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Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866 > October > The Healing Zouave of Camp Châlons
The Healing Zouave of Camp Châlons
The “Écho de l’Aisne”, from August 1st, 1866 reads:
“The only thing that is talked about in the countryside is the wonders produced in Camp Châlons by a young Spiritist Zouave that makes miracles every day. Large convoys of sick persons get to Châlons, and incredible thing, a good number of them return healed. In these last days, a paralytic that came by car, after having been seen by the young Spiritist, found himself completely cured and returned home joyfully on foot.
Explain, if you can, these facts that are quite prodigious; still, they are correct and affirmed by a large number of intelligent and trustworthy people.
Reanud.”
This article was literally reproduced by the “Presse Illustrée”, on Augst 6th. The “Petit Journal”, on August 17th, recounts the facts in the following terms:
“After having been able to visit the imperial quarter, that I believe you have already described to your readers, that is to say the best, and at the same time, the simplest dwelling that a sovereign can have, even if for a few days only, I spent my evening chasing after the magnetizer Zouave. This Zouave, a simple musician, has been the hero of the camp and its surroundings for three months. He is a lean, dark little man with deep-set eyes, with the physiognomy of a whirling dervish[1]. Incredible things are told of him, and I am forced to speak to you only about what is said, because from superior orders he had to interrupt the public sessions he was giving at the Hotel de la Meuse. People came from ten leagues around; he received twenty-five to thirty patients at a time, and at his voice, at his sight, at his touch, at least that is what is said, the deaf suddenly heard, the dumb spoke, and the handicapped went away with the crutches under their arms. Is all this really true? I do not know. I chatted with him for an hour. His name is Jacob, he is simply Burgundian, expresses himself easily, seemed to me to be the most convinced and the most intelligent. He has always refused any kind of remuneration and doesn't even like to be thanked. In addition, he promised me a manuscript which was dictated to him by a Spirit. No need to tell you that I will let you know as soon as it is delivered to me, if the Spirit has any spirit at all.
René de Pont-Jest. "
Finally, the “Écho de l’Aisne”, after having cited the fact in its August 1st issue, comments it on the 4th as below:
“In the last Wednesday's issue, you said that in our regions there was only talks of cures accomplished in the camp of Châlons by a young Spiritist Zouave. I think I am doing the right thing, asking you to cut it off, because a real army of patients is heading towards the camp every day; those that return satisfied engage others to imitate them; those, on the contrary, that have gained nothing, don’t stop the criticism or mockery.
Between these two extreme opinions, there is a cautious reservation that a “good number of patients” must take as a rule of conduct, as a guide to what they can do. There is nothing marvelous, nothing miraculous in these 'marvelous cures', in these 'miracles', as ordinary people call them. At first glance, they cause astonishment because they are not common; but since nothing that is accomplished is done without a cause, we sought what produces such facts, and science has explained them.
Strong psychological impressions have always had the power of acting upon the 'nervous system'; the cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave only relate to diseases of that system. At all times, in antiquity as in modern times, cures have been reported by the sheer force of the influence of imagination, an influence observed in a great number of cases; there is, therefore, nothing extraordinary that today the same causes produce the same results.
It is therefore only patients of the ‘nervous system’ that it is possible to ‘go, see and hope’.
X.”
Before any other comment we will make a quick observation about this last article. The author attests the facts and explains them in his own way. According to him, those cures have nothing of marvelous or miraculous. We are in perfect agreement about this point, for Spiritism clearly states that it does not make miracles; that all facts, without exception, that are produced through mediumistic influence, are due to a natural force and occur as a result of a law that is as natural as the one that allows a telegram to be transmitted from one side of the Atlantic to the other, in a few minutes. Before the discovery of the law of electricity, a similar event would have been taken as the miracle of the miracles. Let us suppose, for a moment, that Franklin, even more initiated than he was in the properties of the electric fluid, had laid a metallic wire through the Atlantic, establishing an instantaneous correspondence between Europe and America, without indicating the process; what would have been thought of him? They would have, incontestably, screamed miracle; they would have attributed a supernatural power to him; to the eyes of many, he would be a witch with the devil under his orders. The knowledge of the law of electricity reduced the supposed prodigy to the proportions of the natural effects. The same happens to many other phenomena.
