imprudent or the malevolent who want
to push it off the cliff and would be happy if they saw it compromised.
While I have the honor of heading it all my efforts will be concentrated
in that direction. If I had to move away from those guidelines I would
then leave it because under no circumstance would I like to have such a
responsibility.
In fact, ladies and gentlemen, you are aware of the Society’s vicissitudes.
Everything that happened before and after had already been
announced and everything occurred as foreseen. Its enemies wanted its
destruction; the spirits wanted to preserve it since they knew it was useful,
and the Society was maintained and will be maintained until the time
necessary to accomplish their objectives. If you have analyzed things in
detail, as I did, you will not neglect the influence of a superior power that
was manifested and you will understand that it all happened for the better
good and for its own preservation. There will be a time when it will
no longer be indispensable, as it is today. We will then see what needs to
be done since the march has already been designed, given all the events.
The most dangerous enemies of the Society are not those from the
outside since we can shut the door and the ears on them. The most feared
enemies are the invisible ones, who can mingle with us regardless. It is
up to us to demonstrate to them, as we have done so far, that they waste
their time by trying to impose themselves on us. We know that their
tactics is to spread separation, setting the fire of disagreement, inspiring
envy, suspicion and creating trivial susceptibilities that generate hate. Let us oppose them with the barrier of charity, mutual benevolence and we
will be invulnerable as much against their occult influence as against the
diatribes of our incarnate enemies, who are more concerned about us than
we are about them and whose names we have the merit of having never
mentioned here for reasons of education and for the fact that we have
more useful things to worry about. We force nobody to come to us. We
welcome with respect and dedication serious persons that in good faith
seek enlightenment and those are sufficient for us not to waste our time
rushing after the ones who show their backs to us for futile reasons of
selfishness and envy. These cannot be considered true spiritists, despite
the appearances; they are perhaps spiritists that believe in facts but undoubtedly
they are not spiritists who believe in the moral consequences of
the facts otherwise they would show more abnegation, indulgence, moderation
and less presumption of infallibility. Seeking them would be a
disservice since it would reinforce in them the belief in their importance
and that we could not move on without them. We should not worry about
those who try to stain our images either. People who were a hundred times
more worthy than us were also stained and ridiculed. We could not be
privileged there; it is up to us to demonstrate by our actions that their
diatribes fall in the void and their weapons will turn against themselves.
After having thanked in the beginning the spirits that assist us we
must not forget their interpreters for their service, some of them with
such dedication and complacence that are never dismissed. We cannot
pay them back but with only the testimony of our satisfaction. The world
of the spirits waits for them and their every devotion is compensated in
proportion to the lack of self-interest, humility and abnegation.
Summarizing, ladies and gentlemen, in the last year our works progressed
with perfect regularity, interrupted by nothing. A large number
of facts of the highest interest were reported, explained and commented;
very important questions were solved; all cases that were exposed to our
eyes through the evocations, every investigation that we carried out came
to confirm the principles of the science and strengthen our beliefs; several
communications of incontestable superiority were obtained through several mediums; from the province and from abroad we received some remarkable
communications, not only demonstrating how much Spiritism
is spreading but also how seriously it is seen everywhere. There is no doubt
that this is a result for which we must feel happy but there is another one
not less pleasing which in fact had been predicted since the beginning: it
is the unity established in the theory of the Doctrine as we study and better
understand it. In every communication that comes to us from outside
we find the confirmation of the principles taught by the spirits, and since
the majority of people who send them are unknown to us one cannot say
that they suffer our influence.
The very principle of reincarnation that had found many contradictors
in the beginning because it was not understood is now accepted by
the force of evidence and because every thoughtful person acknowledges
in that principle the only possible solution to a large number of problems
of religious and moral philosophy. Without reincarnation we were held up
at every step. It is all chaos and confusion. With reincarnation everything
is explained in the most rational way. If that principle still finds some
adversaries, more systematic than logical, their number is quite limited.
Now, who has invented it? There is no doubt that it was neither you nor
I. It was taught to us and we accepted it. That is all that we did. Only
a few systems survived out of the many that appeared in the beginning
and we can even say that their rare followers are among those who pass
judgment after the first impression and frequently according to preventions
and preconceived ideas. However, it is now obvious that anyone
who takes the burden of doing an in-depth investigation of all questions
and assesses cold-bloodedly without prevention and particularly without
a systematic denial is inexorably dragged towards the fundamental and
prevailing theory by both reason as well as by logic and we can even say
in all corners of the world.
The Society, ladies and gentlemen, has not achieved all that alone.
Nonetheless, and without vanity, I believe the Society may claim a
small part of that. Its moral influence is greater than thought and that
is precisely why it has never veered off from the pre-designed line of moderation. It is a fact that the Society is exclusively dedicated to the
study, not allowing to be carried away by the self-serving passions that
loom around it; that it does so very seriously as any scientific assembly
must do; that it pursues its objective unblemished by any intrigue,
throwing stones to no one, not even collecting those that are thrown
against it. That is undoubtedly the main cause of credit and consideration
that the Society enjoys and from which it may feel proud and
that gives certain weight to its opinion. Through our efforts, ladies and
gentlemen, out of prudence and with the spirit of union that must reign
among the true spiritists, let us continue to show that the principles
embraced by us are not dead letters and that we preach as much by
theory as by example. If our Doctrine contains numerous repetitions,
the reason is the fact that people find it more rational than the others. I
doubt that the same would happen had we professed the doctrine of the
exclusive intervention of the devil and the demons in the spiritist manifestations,
doctrine that is totally ridicule today, exciting more curiosity
than fear, but on some intrepid people who will soon acknowledge their
uselessness.
As it is professed today, the Spiritist Doctrine has amplitude scope
that encompasses all questions of morality. It suffices all aspirations and
one can say the most demanding reason by anyone willing to study it and
who is not dominated by prejudices. It does not suffer from the petty
restrictions of certain philosophies; broaden the circle of ideas to infinity
and nobody is capable of elevating their own thoughts above that, thus
extracting man from the sphere of selfishness where some tried to confine
him. Finally, it is supported by the immutable principles of religion of
which it is a blatant demonstration. That is undoubtedly what conquers
so many educated followers in all countries, and what will make it prevail
in a not so distant time, and that despite the adversaries who in their
majority are more motivated by interest than conviction. Its fast advancement
since it entered the serious philosophical path is a safe guarantor of
the future that is reserved and that is announced all over the world, as you
know. Hence, let your enemies speak and act. They are powerless against God’s will since nothing happens without his permission and as an enlightened
clergyman said recently: “If such things happen it is because
God allows for the revival of the faith that is fading away in the darkness
of materialism.”
