The movement imprinted on inert bodies by the will is today so well known that it would be almost puerile to report facts of the kind.

Kardec starts this article like this, saying something like this: “that tables can be lifted off the floor by psychic force, this is already a known fact”. Today it seems very strange to us to think this way. Because?

The phenomenon was already widely accepted – and studied

We need to understand that Spiritism emerged in the midst of the movement called Rational Spiritualism, adopted in France, mainly, as an opposition to the materialist movement and the old religions that enslaved thought. According to FIGUEIREDO, 2019, the Movement, “It is characterized by the adoption of scientific methodology, seeking to do with the human being what has been successfully achieved by studying the matter: the understanding of the natural laws that underlie it. In other words, it replaced blind faith with a rational faith, a requirement of the new times.”¹. 

At that time and in that context, the moral sciences studied everything born of human action, and that included the study of phenomena psychological¹ of magnetism and somnambulism, among many others. Well then: Spiritism, having been born in a so favorable, unfolded easily and, precisely because of this, quickly conquered countless adepts, among whom many, perhaps the majority, were educated, serious and dedicated to the sciences. All this to bring the relevant understanding that Rational Spiritualism was already concerned, before the birth of Spiritism, of “supernormal” phenomena, as Bozzano calls them, among which the magnetization of a heavy object, such as a table, which then moved and rose, against the laws of known of Physics, was a known and studied fact.

The psychological sciences deal with the natural laws that govern human nature. And these laws are of two kinds, the experimental or empirical, expressing the results of the experience of the human spirit as it is, and the others being ideal, representing the end towards which we must direct our faculties by means of evolution, or as such. they should be. The study of the human being in its real state is experimental psychology itself. (FIGUEIREDO, 2019)

Kardec, Mr Fortier and the turning tables

In fact, at this moment, we interrupted to return to Kardec, who tells about his contact with Mr. Fortier, known magnetizer:

It was in 1854 that I first heard of turning tables. One day I met Monsieur Fortier, whom I had known for a long time, and who said: Do you already know about the singular property that has just been discovered in Magnetism? It seems that it is no longer only people who can be magnetized, but also tables, making them turn and walk at will. – 'It is indeed very singular,' I replied; but, strictly speaking, this does not seem to me radically impossible. The magnetic fluid, which is a kind of electricity, can perfectly act on inert bodies and make them move'. The reports, which the newspapers published, of experiences carried out in Nantes, Marseille, and in some other cities, did not allow any doubts about the reality of the phenomenon.

Kardec, A., Posthumous Works, Rio: FEB, 1964. p. 237

It is noted that Kardec calmly accepted the phenomena in question, and the turning table was not his first contact with magnetism. However, shortly afterwards, a new episode will mark forever its history with the nascent Spiritism: 

Some time later, I met again with Mr. Fortier, who said to me: We have something much more extraordinary; not only do you get a table to move, magnetizing it, but also to speak. When questioned, she responds. — This now, I replied, is another matter. I will only believe it when I see it and when they prove to me that a table has a brain to think, nerves to feel and that it can become sleepwalker. Until then, allow me not to see in the case more than a story to make us sleep on our feet.” [emphasis ours]

ibidem

Returning to the article in question…

All of the above is for us to understand, rationally, the logic that led Kardec to so calmly accept isolation (and motion) of heavy bodies. He continues to make an analysis similar to the one made before Mr Fortier's account, when he said that the tables responded intelligently: if there is intelligence, there is an intelligent cause. Where, then, is this cause?

It is important to highlight, as Kardec demonstrates in the article, that we need to be very calm to analyze such facts and their reports, so that the overexcited imagination does not make the phenomenon seem like “magic”: to reach the lifting of a heavy body , it takes a lot of concentration and several attacks, with which the phenomenon seems to gain more and more strength, not happening in a snap of the fingers.

