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.
Charity through the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul
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.
Family lectures from beyond the grave: Mr. Morrison, monomaniac
Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > June
Mr. Morrison, Monomaniac
Last March, an English newspaper reported the following concerning Mr. Morrison, recently deceased in England, leaving a fortune of one hundred million francs. According to that newspaper, in the last two years of his life he was prey to a singular monomania. He imagined himself reduced to extreme poverty and had to earn his daily bread with manual work. Family and friends had recognized the futility of efforts to get it out of his head. He was poor, didn't have a penny and had to work for a living: that was his conviction. Every morning they put a hoe in his hands and sent him to work in his own gardens. In a little while they came to look for him, for the task was completed; they paid him a modest salary for the work done and he was content. His spirit was tranquil and his mania satisfied.
If they had thwarted him, he would have been the most unhappy of men.
1. ─ I ask Almighty God to allow the Spirit of Morrison, recently deceased in England, to communicate with us, leaving a considerable fortune.
─ Here he is.
2. ─ Do you remember the state you were in during the last two years of your corporeal existence?
─ It is always the same.
3. ─ After death, did your spirit resent the aberration of faculties during your life?
─ Yes.
Saint Louis completes the answer, spontaneously saying: “Detached from the body, the Spirit feels, for a while, the compression of its bonds.”
4. So, after death, did not your Spirit immediately recover the fullness of its faculties?
─ No.
5. ─ Where are you now?
─ Behind Ermance.
6. ─ Are you happy or unhappy?
─ Algo me falta… Não sei o que… Procuro… Sim, sofro.
7. ─ Why do you suffer?
─ He suffers for the good he has not done. (Reply from St. Louis).
8. ─ Why this mania of considering himself poor, when he had such a great fortune?
─ I was. Truly, rich is he who has no needs.
9. ─ Where did this idea come from that you had to work for a living?
─ I was crazy and I still am.
10. ─ How did this madness come to you?
─ What does it matter? I had chosen that atonement.
11. ─ What is the origin of your fortune?
─ What do you care?
12. ─ However, wasn't your invention aimed at relieving Humanity?
─ And enrich me.
13. ─ What use did you make of your fortune when you enjoyed the fullness of reason?
─ None. I think I enjoyed it.
14. ─ Why would God have given him fortune, since he was not to use it usefully for others?
─ I had chosen the test.
15. ─ Is not one who enjoys a fortune acquired in work more excusable for clinging to it than one who was born in the bosom of opulence and never knew the need?
─ Less.
St. Louis adds: “He knows pain, but does not relieve it.”
The monomaniac remembers his past life
16. ─ Do you remember your existence before the one you just left?
─ Yes.
17. ─ What were you then?
─ A worker
18. ─ You told us that you are unhappy. Do you see a term for your suffering?
─ No.
St. Louis adds: “It is too soon.”
19. ─ Who does this depend on?
─ From me. So the one who is there told me.
20. ─ Do you know the one who is there?
─ You call him Louis.
21. ─ Do you know what he was like in France in the 13th century?
─ Não… Eu o conheço por vosso intermédio… Agradeço por aquilo que me ensinou.
22. ─ Do you believe in another corporeal existence?
─ Yes.
23. ─ If you must be reborn in corporeal life, on whom will your future social position depend?
─ Me, I suppose. So many times I have chosen that this can only depend on me.
NOTE: The words so many times I chose are features. His current state proves that, despite numerous existences, he has progressed little, and that for him, it is always a fresh start.
24. ─ What social position would you choose if you could start over?
─ Low. Move forward more safely. You are only in charge of yourself.
25. ─ (To Saint Louis): Isn't there a feeling of selfishness in choosing a humble position, in which one should only be responsible for oneself?
─ Nowhere are you burdened only with yourself. Man is responsible for those around him and not only for the souls whose education has been entrusted to him, but also for others. The example does all the harm.
26. - (To Morrison): We thank you for the kindness with which you answered us and we pray that God gives you the strength to endure new trials.
─ You relieved me. I learned.
OBSERVATION: The moral state of the Spirit is easily recognized in the above answers. They are short and, when not monosyllabic, have something dark and vague about them. A melancholy madman would not speak otherwise. This persistence of the aberration of ideas after death is a remarkable fact, but it is not constant, or that sometimes presents a completely different character. We will have occasion to cite several other examples, where the different forms of madness are studied.
