The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1862

The causes of obsession and the means of fighting it

The observations we have made about the terrible epidemic that impacted the region of Morzine, in the commune of Haute-Savoie, and continues to impact these regions leaves little doubt as to the importance of our cause. However, in order to support our opinion, we must provide some explanations that support the comparison between the disease and other identical cases so that the origin leaves no doubt to those familiar with the Spiritist phenomena. These observations illustrate the results of the invisible world upon humanity.

It is necessary to go back to the source of the phenomenon and track its evolution starting from the simplest cases and at the same time explain how it happened. From that we will be in a much better position to fight the illness. Even though this subject is addressed in The Mediums’ Book in the chapter about obsession and in several articles from this Review, we will provide a few new considerations that will make it easier to understand.

The first point necessary to be understood is about the nature of the Spirits from a moral point of view. Since the Spirits are no more than the souls of people and since not everyone is good, it is not sensible to admit that the spirit of a bad person will suddenly change. Otherwise the punishment of a future life would be unnecessary. Experience confirms this theory, or even better, the theory comes from experience. It shows us the relationship with the invisible world together with Spirits of sublime wisdom and knowledge and others that are ignoble and still full of vices and human passions.

After the death the soul of a good person will be a good spirit as a good spirit when incarnate will be a good person. For the same reason a perverse spirit will be a perverse spirit in the spiritual world and a perverse spirit when incarnate could not be a virtuous person and all that up until the time when the spirit would not have improved yet or felt the need to improve because from the moment that the spirit enter the path of progress there is a gradual improvement and the spirit undresses from the bad instincts and continually rises in the hierarchy of the Spirits until achieves perfection that is accessible to all of us for God could not have created beings eternally devoted to evil and misfortune. Hence the visible and invisible worlds interpenetrate alternately and incessantly if we can say so in two different states. This consideration is very important to better understand the solidarity that does exist between them.

Since the Earth is an inferior world, meaning there has been little advancement, it seems reasonable that the large majority of the Spirits that populate the planet both in the spiritual world as incarnate, must be composed of imperfect Spirits that do more bad than good, hence the predominance of evil on Earth. Now since Earth is also a place of atonement it is the contact with evil that make people unhappy, otherwise if all were good, everyone would be happy. This is a level not yet achieved by our planet which is the destination assigned by God. All the tribulations experienced here by good individuals or Spirits are the natural consequence of its state of inferiority. We may say that Earth is the Botany-Bay of the worlds. There you find the savage primitivism and civilization, criminality and atonement. It is then reasonable to imagine the invisible world as formed by a huge and compact population, so to speak, involving Earth and agitating like in a vessel. As the air at the bottom is heavy and unhealthy, the moral ambient is also unhealthy, for it is corrupted by the incarnation of impure Spirits. To resist all that one needs is a powerful moral strength. Let us say that such a state of affairs is inherent to the inferior worlds but that these worlds follow the law of progress and once the required time is done God cleans them and expels the imperfect Spirits that will no longer incarnate there and be replaced by other more advanced ones who will then ensure the kingdom of happiness, justice and peace. It is a revolution of that kind that is in preparation right now.

Let us now examine the mode of reciprocal action between incarnate and discarnate Spirits.


We know that the Spirits are covered by a vapor like envelope that operates like a true fluidic body that we call the “perispirit” and whose elements are taken from the universal or cosmic fluid, the principle of all things.

When the spirit unites with the body it lives there with its perispirit and serves as a link between the spirit and corporeal matter. The perispirit is the intermediary of the sensations perceived by the spirit but the perispirit is not confined in the body like inside a box. Due to its fluidic nature it irradiates externally and forms a kind of atmosphere around the body like a vaporous cloud. But the fluids around an unhealthy body are also unhealthy and it contaminates the air in places where there is a gathering of many unhealthy individuals. Since those fluids are infused by the qualities of the body, the perispirit is also infused by the qualities of the thoughts of the spirit and hence irradiates such qualities around the body.

Another area to respond to immediately is about the theory that Spiritism offers concerning the state of the soul. Spiritism is accused of materializing the soul whereas according to religion the soul is purely immaterial. Like the majority of objections this one results from an incomplete and superficial study. Spiritism has never defined the nature of the soul. Spiritism does not state that the perispirit is the soul. The word “perispirit” actually means the opposite for it indicates the presence of an envelope around the spirit.

What does The Spirits’ Book say about it? “The human Being is composed of three things: the soul or the spirit, the intelligent principle; the body, a material envelope and the perispirit, a semi material, fluidic envelope that serves as a link between the spirit and the body.”

From the fact that the soul keeps its fluidic envelope after death one cannot deduce that the soul and the envelope are one in the same thing, in the same way that the body and its outfit are not the same or the soul and the body are not the same. Spiritism does not subtract anything from the immateriality of the soul. Spiritism only gives it two envelopes instead of one during the physical life and only one after the death of the body. This is not a hypothesis but the result of observation.


It is with the support of such envelope that one can better understand the individuality of the soul and better explain its action upon matter.

Let us return to our subject.


Perispirit for its fluidic nature is essentially mobile and flexible. It is placed directly into action as an agent of the spirit and projects rays by the will of the spirit. It is through these rays that it allows the transmission of thoughts since in some way it is animated by the intelligence of the spirit. Since the perispirit is the link that unites the spirit to the body, it is through the perispirit that the spirit transmits to the body the movements that express its will. It is also through the perispirit that the bodily sensations are transmitted to the spirit. After the body is destroyed by death, the spirit no longer acts and no longer feels but through its fluidic body or perispirit. For that reason, it acts more easily and freely considering that the body is an obstacle. All this is the result of observation.

Suppose now that two persons are side by side each involved by their own perispiritual atmosphere

– allow us the neologism. Those two fluids get in touch. If they are antipathetic they will unsuspectedly feel a kind of uneasiness when approaching one another. If, on the contrary, they were moved by a kind and good feeling there will be attraction. That is why two persons understand one another and even foretell their thoughts without speaking. Something tells us that a given person that is before us may be feeling this or that. That “something” is the expansion of the perispiritual fluid of the other person that gets in touch with ours, a kind of electrical conductor of our thoughts. From that one can understand that the Spirits whose fluidic envelopes are much freer than in the state of incarnate do not need articulated sounds to understand one another.

The perispiritual fluid of the incarnate is thus activated by the spirit. If, by its own will the spirit say casts its rays upon a given individual the rays penetrate the individual. Hence the more or less powerful magnetic action that follows the will; more or less beneficial according to the nature of the rays if good or bad, more or less reassuring because they can penetrate and act upon the organs and in certain cases reestablish the normal state. The influence of the moral qualities of a magnetizer is well-known. What an incarnate spirit can do by throwing one’s own fluid onto another person the spirit can equally do when discarnate since it has the same fluid. Hence the spirit can magnetize and, according to its good or bad nature the action may be good or bad.

Therefore, we easily realize the nature of the impressions that we receive according to the environment where we are located. If a meeting is formed by persons driven by bad feelings the ambient air is impregnated by their thoughts. As a consequence, the good souls will experience an uneasiness analogous to a physical discomfort caused by ill exhalations: the soul is asphyxiated. If, on the contrary, the persons are driven by pure intentions we find ourselves in a vivifying atmosphere with a healthy air. The effect will also be similar in an environment full of Spirits depending if they are good or bad.

