Spiritist insanity - Answer to Mr. Burlet, from LyonThe small periodical Presse from January 8th, 1863 brings the following article, extracted from the Salut Public de Lyon, quickly used by the Gironde of Bordeaux, believing to have scored against Spiritism.
Sciences
“Mr. Philibert Burlet, an intern in the hospitals of Lyon, recently read an interesting piece of work about Spiritism at that Society of Medical Sciences in that city, Spiritism that was considered as a cause of mental illness. Given the current epidemic that sweeps French society, it will be useful to reproduce the facts contained in the memories of Mr. Burlet.
The author carefully describes six cases of acute insanity observed by him at the Antiquaille Hospital. In this description, he attested to the direct relationship between mental alienation and Spiritist practices. Dr. Carrier, he says, not long ago treated and cured three women maddened by Spiritism. In fact, there isn’t a single doctor that treats mental diseases that has not observed similar cases to a greater or lesser degree, not to mention of course the cases of intellectual or emotional disturbances that may not reach the level conventionally described as mental alienation but that still alter patient’s logic and lead them to bizarre behavior.
Such influence of the pretense Spiritist Doctrine is now well demonstrated by science. There are thousands of observations to substantiate it. Mr. Burlet says that “if elsewhere in France the cases of insanity caused by the doctrine of the mediums are as common as they are in our county – and there is no reason to be different – there seems to be no doubt that Spiritism may enlist the most fecund causes of mental alienation.”
The author finishes by calling on parents, supervisors, etc. to be on the lookout so that their children and employees will never attend “those Spiritist gatherings, called groups, in which danger to reason is not the only one to fear.”
Therefore, it is an incontestable utility to give publicity to facts of such a kind, facts collected conscientiously, like those of the interns of Lyon hospitals. This does not mean that there is less chance of success to treat individual already affected by this epidemic. A hallmark of their insanity is exactly the strong conviction of owning the truth. In their humility they believe to bear the gift of communicating with the Spirits, considering proud the science that doubts their powers. Victimized by hallucination that drives them, once their premise is accepted they reason with a stern logic that only empowers them in their aberration. However, there is still hope to act upon the still healthy minds and that would be tempted to the seduction of Spiritism by showing them the dangers and keeping them away from it.
It is good to know that the Spiritist practices and the socialization with the mediums – truly hallucinated – is necessarily harmful to reason. Only strong personalities can resist. The others always leave behind a greater or lesser chunk of their commonsense.”
A.Sanson
This article may counter the sermons reported in the previous article. One can see that if there isn’t a common origin on one hand there is an identity of intentions on the other: that of raising public opinion against Spiritism through means that aim at good-faith or ignorance of things.
Notice the evolution of the attacks since the famous and awkward article in the Gazette de Lyon (Spiritist Review, October 1860). It was not more than simple mockery through which the workers of that town were ridiculed and their looms compared to the gallows. Wasn’t that lack of elegance to scorn the workers and their instruments of work, people that create the wealth in a city like Lyon? Aggression has since then taken another turn. Given the impotence of ridicule and the evidence of new gains conquered by the Spiritist ideas on a daily basis, it now takes a more regrettable tune. It is now in the name of humanity before the epidemic that now devastates the French society that it comes to point out the dangers of the pretense doctrine that turns the relationship with those who follow such ideas disgusting and bizarre, a not very nice reference to the ladies of all classes, including princesses, who believe in the Spirits.
It seems to us that violent and irascible people that became good and kind through Spiritism are not demonstrations of a very bad thing and are less repulsive than before and besides one does not find only kind and benevolent people among the non-Spiritists. Considering that there are many families to whom Spiritism reestablished peace and concord it is in the name of their interest that the workers are invited not to attend “those gatherings, so called groups, where they can lose reason and other things”, no doubt believing that they would do better by visiting the cabarets rather than staying at home.
Unsuccessful in their insults they now recourse to science for support but no longer the comic science represented by the muscle that cracks of Mr. Jobert de Lamballe (see Spiritist Review, June 1859) but serious science, condemning Spiritism as vehemently as it did in the past to the steam engine and so many other utopias that later it had to forcibly accept as true.
And who is its representative in such a serious matter? Is that the Institute of Sciences of France? No. It is Mr. Philibert Burlet, an intern from Lyon’s hospital, that is to say, a medical student who builds his first weapons by writing a dissertation against Spiritism. He said, in his name and in Mr. Sanson’s name from the Presse, that science has given its sentence, a sentence that cannot likely be more appealed than that of the condemened Harvey’s theory about the circulation of the blood and whose author had to face “more or less vicious and gross attacks” (Dictionnaire des Origines). It must be said that a monography about the mistakes of the scientists would be a curious publication.
Mr. Burlet says that he observed six cases of insanity produced by Spiritism but since that is too little in a population of 300,000 souls from which at least a tenth is formed by Spiritists, he is careful enough to add that ‘there are thousands of observations to substantiate it if elsewhere in France the cases of insanity caused by the doctrine of the mediums are as common as they are in our county – and there is no reason to be different…’.
