January
To our correspondentsDecision of the Circle of Spiritist Morality of Toulouse, about the project of constitution.
We are, above all, happy to see that the purpose and scope of this project have been understood, and that our intentions have not been ignored; everyone saw in that the realization of what we wanted for a long time: a guarantee of stability for the future, as well as the first steps of a bond between the Spiritists, bond that they have missed until this day, supported on an organization that, foreseeing the possible difficulties, ensures the unity of the principles, without immobilizing the Doctrine.
From all the support that we received, we will only cite one, because it is the expression of a collective thought, and the source from which it emanates gives it an official character in a way; it is the decision of the council of the Circle of Spiritist Morality of Toulouse, regularly and legally constituted. We publish it as a testimony of our gratitude to the members of the Circle, driven in this circumstance by a spontaneous outpouring of dedication to the cause, and additionally to respond to the good wishes that were sent to us.
Extracted from the minutes of the board of directors of the Circle of Spiritist Morality of Toulouse.
“On the presentation made by its president, of the transitional constitution given to Spiritism by its founder, and defined by the preliminaries published in the December 1st issue of the Spiritist Review, the council votes unanimously to thank Mr. Allan Kardec, as an expression of its deep gratitude for this new proof of his dedication to the doctrine, of which he is the founder, and wishes for the realization of this sublime project, considered as the worthy crowning of the work of the master, as it sees in the institution of the central committee the dome of the edifice called upon to direct the benefits of Spiritism to the whole humanity, forever;
Considering that it is the duty of every sincere follower to contribute, within the limits of their resources, to the creation of the capital necessary for this constitution, and wishing to facilitate each member of the Circle of Spiritist Morality the means for contributing with that, decided:
That a subscription will remain open at the office of the Circle until March 15th, and that the proceedings obtained in the period will be sent to Mr. Allan Kardec, to be paid to the general fund of Spiritism. Collated and certified in this minute by us, the undersigned secretary,
Chêne, Assistant Secretary.”
Statistics of Spiritism
One understands, moreover, that it is only on the whole rather than on the condition of isolated places, that one can base an appreciation; there are, in each locality, more or less favorable elements due to the particular state of minds and also more or less influential resistances that are exerted there; but this state is variable, for such and such place that had shown to be refractory for several years, suddenly becomes a focus. When the elements of appreciation have acquired more accuracy, it will be possible to create a colored map, with respect to the dissemination of the Spiritist ideas, as it was done for instruction. In the meantime, we can say, without exaggeration and in short, that the number of followers has increased a hundred times over the past ten years, despite the maneuvers used to stifle the idea, and contrary to the forecasts of all those who had flattered themselves to have buried it. This is a given fact, and one that the antagonists should take notice.
We are speaking here only of those who accept Spiritualism with full knowledge of the facts, after having studied it, and not of those in greater number still, among whom these ideas are in the state of intuition, and who just need to define their beliefs with more precision and to give them a name, to be avowed Spiritists. It is a well-established fact that we see every day, especially for some time now, that the Spiritist ideas seem innate in many individuals who have never heard of Spiritism; one cannot say that they were subjected to any influence whatsoever, nor followed the lead of group. May the adversaries explain, if they can it, these thoughts that are born outside and besides Spiritism! It wouldn't certainly be some preconceived system in a man's brain that could have produced such a result; there is no more obvious proof that these ideas are in nature, nor a better guarantee of their popularization and perpetuity into the future. From that point of view, we can say that at least three quarters of the population of all countries possess the seed of the Spiritist beliefs, since we find them among the very ones that make opposition. The opposition mostly comes from the misconception they have of Spiritism; generally, they only know it through the ridiculous pictures painted by malicious or interested critics in decrying it, hence they rightly reject the qualification of Spiritists. Certainly, if Spiritism resembled the grotesque paintings that have been made of it, if it consisted of the absurd beliefs and practices that they took pleasure in attributing to it, we would be the first to repudiate the title of Spiritist. When these same people learn that the Doctrine is nothing other than the coordination and development of their own aspirations and their inner thoughts, they will accept it; they are, undoubtedly, future Spiritists, but in the meantime we do not include them in our estimates.
If a numerical statistic is impossible, there is another, more instructive perhaps, and for which there exist elements that our acquaintances and our correspondence provide us; it is the relative proportion of Spiritists according to professions, social positions, nationalities, religious beliefs, etc., taking into account the fact that certain professions, such as ministerial officers, for example, are limited in number, while others, such as industrialists and investors, are in indefinite number. All things considered we can see which are the categories where Spiritism has found the most adherents to date. In some, the percentage was established with sufficient accuracy, without the claim that it was done with mathematical rigor; the other categories were simply ranked based on the number of followers they provided, starting with those with the most followers, whose data may be provided by the correspondence and the list of subscribers to the Spiritist Review. The table below is the result of more than ten thousand observations.
We attested the fact, not seeking or discussing the cause of that difference, that could nevertheless be the subject of an interesting study.
Relative proportion of Spiritists
I - Regarding nationalities. - There is, so to speak, no civilized country in Europe and America where there are no Spiritists. The one with the largest number is the United States of North America. Some estimate their number as four million, that is already a lot, and others as ten million. This last figure is obviously exaggerated, because it would include more than a third of the population, which is unlikely. In Europe, the figure can be estimated in one million, in which France figures with about six hundred thousand. The number of Spiritists around the world can be estimated as six to seven million. Even if it were only half, history offers no example of a doctrine that, in less than fifteen years, has united such number of followers scattered over the entire surface of the globe. If we included the unconscious spiritualists, that is those who are only by intuition, and will later become de facto Spiritist, in France alone we could count several millions. From the point of view of the diffusion of the Spiritist ideas, and the ease with which they are accepted, the principal states of Europe can be classified as follows: 1st France, 2nd Italy, 3rd Spain, 4th Russia, 5th Germany, 6th Belgium, 7th England, 8thSweden and Denmark, 9th Greece, 10th Switzerland.
II - Regarding gender: 70% men, 30% women.
III - Regarding age: from 30 to 70, maximum; 20 to 30, average, 70 to 80 minimum.
IV - Regarding education: The level of education is very easy to assess by the correspondence; out of 100: educated, 30; - literate, 30; - higher education, 20; - semi-illiterate, 10; - illiterate, 6; - official scholars, 4.
V - Regarding religious beliefs: Roman Catholic, free-thinkers, non-dogmatic, 50%; Greek Catholic, 15%; Jewish, 10%; Liberal Protestant, 10%; Dogmatic Catholic, 10%; Orthodox Protestant, 3%; Muslim, 2%.
