Spiritism EverywhereExcerpt from English newspapers
One of our correspondents in London sends us the following news:
"The English newspaper The Builder, an organization of architects, highly regarded for its practicality and the correctness of judgment, has incidentally dealt with questions relating to Spiritism on several occasions; in these articles there is even talk of the manifestations of our days, of which the author gives an appreciation from his point of view.
"Spiritism has also been mentioned in some of the last notices of the London Anthropological Review; it states that the fact of the conspicuous intervention of the Spirits, in certain phenomena, is too well proven to be questioned. It speaks of the bodily envelope of man as a coarse garment appropriate to his present state, which is regarded as the lowest echelon of the hominal kingdom; that reign, though the crowning glory of the planet's animality, is only a sketch of the glorious, light, purified, and luminous body that the soul must clothe in the future, as humanity develops and perfects.”
"It is not yet," adds our correspondent, "the homogeneous and coherent doctrine of the French Spiritist school, but it comes very close to it and seemed interesting to me as an indication of the movement of ideas in the Spiritist direction on this side of the channel. But there is a lack of direction; they navigate on an adventure in this new world that opens before humanity, and it is not surprising that we go astray, for lack of a guide. There is no doubt that, if the works of doctrine were translated into English, they would rally many supporters by fixing the still uncertain ideas.
Blackwell.”
Charles FourierIn a book entitled:
Charles Fourier, his life, and his works, by Pellarin, we find a letter from Fourier to M. Muiron, dated December 3
rd, 1826, in which he foresees the future phenomena of Spiritism. It is conceived as follows:
"It seems that Messrs. C. and P. have given up their work on magnetism. I would bet that they do not use the fundamental argument: that, if everything is connected in the universe, there must be means of communication between the creatures of the other world and this one; I mean: communication of faculties, temporary and accidental participation of the faculties of ultra-worldly or deceased, and not communication with them. Such participation cannot take place in the waking state, but only in a mixed state, such as sleep or other. Have the magnetizers found this state? I don't know! But, in principle, I know it must exist.” Fourier wrote this in 1826, about the phenomena of somnambulism; he couldn’t have any idea of the means of direct communication discovered twenty-five years later and only conceived its possibility in a state of detachment, that somehow brought the two worlds closer together; but he was nevertheless convinced of the main fact, that of the existence of these relations.
His belief in another crucial point, that of reincarnation on Earth, is even more precise when he says:
a bad rich man canreturn to beg at the door of the castle of which he was the owner. This is
the principle of earthly atonement in successive existences, much like what Spiritism teaches from the examples provided by these same relationships between the visible and the invisible worlds. Thanks to these relationships, this principle of justice, that only existed in Fourier's thought in the state of theory or probability, became a positive truth.
The following passage is taken from a new book entitled:
Letters to my brother about my religious beliefs, by Math. Briancourt:
[1] “I believe in one Almighty, just and good God, having light as his body, as by members the totality of the celestial bodies ordered in hierarchical series. - I believe that God assigns to all members of creation, large and small, a function to be fulfilled in the development of the universal life that is His life, reserving intelligence for those members whom he associates with the government of the world. - I believe that the intelligent beings of the last degree, the humanities, have as their task the management of the worlds they inhabit, and on which they have the mission of establishing order, peace, and justice. I believe that the creatures perform their functions by satisfying their needs, that God provides exactly to the requirements of the functions; and since in his goodness he attaches pleasure to the satisfaction of the needs, I believe that every creature, in carrying out their duty, is as happy as their nature entails, and that the more they deviate from the accomplishment of their tasks, the more their suffering is pronounced. I believe that earthly humanity will soon have acquired the knowledge and material that are indispensable to fulfill its elevated mission, and that consequently, the day of general happiness here on Earth will not take long to rise. I believe that the intelligence of rational beings has two bodies: one formed of substances visible to our eyes; the other of more subtle, and invisible matters called aromas. I believe that at the death of their visible body, these beings continue to live in the “aromal” world, where they find the exact compensation for their works, good or bad; then, after a greater or lesser length of time, they take a material body back, to abandon it again to decomposition, and so on. I believe that the intelligences that grow by fulfilling their functions exactly, will animate more and more elevated beings in the divine hierarchy, until they return, at the end of times, to the heart of God from where they came, that unite with his intelligence and share his “aromal” life.” With such a profession of faith, it is understandable that Fourierists and Spiritists can join hands.
[1] One vol., in-18. Library of social sciences
