The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1864

Allan Kardec

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See the February and March 1864 issues


Mr. Dombre, from Marmande, sent us a detailed report of this cure that has already been reported to our readers. The details in that report are of the highest interest both regarding the facts and the instruction. As it will be seen it is at the same time a theoretical and practical course, a guide to analogous cases and a great source of observations for the study of the invisible world in general in its relationships with the visible one. Mr. Dombre says in his report: I was warned by one of the members of our Spiritist Society about the violent crises that the so called Teresa B… went through regularly every afternoon for eight months. On January 11th last I went to the patient’s neighbor’s house followed by Mr. L…, a medium, at about four thirty to try to witness the crisis that supposedly happened every day at five o’clock. We found the young lady and her mother there talking to the neighbors. The half hour passed fast. We suddenly saw the lady stand up, open the door and cross the street to return to her house followed by her mother that took care of her and sent her to bed dressed up. The convulsions started. The body bent over; the head tended to touch the heels; the chest gasping. In a word it was an unpleasant sight. Myself and the medium went back to the neighbor’s house and asked the Spirit Louis David, the spiritual guide of the medium, if that was a case of obsession or a pathological case. The Spirit responded: - Poor girl! She is in fact under a fatal, truly dangerous influence. Come to help her. The Spirit is stubborn and bad and will resist for a long time. Avoid to have her treated by medication as much as you can because that would do her harm. The cause is totally psychological. Try to evoke that Spirit and moralize him with ability and we will help you out. May all the sincere souls that you know get together to pray and fight that much pernicious influence of the bad Spirit. Poor little one, victim of jealousy!



Louis David



Question – Which name shall we use to call that Spirit?

Answer: Julio.



I had him evoked immediately. The Spirit showed up in a violent mood, cursing, tearing the paper up and refusing to respond to certain questions. While entertaining ourselves with the Spirit Mr. B…, a physician that had come to examine the crisis, came close to us and said with amazement: - It is remarkable! The girl suddenly stopped contorting and she is now lying in bed motionless.

  • I am not surprised, I said, because the obsessing Spirit is with us right now.
  • Please leave the past alone. When the bad things are cauterized why poking the wound? I feel that we must become better. I feel really bad about my past and look at the future with hope. When the mouth of an angel tells you: vengeance is a torture to the executioner; love is happiness to the one that spreads it; ah the yeast that spoils and shrinks the heart disappears! Love is what is needed. Are you surprised with my words? They are not mine. I learned them and have the pleasure to repeat them to you. Ah! You would be really happy if you could notice this angel for a minute only, a radiant angle like the sun, good and kind like the refreshing little drops of dew falling onto a plant in a scorching hot day! As you can see it is not hard for me to say because I drink from the spring.
  • Thank you my friends, for the good you did to me. I ask you to allow me to stay with you from now on in order to attend your meetings. I need to drink from the good source the advices to fulfill a new life that I will ask God when I have endured the atonement of my infamous past reproached by my own conscience.

I then convinced Mr. B… to return to the patient while we continued to question the Spirit that at a certain point stopped responding. The medium’s guide informed us that he had returned to his task and recommended that we should no longer evoke him during the crises for the girl’s own good because if he returned to her even more furious he would torture her even more intensely. At that very moment the doctor returned and told us that the crisis had resumed stronger than ever. I showed him the warning we had just received and we were all shocked with the coincidences that left no doubt with respect to the cause of the problem. From that afternoon onwards and by recommendation of the good Spirits that assist us in the Spiritist work we gathered every night until the complete cure. On the very same 11th day we received the following communication from the protector Spirit of our group:



Vigilant guardian of the unhappy infancy I come to join your work, uniting my efforts with yours to free this young lady from the cruel claws of a bad Spirit. The remedy is in your hands. Wake, evoke and pray tirelessly until the complete cure.



Little Carita



This Spirit that uses the name Little Carita is that of a young lady that I knew and that died at an early age and that had given proof of the most angelical character and rare goodness. The evocation of the obsessing Spirit rendered only a lot of gross cursing that is useless to repeat. Our exhortations passed by him with no effect.



Friends, do not be discouraged! He feels strong because he sees your pain with his rude language. Abstain from preaching to him for now. Talk to him in a familiar and friendly way. You will gain his trust and later on you will be able to talk seriously. Perseverance, friends!

Your guides.



Following those recommendations our questions became lighter but were responded in the same tone. In the following day, Janeiro 12th, the crisis lasted such a long time and had such a violence as those of the preceding days. It lasted about an hour and a half. The girl would reject the Spirit, stand up in bed and say: Leave me! Leave me! The bedroom was full of people. Some of us were close to the bed to attentively observe the phases of the crisis. At that evening we received the following communication:



-My friends I advise you to follow this obsession step by step since this is a new event to you. Your observations will be of great help considering that similar cases may multiply and you will have to intervene. This is a purely physical obsession that I believe will be followed by a psychological but harmless one. You will soon witness happy moments amidst those tortures imposed by that bad Spirit. You must recognize the hands of the good Spirits there. If the tortures remain you will notice a complete paralysis of the body after the crisis and after paralyzing a soothing and ecstatic feeling that will relieve the pain of obsession. Observe carefully. Other symptoms will manifest and you will find in them new subjects of study. The Lord told his angels: Take my words to the children of men. We touched the earth with the stick and earth generates prodigies. Bend my children. It is the manifestation of the Eternal omnipotence. Friends, watch and pray. We are near you and close to the bed of sufferings to dry out the tears.

