He says that he wanted to talk to his old friend and took the opportunity when the Spirit of Mrs. A…, the somnambulist, was away from the body and he then took her place. The scene in fact repeated for several days after that and every time Mrs. A… impersonated the characteristic masculine attitudes of Mr. Charles, stretching against the back of the chair, crossing his legs, twisting the mustache, passing the hands of the hair in such a way that if it weren’t by the clothes one could believe to be in the presence of Mr. Charles. However, there was no transfiguration as seen on other occasions. These are some of his responses.
Those conversations were very entertaining. Mr. Charles had been a Bohemian and he acts as such. Given to material things, he was little advanced as a Spirit but naturally good and benevolent. He had no bad intention by taking over the body of Mrs. A… so that the lady suffered nothing with the situation so much so that she allowed that in good will. It should be mentioned that she had never met that gentleman and could not know about his habits. It is important also to mention that the assistants did not think of him hence the scene was not provoked and he came to them spontaneously.
This possession is evident here and is even more evident from the details where the list is long. That is, however, an innocent possession and without inconveniences. That is not the case when involving a bad and ill-intentioned Spirit because it may have consequences that are the more serious the more tenacious the Spirits are and many times it becomes difficult to free the patient from that fall their victims.
Here is a recent example that we observed in person and that was object of serious study at the Parisian Society of Paris:
Ms. Julia was a maid, born in Sabia, at the age of twenty-three, very kind and uneducated that for some time was the subject to fits of natural somnambulism that lasted whole weeks. In that state she continued her normal work and nobody would suspect her situation. She even worked better. Her lucidity was remarkable. She described distant places and events with perfect accuracy.
For about six months she has become the prey of crises of a strange kind that always happened in the somnambulistic state and that it had somehow became her normal state. She contorted, rolled on the floor as if taking part in a fight with someone that was trying to strangle her and in fact she presented all the symptoms of strangulation. That fantastic creature ended up by winning, took her by the hair, hit her on the face, and swore at her and called her names, like Fredegunda, infamous regent, dirty and vile creature stained by all sorts of crimes, etc. She crushed the feet on the ground and took her clothes off. Strange thing, she called herself Fredegunda and hit her on her own arms, breast and face. “Here, take it. Is it enough Fredegunda? You want to suffocate me but you will not succeed; you want to come to my box but I will expel you.”
My box was the term that she used to represent her own body. Nobody could describe the horrible expression on her face when she mentioned the name Fredegunda, grinding her teeth, and the tortures that she suffered in those moments.
One day, to get rid of her enemy, she took a knife and used it against herself but she was helped in time to avoid this situration. Another strange thing is that she never took any of the assistants by the name Fredegunda. The duality was always on her. Her fury was always against herself when the Spirit was in her and against an invisible Spirit when he was away from her. To everyone else she was kind and benevolent even at times of great exasperation. These truly frightening crises sometimes lasted for hours and repeated several times per day. When she succeeded in beating Fredegunda, she would fall in prostration and abated and she would only gradually recover but left in a state of weakness with difficulty to speak. Her health was profoundly compromised; she denied herself food and would go up to eight days without eating. The best food would have a terrible taste to her and consequently be refused. She used to say that it was the work of Fredegunda who did not want her to eat.
We said above that the girl had no education. In her vigil state she had never heard about Fredegunda or her character or her role. In the somnambulistic state, on the contrary, she knew everything perfectly well and sayed that she lived on her time. She had not been a Brunehaut as initially thought but someone else related to that court. Another not less essential observation is that up to the beginning of the crises Ms. Julia had never been involved with Spiritism whose name was unknown to her. Even today in her vigil state she ignores and rejects it. It is only in the somnambulistic state that she knows about it and after she started being treated. Thus, everything she said was spontaneous.
Given such a strange situation some attributed her state to a nervous breakdown; others think it is a special case of madness and one must forcibly acknowledge that, at first sight, the last opinion seemed plausible.
A medical doctor said that in the current state of science there was nothing that could explain those phenomena and that there wasn’t any medication to cure her. Nonetheless, persons experience in Spiritism easily acknowledged that she was the victim of subjugation at the most serious level and that it could be deadly to her.
There is no doubt that someone who had only seen her in a crisis and had only considered the singularity of her words and actions would certainly say that she is mad and would recommend the treatment given to the mentally ill that, undoubtedly, would make her actually mad. But such an opinion should yield to the facts. When awake her conversation is that proper to her condition and compatible with her lack of education. Her intelligence is really common. However, in the somnambulistic state everything is completely different. When she is calm she reasons with sense, fairness and profundity. It is strange that madness can give someone more discernment and intelligence.
Only Spiritism can explain this apparent abnormality. In her vigil state her soul or Spirit is compressed by organs that do not allow her but limited development. In her somnambulistic state the soul emancipates, partially freed from the material chains, enjoying the ampleness of her faculties. At the moments of crises her words and actions are only eccentric to those that don’t believe in the action of the invisible world. Since it is just the effect and not the cause that is the reason why the obsessed, subjugated and possessed are taken by mad people. In the homes of the mentally ill at all times there have always been pseudo mad people of that kind that would have been easily cured had they not adamantly been seen as physically ill.
Given that situation and considering that Ms. Julia had no resources of her own, a family of true and sicnere Spiritists agreed in taking her to work for them but in her situation, she would be more of an embarrassment than a service and one would need true devotion to take care of her. But those persons were well rewarded first for the pleasure of doing a good deed and then by the satisfaction of having powerfully contributed to her cure that is complete today. It was a double cure because Ms. Julia not only recovered but her enemy was converted to the best feelings.
Here is what we witnessed in one of those terrible fights that lasted no more than two hours when we were then able to observe the phenomenon in its tiniest details and, in which, we acknowledged a thorough analogy with the possesses of Morzine.
[2] The only difference is that in Morzine the possessed acted against people that reproached them and that they spoke of the devil that they had in them because they had been persuaded that it was the devil. In Morzine, Ms. Julia would have called Fredegunda by the name of devil.
In a next article we will expose the details of the several phases of this cure and the means that were employed for that. In addition, we will refer to the amazing instructions given by the Spirits about it as well as the important observations that it entailed with respect to magnetism.
[1] Spirit living in the spiritual world, between incarnations (TN)
[2] See the articles entitled “Studies about the possesses of Morzine” in the Spiritist Magazine, December 1862 and January, February, April and May 1863