It is also noteworthy that Kardec mentions that the facts obtained “at Mr. B…” took place repeatedly, even without the contact of hands and in the presence of several witnesses, including those “very unfriendly” and who would not fail to raise suspicion if they had reason to do so. The same type of phenomenon also occurred easily in several other houses.

Reading Recommendations

To deepen the study, we recommend, in addition to the works “Transportation Phenomena” and “Spiritism and the Supranormal Manifestations”, by Ernesto Bozzano, the study of The Mediums' Book, where, in chapters I, II, III, IV and V of the Second Part, an extensive theoretical approach on the subject is carried out.

We also recommend the book “Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism“, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo

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1. That is why the Spiritist Journal is called “Journal of Psychological Studies”, in perfect agreement with the understanding of the moral sciences in the historical and social context of Allan Kardec.
2. FIGUEIREDO, Paulo Henrique de. Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, 2019, editor FEAL

Kardec begins this article by contextualizing the reader in the environment of a room, as in countless others, where the phenomena occurred typological so common at that time. Removing the possibility of fraud, knowing the environment in which he found himself, in order to look for valid hypotheses for the cause of these phenomena, he continues to unfold a logical and rational sequence of ideas, in order to demonstrate the need to never accept any idea, positive or negative, blindly:

A young bachelor's student was in his room, studying points from his Rhetoric exam, when there was a knock on the door. I think everyone admits that it is possible to distinguish the nature of the noise, and especially in its repetition, whether it is caused by a crack of wood, by the stirring of the wind or by some other fortuitous cause, or if it is someone knocking, wanting to enter. In the latter case, the noise has an intentional character, which cannot be confused. That's what our student thinks. However, in order not to be unnecessarily bothered, he wanted to make sure, putting the visitor to the test. If it's somebody, he says, knock once, twice, three, four, five, six times; tap high, low, right or left; beat the musical time; ring the military call, etc., and to each of these requests the noise obeys with the most perfect exactitude. Surely, he thinks, it can't be the crack of wood, or the wind, or even a cat, no matter how clever. Here's a fact. Let us see what consequences the syllogistic arguments will lead to.

Thus, he made the following reasoning: I hear a noise, therefore, it is something that produces it. This noise obeys my orders, therefore, the cause that produces it understands me. Now, what understands has intelligence, therefore the cause of this noise is intelligent. If it's intelligent, it's not the wood or the wind; if, then, it is not the wood or the wind, it is someone. Then he went to open the door. Let us see that it is not necessary to be a doctor to reach this conclusion and we believe that our future bachelor is sufficiently attached to its principles to conclude as follows:

Suppose that when he opens the door he finds no one, and that the noise continues exactly as before. He will follow his sorites¹: “I have just proved to myself, without question, that noise is produced by an intelligent being, since it responds to my thought. I always hear that noise in front of me and it's certain that it's not me who knocks, so it's someone else. Now, if this other one I don't see, of course he's invisible. The corporeal beings that belong to Humanity are perfectly visible. This knocker, being invisible, is not a corporeal human being. Now, since we call incorporeal beings spirits, he who knocks, not being corporeal, is therefore a spirit”.

Although Kardec made a simplification, as he did not address the need to look for possible hidden causes responsible for the “knocking on the door” (which he always sought to do), a very clear and simple line of logical thoughts is evident that, if followed, it would make many stop falling into contradictions and denials in face of what is so clear and evident.

It was in this way, when the phenomena of typtology, that answers were obtained about the questions made to the Spirits: through blows, in a defined shape or number, letters, numbers, binary answers, etc., were indicated, in addition to, for a more developed, they often indicated, by a particular sign, that they wanted to write; “then the writing medium would take the pencil and transmit his thoughts in writing”.