Having that well understood we then arrive to the material action of the errant Spirits upon the incarnate Spirits and from there to the explanation of mediumship.

If a spirit wishes to act upon a person, the spirit approaches and surrounds that person as to speak with its own perispirit as if with a mantle. The fluids mix; the two thoughts and will confound and then the spirit may utilize that body as if his; make the body act, speak, write, draw and etc. These are the mediums. If the spirit is good the action will be kind and beneficial and the spirit will only bring good things; if the spirit is bad then evil things will be provoked; if perverse and malicious the person may be embarrassed as in a trap; it can even paralyze the will and reason which are muffled by the fluids of the spirit like a fire that is put out with a blanket of water; the spirit incites the person to think, speak and act, driving the person against his/her own will and even to extravagance and ridicule. In a word the spirit magnetizes the individual and lead him/her to a kind of moral cataleptic state transforming the person in a blind instrument of the Spirits’ will. Such is the cause of obsession, fascination and subjugation that show in several degrees of intensity. The name of possession is generally given to the paroxysm of subjugation. It must be noticed that in such a state the individual often has conscience of the ridicule and embarrassment of what is forced to do as if forced by a stronger person to move arms, legs and tongue against one’s own will.

Here is an interesting example.


In a small meeting that took place in Bordeaux and during an evocation the medium who was quite civil and of gentle character suddenly begins to knock the table, stands up and looks around with a threatening expression showing his fists to the attendees, speaking in a foul language and wanting to throw an inkpot at the audience. This scene both shocking and unexpected lasted for approximately ten minutes after which the young man recovered his customary calm apologizing for what had just happened saying that he knew very well what he had done but that he could not avoid it.

When we learned about the fact we asked for explanation in one session at the Parisian Society. The answer we got was that the spirit who had provoked the event was more of a deceiver than a bad spirit and that he just wanted to have fun with the fear of the audience. A proof of the veracity of the explanation is that it did not happen again and the medium continued to receive excellent communications as before. It is important to clarify that what has likely excited the verve of that jester spirit. Mr. Beck, a former administrator of the Bordeaux theater orchestra, experienced a singular phenomenon several years before his death. Every evening before leaving the theater he had the impression that a man would jump on his back, riding on his shoulders all the way up to his house when the supposed individual would get off from his shoulders and he would feel free. Some people wanted to evoke him in that session and ask for an explanation. That was when the con spirit decided to replace Mr. Becker and make the medium represent a diabolic scene because he undoubtedly found the necessary fluidic conditions to support him. What was just an accident on that occasion sometimes takes a more permanent character when the spirit is bad victimizing the individual and giving the appearance of madness. We say appearance because madness properly speaking always results from an alteration of the brain whilst in this case the organs are healthy as in the case of the young man that we have just mentioned. Therefore, there is no real madness against which the medication of conventional therapeutics is useless as demonstrated by experience. Besides, they can produce what does not exist. The homes of alienated people count on many individuals of this kind to whom the contact with other disturbed patients can only be very damaging because this state always denotes a certain moral weakness. Together with all varieties of pathological madness it is then convenient to add the obsessive madness that requires special treatment. However, how can a materialistic doctor establish or even admit the difference?


Bravo! Our adversaries will celebrate. Impossible to describe in a better way the dangers of Spiritism and that is why we are right in prohibiting it.

Wait a moment! What we said demonstrates precisely its utility. Do you believe that the bad Spirits that dwell among the human beings wait to be called in order to exercise their bad influence? Considering that the Spirits exist since the beginning of times they represent the same role for such a role is in their nature. The proof of this fact is in the large number of obsessed or possessed people even before mentioning the subject of Spirits or Spiritism or mediums. The action of the Spirits, good or bad, is then spontaneous. The action of the bad ones produces a significant disturbance in the moral and even physical organization and which are attributed to wrong causes for ignorance of the cause. The bad Spirits are invisible enemies that are more dangerous the less we are suspicious of their action. By bringing them to the open Spiritism reveals a new cause of certain illnesses of humanity. Once the cause is known, people will no longer try to combat the problem through means that we now know are useless, looking instead of other more efficient ways. Who led to the discovery of that cause? Mediumship. It was through mediumship that those occult enemies betrayed their presence. Mediumship did to those Spirits what the microscope did to the infinitely small: revealed a new world.

Spiritism does not attract the bad Spirits. Spiritism discovered them and provided the means of paralyzing their actions and consequently keeping them away. Spiritism did not attract evil since this has always existed. On the contrary it brought the remedy to the evil by showing its causes.

Once the action of the invisible world is recognized it will provide the key to a number of misunderstood phenomena and science, now enriched with this new law, will see new horizons opening up ahead. When is that going to happen? When science no longer professes materialism as materialism hinders its advancement and imposes an impassable barrier.

Before we talk about the remedy, let us explain a situation that impacts many Spiritists, particularly in the cases of simple obsessions. The first type of interaction is one that occurs frequently and manifests itself through writing or hearing. The second type occurs less frequently and happens when a bad spirit interrupts a good spirit in the middle of a communication. The question is if the bad Spirits are more powerful than the good ones.

Refer to what we said in the beginning about the way the spirit acts and let us figure out a medium that is involved by the perispiritual fluid of a bad spirit. To have the fluid of a good spirit acting upon the medium, it is necessary that the fluid penetrates that envelope and it is clear that light can hardly penetrate a thick fog. According to the level of obsession the fog will be permanent, tenacious or intermittent and consequently easier or more difficult to dissipate.

Our Parma correspondent, Mr. Superchi, sent us drawings made by a clairvoyant that perfectly represents this situation. In one of them we can see the hand of the medium surrounded by a thick dark cloud, an image of the perispiritual fluid of the bad Spirits trespassed by a light beam that illuminates the hand. It is the good fluid that drives the hand and opposes the action of evil.

In the other one, the hand is in the shadow and light is around the mist that cannot be penetrated. What limits the hand in the drawing must be extended to the whole body of the medium.


There is still the question of knowing if the good spirit is less powerful than the bad one. It is not the good spirit that is weaker. It is the medium that is not strong enough to get rid of the wrapping mantle and to stay away from the tightening arms with which – it must be said – the medium sometimes enjoys. In such a case it is clear that the good spirit cannot dominate since the other one is preferred.

Let us now admit that there is in the medium the wish of relieving oneself from this wrapping fluidic envelope like an outfit that is wet. The desire is not enough and not even the will is always sufficient. This is about a fight against the adversary. Well, in a fistfight it is the stronger one that succeeds. In this case the fight is between Spirits. It is still the stronger that will be victorious. Here the strength is in the authority of the spirit and such authority is subordinated to a moral superiority. Moral superiority is like the sun that dissipates the mist through the power of its rays. Endeavor to be good; to become better if already good; to purify one’s imperfections; in a word to morally rise as much as possible such is the way of acquiring the necessary power to command inferior Spirits in order to keep them away. They will otherwise laugh at your attempts. (The Mediums’ Book, #252 and #279).

Some people may ask why the protector Spirits do not force the bad Spirits removal. There is no doubt that they can do so and sometimes they do. However, by allowing the struggle they also allow the merit of the victory. If they let people experience the merit after the struggle is to test their resolve and help them to acquire more strength in good. To them it is a kind of moral exercise.

