ardec presents a case that happened around December 1761, in the city of Dibbelsdorf – Germany, whose documents were published in 1811. The original article, written by Dr. Kerner, was translated into French by Alfred Pireaux.

It is another article of interest about the spiritist facts, which have always occurred everywhere and at all times. However, science was not yet ready to seriously analyze them, even less in the case of Germany at that time. 

Despite the fact that the facts – clever knocks on a corner of the Kettelhuts' house – were analyzed from all possible aspects, reaching the point of demolishing walls and a deep hole, in addition to confining all the residents to their houses and placing in observation the suspects, nothing was found. The only possible answer was never accepted, and they ended up prosecuting and condemning, under a coercive confession, the Kettelhuts.

We highlight Kardec's observation, always surgical in his words:

OBSERVATION: If we pay attention to the date when these things took place and compare them with what is happening in our day, we will find in them perfect identity in the manner of manifestation and even in the nature of the questions and answers. Neither America nor our time discovered the scouting spirits, as they did not discover the others, as we will demonstrate by countless authentic and more or less ancient facts.

KARDEC, RE Aug/1858

There is, however, between current phenomena and those of the past, a major difference: the latter were almost all spontaneous, while ours are produced almost at the will of certain special mediums. This circumstance allowed them to be better studied and their cause more in-depth. To the judges’ conclusion that “perhaps the future will enlighten us in this regard”, today the author would not answer: “the future has not taught us anything yet.” If this author were still alive, he would know, on the contrary, that the future taught everything and that the justice of our days, more enlightened than a century ago, would not commit, in relation to spiritist manifestations, mistakes that remind those of the Middle Ages. Our own sages have penetrated far enough into the mysteries of Nature not to play with unknown causes. They are shrewd enough and do not expose themselves, like their predecessors, to a denial of posterity, to the detriment of their reputation. If something appears on the horizon, they don't run to proclaim, "This is nothing", for fear it might be a ship. If they don't see it, they shut up and wait. This is true wisdom.

In this article, São Vicente de Paulo brings a great reflection on the charity.

Let us analyze, in addition to the necessary moral application that this text brings, its form and content, since it is a communication attributed to this Spirit. What is in these but spiritual elevation? 

“See the multitude of good men, whose pious memory your history recalls. I could cite thousands of those whose morals were aimed only at improving your globe. Has not Christ told you everything concerning the virtues of charity and love? Why are your divine teachings set aside? Why are the ears closed to his divine words and the heart closed to all his soft maxims?

I would like the reading of the Gospel to be done with more personal interest. But they abandon that book; they transform it into an empty expression and a dead letter; leave this admirable code to oblivion. Your evils come from the voluntary abandonment in which you leave this summary of divine laws. Read, then, these fiery pages of Jesus' devotion and meditate on them. I myself feel ashamed to dare to promise you a work on charity, when I think that in this book you will find all the teachings that should lead you to the heavenly regions..”

Charity, in Kardec's context, was understood differently:

[…] rational morality is based on psychology and the definition of an active human being. That is, the moral act is characterized by a free and conscious act, which is defined as the act of duty. It is the morality of freedom, therefore absolutely free, by definition, from any reward or punishment. In this way, as defined by the thinkers of Rational Spiritualism, duty grounds charity as free and disinterested action. The beauty of charity lies precisely in its freedom, said Victor Cousin, the main leader of this school at the Sorbonne University in Paris. (Figueiredo 2019)

Does this mean that we only need the Gospel?

Assuming the Gospel of Jesus very well understood, without sophistry and adulteration, yes, we only need it. However, it is necessary to take into account that its teachings, even if scientific, have a moral aspect, according to the Moral Sciences. Therefore, it is a mistake to abandon this study to fall only in the Evangelical study, given the present needs of Spirits of our category.

