Spontaneous Essays
The Angel of Children
(Society, medium Mrs. de Boyer)
My name is Michael. I am one of the spirits assigned to guard the
children. What a kind mission! What happiness it gives to the soul!
The protection of children, you will ask! Don’t they have their mothers,
the good angels designated to shelter them? Why would there still be the
need for a spirit to watch over them? However, how about those who no
longer have their mothers? Don’t they exist in a large number?
And how about the mother, doesn’t she, sometimes need help? Who
wakes her up in her first sleep? Who makes her foresee the danger, creating
relief when the pain is great? It is us, always us. We turn the naughty
child away from the cliff; we keep the dangerous animals and the wild
fire away from her, fire that could burn her beautiful hair. Our mission
is gentle! We are still the ones who inspire in them compassion towards
the poor, sweetness, goodness. Not one of them, even the worst of them,
could disturb us. There is always a time when their little hearts are open
to us. How many of you will be impressed by that mission. However,
don’t you always say that there is a God to the children, particularly to the
poor children? No, not a God, but angels, friends. Otherwise, how could
you explain these miraculous rescues? There are still many other powers whose existence you don’t even suspect. There is the spirit of flowers, of
perfumes; a thousand and one others whose more or less elevated missions
would seem charming and privileged to you, after your tough life of trials.
I will invite them to come to you. At this point in time I am rewarded by
a life entirely dedicated to children. Married at a young age to a man who
had many, I was not fortunate to have my own children. Entirely dedicated
to them, the good and sovereign God has allowed me to guard the
children. Smooth and sacred mission, I repeat, whose efficacy the mothers
present here could not deny. Good-bye, I will go now to the bedside of
my little protected ones. The time of sleep is my time, and it is necessary
that I visit all those lovely closed eyelids. Make no mistake, the good angel
who watches over them is not an allegory but a truth.
Advices
(Society, November 25th, medium Mr. Roze)
In the old days you would have been crucified, burnt at the stake,
tortured. The force was diminished; the fire extinguished and
the instruments of torture broken. The terrible weapons of ridicule;
so powerful against the lies and weaken the will against the
truth. Its fiercest enemies retracted into an impenetrable circle. In
fact, denying the reality of our manifestations would be the same
as denying the revelation that is the foundation of all religions.
Attributing it to the devil, pretending that the evil spirit has come
to comfort you; cultivate the Gospel, urging you towards the
good; to practice all virtues, it is simply and happily only to prove
that the spirit does not exist. Every divided kingdom shall perish.
Bad spirits will remain. A good tree never produces bad fruits; a
bad tree never produces good fruits. You have nothing better to
tell them but what Christ used to tell his oppressors when they
formulated the same accusations against him, begging for God’s
forgiveness since they didn’t know what they were doing.
The Spirit of Truth
(Another essay dictated to Mr. Roze, and read at the Society)
France carries the banner of progress and she must guide the other
nations. That is demonstrated by previous and current events.
You were chosen to be the mirror which must receive and reflect
the Divine light, which must illuminate Earth, up until now
soaked in the darkness of ignorance and lies. However, if you are
not animated by the love to thy neighbor and by a boundless devotion;
if the desire of knowing and propagating the truth, whose
paths you must open to posterity, is not the only motive driving
your works; if the slightest shade of pride, selfishness and material
interest find shelter in your hearts, we shall only be served by
you like the artisan that temporarily uses a defective instrument.
We will come to you up until the time when we have found or
stimulated a center richer than you are in virtues, more sympathetic
to the phalanx of spirits sent by God to reveal the truth to
the people of good will. Give some serious thoughts to that. Dig
deep into your hearts, probe their most intimate thoughts and
vigorously expel the bad passions which keep us away, otherwise
you must leave before risking the work of your brothers and sisters
by your presence or by the presence of the spirits that you bring
along with you.
The Spirit of Truth
Ostentation
(Society, December 16th, 1860 – Medium Ms. Huet)
In a beautiful spring afternoon a rich and generous man was sitting
in his living room. He happily smelled the aroma of garden
flowers while complacently tallying all the good deeds he had
done that year. He could not avoid giving an almost despicable
look at the house of one of his neighbors who gave but an almost
insignificant contribution to the construction of the local church.
