Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865

Irrespective of the social echelon, man since the savage state has the innate feeling of the future. Intuition tells him that death is not the last word in life and the ones that we miss are not lost forever. The belief in the future is intuitive and infinitely more general than that of the nothingness. Therefore, how can it be that among those that believe in the immortality of the soul we still find so much attachment to earthly things and so much fear of death?

Fear of death is the effect of God’s wisdom and a consequence of the instinct of conservation that is common to all living creatures. It is necessary while mankind is not enlightened enough with respect to the conditions of a future life, as a counterweight to the tendency that, without that brake, people would be led to prematurely leave the earthly life and neglect the work here that must serve their own advancement. That is why future is only a vague intuition among primitive peoples, then it is a simple hope and later on a certainty, but still countered by a secret attachment to the corporeal life. As man better understands future life the fear of death diminishes; better understanding, at the same time, his mission on Earth he waits for the end with more calm, resignation and less fear.

The certainty of a future life gives another course to the ideas, other objectives to his works. Before finding that certainty he only works for the present; with that certainty he works with eyes in the future, without neglecting the present because he knows that his future depends on a more or less good direction that he might have followed in the present. The certainty of meeting his friends after death; of continuing the relationships that he had on Earth; of not wasting the fruit of any work and of growing incessantly in intelligence and perfection, give him the patience to work and the courage to withstand the temporary fatigues of the earthly life. The solidarity that he sees taking place between the living and the dead makes him understand the one that must exist among the living ones and from that fraternity has a meaning and charity becomes an objective in the present and in the future.

In order to free himself from the apprehensions of death he must be able to face it from its true point of view, that is, in his thoughts he must has penetrated the invisible world and made an idea as much accurate as possible, indicating a certain development to the incarnate Spirit and a certain aptitude to detach from matter.

In those that are not sufficiently advanced, material life still predominates upon spiritual life. Attached to the exterior, man only sees the life of the body whereas the real life is in the soul. When the body is precluded form life, to his eyes everything is lost and he meets desperation. If, instead of concentrating his mind in the terrestrial outfit, he turned his eyes to the very source of life, to the soul, the real being that outlives everything, he would be less sorry for the body, source of so many miseries and pains. For that, however, the Spirit requires a strength that is only obtained with maturity.

The fear of death, therefore, has its origin in the insufficiency of notions about the future life but indicates the necessity of living and the fear that the destruction of the body is the end of everything. It is therefore provoked by the secret desire of survival of the soul, still veiled by uncertainty. The fear weakens as the certainty grows; it disappears when the certainty is complete. That is the providential side of the issue. It was wise not to disturb the man whose reason was not yet strong enough to withstand the very positive and seducing perspective of a future, and that could have made him neglect the present that is necessary to his material as well as intellectual advancement.

That state of affairs is fed and prolonged by purely human causes that will disappear with progress. The first is the aspect by which the future life is presented, aspect that could be enough to little advanced intelligences, but that could not satisfy the requests of reason of thoughtful men. They say that if they were presented with principles contradicted by logic and the positive data of science as absolute truths it would mean that they are not true. From that stems the incredulity of some in many a belief stained by doubt. Future life to them is a vague idea, a probability instead of an absolute certainty; they believe in that, they wanted it to be so and yet they tell themselves: “And if it is not so? The present is a certainty. Let us deal with that first. Future will come as a bonus.” They then add: “Definitely, what is the soul? Is it a point, an atom, a spark, a flame? How does the soul feel? How does the soul see? How does the soul perceive?

To them the soul is not an effective reality. It is an abstraction. In their minds their loved ones are reduced to the state of atoms and in a way they are lost, and to their eyes they no longer have the qualities that give them the capacity of loving. They do not understand the love of a spark nor the love that one might have for that spark and they themselves are happy to be transformed into monads.^[2] Hence the return to the positivism of earthly life that is more substantial. The number of those that are dominated by these ideas is considerable.

Another reason that connects to the earthly life even those that strongly believe in a future life is due to the impression that they keep from the teachings that they received in their infancy. The image that religions makes of that is must acknowledge is not very attractive or reassuring. From one side one sees the contortions of the damned ones that eternally atone their momentary sins through tortures and flames. For these centuries are succeeded by centuries without any hope of mitigation or pity and what is even more impious is that regret is useless to them. On another hand one sees the languid and suffering souls of purgatory, waiting for their freedom that depends on the good will of the living ones that pray or send prayers to them, not depending on their own efforts of progress. These two categories form the immense majority of the population from beyond the grave. Above that there is the very restrictive category of the elected ones, enjoying a contemplative beatitude for eternity.

Such a state satisfies neither the aspirations nor the instinctive idea of progress, the only one that seems compatible with an absolute happiness. It is difficult to understand that the ignorant savage, morally obtuse, may be at the same level of someone that reached the most elevated level of education and practical morality, after long years of work, just because those received baptism. It is even less conceivable that the boy that died in his early years, before having conscience of himself and his actions, may enjoy the same privileges just as a consequence of a ceremony that did not even depend on him.

Such thoughts certainly agitate the most eager believers, however little they may think. The progressive work that we do on Earth having no value to the future life; the easiness with which they believe to acquire that happiness by means of a few exterior practices; the very possibility of buying that with money, without a serious change of character and habits, all that leave to the mundane pleasures all of its value. More than one believer say in their intimacy that considering that their future is guaranteed by the practice of certain formulas, or by post-mortem gifts that deprive them from nothing, it would be superfluous to impose sacrifices to oneself or some sort of trouble to the benefit of others since salvation can be found by each one working for oneself.

That is certainly not the way everybody thinks for there are great and beautiful exceptions but it is incontestable that this is the way the majority thinks and that the necessary things to be done to be happy in the other world has nothing to do with the assets in this world, leading therefore to egotism. We add to that the fact that everything in our traditions concur to have a missed earthly life and the passage from Earth to heavens to be feared. Death is only surrounded by lugubrious ceremonies that cause more horror than bring hope. When death is represented it is always in a disgusting way and never like a sleep of transition. All symbols of death recall the destruction of the body, showing it horribly and discarnate. None symbolizes the soul radiantly detaching from its earthly links. Departure to that happier world is only followed by the lamentation of the survivors, as if a great disgrace would happen to those that depart. An eternal good-bye is waved as if they were never be seen again. What they are sorry about for them is the termination of the enjoyment down here, as if they were not going to find better enjoyment beyond the grave. What a disgrace, they say, dying at such an early age, rich, happy and when there is still a brilliant future ahead! The idea of a happier condition only vaguely comes to mind because it has no roots. Everything then concurs to inspire the horror of death instead of giving rise to hope. Man will certainly take a very long time to leave these prejudices behind but he will get there as his faith is more solid and that a healthier idea is made of the spiritual life.