Here is the answer we gave to Mr. P… colonel of the Austrian Army who consulted us about an illness that he attributed to the bad Spirits and apologizing for calling us friend since he only knew us by name:

“Spiritism is a fraternal link in its very fabric and you are correct by thinking that those who share such a belief and even without knowing one another must be treated as friends. I thank you for thinking highly of me and for giving me such a title. I am glad for having in you a sincere and devout follower of this reassuring doctrine. However, for the very reason that it is reassuring it must give moral strength and resignation to withstand the trials of life that, most of the time, are atonements. The Spiritist Review gives you a large number of examples. With respect to the illness that affects you I do not see evidence of the influence of bad Spirits who could obsess us. Let us hypothetically admit that for a moment. There would be only one moral power capable of opposing the other power and that can only come from you. Against a spirit it is necessary to fight spirit-to- spirit and the stronger shall win. In similar cases it is necessary to acquire the most possible summation of superiority by one’s willpower, energy and moral qualities to have granted the right of saying: Vade retro! Thus, if you are in that position it is not with the sword of the colonel that you are going to win but with the sword of the angel that is virtue and prayer. The kind of horror and anguish that you feel in those moments is a sign of weakness of which the spirit takes advantage. Control fear and with a strong willpower you shall win.


A.K.”


There is no doubt that certain persons would prefer an easier recipe to expel the Spirits: some words to say or signs to make for example and that would be easier that correcting one’s own failures. We are sorry but we do not know a more efficient way to win a fight against the enemy but to be stronger. When we are sick we must yield to the need of taking medication however bitter it may be. But after having the courage of telling them how good and strong we feel! We must persuade ourselves that there aren’t sacramental words to achieve the objective or formulas or talisman or any other signal. The bad Spirits laugh at this and sometimes even like to indicate some that are infallible according to them in order to gain the trust of those who are abused by them because these now confident in the rightfulness of the process give themselves without fear.

Before expecting to dominate the bad spirit, it is necessary to dominate oneself. From all means of acquiring the necessary strength to achieve it the most efficient is the willpower seconded by prayer, the prayer from the bottom of the heart – be it understood – and not that of words in which the mouth participates more than the mind. It is necessary to ask one’s guardian angel and the good Spirits who help us in the struggle. But is not enough to ask them to send the bad spirit away. It is necessary to remember the maxim: Help yourself and heavens will help you; ask them, above all, for the strength that we lack to win over our own bad inclination that for us are worse than the bad Spirits since those very inclinations are the ones that attract them like the rotten food attracts the vultures. Praying for the obsessing spirit is to pay evil with good and be better than the other and that is already a demonstration of superiority. With perseverance we end up in the majority of the cases by leading them to better feelings, transforming the obsessing spirit into a grateful spirit. To summarize sincere prayer and true efforts to improve oneself are the only means of keeping the bad Spirits away, Spirits that acknowledge those who practice good as their teachers whilst formulas make them laugh. Rage and impatience excite them. It is necessary to tire them by being more patient them they are.

Sometimes, however, the subjugation reaches the point of paralyzing the willpower of the obsessed hence there could be no expectation of a positive reaction. That is when the intervention of a third party becomes necessary be it through prayer or through magnetic action. But the power of such intervention also depends on the moral superiority that the intervener may have upon the Spirits otherwise the intervention will be useless.

In the case of intervention, the magnetic action penetrates the fluid of the obsessed with a better fluid therefore disconnecting the fluid of the obsessing spirit. When operating the magnetizer must have the double objective of opposing a moral strength against another and to produce on the patient a kind of chemical reaction – using a material comparison – then replacing one fluid by another. Thus this is not just a healthy separation but the strengthening of weakened organs by a long and sometimes vigorous domination.

As a matter of fact one must understand that the fluidic action is not only in proportion to the willpower but above all in the quality of the fluid and, as we said, such quality depends on the instruction and moral qualities of the magnetizer. It follows that a common magnetizer who would act mechanically in order to magnetize would produce little or no effect. It is extremely necessary to have a Spiritist magnetizer with knowledge about these causes, with the intention of producing the effects that we have just described instead of induce somnambulism or producing an organic cure.

Besides, it is evident that a magnetic action applied in such a way will also be useful in cases of ordinary obsession because if the magnetizer is then supported by the willpower of the obsessed the bad spirit will be fighting two adversaries instead of one.

It is still necessary to say that we often blame strange Spirits for wrong doings on which they have no responsibility. Certain morbid states and certain aberrations that are attributed to an occult cause are sometimes exclusively to the spirit of the individual. Interactions normally concentrated on oneself and particularly broken hearts have led to many eccentric attitudes that are wrongly attributed to obsession. Many times the person is his own obsessing spirit.

We must finally add that certain tenacious obsessions, particularly of worthy persons, are sometimes part of the tests to which they are submitted. “Sometimes it happens that the obsession, when simple, is a task imposed onto the obsessed that must work to improve the obsessing spirit like a father does to an addicted son.” We refer the reader to The Mediums’ Book for more details.

We must still talk about collective or epidemic obsession and, in particular, that of Morzine. This, however, requires considerations of a certain amplitude to demonstrate by facts its similarity with individual obsessions. The proof of that is in our own observations and in those described in medical reports. Besides we must examine the effect of the applied means and later the action of exorcism and the conditions in which it can be efficient or null. The extension of this second part forces us to transform it in the subject of a special article to be published in the next issue.

An episode from Mr. Allan Kardec’ trip

Rochefort is not yet a stronghold of Spiritism although it has some eager followers and numerous sympathizers of the new ideas. But there, less than anywhere else, there is the issue of courage of opinion and many believers stay on the sideline without committing. When they finally show themselves we will be surprised by their number. Since we were supposed to go there to see a few isolated persons we expected to spend a few hours only. However, a passenger that was in the same train recognized us by a picture that he had seen in Marennes and warned his friends about our arrival. We then received an adamant and very kind invitation from the part of the several Spiritists who wished to get to know us and receive instructions. Our departure was delayed to the following day and we had the pleasure of spending the evening in a meeting with sincere and dedicated Spiritists.

During the session we received another invitation in no less friendly terms from a high level public official and other several notabilities from the city expressing their wishes for another meeting on the following evening, a fact that determined another postponement of our departure. We would not have mentioned such details if they were not necessary to the explanation that we are compelled to provide below with respect to a local newspaper. In this last meeting, we gave the following speech at the beginning of the session:

“Ladies and gentlemen,


Although our intention was only to spend a few hours in Rochefort I was flattered by your desire to hold this session and in particular by the kindness of your invitation so that I could not refuse to attend. I do not know if every person that honors me with their presence in this meeting are already initiated in the Spiritist Science. I suppose many are still neophytes in that matter and I could perhaps even find some who are hostile to Spiritism. Given the false ideas that they may have about Spiritism that is unknown to them or to their imperfect knowledge the outcome of this meeting could cause disappointment in those who would not find here what they are seeking. I must consequently explain my objective very clearly so that there is no misunderstanding. To begin with I must inform you about my objective with the excursions. I am only visiting Spiritist centers and giving them the instructions that they might need. It would be, however, a mistake to believe that I am going to preach Spiritism to the unbelievers. Spiritism is a whole science that requires serious studies like the other sciences plus numerous observations. In order to develop Spiritism, it would be necessary a course about its foundations. Spiritist instruction cannot be done in one or two classes similar to a Physics or Astronomy course. I am force to refer those that avoid learning about the basic foundations to the source, that is, to the study of the works where one can find all the required teachings and the answer to the questions that they might ask and that are often referred to the most elementary principles. That is why in my travels I address those who already know and that do not need the basic notion but need supplemental lessons. I will never hold what is called a session or invite the public for demonstrations and even less make exhibitions of the Spirits. Those here who could be expecting similar things are completely mistaken and I must promptly clarify with them otherwise. Hence the session tonight is exceptional and rather unusual.”

