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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > June > Retrospective View of the Various Incarnations of a Spirit
Retrospective View of the Various Incarnations of a Spirit
Sleep of the Spirits, by Dr. Cailleux
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 11th, 1866
medium Mr. Morin
Your warm welcome and good prayers in my favor oblige me to thank you and assure you of my eternal dedication. Since my entry in the true life, I quickly familiarized myself with all the news, in the very kind demands of my current situation. Today I am called from all sides, not like in the past, attending the needs of the sick bodies, but to bring relief to the illnesses of the soul. The task is easy, and today I get to the headboard of those in suffering that call me much faster than in the past. I even can – and this does not impress me – transport myself almost instantaneously, form one point to another, with the same agility that my thoughts move from one subject to the next. I am just admired by the fact that I can do it myself!...
My good friends, I must tell you about something spiritual that happens to me and that I wish to submit to your analysis, so that you can help me acknowledge my mistake, if I am wrong regarding my won appreciation of the matter. You know that as a physician, in my last incarnation, I had worked with great dedication to the study of my profession. Everything related to medicine was a matter of observation to me. I must say, without any pride, that I had acquired some knowledge, perhaps for the fact that I did not always followed the routine. I frequently sought in the psychological what could bring disturbance to the physical; that might be the reason why I knew my profession a little bit better than certain colleagues. Anyhow, here is the case: A few days ago I felt a kind of torpor seizing my Spirit, and while maintaining consciousness, I felt transported in space; when I got to a place that has no name for you, I found myself in a gathering of Spirits that had acquired some celebrity for the discoveries they had made. I was really surprised to find there, among those elders of all ages and names of all times, a perispirit that resembled me. I wondered what it all meant; I addressed to them the questions suggested by my position, but my astonishment was even greater when I heard myself answering. I then turned to them to find myself alone.
Here are my deductions…
Dr. Cailleux
Note: The Spirit stopped there and continued in the next session
The question of fluids, that is the foundation of your studies, played a very important role in the experience that I pointed out to you in the last session. Today I can explain better what happened, and instead of telling you about my own inferences, I can tell you what was revealed to me by the good friends that guide me in the world of the Spirits. When my Spirit underwent a kind of numbness, I was, so to speak, magnetized by the fluid of my spiritual friends; with God’s permission it should lead to a psychological satisfaction, they say, that is my reward, and besides, an encouragement to march on the path that my Spirit has been walking on a good number of existences. I was, therefore, asleep in a spiritual magnetic sleep; I saw the past forming in a fictious present; I recognized individuals that disappeared in the wake of time, or rather, that had been only one individual. I saw a creature starting a medical work; another one later, continuing what had been sketched before and so forth. I even saw, from generation to generation, in less time than it takes to tell you, the formation, growth and the making of a science, of what in the beginning was not more than the first experiments of a mind occupied with the relief of humanity in suffering. I saw all that, and when I got to the last one of those beings that successively had brought a complement to the work, I then recognized myself. Then, it all disappeared, and I became the late Spirit of your poor doctor. Now, this is the explanation. I do not give it to you for vanity, far from that, but mainly to provide you with a subject of study, talking about the spiritual sleep, that clarified by your guides, can only be useful to me since I attend all of your works. I saw, in that sleep, many different bodies that were animated by my Spirit in a certain number of incarnations, and they all worked in the medical field, without ever deviating from the principles that were elaborated by the first one. This last incarnation was not to gain more knowledge but simply to practice what I learned from the theory.
With all that I remain your debtor. But, if you allow, I will come to learn from you and eventually give my own opinion about certain issues.
Dr. Cailleux
Study
There is a double teaching here; to begin with, there is the event of magnetization of a Spirit by other Spirits, and the sleep that follows; second, the retrospective view of the different bodies that were animated by him. There is, therefore, to the Spirits, a kind of sleep, that is an additional point of contact between the spiritual and the corporeal state. It is true that we here talk about a magnetic sleep; but would there be a natural sleep to them, like ours? This would not be surprising when we see Spirits that are so much identified with the corporeal state that they take their fluidic body by a material one, that believe to work as they did on Earth, and that get tired. If they feel fatigue, they must feel the need for resting, and can lie down and sleep, as they believe to work and travel in the railroad. We say that they believe, speaking from our point o view, for everything is relative, and regarding its fluidic nature, things are so real as the material ones are to us. It is only the Spirits of inferior order that have such delusions; the less advanced the more their state approaches the corporeal state. Now, this cannot be the case of Dr. Cailleux, an advanced Spirit that is perfectly aware of his condition. But is not less true that he was conscious of a numbness analogous to the sleep, in which he saw his several individualities. A member of the Society explains this phenomenon in the following way: In the human sleep it is only that body that rests, but the Spirit does not sleep. It must be the same in the spiritual state; the magnetic sleep, or another, must only affect the spiritual body or perispirit, and the Spirit must be in a relatively analogous state of the incarnate Spirit during the sleep of the body, that is, keeping the awareness of their being. The different incarnation of Mr. Cailleux, that his spiritual guides wanted him to see, for his enlightenment, could be presented to him as a memory, in the same way that the images are presented in dreams.
This explanation is perfectly logical. It was confirmed by the Spirits that, by provoking the report of Dr. Cailleux, wanted us to know a new phase of the life beyond the grave.
