Letter about Incredulity Conclusion (see January 1861)There are spirits since the day humans began to exist on Earth.
Therefore, the spirits have been manifesting to human beings since
those days. History and tradition are full of evidence on this subject,
whether it was because some did not understand the phenomena of such
manifestations; while others were discouraged to talk about them out
of fear of imprisonment or burning at the stake; or because such events
would be considered superstitious or coming from charlatans by very prejudiced
people or from those who were not interested in the enlightenment
of others; or finally because the phenomena were attributed to the devil,
by another kind of interest, the fact of the matter is that even up until
recently the phenomena had not been explained in a satisfactory way, or
at least the true theory had not yet become of public domain, probably
due to the fact that humanity was not sufficiently mature for that as for
many other wonderful things that take place in our days. It was reserved
for our time to see the emergence of the steam engine, electricity, animal
magnetism from the point of view of applied sciences, as well as Spiritism,
being the most remarkable of them all not only for the material proof of
our immaterial existence and immortality, but also for the establishment
of a somehow material and permanent communication between the invisible
world and us.
What incalculable consequences should not be born of such a miraculous
event! However, speaking only about something that touches
everybody in general, as death for example, we see it reduced to its actual
role of a natural accident, necessary and even happy I would say, thus losing
its painful and terrible stigma, since it is the awakening of those who
die. Can we still be in touch with those who are dear to us the day after
their death? Nothing has changed beyond our physical relationships! We
don’t see them anymore, we don’t touch them or hear their voices but
we continue to exchange our thoughts with them, as we did when alive,
and often to us in a more advantageous way. What can remain so painful
after that? If we add to the preceding the certainty about the fact that
our separation will not last more than a few years, a few months, a few
days maybe, wouldn’t it all be just the transformation of what used to be
terrifying before into a simple event, something that was certainly the
permanent torment of so many people? I am moving away from the main
subject, though!
Before I explain to you the very simple practice of communications,
I would like to try to give you an idea about a physiological theory that I
built for myself. I am not saying that it is correct since I have not seen it
explained by science yet, but at least it seems to me that it is something
similar to this. The more adequate the matter is to receive the influence of
the spirit the easier it is for the spirit to act. Hence it does not act directly
upon all kinds of matter, although it could act indirectly as long as there
it finds between the spirit and that matter certain substances of a flexible
association, capable of establishing the contact between the two extremes,
that is to say, the raw matter and spirit. That is how the spirit of a living
person can move blocks of stone, can manipulate and aggregate it thus
forming what we call houses, columns, churches, palaces, etc. Was it all
done by a human body? Who would dare say? Yes, humans made it all,
as it is my hand that writes this letter. Let us return to the subject though
because I am moving away again.
How does the spirit act upon the heavy block of stone it wants to
move? Through the graduated matter between the spirit and the block; the lever establishes the connection with the hand; the hand establishes
the connection with the muscles; the muscles with the nerves; the nerves
with the brain and the brain with the spirit, unless there is a more delicate
matter, a fluid that allows the relationship between the brain and the
spirit. Whatever is the case, the existence of an intermediary would not
hurt the theory. If the spirit acts as a first or second hand in touch with the
brain, it always acts very close so that when the contact is considered reversed,
or in its natural order, there you have the spirit acting upon a very
subtle matter, organized by the Creator’s wisdom so that it may receive directly
or almost directly the action of his will. That matter, the brain, acts
through its ramifications, the so-called nerves, upon a less delicate matter
called muscles, still capable of responding to its commands. The muscles
impinge movement onto the solid parts of the body, limbs and bones,
while the remaining structure serves as support to the action. When the
bones are not strong enough or long enough to carry out the action, its
force is then multiplied by the use of tools such as the lever, and the heavy
and inert block moves, obedient to the will of the spirit that would not be
capable of such an action but through the intermediary hierarchy below.
That is more or less how the minor actions of the spirit are explained,
as well as the execution of things like drying a lake, moving a hill, etc.
The body almost disappears amidst a multitude of necessary instruments
in which it only plays the role as the first layer of contact.