The Angel of Cholera
One of our corresponding members in Warsaw sent us the following:
“… I dare call your attention to a fact that is so extraordinary that it would be necessary to classify it as absurd if the character of the person that reported it to me were not a guarantee of its reality. All of us who know everything that has been so carefully analyzed by you regarding Spiritism, and who believe that understand it well, we cannot find an explanation for this fact. Thus, we pass it on for your discretion, hoping that will forgive the time required to read it all in case you don’t find it worthy of a more serious examination. Here are the facts:
“… I dare call your attention to a fact that is so extraordinary that it would be necessary to classify it as absurd if the character of the person that reported it to me were not a guarantee of its reality. All of us who know everything that has been so carefully analyzed by you regarding Spiritism, and who believe that understand it well, we cannot find an explanation for this fact. Thus, we pass it on for your discretion, hoping that will forgive the time required to read it all in case you don’t find it worthy of a more serious examination. Here are the facts:
“The person that I mentioned above was in Vilnius in 1852, a
city of Lithuania, then devastated by cholera. Her beautiful twelveyear-old
daughter was gifted with every quality that characterizes
a great nature. Her outstanding intelligence was noticed at a very
young age combined with a truly angelical kindness and goodness
of heart. She was one of the first to enjoy a mediumistic faculty in
our land always supervised by spirits of higher order. She frequently
had premonitions of what was about to happen, and not in a somnambulistic
state, always predicting with accuracy. The details above
seem relevant to give you a proper assessment of her honesty. One
evening, when the candles had just been put out, the girl who was still perfectly awake saw an enraged and bloody figure of an old woman
standing by her bedside, notably giving her the shivers. The woman
approached the girl and said: ‘I am cholera and I come to demand
a kiss from you. If you kiss me I will leave for good and the city shall
be free from my presence.’ The heroic girl did not step away from the
sacrifice. She pressed her lips against the frigid and humid face of the
old woman and the vision, if that was a vision, vanished. The girl
could only find consolation in her father’s arms. Her father could not
understand a thing but he believed that she was telling the truth.
They said nothing to nobody though. Around noon they received the
visit of a doctor friend of the family who said: ‘I come to bring you
good news. Not one patient was taken to the cholera hospital last
night and I just came from there.’ In fact since that night there was
no more new cholera cases. About three years later the same person
and her family visited the same town again. During their stay the
cholera reappeared and the number of victims was in the hundreds.
One night the same old woman showed up again to the young lady
who was perfectly awake, asking her for the same thing, adding this
time that if she obeyed her wishes the cholera would disappear for
good. Like in the first event, the girl did not refuse. She then saw a
grave opening up and then consuming the old woman. The cholera
faded away like in a miracle and I am not aware of any other case in
Vilnius. Was it hallucination or a real apparition? I don’t know. All
I can say is that I don’t have any reason not to believe the young lady
and her parents.”
This is actually a very singular fact. The skeptics will certainly say that it
is hallucination but it will probably be very difficult for them to explain
the coincidences with a material event that could not be foreseen. In the
first occurrence this could have been taken by an event of chance, that
convenient way of explaining what one cannot understand. But two occurrences
in identical circumstances are more extraordinary. Admitting
that there was an apparition, it was still necessary to understand the meaning of that woman. Would that really be an angel, exterminator of
cholera? Would the pandemics be personified by certain spirits in charge
of provoking or eliminating them? One could be led to believe so by observing
the extinction following the will of that woman. However, why
would she address that girl, a stranger in town, and how could a kiss from
that girl have such an influence? Although Spiritism has given us the key
to so many things, we have not gotten the final word and with reference
to the case above the latter hypothesis was not completely absurd. We
must confess that in the beginning we were inclined to believe so since we
could not identify traces of hallucination. However, the teachings of the
spirits came to knock our hypothesis down. Here is the simple and very
logical explanation given by St. Louis in a session at the Society on April
19th, 1861.
Q – The event that has just been reported seems very authentic. We
would like to have an explanation about it. To begin with, could you tell
us who that woman was that appeared to the young lady saying that she
was cholera?
A – She was not cholera. A material plague has no human appearance.
It was the girl’s familiar spirit trying her faith, making such a trial to coincide
with the end of the scourge. The trial was beneficial to the young
lady. It fortified the blossoming virtues in that blessed and protected creature.
High ranking spirits that keep the memory of their acquired virtues
when returning to the world sometimes receive such warnings that would
be dangerous to a not so elevated soul hence not so well prepared by previous
migrations through testimonies of love and faith.
Q – Had her familiar spirit enough power to predict the future and
the end of such plague?
A – The spirits are instruments of the divine will and are frequently
turned into celestial messengers.
Q – Do the spirits have any influence over the scourges as their producing
agents?
A – They have nothing to do with that like the trees don’t act upon
the winds or the effects on their causes.
Since we expected answers according to our initial thoughts we had
previously prepared a number of questions that became useless. Once
more this demonstrates that the mediums are not a reflex of the thought
of someone that questions them. As a matter of fact, we must say that we
had no previous opinion about this subject. In the absence of something
better we were inclined to believe in what we said because it did not seem
impossible to us. However we find the simple and more rational explanation
given by the spirit infinitely preferable. In reality another instruction
may be drawn from the fact. What happened to that girl may have
happened before on other occasions and even in former times since the
spiritist phenomena are from all times. Couldn’t that be the reason why
former peoples were led to personify everything and see a particular genie
in everything? We don’t believe that its cause is in the poetic vein since
these ideas are found in the least advanced peoples.
Let us suppose for a moment that an event similar to the one described
above had occurred in a superstitious and barbarian people.
Nothing else was needed to lead them to believe in a malevolent entity
that could only be appeased by the sacrifice of victims. As we have already
said, all gods of paganism have no other origin but the spiritist manifestations.
Christianity came to knock their altars down, but it was reserved to
Spiritism to unveil their true nature, shedding light onto the phenomena
either mystified by superstition or exploited by greed.
Phenomena of Apport
This phenomenon, no doubt, constitutes one of the most extraordinary
among the spiritist manifestations, and also the rarest. It consists of
the transportation of a foreign object to appear at the place where we are.
We have heard about it for a long time, but only recently were we able to
witness the phenomenon and we can now speak about it from experience.
For starters we must say that this is one of those phenomena more prone
to mystification and consequently everyone is strongly advised to be on
guard against fraud.
The art of deception may travel long ways when considering events
of such a nature and someone who is not familiar with people involved in
that kind of work could easily fall victim of fraud. The best guarantees is
first, the character of the persons involved, their known honesty and the
absolute disinterest Of individuals who experiment with similar effects;
second, in the careful examination of every detail and circumstances in
which the phenomena is produced; and finally, an enlightened knowledge
of Spiritism, the only force capable of uncovering if there is anything suspicious
about the phenomena.
We said that the phenomenon is one of the rarest and perhaps produced
even less than the others according to someone’s wishes or following
a given schedule. It can very rarely be provoked but most of the time
it is spontaneous and whoever may boast about being able to produce it
at will and at a given time could easily be called ignorant and be under the suspicion of fraud; this would be even more reinforced if there would
be any material interest behind it. A medium that takes any advantage
of their faculty may be truly a medium but since it is subject to intermittences
and since the phenomena depends exclusively on the spirits who are
not submitted to our caprices, it follows that a greedy medium may easily
resource to deception to avoid failure or to produce more effects, according
to the circumstances. For this kind of medium, the spirit must always
act or it is replaced by deception, sometimes hidden under the simplest
disguises. These initial thoughts aim at helping the observers to be on
guard, taking us back to our subject. Before that, it is our duty to publish
the letter below, sent from Orléans dated February 14th last:
“Dear Sir,
The person who writes the letter to you is a credible spiritist.
