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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863 > August > Still a word about the artificial spectra and Mr. Oscar Comettant
The weekly magazine of the Siècle from July 12th, 1863 brought the following:
“Besides these important questions there are many others that cannot be neglected, including the spectra issue. . Have you seen the spectra? For about eight days the spectrum is the only subject to be entertained in conversations. Thus, each theater has its own: spectra of honest con men that robbed, deceived and murdered and that come back, untouchable shadows, to stroll around at midnight in the fifth act of a very well planned play. The secret of the spectrum or, using the language from behind the curtains, the trick, as they say, is due to a very well paid Englishman, of an elemental simplicity that allows all theaters to have their spectra on the same day, this one more expensive than the next. After the theater the spectrum moved on to the living room where it says good evening to the ladies and gentlemen that are like stung by a tarantula through this gentle spectromania.
That is an entertainment that come to explain many prodigies and I want to specifically mention the prodigies of Spiritism. Much has been said about these Spiritists that evoke the dead showing them in small groups of terrified believers. With the help of a simple trick one can do the same thing without being taken by a witch. That general evocation of the spectra throws a dismal blow on the wonderful, now that has been demonstrated that to make a ghost show up is not more difficult than to do the same to a person in flesh and blood. The esteem of the renowned Mr. Home may have already fallen 75% on the account of his admirers. The ideal turns into dust at the touch of the real. The real is a trick.”
Edmond Texier
We were right when we said that the newspapers would still talk about Spiritism when referring to this new ghostly process. The Indepéndence Belge, in turn, had rubbed their hands and asked: “How are the Spiritists going to get out of that?”
We only say to these gentlemen that they should learn about the behavior of Spiritism. What most clearly sticks out of such articles is as always a proof of the most absolute ignorance about the subject that they attack. In fact, it is necessary to ignore the first word to believe that the Spiritists meet to make ghosts to show up. What is even more astonishing is that we have never seen them not even in the theaters although these people say that we are greatly interested in the subject. Mr. Robin, the prestidigitator mentioned in our preceding article, goes further. It is not only Spiritism that he wants to destroy but the Bible itself. In his daily speech to the spectators he affirms that the apparition of Samuel to Saul happened in the same way that he operates. We did not know that the knowledge about optics was so advanced in those days among the Hebrew who were not considered very educated. Following such a line of thought there is no doubt that Jesus appeared to his disciples using some sort of trick as well.
Since the false spectra do not produce the expected results we will undoubtedly see very soon the appearance of a new gimmick. They will have their time as everything else whose only result is to satisfy curiosity. Such a time may be shorter than expected because people get tired soon of things that left nothing in their Spirits. The theaters then do well by using them while they count on the privilege of attracting the crowds by the force of novelty. Their production will nevertheless have had the advantage of making people talk about Spiritism and to spread its ideas. It was a means, like any other, of leading a large number of people to seek the truth.
What can we say about Mr. Oscar Comettant’s article about Mr. Home’s book published in the Siecle on July 15th, 1863? Nothing other than the fact that it is the best propaganda for the sale of the book and that it will benefit Spiritism. It is useful that from time to time there are whip lashes in order to wake up the attention of the indifferent. If the article is not Spiritist or Spiritualist is it at least witty? Let the others say.
There is however something good in that article. The author, following the example of several of his comrades, falls heavily onto those who make a profession out of the mediumistic skill. He criticizes with just severity the abuse that results from that thus contributing to discredit them, something that serious Spiritism cannot be sorrow for since Spiritism itself rejects any kind of exploitation of that kind as unworthy of the exclusively moral character of Spiritism and as a lack of respect to the dead.
Mr. Comettant makes the mistake of generalizing what would be, at the extreme, a rare exception, particularly by comparing the mediums to jesters, foretellers and deceivers just because he saw charlatans using the titles of mediums, as we see charlatainsusing the titles of doctors.
It seems that he ignores the fact that there are mediums amongst the members of families of the highest social echelons; that there are some even among renowned writers, highly considered by him and his own friends; that it is notorious that Mrs. Émile de Girardin was an excellent medium. We have the curiosity of knowing if he would have the courage to call them deceivers on their face.
If those who say saw had studied before speaking they would know that the exercise of mediumship requires a profound reverence, incompatible with the lightheartedness of character and the turmoil of curious people and that one must not expect anything serious out of such public gatherings.