VI - Regarding the wealth: mediocre, 60%; average wealth, 20%; poor, 15%; large fortune, 5%.
VII - Moral status, abstraction made of wealth: suffering, 60%; doing good, 30%; the fortunate of the world, 10%; sensualists, 0.
VIII - Regarding social status: without being able to establish any proportion in this category, it is well-known that among its followers Spiritism counts on several sovereign and reigning princes; members of sovereign families, and a large amount of nobility. In general, it is in the middle classes that Spiritism has the most followers; in Russia, it is almost exclusively among the nobility and the upper aristocracy; it is in France that it has spread the most in the petty bourgeoisie and working class.
IX - According to rank, in the military: 1st: lieutenants and second lieutenants; - 2nd: non-commissioned officers; - 3rd: captains; - 4th: colonels; - 5th: doctors and surgeons; - 6th: generals; - 7th: municipal guards; - 8th: soldiers of the guard; - 9th: soldiers of the line.
X - Navy: 1st: military navy; 2nd: merchant navy.
XI - Liberal professions and various functions. We have grouped them into ten categories, classified according to the proportion of adherents they have provided to Spiritism.
2nd: Engineers. - Teachers; boarding school masters and mistresses. - Free teachers.
3rd: Council. – Catholic priests.
4th: Employees. – Musicians, lyrical and dramatic artists.
5th: Bailiffs. – Police commissioners.
6th: Allopathic doctors. – Scholars, students.
7th: Magistrates. – Senior officials, official teaches, Protestant pastors.
8th: Journalist, painters, architects, and surgeons.
9th: Notaries, lawyers, business agents.
10th: Stockbrokers, bankers.
XII - Industrial, manual, and commercial occupations, also grouped in 10 categories:
1st: Tailors. - Dressmakers.
2nd: Mechanics. - Railway employees.
3rd: Weavers. - Small merchants - Janitors.
4th: Pharmacists, photographers, watchmakers, commercial travelers.
5th: Farmers, shoemakers.
6th: Bakers, butchers.
7th: Carpenters, typographical workers.
8th: Major industrialists and business owners.
9th: Booksellers and printers.
10th: Painters, masons, locksmiths; grocery shop employees, servants.
The following consequences result from the statement above:
1st: That there are Spiritists in all levels of the social scale.
4th: That misery and misfortune predispose to Spiritist beliefs, for the consolations they give. This is the reason why, in most categories, the proportion of Spiritists is proportional to the hierarchical inferiority, because it is there that there is the most need and suffering, while the holders of higher positions belong, in general, to the satisfied classes; exception made to the military where ordinary soldiers appear last.
5th: That Spiritism finds easier access among the unbelievers in matters of religion than among those who have an established faith.
6th: Finally, that after the fanatics, the most resistant to the Spiritist ideas are the sensualists and people whose thoughts are all concentrated on material possessions and pleasures, to whatever class they belong, and irrespective of the level of education.
If in the above statistics, instead of only assessing the de facto Spiritists, we had considered the unconscious ones, those in whom these ideas are in the state of intuition and who practice Spiritism without knowing it, many categories would certainly have been classified differently; the literati, for example, the poets, the artists, in a word, all men of imagination and inspiration, the believers of all cults would be, without any doubt, in the first rank. Certain peoples, among whom the Spiritist beliefs are innate, in a way, would also occupy another place. That is why this classification cannot be absolute and will change over time.
Homeopathic physicians are at the top of the liberal professions, because in fact, it is the one that, relatively speaking, has in its ranks the greatest number of adherents to Spiritism; out of a hundred Spiritist physicians there are at least eighty homeopaths. This is because the very principle of their medication leads them to spiritualism; materialists, therefore, are very rare among them, if any, while there are many among the allopath. Better than the latter they understood Spiritism, because they found in the physiological properties of the perispirit, united to the material principle and to the spiritual principle, the source of their system. For the same reason, the spiritualists were able, better than others, to realize the effects of this therapeutic treatment. Without being exclusive to homeopathy, and without rejecting allopathy, they understood its rationality, and supported it against unfair attacks. Finding new defenders among the Spiritists, the homeopaths did not awkwardly throw stones at them.
If the Magnetist figure in first place, just after the homeopaths, despite the persistent and often bitter opposition of a few, it is because the opponents form only a tiny minority among the mass of those who are Spiritists by intuition. Magnetism and Spiritism are, in fact, two twin sciences, that complement and explain each other, and out of the two, the one that does not want to be immobilized, cannot arrive at its complement without the support of its congener; isolated from each other, they stop at a dead end; they are reciprocally like physics and chemistry, anatomy and physiology. Most Magnetist understand by intuition the intimate relationship that must exist between the two things, that they generally take advantage of their knowledge of magnetism, as a means of introduction to the Spiritists.
Historically, Magnetist have been divided into two groups: the spiritualists and the fluidists;[2] the latter, much less numerous, at least disregarding the spiritual principle, when they do not deny it absolutely, relate everything to the action of the material fluid; they are, therefore, in principle, opposition to the spiritualists. Now, it should be noted that, if all Magnetist are not spiritualists, all spiritualists, without exception, admit magnetism. In all circumstances, they have made themselves its defenders and supporters. They must therefore have been astonished for finding somewhat malicious adversaries in the very people whose ranks they had come to reinforce, who after having been the target of attacks, mockery, and persecution of all kinds for more than half a century, they in turn throw stones, sarcasm and often insult to the helpers that come to them and begin to weigh in the balance by their number.
Besides, as we have said, this opposition is far from being general, quite the opposite; one can affirm, without departing from the truth, that it is not more than 2 to 3% of the total number of Magnetist; it is much less still among those of the provinces and abroad than in Paris.
[1] The word magnetizer carries an idea of action: that of magnetist, an idea of adhesion. The magnetizer is the one who exercises by profession or otherwise; one can be a magnetist without being a magnetizer, one will say: an experienced magnetizer, and a convinced magnetist.
[2] A Magnetist that makes abstraction of the spiritual principle (T.N.)
Spiritism from a Catholic Point of View
“A few sincere pages about Spiritism, written by a man of good faith, could not be useless at this time, and it is perhaps time for justice and enlightenment to be done on a question that, although counting today on many followers in the intelligent world, it is nonetheless relegated to the realm of the absurd and the impossible by thoughtless minds, imprudent and little concerned with the denial that the future may give them.
