June
Speech about Future Life Channing
(Given on Easter Sunday, 1834 after the death of one of his friends)
We have been given a number of times in this Review, spontaneous communications from the spirit Channing that does not contradict his superiority of character and intelligence. Our readers will appreciate below some passages of his texts when alive, using fragments of one of his speeches, whose translation we owe to the kind support of one of our subscribers. Considering that his name is not much known in France we provide a short biography below as an introduction to his discourse.
William Ellery Channing was born in 1780 in Newport, Rhode-Island, New York State. His grandfather, William Ellery, signed the famous declaration of independence. Channing was educated at Harvard College, to attend the medical school but his tastes and talents drove him towards a religious career when in 1803 he became the minister of the Unitarian Chapel of Boston. He then remained in that city where he professed the Unitarian Doctrine, a protestant sect that counts on many followers in England and in the USA, at the highest social echelons. He became known for his broad and liberal views and is counted as one of the most prominent individuals in the US given his remarkable eloquence, his many publications and his philosophical depth. A self-declared follower of peace and progress he relentlessly preached against slavery and for that he initiated such a fierce war against that institution, many liberals felt his exceeding enthusiasm was harmful to his own popularity, sometimes seemingly out of place. His name granted him authority among those who fought slavery. He died in Boston at the age 62. He was replaced by Gannet as leader of the Unitarians.
“To the great majority of people, heaven is almost always a world of fantasy. It lacks substance. The idea of a world where the creatures have no dense bodies, pure spirits covered by spiritual or ethereal bodies seems fictitious to them. Something that cannot be seen or touched does not seem real to them. That is sad but not surprising for how can people, immersed in matter and its related interests, not cultivating the acquisition of knowledge about the soul and its capabilities, how can they understand a more elevated spiritual life? To the crowds, someone that clearly and happily speaks about future life and about the victory of the spirit against the corporeal decomposition is a visionary dreamer. Such skepticism about heaven and spiritual things is irrational and unphilosophical as shameful.”
“And how irrational is the imagination that there aren’t other worlds but this one and no other more elevated way of living than ours! Who can doubt, after looking at the boundless Creation, that there exist superior beings or see any irrationality in conceiving that spirits do exist in a less circumscribed way, less bounded than here on Earth, and that there is a spiritual world?”
“Those who have left us for another world must cherish an even more profound interest for this one. Their links with the ones left behind improve rather than dissolve. If the future state is a betterment of the present one; if they must grow and expand in intelligence and love, their memories, fundamental power of intelligence, must act upon the past with an ever greater energy, and every lovely affection that we enjoyed here must renew. The idea that this Earthly life would be erased from the memory of the spirit would be the same as destroying its utility; it would be the rupture of the link between the two worlds and a subversion of responsibility, otherwise how could a forgotten life be reached by punishment or reward? No. We must carry the present with us, whatever the future may be, happy or unfortunate. It is true that the good ones will build new and even stronger and more sacred bonds; however, under the expanding influence of that better world the heart will have a greater capacity to keep the previous bonds while new ones are constructed. He will keep a kind memory of his birthplace while enjoying a more mature and a happier life. If I could imagine that those who have left this world are actually dead for those who stay I would love them and honor them less. A man that forgets those left behind seems deprived of the best feelings of our human nature; and if the just in their new motherland were supposed to forget their parents on Earth; if, approaching God, they were expected to stop putting a good word for them, could we believe that such a change was beneficial to them?”
“One could ask if those in heavens not only keep a cherished memory of the ones left here on Earth but also that are aware of their present and immediate condition. I have no reason to believe that such awareness does not exist. We are used to thinking of heaven as something far away from us, but there is no proof of that. Heaven is the union, the society of spiritual beings. Can’t they populate the universe, thus carrying heaven along with them everywhere? Is it likely that those creatures are restricted, like us, by physical boundaries? Milton said:
Millions of spiritual beings walk the Earth
Both when we wake and when we sleep.”
“A new sense, a new vision could show us that the spiritual world surrounds us from all sides. But even if you suppose that heaven is far away, there is no reason to believe that its inhabitants are not close to us and we are visible to them. However, how do we understand presence? Am I not present to those of you that I cannot reach with my arm but who I can clearly see? Isn’t that in total agreement with our knowledge about nature to suppose that those in heaven, regardless of their dwellings, may have spiritual senses and organs through which they can see at a distance as easily as we can see what is near us? Our eyes can effortlessly see planets that are millions of miles away, and with the help of Science we can even see the details of their surfaces. We can even imagine a visual organ sensitive enough or an instrument sufficiently powerful to allow for the detection of inhabitants of those far away planets. Why then, those who have already entered into a more elevated stage of their existences, covered by their spiritual bodies, why wouldn’t they be able to contemplate our Earth as easily as when it was their own dwelling?”