Spiritism disapprove any experiment based on pure curiosity, with the objective of distraction, for we must not entertain ourselves with such things. The Spirits, which are the souls of those who left Earth, of our relatives and friends, come to instruct and moralize us and to entertain the lazy ones and that is not funny at all. They don’t come to predict the future or to uncover hidden treasures. They come to teach us that there is another life and how we must behave to be happy there, something that is not very entertaining to certain people. If one does not believe in the soul and in the survival of those who were dear to them, it is always wrong to make fun of that belief at least out of respect for their memory.
Spiritism also teaches us that the Spirits are not there to serve anybody; that they come when and with whom they want; that whoever pretended to have them at their service and to control them at will could well be taken as ignorant or a charlatan with good reason; that it is as much logical as irreverent to admit that serious Spirits attend the caprices of the first one to show up and at a given amount per session, playing the role of accomplices; that there is even a feeling of repugnance associated to the idea that the soul that deserves our tears may come for money.
On the other hand the principle that the Spirits do not communicate easily is confirmed by experience, as they don’t do it out of good will through certain mediums andthat, among the latter, there are some that absolutely repulse certain Spirits, something that is easily understood by the way that the communication takes place, by the assimilation of fluids. Hence there could be attraction or repulsion between the Spirit and the medium, according to the degree of sympathy and affinity.
Sympathy is founded on the moral and sentimental similarities. Well, which sympathy can a Spirit have to a medium that only calls him for money? They may say perhaps that the Spirit comes for the person that invokes and not the medium that is only an instrument. Agree but that does not make the need for the fluidic conditions less necessary, essentially modified by moral feelings and by the personal relationship between Spirit and medium. That is why there isn’t a single medium that can boast about communicating with every Spirit in distinctively, a capital problem to whoever wanted to exploit them.
That is what we teach Mr. Comettant since he ignores as it does destroy the similarities that he pretend to establish. Real mediumship is a precious skill that increases in value the more it is well employed towards good and the more it is exercised religiously and with total moral and material selflessness.
As for the simulated or abusive mediumship, whatever it is we leave it to the severity of the critic. Believing that Spiritism is the defender of such a thing and that the legal repression of an abuse would constitute a setback to Spiritism shows complete ignorance of its most elementary principles.
No repression could reach the mediums that did not use their mediumship as a profession and that did not stay away from the moral path delineated to them by the doctrine. The weapons that the abuse provide to the detractors, always eager to use any occasion to attack, and even the ones that are created, when they don’t exist they point out even more to the eyes of the sincere Spiritist the need to show that there is no solidarity between the true doctrine and the ones who make a parody of that.
“Besides these important questions there are many others that cannot be neglected, including the spectra issue. . Have you seen the spectra? For about eight days the spectrum is the only subject to be entertained in conversations. Thus, each theater has its own: spectra of honest con men that robbed, deceived and murdered and that come back, untouchable shadows, to stroll around at midnight in the fifth act of a very well planned play. The secret of the spectrum or, using the language from behind the curtains, the trick, as they say, is due to a very well paid Englishman, of an elemental simplicity that allows all theaters to have their spectra on the same day, this one more expensive than the next. After the theater the spectrum moved on to the living room where it says good evening to the ladies and gentlemen that are like stung by a tarantula through this gentle spectromania.
That is an entertainment that come to explain many prodigies and I want to specifically mention the prodigies of Spiritism. Much has been said about these Spiritists that evoke the dead showing them in small groups of terrified believers. With the help of a simple trick one can do the same thing without being taken by a witch. That general evocation of the spectra throws a dismal blow on the wonderful, now that has been demonstrated that to make a ghost show up is not more difficult than to do the same to a person in flesh and blood. The esteem of the renowned Mr. Home may have already fallen 75% on the account of his admirers. The ideal turns into dust at the touch of the real. The real is a trick.”
Edmond Texier
We were right when we said that the newspapers would still talk about Spiritism when referring to this new ghostly process. The Indepéndence Belge, in turn, had rubbed their hands and asked: “How are the Spiritists going to get out of that?”
We only say to these gentlemen that they should learn about the behavior of Spiritism. What most clearly sticks out of such articles is as always a proof of the most absolute ignorance about the subject that they attack. In fact, it is necessary to ignore the first word to believe that the Spiritists meet to make ghosts to show up. What is even more astonishing is that we have never seen them not even in the theaters although these people say that we are greatly interested in the subject. Mr. Robin, the prestidigitator mentioned in our preceding article, goes further. It is not only Spiritism that he wants to destroy but the Bible itself. In his daily speech to the spectators he affirms that the apparition of Samuel to Saul happened in the same way that he operates. We did not know that the knowledge about optics was so advanced in those days among the Hebrew who were not considered very educated. Following such a line of thought there is no doubt that Jesus appeared to his disciples using some sort of trick as well.
