The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1862

The following was published in the “Opinion Nationale” on June 13^th last:

“Last Tuesday two bodies were taken together to the Church of the Good News. Both followed by a man who showed a profound pain and by a considerable crowd showing sadness and reverence. Below is a short report of the events that led to the double funereal ceremony.”

“Ms. Palmira was a beautiful, good natured fashion designer who used to live with her parents. She used to receive many marriage proposals. Among the many candidates she chose Mr. B… who fell in love with her. Although she also loved him very much she decided to respect her parent’s wishes and marry Mr. D… whose social position seemed much more advantageous to them when compared to the rival candidate. The wedding took place four years ago.”

“Mr. B… and Mr. D… were close friends. Although they did not have much in common they used to see each other frequently. The love between Mr. B… and the now Mrs. D… had not died and despite their effort to minimize it, in fact, it only grew given their forceful separation. Mr. B… got married in order to try to forget that love. He married a very nice lady with excellent qualities and did his best to love her but he soon realized that his heroic effort was useless. For four years neither Mr. B… nor Mrs. D… failed in their committed vows. One cannot describe what they went through for Mr. D… , who truly loved his friend, always enticed him to the house and when he wanted to escape he forced him to stay.”

“Then when they were finally and serendipitously brought together the two lovers no longer resisted the passion that so strongly dragged one towards the other. As soon as the bad deed was over they were taken by a tremendous remorse. The young lady threw herself sobbing to her husband’s feet as soon as he came back and said: - Quick ! Kill me! I am no longer worthy of you!”

“Since he remained full of horror and pain she told him about her struggle, her suffering and everything she had to do to avoid falling earlier. She told him that she had been dominated by an illegitimate love and that she had always kept the highest respect and consideration that he deserved.”

“Instead of cursing her the man cried. Mr. B… arrived at that very moment and also confessed in the same way. Mr. D… stood them up and said: - You are two loyal and generous hearts. You became guilty by a fatality. I saw sincerity in your eyes. Why should I punish you for an irresistible force that overtook your moral strength? The punishment is in your very sorrow. Just promise me that I will no longer see you and you will still have my esteem and affection.”

“The two unfortunate souls were quick to swear as requested. The way their confession was received by Mr. D… made their pain and remorse worse. They confessed to one another their state of mind and agreed that only death could heal their shattering pain. They decided to end their lives together setting the date for the following day since Mr. D… would be away for most of the day.”

“After having made all the preparations they wrote a long letter whose summary read: - D… our love is greater than any promise. We could succumb, despite everything else. We will not lead a guilty life. Our atonement is to demonstrate that our fault must not be attributed to our will but to the enticement of a passion whose power was beyond our strength.”

“They ended that touching letter by asking for forgiveness and the two lovers begged for the grace of being reunited at the grave.”

“When Mr. D… got home he was surprised by the painful and terrifying spectacle. Amidst the thick smoke produced by a portable furnace he saw the two lovers well dressed and braced to one another in bed. They were both dead.”

“Mr. D… respected their final wishes and made sure that both received the prayers at the church and that they were buried together.”

“Mr. Cure of Good News thought appropriate to deny the admittance of the two bodies at the church given the opposition of the canonical laws.”

After this report was read as a matter for moral study at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies two Spirits made the following consideration:

“That is the works of your Society and your costumes! Nonetheless, progress will take place. Some more time and fact of such a nature will no longer take place. Certain persons are like plants in an enclosure. They miss air, cannot breathe and spread their perfume. Your laws and costumes established limits to the expansion of certain feelings that sometimes lead two similar and sympathetic souls that given their different situations give themselves to all sorts of trickeries to be together.”

“What have you done of love? You reduced it to the weight of a metallic cylinder. You put it on the scale. Instead of king, love becomes slave. Your customs transformed a sacred link into an iron chain whose links smash those who were not born to live in shackles.”

“Ah! If your societies were walking on God’s avenue your hearts would not be broken by transient flames and your law makers would not have been forced to submit your passions to the control of the laws. Nevertheless there is progress and time will come when all of you will live the true life, the life of the heart. When heart beats are no longer constrained by the cold calculation of material interests you will no longer see such horrible suicides that from time to time belie your social prejudices.

St. Augustine, medium Mr. Vézy


The two lovers who committed suicide cannot respond to you yet. I see them. They are taken by confusion and scared by the breath of eternity. The moral consequences of their fault will punish them for successive migrations in which their departed souls will seek one another incessantly and suffer the double chastise of presentiment and desire. Once the atonement is over they shall stay united forever at the heart of the eternal love.

