The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1859

Everyone will, without exception, sooner or later, reach the fatal term of their lives. No force can takeaway from us this requirement and it should be viewed as very positive. Oftentimes the concerns about the world deviate our thoughts from what happens beyond the grave, but when the supreme moment comes, only a few do not wonder what they will become, since the idea of leaving their lives behind, without the possibility of coming back, does not sit well. Indeed, who could face with indifference the idea of an absolute and eternal separation from everything that was cherished? Who could fearlessly see, opening before their eyes, the immense abyss of emptiness, in which all their faculties and hopes would forever vanish?

“What? After me, it is the void; nothing more than emptiness; everything irremediably vanished? A few days more and the reminiscence will disappear from the memories of those that outlived me; soon no traces of my passage on this Earth; even the good things that I had done will be forgotten by the ungrateful who I have helped, and nothing to compensate for all that; no perspective but to have my body devoured by worms?!”

Such a materialistic image of the end, painted by a Spirit who had nourished those thoughts, doesn’t that represent something horrifying and catastrophic? Religion teaches us that it cannot be so and reason reinforces that fact. But that vague and undefined future existence contains nothing that can satisfy our love for the positive things. That is what generates doubts in so many minds.

Be it, we have a soul! But what is our soul? Does it have a form and an appearance? Is it a limited or an undefined being? Some say that it is the breath of God; others that it is a spark; others still that it is part of a great whole, the principle of life and intelligence. Nevertheless, what can we conclude from it all? Some still say that the soul is immaterial. But an immaterial thing could not have defined proportions. It represents nothing to us.

Religion also teaches us that we will be happy or unhappy according to the good or bad deeds that we may have practiced. But what is such happiness, waiting for us by God’s side? Will it be beatitude, an eternal contemplation, without other objective but to sing praises to the Creator? Are the flames of hell a reality or a fiction? The Church itself understands it in the latter meaning; but what are the sufferings? Where is the place of torment? In one word, what is it that is seen or done in this world that waits for us in the next? There is a saying that nobody has returned to give us advice. This is a mistake and that is precisely the mission of Spiritism, enlightening us about such a future, allowing us, so to speak, to touch and see it, not by reasoning but by facts.

Thanks to the spiritist communications it is no longer a presumption or a probability, about which each person gives wings to imagination and the poets beautify with their fictions or fulfill it with deceiving allegoric images. It is the reality that presents itself to us, since it is them, the very beings of beyond the grave who come to describe their situation and talk to us about what they are doing, thus allowing us to observe all events of their new life, then showing us the inevitable fate that waits for us, according to our merits and demerits. Would there be anything antireligious in this? Much to the contrary since the incredulous finds faith in that and the tepid a renovation of their fervor and confidence. Spiritism is then the most powerful ally of religion. And if that is the case it is because God allows so, allowing it to animate our vacillating hopes and to redirect us to the good path, through the perspective of the future that looms ahead of us.

The conversations from beyond the grave that we publish; the descriptions contained about the situation of the Spirits who speak with us, revealing their penalties, their joys and affairs; these are an animated picture of the Spirits’ life, and it is in the variety of subjects that we can find the analogies most interesting to us. Let us try to summarize that picture.



Let us initially consider the soul when leaving this world, and let us see what happens in that transmigration. Having the vital forces been extinguished, the Spirit detaches from the body at the moment when the organic life ceases. The separation, however, is not abrupt and instantaneous. It sometimes starts before the complete cessation of life and it is not always finished at the time of death. We know that between the Spirit and the body there is a semi-material link that forms the first envelope. It is that link that does not break suddenly. While it persists, the Spirit remains in a state of perturbation, comparable to the one that follows our waking up. The Spirit frequently even doubting its own death; feels that it still exists, sees itself and does not understand that it can live without its body, from which it is now separated. The bonds that still attach the Spirit to matter make it accessible to certain sensations that are mistaken as physical sensations. The Spirit only recognizes itself when completely free. Up until then it does not understand its situation. The duration of such a state of perturbation, as we have said on other occasions, is very variable: it can be of a few hours as well as a few months, but it is rare the case in which after a few days the Spirit does not recognize itself, more or less well. However, since everything is strange and unknown, the Spirit requires a certain time to become familiarized with the new way of seeing things.

The very moment when one of them sees the end of the bondage, through the breakdown of the links that attached it to the body, that moment is solemn. When entering into the world of the Spirits friends who come to greet it, as if returning from a long journey, welcome it. If the journey was fortunate, that is, if the time of exile was employed in a productive way for the Spirit, and it has elevated itself in the hierarchy of the world of the Spirits, they congratulate it. The Spirit meets its acquaintances, mingles with those who love it and with whom it sympathizes, and thus its new existence truly begins. The semi-material envelope of the Spirit constitutes a kind of body, of a definite and limited form, analogous to that of the physical body. But that semi-material body does not have our organs and cannot feel our impressions. Nevertheless, it can perceive everything that we perceive: light, sounds, smells, etc. These sensations are not less real, although they have nothing of material; they are even clearer, more precise, subtler, since they get to the Spirit without intermediaries, not passing through the filter of the organs that attenuate them. The faculty of perception is inherent to the Spirit; it is an attribute of the whole being. The sensations get to them from all sides and not through circumscribed channels. Talking about the vision, a Spirit once said: “It is a faculty of the Spirit and not of the body. You see through the eyes however it is not the eyes that see but the Spirit.”

Due to the conformation of our organs, we need certain vehicles for the sensations. That is why we need the light to see the objects and the air to transmit the sounds. Such vehicles become useless once we no longer bear the intermediaries that make them indispensable. Thus, as a consequence, the Spirit sees without the need of our light and hears without the need of the vibrations of the air. That is why there is no obscurity to the Spirit. Nevertheless, the permanent and undefined sensations, however pleasant they may be, would become tiresome with time, in case they could not be blocked. Hence the Spirit has the faculty of suspending them. The Spirit can stop seeing, hearing, feeling this or that at will, and consequently, does not see nor hear or feel but only what is desired. Such a faculty is relative to the Spirit’s superiority, since there are things that the inferior Spirits cannot avoid, thus the reason why their situation becomes painful.

In the beginning the Spirit does not understand such a new way of feeling, only gradually becoming aware of that over time. Those whose intelligence is limited do not absolutely understand it and would feel great difficulty in expressing it, exactly like among us the ignorant sees and moves not knowing how or why.