As for me, he said, I gave more than a thousand francs to that
work; I deliberately threw a 500 franc bill into the basket that
the young Duchess circulated in favor of the poor; I gave much
more to the beneficent parties, to all kinds of raffles and I believe
God will be thankful for so much I have done. Ah! I forgot the
small alms that I lately gave to an unfortunate widow who has a
large family, still raising an orphan. However, what I gave her is
so small that this is certainly not what is going to open the doors
of heaven to me.
• You are mistaken, he suddenly heard from a voice that made
him turn his head: that is the only one accepted by God; here is the proof. At the same time a hand erased everything
he had listed on the piece of paper with all his good deeds,
leaving the last one only, the voice and the paper went back
into heaven.
Hence it is not the alms given with ostentation that is the
best, but the one given with humility of heart.
Joinville, Amy de Loys.
Love and Freedom
(Society, January 27th, 1860 – Medium Mr. Roze)
God is love and freedom and it is through love and freedom that
the spirit moves closer to God. Through love the spirit develops
new relationships that get him closer to the unity in each existence;
through freedom the spirit chooses the good that gets him
closer to God. Be eager to spread the new faith but may the sacred
eagerness that animates you never cast any harm upon the freedom
of others! You must avoid mounting a kind of worn out and
almost yielded resistance by insisting too much before a terrible
and proud incredulity. The reign of coercion and oppression is
over; it is time for reason, freedom and fraternal love. From now
on, it is no longer by force and fear that the earthly powers will
acquire the right of governing the moral, spiritual and material
needs of its people but by love and freedom.
Abelardo
Immortality
(Society, February 3rd, 1860 – Medium Ms. Huet)
How can an intelligent person not believe in the immortality of
the soul and consequently in a future life other than that of
Spiritism? What should become of that immense love that a mother
devotes to her children, the great care since their infancy, and the enlightened
dedication of a father to the education of a beloved son? All
annihilated at the time of separation or death? Would we then be like
animals whose instincts are undoubtedly remarkable but which no
longer take care of their offspring beyond the time necessary to attend
their maternal needs?
When that time has come parents abandon their children and it is
all over: the body is raised, there is no soul. However, the individual
would not have a soul, an immortal soul! How about the sublime genius
that can only be compared to God, since it comes from God,
that genius that generates prodigies, that creates masterpieces, all that
would be annihilated by the individual’s death? What Profanation absurdity!
One cannot destroy in such a way those God given things.
Raphael, Newton, Michelangelo and so many other sublime geniuses
still illuminate the world with their spirit, although their bodies no onger exist. Make no mistake; they live and shall live forever. As for
the communication with you, that is more difficult to admit by the
vast majority of people. It is only through the study and observation
that they can be ensured of such possibility.
Fénelon
Parable
(Society, December 9th, 1859 – Medium Mr. Roze)
An old ship was hit by a terrible storm in its last journey. In addition
to a large number of passengers, the ship transported to its final destination
several foreign merchandise accumulated by the greed and cupidity
of their owners. Danger was imminent. There was chaos aboard. The
shipmasters refused to throw the load overboard. The orders were ignored
since crew and passengers alike had lost their trust in them. It was time to
consider abandoning ship. Three lifeboats were lowered. The most inexperienced,
stunned and impatient rushed to the first one, swiftly rowing
towards a dim light seen ashore. They soon fell in the hands of a group of
castaways who took over the boat and then hastily collected the precious
belongings, ruthlessly mistreating them.
The second group, more insightful, was able to distinguish a liberating
lighthouse amidst the misleading lights that illuminated the horizon.
They confidently allowed themselves to be dragged by the caprice of the
waves, wrecking the boat against the coral reefs at the foothill of the lighthouse
that kind of stared at them permanently. They felt their ruin and
the loss of their properties as much as they had yearned their salvation.
The third group, less numerous but shrewd and sensible, carefully
guided the boat through the wreckage, saving bodies and goods, not suffering
except for fatigue after the trip.
Thus, don’t be content by only avoiding the bright lights of the shipwrecked
and the bad spirits; but know how to avoid the mistakes of the
idle ones, those who lost their goods and become shipwrecked at the port.