But, do we know all laws of nature, and the properties of all fluids? Isn’t that possible that an unknown fluid, as the electricity was for a long time, be the cause of unexplained effects, producing results onto the economy that are impossible to science, with the support of the limited means at its disposal? Well! This is the whole secret of the mediumistic cures, or better saying, there is no secret, for Spiritism only has secrets to those that do not take the burden of studying it. These healings are simply based on a fluidic action directed by thought and will, instead of a metallic wire. The key is to know the properties of this fluid, the conditions in which it can act, and to know how to direct it. In addition, there is the need of a human instrument sufficiently provided with this fluid, and capable of giving it sufficient energy.
This faculty is not the privilege of an individual; for the fact that it is in nature, many have it but to very different degrees, as everyone can see, but to a greater or lesser distance. Among those who are endowed with it, a few act knowingly, like the Zouave Jacob; others, without their knowledge, and without realizing what is happening with them; they know they heal, and that's all; ask them how, and they know nothing. If they are superstitious, they will attribute their power to some occult cause, to the virtue of some talisman or amulet which, in fact, is useless. It is so with all unconscious mediums, and the number is large. Many people are themselves the primary cause of effects that surprise them, but that they cannot explain. Among the most obstinate deniers, many are mediums without knowing it.
The newspaper in question says: “the cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave only relate to diseases of that system. At all times, in antiquity as in modern times, cures have been reported by the sheer force of the influence of imagination, an influence observed in a great number of cases; there is, therefore, nothing extraordinary." By saying that Mr. Jacob has cured only nervous affections, the author advances a little lightly, because the facts contradict this assertion. But let us admit that this is the case; these kinds of affections are innumerable, and these are precisely the ones for which science is most often forced to admit its impotence; if by some means it can be overcome, isn't that an important result? If such means is in the influence of the imagination, what does it matter! Why neglect it? Isn't that better to heal by the imagination than not to heal at all?
It seems difficult to us, however, that the imagination alone, even if excited to the highest degree, can make a handicapped walk and straighten a stiff limb. In any case, since, according to the author, cures of nervous diseases have always been achieved by the influence of imagination, doctors are more inexcusable for persisting in using powerless means, when experience shows them others that are effective. The author, unwillingly, puts them on trial.
But, he says, Mr. Jacob doesn't cure everyone. It is possible, and even correct, but what does it prove? That he does not have a universal healing power. The man who would have this power would be the equal of God, and the one who would claim to possess it would be a presumptuous fool. If only four or five patients, out of ten, recognized incurable by science, would be cured, this would suffice to prove the existence of the faculty. Are there many doctors who can do the same? We have known Mr. Jacob personally for a long time as a writing medium, and eager propagator of Spiritism; we knew that he had made some partial attempts at the healing mediumship, but it seems that this faculty took on a rapid and considerable development in him during his stay at the camp at Châlons. One of our colleagues from the Parisian Society, Mr. Boivinet, who lives in the Department of Aisne, kindly sent us a very detailed account of the facts which are of his personal knowledge. His in-depth knowledge of Spiritism, combined with a character free from exaltation and enthusiasm, enabled him to appreciate things in a healthy way. His testimony, therefore, has for us all the value of an honorable, impartial, and enlightened man, and his account has all the desirable authenticity. We therefore take the facts attested by him as true as if we had personally witnessed them. The extent of these documents does not have them published in full in this journal, but we have coordinated them for future use, limiting ourselves, for today, to citing the most essential passages:
“…Wishing to fully justify the confidence you have in me, I inquired, both by myself and by quite honorable and trustworthy people, about the well-established cures operated by Mr. Jacob. These people are not, in fact, Spiritists, which rules out from their testimony any suspicion of partiality in favor of Spiritism.
I reduce by a third the estimates of Mr. Jacob regarding the number of patients received by him; but it seems to me that I am below, perhaps well below the truth, estimating this figure at 4,000, of which a quarter has been cured and three quarters relieved. The crowd was such that the military authority moved in, forbidding visits in the future. I, myself, learned from the station manager that the railroad transported masses of sick people to the camp every day. As to the nature of the diseases over which he has more particularly exercised his influence, it is impossible for me to say. It is mainly the sick that have approached him, and these are, consequently, the ones that account for his satisfied clients; but many other sufferers could present themselves to him successfully.
This is how in Chartères, a village very close to the one I live in, I saw and saw again a man of about fifty years of age who, since 1856, vomited everything that he ate. By the time he went to see the Zouave, he was very ill, and was vomiting at least three times a day. When Mr. Jacob saw him, he said: “You are healed!” And during the session invited him to eat and drink. The poor peasant, overcoming his apprehension, drank and ate and did not feel bad. For more than three weeks he has not experienced the slightest discomfort. The cure was instantaneous. Needless to say that Mr. Jacob did not give him any medication and did not prescribe any treatment. It was only his fluidic action, like an electric shock, that had been sufficient to restore the organs to their normal state.”
