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THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK

Allan Kardec

  1. You are in: THE MEDIUMS’ BOOK > PART SECOND - SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS > CHAPTER XXXI - DISSERTATIONS BY SPIRITS > Apocryphal Communications
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Apocryphal Communications


Spirit-communications are sometimes so absurd, although signed by great names, that the simplest common sense suffices to detect their falsity; but there are others in which error, being mixed up with truth, is not detected at first sight, though it cannot fail to be perceived on further examination. We give a few specimens of communications of this character, in order to aid inquirers in judging of the communications which may be made to them, or which may come under their notice."



XXIX



"The perpetual and incessant creation of worlds is, for God, a perpetual pleasure, because He incessantly sees His rays become each day more luminous in happiness. Number does not exist for God any more than time. This is why, for Him, hundreds or millions are neither more nor less, in His sight, one than the other. He is a father whose happiness is formed of the collective happiness of His children; and, at each second of the creation, He finds a new happiness coming and melting into the general happiness. There is neither stoppage nor suspension in this perpetual movement, this great, incessant happiness, which renders fertile the earth and the heavens. As regards the earth, you know only a very small fraction of it, and you have brothers who live under latitudes that man has not yet been able to penetrate. What signify the torrifying heat and the mortal cold which stay the efforts of the boldest? Do you believe, in your simplicity, that there is the limit of your world, when, with your small means, you can advance no further? You fancy you can measure your planet exactly, do you? Do not believe it. There are upon your planet more places that you are ignorant of than places that you know. But, since it is useless to propagate any further all your evil institutions, all your bad laws, actions, and lives, there is a limit which stops you here and there, and which will stop you until you are able to transport thither the good seed which your free will shall have made. No; you do not know this world which you call the earth. You will see, in your present existence, a great beginning of proofs of this communication. The hour is about to strike when there will be another discovery besides the last that has been already made, and that will enlarge the circle of your known earth; and when the press everywhere sings this Hosanna in all tongues, you, poor children who love God and seek His way, you will have known all about it, before the very people who will give their name to the new land." "VINCENT DE PAUL."

Remark. - In point of style, this communication, with its inaccuracies, redundancies, and eccentric terms of expression, is evidently very faulty; but these faults alone would prove nothing against its authenticity, because such imperfections might arise from the incapacity of the medium, as we have already shown. What the communicating spirit gives, is the idea; and therefore, when the author of this message tells us that there exist on our planet more places that we are ignorant of than places that are known, and that a new continent is about to be discovered, he gives indisputable proof of his ignorance. Certain tracts of land, as yet undiscovered, may very probably exist beyond the ice-barriers around the poles; but to say that those tracts are peopled, and that God has hidden them from us in order that we may not transport evil institutions thither, shows the folly of the spirit who could seek to palm off suds absurdities on mortal listeners. Contrast the foregoing with the following, obtained in the same group and signed with the same name, but presenting as evident marks of authenticity as the foregoing presents of substitution.



XXX



"Your material world and the spiritual world (which so few of you know as yet) form the two plates of a pair of scales. Your religions, your laws, your customs, and your passions, have caused the scale of evil so far to outweigh that of good, that evil has reigned as a sovereign over the earth. For ages, the same plaint has exhaled from the lips of man, and he has necessarily been led by suffering to call in question the justice of God, while some men have even been led to deny His very existence. You see the things of your world; but you see nothing of the spiritworld, and you therefore cannot understand the conditions of your earthly life, in which you see superfluity jostling want, gold and clay in close proximity, the contrasts of vice and of virtue which should prove to you the fact of your double nature, but which you cannot explain. Whence comes this state of things? Whose fault is it? This question you should try to answer with calmness and impartiality, remembering that the sincere desire to find a remedy is the first step towards its discovery. Notwithstanding the domination of evil over good, which occurs through your own fault, do you not perceive that all the forces of Nature run steadily in the groove appointed for them by God? Do you ever see the seasons coming out of their time, heat and cold clashing with each other? the sun forgetting to light up the earth? the earth forgetting the grain which man has deposited in its bosom? Is there any cessation of the countless miracles that are constantly taking place under your eyes, from the birth of the blade of grass to the birth of the child, the future man? All that is done by God is well-done; all that is done by man is ill-done. What is the remedy for all this? Something very simple. Let men return to God; let them be united together, and follow the road which, to the eyes of faith and conscience is already marked out." "VINCENT DE PAUL."

