How and why I became a Spiritist
By J.B. Borreau, from Niort
[1]The author describes how he was led to believe in the existence of the Spirits, in their manifestations and their intervention with the world, and all that before Spiritism came to be. He was led by a series of events when he was not thinking about those things at all. He found the world of the Spirits when carrying out experiments with much different objectives, it is true that by its worst side, but nonetheless it showed up as an active side. Mr. Borreau found it by chance absolutely like those that sought the philosophical stone and found new bodies that they were not looking for and that enriched science if did not enriched themselves.
The detailed report given by Mr. Borreau is at the same time interesting because it is true and very instructive by the teachings that they provide to whoever wants to seek the deductions and consequences that may be taken from the facts and do not stop at the surface of things.
Mr. Borreau is a great magnetizer. For that very reason he had attested the force of the magnetic agent and the remarkable lucidity of certain somnambulists that see from a distance with an accuracy similar that with the eyes but whose sight is not hindered by obscurity or opaque bodies. For him those phenomena were the tangible proof that we have an intelligent principle beyond matter. He had the firm desire to propagate that new science but discouraged by incredulity he thought that he could poke imaginations by a brilliant fact before which all denials and the most adamant doubts would fall.
Considering that the sight of somnambulists penetrate everything, he says, it can also penetrate the layers of Earth. The positive discovery of a buried treasure would make a lot of noise and impose silence to the mockery because nobody would mock a real treasure. That is the story that Mr. Borreau tells in his brochure, painful and dangerous attempts that gave him the impression of victory sometimes but that in fact only led to deceptions and mystifications. One of the most touching episodes was that of the terrible scene that took place when excavating in a field in Vendee on a dark night at the bottom of some druid stones, among somber brooms; when the somnambulist thought that she was touching the objective, in the paroxysm of the ecstasy and excitement, she fell lifeless as if hit by a lightning stroke, not showing any sign of life.
Believing her dead she was transported through the bushes and stone with great difficulty in the dark night. It was only after transposing a few miles that she began to revive without any memory of what had happened. That did not scare the persevering researcher despite a number of other incidents that were not less dramatic and that constantly frustrated him as if to warn him about the uselessness and danger of those attempts.
It was during those experiments that the existence of the Spirits was revealed to him in a positive way through the somnambulist that saw them and dealt with them and by more than fifty cases of
direct writing whose origin was unquestionable. Those Spirits sometimes showed up to the medium in a terrifying way provoking terrible crises on the somnambulist that even the hypnotic power of Mr. Borreau could not pacify; on other occasions they came under the appearance of benevolent Spirits that came to encourage him to continue his investigations, always promising success but never indicating the time for that. Persisting on doing that, we must say, was a dangerous game and could lead to serious liability. We must add that the Spirits prescribed a large number of novenas that Mr. Bureau gave up for being too expensive and that led to this thought: the prayers that he said himself could fully efficient and would cost nothing.
Today Spiritism came to clarify all of those issues and each paragraph of his brochure could give rise to an instructive comments but two full issues of the Spiritist Review would hardly suffice. We may perhaps one day take on that task. Meanwhile any person versed in the knowledge of the principles of Spiritism will be able to find their own conclusions. For that matter we refer the reader to the Mediums’ Book, chapter XXVI, specifically items #294 and #295 as well as the considerations that follow the article about the German society of treasure hunters published in our Spiritist Review, October 1864.
Mr. Borreau says that his only objective was to overcome disbelief in human magnetism. However, despite the fact that he was not successful magnetism and somnambulism followed their path. Despite the systematic opposition of some scientists the phenomena of that nature have today passed to the facts accepted by the crowds and by a large number of doctors. Magnetic cures are admitted, even officially; some still contest out of pure spirit of opposition but they no longer laugh at it; what is certain is that whatever is true shall prevail sooner or later.
Hence the success of Mr. Borreau’s attempts was not necessary. He did not reach his objective because an isolated fact cannot turn into law and the nonbelievers would have had plenty of reasons to attribute those facts to anything else but its true cause. We say more: his success would have been damaging to magnetism.
A new principle is only worthy of credit by the multiplicity of events. The possibility of one person finding a treasure would imply that the same would apply to everybody. To be better convinced each person would like to try. Nothing more natural since everyone could promptly get rich and with great easiness! The lazy would have found fortune there as well as the thieves because of this: why would the principle stop before the right of property? Greed, already a scourge, would not need this additional stimulus. Providence did not want that. But since human magnetism is a law of nature it succeeded by the force of things. Its propagation is above all due to its healing power; through that it has a humanitarian purpose and not a selfish one like it is necessary with the interest of profiting. The multiple events of cure that take place daily around the globe did more to its credibility than the discovery of the greatest treasure would have done, or even the most curious experiments because everybody can enjoy that benefit whilst there isn’t enough treasures to all and curiosity itself fades away. Jesus made more proselytes by curing the sick than the miracles of Canaan. It is like with Spiritism. The ratio between those that are brought in by consolation to those that come out of curiosity is 100:1.
Have those attempts, even unsuccessful from a material point of view, gone without benefit to Mr. Borreau? Here is what he says about it.
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All of those thoughts had made me so depressed, me that was always joyful, that I became said for the rest of the trip, I became unfair to the point that I regretted having ever considered that idea that brought me all those tribulations from unknown paths. What did I gain from that? I asked upset with myself. The knowledge, it is true, of an unknown world to me and the possibility of entering in communication with the beings that inhabit it. But after all that world like ours must have good as well as bad Spirits. Who can give me assurance that despite the interest that we have and all of their good and benevolent words, the one that seems to have imposed himself on us only has good intentions and the power, as he says, to lead us to the brilliant success that I dreamed about, and that may have only inspired me to seduce me and induce me in error?”
Doesn’t the confirmation of the invisible world, of something that is of the interest of the future of humanity at the highest level for the whole humanity will get there, aren’t all these things of significance? Isn’t the discovery of the key to all problems that even today puzzle philosophy a huge finding? Isn’t that an honor to be among the first ones called in to that knowledge? Isn’t that a great service done to the cause of magnetism, by chance it is true, for having given a new proof, among a thousand others, of the impossibility of success in similar cases, and that of discouraging those tempted to do similar tests feeding deluded hopes?
That is the kind of result that the laborious researches of Mr. Borreau produced. If he did not find treasures in this life he certainly found another one a thousand times more precious to the other life, because the one that he could have found on Earth he would be forced to leave it here when he died whereas he will take an imperishable one with him. Is he happy about it? We don’t know.
Nevertheless, we cannot go without establishing a correlation between this event and the old man from the fable that told his three sons the field that they would inherit had a hidden treasure. Two of them then started to excavate their portions but found no treasure. The third and wiser one took very good care of the soil, so much so that one year later he got a big profit back. Hence the maxim: “
Work, strive; the essential is what lacks the least.” The Spirit did as the old man and in our opinion Mr. Borreau found the true treasure.
Our criticism in no way reaches Mr. Borreau that we know from a long time and that we have in high account in all senses. We only wanted to show the moral teaching behind his experiments to the benefit of the science and each one in particular. From that point of view his brochure is highly instructive and at the same time interesting for the remarkable phenomena that it verifies. That is why we recommend it to our readers.
[1] Brochre 2 francs ─ Niort, all bookstores; Paris, Didier & Co,
Quai des Augustins, 35; Ledoyen, Palais-Royal.