The Spiritist Doctrine changes entirely the way future is faced. Future life is no longer a hypothesis, but a reality; the state of the Spirits after death is no longer a system but the result of observation. The veil is raised; the spiritual world appears in its full practical reality. It was not men that discovered it by the struggle of an ingenious conception, but it was the very inhabitants of that world that came to describe their situation. We see them there in at all levels of the spiritual scale, in all phases of happiness and disgrace. We observe every activity of life beyond the grave. To the Spiritists that is the reason why they face death with calm and why so much serenity during their last moments on Earth. They are supported not only by hope but also by certainty. They know that future life is only the continuation of the present life in better conditions and they wait for that with the same confidence that they wait for sunrise after a stormy night. The reasons for such confidence are in the facts that they have witnessed and in the agreement of those facts with God’s logic, justice and benevolence and the internal aspirations of man.

Besides, vulgar belief places the souls in regions that are only accessible to thoughts, where they become kind of strange to the survivors. The Church itself places an unpassable barrier between them since it declares that all relationships are broken and every communication is impossible. If they are in hell there is no hope of seeing them again unless we go there too; if they are among the elected ones they will be totally absorbed in a contemplative beatitude. All that establishes such a distance between the dead and the living ones that the separation is seen as eternal and hence it seems preferable to keep them close, suffering on Earth, than seeing them departing even to heavens. Besides, is the soul in heavens really happy when that soul sees her son, father, mother or friends burning in eternity?

To the Spiritists the soul is no longer an abstraction. It has an ethereal body that makes it a defined being that can be conceived and embraced by our mind. That alone is a lot to point out the ideas about its individuality, aptitudes and perceptions. The memory of the loved ones rests on something real. They are no longer represented by fleeing flames that have no association with our thoughts but under a concrete form that better show them like living creatures. Besides, instead of being lost in the depth of space, they are around us. The visible and invisible worlds are have perpetual relationship and mutually help one another. Fear of death has no reason to exist since any doubt about the future is no longer allowed. Death is faced cold-bloodedly, as a liberation, like the door of life and not the door to nothing.

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[1] Text inserted into the book Heavens and Hell, part I, Chap II


[2] Simple substances in metaphysics (TN)

In a previous article we talked about the incessant progresses of Spiritism. Are those progresses durable or ephemeral? Is it a meteor that shines with a temporary light, like many other things? That is what we are going to examine in a few words.

If Spiritism were a simple theory, a philosophical school founded on a personal opinion, nothing would guarantee its stability because it could please today and not please tomorrow; in a given time it could no longer be in harmony with the customs and the intellectual development, and then it would fall like all other things that are outdated and that did not follow progress; finally, it could be replaced by something better. That is what happens to every human conception, every legislation and every purely speculative doctrine.

Spiritism presents itself in completely different conditions, as we have pointed out so many times. It is founded on a fact, the communication between the visible and invisible worlds. A fact cannot be nulled by time, like an opinion. Undoubtedly it is not yet accepted by everybody but why bother with the denial of some when Spiritism is daily attested by millions of individuals whose number grows incessantly, and who are not sillier or blinder than the others? A time will then come when there will no longer be deniers as there aren’t any more deniers of the movement of Earth these days. How much opposition hasn’t this last point raised! For a long time the nonbelievers did not lack apparent reasons to dispute that. “How to believe, they used to say, in the existence of the antipodes^[1] upside down? And if Earth turns around as they pretend, how can we believe that every other 24h interval we ourselves are in that uncomfortable position as well and without noticing it? In that situation we would not be able to maintain contact with Earth unless we could walk upside down like flies on a ceiling. Besides, what would happen to the oceans? When the vase is inclined, doesn’t the water spills over? The thing is simply impossible, therefore absurd and Galileo is a mad man!” Nonetheless, if that absurd thing is a fact it defeated every contrary reason and every anathema. What was it that was missing for its admission? The knowledge of the natural law that is its foundation. If Galileo was satisfied by saying that Earth turns, even today he would not be believed but the denials fell before the knowledge of the principle.



The same will happen to Spiritism. Considering that it rests on a material fact that results from an explained and demonstrated law that eliminates any characteristic of wonderful and supernatural, it is imperishable. Those that deny the possibility of the manifestations are in the same situation as those that denied the movement of Earth. The majority denies the primary cause that being the soul, its survival and its individuality. Therefore it is not surprising that they deny the effect. They judge by the simple announcement of the fact and declare it absurd like in the past the belief of the antipodes was declared absurd. But what can their opinion do against a phenomenon that has been attested by observation and demonstrated by a natural law? Since the movement of the planet is a purely scientific fact its demonstration was not at the reach of the masses; it was necessary to accept the authority of the arguments of the scientists. But in its favor Spiritism has the fact that it can be attested by everybody and that is what explains its fast propagation. Every new discovery of some importance has more or less serious consequences. The movement of Earth and the Gravitational Law that governs that movement had incalculable consequences. Science opened up a vast horizon of exploration and one could not count all discoveries, inventions and applications that followed as a consequence of that. The progress of science led to the progress of technology and the progress of technology changed the way we live, our habits, in short the living conditions of humanity. The knowledge of the relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds has even more direct and immediately practical consequences because it is available to all individualities and it is of the interest of everybody.

Since every person must one day die, nobody can remain indifferent to what will succeed after their death. By the certainty that Spiritism gives about the future, each person changes the way they see it and that has influence upon their morality. By inhibiting egotism, Spiritism will modify profoundly the social relationships between individuals and peoples.

Many reformers of generous thoughts formulated more or less attractive doctrines, but in their majority they only had the success of a temporary and circumscribed sect. It was like that and it will always be like that with purely systematic theories, because it is not given to man on Earth the conception of something perfect and complete. Spiritism, on the contrary, founded not on a preconceived idea but on positive facts, is shielded from those fluctuations and can only grow as the facts become widely known, better known and understood. Well, no single human power can hinder the propagation of facts that everybody may attest. Once the facts are attested, nobody will be able to preclude the consequences that result from them. These consequences are here a complete revolution of ideas and in the way people see things from this world as from the other. This will take place before this century is over. But, some will say, besides the facts you have a theory, a doctrine; who can assure that the theory will not suffer variations; that in a few years it will be the same as today?

Undoubtedly it may suffer modifications in its details, before new observations, but once the principle is established it cannot vary and even less be eliminated. That is the essential. Since Copernicus and Galileo the movement of Earth and the stars have been better calculated but the fact of the movement remained as being the principle.