The facts reported herein are rare; they must be beneficial
to everyone and have already led several people around us who
witnessed them to believe. The first event took place on January
1st, 1861. One of my relatives who unknowingly was endowed
by mediumistic powers in its highest degree, only learning about
it when I spoke with her about Spiritism, from time to time she
saw her mother but considered it to be hallucinations and tried
her best to avoid them. On January 1st about 3 pm she saw her
again. She and her husband were so scared, although he saw nothing,
leaving her really confused. A few minutes later her husband
found a ring sitting on a table in their living room, a ring that his
wife immediately recognized as her mother’s, that she herself had
put on her mother’s finger when she died. A few days later the
lady suffered some sort of suffocation and I advised her husband
to apply magnetic passes on her, which he did. Three minutes
later she was asleep but showed perfect lucidity. She told the husband
that her mother was there with them and that she brought
the ring to demonstrate that she was taking care of them. The
husband then asked if she could see his daughter who had died when she was 2 years old, and that was eight years ago, and if she
could bring them a souvenir from her. The somnambulist then
responds that yes, she was there, as was the husband’s mother;
that tomorrow she would bring a rose to be found on the desk. It
did happen like that; a lifeless flower was there, together with a
piece of paper containing the following words: ‘to my dear Dad.
Laura.’ Two days later in another magnetic sleep, the husband
asks if he could get some hair from his own mother. His wishes
were satisfied immediately. The hair was on the fireplace. Then
two letters were spontaneously written by the two mothers.
Now I will get to the facts that took place in my own house.
After a serious study of your books about Spiritism, faith came
to me without ever seeing a single fact. The Medium’s Book advised
me to try to write but I had no result. Convinced that I
would never obtain anything without the person that I mentioned
above, I invited her to come to Orléans with her husband.
Monday, February 11th, 10 pm – magnetic sleep and ecstasy; she
sees the spirits that had promised to follow her around us. I asked
if I would become a writing medium. She answered: ‘Yes, in 15
days’, adding that she would write through her mother the next
day to convince one of my friends that she asked me to have invited.
On the next day, February 12th, at 8 am she falls asleep. We
ask if she would like to have a pencil. ‘No’ she says, ‘my mother is
near you and she is writing. Her letter is on the fireplace.’ I go there
and find a folded piece of paper with the following words: ‘Believe
and pray; I am with you; this is to convince you.’ She also said that
later that night I could try to write having her hand on top of
mine. I dared not to expect any result however I wrote the following:
‘Believe; I will return; don’t forget magnetism; so long.’ My
relative was supposed to leave the next day. At night we wrote the
following: ‘The spiritist science is not a joke; it is true; magnetism
may lead to that. Pray and invoke those called by your hearts. So long
Catherine.’ It was her mother’s name.
I was asked many times to write about these facts to you; I
was even criticized for not having done so before. Besides, she told
us that we could have a proof of what I am telling you and that
her mother could confirm these facts if evoked by you.
Yours sincerely... ”
This letter reports two remarkable phenomena: apport and direct
writing. Here is a fundamental observation about it: when husband
and wife got the first results they were alone and could not have
any interest in deceiving one another. Second, the transportation of
the ring that was buried with the mother was a positive fact, which
could not have resulted from deception since no one jokes about these
things. Several events of similar nature have been reported to us by
trustworthy persons in authentic circumstances. But here is one that
we have witnessed ourselves, as well as several other members of the
Society.
Ms. V. B… is a 16 to 17 year old lady, an excellent writing medium
and also a clairvoyant somnambulist. During her sleep and most of the
time she sees the spirit of one of her cousins who had brought her different
objects on several occasions, among the items have been: rings,
chocolate candies in large quantities and flowers. She must be asleep
for about two hours before the phenomenon is produced. The first time
we watched a phenomenon of that kind where she had a ring put on
her hand. Since we know the young lady and her honest parents there
was no reason for doubt. We must confess however that the way it was
produced was not very much concluding to strangers. In another session
it was different. After two hours of sleep during which the young lady
was busy with very interesting things, but strange to our objectives, the
spirit appeared to her with a bouquet of flowers, only visible to her. It
was only later, that after having being stimulated by endless requests, the
spirit dropped a bunch of followers at her feet. The lady was not happy.
The spirit was still holding something that she wanted. New requests and
about half an hour later a bunch of violets surrounded by moss appeared on the floor. Sometime later a fist size chocolate candy fell by her side.
The taste was similar to a handmade pineapple preserve. All that lasted
about one hour and during the whole time the somnambulist was always
isolated from the public; the person who magnetized her was also at a
large distance. We were positioned in such a way that we could not lose
sight of a single movement and sincerely declare that there was nothing
suspicious at all. On that occasion the communicating spirit by the
name Léon promised to come to the Society to provide explanations as
requested. He was evoked on March 1st together with the spirit of Ms.
Catherine that had manifested in Orléans, and below is the conversation
that followed:
1. (Evocation of Ms. Catherine) – A. I am present and ready to
respond.
2. You told your daughter and the relative from Orléans that you
would come here to confirm the phenomena that they have witnessed.
We would be delighted to receive your explanations about
it. To begin with, I would ask you why you have insisted so much
to have them writing to me reporting those events. – A. What
I said I am ready to do now since you are the one who needs to
be informed the most. I had asked my children to communicate
these proofs to you aiming at the propagation of Spiritism.
3. A few days ago I witnessed similar events and I will request the
spirit that produced them to kindly come to us here. Having observed
all phases of the phenomenon I have several questions to
ask him. I ask you to support him in providing the answers in
case it is necessary. – A. I will do as you ask since the two of us
together can provide better clarity and accuracy.
4. (Evocation of Léon) – A. I am ready to do as I promised, Sir.
OBSERVATION: The spirits generally utilize a casual yet polite
form of speech with us. This one presents the particularity of
always using the word “Sir” when evoked.
5. Can you please tell us why these phenomena only happen during
the magnetized sleep of the medium? – A. That is due to the nature
of the medium. The facts that I produce when that medium
is asleep could also be produced in the waking state.
6. Why does it take you so long to produce the transportation of objects
and why do you excite the medium’s greed so much and the
will to have the promised object? – A. That time is necessary to
prepare the fluids that serve the transportation. As for the excitement
it is just used to entertain the public and the somnambulist.
7. I thought the excitement could produce a more abundant emission
of fluids from the medium, facilitating the necessary combination.
– A. You are mistaken, Sir. The fluids we need do not
belong to the medium but to the spirit and in certain cases those
fluids can even be dismissed and the transportation can occur
immediately.
8. Is the production of the phenomenon due to the special nature of
the medium and thus could occur with other mediums more easily
and more promptly? – A. The production is due to the nature
of the medium and could not occur but with other mediums of
similar nature. As for the promptness, our habit of communicating
several times with the same medium is of great help.
9. Must the nature of the medium correspond to the nature of the
fact or that of the spirit? – A. It must correspond to the nature of
the fact and not of the spirit.
10. Does the influence of the public that is present to the event serve
any purpose? – A. When there is doubt, opposition, it can definitely
cause us harm. We prefer to do our tests with believers and
persons that are familiar with Spiritism. It doesn’t mean that illfaith
can halt us completely.
11. Here there are only believers and very sympathetic persons. Is
there any obstacle for the fact to occur? – A. There is since I am
neither willing nor prepared.
12. Would you be on another day? – A. Yes.
13. Could you schedule it? – A. One day, when you don’t ask me for
anything, I will surprise you with a nice bunch of flowers.
14. Some people would perhaps prefer chocolate candies. – A. If there
are gastronomes they can also be satisfied. I believe that the ladies
who do not neglect the flowers will like the candies even more.
15. Will Ms. V. B… need to be in a somnambulistic state? – A. I will
do the transportation having her awake.