“That can be true and it is not an abuse to think so. It could be abused. We don’t think of the dead as if they were contemplating us with a partial Earthly love. They love us more than ever, but with spiritual and renovated warmth. Their only wish is to see us worthy of reuniting with them in their place of generosity and piety. Their spiritual eyes penetrate our souls. If we were able to hear their voices it would not be a declaration of personal attachment but a lively appeal for better efforts on our side, to a firmer abnegation, to a broader charity, to a humbler patience, to a more loving obedience to God’s will. They breathe from the atmosphere of God’s benevolence and their mission now is more important than it was here.”
“You may then ask: if the dead are aware of the hardships that afflict us, would it follow that there is suffering in that blessed life? My answer is that I cannot see heaven but as a world of sympathies.
It seems to me that there isn’t anything that may attract their attention better than the misery of their brothers. But if that sympathy may yield sadness on one side, it is far from making them unhappy. In our inferior word, a selfless compassion, together with the power of lessening the suffering of others, is a guarantee of peace, frequently leading to the purest pleasures. Free from our current diseases and enlightened by a broader vision from the divine governance, such sympathy will provide more joy to the virtues of those blessed beings, and as any other source of perfection, it will increase their happiness. The friends who leave us for that other world are not among strangers; they don’t feel the loneliness of someone that has exchanged his homeland for an unknown country. The kindest human words of friendship are not even close to the scores of felicitation that await them at the entrance of that world. There the spirit counts on safer ways of revealing oneself than here. The newcomer feels surrounded by virtues and benevolence and by that intimate feeling of sympathetic spirits around him, and new bonds may be instantaneously created, stronger than those cemented by years of worldly relationships. The most intimate affections in our world are cold when compared to those among the spirits. How do they communicate? Through which language and organs? We don’t know that but we do know that as the spirit progresses it becomes easier to them to transmit their thoughts.”
“It would be a mistake to believe that the inhabitants of heaven are limited to the reciprocal communication of their ideas. Those who reach that level enter into a new state of activity, of life and endeavors. We may think of the future state as something so happy that nobody will need help there, that there is no more need for any effort and the good ones have nothing else to do but to enjoy. Truth is, however, that any activity on Earth, even the most intense, is similar to a child’s game when compared to the activity and the energy developed in that more elevated life. And that is how it must be since there is no more active principle than intelligence, beneficence, love for the truth, desire of perfection, sympathy for the sufferings and devotion to the divine works that form the widening principles of life beyond the grave. That is when the soul has total awareness of its capabilities; that the infinite truth unfolds before our eyes; when we understand that the universe is a boundless sphere of discoveries to science, to goodness and worship. Those new interests of life, which reduce the current ones to nothing, multiply forever. Hence, one must not imagine heavens as a motionless community. I envision it as a world of prodigious plans and efforts for its own betterment. I consider that as a society which has to go through successive phases of development, of virtues, power and knowledge, through the energy of its own members.”
“The celestial genius is always active, exploring the great laws of creation and the eternal principles of the spirit; unveiling beauty in the order of the universe and discovering the means of advancement for each soul. There are different degrees of intelligence, as with us here, and the most advanced spirits find happiness and progress enlightening the ones behind. The education that was initiated here continues there and a more divine philosophy than the one we learn here revealing its very essence to the spirit, stimulating his joyful efforts towards his own betterment. Heaven has a connection with the other worlds. Its inhabitants are God’s messengers in the whole creation. They have great missions to accomplish and given the progress of their endless existence, they may be entrusted with the care of other worlds.”
This speech was given in 1834. In those days there was not a word about manifestations of the spirits in North America. Hence, Channing did not know them. He would otherwise have stated that at certain points he only mentioned it as a hypothesis. Nevertheless, isn’t that remarkable that this man had foreseen with such accuracy what would only be revealed a few years later, since apart from a few exceptions, his description of future life is in perfect agreement with that revelation? The only missing point is reincarnation and if carefully examined one can see that his speech is close to that, as with the manifestations of the spirits that he remains quiet about since he did not know them. In fact he admits the spiritual world around us, among us, plentiful of solicitudes towards us, helping us to advance. From there to the direct communications there is only a step. He also states that in the celestial world there is no perpetual contemplation but activity and progress; he admits the plurality of the corporeal worlds, but more or less advanced; had he admitted that the spirits could continue their progress in those worlds and we would have the reincarnation right there. Without it the idea of progressive worlds cannot be reconciled with that of the creation of the souls at the moment of birth of the bodies, unless one can admit the creation of more or less perfect souls and then it is necessary to justify God’s preference. Isn’t it more logical to admit that if the souls of a given world are more advanced than those of another it is because they have already lived on inferior worlds? The same may be said about the inhabitants of Earth, comparing the savage to the most civilized among themselves.
In any case isn’t such a description of life after the grave for its logical deductions more accessible to the most vulgar intelligence and acceptable by the sternest reason, and isn’t that a hundred times more adequate to lead to conviction and trust in the future than the horrible and inadmissible picture of the endless tortures borrowed from the Paganism of Tartarus? Those who preach such beliefs cannot imagine the number of disbelievers that they generate and the number of recruits sent to the ranks of materialism.
