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The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864 > July
July
June issue of the Spiritist Review was ready and partially printed when we got the letter below from Father Barricand to which we had promptly replied as seen.
“Dear Sir,
Mr. Allan Kardec has asked me to acknowledge receiving that letter that you sent him and to tell you that it was unnecessary to request its insertion in the Spiritist Review. It would have been enough to have sent him a motivated rectification to have him considered it outright as a duty of impartiality. The June issue was already in printing at the time your letter was received hence it will come in the next issue.
Yours sincerely, etc.”
“Dear Sir,
Mr. Allan Kardec has asked me to acknowledge receiving that letter that you sent him and to tell you that it was unnecessary to request its insertion in the Spiritist Review. It would have been enough to have sent him a motivated rectification to have him considered it outright as a duty of impartiality. The June issue was already in printing at the time your letter was received hence it will come in the next issue.
Yours sincerely, etc.”
-o-
“Lyon, May 19th, 1864
Dear Sir,
I have just read in the May issue of the Spiritist Review an article about my course that is so much masked and fantasized that I see myself in a position to respond in order to destroy the unfavorable impression that that article may have left on your readers with respect to me and my teachings. The article is entitled: Public courses of Spiritism in Lyon. Such a designation has never been given to any of my programs and if anyone has attended my course in hopes of receiving lessons of Spiritism, as you insinuate, after being seduced by an attractive and deceiving title it was in reality because they were not careful enough to read what our flyers say.
You tell your readers that the journal La Vérité takes on several of our assertions and that the paper takes care of refuting us, something that you add they will do wonderfully well just by considering the way they began. But you do not show those statements. It is true that our contradictor says that one does not need to be versed in theology to use a pen and that they are not afraid of pursue us with the sole weapons of reason and Spiritism given faith in; that the paradoxical thesis that we sustain cannot be discussed; that we should not be drawn to accompany Spiritism in the cemetery, but that we must not hasten to ring the funeral knell; that, on his own account, he is able to nurse by himself, and without much trouble, that little child called Truth; ... that the blood of the future flows warmer than ever in the veins of the Spiritist, and that he has the intimate confidence that one day we shall be given the definitive tone of the most magnificent TE DEUM.
Mr. Allan Kardec is perfectly entitled to imagine that such assertions refute ours, ensuring his readers that by judging from the beginning the director of La Vérité will perform wonderfully well in his self-imposed task of refuting us. We hardly believe, however, that beyond the Spiritist school people will share the same opinion and we would even suspect that if the Director of the Spiritist Review found adequate to reproduce textually the article in which our antagonist accepts the struggle many of them would hesitate to consider that article as a starting point that promises a wonderful refutation against our lessons of Spiritism.
You may perhaps ask: doesn’t the La Vérité reproduces faithfully part of your argumentation? No, Sir, that summary is a burlesque parody. Everything there is false: our language, our ideas and our reasoning. Such arrogant expressions: I have the courage to prove to you… emphatic report, ambitions figures, everything is a comedy. Mr. Allan Kardec’s pocket is well fed and it is just fair that he helps his followers… these things have been part of our lessons and Mr. Director of the La Vérité could have spared the trouble of having attributed them to us if he had understood and wanted to understand the true study of the issue that we dealt with before him.
What was that about, in fact? To explain to our auditorium the actual situation of Spiritism in Lyon in 1862 and 1863. Now, in order to avoid basing our data on anything that could be denied by any Spiritist and instead of talking about your trips and assess your wealth we limited ourselves to evaluate your brochure entitled Spiritist Trip in 1862 and your article in the Spiritist Review, January 1864 in which you report to your readers the situation of Spiritism in 1863.
Considering the remarkable difference of tone and language in those two documents we thought appropriate to say, not as La Vérité says that Spiritism is dead and agonizing, but that it suffers at least in Lyon a moment of stagnation if it has not yet initiated a period of decadence. To support such a conclusion we remind you of the confessions given by the Director of La Vérité since while Mr. Allan Kardec affirms that in 1862 one could count and without exaggeration between 25 and 30 thousand Spiritists in Lyon, Mr. Edoux has no problem in recognizing that their number today does not reach ten thousands. What word can be used to define such a reduction other than decadence?
It seems to us that there is nothing easier than understand the true meaning of such a simple argument and to give it an accurate assessment. But Mr. Director of La Vérité, instead of just faithfully reproducing our exposition, he got a better kick out of providing his readers with a beautiful sample of our course in his newspaper.
It is, nonetheless, that report that strikes the lack of logic and sincerity at every line that you found appropriate to provide as the foundation of the malevolent insinuations that tend to present us to your readers as someone that sneaks into your private matters and that from a simple supposition reaches an absolute outcome; that calculates your account balance to turn that into a public teaching. Such accusations thrown there out of the blue and without any proof fall by themselves. Like the expression of a former writer one just need to publish them to have them refuted. Vestra exposuisse refellisse est.
When you finish your article you thought appropriate to teach us how to do a course of theology. As for ourselves we shall abstain from giving you lessons but allow us to at least give you a charitable advice if you want to avoid being belied many times by no longer accepting at least with certain mistrust reports given by your corresponding members because and now borrowing the language of our good La Fontaine:
Dear Sir,
I have just read in the May issue of the Spiritist Review an article about my course that is so much masked and fantasized that I see myself in a position to respond in order to destroy the unfavorable impression that that article may have left on your readers with respect to me and my teachings. The article is entitled: Public courses of Spiritism in Lyon. Such a designation has never been given to any of my programs and if anyone has attended my course in hopes of receiving lessons of Spiritism, as you insinuate, after being seduced by an attractive and deceiving title it was in reality because they were not careful enough to read what our flyers say.
You tell your readers that the journal La Vérité takes on several of our assertions and that the paper takes care of refuting us, something that you add they will do wonderfully well just by considering the way they began. But you do not show those statements. It is true that our contradictor says that one does not need to be versed in theology to use a pen and that they are not afraid of pursue us with the sole weapons of reason and Spiritism given faith in; that the paradoxical thesis that we sustain cannot be discussed; that we should not be drawn to accompany Spiritism in the cemetery, but that we must not hasten to ring the funeral knell; that, on his own account, he is able to nurse by himself, and without much trouble, that little child called Truth; ... that the blood of the future flows warmer than ever in the veins of the Spiritist, and that he has the intimate confidence that one day we shall be given the definitive tone of the most magnificent TE DEUM.
Mr. Allan Kardec is perfectly entitled to imagine that such assertions refute ours, ensuring his readers that by judging from the beginning the director of La Vérité will perform wonderfully well in his self-imposed task of refuting us. We hardly believe, however, that beyond the Spiritist school people will share the same opinion and we would even suspect that if the Director of the Spiritist Review found adequate to reproduce textually the article in which our antagonist accepts the struggle many of them would hesitate to consider that article as a starting point that promises a wonderful refutation against our lessons of Spiritism.
You may perhaps ask: doesn’t the La Vérité reproduces faithfully part of your argumentation? No, Sir, that summary is a burlesque parody. Everything there is false: our language, our ideas and our reasoning. Such arrogant expressions: I have the courage to prove to you… emphatic report, ambitions figures, everything is a comedy. Mr. Allan Kardec’s pocket is well fed and it is just fair that he helps his followers… these things have been part of our lessons and Mr. Director of the La Vérité could have spared the trouble of having attributed them to us if he had understood and wanted to understand the true study of the issue that we dealt with before him.
What was that about, in fact? To explain to our auditorium the actual situation of Spiritism in Lyon in 1862 and 1863. Now, in order to avoid basing our data on anything that could be denied by any Spiritist and instead of talking about your trips and assess your wealth we limited ourselves to evaluate your brochure entitled Spiritist Trip in 1862 and your article in the Spiritist Review, January 1864 in which you report to your readers the situation of Spiritism in 1863.
Considering the remarkable difference of tone and language in those two documents we thought appropriate to say, not as La Vérité says that Spiritism is dead and agonizing, but that it suffers at least in Lyon a moment of stagnation if it has not yet initiated a period of decadence. To support such a conclusion we remind you of the confessions given by the Director of La Vérité since while Mr. Allan Kardec affirms that in 1862 one could count and without exaggeration between 25 and 30 thousand Spiritists in Lyon, Mr. Edoux has no problem in recognizing that their number today does not reach ten thousands. What word can be used to define such a reduction other than decadence?
It seems to us that there is nothing easier than understand the true meaning of such a simple argument and to give it an accurate assessment. But Mr. Director of La Vérité, instead of just faithfully reproducing our exposition, he got a better kick out of providing his readers with a beautiful sample of our course in his newspaper.
It is, nonetheless, that report that strikes the lack of logic and sincerity at every line that you found appropriate to provide as the foundation of the malevolent insinuations that tend to present us to your readers as someone that sneaks into your private matters and that from a simple supposition reaches an absolute outcome; that calculates your account balance to turn that into a public teaching. Such accusations thrown there out of the blue and without any proof fall by themselves. Like the expression of a former writer one just need to publish them to have them refuted. Vestra exposuisse refellisse est.
When you finish your article you thought appropriate to teach us how to do a course of theology. As for ourselves we shall abstain from giving you lessons but allow us to at least give you a charitable advice if you want to avoid being belied many times by no longer accepting at least with certain mistrust reports given by your corresponding members because and now borrowing the language of our good La Fontaine:
There is nothing more dangerous than an ignorant friend. A wise enemy would be better.
I ask you, and if necessary I request, to have this response inserted in full in your next issue. Yours sincerely…”
Barricand
Dean of the Faculty of Theology
These are the words that generated Father Barricand’s complaint:
“It is easy to Mr. Allan Kardec to state that Spiritism is stronger than ever and then mention the appearance of Ruche and La Vérité as proof of that! That is a comedy, ladies and gentlemen! Couldn’t those two journals exist without the conclusion that Spiritism has moved one step ahead? If you tell me that they have costs and that is the reason why they need subscribers or that they need great sacrifices I will still tell you: It is a comedy! Mr. Allan Kardec’s budget is very good from what I hear. Isn’t that fair and rational to expect him to help his disciples?”
These words were extracted textually from the journal La Vérité from April 10th, 1864. We just added the very natural reflections that came to mind saying that we do not assign anybody with the right of assessing our balance and prejudge the use of what they believe we have and even less turning that into the subject of a public teaching. (See the May issue of the Spiritist Review).
Without verifying if Father Barricand pronounced the words that he denies or equivalent it is remarkable that he had not requested, to begin with, a rectification from the paper from where we extracted them. The paper edition is from April 10th. It is published weekly and sent to him. His letter though is from May 19th and in that interval another five editions were published. It is either one or the other: his words are true or false. If they are false the editor that declares having seen them in the professor’s lesson invented them. How can he protest in the same article against the allegation of being SUBVENCIONADO by us, saying that he needs nobody’s help and that he can walk on his own? He would have been strangely mistaken. How come Father Barricand allowed two months to pass in the presence of those statements and without protest? His silence, that could not go unnoticed by us, must have been considered by us as an approval since it is clear that if they were rectified in the La Vérité we would not have reproduced them.
In his letter Father Barricand returns to the thesis that he sustained before with respect to the supposedly decadence of Spiritism but now restricting the reach of his words. Considering that such a thought brings him peace we will leave it like that for we have no interest in dissuading him. Thus, he may take any conclusion about the number of Spiritists that he likes but that shall not preclude things to follow their course. Never mind if our adversaries belief or not in the progress of Spiritism. On the contrary, the less they believe the less they will bother and the more they will leave us in tranquility. We will even pretend we are dead if that pleases them. It would be up to them not to wake us up. But while they scream, fulminate and say anathemas; while they employ violence and persecution they will not make anybody believe that we are dead for good. Up until now the clergy had thought that the means of scaring people away with respect to Spiritism was in exaggerating the number of followers beyond measure. How many times in sermons, ordinations and publications of all kinds such numbers were not presented as invaders of society and endangering the Church by its increase? Better than anyone else we attest the progress of the Spiritist ideas but we never allow us to fall into hyperbolic numbers; we have never said, like a certain preacher, that in Bordeaux alone in a short period of time more than 170,000 francs were obtained from the sales of our books. It was not us who said that there were 20 million Spiritists in France nor, like in a recent book, that there was 600 million around the whole world what would be equivalent to more than half of the population of the planet. The result of these figures was much different from what they expected. Now if we wanted to proceed by induction we would suspect that Father Barricand wanted to follow an opposite tactics by diminishing the progress of Spiritism instead of exalting it.
These words were extracted textually from the journal La Vérité from April 10th, 1864. We just added the very natural reflections that came to mind saying that we do not assign anybody with the right of assessing our balance and prejudge the use of what they believe we have and even less turning that into the subject of a public teaching. (See the May issue of the Spiritist Review).
Without verifying if Father Barricand pronounced the words that he denies or equivalent it is remarkable that he had not requested, to begin with, a rectification from the paper from where we extracted them. The paper edition is from April 10th. It is published weekly and sent to him. His letter though is from May 19th and in that interval another five editions were published. It is either one or the other: his words are true or false. If they are false the editor that declares having seen them in the professor’s lesson invented them. How can he protest in the same article against the allegation of being SUBVENCIONADO by us, saying that he needs nobody’s help and that he can walk on his own? He would have been strangely mistaken. How come Father Barricand allowed two months to pass in the presence of those statements and without protest? His silence, that could not go unnoticed by us, must have been considered by us as an approval since it is clear that if they were rectified in the La Vérité we would not have reproduced them.
