The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864

Theoretical essays about the magical mirrors



The expression magic mirrors is given to objects that show strong reflections of light such as ice, metallic surfaces, bottles, glass, etc. in which certain persons see images that portray past, present and sometimes future events, allowing them to answer questions about it. The phenomenon is not extremely rare. Strong minds call them superstitious beliefs, effect of imagination, charlatanism, as everything else that they cannot explain by natural laws. The same applies, according to them, to every somnambulistic and mediumistic effect. However, if the fact do exist their opinion should not prevail against the reality and we are strongly inclined to admit the existence of a new law, not yet observed.



Up until now we have not agreed on this subject, despite the numerous reports that were given to us because it is our principle only to affirm what we have understood, always explaining the mode of production and the causes of that thing, meaning that we want to add, as much as possible, and a rational explanation to the report. We mentioned the fact with the testimony of serious and respectable people but on admitting the phenomenon and even its reality we had not yet seen with enough clarity the law that could explain them to be in the condition of providing a solution. That is why we abstained. The reports that were brought to us, as a matter of fact, could be loaded with exaggeration; certain details, in particular, would be necessary to accommodate our thoughts. Now that we saw, observed and studied them we can speak with knowledge of cause. To begin with we will strictly report the facts that were witnessed by us. We do not wish to convince the non-believers; all we want is to try to clarify a still obscure point of the Spiritist science.



During our last year’s trip when we spent some days at the house of Mr. W…, member of the Spiritist Society of Paris, in the canton of Berne, Switzerland, he talked about a worker from the region, a turner by profession, that enjoys the faculty of finding springs and seeing the answers to questions addressed to him on a glass. To find the springs he travels to places and sometimes utilizes the stick typically used for that; on other occasions he provides the necessary indications by the use of glass and without dislocation. Here a remarkable example of his clarity.



In Mr. W… property there was a very long water pipe but due to local circumstances some thought that the water intake should take place at a closer location. In order to possibly avoid unnecessary excavations Mr. W… reached out to the water spring whisperer. Looking at a glass the latter said: “In the path of the water pipe there is another source; it is at an x number of feet deep, below the fourteenth pipe, from a given position.” The spring was found at the position indicated by him. The occasion was too favorable to let it go so that in the interest of general instruction we went to the house of that person followed by Mr. and Mrs. W… and two other persons. At this point it seems useful to provide some information about that person. He is a sixty four year old tall, slim man enjoying some good health although walking with some difficulty. He is protestant, very religious and habitually reads the Bible and books of prayers. His health issue dates from the time when he was thirty years old. That was the time when his skill was revealed. He says that God wanted to give him a compensation. His face is expressive and joyful, his eyes lively, intelligent and penetrating. He only speaks a German dialect from his region and doesn’t understand a word of French. He is married and has a family; he makes his living out of a few lots of land and his personal work so that although not enjoying an easy life he is not in difficulty. When sought for consultation by strange people his first reaction is always mistrust. He kind of probes the actual intention of the visitors and however little favorable the impression he has he responds that he only deals with the springs and that he refuses any experience with his glass. In special he refuses to answer questions originated by greed such as treasure hunting, adventurous speculations or the accomplishment of any bad task, in a word, everything that could harm loyalty and kindness. He says that if he were up to these things God would reclaim his gift. When someone is introduced to him by an acquaintance of his and when that person is sympathetic to him his face opens up and becomes welcoming. If the reason why he is sought is serious and useful he becomes interested and join in the search. If the questions are futile and out of pure curiosity, if he is thought after like a fortune teller, he doesn’t answer. Thanks to the presence of Mr. W… we were very lucky to be in good terms with him and we can only appreciate the opportunity for being welcomed and counting on his good will. That man is completely ignorant with anything related to Spiritism; he has no idea about the mediums or evocations or even the intervention of the Spirits or their fluidic action. To him his faculty is part of his nervous system in a force that he does not understand or that he had never tried to understand because when we wanted him to tell us how he could see things through the glass it seemed to us that it was the first time that he was giving any thought to that. To us it was essential; it was only after a few successive questions that we came to understand his thought. His glass is a common empty glass. It is however always the same and is only used for that. Given the possibility of an accident he had acquired another one that he reserved. When he interrogates the glass he keeps it in the palms of the hands and looks inside the glass; if the glass is maintained on the table he sees nothing. When he looks to the bottom his eyes seem to be veiled for an instant of time and then recover the normal shine; then, looking alternatively to the glass and to his interlocutors he speaks normally, explaining what he sees and responding to the questions in a natural and simple way. In his experiences he makes no evocation, uses no cabalistic signs, and pronounces no formulas or sacramental words. When asked he concentrates his attention and will on the proposed subject matter, looking to the bottom of the glass where images of persons and things relative to theme in question are formed. Regarding persons he describe them physical and morally like a somnambulistic person would do so that there is no doubt about the identity of the person. He also describes with more or less accuracy places that are unknown to him. This destroys the idea that whatever he sees is the product of his imagination. When he told Mr. W… that the water source was a number of feet below the fourteenth pipe he couldn’t get that information from his own brain. To make it more clear he sometimes utilize a piece of chalk to trace points, circles and lines of several lengths, indicating the persons and places that he is talking about, their relative position, etc. so that there would be no need to show them again, saying: it is this one that does this or it is this point where something happens.



One day a lady questioned him about the fate of a girl that had been kidnapped by drunks more than fifteen years ago and since then nobody heard about her. He started from the place where it had happened, like a somnambulistic person, followed the traces of the girl that he said he could see in the glass and that had, according to him, followed the borders of a large body of water that is the sea. He said she was alive and described her situation but without indicating where she lived because according to him the time for having her returned to her mother had not come yet; that certain things that he specified had to happen first and that a fortuitous situation would lead the mother to recognize her daughter. In order to better establish her location he asked to have a geographic map brought to him on another occasion. That map was shown to him on the day of our visit but since he did not have any notion of geography he had to learn about the traces of roads, sea, rivers, cities and the mountains. He then placed his finger on the starting point and indicated the path that would lead to the place in question. Although some time had passed since the first consultation he remembered perfectly well everything that he had said and he was the first one to mention the girl before he was questioned. Since the matter has not been solved yet we cannot prejudge the results of his forecast. The only thing we say about the known circumstances is that he had seen with accuracy. We only mentioned the case to show the way he saw things.