Such impossibility of understanding what is beyond their reach, added to the jester, the usual companion of ignorance, is the source of absurd theories given by certain Spirits that would lead us to mistakes, if we accepted it without control and if we were not assured by the means offered by experience and by the habit of talking to them, with respect to the degree of trust that they deserve.

There are sensations whose source is the actual state of our organs. Well, the needs that are inherent to the body no longer exist since the body is no more. Hence the Spirit does not experience fatigue, or the need for resting or feeding, since there is no loss to recover. The Spirit is not taken ill by any of our diseases. The needs of the body determine social needs that are inexistent to the Spirit. Therefore, there is no more business concerns, disagreements, the thousand and one tribulations of the world and the torments we face to attend our needs or the superfluous in life. They feel sorry for our endeavor towards futilities. However, the happier the elevated Spirits, the more the inferior Spirits suffer, but such sufferings are mainly anguish that, although not material, are no less difficult. They have all the passions and desires that they had when alive (we refer to the inferior Spirits) and their punishment is that of not being able to satisfy them. It is a torture considered eternal to them, since their inferiority does not allow them to see the end, which again is a source of punishment.

The articulate word is a necessity of our organization. Since the Spirits no longer need the vibrations of the sound to reach their ears, they understand each other through the transmission of thought, as we sometimes understand one another through the looks in our eyes. However, the Spirits make noise. We know that they can act upon matter and that matter transmits the sound to us. That is how they make themselves understood, be it through knocks or screams that break in the air. But they do that to reach us and not one another. We will return to this subject in a special article in which we will deal with the faculty of the hearing mediums.

While we painfully drag our material and heavy body on Earth, like the condemned prisoner in chains, the body of the Spirits, vaporous and ethereal, tirelessly moves from one place to the other; it tears space with the speed of thought, penetrating everything, not finding any material obstacle.

The Spirits see everything that we see and even more clearly than we do. More than that, they see what our limited senses cannot see. Since they penetrate matter they can discover things that matter hides from our vision.

As a result, the Spirits are not vague and undefined beings, as from the abstract definitions of the soul mentioned above. They are real beings, determined, constrained, that enjoy all of our faculties and others that are unknown to us, as those are inherent to their nature. They have the faculties of their peculiar matter and constitute the invisible world that populates space, incessantly surrounding and nudging us. Let us suppose for a moment that the material veil that hides them from our eyes is lifted. We would see ourselves surrounded by a crowd of beings who come and go, agitating around us and observing us, in the same way that we would do if we were taking part in an assembly of blind people. We are the blind ones to the Spirits and they are the ones who can see.

We said that the Spirits sometimes need to recognize themselves when entering into their new life; that everything is strange and unknown to them. The question that follows is how can that be, considering that the Spirit has already had other corporeal existences? Those existences were separated by time intervals in which the Spirit inhabited the world of the Spirits. Then, such a world should not be unknown, considering that it is not the first time that the Spirit sees it.

Several causes contribute to the fact that those perceptions seem new, although they have already been experienced. As we said, death is always followed by a period of perturbation, but that it can be of a short duration. In that sense the Spirit’s ideas are always vague and confuse; the corporeal life, to a certain extent, confuses with the life of the Spirit and the Spirit cannot separate them in its mind. Once the first impression is dissipated, the ideas become progressively clearer and the memory of the past gradually returns, since such a memory never surges abruptly. It is only when the Spirit is completely dematerialized that the past unfolds before its eyes, like a shadow that comes out of the mist. It is then that the Spirit remembers its acts during its latest existence, then the existences prior to that and the various passages through the world of the Spirits. Thus, it is understandable that for a certain period such world may seem new to the Spirit, until it is completely recovered and thoroughly recalled the precise memories of the sensations experienced in that world.

Another, no less important, cause, however, should be added.

The state of the Spirit, as a Spirit, varies extraordinarily in proportion to their elevation and to their degree of purity. As the Spirit elevates and purifies, their perceptions and sensations become more accurate; they acquire more acuity, more subtleness, and more kindness; they see, feel and understand things that they could not see, feel or understand in an inferior condition. Thus, as each existence is an opportunity of progress, the Spirit is thrown into a new environment. As it has progressed, Spirits of another order, whose thoughts and habits are all different, will surround it. Add the fact that such purification allows the Spirit, always as Spirit, to penetrate in those worlds inaccessible to the inferior Spirits. The less enlightened the more limited the horizon of the Spirit. The more the Spirit elevates and depurates, the more that horizon amplifies and with that the circles of ideas and perceptions.

The following comparison may facilitate our understanding:
Suppose a rude, ignorant peasant, comes to Paris for the first time. Will that person be able to get to know and understand the elegant and topnotch intellectual environments of Paris? No, for the person will only get around those of the same class and the neighborhoods inhabited by them. But if in the interim between the first and the second trip that peasant has developed and acquired education and good manners, his habits and relationships will change. He will then see a new world, not at all similar to the Paris of former times.

The same happens to the Spirits but not all of them experience the same degree of uncertainty. As they progress, their ideas develop and their memory sharpens up. They get previously familiarized with their new situation hence their return to the world of the Spirits no longer entails any cause for admiration. They feel like they are in their own element again, and, once the first moment of perturbation is over, they reintegrate almost immediately.

That is the general situation of the Spirits in a state that we call erraticity (errant state). But what do they do in such a state? How do they spend their time? This is of capital importance to us. They are the ones who are going to answer this, as they were the ones who gave the explanations that we have just transmitted, since none of that is the result of our imagination. It is not a system that came out of our minds. We judge from what we have seen and heard.

Leaving aside any opinion relatively to Spiritism, one has to acknowledge that such a theory about life beyond the grave has nothing of irrational. It shows a perfectly logical sequence and chain of events that would honor any philosopher.

We would be mistaken if we believed that the life of the Spirit is an idle life. On the contrary, it is essentially active and all Spirits talk about their occupations. Those occupations vary necessarily, according to the Spirit being errant or incarnate. In the state of incarnation they are relative to the nature of the worlds they inhabit; the needs depend on the physical and moral state of those worlds, as well as the organization of the living beings. This is not what we will discuss here. We are going to talk about the errant Spirits.

Among those who have already achieved a certain degree of development, some assist with the execution of God’s designs, in the great destinies of the Universe; they drive the march of events, supporting the progress of each world. Others take individuals under their protection, becoming their tutor genies and guardian angels. Follow people from birth to death, struggling to guide them through the good path. They feel happy when their efforts are rewarded with success. Some of them incarnate in inferior worlds try to accomplish missions of progress. Through their work, examples, good feelings and advices, they endeavor to make some people advance in sciences and arts, others in moral. They are then voluntarily submitted to a sometimes painful corporeal life, aiming at doing good and being held accountable for the good they get done. Many still don’t have a specific assignment. They go everywhere where their presence may be useful, giving advice, inspiring good ideas and cheering up the discouraged ones, giving strength to the weak and punishing the arrogant.