Observation: This man is one of those of crude nature, who hardly gets excited. If, then, a single word had sufficed to overexcite his imagination, to the point of instantly curing his chronic gastritis, it would be necessary to agree that the phenomenon would be even more surprising than the cure, and would indeed deserve some attention.
“The daughter of the owner of the Hôtel de la Meuse, in Mourmelon, had a sickness in her breast, and was weak to the point of not being able to leave her bed. The Zouave invited her to get up, which she was able to do immediately; to the amazement of the many spectators, she went downstairs unaided, and went for a walk in the garden with her new doctor. Since that day, this young girl has been doing well. I'm not a doctor, but I don't think that's a nervous disease.
Mr. B ..., manager of a boarding school, who jumps at the idea of the intervention of Spirits in our affairs, told me that a lady, a long time sick of the stomach, had been cured by the Zouave, and had since then noticeably gained about twenty pounds”.
Observation: Would this gentleman, to whom the idea of the intervention of the Spirits exasperates, therefore be very sorry if, when he died, his own Spirit could come to assist the persons that are dear to him, to heal them, and to prove to them that he is not lost to them?
“As for the sick themselves, the results obtained on them are more astounding, because the eye immediately appreciates the result. In Tréloup, a village 7 or 8 kilometers from here, a seventy-year-old man was crippled and could do nothing. Getting out of his chair was almost impossible. The healing was complete and instantaneous. Yesterday I heard about it again. I was told: Well! I saw Father Petit; he was harvesting!
A woman from Mourmelon had her leg crippled, immobilized; her knee was pulled back to his stomach. Now she is walking around and is doing well.
The day the Zouave was banned, a mason walked through Mourmelon in exasperation, and wanted, he said, “to knock out those who prevented the medium from working.” This mason had both wrists drawn towards the inside of his arms. His wrists move like ours today, and he earns two francs more a day.
How many people were carried in and were able to leave alone, having immediately regained the use of their limbs! A five-year-old, brought from Reims, who had never walked, walked straight away.
The following fact was, so to speak, the starting point of the faculty of the medium, or at least of the public exercise of this faculty that became notorious:
Arriving at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and heading towards the camp, the regiment of Zouaves was gathered in the public square. Before breaking ranks, the band performed a piece. Among the spectators was a little girl in a small stroller pushed by her parents. The Zouave’s attention was drawn to this girl by one of his comrades. When the music finished, he walked towards her, and addressing the parents he said: "So this child is sick?" he asked them.
She cannot walk, he was told; for the past two years she has had her leg clamped in an orthopedic device. So, take this device off, she doesn't need it. This was done, not without some hesitation, and the little girl walked on. So, they went to the cafe, and the father, as if overjoyed, wanted the lemonade man to set up his shop, so that the Zouaves could drink it.
I am now going to tell you how the medium proceeded, that is to say, I will tell you about a session, which I did not attend, but which I was told in detail by different patients.
The Zouave brings in his patients. The size of the room regulates their number. That is why, as it is claimed, he had to move from the Hotel de l'Europe, where he could only admit eighteen people at a time, to the Hotel de la Meuse, where he could admit twenty-five or thirty. They enter. Those who live in more distant regions are usually invited to go first. Some people want to talk: “Silence!”, he says; those who speak, will be kicked out!” After ten to fifteen minutes of silence and general immobility, he addresses a few patients, rarely questions them, but tells them what they are feeling. Then, walking along the large table around which the sick are seated, he speaks to all, but without order; he touches them, but without gestures reminiscent of those of magnetizers; then he sends them away, saying to some: “You are healed, go away;” To others: "You will heal without doing anything; you have only weakness;" To a few, but rarely: "I can do nothing for you.” If they want to thank him, he answers very militarily that he does not need to be thanked and sends them away. Sometimes he says: “Your thanks must be addressed to the Providence.”
On the 7th of August, an order from the marshal interrupted the course of the sessions. As soon as it was banned, and given the enormous influx of patients to Mourmelon, unprecedented means had to be employed regarding the medium. Since he had committed no fault and always observed discipline very precisely, he could not be imprisoned. A personal guard was attached to him, with orders to follow him everywhere and prevent anyone from approaching him. They have, I was told, tolerated all these healings while the word Spiritism was not pronounced, and I do not believe that it was Mr. Jacob that pronounced it. It would be from that moment that they used rigor against him.