Notice that Milton who was cited in the speech above has an opinion similar to Channing’s about the invisible world in our environment that is also the opinion of the modern spiritists. The fact is, that Milton, as well as Channing and many other notables, were spiritists out of pure intuition. That is why we tirelessly repeat that Spiritism is not a modern invention. It has occurred at all times because there were souls at all times and the masses have always believed in the soul. Therefore we can find fragments of this idea in a large number of old as well as modern texts, sacred and profane. Such intuition of the spiritist ideas is so general that we daily see lots of people who are not at all surprised when they hear about them for the first time. All that was missing was a formula for their belief.
Correspondence - Letter sent by Mr. Roustaing, from Bordeaux
“My dear Sir and highly distinguished spiritist leader, I received the influence and collected the benefits of these words from Jesus to Thomas: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed’, profound, divine words that show the safest, the most rational path, the one that leads to faith according to St. Paul’s maxim accomplished and realized by Spiritism: ‘Rationabile sit obsequium vestrum’.
Prayer
Family Conversations from Beyond the Grave
Marquis de Saint-Paul was a member of the Society, deceased in 1860 and evoked following a request from his sister on May 16th, 1861.
1. Evocation. – A. I am here.
2. Your sister has asked us to evoke you, and although she is a medium she does not feel confident enough in the current development of her mediumship. – A. I will do my best to respond.
3. First, she would like to know if you are happy. – A. I am still in an errant state and in this transient state there is no absolute happiness or unhappiness.
4. Has it taken you long to become aware of yourself? – A. I spent a long time in a confused state and only emerged from it to bless those who had not forgotten me and who prayed for me.
5. Can you estimate the time you spent in this confused state? – A. No.
6. Which relatives did you promptly recognize? – A. I recognized my mother and my father who welcomed me when I woke up. They were the ones who initiated me in my new life.
7. How could it be that towards the end of your illness it looked like you were speaking with your loved ones from Earth? – A. Because I had the revelation of the world I was about to enter before I died. I became clairvoyant before I died and my eyes were veiled during the definitive transition and separation from the body, because the corporeal links were still very strong.
OBSERVATION: The phenomenon of early separation of the soul is quite frequent. Many people foresee the world of the spirits before they die. That certainly happens to smooth out the pain of leaving life behind through hope. But here the spirit adds that his eyes were veiled at the time of separation. It is a common occurrence; at that very moment when the spirit loses consciousness. The spirit never witnesses the last breath of the body and the actual separation occurs unsuspectingly. The agonizing convulsions are purely physical whose sensation is almost never experienced by the spirit. We say almost because it may happen that the suffering may be imposed onto the spirit as a punishment.
8. Why were your memories mainly of your childhood? – A. Because the beginning is closer to the end than is the center of life.
9. What do you mean? – A. I mean that those in agony remember and see the pure and young years as a reassuring mirage.
OBSERVATION: It is likely that seniors usually have more accurate and detailed memories of their early days for the same providential reason.
10. Why did you always use the third person when referring to your own body? – A. Because, as I said, I was clairvoyant and clearly felt the differences between the physical and the spiritual. Those differences, interconnected by the fluid of life, become very distinct to the eyes of the agonizing visionary.
OBSERVATION: Here we have a singular particularity presented by the death of this gentleman. In his last moments he used to say: - ‘He is thirsty, he needs to drink something, he is feeling cold, one needs to warm him up; he suffers this or that, etc.’ - When asked: But is that you who are thirsty? He replied: - ‘No, it is him.’ – Here the two lives are perfectly drawn: the thinking self is in the spirit and not in the body; once feeling separated, the spirit considered his body as another person, as if it were not him. Hence, it was his body that needed attending to and not him, the spirit.
11. What you just said above about your errant state and the duration of your confusion would lead us to believe that you are not happy. However, your character must lead us to a contrary opinion. As a matter of fact there are errant spirits who are very happy as there are others very unhappy. – A. I am in a transient state. Human virtues acquire their true value here. There is no doubt that my current condition is a thousand times preferable than that of my Earthly incarnation, but I have always carried the aspiration of true good and true beauty and my soul will only be satisfied when it has reached the feet of our Creator.
Henri Mondeux (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, April 26th, 1861)
Another important fact was that he could never absorb our conventional methods of calculation. He did not even understand them. He had his own way of doing things and he did not know how he did it; he did not understand the phenomenon himself, a phenomenon limited to a prodigious memory of numbers. We say numbers instead of totals because the vision of numerical totals confused him more than helped. He preferred to have the problems formulated verbally rather than in writing.
In short this is the result of our own observations carried out with the young Mondeux that gave us material for a lecture given at the Parisian Society of Phrenology. Such a special gift, although taken to the limit, could not help him to start in any career, even as an accountant to a commercial establishment, something that concerned his teacher and was rightly so. He was sorry for having taken the young man away from his herd, asking himself what would become of that youngster once he was deprived from the common interest that brought them together, particularly considering his age. We lost contact with him for eighteen years. As it seems he found ways of surviving giving presentations from town to town.
