Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

First, we need to make some corrections to our account of Mr. Jacob's cures. We heard from Mr. Jacob himself that the little girl that he healed on arriving at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, was not in the public square; that's where he saw her, but the healing took place in her parents' house where he brought her in. It doesn't change the result; but this circumstance gives the action a less eccentric character.

Mr. Boivinet writes the following to us:

“Concerning the proportion of cured patients, I meant that out of 4,000, a quarter did not experience any results, and that of the remaining 3,000, a quarter was healed and three quarters relieved. From another passage of the article one might believe that I have attested the healing of stiff limbs; I meant that Mr. Jacob had straightened stiff limbs, rigid as if they were stiff, but no more than that; it does not mean that there was a cured ankylosis; I ignore that. As for the stiffened limbs that, given the pain, partially paralyze the capacity of movement, I have lastly observed three cases of instantaneous cure; the next day, one of the sick was absolutely cured; another one had freedom of movement with a residual pain which, as he told me, he would gladly live with forever. I did not see the third patient again."

It would have been remarkable if the devil did not come and meddle in this affair. Another person wrote to us from one of the localities where the rumor of Mr. Jacob's healings had spread:

“Great emotion here in the town and in the presbytery. The servant of the priest, having met Mr. Jacob twice, in the only street of the village, is convinced that he is the devil, and that he is chasing her. The poor woman took refuge in a house where she almost had a nervous attack. It is true that the red outfit of the Zouave could have made her believe that he was coming out of hell. It seems that they are preparing a crusade against the devil here, to dissuade the sick from being cured by him."

Who could have given the idea to this woman that Mr. Jacob was the devil in person, and that the healings are a trick on his part? Weren’t the poor of a certain city told that they should not receive the bread and the alms of the Spiritists, because it was a seduction of Satan? And elsewhere, that it was better to be an atheist than to come back to God by the influence of Spiritism, because that was still a ruse of the devil? In any case, by attributing so many good things to the devil, they do whatever it takes to rehabilitate him with public opinion. What is even more strange is that such ideas are still fed to populations a few leagues from Paris. So, what a reaction when the light shines on these fanaticized brains! One must admit that there are some very clumsy people.

Let us return to our subject: general considerations about healing mediumship.

We have already said, and it is never too much to repeat, that there is a radical difference between the healing mediums and those that obtain medical prescriptions from the part of the Spirits. The latter are not at all different from the ordinary writing mediums, except for the nature of the communication. The former only cure by the fluidic action, in longer or shorter time, sometimes instantaneously, with the use of any medication. The healing power is totally on the depurated fluid to which they serve as conductors. The theory of this phenomenon was sufficiently explained to demonstrate that it enters in the order of the natural laws, and that there isn’t anything of miraculous. It is the result of a special aptitude, as independent from one’s will as all other mediumistic faculties; it is not a talent that may be acquired; nobody can transform oneself in a healing medium, as one can become a doctor. The healing gift is inherent to the medium, but the exercise of the faculty can only take place with the support of the Spirits, so that if the Spirits no longer wish to utilize him, he is therefore like an instrument without a musician, and obtains nothing. He can, consequently, lose the faculty instantaneously, which then excludes the possibility of making a profession out of it.

Another point to consider is that since this faculty is based on natural laws, it has limits outlined by those very laws. It is understandable that the fluidic action may give sensitivity to an existing organ; dissolve or get rid of an obstacle to the movement or perception; cicatrize an ulcer, because then the fluid becomes a true therapeutic agent; but it is evident that it cannot repair the absence or the destruction of an organ, something that would be a true miracle. Thus, sight could be restored to a person blind by amaurosis, ophthalmia, cloudy vision or cataract, but not the one that had the eyes gouged out. There are, therefore, fundamentally incurable diseases, and it would be an illusion to believe that the healing mediumship would relieve humanity from all its illnesses.