It would be curious today to question these so-called scientists who, from the height of their pride and their ignorance, until recently and with superb disdain, decreed the madness of these giant men who sought new applications for steam and electricity. Fortunately, death spared them those humiliations.
To clearly state our situation, we will make a profession of faith to the reader in a few lines:
Spiritist, Avatar, Paul d'Apremont undoubtedly prove to us the talent of Théophile Gautier, this poet that has always been attracted to the marvelous; these charming books are pure imagination and it would be a mistake to look for anything else in them; Mr. Home was a skillful conjurer; the Davenport brothers clumsy blackmailers.
All those who wanted to make Spiritism a speculative business result, in our opinion, in the correctional police or the Justice Court and here is why: If Spiritism does not exist, they are impostors, liable to the penalty imposed by breach of trust; if it exists, on the contrary, it is on the condition of being a sacred thing par excellence, the most majestic manifestation of the divinity. If we admitted that man, passing over the tomb, could firmly enter the other life, correspond with the dead and thus have the only indisputable proof - because it would be material - of the immortality of the soul, wouldn’t that be a sacrilege to hand over to jugglers the right to profane the holiest of mysteries, and to violate, under the protection of the magistrates, the eternal secret of the tombs? Common sense, morality, the very security of citizens imperatively demands that these new thieves be driven from the temple, and that our theaters and our public places be closed to these false prophets who throw onto weak minds a horror that much often has been followed by madness.
Having said that, let us move to the heart of the matter.
Looking at the modern schools that make an uproar around certain fundamental principles and acquired certainties, it is easy to understand that the century of doubt and discouragement in which we live is seized with vertigo and blindness.
Among all these dogmas, the one that has been the most agitated is, without a doubt, that of the immortality of the soul. In fact, everything is summarized there: it is the question par excellence, it is the whole man, it is his present, it is his future; it is the sanction of life, it is the hope of death to which all the great principles of the existence of God, of the soul, of the revealed religion are attached.
This truth admitted, it is no longer life that should worry us, but the end of life; pleasures fade away giving way to duty; the body is nothing, the soul is everything; man disappears, and God alone blazes in his eternal immensity.
Then, the great word of life, the only one, is death or rather our transformation. Being called upon to pass over Earth like ghosts, it is towards that horizon that opens on the other side that we must look; travelers for a few days, it is at the onset that it is appropriate to learn about the purpose of our pilgrimage, asking life for the secret of eternity, laying the groundwork for our path, and passengers of death to life, holding with a steady hand the thread that crosses the abyss.
Pascal said: “The immortality of the soul is something that matters so much to us and that touches us so deeply, that we must have lost all feelings to be indifferent to knowing what it is. All our actions, all our thoughts must take such different routes, depending on whether there will be eternal goods to be hoped for or not, that it is impossible to take a step with sense and judgment if we are not driven by the sight of this plan that must be our first objective."
In all times, man has had as a common heritage the notion of the immortality of the soul, and has sought to support this consoling idea on proofs; he believed to have he found it in the traditions and customs of different peoples, in the reports of historians, in the songs of poets; being prior to any priest, to any legislator, to any writer, not having emerged from any sect, from any school, and existing among barbarian peoples as among civilized nations, where would it have come from, if not from God who is the truth?
Ah! those proofs created by the fear of nothingness are only hopes of a future built on an uncertain soil, on quicksand; and the deductions of the strictest logic will never reach the level of a mathematical demonstration.
That material, indisputable proof, fair like a divine principle and as an addition at the same time, is entirely found in Spiritism and cannot be found elsewhere. By considering it from such elevated point of view, as an anchor of mercy, as the supreme life line, one can easily understand the number of adepts that this new entirely Catholic altar has grouped around its steps; because make no mistake, it is there and not elsewhere that we must seek the origin of the success that these new doctrines have given birth to, among men who shine at the forefront of sacred or profane eloquence, and whose names have a deserved notoriety in science and literature.
What is Spiritism, then?
Spiritism, in its broadest definition, is the faculty possessed by certain individuals to enter a relationship, by means of an intermediary or medium, which is only an instrument in their hands, with the Spirit of dead people who live in another world. This system, that is based, say the believers, on many testimonies, offers a singular seduction, less by its results than by its promises.
In this order of ideas, the supernatural is no longer a limit, death is no longer a barrier, the body is no longer an obstacle to the soul, that gets rid of it after life, as it momentarily does in a dream, during life. In death the Spirit is free; if it is pure, it rises to spheres that are unknown to us; if impure, it wanders around Earth, puts itself in communication with man that betrays, deceives, and corrupts. The Spiritists do not believe in good Spirits; the clergy, according to the text of the Bible, also only believes in the bad ones, and finds them in this passage: "Take care, for the demon prowls around you and watches you like a lion seeking its prey, quœrens quem devoret.”[2]
So, Spiritism is not a modern discovery. Jesus drove out demons from the bodies of the possessed, and Diodorus of Sicily speaks of ghosts; the lares[3] of the Romans, their familiar Spirits, what were they?
But then why rejecting a system, out of bias and without examination, certainly dangerous from the point of view of human reason, but full of hopes and consolations? Wisely administered, brucine is one of our most powerful remedies; for the fact that it is a strong poison in the hands of the unskilled, is that a reason to ban it from the Codex?
Mr. Baguenault de Puchesse, a philosopher and a Christian, from whose book I have borrowed a lot, because his ideas are mine, he says in his beautiful book of Immortality, about Spiritism: "Its practices inaugurate a complete system that includes the present and the future, that traces the destinies of man, opens the doors of the other life to him, and introduces him into the supernatural world. The soul survives the body, for it appears and shows itself after the dissolution of the elements that compose it. The spiritual principle emerges, persists and, by its actions, affirms its existence. Materialism is therefore condemned by the facts; life beyond the grave becomes a certain fact and as if palpable; the supernatural thus imposes itself on science and, by submitting to its examination, no longer allows to be rejected theoretically and to declared, in principle, impossible by science."
The book that says so of Spiritism is dedicated to one of the lights of the Church, to one of the masters of the French Academy, one of the luminaries of contemporary literature, who replied:
“A beautiful book, on a great subject, published by the president of our Academy of the Holy Cross, will be an honor for you and for our entire Academy. You could hardly choose a more elevated or more important question to study at the present time ... Therefore, allow me, sir and very dear friend, to offer you, for the beautiful book that you dedicate to our Academy and for the good example that you give us all, my congratulations and all my thanks, with the homage of my religious and deep devotion.