1. Evocation. – A. 4 plus 3 is 7 in the other worlds as it is here.
2. We thought of evoking you just after your death but we were told that you were not ready yet. It seems that you are now. – A. I was waiting for you.
3. You may not perhaps remember me but I had the occasion of meeting you in private in Prussia and even attend your sessions. As for myself, it seems that I still see you and the Math teacher that followed you and gave me valuable information about you and your skills. – A. That is all I can tell you that I remember about you, but it is only today that my ideas are clearer.
4. What was the origin of that strange skill that gifted you? – A. Ah! That is the question that I was sure you would ask me. You started by saying: I knew you, I saw you, you were skilled, and finally you ask for an explanation. Well then! I had the ability of reading in my own spirit the immediate calculation of a given problem. You could say that the solution was unfolded by a spirit before my eyes and all I had to do was to read it. I was a kind of clairvoyant and calculating medium, and it must be said as if carrying a little book of calculus, prepared beforehand.
5. As far as I remember you did not have this sort of sarcastic wit when alive. You were actually somewhat circumspect. – A. Well, my skills were thoroughly used for the calculations; there was nothing left for other things.
6. How could you have developed such a skill for calculation and be so poor on other elemental parts of Math? – A. Bottom line is that I was stupid, right? You can say the word, I understand. Here, however, I no longer have to develop a faculty to handle numbers and my skills now develop faster on other things.
7. You no longer have to develop that skill for the numbers… (the spirit writes not waiting for the end of the question) – A. That means that God has assigned a mission to all of us. You, he said, will scare away the wise Mathematicians. I will make you look like dumb so that they will be even more astonished; beat them in all calculations and make them say: How can he do it better than us? What is it that he has that is stronger than education? God wanted them to look beyond the body since what it is that exists and is more material than a numeral?
8. What did you do in your previous existences? – A. I was sent to show other things.
9. Were they always related to Math? – A. No doubt since that is my specialty.
10. I had formulated a few problems to check if you still had the same ability but according to what you have just said it seems pointless. – A. I no longer have solutions to give you. I cannot do that. The instrument is bad since it is not a mathematician.
11. Can’t you overcome that limitation? – A. Ah! Nothing is impossible. Even Sebastopol was taken over. But what a difference!
12. What do you do now? – A. Do you want to know my occupation? I wonder and wait a little bit before restarting my career as a medium that must go on.
13. What do you believe is going to be that mediumistic skill? – A. Always the same but more developed and remarkable.
14. (A member makes the following reflection): From the answers it appears that he acted as a medium on Earth, leading to the supposition that he had the support of another spirit, thus explaining why he does not enjoy the same skills today. – A. I was wired in such a way that I could see those numbers provided by other spirits to me. I captured them better than you would; I had the skills of calculation because that is what I was prepared for. All means of convincing are sought. They are all good, great or small, and the spirits capture them all.
15. Did you make a fortune with your skills, going around the world with your sessions? – A. Oh! You ask a medium if he made a fortune! Wrong direction. Of course not!
16. But you did not see yourself as a medium! You did not even know what that was. – A. No. It surprised me also that I received so little financially. That served me morally and I prefer my equity duly registered in the great book of God to the income obtained from the State.
17. We thank you for your kindness in responding to our appeal. – A. You changed your opinion about me.
18. I did not change because I always liked you. – A. I am glad I solved the problems otherwise you would not have noticed me.
OBSERVATION: As everyone knows, the identity of the spirits is the most difficult thing to determine. It is generally revealed through unforeseen circumstances and details; by subtle nuances only captured by a very careful examination, often demonstrating more than the material signs that can be easily imitated by deceiving spirits, while these cannot simulate the intellectual capacity or the moral qualities that they lack. One could doubt the identity in this case without a much logical explanation about the difference of the current personality and the other when alive, because the numerical answer that he gives at the beginning of the evocation cannot be considered as an authentic proof. Whatever the opinion that one may form about the communication above we must acknowledge that besides the witty remarks it contains some profound thoughts. The answers given to questions 7 and 16 are notable with that respect. It results from those answers, like from answers given by other spirits, that the spirit Mondeux has a predisposition for Math; that he likely had that skill in previous existences, but he was no scientific celebrity. It would be hard to understand that a true wise man would be restricted to do calculations to entertain the public, without any other reach or scientific utility. There would be much more reason for doubt if he tried to pretend to have been Newton or Laplace.
Mrs. Anais Gourdon
1. Evocation. – A. Here I am.
2. Your father and your husband asked me to evoke you and will be very happy for receiving your communication. – A. I am also very happy for being able to communicate with them.
3. Why have you been taken away so soon from the warmth of your loving family? – A. Because my Earthly trials were over.
4. Do you see them from time to time? – A. Oh! I am always with them.
5. Are you happy as a spirit? – A. I am happy, I serve and I love. Heaven does not frighten me and I wait confidently and with love so that my white wings may grow.
6. What do you mean by those wings? – A. I mean I should turn into a pure spirit and shine like the celestial messengers that dazzle me.
