The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864

“I come to you so that you may kindly recommend me to God in your prayers because I suffer and I wish that the charitable incarnate souls may show compassion to a poor Spirit that begs God’s forgiveness. I spent a long time on the wrong path but today I come to alert those that do the same: Stop your iniquities, impure souls, stop your disbelief and your wandering life; stop every wrong doing because God says to the good Spirits: Go and purify those souls that have never known good; evil must stop for the time has come when Earth must progress. For that to happen the stained souls that come to inhabit here must be purified to be able to return good and charitable.” That is what God said to the good Spirits. As for myself, I was one of the worst ones in obsession and now I tell those that do what I did: Stray souls, follow me; ask for God forgiveness and these pure souls that reach out to you; beg and God will forgive you; but you must forgive also and regret. Forgiveness is so soothing! Had you known it and you would not waste any time to move away from the swamp of evilness in which you remain stuck, immediately flying out into the arms of the angels that are near you! Stop, stop brothers, I beg you; stop and follow me; regret!



My friends – allow me to call you so although you do not know me – I am one of those Spirits that did everything but good; but to every sin mercy and since God forgives me and the angels call me brother I hope that you that practices charity may pray for me because I still have very tough trials to endure. But I do deserve them.

- Have you turned to good long ago?

We then asked if the Spirit of Little Carita, his protecting Spirit, was following him; he answered positively. We asked that good Spirit for some words with respect to obsessions that have been fighting for so long. Here is what the Spirit said:



“My friends, the obsessions that constitute the torment of those poor incarnate souls are very painful, in particular to the mediums that wish to use their faculties to do good and cannot because malevolent Spirits have seized them and do not give them peace; but it is not necessary to wait for those obsessions to come to an end. Pray a lot, ask God, the goodness itself, to abbreviate your suffering and trials. Dear souls, evoke these stray Spirits; pray for them; moralize them; ask for the advice of the good Spirits. You are well surrounded. Don’t you have several of those ethereal souls near you, waking for and protecting you? Those that seek to help you progress and approach God? That is their mission. They work incessantly to prepare the endless path to you. If you are not freed, my dear friends, it is undoubtedly because you are not pure enough for the task that you imposed on yourself. You have freely chosen your trial and you must strive to be successful because the Spirits guide you and sustain you, helping you to lead a sacred life through the depuration of suffering, atonement and charity.



So long, dear friends. I leave you asking God to protect you and these poor obsessed, having them always protected by the purified Spirits of your group (see the Spiritist Review February, March and June 1864: Cure of the obsessed young lady of Marmande).”

Little Carita

These are two Spirits that violated the order and crossed the Pyrenees without permission, not taking into account the commandment given by Monsignor Pantaleón and, what is even worse, without been evoked or called. It is true that the order had not been given yet. We shall see now if they will be less daring. One can say that if they were not called in this gathering they were used to call others and that since the door was found open they did as well enter but the time is not far when they will see there, like elsewhere and in Poitiers, for example, such manifestations among those who have not heard about Spiritism and even among the scrupulous observers of the commandment, closing the doors of their homes despite the alguazils.



Considering that the Spirits mentioned here allowed such an outrage we ask Mr. Bishop what is ridiculous about it and where is the disgusting cynicism that in his opinion is the result of Spiritism: a young lady of Marmande that did not think about the Spirits nor her parents, and that perhaps did not even believe in them is committed by a bizarre disease for about a year, a terrible disease that even science fails. Some Spiritists believe to see in such an event the action of a bad Spirit. They try the healing without medication, through prayer and the evocation of that bad Spirit; in five days they not only achieve the cure but return that Spirit to the good path. What is wrong with that?