Continuing in the article about Charity, according to São Vicente: “Strong men, arm yourselves; weak men, forge your weapons of your sweetness and your faith; have more persuasion, more constancy in the propagation of your new doctrine. We only come to bring you an encouragement; it is only to stimulate the zeal and virtues that God allows us to manifest to you. But if you wished, you would need only the help of God and your own will.. “

Does that mean that we don't need Spiritism?

Morally speaking, if we knew how to apply all the lessons presented so far, we wouldn't even be talking about it now. But that's not how spiritual progress happens – in jolts. It is slow and gradual and, as far as we know, it is everywhere in the Universe. Therefore, the Spiritist Science, which, in the limit, is the science of Creation, is a necessary part of our progress, as knowledge develops morality.

Let's look a little more critically at the content of this message. The following passage caught our attention:

“When you allow your heart to open to the supplication of the first unfortunate person who reaches out to you; when you give it to him without asking whether his misery is feigned or whether his illness has a vice as its cause; when you leave all righteousness in God's hands; when you leave to the Creator the punishment of all false miseries; finally, when you practice charity for the sole pleasure that it provides, without questioning its usefulness, then you will be the children that God will love and that he will call to himself.“

This Spirit, who goes on saying to congratulate himself on the beginning of a movement (São Vicente de Paulo Society), a very important and necessary movement, suggests that we must respond to any request, without verifying whether it is something faked or not. In reality, can we and should we do this, especially nowadays?

We must not blindly follow any Spirit, especially when it makes no sense to our own reason. But Kardec comes to our rescue:

Continuing the conversation with S. Vicente de Paulo, through the psychography of an assistant medium, Kardec informs himself that, in this previous passage, this Spirit speaks specifically of alms. The teacher then asks:

“[…] it seems to us that giving without discernment to those who do not need it or who could earn a living by honest work is to encourage vice and laziness. If lazy people found someone else's purse easily open, they would multiply to infinity, to the detriment of the truly needy.”

SVP responds:

"You can identify those who can work and then charity obliges you to do everything to provide them with work. However, there are also poor liars, who know very well how to simulate miseries that they do not suffer. These are the ones to be left to the righteousness of God.”

Kardec continues with some questions of interest:

6. – Jesus said: “May your right hand not know what your left hand is doing.” Do those who give out of ostentation have any merit? ─ They only have the merit of pride, for which they will be punished.

7. Doesn't Christian charity, in its broadest sense, also include sweetness, benevolence and indulgence towards the weaknesses of others? ─ Do like Jesus. He told you all this. I listened to him more than ever.

8. ─ Is charity properly understood when it is exclusive among creatures of the same opinion or of the same party? ─ No. It is above all the spirit of sect and party that must be abolished, since all men are brothers. That's what we focus our efforts on.

9. ─ Let us admit that a person sees two men in danger, but cannot save but one. One is your friend and the other your enemy. Whom should you save? ─ You must save your friend, because that friend could accuse you of not being friends with you. As for the other, God will take care of it.

It was a consensus that this last question (9.) seemed strange to us, but it must have a reason for being at that moment.

The book Pensamento e Vontade, by Ernesto Bozzano, brings us a very timely complement on this subject:

“Using the term photography of thought in a generic sense at this moment, I will say that the first attempts of this kind date back to 1896, when Commander Darget and another friend of his, convinced that thought was an externalizable force, decided to concentrating one's thought on a particular image in order to project it onto a photographic plate.

On May 27, 1896, he, Darget, fixed a very clear image of a bottle on a sensitized plate, on which he had thought so intensely, that it gave him a severe headache.”

“This experiment was repeated on the 5th of June of the same year, with complete success […]

But the next day, when we made the revelation on paper, what impressed us the most was a female figure, with a characteristic haircut. It was indisputably a spirit who had intended to photograph himself.

[…]

Only a few days later, in the course of a session at the home of the well-known writer Mr. Leon Denis, is that they had the manifestation of a personality who called herself Sofia and declared that she was the one who, aided by other Spirits, had carried out the phenomenon.

