Mr. Adrien, clairvoyant medium
Every person that can see the spirits without the help of others is thus a clairvoyant medium. But the
apparitions are generally accidental and fortuitous.
We didn’t know yet anybody capable of seeing the spirits permanently and at will. That is the
remarkable gift of Mr. Adrien, member of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies. He is
simultaneously sensitive, clairvoyant, and psychographic and can also hear the spirits. Through
psychgraphy he writes what the spirits dictate but rarely in a mechanical way, like the totally
passive mediums, that is, even when writing something alien to his own thoughts he is aware of
what he is writing. As a hearing medium he hears occult voices that speak to him. We have in our
Society two other mediums that enjoy such a faculty in its highest level and, at the same time, are
psychgraphy mediums. Finally, as a sensitive medium, he feels the contact with the spirits and the
pressure they exert on him. He even feels electric shocks that affect other people around. When he
magnetizes someone he can, at will, and since that is required to the health treatment, produce the
discharge of an electric battery.
A new faculty that has just manifested in him is the double vision. Not being a somnambulist and
although completely awake, he can see at an unlimited distance, what happens in a given place,
even overseas. He sees the persons and what they are doing; describes the places and facts with
precision and confirmed accuracy.
Let us say, for starters, that Mr. Adrien is not one of those weak persons that easily yield to their
imagination. On the contrary, he is a man of cold character, very calm and takes all this in the most
cold-bloodedly way, but not with indifference; far from that, since he takes his faculties very
seriously, considering them as a gift from Providence, given to him for the well-being of others and
thus he only uses them for the serious things, never to satisfy the vain curiosity. He is a person of a
distinct family, very honest, of a kind and benevolent character, whose refined education is revealed
in his language and in all of his attitudes. While in the military he has already visited part of Africa,
India and our colonies as a member of the Navy.
From all his faculties of medium the most remarkable and precious to us is his clairvoyance. The
spirits appear to him as we have described in our previous issue regarding the apparitions. He sees
them with a precision that we can figure out from the portraits given at some point later from the
widow of the Malabar and from the Beautiful Weaver of Lyon.
People may ask, however, what is the proof that he sees and that he is not the victim of an illusion.
The proof is that when someone that he does not know evokes a relative or a friend through him
who he has never seen before, he describes that person with a remarkable accuracy, as we had the opportunity to verify. Thus, we have no doubt whatsoever with respect to that faculty that he
manifests while awaken and not as a somnambulist.
What is still even more remarkable is that he does not see only the evoked spirits. He sees all those
that are present, evoked or not. He sees them coming and going, listening to what we say, laughing
at us or taking us seriously, according to their character. Some are grave, others show a teasing and
sardonic face; from time to time one of the them approaches a person who is present, resting a hand
on their shoulder or just staying behind them, while the others remain at a distance. In one word, in
every gathering there is always an occult assembly, composed of spirits who are attracted by
sympathy to those present and by the subjects of their interest. He sees crowds in the streets since
beyond the familiar spirits that follow their protégés, there is, as among us, the masses of indifferent
and idle ones. He says that he is never bored or alone at home since there is always a whole
community that distracts him.
His faculty is not limited to the spirits of the dead but also of the living ones. When he sees a person
he can make an abstraction of the body; then the spirit of that person shows up to him as if
separated from the body and can talk to him. Hence with a child, for example, he can see the
incarnated spirit, appreciate its nature and know what the spirit was before the incarnation. This
faculty, elevated to such a level, can teach us more than all written communications about the nature
of the spirits; it shows us what the spirit actually is, and if we don’t see it with our own eyes, his
description leads us to see through our thoughts.
The spirits are no longer abstract beings, becoming real creatures around us; touching us every step
of the way. As we now know that their contact can be material, we understand the cause of a
number of sensations that we have, without realizing it.
Therefore we place Mr. Adrien among the most remarkable mediums and in the first row of those
who have provided us with the most precious elements for the understanding of the spiritual world.
We locate him in the first level, particularly for his personal qualities, that are of a good man by
excellence, making him eminently sympathetic to the spirits of a more elevated order, what is not
always the case with the mediums of purely physical influence. No doubt that there are those among
the latter that will make more sensationalism; that will better captivate public opinion, but to the
observer, to someone that wishes to probe the mysteries of this wonderful world, Mr. Adrien is the
most powerful support that we have ever found.
As a result, his faculty and support serve our personal instruction, be it in the intimacy, in the
sessions of the Parisian Society, or even through visitations to several public places. We have been
together into theaters, balls, leisurely strolls, in hospitals, in the cemeteries and churches. We were
together at funerals, weddings, baptism ceremonies and sermons. We observed the gathering of
spirits in all those places. We have established conversations with some of them, questioning them
and learning many things that we shall make useful to our readers considering that our objective is
to help them and ourselves to penetrate into such a new world to all of us.
The microscope has revealed to us the unsuspected world of the infinitely small, although it had
always been at the reach of our hands. The telescope has revealed us the infinity of the celestial
worlds of which we did not suspect either. Spiritism uncovers the world of the spirits that are
everywhere around us and in space, a real world that incessantly interacts with us.
