The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1862

1. Evocation. - A. My friends, I am close to you.

2. We are pleased with the conversation we had with you on the day of your funeral and with your permission we would like to complement it for our continuing education. - A. I am ready and feel happy that you thought of me.

3. Anything that can shed light on the invisible world and help us to understand is a great opportunity because it is the misconception that people have of that world that generally leads to disbelief. Hence do not feel surprised with the questions that we will ask you. - A. I will not be and I look forward to your questions.

4. You described with extreme clarity the transition from life to death; you said that when the body breathes the last breath life is broken and the vision of the Spirit extinguishes. Is such a moment followed by a painful sensation? - A. No doubt because life is a continual succession of pain and death is the complement of all that pain; thus a violent rupture as if the spirit had to make a superhuman effort to escape from its envelope. It is that effort that absorbs all energy and makes the spirit lose the knowledge of what it becomes.

OBSERVATION - This is not the general case. The separation can take place with some effort, but experience shows that not all Spirits are aware of that because many lose consciousness before expiring. The convulsions of agony are usually purely physical. Mr. Sanson presented a very rare phenomenon in which the spirit witnesses his last breath.

5. Do you know if there are Spirits to whom such a moment is more painful? Is it more difficult, for example, to the materialist, for those who believe that everything ends at that time for them? - A. That is correct considering that the prepared spirit has already forgotten the suffering, or rather is used to this experience and he knows what is ahead. Moral suffering is the strongest and its absence at the time of death is a great relief. He who does not believe is like the prisoner condemned to death row and whose thoughts are only the knife and the unknown. There are similarities between this death and that of the atheist.

6. Are there materialists who believe that at this supreme moment they will be plunged into the abyss? - A. There is no doubt that some believe in the void up until the last hour; but at the time of separation, the spirit goes through a deep return; doubt seizes him and tortures him as he wonders what is going to happen; he wants to grab something and cannot. The separation cannot be done without this impression.

OBSERVATION - A spirit has given us, in other circumstances, the following description about the end of the non-believer: "In the last moments the devote non-believer experiences anxieties of those terrible nightmares where you can see the edge of a precipice and you are about to fall into the abyss; useless effort is made to escape without being able to walk; you want to hold on to something, grab a foothold but you feel slipping; you want to call someone but you cannot articulate a sound; that's when you see the moribund twisting, tense hands and muffled cries, sure signs of the living nightmare. In the ordinary nightmare you are brought back when you wake up and you feel happy to recognize that it was just a dream; but the nightmare of death often extends for a long time, sometimes years even after death, and what makes the sensation even more painful is the darkness in which the spirit is sometimes plunged.” We were even able to observe a number of similar cases what demonstrates that this description is no exaggeration.

7. You said that at the time of death you did not see but rather you perceived. It is understandable that you could not see but were you able to anticipate the clarity of the spiritual world before life was extinguished? - A. That's what I said earlier. The moment of death gives foresight to the spirit; the eyes see no more, but the spirit that has a much deeper vision and immediately discovers that unknown world. At that time, the spirit sees the truth and momentarily gives the spirit an ineffable joy or an indescribable sorrow, according to the state of his conscience and the memory of his past life.

OBSERVATION - It's about this time when the spirit loses consciousness, which explains the use of the word momentarily. These same pleasant or painful impressions continue when the spirit wakes up.

8. Can you tell us what was it that you saw when your eyes reopened to light? Could you describe the appearance of things that were offered to you? - A. When I could see myself and see what I had before my eyes I was dazzle. I did not understand it well because lucidity had not immediately recovered. But God, who gave me a deep sign of his goodness, allowed me to recover my faculties. I saw myself surrounded by many loyal friends. All the protective Spirits that assist us surrounded me with a smile; an unparalleled joy animated them and me, feeling strong and healthy, I could effortlessly carry myself through space. What I saw has no words to describe in human language. In fact I will come back to speak more broadly of my whole happiness, without moving beyond the limits established by God. Know this that happiness as you see it is a fiction. You ought to live wisely, saintly, and with the spirit of charity and love, and you will be prepared to receive impressions that even your greatest poets could not express.