[…]

Incidentally, her identity was established, as a vegetable merchant in Amiens, who died a short time before. The Revista Científica e Moral do Espiritismo reproduced this scotograph, in which the face of the manifested woman is clearly visible, above the bottle”

sir William Crookes was also a great scholar of spiritist phenomena, having managed to obtain photographs of spirits.

“Florence Cook, who at the time was only 15 years old, alone in the Crookes house and with his family and friends as witnesses, materialized the spirit of Katie King, who walked in the house, talked, allowed herself to be weighed and measured, and still held the baby of the family in her arms. The sessions were done in the dark, so that the materializations were better, although red light was occasionally used to obtain photographs.“.

Crookes' report, published in 1874, claimed that Florence Cook, as well as the mediums Kate Fox and Daniel Dunglas Home, produced genuine spiritual phenomena. The publication of this caused quite a stir, and her testimony about Katie King was considered the most controversial point in the report. Crookes almost lost his membership in the Royal Society, no longer engaging in spiritist investigations.

We had in Brazil one of the most spectacular mediums the world has known: Carmine Mirabelli, whose name was later changed to Carlos or Carlo Mirabelli. By him, some photos of materialization phenomena were also obtained.

Kardec observes: “[…] Generally, the perispirit is invisible, however, in certain circumstances, it condenses and, combining with other fluids, it becomes perceptible to the eye and sometimes even tangible. That's what you see in the apparitions”.

“Whatever the subtlety and weightlessness of the perispirit, it is still a kind of matter, whose physical properties are still unknown to us. Since it is matter, it can act on matter. This action is evident in magnetic phenomena.”

By an action of unknown material laws, the perispirit of Mr. Badet remained imprinted on the material of the glass, although invisible, until a fortuitous action of another force, perhaps atmospheric (or, who knows, spiritual?), came to reveal it.

Kardec cites, by way of comparison, the daguerreotype, developed in 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre: before Daguerre, there were no daguerreotyped images, although he did not invent either light, nor copper plates, nor silver, nor chlorides.

It is necessary that the human being fulfills its evolution, acquires and develops science, so that, then, new spiritual discoveries can be reached. We remember that it is a time when a simple combustion caused by a bottle of water, which turns into a lens, was a cause of astonishment and admiration.

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”.

In this article, Kardec brings a very peculiar case: after the death of a man, Mr. Badet, who was in the habit of watching the street from his window, some people began to notice his image printed on the glass – a phenomenon hitherto unknown.

Presenting the fact to the family, the latter promptly destroyed that window, closing, perhaps, a very opportune possibility of studies.

Kardec, seeing the opportunity for learning by the Spirit himself, makes his evocation. This gives some important information:

• The phenomenon was true, but involuntary. It was produced through physical agents that until then were unknown - and we believe that they still are - that, acting on the perispirit, printed your image on the windowpane.
• Responding to Kardec's question about the possibility of revealing the factors that produced such a phenomenon, he replies: “I would like to, but this is a task for others spirits and human work”
• While the assistants discussed some hypotheses, Mr. Badet spontaneously communicated:

  “And do you not take into account electricity and electroplating, which also act on the perispirit?”

-The fact that the glass was destroyed by the family causes Kardec to express the following expression, with which the article ends:

Such a curious monument would have facilitated research and observations for the proper study of the issue. Perhaps they saw in this image an art of the devil. In any case, if somehow the devil is involved in this, it is surely in the destruction of glass, because he is the enemy of progress.

We can imagine how outraged Kardec felt at such events.

Kardec starts the month with a moral dissertation, this time through “Mr. D.”¹, a medium that, to date, we have not been able to identify.

The observations that the professor makes about this medium are interesting, because, he emphasizes, he was just beginning the development of his mediumship and, therefore, doubted some of your capabilities.

Having Mr. D. expressed his willingness to mediate a communication from São Luis, he was promptly answered, not as a way of proving anything, but because the request was genuine and sincere, with no ulterior motives. He just doubted himself.