Eight days later the spiritual guide of the medium was consulted about the possibility of the evocation of those two Spirits thus responding: - Last time I told you that you could evoke them at the next session. They shall respond to the appeal of my medium but will not see one another. A deep darkness will keep them apart for a long time.

St. Augustine, medium Mr. Vézy

1. Evocation of the lady. – A. Yes, I will communicate with the help of the spirit that is here that helps me and to whom I obey.

2. Do you see the beloved one with whom you committed suicide? – A. I see nothing, even the Spirits that wonder with me where I am. What a darkness! What a darkness! What a thick veil covering my face!

3. What was your sensation when you woke up from death? – A. Strange. I was cold and felt burning. I had ice in my veins and fire on my face! Strange thing! Strange mixture! Ice and fire as if extinguishing me! I thought I was going to succumb a second time.

4. Do you suffer a physical pain? – A. My whole suffering is here and here!

5. What do you mean by here and here? – A. Here in my brain and here at my heart.

OBSERVATION: It is likely that if we could have seen the spirit we would have seen the hand moving from the forehead to the heart.

6. Do you believe that you will always be like that? – A. Oh! Always, always! Sometimes I hear hell like laughter that shouts these words to me: “Like this forever!”

7. Now, we can assure you that it shall not be always like that. Repent and you will find pardon. – A. What are you saying? I do not understand.

8. I repeat that your suffering will come to an end and that you can speed that up by repenting and we will help you through our prayers. – A. I only got one word and vague sounds. The word is grace. Is it what you are talking about? Oh! Adultery and suicide are two hateful crimes. You mentioned grace. That is certainly addressed to the child by my side, a poor child that is crying and waiting.

OBSERVATION: A lady member of the Society said that she had just said a prayer begging God for that unfortunate woman and that was not doubt what touched her; that in her thoughts she had implored for the grace of God to that creature.

11. And which image is that? – A. A man in suffering and whose moral existence I have destroyed for a long time on Earth.

OBSERVATION: As demonstrated by the facts, darkness frequently follows the punishment of criminal minds. It immediately follows death and its duration is variable according to the circumstances, ranging from a few months to centuries. The horror of a similar situation is understandable for the guilty one can’t perceive anything except the memories of errors and by the silence increased by one’s solitude and uncertainty, anxiety and remorse. When we read that report we sought attenuating circumstances first even looking at it as heroic action since a feeling of duty provoked it. As it can be seen, though, it was judged differently and that the punishment of the offenders will be long and terrible because they voluntarily sought refuge in death trying to escape the struggle. Their sensation of duty was undoubtedly honorable and it will certainly be taken into account later but the true merit would have been to get over the attraction whereas their attitude was like the defector that runs away as soon as there is fire.


As seen, their penalty consists on seeking one another for a long time and without success be it in the world of the Spirits or on other earthly existences. This has been aggravated by the fact that she momentarily thinks that her state is supposed to be forever. Since such a thought is part of the punishment she was not allowed to hear the words of hope that we addressed to her.


Those who see such a punishment to harsh and long lasting and particularly for the fact that it can only end after several reincarnations we say that the duration is not absolute and that it will depend on the way they withstand their future trials in which we can help through our prayers. Like any other guilty spirit they shall be the referees of their own destinies.


Isn’t that better than the hopeless and eternal fire to which they would be inexorably condemned according to the doctrine of the Church that considers them so much destined to hell that it refused to give them the last prayers since they were certainly useless?


Certain Catholics criticize Spiritism for the fact that it does not admit hell. In fact Spiritism does not admit the existence of a localized hell with its flames and spears and the corporeal tortures brought back from the Paganism of Tartarus. Yet the situation of the unfortunate Spirits that is described by Spiritism is not much better but with the radical difference that there is nothing irrational with respect to the nature of the penalties and that the duration, instead of irrevocable, is subordinated to regret, atonement and reparation which is at the same time more logical and more in agreement with the doctrine of God’s justice and benevolence.

Would Spiritism have been an efficient remedy in this case to prevent suicide? There is no doubt. It would have given those two Spirits such a confidence in the future that it would have changed completely their way of seeing this earthly life and consequently it would have given them the moral strength that they lacked.


Supposing that they had faith in the future, something that we ignore, and that their objective by killing themselves would have been that of speeding up their encounter and they would have known from similar examples that they would find the opposite result and would then be separated by a much longer time than that one here on Earth since God would not reward them for breaching His laws. Hence, certain that their wishes would not be granted but instead that they would find a situation a hundred times worse they would be advised by their own interest to be patients.


We recommend to them the prayers of every Spiritist so that they can find the strength and resignation to support them in their new trials thus accelerating the end of their punishment.