Felix, Bishop of Orleans.”
Orleans, March 28th, 1864 – article signed by Robert de Salles.”
The author obviously knows Spiritism only in an incomplete way, as demonstrated by certain passages of his article; however, he regards it as a very serious matter, and with a few exceptions, the Spiritists can only applaud all his thoughts. He is especially mistaken when he says that the Spiritists do not believe in good Spirits, and in the definition he gives as the broadest expression of Spiritism; it is, he says, the faculty possessed by certain individuals, to enter into relationship with the Spirit of dead persons.
Mediumship, or the faculty of communicating with the Spirits, does not constitute the basis of Spiritism, otherwise to be a Spiritist one would have to be a medium; this is only an accessory, a means of observation, and not the science that is entirely in the philosophical doctrine. Spiritism is no more dependent on mediums than astronomy is on a telescope; and the proof is that we can do Spiritism without a medium, as we did astronomy long before we had telescopes. The difference consists in the fact that, in the first case one does theoretical science, while mediumship is the instrument that makes it possible to base theory on experimentation. If Spiritism were circumscribed to the mediumistic faculty, its importance would be singularly lessened and, for many people, would be reduced to somewhat curious facts.
Reading this article, one wonders whether the author believes in Spiritism or not; for he poses it, in a way, only as a hypothesis, but as a hypothesis worthy of the most serious attention. If it is a truth, he says, it is a sacred thing par excellence, that should be treated only with respect, and whose exploitation cannot be withered and pursued with enough severity.
This is not the first time that this idea has been put forward, even by the opponents of Spiritism, and it should be noted that it is always the side by which the criticism believed to put the doctrine in default, by attacking the abuse of traffic to which it has given opportunity; it is because they feel that this would be its vulnerable side, and by which it could be accused of charlatanism; that is why malevolence persists in attaching it to charlatans, fortune tellers and other exploiters of the same kind, hoping by that to deceive and to remove the character of dignity and seriousness that make its strength.
The outcry against the Davenports, who thought they could put the Spirits in parade on trestles with impunity, has done an immense service; in their ignorance of the true character of Spiritism, the critics of the time believed they had struck it with the death blow, while they only discredited the abuses against which every sincere Spiritist has always protested.
Whatever the author's belief, and despite the errors contained in his article, we must be congratulated for seeing the question treated with the seriousness that subject demands. The press has rarely heard of it in such a serious sense, but there is a beginning to everything.
[1] Journal le Voyageur de Commerce is published every Sunday. - Offices: 3, Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Price: 22 francs per year; 12 francs for six months; 6.5 francs for three months. From the published article we are going to read, that is the expression of the author's thoughts, we do not prejudge his sympathies towards Spiritism, because we only know him by this number, that was kindly given to us.
[2] Latin for “seeking someone to devour”. (T.N.)
[3] Gods of the ancient Romans (Wikipedia, T.N.)
The Process of Marseille’s Poisoners
The name of Spiritism was incidentally involved in this deplorable affair; one of the accused, the herbalist Joye, said he was involved, and that he was questioning the Spirits; does it prove that he was a Spiritist, and can we infer from that anything against the doctrine? Those who want to decry it will undoubtedly not fail to seek there a pretext for accusation; but if the diatribes of malevolence have hitherto gone without result, it is because they have always been false, and it will be the same here. It is quite simple to know if Spiritism incurs any responsibility in this case: it is to inquire in good faith, not among the adversaries, but from the very source, what is it that he prescribes and what is it that he condemns; there is nothing secret about it; his teachings are out in the open and anyone can control them. If, therefore, the books of the doctrine only contain instructions lead to good; if they explicitly and formally condemn all the actions of this man, the practices in which he has indulged himself, the despicable and ridiculous role he attributes to the Spirits, it is for the fact that he did not collect his inspirations there; there isn’t an impartial man who does not agree and does not declare Spiritism out of the question in this episode.
Spiritism only recognizes as its followers those who put its teachings into practice, that is who work for their own moral improvement, because that is the characteristic sign of the true Spiritist. It is not more responsible for the acts of those who like to call themselves Spiritists than true science is for the charlatanism of the swindlers who call themselves physics teachers, nor the sane religion for the abuses committed in its name.
The prosecution says, about Joye: "A register has been found with him that gives an idea of his character and his occupations." According to him, each page would have been written from the dictation of the Spirits, full of ardent sighs towards Jesus Christ. Every page speaks of God and the saints are invoked. On the side, so to speak, there are notes that can give an idea of the usual operations of the herbalist:
“For Spiritism, 4.25 francs – the sick, 6 francs - letters, 2 francs - Spells, 10 francs - Exorcisms, 4 francs - Divination wand, 10 francs - Hexes for fortune telling, 60 francs" and many other designations, among which we meet with evil spells to satiety, ending with this one: “In January I made 226 francs. The other months were less successful."
Has anyone ever seen in the books of the Spiritist doctrine the apology for such practices, or anything likely to provoke them? Don’t we see, on the contrary, that they repudiate any connection with magic, witchcraft, devils, card drawers, diviners, fortune tellers, and all those who make a living from trading with the Spirits, by claiming to have them at their command at so much per session?
If Joye were a Spiritist, he would have already regarded it as a profanation to bring in the Spirits in such circumstances; he would have known, moreover, that the Spirits are not at the orders of anyone and do not come on command, or by the influence of any cabalistic sign; that the Spirits are the souls of men who have lived on Earth or in other worlds, our parents, our friends, our contemporaries or our ancestors; that they were men like us, and that after our death we will be Spirits like them; that gnome, goblins, leprechauns, demons are creations of pure fantasy and exist only in the imagination; that the Spirits are free, freer than when they were incarnate, and that the claim to submit them to our whims and our will, to make them act and speak as we please for our amusement or our interest, is a chimerical idea; that they come when they want, how they want, and to whom it suits them; that the providential purpose of the communications with the Spirits is our instruction and moral improvement, and not to help us in the material things of life that we can do or find for ourselves, and much less to serve greed; finally, because of their very nature and the respect that we owe to the souls of those who have lived, it is as irrational as it is immoral to hold an office open to consultations or exhibitions of the Spirits. To ignore these things is to ignore the “a b c d” of Spiritism; and when the critic confuses it with fortune telling, chiromancy, exorcisms, the practices of witchcraft, spells, enchantments, etc., it proves that it ignores all of its principles; now, to deny or condemn a doctrine that one does not know is to fail the most elementary logic; it is to lend it or make it say precisely the opposite of what it says; it is slander or partiality.
