The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1863

Allan Kardec

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Suicide falsely attributed to Spiritism

The keenness of the adversaries of Spiritism to collect and above all to tamper with the facts that they believe compromise the doctrine is really incredible. It came to a point that soon there will not be a single accident for which Spiritism will not be the guilty party.

An unfortunate situation that could not have gone unexploited by the critics happened recently in Tours where two people committed suicide and it was attributed to Spiritism: .

The Le Monde newspaper (formerly Univers Religieux), together with several other periodicals, published an article from where we extracted the following passages:

An elderly couple Mr. and Mrs. F… still in good health and enjoying a good standard of living got involved with Spiritism about two years ago. A certain number of workers, men and women, and youngsters gathered at their house almost every evening when the Spiritists made their evocations or at least pretended to make them. We will not mention all kinds of questions whose answers were requested to the Spirits in that home. Those who knew the couple for a long time and were familiar with their feelings about religion were not surprised with the scenes. Foreign to any Christian idea they were given to sorcery being considered skillful and established masters.

… Both were convinced for some time that the Spirits clearly induced them to leave Earth so that they could enjoy a great deal in a supra terrestrial world. For not having any doubt about that they went on and carried out their suicide bringing a great scandal to Tours.

… Hence this is the suicide that we have today to attribute to Spiritism and its doctrine. Yesterday we had the cases of madness not to mention domestic violence and other misconducts so commonly provoked by Spiritism. Isn’t that enough for people to realize – those who don’t want to listen to religion – the dangers to which they are exposed when giving themselves to those terrible and stupid practices?”

-o-

Let us begin by noticing that if the two individuals pretended to make evocations, in fact, they did not do it, instead they abused others or fooled themselves. Hence if there was no real evocation it was a delusion and the Spirits could not have given them bad advices.



Were they Spiritists by heart or just by name? The article confirms that they were foreign to any Christian idea and even further that they were taken by skillful masters of sorcery. Now, it is well known that Spiritism is inseparable from religious ideas, particularly the Christian ones; that the denial of those ideas is the denial of Spiritism; that it condemns the practices of sorcery with which it has nothing in common; that it denounces the belief in the power of talismans, formulas, cabalistic signs and sacramental words as superstition. Therefore, those persons were not Spiritists since they were in contradiction with the principles of Spiritism. As a tribute to the truth we must say that those people were not involved with magic and that, no doubt, they wanted to use the opportunity to connect that name to Spiritism.

Furthermore, the article says that they used to frame questions of all sorts to the Spirits in their house. Spiritism clearly states that one must not ask the spirits all kinds of questions; that they come to instruct us and to make us better and not to get involved in material things; that it is a mistake to see the manifestations as a means to get to know the future or to discover treasures and inheritances, to make inventions or scientific discoveries so that one can become renowned or rich. In one word that the Spirits do not come to tell the ‘buena-dicha’. Therefore, by asking all sorts of questions to the Spirits those persons demonstrated their ignorance with respect to the objectives of Spiritism.

The article does not say that they made their living out of that. In fact, they did not. Otherwise we would remember what has been said hundreds of times about such exploitation and its consequences of which a serious Spiritism cannot take responsibility for, legal or not, as it does not take for the eccentricities of those that do not understand it. Spiritism does not defend the abuse that could have been perpetrated in its name by those who have used its form or name but without applying its principles.

Another proof that those individuals ignored, one of the most fundamental points of the Spiritist Doctrine, is that Spiritism demonstrates, not by a simple moral theory but by numerous and terrible examples that suicide is severely punished; that the one who believes to escape the miseries of life by a premature and voluntary death, anticipating God’s designs, falls into a much more unhappier state. The Spiritist knows well that through suicide one replaces a transient bad condition by another worse and lengthier situation. That is what those individuals would have known if they knew Spiritism. By stating that Spiritism leads to suicide the author of the article spoke of something that he himself ignores.

We were not surprised at all by the repercussion of this case. By presenting it as a consequence of the Spiritist Doctrine they raised people’s curiosity and each one wanted to learn by themselves, free to repel it if confirmed by the way it was presented. Now, they acknowledged that Spiritism is about the opposite of what they wanted people to believe. Spiritism then can only benefit from the fact that it becomes better known, something that our adversaries seem to be eager to realize and for which we are thankful, except with respect to their intentions though. If they produce a little and momentary disturbance with their diatribes it is soon followed by an increase in the number of followers. That is what we see everywhere.

We got this from Tours:

“If those individuals believe, however, that they should involve the Spirits in their deadly resolution and to have their eccentricities well-known it is evident that they understood nothing about Spiritism and that not a single conclusion can be reached from this about the Doctrine. Otherwise one would have to blame the more serious and sacred doctrines for the abuse and even crimes committed in their names by insensible or fanatic people. Mrs. F… pretended to be a medium but all those who heard her could never take her seriously.



The more of the same kind of ideas and the eccentricities of the couple, and in particular of the woman, had the doors of the Spiritist circle of Tours shut to them where they were not admitted to attend a single session.

The paper was precipitated and poorly informed about the causes of the suicide. We took it from authentic reports from the official scriber of Tours as well as from a letter about it sent to us by Mr. X…, a district attorney from that town.

“The F… couple, the wife sixty-two years of age and the husband eighty, far from being okay were led to suicide just by the unique perspective of misery. They had earned a small fortune in the fabric business of New Orleans but were bankrupted then coming to Nantes and later on Tours with the remains of their wreckage. Their only income of 480 francs stopped in 1856 due to another bankruptcy. They had attempted suicide three times before getting involved with Spiritism. Persecuted by former lenders they were lately ruined by an unfortunate law suit that washed away their courage and reason.”

The following letter written by Mrs. F… just before her death and that is found amongst the pieces of the referred process and signed by the president of the court reveals the true motive. We provide below the full transcription as in the original handwriting:

Mr. and Mrs. B…, before going to heavens, I want to mend things with you once more, please accept my good bye – I look forward, however, to seeing you but since I leave before you I will keep your address so that when the moment is right I want to communicate our project; since our misunderstandings we have hurt ourselves and the pain persists and more than a hassle it becomes a weight, I always have this hard feeling in my heart and it is necessary that I say that for six years the business of the house does not end and we may have to spend another two thousand francs and since we cannot see a way out unless through great deprivation without a light at the end of the tunnel we must end all this and now we are old and the strength is no longer there, we lack courage and it is not the same to start again… we need to end this and decided to stop. Please accept our sincere wishes, Fe... and F…

Today people in Tours know the true causes of the events and the noise provoked about it comes back in favor of Spiritism because, as our correspondent says, people talk about it everywhere wanting to know that it is in fact and since then the local bookstores have sold Spiritist books more than ever.

It is really interesting to see the regrettable tone of some, the unspeakable rage of others and amidst all that Spiritism following its ascending march like a soldier that seamlessly faces the assault of the riffle.

We saw the powerless mockery saying that it was all just wind now the adversaries say that it is a mad dog.

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