So, where does the dread caused by the mere name of Spiritism come from, even when it only does good, consoles the afflicted and relieves suffering humanity? For my part, I believe that some people are afraid that it will do too much good.
In the first days of September, M. Jacob was kind enough to come and spend two days with me, in fulfillment of a possible promise he had made to me at the Châlons camp. The pleasure I had in receiving him was increased tenfold by the services he was able to render to a good number of unfortunate people. Since his departure, I have kept myself informed almost daily of the condition of the patients he treated, and I give you the results of my observations below. To be accurate as in a statistical statement, and with respect to further information, if necessary, I enter them here by name. (there follows a list of 30 and a few names, with designation of age, disease, and outcome.)
Mr. Jacob is sincerely religious. "What I do," he said to me, "does not surprise me. I would do much more amazing things that I wouldn't be more surprised, because I know that God can do whatever He wants. One thing only surprises me, and that is to have had the immense favor of being the instrument that He chose. Today we are surprised with what I do, but who knows if in a month, in a year, there will not be ten, twenty, fifty mediums like me and stronger than me? Mr. Kardec, who seeks and must seek to study facts like those happening here, should have come; today or tomorrow, I can lose my faculty, and it would be a lost study for him; he must make a point of being the historian of such facts.”
Observation:
We would have been happy, no doubt, to be a personal witness of the facts reported above, and we would probably have gone to Camp Châlons if we had had the possibility and if we had been informed in advance. We only learned about it indirectly from the newspapers, while we were traveling, and we admit that we do not have absolute confidence in their stories. We would have a lot to do if we had to go and check for ourselves all that they report of Spiritism, or even all that is brought to our attention in our correspondence. We could only go there with the certainty of not being disappointed, and when M. Boivinet's report reached us, the camp was interdicted. Besides, the observation of these facts would not have taught us anything new, for we believe we understand them; it would therefore have been simply a question of ascertaining the reality of it; but the testimony of a man like M. Boivinet, to whom we had sent a letter for M. Jacob, with a request to inform us of what he would have seen, was completely sufficient for us. We therefore only missed the pleasure of having personally seen M. Jacob at work, which could, we hope, take place elsewhere than at Camp Châlons.
We have therefore only spoken of Mr. Jacob's healings because they are genuine; had they appeared suspicious to us, or tainted with charlatanism and a ridiculous boastfulness that would have made them more harmful than useful to the cause of Spiritism, we would have abstained, despite what could have been said, and as we have done in many other circumstances, not willing to turn ourselves into the editor responsible for some eccentricity, and not supporting the ambitious and interested views which are sometimes hidden under the appearances of devotion. That is why we are cautious in our assessments of people and things, and why our Spiritist Review does not turn into a censer for the benefit of anybody.
But here we deal with something serious, fruitful in results, and fundamental from the double point of view of the fact, and of the fulfillment of one of the forecasts of the Spirits. For a long time, indeed, they announced that the healing mediumship would develop in exceptional proportions, so as to draw the general attention, and we congratulate Mr. Jacob for being one of the first to provide the example; but here, as in all kinds of manifestations, the person, for us, disappears before the main question.
Considering that the gift of healing is not the result of work, study, or acquired talent, the one who possesses it cannot take credit for it. We praise a great artist, a scientist, because they owe what they are to their own efforts; but the best endowed medium is only a passive instrument, that the Spirits use today, and which they can leave tomorrow. What would Mr. Jacob be if he lost his faculty, something that he wisely foresees? What he was before: the musician of the Zouaves; while, whatever happens, the scientist will always have science and the artist, the talent. We are happy to see Mr. Jacob sharing these ideas, therefore it is not to him that these reflections are addressed. He will also be of our opinion, we do not doubt it, when we say that what is a real merit in a medium, what one can and should rightly praise, is the use they make of their faculty; it is the zeal, the devotion, the selflessness with which they place it at the service of those to whom it can be useful; it is again modesty, simplicity, abnegation, benevolence which breathe in their words and that all their actions justify, because these qualities belong to the medium in their own right. Therefore, it is not the medium that must be raised on a pedestal, since tomorrow they can descend from it: it is the good man who knows how to make himself useful without ostentation and without benefit for his vanity.
The development of healing mediumship will inevitably have consequences of a high importance, which will be the subject of a special and in-depth examination in a future article.