Since Joye mixed the name of God, Jesus, and the invocation of saints with his procedures, he could just as easily mix the name of Spiritism, that does not prove against the doctrine any more than his simulacrum of devotion proves against the healthy religion. He was therefore no more a Spiritist, because he supposedly questioned the Spirits, than the women Lamberte and Dye were pious, because they burnt candles to the Good Mother, Our Lady of La Guard, for the success of their poisonings. Moreover, if he were a Spiritist, it would not even have occurred to him to use, for the perpetration of evil, a doctrine whose first law is the love of neighbor, and that has for motto: there is no salvation except through charity. If one imputed to Spiritism the incitement to such acts, one could, by the same token, blame religion.
Here are some thoughts on this subject, from the National Opinion, on December 8th:
“The newspaper Le Monde accuses the Siècle, the bad newspapers, the bad meetings, the bad books, of complicity in the affair of the poisoners of Marseilles.
We read, with painful curiosity, the debates on this strange affair; but we have not seen anywhere that the wizard Joye or the witch Lamberte were subscribers to the Siècle, the L’Avenir or the Opinion. We found only one diary at Joye's: it was an issue of the Devil, Diary from Hell. The widows who figure in this amiable trial are far from being free thinkers. They burn candles to the good Virgin, to obtain from Our Lady the grace to calmly poison their husbands. We find in the case all the old paraphernalia of the Middle Ages: bones of corpses collected in the cemetery; disguises that are just spells of the time of Queen Margot. All those ladies were educated, not in the Elisa Lemonnier schools, but with the good nuns. Add to Catholic superstitions the modern superstitions, Spiritism, and charlatanism. It was absurdity that drove those women to crime. Thus, in Spain, near the mouths of the Ebro, one sees in the mountain a chapel erected to Our Lady of the Thieves.
“Sow superstition and you will reap crime. That is why we ask that science be sown. "Enlighten the head of the people," said Victor Hugo, "and you will no longer need to cut it off."
J. Labbé.”
The argument that the accused did not subscribe to certain newspapers lacks in accuracy, because we know that it is not necessary to be a subscriber to a newspaper to read it, especially for that class of people. The National Opinion could therefore have reached some of them, without any conclusion against this newspaper. What would it have said if Joye had claimed to have been inspired by the doctrines of that periodical? It would have replied: read it and see if you find there a single word that might excite bad passions. Father Verger certainly had the Gospel with him; besides, he had to study it, given his condition; can we say that it was the Gospel that prompted him to assassinate the Archbishop of Paris? Was it the Gospel that armed the hands of Ravaillac and Jacques Clément? Who lit the pyres of the Inquisition? And yet, it is in the name of the Gospel that all those crimes were committed.
The author of the article says: “sow superstition, and you will reap crime;” He is right, but what is wrong is to confuse the abuse of something thing with the thing itself; if we wanted to suppress everything that could be abused, very little would escape proscription, without exception to the press. Some modern reformers are like men who would cut down a good tree, because it bears some crooked fruit.
He adds: “That is why we ask that science be sown.” He is right again, for science is an element of progress, but is it sufficient for complete moralization? Don’t we see men putting their knowledge at the service of their bad passions? Wasn't Lapommeraie an educated man, a licensed doctor, enjoying a certain credit, and a man of society? It was the same with Castaing and so many others. One can therefore abuse science; should we conclude that science is a bad thing? And because a doctor has failed, should the fault fall onto the entire medical profession? Why then impute to Spiritism that of a man who liked to call himself a Spiritist, and who was not one? Before passing any judgment whatsoever, one had to first inquire whether he had been able to find in the Spiritist Doctrine maxims capable of justifying his acts. Why the medical science is not supportive of Lapommeraie’s crime? Because the latter could not draw incitement to crime from the principles of that science; he applied for evil the resources that it provides for good; and yet he was more of a doctor than Joye was a Spiritist. This is the case of applying the proverb: "When you want to kill your dog, you say it is mad."
Education is essential, no one disputes that; but without moralization, it is only an instrument, too often unproductive for those who do not know how to regulate it use to good. To educate the masses without moralizing them is to place a tool in their hands without teaching them how to use it, for moralization that is addressed to the heart does not necessarily follow the instruction that is addressed only to the intelligence. Experience is there to prove it. But how to moralize the masses? This is what people have been the least concerned with, and it will certainly not be by nourishing them with the idea that there is no God, nor soul, nor hope, because all the sophisms in the world will not demonstrate that the man who believes that for him everything begins and ends with his body, has more powerful reasons to constrain himself in order to improve, than the one who understands the solidarity that exists between the past, the present and the future. It is, however, this belief in the nothingness that a certain school of the so-called reformers claims to impose on humanity, as the element of moral progress par excellence.
In quoting Victor Hugo, the author forgets, or better, does not suspect, that the latter has openly affirmed his belief in the fundamental principles of Spiritism on many occasions; it is true that it is not Spiritism like that of Joye; but when we don't know, it is easy to get confused.
However regrettable the abuse that was made of the name of Spiritism in this affair, not a single Spiritist was worried with the consequences that could result from that to the doctrine; it is because, in fact, its morality being unassailable, it cannot be affected; experience proves, on the contrary, that there isn’t a single circumstance in which the name of Spiritism was involved that has not turned to its own benefit by an increase in the number of adepts, because the examination that the impact provokes can only be to its advantage.
It should be noted, however, that in this case, with very few exceptions, the press refrained from any comment on Spiritism; a few years ago, it would have opened its columns for two months, and would not have failed to present Joye as one of the highest priests of doctrine. It has also been observed that neither the President of the Court nor the Attorney General in his indictment dwelled on this circumstance and drew no inference from it. It was just Joye's lawyer that did his job as best as he could.
Spiritism Everywhere
Lamartine
Among the oscillations of sky and ship,
Lulled by waves, slow and gigantic,
Man goes around the Cape of Storms,
Passing through lightning and darkness,
The stormy tropic of another humanity!
On May 20th Le Siècle quoted these lines in connection with an article about the commercial crisis. What do they have of Spiritist, people will ask! There is nothing about souls or Spirits. With even more reason one could ask what relationship they have with the substance of the article in which they were framed, dealing with taxation of commodities. They touch much more directly Spiritism, because it is, in another form, the thought expressed by the Spirits on the future that is being prepared; it is in a language both sublime and concise, the announcement of the convulsions that humanity will have to undergo for its regeneration, and that the Spirits make us foresee as imminent, from all sides. Everything is summed up in this deep thought: another humanity, the image of a transformed humanity, of the new moral world replacing the old world that is collapsing. The first indications of those changes are already being felt, which is why the Spirits tell us, in all tones, that the times have come. Mr. Lamartine made a true prophecy here, whose realization we are beginning to see.