“For the very reasons above I cannot have the pretension of convincing those who would take issue with the bases of my principles. There is only one thing that I want from them: in the absence of conviction, please understand that Spiritism is something serious and worthy of their attention for it also attracts the attention of the most enlightened people in all countries. You may not accept it without examination and that is understandable. But it would be presumptuous to take a false position against an opinion that counts on numerous followers in the elite of Society.”


“Sensible people say: there are so many new things that surprise us and that a century ago would sound absurd; we daily witness the discovery of new laws and the revelation of new forces of nature that it would be illogical to admit that nature would have given us the final word. Hence it is then wise to study and observe before denying.”

“In order to judge something it is necessary to understand it. Criticism is only allowed to those who know what they are talking about. What would we say about a person who criticizes opera not knowing music? Or that criticized a book when ignoring the first notions of literature? The same happens to the majority of the detractors of Spiritism. They judge with incomplete information and sometimes even from what they heard. Hence their objections indicate the most absolute ignorance of the subject. Our only answer is: study before judging.”

“As I had the honor of telling you, ladies and gentlemen, it would be materially impossible to develop here all the principles of Spiritism. As for the satisfaction of curiosity of anyone some of you know me well enough to know that I have never represented such a role. However, given the impossibility of exposing everything in detail, it would perhaps be useful to let you know the objective and the trend. That is my proposal. You will later judge if the objective is serious and if there is space for censorship.”

“I then ask for your permission to read some passages of the speech I gave during the great meetings of Lyon and Bordeaux. For those who only have an incomplete idea about Spiritism there is no doubt that the main principle remains hypothetical since I address the initiated follower. In the hopes, however, that the circumstances have transformed such hypotheses in truth you will be able to see their consequences and the significance of the instructions that I give and from that assess the character of the meetings that I attend.”

“I must, however, say that there is nothing hypothetical about Spiritism. From all principles formulated in The Spirits’ Book, without exception, and in The Mediums’ Book, none is the product of a personal system or opinion. All of them and without exception are the result of observation. I could not claim a single one as the product of my initiative. Those books contain what I have learned and not what I have created. Well, what I have learned others can also learn as I did. But like me they must also work. The only thing I did was to spare them the effort of the first works and the initial research.”

After this introduction we read some passages from the speech given in Bordeaux and Lyon followed by a few explanations necessarily much summarized about the fundamental principles of Spiritism, about the nature of the Spirits and the means they utilize to communicate, particularly concerned with pointing out the importance of the moral influence that results from the manifestations and their implication in our future life and the effects of such a certainty in our present life.”

Based on the introduction it would be impossible to make it more transparent with respect to our objectives and to avoid any misunderstanding. We had to take these precautions because we knew that the audience was far from being homogeneous and entirely sympathetic. That, however, did not satisfy those who were waiting for a session like those produced by Mr. Homes. One attendee declared very politely that it was not exactly what he was expecting. We believed that without any effort because instead of satisfying curiosity we were talking about moral things. He was so relentless in asking for proofs of the existence of the Spirits that we were forced to say that we did not have them in our pocket to show. He almost said: “Look again!”

One journalist that was present at the meeting believed that it was adequate to make a report under the pseudo name Tony in the Spectateur, a journal about theaters dated October 12^th. He begins like that:

“Seduced by the announcement of a Spiritist party, I was quick to attend and hear one of the most accredited hierophant of that science… that is how the followers classify Spiritism. A packed auditorium anxiously waited for the development of the foundations of such a science… for there is science. Mr. Allan Kardec, author of The Spirits’ Book and The Mediums’ Book would initiate us in terrible secrets! Driven by a much understandable feeling of curiosity, which was not hostile at all, we expected to leave the session with half of a conviction if the professor, a man of undeniable skills, would have bothered explaining his doctrine. Mr. Allan Kardec thought different, regrettably. He was not asked to evoke Spirits but to at least provide clear or even elementary explanations of how to facilitate such experimentation.”

This initial text characterizes well the mind frame of certain attendees who saw themselves as viewers. What they wanted were clear explanations to facilitate the experimentation. In other words, a recipe so that each one could have fun at home by evoking Spirits.

Then follows a comment about the basis of Spiritism: charity and other maxims that he says come straight from Christianity, not teaching anything new. If that gentleman one day decide to read, he will know that Spiritism has never intended to bring to humanity any other moral but that of Jesus and that Spiritism does not addresses those who already practice it in its essence. However, as there are many who do not believe in God or in the soul or in the teachings of Jesus Christ or at least doubt them and whose moral is limited to each one concerned with oneself, by demonstrating the existence of a future life Spiritism gives a practical and meaningful sanction to that moral. We want to believe that Mr. Tony does not need it; that his faith is lively and his religion is sincere for the takes on the defense of Christianity against Spiritism given that there is a bad word around accusing him of being a little materialistic. We want to believe, we were saying, that he practices charity as a true Christian; that following the example of Christ he is kind and humble; that he has no pride or vanity or even ambition; that he is good and indulgent to everyone even to his enemies; in a word that he bears all the virtues of the divine role model but at least that he does not bother others.

He goes on by saying:


“Spiritism has the pretension of evoking the Spirits. It is true that they do not submit to caprices and demands. If necessary they can utilize a body that is recognizable, including clothes, and only enter into communication with the mediums on the condition of being surrounded by a layer of fluid of the same kind… and why not an opposing kind like with electricity? The Spiritist science does not explain that.”

Read and you shall see.


“I do not know if the followers left the place satisfied. But there is no doubt that the ignorant ones who wanted lessons got nothing out of that session only the fact Spiritism cannot be demonstrated. Is it the professor’s fault or Spiritism only unveils its secrets to its followers? We will not respond… it is obvious.”

Tony


Conclusion: Spiritism cannot be demonstrated. Mr. Tony should have explained it more clearly – since he likes clear explanations – because Spiritism is demonstrated to millions of people who are not fools and ignorant. Take the burden of studying it and he will know if he is willing to learn as he says. But since he gave himself the right to promote a public trial of a gathering that had nothing of public as if it were a report about a spectacle that people watch after being seduced by ads he should, to be impartial, refer the words we used in the beginning of the meeting.

Nevertheless we must be thankful for the good level of civility that presided over the meeting and take this opportunity to address the eminent Mr. La Maison with our thanks for his warm welcome full of benevolence and cordiality and for his initiative in offering his living room to our service. It seemed useful to demonstrate to him and to the elite that gathered in his house the moral tendencies of Spiritism and the nature of the teachings that we give in the visited centers.