16. Where did you get the flowers and candies transported from? - A.
I pick the flowers from a garden that I like.
17. But how about the candies? Doesn’t the storeowner detect that
they went missing? – A. I take them from where I wish. The storeowner
doesn’t notice because I replace them.
18. However, the ring has a value. Where did you get it from? Won’t
it cause a loss to the person from whom you took it? – A. I took
them from places unknown to everyone so that nobody has
missed them.
19. Is it possible to bring flowers from other planets? – A. No. That
is not possible to me.
20. Could other spirits do that? – A. Yes. There are spirits more advanced
than me that can do it. As for myself, I cannot. You must
be satisfied with what I bring you.
21. Could you bring flowers from another hemisphere, like for example,
from the tropics? – A. As long as it is from Earth, I can.
22. How did you introduce those objects considering that the room
was locked? – A. I made them come in with me, covered by my
substance so to speak. I cannot give you more explanation than
this.
23. (to Mrs. Catherine) – Since the ring that you brought to your
daughter was buried with you how did you get it? – A. I removed
it from the ground and brought it to my daughter.
24. (to Leon) – How did you make those objects visible since moments
earlier they were invisible? - A. I removed the matter that
covered them.
25. Could you make the transported objects disappear again and take
them back? – A. As I brought them in I can take them out at will.
26. Yesterday (the spirit corrects writing Wednesday). Right, on
Wednesday the medium saw you using a pair of scissors to cut
orange tree flowers from a bouquet in her room. Did you really
need a cutting instrument? – A. I had no scissors but I made sure
that I was seen like that so they would believe that it was me who
was cutting them.
27. But the bouquet was under a glass bowl. – A. Oh! I could have
removed the bowl.
28. Have you? – A. No.
29. We cannot understand how that can be so. Do you believe that
we will one day understand that phenomenon? – A. It won’t be
long; we not only believe but we are sure that it will happen.
30. Who has just answered? Léon or Mrs. Catherine? – A. Both of us.
31. Does the production of the transportation phenomenon cause
you any suffering or embarrassment? – A. It is the cause of no
suffering when we have the permission but it would cause a lot if
we wanted to produce effects without authorization.
32. What would be the difficulties? – A. Nothing more than bad
fluid dispositions that can be adverse to us.
33. How do you transport the object? Do you hold it in your hands? –
A. No. We cover it ourselves.
34. Would you have the same ability to bring an object of considerable
weight, as for example 50 Kg? – A. The weight means nothing
to us. We bring flowers because that is more pleasant than a
heavier mass.
35. Sometimes objects disappear without a known cause. Could that
be something caused by the spirits? – A. That happens many
times and more frequently than you imagine but it could be fixed
by asking the spirit to return the missing objects.
36. Are there effects that are considered to be natural phenomena and
that in fact are due to the action of certain spirits? – A. Your days are full of those facts that you don’t understand because you have
not given any thought to that but a little reflection would allow
you to see with clarity.
37. Among the transported objects aren’t there some fabricated by
the spirits that are spontaneously produced by the modifications
that the spirits may produce on the universal element? – A. Not
by me since I don’t have the permission. Only an elevated spirit
can do that.
38. Could an object produced like that have stability and become an
object of common use? For example, if a spirit produced a snuffbox
could I make use of that? – A. It could if the spirit wished so
but it could also exist only to be seen and disappear after a few
hours.
OBSERVATION: The phenomena that took place at Rue des
Noyers described in the August 1860 issue of The Spiritist Review
may be classified in the category of transportation phenomena.
The difference is in the fact that in that case, they were produced
by a bad spirit that only wished to cause disruption, while the
ones discussed here are produced by benevolent spirits that wish
to please and demonstrate sympathy.
NOTE: See The Mediums’ Book about the theory of formation of
objects, chapter entitled “Laboratory of the invisible world”.
Family Conversations from Beyond the Grave - Dr. Glas
Born in Lyon and deceased on February 21st, 1861, at the age of 35 and a
half years old
(Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, April 5th, 1861)
Dr. Glas was a devout spiritist. He succumbed after a painful and long
lasting disease where his suffering was only softened by the hope
which Spiritism comforted him with. His laborious and eventful life was
full of bitter concerns and an initially unknown accident shortened his
existence. He was evoked after his father’s request.
1. (Evocation) – A. I am here.
2. For us it is a real pleasure to be able to communicate with you,
first in order to attend your father and your wife’s wishes but also
considering your knowledge which we hope can benefit us all. –
A. I hope this communication can give consolation to those who
have sympathy for me and that it may be instructive to you.
3. It seems that you have succumbed after enduring a cruel disease.
Could you give us some explanations about its cause and its nature? – A. My disease – now I see clearly – was totally moral
and ended up painfully taking my whole body. As for my sufferings,
they are still very present and I cannot forget. Persistent
work, added to a continual agitation in my brain, which was the
true source of my disease.
OBSERVATION: That answer is confirmed by the following
passage from a letter by his father: “His laborious and eventful
life was full of bitter concerns and an initially unknown accident
shortened his existence.” – This letter had not been read before the
evocation and neither the medium nor the attendees were aware
of that.
4. It also seems that your beliefs helped you to endure the suffering
with courage, for that we congratulate you. – A. I had the consciousness
of a better life. That says it all.
5. Have those beliefs also helped you to speed up your separation? –
A. Infinitely because those spiritualist ideas are the necessary understandings
that keep you away from any terrestrial influence.
6. We kindly ask you to describe to us as precisely as possible the
nature of mental confusion that you have experienced, the duration
and your sensations when you became aware of your condition.
– A. When I died I was perfectly aware of myself and I could
glimpse calmly what so many others fear with much dread. My
passage was short and there was no change in my self-awareness.
I don’t know how long the confusion lasted but when I woke up
I was really dead.
7. At the time when you acknowledged yourself were you isolated? –
A. Yes. As a matter of fact in my heart I was still entirely connected
to Earth. It was only gradually that I saw spirits around me.
8. What is your opinion about your comrades who want to demonstrate
through science that man is formed only by matter and
that there is only the nothingness waiting out there? – A. Pride! They will perhaps be quiet when the time of their death is near; it
is what I wish. Ah! As Lamennais said not long ago there are two
sciences, the good one and the bad one. Theirs is the science that
comes from man, the bad one.
OBSERVATION: The spirit was referring to a communication
that had just been given moments earlier, a proof that he had not
waited for the evocation to come to the session.
9. Are you always close to your wife, your son and your father? – A.
Almost always.
10. Is your feeling now, when you see them, different from what you
had during your life? – A. Death gives a broader vision to the
feelings, like it does to the ideas, but now it is filled with a hopefulness
that man cannot understand on Earth. I love them but I
wish I had them with me. It is particularly due to future hopes
that the spirit must have courage and firmness.
11. Since you are here, can you effortlessly see them at home? – A.
Oh! Perfectly.
OBSERVATION: An inferior spirit could not do that. Only
those who have certain elevation can see different points simultaneously.