Etienne de Jouy (from the French Academy)
We read what follows in the volume XVI of the complete works by Mr. de Jouy, entitled: Mixtures, page 99; it is a dialogue between Mrs. de Staël, deceased, and the living Duc de Broglie.
Mr. de Broglie: What do I see! Can it be?
Mrs. de Staël: My dear Victor, do not be alarmed, and without questioning me about a miracle whose cause no living being can penetrate, enjoy with me for a moment the happiness that this nocturnal apparition gives us both. There are, as you see, bonds that even death cannot break; the sweet harmony of feelings, views, opinions, forms the chain that connects perishable life to immortal life, preventing what has been united for long from being separated forever.
M. de Broglie: I believe I could explain this happy sympathy by intellectual concordance.
Mrs. de Staël: Don't explain anything, please, I have no more time to waste. These relations of love that survive the material organs do not leave me oblivious to the feelings towards the objects of my most tender affections. My children live; they honor and cherish my memory, I know that; but there is where my present connection with Earth ends; the night of the tomb envelops everything else.
In the same volume, page 83 and following, there is another dialogue, where various historical figures are staged, revealing their existence and the role they have played in successive lives. The correspondent who sent us this note adds:
"I believe, like you do, that the best way to bring a good number of recalcitrant to the doctrine that we preach, is to show them that what they see as an ogre ready to devour them, or as a ridiculous buffoonery, is nothing else but only what was hatched by meditation on the destinies of man, in the brains of serious thinkers of all times."
Mr. de Jouy was a writer in the beginning of this century. His complete works were published in 1823, in twenty-seven volumes, by Didot edition.
Silvio Pellico
Extracted from My Prisons, by Silvio Pellico, Chapters XLV and XLVI
“Such a state was a real disease; I don't know if I shouldn't say a sort of somnambulism. It seemed to me that there were two men in me: one who wanted to write continuously, and the other who wanted to do something else ...
“During those horrible nights, my imagination was sometimes excited to such an extent that, while awake, in my prison I thought I heard sometimes moans, sometimes stifled laughter. Since my childhood, I had never believed in wizards or Spirits, and now those laughter and moans terrified me; I did not know how to explain them; I was forced to wonder if I weren’t the plaything of some unknown and evil power.
"Several times I took the light, trembling, and looked to see if anyone was hidden under my bed, making fun of me. When I was at the table, sometimes it seemed to me that someone was pulling me by my coat, sometimes that someone was pushing a book that fell to the ground; sometimes also I thought that a person behind me was blowing my light to put it out. I then stood up hurriedly, I looked around; I walked around with suspicion, asking myself if I were crazy or in my whole sense, for amid all that I was experiencing, I could no longer distinguish reality from illusion, and I cried with anguish: My God, my God, ut quid dereliquisti me?[1]
“Once I got to bed before dawn, and I was perfectly sure that I had placed my handkerchief under my pillow. After a moment of dozing off, I awoke as usual, and it seemed that I was being strangled. I felt my neck tightly wrapped. Strange thing! It was wrapped with my handkerchief, strongly tied by several knots! I could have sworn I hadn't tied those knots; I hadn't even touched my handkerchief since I put it under the pillow. I had to have done it while dreaming or in a fit of delirium, without having kept any memory of that; but I could not believe it, and since that moment I feared to be strangled every night."
If some of these facts can be attributed to an imagination overexcited by suffering, there are others that seem genuinely provoked by invisible agents, and it must be noted that Silvio Pellico did not believe in these things; such a cause could not occur to him, and unable to explain it to himself, he was frightened by what was happening around him. Today that his Spirit is freed from the veil of matter, he realizes not only these facts, but the different events of his life; he acknowledges as fair what previously seemed unfair to him. He explained this in the following communication, requested for this purpose.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, October 18th, 1867
“How great and powerful is this God humans have constantly diminished by trying to define him, and how the petty passions that we lend him to understand him are proof of our weakness and our lack of progress! A vengeful God! A God-judge! An executioner God! No; all of this only exists in human imagination, incapable of understanding infinity. What a crazy recklessness to want to define God! He is incomprehensible and indefinable, and we can only bow under his mighty hand, without seeking to understand and analyze his nature. The facts are there to prove to us that he exists! Let us study these facts and through them go back from cause to cause as far as we can go; but let us not tackle the cause of the causes until we fully possess the secondary causes, and when we understand all their effects! ...
Yes, the laws of the Eternal are immutable! Today they strike the culprit, as they have always done, according to the nature of the faults committed and in proportion to those faults. They strike inexorably, and are followed by moral consequences, not fatal, but inevitable. The penalty of retaliation is a fact, and the word of the old law: "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth," is accomplished in all its rigor. Not only is the proud man humbled, but he is struck in his pride in the same way he struck others. The iniquitous judge is unjustly condemned; the despot becomes oppressed! Yes, I have ruled over men; I made them bend under an iron yoke; I struck them in their affections and their freedom; and later, in my turn, I had to bow under the oppressor, I was deprived of my affections and my freedom!
But how can the oppressor of yesterday become the republican of tomorrow? It is a very simple thing, and the observation of the facts that take place before your eyes should give you the key. Don’t you see, during a single existence, the same personality, alternately dominant and dominated? And isn’t that the case, if it governs despotically in the first case, it is, in the second, one of those who struggle most strongly against despotism?
The same takes place from one life to another. This is certainly not a rule without exception; but generally, those who are apparently the most frenzied liberals, once were the keenest supporters of power, and this is understandable, for it is logical that those who have long been accustomed to reign unchallenged, satisfying their least whims without obstacles, be those who suffer the most from oppression, and the most passionate about throwing off its yoke. Despotism and its excesses, by a remarkable consequence of the laws of God, necessarily drive those who exercise it to an unrestrained love of liberty, and these two excesses, one worn out by the other, inevitably bring calm and moderation.
These are the explanations I believe to be useful to you, regarding the desire you have expressed. I will be pleased if they are such as to satisfy you.
Silvio Pellico.”
[1] Latin expression meaning: why have you forsaken me? (T.N.)