We have said that Spiritism is above all a science of observation. That is what constitutes its force against the attacks that it suffers and gives its followers an unbreakable faith. All lines of thoughts that are opposed fall before the facts and the more those lines of reasoning are driven by interest the less those thoughts have value to their eyes. It is useless with some say this is not like that or it is something else, the followers respond: We cannot deny evidence. If it were only about an individual there could be reason to believe that the individual was deluded, but when millions of individuals see the same thing, in every country, one logically concludes that the deniers are the mistaken ones.

If the Spiritist facts only resulted in the satisfaction of curiosity, they would certainly only lead to a momentary concern, like everything else that is useless. However the consequences that stem out of Spiritism touch the heart; make the persons happy; satisfy their aspirations; fulfill the emptiness left by doubt; cast a light upon the fearful issue of the future; even more, a powerful instrument for the moralization of society is found. That leads to a great interest. Now, one does not easily resign to a source of happiness. Certainly, it is not with the perspective of obliviousness or with the flames of hell that the Spiritists will be yanked from their belief.

Spiritism will not move away from the truth and will have nothing to fear from the contrary opinions, as long as its scientific theory and its moral Doctrine are a deduction of scrupulously and consciously observed facts, without prejudice or preconceived systems. It was before a more complete observation that every premature and adventurous theories that appeared at the origin of the modern days Spiritist phenomena fell, and came to melt with the powerful unity that there is today, and against which only a few rare and diminishing number of individuals voice their opinion. The blanks that the current theory may have will be filled out in the same way. Regarding the consequences, Spiritism is far from having announced its final word, but it remains inflexible in its foundation because that foundation is based on facts.

Therefore, may the Spiritist have no fear because the future is theirs; let the adversaries struggle under the influence of the truth that obfuscates them for any denial is powerless against the evidence that will inevitably prevail by the force of things. It is a matter of time, and in this century time moves at strides of giants by the impulse of progress.

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[1] Natives of New Zealand (TN)

A lady sent us the following:

“One of my daughters has a three year old boy that has been the source of a lot of concern to her since his birth. By the end of last August his heath was reestablished but he still walked with difficulty and spoke papa, mommy but the rest of his language was a series of inarticulate sounds. About a month ago and after unsuccessful attempts for having him saying the most usual words, my daughter was in bed feeling really sorry for that kind of mutism, particularly devastated for the fact that her husband, long time captain, was about to return home, after a more than a year long absence, and would still find no improvement in his son’s ability to speak, when at 5 am she was woken up by the child’s voice that distinctly said the letters A, B, C, D that she had never tried to have him saying. Believing to be daydreaming she sat on the bed inclining her head to the cradle, near the sleeping child that she heard repeating out loud several times the letters A, B, C marked by a slight movement of the head and after a short interval he would say D with an accent. I entered the room about 6am while the child was still asleep but the sleepless mother was very happy and moved for having heard her son pronouncing those letters. When the boy woke up and from that moment we uselessly tried to have him saying those letters (that he had never heard before, at least in this life), all of our attempts were in vain. Even today he says A and B but it has been impossible to have him saying C and D like more than two sounds, one from the throat, the other nasal, that in no way resembled those letters that we wanted him to say. Isn’t that the proof that the boy had already lived? I stop here since I do not feel instructed enough to dare conclude. I need to learn more and read all about Spiritism but not to convince me; Spiritism answers everything or at least almost everything; but I repeat Sir I do not know enough. That will come for I wish so. God that has never abandoned me since I widowed sixteen years ago; God that helped me to educate my children and conduct them; God that has my full faith will provide with what I lack because I wait and ask with my heart to allow the good Spirits to enlighten and guide me on the good path. Pray for me also, Sir; my thoughts are with you and above all I wish to walk the good path.”

This, no doubt, is the result of previously acquired knowledge. If there is an innate aptitude it is the one revealed during the sleep of the body when nothing could have developed it during the vigil state. If the ideas were the result of matter why a new idea shows up when matter is benumbed whereas it is not only null but impossible to express when the organs are in full activity? Hence the primary cause cannot be in matter. That is how materialism continuously clashes with problems for which it cannot give solution. For a theory to be true it must not be belied by any fact. Spiritism does not formulate any theory prematurely unless it is done hypothetically in which case it avoids giving that as an absolute truth, only providing it as matter for study. That is why it marches steadfast. In the case above since it is evident that the Spirit did not learn during the vigil state he may have learned elsewhere what he says during the sleep. If it were not in this life it was on another one and even more, in an earthly life in which he spoke French for he pronounces letters in French. How can those that deny the plurality the existences or reincarnation on Earth explain the fact? But what there still needs to be learned is why he cannot articulate in vigil what he does in the sleep. Here is the explanation given by a Spirit at the Parisian Society:



November 24th, 1864 – medium Mrs. Cazemajour

“It is an intelligence that could be still veiled for some time through the physical suffering of reincarnation to which the Spirit had great difficulty in accepting and that has temporarily annihilated his faculties. But his guide helps him with kind solicitude allowing him to leave that state through his advices, encouragement and lessons that he gives him during the sleep, lessons that will not be lost and that will be effective when the phase of numbness is over, something that will be determined by a violent shock of extreme commotion. For that it is necessary a struggle of this kind. It is necessary to wait but not fear idiocy because that is not case.”

There is an important and up to a certain extent new teaching here: education in the first infancy given to a incarnate by a discarnate Spirt. Certain scientists would certainly discard this as a puerile and without importance fact, or would explain it by a super excitation of the brain that momentarily expand the senses, because that is how they explain all mediumistic faculties. Undoubtedly in certain cases one could conceive the exaltation in an adult whose imagination grows in proportion to what that person sees or hear, but one could not understand what could excite the brain of a three year old that sleeps. Here we have a fact that is inexplicable by that theory while it finds a logical and natural explanation in Spiritism. Spiritism does not disdain any fact, however insignificant it may appear to be. It watches, observes and studies them all. That is how the Spiritist science progresses, as the facts present themselves to confirm or complete the theory. If those facts contradict Spiritism another explanation is thought for that.

A letter dated December 30th, 1864 sent by a friend of the family says this:

“The Spirits said that a crisis, determined by a violent shock, an extreme emotion will free the child from the numbness of his faculties. They told the truth. The crisis took place by a violent shock and here is how. The child triggered a terrible fall of his grandmother, in which she almost had her head broken, smashing the child. From that moment on the child surprises the parents every time now by saying whole phrases, like for example: watch out mommy, you may fall.”

The articulation of the letters during the boys’ sleep was evidently a mediumistic effect since it resulted from the exercise that the Spirit carried out with him. In a future session of the Society in which the issue was not being discussed, a spontaneous dissertation was given, confirming and developing that kind of mediumship as follows next.