As for what is related to us we could equally attest his lucidity. Without any previous question and even without thinking about the case he spontaneously mentioned an illness that we carry for some time, pointing out to its termination. A remarkable thing is that it coincided with the same indicated by the somnambulist Mrs. Roger that we had consulted about the issue six months prior. He did not know us by name or in person and although difficult for him in his ignorance to understand the nature of our work he indicated the objective, tendencies and the inevitable results of our work through circles, images and expressions. This seemed to interest him greatly since he repeated incessantly that the thing should take place and that we were predestined from birth and that nothing would interrupt that. Out of his own initiative he talked about the person that was supposed to continue our work after our death, about the obstacles that certain persons tried to interpose in our path, the envious rivalries and personal ambitions; he unequivocally designated those that could second us and those that we should distrust, strongly moving from ones to the others; he then entered in a detailed description perfectly accurate, even more remarkable by the fact that they did not result from any interrogation and that all points coincided with revelations sometime made by our spiritual guides for our own awareness.



That kind of subject had nothing to do with the habits and knowledge of that man, as he said himself. He repeated several times: “I say here many things that I would not say to others, because they would not understand me but him (pointing to us) understand me perfectly well.” In fact there were things that were said kind of half-way only understood by ourselves. We saw a special mark of the benevolence of the Spirits in all that wanting to confirm by this new and unexpected means the instructions that they had given on different circumstances, being to us at same matter of observation and study. We then attested that the man was really gifted by a faculty that sees things. Does he always see accurately? That is not the question. As long as he had seen many times that would confirm the existence of the phenomenon. Nobody on this Earth is infallible for the simple fact that there is no absolute perfection here. How is it that he sees? That is the essential point that cannot be deduced if not by observation.



Given his lack of education and the prejudices that abound in the environment in which he has always lived he is biased by certain superstitious ideas that he mixes with the reports. That is how for example he believes in the influence of the planets upon people’s destinies and on their happy as well as miserable days. According to what he had seen about us we should have been born under a given sign; we should avoid undertaking important tasks in certain periods of the moon. We did not try to persuade him for we would not have succeeded and it would have only served to disturb him. But for the simple reasons that he bears some false ideas there is no reason to deny his faculty. For the fact that there are bad grains on a pile of wheat it does not follow that there is no good wheat; and for the reason that a man does not see with accuracy it does not mean that he sees nothing.



When he more or less realized the objective and the results of our own work he very seriously and with a kind of anxiety whispered in the ear of Mr. W… if we had eventually found the sixth book of Moses. Well, there is a popular legend in certain places that Moses had written a sixth book containing new revelations and the explanation of everything that was obscure in the previous five books. According to the same legend that book should be discovered one day. If something is supposed to offer the key to all allegories in the Scriptures that is certainly Spiritism somehow offering the idea of the sixth book of Moses. It is very singular that such a man had made that kind of connection.



A more careful analysis of the facts demonstrates a complete analogy between his skill and the phenomenon designated by the name of “second vision, double sight or awaken somnambulism” described in The Spirits Book, chapter VIII: Emancipation of the soul, and in The Mediums’ Book, chapter XIV. Its principle is in the radiant property of the spiritual fluid that allows the soul, in certain cases, to realize things from a distance, that is, through the emancipation of the soul that is a law of nature. It is not the eyes that see but beams of soul that extends further and exerts its action on a given point without the help of the physical organs of the body. Such a faculty, much more common than supposed, presents itself with very diverse aspects and levels of intensity according to the individuals: in some it manifests by a permanent or accidental perception of distant things, more or less clearly; in others by the simple intuition of those same things and finally in others through telepathy. It is remarkable that many people have that unnoticeably since it is inherent to their own being and hence seems natural to them like their eye sight; they even frequently confuse those two perceptions. When asked how they see most of the time they cannot explain better than they would do with the normal mechanism of the eyes.



The number of people that spontaneously enjoy that faculty is really considerable and that indicates that such a faculty requires any kind of instrument. The glass that this man utilizes is an accessory that it is only useful due to his habit since we attested on several occasions that he would describe things without looking to the glass. As for our own observation he described people using the piece of chalk and by characteristic signs typical of his skills and position. It was through those signs that he seem to see things very well looking at his table that he seemed to see as well as when looking at the glass that he hardly did. Yet the glass seemed to be necessary to him and here the explanation for that.



The image that he observes is formed in the beams of spiritual fluid that transmit the sensation to him. When he looks to the bottom of the glass he drives those beams there and the image very naturally forms there as it would on any other object: a glass of water, a bottle, a piece of paper, a map or an abstract point in space. It is a means of concentration his thoughts and circumscribing them so much so that we are convinced whoever may present such faculty would be able to go without it and see equally well after some exercise and a strong will power.



Admitting what has not been proven yet, however, that the object acts upon certain organizations, like drivers, like provoking the detachment of the spiritual fluid and consequently the isolation of the Spirit, there is a fundamental fact observed by experience: there is no special substance that may show an exclusive property about it. The man in question only sees in an empty glass held in his hand and he cannot see in any other glass that is shown to him or placed elsewhere. If the property were inherent to the substance and form of the object why the same individual would not show the same skill with two objects of the same kind and shape? Why something has an effect on one but not on the other? And why, finally, so many people have the same faculty without the support of any device? As said before the faculty is inherent to the individual and not the glass. The image forms in himself, or better said, in the fluidic beams that emanate from him. The glass only offers the reflex of that image: it is an effect and not the cause. That is the reason that not everyone can see in what was conventionally called magic mirrors. The organic sight is not enough for that but one does need to carry the so called double sight that more accurately should be called spiritual sight. And that is so much true that certain persons see perfectly well with their eyes closed.



Spiritual sight is in reality the sixth sense or spiritual sense that has been much talked about and like the other senses can be more or less obtuse or subtle. Its agent is the spiritual fluid like physical sight has the luminous fluid. In the same way that the irradiation of the luminous fluid carries the image of objects to the retina the irradiation of the spiritual fluid carries certain images and impressions to the soul. Such a fluid has its own effects and sui generis properties.



Since a person is composed by Spirit, perispirits and body during life the perceptions and sensations are simultaneously produced by the physical organs and by the spiritual sense; after death the physical senses are destroyed but since the perispirits remains the Spirit continues to perceive things through the spiritual sense whose subtleness increases in proportion to the detachment of the Spirit. A person that has such a sense developed enjoys therefore and by anticipation of some of the sensations of the free Spirit. Although damped by the prevalence of matter the spiritual sense still produces effects on everybody that are considered extraordinary for a lack of knowledge about the principle.



Since that faculty is part of nature and depend on the nature of the Spirit it has existed in all times; but like every effect whose cause is unknown ignorance attributed it to supernatural causes. Those who had in higher levels and could say, know and do things above the reach of regular persons were either accused of associating with the devil, called witches or burned alive or were beatified for having the gifts of making miracles when, in reality, it was all within the scope of a natural law.



Let us return to the magical mirrors. The word magic that in the past meant the science of the wise, lost its primitive meaning given the abuse of superstition and charlatanism. It has now fallen in discredit and rightly so and we do believe to be difficult to recover that given its connection to cabalistic operations, to gnomes, talismans and a handful of superstitious practices condemned by a lucid reason. Declining any solidarity with those pretense sciences Spiritism must avoid the ownership of words that could misguide the opinion about matters of its own interest.