Varieties
The miser of Oven Street
The Petite Presse, November 19th, 1868, transcribed from the le Droit newspaper the following fact:
“In a miserable garret in Oven Street[1], an individual of a certain age, named P… lived in poverty. He did not receive anyone; he prepared his own meals, that were much smaller than those of an anchorite. Covered in sordid clothes, he slept on an even more sordid pallet. Extremely thin, he seemed parched by privations of all sorts, and was generally believed to be in the grip of the most profound destitution.
Meanwhile, a nasty smell had started to spread around the house. It increased in intensity and ended up reaching the establishment of a small caterer, located on the ground floor, to the point that customers complained. The cause of those miasmas was then carefully sought, and they ended up discovering that they came from the accommodation occupied by Mr. P ... The discovery made them think that the man had not been seen for a long time, and fearing that some misfortune had happened to him, they hastened to inform the district police commissioner.
The officer immediately went to the scene and had the door opened by a locksmith; but as soon as they tried to enter the room, they were nearly suffocated and had to move away promptly. It was only after some time when the air in the cubicle was refreshed that it was possible to enter and cautiously proceed to the findings.
A sad spectacle was presented to the police officer and the doctor who accompanied him. Mr. P's body was lying on the bed… in a state of complete putrefaction; it was covered with anthrax flies, and thousands of worms gnawed at the flesh, which fell apart in shreds.
The state of decomposition did not allow to recognize with certainty the cause of death, dating back to a distant time, but the absence of any trace of violence suggested that it must be attributed to a natural cause, such as a stroke or aneurysm. They also found in a piece of furniture a sum of about 35,000 francs, both in cash and in shares, industrial bonds, and various securities.
Following the ordinary formalities, they promptly removed the human remains and disinfected the room. The money and securities were sealed by Justice."
This man was evoked in the Parisian Society and gave the following communication:
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, November 20th, 1868 – medium Mr. Rul
“You ask me why I let myself starve, being in possession of a treasure; 35,000 francs is a fortune indeed! Alas! Gentlemen, you are too well informed of what is going on around you not to understand that I was undergoing trials, and my end tells you enough that I failed. Indeed, in a previous existence, I had fought strongly against poverty that I had overcome only by prodigies of activity, energy, and perseverance. For twenty times I was on the verge of being deprived of the fruits of my hard labor. Also, I was not kind to the poor that I sent away when they came to my house. I reserved everything I earned for my family, wife, and children.
I chose as a test, in this new existence, to be sober, moderate in my tastes, and to share my fortune with the poor, my disinherited brothers. Have I kept my word? You see the opposite; for I have indeed been sober, moderate, more than moderate; but I was not charitable.
My unhappy ending was only the beginning of my sufferings, harder, more painful now, when I see with the eyes of the Spirit. So, I would not have had the courage to present myself before you, if I had not been assured that you are good, compassionate with misfortune; I come to ask you to pray for me. Alleviate my sufferings, you who know the means of making the sufferings less poignant; pray for your brother who is suffering and who wants to come back and suffer much more still!
Have pity on me, my God! Pity on the weak being who failed; and you, gentlemen, have compassion for your brother, who recommends himself to your prayers.
The miser of Oven Street.”
[1] Rue du Four-Saint-Germain (T.N.)
Suicide by obsession
The Droit reads:
“Mr. Jean-Baptiste Sadoux, manufacturer of canoes in Joinville-Le-Pont, saw yesterday a young man wandering around on a bridge for some time, and later climbed on the parapet and rushed into the Marne. He immediately went to his aid and brought him back after seven minutes. But the asphyxiation was already complete, and all the attempts made to revive the unfortunate man were unsuccessful.
A letter found on him allowed to identify him as Mr. Paul D…, aged twenty-two, living at Sedaine Street, in Paris. The letter, addressed by the suicide man to his father, was extremely touching. He begged for his forgiveness for abandoning him and told him that for two years he had been dominated by a terrible idea, by an irresistible desire to destroy himself. He seemed to hear, he added, a voice beyond life calling on him relentlessly, and despite his best efforts, he could not help but go towards it. In the pocket of his jacket, they also found a new rope with a noose. After the forensic examination, the body was returned to the family."
The obsession is very evident here, and what is not less so is that Spiritism is completely foreign to that, a further proof that this evil is not inherent to the belief. But if Spiritism has nothing to do with the fact, it alone can give its explanation. Here is the instruction given on this subject by one of our usual Spirits, and from which it emerges that, despite the enticement to which this young man yielded for his misfortune, he did not succumb to fate; he had his free-will, and with a stronger will, he could have resisted. If he were a Spiritist, he would have understood that the voice that called him could only be that of an evil Spirit, and the terrible consequences of a moment of weakness.
Paris, Group Desliens, December 20th, 1868 – medium Mr. Nivard
“The voice said: Come! Come! But the voice of the tempter would have been ineffective if I had not felt the direct action of the Spirit. The poor suicide man was called, and he was pushed. Why? His past was the cause of the painful situation he found himself in; he valued life and dreaded death; but, in this incessant call that he heard, had he found, shall I say, the strength? No. He drew on the weakness that lost him. He overcame his fears, because in the end he expected to find rest on the other side of life that this side had denied him. He was deceived: no rest had come. Darkness surrounds him, his conscience reproaches him for his act of weakness, and the Spirit that has drawn him laughs around him, constantly throwing persiflage at him. The blind man does not see him, but he hears the voice repeating to him: Come! come! And then laughs at his tortures.
The cause of this case of obsession is in the past, as I have just said; the obsessing Spirit himself has been driven to suicide by the one he has just knocked down into the abyss. She was his wife in the previous existence, and she had suffered greatly from her husband's debauchery and brutality. Too weak to accept with courage and resignation the situation that was presented to her, she sought refuge for her sufferings in death. She has since avenged herself and you know how. But nevertheless, the act of this unfortunate man was not fatal; he had accepted the risks of temptation; it was necessary for his advancement, for it was the only way to remove the stain that had soiled his previous existence. He had accepted the risks with the hope of being stronger, but he was wrong: he failed. He will do it again later; will he endure? It will depend on him.
Pray to God for him, to give him the calm and resignation that he so badly needs, the courage and the strength so that he does not fail in the tests that he will have to withstand later.
Louis Nivard.”