The others are still too attached to Earth. Reading this
answer some people would undoubtedly say that it was a good
opportunity for control; that we should have asked the spirit what
his relatives were doing at that very moment and then verify its
accuracy. What would have been our objective then? To make
sure that it was truly a spirit speaking with us? But if it was not a
spirit, the medium was deceiving us. However, that medium has
been providing service to the Society for many years now and we
have never had any occasion for suspicion as far as his good faith
is concerned. Had we done that as a proof of identity it would
not have done us any good because a deceiving spirit would know that as much as an honest one. Thus, the question would have
entered the category of curiosities and proof, always neglected and
never responded by the good spirits. We know from experience
that it is possible but we also know that when a spirit wants to get
into some details they do so spontaneously and when they believe
to be useful and not just to satisfy a whim.
12. Can you distinguish between your spirit and your perispirit?
What difference can you establish between the two? – A. I think
therefore I exist and have a soul, said the philosopher. I know
nothing better than that. As for the perispirit, it is a natural and
vaporous shape, as you know; but seeking the soul is the same as
seeking the absolute spiritual.
13. Do you believe that the faculty of thinking resides in the perispirit?
In a word, that the soul and the perispirit are one and the
same thing? – A. It is absolutely the same thing as asking if your
thought resides in your body. One can be seen; the other can be
felt and conceived.
14. Thus, you are not a vague and undefined being, but limited and
bounded? – A. Limited yes but fast as a thought.
15. Can you kindly determine the place where you are here? – A. To
your left and to the right hand side of the medium.
NOTE: Mr. Allan Kardec is sitting at the place indicated by the
spirit.
16. Were you forced to leave your place and give it to me? – A.
Absolutely; we pass through everything as everything passes
through us; it is the spiritual body.
17. Thus, am I embedded in you? – A. Yes.
18. Why don’t I feel you? – A. Because the fluids that make the perispirit
are very ethereal, not sufficiently material to you. However, through
prayer and will, in a word through faith, the fluids may become more material and heavier, even tangible and that is what happens during
physical manifestations - the conclusion of that mystery.
OBSERVATION: Imagine a light beam that penetrates a dark
room: one can trespass it, be embedded by it without affecting
its form or nature. Although that beam is some sort of matter it
does not offer obstacle to the passage of a denser matter. The same
applies to a column of smoke or vapor that one can go through
without resistance. The difference here is that since vapor is
denser than light it will produce an impression on the body that
doesn’t happen with light.
19. Suppose that you could become visible to the eyes of the assembly
here at this very moment. What would be the effect of our two
bodies like one embedding the other? – A. The effect that you
naturally imagine. Your left side would be less visible than your
right hand side; you would be in a mist, in the fog of the perispirit.
The same would happen to the right hand side of the medium.
20. Now supposing that you could become not only visible but also
tangible, as it sometimes happens. Would that be possible at all,
considering our current layout? – A. I would forcibly change place
a little bit. I would form myself by your side.
21. A short while ago when I asked about visibility you said that you
were between the medium and I then indicating that you would
move to another place. It means that for tangibility it would be
even further away. Wouldn’t that be possible for you to take the
two appearances thus remaining in your original position, keeping
me embedded in you? – A. Absolutely not. I would reconstruct
myself on the side; I cannot become dense at that position;
I cannot stay there but in a misty form.
OBSERVATION: A serious teaching stems out from that explanation.
In the normal state, that is fluid and invisible, the perispirit is perfectly permeable to solid matter. In the state of visibility
there is already the beginning of condensation that makes
the perispirit less penetrable. In the state of tangibility condensation
is complete hence there is no penetrability.
22. Do you believe that science one day will submit the perispirit to
the appreciation of the instruments as it is done to other fluids? –
A. Perfectly. You don’t know more than the surface of matter; but
the finesse, the essence is only gradually known. Electricity and
magnetism are the right path.
23. Which other fluids have analogy to the perispirit? – A. Light,
electricity and Oxygen.
24. There is a person here that seems to believe to have been your
schoolmate. Do you recognize that person? – A. I don’t see that.
I don’t remember.
25. That is Mr. Lucien B… from Montbrison who attended college
in Lyon with you. – A. I never thought of meeting you as well. I
have done some serious studies on the Earth but can assure you
that my studies as a spirit are much more serious. I thank you a
thousand times for your kind remembrance.
Several Problems and Issues
We received the following letter from Mr. Jobard of Brussels, with
the answers he has obtained to several questions.
“My dear Mr. President,
Since Brussels is as far away from Paris as the Moon is from
the Sun, the rays of light from Spiritism have not brought warmth
to us yet. However Mr. Nicolas B… has been with us for two
days, and he indicated a first class intuitive writing medium that
delights us here, so much so that he is surprised himself with the
magnificent essays given by the spirit of Tertullian who wants
him to write a book with explanations about the creation of the
worlds, from chaos to God. Yesterday I read them to Wiertz, the
great painter, who got the message and wants to dedicate a 100
ft. painting to it. I cannot send you these sublime essays before
you can provide proof of identity. I have enclosed a few passages
extracted from the mediumistic drafts that I keep with great care.
We evoked Cabanis, the materialist, who is as unhappy as
your atheist and all other pencil breakers. Then we evoked Henri
Mondeux to learn about the long line of mathematicians that he
may have inhabited. Everybody wants to have Jud revealed, the
assassin of Mr. Poinsot. The reediting of Gaete was announced
eight days in advance. I was also asked to write a book but don’t know where to start from, since I am not a medium and cannot
use a medium under the pretext that it is no longer necessary.
Your Lyon speech is remarkable. I had it read to the more advanced
humanimals of our Moon. There aren’t many over here.
What a pity! When might I be able to warm myself from your
sun? Farewell my dear Master.
Jobard
Weren’t the wizards, wise men and great philosophers of ancient times,
actually mediums? – A. Yes, evidently. The link connecting them to
superior intelligences acted upon them giving them inspiration of noble
thoughts, not to mention their own superiority that allowed them more
accurate assessments. They transmitted prophecy-like ideas to the incarnate
spirits because prophecies are nothing more than inspiration from
great spirits. Since these spirits enjoyed some divine attributes their proclaimed
ideas were like premonitions and were necessarily carried out for
those indicated times and periods.
Is mediumship then a favor to those who have it? – A. The true medium
that does not turn that sublime gift into a profession must evidently
become better. How could it be different if at every moment he can receive
such favorable impressions to his advancement on the good path?
The philosophical ideas produced not only by his own spirit but more importantly
by us are corrected in every aspect where his limited and weak
intelligence may not understand completely.
OBSERVATION BY MR. JOBARD: These just answers lead to the
natural consequence that as the numbers of mediums multiply the human
race improves by that and at a given point in time it will bring the
kingdom of God to Earth.
The statistics of criminality rarely show workers from the iron industry.
Would iron have any influence upon them? – A. Yes because in that
manual labor of transformation of matter there is something that must
elevate the spirits, even the least gifted ones. There is a magnetic influence
on them. Iron is the father of all minerals; it is the most useful to man always present in his daily life while the so called rich minerals represent
the source of all human passions to the least evolved spirits. They are the
instruments of the evil spirit.
Can all metals recombine into others as certain experts indicate? – A.
Yes but such transformation will only happen with time.
How about the diamond? – A. It is Carbon separated from its original
source in a gaseous state, crystallized under pressure that you cannot appreciate.
But that is enough with questions. I can no longer answer them.
Tertullian
OBSERVATION BY MR. JOBARD: The spirits generally refuse to answer
questions that could bring wealth to idle people. Those must seek
that wealth and research is part of the trials that must be endured in the
penitentiary that we have to experience. It is likely that the spirits don’t
know better than we do regarding the discoveries that still have to come;
nonetheless, they can foresee them as we also can; they can guide us in
our researches but cannot spare us from the pleasure or the actual work
of doing research. It is not less enjoyable though when we believe to have
found a solution, seeking approval as a sign of confirmation.