Mr. Tony ignores if the followers were satisfied. From his point of view, the session had no result. As for us we prefer to have left on the attendees the sensation of a boring moralist than that of someone that produces spectacles. It is an unquestionable fact that not everyone shares his opinion. Not to mention the followers that were there and gave us warm testimonies of sympathy. We will mention two gentlemen that at the end of the session asked us if the instructions from the Spirits that were read would be published, adding that they had an entirely different idea about Spiritism but that now they saw it differently, understanding the serious and useful side and that they were prepared to study it in depth. We would already be satisfied if that was the only result. “It is cheap”, says Mr. Tony. He ignores, however, that two grains germinate and multiply. In fact, we are certain that all others that we sowed on that occasion will not be lost and that the wind blew by Mr. Tony will have carried some to a fertile terrain.

Mr. Florentin Blanchard, a bookseller from Marennes, understood that he had to respond to the article published by Mr. Tony by a letter that was published in the Tablettes des deux Charentes, on October 25^th. Mr. Tony replies with the following conclusion:

“Spiritism super excites harmfully the minds of believers; it worsens women nervous irritability, making them mad or killing them if persisting in the aberrations. Spiritism is a disease and must be fought as such. Besides it enters the roll of unhealthy things studied by public moral and hygiene.”

Here we caught Mr. Tony in flagrant mistake and contradiction. In his first article above he said that he came to the session “driven by a very understandable feeling of curiosity and that there was nothing hostile”. How can something that is not hostile be unhealthy, a disease etc.?

Later on he says that he was expecting clear explanations or even elementary to facilitate the experimentation by profane people. How can he have such expectations from something that as he says may make people mad and kill? Why has he come? Why hasn’t he precluded his friends from coming to participate of something so harmful? Why is he sorry for the fact that the teaching did not achieve his expectations or was not as thorough as he wished it would have been? Since he considered it so dangerous he should have congratulated us for being so brief instead of criticizing us.

Another contradiction. If he came to the meeting to learn about what Spiritism can do, what it is and what is its intent; if he criticizes us for not having taught him it means that he does not know Spiritism. Now, if he did not study it how come he knows that it is so dangerous? He then judges without knowing. Thus, in his private authority, he decides that it is something unhealthy and that can kill just after declaring that he does not know what it is about. Is that the language of a serious person?

There is some criticism that contradicts itself so much that one just need to point it out and they should not be given any importance. On other occasions an allegation such as that of killing could have been accused of calumny since it makes an accusation of extreme relevance against us and against a class that today is immensely large of honorable people. That is not all. The second article was followed by others in which he develops his thesis. This is what appeared in the Spectateur on October 26^th on the occasion of the first letter by Mr. Blanchard:

The Spectateur received a letter signed by Mr. Florentin Blanchard from Marennes with a response to our first article from the 12^th edition. The editor apologizes for the fact that the limited space does not allow for a full write-up on the subject of Spiritism. By specific request from the Spectateur it is published in full in the Tablettes. We abstain from answering by impulse here and decided not to yield, as the author did, to the inspirations of an inconvenient spirit.

Tony”


After a second letter from Mr. Blanchard, this time published in the Spectateur, one reads:


“It is a pleasure to welcome you, Mr. Blanchard. Your letter today accuses me of not having studied Spiritism. How do you know? Why do not you respond to some propositions in my last article instead of accusing me so vaguely? This lengthy correspondence, and without interest, must stop if you allow me. I will soon come back to my series of articles about Spiritism but only from time to time considering that the limited size of the Spectateur does not allow for long engagements on this subject.

Regardless of how much you try, Mr., we will not take the Spiritists seriously and we cannot consider Spiritism a science.

Tony”

Thus it is all clear. Mr. Tony wishes to attack Spiritism, drag it down into the mud, classify it as unhealthy, and say that it would kill without saying how many were killed but he does not want the controversy. His newspaper is large enough for his attacks but too short for replies. Speaking alone is more convenient. He forgot that as a consequence of the nature and character of his attacks the law might force him to allow for a response of double size, despite the limitation of this journal.

With respect to the particulars of our journey, we wanted to show that we do not seek and did not solicit in that meeting, and, consequently, we do not seduce anybody to come to listen to us and that is why we are careful in saying with all letters and from the beginning our intention. Those who did not like it had the freedom to leave. We now congratulate ourselves for the fortuity of the occasion or even providential occasion that made us stay, as it provoked the controversy that only serves the cause of Spiritism allowing it to be known for what it is: something moral and not for the appeal that it does not want to be: a spectacle for the satisfaction of curiosity; and for once more giving the critics an occasion to show the logic of their arguments.

Now, Mr. Tony, a couple of words please. In order to publicly sustain things like those that you wrote it is necessary to be really certain about the facts and you must have the courage to prove them.

It is very convenient to discuss alone, however, I do not intent to establish any controversy with you. I have no time for that and, on the other hand, your periodical is too small to convey criticism and refutation. Hence no offense its influence will not go far. I offer you something better: come visit the Society that I preside in Paris and before a hundred and fifty persons, come to sustain and prove what you are affirming. If you are sure that you are telling the truth you must fear nothing and I promise you, with my word, that through our Spiritist Review your arguments and the effects produced by them will reach from China to Mexico passing by every European capital. You may notice that this is a beautiful proposal since it has no hopes of converting you – something that is not absolutely part of my intentions – and you will be entirely free to keep your convictions. We want to offer you an occasion to provide your ideas with an extensive development.

In order to forewarn you about the audience that you are going to find the Society is composed of lawyers, businessmen, artists, people of arts, scientists, medical doctors, investors, officers, princes, etc., all that surrounded by respectable ladies what gives you assurance of civility; but all of them up to the neck like the five or six millions of followers with this unhealthy thing that must be studied by public hygiene and moral and that you so eagerly wish to cure.

Extracted from the Écho de Sétif, September 18th, 1862

That is the title of a profoundly scientific article signed by Jalabert, published under the epigraph “Mens agitat molem in the Écho de Sétif one of the most respectable newspapers in Algeria. We regret the fact that the extension of the text does not allow us to publish it in full and any interruption would sacrifice the connection between the arguments through which the author discusses from the creation of the body and the spirit by God to the action of the spirit upon matter and later the possibility of communication between the free spirit and the incarnate. His deductions are so logical that unless one denies the existence of God and the soul it is virtually impossible not to say: it cannot be different. We will only cite a few arguments and in particular the conclusion.

-o-

When Fulton exposed his system to Napoleon I about the use of steam power for navigation he promised to demonstrate that since his system was true in theory it could not be less true in practice. What did Napoleon say? That his idea was not feasible in theory and with the objective of denying them upfront without taking into account the experiments already carried out by the notable mechanic, not even those that he had ordered and that were realized, the great Emperor not even heard Fulton and his system up until the day when he saw the first steam boat in the horizons of St. Helen.

Strange thing, particularly in a century of physical observations, of material sciences and positivism! More than once a fact has been denied simply for representing an exception, for being extraordinary, new and unsuspected. That is how we hear serious and educated people laughing at conscious reports of certain witnessed manifestations or manifestations in good faith attested by intelligent persons and then saying: Leave your Spiritism, your manifestations and your mediums! What you are telling us is not possible!