In the case in question the qualification of magic is as much inappropriate as it would be that of witches attributed to the mediums. The designation of those objects by the name spiritual mirrors seems more adequate to us because it brings up the principle that is the foundation of the effects. To the Spiritist nomenclature then one can add expressions like spiritual vision, spiritual sense and spiritual mirrors.



Considering that the nature, form and substance of those objects are indifferent, one can understand that individuals that are gifted by spiritual vision can see on the coffee sludge, in egg white, in one’s hand, and in cards what others see in a glass of water and that sometimes they say correct things. To them the objects and their combinations have no meaning; it is just a means of fixating their attention, a pretext to speak, a kind of support for it is important to observe that in such a case the individual just look at them, however, if they were not there the person would believe that something was missing; the person would be disoriented like our man in this case if he did not his glass in his hand; he would have difficulty to speak like certain speakers that cannot say anything if they are not located in their habitual place or if they do not have a notebook in their hands that they do not read.



But if there are persons upon whom those objects produce the effect of the magic mirrors there is also a large quantity of people that only see through regular vision but have the language typical of those affected by those signs and abuse of others and themselves; then there is the equally large quantity of charlatans that exploit peoples’ naïveté. It is only superstition that can consecrate the use of such processes as a means of foretelling and a bunch of others that have no more value, attributing virtue to words, significance to material signs and fortuitous combinations that have no necessary connection with the object of the question or the thought.



When we say that certain persons may tell the truth with the help of such processes the intent is not to rehabilitate them before the general opinion but to show that the superstitious ideas sometimes have their origin in a true principle, stained by abuse and ignorance. By unveiling the law that governs the relationships between the visible and invisible worlds Spiritism destroys, for that very reason, the false ideas that had been formed about it, like the law of electricity destroyed not the bolt but the superstitions engineered by the ignorance about the true causes of the bolt.



In short, the spiritual vision is one of the attributes of the Spirit and constitutes one of the perceptions of the spiritual sense. It is then a law of nature. Since a person is an incarnate Spirit that person has the attributes of the Spirit and consequently the perceptions of the spiritual sense. In the vigil state such perceptions are generally vague, fuzzy and sometimes even insensitive and inappreciable since damped by the dominating activity of the material senses. Nonetheless one can say that every extracorporeal perception is due to the action of the spiritual sense that in such a case overcomes the physical resistance. In the natural or induced somnambulistic state of hypnosis, catalepsy, lethargy, ecstasy and even during common sleep, the spiritual sense develops with more freedom due to the momentary benumbing of the corporeal senses. Every exterior cause that tends to numb the physical senses leads for that very reason to the expansion of the activity of the spiritual sense.



The perceptions through the spiritual sense are not exempt from error for the fact that the incarnate Spirit may be more or less advanced, and consequently more or less capable of assessing things correctly and understand them and due to the fact that the Spirit is still under the influence of matter.



A comparison will better clarify what happens in such a case. Someone that has a perfect sight on Earth may be deceived by appearances. People believed in the movement of the sun for a long time. Experience and science were necessary to demonstrate that they were deluded. That is what happens to the more or less advanced Spirits, incarnate or discarnate; they ignore many things from the spiritual world like intelligent people ignore many things on Earth; the spiritual vision only shows them what they already know and that vision is not enough to give them the knowledge that they lack; that is why we encounter so many aberrations in clairvoyants and ecstatic, not to mention the fact that their ignorance places them more than others at the mercy of deceiving Spirits that exploit their credulity and even more their pride. That is why it would be unwise to accept their revelations without control. We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are on Earth, a planet of atonement, where inferior Spirits are all over the place and where really superior Spirits are exceptions. In superior worlds it is the opposite.



Can persons gifted with spiritual sight be considered mediums? Yes and no, according to the circumstances. Mediumship consists on the intervention of the Spirits. What is done by oneself is not a mediumistic act. The one that carries spiritual sight see by her own Spirit and does not require the support of a strange Spirit. That person is not a medium for that fact that she can see but for her relationships with the Spirits. According to her good or bad nature the Spirits that assist her may facilitate or preclude lucidity, make her see true or false things, and that also depends on the objective and utility of certain revelations. Here as in all other types of mediumship curiosity and futile questions, not serious questions, greed and interest attract frivolous Spirits that make fun of very credulous persons and rejoice by mystifying them. Serious Spirits only deal with serious things and the best gifted clairvoyant may not see anything if she is not allowed to respond to what is asked or if disturbed by deluded visions as a punishment to the indiscreet and curious people. Although that person may have the faculty and however strong that may be she does not have the freedom of using it at will. The Spirits frequently guide their application and in the presence of abuse the person may be punished by the intervention of bad Spirits.



There is still remains an important point to clarify: the forecast of future events. One can understand the vision of present things, the vision of the past, but how come the spiritual sight may give certain individuals the knowledge about things that do not exist? To avoid repetition we refer the reader to our article in May, 1864 about the theory of prescience in which the issue is thoroughly analyzed. We only add a few words.

Future, in principle, is hidden to mankind for the reasons that have been exposed so many times. It is only exceptionally revealed and besides it is more presented than forecasted. God has not given mankind any certain means of knowing it. The application of a multitude of processes invented by superstition is therefore useless, processes that are exploited by charlatanism to their own benefit. If there are some readers of luck, professional or not, that have spiritual sight, it is notable the fact that they do see much more in the present and past than in the future. It would therefore be unwise to absolutely trust such predictions and base someone’s behavior on them.

With such a title one reads in the Presse Littéraire from March 15^th, 1864 the following article signed by Émile Deschamps:



“If man only believed in what he can understand he would not believe in God, in oneself or in the globes that flow above his head, or not even in the weed that grows below his feet. Miracles, prophecies, visions, ghosts, prognostics, presentiments, supernatural coincidences, etc.… what to think of all that? Strong minds have two words for that: lies or chance. Nothing more convenient. Superstitious people have a good way out or not. I prefer the latter than the former. In fact one does need to have imagination so that it may be sick whereas it is enough to be a voter and subscriber to a couple of technological newspapers to know a lot about that and to believe as little as Voltaire. Besides, I prefer madness to silliness, superstition to incredulity; but what I do prefer above all is truth, light and reason; I seek them with a vivid faith and a sincere heart; I examine everything and takes sides of not taking sides of anything.