Among the attendants, not to mention those around the table, but of all the people who filled the hall, there were genuine unbelievers, half believers and fervent believers who, as is well known, constitute an unfavorable mix. The first ones, we leave them at ease, waiting for the light to shine for them. We respect all beliefs, even unbelief, which is a kind of belief, when it is respected enough not to shock opposing opinions. So, then, we will not say that his observations are useless. His reasoning, much less verbose than that of our student, can generally be summarized as follows: I don't believe in spirits, therefore, they cannot be spirits, and since they are not spirits, it is a trick. Such an assumption leads them to admit that the table would have a mechanism, in the manner of Robert Houdin.

Kardec cites the assistants, or witnesses, highlighting those who were convinced that everything was a farce, presenting their logic of thought. The answer follows:

First, it would be necessary for all tables and all furniture to have machinery, since they are not privileged; second, no mechanism is known to be sufficiently ingenious to produce at will all the effects just described; Third, it would be necessary for Ms. B… had purposely prepared the walls and doors of his apartment, which is unlikely; fourthly, finally, it would have been necessary to prepare the tables, the doors, the walls of all the houses where similar phenomena occur daily, which is also not to be assumed, because then the skillful builder of so many wonders would be known. .

It can be seen that they do not want to take the path of a bachelor's degree and, in advance, they have already decided to discredit.

We also have the “half-believers”, to whom Kardec recommends returning to the arguments of the future bachelor.

And, among believers, there are still three nuances, three other types of believers: the curious, who do not take moral advantage of the phenomena in question; the learned and serious, who do; and blind faith believers, who believe in the table as they would in a oracle (priest in charge of consulting the deity and transmitting his answers), without reflecting on his answers, accepting them without submitting them to the sieve of reason and agreement.

Ending the article, Kardec goes back twenty-five centuries in the past, in the sacred forest existing in Epirus (Greece), where the oaks preferred oracles and where, adding “the prestige of the cult and the religious pomp”, it is easy to understand the veneration of an ignorant and gullible people. The hissing of the wind between the leaves, the sounds emitted by the statues and other phenomena, when true, were the beginnings of spiritist communications which, however, were taken as absolute truth and blindly followed.

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1. Logic or reasoning composed of a series of propositions linked together in such a way that the predicate of one becomes the subject of the next, and so on until the conclusion, which has as subject the subject of the first and as predicate the predicate of the last previous proposition. the conclusion.

We think it is important to highlight our own considerations about material phenomena, since they still raise many doubts and discredit, especially after Spiritism has gone through almost 150 years of misrepresentations and false understandings.

Material phenomena still exist, just as the mediums who produce them still exist, this is logical. However, we believe that such phenomena, today, may not have so much expression because, when they occurred, they were motivated to draw attention to spiritist phenomena, which, some claim, is no longer needed today.

This is one way of seeing. The other would be that these phenomena only diminished after the development of Kardec's studies because, then, they were no longer necessary, since it was much easier to communicate through psychography, mainly, than through blows. But even then, these phenomena did not stop completely, as we can see with the example of Mr Home and, later, with the example of the well-known medium Eusápia Palladino, studied by Cesare Lombroso with great seriousness and dedication.

Now, as Spiritism has been so misunderstood over time and methodological studies have been forgotten in the past, leaving room for mystifications and the unbridled growth of materialism, even among spiritualists, we ask: would such phenomena not come today? bring attention again to the spiritist facts? We dare not answer categorically, but only recall the several reports that are put to our eyes every day, in the various groups on the subject, on social networks, and about which, for the moment, we only highlight: “what if?”

Revista espírita – Jornal de estudos psicológicos – 1858 > Maio > Teoria das manifestações físicas – I

Full reproduction of the original article at Spiritist Magazine of May 1858

It is easy to conceive of the moral influence of the Spirits and the relationships they may have with our soul, or with the Spirit incarnated in us. It is understandable that two beings of the same nature can communicate through thought, which is one of their attributes, without the aid of the organs of speech. It is, however, already more difficult to realize the material effects that they can produce, such as noises, the movement of solid bodies, apparitions and, above all, tangible apparitions.

Let's try to give the explanation, according to the spirits themselves and according to the observation of the facts.