In his letter Father Barricand returns to the thesis that he sustained before with respect to the supposedly decadence of Spiritism but now restricting the reach of his words. Considering that such a thought brings him peace we will leave it like that for we have no interest in dissuading him. Thus, he may take any conclusion about the number of Spiritists that he likes but that shall not preclude things to follow their course. Never mind if our adversaries belief or not in the progress of Spiritism. On the contrary, the less they believe the less they will bother and the more they will leave us in tranquility. We will even pretend we are dead if that pleases them. It would be up to them not to wake us up. But while they scream, fulminate and say anathemas; while they employ violence and persecution they will not make anybody believe that we are dead for good. Up until now the clergy had thought that the means of scaring people away with respect to Spiritism was in exaggerating the number of followers beyond measure. How many times in sermons, ordinations and publications of all kinds such numbers were not presented as invaders of society and endangering the Church by its increase? Better than anyone else we attest the progress of the Spiritist ideas but we never allow us to fall into hyperbolic numbers; we have never said, like a certain preacher, that in Bordeaux alone in a short period of time more than 170,000 francs were obtained from the sales of our books. It was not us who said that there were 20 million Spiritists in France nor, like in a recent book, that there was 600 million around the whole world what would be equivalent to more than half of the population of the planet. The result of these figures was much different from what they expected. Now if we wanted to proceed by induction we would suspect that Father Barricand wanted to follow an opposite tactics by diminishing the progress of Spiritism instead of exalting it.
Nonetheless it is impossible to provide an accurate statistics of Spiritists given the immense number of persons that are sympathetic to the idea and that have no reason to put themselves in evidence because the Spiritists are not recruited like in a fraternity. We would be greatly mistaken if we took into account the number of groups officially known considering that less than a fraction of the followers participate in them. We know some cities in which there is no regularly established society and that count on more Spiritists than others that have several societies. As a matter of fact we have already said that the societies are not a necessary condition to the existence of Spiritism. Some are formed today and disappear tomorrow without affecting in any way the march of Spiritism. Spiritism is a matter of faith and belief and not of association.
Whoever may share our convictions with respect to the existence and manifestation of the Spirits and the moral consequences that stem from that is in fact Spiritist without the need to have a registration number or a diploma. A simple conversation is sufficient to get to know the ones that are sympathetic to the idea or reject it and from that one may judge if that idea gains or loses terrain.
The approximate estimate of the number of followers is based on internal reports because there isn’t any basis for the establishment of a strict figure that is in fact constantly changing. A letter, for example, can reveal to us a whole family of Spiritists and sometimes several families that we had no idea about. If Father Barricand saw our correspondence he could perhaps change his opinion. But never mind.
The opposition to an idea is always in direct proportion to its importance. If Spiritism had been a utopia people would not have given any attention to it like many other theories. The aggravating struggle is a clear indication that it is taken seriously. But if there is struggle between Spiritism and the clergy history will tell who the aggressors were. The attacks and slander that were used against Spiritism forced it to use the same weapons and show the vulnerable side of its adversaries. Have they precluded its march by attacking it? No. It is an attested fact. Had they have left Spiritism alone even the name of the clergy would not have been mentioned and perhaps they would have gained with that. Attacking Spiritism in the name of the dogmas of the Church forced Spiritism to discuss the value of the objections and for that very reason to enter a field that Spiritism did not want to touch. The mission of Spiritism is to fight disbelief by the evidence of the facts; it is to reconnect those that have neglected God; it is to demonstrate the future to those that believed in nothing. Why then the Church says anathema to those that receive such a faith from Spiritism more than when they believed in nothing? By repelling those that by the force of Spiritism believe in God and in their soul is the same as forcing them to seek refuge beyond the Church. Who was the first to declare Spiritism as a new religion with its cult and priests if not the clergy? Who has ever seen up until now the cult and priest of Spiritism? If it one day becomes a religion that was provoked by the clergy.
Whoever may share our convictions with respect to the existence and manifestation of the Spirits and the moral consequences that stem from that is in fact Spiritist without the need to have a registration number or a diploma. A simple conversation is sufficient to get to know the ones that are sympathetic to the idea or reject it and from that one may judge if that idea gains or loses terrain.
The approximate estimate of the number of followers is based on internal reports because there isn’t any basis for the establishment of a strict figure that is in fact constantly changing. A letter, for example, can reveal to us a whole family of Spiritists and sometimes several families that we had no idea about. If Father Barricand saw our correspondence he could perhaps change his opinion. But never mind.
The opposition to an idea is always in direct proportion to its importance. If Spiritism had been a utopia people would not have given any attention to it like many other theories. The aggravating struggle is a clear indication that it is taken seriously. But if there is struggle between Spiritism and the clergy history will tell who the aggressors were. The attacks and slander that were used against Spiritism forced it to use the same weapons and show the vulnerable side of its adversaries. Have they precluded its march by attacking it? No. It is an attested fact. Had they have left Spiritism alone even the name of the clergy would not have been mentioned and perhaps they would have gained with that. Attacking Spiritism in the name of the dogmas of the Church forced Spiritism to discuss the value of the objections and for that very reason to enter a field that Spiritism did not want to touch. The mission of Spiritism is to fight disbelief by the evidence of the facts; it is to reconnect those that have neglected God; it is to demonstrate the future to those that believed in nothing. Why then the Church says anathema to those that receive such a faith from Spiritism more than when they believed in nothing? By repelling those that by the force of Spiritism believe in God and in their soul is the same as forcing them to seek refuge beyond the Church. Who was the first to declare Spiritism as a new religion with its cult and priests if not the clergy? Who has ever seen up until now the cult and priest of Spiritism? If it one day becomes a religion that was provoked by the clergy.
It is broadly thought today that the Church admits the fire of hell as a moral hell and not as a material fire. That is at least the opinion of the majority of theologians and many enlightened priests. Nonetheless it is nothing more than an individual opinion and not a belief acquired from the orthodoxy otherwise it would be universally professed. One can assess it from the image below painted by a priest in the last Lent in Montreuil-sur-Mer:
“The fire of hell is millions of time more intense than that of Earth and if one body that burns there without being consumed were thrown onto our planet it would have it infected from one end to the other! Hell is a vast and somber cave, full of sharp nails and sword blades, of cutting razors in which wicked souls are thrown!”
It would be useless to refute such a description. However one could ask the speaker from where he has taken the knowledge about a place that he describes so accurately. Surely it was not from the Gospels in which there is no nails, swords or razors. In order to know that those blades and really sharp one must necessarily has seen and experimented with that. Will that be the case that like the new Eneas or Orpheus he had gone down to that somber cave that by the way has something of similar to the Tartar of the Pagans? Besides, would he have explained the action that nails and razors would have upon the souls and the need for having them really sharp and of a strong temper? Considering that he knows so well the minor details of the place he must have also said where it is located. It could not be at the center of the Earth because he supposes the case of having one of those bodies thrown onto our planet. Is it in space then? But Astronomy has reached that region much earlier and found nothing. It is true that it did not look with the eyes of faith. In any case is this picture painted to attract nonbelievers? That is more than doubtful since it is more adequate for the reduction of the number of believers.
To counter that we will mention the fragment of a letter sent from Riom and mentioned in the La Vérité in its March 20th, 1864 edition:
“Yesterday, to my great surprise and satisfaction, I personally heard this positive confession coming out of the mouth of an eloquent preacher before a crowded and surprised auditorium: There is no more hell. Hell is no more…it was remarkably replaced. The fires of charity, the fires of love atone our faults! Isn’t our divine Doctrine (Spiritism) totally contained in these few words?”
Needless to say which one of the two was received with more sympathy by the auditorium but the second one could even be accused of heresy by the first. In former times he would be invariably punished at the stake or in a prison for the audacity of having stated that God does not have his creatures burnt. Those two citations suggest the following thoughts:
If some believe in the materiality of the penalties and others don’t some necessarily are right and the others wrong. This is a more important point than it seems at first sight because it opens up the avenue to interpretations founded on an absolute unity of the belief and that, in principle, repels interpretation.
It is well true that up until now the materiality of the penalties took part in the dogmatic beliefs of the Church. Why then not all theologians believe in them? Since none of them verified the actual thing themselves what is it that leads some to just see an image whereas other see a reality other than reason that to the former goes beyond blind faith? Well, reason is free examination. There we have then reason and free examination entering the Church by the force of general opinion. One could even say, without a metaphor, that it is through the door of hell. It is the hand upon the sanctuary of dogmas and not from the lay person but from the clergy.
Make no mistake about the importance of this issue because it contains the germ of a whole revolution in matters of religion and of a huge rupture much more radical than Protestantism because it does not threat Catholicism only but Protestantism, the Greek Church and all of the Christian sects. In fact between the materiality of the penalties and the purely moral penalties there is the whole distance between real meaning and figurative meaning, from allegory to reality. As long as the flames of hell are admitted as allegories it becomes evident that these words of Jesus: “Go to the eternal hell” have a figurative meaning. From that one deduce that the same applies to many of Jesus’ words.
But here is the most serious consequence: from the moment when the interpretation of this point is admitted there is no reason to reject it about other points; it is therefore and as we said the open door to a free discussion, a deadly blow onto the absolute principle of blind faith. The belief in the materiality of the penalties is entirely related to other principles of faith that are their corollary. Once that belief is transformed the other will also transformer by the force of things and from there on successively.
Here an explanation. Not long ago the dogma “there is no salvation outside Church” was at its highest. Baptism was such an imperious need that even when the child of a heretic person received it clandestinely and irrespectively of the parents’ wishes it was enough to be saved because anything that was rigorously orthodox was irrevocably condemned. But since human reason has been up rooted against those millions of souls apportioned to the eternal penalties when they were not to blame for not having been educated in the good faith; the numerous children that die before acquiring the conscience of their actions and that nonetheless are not less damned if the religious belief of their parents deprived them from the baptism, with that respect the Church has moved away from its absolutism. Today the Church says, or at least the majority of the theologian say, that those children are not responsible for the actions of their parents; that the responsibility only begins when they deny after being enlightened and hence they are not damned for not having received the baptism; and that the same applies to the savage and all kinds of idolatries.
Some go even further since they acknowledge that the practice of the Christian virtues that is humility and charity, one can be saved in all religions because it depends on the will of a Hindu, a Jewish, a Muslim or a Protestant to live charitably; that the one that lives in that one is in the Church in Spirit even if not formally. Isn’t that the principle “there is no salvation outside the Church” enlarged and transformed into “there is no salvation but through charity”? That is exactly what Spiritism teaches and nonetheless that is exactly why it is declared the works of the devil. Why would such maxima be the breath of the devil in the mouth of the Spiritists and not in the ministers of the Church? If the orthodoxy of the faith is threatened it is not by Spiritism but by the Church itself because it inevitably feels the pressure of the general opinion and some among its members see things from a more elevated position where the force of logic overcomes a blind faith. It would be reckless to say that the Church marches towards Spiritism; it is true, however, that it shall be recognized later. Despite the fact that it moves towards confrontation with Spiritism the Church unnoticeably and gradually assimilates its principles.
This new point of view about salvation is serious. Beyond the form, the Spirit is an eminently revolutionary principle of orthodoxy. Since salvation is seen possible outside the Church the efficacy of baptism becomes relative rather than absolute and turns into a symbol. Considering that the non-baptized child cannot respond for the negligence or bad will of her parents what becomes of the penalty imposed onto the human race for the fault incurred by the first man? What becomes of the original sin as understood by the Church?
Sometimes the greatest effects result from the little causes. The right of interpretation and free examination, once the apparently puerile issue of the materiality of the future penalties is admitted, is a first step whose consequences are innumerable because it is a crack in the dogmatic immutability and a rolling stone drags others. Church’s position is embarrassing we must admit. However, there is only one path out of two alternatives: remain stationary, despite everything else, or move on. But then the Church will not escape this dilemma: if it remains absolutely immobile in the errors of the past it will be infallibly overcome, as it is now, by the flow of the new ideas; it will then be isolated and finally dismembered as it would be today had it insisted in expelling those that believe in the movement of Earth or in the geological periods of creation. The Church will change if it moves into the interpretation of the dogmas by the simple denial of the materiality of the penalties and the absolute necessity of baptism.
The danger of transformation, as a matter of fact, is clearly and energetically stated in the following passage from a brochure published by Father Marin de Boylesve, from the Company of Jesus with the title “The miracle of the devil”, in response to the Revue des Deux-Mondes:[1]
“Among other things there is one issue that is a matter of life and death to religion: the miracles. The devil is not a lesser one. Remove the devil and there is no Christianity. If the devil is not but a myth the fall of Adam and the original sin become just a fable. As a consequence redemption, baptism and the Church, in a word, have no meaning. Besides, science spares no efforts to erase the miracles and suppress the devil.”
It means that if science discovers a law of nature that brings a so called miraculous event to the row of natural events; if it demonstrates the anteriority of the human race and the multiplicity of its origins the whole edifice collapses. A religion is very weak when a scientific discovery is a matter of life and death. That is an awkward confession. As for ourselves we are far from sharing the apprehensions of Father Boylesve with respect to Christianity. We say that Christianity, as purely coming from the mouth of Jesus, is invulnerable since it is the law of God.
Hence their conclusion is this: No concession or death. The author fails to examine if there is more chance by living in immobility. In our opinion there is less and that it is better to live transformed than not to live at all. At any rate there is an unavoidable fission. One can even say that there is one already since the doctrinarian unity is broken because there is no perfect agreement in the teaching; because some approve what others deny and some condemn what others forgive.
We therefore see the followers giving preference to those whose ideas are more convenient to them. When the shepherds are divided the herd also divides. It is a short distance from this divergence to full separation. One more step and those that are ahead will be treated as heretical by those behind. That is a schism taking place. It is the danger of immobility.
Religion, or even better, all religions unwillingly suffer the influence of the progressive movement of the ideas. A fatal need forces them to maintain the level of the ascending movement otherwise they shall sink. Therefore they have all been forced from time to time to make concessions to science and to smooth out the literal meaning of certain beliefs before the evidence of facts. The one that denied the discoveries of science and their consequences from a religious point of view would sooner or later lose its authority and credit and would increase the number of nonbelievers. If a given religion can be compromised by science that is not science’s fault but the religion that is founded on absolute dogmas in contradiction to the laws of nature that are Divine laws. By repudiating science one is therefore repudiating nature and consequently the works of God. By doing so in the name of religion would be the same as putting God in contradiction with himself as if making God say: I established laws to govern the world but do not believe in those laws.
