Bulletin of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies
NOTE: According to the announcement, from now on we will publish
the bulletin of the works of the Society. Each number will contain
the report of the previous month’s session. These bulletins will only give
a brief summary of the works and the minutes of each session. Regarding
the obtained communications, as well as the others from strange sources
that were read, we will always publish them entirely, as long as they offer
something of useful and instructive. We will continue to indicate the date
of the sessions as we have done so far. The abundance of material and the
need for classification sometimes force an inversion in the order of certain
documents. This is not important since sooner or later they will find their
place.
Friday, July 1st, 1859
(Private session)
Administrative matters:
Admission of Mr. S… corresponding member from Bordeaux.
Postponement until broader information is available, membership of
two members presented on the 10th and 17th.
Designation of three new chairmen for the general sessions.
Reading of the minutes of the previous session in June.
Communications:
Mr. Allan Kardec announces that he was with Mr. W… son, from
Bologne-sur-Mer, covered in the issue of December 1858 of the Review,
regarding an article about the phenomenon of bi-corporeity. He confirmed
the fact of his simultaneous presence in Boulogne and London.
Letter from Mr. S…, a corresponding member from Bordeaux, containing
precise details about interesting manifestations and apparitions of
his personal knowledge from a familiar spirit. The letter is published in
this issue as well as the evocation related to the subject.
Dr. Morhéry awards the Society with two cantatas whose lyrics where
authored by him, entitled Italia and Venetian. Although the productions
are completely strange to the works of the Society, they were thankfully
accepted.
Mr. Th… notes that, with respect to the communication of
Christopher Columbus, obtained in the previous session that his answers
related to his mission and that of the spirits in general seem to bless the
doctrine of fatality.
Several members contested such consequence of the answers given
by Christopher Columbus, since the mission does not subtract from the
spirit the freedom of doing or not doing something. The human being
is not fatally impelled to do this or that thing. It may happen that, as
an individual, the person behaves more or less blindly but as spirit is
always aware of his actions. Supposing that the principle of fatality was
derived from Columbus’ answers, this would not be the consecration
of a principle that has been contested by the spirits all the time. At any
rate, it is only a personal opinion. Well, the Society is far from accepting
it as an irrefutable truth since the Society is aware that the spirits may
be wrong. A spirit may well say that it is the Sun that turns and not the
Earth that would not be more truthful just because it had come from a
spirit. We take the answers by their value. Our objective is to study the
individualities, whatever their degree of advancement or inferiority. We
thus acquire the knowledge about the moral state of the invisible world,
giving no credit to the doctrine of the spirits, unless fit to reason and common sense and when there is real light in them. When an answer is
illogical or erroneous, we conclude that the spirit that gave that answer
is delayed. That is all. As for Columbus’ answers, there is no implication
of fatality whatsoever.
Studies:
Questions about the long lasting perturbation of Dr. Glower, evoked
on June 10th.
Questions about the causes of the painful physical sensations produced
on Mr. W… son, from Boulogne, by suffering spirits.
Questions about the theory behind the formation of material objects
in the world of the spirits, such as outfits, jewelry, etc. and the transformation
of the elemental matter by the spirit.
Explanation about the phenomenon of direct writing (see our article
“Pneumatography or Direct Writing” in this issue)
Evocation of a high ranked officer killed in Magenta (second conversation);
questions about certain sensations beyond the grave.
Proposal put forward by Mr. S… for the evocation of Mr. M…, disappeared
for a month, in order to know if he is dead or alive. When questioned
about it St. Louis said that such evocation cannot be made; that
the uncertainty about the fate of that man has the objective of a trial and
that later, through ordinary means, one will know what happened.
Friday July 8th, 1859
(General session)
Reading of the minutes and works of previous session.
Communications:
Reading of two spontaneous communications obtained by Mr. R…,
member: one from St. Louis, giving advice to the Society as for the modes
of assessment of the answers given by the spirits; another from Lamennais.
They will be published in the next issue.
Reading of the news about Deacon Pâris and the convulsions of SaintMédard,
prepared by the working committee as a matter for study.
Mr. Didier, member, reported curious experiences he carried out
about the direct writing and the remarkable results obtained.
Studies:
Evocation of the familiar or guide spirit of Mrs. Mally from Bordeaux,
regarding the news transmitted by Mr. S… about the manifestations produced
in her house, read in the previous session.