- Not possible, be it! But gracefully oh transcendental geniuses, remember the statement of the former celebrity and before you attack us with your supreme disdain do listen to us. Kindly read these lines in full – seriously and attentively – and then with all your heart dare denying the possibility and rationality of Spiritism!

You say that you cannot understand this mystery. To us, however, as to you, the material movement produced the spiritual movement; matter agitated by the mind; the body driven by the spirit is incomprehensible! Yet, incomprehensible does not mean impossible. Deny such an action; deny such an influence; deny such a communication! There is no creation, no incarnation, no redemption, no distinction between body and soul, there is no variety in the unity! There is no God, no spirit, no religion and no reason. It is still chaos and always chaos or even worse it is pantheism or nihilism.

Summarizing: Philosophically, physiologically and religiously Spiritism is not irrational or absurd. Hence it is possible.

A person acts:

- Upon oneself through the inner self or will power and senses;

- Upon the neighbors through the word and equally through the senses.

- Where does the obstacle come from? From the distance?
- But there is no distance between the Spirits. “The air has plenty of them” said St. Paul when explaining in a certain way that the Spirits enjoy a divine ubiquity.
- Would it come from a hierarchical difference?
- Hierarchy, however, does not play a role. If they are Spirits then their very condition requires that they act and communicate with one another.
- Would it come from their momentary rest when bonded to the body?
- In this case apart from the means of communication it still does occur. My spirit communicates with yours and your spirit, like mine, inhabits a body. A free spirit that is disconnected from matter, be it the spirit of a person or the one of an angel, will have even more reason to be able to communicate.

There is more. Far from precluding such communication everything favors it. “God is love” and everything that is part of the divine takes part in that love. Love lives on communications, on communions. God loves His creatures thus communicates with them: at the Eden through the word; at the Sinai through writing; at the stable of Bethlehem and at the Calvary through the incarnate verb; at the altar through His transubstantiated verb in the Eucharistic bread and wine.

-o-


Make no mistake that the communications from soul to soul, spirit to spirit are even more possible than those between spirit and matter. Now, what is the instrument, the means of communication between the creatures? Between the corporeal beings the communication takes place through motion that is like the verb of the body. Among the purely spiritual creatures it is through their thoughts or their inner words that is like the movement of the Spirits. Now between the spiritual and corporeal beings it happens through the transmission of those thoughts covered by a sign that is simultaneously spiritual and exterior through the word. It is the inner word manifesting exteriorly through a material sign.

-o-


And what is that signal? It is every material object that moves in a given time in a preconceived motion under the direct or indirect influence of the willpower or the inner word of the spirit with whom we want to communicate.

-o-


We recommended this article to Mr. Tony from Rochefort. There you have one of his comrades that says everything contrary to what he says. One says white the other says black. Who is right? There is a difference between the two: one knows, the other do not. We leave that to the reader to judge the logic of the two arguments. The same newspaper published several articles about the same subject from other authors that like this one are characterized by profound observations and serious study. We shall discuss them in due course.

“Imagine my surprise when I recognized the theory of Fourier about the soul, the future life, the mission of the human being in this current life and the reincarnation of the souls in the Spiritist Doctrine from which I had no idea at all. It says:”

“The human being is attached to the planet. He lives his life and remains here even after death.”

“The human being lives two existences: the current life that Fourier compares to the sleep and the other life that he calls aromatic, the other life that is in a word the wakening. The soul travels alternately from one to the other and periodically returns to reincarnate in the present life.”

“In the present life the soul has no recollection of previous lives but recovers that in the aromatic life and sees all the preceding lives. The punishment in the aromatic life is the fear that the soul has of incarnating in the body of a miserable person. The reason being, says Fourier, the fact that many beggars that knock on the doors of castles asking for a charitable hand were their very owners in the past, adding: “If people were really convinced of the whole truthfulness of what I am exposing to the world they would work for everybody’s happiness.”

“You can see through this short excerpt, my dear friend, how much Spiritism is close to the doctrine of Fourier and that since I belong to a Phalanstery it would not be difficult to turn me into a follower of Spiritism.”

It is impossible to be more explicit about the chapter of reincarnation. It is not only a vague idea of successive existences in several worlds. It is in this world that people are reborn to depurate and atone.

We find everything there: the interchangeability between the spiritual life that he calls aromatic and the corporeal one; the momentary obliviousness about the previous lives during this life and the recollection of the past during the spiritual life and the atonement through the vicissitudes of life.

His picture of the miserable ones that come to beg at the doors of the castles that were theirs in preceding existences seems to be based on the teaching of the Spirits.

Why then those who violently attack the doctrine of reincarnation today said nothing when Fourier made it one of the keystones of his theory?

The reason being is that to them such a theory seemed to be confined to the Phalanstery whilst today it goes around the world in addition to other understandable reasons that we do not need to discuss.

As a matter of fact, he was not the only one to have the intuition of this law of nature. The germ of this idea is found in a number of modern writings. Mr. Louis Jourdan, editor of the Siècle, formulated that unequivocally in his remarkable little book entitled Prères de Ludovic, published for the first time in 1849 hence before the advent of Spiritism and it is well-known that the book is not about fiction but about conviction.

One can find in the book, among other things:

“For me, I confess, I believe, but I believe strongly, passionately as one used to believe in former times that each and every one of us is preparing their future transformation in the same way that our present existence is the result of previous ones.”

The book is thoroughly based on this principle.


Let us now face the issue from another point of view in order to answer a question that has been addressed to us several times about it.

Some people consider the doctrine of reincarnation contrary to the dogmas of the Church and consequently concluding that therefore it does not exist. What can one say?

The answer is very simple. Reincarnation is not a system that depends on people adopting it or not like one does to a political, economic or social system. If it does exist then it is in nature; it is a law inherent to humanity like eating, drinking and sleeping; it is an alternative of the life of the soul like the sleep and the vigil state are alternatives to the life of the body. If it is a law of nature, there is no favorable opinion that can make it prevail as there is no contrary opinion that can impede its existence.

Earth does not turn around the Sun because we believe that it does but because the planet obeys a law and the anathema that were cast against such a law did not preclude it from turning. The same happens to reincarnation. It is not the opinion of a few persons that will block them from being reborn if they have to be.

Having established that the reincarnation is a law of nature let us suppose that it cannot conciliate with a given dogma. We then need to know if reason is with the dogma or with the law. Who else but God is the creator of a natural law? In this case I say that it is not the law that opposes the dogma but it is the dogma that counters the law since any law of nature precedes the dogma and human beings reincarnated before the dogma was established.

If there was an absolute incompatibility between a dogma and a law of nature this would be a proof that the dogma comes from humans who did not know the law since God could not contradict Himself by undoing on one side what was done on the other. The act of sustaining such incompatibility is the same as processing the dogma. Does it mean that the dogma is false? No but that it is susceptible to interpretations as the Genesis was interpreted when people then realized that the six days of creation could not conciliate with the law of formation of the planet. Religion will benefit from this since there will be less unbelievers.

The open question is to know if the law of reincarnation is true or not. To the Spiritists there are thousands of proofs against one that is useless to repeat here. I will only say this that Spiritism demonstrates that the plurality of the existences is not only possible but also necessary and indispensable finding its proof in an innumerable multitude of moral, psychological and anthropological phenomena, letting alone the revelation from the Spirits.