Know how to navigate your ship through the wreckage of all passions
and you shall happily get to the port of eternal life, carrying the wealth of
virtues acquired in all your journeys.
St. Vincent de Paul
Spiritism
(Society, February 3rd, 1860 – Medium Mrs. M)
Spiritism is called upon to clarify the world but needs a certain time to
advance. It has existed since creation but only acknowledged by a few
persons since in general the masses don’t bother to give any thought to
spiritist questions. Now, with the help of this pure doctrine, there will be
a new light. God who does not wish to keep His children in ignorance allows
the more elevated spirits to come to support us, countering the spirits
of darkness who try to embrace the world. Human pride shades reason,
leading to many mistakes. Simple and kind spirits are necessary to spread
the light and mitigate all evils. Courage! Stay with this God pleasing work
for it is useful to His greater glory and great good shall come from that for
the salvation of the souls.
Francis de Sales
Philosophy
(Society, February 3rd, 1860 – Medium Mr. Colin)
Write this: Human beings! What is that? Where do they come from?
Where are they going? God? Nature? Creation? The world? Their
past and future eternity! Nature’s limit, relationships between the infinite
and the private being? Passage from infinite to the finite? – These are
questions that people should have framed, when for the first time and still
a child, they saw with the eyes of reason the mysterious march of the celestial
bodies above their head; Earth below their feet, alternatively dressed
up in fancy clothes in the shaking wind of spring or covered by the mantle
of mourning, under the cold breath of winter; thinking and feeling
they saw themselves suddenly thrown into this vital maelstrom between
yesterday, the day of their birth, and tomorrow, the time of their death.
These are questions asked by all people, at all times and in all schools, still
enigmas to the future generations. Nevertheless, these questions deserve
the attention of investigative spirits of your century, the genius of your
country. Thus, if you had one person, ten people among you, aware of
the high importance of their apostolic mission, willing to leave a stamp of
their passage on Earth, as a milestone to posterity, I would tell them this:
for a long time you have come to terms with the errors and prejudices of your time; the period of physical and material manifestations is over to
you; what you call experimental evocations can no longer teach you much
since in the majority of cases there is only curiosity at play. However, the
philosophical era of the Doctrine is near. Do not remain attached to the
rotting pillars any longer, but courageously enter the heavenly sanctuary,
firmly raising the flag of modern philosophy, in which you fearlessly will
inscribe: mysticism, rationalism. Be eclectic in modern eclecticism; do as
the ancients did, supported by the historical, mystical and legendary tradition,
always observing the revelation though, an illuminating torch that
we have all missed, resorting to the lights of the superior spirits, missionary
devoted to the march of the human spirit. Those spirits, however elevated
they may be, they don’t know everything. Only God does. Besides,
they cannot reveal everything that is known to them. Where would the
individual’s free will be then, his responsibility, merit and demerit, and
also the sanctioning of punishment or reward? Yet, I can provide you with
the guidelines containing some fundamental principles.
Hence, listen to this:
1st – The soul has the power of separating from matter;
2nd – The soul can elevate well above intelligence;
3rd – Such state is beyond reason;
4th – It can put people in touch with everything that escapes
their senses;
5th – Human beings can incite it by praying to God, by a
constant struggle, reducing their soul to the state of pure essence,
so to speak, denying sensitive and exterior activity; in a word, by
abstracting everything that there is varied multiple, indecisive,
chaotic, of exteriority inside the soul;
6th – There is up until now a completely ignored force in the
very self of the individual. Thus, search for that.