OBSERVATION: The wings of angels, archangels and seraphs, the pure spirits, are evidently attributes imagined by human beings to portray the speed of their dislocation, since their ethereal nature excuses them from any obstacle when covering spaces. However, they may show themselves to people using that accessory, responding to people’s thoughts, like others who take the appearance they had on Earth in order to make themselves known.
7. Do you see your brother-in-law who died some time ago, and who was evoked last year? – A. I saw him when I arrived to the spiritual world. I don’t see him now.
8. Why don’t you see him anymore? – A. I know nothing about that.
9. Can your relatives do anything to please you? – A. My beloved ones should no longer be sad, despite their grief, since they know that I am not gone forever. May my memory be kind, light and fragrant to them! I passed away like a flower and there is nothing sad about my passage.
10. Where does your poetic language come from, considering the position you had when on Earth? – A. It is my soul that speaks. Yes, I had acquired knowledge and God often allows refined spirits to incarnate amidst the roughest people to make them foresee the kindness that they will one day understand and conquer.
OBSERVATION: Without such explanation that is both so logical and so in agreement with God’s solicitude to his children, we would hardly understand, at first sight, what could in principle seem like an anomaly. In fact, what can be more gracious and poetic than the language of the spirit of this young lady, raised in the middle of a very tough environment? The opposite is also frequently seen: inferior spirits incarnate among more advanced people, but with the opposite objective. God puts them in touch with a more enlightened world for their own advancement, while serving as trials to that world. Which other philosophy can solve these issues?
11. (Evocation of Mr. Gourdon, the oldest son, already evoked in 1860) – A. I am here.
12. Do you remember that you were evoked by us? – A. Yes, perfectly.
13. How come your sister-in-law no longer sees you? – A. She has moved up.
OBSERVATION: She had responded to the same question: “I know nothing about it”; it was certainly out of modesty. It is now explained: with her superior nature she belongs to a more elevated order of spirits, while he is still attached to Earth. They follow different paths.
14. What have you been doing since that occasion? – A. I made progresses in terms of the acquisition of knowledge, listening to the instructions of our guides.
15. Please, I ask you to provide a communication to your father who would be very happy with that. – A. My dear father, you must not think that your children are lost and don’t suffer by seeing their empty places. I also wait and don’t be impatient because I know that the passing days are other steps that need to be overcome, taking us closer to one another. Be grave but not sad since sadness is a mute criticism addressed to God, who wishes to be glorified in his work. In reality, why suffer in this sad life where everything vanishes, except our good or bad deeds? Dear father, be confident and have courage!
OBSERVATION: The first evocation of this young man was marked by the same feelings of filial piety and elevation. It was a huge consolation to his parents who could not get over his loss. That is totally understandable, as it is with the young lady.
Effects of Despair
Death of Mr. Laferrière, member of the Institute - Suicide of Mr. Léon L…
The widow and the Doctor
We would need several books to register all the dismal accidents caused by despair, even if we only take into account those that are of public knowledge. How many suicides, diseases, involuntary deaths, cases of madness, acts of vengeance and even crimes are produced every day! An educational statistic would be that of the root causes that led those persons to a state of insanity. We would see that in at least 80% of the cases despair is present. But that is not our focus today.
Below we transcribe two cases that were reported in the papers, and we don’t do it just to show the news but as material for study. The Siècle of last February 17th reported the following regarding the funerals of Mr. Laferrière:
“On Tuesday we took a twenty-year-old young lady to her final dwelling, followed by some saddened friends, after she had endured a terrible disease for some time. Mr. Laferrière was the father of his only child. He was a member of the Institute and General Inspector at the Law School. The excessive pain killed that unfortunate father and the resignation of the Christian faith was not enough to console him. Thirty six hours later a second blow shook the family and the same week that had seen father and daughter separated also saw them reunited again. Mr. Laferrière funeral was attended by a huge and dismayed crowd.”
The paper says that Mr. Laferrière had religious feelings and it is nice to see it since we must not assume that all scholars are agnostic. Those feelings, however, were not able to preclude him from falling out of despair. We are convinced that if his ideas about the future were less vague, more positive, such as those given by Spiritism; had he believed in the presence of his daughter by his side; had he had the reassuring opportunity of communicating with her, he would have understood that they were only separated physically and for some time and he would have the necessary patience and submission to God’s will up until the time of their reunion; he would have calmed down knowing that his own despair was a cause of disturbance to his beloved one’s happiness. These thoughts are even more appropriate to the news reported by the Siècle on March 1st:
“Mr. Leon L… is a 25 year-old businessman of the Villemonble bus company in Paris. He was married for two years to a young lady who he loved very much. The birth of their son, now 1 year old, brought them even closer. This and the successful business led them to foresee a long and happy future.
A few months ago Mrs. L… felt suddenly ill taken by typhoid fever and despite the most diligent care and the assistance of all of science’s latest medicines, she soon passed away. Since then Mr. L… has been so sad that there was nothing that could distract him. He was heard more than once saying that he hated life and that he wanted to reunite with the one who was his reason of happiness.
