The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

Mrs.... had just lost her only fourteen years old daughter a few months ago. The daughter was the object of great affection and tenderness, very worthy of the mother’s regrets for the qualities which would certainly have turned the girl into a perfect lady. The girl died of a long lasting and painful disease. Inconsolable with her loss, the mother saw her own health debilitating daily, endlessly repeating that she would soon meet her daughter.

Informed about the possibility of communicating with the beings from beyond the grave, Mrs. ... decided to look for some relief to her own misery by talking to her daughter. She was acquainted with another lady whom she knew was a medium but both were not much in favor of such evocations, particularly considering the seriousness of the circumstances, so they then asked for my assistance. It was only the three of us: the mother, the medium and I. Here is the result of this first session:

Mother: In the name of the All Mighty God, spirit of Julia, my beloved daughter, I ask you to come, if God thus allows.

Julia: Mom, I am here!
Mother: Is that you my daughter, who answers me? How can I know it is you? Julia: Lili.

OBSERVATION: This was her family childhood nickname; neither the medium nor I knew about it, as she was only known, for many years, by the name Julia. With this sign her identity was evident. Not withholding her emotions, the mother wept.

Julia: Mother, why such affliction? I am happy, very happy. I no longer suffer and always see you. Mother: But I cannot see you! Where are you?

Julia: I am here, just beside you, with my hand over Mrs. X (the medium) so that she can write what I tell you. See my writing (the writing was really hers).

Mother: You say: my hand. Then, you have a body?

Julia: I no longer have the body which had me suffer so much but I have its appearance. Aren’t you happy for I no longer suffer and can talk to you?

Mother: If I saw you I would then be able to recognize you?
Julia: Yes, no doubt; and you have already seen me many times in your dreams.

Mother: I have, indeed, seen you many times in my dreams, but I thought it was just the effect of memories and imagination.

Julia: No. It is me, I am always with you and I try to give you consolation; It was I who inspired you the idea of the evocation. I have so many things to tell you. Do not trust Mr. Z... He is not sincere.

OBSERVATION: This gentleman, only known by the mother, cited in such a spontaneous mode, was even another proof of identity of the manifesting spirit.


Mother: What can Mr. Z do against me?

Julia: This I cannot tell you. It is forbidden to me. I can only warn you not to trust him.


Mother: Are you among angels?

Julia: Oh! Not yet. I am not perfect enough.

Mother: However, I never knew any fault in you. You were good, kind, loving and benevolent to everyone. Then this is not enough?

Julia: To you, my dear, I did not have defects and I believed it as you told me so many times! But now I see how much else I need to be perfect.

Mother: How will you acquire these missing qualities?

Julia: In new existences which will be happier and happier.

Mother: Will your new existences be on earth?

Julia: I know nothing about it.

Mother: Since you have done nothing wrong in your life, why you had to suffer so much?

Julia: Trial! Trial! I withstood it with patience, as from my trust in God. Today I am very happy for that. So long, dear mother!

Facing facts like this, who would dare to talk about the emptiness of the grave, when the future life reveals itself to us in such a touchable way, so to speak? This mother, undermined by her sorrow, experiences today an indescribable happiness on talking to her daughter; between them no more separation; their souls are interconnected in a spiritual intimacy, by the exchanges of thoughts.

Despite the discretion surrounding this fact, we would not have published it had we not had the formal permission to do so. That mother told us: May all those who lost their earthly loved ones experience the same consolation that I do!

We will add only one word to those who deny the existence of the good spirits. How can they demonstrate that the spirit of this young lady was an evil demon?

Private evocations - a conversion

The following evocation will not be of lower interest, although from a different point of view.

A gentleman, here named Georges, a pharmacist from a southern city, had lost his father some time ago, to whom he was tenderly affectionate and to whom he devoted profound veneration. The late Mr. Georges – the father – added to his higher education, all qualities of a good man, although he embraced materialistic views. With that regard, his son shared the same ideas, if not even beyond those of his father; he doubted everything: God, soul, future life. Spiritism did not adapt to those thoughts. On reading “The Spirits’ Book”, however, he felt a certain reaction, reinforced by a direct conversation we had with him. He would say: “If my father could answer me, I would no longer doubt.” It was then that the following evocation was carried out, in which we encounter numerous lessons.