If we take into account the infinite number of worlds that populate the Universe and the incalculable number of beings that inhabit them, we will understand that the Spirits have a lot to do. Such activity, however, is painless. They do it happily and without embarrassment, and their joy is in the accomplishment of their missions. Nobody thinks about an eternal idleness that would be really painful.

When required by the circumstances, they form councils; deliberate about the next steps ahead, according to the events; distribute orders to the Spirits that are their subordinates and then go back to wherever duty may call them. Those assemblies are more generic or more specific, depending on the importance of the issue. There is no special or circumscribed place for those gatherings. Space is the domain of the Spirits. However, those meetings tend to happen in worlds that are the specific object of the Spirits. The incarnate Spirits who accomplish their missions in those worlds also attend the assemblies, according to their elevation. While the body rests they receive advice from Spirits and, sometimes, receive orders related to their conduct among the incarnate. It is true that when they wake up they do not keep a very sharp memory of the events but they keep their intuition that leads them to act as if that intuition were from their own initiative.

Moving down in the hierarchy we find less elevated Spirits, less purified and consequently less enlightened, but not necessarily less good and who, in a more restrict sphere of activities, exercise similar functions. Instead of covering different worlds, their action is more exercised in a particular world and related to their degree of development. Their influence is more individual, having things of less importance by objective.


Then comes the crowd of vulgar Spirits, those who are more or less good, more or less wicked, that swarms around us. Those are slightly above humanity, whose nuances they represent and sort of reflect, since they have the same vices and virtues of those that characterize humanity. In many of them we find the same tastes, ideas and inclinations that they had when alive. Their faculties are limited, their judgment fallible like that of human beings and sometimes mistaken and loaded with prejudices.

In some others the moral sense is more developed. Even without a great superiority or acuity they judge with more criteria, sometimes even condemning what they had done or thought in their lives. As a matter of fact, there is a remarkable thing: even among the most common Spirits, in general, their feelings are purer as Spirits than as incarnates. The spiritual life clarifies them regarding their faults, and except on rare occasions, they bitterly regret and feel sorry for what they have done, since they suffer more or less intensely their consequences. We have seen some of these who were not better than when they were alive. We have never, however, seen them worse. The absolute hardening is very rare and only temporary, given that sooner or later they end up regretting their position. One can then say that all of them aspire for their betterment since all of them understand it as the only means of leaving their inferiority behind. Learn and be enlightened, that is their great concern so that they feel happy when they can add small missions of trust that elevate them before their own eyes.

They also have their gatherings, of greater or lesser importance, according to the nature of their thoughts. They talk to us, see us and observe everything that happens around us. They attend our meetings; take part in our games, parties and spectacles, as well as in our serious businesses.

They hear our conversations; the frivolous ones in order to have fun or laugh at us, or even still to trick us whenever they can; the others do so in order to learn; these Spirits do observe people, analyze their character and do what they call a study of the customs and culture, so as to choose their future life.

We have seen the Spirit at the very moment when the body is left, entering then into the new existence. We analyzed their sensations and followed the gradual development of their ideas. The initial moments are spent in the acknowledgment of oneself followed by the understanding of what is going on. In short, so to speak, the Spirit tries their faculties, like the child that gradually experiences the increase in strength and thoughts. We speak about the vulgar Spirits since the others, as we said, are somehow previously identified with the spiritual state, thus it is no surprise to them other than the joy of finding themselves free from the corporeal hurdles and sufferings. Many of the inferior Spirits miss their Earthly life given that their situation as Spirits is a hundred times worse. That is why they engage with the vision of what was delightful to them in the past. Such a vision, however, becomes a suffering since the desires they feel can no longer be satisfied.

The need for progress is general among the Spirits. That is what drives them to work for their own betterment, since they understand that it is the price of their happiness. But not all of them feel such a need in the same degree, particularly in the beginning. Some even enjoy a kind of idleness, of short duration, as a matter of fact; activity soon becomes an inexorable need, then dragged by other Spirits who stimulate the good feelings in them.

Then comes what one could call the scum of the spiritual world, made of all impure Spirits whose only concern is wickedness. They suffer hence they wish that everyone else would suffer like them. Every sign of superiority is hateful to their envy. Hate is their essence. Since they cannot blame the Spirits for that they then charge against human beings, attacking those who seem to be the weakest of all. Their dominant thoughts are: excite the passions; provoke disagreement; separate friends; encourage rivalries; encourage the ambitious to display their pride for the pleasure of taking them down later; spread mistakes and lies, in one word, deviate them from good.

However, why would God allow such a thing to happen? God does not have to report to us. The superior Spirits tell us that the wicked Spirits are trials to the good ones and that there is no virtue where there is no victory to conquer. As a matter of fact, if those malevolent Spirits are here on Earth, it is here that they find echo and sympathy. May it be a reassuring thought that above this mud which surrounds us there are pure and benevolent beings who love us, sustain and encourage us, reaching out to us, attracting us so that we can be led to better worlds, where wickedness has no entry, as long as we do what it takes to deserve it!

Those who do not admit the reality of the manifestations generally attribute the produced effects to fraud. Their thought is that skillful conjurers do things that seem prodigious as long as we do not know their secrets. Thus, they conclude that the mediums are nothing but swindlers. We have already rebutted that argument or opinion, specifically in the articles about Mr. Home and in the issues of the Spiritist Review, January- February 1858. We will only add a few words to that, before engaging into a more serious subject.

Due to the fact that there are charlatans selling medication to the public; that there are also doctors who, although not doing it openly in public, abuse the trust given to them, will it follow that all doctors are charlatans and that the class will suffer in its reputation? Due to the fact that there are some people who sell dyes for wine making, will it follow that all wine dealers are falsifiers and that there isn’t good wine anymore? Everything is abused; even the most respectable things, and one can say that even fraud has its genie. But fraud has always an objective, some sort of material gain and interest, thus where there is nothing to gain there is no interest in deceiving. That is why we said in the previous issue of the Review, about the self-serving mediums, that the best of all guarantees is a total material disinterest.