Besides, one must also consider the variety of nuances presented by such mediumship, that is far from being uniform in all that have it. It presents itself in many different aspects. Based on the degree of development of the power, the action is faster or slower, extensive, or circumscribed. A given medium is successful with certain diseases, in certain persons, under certain circumstances, and completely fails in apparently identical cases. It seems also that, in some, the healing gift extends to the animals. There is a true chemical reaction taking place in this phenomenon, like the one produced by certain medications. The fluid acts as the therapeutic agent, and its action varies according to the properties received from the qualities of the personal fluid of the medium; now, owing to the temperament and the constitution of the latter, this fluid is impregnated with various elements that give it special properties; to provide material comparison, it can be more or less charged with animal electricity, be acid or alkaline, with ferruginous elements, sulphureous, solvents, astringents, caustics, etc.; this results in a different action depending on the nature of the organic ailment; this action can therefore be energetic, all powerful in certain cases, and null in others. That is how the healing mediums can have specialties; this one will heal pains or straighten a limb but will not restore sight to a blind person, and vice versa. Only experience can reveal the specialty and the extent of the aptitude; but we can say, in principle, that there aren’t universal healing mediums, for the reason that there aren’t perfect men on earth, whose power is unlimited.

The action is quite different in the obsession, and the power to heal does not imply the power to free the obsessed. The healing fluid acts in some way materially on the affected organs, while, in the obsession, it is necessary to act morally on the obsessing Spirit; one must have authority over him to make him let go. These are therefore two distinct abilities that are not always present in the same person. The help of the healing fluid becomes necessary when the obsession is complicated by organic affections, and this is quite frequent. So, there may be powerless healing mediums for the obsession, and vice versa.



Healing mediumship does not come to supplant medicine and physicians; it simply comes to prove to them that there are things they do not know and invites them to study them; that nature has laws and resources they ignore; that the spiritual element, that they ignore, is not a chimera, and when they take it into account, they will open up new horizons to science and succeed more often than they do. If this faculty were the privilege of an individual only, it would go unnoticed; it would be regarded as an exception, an effect of chance, the supreme explanation that explains nothing, and ill will could easily stifle the truth. But when they see the facts multiplying, they will be forced to recognize that they can only occur by virtue of a law; that if ignorant men succeed where scientists fail, it is because scientists do not know everything. This in no way affects science that will always be the lever and the result of intellectual progress; only the self-esteem of those who circumscribe it within the limits of their knowledge and materiality, can suffer.

Of all the mediumistic faculties, popularized healing mediumship is the one that is called upon to produce the most sensations, because there are sick people everywhere and in great numbers, and it is not curiosity that attracts them, but the overwhelming need for relief; more than any other, it will triumph over disbelief, as well as fanaticism, which sees the intervention of the devil everywhere. The multiplicity of facts will necessarily lead to the study of the natural cause, and from there to the destruction of the superstitious ideas of bewitching, occult power, amulets, etc. If we consider the effects produced around Camp Châlons by a single individual, and the multitude of suffering people from ten leagues around, we can assess what it would be if ten, twenty, a hundred individuals performed under the same conditions, either in France or in foreign countries. If you tell these patients that they are the plaything of an illusion, they will answer you by showing their straightened leg; that they are victims of charlatans, and they will say that they have not paid anything, and that they have not been sold any drugs; if you tell them that their trust has been abused, and they will say that they have not been promised anything.

It is also the faculty that most escapes the accusation of charlatanism and deception; it defies mockery, for there is nothing laughable in a cured patient whom science had abandoned. Dishonesty can roughly simulate most of the mediumistic effects, and skepticism always seeks strings in them; but where will the strings of healing mediumship be found? One can apply certain tricks to imitate the mediumistic effects, and the most real effects can, in the eyes of some people, pass for skillful tricks, but what would someone that wanted to imitate the qualities of a healing medium do? One of two things: he either heals or he does not heal. There is no simulation that can produce a cure.

Healing mediumship, moreover, completely escapes the law on the illegal practice of medicine since it does not prescribe any treatment. What penalty could be applicable to the one that heals by his influence alone, assisted by prayer, who, moreover, does not ask for anything as a payment for his services? Now, prayer is not a pharmaceutical substance. It is, in your opinion, something silly; but if the cure is at the end of this silliness, what will you say? A silliness that cures is more valuable that medications that don’t.