In all time mankind was not capable of knowing all laws of nature. The successive discovery of those laws constitutes progress. That entails the need for all religions to place their beliefs and dogmas in harmony with progress or be belied by the facts attested by science. That is the only condition that can make a religion invulnerable. In our opinion religion should do more than just following progress behind that is already a forceful and embarrassing march. Religion should be the advanced sentinel since it would be honoring God by proclaiming the wisdom and greatness of God’s laws. The existing contradiction between certain religious beliefs and natural laws produced the majority of the nonbelievers whose number increases in proportion to the popularization of those laws. If the agreement between science and religion were impossible there would not be any possible religion. We proclaim out loud the possibility and the need of such agreement because in our opinion science and religion are sisters for the greater glory of God and must complement one another instead of belying each other. They will reach out to one another when science sees in religion no incompatibility with the demonstrated facts and religion no longer fears for the demonstration of those facts. Spiritism shall be the uniting element that will allow them both to face one another, one not laughing and the other not fearing. It is by the agreement between faith and reason that God daily brings back so many disbelievers.
[1] Review of two worlds (TN)
“The fire of hell is millions of time more intense than that of Earth and if one body that burns there without being consumed were thrown onto our planet it would have it infected from one end to the other! Hell is a vast and somber cave, full of sharp nails and sword blades, of cutting razors in which wicked souls are thrown!”
It would be useless to refute such a description. However one could ask the speaker from where he has taken the knowledge about a place that he describes so accurately. Surely it was not from the Gospels in which there is no nails, swords or razors. In order to know that those blades and really sharp one must necessarily has seen and experimented with that. Will that be the case that like the new Eneas or Orpheus he had gone down to that somber cave that by the way has something of similar to the Tartar of the Pagans? Besides, would he have explained the action that nails and razors would have upon the souls and the need for having them really sharp and of a strong temper? Considering that he knows so well the minor details of the place he must have also said where it is located. It could not be at the center of the Earth because he supposes the case of having one of those bodies thrown onto our planet. Is it in space then? But Astronomy has reached that region much earlier and found nothing. It is true that it did not look with the eyes of faith. In any case is this picture painted to attract nonbelievers? That is more than doubtful since it is more adequate for the reduction of the number of believers.
To counter that we will mention the fragment of a letter sent from Riom and mentioned in the La Vérité in its March 20th, 1864 edition:
“Yesterday, to my great surprise and satisfaction, I personally heard this positive confession coming out of the mouth of an eloquent preacher before a crowded and surprised auditorium: There is no more hell. Hell is no more…it was remarkably replaced. The fires of charity, the fires of love atone our faults! Isn’t our divine Doctrine (Spiritism) totally contained in these few words?”
Needless to say which one of the two was received with more sympathy by the auditorium but the second one could even be accused of heresy by the first. In former times he would be invariably punished at the stake or in a prison for the audacity of having stated that God does not have his creatures burnt. Those two citations suggest the following thoughts:
If some believe in the materiality of the penalties and others don’t some necessarily are right and the others wrong. This is a more important point than it seems at first sight because it opens up the avenue to interpretations founded on an absolute unity of the belief and that, in principle, repels interpretation.
It is well true that up until now the materiality of the penalties took part in the dogmatic beliefs of the Church. Why then not all theologians believe in them? Since none of them verified the actual thing themselves what is it that leads some to just see an image whereas other see a reality other than reason that to the former goes beyond blind faith? Well, reason is free examination. There we have then reason and free examination entering the Church by the force of general opinion. One could even say, without a metaphor, that it is through the door of hell. It is the hand upon the sanctuary of dogmas and not from the lay person but from the clergy.
Make no mistake about the importance of this issue because it contains the germ of a whole revolution in matters of religion and of a huge rupture much more radical than Protestantism because it does not threat Catholicism only but Protestantism, the Greek Church and all of the Christian sects. In fact between the materiality of the penalties and the purely moral penalties there is the whole distance between real meaning and figurative meaning, from allegory to reality. As long as the flames of hell are admitted as allegories it becomes evident that these words of Jesus: “Go to the eternal hell” have a figurative meaning. From that one deduce that the same applies to many of Jesus’ words.
But here is the most serious consequence: from the moment when the interpretation of this point is admitted there is no reason to reject it about other points; it is therefore and as we said the open door to a free discussion, a deadly blow onto the absolute principle of blind faith. The belief in the materiality of the penalties is entirely related to other principles of faith that are their corollary. Once that belief is transformed the other will also transformer by the force of things and from there on successively.
Here an explanation. Not long ago the dogma “there is no salvation outside Church” was at its highest. Baptism was such an imperious need that even when the child of a heretic person received it clandestinely and irrespectively of the parents’ wishes it was enough to be saved because anything that was rigorously orthodox was irrevocably condemned. But since human reason has been up rooted against those millions of souls apportioned to the eternal penalties when they were not to blame for not having been educated in the good faith; the numerous children that die before acquiring the conscience of their actions and that nonetheless are not less damned if the religious belief of their parents deprived them from the baptism, with that respect the Church has moved away from its absolutism. Today the Church says, or at least the majority of the theologian say, that those children are not responsible for the actions of their parents; that the responsibility only begins when they deny after being enlightened and hence they are not damned for not having received the baptism; and that the same applies to the savage and all kinds of idolatries.
Some go even further since they acknowledge that the practice of the Christian virtues that is humility and charity, one can be saved in all religions because it depends on the will of a Hindu, a Jewish, a Muslim or a Protestant to live charitably; that the one that lives in that one is in the Church in Spirit even if not formally. Isn’t that the principle “there is no salvation outside the Church” enlarged and transformed into “there is no salvation but through charity”? That is exactly what Spiritism teaches and nonetheless that is exactly why it is declared the works of the devil. Why would such maxima be the breath of the devil in the mouth of the Spiritists and not in the ministers of the Church? If the orthodoxy of the faith is threatened it is not by Spiritism but by the Church itself because it inevitably feels the pressure of the general opinion and some among its members see things from a more elevated position where the force of logic overcomes a blind faith. It would be reckless to say that the Church marches towards Spiritism; it is true, however, that it shall be recognized later. Despite the fact that it moves towards confrontation with Spiritism the Church unnoticeably and gradually assimilates its principles.
This new point of view about salvation is serious. Beyond the form, the Spirit is an eminently revolutionary principle of orthodoxy. Since salvation is seen possible outside the Church the efficacy of baptism becomes relative rather than absolute and turns into a symbol. Considering that the non-baptized child cannot respond for the negligence or bad will of her parents what becomes of the penalty imposed onto the human race for the fault incurred by the first man? What becomes of the original sin as understood by the Church?
Sometimes the greatest effects result from the little causes. The right of interpretation and free examination, once the apparently puerile issue of the materiality of the future penalties is admitted, is a first step whose consequences are innumerable because it is a crack in the dogmatic immutability and a rolling stone drags others. Church’s position is embarrassing we must admit. However, there is only one path out of two alternatives: remain stationary, despite everything else, or move on. But then the Church will not escape this dilemma: if it remains absolutely immobile in the errors of the past it will be infallibly overcome, as it is now, by the flow of the new ideas; it will then be isolated and finally dismembered as it would be today had it insisted in expelling those that believe in the movement of Earth or in the geological periods of creation. The Church will change if it moves into the interpretation of the dogmas by the simple denial of the materiality of the penalties and the absolute necessity of baptism.
The danger of transformation, as a matter of fact, is clearly and energetically stated in the following passage from a brochure published by Father Marin de Boylesve, from the Company of Jesus with the title “The miracle of the devil”, in response to the Revue des Deux-Mondes:[1]
“Among other things there is one issue that is a matter of life and death to religion: the miracles. The devil is not a lesser one. Remove the devil and there is no Christianity. If the devil is not but a myth the fall of Adam and the original sin become just a fable. As a consequence redemption, baptism and the Church, in a word, have no meaning. Besides, science spares no efforts to erase the miracles and suppress the devil.”
It means that if science discovers a law of nature that brings a so called miraculous event to the row of natural events; if it demonstrates the anteriority of the human race and the multiplicity of its origins the whole edifice collapses. A religion is very weak when a scientific discovery is a matter of life and death. That is an awkward confession. As for ourselves we are far from sharing the apprehensions of Father Boylesve with respect to Christianity. We say that Christianity, as purely coming from the mouth of Jesus, is invulnerable since it is the law of God.
Hence their conclusion is this: No concession or death. The author fails to examine if there is more chance by living in immobility. In our opinion there is less and that it is better to live transformed than not to live at all. At any rate there is an unavoidable fission. One can even say that there is one already since the doctrinarian unity is broken because there is no perfect agreement in the teaching; because some approve what others deny and some condemn what others forgive.
We therefore see the followers giving preference to those whose ideas are more convenient to them. When the shepherds are divided the herd also divides. It is a short distance from this divergence to full separation. One more step and those that are ahead will be treated as heretical by those behind. That is a schism taking place. It is the danger of immobility.
Religion, or even better, all religions unwillingly suffer the influence of the progressive movement of the ideas. A fatal need forces them to maintain the level of the ascending movement otherwise they shall sink. Therefore they have all been forced from time to time to make concessions to science and to smooth out the literal meaning of certain beliefs before the evidence of facts. The one that denied the discoveries of science and their consequences from a religious point of view would sooner or later lose its authority and credit and would increase the number of nonbelievers. If a given religion can be compromised by science that is not science’s fault but the religion that is founded on absolute dogmas in contradiction to the laws of nature that are Divine laws. By repudiating science one is therefore repudiating nature and consequently the works of God. By doing so in the name of religion would be the same as putting God in contradiction with himself as if making God say: I established laws to govern the world but do not believe in those laws.
In all time mankind was not capable of knowing all laws of nature. The successive discovery of those laws constitutes progress. That entails the need for all religions to place their beliefs and dogmas in harmony with progress or be belied by the facts attested by science. That is the only condition that can make a religion invulnerable. In our opinion religion should do more than just following progress behind that is already a forceful and embarrassing march. Religion should be the advanced sentinel since it would be honoring God by proclaiming the wisdom and greatness of God’s laws. The existing contradiction between certain religious beliefs and natural laws produced the majority of the nonbelievers whose number increases in proportion to the popularization of those laws. If the agreement between science and religion were impossible there would not be any possible religion. We proclaim out loud the possibility and the need of such agreement because in our opinion science and religion are sisters for the greater glory of God and must complement one another instead of belying each other. They will reach out to one another when science sees in religion no incompatibility with the demonstrated facts and religion no longer fears for the demonstration of those facts. Spiritism shall be the uniting element that will allow them both to face one another, one not laughing and the other not fearing. It is by the agreement between faith and reason that God daily brings back so many disbelievers.
[1] Review of two worlds (TN)
A Constantinople newspaper published three articles with the title above last March about, or better said, against Magnetism and Spiritism that both count on many enthusiastic followers in that capital city. As with all criticism in general we uselessly seek serious argumentation while we find an evident proof that the author speaks about something that is unknown to him or that he only knows superficially. He judges Spiritism by appearances; by having heard of; by the reading of some incomplete fragments; by the report of some eccentric reports refuted by Spiritism itself, things that seem sufficient to him to draw up a sentence. As it can be seen it is a new sample of the logic employed by our antagonists. The readings that seem to be most popular are Mr. Mirville, the magic of Mr. Dupotet and the life of Mr. Home but one cannot find serious studies of the Spiritist science or of serious observations.
We are from pretending that anyone that studies Spiritism will necessarily approve it. However, if that person is in good faith she will not move away from the truth even in her denial and will not make us say something in opposition to what we have said; this will necessarily happen if that person is not aware of everything that we said. We would not recognize as a serious critic but only the one that would avoid generalizations and that proposed authoritative arguments against our own and demonstrated, without a possible replica, that the facts that serve as our foundation are either false, created or radically impossible. That is something that has not been done yet by the editor of the Constantinople newspaper or the others.
Spiritism has been attacked in many ways, with all weapons that were considered more lethal. Nothing was spared to annihilate Spiritism, not even slander. There isn’t a single obscure author that has not boasted about having thrown the last stroke of mercy. People of real value count amongst the adversaries who have excavated the arsenal of objections to the lowest level with more eagerness the more was the interest in muffle Spiritism.
Despite everything that was done, however, Spiritism not only stands but expands more and more on a daily basis; it establishes everywhere and the number of followers grows incessantly. That is a notorious fact. What can we conclude from all that? That nothing could have seriously and conclusively been opposed to Spiritism.
Will our opponent from Constantinople be more successful? We seriously doubt since he has not shown better arguments for that. His articles, far from stopping the Spiritist movement in the Orient, can only favor it as happened to all others of the same kind for all of them go around the same circle. That is why we are not worried. We shall limit ourselves to cite some fragments that summarize the author’s opinion.
There isn’t a single objection of his against Spiritism that does not meet a prompt refutation in our books. If we had to counter every absurd created about this subject we would have to repeat ourselves endlessly and that is something useless considering that such criticism without any serious support will definitely help us more than cause any harm.
“Side by side with skillful practitioners like the magicians exemplified by Mr. Dupotet, or the mediums, like Mr. Home, comes a different order of members in whose first rows we find Mr. Allan Kardec. This one may be presented as the role model to the whole group of Spiritists whose good faith could not be denied. The Spiritists of Constantinople belong to that artistic and literary school, as we have already said, that operates mainly through their writings in which the Spiritist Review by Mr. Allan Kardec is the most perfect example. Such a doctrine was established by its followers. The theory of the Spirits has no secret to them; hence in the majority of the cases they disdain to resource to the material processes employed by the common mediums. They obtain direct manifestations. Their process, as simple as themselves, consists on the use of a common pencil, like the one used by the first heretic that would show up, through which they enter into immediate relationship with the Spirits and capture their messages. Among other advantages the method allows them to keep their modesty aside and award their own work with the most exaggerated honors, covering themselves with the names of the supposed authors.