Spiritist Dissertations
The Arts and SpiritismParis, Group Desliens, November 25th, 1868 – medium Mr. Desliens
There is still, no doubt, some friends of the beautiful, the great, the true; but sided by how many profaners, either among the professionals, or among the amateurs! There are no more painters; there are only makers! It is not glory that is pursued; it comes at too slow a speed for our generation of rushed people. Fame and the halo of talent crowning an existence in decline, what is that? A chimera, good at least for the artists of the past! We had time to live then; today we barely have time to enjoy! Now it is necessary to promptly get a fortune; one must make a name for oneself by an original action, by intrigue, by any not much confessable means, with which civilization fulfills the peoples who reach an immense progress for the future, or an unforgiving decadence.
What does it matter if the conquered celebrity disappears as quickly as the existence of the ephemeral! What does it matter the brevity of celebrity! … It is an eternity if that time was enough to acquire fortune, the key to pleasures and the dolce far niente![1]
It is the courageous struggle in the ordeal that makes talent; the struggle with fortune annoys and kills him! Everything falls, everything collapses, because there is no belief anymore! Do you think the painter believes in himself? Yes, he does sometimes; but, in general, he believes only in blindness, in the passion of the public, and he profits from it until a new whim moves elsewhere the torrent of favors that came his way! How to make religious or mythological paintings that strike and touch, when the beliefs in the ideas they represent have disappeared?
We have the talent, we sculpt the marble, we give it the human form; but it is still a cold and insensible stone: it is lifeless! Beautiful shapes, but not the spark that creates immortality!
The masters of antiquity made gods because they believed in these gods. Our current sculptors, who do not believe in that, hardly make men. But come faith, however illogical and without a serious goal, and it will give birth to masterpieces, and if guided by reason, there will be no limits that it cannot reach! Immense, completely unexplored fields are opening to today's youth, to all those who are driven by a powerful feeling of conviction in any direction whatsoever. Literature, architecture, painting, history, everything will receive from the Spiritist spur the new baptism of fire, necessary to restore energy and vitality to the dying society; for it will have engraved in the hearts of all those who accept it, an ardent love of humanity and an unshakeable faith in its destiny.
An artist, Ducornet.”
[1] Pleasant idleness (T.N.)
Spiritist Music
“Recently, at the headquarters of the Spiritist Society of Paris, the President did me the honor of asking my opinion on the current state of music and on the changes that the influence of Spiritist beliefs could bring to that. If I did not immediately respond to such benevolent and sympathetic appeal, believe me gentlemen, that my abstention was caused by a force majeure.
Ah the musicians are men like the others, more men perhaps, and as such, they are fallible and sinners. I was not exempt from weaknesses, and if God gave me a long life so that I had time to repent, the intoxication of success, the complacency of friends, the flattery of courtiers often subtracted me the means. A maestro is powerful in this world where pleasure plays such a big role. He whose art consists in seducing the ear, in softening the heart, sees many traps being laid under his feet, and he falls in them, the unfortunate one! He gets intoxicated in the intoxication of others; the applause plugs his ears, and he goes straight to the abyss without looking for a point of support to resist the enticement.
However, despite my mistakes, I had faith in God; I believed in the soul that vibrated in me, and once freed from its sound cage, it quickly recognized itself amid the harmonies of creation and confused its prayer with those that rise from nature to infinity, from the creature to the uncreated being! …
I am pleased with the feeling that drove me to be among the Spiritists, for it was through sympathy that it happened, and if it were curiosity that first attracted me, it is to my gratitude that you owe my appreciation for the question that you posed to me. I was there, ready to speak, believing I knew everything, when my pride, in falling, revealed my ignorance to me. I remained silent and listened; I went back, I enlightened myself, and when the words of truth uttered by your instructors, joined reflection and meditation, I said to myself: The great maestro Rossini, the creator of so many masterpieces, according to men, did no more than to shell out some of the less perfect pearls of the musical setting created by the master of the maestros. Rossini assembled notes, composed melodies, tasted the cup that contains all harmonies; he stole some sparks from the sacred fire; but that sacred fire, neither he nor the others created it! - We invent nothing; we copy from the great book of nature and the crowd applauds when we do not distort the score too much.
A dissertation on celestial music! … Who could do it? What superhuman Spirit could make matter vibrate in unison with such enchanting art? What human brain, what incarnate Spirit could grasp its infinitely varied nuances? … Who possesses the feeling of harmony at this level? … No, man is not cut for that! … Later! … Much later! …
In the meantime, I will come, perhaps soon, to satisfy your desire and give you my assessment of the current state of music, and tell you about the transformations, the progress that Spiritism can introduce there. - Today it is still too early. The subject is vast, I have already studied it, but it still overwhelms me; when I master it, if that is at all possible, or better when I have glimpsed at that as far as the state of my mind allow me to, I will satisfy you; but still a little while to go. If a musician alone can speak well of the music of the future, he must do so as a master, and Rossini does not want to speak as a schoolboy.
Rossini.”
Simulated Obsessions
“Pity for those who suffer must not exclude prudence, and it might be reckless to establish relationships with all those that come your way, affected by a real or feigned obsession. It is yet another test through which Spiritism will have to pass, and that will serve it to get rid of all those who, by their nature, would hinder its path. Spiritists have been mocked and ridiculed; they wanted to scare away those who were attracted to you by curiosity, by placing you under satanic patronage. None of that succeed; before surrendering, they want to launch one last battalion that, like all the others, will work to your advantage. No longer able to accuse you of contributing to the increase of insanity, they will send you real obsessions, before whom they hope you will fail, and simulated obsessions that it would be naturally impossible for you to cure from an imaginary illness. All that will not slow down your progress, but on condition that you act with caution, and advise those who deal with the treatment of obsessions to consult their guides, not only on the nature of the disease, but on the reality of the obsessions that they may have to fight. This is important, and I take the idea that has been suggested to you to seek advice in advance, to recommend that you always do so in the future. As for this lady, she is sincere and she is really suffering, but there is nothing to be done for her now, except to urge her to ask, through prayer, for calm and resignation to courageously support her ordeal. It is not instructions from the Spirits that she needs; it would even be prudent to keep her away from any idea of correspondence with them, and to urge her to rely entirely on the care of official medicine.
Dr. Demeure.”
Observation: It is not only against simulated obsessions that it is prudent to be on guard, but against requests for communications of all sorts, evocations, health advice, etc., that could be traps set for good faith, and that could be used by malevolence. It is therefore advisable to accede to such requests only with full knowledge of the facts, and regarding known or duly recommended persons. Opponents of Spiritism regret the developments that it takes, contrary to their forecasts, and they spy on or provoke occasions to catch it, either by accusing or by deriding it. In such a case, it is better to err on the side of caution than by carelessness.
Allan Kardec.