Mr. Jacob was prohibited from receiving sick people at the camp, and from going to their homes, and if he submitted by saying that he would not resume the exercise of his faculty, until the ban was officially lifted, it is for the fact that, being a soldier, he wanted to be a scrupulous observer of discipline, however harsh it was. In this he acted wisely, for he proved that Spiritism does not lead to insubordination; but this is an exceptional case here. Since this faculty is not the privilege of an individual, by what means could it be prevented from spreading? If it spreads, willingly or not, it will have to be accepted with all its consequences.

Considering that the healing mediumship is based on an organic disposition, many people possess at least its germ, that remains in a latent state, for lack of exercise and development. It is a faculty that many aspire, rightly so, and if all those who wish to possess it asked for it with fervor and perseverance by prayer, and for an exclusively humanitarian purpose, it is probable that, from this contest, more than one would emerge a true healing medium.

We should not be surprised to see people who, at first glance, do not seem worthy of it, favored by this precious gift. It is because the assistance of the good Spirits is available to everyone, to open to all the path of good; but it ceases if one does not know how to make oneself worthy of it, by improving. It is here like with the gifts of fortune, that do not always come to the most deserving one; it is then a test by the use that is made of it; fortunate the ones that emerge victorious.

By the nature of its effects, healing mediumship essentially requires the co-operation of purified Spirits who cannot be replaced by inferior Spirits, while there are mediumistic effects, for the production of which the elevation of Spirits is not a necessary condition, and which, for this reason, are obtained almost in all circumstances. Certain Spirits, even less scrupulous than others, as for these conditions, prefer mediums with whom they find sympathy; but the worker is recognized by the work.

There is, therefore, an absolute necessity for the healing medium to conquer the cooperation of the superior Spirits if he wants to preserve and develop their faculty, otherwise, instead of growing, it declines and disappears by the estrangement of the good Spirits. The first condition for this is to work on one’s own purification, so as not to alter the beneficial fluids that one is responsible for transmitting. This condition cannot be fulfilled without the most complete material and moral selflessness. The first is the easiest, the second is the rarest, because pride and selfishness are the most difficult feelings to uproot, and several causes contribute to over-arousing them in mediums. As soon as one of them is revealed with a somewhat transcendent faculty - we are speaking here of mediums in general, writers, seers, and others - he is sought after, flattered, and more than one succumbs to this temptation of vanity. Soon, forgetting that without Spirits there would be nothing, he regards himself as indispensable, and the sole interpreter of the truth; he denigrates other mediums and believes himself above advices. The medium that behaves like that is lost, because the Spirits take it upon themselves to prove to him that they can do without him, by making other better assisted mediums emerge. By comparing the series of communications of the same medium, we can easily judge whether it is growing or degenerating. How many, unfortunately, we have seen, in all genres, falling sadly and deplorably on the slippery slope of pride and vanity! We can, therefore, expect to see the emergence of a multitude of healing mediums; in their number, several will remain dried fruits, and will disappear, after having shone a transient spark, while others will continue to rise.

Here is an example that one of our correspondents told us about, six months ago. In a department of the south, a medium who had revealed himself as a healer, had operated several remarkable cures, and great hopes were placed on him. His faculty presented peculiarities that, in a group, they had the idea of doing a study on this subject. Here is the response that was obtained from the Spirits, and that was transmitted to us on the occasion; it can be used for the instruction of all.

“X…, in fact, possesses the faculty of a healing medium, remarkably developed; unfortunately, like many others, he exaggerates its scope too much. He is an excellent boy, full of good intentions, but an excessive pride, and an extremely short sight of men and things, will quickly collapse. His fluidic power, that is considerable, well used and aided by moral influence, could produce excellent results. Do you know why many of his patients experience only a momentary well-being, that disappears when he is no longer there? It is for the fact that he acts by his presence alone, but that he leaves nothing in the mind to succeed over the sufferings of the body.