The idea we have of the nature of spirits makes these phenomena incomprehensible at first sight. It is said that the Spirit is the complete absence of matter and, therefore, that it cannot act materially. Now, this is wrong. Asked if they are immaterial, the spirits replied thus: "Immaterial is not quite the term, because the Spirit is something; otherwise it would be nothing. It is material, if you like, but of a matter so ethereal that for you it is as if it did not exist”. Thus, the Spirit is not an abstraction, as some think; it is a to be, but whose intimate nature escapes our gross senses.

Incarnated in the body, the Spirit constitutes the soul. When he leaves it, with death, he is not stripped of all the envelope. We are all told that they retain the form they had when they were alive; indeed, when they appear to us, it is usually in the form in which we knew them.

Let us observe them attentively as they leave life: They are in a state of disturbance; around you everything is confused; they see their own body, whole or mutilated, according to the type of death. On the other hand, they see and feel alive; something tells them that this is their body, but they don't understand how they can be separate. The bond that united them is not yet completely broken.

Once this first moment of disturbance has dissipated, the body becomes for them like an old garment, which they have discarded without regret, but they continue to see themselves in their primitive form. Now, this is not a system: it is the result of observations made with numerous sensitives. We will now be able to refer to what we were told about certain manifestations produced by Mr. Home and by other mediums of the same kind: hands appear that have all the properties of living hands, which we touch, which hold us and which suddenly dissolve.

What are we to conclude from this? That the soul does not leave everything in the coffin: it takes something with it.

Thus, there would be two kinds of matter in us: a gross one, which constitutes the outer envelope; the other subtle and indestructible. Death is the destruction, or rather the disintegration of the first, of that abandoned by the soul; the other stands out and follows the soul, which thus always continues to have an envelope. We call this envelope perispirit. This subtle matter, as it were, extracted from all the parts of the body to which it was attached during life, retains its form. This is why all spirits are seen and why they appear to us as they were in life.

But this subtle matter has neither the tenacity nor the rigidity of the compact matter of the body: it is, so to speak, flexible and expansive. This is why the form it takes, even though it is based on that of the body, is not absolute: it bends to the will of the Spirit, which gives it, as it wishes, this or that appearance, while the solid envelope offers it an insurmountable resistance. . Untangling itself from this obstacle that compressed it, the perispirit stretches or contracts; it transforms itself and, in a word, lends itself to all metamorphoses, according to the will that acts upon it.

Observation proves - and we insist on the word observation, because our whole theory is a consequence of the facts studied - that the subtle matter, which constitutes the second envelope of the Spirit, only gradually detaches itself from the body, and not instantly. Thus, the bonds that unite soul and body are not suddenly broken by death. Now, the state of disturbance that we observe lasts as long as the detachment takes place. Only when this detachment is complete does the Spirit recover the complete freedom of its faculties and the clear consciousness of itself.

Experience also proves that the duration of this detachment varies with individuals. In some it takes three or four days, while in others it is not completed until after several months. Thus, the destruction of the body and putrid decomposition are not enough for the separation to take place. This is the reason why certain spirits say: I feel that worms are gnawing at me.

In some people, separation begins before death: they are those who in life were elevated by thought and the purity of their feelings, above material things. In them death finds only weak bonds between soul and body, which are broken almost instantly. The more materially man lived; the more his thoughts have been absorbed in the pleasures and worries of the personality, the more tenacious are those bonds. It seems that subtle matter is identified with compact matter and that a molecular cohesion is established between them. This is why they only separate slowly and with difficulty.

In the first moments after death, when there is still union between the body and the perispirit, the latter preserves much better the impression of the corporeal form, which, so to speak, reflects all the nuances and even all the accidents. This is why one of the victims told us, a few days after his execution: If you could see me, you would see me with my head separated from my torso. A man who had been murdered told us: Look at the wound they made in my heart. He thought we might see him.

These considerations would lead us to examine the interesting question of the sensation of spirits and their sufferings. We will do so in another article, so that here we limit ourselves to the study of physical manifestations.