Little Carita




Once evoked the Spirit Julio was less adversarial than on the day before. Truth be said we responded to his witty comments with others and that pleased him. Before he left us we made him promise that he would not be so tough on his victim. He said: “I will be moderate”. As for ourselves we promised that we would pray for him. He then responded: “I accept although I do not understand the validity of that.”



Question to the Spirit: - Since you don’t know prayer would you like to get to know it and write one that we would dictate to you? – A. He then wrote the following that was dictated by us: “Oh God, I promise to open my soul to regret. Have a ray of love to my fellow human beings shinning upon my heart, the only thing that can purify me. As a guarantee to that desire I promise hereafter…” (The final part of the sentence would be: to stop my obsession, but the Spirit did not write these final words). He then added: “Watch it! You want to trick me. Be careful. I don’t like traps. You are too fast.” And because we wanted to know the origin of his vengeance and his jealousy he answered: “Don’t you ever talk to me about the girl. You can only keep me away from you.”



The struggle of the 13th only lasted half an hour and the fight was followed by smiles of happiness, ecstasy and tears of joy. The girl had her eyes wide open, forming a remarkable picture; she would raise her hands, stand up in bed and look at the sky. The predictions of Little Carita were happening in all points. In the evocation later at night the Spirit Julio seemed kinder and more submissive and again promised to moderate his attacks against the girl whose story he never told us. He even promised to pray.



The guide of the medium told us this: “Do not trust much his words. They can be sincere but he can also be deceiving you to get rid of you. Be forearmed. Having him keeping his promises and if you have to criticize him later do kindly so that he can notice the good feelings that you have towards him.”

Louis David



On the 14th the crisis was as short as on the previous evening and less lively. It was equally followed by manifestations of joy and ecstasy. The tears rolling down on the child’s face caused an undisguised emotion in the audience.



Gathered later on, at 8pm as we habitually did, we received the following communication for starters:



“As you must have seen, something more sensitive has reached the girl. I must tell you that our presence has a great influence upon the Spirit. We remind him about yesterday’s promise. The girl learned more during the ecstasy and tried to repel the attacks of the aggressor. Do not take short cuts during Julio’s evocation. Avoid the details that lead to fatigue on both sides. Be frank and benevolent with him and you will conquer him earlier. He moved a large step ahead as we noticed in this latest crisis.

Little Carita





1.Evocation of Julio – A. I am here, gentlemen.

2.How are you feeling today? – A. Good.

3.Have you felt the effects of our prayers? – A. Not much.

4.Forgive your victim and that will give you a satisfaction that is not familiar to you. That is what we feel when we forgive offenses. – A. Me? Much to the contrary. I found satisfaction in the vengeance for an offense. I call that paying the debts.

5.But the hatred in your soul is a painful feeling that is far from giving you peace. – A. Would you believe if I told you that it is the attachment?

6.We do believe. However kindly explain how do you conciliate such an affection with the ongoing vengeance that you carry out? What was to you the Spirit of this child in another life and what is it that she does to deserve such a punishment? – A. It is useless to ask. I have already told you: do not mention the girl.

7.That is fine. We will no longer talk about it but we must congratulate you for the change. We are happy for that. – A. I made progress in your school… What will the others say? They will boo and shout: Ah you became and hermit!

8.Why bother with the mockery if you have the laurel of the good Spirits? – A. True.

9.Look. In order to demonstrate to your former friends that you have definitely broke up with them you must completely forgive from now on; you must be generous and good and absolutely leave our good young lady alone. – A. My dear Sir that is impossible. That cannot happen just like that. Allow me to gradually leave behind what is now a necessity to me. Are you aware that if I suddenly stopped that would expose you? You could see me coming again. However, I want to promise you this: spare the girl and torture her tomorrow less than I did today. My condition, however, is that I am not forced to come here. I want to come and respond to your call freely and if I fail my word I agree to lose that favor. I must say that the change that you see in me is due to this shiny figure that you have near you and that is also by the girl’s bed every day, at the time of struggle. We are touch irrespective of ourselves. Without that you and your saints would have trouble for some time. (The Spirit referred to Little Carita).

10.Is she beautiful then? – A. Beautiful, very much so, yes!

11.But is she alone near you during the struggle? – A. No, no. There are others, the former ones from the body, the friends. They never laugh but now I make fun of them.