“Today, Mr. D… is one of the most complete mediums, not only because of his great ability to act, but also because of his ability to serve as an interpreter for all spirits, even those of the highest categories, who through him express themselves easily and willingly.”

“These are, above all, the qualities that we should look for in mediums and that can always be acquired with patience, will and exercise. Mr. D… didn't need much patience; had the will and the fervor, combined with natural aptitude. A few days were enough to take his college to the highest degree.”

And it follows with the presentation of the moral dissertation, from which we highlight the following excerpt:

“He struggles in his impotence, victim of the horrible torture of envy, happy even if these disastrous ideas do not lead him to the edge of an abyss. Entering this path, he asks himself whether he should not obtain by violence what he thinks is his due; otherwise he will expose to the eyes of all the terrible evil that devours him. If this wretch had only looked down from his position, he would have seen the number of those who suffer without a lament and still bless the Creator, because misfortune is a benefit that God uses to make the poor creature advance to his eternal throne. .”

Comments

Let's see the space that Kardec gave to the contents of moral background, without taking space from the main aspect of Spiritism, which was scientific research for the uninterrupted formation of an entire Doctrine.

Today, unfortunately, the opposite is done. Spiritism has become just moral, spiritist centers are limited to lectures and passes and we have reached the height of hearing opinions such as “at this moment, we need to put aside even the assistance meetings for the Spirits, because what matters most is our change urgent in order not to lose the right to continue reincarnating on Earth, which is entering a new era”.

1. Alfred Jean Baptiste Didier?

This medium was very active in the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies - SPEE, being widely used by Lamennais. After leaving the Society in 1865, he devoted himself to painting

In this letter, a subscriber to Revista Espírita says that about 18 months ago they evoked in their small inner circle an ancient ancestor, who died in 1756, virtuous and superior.  

This Spirit told them that he was incarnated in Jupiter and reproduced the same details that Mozart (and others) also described to Kardec, both physically and morally, and even about the condition of the animals.  

As there were things that we had difficulty understanding, our kinsman added these remarkable words: “No wonder you do not understand things for which your senses were not made, but as you advance in Science, you will understand them better. by thought and they will no longer seem extraordinary to you. The time is not far off when you will receive more complete clarifications on this point.. The Spirits are in charge of instructing you in this regard, in order to give you an objective and to motivate you for good.” Reading your description and the announcement of the drawings you speak of, we naturally thought that the time had come.

Mr. Marius continues to make observations about the moral conclusions they drew from these communications, and for them the need to elevate themselves by self-improvement has become very important so that they can deserve to live, one day, in such a place. It also talks about skeptics, who would never believe such reports.  

We get an idea of countries that we have never seen, from the description of travelers, when there is a coincidence between them. Why shouldn't the same be true of spirits?  

Why should we not or should we not, therefore, believe the various more current accounts that exist regarding “spiritual cities”? Let's talk about that now.

 In response, Kardec says:

We are happy for the communication it promises us about Jupiter. The coincidence that he points out is not the only one, as we can see in the article on the subject. However, whatever opinion one may have about it, it is still a matter of observation. The spirit world is full of mysteries that must be studied very carefully.. The moral consequences that our correspondent draws from this are characterized by a logic that no one will go unnoticed.    

About the drawings, of which Mr. Marius requested a print, Kardec says it would be too complicated and expensive to reproduce them. He says, however, that the matter was in solution, because the drawing medium, Mr. Sardou, had become an engraving medium, starting to make drawings directly on copper!

conclusions

If Kardec and his correspondent, among many others, presented reports of diaphanous cities in Jupiter, why, then, we could not accept the reports about the most diverse types of places on the spiritual plane, as other more current accounts attest?    

Well, here we have some issues to consider. The first is that, at the time of Kardec, due to the enormous difficulty of communication between distances, the reports that were obtained in different parts of Europe and the Americas could be more easily accepted without the shadow of preconceived or "contaminated" ideas. .    

Furthermore, we need to consider what is very evident in all of Kardec's work: the importance of Universal Concordance in the Teaching of Spirits.