Before believing in the accuracy of the mechanical writing medium we would like to see an idiot writing some beautiful page such as has never been dictated by the Spirits that operate through mediumistic ways. The intuition medium is more acceptable but it seems very difficult to us that experience will teach how to separate the thought of the Spirit from that of the medium. As a matter of fact the role played by the latter one may be easily explained. The mediums in their majority are sincere and it is to them rather than operators of the kind of Mr. Home and Mr. Dupotet that the opinion issued by Mr. Count of Gasparin applies with accuracy. As for the opinion of Mr. Mirville there is no place to discuss it here since it has been well verified that no medium, at least in Constantinople, is a witch.
If we were supposed to defend the Spiritist against such hateful accusations like the ones that we repeal here we would only need to mention some teachings given by the Spirits to demonstrate its complete naivety:
- The different planets that circulate in space are inhabited like our Earth. The astronomical observations lead us to think that the environs of their respective inhabitants are very different requiring different physical organizations but the perispirit accommodates to the varieties of kinds allowing the Spirit to incarnate on the surface of different planets;
We are from pretending that anyone that studies Spiritism will necessarily approve it. However, if that person is in good faith she will not move away from the truth even in her denial and will not make us say something in opposition to what we have said; this will necessarily happen if that person is not aware of everything that we said. We would not recognize as a serious critic but only the one that would avoid generalizations and that proposed authoritative arguments against our own and demonstrated, without a possible replica, that the facts that serve as our foundation are either false, created or radically impossible. That is something that has not been done yet by the editor of the Constantinople newspaper or the others.
Spiritism has been attacked in many ways, with all weapons that were considered more lethal. Nothing was spared to annihilate Spiritism, not even slander. There isn’t a single obscure author that has not boasted about having thrown the last stroke of mercy. People of real value count amongst the adversaries who have excavated the arsenal of objections to the lowest level with more eagerness the more was the interest in muffle Spiritism.
Despite everything that was done, however, Spiritism not only stands but expands more and more on a daily basis; it establishes everywhere and the number of followers grows incessantly. That is a notorious fact. What can we conclude from all that? That nothing could have seriously and conclusively been opposed to Spiritism.
Will our opponent from Constantinople be more successful? We seriously doubt since he has not shown better arguments for that. His articles, far from stopping the Spiritist movement in the Orient, can only favor it as happened to all others of the same kind for all of them go around the same circle. That is why we are not worried. We shall limit ourselves to cite some fragments that summarize the author’s opinion.
There isn’t a single objection of his against Spiritism that does not meet a prompt refutation in our books. If we had to counter every absurd created about this subject we would have to repeat ourselves endlessly and that is something useless considering that such criticism without any serious support will definitely help us more than cause any harm.
“Side by side with skillful practitioners like the magicians exemplified by Mr. Dupotet, or the mediums, like Mr. Home, comes a different order of members in whose first rows we find Mr. Allan Kardec. This one may be presented as the role model to the whole group of Spiritists whose good faith could not be denied. The Spiritists of Constantinople belong to that artistic and literary school, as we have already said, that operates mainly through their writings in which the Spiritist Review by Mr. Allan Kardec is the most perfect example. Such a doctrine was established by its followers. The theory of the Spirits has no secret to them; hence in the majority of the cases they disdain to resource to the material processes employed by the common mediums. They obtain direct manifestations. Their process, as simple as themselves, consists on the use of a common pencil, like the one used by the first heretic that would show up, through which they enter into immediate relationship with the Spirits and capture their messages. Among other advantages the method allows them to keep their modesty aside and award their own work with the most exaggerated honors, covering themselves with the names of the supposed authors.
Before believing in the accuracy of the mechanical writing medium we would like to see an idiot writing some beautiful page such as has never been dictated by the Spirits that operate through mediumistic ways. The intuition medium is more acceptable but it seems very difficult to us that experience will teach how to separate the thought of the Spirit from that of the medium. As a matter of fact the role played by the latter one may be easily explained. The mediums in their majority are sincere and it is to them rather than operators of the kind of Mr. Home and Mr. Dupotet that the opinion issued by Mr. Count of Gasparin applies with accuracy. As for the opinion of Mr. Mirville there is no place to discuss it here since it has been well verified that no medium, at least in Constantinople, is a witch.
If we were supposed to defend the Spiritist against such hateful accusations like the ones that we repeal here we would only need to mention some teachings given by the Spirits to demonstrate its complete naivety:
- The different planets that circulate in space are inhabited like our Earth. The astronomical observations lead us to think that the environs of their respective inhabitants are very different requiring different physical organizations but the perispirit accommodates to the varieties of kinds allowing the Spirit to incarnate on the surface of different planets;
- The moral, intellectual and physical state of those worlds constitute a progressive series in which our Earth does not occupy the first or the last position; it is, nonetheless, one of the most material and least advanced planets. There are some in which evil is unknown; where arts and sciences have arrived to a degree of perfection that we cannot understand; where their physical organization is not subjected to sufferings or diseases; where people live in peace, not harming one another, exempt of pains and concerns.
Tonight I will see people on the moon with my new instruments, says King Afonso in one passage. The Spiritists were more successful and saw them but it is not certain that they envy the destiny of the lunatics. We thought that there isn’t anything that can preclude them from already enjoying that globe.
From all the above one can see the result of the wonderful and supernatural in Spiritism. In order to destroy it completely all we need is to examine the facts that we have just mentioned without preconceived ideas of finding there highly reproachable practices of witchcraft or the action of a fluid whose existence is denied by the scientists.
Anyone that would attend their sessions not subjected to accept the facts by what they pretend to be, Mr. Home and Mr. Dupotet like all players of the same type, will evidently be interested mystifying persons. Their actions will be at most comparable to those of Mr. Bosco with respect to their skills and the latter adds honesty which does not allow to carry the comparison any further. Very different from the magicians that we just mentioned, mediums like Mr. Allan Kardec and generally the mediums of Constantinople, are on the contrary mystified. All of their efforts only lead to the belief of a total mystification of themselves. Despite all the good-will that one may have towards them it is really impossible to take any of their practices seriously. However one must regret the fact that honest persons spend most of their time practicing mistakes that to them become a reality. However inoffensive their mistakes seem to be they can only produce fatal results since they take the place of truth. It is in that aspect that they are reproachable.”
The Spiritists of Constantinople responded themselves through two articles that were published in that newspaper in its numbers 21 and 22 last March. One is from a medium that reports the process through which his mediumship developed and overcame his disbelief. The other one reproduced below is in the name of everyone.
“Mr. Editor,
Your newspaper has just published three lengthy articles entitled: - Spiritism in Constantinople, and for that we ask you to provide us with space to respond with the lines below:
True Spiritism in Constantinople
The Spiritist Doctrine that is based on the belief of an infinitely just and good God, the infinite love; that indicates as the objective to the Spirits created by that very God the path to the ever growing perfection and as a punishment in their spiritual state a most complete perception of that objective, feeling sorry for having moved away from that path, at the same time that the need to restart the ascending march through new incarnations… The Doctrine that teaches the purest moral, the very doctrine exposed so well by Jesus Christ in these simple words: Love one another… Such a doctrine of love, we must say out loud, can very well go without those manifestations that the author of the article – Spiritism in Constantinople – just qualify as mystifications after having promised to explain them beyond Spiritism.
But those manifestations, very much attested today, and whose proof is found in almost every page of mankind’s history, are allowed to continue by God in order to provide everybody the proof of solidarity that exists between incarnate and discarnate Spirits so that ones can help the others and vice versa and that the spiritual being when called to the eternal life may reach the providential objective established by creation more easily and more safely.
If the facts from which such theories stem out and that are the foundation of the Spiritist Doctrine may very well be taken by mystification by certain persons but they should indicate the reasons why and what would be even better to propose other more rational and particularly truer theories.
Now, they may call truth sorcery, witchcraft, prestidigitation and other even more ridiculous names and yet they shall not preclude such truth to propagate and extend its beneficent rays onto the whole mankind.
That is why Spiritism has propagated so fast over the whole planet Earth and why, despite criticisms like the ones in those articles, it does not preclude to count its followers by the millions.
The Spiritists of Constantinople”
We send our congratulations to the Spiritists of Constantinople, both in our personal name and in the name of the members of the Spiritist Society of Paris, with our sincere felicitation to your well-deserved response that showed simultaneously worthiness and moderation.
The letter below was sent to us by Mr. Repos, lawyer and President of the Spiritist Society of Constantinople, witnessing well his dedication to the cause of the doctrine so much so that we consider it to be our duty and sincere pleasure to have it published so that the Spiritists from all countries can be aware that they can count on the fellowship of brothers from the capital of the East. We take the opportunity to also remember another town in the Orient, Smyrna. They also deserve everyone’s sympathy.
“Constantinople, June 15th 1864.
Dear Master and much honored brother in Spiritism,
In time I received your letter dated April 8th that gave me great pleasure as well as to our Spiritist brothers to whom I reported in one of our sessions. I am united to all Spiritists of Constantinople to send our most fraternal feelings to you and to all Spiritists that are member of the Parisian Society. We thank you for the encouragement that you give us and take it as a stimulus to fight for our great cause. Rest assured that we will not fail in the mission that we have undertaken and that all of our efforts will tend to the propagation of truth, love to good and to the intellectual emancipation of the other fellow human beings, our brothers in God, even if we have to sustain the most bloodthirsty battles against our enemies. If there are men that are servile and coward enough to dare fight the truth there are also those that are sufficiently independent and courageous to defend it, therefore obeying the feelings of justice and fraternal love that make a human being a true son of God. It was with great attention that I read the interesting details in your letter with respect to the progress of Spiritism in France and elsewhere. We hope that in the future the idea propagates more and more and that is what we eagerly wish to all of our earthly brothers from all countries and regions. The powerful ray of revelation shines everywhere. Blind is the one that does not see and unwise is the one that denies it and senseless the one that fights against it trying to kill it at its very source. Doesn’t its pure and pristine water come from the eternal spring, spreading the fecund and soothing dew upon the whole Earth that must be regenerated? No human power will then be able to stop it…Don’t we know, in fact, that when a there is a little water break somewhere any effort to stop it will force many others to appear in all directions and in all levels of the social fabric? It is so true that God’s will is omnipotent and that there is no obstacle capable of making opposition to that will or be prepared to be taken down and smashed by the shiny wagon of justice and truth.
Dear Master, I was assigned with the pleasant task of congratulating you in my name and in the name of every Spiritist in the East by the condemnation of your books by the Saint Inquisition of minds, I mean the so called condemnation of the index. Rejoices with all of us your brothers if your work raise great rage that could not harm you but on the contrary only had them unmasked and exposed to ridicule. That trial has already been declared null and the declaration endorsed by the public opinions of all countries.
I am sure you have received the Constantinople papers that I sent you where you could find the articles against Spiritism and the Spiritists. Have you seen our two little answers? What is your opinion? They produced good effect over here and now Spiritism is talked about more than ever before. We look forward to hearing from you in helping us to fight malice and lies, the only resource of the enemies of our doctrine.
The quiet persecution that you have announced has started here. One of our brothers lost his job for his sympathy towards Spiritism, others are attacked and threatened in their dearest family interests or means of survival by the most tenebrous maneuvers of the eternal enemies of light who dare say that Spiritism is the works of the darkness! They are so wrong if that is how they believe to be able to destroy it. Persecution, far from stopping, entails the growth of any idea that comes from above. If speeds up the blossom and maturity because it is the compost that fertilizes; it demonstrates the uselessness of any means that attempts to destroy such idea. Was Christianity muffled by the blood of the martyrs?
So long, dear Master. Kindly believe in my most sincere dedication to you and to our Spiritist brothers of Paris to whom please extend my compliments.
A.Repos Son, Lawyer.”
From all the above one can see the result of the wonderful and supernatural in Spiritism. In order to destroy it completely all we need is to examine the facts that we have just mentioned without preconceived ideas of finding there highly reproachable practices of witchcraft or the action of a fluid whose existence is denied by the scientists.
Anyone that would attend their sessions not subjected to accept the facts by what they pretend to be, Mr. Home and Mr. Dupotet like all players of the same type, will evidently be interested mystifying persons. Their actions will be at most comparable to those of Mr. Bosco with respect to their skills and the latter adds honesty which does not allow to carry the comparison any further. Very different from the magicians that we just mentioned, mediums like Mr. Allan Kardec and generally the mediums of Constantinople, are on the contrary mystified. All of their efforts only lead to the belief of a total mystification of themselves. Despite all the good-will that one may have towards them it is really impossible to take any of their practices seriously. However one must regret the fact that honest persons spend most of their time practicing mistakes that to them become a reality. However inoffensive their mistakes seem to be they can only produce fatal results since they take the place of truth. It is in that aspect that they are reproachable.”
The Spiritists of Constantinople responded themselves through two articles that were published in that newspaper in its numbers 21 and 22 last March. One is from a medium that reports the process through which his mediumship developed and overcame his disbelief. The other one reproduced below is in the name of everyone.
“Mr. Editor,
Your newspaper has just published three lengthy articles entitled: - Spiritism in Constantinople, and for that we ask you to provide us with space to respond with the lines below:
True Spiritism in Constantinople
The Spiritist Doctrine that is based on the belief of an infinitely just and good God, the infinite love; that indicates as the objective to the Spirits created by that very God the path to the ever growing perfection and as a punishment in their spiritual state a most complete perception of that objective, feeling sorry for having moved away from that path, at the same time that the need to restart the ascending march through new incarnations… The Doctrine that teaches the purest moral, the very doctrine exposed so well by Jesus Christ in these simple words: Love one another… Such a doctrine of love, we must say out loud, can very well go without those manifestations that the author of the article – Spiritism in Constantinople – just qualify as mystifications after having promised to explain them beyond Spiritism.