[1] See whirling Muslim monks of Istanbul at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gG8YAUqVIs&ab_channel=pavdb092 (T.N.)
“The only thing that is talked about in the countryside is the wonders produced in Camp Châlons by a young Spiritist Zouave that makes miracles every day. Large convoys of sick persons get to Châlons, and incredible thing, a good number of them return healed. In these last days, a paralytic that came by car, after having been seen by the young Spiritist, found himself completely cured and returned home joyfully on foot.
Explain, if you can, these facts that are quite prodigious; still, they are correct and affirmed by a large number of intelligent and trustworthy people.
Reanud.”
This article was literally reproduced by the “Presse Illustrée”, on Augst 6th. The “Petit Journal”, on August 17th, recounts the facts in the following terms:
“After having been able to visit the imperial quarter, that I believe you have already described to your readers, that is to say the best, and at the same time, the simplest dwelling that a sovereign can have, even if for a few days only, I spent my evening chasing after the magnetizer Zouave. This Zouave, a simple musician, has been the hero of the camp and its surroundings for three months. He is a lean, dark little man with deep-set eyes, with the physiognomy of a whirling dervish[1]. Incredible things are told of him, and I am forced to speak to you only about what is said, because from superior orders he had to interrupt the public sessions he was giving at the Hotel de la Meuse. People came from ten leagues around; he received twenty-five to thirty patients at a time, and at his voice, at his sight, at his touch, at least that is what is said, the deaf suddenly heard, the dumb spoke, and the handicapped went away with the crutches under their arms. Is all this really true? I do not know. I chatted with him for an hour. His name is Jacob, he is simply Burgundian, expresses himself easily, seemed to me to be the most convinced and the most intelligent. He has always refused any kind of remuneration and doesn't even like to be thanked. In addition, he promised me a manuscript which was dictated to him by a Spirit. No need to tell you that I will let you know as soon as it is delivered to me, if the Spirit has any spirit at all.
René de Pont-Jest. "
Finally, the “Écho de l’Aisne”, after having cited the fact in its August 1st issue, comments it on the 4th as below:
“In the last Wednesday's issue, you said that in our regions there was only talks of cures accomplished in the camp of Châlons by a young Spiritist Zouave. I think I am doing the right thing, asking you to cut it off, because a real army of patients is heading towards the camp every day; those that return satisfied engage others to imitate them; those, on the contrary, that have gained nothing, don’t stop the criticism or mockery.
Between these two extreme opinions, there is a cautious reservation that a “good number of patients” must take as a rule of conduct, as a guide to what they can do. There is nothing marvelous, nothing miraculous in these 'marvelous cures', in these 'miracles', as ordinary people call them. At first glance, they cause astonishment because they are not common; but since nothing that is accomplished is done without a cause, we sought what produces such facts, and science has explained them.
Strong psychological impressions have always had the power of acting upon the 'nervous system'; the cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave only relate to diseases of that system. At all times, in antiquity as in modern times, cures have been reported by the sheer force of the influence of imagination, an influence observed in a great number of cases; there is, therefore, nothing extraordinary that today the same causes produce the same results.
It is therefore only patients of the ‘nervous system’ that it is possible to ‘go, see and hope’.
X.”
Before any other comment we will make a quick observation about this last article. The author attests the facts and explains them in his own way. According to him, those cures have nothing of marvelous or miraculous. We are in perfect agreement about this point, for Spiritism clearly states that it does not make miracles; that all facts, without exception, that are produced through mediumistic influence, are due to a natural force and occur as a result of a law that is as natural as the one that allows a telegram to be transmitted from one side of the Atlantic to the other, in a few minutes. Before the discovery of the law of electricity, a similar event would have been taken as the miracle of the miracles. Let us suppose, for a moment, that Franklin, even more initiated than he was in the properties of the electric fluid, had laid a metallic wire through the Atlantic, establishing an instantaneous correspondence between Europe and America, without indicating the process; what would have been thought of him? They would have, incontestably, screamed miracle; they would have attributed a supernatural power to him; to the eyes of many, he would be a witch with the devil under his orders. The knowledge of the law of electricity reduced the supposed prodigy to the proportions of the natural effects. The same happens to many other phenomena.
But, do we know all laws of nature, and the properties of all fluids? Isn’t that possible that an unknown fluid, as the electricity was for a long time, be the cause of unexplained effects, producing results onto the economy that are impossible to science, with the support of the limited means at its disposal? Well! This is the whole secret of the mediumistic cures, or better saying, there is no secret, for Spiritism only has secrets to those that do not take the burden of studying it. These healings are simply based on a fluidic action directed by thought and will, instead of a metallic wire. The key is to know the properties of this fluid, the conditions in which it can act, and to know how to direct it. In addition, there is the need of a human instrument sufficiently provided with this fluid, and capable of giving it sufficient energy.