Another problem to be highlighted is that the reports of Jupiter speak of a planet, where there is a civilization of Spirits incarnate, although in matters much more subtle than ours, and the molecular structures general respects the same characteristics of subtlety.    

On the other hand, reports such as those of André Luiz, among many others, make us understand that such cities would be located in the wandering space, that is, the Spirits between the incarnations would create and use these cities. This is not at all impossible, although some details of these accounts do not seem to make much sense. However…    

is something from which never before no Spirit had spoken. In fact, the reports of wandering spirits point to the opposite: that only very materialistic spirits would cling to such concepts and “places”.

The big issue here, therefore, is just to highlight the care that we must have. We must not discard or accept an idea or concept that has not passed through CUEE. And here, there is a lesson in general, because, along with such ideas, controversial, complicated and, sometimes, even contrary to the Doctrine are often transmitted.

We remember that Ramatis (supposedly) also ventured to give such types of descriptions, in the case of Mars. However, it was an isolated communication, with strange and superfluous details, besides many of them having already been denied by human Science.

Today, the easy dissemination of certain ideas makes the “contamination” of communications very easy, not least because mechanical psychographers seem to be in short supply and, as such mediums were commonly placed in a state of “hypnotic trance”, magnetism also needs to be re-established. studied, understood and practiced.  

Therefore, to investigate these important issues, it will be necessary to take a different path, with even more scientific rigor than that already used by Kardec.    

The way is still long.

 In this section some matches of interest are presented. The first of these is a letter from Mr. Jobard (Marcellin Jobard), a true proclamation of his beliefs in Spiritism:

I eagerly receive and read your Spiritist Magazine and recommend it to my friends, not the simple reading, but the in-depth study of your Spirits' Book. I am very sorry that my physical concerns do not leave me time for metaphysical studies, although I have taken them far enough to feel how much you are close to the absolute truth, especially when I see the perfect coincidence that exists between the answers they give us – you and me. The very spirits who personally attribute to you the writing of your writings are stunned by the depth and logic they find there..

Marcellin Jobard (May 17, 1792, Baissey – October 27, 1861, Brussels) was a Belgian lithographer, photographer and inventor of French origin.

Founder of Belgium's first major lithography establishment, first Belgian photographer, director of the Museum of Industry in Brussels from 1841 to 1861, Marcellin Jobard played a role today little known in the artistic, scientific and industrial development of Belgium during the 19th century.

Kardec presents a communication of this Spirit (after his death, in 1861) in Heaven and Hell – Second Part – Chapter II – Happy Spirits » Mr. Jobard

As for me, who know the phenomenon and your loyalty, I do not doubt the accuracy of the explanations given to you and I abjure all the ideas I published about it, when, with Mr. Babinet, I thought that there were only physical phenomena or antics unworthy of the attention of the sages.

Do not be discouraged, as I am not discouraged, by the indifference of your contemporaries. What is written is written; what is sown will germinate. The idea that life is an attunement of souls, a test and an atonement, is great, consoling, progressive and natural.

In response, Kardec praises Mr. Jobard, being such a recognized man, asks him about the possibility of publishing his “adherence” to the Spiritist Magazine.    

It is important, first, to note Kardec's nature: The compliments contained in Mr. Jobard would have made it impossible for us to publish it if they had been addressed to us personally.    

In response, Jobard would have said he was “humiliated” by Kardec's questions, as if he felt compared to fools. However, consciously informing himself of the difficulties of the supporters of new ideas, he reaffirms his decisions, making an interesting and profound digression.

About magnetism, more than forty years ago, I made this simple reasoning: It is impossible for such worthy men to write thousands of volumes to make me believe in the existence of a non-existent thing.. So I experimented for a long time, but in vain, while I had no faith in obtaining what I sought. I was, however, well rewarded for my perseverance, for I succeeded in producing all the phenomena of which I heard. Then I took a break of fifteen years. The tables had appeared and I wanted to get a clear idea. Today Spiritism appears and I act in the same way.