Moses, Plato, and later Julian
Communications
Read at the Society
(By Mr. Pêcheur)
My friend, don’t you know that the person who follows the path of
progress is always faced by ignorance and envy? Envy is the dust
lifted by your steps. Your ideas cause revolt to certain people because they
don’t understand them or muffle the voice of their conscience with their
pride, which proclaims in turn: what you repeal now shall one day be
brought back to you by your judge. It is God’s hand reaching out to you
to remove you from the quagmire in which you were thrown into by
your own passions. Listen to the voice of reason for a moment. Consider
that you live in the century of money, dominated by the self; that the
love for things dries your heart out, overloading your conscience with
your faults, and even crimes which must be confessed. Unfaithful people
who call themselves skillful, your skills will wreck you. You shall be offered
no help. You turned a blind eye to the misfortunes of others and
you shall go down without a tear dropped on your behalf. Stop! There
is still time. May regret get into your hearts; may it be sincere and God
shall forgive you. Look for the unfortunate ones, who dare not to complain,
slowly killed by their misery, and the poor relieved by your gestures
will have your name in their prayers; they shall bless the hand that may perhaps save their daughter from dying of hunger and dishonoring shame.
Disgrace will fall upon you if your ears are deaf to their voices. God told
you, through the sacred mouth of Christ: love your neighbor as yourself.
Hasn’t God given you reason to judge between good and evil? Hasn’t God
given you a heart to have pity on the sufferings of your equals? Don’t you
feel that you are suppressing the voice of charity and progress by suppressing
your own conscience? Don’t you feel as if you are dragging an empty
body? Don’t you feel as if nothing beats in your chest, making your walk
in uncertainty?
As you have fled the light and your eyes have become of the flesh, you
are filled with darkness and fear that agitates you. You search, but it is too
late to leave this road that is crumbling under your feet. Fear that you cannot
define, you judge as superstitious. You pretend to be generous, hoping
to redeem your selfish life; you give alms with the fear that you will snatch
it back, but God knows what drives you. You cannot deceive God. Your
life shall end hopelessly and you won’t be able to push it back by a single
day. It shall end, despite your wealth, ambitioned in anticipation by your
children, since you have given them the example. Like you, they have a
unique love for gold, their only dream of happiness. When that time of
justice comes, you will have to face the supreme and forgotten Judge.
Your daughter
Conscience
Each person has in one’s innermost self what you call an interior voice.
It is what the spirits calls conscience, a severe judge overseeing all actions
of your life. When the individual is alone one hears that conscience
and ponders things in their fair value. The person is sometimes ashamed of
oneself. At that moment one acknowledges God but ignorance, that fatal
advisor, pushes the person away, dressing one up with the mask of pride. It
shows itself full of emptiness, seeking to deceive you by its arrogance. But
the righteous person does not hold a proud head; one thoughtfully listens
to the words of wisdom; one feels that God is everything. The person seeks
enlightenment in the book of nature, written by the Creator’s hand. One’s
spirit elevates, expelling from one’s body the material passions which frequently
veer oneself off course. That dragging passion is a dangerous guide.
Stay strong my friend and let the skeptical laugh since one’s laughter
shall end. The human being becomes a believer at the time of one’s death.
My friend, keep God in your thoughts, the only one who will not deceive
you. Keep in mind that there is only one path leading to God: faith and
love to one’s fellow being.
Your daughter
Dwelling
of the Elected
Ones
(By Mrs. D…)
Your thoughts are absorbed by earthly things. If you want to listen
to us you must forget them. Let us try to talk from a higher level.
May your spirit elevate to those regions, the dwelling of the elected ones
by the Lord. Behold the worlds that await all mortals, whose places are
set according to the merits they have earned. What happiness is found by
those dedicated to the sacred things, to the great teachings given in the
name of God! Oh men! How little you are compared to the spirits parted
from matter, who inhabit the spaces by the glory of the Lord! Happy are
those invited to dwell the worlds where matter is not but a word; where
everything is ethereal and translucent; where disagreements are no longer
heard. Heavenly music is the only noise that clears the senses, so perfect
capturing the tiniest sounds, of which are called harmony! How graceful
are all those creatures so much loved by God! What a subtleness when
moving about those enchanted regions, their refuge! No more disagreements,
envy or hatred there; love has become the link destined to unite them all. Such a love which fulfills their hearts, the end in itself, summarizes
faith, love and charity.