This faculty is not the privilege of an individual; for the fact that it is in nature, many have it but to very different degrees, as everyone can see, but to a greater or lesser distance. Among those who are endowed with it, a few act knowingly, like the Zouave Jacob; others, without their knowledge, and without realizing what is happening with them; they know they heal, and that's all; ask them how, and they know nothing. If they are superstitious, they will attribute their power to some occult cause, to the virtue of some talisman or amulet which, in fact, is useless. It is so with all unconscious mediums, and the number is large. Many people are themselves the primary cause of effects that surprise them, but that they cannot explain. Among the most obstinate deniers, many are mediums without knowing it.
The newspaper in question says: “the cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave only relate to diseases of that system. At all times, in antiquity as in modern times, cures have been reported by the sheer force of the influence of imagination, an influence observed in a great number of cases; there is, therefore, nothing extraordinary." By saying that Mr. Jacob has cured only nervous affections, the author advances a little lightly, because the facts contradict this assertion. But let us admit that this is the case; these kinds of affections are innumerable, and these are precisely the ones for which science is most often forced to admit its impotence; if by some means it can be overcome, isn't that an important result? If such means is in the influence of the imagination, what does it matter! Why neglect it? Isn't that better to heal by the imagination than not to heal at all?
It seems difficult to us, however, that the imagination alone, even if excited to the highest degree, can make a handicapped walk and straighten a stiff limb. In any case, since, according to the author, cures of nervous diseases have always been achieved by the influence of imagination, doctors are more inexcusable for persisting in using powerless means, when experience shows them others that are effective. The author, unwillingly, puts them on trial.
But, he says, Mr. Jacob doesn't cure everyone. It is possible, and even correct, but what does it prove? That he does not have a universal healing power. The man who would have this power would be the equal of God, and the one who would claim to possess it would be a presumptuous fool. If only four or five patients, out of ten, recognized incurable by science, would be cured, this would suffice to prove the existence of the faculty. Are there many doctors who can do the same? We have known Mr. Jacob personally for a long time as a writing medium, and eager propagator of Spiritism; we knew that he had made some partial attempts at the healing mediumship, but it seems that this faculty took on a rapid and considerable development in him during his stay at the camp at Châlons. One of our colleagues from the Parisian Society, Mr. Boivinet, who lives in the Department of Aisne, kindly sent us a very detailed account of the facts which are of his personal knowledge. His in-depth knowledge of Spiritism, combined with a character free from exaltation and enthusiasm, enabled him to appreciate things in a healthy way. His testimony, therefore, has for us all the value of an honorable, impartial, and enlightened man, and his account has all the desirable authenticity. We therefore take the facts attested by him as true as if we had personally witnessed them. The extent of these documents does not have them published in full in this journal, but we have coordinated them for future use, limiting ourselves, for today, to citing the most essential passages:
“…Wishing to fully justify the confidence you have in me, I inquired, both by myself and by quite honorable and trustworthy people, about the well-established cures operated by Mr. Jacob. These people are not, in fact, Spiritists, which rules out from their testimony any suspicion of partiality in favor of Spiritism.
I reduce by a third the estimates of Mr. Jacob regarding the number of patients received by him; but it seems to me that I am below, perhaps well below the truth, estimating this figure at 4,000, of which a quarter has been cured and three quarters relieved. The crowd was such that the military authority moved in, forbidding visits in the future. I, myself, learned from the station manager that the railroad transported masses of sick people to the camp every day. As to the nature of the diseases over which he has more particularly exercised his influence, it is impossible for me to say. It is mainly the sick that have approached him, and these are, consequently, the ones that account for his satisfied clients; but many other sufferers could present themselves to him successfully.
This is how in Chartères, a village very close to the one I live in, I saw and saw again a man of about fifty years of age who, since 1856, vomited everything that he ate. By the time he went to see the Zouave, he was very ill, and was vomiting at least three times a day. When Mr. Jacob saw him, he said: “You are healed!” And during the session invited him to eat and drink. The poor peasant, overcoming his apprehension, drank and ate and did not feel bad. For more than three weeks he has not experienced the slightest discomfort. The cure was instantaneous. Needless to say that Mr. Jacob did not give him any medication and did not prescribe any treatment. It was only his fluidic action, like an electric shock, that had been sufficient to restore the organs to their normal state.”