When something new comes along, I'll run with the same zeal I use to keep up with all modern discoveries. It is curiosity that drives me, and I regret that savages are not curious, for they remain savages. Curiosity is the mother of instruction.

I know perfectly well that this fever to learn has hurt me a lot. and that if I had remained in that respectable mediocrity that leads to honors and fortune, I would have taken my share, but long ago I said, to myself, that I thought I was just passing through this ordinary hostel, where it's not worth packing. What made me painlessly bear the adversities, injustices and robberies of which I was a privileged victim, was the idea that there is no happiness or misfortune here that is worthy of being happy or grieving.

I saw it evoke a living person. She had a syncope until her Spirit returned. Evoke me, to see what I will say to you. Also invoke Dr. Muhr, died in Cairo on 4 June. He was a great spiritist and homeopathic physician. Ask him if he still believes in gnomes. It is certainly in Jupiter, for it was a great Spirit, even here on Earth; a true prophet to teach, and my best friend. Is he happy with the obituary I wrote him?    

Note: Kardec makes the evocation and presents it in the November 1858 edition

The study of the Revista Espírita of July 1858 gave us space for an important aside, regarding Psychography. We talked about the following topics at our meeting, as you can see below.

In The Mediums' Book    

178. Of all the media, handwriting is the simplest, most comfortable and, above all, most complete. All efforts must be directed towards it, as it allows for the establishment, with the spirits, of relationships as continuous and regular as those that exist between us.. It should be used all the more diligently, as it is through it that spirits better reveal their nature and the degree of their improvement, or their inferiority. Because of the ease they find in expressing themselves in this way, they reveal their innermost thoughts to us and allow us to judge them and appreciate their value. For the medium, the faculty of writing is, moreover, the one most susceptible to being developed through the exercise of the medium..

Mechanical Mediums

They are those whose movement of a pencil, pen or even hands on a keyboard takes place independently at will. The movement is uninterrupted and the medium is not aware of what he writes.    

179. […] When absolute unconsciousness occurs, there are so-called passive or mechanical mediums. This faculty is precious, as it does not allow any doubt about the independence of the writer's thought.

Intuitive Mediums    

They are those who write under the influence of the Spirit, being aware of what they write.    

180. […] it is possible to recognize the suggested thought, as it is never preconceived; it is born as the writing is being traced and, often, it is contrary to the idea that was formed in advance. It may even be outside the limits of the medium's knowledge and abilities.

Semimechanical Mediums

181. In the purely mechanical medium, the movement of the hand is independent of the will; in the intuitive medium, the movement is voluntary and optional. The semi-mechanical medium participates in both these genres. He feels that his hand is given an impulse, despite his own will, but, at the same time, he is aware of what he is writing, as the words are formed. In the first, thought comes after the act of writing; in the second, it precedes it; in the third, it accompanies him. These latter mediums are the most numerous.

Inspired Mediums    

They are those who write consciously, but whose content origin is from contact with other Spirits. They are like intuitives, with the difference that the intervention of an occult force is much less sensitive there. In this case, it is much more difficult to distinguish one's own thought than the one suggested to it.    

182. […] It can be said that all are mediums, because there is no one who does not have their protective and family spirits, who strive to suggest healthy ideas to the protected ones.

If everyone were well aware of this truth, no one would fail to frequently resort to the inspiration of their guardian angel, in moments when they don't know what to say or do. Let each one, therefore, invoke it with fervor and confidence, in case of need, and very often he will be astonished at the ideas that come to him as if by magic, whether it be a matter of a resolution to be made or something to compose. If no idea comes up, it's just that you have to wait.

Foreboding Mediums

184. Foreboding is a vague intuition of things to come. Some people have this faculty more or less developed. It may be due to a kind of double vision, which allows them to glimpse the consequences of current things and the filiation of events. But it is often also the result of occult communications, and above all in this case those who are endowed with it can be called psychic mediums, which constitute a variety of inspired mediums.