Conclusion
The question below from The Spirits' Book talks about greed and other trials:
261. Should the spirit, in the trials to which it must submit to reach perfection, experience all kinds of temptations?Must he go through all the circumstances that might excite pride, jealousy, avarice, sensuality, etc.?
The Spirits respond:
Certainly not, since you know that there are those who, from the beginning, take a path that frees them from many trials; but he who lets himself be led astray runs all the dangers of this road. For example, a spirit may ask for wealth and it may be granted; then, according to his character, he can become greedy or prodigal, selfish or generous, or else he can indulge in all the pleasures of sensuality; this, however, does not mean that you must necessarily experience all these tendencies.
Laziness: moral dissertation from São Luís to Ms. Hermance Dufaux
Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > June > The laziness
A man left very early and went to the square to hire workers. Now, there he saw two men of the people, sitting with their arms folded. He approached one of them and approached him like this: “What are you doing there?” To which he replied: “I have no work.” Then the one looking for workers said: “Take your tool and come to my field on the hillside, where the south wind blows; you shall cut the heather and turn the ground until nightfall. The task is hard, but you will get a good salary.” The man of the people put the hoe on his shoulder, thanking him for it, with all his heart.
Hearing this, the other workman got up and approached, saying: "Sir, let me go work in the field too." And having told them both to follow him, he marched ahead to show the way. Then, when they reached the side of the hill, he divided the work in two and left.
When he left, the last of the hired workers set fire to the weeds on the plot that he had been lucky enough to turn over the earth with his hoe. Under the scorching sun, sweat beaded on his forehead. The other imitated him, at first muttering, but soon he stopped his work and, putting the hoe in the ground, sat down beside him, watching his companion's work.
Now in the evening the owner of the field came and examined the work. Calling the diligent worker, he congratulated him saying: “You did well. Here is your salary.” And he sent him away, giving him a silver coin. The other also approached, demanding the price of his wages, but the owner said to him: “Bad worker, my bread will not satisfy your hunger, because you have left uncultivated the part of my field that was entrusted to you. It is not fair that the one who has done nothing is rewarded as the one who has worked well.”
Vineyards were treated as a work place for last-minute workers in the text of The Gospel According to Spiritism.
And fired him without giving him anything.
I say to you that strength was not given to man, nor intelligence to his spirit, to spend his days in idleness, but to be useful to his fellow men. Now, he whose hands are unoccupied and whose spirit is idle will be punished and must begin his task anew.
Truly I say to you, your life will be set aside as a worthless thing when your time is fulfilled. Understand this as a comparison. Which of you, having in the orchard a tree that bears no fruit, will not say to the servant, “Cut down that tree and throw it into the fire, for its branches are barren?” Now, just as that tree will be cut down because of its barrenness, so the lazy man's life will be thrown into waste, because he has been barren in good works.
Laziness: workers of the last work
The Gospel According to Spiritism is a book by Allan Kardec and the Spirits that was published in Paris on April 15, 1864, which used this text, but with a different guise.
It is good to know that Kardec made use of his studies with Revista Espírita to add part of them to his great work, recognized as basic to Spiritism, which, among them, gives greater focus to religious, ethical and behavioral issues of the human being.
Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > June > The Beating Spirit of Bergzabern II
The second article about the scout
In this second article on the subject, Allan Kardec takes it up again after the Filipina Sanger girl spent a season at Dr. Bentner, your doctor.
The passages that follow come from a new German paperback, published in 1853.
It is now known that phenomena of this kind do not result from a pathological state; rather, they denote an excessive sensitivity.
In the first brochure entitled The Beating Spirits saw that Filipina Sänger's manifestations have an enigmatic and extraordinary character. We relate these wonderful facts from its beginning until the moment when the girl was taken to the doctor. When the girl left Dr. Bentner and returned home, the knocking and scratching began again at the Sänger house. Until that moment, and even after his complete healing, the manifestations were more marked and changed in nature.