When the Spirit is just incarnate, after being prepared by the guardian angel, establishing the groundwork for the endurance of new trials for one’s own betterment, the mysterious links that unit the Spirit to the body, to manifest its terrestrial action, begin to establish. This contains a whole study that I will not elaborate on now. I will only speak of the role and disposition of the Spirit during the infancy in the cradle.

The action of the Spirit upon matter in that period of physical vegetation is little noticeable. The spiritual guides, therefore, take advantage of that period in which the physical part does not require the intelligent participation of the Spirit to prepare the latter and give the Spirit encouragement in the good resolutions that impregnate the soul. It is in those moments of detachment that the Spirit, leaving the state of confusion that was necessary for the present incarnation, understands and remembers the commitment made towards moral betterment. That is when the protector Spirits assist and help you to recognize yourselves. Consequently, study the face of a sleeping baby. You will see that many times sleeping to the angels, as they commonly say, an expression that is truer than people think. The child, in fact, smiles to the Spirits that surround her and that must guide her. Watch that little one awake. The eyes are staring, seemingly recognizing friendly creatures, mumbling words with happy gestures, apparently addressing beloved faces. And since God does not abandon his creatures, those same Spirits will later on give that child health instructions, be it in their sleep or by inspiration, in their vigil state. From that you can see that every creature has the gift of mediumship, at least in an embryonic state.

The infancy, per se, is a long series of mediumistic effects and if, later on, children a little bit older and with more strength, were not afraid of the images of those first hours, you would be able to attest such effects in a much better way.

Keep on with your studies, and like grown children, you will be more enlightened everyday if you are not adamant in keeping your eyes closed to what surrounds you.

A protector Spirit

Mediumistic masterpieces

Why don’t the Spirits of the great geniuses that were renowned on Earth produce masterpieces through mediumship, as they did when alive and considering that they did not lose anything in intelligence?

That question is at the same time one of those whose solution interests the Spiritist science, as a matter of study, and an objection opposed by certain deniers to the reality of the manifestations. “Such superior art work, they say, would be a proper proof of identity to convince the most reluctant one, whereas the mediumistic production signed by the most illustrious names is hardly positioned above vulgarity. Up until now there hasn’t been any fundamental work that can be close to the great scholars and great artists. When I see, some add, the Spirit of Homer bringing a new Iliad, Virgil bringing a new Aeneid, Cornelius a new Cid, Beethoven a new symphony in la, or a wise man like Laplace solving one of those uselessly sought resolutions like the quadrature of the circle, for example, I will then be able to believe in the reality of the Spirits. But how do you want me to believe when I see seriously signed works by Racine with poetries that a fourth grader student could correct; the attribution of badly finalized verses, without soul and salt, attributed to Béranger, or lending the language of a cook to Voltaire and Chateaubriand?”

There is a serious side in that objection contained in the last part but that does not indicate less ignorance about the fundamental principles of Spiritism. If those that make such objection did not judge it, before they had studied it, they would spare themselves a useless task.

It is a known fact that the identity of the Spirits is one of the great difficulties of practical Spiritism. It cannot be considered positively unless it is done to contemporary Spirits whose character and habits are known. They are then revealed by a number of particulars, in facts and language that would not leave room for any doubt. These are the ones whose identities are more interesting to us for the links that we have with them. Frequently a sign, a word is enough to attest their presence and these details are the more significant the more similarity is found in the series of familiar conversations that we have with the Spirits. Besides, we must consider that the closer the Spirits are to us, since their earthly death, the lesser they will have changed in character, habits and personal ideas that they made known to us.

That is different with respect to Spirits that somehow are only known through History. For those there is no material proof of identity; there could be presumption but not absolute certainty of personality. The more the Spirits are away from us considering the time in which they lived, the less the certainty since their ideas and character may have modified with time.

Second, those that achieved a certain elevation form a family of similar by their thoughts and by the degree of advancement; we are far from knowing all of their members. If one of them communicates he will utilize a name known to us, as an indication of his category. If, for example, Plato is evoked it is possible that he responds to the appeal but if he cannot, a Spirit of the same class will respond in his name. This Spirit will be his thought but not his individuality. That is what one needs to understand well.

As a matter of fact the superior Spirits come to instruct us. Their absolute identity is secondary. What they say is good or bad, rational or illogical, worthy or undeserving of the signature, and that is the whole issue. In the first case it is accepted; in the second it is rejected as apocryphal.

Here enters a big obstacle with the meddling of frivolous and ignorant Spirits that decorate themselves with great names to have their foolishness and utopias accepted. In this case the distinction requires caution, observation and almost always special knowledge. In order to assess something one must have competency. How can someone that is not educated in literature and poetry appreciate the qualities and defects of communications of that kind? Ignorance in this case make take emphasis, flowery language and sound words that hide the emptiness of ideas by sublime beauties; it cannot identify the particular genius of the writer to assess what can or what cannot be from him. Consequently we frequently see mediums that are proud of receiving verses with the signature of Racine, Voltaire or Béranger having no difficulty in considering them authentic, however bad they may be. Happy are those that do not get upset with persons that allow themselves to question those productions.

We therefore consider perfectly fair the criticism that opposes similar things because such criticism is in agreement with our opinion. The error is not with Spiritism but with those that very easily accept what comes from the Spirits. If those that have transformed this into a weapon against the Doctrine had studied it before they would know what the Doctrine admits, not attributing to the Doctrine what it rejects nor the exaggerations of a blind and unthoughtful credulity. The mistake is even greater when they publish things with known names, unworthy of the origin that are attributed to them. That is the same as offering an unguarded flank to founded criticism, damaging Spiritism.

One must know that rational Spiritism absolutely does not sponsor such productions and does not bear responsibility for publications carried out with more enthusiasm than caution.

Do the uncertainty about the identity of the Spirits, in certain cases, and the frequency of meddling of frivolous Spirits prove anything against the reality of the manifestations? Not at all because the fact of the manifestations is as well proven by inferior Spirits as it is by the superior ones. The abundance of the former demonstrates the moral inferiority of our planet and the need to work for our betterment, leaving it behind as soon as possible.

There still remains the main question: Why don’t the Spirits of geniuses produce masterpieces in mediumistic way?

Before anything else we must see the utility of things. What good would that do? People will say that it would convince the incredulous. But when we see them resisting to the most tangible evidence, a masterpiece would not be better to convince them about the existence of the Spirits because they would attribute it to the super excitation of the brain. A familiar Spirit, a father, a mother, a son, a friend that comes to reveal unknown circumstances to the medium, that comes to say words that touch the heart say much more than a masterpiece that could have come from one’s own brain. Doesn’t a crying father, that attests the presence and love of a missing son, become more convinced than if Homer had come to bring a new Iliad or Racine a new Phaedra? Why then requesting prodigies of power from them that would be more astonishing than convincing, when they reveal themselves by thousands of private signs to everybody?