But those manifestations, very much attested today, and whose proof is found in almost every page of mankind’s history, are allowed to continue by God in order to provide everybody the proof of solidarity that exists between incarnate and discarnate Spirits so that ones can help the others and vice versa and that the spiritual being when called to the eternal life may reach the providential objective established by creation more easily and more safely.
If the facts from which such theories stem out and that are the foundation of the Spiritist Doctrine may very well be taken by mystification by certain persons but they should indicate the reasons why and what would be even better to propose other more rational and particularly truer theories.
Now, they may call truth sorcery, witchcraft, prestidigitation and other even more ridiculous names and yet they shall not preclude such truth to propagate and extend its beneficent rays onto the whole mankind.
That is why Spiritism has propagated so fast over the whole planet Earth and why, despite criticisms like the ones in those articles, it does not preclude to count its followers by the millions.
The Spiritists of Constantinople”
We send our congratulations to the Spiritists of Constantinople, both in our personal name and in the name of the members of the Spiritist Society of Paris, with our sincere felicitation to your well-deserved response that showed simultaneously worthiness and moderation.
The letter below was sent to us by Mr. Repos, lawyer and President of the Spiritist Society of Constantinople, witnessing well his dedication to the cause of the doctrine so much so that we consider it to be our duty and sincere pleasure to have it published so that the Spiritists from all countries can be aware that they can count on the fellowship of brothers from the capital of the East. We take the opportunity to also remember another town in the Orient, Smyrna. They also deserve everyone’s sympathy.
“Constantinople, June 15th 1864.
Dear Master and much honored brother in Spiritism,
In time I received your letter dated April 8th that gave me great pleasure as well as to our Spiritist brothers to whom I reported in one of our sessions. I am united to all Spiritists of Constantinople to send our most fraternal feelings to you and to all Spiritists that are member of the Parisian Society. We thank you for the encouragement that you give us and take it as a stimulus to fight for our great cause. Rest assured that we will not fail in the mission that we have undertaken and that all of our efforts will tend to the propagation of truth, love to good and to the intellectual emancipation of the other fellow human beings, our brothers in God, even if we have to sustain the most bloodthirsty battles against our enemies. If there are men that are servile and coward enough to dare fight the truth there are also those that are sufficiently independent and courageous to defend it, therefore obeying the feelings of justice and fraternal love that make a human being a true son of God. It was with great attention that I read the interesting details in your letter with respect to the progress of Spiritism in France and elsewhere. We hope that in the future the idea propagates more and more and that is what we eagerly wish to all of our earthly brothers from all countries and regions. The powerful ray of revelation shines everywhere. Blind is the one that does not see and unwise is the one that denies it and senseless the one that fights against it trying to kill it at its very source. Doesn’t its pure and pristine water come from the eternal spring, spreading the fecund and soothing dew upon the whole Earth that must be regenerated? No human power will then be able to stop it…Don’t we know, in fact, that when a there is a little water break somewhere any effort to stop it will force many others to appear in all directions and in all levels of the social fabric? It is so true that God’s will is omnipotent and that there is no obstacle capable of making opposition to that will or be prepared to be taken down and smashed by the shiny wagon of justice and truth.
Dear Master, I was assigned with the pleasant task of congratulating you in my name and in the name of every Spiritist in the East by the condemnation of your books by the Saint Inquisition of minds, I mean the so called condemnation of the index. Rejoices with all of us your brothers if your work raise great rage that could not harm you but on the contrary only had them unmasked and exposed to ridicule. That trial has already been declared null and the declaration endorsed by the public opinions of all countries.
I am sure you have received the Constantinople papers that I sent you where you could find the articles against Spiritism and the Spiritists. Have you seen our two little answers? What is your opinion? They produced good effect over here and now Spiritism is talked about more than ever before. We look forward to hearing from you in helping us to fight malice and lies, the only resource of the enemies of our doctrine.
The quiet persecution that you have announced has started here. One of our brothers lost his job for his sympathy towards Spiritism, others are attacked and threatened in their dearest family interests or means of survival by the most tenebrous maneuvers of the eternal enemies of light who dare say that Spiritism is the works of the darkness! They are so wrong if that is how they believe to be able to destroy it. Persecution, far from stopping, entails the growth of any idea that comes from above. If speeds up the blossom and maturity because it is the compost that fertilizes; it demonstrates the uselessness of any means that attempts to destroy such idea. Was Christianity muffled by the blood of the martyrs?
So long, dear Master. Kindly believe in my most sincere dedication to you and to our Spiritist brothers of Paris to whom please extend my compliments.
A.Repos Son, Lawyer.”
September 23rd, 1863
Chronicles of Paris
Regarding the ghosts in the theaters that is how our correspondent concludes after having given his report:
- In the next winter everyone will be able to take their friends for a fun time in the now made popular shows with some ghosts and other supernatural curiosities. After the meal the candles will be put out and modern ghosts will be seen dressed up in their shrouds, replacing the funny songs that we used to hear from our grandparents in the old days. Instead of refreshments people will see ghosts parading at dance parties. What a charming distraction! It gives us the goose bumps just by thinking of that.”
The author then moves on to Spiritism:
Since we are talking about supernatural things we cannot but mention The Spirits’ Book. What an attractive title! How many mysteries behind it? Now, if we take into account its starting point how many paths were covered by such ideas in recent years? In the beginning, those not yet explained phenomena consisted on a simple table that would move by the imposition of hands. Today the tables are not satisfied by turning around only or by jumping or stand on a single foot or somersaults. They go further: They speak! When I say “speak” it means that they have their own alphabet and even several of them. All they need is a question addressed to them followed by an answer through knocks with the foot or even by a pencil that starts doodling signs, words or even full sentences on a piece of paper held by someone’s hand; all that coming from an unknown and strange mind. The hand then becomes a simple instrument, a pencil-holder, and the person remains foreign to anything that takes place.
Spiritism – that is how the science of such phenomena is called – has made great progresses in facts and events in just a few years but the theory, in my opinion, has not followed suit since it remained stationary and here is why: it is undisputable, unless the persons involved with such a matter want to deceive us and themselves, it is undisputable that the facts do exist. They are not only revealed by the turning tables. They take place every day at all times. They excite everybody’s imagination but it stops there. Let us exemplify: two persons share the same thought or say the same word; we think of someone that we do not see often and that person shows up unexpectedly; someone knocks at the door and although outside we guess correctly who the person is; a letter with funds get to our hands in times of need; that and so many other events so frequent and so much known by everybody. Can all that be attributed to chance? No, there is no way that such events can be attributed to chance. Now, why wouldn’t that be some sort of fluidic communication that goes undetected by our physical organization, like a sixth sense of a more elevated nature? Nobody knows the dwelling of the soul that is invisible, imponderable and intangible, however given our significant conviction we can attest its existence. What is the essence of electricity? Magnetism? Nonetheless the effects of electricity and magnetism are continually present before our eyes. I am persuaded that the same will one day apply to Spiritism or whatever the name that science will definitely find convenient to give it.
Some time ago I saw several cases of catalepsy, magnetization and Spiritism and I cannot have any doubt about it but what seems more difficult to me is to explain them and have them attributed to one cause or another. It is therefore necessary to proceed with caution and reservation, abstaining from falling by one extreme or the other: denial of everything or having them all assigned to a premature theory.
The existence of the phenomena is incontestable; its theory is still to be revealed, and that is the current state of affairs. One cannot deny that there is something singular and dignified to be examined in this idea that has agitated the whole world and that resurges stronger than ever in periodicals that operate like archives of observation; ideas that have moved minds in Austria, Italy and America, that give rise to meetings in France, a country in which such things are rarely found and where the government do not tolerate them very much. Such a general invasion produces a marked impression and has high relevance. It is then necessary to verify the phenomena with prudence and without preconceived ideas, in good faith up until they can be explained, something that will one day happen if God decides to reveal to us the nature of that mysterious agent.”
-o-
As one can see the author is not much advanced but at least he does not judge something that he does not know. He acknowledges the existence of the phenomena but has not recognized the mode of production. He ignores the progresses of the theoretical part of the science and goes on to provide a very wise advice that is the avoidance of adventurous theories, like each one was trying to do, for that was the reason why each one of those premature systems failed before future events that stood against them.
Today we have the rational theory in which not a single point was admitted as hypothetical for everything is deduced from experience and from the attentive observation of the facts. One can say that in that regards Spiritism has been studied like the exact sciences.
Denied in the past this science has not yet told us everything and there is still a lot for us to learn but it has said enough to establish the fundamental basis and to know that those phenomena are not outside the scope of the natural phenomena. They were qualified as supernatural and wonderful for a lack of knowledge of the laws that govern them as has also happened to the majority of the physical phenomena. By revealing that law Spiritism restricts the circle of the supernatural instead of enlarging that. We say more: Spiritism swings the final blow onto the supernatural. Those who say otherwise demonstrate that they have not studied Spiritism. We have the pleasure to attest the progress of the Spiritist idea in Rio de Janeiro where it counts on a large number of keen and devoted representatives. The little book “Spiritism in its simplest expression” has contributed significantly to spread the true principles of the doctrine there.
Chronicles of Paris
Regarding the ghosts in the theaters that is how our correspondent concludes after having given his report:
- In the next winter everyone will be able to take their friends for a fun time in the now made popular shows with some ghosts and other supernatural curiosities. After the meal the candles will be put out and modern ghosts will be seen dressed up in their shrouds, replacing the funny songs that we used to hear from our grandparents in the old days. Instead of refreshments people will see ghosts parading at dance parties. What a charming distraction! It gives us the goose bumps just by thinking of that.”
The author then moves on to Spiritism:
Since we are talking about supernatural things we cannot but mention The Spirits’ Book. What an attractive title! How many mysteries behind it? Now, if we take into account its starting point how many paths were covered by such ideas in recent years? In the beginning, those not yet explained phenomena consisted on a simple table that would move by the imposition of hands. Today the tables are not satisfied by turning around only or by jumping or stand on a single foot or somersaults. They go further: They speak! When I say “speak” it means that they have their own alphabet and even several of them. All they need is a question addressed to them followed by an answer through knocks with the foot or even by a pencil that starts doodling signs, words or even full sentences on a piece of paper held by someone’s hand; all that coming from an unknown and strange mind. The hand then becomes a simple instrument, a pencil-holder, and the person remains foreign to anything that takes place.
Spiritism – that is how the science of such phenomena is called – has made great progresses in facts and events in just a few years but the theory, in my opinion, has not followed suit since it remained stationary and here is why: it is undisputable, unless the persons involved with such a matter want to deceive us and themselves, it is undisputable that the facts do exist. They are not only revealed by the turning tables. They take place every day at all times. They excite everybody’s imagination but it stops there. Let us exemplify: two persons share the same thought or say the same word; we think of someone that we do not see often and that person shows up unexpectedly; someone knocks at the door and although outside we guess correctly who the person is; a letter with funds get to our hands in times of need; that and so many other events so frequent and so much known by everybody. Can all that be attributed to chance? No, there is no way that such events can be attributed to chance. Now, why wouldn’t that be some sort of fluidic communication that goes undetected by our physical organization, like a sixth sense of a more elevated nature? Nobody knows the dwelling of the soul that is invisible, imponderable and intangible, however given our significant conviction we can attest its existence. What is the essence of electricity? Magnetism? Nonetheless the effects of electricity and magnetism are continually present before our eyes. I am persuaded that the same will one day apply to Spiritism or whatever the name that science will definitely find convenient to give it.
Some time ago I saw several cases of catalepsy, magnetization and Spiritism and I cannot have any doubt about it but what seems more difficult to me is to explain them and have them attributed to one cause or another. It is therefore necessary to proceed with caution and reservation, abstaining from falling by one extreme or the other: denial of everything or having them all assigned to a premature theory.
The existence of the phenomena is incontestable; its theory is still to be revealed, and that is the current state of affairs. One cannot deny that there is something singular and dignified to be examined in this idea that has agitated the whole world and that resurges stronger than ever in periodicals that operate like archives of observation; ideas that have moved minds in Austria, Italy and America, that give rise to meetings in France, a country in which such things are rarely found and where the government do not tolerate them very much. Such a general invasion produces a marked impression and has high relevance. It is then necessary to verify the phenomena with prudence and without preconceived ideas, in good faith up until they can be explained, something that will one day happen if God decides to reveal to us the nature of that mysterious agent.”
-o-
As one can see the author is not much advanced but at least he does not judge something that he does not know. He acknowledges the existence of the phenomena but has not recognized the mode of production. He ignores the progresses of the theoretical part of the science and goes on to provide a very wise advice that is the avoidance of adventurous theories, like each one was trying to do, for that was the reason why each one of those premature systems failed before future events that stood against them.
Today we have the rational theory in which not a single point was admitted as hypothetical for everything is deduced from experience and from the attentive observation of the facts. One can say that in that regards Spiritism has been studied like the exact sciences.
Denied in the past this science has not yet told us everything and there is still a lot for us to learn but it has said enough to establish the fundamental basis and to know that those phenomena are not outside the scope of the natural phenomena. They were qualified as supernatural and wonderful for a lack of knowledge of the laws that govern them as has also happened to the majority of the physical phenomena. By revealing that law Spiritism restricts the circle of the supernatural instead of enlarging that. We say more: Spiritism swings the final blow onto the supernatural. Those who say otherwise demonstrate that they have not studied Spiritism. We have the pleasure to attest the progress of the Spiritist idea in Rio de Janeiro where it counts on a large number of keen and devoted representatives. The little book “Spiritism in its simplest expression” has contributed significantly to spread the true principles of the doctrine there.
March 28th, 1864
To the Editor, Colonial Progress
Dear Sir,
Knowing your liberalism and also knowing that you are involved with Spiritism I kindly ask you to have the attached letter inserted into the next issue of the Spiritist Review; the letter was addressed to Mr. Priest de Régnon and I let you make the judgement that you consider adequate in the interest of truth. I count on your impartiality dare thinking that you will open the doors of your journal to me for all the complaints of the kind that I am honored to send you.