Last night, around 7 pm, on returning from Paris in his car he gave the cabriolet carriage to the wagoner and without a word he entered the room adjacent to the dining room. An hour later a servant came to let him know that dinner was served. He responded that he wanted nothing. His body was bending over the desk, the head supported by the hands, seemingly taken by total weakness.
The servant informed his parents who promptly came to help their son. He had lost consciousness. They immediately sent for Dr. Dubois. As soon as the doctor arrived he attested that the young man was dead. He had poisoned himself with a strong dose of laudanum that he had bought for his horses. The young man’s death caused great commotion in the region where he enjoyed general sympathy.”
Mr. Leon L…, no doubt, believed in a future life since he killed himself to reunite with his wife. Had he known through Spiritism the fate of those who commit suicide he would have known that far from short-cutting the path of reunion, his action was an infallible way of keeping them apart. We would like to offer the following opposing fact to those two above, showing the influence that the spiritist beliefs may have upon those who profess them. One of our corresponding members reports the following:
“A lady friend of mine lost her husband whose death was attributed to medical malpractice. She was so angry with the doctor that she persecuted him, ruthlessly, threatening him and telling him out loud and wherever she met him: - ‘Assassin, I will make sure that you die in my hands!’ – That lady was very religious, a good Catholic. The appeal of religion, however, did not stop her. The situation came to a point that the doctor decided to inform the authorities for his own security. In the town where she resides there is a large number of followers of Spiritism. A good spiritist, friend of hers, told her one day:
• How would you react if I told you that you could still talk to your husband?
• Oh! She said, if I only knew that it is possible! If I were certain that I did not lose him forever, that would give me consolation and I would wait.
They soon gave her proof. Her own husband came to give her advice and consolation and by the language he employed, she had no doubt that it was him by her side. Since then a total revolution took place in her mind. Eight days later she went to the house of the doctor who was afraid of her visit; instead of threatening him she offered to shake his hand, saying: - ‘do not be frightened Sir. I came to apologize for the bad things I have been doing against you, as I forgive you for what you did involuntarily. It was my husband himself that advised me to do what I am doing now. He told me that the cause of his death had absolutely nothing to do with you. As a matter of fact I am now certain that he is around me, that he sees and protects me and that one day we will be together again. Hence, I beg you Sir not to keep any hard feelings against me as I do not hold any against you.’
Needless to say that the doctor accepted the settlement immediately and promptly tried to understand the mysterious cause behind his refreshing peace of mind thereafter. Thus, without Spiritism that lady would have likely committed a crime, despite the fact that she was a religious person. Does it demonstrate the uselessness of religion? Not at all. It only shows the insufficiency of the idea that religion provides about the future with such vagueness that to many it presents a kind of uncertainty, while Spiritism in a way allows us to touch it with our fingers, giving the soul a more thorough sense of confidence and security.
Which consolation does materialism bring to the father who has lost his son; the son who has lost his father; the husband who has lost his beloved wife? It says: it is all over. There is nothing left of the beloved creature, absolutely nothing remains from that body that will soon be dissolved. Also their intelligence, the moral qualities, the education, nothing; it all comes to the void; you have lost them forever.
The spiritist says: They are not lost; they all move on; the only thing that is gone is their physical covering; but the spirit, now separated from its prison, is radiant, and it is there, by your side, seeing you, hearing and waiting for you. Oh! The wrongs caused by the materialists inoculating their deceitful arguments, the poison of unbelievers! They never loved. Otherwise, how could they see in cold blood the very object of their love and devotion turning into a pile of dust?
Therefore it seems that God’s greatest rigor has been reserved to them as we shall see them all reduced to the most deplorable condition in the spiritual world and the closer they were from knowing the truth, the less indulgence they will receive from God.
Spiritist Teachings and Dissertations
“Many are invited, but only a few are chosen”(Received by Mr. D’Ambel, medium at the Society)
This evangelical maxim is much better applied to our present time than to the early days of Christianity. In fact, haven’t you already heard the uproar of the storm that must drag the old world and have the summation of all worldly iniquities swallowed into a void? Ah! Blessed the Lord, you who entrusted your faith in his sovereign justice, and like you apostles of the new belief revealed by the superior prophetic voices, go and preach the new dogma of reincarnation and the progress of the spirits according to the way they have accomplished their missions and withstood their earthly trials. Have no fear! The tongues of fire are above your heads. Oh! Followers of Spiritism, you are God’s elected ones! Go and preach the divine word. Time has come and you must sacrifice your habits, your works, and your futile concerns. Go and preach! The superior spirits are with you. You will certainly speak to people who will not be interested in listening to God’s voice because that voice relentlessly claims abnegation. You will preach altruism to the greedy, abstinence to the perverted, and kindness to the domestic tyrants and dictators. Lost words, I know well. But, never mind! You must irrigate the terrain with your sweat for it will not yield and fructify without the persistent efforts of the evangelical hoe and plough. Go and preach!