Low and behold! The material and visible world is full of impenetrable mysteries, inexplicable phenomena, and wouldn’t we want the intellectual world, the life of the soul that is already a miracle, that it also had its mysteries and miracles? Why a given good thought, an eager prayer, or the other desire wouldn’t have the power of attracting events, blessings or catastrophes? Why wouldn’t there be moral causes, as there are physical causes that go unnoticed by us? And why the seeds of everything wouldn’t be fecund in the soil of hearts and souls to later on blossom out in the form of facts? When God on rare occasions and to some of his children decided to raise the tip of the eternal veil and spread upon their minds the escaping ray of the flame of prescience, let us keep from saying that it is an absurd and from saying blasphemies against the very light and truth. Here is what I have many times thought about: Certain birds and certain animals were given the capacity of foreseeing and announcing storms, floods and earthquakes. The barometers daily tell us what to expect tomorrow; couldn’t man receive sometimes some sort of sign in a dream or a vision from the Providence about some future event that may interest their life, their eternity? Hasn’t the Spirit also its own atmosphere whose variations can be presented? Finally, whatever the misery of the supernatural in this very positive century would there still be enchantment and utility in removing it, if all those that reflect its weak sparks would lead to a common focus all of those divergent rays; if each one, after having consciously interrogated their own memories, wrote in good faith and deposited in the archives the minutes of what had been experienced, of what happened of supernatural and miraculous. One day perhaps someone that would analyze symptoms and events could partially recover a lost science. In any case that person would write a book that would be worth many others.

As for myself I am apparently what is called a subject because I had all that in my life, as a matter of fact an obscure life; I am the first one to deposit my tribute here, persuaded that this internal vision always has a kind of interest. However little the wonderful that I give you is, dear readers, it took place in my real life. Since I learned to read I register everything that is supernatural in paper. These are memories of a singular kind.”

-o-

“I was traveling around France in February 1846. When I got to a rich and large city I strolled around its abundant and beautiful stores. I started raining; I took shelter in an elegant gallery; I suddenly became static; my eyes could not move away from a young lady that stood alone behind a jewelry show window. She was very beautiful but it was not her beauty that attracted me; I don’t know the mysterious interest, the inexplicable bond that dominated and attached my whole being to her. It was a sudden and profound sympathy, beyond any sensual connotation but of an irresistible power, like the unknown in everything. I was mechanically pushed towards the store by a supernatural force. I bought a few little objects and paid saying:

-Thank you Ms. Sara. The young lady looked at me a little bit surprised.

-You are surprised that I know your name, one of your names; but if you want to think about your names I can tell you all of them, without hesitation. Will you do that?

-Yes, Sir, she replied kind of smiley and shaken.

-Well then, I said, and staring at her I said you are Sara, Adèle, and Benjamine N…

- It is right, she said, and after a few seconds of astonishment she laughed out loud and I knew that she thought I might have gotten the information in the neighborhood, and I enjoyed that. But since I knew that it was not reality I was shocked by the instantaneous guess.


On the next and following days I returned to the shop. My guess work renovated every time. I asked her to think about something and almost immediately I read the quiet thought in her mind. I asked her to write a few words with a pencil and hide from me and I would write the words in the same order that she did. I read her mind like an open book but she did not read mine and that gave me the upper hand but she would impose her ideas and emotions. If she seriously thought about an object; if she repeated the words of a text to herself I suddenly guessed everything right. The mystery was between her brain and mine and not between the faculties of intuition and material things. In any case an intimate and pure relationship had been established between us.



One evening I heard a voice shouting to me: Sara is sick, very sick! I went promptly to her house; a doctor was taking care of her, waiting for a crisis. On the eve of that night Sara had returned home with a scorching fever; her delirious state remained the whole night. The doctor called me on the side and said that he was really concerned. From that room I saw Sara’s face and with my intuition overcoming the anxiety I whispered: Doctor, do you want to know what is she thinking about in her feverish sleep? Right now she believes to be in the great opera of Paris where she has never been and a dancer chops a piece of hemlock among other weeds and throw it on her saying: It is for you. The doctor thought I was crazy. A few minutes later the patient woke up with difficulty and her initial words were: Oh the opera is so nice! But why this hemlock thrown by that nymph? The doctor was astonished. Sara was treated for hemlock poison and was healed in a few days.”

-o-

The examples of telepathy are very frequent but perhaps not in such a characteristic way as in the fact above but in other forms. How many phenomena are daily presented to our eyes like conducting wires of the spiritual life and to which, however, science does not give any attention!



Not all of those that repeal it are materialistic; many admit a spiritual life but without a direct relationship with the organic life. The day in which those relationships are recognized as a physiological law an immense progress will be realized because it is only science that will have the key to a number of effects that are apparently mysterious and that it prefers to deny for not having the power of explanation with the means limited to the laws of brute matter.



Intimate relationship between the spiritual and organic life; destruction of organic life and persistence of the spiritual life after death; action of the spiritual fluid upon the body; incessant reaction of the invisible world upon the visible world and vice versa, such is the law that Spiritism comes to demonstrate and that opens up completely new horizons to science and mankind.



Which purely material law of physiology could explain phenomena of the kind referred above? In order to have Dr. Deschamps reading so clearly the thoughts of the lady there would be the need of an intermediary between both, some kind of link. After giving some thought to the article above one will recognize that such link is nothing more than the fluidic radiation that gives the spiritual sight that is not blocked by material bodies.



It is a known fact that the Spirits do not need the spoken language. They understand one another without the use of words, just by the transmission of their thoughts that is the universal language. The same sometimes happens among people because they are incarnate Spirits and for that reason enjoy in a greater or lesser degree the attributes and faculties of the Spirit.



But in that case why the young lady did not read Mr. Deschamp’s mind? Because spiritual sight was developed in one but not in the other. Does it follow that he could see everything, read on the spiritual mirrors, for example, or see from a distance like the somnambulistic? No because his faculty was developed in a special and partial way. Could he equally read everybody’s mind in the same way? He does not say so but it is unlikely because there could be fluidic relationships that facilitate such transmission of thoughts from individual to individual and the same does not exist with respect to another person. We still do know but imperfectly the properties of that universal fluid, a so powerful agent that exerts important role in the phenomena of nature. We know the principle and that is already a lot for us to understand a number of things; the details will come when time is right.