Let us imagine, therefore, the Spirit clothed in its semi-material envelope, or perispirit, having the form or appearance that he had when he was alive. Some even use this expression to designate themselves; say: my appearance is in such a place. Evidently these are the manes of the ancients. The matter of this envelope is subtle enough to escape our sight in its normal state, but it is not completely invisible. To begin with, we see it through the eyes of the soul, in the visions produced during dreams. But that's not what we want to deal with. In this etherealized matter there can be a modification; the Spirit itself can make it undergo a kind of condensation that makes it perceptible to the eyes of the body. This is what happens in vaporous apparitions. The subtlety of this matter allows it to pass through solid bodies, which is why such apparitions encounter no obstacles and why they so often disappear through walls.

Condensation can go so far as to produce resistance and tangibility. This is the case with hands that we can see and touch. But this condensation - and this is the only word we can use, to give an idea, albeit imperfect, of our thought - this condensation, we were saying, or even this solidification of ethereal matter, is only temporary or accidental, because this condensation it's not your normal state. This is why, at a given moment, tangible apparitions escape us like a shadow. Thus, in the same way that a body appears to us in a solid, liquid or gaseous state, depending on the degree of condensation, so the ethereal matter of the perispirit can appear to us in a solid, visible vapor or invisible vaporous state.

We will see below how this modification takes place.

The apparent, tangible hand offers resistance: it exerts pressure, leaves impressions, operates a traction on the objects we hold. There is, therefore, a force in it. Now, these facts, which are not hypotheses, can lead us to the explanation of physical manifestations.

Let us note, first of all, that this hand obeys an intelligence, since it acts spontaneously; it gives unmistakable signs of a will and obeys a thought: it therefore belongs to a complete being, which only shows us that part of itself, and the proof is that it produces impressions with the invisible parts; teeth leave marks on the skin and produce pain.

Among the various manifestations, one of the most interesting is, without a doubt, the spontaneous playing of musical instruments. Pianos and accordions are apparently the instruments of choice. This phenomenon is explained very naturally by the foregoing. The hand that has the strength to pick up an object may also have the strength to press down on the keys and make them sound. In fact, on several occasions we saw the fingers in action, and when the hand is not seen, the keys are seen moving and the bellows stretching and closing. The keys can only be moved by an invisible hand, which shows intelligence, playing perfectly rhythmic arias and not incoherent sounds.

Since that hand can dig its nails into our flesh, pinch us, snatch what we have in our hand; since we see her pick up and carry an object, just as we would, she can also hit us, lift and knock down a table, ring a bell, pull a curtain, and even give us an invisible slap.

You will perhaps ask how this hand, in the vaporous invisible state, can have the same strength as in the tangible state. And why not? Do we see air topple buildings, gas launch projectiles, electricity transmit signals, magnet fluid lift masses? Why would the ethereal matter of the perispirit be less powerful? But we don't want to subject it to our laboratory experiments and our algebraic formulas. Mainly because we have taken gases as a term of comparison, we will not attribute identical properties to them, nor compute their strength in the same way as we calculate that of steam. So far it eludes all our instruments. It is a new order of ideas, outside the scope of the exact sciences. That is why these sciences do not offer us the special ability to appreciate them.

We give this theory of the movement of solid bodies under the influence of spirits only to show the matter in all its aspects and to prove that, without departing too far from received ideas, it is possible to realize the action of spirits on inert matter. There is, however, another, of high philosophical scope, given by the Spirits themselves, which sheds an entirely new light on this problem. It will be better understood after you have read it. In fact, it is useful to know all the systems in order to be able to compare them.

It remains now to explain how this modification of the ethereal substance of the perispirit takes place; by what process does the Spirit operate and, consequently, the role of mediums of physical influence in the production of these phenomena; what in such circumstances happens to them; the cause and nature of his faculties, &c.

That's what we'll do in the next article.