Those phenomena are effects that have a cause. By seeking the cause, we find it in reincarnation brought to evidence by the observation of those phenomena like the presence of the Sun is brought to evidence by daylight although hidden by clouds. To demonstrate that this law is wrong or that it does not exist it would be necessary to explain better and through other means everything that is explained by that law and this is something that has not been done by anybody yet.

If someone had announced that it was possible to communicate with someone else fifty miles away before the discovery of the properties of electricity there would be plenty of scientists that would prove it to be physically impossible since they would not know other laws. It was then necessary to have the revelation of a new force. That is the case with reincarnation. It is a new law that sheds light upon a number of obscure issues and that will profoundly modify the beliefs when it is known.

Thus it is not the opinion of a few persons that demonstrate the existence of that law. It is the facts. If we invoke its testimony is to demonstrate that such law had been foreseen and suspected by others before the advent of Spiritism that instead of being its inventor just developed the law and deduced its consequences.

Study of Spiritists customs

We found this timely letter related to the preceding article among our old correspondence.

“Paris, July 29^th 1980

Dear Sir,

I take the liberty of communicating to you some thoughts about two events that I have observed and, that with good reason, could be qualified as studies of Spiritist customs. You will see here that I give high importance to moral phenomena.

Since I began studying Spiritism it seems that I now see a hundred more things than before. This is something that makes me think and that I would not give any importance in the past. I find myself

– one could say – before an endless spectacle in which each individual plays a role providing me with an enigma to be deciphered. It is true that with the key provided by Spiritism some of them are so simple that there is no merit in discussing.

Others offer more interest because with Spiritism we feel like we are in a country where we do not speak the language. That turned me into a thoughtful person and an observer since now everything has a cause to me. A thousand and one facts that in past seemed to me to be the result of chance and would go unnoticed but now have a reason and utility. Something of no importance in moral terms now attracts my attention and teaches me something. But I almost forgot that it is about a lesson that I want to talk to you.

I teach piano. Some time ago when visiting the house of one of my pupils from a high society family, I found myself at the entrance hall. There was an impressive looking lady at the corner with her fists on the waist. I saw her reproaching her daughter for her behavior, a fifteen-year-old girl whose manners showed shocking contrasts as compared to her mother’s.

- What has Ms. Justina done – I asked – to make you angry like that?
- You won’t believe, Sir, this little lady pretended to act like a duchess! She does not like to wash the dishes believing that it will spoil her little hands and make them smell bad; and if you think that she was raised with the cows in her grandmother’s house. She is afraid of harming her nails and needs perfume for her scarf! I will show you the perfume! I… then she slapped her on the face making her move back a few steps.
- Ah! My dear Sir one needs to correct the kids while they are little. I never spoiled mine. All my kids are good workers and I want this little one to get out of this posture of a great madam.

After having given some advice of kindness to the mother and submission to the daughter I went upstairs to give a lesson to my student, not worrying any more about the family issue that I had observed.

I then saw the counterpart of that scene and by coincidence. The mother who was an educated and good mannered lady was reproaching her daughter for a different reason.

- Behave, Sofia – she said – you do look like a cook. I am not surprised. You have some sort of preference for the kitchen where you feel better than in the living room. I guarantee that the porter’s daughter, Justina, would feel ashamed for you. One can say that you swapped the cradle.

I had never noticed those particularities. I needed the two events together to notice it. Ms. Sofia, my student, is a young eighteen-year-old lady who is nice but that shows some vulgar features; she shows commonly manners, without distinction; her posture and her movements are heavy and awkward. I was not aware of her inclination towards the kitchen. I then started comparing her to the little Justine of aristocratic instincts and asked myself if that was not a remarkable example of innate inclination given the fact that education alone was powerless to modify the two girls. Why one of them educated in a wealthy family has vulgar tastes and manner while the other that has lived in rough conditions since her early days presents a sense of distinction and a fine taste despite her mother reprimands to fix her? The philosophers who wish to probe the innermost secrets of the human heart should explain these phenomena without the previous existences. To me it is evident that the two young ladies have the instinct of what they were in the past. What do you think about it my dear master?

We believe that Ms. Justine, the porter, could well be a variant of what Charles Fourier says: “many beggars that knock at the doors of castles asking for a charitable hand were their very owners in the past.” Who knows if Ms. Justine was not the lady of that palace and Ms. Sofia who is now the great lady would have been her porter?

Such idea revolts certain people who would not accept the idea or having been less than they are now or to have been the servant of their servant. Therefore, what becomes of the pure blood races that some people were so careful in not to mix? Console yourself. Your forefathers blood runs in your veins for the body comes from the body. As for the spirit, though, it is different. What can one do if things are as they are? For the simple fact that a person is irritated by the rain, he shall not avert rain. There is no doubt that it is humiliating to think that one has changed from a master to a servant and from rich to a beggar but there isn’t anything easier than avoiding such a situation. Leave pride and vanity aside and you shall not be downgraded; be good and generous so that you are not reduced to beg for what you denied others. To be punished for what one’s bad action, isn’t that the most just of the justices? Yes, from great we can become little but when one is good one cannot come back bad. Now, isn’t that better to be an honest worker than a vicious rich?

All Saints

I

Paris, November 1^st 1862 – medium Mr. Perchet, Sargent of the 40^th line of the casern of Prince Eugene, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies).

My dear brother, in this day of celebration of the dead I fell happy for being able to communicate with you. You cannot imagine the pleasure that it gives me. Call me more frequently for our mutual benefit. I cannot always come here since I am frequently with my sisters and especially with my little daughter that I have asked the mission to follow closely. Yet, I can often respond to your calls and it will always be a real pleasure to help you with my advices.

Let us talk about today’s celebration. There is plenty of reverence in the approximation of the invisible to the visible world and there is joy and sadness. There is joy due to the devout feeling that unites the disperse members of the same family. On this day the child comes close to her tomb to meet her mother that waters the sepulchral vault with her tears. The little angel blesses her and blends thoughts and wishes into the drops that roll over on the face of the beloved mother. Ah! Praise the Lord with these pure prayers, seasoned by faith and absence! May these prayers reach the feet of the Eternal like the subtle perfume of flowers and from up there in heavens may God cast his merciful eyes upon this corner of Earth and send one of His good Spirits to console this suffering soul by saying: “No more suffering good mother. Your beloved son is in the mansion of the blessed ones; he loves you and waits.”

I said: Day of happiness – and I repeat that because through the religion of the missed ones they pray and do know that the prayer is not useless and that one day they will see the loved ones again from whom they are just momentarily separated. Day of happiness because the Spirits see with joy and tenderness the dear ones soon deserving to share their happiness for their confidence in God.

On this day of all saints the dead who courageously endured all trials imposed by life, who got rid of the mundane things and educated their children in the faith and charity willfully come to join in, I repeat, in the prayers from those who were left behind, inspiring in them perseverance in walking the good path. Children, parents and friends kneeling by the graves experience intimate satisfaction since they know that the remains under the gravestone are just a memory of the beings that inhabited them and who are now free from the human miseries. These are the happy ones my dear brother. So long.