Where is the absurd? Then the same Spirit comes to Barcelona, without being invited, asking for prayers that he needs for his purification. He puts himself as an example and incites his former companions to renounce to evil. The good Spirit that follows him preaches the evangelical moral. What is disgusting and ridiculous about it? Ridiculous, you say, is to believe in the manifestation of the Spirits. But what are those two creatures that have just communicated? An effect of imagination? No because nobody was thinking about them nor in the event that they just mentioned. When you die, Monsignor, you will see things differently and we beg God to enlighten you as God did to your predecessor, today one of the protectors of Spiritism in Barcelona. Among the communications given by him in the Spiritist Society of Paris this is the first one, already published in the Spiritist Review. We, nonetheless, reproduce it here for the edification of those that do not know it (See the Spiritist Review, August 1862: Death of the Bishop of Barcelona, and with respect to the details of the auto-da-fé the issues of November and December 1861).



“Helped by your Spiritual guide (St. Louis) I was able to come to teach you by my example and say: Do not repeal any of the announced ideas because one day, a day that will have the weight of a century, those collected ideas will shout like the voice of the angel: Cain, what have you done to your brother? What have you done to our power that should console and elevate humanity? The person that voluntarily lives deaf and blind in Spirit, like others are in their bodies, will suffer, atone and reborn to start again the intellectual work that was avoided by their pride and laziness. That terrible voice told me: You burnt the ideas and the ideas will burn you. Pray for me. Pray for the prayer said by the persecuted on behalf of the persecutor pleases God.



The one that was a bishop and now is no more than a penitent.”



The Spirits did not stop in Barcelona, Madrid, Cadiz, Seville, Murcia and many other cities receive their communications to which the auto-da-fe gave a new impulse, increasing the number of followers. Without having the prophetic gift we can say that not a half-century will pass without the whole Spain becoming Spiritist.



-o-

Murcia, Spain June 28^th, 1864



“Question to a protector Spirit – Can you talk about the state of the incarnate souls in worlds superior to ours? A. – I take a world in comparison to yours that is noticeably more advanced in which the belief in God, the immortality of the soul, the succession of the existences to get to perfection are all truths acknowledged and understood by all and where the communication between the corporeal and the invisible worlds is very easy for that very reason. The beings there are less materialized than those on your Earth and are not subjected to all needs imposed on you. They form the transition between the corporeal and incorporeal. There is no barriers there separating the peoples, nor wars; everybody lives in peace practicing charity and true fraternity with one another; human laws are useless there; each person uses their own conscience as their tribunal. Evil is rare there and even that evil would almost be good for you. Compared to you they would be perfect but they are still far from the perfection of God; they still need several incarnations in several worlds to achieve purification. The one that seems perfect to you on Earth would be considered a rebel and criminal in the world that I am talking about. Your greatest wise men would be the last ignorant there. In the superior worlds the productions of nature have nothing in common with yours. Everything there is adequate to the less material nature of the inhabitants. It is not through the sweat of their faces and physical work that they win their bread. The soil naturally produces what they need. They are inactive though but their occupations are much different when compared to yours. Not having to provide for the body they do provide for the Spirit; since they understand very well why they were created they are positive about their future and work tirelessly for the betterment and purification of their soul. Death there is considered a benefit. The day a soul leaves its material envelope is a day of happiness. The future beyond is known. One moves on first to wait for their parents, friends and sympathetic Spirits that were left behind.



World of peace, happy dwelling where the vicissitudes of material life are unknown, where the tranquility of one’s soul is not disturbed by ambition or greed and where the inhabitants live happily. The achieve the objectives sought for so many centuries; they see, know, understand and rejoice for thinking about the future that awaits and work with greater eagerness to promptly get there.”



A protector Spirit



This communication does not offer anything that had not been said yet about more advanced worlds but it is not less interesting to see the agreement established in the teachings of the Spirits and in the several corners of the globe. With such elements how could it be possible not to have unity in the doctrine?



Since the establishment of the fundamental points of the doctrine the Spirits have little new things to say. They can’t do much more than repeating the same things with new terms, develop and comment the same subjects, and that establishes a certain uniformity in their teachings. Before moving on to new matters they allow time of maturity to those that are already established. But we see them touching a new subject whenever the time is right for that, something that would have been premature if brought up earlier.