Conversations from beyond the grave Clara Rivier Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, January 23rd 1863 - Medium Mr. Leymarie
The following fact is reported by Mr. J…, a doctor from Gard:
“A working-class family, my country home neighbors, had a 10-year daughter by the name of Clara who was taken badly ill for four years. In her entire life she never moaned or complained or showed any sign of impatience. Although not educated she used to reassure her afflicted family talking about a future life and the happiness that awaited there. She died in September 1862 after four torturing and convulsive days during which she never stopped praying. – I don’t fear death, she said, because a happy life waits for me thereafter. To her sobbing father she would say: – Rest assured I will come back to visit you; my time is up, I feel that but at the right moment I will know and will tell you in advance.
In fact, when the time was right she called her loved ones and said: – I have no more than five minutes to live. Give me your hands. Shed then passed as she had announced.
After that, a rapping Spirit has been visiting the Rivier’s, where nothing remains unturned. There are raps on the table as if someone were using a hammer; the curtains are agitated; the china ticks and balls are played in the cellar. The Spirit showed up to her little five-year-old sister as Clara. According to the girl her sister has spoken to her many times; the fact that the girl screams out of joy or sometimes of regret if the lights and the fire are not put out in the room where she has the visions, while she continuously says: – look at how beautiful Clara is!
Wishing to know what Clara wanted, she had her father return the hair that was cut according to the habits of the region. However, even though the parents had satisfied her wishes by taking the hair to her tomb, the Spirit continued the visitation and the noise that I witnessed myself to the point that friends and neighbors were moved by this situation. I then talked to the parents asking them if there was anybody to whom they could have done anything wrong. It was unlikely that the Spirit would stop tormenting them while they did not repair their wrong doing. That was my advice to them.
During my ten days of forced absence the obsession became more violent to the point of Mr. Rivier engaging in a physical fight and was taken down. They were so terrified with the events that they decided to seek advice from a local medium who recommended to them to give support to the poor of the region. They so did this for two days. I will gladly tell you the result and would like to receive your remarks about it.”
- Evocation of Clara Rivier – A. I am here by your side, prepared to respond.
- Considering your early age, where did those elevated ideas of a future life that you exposed before your death come from? – A. From my preceding incarnation as well as the little time I had with you on Earth. I was a medium when I left Earth and I was a medium again when I was reborn among you. It was predestined. I felt and saw what I was saying.
- How come a girl at your age never moaned or complained over those four years of suffering? – A. Because the physical suffering was controlled by a superior power. It was my guardian angel that I constantly saw by my side. He was able to alleviate my whole suffering. He made my will power greater than the pain.
- How were you advised about the time of your death? – A. My guardian angel told me. He was never wrong.
- You said to your father: Rest assured. I will come to visit you. How come you had such nice feelings about your parents and then you came to torment them after your death, making the noise in their home? – A. I had a mission, no doubt, to accomplish. If I would come to see them again would you believe that it is for nothing? The noise, the disturbance, the turmoil provoked by my presence constitute a warning. I am helped by other Spirits whose turbulence has its value as I have mine by showing up to my sister. It will soon end but only after it has brought conviction to a large number of Spirits.
- Hence it is not you in person that makes the disturbance? – A. I am helped by other Spirits who serve the trial reserved for my parents.
- How could your sister have recognized you since it is not you that produce the manifestations? – A. My sister only saw me. She now enjoys a second vision and this will not be the last time that my presence will bring her reassurance and encouragement.
- Will the support to the poor, advised to your parents, have the effect of stopping the obsession? – A. The obsession will end when the time is right. But believe me, prayer and faith give great strength to dominate the obsession. The alms itself is a prayer. It helps to console thus bringing conviction to many hearts. We must reach out to and save the whole population through faith. Never mind that the enemies of Spiritism scream that it is the devil! That scream has motivated curiosity at all times and for each one that yields there are a hundred more led to the study. Obsession and subjugation are, in fact, trials for those who endure it but at the same time an open path to new beliefs. Such facts make people speak about Spirits whose experience cannot be denied after the evidence.
- Why were you afflicted by so many illnesses at such an early age? – A. I had previous faults to atone. I had misused health a brilliant position in the preceding incarnation. God than told me: “You have greatly abused and will suffer proportionally; you were proud and will be humble; you were confident in your beauty to see it broken; instead of vanity you shall fight for goodness and charity.” I did what God expected from me and my guardian angel helped me.
- Would you like us to say anything to your parents? – A. Following the request of a medium my parents did a lot of good things. They were right in not praying with their lips only; it is necessary to do that with your heart and your hands. Giving to those in need is to pray, to be a Spiritist. God gave the free-will to all creatures, the faculty of progress. He gave the same aspirations to all and that is why suffering reaches the miserable of Earth more than one can imagine. Thus, you must bridge the distances through charity; bring the poor to your house, encourage them, reach out to them and do not humiliate them. If that law of conscience were practiced everywhere one would not have the great miseries that dishonor civilized peoples and that God allows as a punishment and as an eye opener.
Observation: It seems evident that the alms advised to the Rivier couple in this case was at the same time a trial more or less beneficial to them depending on how it was executed and a means of calling the attention to the phenomena to a larger number of people. It is a way of demonstrating that Spiritism is not the works of the devil since it advises charity and good deeds to combat what are called demons. What can the adversaries of Spiritism do against such manifestations? They can prohibit people from dealing with the Spirits but cannot hinder the Spirits from coming. The proof behind this rests with the fact that there are manifestations that take place at homes where people do not wish to have them and, for their very reputation of sanctity, it is as if they wanted to defy them, in case they were demoniac. There is no denial or opposition against the facts. From what we can surmise, Spiritism must follow its course.
Dear parents, pray to God; love one another; practice the law of Jesus Christ; don’t do to others what you don’t want others do to you; beg for the trials of God to show you his sacred will and power. By predicting the future, forearm yourselves with courage and perseverance for you are still called upon to suffer. One does need to earn a good position in a better world where the understanding of the divine justice becomes the punishment of the bad Spirits.
I shall always be by your side, dear parents. Good-bye, or even better, so long. Have resignation, charity, love to your neighbors and one day you shall be happy.
Clara
Observations: That is a nice thought: “suffering reaches the miserable of Earth more than one can imagine”. It is an allusion to the Spirits that move from a brilliant condition to a humble and miserable one from one existence to the next because they frequently atone the abuse of their God given gifts in forgotten places. It is a justice understandable by everyone.
Another, no less profound thought, is that one that attributes the calamities of peoples to the breach of God’s law for God punishes peoples as He punishes individuals. It is certain that if they practiced the law of charity there would be no war or great miseries. Spiritism leads to the practice of that law. Would that be the reason why Spiritism finds such fierce enemies? Can the girl’s words to her parents be the words of a devil?