I am your humble servant,
… C.
“To Mr. Priest de Régnon
Port-Louis, March 26th, 1864
Mr. Priest,
In your last Thursday sermon of March 24th you attacked Spiritism but I wish to believe that you did so in good faith given the fact that the arguments that you used against Spiritism were not entirely accurate. From our side, convict Spiritists, it is regrettable that you sought them outside the positive source of that science. Had you studied it a little and you would had known that we repeal, as you do, every communication that may come from rude and deceiving Spirits that will minor experience are easily identified and that we are associated only to those communications that are clear, rational and according to the laws of God, that you know as much as we do has allowed the Spiritist manifestations at all times. The Sacred Scriptures are here as a proof of that. As a matter of fact you do not deny the existence of the Spirits, on the contrary, you only admit the bad ones. That is the difference between us. We are certain about the existence of the good Spirits and that their advices, when followed – and every true Spiritist will always follow them – lead more souls to God and do much more proselytes of religion than you can imagine. However, to understand and practice that science, as well as all others, it is necessary to study and get to know it well, to begin with. Therefore, Mr. Priest, I advise you in your own interest first and then in the interest of everyone else that has the honor of hearing you that you should read one of the main books of the subject, The Spirits’ Book, dictated by those good Spirits to Mr. Allan Kardec, president of the Spiritist Society of Paris, formed by serious and in its majority well educated people. You will then see that only ignorant persons will be deceived by false names and lies and that one can easily recognize the tree by the fruits it bears. Would it be necessary for me to remind you of the 3rd Epistle of John, verses 1-3, about the way we can check the Spirits? Yes, I agree that Spiritism is a science that like the best things in the world may sometimes produce evil things if practiced by those that have not studied and practice it carelessly.
But in that case should you, a cautious man, judged that doctrine without knowing it? Should our beautiful Christian doctrine be judged by the actions of so many senseless, ignorant and even evil persons that committed so many crimes and shed so much blood in its name? No, Mr. Priest, it is not fair nor rational to pass reckless judgment on things that we have not certified beforehand. Leave the surface and move on to the depth of knowledge and then you will be able to handle the matter with actual knowledge and we will listen to you with reverence because you will then undoubtedly be with the truth and we will no longer smile in silence saying to ourselves: He speaks of what he doesn’t know.”
A Spiritist
If Spiritism counts on detractors it also counts on defenders everywhere even in the most distant places. The author of this letter published a very interesting novel in the same journal, a novel based on Spiritism that powerfully contributed to the diffusion of these ideas in that region. We shall handle this on another occasion.
“Spiritism is definitely something horrible because no science, no heretic doctrine has ever raised stronger opposition in the heart of the Church than Spiritism, not even atheism. All imaginable resources, ethical or not, were employed first to muffle it and later on, when realized the total impossibility of destroying Spiritism, to stain it or to show it under the dark image of sin. Poor Spiritism! It was only claiming a little place under the sun to allow the world to freely enjoy its benefits. It did not ask those supposedly disciples of Jesus Christ, the man called love, to bring the word charity inscribed on their faces; all it wanted was to redirect those thousands of stray sheep to the good path, those that were failed by the pretense disciples; all it wanted was to second Jesus in his mission of devotion, healing with hope the poor hearts damaged by the gangrene of doubt and such a selfless and pure request was responded with a decree of prohibition!”
In reality we see strange things in this world: The official messengers of charity condemn more than nine tenths of mankind because they escape their influence and condemn even more severely the ones that wish to save those unfortunate ones.
“Therefore, and without a doubt, Spiritism is something much culpable because it is so much fought against and it seems strange that such a perverse doctrine may have conquered such a large space in such a short period of time. However what must seem much more remarkable is that the abhorrent Spiritism is so sturdily established and so much logical that all arguments raised against it come to contribute to its solidification and propagation despite the attempts of destroying and reducing it to nothing. In fact it is partially due to the obstacles lifted against Spiritism that it owns it fast propagation and the careless sermons of certain adversaries have do not have insignificant contribution to its spread. That is what happens in the natural order of things. Truth has no fear of its adversaries and they are in fact the contributors of its triumph. Spiritism is a tremendous focus of heat and light and whoever blows over such brazier will both infallibly burn oneself a little and revive it even further. Nonetheless commandments and conferences seem insufficient to destroy Spiritism – we are far from denying that definite insufficiency – the Roman congregation has just placed all books by Mr. Allan Kardec in the index[1], books that contain the universal teachings of the Spirits to whom all of us Spiritists are connected. Allow us to make the two considerations below with that respect:
The Spiritist books in question, no doubt, contain the purest and the required development by the current stage of evolution of humanity, the precepts of Jesus acknowledged to be a Messiah by the Spirits. By condemning those books, therefore, aren’t they condemning the words of Christ in a single blow, and by placing the books in the index isn’t the same of placing the Gospels there, the Gospels that are in agreement with us? Second reflection: isn’t the measure taken today a little bit late? Why wait so long? In addition to being more or less inexplicable (unless you believe that Spiritism seems so much truthful and that you are so much persuaded of its success that you hesitated to face it for a long time and that a very powerful personal interest led you to do so – since we do not have the pretension of considering you ignorant) and awkward. In fact The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums’ Book and the Imitation of the Gospels According to Spiritism are equally in the hands of thousands of people, and we doubt very much that the condemnation by the Roman congregation may now turn bad what everyone considered good and noble.
Regardless, the Spiritist books were placed in the index. That is even better because many of those that have not read them yet will now devour them! Seven out of ten persons that browse the books will be convinced or remain strongly shaken and willing to study the Spiritist phenomena. Even better because when our adversaries find out that their efforts lead to results in direct opposition to the expected results will change sides if they are sincere, selfless and have the enlightenment required by the ministry. In fact that is required by God’s law since nothing in this world may remain stationary but instead everything progresses and the religious idea must follow the general progress or disappear. Consequently, may all of our adversaries continue their crusade! They have already compromised the ordinations, sermons, public courses, occult influences and sometimes apparently victorious due to the state of dependence of those upon whom their tyranny is thrown; they used the auto of faith, publically burning our books in Barcelona. Since they could only burn a few books and seeing the astonishing way by which they were replaced they were finally placed in the index. Ah! Since the inquisition is no longer tolerated, although it is far from being annihilated and still operates under different formats with the support of hidden influences such as those mentioned above, the only thing that still remains is the mass excommunication of all Spiritists, that is, a remarkable percentage of people and in particular a notable percentage of Christians! (We are only talking about the confess Spiritists because there is also the large number of those that are Spiritists without knowing it).”
[1] The Index – List of Prohibited Books – was a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and therefore banned by the Roman Catholic Church (TN).
To the Editor, Colonial Progress
Dear Sir,
Knowing your liberalism and also knowing that you are involved with Spiritism I kindly ask you to have the attached letter inserted into the next issue of the Spiritist Review; the letter was addressed to Mr. Priest de Régnon and I let you make the judgement that you consider adequate in the interest of truth. I count on your impartiality dare thinking that you will open the doors of your journal to me for all the complaints of the kind that I am honored to send you.
I am your humble servant,
… C.
“To Mr. Priest de Régnon
Port-Louis, March 26th, 1864
Mr. Priest,
In your last Thursday sermon of March 24th you attacked Spiritism but I wish to believe that you did so in good faith given the fact that the arguments that you used against Spiritism were not entirely accurate. From our side, convict Spiritists, it is regrettable that you sought them outside the positive source of that science. Had you studied it a little and you would had known that we repeal, as you do, every communication that may come from rude and deceiving Spirits that will minor experience are easily identified and that we are associated only to those communications that are clear, rational and according to the laws of God, that you know as much as we do has allowed the Spiritist manifestations at all times. The Sacred Scriptures are here as a proof of that. As a matter of fact you do not deny the existence of the Spirits, on the contrary, you only admit the bad ones. That is the difference between us. We are certain about the existence of the good Spirits and that their advices, when followed – and every true Spiritist will always follow them – lead more souls to God and do much more proselytes of religion than you can imagine. However, to understand and practice that science, as well as all others, it is necessary to study and get to know it well, to begin with. Therefore, Mr. Priest, I advise you in your own interest first and then in the interest of everyone else that has the honor of hearing you that you should read one of the main books of the subject, The Spirits’ Book, dictated by those good Spirits to Mr. Allan Kardec, president of the Spiritist Society of Paris, formed by serious and in its majority well educated people. You will then see that only ignorant persons will be deceived by false names and lies and that one can easily recognize the tree by the fruits it bears. Would it be necessary for me to remind you of the 3rd Epistle of John, verses 1-3, about the way we can check the Spirits? Yes, I agree that Spiritism is a science that like the best things in the world may sometimes produce evil things if practiced by those that have not studied and practice it carelessly.
But in that case should you, a cautious man, judged that doctrine without knowing it? Should our beautiful Christian doctrine be judged by the actions of so many senseless, ignorant and even evil persons that committed so many crimes and shed so much blood in its name? No, Mr. Priest, it is not fair nor rational to pass reckless judgment on things that we have not certified beforehand. Leave the surface and move on to the depth of knowledge and then you will be able to handle the matter with actual knowledge and we will listen to you with reverence because you will then undoubtedly be with the truth and we will no longer smile in silence saying to ourselves: He speaks of what he doesn’t know.”
A Spiritist
If Spiritism counts on detractors it also counts on defenders everywhere even in the most distant places. The author of this letter published a very interesting novel in the same journal, a novel based on Spiritism that powerfully contributed to the diffusion of these ideas in that region. We shall handle this on another occasion.
“Spiritism is definitely something horrible because no science, no heretic doctrine has ever raised stronger opposition in the heart of the Church than Spiritism, not even atheism. All imaginable resources, ethical or not, were employed first to muffle it and later on, when realized the total impossibility of destroying Spiritism, to stain it or to show it under the dark image of sin. Poor Spiritism! It was only claiming a little place under the sun to allow the world to freely enjoy its benefits. It did not ask those supposedly disciples of Jesus Christ, the man called love, to bring the word charity inscribed on their faces; all it wanted was to redirect those thousands of stray sheep to the good path, those that were failed by the pretense disciples; all it wanted was to second Jesus in his mission of devotion, healing with hope the poor hearts damaged by the gangrene of doubt and such a selfless and pure request was responded with a decree of prohibition!”
In reality we see strange things in this world: The official messengers of charity condemn more than nine tenths of mankind because they escape their influence and condemn even more severely the ones that wish to save those unfortunate ones.
“Therefore, and without a doubt, Spiritism is something much culpable because it is so much fought against and it seems strange that such a perverse doctrine may have conquered such a large space in such a short period of time. However what must seem much more remarkable is that the abhorrent Spiritism is so sturdily established and so much logical that all arguments raised against it come to contribute to its solidification and propagation despite the attempts of destroying and reducing it to nothing. In fact it is partially due to the obstacles lifted against Spiritism that it owns it fast propagation and the careless sermons of certain adversaries have do not have insignificant contribution to its spread. That is what happens in the natural order of things. Truth has no fear of its adversaries and they are in fact the contributors of its triumph. Spiritism is a tremendous focus of heat and light and whoever blows over such brazier will both infallibly burn oneself a little and revive it even further. Nonetheless commandments and conferences seem insufficient to destroy Spiritism – we are far from denying that definite insufficiency – the Roman congregation has just placed all books by Mr. Allan Kardec in the index[1], books that contain the universal teachings of the Spirits to whom all of us Spiritists are connected. Allow us to make the two considerations below with that respect:
The Spiritist books in question, no doubt, contain the purest and the required development by the current stage of evolution of humanity, the precepts of Jesus acknowledged to be a Messiah by the Spirits. By condemning those books, therefore, aren’t they condemning the words of Christ in a single blow, and by placing the books in the index isn’t the same of placing the Gospels there, the Gospels that are in agreement with us? Second reflection: isn’t the measure taken today a little bit late? Why wait so long? In addition to being more or less inexplicable (unless you believe that Spiritism seems so much truthful and that you are so much persuaded of its success that you hesitated to face it for a long time and that a very powerful personal interest led you to do so – since we do not have the pretension of considering you ignorant) and awkward. In fact The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums’ Book and the Imitation of the Gospels According to Spiritism are equally in the hands of thousands of people, and we doubt very much that the condemnation by the Roman congregation may now turn bad what everyone considered good and noble.
Regardless, the Spiritist books were placed in the index. That is even better because many of those that have not read them yet will now devour them! Seven out of ten persons that browse the books will be convinced or remain strongly shaken and willing to study the Spiritist phenomena. Even better because when our adversaries find out that their efforts lead to results in direct opposition to the expected results will change sides if they are sincere, selfless and have the enlightenment required by the ministry. In fact that is required by God’s law since nothing in this world may remain stationary but instead everything progresses and the religious idea must follow the general progress or disappear. Consequently, may all of our adversaries continue their crusade! They have already compromised the ordinations, sermons, public courses, occult influences and sometimes apparently victorious due to the state of dependence of those upon whom their tyranny is thrown; they used the auto of faith, publically burning our books in Barcelona. Since they could only burn a few books and seeing the astonishing way by which they were replaced they were finally placed in the index. Ah! Since the inquisition is no longer tolerated, although it is far from being annihilated and still operates under different formats with the support of hidden influences such as those mentioned above, the only thing that still remains is the mass excommunication of all Spiritists, that is, a remarkable percentage of people and in particular a notable percentage of Christians! (We are only talking about the confess Spiritists because there is also the large number of those that are Spiritists without knowing it).”
[1] The Index – List of Prohibited Books – was a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and therefore banned by the Roman Catholic Church (TN).