Yes, all of you, people of good faith, who believe in your inferiority before the globes and spread in the infinity of space, join the crusade against injustice and iniquity. Go; reverse this invasive worship of the golden calf. Go, God is with you! Simple and ignorant people, your tongues will be freed and you shall speak as no other speaker has done before. Go and preach and the attentive crowds will gladly harvest your words of consolation, fraternity, hope and peace. Never mind the traps that will be thrown in your path! Only wolves fall into the traps prepared for wolves and behold, the shepherd will defend his flock against the bloodthirsty adversaries. Thus, move on with your grandiose faith and in small numbers! March on! The great battalions of disbelievers will fall before your eyes like the morning mist dissipates before the early rays of the rising sun. Faith is the virtue that moves mountains, said Jesus. However, all vices and impurities hidden in the human beings’ heart are heavier than the heaviest mountain. Go and have no fear to move that mountain of iniquities that future generations will only know as legends of the past, like you, who only has a slight idea about the times prior to the pagan civilization. Yes, there will be moral and philosophical struggles all over the world. Time is near when the divine light will shine on both worlds.
Take the divine word to notables who will show contempt; to scholars who will demand proof; to the little and simple ones who will accept the word because you will find in them the martyrs of the work, where you will see devotion and faith in their earthly punishments! These are the ones who will welcome the sacred consolation with grace and worship, praising the Lord with their songs, bending before his will, thanking him for their misery. May your troops be forearmed with resolution and courage! Onto the work! The plough is ready; the terrain awaits; cultivation is needed. Go now and thank God for the glorious task that you have been assigned. But remember that among the many called to Spiritism several have gone astray. Watch your route and follow the path of truth.
Q – If many of those called to Spiritism have gone astray, how can we identify those who are on the good path? – A. You will recognize them by the application of the principles of the professed true charity; by the number of ill-fated people that they console; by their love to their neighbor, by their abnegation and selfless; finally, you will recognize them by the triumph of those principles since God wishes the establishment of his law. The ones who follow that law are the chosen ones and God will award them with victory but those who betray the spirit of his law, using it as a pedestal to their vanity and ambition, those will be crushed.
Occupation of the Spirits, (Medium Mrs. Costel)
Make no mistake. There is no idleness to a being that lives as a spirit and all his skills are focused on a single objective that he knows is far away but certain. Boredom can only come from an empty mind and from useless thoughts. Time that is a burden to you, measured by your foolish fears and your frivolous hopes, time does not affect those who are not submitted to the confusion of their souls or the needs of the body. Time goes by even faster for the superior and pure spirits, those in charge of executing God’s tasks and traveling the spheres of rapid flights. As for inferior spirits, particularly those with heavy faults to atone, time is measured by their sorrow, remorse and sufferings.
The worst among them seek to escape by doing evil or by the suggestion of bad things. That is when they experience a bitter and temporary sensation like the injured person that scratches his wound just to feel more pain. Hence, their sufferings grow in such a way that they will have no alternative but to administer the proper medicine, returning to the good path. The poor spirits who are the only ones to blame for their weakness and ignorance endure emptiness and isolation. They feel sorry for their earthly body, regardless of their pain. They rebel and despair until they realize that it is only through resignation and a strong will to return to good that they can alleviate their sufferings. As they become calm, they understand that God does not abandon a single creature.
Intemperance (Sent by Mr. Sabò from Bordeaux)
If you were given the ability to reproduce the human species the reason for that is in the need of thousands of wandering souls that await in space for the opportunity of having a body and restarting their trials; now if you use your physical strength in shameful orgies you work against God’s will and for that you shall pay dearly. Thus I recommend that you cast away useless literature that does not help the improvement of your intelligence or your moral betterment. May the serious writers from all times and from all countries help you to approach beauty and good; as they raise your soul to the delights of poetry and may they help you realize your God given gifts!
OBSERVATION: Isn’t the idea of such an elevated objective to human reproduction something prominent and sublime? The wandering spirits wait for those bodies, necessary for their own betterment, and the incarnated spirits are tasked with that reproduction, like man, who waits for the product from the fabrication of certain animals to be clothed and fed.
There is another lesson of great significance that sticks out from that. If one does not admit that the soul had lived before it is then absolutely necessary to admit that it is created at the very moment of body formation, from which it follows that the creation of the soul by God would be subordinated to the good will of the individual, and in most cases it would result from human’s intemperance. How can it be! Every religion and moral law condemns the depravation of customs. We ask any person of common sense if it is at all possible that God may contradict Himself to such an extent. Wouldn’t that be the glorification of vices as long as serving the purpose of achieving the Almighty designs?
Tell us if that would not be the consequence of the simultaneous formation of body and soul; and it would be even worse than admitting the opinion that the human being procreates the soul as one does with the body.
Now let us admit the opposite that the soul preexists and every contradiction disappears since humans only procreate the body and God’s work, the creation of the immortal soul that will one day return to God, that is no longer submitted to the caprices of humanity.
