A Seed of MadnessThe Journal de la Haute-Saône has recently reported the following fact:
“People have seen dethroned kings buried in the ruins of their palaces;
unfortunate gamblers renouncing their life after losing fortunes; however,
an owner committing suicide in order not to outlive the expropriation of a
field, that is perhaps something which we have never been seen before the
following case. A landowner of Saint-Loup received a communication indicating
that one of his fields would be expropriated on May 14th by the East
Railroad Company. The information touched him profoundly. He could
not bear the idea of losing his field. This situation caused him to show
signs of mental insanity. He left his house on May 2nd at three o’clock in the
morning and drowned in the river Combeauté.”
It is a difficult fact to see people committing suicide for such a futile
cause. Such an unreasonable act can only be explained by a mental derangement.
But what has produced that derangement? Certainly it was
not the belief in spirits. Was it the expropriation of the field? In that case
why don’t all of those who face dispossession go mad? Some may say that
it is because not everyone has such a weak mind. You then admit a natural
predisposition for madness. It could not be different since the same
cause does not always produce the same effect, and we have already said
that often, when responding to those who accuse Spiritism for provoking
madness.
They should explain if there were mad people before dealing with
spirits and if there are mad people only among those who believe in spirits!
A physical cause or a violent moral commotion will only produce instantaneous
madness. Beyond that if we examine the antecedents there will
always be symptoms that a fortuitous cause may develop. Madness then
assumes the character of main concern. The mad person talks about his
concerns but the cause of madness is not that concern; it is, somehow, a
form of manifestation.
Thus, when there is a predisposition for madness, the one who is concerned
with religion will have a religious madness; love will produce a
passionate madness; ambition will produce the madness of honors and
wealth, etc. In the case mentioned above it would be absurd to see anything
other than a simple effect that any other cause would have produced,
since there was predisposition. Now, we go further: we say out loud that if
that landowner, so sensitive to his field had profoundly incorporated the
principles of Spiritism he would not have gone mad or drowned. Two disgraces
would have been avoided, as shown by many examples. The reason
for that is obvious. A relative moral weakness is the primary cause of madness,
yielding the individual incapable of resisting the shock of certain impressions,
among which and at least in three quarter of the cases, sorrow,
despair, disappointment and all tribulations of life. Providing people with
the necessary strength to see these things with indifference is the same
as mitigating people’s most frequent cause of madness and suicide. Well,
such strength is found in a well-understood Spiritist Doctrine.
Facing the greatness of the future that Spiritism patently demonstrates
and unveils before our eyes, life tribulations become so ephemeral
that they slide over our souls like the water over the marble, leaving no
trace behind. The true spiritist is not more attached to matter than required
by life’s needs. However, if he lacks something he shows resignation
since he knows that he is there in-passing and that a much better fate
waits for him. Thus, he is no more upset by that than if he had found a
stone on his path. If the gentleman above was instilled by these ideas what
would had become of the field before his eyes? The annoyance would be insignificant or null and an imaginary disgrace would not have dragged
him to a real disgrace. In summary, one of the effects, and we can say one
of the benefits of Spiritism, is to give the soul the strength that it lacks in
many circumstances, and that is how it can reduce the causes of madness
and suicide.
From the above, one can see that the simplest fact may be a source of
teaching to anyone willing to give thought to that. It is by showing the applications
of Spiritism in the most vulgar cases that one shall understand
its whole sublimity. Isn’t that the true philosophy?