The phenomena also become musical
a small spindle is thrown from the bedroom.
a piece of cloth that had previously been dipped in a basin of water. without being shaken and not a single drop had landed on the table.
the bed pillows were tossed over a closet and the bedspread thrown against the door.
an iron weighing about six pounds had been placed at the girl's feet, under the covers. Soon he was thrown into the first room; the cable had been removed and was found on an armchair in the bedroom.
chairs placed three feet from the bed to be overturned;
windows being opened, when before they were tightly closed;
Another time, two chairs were carried over to the bed, without disturbing the covers.
One night, as he left his daughter's room, Sänger threw a chair cushion in his back. At other times it was a pair of old slippers, shoes that were under the bed, or clogs that found him.
They often blew out the lighted candle on the work table.
keys, coins, cigarette cases, watches, gold and silver rings. All, without exception, were suspended in his hand.
They had once left a harmonica on a chair. Sounds were heard. Rushing into the room, they found, as usual, the girl calm in her bed. The instrument was on the chair, but it no longer played.
Other Facts about Bergzabern's Beater Spirit
Usually, when the little sleepwalker was about to begin the session, she would call everyone present to her room. Often he only calmed down when everyone, without exception, was at his bedside.
After a time, the tapping and scratching was joined by a hum comparable to the sound produced by a thick bass string; a kind of whistling mingled with this hum.
Through the scratches, he called by name the people of the house or the strangers present. Everyone easily understood to whom the appeal was addressed. To this call, the designated person responded yea, to make her understand that she knew how to treat herself. Then, in his honor, a piece of music was played that sometimes provoked comic scenes.
The phenomenon's birthday
The anniversary of the day on which the scouting Spirit had first manifested has arrived: many changes had taken place in the state of Filipina Sänger. The beatings, scratches and buzzing continued, but to all these manifestations was added a special cry, which sometimes sounded like a goose, sometimes a parrot or any other large bird.
Some time before Christmas, the demonstrations were renewed with more energy: the blows and scratches became more violent and lasted longer. More agitated than usual, Filipina often asked not to sleep in her bed, but in her parents'.
Filipina gets sick
In a short time Filipina Sänger's condition changed to the point of causing apprehension about her health, because, being awake, she rambled and dreamed aloud. He didn't recognize his parents or his sister or anyone else. To this state was added a complete deafness, which persisted for fifteen days.
Filipina's deafness was manifesting itself, and she herself declared that she would be deaf for some time and that she would be sick. What is singular is that sometimes he recovered his hearing for about half an hour, with which he was happy. She herself predicted the moment when she would become deaf and when she would regain her hearing. Once, among others, he announced that at eight-thirty in the evening he would hear clearly for half an hour. In fact, at the predicted time, he heard again, which lasted until nine o'clock.
During the young Sänger's deafness, the fuss of furniture, the inexplicable opening of windows, the turning off of the lights on the work table were renewed a few times.
This was how things went on at Sänger's house, whether during the day or at night, during the girl's sleep or when she was awake, until March 4, 1853, when the demonstrations entered another phase. That day was marked by an event even more extraordinary than the preceding ones.
Comments
As it turns out, Filipina Sänger was a very complex natural medium. In addition to her influence on the well-known phenomena of noise and movement, she was an ecstatic sleepwalker. She talked with the incorporeal beings she saw; at the same time he saw the assistants and spoke to them.
It is likely that, in these moments of ecstasy, the girl's spirit would see herself transported to some distant place, where she would attend, perhaps in memory, a religious ceremony. We can be amazed at the memory he brought back when he woke up, but the fact is not unusual. In fact, we can see that the memory was confused and that it was necessary to insist a lot to provoke it.
If we carefully observe what happened during deafness, we will easily recognize a cataleptic state. As the deafness was only temporary, it is evident that it did not cause changes in Organs respective organs. The same happened with the obliteration of the mental faculties, which was not pathological, since, at a given moment, everything returned to the normal state. This kind of apparent stupidity was due to a more complete detachment of the soul, whose excursions were made with greater freedom and left the senses no more than organic life.
Spiritist Journal — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > June > Theory of Physical Manifestations II
The continuation of physical manifestations
We ask the reader to refer to the first article we published on the subject. This is its continuation and would be barely intelligible if that beginning were not in mind.
As we said, the explanations we have given for the physical manifestations are based on observation of the facts and on their logical deduction: we conclude according to what we have seen. How, however, do the modifications that make it perceptible and tangible take place in etherized matter?