Having the above event communicated to the Parisian Society, a Spirit gave the following instruction:




Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, July 8^th 1864

Medium Mr. A. Didier



The ignorant – and there are many – become uneasy and full of doubts when they hear about the Spiritist phenomena. According to them the world is lost, the intimacy of the heart, feelings and the virginity of thoughts are all thrown out there and given away to the first that shows up. In fact, the world would change dramatically and private life would be threatened behind the each one’s personality if everybody were able to read each other’s minds. An ignorant person naively says: however justice, police persecutions, commercial operations, government trades, everything could be significantly revised, corrected, clarified, etc. with the support of such processes. Let us make no mistake. Ignorance has the particularity of completely forgetting the objective of things, throwing the simple mind into a series of contradictions. Jesus was right when said: My kingdom is not of this world – which also means that in this world things are not like in his kingdom. Spiritism, absolutely the spiritualism of Christianity, can equally tell the ambitious and terrorizing ignorance that its objective is not that of providing someone with mountains of gold; of allowing the weak to be dominated by the strong mind, joining weakness and strength in an eternally unavoidable and imminent struggle. No. The satisfactions produced by Spiritism are those of calmness, hope and faith. If it sometimes warns through presentiments, visions in the vigil or sleep state it is for the fact that the Spirits know perfectly well that a charitable and private fact will not transform the surface of the planet. Besides, if we observe the march of the phenomena evil has a minimal contribution there. Dismal science seems to be renegaded to the papyrus of the old alchemists and if Cagliostro returned he certainly wouldn’t come back with the magic wand or the enchanted flask but with his electric power, his flamboyant, spiritualist and somnambustic power that every superior being has and that simultaneously touches brain and heart. Foretelling was the greatest gift of Jesus as I said (the Spirit refers to another communication). Destined to become superiors as Spirits let us ask God for a portion of the enlightenment given to certain privileged beings like myself and that I should have spread out more humbly.

Mesmer





Observation: There isn’t a single God given faculty that cannot be abused by man due to the free-will. It is not the faculty that is bad on its own but the use that is given to that. If people were good none of those would be reason for fear because nobody would use them badly. Given the current state of inferiority of people on Earth if they were allowed to penetrate each other’s mind that would be undoubtedly dangerous since there is a lot to hide and many could abuse. But letting aside the inconveniences if that exist it is a fact that must be accepted in one way or another since one cannot suppress a natural phenomenon. But God that is sovereignly good measures the extension of that faculty by our weakness. God shows that to us from time to time to help us better understand our spiritual essence and warn us to work our betterment to have no fear of that.

Following renovated requests from our Spiritist brothers in Brussels and Anvers we paid them a short visit this year and we are pleased to say that we bring the most favorable impression about the development of the Doctrine in that country. We found there a larger than expected number of sincere, devoted and enlightened followers. The warm welcome received in both cities is a memory that will never fade away and we take the moments spent there into the account of the most satisfactory to us. Since we cannot send our thanks to each one in particular we ask for their kindness and accepting them collectively here.



On returning to Paris we found a message from the members of the Spiritist Society of Brussels that touched us profoundly. We will keep and treasure it as a testimony of their sympathy but we count on their understanding for the reasons that preclude us from publishing it in the Spiritist Review. There is, however, a passage in that message that we found to be our duty to bring to the attention of our readers because that fact that does reveal tells us more than lengthy theses about the way certain persons understand Spiritism. Here it is: “To celebrate you trip to Belgium our group decided to sponsor a bed at the St. Josse Tennoode Children’s facility.”



Nothing could be more flattering to us than that kind of testimony. By considering us worth of the foundation of a charitable work in memory of our visitation is a greater demonstration of esteem than the glossiest receptions that can flatter self-love and benefit nobody, not leaving any useful trace.



Anvers is distinguished by a larger number of followers and groups. But there, like in Brussels, and as a matter of fact everywhere, those that attend the kind of official and regulated gatherings are minority. The social relationships and the opinions issued in the conversations demonstrate that the sympathy towards the Doctrine goes beyond the groups per se. If on one hand not everyone is Spiritist there on the other there is no systematic opposition. People talk about it as a very natural thing and do not laugh about it. Since the followers are engaged in high trade our arrival was the novelty in the stock market and was the motive of conversation, with no more importance than the arrival of a cargo ship. Several groups are formed by a limited number of members and are named by a special and characteristic title; hence one is called Fraternity, the other Love and Charity, etc. We must add that such titles are not prosaic denominations to them but flagships that they endure to justify. The group Love and Charity for example has the special objective of material charity not diminishing the importance of the instructions of the Spirits that in a certain ways constitute a parallel activity. Their organization is very simple and leads to excellent results. One of the members has the title “alms giver” that corresponds perfectly well to his activity of delivering help to the homes and the Spirits frequently indicate names and addresses of persons in need. The expression “alms giver” then returned to its primitive significance from which it had moved away. This group has an exceptional medium of typtology that we consider worth of a special article.



We only want to indicate here the excellent elements that allow us to have great expectations with respect to Spiritism in that country where it sowed roots not long ago but that does not mean that there as elsewhere there wasn’t unavoidable perplexities and mistakes when it comes to the establishment of a new idea. It is impossible that at the start of a new Doctrine, in particular with the importance of Spiritism, all of those that declare allegiance understand its reach, seriousness and consequences. One must then expect deviations of route by persons that only see the surface and feeds personal ambitions, for those to whom it is more a means than a truthful belief, not to mention the persons that wear all kinds of masks to sneak in to serve the interest of adversaries and in the same way that the outfit does not make the monk the name of Spiritist does not make the true Spiritist. Sooner or later these frustrated Spiritists whose pride is always there will cause painful disruptions and create obstacles that are overcome with perseverance and firmness.



The homogeneity, the communion of ideas and feelings are the necessary conditions to the stability and vitality of the Spiritist groups as they are to any other group. All efforts must be driven towards that and the smaller the groups the easier it is to attain it. In the large gatherings it is difficult to avoid the influence of outsiders that sooner or later will sow separation; in the small groups in which everybody knows and appreciates one another it is like family, there is more reverence and the intrusion of the ill-minded is more difficult. The diversity of elements that constitute the large gatherings therefore makes them more vulnerable to the quiet attack of the adversaries.



In a given city it would be better to have a hundred groups of ten to twenty followers in which none wants the supremacy than one unique group that congregates everybody. Such partition will in no way harm the unity of principles taking into account that the flag is the same and all march towards the same objective. This must have been perfectly understood by our brothers from Anvers and Brussels. In short our trip to Brussels was fertile in teachings and in the interest of Spiritism by the documents that we collected and that we will make public to the benefit of everybody when the time is right.



Let us not forget one of the most honorable mentions to the Spiritist group of Douai that we visited in passing and in particular the testimony of gratitude by their warm reception to us. It is a familiar Spiritist group where the Evangelical Spiritist Doctrine is practice in its whole purity. They enjoy the most perfect harmony, reciprocal benevolence, charity of thoughts, words and actions; they breathe in an atmosphere of patriarchal fraternity, exempt of harmful fluids, in which the good Spirits must feel as pleased as incarnate persons do. The communications there are also a reflex of that sympathetic environment. The fact that they have never been disturbed by dissensions and difficulties that others had to endure is due to their homogeneity and to the scrupulous care taken in the admissions. All of those that attend that group are heartful Spiritists and none tries to have their personality prevailing. The mediums there are relatively in a large number; all of them consider themselves simple instruments of the Providence; they do not have pride or person pretensions and without feeling hurt humbly submit themselves to the analysis of the communications that they receive, ready to have them destroyed if considered unfit.