That is how without reincarnation there is always a new philosophical difficulty that shows up, leading to contradiction and absurd explanations. Hence, the principle of unity of our corporeal life, irreversibly defining the future of humanity, falls on its own basis, losing terrain and followers every day. We can then safely say that the contrary principle will be universally accepted as the only logical one, the only one in agreement with God’s justice, the one proclaimed by Christ himself when he said: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’
About the Perispirit
I followed with interest the discussion that you have just had and that has put you in an embarrassing situation. Yes, there are a lack of words related to color and form to express the perispirit and its true nature. But there is one certainty. What some call perispirit is the same as what others call a fluidic and material envelope. When similar things are discussed, one must be careful with the words and not with the sentences. In order to make myself understood in a more logical way, I say that that fluid is the perfectibility of the senses, the extension of the vision and ideas. I speak about the elevated spirits. As for the inferior spirits, the earthly fluids are still totally inherent in them; so it is the matter that you see; hence the sensation of cold, hunger, etc. sensations that cannot reach superior spirits since the earthly fluids are purified around the soul. The soul always has the need for an instrument to advance. The soul without an agent is nothing to you, or better said, it cannot be conceived by you. For us, wandering spirits, the perispirit is the agent through which we can communicate with you. That is why you find the infinite nuances of mediums and communications. Now there is still the scientific point of view, that is, the essence of the perispirit. That is a different subject. You must first understand it in moral terms. The only thing that is missing is a discussion about the nature of those fluids and that is inexplicable at this point in time. Science does not know enough but it will get there if it wants to move forward with Spiritism.
Lamennais
Angel Gabriel (Evocation of a good spirit in Soultz-Haut-Rhin by Mrs. X.)
Everybody has his or her own ordeal on this Earth but not everybody faces that with the kind resignation exemplified by Jesus. It was so great that the angels were touched! How about humanity? Would a drop of tear roll before such pain? Oh! The stiffness of the human heart! Did you deserve such a sacrifice? Cast your face on the dust and implore for God’s mercy, God who is a thousand times good, a thousand times kind and a thousand times merciful!
A glimpse, Oh! My God, of your eyes upon your creation without which it will perish! Their heart is not up to your level. They cannot understand such excess of love from you. Have pity on them! A thousand times, have pity! Raise their courage through thoughts that can only come from you. Bless them so that and above all they can produce fruits worth of your greatness!
Praise to the most elevated heavens and peace to every person of good will!
These are the words that God wanted me to transmit to you. May you be blessed in God so that you may one day wake up in his heart!
Wake up! (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, Medium Mrs. Costel)
May these words be endlessly repeated in order not to find you distracted and indifferent; you will receive those precious grains waiting to be born, after the farmer has sowed the seeds.
Don’t you dare say: life follows its normal course; our parents saw nothing that has been announced; we won’t do better! Let us worship what they worshiped, or even better, let us replace their worship by empty formulas and all will be fine.
By using those words you sleep. Wake up for it is not the trumpet of the final days that will vibrate in your ears but the voice of truth. This is not about a defeated and humiliated death. This is about the present life, or rather, about the eternal life. Do not forget it and wake up.
Helvétius
The Genius and the Misery (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mr. Alfred Didier)
I know that it is only a few that are defeated but how many others are there? There is a painter of the modern school who has conceived a very good image on the subject: ‘There is man, a genius, whose wings are spread and whose eyes are affixed to the side of the Sun; he is almost standing but he falls back onto the rock which he is shackled, perhaps forever.’
The man who had this dream might have been chained as well and perhaps after his liberation he remembered those left behind on the rock.
Gérard de Nerval
Transformation (Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, medium Mrs. Costel)
Like the shepherd in the past, guided by a star on the way to worship the Child-God, the human being must march towards the promised land of freedom and love, now guided by the bright dawn of Spiritism. One must understand that the great mystery is the extraordinary harmony of nature and its remarkable rhythm are models to humanity. In this amazing diversity that confuses the spirits, you must distinguish the perfect similarity of the relationship between created things and being created and that this powerful harmony initiates all of you, people of action, poets, artists, workers, the union in which we must blend the joint efforts during the pilgrimage of life. Caravans beset by storms and adversities, reach out to one another with your friendly hands and walk together looking up to a just God, the one who rewards a hundred times anyone who have alleviated the weak and the oppressed.
The Separation of the Spirit (Sent by Mr. Sabò, from Bordeaux)
When the spirit is ignorant and in particular very guilty, however, the beauties of the dwelling of the good spirits are hidden by a thick veil, and the spirit remains among bad and inferior ones in a circle where it remains oblivious of its actual position, not knowing where it came from.
The spirit then suffers during a more or less lengthy period of time, until the moment when brotherly spirits come to shine a light on his position, and open its eyes to the remembrance of the places where the spirit has inhabited before, as well as the many other planets where new incarnations will take place. If the last incarnation were successful it opens the doors to the superior worlds. If it were useless and full of iniquities, the spirit is punished by remorse and after submitting to God’s will through regret and with the support of the others, the spirit starts a new life not as a reward but as a punishment or a trial.