To begin with, we will let the Spirits whom we question about it speak, then add our comments. The answers that follow were given by the Spirit of São Luís and are in agreement with what we were previously told by other Spirits.
the fluid
1. ─ How can a Spirit appear with the solidity of a living body?
─ It combines a part of the universal fluid with the fluid that comes out of the medium suitable for this purpose.. This fluid takes the form that the Spirit desires, but usually this form is impalpable.
2. ─ What is the nature of this fluid?
─ Fluid. This says it all.
3. ─ Is this fluid material?
─ Semi-material.
4. ─ Is it this fluid that makes up the perispirit?
─ Yea, is the connection of Spirit to matter.
5. ─ Is this fluid that gives life, the vital principle?
─ Always him. I said Link.
6. ─ Is this fluid an emanation of the Divinity?
─ No.
7. ─ Is it a creation of the Divinity? ─ Yes. Everything is created except God himself.
8. ─ Does the universal fluid have any relationship with the electric fluid, whose effects we know? ─ Yes. It's your element.
9. ─ Is the ethereal substance that exists between the planets the universal fluid in question? ─ It involves the worlds. Without the vital principle, nothing would live. If a person were to rise beyond the fluidic envelope of the globes, he would perish, because his fluidic envelope of him would withdraw, to join the mass. This fluid animates you. It is he that you breathe.
10. Is this fluid the same on all globes? ─ It is the same principle, more or less ethereal, according to the nature of the worlds. Yours is one of the most material.
11. Since it is this fluid that composes the perispirit, there must be a kind of condensation state that, to a certain extent, brings it closer to matter. ─ Yes, to a certain extent, as it does not have its properties. It is more or less condensed, according to the worlds.
How Spirits Use Fluid
12. ─ Is it the solidified spirits that raise the table? ─ This question will still not lead to the point you want. When a table moves under your hands, the Spirit evoked by your Spirit will withdraw from the universal fluid that which will animate that table with an artificial life. The spirits that produce this type of effects are always inferior spirits not yet completely detached from their fluid or perispirit. The table, thus prepared at its will (at the will of the Beating Spirits), the Spirit attracts and moves it, under the influence of its own fluid, released by its will. When the mass he wants to lift or move is too heavy for him, he calls to his aid Spirits who are in conditions identical to his. I think I explained myself clearly enough to be understood.
13. ─ Are the spirits called to your aid your inferiors? ─ They are almost always the same. They often come by themselves.
14. - We understand that superior spirits do not deal with things that are inferior to them. But we ask if, because they were dematerialized, they would have the power to do so, if they wanted to? ─ They have moral strength, as others have physical strength. When they need that strength, they use those who have it. Have you not been told that they make use of inferior spirits as you make use of carriers?
Mr. home
15. ─ Where does Mr. man? [
─ From your organization.
16. ─ What is special about it? ─ The question is not precise.
17. ─ We ask if it is a question of your physical or moral organization.
─ I said organization.
18. ─ Among the people present there is someone who may have the same faculty as Mr. man? ─ They have it to a certain degree. Was it not one of you who moved the table?
The movement of objects and clothing
19. ─ When a person makes an object move, is it always with the help of a foreign spirit or can such an action be exclusive to the medium? ─ Sometimes the spirit of the medium can act alone. Most of the time, however, he is helped by the evoked Spirits. This is easy to recognize.
20. ─ How do Spirits appear with the clothes they wore on Earth? ─ Often she has only the appearance. Indeed, for how many phenomena among you you have no solution! How does the wind, which is impalpable, uproot and break trees, which are solid matter?
21. ─ What do you mean when you say that his clothing “is just an appearance?”
─ When you touch it, nothing is found.
22. ─ If we understand what you said correctly, the vital principle resides in the universal fluid; From it the Spirit extracts the semi-material envelope that constitutes its perispirit and it is through this fluid that it acts on inert matter. That's right?
─ Yes, that is, it animates matter by a kind of factitious life; matter is animated by animal life. The table that moves under your hands lives and suffers like an animal; obeys by itself to be intelligent. It is not he who directs it, as a man does with a burden. When the table rises, it is not the Spirit that lifts it. It is the animated table that obeys the intelligent Spirit.
23. ─ Since the universal fluid is the source of life, is it at the same time the source of intelligence? ─ No. The fluid just animates matter.
