176. Here are the answers to the following questions addressed to the spirits, on this subject: —
1. " Can persons endowed with magnetic power be considered as forming a variety of mediums ?"
" You cannot doubt it."
2. "Yet the medium is an intermediary between the spirits and man ; but the magnetizer, drawing his strength from within himself, seems not to be the inter- mediary of any foreign power."
" It is an error: the magnetic power resides, doubt- less, in the man ; but it is augmented by the action of the spirits he calls to his aid. If you magnetize with a view to healing, for instance, and you invoke a good spirit, who interests himself in you and your patient, he augments your strength and your will; he directs your fluid, and gives it the necessary qualities."
3. " But there are very good magnetizers who do not believe in spirits."
" Do you think that spirits act only on those who believe in them ? Those who magnetize for good pur- poses are seconded by good spirits. Every man who has a desire to do good undoubtedly calls them ; the same as by the desire of evil, and evil intentions, he calls the evil."
, 4. " Would he who has the power act more effica- ciously, should he believe in the intervention of spirits ?"
" He would do things you would look upon as mir- acles."
5. " Have some persons truly the gift of healing by the simple touch, without employing magnetic passes ?"
" Assuredly ; have you not numerous examples of it?"
6. " I n this case is there magnetic action, or only influence of spirits ?"
" Both; these persons are veritable mediums, be- eause they act under the influence of spirits ; but that is not to say they would be writing mediums, as you would understand it."
7. " Can this power be transmitted ?"
" The power, no ; but the knowledge of the things necessary to its exercise where it is possessed. A person would not suspect that he has this power if he did Jiof believe it has been transmitted to him."
8. " Can cures be made by prayer alone ?"
" Yes, sometimes, if God permits ; but perhaps the good of the sick person is that he should suffer, and then you believe that your prayers are not heard."
9. " Are there some forms of prayer more efficacious for that than others ?"
" Superstition alone can attach a virtue to certain words, and ignorant or lying spirits alone can enter- tain such ideas in prescribing forms. Yet it may happen that, for persons not much enlightened, and incapable of understanding things purely spiritual, the employment of a formula helps to give them confi- dence ; in this case it is not the form that is efficacious, but the faith that is increased by the idea attached to the use of the form."