9. Under which aspect have the Spirits presented to you? Was it under their human form?
- A. Yes, my dear friend, the Spirits had taught us on Earth that they kept in the other world the transitional form they used to have in your world; and that's the truth. But what a difference between the heavy engine that drags painfully with its entourage of trials and the wonderful fluidity of the body of the Spirits! There is no ugliness because the lines have lost the hardness of expression that forms the distinctive character of the human race. God beatified all these graceful bodies that move elegantly; language has untranslatable pitches to you and the eyes show the depth of a star. Try mentally to see what God can do in His omnipotence, the architect of the architects, and you'll have had a faint idea of the form of the Spirits.

10. Personally, how do you see yourself? Do you recognize a limited, circumscribed form, although fluid like? Do you feel the head, the trunk, the arms, and legs? – A. Having the spirit retained the human but deified, idealized form, the spirit has undoubtedly the members that you mentioned. I feel perfectly my legs and fingers because out of our own will we can become visible, shake your hands. I am near you and I shook hands with all my friends, without their knowledge because our fluidity can be anywhere without disturbing the space, without any sensation, if that is our wish. At this very moment you have your hands crossed and I have mine on yours. I tell you, I love you but my body does not occupy the place, light passes through it, and what you would call a miracle if it were visible is to the Spirits a continuous action, at all times. The sight of Spirits has no relation with human sight, as the body has no real resemblance, because everything is changed in appearance and substance. The spirit, I repeat, has a divine insight that reaches everything, since it can even guess your thoughts; that is how it may also take the form that can best identify with your memories. But in fact the superior spirit whose trials have ended prefers the form that was able to drive that spirit to God.

11. The Spirits do not have sex. However, since a few days ago you were a man, in your state do you hold a male like nature more than a feminine one? Is it the same with a spirit that left his body a long time ago? - A. We are not bound to a male or female nature. The Spirits do not reproduce. God created them out of his will, and if from his wonderful wisdom he wanted the Spirits to reincarnate on Earth, he had to establish the reproduction of species by the male and female. But you feel it, without the need for any explanation, that the Spirits cannot have sex.

OBSERVATION: It has always been said that the Spirits do not have sex. The sexes that exist are only necessary for the reproduction of the body. Since the Spirits do not reproduce, genders for them would be useless. Our question had not intended to state the fact, but due to the very recent death of Mr. Sanson, we wanted to know if there was an impression of his worldly state. The purified Spirits are perfectly aware of their nature, but among non-dematerialized, inferior Spirits, there are many who still believe to be what they are on Earth, and keep the same passions and the same desires; those will still believe to be men and women, and that's why there are some who have said that the Spirits have sex. Thus some contradictions come from the more or less advanced state of the Spirits who communicate. The error is not from the part of the Spirits but from their interrogators that do not bother to investigate the subject.


12. Among the Spirits who are here, you see our spiritual President Saint Louis? - A. He is always near you, and when he is absent he always leaves a superior spirit that replaces him.

13. Do not you see other Spirits? - A. I'm sorry. I see the Spirit of Truth, St. Augustine, Lamennais, Sonnet, St. Paul, St. Louis and other friends that you evoke in your sessions.

14. How does our session look like to you? Is it the same now as it used to be when you were alive? Do people look the same to you? Is everything as clear and as clean? - A. Much clearer because I can read everyone’s minds and I feel very happy. The good will of the Spirits gathered here causes a good impression. I wish the same agreement can be found not only in Paris, by the union of all groups, but also throughout France where there are groups that break away and are jealous of one another, driven by disturbing Spirits who like disorder, while Spiritism must be the complete and absolute renunciation of the self.

15. You said that you can read our minds; could you help us understand how such a transmission happens? - A. That is not easy. In order to explain that to you, this singular miracle of the sight of the Spirits, it would be necessary to open up a whole arsenal of new agents to you and you would be as enlightened as we are, and that cannot be because your faculties are bounded by matter. Patience! Become good and you will get there. You currently have what God allows you to have in hopes of a continual advancement. Later you will be like us. Try to die better so that you can learn a lot. Curiosity, which is the stimulus of a person of thoughts, quietly leads to the death, reserving you the satisfaction of all your past, present and future curiosities. Meanwhile, I'll tell you somehow responding to your question: The air around you, untouchable as we are, carries the character of your thoughts; the breath you exhale, so to speak, is the written page of your thoughts that are read and commented by the Spirits who are constantly around you, like the messengers of divine telegraphy from which nothing escapes.

16. As you see, my dear Mr. Sanson, we stretched the permission you have given us to do your spiritual autopsy. We are not going to abuse. On another occasion, if you wish, we will frame questions of a different order. - A. I am always happy to make myself useful to my former colleagues and their worthy president.