The objects moved, without external interference, before the eyes of the assistants.
Final considerations
This theory of physical manifestations offers several points of contact with the one we have given, although it differs in certain respects. From one to the other, a capital point emerges: the universal fluid, in which the principle of life resides, is the main agent of these manifestations and this agent receives the impulse of the Spirit, whether incarnate or wandering. This condensed fluid constitutes the perispirit or semi-material envelope of the Spirit. When incarnated, the perispirit is united to the matter of the body; when in a state of erraticity, it is free. Now, two questions arise here: that of the appearance of Spirits and that of the movement they impart to solid bodies.
As for the first, we will say that, in the normal state, the etherized matter of the perispirit escapes the perception of our organs; only the soul can see it, whether in dreams or in a somnambulistic state or even half asleep; in a word, whenever there is total or partial suspension of the activity of the senses. When the Spirit is incarnated, the substance of the perispirit is more or less closely linked to the matter of the body; more or less adherent, if we may say so. In some people there is a kind of emanation of this fluid, as a result of their organization and this is what properly constitutes the mediums of physical influences. Emanating from the body, this fluid combines, according to laws that are still unknown to us, with that which forms the semi-material envelope of a foreign Spirit. This results in a certain modification, a kind of molecular reaction that momentarily alters its properties, to the point of making it visible and, in certain cases, tangible. This effect can be produced with or without the help of the medium's will, and this is what distinguishes natural mediums from optional mediums. The emission of the fluid can be more or less abundant: hence the more or less powerful mediums. It is not permanent, which explains the intermittence of that power. Finally, if we take into account the degree of affinity that can exist between the fluid of the medium and that of this or that Spirit, it will be understood that its action can be exercised on some and not on others.
What we have just said evidently applies also to the mediumistic force, with regard to the movement of solid bodies. It remains to be seen how this movement operates.
According to the answers above, the question presents itself under an entirely new aspect. Thus, when an object is set in motion, snatched or thrown into the air, it will not be the Spirit that picks it up, pushes it or lifts it, as we would do with the hand: it, so to speak, saturates with its fluid, by combining with that of the medium and, thus momentarily vivified, the object acts as if it were a living being, with the difference that, having no will of its own, it follows the impulse of the Spirit's will. This will can be either of the spirit of the medium or of a foreign spirit and, sometimes, of both, acting in agreement, according to whether they are sympathetic or not. The sympathy or antipathy that may exist between the medium and the Spirits who deal with these material effects explains why not all are able to provoke them.
Considering that the vital fluid, somehow emitted by the Spirit, gives a factitious and momentary life to inert bodies and that the perispirit is nothing other than the vital fluid itself, it follows that, when incarnated, it is the Spirit that it gives life to the body, through its perispirit: it remains united to it as long as the organization allows it, and when it withdraws, the body dies.
Now if, instead of the table, the wood is carved into a statue, and if we act on it in the same way as on the table, we will have a statue that moves from the place, which will respond by movements and by blows; in a word, a momentarily animated statue of artificial life. What light does this theory throw on a host of hitherto unexplained phenomena! How many wonderful allegories and effects she explains! It's a whole philosophy.
Spiritist Journal — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > May > Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies founded in Paris on April 1, 1858
The extension, so to speak universal, taken daily by spiritist beliefs made the creation of a regular center of observations was strongly desired. This gap has just been filled. The Society whose formation we are pleased to announce, composed exclusively of serious people, free from prejudice and animated by a sincere desire for enlightenment, counted, from the beginning, among its associates, with men eminent for their knowledge and for their social position.
Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies was the first entity of its kind and was founded by Allan Kardec
The Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies and Truth
We are convinced that she is called to render undeniable services to the verification of the truth. Its organic law assures it of a homogeneity without which there will be no possible vitality. It is based on the experience of men and things and on the knowledge of the conditions necessary for the observations that are the object of their research. Coming to Paris, strangers who are interested in the Spiritist Doctrine will thus find a center to which they can go for information and where they can also report their own observations [1].
ALLAN KARDEC
[1] For information regarding the Company, contact Mr. ALLAN KARDEC, rue Sainte-Anne, n. 59, from 3 am to 5 am; or to Mr. LEDOYEN, bookseller, Galleries d'Orléans, n. 31, at the Palais-Royal.
Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > May > Varieties: the fake Mr. home
Mr. Home is the victim of a scammer
Some time ago, in the Lyon newspapers, we read the following advertisement, which was also posted on the city walls:
“Mr. Hume, the famous American medium, who had the honor of experimenting before His Majesty the Emperor, from Thursday, April 1st, will give sessions on spiritualism in the great theater of Lyon. He will produce apparitions, etc., etc. There will be special chairs for doctors and scholars, so that they can make sure that nothing has been prepared. The sessions will be varied, with experiences of the famous seer, Mrs…, a very lucid sleepwalker, who will reproduce all the feelings one by one, at the will of the spectators. Ticket prices: 5 francs in first class, 3 francs in second.”
The antagonists of Mr. Home (some write Hume) did not want to miss this opportunity of exposing him to ridicule. In their ardent desire to find where to bite, they welcomed this gross mystification with an enthusiasm that undermines their balance and even more their respect for the truth, because, before throwing stones at others, it is necessary to verify that they will not hit another target. But passion is blind, it doesn't reason and it is often wrong when it tries to harm others. "Look," they exclaimed jubilantly, "this man so much praised, reduced to appearing on the stage, giving so many shows a head!" And your papers giving credence to the fact, without further scrutiny. Unfortunately for them, their joy didn't last long.
Soon they wrote to us from Lyon, asking for enough information to expose the fraud, which was not difficult, especially thanks to the commitment of the many adepts that Spiritism has in that city. As soon as the theater director learned what it was about, he immediately addressed the following letter to the newspapers: “Mr. Editor. I hasten to inform you that the show announced for Thursday, April 1st, at the grand theater, will no longer take place. I thought I had given the theater to Mr. Home and not to Mr. Lambert Laroche, who calls himself Hume. Persons who have obtained friezes in advance will be able to present themselves at the theater box office for a refund.”
Mr. Lambert Laroche “justifies himself”
On the other hand, the aforementioned Lambert Laroche, born in Langres, questioned as to his identity, felt obliged to respond in the terms that we reproduce in full below, as we do not want to be accused of the slightest alteration.
“Vous m'avez soumis diversse extre de vous correspondence de Paris, desquellesil résulterez that a M. Home qui donne des séancedans quelque salon de la capítalle was trauve at the moment in Italy etne peut para conéquent se trauvir à Lyon. Monsieur gignore 1st la cannaissance de ce M. Home, 2nd je essait quellais son talent 3rd je nais ever rien nue de commun àveck ce M. Home, 4th jait tavaillez et tavaille sout mon nom de gaire qui est hume et dont je vous justi par les article de journaux étrangers et français que je vous est soumis 5th je voyage à vecque deux sugais mon genre d'experriance consists in spiritualism with evocation vision, and in a mot reproduction de ideis du spectateur par un sugais, ma cepécialité est d'operate par c'est proceede sur les personnes étrangere comme on la pue le voir dans les journaux je vien despagne et d'afrique. Seci M. le rédacteur vous démontre que je n'ais poin voulu prendre le nom de ce prétendu Home que vous dites en réputation, le min est sufisant connu par sagrande notoriété et par les expérience que je produi. Agreez M. le redacteur mes salutation empressait”. *
We believe it is useless to say that Mr. Lambert Laroche left Lyon with his head held high. You will certainly go to other places in search of fools to deceive easily. One more word to express our regret at seeing with what deplorable avidity certain creatures who claim to be serious welcome everything that can serve their animosity. Today, Spiritism is highly believed and there is nothing to fear from antics; it is no more debased by charlatans than true medical science by crossroads healers; he finds it everywhere, but mainly among enlightened, zealous people and countless defenders who know how to face the mockery. Far from harming it, the Lyon affair only serves to spread it, drawing the attention of the undecided to reality. Who knows if it was even provoked by a superior force for this purpose? Who can boast of sounding out the designs of Providence?