One can say that this guarantee is not unique though, since with respect to the subject of trickery, there are very skillful amateurs who aim at amusing people, not doing it as a duty of profession. Couldn’t that also happen to the mediums? There is no doubt that it is possible to be amused for a few mo- ments, amusing others in the process, but to spend endless hours doing it, for weeks, months and years, it would be necessary to be possessed by the devil of mystification, and the first to be mystified would be the mystifier. Needless to repeat everything that has already been said about the good faith of the mediums and attendees to the meetings, as for being a toy of illusion and fascination. We have already responded to that objection many times as well as to all other objections on the subject, for what we refer the reader to our Instruction Practique sur les Manifestations (Practical Instructions about the Manifestations) and to our previous articles in the Spiritist Review.

Our objective is not to convince the incredulous. If they are not con- vinced by the facts, they would be even less by reason. It would then be a waste of time. On the contrary, we address the adepts in order to warn them against the subterfuges that could victimize them from people driv- en by any kind of interest to simulate certain phenomena. We say certain phenomena because there are some which evidently defy every skill of prestidigitation as, in particular, the motion of objects without contact; the suspension of heavy bodies in space; the knocks given in all directions; the apparitions, etc. But even to some of those phenomena it would be possible, to a certain degree, the simulation, thanks to the advancement of the art of trickery. What is necessary to do in such cases is to carefully observe the circumstances and above all to take into account the character and condition of the persons, as well as the objective and possible interest they might have in deceiving. That is the best of all controls since there are circumstances that reject any reason for suspicion.

Thus, we establish the principle that it is necessary to distrust every- one who makes a spectacle out of those phenomena, an object of curiosity or amusement, or who would take any advantage of them, however small it might be, bragging about producing them at will and for any reason. It would never be too much to repeat that the manifesting occult intel- ligences have their susceptibilities and want to prove that they also have their free will, not submitting to our caprices.

From all physical phenomena, one of the most common is the internal rapping, vibrating in the inner substance of the wood, with or without the motion of the table or any other object which may be utilized. Well, that effect is one of the easiest to imitate, and as it is also one of the most fre- quently produced, it seems useful to reveal a little trick with which we can be deceived. All it requires is that both hands are placed wide open on the table, sufficiently close so that the thumb nails firmly support each other; then through an absolutely imperceptible muscular movement, the nail is led to produce a dry cracking noise, very similar to those of the internal typtology. That noise vibrates in the wood thus producing a complete il- lusion. There is nothing easier than making as many noises as desired; the beat of a drum, and so forth; then respond with a yes or no according to the number of raps or even by the indication of the letters of the alphabet.

Once warned about it, the means of recognizing the fraud is very simple. It will no longer be possible if the hands are kept away from each other and if we ensure that no physical contact might produce the noise. As a matter of fact, the authentic noises have the characteristic of willingly changing places and tone, a fact that does not happen to those produced through the means mentioned above, or any other for that matter. The true ones leave the table and are produced on any other piece of furni- ture, touched by nobody, answering to unexpected questions. Thus, we draw the attention of those good faith persons with respect to this little gimmick, as well as others that may be discovered, to unceremoniously denounce them.

The possibility of imitation and fraud does not prevent the reality of the facts and Spiritism has only to gain with the exposure of the impos- ters. If someone says: I saw such a phenomenon but there was fraud, we will respond that it is possible; we even saw pseudo somnambulists who skillfully simulated somnambulism. However, that does not mean that somnambulism is not a fact. Everybody has already seen merchants sell- ing cotton for silk, which does not mean that there isn’t a real fabric made of silk. It is necessary to examine all circumstances and verify whether the doubt is meaningful. But for that, as for everything else, one needs to be an expert. Well, we cannot accept for the judge of a given cause someone who did not understand anything about that subject.

We say the same about the psychographic mediums. People generally think that the mechanical mediums offer more guarantees, not only due to the independence of their ideas but also against deception. But that is a mistake. Fraud permeates everywhere. We know that with proper skills it is possible to make the planchettes write and give it every appearance of spontaneous movement. The actual thought is what refutes all doubts, coming from a mechanical, intuitive, hearing, speaking or clairvoyant medium.

There are communications that go so much beyond the ideas, knowl- edge and even intellectual reach of the medium that it would be necessary to be completely mistaken to give the medium the actual credit. We ac- knowledge that charlatanism has a great capability and vast resources, but we have not yet recognized in them the gift of turning an ignorant person into a wise person or giving talent to someone who does not have it.

One of our correspondents addressed the following question to us, requesting a solution from the spirits who guide us, in case we did not have the solution yet.

“After a more or less lengthy lapse of time the errant spirits wish and ask God for the reincarnation, as a means of their moral progress. They choose the trials and using the free will they naturally choose those incar- nations that seem more appropriate to them, in order to progress in the world where the incarnation is granted. Well, during the spirit’s errant life they get instructed, as the spirits themselves tells us, then they learn which nations are more convenient to them in order to achieve their objectives. They see populations of savage anthropophagus, assuring them that they would become ferocious flesh eaters by reincarnating among them. That environment would certainly not be the means of achieving their spiritual progress. The force of habit can only provide more consistency to their gross instincts. Then their objective would have failed had they chosen that people or another one.”

“The same happens to certain social positions. Among them there are those that show invincible obstacles to the spiritual progress. I will only mention the slaughter people, the executioners, etc. Some people say that such creatures are necessary because we cannot go without animal food, others say that because it is necessary to implement legal sentences, all required by our social organization. It is not less accurate that by re- incarnating in the body of a boy destined to embrace one or another of those professions, the spirit must know that a wrong path has been taken, voluntarily deprived from the means which lead to perfection. Couldn’t it be the case that, with God’s permission, no spirit would want that kind of life and in such circumstance, what would happen to those professions, still necessary given our current social condition?”

