The following article was published in several French and foreign newspapers:
“The Spiritists have just recruited new followers in Germany. A certain doctor from Zittau called Berthelen, author of a brochure about the turning tables, organized a society that is called: Association of the treasure hunters, whose objective is to excavate the soil in places where it is thought to have hidden treasuries buried. The company’s operations are led by a very lucid somnambulist, Mrs. Louise Ebermann, and began by daily excavations that take place at a determined time amidst a tobacco plantation in which there should be the amount of 400,000 thalers (1,500,000 francs). The society has only seven or eight members and up until now its operations are limited to say collective prayers and to remove, with certain ceremony, the earth removed from the grounds where they hope to find welcome treasures.”
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It is really curious to see the enthusiasm of certain newspapers in reproducing everything that in their opinion may throw discredit onto Spiritism. The least event, happy or ridiculous, to which with or without reason is the word Spiritist connected it is immediately repeated everywhere with more or less ingenious variations with no concern with truth. The absurd, even the most unlikely ones, are accepted with a truly amusing seriousness. With the apparition of ghosts in the theaters everybody gladly repeats that Spirits has wrecked and that its most important ropes were finally unveiled. A charlatan, a mountebank, a fortuneteller considers to be appropriate to take over the name of Spiritist and the adversaries promptly point at them as representatives of the Doctrine. What was the result of all that? Propaganda of the name and from there the desire to get to know it; ridiculous to the mockery that boasts about what they do not know; hate fallen upon the calumniators and in consequence increase in the number of serious followers, the only ones to be counted among the Spiritists.
The article above belongs to the category that we have just mentioned. The author belies himself by saying that the searches are done with the support of a somnambulist of the most lucid. It is not then with the support of the Spirits. What is his basis when he says that it is a Spiritist association? He is based on the fact that the founder wrote a brochure about the turning tables. Can one conclude from that that he is a Spiritist? Not at all because at the time of the turning table we were still living the 101 of the science. As a matter of fact if he knew Spiritism he would know that the Spirits cannot favor any search of such a kind.
Since somnambulism began to be known it has been used in treasure hunting and up until now the only thing that was achieved was money spending with useless excavations, like it happened in the past with those that were looking for the philosophical stone. We predict the same fate to this new company!
When it was learned that the Spirits could communicate a first and very natural thought was that they could come to serve speculations of all kinds but it was soon realized that only mystifications were obtained with that respect. There was a cause for that and it was the Spirits themselves that revealed it. Therefore there isn’t a single enlightened Spirit today that waste any time with such chimeras for they all know that God does not give people similar means of enrichment and that for the same reason God does not allow the Spirits to give revelations of that kind.
Hence it is abusive that the author of the article placed the German association under the sponsorship of Spiritism. The Doctrine does not recruit its followers among those that are servants of ambition, greed and material interests but among those that see it as the needed support for their moral betterment.
For better instruction about it we refer the reader to the Mediums’ Book, chapter XXVI, Questions that may be addressed to the Spirits; #291, Questions about the material and moral interests; #294, Questions about inventions and discoveries and #295, Questions about hidden treasures.