Evocation of Mr. K… deceased on June 15th, 1859, in the Department
of Sarthe. Mr. K…, a righteous man, very educated, was versed in spiritist
studies and the evocation carried out after the request of his family
and relatives, confirming the influence of those studies upon the state
of detachment of his soul after death. Besides, it spontaneously revealed
the important fact of the spirits nightly visits among the spirits of living
persons. Grave consequences are derived from this fact for the solution of
certain moral and psychological problems.
Friday July 15th, 1859
(Private session)
Reading of the minutes of previous session.
Administrative matters:
On the request of several members and considering that many persons
are absent during this season, the President proposes, according to what is
established in all societies, that a period of vacations be established. The
Society decides to suspend the sessions during August, resuming its activities
on September 2nd.
Mr. Cr…, deputy secretary, writes requesting his substitution, due
to new occupations which do not allow him to regularly take part
since the beginning of the sessions. His replacement will be done in
due course.
Communications:
Reading of a letter from Mr. Jobard, from Brussels, Honorary
President of the Society, reporting some facts relative to Spiritism and offering
a song to the Society entitled “The Zuavo’s Song”, inspired by the
evocation of The Zouave of Magenta, published in the July issue of the
Review. The song was presented in the Brussels’ Theater. The aim of that
song, in which the spiritual inspiration of the author unfolds, is to show
that the spiritist ideas have the effect of destroying the apprehensions of
death.
Mr. D… reports new facts about the direct writing, obtained
by him in The Louvre and in Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois (see article
“Pneumatography or Direct Writing” in this issue).
Reading of a letter addressed to the President with respect to the
storm of Solferino. The author indicates several similar facts and asks if
there wouldn’t be something of providential in such coincidence. This
question was answered through a question addressed to the high ranked
official deceased in Magenta. As a matter of fact, this conversation will be
the subject of a more detailed examination.
Letter from Mrs. L… in which she mentions a mystification that victimized
her from the part of a malevolent spirit that pretended to be St.
Vincent of Paul, who deceived her with an apparently elevated language,
providing details about her and her family, inducing her to compromising
attitudes. The letter itself indicates to the Society that the spirit had revealed
his nature by certain facts that would not allow any doubt regarding
his identification.
Studies:
Moral problems and several questions: About the merit of the good
deeds, aiming at the future life; about the missions of the spirits; about the
influence of the type or the wish of death; about the intuitive mediums.
Questions about nightly visit among living persons.
Evocation of Deacon Pâris.
Evocation of the false spirit of St. Vincent of Paul, mystifying spirit
of Mrs. L…
Friday, July 22nd, 1859
(General Session)
Reading of the minutes of previous session.
Communications:
Reading of a private communication from the member Mr. R…,
about the theory of madness, dreams, hallucinations and somnambulism,
by the spirits of Francois Arago and St. Vincent of Paul. That theory is a
scientific and rational development of the principles already issued about
the subject, to be published in the next issue.
Mr. R… communicates a recent fact of apparition. He was acquainted
with Mr. Fume. On the day of his funeral, Saturday July 16th, Mr. Fume appeared
to the wife of Mr. R… at night, with the same appearance as he had
when alive, trying to approach her, while another spirit, whose face she could
not distinguish, held him by the arm, trying to keep him away. Perturbed
by such a vision she covered her eyes but continued to see him as before. On
the next day, that lady who is a writing medium, like her husband, started to
frenetically trace irregular characters that seemed to form the name Fume. In
fact, another spirit that was questioned about it, responded that Mr. Fume
wanted to communicate with them, but in his current state of perturbation he
hardly recognizes himself, adding that it would be necessary eight more days
before evoking him, so that he could communicate freely.
Dr. V… reports a case of spirits’ prediction, which took place in his
presence, even more remarkable for the accuracy of dates provided by
the spirits. About six weeks ago a lady of his acquaintance, an excellent
psychographic medium, received a communication from the spirit
of her father. Suddenly, and without provocation, her father started to
spontaneously talk about the Italian war. He was asked if the war would
end soon. He answered that the peace would be signed on July 11th. Not
giving importance to that prediction Mr. V… inserted the answer in
a sealed envelope and sent it to a third person, recommending that it
should not be open before July 11th. It is a fact that the event happened
as announced.
It is worth noting that when the spirits talk about things of the future
they do so spontaneously, certainly because they consider it useful to do
so; however, they never do that when provoked by curiosity.
Studies:
Moral problems and diverse questions.
Complementary questions about the merit of the good actions; about
the spirit’s visits and about the direct writing.
Questions about the intervention of the spirits in the phenomena of
nature, like the storms, and about the attributions of certain spirits.
Complementary questions about the Deacon Pâris and the convulsions
of Saint-Médard.
Evocation of General Hoche.