NOTE: See The Spirits’ Book question #532 and thereafter; The
Mediums’ Book, chapter about Evocations – questions that can be addressed
to the spirits, #78 and following questions.
OBSERVATION BY MR. ALLAN KARDEC: The letter from our
honorable comrade is prior to our March issue of The Review in which we
included an article from Mr. Poinsot. As for Henri Mondeux there were
several explanations given at the Society but the circumstances have not
allowed us to finalize his evocation and that is the reason why we have
not yet manifested anything about it. Regarding Mr. Jobard’s request for
us to ensure the identity of the spirit that communicated using the name
Tertullian, we have already answered to him what we have also published
in The Mediums’ Book.
There could not be proof of identity of spirits from personalities of the
past. Especially when it is about a superior teaching, most of the time the name is just a support to get the message across considering that among
the spirits that come to enlighten us the great majority are undoubtedly
formed by unfamiliar spirits. The name is more a sign of analogy than
identity. It only has a secondary importance. The first thing to take into
account is the benevolence and wisdom of the teaching. If in any way it
does not contradict the character of the person whose name is used, if it
is worthy of that name, then this is the essential part. If it is inferior, then
the origin is suspicious since a spirit can do better but not worse than
when he was alive considering that the spirit may gain but not lose what
has been acquired.
The following answers, seen from that standpoint, seem to be okay
to be attributed to Tertullian, from what we conclude that yes it can be
him, although we cannot affirm positively so, or even if a spirit at his level
who has taken that name in order to indicate his category. The questions
and answers below were received from one of our corresponding members
from St. Petersburg.
1. I would like to understand the objective of the beauty of the
Universe. Isn’t that a trying obstacle? – A. One believes in everything
that is expected; one expects everything that is beloved;
one loves everything that is beautiful. Thus, beauty contributes to
the strengthening of faith. If it frequently turns into temptation
it is not because of beauty itself which is an attribute of God’s
creation, but due to the passions that destroy everything in their
way like the foul mythological harpies.
2. And what can you say about love? – A. It is a gift from God when
it germinates in a non-corrupted, chaste and pure heart; it is calamity
when mixed with passions. It elevates and purifies in the
former case as much as it disturbs and agitates in the latter. It is always
the same and remarkable law of the Eternal: beauty, love, and
memory from another existence, talents that you bring since birth.
All gifts from the Creator may become poisonous by the contaminated
breath of passions that free-will can restrain or develop.
3. I would like to have some questions from The Mediums’ Book answered
by a good spirit, starting from page 223, about the transfiguration.
– A. You may ask.
4. In the case of the young lady from the Saint-Étienne area, if the
phenomenon was produced by the increase in density of her perispirit,
combined with that of her brother, with an increase in her
body weight and volume, how come her eyes, which must had
been in the same place, could see through the thick layer of a new
body that was forming before them? – A. As the somnambulists
see with their eyelids closed: through the eyes of the soul.
5. The body was enlarged in the phenomenon above. At the end of
Chapter VIII one reads that it is likely that if the transfiguration
had happened with the appearance of a child the weight would
have diminished in proportion. I cannot understand from the
theory of radiation and transfiguration of the perispirit that the
size of a solid body can diminish. It seems to me that the size of
the body should surpass that of the two bodies combined. – A.
Since the body may become invisible by the will of a superior
spirit, the body of the young lady becomes invisible by the action
of a force independent of her will. At the same time, combined
with that of the child, her perispirit may form the image of the
child. The theory about changing the specific weight is known
to you.
6. After having dissipated my doubts and reaffirmed my faith in
its foundation, Spiritism still leaves an unsolved question to me.
How come the new spirits that are still created by God and that
are destined to become pure spirits after going through the sieve
of many existences and trials, how come they leave the Creator’s
hands, source of the whole perfection, in such an imperfect state,
and can only improve gradually, distancing themselves from their
own origin? – A. That mystery is one of those that the Eternal
don’t allow us to penetrate while both, errant and incarnate spirits,
who haven’t yet achieved the perfection that is our destiny thanks to God’s benevolence, perfection that will take us back to
our origin thus closing the circle of eternity.
OBSERVATION: Our correspondent does not say who was the
spirit that answered the questions above but the wisdom in the
answers demonstrates that they don’t come from a common spirit
and this is the important thing since and as it is already known
the name means nothing. We have nothing to say about his first
answers that are totally in agreement with what we have been
taught, demonstrating once more that the theory provided about
the spiritist phenomena are not a product of our imagination,
given by the spirits at different times and places and beyond the
limits of our personal influence. It is only the last answer that
doesn’t resolve the proposed question; we will try to supply the
answer here.
To begin with let us say that the solution to the issue may be easily
deduced with some development from what is given in The
Spirits’ Book question #114 and the following questions about
the progression of the spirits. We don’t have much to add. The
spirits leave the hands of the Creator, simple and ignorant, but
not good or bad, otherwise God would have created some spirits
to good and happiness and others to evil and disgrace from the
beginning, something neither in agreement with his benevolence
nor justice. At the time of their creation, the spirits are only imperfect
as far as their intellectual and moral developments are
concerned, like the child at birth or the germ inside the seed of
the tree. However, they are not naturally bad. Simultaneously
to the development of reason, the free-will leads some to choose
the good path and others to choose the bad one, and that is why
some achieve the objective faster than others. But all of them,
without exception, have to go through the trials of the corporeal
life in order to acquire experience and have the merit of winning the fight. Some win and others don’t but the losers can always
stand up again and recover their losses. This discussion raises an
even more serious issue that has already been presented several
times. Since God knows everything, past, present and future,
he must know that a given spirit will take the wrong path, will
fail and become unhappy. In that case, why has he been created
then?
Yes. God certainly knows well the direction that a given spirit
will take otherwise he would not be sovereignly omniscient. If
a bad move by the spirit were supposed to lead to an absolute
eternity of penalties and sufferings; if there were no possibility of
recovery after a failure, then the objection above would have the
power of an incontestable logic and this is perhaps the most powerful
argument against the eternal penalties since in that case it is
impossible to solve the dilemma: either God does not know the
fate reserved to His creature and then He is not infinitely omniscient
or if He does know, then He created someone to be forever
unhappy and then God is not infinitely good. With the Spiritist
Doctrine there is thorough agreement and no contradiction: God
knows that a given spirit will take a bad path; God knows every
single danger that shall exist in that path but God also knows
that the spirit will come out of this and that it is just a delay. Out
of benevolence and in order to facilitate the spirit’s journey God
provides many warnings along the way, warnings that the spirit
unfortunately does not always observe. It is the tale of two travelers
who want to get to a beautiful place where they are going
to lead a happy life. One knows how to avoid the obstacles and
temptations that would hold him back; the other one carelessly
crashes against the same obstacles, frequently falling behind but
his time will come. If good people warn him against the danger
during his journey and if he doesn’t listen to them, out of pride, it
will be all the more reprehensible.