One can go far with hypotheses as we can see. Well, we go further than he did and will say not hypothetically but by affirmation that in a given time there will only be mad people amongst the Spiritists. Insanity is in fact one of the diseases of mankind. A thousand accidental causes may produce it and the proof is that there was mad people before even speaking of Spiritism and that not all mad people are Spiritists, Mr. Burlet must agree. There has always been and there will always be mad people. Then if all inhabitants of Lyon were Spiritists there would only be mad people amid Spiritists in the same way that in an entirely Catholic region there would only be mad people among them. Observing the progress of the doctrine from a few years back to our days up to a certain extent one could forecast the time for that. Let us concentrate, however, in the present.
The mad ones talk about what concerns them. It is true that someone who had never heard anything about Spiritism would talk about it whereas if the opposite were true the person would talk as they would do about religion, love, etc. Regardless of the cause of insanity the number of mad persons talking about Spirits will naturally increase with the number of followers. The question is to determine if Spiritism is an efficient cause of insanity. Mr. Burlet says so from the top of his authority as intern by saying ‘such influence is well demonstrated by science these days.’ Inflamed he then appeals to the rigor of the authorities as if an authority could hinder the progress of an idea and without considering that the ideas do not propagate better than when under the empire of persecution. Does he take his personal opinion and those who share his view as decrees of science? He seems to ignore that Spiritism counts on a large number of renowned doctors in its ranks; that may groups and societies are presided by doctors who are also men of science who have arrived to opposite conclusions when compare to his own. Who is right: he or the others? Who shall pronounce the final verdict out of this conflict between affirmation and denial? Time, opinion and conscience of the majority and science itself that will surrender before the evidence as done on other occasions.
We ask Mr. Burlet, who is against the simplest precepts of logic, to deduce a general consequence of some isolated events that can be belied by others. A different body of work would be needed to support his thesis. You said that six cases were observed. I believe in you but what does it prove? Had you observed twice or three times as many and it would not prove further if the total would still be below average. Suppose there were a thousand mad people, to use a round number. Given that the causes of insanity are the same then if Spiritism can lead to insanity, it is a new cause that added to the other ones must increase the mean. If this mean had moved from 1,000 to 1,200 since the introduction of Spiritism, for example, and the difference were precisely due to the cases of Spiritist insanity then it would be a different story. However, while one cannot prove that the average number of cases has increased under the influence of Spiritism, the sample of a few isolated cases proves nothing other than the intention of casting discredit upon the Spiritist ideas and scaring the public.
Given the current state of affairs, all we need is to question the value of the isolated cases that are presented to us and learn if every patient that speaks about the Spirits attribute their insanity to Spiritism. But for that, we would need an uninterested and impartial judge. Suppose Mr. Burlet became mad, something that can happen to him or to anybody else, would there be any surprise if, in his insanity, he spoke of Spiritism, an idea that he fought against? We could mention several cases that would make a lot of noise where the individuals effected had little or nothing to do with Spiritism. We must add to that the cases of obsession and subjugation that are confused and treated as insanity with great harm to peoples’ health as explained in our articles about Morzine. At first sight, these are the only ones that should be assigned to the Spirits since it has been demonstrated that there are a large number of persons strange to Spiritism but who are mistreated due to the ignorance of causes. It is really curious to see certain adversaries that do not believe in the Spirits or in their manifestations pretending that Spiritism is a cause of insanity. If the Spirits don’t exist or they cannot communicate with mankind then all those beliefs are fantasies, far from the truth. We then ask how they can cause anything. It is the idea, they will say; the idea is false; well now, everyone that professes a false idea betrays oneself. What is that idea, so detrimental to reason? Here it is: we have a soul that outlives the body. That soul preserves the affections of earthly life and can communicate with the living ones.
According to them it is better to believe in the void after death or that the soul loses its individuality and blends with the universal whole, like a drop in the ocean. In fact, with such a belief, there is no need to worry about our neighbors and it is enough to think only about ourselves, to eat and drink well and just feed our selfishness.
If the opposite belief is a cause for insanity, then why are there so many people who believe in nothing? Some will say that this is not the only cause. We agree. But then why wouldn’t those causes affect a Spiritist as much as anybody else? Why would you like to blame Spiritism for a high temperature or insolation?
You demand measures against the Spiritist ideas from the authorities because in your opinion those ideas test your thinking. However, why don’t you call attention of the authorities against other causes? In your defense of human reason, of which you consider yourself to be the prototype, have you looked into the statistics behind the number of cases involving love? Why don’t you appeal to the authorities to have the feeling of love investigated? It has been demonstrated that all revolutions are marked by a remarkable recurrence of mental illnesses. There you have an efficient cause that is well established for it increases the average number. Why don’t you advise the governments to block revolutions since they are evil things?