“Spiritism is definitely something horrible because no science, no heretic doctrine has ever raised stronger opposition in the heart of the Church than Spiritism, not even atheism. All imaginable resources, ethical or not, were employed first to muffle it and later on, when realized the total impossibility of destroying Spiritism, to stain it or to show it under the dark image of sin. Poor Spiritism! It was only claiming a little place under the sun to allow the world to freely enjoy its benefits. It did not ask those supposedly disciples of Jesus Christ, the man called love, to bring the word charity inscribed on their faces; all it wanted was to redirect those thousands of stray sheep to the good path, those that were failed by the pretense disciples; all it wanted was to second Jesus in his mission of devotion, healing with hope the poor hearts damaged by the gangrene of doubt and such a selfless and pure request was responded with a decree of prohibition!”
In reality we see strange things in this world: The official messengers of charity condemn more than nine tenths of mankind because they escape their influence and condemn even more severely the ones that wish to save those unfortunate ones.
“Therefore, and without a doubt, Spiritism is something much culpable because it is so much fought against and it seems strange that such a perverse doctrine may have conquered such a large space in such a short period of time. However what must seem much more remarkable is that the abhorrent Spiritism is so sturdily established and so much logical that all arguments raised against it come to contribute to its solidification and propagation despite the attempts of destroying and reducing it to nothing. In fact it is partially due to the obstacles lifted against Spiritism that it owns it fast propagation and the careless sermons of certain adversaries have do not have insignificant contribution to its spread. That is what happens in the natural order of things. Truth has no fear of its adversaries and they are in fact the contributors of its triumph. Spiritism is a tremendous focus of heat and light and whoever blows over such brazier will both infallibly burn oneself a little and revive it even further. Nonetheless commandments and conferences seem insufficient to destroy Spiritism – we are far from denying that definite insufficiency – the Roman congregation has just placed all books by Mr. Allan Kardec in the index[1], books that contain the universal teachings of the Spirits to whom all of us Spiritists are connected. Allow us to make the two considerations below with that respect:
The Spiritist books in question, no doubt, contain the purest and the required development by the current stage of evolution of humanity, the precepts of Jesus acknowledged to be a Messiah by the Spirits. By condemning those books, therefore, aren’t they condemning the words of Christ in a single blow, and by placing the books in the index isn’t the same of placing the Gospels there, the Gospels that are in agreement with us? Second reflection: isn’t the measure taken today a little bit late? Why wait so long? In addition to being more or less inexplicable (unless you believe that Spiritism seems so much truthful and that you are so much persuaded of its success that you hesitated to face it for a long time and that a very powerful personal interest led you to do so – since we do not have the pretension of considering you ignorant) and awkward. In fact The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums’ Book and the Imitation of the Gospels According to Spiritism are equally in the hands of thousands of people, and we doubt very much that the condemnation by the Roman congregation may now turn bad what everyone considered good and noble.
Regardless, the Spiritist books were placed in the index. That is even better because many of those that have not read them yet will now devour them! Seven out of ten persons that browse the books will be convinced or remain strongly shaken and willing to study the Spiritist phenomena. Even better because when our adversaries find out that their efforts lead to results in direct opposition to the expected results will change sides if they are sincere, selfless and have the enlightenment required by the ministry. In fact that is required by God’s law since nothing in this world may remain stationary but instead everything progresses and the religious idea must follow the general progress or disappear. Consequently, may all of our adversaries continue their crusade! They have already compromised the ordinations, sermons, public courses, occult influences and sometimes apparently victorious due to the state of dependence of those upon whom their tyranny is thrown; they used the auto of faith, publically burning our books in Barcelona. Since they could only burn a few books and seeing the astonishing way by which they were replaced they were finally placed in the index. Ah! Since the inquisition is no longer tolerated, although it is far from being annihilated and still operates under different formats with the support of hidden influences such as those mentioned above, the only thing that still remains is the mass excommunication of all Spiritists, that is, a remarkable percentage of people and in particular a notable percentage of Christians! (We are only talking about the confess Spiritists because there is also the large number of those that are Spiritists without knowing it).”
[1] The Index – List of Prohibited Books – was a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and therefore banned by the Roman Catholic Church (TN).
In reality we see strange things in this world: The official messengers of charity condemn more than nine tenths of mankind because they escape their influence and condemn even more severely the ones that wish to save those unfortunate ones.
“Therefore, and without a doubt, Spiritism is something much culpable because it is so much fought against and it seems strange that such a perverse doctrine may have conquered such a large space in such a short period of time. However what must seem much more remarkable is that the abhorrent Spiritism is so sturdily established and so much logical that all arguments raised against it come to contribute to its solidification and propagation despite the attempts of destroying and reducing it to nothing. In fact it is partially due to the obstacles lifted against Spiritism that it owns it fast propagation and the careless sermons of certain adversaries have do not have insignificant contribution to its spread. That is what happens in the natural order of things. Truth has no fear of its adversaries and they are in fact the contributors of its triumph. Spiritism is a tremendous focus of heat and light and whoever blows over such brazier will both infallibly burn oneself a little and revive it even further. Nonetheless commandments and conferences seem insufficient to destroy Spiritism – we are far from denying that definite insufficiency – the Roman congregation has just placed all books by Mr. Allan Kardec in the index[1], books that contain the universal teachings of the Spirits to whom all of us Spiritists are connected. Allow us to make the two considerations below with that respect:
The Spiritist books in question, no doubt, contain the purest and the required development by the current stage of evolution of humanity, the precepts of Jesus acknowledged to be a Messiah by the Spirits. By condemning those books, therefore, aren’t they condemning the words of Christ in a single blow, and by placing the books in the index isn’t the same of placing the Gospels there, the Gospels that are in agreement with us? Second reflection: isn’t the measure taken today a little bit late? Why wait so long? In addition to being more or less inexplicable (unless you believe that Spiritism seems so much truthful and that you are so much persuaded of its success that you hesitated to face it for a long time and that a very powerful personal interest led you to do so – since we do not have the pretension of considering you ignorant) and awkward. In fact The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums’ Book and the Imitation of the Gospels According to Spiritism are equally in the hands of thousands of people, and we doubt very much that the condemnation by the Roman congregation may now turn bad what everyone considered good and noble.
Regardless, the Spiritist books were placed in the index. That is even better because many of those that have not read them yet will now devour them! Seven out of ten persons that browse the books will be convinced or remain strongly shaken and willing to study the Spiritist phenomena. Even better because when our adversaries find out that their efforts lead to results in direct opposition to the expected results will change sides if they are sincere, selfless and have the enlightenment required by the ministry. In fact that is required by God’s law since nothing in this world may remain stationary but instead everything progresses and the religious idea must follow the general progress or disappear. Consequently, may all of our adversaries continue their crusade! They have already compromised the ordinations, sermons, public courses, occult influences and sometimes apparently victorious due to the state of dependence of those upon whom their tyranny is thrown; they used the auto of faith, publically burning our books in Barcelona. Since they could only burn a few books and seeing the astonishing way by which they were replaced they were finally placed in the index. Ah! Since the inquisition is no longer tolerated, although it is far from being annihilated and still operates under different formats with the support of hidden influences such as those mentioned above, the only thing that still remains is the mass excommunication of all Spiritists, that is, a remarkable percentage of people and in particular a notable percentage of Christians! (We are only talking about the confess Spiritists because there is also the large number of those that are Spiritists without knowing it).”
[1] The Index – List of Prohibited Books – was a list of publications deemed heretical, anti-clerical or lascivious, and therefore banned by the Roman Catholic Church (TN).
Note: In one of the sessions of the Spiritist Society of Paris in which we had discussed the commotion that generally follows death, one Spirit manifested spontaneously to Mrs. Costel through the communication that follows and is not signed:
“Why do you discuss commotion? Why such hopeless words? You are dreamers and visionaries. You totally ignore things that you are dealing with. No, gentlemen, there is no disruption except perhaps in your minds. I am so recently dead as possible I clearly see myself, around me, everywhere… Life is a gloomy comedy! Awkward the ones that take us out of scene before the curtain is down… Deaf is horrible, a punishment, a desire, according to the weakness or strength of those that fear it, defy or implore for that. It is a bitter derision to everyone!
Light obfuscates and penetrates the subtleness of my being like the acute spear… I was punished by the darkness of prison and they thought I was punished again by the darkness of the grave or the ones dreamed by the Catholic superstitions.
Ah! It is you, gentlemen that suffer the darkness and I, social pariah, I float above you… I want to continue to be myself… I am strong in my thoughts and I disdain the warnings that resonate around me… I see clearly… A crime! It is a word! Crime is everywhere. When practiced by masses of men, it is glorified; in particular it is hated. Absurd! Don’t feel sorry for me… I ask for nothing… I suffice myself and will know very well how to fight against this hateful light.
The one that was a man yesterday.”
After analyzing this communication in the following session it was recognized in the very cynicism of the language a serious teaching and in the situation of this miserable soul we found a new phase of punishment that reaches the guilty ones. In fact while some are embedded in darkness or in an absolute isolation others withstand for long years the anguishes of their last hour, or even still consider to be part of this world. Light shines for this one; the Spirit enjoys the plenitude of its faculties; he knows perfectly well that he is dead and regrets nothing; asks for no assistance and still defies the divine and human laws.
Will that Spirit then escape punishment? No. What happens is that divine justice takes place in all shapes and forms and what is happiness to some to others it is a torment. That light is an ordeal against which the Spirits fights continually and despite his pride he confesses it when says: “I suffice to myself and will know very well how to fight against that hateful light” and in this other phrase: “Light obfuscates and penetrates the subtleness of my being like the acute spear”. The words subtleness of my being are telling. He acknowledges that his body is fluidic and penetrable by light from which he cannot evade and such a light surpasses like an acute spear. When requested to provide their opinion about the matter our guides dictated the three following communications that deserve serious attention:
(Medium: Mr. A. Didier)
“There are tests without atonements and atonements without tests. In erraticity[1] from the point of view of the existences the Spirits are inactive and waiting. They can, however, atone considering their pride and the formidable strength of their mistakes to not keep them behind at the time of their progressing ascension. You have a terrible example in the last communication with respect to a criminal that fights against the divine justice that constrains him and that of man as well. In such a case then the atonement, or even better, the fatal suffering that oppresses him instead of benefiting him by making him feel the profound meaning of his penalties, it exalts that suffering in his rebellion, making him groan or “gnashing of teeth” found in the poetic eloquence of the Scriptures[2], an image by excellence, symbol of a restive suffering, lost in pain but in such a rebellious state that the soul refuses to acknowledge the truth of the penalties and rewards! The great mistakes almost always linger on in the world of the Spirits. By the same token the great criminal minds. To be in control of oneself, despite everything else, and boasting before infinity is like the blindness of a person that gaze the stars and believe them to be decorations on a ceiling, like the Gallic from the times of Alexander. There is a moral infinity! Miserable and pitiful is the one that with the excuse of trying to continue the disgusting struggles and bragging of Earth cannot see further in the other world than down here! For these remains the blindness, the neglect of others, the selfish and petty personality and the stagnation of progress! It is very true, oh mankind, that there is a secret agreement between the immortality of a pure name left on Earth and the immortality that really keeps the Spirits in their successive trials.”
Lamennais
Observation: To understand the meaning of the phrase “there are tests without atonements and atonements without tests” it is necessary to understand atonement as the suffering that purifies and cleans the stains of the past. After the atonement the Spirit is rehabilitated. Lamennais’ thought is this: according to the vicissitudes of life being followed or not followed by the regret of the faults that led to them, by the desire to turn them into something useful to one’s own betterment, there will be or not be atonement, that is, rehabilitation. Therefore the greatest sufferings may not be useful to the one that suffers is such a suffering does not make them better; if they do not rise above matter; if they do not see the hand of God in that; if, finally, it does not make them move one step forward because such a Spirit will have to re-start in even more painful conditions. From that point of view the same happens to the penalties endured after death. The hardened Spirit suffer without being touched by regret. That is why the Spirit can extend that out of their own will. The Spirit is punished but there is no regret.
(Medium Mr. D’Ambel)
Throw a man in darkness or in waves of light: won’t the result be the same? In either case that man sees nothing around and will even adapt more rapidly to the shadow than to the triple electric clarity in which one can be submerse. That is how the Spirit that communicated in the last session expresses the truth of his situation when says:
“I suit myself and will know very well how to fight against this hateful light!” In fact such a light is the more terrible and the more scaring the more it makes one’s most secret thoughts visible and apparent. That is one of the hardest spiritual punishments. He is like an intern in a glass house like the one requested by Socrates, being that a teaching considering that what would be a joy and consolation to the wise man becomes a dishonorable and continuous punishment of the criminal, the perverse and parricide, haunted by his own personality. Can you understand, my children that the pain and horror that must hinder the one that during a sinister life was happy to plot and feed the saddest thoughts in the inner core of their own being, like a hiding beast in a cave, now expelled from that private refuge, hiding from the eyes and investigation of his contemporaries? The mask of impassivity is now yanked and each of his thoughts shows successively on his face! Yes, from now on no more resting or asylum to that formidable criminal! Every bad thought, and God knows his soul well, betrays itself from the inside and outside like a strong electric shock. He wants to avoid the crowds but the hateful light continuously surrounds him. He wants to flee, escaping in a desperate surge through the incommensurable space but light is everywhere! Staring eyes landing on him from all sides. He rushes again seeking the shadow, the darkness but there is none for him. He demands the help of death but death is a meaningless word. The miserable runs nonstop. He moves towards spiritual madness, terrible punishment, horrible pain in which there will always be the struggle against himself on trying to disentangle his own soul because that is the supreme law on this Earth: it is the guilty person that becomes the most inexorable punishment to oneself.
How long will that last? Up to the time when the finally broken will bends before the overpowering pressure of remorse and in which his pride shall be humiliated before his appeased victims and the Spirits of justice. Observe the robust logic of the immutable laws for he will still accomplish what was written in that haughtily message, clear, lucid and also so much full of himself, in a communication voluntarily given on the last Friday.”