Remark - This communication was obtained "as stated above" in the same circle as the preceding one; but what a difference is observable between them, not only in style, but also in thought! This one is clear, profound, sensible, and such as Vincent de Paul would not disavow; and we may therefore safely assume that it is from him.


XXXI



"Go forward, children! Close up your ranks! That is to say, union is strength. You who are working at the foundations of this great edifice, watch and work to consolidate its base, and you will be enabled to raise it high, very high! Progress is immense throughout our globe; an innumerable crowd of proselytes are drawing round our flag; many sceptics, even of those who are most incredulous, are approaching; yes, they too are approaching! "Go forward, children, march forward with elated hearts, full of faith; the road you follow is a beautiful one; do not slacken your pace; always follow the straight line; serve guides to those who are coming after you; they will be happy, very happy! "March forward, children! You do not need the aid of bayonets to sustain your cause, all you want is faith. Belief fraternity, and union; these are your arms; with these you are strong, more powerful than all the great potentates of as the universe united, notwithstanding their armies, their fleets, their cannon, and their grape-shot! "You who combat for the liberty of peoples and the regeneration of the great human family, come on, children! Courage and perseverance! God will aid you! Good night; I shall see you again." "NAPOLEON."

Remark. - If ever there were a grave and serious man, Napoleon, while living, was such an one ; his brief, concise style of utterance is known to all, and he must have strangely degenerated since his death, if he could have dictated a communication so verbose and ridiculous as this, which, however, may perhaps be from the spirit of some trooper named "Napoleon."


XXXII



"No; one cannot 'change one's religion,' when one does not possess a religion which can at the same time satisfy one's common sense and intelligence, and which can, above all, give present consolation to man. No! one does not change one's religion; what one does is to fall from folly and domination into wisdom and liberty. Come on, come on, our little army! come on, and do not fear the enemy's bullets! Those which will kill you are not yet cast, if you are always, from the bottom of your heart, in the way of God; that is to say, if you will always combat, pacifically and victoriously, for ease and liberty." "VINCENT DE PAUL"

Remark. - Who could recognise the excellent and beneficent man called Saint Vincent de Paul in language so loose and in thoughts so void of common sense, as the foregoing? What does the spirit mean by saying "No, one does not 'change one's religion,' ""one falls from folly and domination into wisdom and liberty?" With his "bullets which are not yet cast," this spirit would seem to be the same as that of the trooper who signed Napoleon in the preceding communication. In regard to the two following quotations, the absurdity of signing such messages with such a name, is too obvious to call for comment.


XXXIII



"Children of my faith, Christians of my doctrine forgotten through the interests of the floods of the philosophy of the materialists, follow me on the road of Judea, follow the passion of my life, contemplate my enemies of the present, contemplate my sufferings, my torments, and my blood shed for my faith!

"Children, spiritualists of my new doctrine, be ready to stiffer, to brave the waves of adversity, the sarcasms of your enemies. Faith will march forward incessantly in following your star, which will guide you on the road to eternal happiness, as the star led the Magi of the East, by faith, to the Cradle. Whatever your adversaries may be, whatever your trials, whatever the tears that you have shed in this sphere of exile, take courage, be sure that the joy which will overwhelm you in the world of spirits will be far above the torments of your passing existence. The valley of tears is a valley which must disappear to give place to the brilliant sojourn of joy, of fraternity and union, which you will reach through your dutiful obedience to the holy revelation. This life, my dear brothers of this terrestrial sphere, merely preparatory though it be, can only endure for the time necessary for living well prepared for that life which can never end. Love one another, love one another as I have loved you, and as I love you still ; brothers, Courage, brothers l I bless you; in heaven I await you." "Jesus."

"From these brilliant and luminous regions which human thought can scarcely penetrate, the echo of your words and of mine has come to me and touched my heart.

"Oh! with what joy do I feel inundated by the sight of you, you, the continuers of my doctrine! No, nothing approaches the testimony of your good thoughts! You see it, my children, the regenerating idea cast by me long since into the world, persecuted, stayed, for a moment, by the oppression of tyrants, is going on now without obstacles, lighting the ways of humanity so long plunged in darkness. "Every great and disinterested sacrifice, my children, has borne fruit sooner or later. My martyrdom proved this to you; my blood poured out for my doctrine will save humanity and efface the faults of great criminals! "Blessed be ye, ye who this day take your place in the regenerated family! Go forward, courage, children!" "JESUS."