II

My dear friend here I am faithful to my promise to you. As I told you last night, I went for a visit to the cemetery. I examined the several suffering Spirits. I feel sorry for them. The shocking spectacle would bring tears to the eyes of the toughest heart. Those souls, however, are relieved in large numbers by the living ones and by the assistance of the good Spirits, particularly when regretting their earthly faults and striving to get rid of their imperfections that constitute the sole reason of their sufferings. They now understand the wisdom, benevolence and greatness of God and ask for the favor of new trials to satisfy the divine justice while atoning their faults and building a new and better future.

Therefore, my dear friends, pray from the bottom of your hearts for those repented Spirits that have just been clarified by a spark of light. Until now they never believed the eternal joy for in their punishment it was too much of punishment if they had to wait. You can imagine their delight when the veil was torn apart and the angel of the Lord opened their eyes up, eyes that were blind to the light of faith.

Nonetheless they feel happy now but without illusions as for the future. Many among them do know that they will have to endure terrible trials. Hence they constantly claim the prayers from the living ones and the assistance of the good Spirits so that they can withstand the tough task to be imposed on them with resignation. I tell you once again and this is never too much to repeat to have you convinced about this great truth; pray from the bottom of your heart for all the Spirits that suffer, without distinction of social position or belief because we are all brothers and sisters who deserve mutual support.

Fervent Spiritists, in particular, who know the situation of the suffering Spirits and understand the phases of life; who understand the difficulties in their paths, please come to help them. It is a nice act of charity to pray for the unknown brothers and sisters that are frequently forgotten and whose acknowledgement you cannot assess when they find help. Prayer does to them what the drizzle does to earth punished by heat.

Watch a stranger fallen in a dark night on any obscure stretch of the way. The feet bleeding after the long walk. He feels the pain of starvation and thirst. A moral torture adds up to the physical suffering. Desperation lies ahead. His painful screams are heard all over the place but no friendly echo responds to his desperate appeal. Now imagine that at the very moment when this miserable being gets to the extreme suffering a compassionate hand kindly rests on his shoulder, bringing him the help that the situation claims. If possible try to imagine the happiness of that man and you will have a slight idea of the relief brought upon the unfortunate Spirits by prayer, Spirits who live the anguish of punishment and isolation. They shall be eternally grateful to you and rest assured that in the spiritual world there aren’t ungrateful Spirits as there are humans on your Earth.

I told you that All Saints is a solemnity that arises from sadness, a really great sadness, since it also draws the attention of those Spirits devoted to materialism and selfishness in their earthly existences; Spirits that had no other gods but the miserable vanity of their own worlds; Spirits who fearlessly employed every means of boosting their wealth and frequently throwing honest people in the gutter of misery.


My dear brother how horrible torment to those! It is exactly as it is in the Scriptures: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. They shall dive into the deep abyss of darkness. These miserable are vulgarly called the “damned” ones and although it would be more precise to call them the “punished” ones they suffer no less the terrible tortures assigned to the damned amidst the flames. Surrounded by the thickest darkness of a chasm that seems unfathomable to them since it is not circumscribed as you are taught, they experience indescribable moral sufferings until they open their heart to regret.

Oftentimes some remain in such a state for centuries incapable of foreseeing the end of their torments, thinking of themselves as eternally condemned. Such a wrong opinion has found dwelling among you for a long time. It is a serious mistake for sooner or later those Spirits open their hearts to regret and then God have mercy on their disgrace and send them an angel with reassuring words opening before them a path that is the wider the more prayers they have received at the feet of the Eternal.

Brothers and sisters, you can see that your prayers are always useful to the guilty one and although they cannot alter the immutable designs of God they nonetheless provide relief to the suffering Spirits by bringing them the kind thought of being in the memory of charitable souls. It is like the excitement of the prisoner when he sees through the bars in his cell the face of a friend or a relative that has not forgotten his misery. If the suffering spirit is too hardened, too material so that the prayer may reach his soul, a pure spirit collects it like a precious aroma that is deposited in a celestial amphora until the day they can serve the spirit.

To have the prayer bearing fruits it is not good enough to mumble the words as the majority of people do. The only prayer that pleases God is the one that comes from the heart, the only that is taken into account and that alleviate the suffering Spirits.

From the sister that loves you,


Marguerite


Question asked at the Society:


How can we interpret this passage from the communication: “…rest assured that in the spiritual world there aren’t ungrateful Spirits as there are humans on your Earth”? Since the human souls are incarnate Spirits they carry along their vices and virtues. Human imperfection comes from the imperfections of the Spirits as the acquired qualities do. Given that and considering that the most ignoble vices are found in the Spirits one cannot understand the fact that in the spiritual world there isn’t ungratefulness as it is found on Earth.

Answer through Mr. Perchet:


No doubt that there are ungrateful Spirits in the spiritual world and you can single out the malicious and obsessing Spirits that do everything in their power to give you their perverse thoughts despite your good deeds through your prayers in their favor. Their ungratefulness is, however, just momentary because the time of regret will sooner or later come to them. Then their eyes open to light and their hearts also open to regret forever. That is not the case in your planet as all the time you find people that despite the good that you do to them their only payback is the darkest ingratitude. The passage that provoked this observation is only obscure because it lacks elaboration. I was only looking at the issue from the point of view of the Spirits open to regret and able for that very reason to immediately collect the fruits of prayer. Since those Spirits are committed with the good path and since they cannot retrograde it is clear that acknowledgement could not be extinguished in them. To avoid confusion, I will then re-write the phrase that caused the observation as: “They will be eternally grateful to you for rest assured that those among the Spirits to whom you have guided to the good path could not be ungrateful.”

Marguerite


Observation: These two communications as many others of high morality were obtained by Mr. Perchet in his casern where he counts on several comrades who share the Spiritist beliefs to which they accommodate their conduct. We ask the detractors of Spiritism if the military could receive better moral advices in the cabaret. If that is the language of Satan, he became an eremite. It is true that he is too old!

We take the opportunity to ask Mr. Tony the witty and particularly very logical journalist from Rochefort that believes Spiritism to be one of the evils that came out of Pandora box and one of those evil things studied by moral and public hygiene, we ask him as we were saying what is wrong and contrary to hygiene in this communication and if the military have lost moral support and health by renouncing to bad places in favor of prayer.

Founded by Mr. Canelle, Rue Neuve-des-Martyrs, 11 - Paris

The first article of this issue points out the existing relationships between Magnetism and Spiritism and shows the help that in many cases the magnetizer may obtain from the Spiritist knowledge, cases in which a materialistic idea could only paralyze the healthy influence. These relationships will be even more highlighted in the second article to be published in the next issue.

By bringing to the public the information about the establishment directed by Mr. Canelle that we know in person and from a long time as an experienced magnetizer not only spiritualist but a devout Spiritist, we are pleased for giving him the testimony of our sympathy.

The treatment is provided by him and several other magnetizer medical doctors. There are special sessions dedicated to free magnetization. See the prospects for more detailed information.

A gentleman from Bordeaux sent us a letter, in fact a very polite one, but with some criticism from a religious point of view regarding the article published in the November issue about the Origin of Language, an article that one must say found numerous admirers. Since the letter bears no signature or address we did what is done to any anonymous letter: we burned it.

There should be an erratum here that adds a procedure to the application of a balsam prescribed to Ms. Ermance Dufaux and that appears in the article Remedy given by the Spirits in the November issue. We are not reproducing it here because the correction was already implemented (Revising Team).