Observation: This man is one of those of crude nature, who hardly gets excited. If, then, a single word had sufficed to overexcite his imagination, to the point of instantly curing his chronic gastritis, it would be necessary to agree that the phenomenon would be even more surprising than the cure, and would indeed deserve some attention.
“The daughter of the owner of the Hôtel de la Meuse, in Mourmelon, had a sickness in her breast, and was weak to the point of not being able to leave her bed. The Zouave invited her to get up, which she was able to do immediately; to the amazement of the many spectators, she went downstairs unaided, and went for a walk in the garden with her new doctor. Since that day, this young girl has been doing well. I'm not a doctor, but I don't think that's a nervous disease.
Mr. B ..., manager of a boarding school, who jumps at the idea of the intervention of Spirits in our affairs, told me that a lady, a long time sick of the stomach, had been cured by the Zouave, and had since then noticeably gained about twenty pounds”.
Observation: Would this gentleman, to whom the idea of the intervention of the Spirits exasperates, therefore be very sorry if, when he died, his own Spirit could come to assist the persons that are dear to him, to heal them, and to prove to them that he is not lost to them?
“As for the sick themselves, the results obtained on them are more astounding, because the eye immediately appreciates the result. In Tréloup, a village 7 or 8 kilometers from here, a seventy-year-old man was crippled and could do nothing. Getting out of his chair was almost impossible. The healing was complete and instantaneous. Yesterday I heard about it again. I was told: Well! I saw Father Petit; he was harvesting!
A woman from Mourmelon had her leg crippled, immobilized; her knee was pulled back to his stomach. Now she is walking around and is doing well.
The day the Zouave was banned, a mason walked through Mourmelon in exasperation, and wanted, he said, “to knock out those who prevented the medium from working.” This mason had both wrists drawn towards the inside of his arms. His wrists move like ours today, and he earns two francs more a day.
How many people were carried in and were able to leave alone, having immediately regained the use of their limbs! A five-year-old, brought from Reims, who had never walked, walked straight away.
The following fact was, so to speak, the starting point of the faculty of the medium, or at least of the public exercise of this faculty that became notorious:
Arriving at La Ferté-sous-Jouarre and heading towards the camp, the regiment of Zouaves was gathered in the public square. Before breaking ranks, the band performed a piece. Among the spectators was a little girl in a small stroller pushed by her parents. The Zouave’s attention was drawn to this girl by one of his comrades. When the music finished, he walked towards her, and addressing the parents he said: "So this child is sick?" he asked them.
She cannot walk, he was told; for the past two years she has had her leg clamped in an orthopedic device. So, take this device off, she doesn't need it. This was done, not without some hesitation, and the little girl walked on. So, they went to the cafe, and the father, as if overjoyed, wanted the lemonade man to set up his shop, so that the Zouaves could drink it.
I am now going to tell you how the medium proceeded, that is to say, I will tell you about a session, which I did not attend, but which I was told in detail by different patients.
The Zouave brings in his patients. The size of the room regulates their number. That is why, as it is claimed, he had to move from the Hotel de l'Europe, where he could only admit eighteen people at a time, to the Hotel de la Meuse, where he could admit twenty-five or thirty. They enter. Those who live in more distant regions are usually invited to go first. Some people want to talk: “Silence!”, he says; those who speak, will be kicked out!” After ten to fifteen minutes of silence and general immobility, he addresses a few patients, rarely questions them, but tells them what they are feeling. Then, walking along the large table around which the sick are seated, he speaks to all, but without order; he touches them, but without gestures reminiscent of those of magnetizers; then he sends them away, saying to some: “You are healed, go away;” To others: "You will heal without doing anything; you have only weakness;" To a few, but rarely: "I can do nothing for you.” If they want to thank him, he answers very militarily that he does not need to be thanked and sends them away. Sometimes he says: “Your thanks must be addressed to the Providence.”
On the 7th of August, an order from the marshal interrupted the course of the sessions. As soon as it was banned, and given the enormous influx of patients to Mourmelon, unprecedented means had to be employed regarding the medium. Since he had committed no fault and always observed discipline very precisely, he could not be imprisoned. A personal guard was attached to him, with orders to follow him everywhere and prevent anyone from approaching him. They have, I was told, tolerated all these healings while the word Spiritism was not pronounced, and I do not believe that it was Mr. Jacob that pronounced it. It would be from that moment that they used rigor against him.