The answer to that question is a consequence of the whole teach- ings that have been given to us. We can then answer, without submit- ting it to the spirits again. It is obvious that an already advanced spirit, such as an educated European, could not choose a savage existence as a means of progress, since instead of advancing he would march backwards. We know, however, that even the anthropophagus is not on the bottom of the scale and that there are worlds where the brutalization and feroc- ity have no analogy here on Earth. Those spirits are even inferior to the most inferiors of our planet. Thus, for them, it is a progress to incarnate among our savages. If they don’t aspire to a higher position it is because their moral inferiority does not allow them to understand a more com- plete progress. The spirit can only progress gradually, going successively through all levels so that each step forward may serve as the basis for the construction of a new progress. The spirit cannot leap from barbarism to civilization, as the student cannot pass from English in elementary school to Rhetoric. That is one of the requirements of reincarnation, which is really in agreement with God’s justice. Otherwise, what would happen to those millions of people that die in the last stage of deprivation, had they not had the means of achieving superiority? Why would God have disinherited them from the favors conceded to other people? We repeat it for being an essential point: according to their limited intelligence they can only understand what is better from their narrow point of view. There are those, however, that willing to climb too high deviate, offering us the sad spectacles of ferocity that we see amidst civilization. Those will even profit by returning to the cannibals. These considerations also apply to the professions mentioned by our correspondent. Those professions offer relative superiority to certain spirits and it is in that sense that we must conceive their choices. For the same reason they may be chosen as an atonement or mission, since there is no profession through which one cannot do good and achieve progress through the very means of realiz- ing them. As for the question about what would happen in case no spirit wanted to adopt it, it is responded by the facts. Since the spirits that oc- cupy those positions come from an inferior condition, there is no need to be afraid of unemployment. When the social progress allow for the ex- tinction of positions like the executioner, the function will disappear but not the candidates who will apply for that same job among other peoples or in other less advanced worlds.

SPONTANEOUS COMMUNICATION OBTAINED BY THE MEDIUM MR. CROZ, READ AT THE SESSION OF THE SOCIETY ON JANUARY 21st, 1859

The companies that we see forming every day are acts of the Providence and the development of germs cultivated throughout the cen- turies. Humanity and the inhabited planet have one and the same exis- tence, whose phases are concatenated accordingly.

As soon as the great torments of nature are over, as well as the fever that leads to the wars of extermination, Philosophy will shine; slavery will vanish and the Arts and Sciences flourish.

Divine perfection may be summarized by beauty and usefulness. If God created the human being to His own image it is because God wanted human beings to live out of their own intelligence, as God himself lives amongst the splendors of God’s own creation.

The enterprises blessed by God, whatever their proportions, are those which fall in line with God’s designs, bringing their contribution to the collective work, whose law is written in the Universe: the beautiful and the useful. Art, daughter of rest and inspiration, is the beauty. Industry, daughter of Science and work, is the utility.

OBSERVATION: This communication is more or less the initiation of one medium that has just developed with remarkable speed. One must recognize that, as an experiment, it is really promising. Since the first session he wrote, without interruption, four pages which owe nothing to the one that he has just read, considering the perspicacity of thoughts, indicating in him an admirable ability to serve as an intermediary to all spirits, in private communications. As a matter of fact, we need to study that subject further, since not all mediums are given to that flexibility. We know mediums that cannot serve as intermediaries but to certain spirits and to a certain type of ideas.

After having written this note we even confirmed the real progress of the medium, whose faculty offers special characteristics, deserving great attention from the observer.

PARISIAN SOCIETY OF SPIRITIST STUDIES, SESSION ON th MARCH 11 , 1859


1. Evocation
- Ask. I am ready. Take your time as you wish since I have time to attend you.

2. Do you remember your existence on Earth in the XVI century, between 1500 and 1570?
- Yes, yes.

3. What is your current situation as a spirit?
- I lived in several other worlds and I am very satisfied with the position that I presently occupy. It is not a peak but I am
advancing.

4. Have you had other corporeal existences on Earth, after the one we know?
- Corporeal, yes. On Earth, no.

5. For how long did you stay in the errant state?
- I cannot precise. Some years.


6. What did you do in that errant state?
- I worked towards my development.

7. Have you eventually returned to Earth?

- A few times.
8. Have you watched the drama by which you are represented? What do you think of that?
- I watched it several times. I was as happy as Cellini but not as much as a spirit that had progressed.

9. Before the existence from which we know you, have you had any other on Earth?
- No, none.

10. Could you tell us what you were in your preceding existences?

- My careers were very different from what I did on Earth.

11. In which world do you live?
- You don’t know and don’t see it.

12. Could you describe it to us, from a physical as well as moral point of view?
- Yes, easily. From the physical point of view, my dear friends, its plastic beauty satisfies me. Nothing shocks our vision there; there is a perfect alignment of forms; mimic is some- how a permanent expression; we are surrounded by perfumes of nature and lack nothing for our physical wellness, since we are subjected to only a few needs, promptly satisfied.
- From a moral point of view, however, perfection is not as great since one can find perturbed consciences and spirits dedicated to evil. It is no perfection, far from that, but as I have already told you, it is the path to that and we all expect to reach it one day.


13. What do you do in the world that you live in?
- We work with the Arts. I am an artist.

14. In your memoirs you tell the story of witchcraft and a possession that would have taken place in the Coliseum, in Rome, in which you would have taken part, do you remember?
- Not very clearly.


15. If we read it to you, would that clarify your memory? - Yes, it would give me a notion.

Then the following excerpt is read from his memoirs:
“In the middle of that strange life I was acquainted with a Sicilian priest of very fine spirit, seriously educated in Greek and Latin. One day our conversation was about necromancy and I told him that dur- ing my whole life I really wished I could see and learn something about that art. In order to get involved with that, said the priest, one needs to have a firm and intrepid soul.”


“One evening, though, the priest made the arrangements and asked me to find one or two companions. He invited a man from Pistoia, who was also involved with necromancy, and we all went to the Coliseum. There the priest dressed up according to the follow- ers of necromancy then he started to draw circles on the ground, followed by the most beautiful ceremonies that one can imagine. He had brought precious perfumes, smelly drugs and fire with him. When it was all set he created an opening in the circle, taking us there by the hand, one by one. He then distributed the papers, plac- ing the talisman in the hands of his necromancer friend. He assigned the others with the task of tendering the fire and the perfumes, after which the conjurations began. That ceremony lasted more than an hour and a half. The Coliseum was then taken by legions of infernal spirits. When the priest noticed that they were in good number he turned to me, who was taking care of the perfumes, and said:”

“ – Benvenuto, ask them for something.”

“I responded that I wished they could reunite me with my Sicilian Angelica.”

“Despite the fact that we had no answer that night, I was im- pressed by what I had seen.”

“The necromancer said that it was necessary to return a second time and that I would then obtain everything I wanted, as long as I brought a virgin young man along.”



“I chose one of my apprentices and brought two other friends of mine.”

“The priest placed the talisman in my hands, asking me to turn it in the direction that was indicated. My apprentice was placed under the talisman. The necromancer started his terrible evocations. He evoked several chiefs of the infernal legions by the name and gave them orders in Hebrew, Greek and Latin, in the name of the uncreated, living and eternal God. The Coliseum was soon taken by a number of demons, a hundred times more than the first time. Following the necromancer’s advice, I asked again to meet Angelica. He turned to me and said:”

“Haven’t you heard their announcement that you will be with her in one month?”