1. In the name of the All Mighty, spirit of my father, I request that you manifest yourself. Are you by my side?

- Yes.
2. Why don’t you manifest directly to me, considering our mutual love?

- Later.
3. Can we meet one day?

- Yes, soon.
4. Shall we love each other as in this life?

- More.
5. In which condition you find yourself?

- I am happy.
6. Have you reincarnated or are you wandering (errant)?

- Wandering for a short time
7. What was your sensation on leaving the corporeal involucre (wrapping)?

- A perturbation.
8. How long did the perturbation last?

- Ten years for you, ten minutes for me.
9. But it was not long ago that I lost you. Was not that only four months ago?

- If you, as a living being, were in my place, you would have felt that time. 10. Do you now believe in a good and fair God?

- Yes
11. When living on earth did you also believe?

- I had the prior knowledge but did not believe. 12. Is God All Mighty?

- I have not gone up to him to know his power. It is only him who knows the limits of his power as it is only him who is his equal.

13. Is he occupied with men? - Yes.

14. Shall we be punished or rewarded according to our actions? - If you do evil things, you will suffer.

15. If I act in the right way, will I be rewarded? - You will advance in your path.

16. Am I in the right path?

- Do the good things and you will be.
17. I believe I am good but it would be better if I could find you one day, as a reward.

- May this thought sustain you and give you courage. 18. Will my son be good as his grandfather?

- Develop his virtues and eliminate his wickedness.
19. This is so wonderful that it is hard for me to believe that we are communicating now.

- Where does the doubt come from?
20. On sharing your philosophical ideas, I was led to believe that everything can be attributed to matter.
- Do you see at night what you do at daytime?

21. Oh my father! Then am I in the dark? - Yes.

22. What do you see today that is exceedingly marvelous? - Explain yourself better.

23. Have you met my mother, my sister and Ana, the good Ana? - I saw them.

24. Do you see them again whenever you want? - Yes.

25. Is my communication with you painful or enjoyable?

The effect that this communication had on Mr. Georges was immense and an entirely new light seemed to clarify his ideas. In a session, which he attended the next day, in the home of Mrs. Roger, a somnambulist, he ended up eliminating the few doubts he would still have. Here is a summary of the letter he sent us:

“That lady spontaneously shared with me such precise details about my father, my mother, my children and my health; she described all circumstances of my life with such accuracy, even reminding me about facts that I had long forgotten; in one word, gave me patent proof of this marvelous faculty which the lucid somnambulists have that, since then, I had undergone a complete change of ideas. In the evocation, my father had revealed his presence. In the session of somnambulism I was, so to speak, the visual witness of the extra corporeal life, the life of the soul.”

In order to describe, with such details, two hundred leagues away, something that only I knew, it was necessary to be able to physically see. Well, as it was not possible with the eyes of the body, there was then a mysterious link, invisible, connecting the somnambulist to the absent people who she had never met! There was, thus, something outside matter. What could that be other than what is called soul, the intelligent being to which the body is only an involucre, but whose action goes much beyond our sphere of activities? Currently Mr. Georges not only is no longer materialist but he is also one of the strongest and most dedicated adepts of Spiritism, what makes him doubly happy by the confidence he now has in the future and by the pleasure he experiments with the practice of good. This evocation, very simple in the beginning, is not less notable from several aspects. The character of the old Mr. Georges reflects well in his brief and sentenced answers, according to his habits. He was a man of few words. Never spoke a useless word. But it was no longer the skeptical speaking. He acknowledges his error; his spirit is freer, more clairvoyant, and portrays the unity and power of God by these admirable words: “Only he is his equal”. He, who in his life, used to attribute everything to matter, now says: “The body is nothing. The spirit is everything.” And another sublime phrase: “Do you see at night what you do at daytime?”

To the diligent observer everything has an extension and this is how, step by step, he finds confirmation of the immense truths taught by the spirits.