The dogma of the absolute eternity of penalties has multiple flaws,
not only based on the teachings of the spirits but also based on the
simple logic of common sense. Any attempt to sustain it ignores
the most essential attributes of the divinity; it shows contradiction
when trying to state something on one side while negating
the same thing on the other; such dogma falls apart and the ranks
of its supporters become enlightened every day so that if it is absolutely
necessary to believe in such a dogma to be a Catholic
then soon there will be no true Catholics, as there would not be if
the Church had decided to impose the belief in the movement of
the Sun and the six days of creation. Persisting on a thesis that is
rejected by reason is the same as throwing a fatal blow against religion
thus feeding materialism with weapons. Contrary to that,
Spiritism comes to revive religious feelings that diminish under
attacks of disbelief, providing solutions to issues related to a future
life acceptable by even the sternest reason. Rejecting it would
be the same as refusing an anchor of salvation.
Spiritist Teachings and Dissertations
Mrs. de Girardin (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mrs. Costel)NOTE: Since some criticism was made about a communication given by Mrs. de Girardin in a previous session, she gave a spontaneous answer to them. She indicates the circumstances around that communication.
“I come to thank the member that kindly came out in my defense and moral rehabilitation before you. In fact when alive I used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy I tell you from my heart, given my gender during that time. After my death God allowed me to raise to higher levels and to practice with simplicity the duties of charity that unite us all, people and spirits. With this explanation, I will not discuss the communication that bears my name since criticism and censorship are neither suitable to me nor to the medium. Thus, believe me that I will come whenever I am evoked but I will never get into futile discussions. I spoke about the children. Let me go back to that subject that was the painful ulcer of my life. Women need the double crown of love and maternity to fulfill the mandate of self-sacrifice entrusted by God when sending them to Earth. Alas! I never knew those sweet and tender worries that imprint in our soul by those frail submissions. How often I have gazed at those playful children touching my dress with bitter tears in my eyes. I felt the anguish and humiliation of my failure. I shuddered, waited, listened, and my life filled with worldly success, was a fruit filled with ashes, that left me a bitter and disappointing taste.”
Delphine de Girardin
OBSERVATION: There is a lesson in this message that cannot go unnoticed. Mrs. Girardin said that when alive she used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy, making reference to certain passages of her preceding communication that had provoked some objections. She also says that she preserved those feeling after her death. Consequently she rejects everything that may bear her name and denies those feelings. The soul mirrors the qualities and defects that are shown during their corporeal life with the exception of eventual progress that may have occurred but the soul is never inferior to its prior condition. Therefore there are sometimes very subtle nuances to be observed in the communications from the spirits so as to distinguish between what could be a replacement and what is really from that spirit. The really superior spirits are never caught in contradiction and one can boldly reject anything that may betray their character. This assessment is more difficult since a perfectly authentic communication may be mixed with thoughts from the medium, who does not clearly express the idea, or a strange spirit that interposes his thoughts between the medium and the communicating spirit. Hence, communications that denies the character of the communicating spirit in all points and in the essence of his ideas must be considered of doubtful authenticity. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to condemn the whole text due to some partial stained remarks that may come from the causes above.
“I come to thank the member that kindly came out in my defense and moral rehabilitation before you. In fact when alive I used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy I tell you from my heart, given my gender during that time. After my death God allowed me to raise to higher levels and to practice with simplicity the duties of charity that unite us all, people and spirits. With this explanation, I will not discuss the communication that bears my name since criticism and censorship are neither suitable to me nor to the medium. Thus, believe me that I will come whenever I am evoked but I will never get into futile discussions. I spoke about the children. Let me go back to that subject that was the painful ulcer of my life. Women need the double crown of love and maternity to fulfill the mandate of self-sacrifice entrusted by God when sending them to Earth. Alas! I never knew those sweet and tender worries that imprint in our soul by those frail submissions. How often I have gazed at those playful children touching my dress with bitter tears in my eyes. I felt the anguish and humiliation of my failure. I shuddered, waited, listened, and my life filled with worldly success, was a fruit filled with ashes, that left me a bitter and disappointing taste.”
Delphine de Girardin
OBSERVATION: There is a lesson in this message that cannot go unnoticed. Mrs. Girardin said that when alive she used to love and respect the laws of good taste, those of delicacy, making reference to certain passages of her preceding communication that had provoked some objections. She also says that she preserved those feeling after her death. Consequently she rejects everything that may bear her name and denies those feelings. The soul mirrors the qualities and defects that are shown during their corporeal life with the exception of eventual progress that may have occurred but the soul is never inferior to its prior condition. Therefore there are sometimes very subtle nuances to be observed in the communications from the spirits so as to distinguish between what could be a replacement and what is really from that spirit. The really superior spirits are never caught in contradiction and one can boldly reject anything that may betray their character. This assessment is more difficult since a perfectly authentic communication may be mixed with thoughts from the medium, who does not clearly express the idea, or a strange spirit that interposes his thoughts between the medium and the communicating spirit. Hence, communications that denies the character of the communicating spirit in all points and in the essence of his ideas must be considered of doubtful authenticity. Nevertheless, it would be unfair to condemn the whole text due to some partial stained remarks that may come from the causes above.
Painting and Music (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mr. Alfred Didier)
Art has been defined a hundred thousand times: it is beauty, truth, and goodness. Music that is one branch of art belongs entirely to the domain of sensations. Let us be clear and understand one another. The sensation is produced when a person understands art in two different but entirely interconnected ways: through the mind that leads to melancholy or philosophy and through the heart, through emotion. Music, in my opinion, it is the art that goes straight to the heart. The feeling, you understand– is thoroughly in the heart; painting, architecture, sculpture, in particular painting, mostly reaches the brain. In short, music flows from the heart to the spirit, painting from the mind to the heart.
The organ was created by religious elation. When poetry plays on the organ on Earth, the angels respond from heaven and serious and religious music elevates thoughts and soul; gentle music vibrates the nerves, nothing more. I wish I could cite a few personalities but I don’t have the right: I am no longer on Earth. Like Mozart’s Requiem, that killed him. I don’t wish that any more spirits receive their death through music, but the living-dead, however, must forget all that is earthly, to raise their moral evolution.
Lamennais
The organ was created by religious elation. When poetry plays on the organ on Earth, the angels respond from heaven and serious and religious music elevates thoughts and soul; gentle music vibrates the nerves, nothing more. I wish I could cite a few personalities but I don’t have the right: I am no longer on Earth. Like Mozart’s Requiem, that killed him. I don’t wish that any more spirits receive their death through music, but the living-dead, however, must forget all that is earthly, to raise their moral evolution.
Lamennais
Celebration of Good Spirits at the Arrival of a Brother (Sent by Mrs. Cazemajoux, a medium from Bordeaux)
We also have celebrations, and that happens frequently because the good spirits from Earth, our beloved brothers and sisters, when they leave behind their material envelope they reach out to us and we go in large numbers to welcome them at the door of the dwelling they will now inhabit with us; and these celebrations are not agitated, as in yours. Human passions have no place in such celebrations, your passions disguised by kind faces and heads crowned with flowers that hide jealousy, pride, envy, vanity, the desire to please and prevail over their rivals, enjoying fictitious pleasures.
Here is the kingdom of joy, peace and concord; everyone is happy with their position and glad for their brother’s happiness. Then, my friends! With that perfect harmony among us our celebrations have an indescribable appeal. Millions of musicians sing the wonders of God and His creation followed by harmonious lyres, a sound more dazzling than your sweetest melodies. Long processions of air bound spirits fly like zephyrs casting clouds of flowers upon the newly arrived, flowers whose aroma and wide-ranging nuances you cannot understand. Then there is the fraternal banquet to the guests who have just finished their trials and come to receive their rewards for a job well done. Oh! My friend, I wish I could tell you more but your language is limited to describe such magnificence.