A friend
(Another, by the same medium)
Your obliviousness afflicted me. Don’t leave me any more for such a long
time without calling me. I feel prepared to speak with you and give you
advice. Be careful and don’t believe everything the other spirits might
tell you; they could perhaps lead you to the wrong path. Before anything
else, be sensible so that your God given mission is not denied to you, and
do as follows: help to bring to people’s attention the revelation about the
existence of the spirits around them. Not everyone is ready to understand
and appreciate the elevated reach of these things, whose knowledge God
only allows to the elected ones. There shall be a day in which this Science,
full of greatness and consolation, will be shared by the whole human race,
when there will no longer be a single skeptical. People will then have a
hard time to understand how such a tangible truth could have ever been
disputed by the simplest of the mortals. In truth, I tell you that half a
century will not go by without having the ears and eyes of everyone open
to this great truth: that the spirits circulate in space and occupy different
worlds, according to their merit before God’s eyes; that the true life
is in death and that the individual needs to redeem many times before
obtaining the eternal life, achieved by everyone in more or less centuries
of suffering, according to their more or less faith before the teachings of
the Lord.
A friend
The Spirit and the Trial
(By Mrs. Netz)
The individual’s freedom is totally individual. One was born free but
such a freedom is sometimes one’s disgrace. Moral freedom, physical
freedom, it all goes together but often lacks discernment, what you
call common sense. If a person has spirit but lacks discernment it is as if
one had nothing because what shall be done of the spirit if it cannot be
governed; if the necessary intelligence to lead the spirit is not there; if the
individual thinks to be walking the good path when in reality one is in
a swamp; if one always thinks to be right when in reality one is wrong?
Discernment may take the place of the spirit but the spirit can never replace
discernment. It is a necessary quality and when we don’t have it we
must make every effort to acquire it.
A familiar spirit
The Skeptical
(By Mrs. L…)
Your doctrine is beautiful and sacred. The groundwork has been laid
and firmly positioned. All you have to do now is to move forward.
The path before you is ample and majestic. Blessed will be the one who
arrives at the port. The more proselytes you have made the more shall be
counted in your favor. But the doctrine must not be coldly embraced for
that. One needs eagerness, which shall double since God is always with
you when you do good deeds. Those that you bring with you shall be the
other sheep to add to the herd. Poor stray sheep! Believe me, the most
doubtful, the most atheist, as well as the most skeptical always have a
little spot in their hearts which they would like to hide from themselves.
Very well! That is the spot that you must look for, that you must find, the
vulnerable side that is necessary to attack. It is a small gap intentionally
left open by God, facilitating to God’s creature the means of coming back
to God’s heart.
St. Benedict
The Supernatural
(By Mr. Rabache, from Bordeaux)
My children, your father did well in calling your attention to the
phenomena produced in your séances for some days now. Assessing
them on the basis of the instructions of certain sectarian spirits, ignorant
where they rule, that these things are supernatural. Don’t believe that
my children. Nothing that has happened is supernatural. If it were, your
common sense would tell you that it would only happen outside of nature
and then it could not be seen. In order that your eyes or the other senses
may be able to perceive something, it is totally necessary that such a thing
be natural. Once you give some thought to that, you will see that there
is not a single serious spirit who may lead you to believe in supernatural
things. Having stated that, I don’t mean that there are not things which
may appear as such to your intelligence but the only reason for that is
that you don’t understand them yet. When a given fact seems to escape
what you consider natural be aware of that laziness of spirit which would
lead you to believe that it is supernatural. Make the effort to understand
it. That is why intelligence was given to you. What good would it do to you if you were to be satisfied by the teachings and beliefs of your predecessors
only? It is necessary that each one puts their intelligence at the
service of progress which is the collective work of everybody. Since you
are gifted with intelligence, think; since you have discernment – and you
have it for a reason – analyze and judge. Do not accept pre-judgment but
make sure that the subject has passed through the crucible of reason. Be
skeptical while you are not sure but never deny something that you do not
understand. Give serious examination. Only the lazy, the indifferent one
accepts as true or false everything they see as accepted or denied. Finally,
my children do your outmost to become serious and useful so as to accomplish
the mission assigned to you. It is never too early to get involved
with the good and to do good deeds. Thus, start early to get involved
with serious things. Time of futility is always too long and useless to your
progress that you must always keep in mind. The earthly things are nothing;
they only serve to help your transition to another state, which shall
be more perfect the better you have prepared it.
Your grandmother