Protector Spirit of the medium
(Medium Mr. Costel)
“Human justice does not privilege the individuality of those that are punished. The crime is measured by the crime itself, indistinctly reaching the criminal, the same punishment applied to the guilty one without distinction of gender and education. The divine justice proceeds differently. The degree of punishment corresponds to the level of advancement of those involved. The equality of crimes does not correspond to equality of individuals so that two persons guilty of the same crime may be separated by distance of the atonements being one in intellectual opacity of the first initiating circles and the other overpassed those circles and acquired the lucidity that frees the Spirit of any confusion. Hence no more the punishment of ignorance but the spiritual light of awareness. That reaches the earthly intelligence and leads to the anguish of the exposed ulcer. The discarnate Spirits that are persecuted by the material image of their crimes suffer the effect of physical electricity. They suffer through the senses. Those that are already dematerialized by the Spirit feel a much superior pain that annihilates the memory of the facts, only allowing the recollection of their causes. The person can then, despite the seriousness of the criminal act, have a previous advancement and despite the passions that made that person act like a brute, the faculties raise that person above the thick atmosphere of inferior layers. The absence of ponderation and balance between the moral and intellectual progress produces the anomalies so much frequent in periods of materialism and transition.
The light that tortures the guilty Spirit is therefore the spiritual ray inundating the most secret corners of pride with clarity and uncovering the uselessness of a fragmentary being. These are the first symptoms and the first anguishes of the spiritual agony that announces a separation or dissolution of the material and intellectual elements that constitute a primitive human duality and that must disappear in the great unit of a complete being.”
Jean Reynaud
Observation: These three communications, received simultaneously, complement one another and present punishment with a new eminently philosophical aspect, a little bit more rational that the flames of hell surrounded by sharp blades. It is likely that the Spirits, willing to handle the issue with an example, may have provoked the communication of the guilty Spirit.
[1] Period between two physical existences; state of the soul prior to incarnation (TN)
[2]Mathews 25, 28-30 (TN)
“Why do you discuss commotion? Why such hopeless words? You are dreamers and visionaries. You totally ignore things that you are dealing with. No, gentlemen, there is no disruption except perhaps in your minds. I am so recently dead as possible I clearly see myself, around me, everywhere… Life is a gloomy comedy! Awkward the ones that take us out of scene before the curtain is down… Deaf is horrible, a punishment, a desire, according to the weakness or strength of those that fear it, defy or implore for that. It is a bitter derision to everyone!
Light obfuscates and penetrates the subtleness of my being like the acute spear… I was punished by the darkness of prison and they thought I was punished again by the darkness of the grave or the ones dreamed by the Catholic superstitions.
Ah! It is you, gentlemen that suffer the darkness and I, social pariah, I float above you… I want to continue to be myself… I am strong in my thoughts and I disdain the warnings that resonate around me… I see clearly… A crime! It is a word! Crime is everywhere. When practiced by masses of men, it is glorified; in particular it is hated. Absurd! Don’t feel sorry for me… I ask for nothing… I suffice myself and will know very well how to fight against this hateful light.
The one that was a man yesterday.”
After analyzing this communication in the following session it was recognized in the very cynicism of the language a serious teaching and in the situation of this miserable soul we found a new phase of punishment that reaches the guilty ones. In fact while some are embedded in darkness or in an absolute isolation others withstand for long years the anguishes of their last hour, or even still consider to be part of this world. Light shines for this one; the Spirit enjoys the plenitude of its faculties; he knows perfectly well that he is dead and regrets nothing; asks for no assistance and still defies the divine and human laws.
Will that Spirit then escape punishment? No. What happens is that divine justice takes place in all shapes and forms and what is happiness to some to others it is a torment. That light is an ordeal against which the Spirits fights continually and despite his pride he confesses it when says: “I suffice to myself and will know very well how to fight against that hateful light” and in this other phrase: “Light obfuscates and penetrates the subtleness of my being like the acute spear”. The words subtleness of my being are telling. He acknowledges that his body is fluidic and penetrable by light from which he cannot evade and such a light surpasses like an acute spear. When requested to provide their opinion about the matter our guides dictated the three following communications that deserve serious attention:
(Medium: Mr. A. Didier)
“There are tests without atonements and atonements without tests. In erraticity[1] from the point of view of the existences the Spirits are inactive and waiting. They can, however, atone considering their pride and the formidable strength of their mistakes to not keep them behind at the time of their progressing ascension. You have a terrible example in the last communication with respect to a criminal that fights against the divine justice that constrains him and that of man as well. In such a case then the atonement, or even better, the fatal suffering that oppresses him instead of benefiting him by making him feel the profound meaning of his penalties, it exalts that suffering in his rebellion, making him groan or “gnashing of teeth” found in the poetic eloquence of the Scriptures[2], an image by excellence, symbol of a restive suffering, lost in pain but in such a rebellious state that the soul refuses to acknowledge the truth of the penalties and rewards! The great mistakes almost always linger on in the world of the Spirits. By the same token the great criminal minds. To be in control of oneself, despite everything else, and boasting before infinity is like the blindness of a person that gaze the stars and believe them to be decorations on a ceiling, like the Gallic from the times of Alexander. There is a moral infinity! Miserable and pitiful is the one that with the excuse of trying to continue the disgusting struggles and bragging of Earth cannot see further in the other world than down here! For these remains the blindness, the neglect of others, the selfish and petty personality and the stagnation of progress! It is very true, oh mankind, that there is a secret agreement between the immortality of a pure name left on Earth and the immortality that really keeps the Spirits in their successive trials.”
Lamennais
Observation: To understand the meaning of the phrase “there are tests without atonements and atonements without tests” it is necessary to understand atonement as the suffering that purifies and cleans the stains of the past. After the atonement the Spirit is rehabilitated. Lamennais’ thought is this: according to the vicissitudes of life being followed or not followed by the regret of the faults that led to them, by the desire to turn them into something useful to one’s own betterment, there will be or not be atonement, that is, rehabilitation. Therefore the greatest sufferings may not be useful to the one that suffers is such a suffering does not make them better; if they do not rise above matter; if they do not see the hand of God in that; if, finally, it does not make them move one step forward because such a Spirit will have to re-start in even more painful conditions. From that point of view the same happens to the penalties endured after death. The hardened Spirit suffer without being touched by regret. That is why the Spirit can extend that out of their own will. The Spirit is punished but there is no regret.
(Medium Mr. D’Ambel)
Throw a man in darkness or in waves of light: won’t the result be the same? In either case that man sees nothing around and will even adapt more rapidly to the shadow than to the triple electric clarity in which one can be submerse. That is how the Spirit that communicated in the last session expresses the truth of his situation when says:
“I suit myself and will know very well how to fight against this hateful light!” In fact such a light is the more terrible and the more scaring the more it makes one’s most secret thoughts visible and apparent. That is one of the hardest spiritual punishments. He is like an intern in a glass house like the one requested by Socrates, being that a teaching considering that what would be a joy and consolation to the wise man becomes a dishonorable and continuous punishment of the criminal, the perverse and parricide, haunted by his own personality. Can you understand, my children that the pain and horror that must hinder the one that during a sinister life was happy to plot and feed the saddest thoughts in the inner core of their own being, like a hiding beast in a cave, now expelled from that private refuge, hiding from the eyes and investigation of his contemporaries? The mask of impassivity is now yanked and each of his thoughts shows successively on his face! Yes, from now on no more resting or asylum to that formidable criminal! Every bad thought, and God knows his soul well, betrays itself from the inside and outside like a strong electric shock. He wants to avoid the crowds but the hateful light continuously surrounds him. He wants to flee, escaping in a desperate surge through the incommensurable space but light is everywhere! Staring eyes landing on him from all sides. He rushes again seeking the shadow, the darkness but there is none for him. He demands the help of death but death is a meaningless word. The miserable runs nonstop. He moves towards spiritual madness, terrible punishment, horrible pain in which there will always be the struggle against himself on trying to disentangle his own soul because that is the supreme law on this Earth: it is the guilty person that becomes the most inexorable punishment to oneself.
How long will that last? Up to the time when the finally broken will bends before the overpowering pressure of remorse and in which his pride shall be humiliated before his appeased victims and the Spirits of justice. Observe the robust logic of the immutable laws for he will still accomplish what was written in that haughtily message, clear, lucid and also so much full of himself, in a communication voluntarily given on the last Friday.”
Protector Spirit of the medium
(Medium Mr. Costel)
“Human justice does not privilege the individuality of those that are punished. The crime is measured by the crime itself, indistinctly reaching the criminal, the same punishment applied to the guilty one without distinction of gender and education. The divine justice proceeds differently. The degree of punishment corresponds to the level of advancement of those involved. The equality of crimes does not correspond to equality of individuals so that two persons guilty of the same crime may be separated by distance of the atonements being one in intellectual opacity of the first initiating circles and the other overpassed those circles and acquired the lucidity that frees the Spirit of any confusion. Hence no more the punishment of ignorance but the spiritual light of awareness. That reaches the earthly intelligence and leads to the anguish of the exposed ulcer. The discarnate Spirits that are persecuted by the material image of their crimes suffer the effect of physical electricity. They suffer through the senses. Those that are already dematerialized by the Spirit feel a much superior pain that annihilates the memory of the facts, only allowing the recollection of their causes. The person can then, despite the seriousness of the criminal act, have a previous advancement and despite the passions that made that person act like a brute, the faculties raise that person above the thick atmosphere of inferior layers. The absence of ponderation and balance between the moral and intellectual progress produces the anomalies so much frequent in periods of materialism and transition.
The light that tortures the guilty Spirit is therefore the spiritual ray inundating the most secret corners of pride with clarity and uncovering the uselessness of a fragmentary being. These are the first symptoms and the first anguishes of the spiritual agony that announces a separation or dissolution of the material and intellectual elements that constitute a primitive human duality and that must disappear in the great unit of a complete being.”
Jean Reynaud
Observation: These three communications, received simultaneously, complement one another and present punishment with a new eminently philosophical aspect, a little bit more rational that the flames of hell surrounded by sharp blades. It is likely that the Spirits, willing to handle the issue with an example, may have provoked the communication of the guilty Spirit.
[1] Period between two physical existences; state of the soul prior to incarnation (TN)
[2]Mathews 25, 28-30 (TN)
Motherly education, Advices to mothers[1]
The work is the result of mediumistic Spiritist instructions, forming a complete brochure dictated to Mrs. Collignon, from Bordeaux, by the Spirit that signs Etienne, unknown to the medium. Those instructions, initially published in sundry articles in the le Sauveur journal, were then gathered in a single brochure.
We are pleased to approve this work without reservations, highly commendable for both the format and content. The style is simple, clear, and concise, without emphasis or empty words to fill out spaces, with profound thoughts and irreproachable logic. It is surely the language of an elevated Spirit and not the verbose of Spirits that believe to compensate the emptiness of the ideas by the abundance of words.
Let us not fear these praises because we know that Mrs. Collignon will not take them personally and that her self-love will not be super excited as she would not feel offended with the most severe criticism. In that sense education is seen from a true point of view with respect to the physical, moral and intellectual development of the child, from the cradle to the late establishment in life. The Spiritist mothers, better than all others, will appreciate the wisdom of the advices that it contains for which we highly recommend as a book highly deserving your attention. The brochure is complemented with a little poem with the title Body and Spirit, also of mediumistic nature that more than one renowned author could have signed without concern. Here is the start of the poem:
'Morpheus had numbed my senses;
My Spirit, free from the heavy organization,
Wanted to conquer the spaces,
Abandoning the form, like the soldier its position.
Like a prisoner that moans in chains,
Finally freed, wandering in space.
Was it a mystery, a memory that remains
That gave me the courage to the departing face?
I wouldn’t know. The Spirit returning
Answers my questions with emptiness.
I soon realized the meaning of his astuteness.
It made me upset because that was deceiving.
- At least tell me, capricious Spirit,
What you have seen in such wandering journey?
To please you, I must tell you something;
The jailer, otherwise, with a sad sense of humor,
Would give the prisoner a rude sermon
The captive condition worsening…”
You must know… - Wait. Is it the real
Story that you are going to tell? – Oh Yes I commend,
You must believe. There was a time in the spiritual
World when I left behind relatives and numerous friends;”
I wanted to see them again for the earthly exile,
Believe, was not only to please!
While the sleep kept you in the bedstead
I left the body there and in Spirit alone
I transposed the steps that separate the worlds
Covering the space in two seconds only.
I had to be fast for the tiny delay
Could make you harm. Well if eventually
You had forgotten me in such a long journey
On my way back, notice well, I would had found
A cadaver instead of a body.
I knew that if I stayed behind a crime I would have
Committed because it is only God that our connections break.”
- Thank you for the memory, Spirit so eager,
If it is not less certain that I would have died that day,
If the smallest delay… Ah! Word of an honest body,
I even feel the shivers!'
[1] Brochure in-8, price 50 cents, by mail 60 cents; Paris: Ledoyen, Palais Royal, Galerie d’Orleans, 31; Bordeaux: Ferret bookseller, Fossés-de-l'Intendance, 15, and at the office of the journal Le Sauveur path d’Aquitaine, 57.
By Allan Kardec
Russian language edition
Edited in Leipzig, by Baer & Hermann
In Paris: Ledoyen, Palais Royal; Didier & Co., Quai des Augustins, 35 and office of the Spiritist Review
Notice
Dr. Chavaux, president of the Society of Spiritist Studies of Marseille, asks us to announce that the Headquarter of the above mentioned Society is located at Rue Petit-Saint-Jean, 24, first floor.
Russian language edition
Edited in Leipzig, by Baer & Hermann
In Paris: Ledoyen, Palais Royal; Didier & Co., Quai des Augustins, 35 and office of the Spiritist Review
Notice
Dr. Chavaux, president of the Society of Spiritist Studies of Marseille, asks us to announce that the Headquarter of the above mentioned Society is located at Rue Petit-Saint-Jean, 24, first floor.