The Spirits seek to convince the crowds and not this or that individual because the opinion of the masses makes law whereas the individuals are lost units in the multitude. That is why they give little importance to the stubborn ones that want to take it by force. They know well that sooner or later they will have to bow before the force of public opinion. The Spirits yield to the caprices of no one. They employ the means of their choice to be convincing, according to the individuals and circumstances. Too bad for those that are not happy with that; their time will come later. That is also why we tell the followers: Be with the people of good faith because you will not fail, but do not waste your time with the blind ones that do not wish to see and the deaf that do not wish to hear. Is that a lack of charity? No, because this is just a delay to them. While wasting your time with them you miss the opportunity of giving consolation to many others in need and that would gladly accept the bread of life that you offer. In addition consider that the refractory ones, that resist to your words and the proofs that you give them, will one day give in to the ascendant of public opinion that will form around them. Their self-love will suffer less with that.

The theme of the masterpieces is connected to the principle that governs the relationships between incarnate and discarnate. Its solution depends on the knowledge of that principle. Below the answers given about it at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies.


January 6^th, 1865 – medium Sr. d’Ambel

“There are mediums that, thanks to their previous acquisitions and by their particular studies carried out in the present existence, became more capable or if not more useful than the others. The moral issue plays no role here; it is a simple question of intellectual capacity. But one must not ignore the fact that there aren’t many of these mediums and that if they receive messages of an elevated order it must be beneficial to them only. More than one masterpiece of art and literature is the product of an unconscious mediumship. Without that where would the inspiration come from? You dare say that the communications received by Delphine de Girardin, Auguste Vaquerie and others were up to what one would expect from the Spirits that communicated with them. On those occasions, unfortunately very rare in Spiritism, the souls that wanted to communicate had good, excellent instruments in their hands, or even better, mediums whose intellectual capacity provided all the elements of words and thoughts needed to the manifestation of the inspiring Spirits. Now, in the majority of the cases when the Spirits communicate, the great Spirits I mean, they are far from having at hand the elements necessary to the emission of their thoughts in the same way as they would have done when alive. Is that a reason for not receiving their instructions? Certainly not because if the form is sometimes lacking the substance is always worthy of the signee of the communications. Besides, these are disputes of words. Does the communication exist or not? That is all. If it does exist never mind the Spirit and the name that is taken! If they do not exist it is even less important to worry about that. The Spirits work to convince; when they don’t, it is an unimportant inconvenience; it only happens because the incarnate is not yet prepared to be convinced. Nonetheless, I feel at ease here to affirm that among one hundred of individuals of good faith that experience it themselves or through mediums that are strange to them, more than two thirds become sincere followers of the Spiritist Doctrine, because in these exceptional times the action of the Spirits is not circumscribed to the action of the medium only but it also manifests through a thousand material or spiritual facets upon the one that evokes himself. In short, nothing is absolute and there will be a more fecund, more productive time that the preceding hour. These are in two words my answer to the question raised by your president.”

Erastus



January 20^th, 1865 – medium Ms. M.C.

You question is why have the Spirits excelled on Earth by their genius but do not give the mediums communications at the same level as their earthly productions, when in reality they should give superior ones considering the time span since their deaths their knowledge should have grown. Here is the reason:

To make themselves heard the Spirits must act upon the instruments that are at the level of their fluidic resonance. What can a good musician do with a broken instrument? Nothing. Well? Many, if not the majority, of the mediums are imperfect instruments to us. You need to understand that everything requires similarity, be it with the spiritual fluids be it with the material ones. In order for the superior Spirits to communicate with you they require mediums capable of vibrating with them in synchronization; in the same way with the physical manifestations, it is necessary that the incarnate have the same type of material fluids as the Spirits in erraticity that still have action upon matter. Hence, Galileo cannot really manifest but through an Astronomer capable of understanding him and transmitting astronomical data without mistakes; Alfred de Musset and other poets will need a medium that loves and understand poetry; Beethoven and Mozart will seek musicians worthy of transcribing their musical thoughts; the instructor Spirits that unveil to you the secrets of nature, secrets that a little known or still ignored, need mediums that have already understood the magnetic effect and that have studied mediumship well.

You must understand, my friends, that you don’t order an outfit from a hat maker nor your hair style to a tailor. You need to understand that we need good interpreters and that some of us, for not finding such interpreters, deny communication. But the place is then taken. Do not forget that frivolous Spirits are in large number and that they take advantage of your faculties with so much facility as so many among you, proud by receiving notable signatures, not much concerned with investigating the true source, confronting what is obtained with which should have be obtained. General rule: when you want a mathematician do not address a dancer.

A protector Spirit



Observation: This communication rests on a true principle that perfectly addresses the issue from a scientific point of view but that could not be taken in a more absolute sense. At first sight the principle seems to contradict the so many examples of mediums that deal with subjects beyond their knowledge, apparently implying that the superior Spirits could only communicate with mediums at their level.

Well, this can only apply to special matters and of a high importance. It is conceivable that if Galileo wants to treat a scientific issue; if a great poet wants to dictate a poetic work they have the need of an instrument that responds to their thoughts but that does not mean that to handle other subjects, a simple moral issue for example, a good advice to be given, they won’t need a medium that is a scientist or a poet. When a medium easily handles matters of superior importance that are alien to them it is an indication that the Spirit of the medium has an innate development and latent faculties, beyond the education that was received.

The “Annales de la propagacion de la foi”, Septembre 1864, #216, contain a detailed report of events that took place in Tananarive, Madagascar, during the year of 1863, among others that of the death of King Radama II. We find the following story there:

“The most serious event that took place in Tananarive in 1863 is, without doubt, the death of Radama II. But before telling the story of the tragic end of that unfortunate prince it is necessary to remember another event that had almost the same repercussion of the first one, that was witnessed by more than two hundred thousand men and that may be seen as a prelude or prologue of the attempt to the life of the poor Radama. I want to mention the Ramanenjana.”

This word means tension and expresses a strange disease that first broke out in the South of Emirne. One month earlier people heard about it in Tananarive. It seems certain that numerous groups of men and women affected by the mysterious illness moved from the South to the Capital to speak to the King, from the part of his mother, the deceased Queen. People said that those groups traveled short distances, each night camping in the villages and increasing in number along the way, with all that were claimed on their path. But nobody thought that the Ramanenjana was so close to the royal city when it suddenly showed up, a few days before Palm Sunday.