Sleep of the Spirits, by Dr. Cailleux
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, May 11th, 1866
medium Mr. Morin
Your warm welcome and good prayers in my favor oblige me to thank you and assure you of my eternal dedication. Since my entry in the true life, I quickly familiarized myself with all the news, in the very kind demands of my current situation. Today I am called from all sides, not like in the past, attending the needs of the sick bodies, but to bring relief to the illnesses of the soul. The task is easy, and today I get to the headboard of those in suffering that call me much faster than in the past. I even can – and this does not impress me – transport myself almost instantaneously, form one point to another, with the same agility that my thoughts move from one subject to the next. I am just admired by the fact that I can do it myself!...
My good friends, I must tell you about something spiritual that happens to me and that I wish to submit to your analysis, so that you can help me acknowledge my mistake, if I am wrong regarding my won appreciation of the matter. You know that as a physician, in my last incarnation, I had worked with great dedication to the study of my profession. Everything related to medicine was a matter of observation to me. I must say, without any pride, that I had acquired some knowledge, perhaps for the fact that I did not always followed the routine. I frequently sought in the psychological what could bring disturbance to the physical; that might be the reason why I knew my profession a little bit better than certain colleagues. Anyhow, here is the case: A few days ago I felt a kind of torpor seizing my Spirit, and while maintaining consciousness, I felt transported in space; when I got to a place that has no name for you, I found myself in a gathering of Spirits that had acquired some celebrity for the discoveries they had made. I was really surprised to find there, among those elders of all ages and names of all times, a perispirit that resembled me. I wondered what it all meant; I addressed to them the questions suggested by my position, but my astonishment was even greater when I heard myself answering. I then turned to them to find myself alone.
Here are my deductions…
Dr. Cailleux
Note: The Spirit stopped there and continued in the next session
The question of fluids, that is the foundation of your studies, played a very important role in the experience that I pointed out to you in the last session. Today I can explain better what happened, and instead of telling you about my own inferences, I can tell you what was revealed to me by the good friends that guide me in the world of the Spirits. When my Spirit underwent a kind of numbness, I was, so to speak, magnetized by the fluid of my spiritual friends; with God’s permission it should lead to a psychological satisfaction, they say, that is my reward, and besides, an encouragement to march on the path that my Spirit has been walking on a good number of existences. I was, therefore, asleep in a spiritual magnetic sleep; I saw the past forming in a fictious present; I recognized individuals that disappeared in the wake of time, or rather, that had been only one individual. I saw a creature starting a medical work; another one later, continuing what had been sketched before and so forth. I even saw, from generation to generation, in less time than it takes to tell you, the formation, growth and the making of a science, of what in the beginning was not more than the first experiments of a mind occupied with the relief of humanity in suffering. I saw all that, and when I got to the last one of those beings that successively had brought a complement to the work, I then recognized myself. Then, it all disappeared, and I became the late Spirit of your poor doctor. Now, this is the explanation. I do not give it to you for vanity, far from that, but mainly to provide you with a subject of study, talking about the spiritual sleep, that clarified by your guides, can only be useful to me since I attend all of your works. I saw, in that sleep, many different bodies that were animated by my Spirit in a certain number of incarnations, and they all worked in the medical field, without ever deviating from the principles that were elaborated by the first one. This last incarnation was not to gain more knowledge but simply to practice what I learned from the theory.
With all that I remain your debtor. But, if you allow, I will come to learn from you and eventually give my own opinion about certain issues.
Dr. Cailleux
Study
There is a double teaching here; to begin with, there is the event of magnetization of a Spirit by other Spirits, and the sleep that follows; second, the retrospective view of the different bodies that were animated by him. There is, therefore, to the Spirits, a kind of sleep, that is an additional point of contact between the spiritual and the corporeal state. It is true that we here talk about a magnetic sleep; but would there be a natural sleep to them, like ours? This would not be surprising when we see Spirits that are so much identified with the corporeal state that they take their fluidic body by a material one, that believe to work as they did on Earth, and that get tired. If they feel fatigue, they must feel the need for resting, and can lie down and sleep, as they believe to work and travel in the railroad. We say that they believe, speaking from our point o view, for everything is relative, and regarding its fluidic nature, things are so real as the material ones are to us. It is only the Spirits of inferior order that have such delusions; the less advanced the more their state approaches the corporeal state. Now, this cannot be the case of Dr. Cailleux, an advanced Spirit that is perfectly aware of his condition. But is not less true that he was conscious of a numbness analogous to the sleep, in which he saw his several individualities. A member of the Society explains this phenomenon in the following way: In the human sleep it is only that body that rests, but the Spirit does not sleep. It must be the same in the spiritual state; the magnetic sleep, or another, must only affect the spiritual body or perispirit, and the Spirit must be in a relatively analogous state of the incarnate Spirit during the sleep of the body, that is, keeping the awareness of their being. The different incarnation of Mr. Cailleux, that his spiritual guides wanted him to see, for his enlightenment, could be presented to him as a memory, in the same way that the images are presented in dreams.
This explanation is perfectly logical. It was confirmed by the Spirits that, by provoking the report of Dr. Cailleux, wanted us to know a new phase of the life beyond the grave.