“He then asked me to keep my firmness since there were a thou- sand legions which were not called yet, adding that these were more dangerous, and since they had attended my request, it was necessary to treat them kindly and calmly dismiss them. On another hand the boy commented with fear that he could see thousands of terrible men who were threatening us, and also four giants, armed from hair to toe, who seemed to want to get into our circle. Meanwhile, trembling of fear, the necromancer tried to conjure them, using the sweetest tone of voice. The boy hid his head between his knees, screaming like that:”


“I want to die! We are all dead!”
“I then told him:”
“These creatures are all below us. What you see is no more than

smoke and shadow. Raise your eyes then.”
“He had just obeyed me when he said:”
“The whole Coliseum is taken by flames and the fire is coming

towards us.”
“The necromancer then demanded to have asafetida burned.

Agnolo, in charge of the perfumes, was almost dead, horrified.”

“The noise and the bad smell made the boy raise his head. Once he heard me laughing he got a little animated, saying that the demons were starting to leave. We remained like that until dawn was announced. The boy told us that he could only see a few demons, from far away. Finally, when the necromancer concluded the ceremo- ny and undressed his outfit, we left the circle.”

“While we returned home through Via dei Banchi, he assured us that two demons were performing acrobatics in front of us, some- times running over the roofs, and other times on the ground.”

“The necromancer had sworn that since he had set foot for the first time in a magic circle he had never witnessed something so extraor- dinary. Later he tried to convince me to study a book with him that should provide us with incalculable richness and give us the means of forcing the demons to indicate places where hidden treasures are lo- cated, well kept by Earth...”

“After different reports more or less related to the preceding, Benvenuto tells how, after thirty days, or within the time frame es- tablished by the demons, he found his Angelica.”

16. Could you tell us what is true about that scene?
- The necromancer was a charlatan; I was a romance writer and

Angelica was my lover.


17. Have you met your protector Francis I again?
- Certainly. He has seen many others who were not his protégés.
18. How did you consider him when alive and how do you judge him now?
- I will tell you how I judged him: like a prince and as such, blinded by his education and by those who surrounded him.


19. And now what do you have to say about him?
- He made progress.


20. Did he protect the artists out a sincere love for the arts?
- Yes, but also for pleasure and pride.


21. Where is he now?
- Alive.


22. On Earth?
- No.


23. If we evoked him now could he come to speak with us?
- Yes. But do not force the spirits like that. Your evocations must be prepared well in advance and then you will not have much to ask the spirit. That way you will take much less risk of being deceived, as it does happen sometimes (St. Louis).

24. (To St. Louis): Could you arrange that two spirits would come to talk to each other?

- Yes.
- In that case would it be useful to have two mediums?
- Yes, it is necessary.

NOTE: The dialogue in question happened in another session. We will publish it in the next issue.

25. (To Cellini) What is the origin of your inclination towards art? Would it be due to a special prior development?

- Yes. I was attracted to poetry and the beauty of language for a long time. While on Earth I was linked to art as a re- production. Nowadays I am involved with the beauty as an invention.

26. You were also trained in the military hence Pope Clement VII assigned you with the defense of St. Angel Castle. However, your gift as an artist should not give room for many skills of the art of war.

- I had talent and knew how to apply it. There is the need for discernment in everything, particularly in the military art of that time.

27. Could you give some advices to the artists that try to follow your footsteps?

- Yes. I will tell them that more than what they do and more than what I did they should seek pureness and the true beau- ty. They will understand me.

28. Isn’t beauty relative and conventional? The European considers themselves prettier than the black and the black prettier than the white. If there is an absolute beauty where is the standard? Can you give us your opinion about it?

- With pleasure. I did not want to mention a conventional beau- ty. On the contrary, there is beauty everywhere, as a reflex of the spirit over the body and not only as a material form. As you said, a black person may be beautiful of a beauty only ap- preciated by their similar, which is true. Following that, your Earthly beauty is deformity in heaven as much as black beauty is almost misshapen to you, whites. To the artist, life is beauty, it is the feeling that the artist can associate to his work. With that the artist will provide beauty to the most vulgar things.



29. Could you guide a medium in the execution of a model, as Bernard Palissy did with respect to the paintings?
- Yes.

30. Could you lead the medium that currently serves you to produce something?

- Like the others but I would rather use one that knew the tricks of art.

OBSERVATION: Experience demonstrates that the ability of a medium for this or that kind of production depends on the flexibility presented to the spirit, abstraction made of his talent. The knowledge of the business and the material means of execu- tion do not constitute the talent, but it is understandable that the spirit would find less mechanical difficulty to overcome by lead- ing such a medium. However, one can see mediums that produce remarkable things without having the minimal notions, like in the case of drawings and poetry, engraving and music, etc. but certainly there is an innate ability in those mediums, no doubt, due to a previous development from which they only preserve the intuition.


31. Could you guide Mrs. G. S. who is present here, an artist, but who has never been able to produce something as a medium?
- If she is willing to, I will try.

32. (Mrs. G. S.) When do you want to start?
- Whenever you wish, starting tomorrow.

33. How could I know that the inspiration came from you?
- Conviction comes with proof. Allow it to come slowly.

34. Why haven’t I been successful so far?
- Little perseverance and lack of good will from the part of the spirits to whom you ask.

35. I thank you for the promised assistance.

- Good bye. So long, my colleague.

NOTE: Mrs. G. S. started the work but we still ignore the results.

Girard de Codemberg

Agraduate from the Polytechnic School, member of several scien- tific associations, author of a book entitled: The Spiritual World, or Christian Science of communication with the celestial powers and happy souls. Deceased in November 1858, evoked at the Society on the following January 14th.


1. (Evocation)
- I am here. What do you want?

2. Have you willingly attended our call?
- Yes.

3. Would you tell us what do you think now about the book that you published?
- I made some mistakes but there are useful things there. I believe, without self-praising, that you yourself agree with what I said.

4. You said that you had communications with Christ’s mother. Can you now be sure that it was really her?
- No. It was not her but a spirit that would take her name.


5. What was the objective of that spirit by taking her name?
- That spirit saw me taking a wrong path and pushed me even further. It was a perturbing spirit, a frivolous being, more inclined to evil than good. She would feel happy for my false enjoyment. I was her toy as you men are frequently to your fellow humans.