When he is gone, nothing remains of him, not even the thought, that follows the patient of whom he no longer thinks, while the mental action could, in his absence, continue the direct action. He believes in his fluidic power, which is real, but whose action is not persistent, because it is not corroborated by moral influence. When he succeeds, he is more satisfied with being noticed than with having healed; and yet he is sincerely disinterested, for he would blush to receive the least remuneration; although he is not rich, he has never dreamed of making a profit out of it; what he wants is to make people talk about him. He also lacks the kindness of heart, that attracts. Those that come to him are shocked by his ways, which do not produce sympathy, and the result is a lack of harmony that impairs the assimilation of the fluids. Far from calming and appeasing bad passions, he excites them, while believing that he is doing what is necessary to destroy them, and this for lack of discernment. He is a distorted instrument; he sometimes gives harmonious and good sounds, but the whole can only be, if not bad, at least unproductive. He is not as useful to the cause as he could be, and he frequently harms it, because, for his character, the results are badly appreciated. He is one of those that preach a doctrine of meekness and peace with violence.

Question: So, do you think he will lose his healing power?

Answer: I am convinced of that, or else he would have to make a serious comeback, which, unfortunately, I do not believe he is capable of. Advice would be superfluous, because he is persuaded that he knows more than everyone else; he might appear to be listening to them, but he wouldn't follow them. He thus doubly loses the benefit of an excellent faculty."

The event justified the forecast. We have since learned that this medium, after a series of failures from which his self-esteem had suffered, had given up on new attempts at healing.

The power of healing is independent of the will of the medium; this is a fact attested by experience; what depends on him are the qualities which can make this power fruitful and lasting. These qualities are, above all, dedication, self-sacrifice, and humility; egoism, pride and greed are stopping points against which the finest faculty breaks.

The true healing medium, the one who understands the holiness of his mission, is moved by the unique desire for good; he sees in the gift he possesses only a means of making himself useful to his fellows, and not a stepping stone to rise above others and stand out. He is humble of heart, that is, in him humility and modesty are sincere, real, without ulterior motive, and not in words that are often contradicted by actions. Humility is sometimes a cloak under which pride is sheltered, but that cannot deceive anyone. He seeks neither shine, nor fame, nor celebrity, nor the satisfaction of his vanity; there is neither bragging nor boastfulness in his manners; he does not show off the cures he obtains, while the proud enumerates them with complacency, often amplifies them, and ends up by persuading himself that he has done everything he says.

Happy with the good he does, he is no less happy with what others can do; not believing himself to be the first or the only one capable, he neither envies nor denigrates any medium. Those who have the same faculty are for him brothers who contribute to the same end; he says to himself that the more there will be, the greater the good will be.

His confidence in his own strength does not go so far as to presume to believe himself infallible, and even less universal; he knows that others can as much and even more than him; his faith is in God more than in himself, for he knows that he can do everything through Him and nothing without Him. That is why he does not promise anything except with God's permission.

To the material influence, he joins moral influence, a powerful auxiliary that doubles his strength. By his benevolent words, he encourages, raises morale, arouses hope and confidence in God. It is already a part of the healing, for it is a consolation that disposes to receive the beneficent fragrance, or to put it better, the benevolent thought is itself a healthy fragrance. Without moral influence, the medium has only the fluidic, material, and in a way, brutal action, insufficient in many cases.

Finally, to the one that possesses the qualities of the heart, the patient is attracted by a sympathy that predisposes to the assimilation of fluids, while pride, the lack of benevolence, shock and make one experience a feeling of repulsion that paralyzes this assimilation.

Such is the healing medium loved by the good Spirits. Such is also the measure which can be used to judge the intrinsic value of those who will reveal themselves, and the extent of the services that they will be able to render to the cause of Spiritism. This is not to say that they are only found in these conditions, and that whoever does not combine all these qualities cannot temporarily render partial services, which would be wrong to reject; the evil is for him, because the more he moves away from the ideal model, the less he can hope to see his faculty develop, and the closer he is to its decline; good Spirits attach themselves only to those who prove themselves worthy of their protection, and the fall of the proud is, sooner or later, his punishment. Selflessness is incomplete without moral selflessness.