As for systematic opponents, let them laugh, but not slander. A few more years and we'll see who has the last word. If it is logical to doubt what one does not know, it is always imprudent to manifest oneself falsely against new ideas which, sooner or later, may offer a humiliating denial to our perspicacity. There's history to prove it. Would those who, in their pride, show pity for the adepts of the Spiritist Doctrine be as superior as they think they are? These spirits, whom they seek to ridicule, recommend that good be done and forbid evil, even to enemies; they tell us that we debase ourselves by the only evil desire. Which, then, is higher: the one who seeks to do evil or the one who has neither hatred nor rancor in his heart? Not long ago, Mr. Home has returned to Paris, but will soon leave for Scotland and from there to St. Petersburg.
The faker.
French text translation
(Translation reproducing the writing and language of a semi-illiterate person)
* “You sent me several extras from your Paris correspondence, from which it appears that a Mr. The home which gives sessions in a salon in the capital is currently in Italy and therefore cannot be in Lyon. My lord, I ignore first the knowledge of this Mr. Home, 2nd I don't know what your talent is 3rd I never had anything in common with this Mr. Home, 4th I worked and I work with a name of war which is Hume and that name I justify by the article in the foreign and French pages submitted to you, 5th I travel with two companions my gene of ixpriença consists of spiritualism or evocation vision and, in a word, reproduction of the spectator's idea by a subject, my specialty is to operate through this process in strangers, as can be seen in the newspapers that come from Spain and Africa. With that, its editor, I show you that I never wanted to take the name of that supposed Home that I tell you that he has a reputation, mine is sufficiently known for its great notoriety and for the ixpriença that I have. Receive, sir, my kind greetings.”
A fact at the Civil Hospital of Saintes
L'Independant de la Charente-Inférieure reported, last March, the following event that would have occurred at the Civil Hospital of Saintes:
“For eight days, in this city, the most wonderful stories have been told and nothing is said except about the singular noises that, every night, sometimes imitate the trot of a horse, sometimes the steps of a dog or a cat. Bottles placed over the fireplace are carried across the room. One morning a bundle of rags was found twisted and knotted and impossible to untie. One night a paper was left on the fireplace, on which it had been written: “What do you want? What do you ask?” The next day, in the morning, there was the answer, written in unknown and indecipherable characters. Matches placed on the table during the night disappeared as if by magic. Anyway, all the objects change places and scatter everywhere. Such spells are only performed in the darkness of night. Once there is light, everything returns to silence; extinguishing it, the noises resume immediately. It is a friendly spirit of darkness. Several people, including ecclesiastics and former soldiers, lay down in that enchanted room and it was impossible for them to discover or explain what they were hearing. “A hospital employee suspected of being the author of these pranks has just been fired. It is assured, however, that he is not only not guilty, but, on the contrary, was often the victim himself.
“It feels like this story started over a month ago. For a long time nothing was said, for each distrusted his senses and feared being laughed at. It wasn’t until a few days later that the comments came out.”
NOTE: We have not yet had time to verify the authenticity of the above facts. We publish them with due reservations. We note, however, that, if invented, they are no less possible and there is nothing more extraordinary than many others of the same kind, which have been perfectly verified.
Death of Louis XI (From the manuscript dictated by him to Miss Hermance Dufaux)
Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1858 > May > Death of Louis XI (From the manuscript dictated by him to Miss Hermance Dufaux)
NOTE: We draw the reader's attention to the remarks made about these remarkable communications in our last March article.
Not feeling strong enough to hear the word death pronounced, I had often recommended to my officers that they only say to me, when they saw me in danger: “Speak little,” and I would know what that meant.
When there was no more hope, Olivier le Daim said to me harshly, in the presence of Francisco de Paula and de Coittier:
─ Your Majesty, we have to relieve ourselves of a duty. Have no more hope in this holy man, nor in any other, for you have come to an end. Think of your conscience. There is no more medicine.
At these cruel words a complete revolution took place in me. I no longer felt like the same man and I admired myself. The past quickly unfolded before my eyes and things appeared to me in a new light. I don't know what kind of strange thing was happening to me. Fixing me, Olivier le Daim's hard gaze seemed to question me. To escape that cold and inquisitive gaze, I replied with apparent tranquility:
─ I hope God helps me. It is possible, perhaps, that I am not as bad as you think.
Louis XI
The monarch dictates his last wishes
I dictated my last wills and sent those who still surrounded me to the young king's side. I found myself alone with my confessor, Francisco de Paula, le Daim and Coittier. Francis gave me a touching exhortation. It seems that with each of his words, my vices were erased and nature resumed its course. I felt relieved and began to regain a little hope in God's mercy.