6. How could you, gifted by a superior intelligence, not have noticed the ridiculous of certain communications?
- I was fascinated, appreciating everything that I was told.

7. Don’t you think that such a book may do some harm in the sense that it may be ridiculed as far as the communications from beyond the grave are concerned?
- In that sense, yes. But I also said that there were useful things, as well as true ones, that from another point of view impress the masses. Sometimes we find a good seed in what seems evil to you.

8. Are you happier than when you were alive?
- Yes, but I still have the need for much enlightenment since I am still in the mist which follows death. I feel like the student beginning to spell.

9. When alive did you know The Spirits’ Book?

- I had never given it any attention. I had preconceived ideas. That was my sin since it is never too much to deeply study all things. However, pride is always present, giving us illusions. That is proper of the ignorant, in general, who do not investi- gate anything else but what they prefer and don’t listen to but those who praise them.

10. But you were not uneducated. Your titles demonstrate that.
- Who is the wise person from Earth before the Science of Heavens? As a matter of fact, there is always the influence of certain spirits, willing to push us away from light.


OBSERVATION: This confirms what has already been said that certain spirits inspire people to stay away from those who could give them good advices, thus frustrating their plans. That influence could never be from a good spirit.

11. And now, what do you think about that book?
- I could not tell without shamelessly representing myself and we don’t praise. You have to understand.


12. Have you changed your opinion about the future penalties?
- Yes. I believed in the material penalties. Now I believe in the moral penalties.


13. Can we do anything to please you?

Always. May each one say a prayer tonight on my behalf! I will appreciate that. Most importantly, do not forget me.

OBSERVATION: Mr. Codemberg’s book has caused some sensation, and we even say, a painful sensation among the adepts of Spiritism, as a consequence of the extravaganza of certain communications, given to ridicule. His intention was praiseworthy since he was a sincere man, but it is an example of domination that certain spirits may exercise, flattering and exaggerating ideas and prejudices of those who do not ponder with great severity the pros and cons of the spiritist commu- nications. He mainly shows the dangers of very lightheart- edly publicizing them to the public, since they can become a reason for denial, strengthening the incredulity in certain people, thus doing more harm than good, once it provides weapons to the enemies of the cause. We would never be care- ful enough with that respect.

Session of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, on February 11th, 1859

He passed away about two months ago, from typhoid fever contracted after a forced aircraft landing at sea.

1. (Evocation)
- I am here. Speak.

2. Do you miss your Earthly life?
- No.

3. Are you happier now than when you were alive?
- Much.

4. What was the reason that led you to aeronautics experiences?
- The need.

5. Have you considered serving science?
- No way.

6. Do you see aeronautics now from a different perspective as compared to when you were alive?
- No.I saw it as I see today since I saw it with good eyes.I used to see many improvements to be introduced but I could not do them myself, due to my lack of knowledge. But wait. Other people will come, giving it the importance it deserves and that it will one day have.


7. Do you believe that aeronautics will one day become of public utility?
- Yes, certainly.

8. The major concern of those involved with that science is the driv- ability of the balloons. Do you believe that it will be achieved?
- Yes, for sure.

9. In your opinion what is the major difficulty for the drivability of the balloons?
- The winds and the storms.


10. Then it is not the lack of a supporting point?

- If we could drive the winds we could drive the balloons.


11. Could you indicate the focus to which the researches should be driven?

- Let us leave it as is.

12. When alive, did you study all the proposed systems?
- No.


13. Could you give advice to those involved with that subject?

- Do you think that your advice would be followed?


14. Not ours but yours.
- Do you want a treaty? I will have it prepared.


15. By whom?
- By the friends that guided me.


16. We have here with us two very distinct inventors, in matters of air stations, Mr. Sanson and Mr. Ducroz, both men received presti- gious scientific awards. Do you know their systems?
- No. There is a lot to say. I don’t know them.

17. Admitting that the problem of drivability is solved, do you believe in the possibility of large-scale air navigation over the oceans?
- No, never like the telegraph.


18. I am not talking about the speed that can never be compared to that of the telegraph, but to the mass transportation of people and load. Which result can we expect from that side of developments?
- Not much usefulness.

OBSERVATION: The curious experiences of Mr. Poitevin, his intrepid- ity, his remarkable ability in balloon maneuvering, gave us more expectations with respect to his elevation and greatness of ideas. The result did not correspond to our expectations. As we have seen, aeronautics to him was nothing else but an industry, a way of life, and a special kind of spec- tacle. Every faculty of his was concentrated on the means of satisfying public amusement. That is why some predictions in these family con- versations are sometimes uncertain: sometimes they are outdated, other times they are below expectation, which is an evident demonstration of the independence of the communications. In a private session, Poitevin dictated, through the same medium, the following advices in order to carry out the promises he had made above

Each person may assess their value since we provide it as an object of study about the nature of the spirits and not for its scientific merit, which is more than arguable.

“You will always find great difficulties to drive a gas balloon: the huge area exposed to the winds; the insignificance of the weight that can be carried by air; the weakness of the wrapping, required by the subtleness of air. All these causes will never allow you to obtain the system with the desired features. A powerful means of communication is required in order to make the aerostat useful. We said that it would represent a medium between electricity and steam. Yes, based on two points of view:

You have not asked me if by such a means you will be able to visit oth- er planets. However, such a thought has already occupied several minds and its solution would scare your world. No. You will not achieve that. Consider that it takes light years in order to cover the millions and mil- lions of leagues of space. Then consider how long it would take to get to those planets, even considering the steam and wind.

Returning to the central point, I was saying that one should not ex- pect much from the current system but that a lot more would be obtained by acting upon the air by strong and extensive compression. The support point that you are looking for is standing before your eyes, surrounding you from all sides. You clash with that in all of your movements; it blocks your route every day, influencing on everything that you touch. Think carefully about this and take from this revelation all that is possible. The consequences are enormous. We cannot take you by the hand and lead you to build the utensils needed to the task. We cannot persuade you word by word. It is necessary that your spirit do the work, maturing your projects, without which you would not understand the achievements nor would you know how to handle the instruments. We would be forced to operate your devices; then the unforeseeable circumstances which, one day or another, would hinder your endeavors and would also cast you back into your primitive ignorance.”

“Do the work and you shall find what you seek. Guide your spirit towards the direction that we have indicated to you for we do not lead you astray.”