Since the false spectra do not produce the expected results we will undoubtedly see very soon the appearance of a new gimmick. They will have their time as everything else whose only result is to satisfy curiosity. Such a time may be shorter than expected because people get tired soon of things that left nothing in their Spirits. The theaters then do well by using them while they count on the privilege of attracting the crowds by the force of novelty. Their production will nevertheless have had the advantage of making people talk about Spiritism and to spread its ideas. It was a means, like any other, of leading a large number of people to seek the truth.
What can we say about Mr. Oscar Comettant’s article about Mr. Home’s book published in the Siecle on July 15th, 1863? Nothing other than the fact that it is the best propaganda for the sale of the book and that it will benefit Spiritism. It is useful that from time to time there are whip lashes in order to wake up the attention of the indifferent. If the article is not Spiritist or Spiritualist is it at least witty? Let the others say.
There is however something good in that article. The author, following the example of several of his comrades, falls heavily onto those who make a profession out of the mediumistic skill. He criticizes with just severity the abuse that results from that thus contributing to discredit them, something that serious Spiritism cannot be sorrow for since Spiritism itself rejects any kind of exploitation of that kind as unworthy of the exclusively moral character of Spiritism and as a lack of respect to the dead.
Mr. Comettant makes the mistake of generalizing what would be, at the extreme, a rare exception, particularly by comparing the mediums to jesters, foretellers and deceivers just because he saw charlatans using the titles of mediums, as we see charlatainsusing the titles of doctors.
It seems that he ignores the fact that there are mediums amongst the members of families of the highest social echelons; that there are some even among renowned writers, highly considered by him and his own friends; that it is notorious that Mrs. Émile de Girardin was an excellent medium. We have the curiosity of knowing if he would have the courage to call them deceivers on their face.
If those who say saw had studied before speaking they would know that the exercise of mediumship requires a profound reverence, incompatible with the lightheartedness of character and the turmoil of curious people and that one must not expect anything serious out of such public gatherings.
Spiritism disapprove any experiment based on pure curiosity, with the objective of distraction, for we must not entertain ourselves with such things. The Spirits, which are the souls of those who left Earth, of our relatives and friends, come to instruct and moralize us and to entertain the lazy ones and that is not funny at all. They don’t come to predict the future or to uncover hidden treasures. They come to teach us that there is another life and how we must behave to be happy there, something that is not very entertaining to certain people. If one does not believe in the soul and in the survival of those who were dear to them, it is always wrong to make fun of that belief at least out of respect for their memory.
Spiritism also teaches us that the Spirits are not there to serve anybody; that they come when and with whom they want; that whoever pretended to have them at their service and to control them at will could well be taken as ignorant or a charlatan with good reason; that it is as much logical as irreverent to admit that serious Spirits attend the caprices of the first one to show up and at a given amount per session, playing the role of accomplices; that there is even a feeling of repugnance associated to the idea that the soul that deserves our tears may come for money.
On the other hand the principle that the Spirits do not communicate easily is confirmed by experience, as they don’t do it out of good will through certain mediums andthat, among the latter, there are some that absolutely repulse certain Spirits, something that is easily understood by the way that the communication takes place, by the assimilation of fluids. Hence there could be attraction or repulsion between the Spirit and the medium, according to the degree of sympathy and affinity.
Sympathy is founded on the moral and sentimental similarities. Well, which sympathy can a Spirit have to a medium that only calls him for money? They may say perhaps that the Spirit comes for the person that invokes and not the medium that is only an instrument. Agree but that does not make the need for the fluidic conditions less necessary, essentially modified by moral feelings and by the personal relationship between Spirit and medium. That is why there isn’t a single medium that can boast about communicating with every Spirit in distinctively, a capital problem to whoever wanted to exploit them.
That is what we teach Mr. Comettant since he ignores as it does destroy the similarities that he pretend to establish. Real mediumship is a precious skill that increases in value the more it is well employed towards good and the more it is exercised religiously and with total moral and material selflessness.
As for the simulated or abusive mediumship, whatever it is we leave it to the severity of the critic. Believing that Spiritism is the defender of such a thing and that the legal repression of an abuse would constitute a setback to Spiritism shows complete ignorance of its most elementary principles.
No repression could reach the mediums that did not use their mediumship as a profession and that did not stay away from the moral path delineated to them by the doctrine. The weapons that the abuse provide to the detractors, always eager to use any occasion to attack, and even the ones that are created, when they don’t exist they point out even more to the eyes of the sincere Spiritist the need to show that there is no solidarity between the true doctrine and the ones who make a parody of that.