Here is what they wrote to us about it:

“When we thought that it was still too far away, Ramanenjana or Ramena-bé as others call it, fell like a bomb. The only rumors in town are about convulsions and Convulsionaries. They are all over the place; their number estimated in more than two thousands. At this time they are camped in Machamasina, champ de Mars near the Capital. The noise they make is so much that we cannot sleep. Imagine the volume of that noise that can disturb our sleep more than four kilometers away! On Holy Tuesday a great review was supposed to take place in Soanerana. When the drums were played more than a thousand soldier suddenly left their ranks and started to dance to the Ramanenjana. Regardless of how much the leaders screamed and threatened the soldiers, they had to renounce the review.”


Characteristics of Ramanenjana?



“The disease affects specially the nerve system upon which it exerts such a pressure that soon provokes convulsions and hallucinations that can only be identified by science. Sick people initially feel splitting headaches, pain in neck followed by the stomach. After a while the convulsive fits begin; that is when the living ones enter into communication with the dead: they see Queen Ranavalona, Radama I, Adrian Ampoinemerina and others that speak with them and give them things to do. The majority of the messages are addressed to Radama II. The Ramanenjana seem specially deputies by the old Ranavalone, to indicate Radama that he must return to the old system, stop the prayers, fire the whites, prohibit pigs in the sacred city, etc.; otherwise big problems threat him and that she will be renegade him as her son.

Another effect of those hallucinations is that the majority of those that are affected imagine themselves carrying heavy loads and following the dead; imagine also a box of soap or a safe on their heads, a mattress, a rifle, keys, silver bows, etc. The apparitions must move really fast because the unfortunate ones that obey them make a real effort to follow them, always in a fast pace.

They did not receive their beyond the grave missions earlier because they dance, scream, ask for grace, agitate their heads and arms, shaking the tip of the lamba^[1] or a piece of cloth that covers their body. Then they throw themselves, always shouting, dancing, jumping and agitating convulsively. Their most common shout is: Ekala! And also this one: Izahay maikia (we are in a hurry). Most of the time a crowd follows them singing, clapping their hands and playing drums. They say that it is to agitate them even more and to speed up the end of the crisis like the horseman that loosens up the reins of the impetuous horse, and far from trying to stop it the rider stimulates the horse with screams and spurs until it trembles under the conducting hands, snorting, covered in sweat and stopping on its own, exhausted.

Although the disease affects the slaves in particular, it spares nobody. That is how a son of Radama and Maria, his concubine, suddenly fell victim of the hallucinations of Ramanenjana, screaming, agitating, dancing and running like the others.


In the beginning, at the first moment of horror, the King himself chased him but with the precipitation of the run he got one leg hurt, giving then orders to have a saddled horse just in case of a new accident.

The rush of those barbarians has nothing of well determined. Once impelled by God knows which kind of irresistible force they spread in the field, some to one side, and others to another. Before Easter they used to go to the tombs where they danced and offered a coin. But on the very Palm Day, coincidently, a new fashion seemed to have gained their preference: going to the lower side of town and cut a sugar cane plant. They carry it triumphantly on their shoulder and deposit it onto the sacred stone of Mahamasin, as a tribute to Ranavalona. Then they dance, agitate with all sorts of usual convulsions and contortions; then they deposit the cane and a coin and return running, dancing, and jumping as they came. Some take a bottle of water on their heads to drink and refresh, and something amazing! Despite all the agitation and convulsions the bottle remains balanced; one would say that they are glued to the skull.

A new fantasy has taken them over, we heard, the demand for people to take their hats off when they pass by. Unfortunate the ones that refuse to obey, however absurd it may be. Many fights resulted from that already and the poor Radama believed to be able to stop with the imposition of a 150 francs fine to those that did not abide. To avoid breaching the new kind of royal determination the majority of the whites decided to go out without their hats. One of our vicars was exposed to a much more serious situation. They wanted nothing less from him than taking his soutane off since the Ramanenjana pretended that the black color would obfuscate them. Fortunately the priest was able to escape and get home without the need to go shirtless.

The fits of the Convulsionaries are not continuous. Many, after having done their pirouettes before the sacred stone to which they make the heir of the throne climb to have him introduced to the people, throw themselves to the water and then return calmly to rest until the new crisis. Others sometimes fall exhausted on their path or in the streets, falling asleep and waking up cured. There are those that remain sick for two or three days before they are completely freed. Sometimes the sickness is tenacious and stays on for something like fifteen days.

During the crisis the individual that is taken by Ramanenjana recognizes no one. Almost does not respond questions addressed to him. After the crisis they vaguely remember something, like in a dream.

A remarkable particularity is that amidst their most tiring evolutions, their hands and feet are cold like ice whereas the rest of the body sweats in profusion and the head in on fire.

Now, what could be the cause of such a singular disease? Everybody is in agreement here. Several simply attribute it to the devil that revealed itself like before in the turning, thinking tables, etc. That is why many resigned to go without hats to avoid revering such diabolic majesty.”

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[1] traditional garment worn by men and women that live in Madagascar (TN)

It would be a big surprise if the name of Spiritism had not been involved in this case. Much fortunate still the followers for not having been accused of their causers. What people would not have said if those poor Malagasy had read The Spirits’ Book! They would have affirmed that the book had twisted their heads. Who, then, without Spiritism taught them to believe in Spirits and in the communications between the living ones and the soul of the dead? What is in nature is produced so well among the savage as it is with civilized people; with the ignorant as with the wise man and at the village as in town. Since there are Spirits everywhere, manifestations take place all over, with the difference that in those closer to nature pride has not yet stained the intuitive ideas, that are lively and in its whole ingenuity, the reason why naivety based on systems are not found there. They can judge things badly given the limitation of their intelligences, but the belief in the invisible world in them is innate and entertained by facts that they observe. Hence everything demonstrates that there, like in Morzine, the phenomena are the result of a collective obsession or possession, true epidemic of bad Spirits, like it was produced at the time of Jesus and in many other times. Each population must provide similar spirits to the invisible world, who, from space, react to these same populations, whose habits, inclinations, and prejudices have been preserved as a result of their inferiority. The savage and barbarian peoples are thus surrounded by a mass of Spirits still savage and barbarian until progress has led them to incarnate themselves in a more advanced environment. This is the result of the following communication. The report above was read in a private meeting, and one of the spiritual guides of the family spontaneously dictated the following:



Paris, January 12^th, 1865 – medium Mrs. Delanne

“Tonight I heard you reading the events of obsession that took place in Madagascar. If you allow, I will give you my opinion about the subject.”