Suppose I want to write a letter. What should I do? Establish a connection
between my spirit and a piece of paper, as I did before with the
stone. I replace the lever by the pen and that is it. The piece of paper reflects
my spirit’s thoughts, like the movement of the block also manifested
by the will of the spirit earlier on.
If my spirit wants to transmit the thought more directly, more
promptly to you, and as long as there is no barrier such as distance or an
interfering body between us, again, by means of the brain and nerves, it
acts upon the organ of voice hitting the air in a number of ways, producing
a variety of conventional sounds that reflect the thoughts, then affecting
your hearing organ that in turn transmits my thoughts to your spirit again through the nerves and brain. It is always the thought, manifested
and transmitted by a series of graded physical agents, interposed between
the principle and the objective.
If the theory above is true then there is nothing easier than the explanation
of the phenomena of spiritist manifestations, particularly the
writing mediumship that is our focus now. Since the psychic substance
is identical to all spirits, their means of action upon matter must be the
same. Only the strength may vary. Also, the matter of the nerves is organized
in such a way that it may receive the action of a given spirit, there is
no reason why it could not receive the influence of another spirit, whose
nature is the same as the former and since the substance of all spirits are
the same, then all spirits are capable of exerting, I would not say the same
action but the same mode of action upon the substance, every time they
have the necessary conditions to do so. Well then, this is what happens in
the evocations.
What is evocation? It is the act through which a given spirit, owner
of a body, requests another spirit, or put simply, allows another spirit to
use his own body, its instruments, in order to manifest their thoughts
or will. And that does not mean that the owner leaves the body behind.
They can temporarily minimize their own action upon the organs of
transmission, leaving them to serve the other spirit but only during the
period of time allowed by the owner, given the axiom of natural law, that
each person is the master of their own home. However, it is necessary to
say, it also happens in Spiritism what happens in other human societies,
that such right to ownership is not always scrupulously respected by the
spirits and that many mediums have been surprised for having given
shelter to uninvited and even less desired guests. Nevertheless, this is
one among the thousands of meaningless troubles of life that we must
learn to endure, because they also have their useful side, not to mention
the fact that we are tested while they are the manifest demonstration
of the spirits’ action upon our body, leading us to write things that we
were not even dreaming of or that we were not willing to hear about.
Yet, this only happens to mediums in their infancy. Once the medium is experienced it will probably happen more, but they do not allow their
body to be taken over.
Is everybody capable of being a medium? It should naturally be so,
although to varying degrees, as with all others skills. This is Mr. Kardec’s
opinion. There are writing mediums, clairvoyants, hearing mediums and
intuitive mediums. The mediums who write, these are the most numerous
and most useful. There are medium who see the spirits; others who
hear and talk to them as they do with the living, although rare; others
who receive the thought of the evoked spirit in their minds, then orally
transmit it.
It is very rare when the medium bears several of these faculties at the
same time. There is still another kind of medium, whose presence in a
given place allows the spirits to communicate through rapping knocks or
by the motion of objects, like the movement of a small table, the levitation
of a chair, a large table or any other object. That is how the spirits started
to manifest, revealing their existence. You heard about the turning and
dancing tables. You laughed as I did too; oh well! It was the first means
employed by the spirits to attract our attention. That is how their presence
was acknowledged, after which, with observation and study we discovered
unknown faculties up until then were ignored, through which we can
enter into direct communication with the spirits.
Isn’t all that wonderful? Nonetheless, it is all natural, only that – I
repeat – it was reserved for our time, the great discovery and application
of this science, like many other marvelous secrets of nature.
Now, to get in touch with the spirits, or at least to see if you are able
of doing so through writing, we take a piece of paper and a sharpened
pencil and move into position to write. It is always good to start by saying
a prayer to God, then evoking a spirit, meaning that one would kindly
invite them to come to communicate with us, helping us to write. Then,
patiently wait in the same position.
There are some people that have a more developed mediumistic faculty
that they start writing right away. Others, on the contrary, only see
their faculties developing with time and perseverance. In that case the session is repeated every day, for about fifteen minutes. It is useless to go
beyond that interval but it must be repeated daily since perseverance is
one of the first conditions of success. It is also necessary to say a prayer
and evocation from your heart, and even repeating it during the exercise;
have a strong will, a strong desire to succeed, and particularly do not get
distracted. After writing there are some final precautions to be taken.