OBSERVATION: Although containing undisputable truths, these advices still show a not very enlightened spirit, from certain angles, since he seems to ignore the actual impossibility of reaching other planets. It is another proof of the diversity of aptitudes and knowledge in the world of the spirits, as we find on Earth as well. It is through the multiplicity of observations that we shall understand and assess that world. That is why we provide examples of all sorts of communications, taking the necessary care of pointing out to the weaknesses and strengths.

This one from Poitevin ends by a very fair statement, seeming to have been inspired by a spirit more philosophical than his. As a matter of fact he had said that his advices would be revised by his friends which defi- nitely teach nothing. We also find a demonstration that men who had a specialization on Earth are not always the best ones to provide teachings as spirits, particularly if not much elevated and detached from the earthly life. It is most unfortunate that for the progress of aeronautics the majority of those intrepid men cannot use their experience to the benefit of Science while the theorists ignore practical things, like the seamen who had never seen the sea. No doubt, one day there will be aeronautics engineers, like there are naval engineers, but only when they have seen and probed the depths of the oceanic spaces themselves. How many ideas wouldn’t they be able to pick up from the direct contact with the elements, ideas that es- cape those in the industry, whatever their knowledge level, since they can- not perceive all difficulties from behind their desks. Nevertheless, if this Science is to become reality one day, it can only be through them. To the eyes of many people these thoughts are illusions thus the inventers who are typically not wealthy cannot find the necessary encouragement or the support. When the airstation yield dividends, even if an expectation, and may be financially assess, there will be no lack of capital. Meanwhile it is necessary to count on the dedication of those who place progress above speculation. While there is lack of resources for the execution there will be failures due to the impossibility of carrying out experiences in sufficient number or in adequate conditions. If we have to do it in limited terms then it is not done properly, as with everything else. There will not be suc- cess but to the price of sufficient sacrifices in order to definitely belong to practical life. This excludes any idea of profit. Hopefully the thought of providing the world with the solution to a big problem, even if only from the point of view of science, will inspire some generous disinterestedness. But the first thing to do would be to provide theorists with the means of gaining experience in the air, even with the imperfect means at our disposal. Had Poitevin been a knowledgeable man and had he invented a system of aerial locomotion that would have unquestionably inspired more confidence than those who have never left the ground, and he would probably have found the resources that are denied to others.

Dictated by the Spirit of Alfred de Musset to Mrs...

If you on Earth suffer,
Oh! Afflicted heart;
If to misery handcuffed
Is your part;
Think of your affliction
That follows the path;
From the crying condition,
To the better aftermath. Life’s regrets,
Are they so numerous
That the heart forgets
The day that among the illustrious, As for suffering compensation,
The sidereal man
Will get the decoration
Of the e thereal domain?
Life is a passage;
Know the way about.
Acting with courage
You’ll happily cover its route.

OBSERVATION: The medium that served as interpreter not only did not know the most elemental rules of poetry but also had never written a single verse. She writes them with extraordinary facility, when dictated by the spirits. Although she has been a medium for a short time, she already has a large and interesting collection. We have seen some very charming and opportune among them, dictated by the spirit of a person who is alive, evoked by her, residing 200 leagues away. That person, when in the state of vigil, is not a better poet than the medium herself.

One of our corresponding members has sent us a letter about our latest article on the self-serving mediums, questioning if our observations are also applicable to the paid somnambulists.

If we wish to go back to the cause of the phenomenon we will see that although it may be considered a variation of mediumship, the somnam- bulist is a kind of a different medium, so to speak. In fact, the mediums receive their communications from foreign spirits, who may communicate or not, depending on the circumstances and on the existing sympathies. The somnambulist, on the contrary, acts on his own; it is his own spirit that detaches from matter and sees, more or less well, according to the more or less complete withdrawal. It is true that the somnambulist is in touch with other spirits, who assist him with some or a lot of good will, according to the sympathies, but it is definitely his own spirit that sees and may, to a certain degree, use his own capabilities without the need for third parties or their indispensable support. Hence the somnambulist who seeks a material compensation for his sometimes significant efforts, as a consequence of exercising his faculty, does not have to overcome the same susceptibilities as the medium does. The medium is nothing more than an instrument.

Besides, it is well known that the somnambulistic lucidity is devel- oped by exercise. Well, those who turn this into a permanent occupation acquire more facility the more they see things with which they identify themselves, as well as with certain special terms that easily return to their memory. In a word, they get familiarized with the state that becomes, so to say, their natural state. Nothing else is strange to them. In reality, the facts are here to demonstrate the clarity and sharpness of their visions, from what we conclude that the compensation given to certain somnam- bulists is no obstacle to the development of their lucidity.

An objection is raised to that argument: since the lucidity is sometimes variable and depends on serendipitous causes, the question is in the search to get paid could this not prompt the somnambulist to fake such lucidity, even when lacking that clarity, due to fatigue or any other cause, an inex- istent inconvenience when there is no material interest afoot. This is cor- rect but we will respond that everything has its bad side. One can abuse everything and wherever fraud is insinuated, it is necessary to denounce it. The somnambulist acting in such a manner would be failing loyalty, which unfortunately also happens to those who are not somnambulists.

With a little bit of experience we can easily detect that. It would be difficult to deceive an experienced observer for long. In this, as in every- thing else, it is necessary to ensure the degree of trust that the person we are dealing with deserves. If the non-salaried somnambulist does not of- fer such an inconvenience it does not follow that her lucidity is infallible. He can be mistaken as anyone else, if not in good conditions. With that respect, the best guide is experience.

In summary, we do not profess these or those. We were able to attest remarkable services done by all of them. Our objective was only to dem- onstrate that it is possible to find good somnambulists in either category.

Spirits incarnate as men or women since they do not have sex. As spirits must progress in everything, each sex, as each social position, imposes special trials and duties to the spirits, when acquir- ing experiences. The one who always had to be a man would only know what men do.

According to the Spiritism, the solidarity is not only restricted to the Earthly society: it encompasses all worlds. The solidarity is universal through the relationships that the spirits establish among the several spheres, as human beings help one another from one world to the next.

We receive endless letters from our corresponding members request- ing the books Story of Joan of Arc and the Story of Louis XI, from which we have published excerpts, as well as the album with the drawings of Victorien Sardou.

We remind our readers that the Story of Joan of Arc is now sold out; the life of Louis XI as well as the life of Louis IX has not been published yet. We hope they are one day. The announcement in the Review will then be a duty to us. Until then, any order for those works will be fruit- less. The same happens with the album of Mr. Sardou. The published drawing of Mozart’s house is the only work that is on sale, at Ledoyen’s bookstore.

ALLAN KARDEC