Observation: The Spirit had not been evoked. He was then among us at the Society, hearing what was been said but without being seen. That is how we constantly have unsuspected invisible witnesses to our actions.

“The hallucinations, as the newspaper correspondent calls them, are not but an obsession, although of a different kind compared to the ones you know. Here it is a collective obsession, produced by a group of delayed Spirits, that by preserving their former political views, come to try to disturb their fellow citizens through the manifestations, so that the latter do not dare try to incorporate the new ideas of civilization that begin to implant in countries in which progress begins to shine.

The obsessing Spirits that lead those poor people to so many ridiculous manifestations are those of the former Malagasy that get furious, I repeat, by seeing the inhabitants of those regions admitting the ideas of civilization that some advanced incarnate have the mission of implanting among them. That is why you frequently hear them saying: - No prayers! Done with the whites, etc. You must understand that they are reactive to anything that comes from the Europeans that is the intellectual center.

Aren’t those manifestations, to the eyes of everybody, a confirmation of your principles? They are produced less for the sanction of more or less savage people than to the sanction of your works. The possessions of Morzine have a more particular character, or even better, a more restrictive. One can study the phases of each Spirit on the spot. Observing the details each individuality offers a special study, whereas the manifestations of Madagascar have the spontaneity and character of the national seal. It is a whole population of old and delayed Spirits that see with spite their homeland enduring the impulse of progress. Since they have not progressed they seek to block the course of the Providence.

The Spirits of Morzine are comparatively more advanced. Although brute the assess things better than the Malagasy; distinguish the good from the bad, recognizing that the form of the prayer is nothing but that the thought is everything. In fact you will later see through your studies that they are not as delayed as they seem at first sight. Here it is to demonstrate that science is powerless to heal such cases through its material means. There it is to attract attention and confirm the principle.”

A protector Spirit

Although this touching funereal prayer had been published by several journals it equally finds space in this Spiritist Review, given the nature of the thoughts that it contains and whose reach can be appreciated by everyone. The paper from which we took it reports the ceremony in the following terms:

“A said ceremony had a crowd gathered last Thursday, painfully touched at the cemetery of the independent, in Guernsey. It was the funeral of a young lady that death caught by surprise during a joyful time in which the family celebrated the wedding of a sister that had married a few days earlier. She was a happy young lady to whom the son of the great poet, Mr. François Hugo, had dedicated the fourteenth volume of his translation of Shakespeare. She died on the eve of the release of that book. As we have just mentioned, the assistance in such funerals was large and sympathetic and it is with a heartfelt sadness and tears dropped by friendship that she heard the last words of farewell, pronounced upon that prematurely open grave by the illustrious exiled of Guernsey, Victor Hugo himself. Here the speech given by the poet:

“In a few weeks we dealt with two sisters. We married one and buried the other. Such is the perpetual movement of life. Let us bow, my brothers, before the severe judgment of destiny but let us bend with hope. Our eyes are made to cry, but to see; our heart is made to suffer, but to believe. Faith in another existence comes out of the capacity of love. Do not forget, those in this life worried and reassured by love, it is the heart that believes. The son intends to find his father; the mother does not consent to losing her child forever. This refusal of nothingness is the greatness of man. Heart cannot be mistaken. Flesh is a dream because it dissipates. If such disappearance were the end of mankind, it would remove any sanction of life. We are not satisfied with this smoke that is matter; we need certainty. Whoever loves, knows and feels that none of the points of support of man is on earth. Love is to live beyond life. Without this faith, no perfect gift of the heart would be possible; love, the goal of man, would be his torment. This paradise would be hell. No! Let's say, no, out loud because the loving creature requires the immortal creature. Heart needs soul. There is a heart in this coffin and this heart is alive. At this very moment it hears my words.

Emily de Putron was the sweet pride of a respectable and patriarchal family. Her friends and loved ones loved her grace; her smile a party to them. She was like a flower of joy blossoming in the house. From the cradle, she was surrounded by kindness, had a happy upbringing and gave back that happiness. A loved person that loved. She has just left.

Where did she go? To the shadows? No. We are the ones in darkness. She? She is in the dawn. She is in glory, truth, reality and reward. These young dead ladies, who did no harm in life, are welcome in the grave, their heads stick slightly out of the tomb to a mysterious crown.

Emily de Putron seeks the supreme serenity up there, the complement of innocent lives. She is gone: youth to eternity; beauty to the ideal; hope to uncertainty; love to infinity; pearl to ocean and Spirit to God.

Go, soul!

The prodigy of this great celestial farewell called death is that those that depart do not move away. They are in a world of clarity, but watch our world of darkness like loving witnesses. They are high up and very close. Oh any of you that has seen a loved one disappearing in the tomb do not believe that you are abandoned. She is always here. More than ever she is closer to you. Presence is the beauty of death. An inexpressible presence of the loved souls, smiling to our eyes covered in tears. The mourned creature disappeared but did not leave. We know longer see their kind face… The dead are invisible but not absent.

Let us be fair with death. Let us not be ungrateful. Death is not an annihilation, as they say, a trap. It is a mistake to believe that here, in the obscurity of the open grave, everything is lost. Everything reunites here. The tomb is a place of restitution. Here the soul recovers infinity; here it recovers its plenitude; here it takes over its mysterious nature; here it is disconnected from the body, disconnected from the burden and disconnected from fatality. Death is the greatest of all freedoms. It is also the greatest of all progresses. Death is the ascension of everything that was lived on a superior level. Dazzling and sacred ascension. Each one receives their addition. Everything transfigures in light and by light. The one that was only honest on Earth becomes beautiful; the one that was only beautiful becomes sublime and the one that was only sublime becomes good.

And how about me, why Am I here? What do I bring to this sump? How dare I speak to death? Who am I? Nothing. I am mistaken, I am something. I am an exile. Forced exile yesterday, voluntary exile today. An exile is a defeated, a slandered, a persecuted, harmed by fate and disinherited by the homeland. An exile is an innocent under the weight of a malediction. His blessings must be good. I bless this tomb.

I bless the noble and gracious creature in this grave. We find oasis in the desert; in the exile we find souls. Emily de Putron was one of those charming found souls. I came to pay her with the debt of a reassured exile. I bless her in the somber depth. In the name of the sufferings upon which she shone kindly; in the name of the atonements of destiny determined to her; in the name of everything that she hoped for in the past and everything that she got today, in the name of everything that she loved, I bless this dead young lady, I bless her in her beauty, in her youth, in her sweetness, in her life and death; and bless her in her white sepulchral dress; in her house that she left devastated; in her coffin, covered in flowers by her mother and that God shall fill with stars!”


