The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1860

Allan Kardec

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Special Mediums

Experience daily demonstrates how large the variety of the mediumship faculty is. However, it also proves that the multiple nuances of that faculty are due to special and not yet defined gifts, abstraction made of the quality and knowledge of the manifesting spirit. The nature of the communication is always relative to the spirit’s nature, bearing the hallmark of their elevation or inferiority, their knowledge or ignorance. However, having equal merit from a hierarchical point of view, there is an incontestable tendency to dedicate to one thing, rather than the other. For example, the rapping spirits are almost never away from the physical manifestations and those who give intelligent manifestations are poets, musicians, painters, moralists, doctors, wise spirits, etc. We speak of a middle order of spirits, because when the spirits arrive at a certain level the skills merge in the unity of perfection. Nevertheless, besides the skills of the spirit, there is the medium who is more or less an adequate instrument to the spirit, more or less flexible, to whom the medium offers particular qualities which we cannot appreciate.

Let us make a comparison: a skillful musician has several violins in hand which are all good to the public but among which the seasoned artist sees a great difference; he detects nuances of subtle delicacy which lead him to pick some and reject others, nuances which he understands out of pure intuition and that he cannot define. The same happens to the mediums: among mediums of similar qualities regarding the mediumistic strength, the spirit will prefer this one to the other, according to the type of communication they want to give. Thus, for example, we see people writing remarkable poetry as mediums although under ordinary circumstances they could never write a single verse. Others who are poets, on the contrary only write prose, despite their wishes. The same applies to painting, music, etc. There are mediums that without having scientific knowledge have a very special skill to receive scientific communications; others to receive historical studies; others operate as interpreters to moralizing spirits. In short, whatever the flexibility of the medium, the communications that are more easily received have a particular characteristic. There are some that even stay close to a given circle of ideas and when they move away from that circle we then have incomplete, terse and sometimes false communications. In addition to the medium’s skills, the spirits still communicate more or less voluntarily through this or the other medium, according to their sympathies. Thus, despite the equality of skills, the same spirit will be much more elaborated through certain mediums, by the simple fact that it is more convenient to them.

It would therefore be a mistake to think that just because there is a medium that writes very easily that one can obtain good communications of all kinds through his mediumship. The first condition to obtain good communications is, no discussion there, to be sure about the source of the communication, that is, about the qualities of the spirit who transmit them, but it is not less necessary to be aware of the qualities of the instrument that is offered to the spirit. Hence, it is necessary to study the nature of the medium as one studies the nature of the spirit since these are the two essential elements to obtain satisfactory results. A third condition, representing an equally important role, is the intention, the intimate thought, the more or less worthy feeling of the person that interrogates the spirit. And that makes sense. A good communication can only proceed from a good spirit. In order to transmit such communication the spirit requires a good medium. Then a suitable objective is needed so that the spirit may wish to transmit it. The spirit that can read our thoughts, judges if the question deserves an answer and if the person who frames the question is worthy of receiving that answer. Otherwise the spirit will not waste any time by sowing good seeds on stones, and it is then that the joker spirits and the spirits of levity have fun, since they have no compromise with the truth and are not very courteous and generally show little scruples regarding the ends and the means.

From the above, it is clear that there must be spirits specially involved, by their likes or reason, with alleviating the sufferings of humanity, and that simultaneously there must be mediums that are more capable than others to operate as their intermediaries. Well, since those spirits act exclusively for the general well-being, they must seek certain moral qualities in their interpreters, besides the skills which may be considered physiological, among which are the highest devotion and altruism. Greed has been and will always be a reason for rejection from the good spirits and a cause of attraction to the others. Will common sense accept that the good spirits would engage into all sorts of machinations of material interest, being at the services of the first one to show up with the intention of exploiting them? The spirits do not want to be exploited, whoever they may be, and if some seem to agree, even anticipating certain mundane wishes, they almost always have the intention of carrying out a mystification which will make them laugh later, like someone who would laugh after having tricked very credulous people. As a matter of fact, it is useful that some people may burn their fingers so that they may learn that one should not make fun of serious things.

Such is the case that we must speak about, one of those privileged mediums that the healing spirits seem to have taken as their direct protégé. Ms. Désirée Godu, a resident of Hennebon, in Morbihan, who enjoys a truly remarkable faculty, in all aspects, that she utilizes with the keenest abnegation. We have already mentioned a few words in a report of the sessions of the Society, but the importance of the issue deserves a special article, that we will have the pleasure of dedicating to her in our next number. Keeping aside the interest on the study of every rare faculty, we shall always consider the promotion of goodness as our duty and it is only fair to those who do it.

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