The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

Allan Kardec

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Psychological Period


As much as the spiritist manifestations had happened at all times, it is incontestable that they are exceptionally produced these days. The spirits, when questioned about this subject, were unanimous in their answer: “The times, chosen by the Providence for a universal manifestation, have come. Their duty is to dissipate the darkness of ignorance and prejudice. It is the beginning of a new era which prepares the regeneration of humanity.” This thought is found notably developed in a letter we have received from one of our members, from which we extract the following excerpt:

“Everything has its time. The period that has just finished seems to have been specially destined by the Almighty to the progress of Physics and Mathematics and it is probably with the objective of disposing men to the knowledge of the exact Sciences which opposed them, for such a long time, to the manifestation of the spirits, as if that manifestation could be harmful to the positivism required by the study of Sciences. In one word, He wanted men to turn into a habit the search for the explanation of every phenomenon which could be produced before their eyes, in the Sciences of observation.”

“It seems that the scientific period is now over. After the immense progress which took place over that period, it would not be impossible that the new period, which must succeed the other, would be destined, by the Creator, to the initiations of psychological order. In the immutable law of perfectibility established to the humankind, what can He do after having initiated men in the physical laws of motion and revealed the engine with which men change the face of the globe?”

“Man has probed the most distant depths of space; the march of the globes and the general movement of the Universe are no longer secrets; men read the history of formation of our own planet in the geological layers; light is transformed, at will, into lasting images; man dominates lightning; with steam and electricity suppresses distances and man’s thought travels across the space with the speed of light. Arriving at this summit, to which history of mankind offers no similar, whatever the degree of advancement may have been reached in the remote eras, it seems reasonable to me to think that the psychological order opens up a new road in the path of progress to man. It is at least what would be deduced from the facts that are produced in our days and multiply everywhere. Let us then wait for the moment to approach – if it has not yet done so – in which the Almighty will initiate us in new, great and sublime truths. It is up to us to understand it and support Him in the duty of regeneration.”

This letter is from Mr. Georges who we spoke about in our first issue. We have only to congratulate him for his progress in the Doctrine. The eminent points of view he develops demonstrate that he understands it under its truthful prism. To him the Doctrine is not summarized by the belief in the spirits and their manifestations: it is a whole philosophy. As Mr. Georges, we believed that we have entered into a psychological period. The motives he presents are perfectly rational, as we do not think that the scientific period has given the final word; on the contrary, we suppose that it still reserves many more prodigies. We are in a transition period in which the characters of both periods blend.

The knowledge acquired by the antiquity about the spiritist manifestations did not serve as argument against the idea of the psychological period, which is in preparation. In fact, let us notice that in the antiquity such knowledge was limited to a strict circle of wise men. The people had only some idea about them, flawed by prejudice and disfigured by the charlatanism of the priests, who used them as a means of domination. As we have said elsewhere, such knowledge has never been lost; they remained as isolated facts, certainly because the time was not right for them to be understood. What happens today has a completely different character: the manifestations are general; shock society from top to bottom. The spirits no longer teach in the mysterious circles of the temple, inaccessible to the common ones. These facts happen in day light. They speak a language understandable by all.

Everything thus announce, from a moral point of view, a new phase to humanity.

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