A charming poem was received in our intention after our departure. We thank the Spirit that dictated it and to the interpreter. We keep it as precious memory but these are the kind of documents that we cannot publish and that we only accept as a means of encouragement.



We are pleased to say that this group is not the only one in such favorable conditions and we were able to attest that the truly serious gatherings where everyone tries to better oneself, from which curiosity was banned, the only ones that diverse the qualification of Spiritists, these multiply daily. They offer on a lesser or greater scale a pale image of what there could become of society when a well understood and generalized Spiritism forms the bases of mutual relationships. Then nobody will have anything to fear from anyone. Charity will make peace and justice reign among them. Such is the result of the transformation that takes place and whose effects the future generation will begin to feel.

We said that in one of the Spiritist groups in Antwerp has a typtology medium of a special faculty. Here is what it consists of:



The indication of the letters of the alphabet is done through knocks with the foot of the little table but with a speed that is almost like handwriting so much so that those that transcribe it sometimes have difficulty to follow. The knocks succeed like those of the telegraph in action. We saw it doing an essay of twenty lines in less than fifteen minutes. But what is really impressive is that the Spirit almost always dictates that in reverse order, starting from the last letter. Through the same process the medium receives answers to mental questions and in foreign languages. That medium is also a writing medium and in this case he equally writes in reverse order with the same easiness. The first time that the phenomenon was produced the attendees of the meeting did not find sense in the words and thought it was a kind of mystification and it was only after a careful observation that they realized the system utilized by the Spirit. It is no doubt a fantasy of that Spirit but since all of his communications are very serious one must conclude that there must be a serious intention behind that.



Irrespectively of the speed with which the knocks occur the mode by which it happens still abbreviates a lot the operation. They employ a little table with three feet; the alphabet is divided in three series, the first from a to h, the second from i to p and the third from q to z. Each foot of the little table corresponds to a series of letters and knocks the number of times needed to designate the necessary letter, starting from the first letter of the series so that to indicate the letter t, for example, instead of knocking 20 times it only knocks 4 times for that series. Three person seat around the table, one for each foot, indicating the letter that was selected for her own series or alphabet and not paying attention to the other series. Several persons write the letters as they are indicated so that they can control it in case of mistakes. The habit of reading in reverse order frequently help them to guess the whole word or a whole phrase that was initiated as it is done in a normal process. The Spirit confirms if applicable and moves on.



Such division of letters, together with the cooperation among three persons that cannot understand each other and the speed of movement and the reverse order of the letters make fraud something virtually impossible, as much as the reproduction of individual thoughts.



The word reproduction will then be written like this: noitcudorper spelled by three different persons in a few seconds as: n o by the second, t by the third, c by the first, u by the third, d by the first, o by the second, r by the third, p by the second, e by the first and r by the third.



From all of the devices ever imagined to attest the independence of the medium’s mind none is compared to this process. It is true that for that it is necessary the influence of a special medium because the two persons that assist him do not influence the speed of the movement.



This process definitely has no real utility other than help in the belief of certain persons and as a confirmation of a remarkable mediumistic phenomenon because nothing can replace the speed of written communications.

During our visit with the Spiritists of Brussels the following fact took place in our presence in a private meeting of seven or eight persons on September 13^th:



A lady medium was requested to write but without any evocation in particular. She begins to write large characters with an extraordinary agitation, and after having violently scribbled on the paper she writes these words: “I regret, I regret. Latour.”



Surprised by these unexpected and unprovoked words and by the fact that nobody knew the miserable person or heard about his death, a few words of consolation and encouragement were addressed to him. He was then asked this:

Then an indescribable scene began that lasted about half an hour. The medium added gestures and expressions of the face to his words, making it clear that the Spirit had identified with him; the tone of despair are sometimes so devastating, he paints his anguishes and sufferings so vividly, his supplications are so strong that all of those around become profoundly touched.



Some were even terrified by the super excitation of the medium but we thought that a Spirit that is regretful and that implores pity cannot offer any danger. It he borrowed the organs of the medium was to paint his situation and provoke more interest to his fate, but not like the obsessing and possessing Spirits that aim at taking the mediums over. That was undoubtedly allowed to him for his own benefit and perhaps for the instruction of those persons that were present.

The Spirit says:

-“Oh yes, pity! I need pity because you don’t know what I suffer! No, you don’t know; you cannot understand… it is horrible! The guillotine! What is guillotine compared to what I suffer now? Nothing; an instant. This fire that consumes me is worse, it is a continuous torture, a nonstop, endless suffering… And my victims around me… they show me their injuries… their eyes follow me! They are here, right in front of me… I see them all… yes, all… I cannot avoid it! And this sea of blood? How about this gold stained by blood… Everything is always here, before my eyes… Do you feel the smell of blood? Blood, always blood… Look at these poor victims; they begged me but I hurt them mercilessly… I hurt them… blood intoxicates me! I believed that everything would be over after my death and for that reason I faced the ordeal; I defied God and denied him! I there I was, believing that I was annihilated forever and a terrifying awakening takes place; Oh yes, terrible… I was surrounded by cadavers, threatening creatures… I walk on blood… I thought I was dead but I am alive! I live to see all that again! To see incessantly… it is horrific, horrible! More horrifying than all ordeals of Earth! Oh if every person could know what there is beyond life! They would know the price of evilness; there would be no murderer, no criminal, no bad people! I wanted every assassin to be able to see what I see today and suffer today… Oh no more… It is too much to suffer what I suffer today!



I know very well that I deserved that, oh God, because I did not have pity on my victims. I threw their hands away when they reached out, begging for clemency. Yes, I was cruel; I killed them cowardly to take their gold… I was impious; I renegaded them; I said blasphemy against your sacred name… I wanted to get high because I wanted to persuade myself that you did not exist… Oh my God! I am a terrible criminal! Now I understand. Won’t you have pity on me? You are God, that is, mercy and goodness! You are Almighty! Pity on me, Lord! Oh pity! Pity! I beg you not to be inflexible; free me from this hateful vision, those horrible images… that blood… my victims, their looks that trespass my heart like a dagger!



You that are here and hear me, you are good souls, charitable souls; yes, I see you, you will have pity on me, won’t you? Pray for me… Oh I beg you! Do not send me away. You will ask God to remove this horrible spectacle from my sight. He will listen to you because you are good… I beg you do not send me away like I did to the others… Pray for me!”



Touched by his lament the participants addressed him with words of consolation and encouragement. They said:



“God is not inflexible. What he expects from the guilty one is a true regret and the sincere wish to repair the harm that was done. Considering that your heart is not toughened and that you ask for forgiveness for your crimes God will cast his mercy upon you if you keep you good resolutions to repair the bad things you did. You undoubtedly cannot return the life that you subtracted from your victims but if you ask him with fervor God will allow you to meet them again in a new existence in which you will be able to demonstrate as much devotion as your cruelty to them. And when he sees that the reparation is sufficient you will find grace before him.