I received the last rites with a firm and resigned piety. Every moment he repeated: “Our Lady of Embrun [1], my good Lady, help me!”
Tuesday, August 30th, at seven o'clock in the evening, I fell into a new prostration. All present judged me dead and withdrew. Olivier le Daim and Coittier, sensing the public execration, had stayed by my bedside, as they had no alternative.
I soon fully regained consciousness. I got up, sat on the bed and looked around. There was no one in my family; no friendly hand sought mine, in that supreme moment, to soothe my agony in a last contact. At that time maybe my children were playing while their father died. No one thought that the culprit could still count on a heart that understood theirs. I tried to hear a muffled sob and only heard the laughter of the two wretches who were next to me.
In the corner I saw my favorite greyhound, dying of old age. My heart throbbed with joy, for I had a friend, a being who loved me.
I signaled him with my hand. The hare dragged itself with effort to the bedside and came to lick my dying hand. Olivier noticed this movement; he jumped up, cursing, and clubbed the unfortunate dog with a club until she was killed. Breathing out, my only friend gave me a long, painful look.
Olivier pushed me violently onto the bed. I let myself fall and gave my guilty soul to God.
[1 ANDmbru is an ancient city in the south of France, located in the Rhône Basin, in Provence. His old Latin name was Ebraduno. It has about 4,000 inhabitants.
Heir Spirits
Spiritist magazine — Journal of psychological studies — 1858 > May > The heirs of spirits
One of our subscribers from The Hague, Holland, informs us of the following event, which occurred in a group of friends who were involved in spiritist manifestations. This proves, he says, once again, and beyond any possible dispute, the existence of an intelligent and invisible element, acting individually and directly on us.
The Spirits announce themselves by moving a heavy table and knocking. We ask for names: are they the late Mr. and Mrs. G…, very fortunate during existence. The husband, from whom the fortune came, had no children and disinherited his close relatives in favor of his wife's family, who died shortly before him. Among the nine people present at the session were two disinherited women, as well as the husband of one of them.
Mr. G… had always been a poor devil and a humble servant to his wife. After her death, his family moved into his home to take care of him. The will was made with a medical certificate, declaring that the dying person enjoyed the fullness of his faculties.
The husband of the disinherited lady, whom we will call R… took the floor in these terms: “How dare you present yourselves here, after the scandalous will you made?” Then, becoming more and more exalted, he ended up cursing him. Then the table jumped and threw the lamp hard at the speaker's head. He apologized to them for that first surge of anger and asked them what they were doing there.
─ We have come to give you an account of the reasons for our conduct.
(Answers were given by tapping indicating the letters of the alphabet).
The spirits announce themselves to the heirss moving a heavy table and banging.
Heirs and companions manifest themselves
Knowing her husband's ineptitude, Mr. R… told him brusquely that he should retire and that he would just listen to his wife.
Then the Spirit of Mrs. G… said that Ms. R… and his sister were quite wealthy and could deprive themselves of their share of the inheritance; that others were bad, and that others, in short, should undergo that test; that for such reasons that fortune suited his own family better. Mr. R… was not satisfied with the explanation and poured out his anger in insulting reproaches. Then the table shook violently, jumped, banged hard on the floor, and threw the lamp once more at Mr. A… After calming down, the Spirit tried to persuade that after his death he had been informed that the testament had been dictated by a superior Spirit. Mr. R… and the ladies, seeing the uselessness of an objection, sincerely forgave him. Soon the table rose beside Mr. R… and landed softly against his chest, as if to hug him. The two ladies received the same show of thanks. The table had a very pronounced vibration. Understanding restored, the Spirit lamented the current heiress, saying that she would end up mad.
Still Mr. R… reproached him, but affectionately, for not having done good in life, when he had so great a fortune, adding that it was not mourned by anyone. “Yes, answered the Spirit; there is a poor widow residing on the street… who sometimes thinks of me, because I have sometimes given her food, clothing and heat.”
As the Spirit had not given the poor woman's name, one of the assistants looked for her, finding her at the indicated address. And what is no less noteworthy is that after the death of Mrs. G…, she had changed domicile. The latter is what was indicated by the Spirit.