I have told you enough, my beloved ones, to stimulate in you the desire and then, my dear Émile, free from the mission that I have been assigned by your side on the Earth, I will continue to lead you through space, helping you to thoroughly enjoy that happiness.
Felicia (wife of the evoked, Émile and his guiding spirit since last year)
Here is the kingdom of joy, peace and concord; everyone is happy with their position and glad for their brother’s happiness. Then, my friends! With that perfect harmony among us our celebrations have an indescribable appeal. Millions of musicians sing the wonders of God and His creation followed by harmonious lyres, a sound more dazzling than your sweetest melodies. Long processions of air bound spirits fly like zephyrs casting clouds of flowers upon the newly arrived, flowers whose aroma and wide-ranging nuances you cannot understand. Then there is the fraternal banquet to the guests who have just finished their trials and come to receive their rewards for a job well done. Oh! My friend, I wish I could tell you more but your language is limited to describe such magnificence.
I have told you enough, my beloved ones, to stimulate in you the desire and then, my dear Émile, free from the mission that I have been assigned by your side on the Earth, I will continue to lead you through space, helping you to thoroughly enjoy that happiness.
Felicia (wife of the evoked, Émile and his guiding spirit since last year)
Come to us (Sent by Mrs. Cazemajoux, a medium from Bordeaux)
Spiritism is the application of the purest moral of the Gospels preached by Christ; and those who condemn it without knowing it are not very sensible. In fact, why classify it as superstition, charlatanism, sorcery, demonic, things that even the vulgar common sense would accept if properly investigated? The soul is immortal: it is the spirit. The perishable body is the inert matter left behind by the spirit, which then becomes a rotting nameless pile of decomposition. And you who are skeptical about Spiritism, you believe that this life of pain, sufferings and deception to the majority has no other objective but the grave!
Make no mistake. You poor ones, disowned from any Earthly wealth, from its greatness and pleasures, come to us! Come to us and you shall be consoled when you see that your sufferings and hardship will open the doors of happy worlds to you and that God, fair and good to all creatures, has only tried us for our own good, according to the words of Jesus: Blessed are those that mourn: for they shall be comforted – Thus, come skeptical and materialists. Hold the flag that reads: Love and charity to everyone, all brothers; benevolence and justice, indulgence from a great and generous father to all of his creatures that advance through safe but unknown paths. Charity and moral progress, together with intellectual development, will lead you to the Author and Lord of all things.
We only give you these lessons so that you can work and spread the teachings but more than anything else that you use them without any bitterness. Sow the seed. Your good thoughts and God’s help will make it fruitful, in the beginning to a small group only but that will grow and help you reach a good and plentiful harvest.
Ferdinand, medium’s son
Make no mistake. You poor ones, disowned from any Earthly wealth, from its greatness and pleasures, come to us! Come to us and you shall be consoled when you see that your sufferings and hardship will open the doors of happy worlds to you and that God, fair and good to all creatures, has only tried us for our own good, according to the words of Jesus: Blessed are those that mourn: for they shall be comforted – Thus, come skeptical and materialists. Hold the flag that reads: Love and charity to everyone, all brothers; benevolence and justice, indulgence from a great and generous father to all of his creatures that advance through safe but unknown paths. Charity and moral progress, together with intellectual development, will lead you to the Author and Lord of all things.
We only give you these lessons so that you can work and spread the teachings but more than anything else that you use them without any bitterness. Sow the seed. Your good thoughts and God’s help will make it fruitful, in the beginning to a small group only but that will grow and help you reach a good and plentiful harvest.
Ferdinand, medium’s son
Intellectual and Moral Progress (Sent by Mr. Sabò, from Bordeaux)
I am here to tell you that moral progress is the most useful to acquire because it disciplines us against our bad inclinations and make us good, charitable and dedicated to our brothers and sisters. Intellectual progress, however, is also useful to our advancement because it elevates the soul helping us to make healthier assessments of our actions, facilitating moral progress.
It introduces us to the teachings provided by God for many centuries by many people of various merits, who came in all shapes and forms, speaking all languages to help us understand the truth, and were nothing more than spirits already advanced, sent by God for the development of human knowledge. But in time, the light that used to illuminate only to a few will shine for all. Do your best to understand the greatness, the power, the magnificence and justice of God; to understand the sublime beauty of his work; the magnificent rewards to the good and the punishments to the bad ones; to understand, at last, that the only objective that you must have is to get closer to Him.
Georges, Bishop of Périgueux and Sarlat,
happy to be one of the guides to the medium
It introduces us to the teachings provided by God for many centuries by many people of various merits, who came in all shapes and forms, speaking all languages to help us understand the truth, and were nothing more than spirits already advanced, sent by God for the development of human knowledge. But in time, the light that used to illuminate only to a few will shine for all. Do your best to understand the greatness, the power, the magnificence and justice of God; to understand the sublime beauty of his work; the magnificent rewards to the good and the punishments to the bad ones; to understand, at last, that the only objective that you must have is to get closer to Him.
Georges, Bishop of Périgueux and Sarlat,
happy to be one of the guides to the medium
The Floods (Sent by Mr. Casimir H., from Innsbruck, translated from the German Language)
Once upon a time a water spring appeared in a formerly barren region. At first it was only a trickle of water that flowed into the plains, to which no importance was given. Gradually it became bigger, turning into a small creek and then a river; expanding, it encroached upon neighboring terrain, but those who remained untouched by the waters, had their fields fertilized bringing large profits to them. A nearby landowner, discontent seeing his land diminish, tried to stop the flow to recover his stretch of land, thinking that such action would expand his wealth. As it turned out, the blocked river flooded everything, land and owner.
Such is the image of progress: like the impetuous river, it breaks opposing levees, dragging along the unwise that instead of following its course, try to block it. The same will happen to Spiritism. God sends it to fertilize the moral terrain of humanity. Blessed are the ones who are able to take advantage of that and unfortunate are the ones who try to oppose God’s designs! Don’t you see it advancing by leaps and bounds in the four corners of the globe? Its voice is heard everywhere and it will soon muffle the voice of the adversaries in such a way that they will be forced to silence and forced to bow before the obvious. Humanity! Those who try to stop the irresistible march of progress await difficult trials. God allows that to happen for the glorification of some and punishment of others but gives you in Spiritism, the pilot which shall lead you to the harbor, carrying in its hand the flag of hope.
Wilhelm, the medium’s grandfather
Such is the image of progress: like the impetuous river, it breaks opposing levees, dragging along the unwise that instead of following its course, try to block it. The same will happen to Spiritism. God sends it to fertilize the moral terrain of humanity. Blessed are the ones who are able to take advantage of that and unfortunate are the ones who try to oppose God’s designs! Don’t you see it advancing by leaps and bounds in the four corners of the globe? Its voice is heard everywhere and it will soon muffle the voice of the adversaries in such a way that they will be forced to silence and forced to bow before the obvious. Humanity! Those who try to stop the irresistible march of progress await difficult trials. God allows that to happen for the glorification of some and punishment of others but gives you in Spiritism, the pilot which shall lead you to the harbor, carrying in its hand the flag of hope.
Wilhelm, the medium’s grandfather