Remark. - There is certainly nothing evil in these two communications ; but did Christ ever express Himself in such an awkward, pretentious, stilted, and ridiculous style?

All the communications now quoted as apocryphal were obtained in the same circle. We notice in them a sort of family-likeness, similar turns of phraseology, the frequent repetition of the same expressions, such as, for example, "Go forward, children!" &c., from which we may conclude that the same spirit probably dictated them all, under different names. It is to be remarked that in the circle alluded to - and which was a very conscientious one, though somewhat too credulous - they never made evocations nor asked questions, hot waited for communications to be made spontaneously ; yet we see that their doing so did not suffice to ensure the authenticity of the messages received by them. A series of home-questions would have put this spirit into his proper place; hut, as they asked him nothing, and accepted, blindly and unhesitatingly, everything he said, he knew that he had nothing to fear, and seems to have amused himself accordingly by playing on their credulity (See 269).


XXXIV



"How beautiful is nature! how prudent is Providence in its foresight! but your blindness and your human passions hinder your having patience with the prudence and goodness of God. You lament over the smallest cloud, the least delay in the realisation of your previsions; know then, impatient doubters, that nothing happens without a motive that is always foreseen, always premeditated, for the profit of all. The meaning of what precedes is to set at naught men of false apprehensions, all your previsions of a bad year for your harvests.

"God frequently inspires men with uneasiness about the future, to urge them to foresight; see how great are the means for exciting your fears, sown designedly, and which, most frequently, cover avaricious thoughts rather than the idea of a wise provisioning inspired by a feeling of humanity for the advantage of the poor. Behold the relations of nations with nations that will grow out of your uneasiness; see the transactions to which it will lead; what methods will work together to disappoint your fears for, as you know, every thing is linked together, and great and small will cooperate in the work.

"And do you not already see, in the whole of this movement, a source of wellbeing for the more laborious class of society, that truly interesting class which you, the great, you, the omnipotent of this earth, regard as people to be taxed at your pleasure, created for your satisfaction?

"And what comes of all this going and coming from one pole to the other? It is that, once well provided for, the weather has often changed; the sun, obeying the thought of its Creator, ripens your harvest in a few days; God brings abundance where your covetousness meditated a lack, and in spite of you the humble can live; and, without your suspecting it, you have been, unknown to yourselves, the cause of abundance.

"Nevertheless it happens-God permits this sometimes - that the evil ones succeed in their avaricious projects; but then it is a teaching that God wills to give to all ; it is human foresight that He would stimulate; it is that infinite order which reigns in nature, it is courage in view of events, which men should imitate, and should bear with resignation.

"As to those who, calculatingly, profit by disasters, you may be sure that they will be punished for it. God wills that all His creatures should live; man should neither tamper with necessity nor make a traffic of superfluity.

Just in His benefits, great in His clemency, too good for our ingratitude, God is impenetrable in His designs." "BOSSUET ALFRED DE MARIGNAC."

Remark. - This communication assuredly contains nothing objectionable; on the contrary, notwithstanding its defects of style, it contains profound and philosophical ideas, and sagacious advice, which might deceive illiterate readers in regard to the identity of its author. The medium who obtained it, having submitted it to the examination of the Spiritist Society of Paris, the latter declared unanimously that it could not be the production of Bossuet. Saint Louis, on being consulted respecting this communication, gave the following answer: - "This communication is intrinsically good, but you must not believe that it came from Bossuet. The spirit who dictated it may perhaps have done so, in some degree, under the inspiration of the great Bishop, and may have put the Bishop's name at the end of it, in order to get it more readily accepted; but you can easily detect the substitution of signature by the defectiveness of the language. It was dictated by the spirit who has placed his name after that of Bossuet." This spirit, being interrogated as to his motive in attempting such a fraud, replied: - "I was anxious to write something to bring myself hack to the notice of men; seeing that my communication was but weak, I borrowed a great name to give it weigh." - "But did you not foresee that it would he judged to be spurious?" - "Who can ever be sure as to what will happen? You might have been taken in. Other persons, less clear-sighted, would have accepted it as coming from Basset."

It is, in fact, the readiness with which many persons accept whatever comes from the invisible world, under the apparent sanction of a great name, that encourages deceptive spirits. We must employ our acumen to frustrate the tricks of such spirits ; and this is only to he done with the aid of experience and a serious study of the subject. It is for this reason that we constantly repeat our advice to study the subject before attempting experimentation ; for it is only thus that inquirers can avoid acquiring experience at the cost of mystifications and annoyance.
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