The duration of your punishment is therefore in your own hands; it is up to you to abbreviate it. We promise you to help with our prayers and request the help of the good Spirits to you. On your behalf we will say the prayer on contained in the Imitation of the Gospel for the suffering and regretful Spirits. We will not say the one for the bad Spirits because you regret, implores the mercy of God and renounces to the practice of evil and to our eyes you are an unhappy but not malevolent Spirit.”



The prayer was said and after a few moments of calmness the Spirit continued:



“Thank you my God! Oh thank you! You had pity of me. Those horrible images move away… Do not abandon me… Send me the good Spirits to help me out… Thank you!



After that and for some time the medium remained prostrated and abated; her limbs were fatigued. In the beginning he kept only a vague memory of what had just happened; then gradually remembers some words that were used and that he had used unwillingly. He felt that it was hot him that spoke.



The next day there is a new meeting and the Spirit communicates again and restarts the previous scene for a few minutes only with the same drama but less violent this time. He then writes through the same medium with a febrile agitation the following words: “Thank you for your prayers. I can feel a noticeable improvement. I prayed to God with such a fervor that he allowed my sufferings to be alleviated for a moment. But I will still see my victims… Here they are… Can you see the blood?”



The prayer of the previous gathering was repeated and the Spirit continues, addressing the medium: “I am sorry to bother you. Thank you for the relief that you brought to my sufferings. I beg for your forgiveness for the harm I caused you but I do need to communicate. It is only you that can… Thank you! Thank you! There has been some relief but my trial is not over. My victims will soon return. That is the punishment. I deserved that, my God but be indulgent. All of you, pray for me, have pity on me.”

Latour



Observation: Although we do not have material identity of the Spirit that communicated we don’t have reasons to doubt either. At any rate that is undoubtedly a very guilty Spirit but a regretful one, horribly unhappy and tortured by remorse. Under that point of view the communication is very instructive because we cannot ignore the profoundness and reach of certain words that it contains; besides it offers the view of punished Spirits however with the presentiment of God’s mercy. The mythological allegory of the Eumenides is not therefore so ridiculous as one might think and the demons, official executioners of the invisible world that replace them in modern beliefs, are less rational with their antlers and tridents than those victims, serving themselves to the punishment of the sinner.



Admitting the identity of this Spirit some perhaps will be surprised by the sudden change in his moral state. The fact is, like we noted on another occasion, that there are frequently more resources in a Spirit that is brutally bad than on another one that is dominated by pride or that hide his vices under the mantle of hypocrisy. The rapid return to better feelings indicates a nature that is more savage than perverse and that only lacked good direction. Comparing his language to another one cited in the July 1864 issue of the Spiritist Review with the title Punished by Light, it is easy to verify which one of the two is more advanced despite the difference in education and social position: one obeyed a natural instinct of ferocity, a kind of super excitation, while the other brought to the actions of crime a calm and cold blood of a slow and perseverant combination, and after his death he still faced punishment with pride; he suffers but does not wish to surrender. The other one is restrained immediately. One can therefore forecast which one will suffer the longest.

One can read in the Siècle from June 5^th, 1864:

“A person from Berlin, Mr. X…, had a great fortune. His father, on the contrary, as a consequence of setbacks, had fallen into absolute poverty and was forced to reach out to the generosity of his son. The latter repealed violently the old man’s request that to avoid hunger had to appeal to the law. Mr. X… was condemned to provide the father with a food allowance. Mr. X… however had taken his precautions. Presenting that if he refused to pay he could have his resources investigated, he then took the decision to pass his fortune to a fatherly uncle. The miserable father then saw his last hope escaping. He protested that the transfer was fictitious and that his son had used that as a gimmick to avoid the execution of the sentence. But he would have to prove that; the old man, however, did not have the resources to cover for the costs of a process since he lacked the most basic things for survival.



An unforeseen event changed everything. The uncle died suddenly and without a will. Since he had no family the fortune was to be transferred to the closest relative that is his brother. The rest is self-explanatory. Today the roles are reversed. The father is rich the son is poor. What increases the son’s desperation is the fact that he cannot invoke fictitious transfer of resources because that is formally prohibited by law.”



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One can say that it that were always the case with evil the justice of punishment would be better understood; since the guilty one knows why he is punished he would know what is it that needs to be corrected. The examples of immediate punishment are less uncommon than people may think. If we went back to the source of every vicissitude of life we would almost always find the natural conscience of a faulty action. Mankind receives terrible lessons all the time but unfortunately takes little advantage of that. Blinded by passion people do not see the hand of God poking them. Far from acknowledging culpability for one’s own misery they are attributed to fatality and bad luck; people are much more frequently irritated than regretful and we would not be surprised if the son that is mentioned above instead of recognizing his errors towards his father, instead of return to have better feelings towards him he wouldn’t have acted even with more animosity. Now, what is it that God expects from the guilty one? Regret and voluntary reparation.



To motivate mankind towards that God multiplies around them warnings of all kinds during their life; disgraces, deceptions, imminent dangers, in a word everything that proper to make them think. If, despite all that, their pride resists, isn’t that fair that later on they are punished? It is a serious mistake to believe that evil actions sometimes go completely unpunished in the present life. If we only knew everything that happens to a bad person, apparently the wealthiest one, we would be convinced of the truth that there isn’t a single fault in this life, a single bad inclination, and we say more, a single bad thought that does not meet its counterpart. If follows from that that if people took advantage of the warnings; if they regretted and repaired their faults still in this life that would have satisfied God’s justice and there wouldn’t be any more need to atone or repair be it in the spiritual world or in a new life. If there are, however, those that in this life suffer the consequences of their previous life it is because the still have to pay for a debt that has not been done yet. It the son in question dies in penitence he will, in principle, suffer in the world of the Spirits the punishment of remorse; he will suffer morally what he made suffer materially; he will be an unhappy soul because he would have breached the law that says: honor your father and your mother. But God that is simultaneously good and just will allow him to reincarnate to make amends; he will perhaps have the same father and in his goodness will spare him the memory of the past. The guilty person however will bring the intuition of the resolutions that were made and the will to do good instead of bad. It will be the voice of conscience that will dictate the behavior. Later on, when returning to the world of the Spirits God will say: come to me, my child, your faults are erased. But if he fails in this new trial he will have to restart until completely undressed from the old man.



Let us stop, therefore, seeing the miseries that we endure by faults of a previous life as an inexplicable mystery, and let us say that it depend on us to avoid them, deserving forgiveness already from this life. Once our debts are payed God will not make us pay for them again. But if we remain deaf to God’s warnings he will then demand the last cent even after centuries or thousands of years. To achieve that God does not request vain simulations but the true reformation of the heart. The dwelling of the elected ones is only open to purified Spirits. Any stain blocks entrance. It may be sought by all but each and every one must do what is necessary to get there, sooner or later, according to their own efforts and will. Yet God says to nobody: You will not purify yourself!