There is nothing missing in these remarkable words but the word Spiritism. They are not only the expression of a vague belief in the soul and its survival; even more the cold nothingness, succeeding life, burying forever under the cold mantle of ice the Spirit, the grace, the beauty and qualities of the heart. Neither is it the soul lost in the ocean of infinity called the universal whole. It is effectively the real being, individual, present in our environment, smiling to the loved ones, seeing them, hearing them and talking to them through their thoughts. Nothing more beautiful and truer than these words: “Love is to live beyond life. Without this faith, no perfect gift of the heart would be possible; love, the goal of man, would be his torment. This paradise would be hell. No! Let's say, no, out loud because the loving creature requires the immortal creature. Heart needs soul.”

Which idea of death is fairer than this: “The prodigy of this great celestial farewell called death is that those that depart do not move away. They are in a world of clarity, but watch our world of darkness like loving witnesses. They are high up and very close. Oh any of you that has seen a loved one disappearing in the tomb do not believe that you are abandoned. She is always here. More than ever she is closer to you. Presence is the beauty of death. An inexpressible presence of the loved souls, smiling to our eyes covered in tears. The mourned creature disappeared but did not leave. We know longer see their kind face… The dead are invisible but not absent. Let us be fair with death. Let us not be ungrateful. Death is not an annihilation, as they say, a trap. It is a mistake to believe that here, in the obscurity of the open grave, everything is lost. Everything reunites here. The tomb is a place of restitution. Here the soul recovers infinity; here it recovers its plenitude”.

Isn’t that exactly what is taught by Spiritism? But to those that could believe to be victims of a delusion he adds the sanction of the material fact to the theory by the communication between those that left with the ones that stayed. Why is it then strange to believe that those very creatures by our side, like in an ethereal body, can enter into communication with us? Oh you, skeptical, that laugh at our beliefs, laugh then at these words of the poet-philosopher whose intelligence you know! Would you say that he hallucinates? Would you say that he is mad when believe in the manifestation of the Spirits? Is the person that writes this mad: “Let us have compassion of the punished ones? Ah who are we, ourselves? Who am I, speaking with you? Who are you that listen to me? Where do we come from? Is it certain that we did not do anything before we were born? Earth is similar to a prison. Who knows that mankind is formed by reincident in the breach of the divine justice? Watch life closely. It is such that punishment can be found everywhere.” (The Miserable, Volume 7, Book VII, Chapter 1).

Isn’t that the preexistence of the soul; the reincarnation on Earth, the world of atonement? (See the Imitation of the Gospels, #27, 46 and 47). Those that deny the future, what a strange satisfaction you find in the idea of annihilation of your own being and your loved ones? Oh! You are right by fearing death since for you it is the end of all hopes.

After reading the speech above in the session on January 27^th, 1865 at the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, the Spirit of the young Emily de Putron, that undoubtedly heard him and shared the emotion of the assembly, manifested spontaneously through Mrs. Costel, dictating the following words:


“The words of the poet fell onto this assembly like a sonorous breath. They shook the Spirits and evoked my soul that still floats uncertain in the infinity of space! Oh poet, revealer of life, you know death well, for you do not crown with cypress the ones you mourn but you attach to their heads the trembling violets of hope! I passed lightly and fast, just flowering the comforting joys of life, and at the end of the day I was taken away by the shaking bolt that faded away at the heart of the waves.

Oh mother, sister, my friends, great poet! No more crying, but remains alert! The caressing whisper in your ears is mine; the perfume of the withered flower is my breath. I join the great life to better feel your love. We are eternal! What has no beginning cannot end and your genius, oh poet, like the river that flows to the ocean, will fill eternity with the power that is force and love!”

Emily

Spiritism counts on a new organization in Italy. The Light is a monthly journal of Spiritism in Bologna (10 francs per year in Italy). Here the translation of its program:

“It is the dawn of a great day that already shines in the skies. Spiritism, this surprising occurrence that is unbelievable to many, made its debut in all parts of the world and marches on with an irresistible force. Today it counts on millions of followers, spread everywhere.

Important works and numerous specialized journals, attributed to renowned intelligences, are published about this sublime philosophy, mainly in France where multiple societies are involved with the matter. Several towns in Italy also have their Spiritist gatherings; societies of scientists exist in Naples and Turin; the one in Turin publishes the excellent journal Annals of Spiritism in Turin.

The ones that ignore the principles of this new science uselessly struggle to ridicule it and have its followers taken by dreamers and hallucinated. The communications between the visible and invisible worlds are in the nature of things; they have taken place at all times. That is why their traces are found in all peoples and all epochs. The communications today are more general, spread out, positive to everybody and have one objective: the Spirits come to announce that the times predicted by the Providence for a general manifestation have come; that their mission is to enlighten mankind, opening up a new era for the regeneration of humanity.

The Pharisees of our days agitate uselessly, as well as incredulity that sketches a proud smile for they will not deter Spiritism. The more they advance the more the power of Spiritism grows, abating the proud materialism that threatens to invade all classes of society.

If these phenomena are studied with great interest and for years in the most intelligent centers, in the larger cities and capitals it is because their reality has been recognized and the action of a free and intelligent cause has been acknowledged.


The journal The Light was founded with the objective of propagating this new science, supported by the most special and instructive books, among which and in the first line the works by Mr. Allan Kardec, the honorable president of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, that will provide us with the material for the philosophical part and the theory for the experimental one. Study and good will are the two necessary conditions to experiment by oneself.

The second part of the journal will carry instructions of the Spirits, some about the most reassuring philosophy and the purest moral, the others, although familiar, will be chosen among the most adequate to inspire faith, love and hope. Besides, after reviewing the Spiritist books and magazines, we will publish every event that may be of interest to our readers. No discussion will be established with persons that ignore the principles of Spiritism.

Faith and courage shall make our effort less painful and facilitate the path to get to the truth.”

This journal that we mentioned in our issue of December 1864 has just turned into limited partnership society with a capital of 60,000 francs, divided into 2,400 shares of 25 francs. Interest on shares 6% per year; part of the annual dividend of 40% from profit. It is issued every Sunday with the format of large newspapers. Subscription: Belgium, 4 francs per year; 10 cents each issue. France, 10 francs per year. Subscription at Rue Ribouté, 8.

The sympathy of that journal towards Spiritism recommends it to every follower. Each issue contains an excellent article about the Doctrine. Although we are strangers to its direction, the administration of the Spiritist Review is authorized to receiving subscriptions of signatures and shares.

Our thanks to the anonymous Spiritist of St. Petersburg that sent us 50 francs to the poor worker of Lyon, by request of Cárita. If his name is not known by men it is by God.