Curiosity: the process of the spiritists

The article “a new photographic discovery”, in the Revista Espírita of July 1858, opened the way to remember this fact well known in the spiritist milieu.

That name was given to the sad case of the process brought against Mr. Pierre-Gaëtan Leymarie and Messrs. Buguet and Firman, in 1875, after they began to publish supposed spiritual photographs in Revista Espírita.

For some, the process was based on false accusations that this gentleman was publishing fraudulent photographs of disembodied spirits (see “Process of Spiritists”, by Marina Leymarie).

For others, the fraud was real and well documented. He quotes Simoni Privato, in his work Allan Kardec's Legacy, that Leymarie did not take the proper care that the master himself would have taken care of, so that he subjected himself to supporting clearly controversial practices, among them the promotion, in RE, of mediumistic sessions paid which the medium Alfred Henry Firman performed twice a week.

He quotes Simoni Privato, in The Legacy of Allan Kardec:

“On learning that the photographer Édouard Buguet was obtaining photographs of spirits in Paris, Leymarie, together with a group of people, investigated these phenomena at the end of 1873. At that time, Leymarie was the sole administrator and the representative of all members of the Anonymous Society, as well as managing secretary and editor of Revista Espírita.”

“Leymarie began to advertise, in the Spiritist Magazine, Buguet's photographic work. He presented the photographer as “an artist without pretensions, full of amiability, who greatly appreciates his faculty for what it is, that is, a pure and simple act of mediumship”. He also informed the conditions that the interested parties had to fulfill to carry out the experiments with Buguet and the price of the service. In short, Leymarie publicly supported and encouraged, in the Revista Espírita, the paid mediumship”.