This was sent from Marseille:



“One of the most honorable businessmen of our city, Mr. X… that is admired by all, has just wounded the Vicar of Saint-Barnabé with a gun shot. Last Monday Mr. X… learned via an anonymous letter that his wife was having an affair with that priest. He was given the most intimate details that left no doubt about his misery. He got home and questioned his servers: the housemaid, the servant, the gardener, the coachman, etc. and all confessed what they knew. The affair was happening for fifteen months already. Mr. X… was a cause of mockery in the whole neighborhood and he was the only one that knew nothing. It was after that inquiry that he shot the priest (Siècle, June 7^th, 1864).”



Who is more to blame in this sad case? Is it the woman, the husband or the priest? Was it the woman that deluded by devout sophisms probably considered herself forgiven by the quality of the accomplice, appeased by the hopes of an easy acquittal? Was it the husband that yielding to a moment of outrage could not control his rage? Or was it the vicar that in cold blood and premeditation violated his own vows, abused his character and deceived trust to cast disorder, despair and disunion upon an honorable family? Public consciousness issued their verdict. But beyond the material fact there are considerations of the highest importance.



A philosophy of elastic conscience could perhaps find an excuse in the fever of passions and just criticize the imprudent vows. Let us admit, if you will, not an excuse but an attenuating circumstance to the material eyes and it will not become less of an abuse of trust and of the ascendant that the guilty one had out of his position; the fascination that he exerted on his victim, under the cover of his sacred cloak. That is the fault, and that is the crime that if not punished by men’s justice it would be by that of God.



Now, fifteen months were more than enough to give him time for reflection and for him to go back to his senses and duties. What did he do in the meantime? Taught the youngsters the truths of religion; preached the virtues of Christ, the chastity of Mary, the eternity of penalties to the sinners; absolved or maintained other people’s faults according to his own judgment. And him, the refractory to God’s commandments that condemn what he did, he was the infallible provider of God’s mercy or punishment! Is it an isolated case? Ah history of all times is here unfortunately to demonstrate otherwise. We here make abstraction of the individual to only see the principle that gives rise to disbelief and quietly undermines the religious element.



The absolute power of the priest, they say, is independent of his moral behavior. Be it! We will not discuss this point although it seems strange that a man that deserves the flames of hell for his actions may open or close the door of paradise to whoever he decides when many times the excesses subtract from him the complete clarity. If the fear of the eternal penalties doesn’t stop those that teach God’s commandments from entering the path of evil and violation it means that they do not believe in them. The first condition to inspire trust is to preach by example.

The following article was published in several French and foreign newspapers:

“The Spiritists have just recruited new followers in Germany. A certain doctor from Zittau called Berthelen, author of a brochure about the turning tables, organized a society that is called: Association of the treasure hunters, whose objective is to excavate the soil in places where it is thought to have hidden treasuries buried. The company’s operations are led by a very lucid somnambulist, Mrs. Louise Ebermann, and began by daily excavations that take place at a determined time amidst a tobacco plantation in which there should be the amount of 400,000 thalers (1,500,000 francs). The society has only seven or eight members and up until now its operations are limited to say collective prayers and to remove, with certain ceremony, the earth removed from the grounds where they hope to find welcome treasures.”



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It is really curious to see the enthusiasm of certain newspapers in reproducing everything that in their opinion may throw discredit onto Spiritism. The least event, happy or ridiculous, to which with or without reason is the word Spiritist connected it is immediately repeated everywhere with more or less ingenious variations with no concern with truth. The absurd, even the most unlikely ones, are accepted with a truly amusing seriousness. With the apparition of ghosts in the theaters everybody gladly repeats that Spirits has wrecked and that its most important ropes were finally unveiled. A charlatan, a mountebank, a fortuneteller considers to be appropriate to take over the name of Spiritist and the adversaries promptly point at them as representatives of the Doctrine. What was the result of all that? Propaganda of the name and from there the desire to get to know it; ridiculous to the mockery that boasts about what they do not know; hate fallen upon the calumniators and in consequence increase in the number of serious followers, the only ones to be counted among the Spiritists.



The article above belongs to the category that we have just mentioned. The author belies himself by saying that the searches are done with the support of a somnambulist of the most lucid. It is not then with the support of the Spirits. What is his basis when he says that it is a Spiritist association? He is based on the fact that the founder wrote a brochure about the turning tables. Can one conclude from that that he is a Spiritist? Not at all because at the time of the turning table we were still living the 101 of the science. As a matter of fact if he knew Spiritism he would know that the Spirits cannot favor any search of such a kind.



Since somnambulism began to be known it has been used in treasure hunting and up until now the only thing that was achieved was money spending with useless excavations, like it happened in the past with those that were looking for the philosophical stone. We predict the same fate to this new company!



When it was learned that the Spirits could communicate a first and very natural thought was that they could come to serve speculations of all kinds but it was soon realized that only mystifications were obtained with that respect. There was a cause for that and it was the Spirits themselves that revealed it. Therefore there isn’t a single enlightened Spirit today that waste any time with such chimeras for they all know that God does not give people similar means of enrichment and that for the same reason God does not allow the Spirits to give revelations of that kind.



Hence it is abusive that the author of the article placed the German association under the sponsorship of Spiritism. The Doctrine does not recruit its followers among those that are servants of ambition, greed and material interests but among those that see it as the needed support for their moral betterment.



For better instruction about it we refer the reader to the Mediums’ Book, chapter XXVI, Questions that may be addressed to the Spirits; #291, Questions about the material and moral interests; #294, Questions about inventions and discoveries and #295, Questions about hidden treasures.

During our staying in Antwerp we visited the exhibition of paintings where we saw truly remarkable works of national painters; there we saw with great pleasure two pieces of work from our colleague from the Parisian Society, Mr. Wintz, Rue de Clinchy, 63: the return of the cows and a moonshine. But what has particularly drawn our attention was a study mentioned in the flyer entitled “Scene of the country of Spiritist peasants.” Three individuals wearing flamenco costumes seating around a huge stump upon which they rest their hands with the attitude of those that make the table turn. Their attentive and concentrated looks indicates that they take the thing seriously. Other persons, men, women and children were diversely grouped, some looking in astonishment to the first movement of the huge body, others smiling with an air of skepticism. That painting that certainly has merit in the execution is originally true. With the exception of the Spiritist painting that was shown at Constantinople exhibition (see Spiritist Review, July 1863) it is the first time that Spiritism appears so clearly confessed in works of art. It is the beginning.



Allan Kardec