So, where does the dread caused by the mere name of Spiritism come from, even when it only does good, consoles the afflicted and relieves suffering humanity? For my part, I believe that some people are afraid that it will do too much good.
In the first days of September, M. Jacob was kind enough to come and spend two days with me, in fulfillment of a possible promise he had made to me at the Châlons camp. The pleasure I had in receiving him was increased tenfold by the services he was able to render to a good number of unfortunate people. Since his departure, I have kept myself informed almost daily of the condition of the patients he treated, and I give you the results of my observations below. To be accurate as in a statistical statement, and with respect to further information, if necessary, I enter them here by name. (there follows a list of 30 and a few names, with designation of age, disease, and outcome.)
Mr. Jacob is sincerely religious. "What I do," he said to me, "does not surprise me. I would do much more amazing things that I wouldn't be more surprised, because I know that God can do whatever He wants. One thing only surprises me, and that is to have had the immense favor of being the instrument that He chose. Today we are surprised with what I do, but who knows if in a month, in a year, there will not be ten, twenty, fifty mediums like me and stronger than me? Mr. Kardec, who seeks and must seek to study facts like those happening here, should have come; today or tomorrow, I can lose my faculty, and it would be a lost study for him; he must make a point of being the historian of such facts.”
Observation:
We would have been happy, no doubt, to be a personal witness of the facts reported above, and we would probably have gone to Camp Châlons if we had had the possibility and if we had been informed in advance. We only learned about it indirectly from the newspapers, while we were traveling, and we admit that we do not have absolute confidence in their stories. We would have a lot to do if we had to go and check for ourselves all that they report of Spiritism, or even all that is brought to our attention in our correspondence. We could only go there with the certainty of not being disappointed, and when M. Boivinet's report reached us, the camp was interdicted. Besides, the observation of these facts would not have taught us anything new, for we believe we understand them; it would therefore have been simply a question of ascertaining the reality of it; but the testimony of a man like M. Boivinet, to whom we had sent a letter for M. Jacob, with a request to inform us of what he would have seen, was completely sufficient for us. We therefore only missed the pleasure of having personally seen M. Jacob at work, which could, we hope, take place elsewhere than at Camp Châlons.
We have therefore only spoken of Mr. Jacob's healings because they are genuine; had they appeared suspicious to us, or tainted with charlatanism and a ridiculous boastfulness that would have made them more harmful than useful to the cause of Spiritism, we would have abstained, despite what could have been said, and as we have done in many other circumstances, not willing to turn ourselves into the editor responsible for some eccentricity, and not supporting the ambitious and interested views which are sometimes hidden under the appearances of devotion. That is why we are cautious in our assessments of people and things, and why our Spiritist Review does not turn into a censer for the benefit of anybody.
But here we deal with something serious, fruitful in results, and fundamental from the double point of view of the fact, and of the fulfillment of one of the forecasts of the Spirits. For a long time, indeed, they announced that the healing mediumship would develop in exceptional proportions, so as to draw the general attention, and we congratulate Mr. Jacob for being one of the first to provide the example; but here, as in all kinds of manifestations, the person, for us, disappears before the main question.
Considering that the gift of healing is not the result of work, study, or acquired talent, the one who possesses it cannot take credit for it. We praise a great artist, a scientist, because they owe what they are to their own efforts; but the best endowed medium is only a passive instrument, that the Spirits use today, and which they can leave tomorrow. What would Mr. Jacob be if he lost his faculty, something that he wisely foresees? What he was before: the musician of the Zouaves; while, whatever happens, the scientist will always have science and the artist, the talent. We are happy to see Mr. Jacob sharing these ideas, therefore it is not to him that these reflections are addressed. He will also be of our opinion, we do not doubt it, when we say that what is a real merit in a medium, what one can and should rightly praise, is the use they make of their faculty; it is the zeal, the devotion, the selflessness with which they place it at the service of those to whom it can be useful; it is again modesty, simplicity, abnegation, benevolence which breathe in their words and that all their actions justify, because these qualities belong to the medium in their own right. Therefore, it is not the medium that must be raised on a pedestal, since tomorrow they can descend from it: it is the good man who knows how to make himself useful without ostentation and without benefit for his vanity.
The development of healing mediumship will inevitably have consequences of a high importance, which will be the subject of a special and in-depth examination in a future article.
[1] See whirling Muslim monks of Istanbul at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gG8YAUqVIs&ab_channel=pavdb092 (T.N.)