When the person is about to write there is generally a slight shake of the
hand, sometimes preceded by a light numbness of the hand and arm, and
on other occasions some minor pain in the muscles of the arm and hand.
These are the precursor signs and almost always evident that the moment
of success is not far off; sometimes followed by immediate success, in
other cases it may arrive in a few days, but it will come. The only difference
is that to get to such a condition one needs more or less time, varying
from an instant to six months, but I insist that only fifteen minutes a day
are necessary.
Regarding the spirits that can be evoked for such exercises, it is preferable
to address the familiar spirit that is always around, while other spirits
may be present only momentarily and not be present at the time of evocation,
or incapable of attending our invitation for any given reason, as this
does happen sometimes.
The familiar spirit that is somehow similar to the Catholic guardian
angel, is not exactly what is presented by the religious dogma. It is just the
spirit of a mortal that has lived like us but who is much more advanced
than us, hence infinitely superior in intelligence and benevolence; that
executes a mission here that is commendable to them and useful to us,
following us in this world as in the other one, until they are called to another
reincarnation or until the time that we ourselves are called to realize
a similar mission with a mortal that is less developed than we are, once we
have achieved a certain degree of evolution.
All that, my dear friend, so marvelously present in our ideas of universal
solidarity, as you see. All that, by showing us such solidarity that
has occurred at all times and always working between us and the invisible
world, demonstrates that evidently this is not an utopian human design but one of the laws of nature; that the first thinkers who preached it were
not inventing it, but only discovered it; and finally that since such solidarity
is part of nature it will fatally be incorporated by human societies,
despite the resistance and obstacles still opposed by blind adversaries. * I
still have to talk about the mode of evocation. It is the simplest thing.
There is no mystical or compulsory formula for that. You address
the spirit in the terms that suit you; that’s all. I will tell you what I do
just to help you understand how simple it is. “Almighty God! Allow my
guardian angel (or the spirit of …, if you prefer to evoke another spirit) to
communicate with me, and make me write.” Or even this one: “In the name
of Almighty God I ask you my guardian angel (or the spirit of …) to communicate
with me.”
Now, would you like to see the result of my own experience? Here
it is.
After six unfruitful weeks of exercise I one day felt my hand tremble,
agitate and suddenly drew some shapeless characters on the paper.
During the following exercises the characters became more regular, although
still incomprehensible. I wrote lines and pages at the speed of my
regular writing, always unintelligible. On other occasions I wrote different
paragraphs, small, large, sometimes even using the whole page. Then
it was just straight lines, from top to bottom, or horizontal lines across the
paper; then circles, small and large, repeated so many times that the whole
paper became darkened by the pencil. Then, after one month of the most
varied kinds of exercise, but also most insignificant, I started to become
upset with that and asked my familiar spirit to at least draw some letters,
in case he could not write words. I then received all letters of the alphabet
but it stopped there. Meanwhile my wife who always had the feeling
that she was not a medium decided to try and after only fifteen days she
started writing correctly and with agility. More fortunate than I was, she
wrote correctly and intelligibly. One of our friends was able to start scribbling,
as I did, from his second exercise but it did not go further than that.
We did not give up, convinced that it is a trial and that sooner or later
we would write. One needs patience. It is not difficult. In another letter I
will tell you about the communications that we received through my wife
and that, quite unique within themselves; are without a doubt convincing
enough in respect to the existence of the spirits. That is enough for the
day. I wanted to give you a presentation, although it is a short summary,
however, so you could embrace the totality of the spiritist theory. I hope
this is enough to excite your curiosity and particularly catch your attention.
Your study of the specialized books will do the rest. Pending the
book which will have the practical instructions that I mentioned to you, I
will shortly send the philosophical book entitled The Spirits’ Book. Read,
study, read again, try, work and above all, don’t give up. It is worth it. Still:
don’t give importance to those who laugh; many of them are no longer
laughing, although they still have the organs that served them formerly.
To you and see you soon,
Canu
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* Everyone knows the level of mockery and the audacity of exploitation of natural facts
which are not yet explained, however little they are considered marvelous.
