Evocation of a Suicidal Spirit in Suffering

The article describes the evocation of the Spirit of a French suicide, by Kardec, in a state of moral suffering.

Read more about cases like this clicking here.

Published in the Revista Espírita of November 1858. In full:

Recently the newspapers reported the following fact: “Yesterday (April 7, 1858) at seven o'clock in the evening, a man of about fifty years old, decently dressed, presented himself at the Samaritana establishment and asked for a bath. The employee was surprised that, after two hours, the individual did not call; He decided to go into the bathroom to see if he hadn't felt unwell. He then witnessed a horrible spectacle: the unfortunate man had cut his throat with a razor and all the blood had mixed with the water in the bathtub. Since the identity could not be established, the corpse was transported to the morgue.”

We thought it would be possible to derive a useful lesson for our instruction from the conversation with the Spirit of this man. Therefore, we evoke it on April 13th, just six days after his death.

1. ─ I ask Almighty God to allow the Spirit of the individual who committed suicide on April 7, 1858, in the Samaritan baths, to come and communicate with us.

─ Wait... (After a few moments): Here he is.

NOTE: To understand this answer it is necessary to know that, in general, in all regular meetings, there is a familiar Spirit, from the medium or from the family, who is always present, without having to call him. He is the one who makes those who are evoked come and, depending on whether he is more or less elevated, he serves as a messenger or gives orders to the Spirits who are inferior to him. When our meetings are interpreted by Ms. Ermance Dufaux, it is always the Spirit of Saint Louis who voluntarily takes on this task. He was the one who gave the answer above.

2. ─ Where are you now?

─ I don't know... Tell me where I am.

3. ─ On Rue Valois (Palais-Royal), no. 35, at a meeting of people who are involved in spiritualist studies and who are benevolent.

─ Tell me if I'm alive... I suffocate in the coffin.

4. ─ Who invited you to come to us?

─ I felt relieved.

5. ─ What reason led you to commit suicide?

─ Am I dead?... No!... I'm in my body... You don't know how much I suffer!... I suffocate!... May a pious hand come and put an end to me!

OBSERVATION: Your soul, although separated from the body, is still completely immersed in what we could call the vortex of corporeal matter; Earthly ideas are still alive. He doesn't believe he's dead.

6. ─ Why didn't you leave any identification elements?

─ I'm abandoned. I fled suffering to find torture.

7. ─ Do you still have the same reasons for remaining incognito?

─ Yes. Don't put a hot iron on the bleeding wound.

8. ─ Could you give us your name, age, profession and address?

─ Not at all. No!…

9. ─ Did you have a family, a wife, children?

─ I was abandoned. Nobody loved me.

10. ─ What did you do to not be loved by anyone?

─ How many are there like me!... A man can be abandoned in the middle of his own family, when no heart loves him.

11. ─ Did you experience any hesitation when committing suicide?

─ I was thirsty to die… I was waiting for rest.

12. ─ How did the idea of the future not lead you to renounce that plan?

─ I no longer create in the future; I was hopeless. The future is hope.

13. ─ What reflections did you make when you felt life disappearing?

─ I didn’t reflect; I felt it... But my life was not extinguished... my soul is linked to the body... I did not die... however I feel that worms are gnawing at me.

14. ─ What feeling did you experience at the moment death was complete?

─ Is it complete?

15. ─ Was the moment when life ended painful?

─ Less painful than later. So only the body suffered.

São Luís continues:

─ The Spirit freed itself from a burden that crushed it. He felt the voluptuousness of pain.

(To São Luís): ─ Is this the state that always follows suicide?

─ Yes. The suicide's spirit remains linked to the body until the end of his life. Natural death is the weakening of life. Suicide stops her abruptly.

─ Will this state be the same in every accidental death that is independent of will and that shortens the natural duration of life?

─ No. What do you understand by suicide? The Spirit is only guilty of his works.

OBSERVATION: We had prepared a series of questions that we proposed to address to the Spirit of this man about his new existence. Faced with their answers, they lost their meaning. It was clear to us that he had no awareness of the situation. The only thing he could describe to us was his suffering.

This doubt about death is very common in the recently deceased and especially in those who in life did not elevate their soul above matter. At first glance it is a bizarre phenomenon, but it is very naturally explainable. If we ask a person who is sleepwalking for the first time if they are asleep, they will almost always answer that no, and your answer is logical. The questioner formulates the question poorly, using an inappropriate term. The idea of sleep, in common speech, is linked to the suspension of all sensitive faculties. Now, the somnambulist, who thinks and sees; who is aware of his moral freedom, does not believe that he sleeps and, in fact, does not sleep, in the vulgar meaning of the word. This is why he responds that he is not sleeping until he becomes familiar with this new way of understanding things. The same happens with the man who has just died. For him, death was nothing. Now, as with the sleepwalker, he sees and feels the speech. For him, therefore, life goes on, and he claims so, until he has acquired consciousness of his new state.

Cover photo: Daniel Reche: https://www.pexels.com/pt-br/foto/foto-em-escala-de-cinza-de-um-homem-cobrindo-o-rosto-com-as-maos -3601097/