The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

Allan Kardec

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Lemaire, the murderer.

Sentenced to maximum penalty by the Court of Aisne, and executed on December 31st, 1857.
Spirit evoked on January 29th, 1858.

1. I ask Almighty God to allow Lemaire the murderer, executed on December 31st, 1857 to come to us.

—I am here.

2. How could you so promptly attend our appeal?

—Raquel said so.*


* Ms. Raquel, evoked a few days earlier, through the same medium, manifested instantly. The following questions were addressed to her with respect to this subject:

Q—How could you come so promptly, at the very instant of your evocation? One would say that you were ready?

A—When Ermance (medium) calls us, we come immediately.

Q—You thus have a lot of sympathy for Ms. Ermance?

A—There is a link between us. She would come to us. We come to her.

Q—Is there a similarity of characters between you? How come there is sympathy? A—She has never entirely left the spiritual world.


4. What do you feel in our presence?

—Shame. How can a young lady, kind like a lamb, serve as intermediary to you, a slaughterer? — God allows so.

5. Were you lucid up to the last moment?

—Yes.

6. Immediately after your execution, were you aware of your new existence?

—I was immersed in great perturbation, which I have not left yet. I felt a great pain; it seems that my heart felt it. I saw something rolling at the bottom of the gallows. I saw the blood running and my pain was pungent.

7. Was it a physical pain, similarly to that caused by a serious injury, like for example the amputation of a limb?

—No. Imagine remorse, a great moral pain.

8. When have you started to feel that pain?

—Since I became free.

9. The physical pain caused by the execution was felt by the body or by the spirit?

—The moral pain was in my spirit. The body felt the physical pain but, separated, the spirit still resented.

10. Did you see the mutilated body?

—I saw something formless, which I had apparently left, however I felt whole. I was myself.

11. Which impression has such a sight caused on you?

—I felt too much pain. I was dominated by it.

12. Is it true that a few moments after decapitation the body still lives and that the executed is conscious of their ideas?

13. The spirit leaves gradually. The tighter the ties with matter, the longer the separation. How long does it take?

—It varies. (See previous answer.)

14. They say that an expression of rage, beyond the movements, has been noticed in the face of certain executed people, as if they wanted to speak. Is it the effect of a nervous contraction or there is participation of the will?

—The will because the spirit had not left yet.

15. What was the first feeling that you experienced on entering the new existence?

—An intolerable suffering. A kind of pungent remorse whose cause I ignored.

16. Are you with your accomplices with whom you were simultaneously executed?

—Most unfortunately. Seeing each other is a continuous suffering. Each condemns the other’s crimes.

17. Do you meet your victims?

— I see them. . . They are happy. . . Their eyes pursue me and I feel them in the depth of my being. . . I hopelessly try to escape.

18. What is your feeling in their presence?

—Shame and remorse. I elevated them with my own hands and still hate them.

19. What is the feeling they have when they see you?

—Pity!

20. Do they show hate or the desire of vengeance?

—No. Their prayers attract expiation to me. You cannot imagine the suffering one has by owing everything to those that one hates.

21. Do you regret your Earthly life?

—I only regret my crimes. If the fact still depended on me I would not have succumbed.

22. How were you led to such a criminal life?

—Listen! I thought I was strong; I chose a tough trial and gave in to evil temptations.

23. Was the tendency towards crime in your nature or were you dragged by the environment in which you lived?

—The tendency towards crime was in my nature as I was an inferior spirit. I wanted to rise rapidly but I requested more than proportioned to my strengths.

24. Had you been given good educational principles could you have deviated from the life of crime?

—Yes, but I chose the position in which I was born.

25. Could you have acted as a good man?

—As a weak man, as incapable of good as of evil. I could have slowed down, during my existence, the progress of evil, which was in my nature but I could not have elevated to a point as to practice good.

26. When alive, did you believe in God?

—No.

27. It is said that you repented at the moment of your death. Is it true?

—I believed in a vindictive God. . . and feared His justice.

28. Is your regret more sincere now?

—Ah! I see what I have done!

29. What do you think about God now?

—I feel him but do not understand him.

30. Do you find it fair, the punishment inflicted on you when on Earth?

—Yes.

31. Do you hope for forgiveness of your crimes?

—I don’t know.

32. How do you intend to redeem your crimes?

—By new trials but it seems that eternity is between us.

33. How could you atone for your faults in a new existence if you do not keep memory of those?

—I will have their intuition.

34. Are those trials experienced on Earth or on another world?

—I don’t know.

35. Where are you now?

—In my suffering.

36. I ask about the place where you are now. . .

—Near Ermance.

37. Are you incarnate or errant (see note 6)?

—Errant. If I were incarnate I would have hope. As I said: it seems that eternity is between me and the expiation.

38. Considering that you are here, if we were able to see you, how would you present yourself?

—Under my corporeal form, with the head separated from the body.

39. Can you show up to us?

—No. Leave me!

40. Can you tell us how you escaped from Montdidier prison?

— I no longer know. . . I suffer so much that only the memory of the crime remains. . . Leave me!

41. Can we provide any relief to your suffering?

— Vow that I reach expiation.

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