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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > March > Varieties
Varieties
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The Algerian newspaper Akhbar from February 10th, 1863 brings the following article:
“Mr. Bishop of Alger has just published a pastoral instruction about Spiritism for the Lent of 1863, a subject matter that is in fashion these days and about which the African clergy have been quiet so far. Here the passages:
“Mr. Bishop of Alger has just published a pastoral instruction about Spiritism for the Lent of 1863, a subject matter that is in fashion these days and about which the African clergy have been quiet so far. Here the passages:
- It is the devil that dictates these sickening doctrines to renowned philosophers, a doctrine of two equal principles good and evil, governed with the same authority but in opposite directions: the spirit and matter; materialism that reports everything to the body and acknowledges nothing beyond the grave; skepticism that doubts everything; fatalism that excuses everything, denying human freedom and responsibility; metempsychosis, sorcery and evocation of Spirits, sad and shameful systems of twisted minds that try to revive in our days… (Page 21).
- What a regrettable story one could make of the diabolic endeavors that go back to the cenacle, starting at the synagogues and the jokes of Simon, the magician, arriving at the persecutions, the schisms, the heresies and disbelief of all sorts, and to the modern Spiritism, as renovated as the paganism before Moses and by him fairly condemned as an abomination before God (Page 24).
- Those who appreciate to listen to both sides in any litigation can easily do so since theoretical and practical Spiritism is amply explained in The Spirits’ Book and The Medium’s Book, two books that can be found in any Algerian bookshop. If you really want to seriously study this, you can add The Spiritist Review by Mr. Allan Kardec to your library. It seems to us that this is the best way to verify if Spiritism is, in fact, the works of the devil or if, on the contrary, it is a revelation in a new format as pretended by its followers.”
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Mr. Home came to Paris where he stayed for a few days only. We were asked from all sides to provide information about the extraordinary phenomena that he had produced in the presence of trustworthy persons and that the papers mentioned only vaguely. Since those things took place in private meetings it is not up to us to reveal what does not have an official character and even less what involves certain names. We will only say that the detractors exploited that circumstance as many others in order to cast ridicule upon Spiritism with absurd stories and without any respect to people or the events.
We must add that Mr. Home’s passage by Paris as well as the respectability of the homes where he was welcomed constitute a formal denial to the shameful calumnies that he had been expelled from Paris like the rumors that circulated some time ago that because he was absent he had been arrested in Mazas for serious matters when in fact he was enjoying his time in Naples where he was taking care of his heath. Calumny! Always calumny! It is about time that the Spirits may come to expurgate them from Earth.
We refer our readers to the detailed articles published about Mr. Home and his manifestations in the February, March and April 1858 issues of The Spiritist Review.
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An article published in the Monde Illustré about the supposed American mediums Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd have also motivated many requests for information. We have nothing to add to what we have already said in the February 1862 issue of the Spiritist Review other that the fact that we saw them in person and that one can also see with Robert Houdin things that are not less unexplainable when the intricacies are not understood. No Spiritist or magnetizer can take those things seriously or waste any time in serious discussions about them when they know the normal conditions in which the phenomena take place.
Certain inept adversaries wanted to exploit those skills against the Spiritist phenomena by saying that if they can be imitated it means that they do not exist and that every medium is a skillful swindler, starting by Mr. Home. They fail to observe that they provide ammunition to discredit themselves for the same argumentation may be used against the majority of the miracles.
Without pointing out the illogical aspect of that conclusion and without discussing the phenomena again we say that the difference between the swindlers and the mediums is the difference between the profit and the selflessness, between imitation and reality, between an artificial flower and a real one. Furthermore, we cannot preclude a con man from pretending to be a medium or a physicist. It is not up to us to defend any exploitation of that kind. Let us leave it up to the critics.
We must add that Mr. Home’s passage by Paris as well as the respectability of the homes where he was welcomed constitute a formal denial to the shameful calumnies that he had been expelled from Paris like the rumors that circulated some time ago that because he was absent he had been arrested in Mazas for serious matters when in fact he was enjoying his time in Naples where he was taking care of his heath. Calumny! Always calumny! It is about time that the Spirits may come to expurgate them from Earth.
We refer our readers to the detailed articles published about Mr. Home and his manifestations in the February, March and April 1858 issues of The Spiritist Review.
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An article published in the Monde Illustré about the supposed American mediums Mr. and Mrs. Girroodd have also motivated many requests for information. We have nothing to add to what we have already said in the February 1862 issue of the Spiritist Review other that the fact that we saw them in person and that one can also see with Robert Houdin things that are not less unexplainable when the intricacies are not understood. No Spiritist or magnetizer can take those things seriously or waste any time in serious discussions about them when they know the normal conditions in which the phenomena take place.
Certain inept adversaries wanted to exploit those skills against the Spiritist phenomena by saying that if they can be imitated it means that they do not exist and that every medium is a skillful swindler, starting by Mr. Home. They fail to observe that they provide ammunition to discredit themselves for the same argumentation may be used against the majority of the miracles.
Without pointing out the illogical aspect of that conclusion and without discussing the phenomena again we say that the difference between the swindlers and the mediums is the difference between the profit and the selflessness, between imitation and reality, between an artificial flower and a real one. Furthermore, we cannot preclude a con man from pretending to be a medium or a physicist. It is not up to us to defend any exploitation of that kind. Let us leave it up to the critics.