Considering that Mr. Burlet brought about the large report of six cases of the so called Spiritist insanity in a population of 300,000 souls, we advise the Spiritist doctors to do the same with all cases of insanity, epilepsy and other diseases caused by the fear of the devil, by the terrible images of the inferno and the asceticism of the cloister.
Far from admitting Spiritism as a cause of increase of insanity, we say that it is a mitigating cause that must reduce the number produced by ordinary causes. In fact, among these causes we must consider the several causes of broken hearts, deception, the setbacks of fortune and frustrated ambitions. The effect of such causes is proportional to the susceptibility of the individual. If we had the means of attenuating that susceptibility it would no doubt give us the best antidote. Well, that antidote is in Spiritism that mitigates the moral blow and makes us withstand the vicissitudes of life with resignation. A person prone to committing suicide due to a setback acquires the moral strength that gives patience before the misfortune. That person will not only not kill herself but will also keep a cool reason given her unbreakable faith in the future.
Will you give that person the same calmness with the perspective of the void? No, because the person cannot foresee any compensation and, in case there is nothing to eat, you could have ended up starving. Hunger is a terrible consoler to anyone who believes that it all ends with death. Spiritism can help to support hunger through the understanding and the expectation of a life that succeeds death. That is its madness.
The way through which a true Spiritist sees things from this and the other world lead him/her to tame the most violent passions, even rage and revenge.
After the insulting article published by the Gazette de Lyon, mentioned above, a group of about a dozen workers said to us: “If we were not Spiritists we would teach the author a lesson to teach him how to live and if we were in the times of revolution we would have burned down the editorial room of his paper. But we are Spiritists. We are sorry for him and ask God to forgive him.”
What do you say about this madness, Mr. Burlet? What would you have preferred in such circumstances to either deal with mad people of this kind or with those who fear nothing? Consider that they count on more than 20,000 in Lyon these days. You pretend to serve the interest of humanity and you don’t understand yours? Ask God so that you may never have to one-day regret that not everybody is Spiritist. That is what you and the others alike work for with all your strength. By sowing disbelief, you undermine the foundations of the social order, stimulating anarchy and bloody reactions.
We work to give faith to those who believe in nothing; to spread a belief that makes people better to one another; that teaches them to forgive their enemies; to see one another as brothers without any prejudice of race, cast, sect, color, political or religious opinion, a belief that in a word gives rise to the true feelings of charity, fraternity and social duties.
Check with all military chiefs who have Spiritist soldiers under their command who are the ones conducted with more easiness, who better observe discipline without coercion. Check with the magistrates, with law enforcement agents who have Spiritist auxiliaries in their lower ranks who are the kindest and the most orderly of all; upon whom the law is applied the least and where there is less turmoil and disorderly conduct to repress.
A police commissioner from a southern town said to me: “Since Spiritism has spread in my jurisdiction I have to attend ten times less cases than before.”
Finally ask the Spiritist doctors who are the patients who present less diseases caused by the excesses of all kinds. Thse are statistics that seem to be more relevant to me than your six cases of mental alienation. If such results constitute madness, then I have the honor of propagating it.
Where were such results collected? In the books that some wanted to burn at the stake. In the groups that you recommend the workers to stay away from. What is it that can be seen in those groups that you paint as the grave of reason? Men, ladies, children that respectfully listen to a kind and reassuring moral instead of going to cabarets to lose their money and their health or to make noise in public squares; that exit those gathering with love towards the neighbor in their hearts instead of hatred and vengeance.
Here an amazing confession by the author of the above article: “Victimized by hallucination that drives them, once their premise is accepted they reason with a stern logic that only empowers them in their aberration.” That is a truly remarkable madness since it reasons with an irreproachable logic!
Well, what is the premise? We said that not long ago: The soul outlives the body, preserves its individuality and likings and can communicate with the living ones. What is it that can demonstrate the logic of a premise other than the irreproachable logic of deductions? The one that says irreproachable also say unbending and irrefutable. Hence if the deductions of a premise are unimpeachable it means that everything is satisfied and that nothing can oppose it. Therefore, if the deductions are true the premise is true since false cannot be the foundation of truth. Apparently logical consequences can, no doubt, be deduced from a false principle but they will be an apparent logic only, that is, sophisms and not an irreproachable logic since there will always be an open door to contradiction. True logic is the one that thoroughly satisfies reason; the one that cannot be contested. False logic is no more than false reasoning, always refutable. The deductions of our premises are characterized, in principle, by its foundation on the observation of facts; second, that they explain rationally what would go inexplicable without them. Replace our premise by the denial and you shall face insoluble difficulties every step of the way.
The Spiritist theory, we were saying, is based on facts, arguably thousands of facts, that repeat every day and are observed by millions of people. Yours is based on half a dozen observed by you. That is a premise that everybody can make their own conclusion.