OBSERVATION: The questioner wanted undoubtedly to talk about other good Spirits but Julio mentioned the other bad ones, his companions.



12.Let us go! Before you leave we promise to pray for you tonight. – A. I want ten prayers. Say it from the bottom of your hearts and tomorrow you will be glad for me.

13.Be it ten then. And since you are in such a good mood would you like to write a three word prayer from the heart dictated by me? – A. By all means.



The Spirit then wrote: “Oh God, give me the strength to forgive.”




On January 15th the crisis happened at 5 pm but lasted just fifteen minutes. It was a weak fight followed by ecstasy, smiles and tears that expressed joy and happiness. At the evening meeting Little Carita gave us the following communication:



My dear protégé, as expected the Spiritist phenomena before your eyes changes, improves every day, becoming lighter and less serious. An advice to begin with: You must use this as a subject matter for study from the point of view of physical tortures and moral lessons. Do not make external signals to the eyes of the world and do not use useless words. What does it matter to you what others will say? Leave the discussions to the idle ones. The element of your private and serious conversations must be the practical objective of liberation of this girl and the improvement of the Spirit that obsesses her. Do not talk about cure out loud. Ask God for that in the silence of your prayer.



I am happy to tell you that this obsession is coming to an end. Julio improved sensibly. I also acted upon the Spirit of the girl as much as I could so that these so much opposing vibes became more compatible. The combination of their fluids will no longer offer any danger with respect to the physical organization and the abandonment that this young body felt in contact with that fluid disappears notably. Your work is not finished. Everyone’s prayer must always precede and follow the evocation.”

Little Carita



After the evocation of Julio and the prayer in which he was classified as a bad Spirit he says:

-I am here. In the name of justice I request to have some words changed in your prayer. I changed my actions. You should change the way you classify me.

-You are right. We will not make the same mistake again. Have you come on your own today?

-Yes, I came freely. I kept my promises.

-Now that you are calm and full of good feelings would you agree in telling us the reasons for you to be so harsh on the girl?



A quick glance over my vagabond life: I was born amidst the miseries of life in addiction and soon I experienced the disgusting encounters of that kind of life. I was fed with milk and all kinds of beverages that come with those passions. I wandered around without faith, without law and without honor. Anything is good when one has to live wandering around. The hen of the peasant as well as the sheep of the shepherd was my meal.



Marauder was my occupation, when chance no doubt since I do not believe that Providence watches over such scoundrels, took me and equipped me. Proud of the rasped costume which replaced my rags, the halberd on my arm, I joined a band of bad companions, living at the expense of a fearful lord who, in turn, exploited his countrymen; but what mattered to us the source of money and provisions that flowed in our hands! I will not go into detail about the facts that are personal to me: they are wicked, hideous and unworthy of being told. Do you believe that educated in such a school like that one can become a good man?



Split by death the gang reunited in the spiritual world. Far from avoiding the opportunities of doing bad we sought them. In my lost thoughts I found someone to turn into my victim and I did that. You know the rest. Please ladies and gentlemen, pray also for that gang. You are sometimes surprised by the fact that certain regions have more bad people than others. It is very simple. They do not want to move away from each other and then fall onto a region like a cloud of locust. To the wolves, the forest, to the doves, the cote.



I had lived my earthly life in the times of Louis XIII. My last existence was in the Empire. I was a guerrilla. I liked very much the blunderbuss and the adorned conic hat. I loved danger, theft and the adventures. Sad taste! But what else to do? I was used to live with those bands. The change must astonish you; it is the works of an angel. I promise you nothing for tomorrow. You will judge me for my actions. A prayer please. As for myself I will say one:



-Little angel, open thy wings; fly to the throne of the Lord; ask to have me forgiven having my regret laid by your feet.

Julio



Q – Since you are in such a good path pray for the poor girl…

A – I cannot… it would be derision or a cruelty to see the executioner embracing the victim.



Next day, January 16th, the girl had no crisis but only a stomach ache. To our eyes it was her liberation. Later on at 8pm the Spirit Julio answered our call and gave the following communication:

-My friends, allow me to call you that. I, the obsessing Spirit, the bad Spirit, astute and perverse; I who was deep in the mud of evil a few days ago, I will preach you with the help of the angel. I am surprised myself with such a change and wonder if this is me. I believed that every feeling had disappeared in my soul but there was still a thread that vibrated. The angel guessed and touched it. I begin to see and feel. I am horrified by evil. I looked over my past and only saw crimes. A kind voice told me: wait; observe the hoy and happiness of the good Spirits; purify yourself; forgive instead of revenge; love instead of hate. I will also love you myself if you want to love and become better. I felt touched. I now understand the happiness that everyone will fell when they learn to practice charity. Little lady (he was addressing the child present at the session) you that I had chosen as my prey like the voucher preys the dove, pray for me, and that the name of the reproached one may disappear from your memory. I received the baptism of love from the hands of an angel of the Lord and today I dress the tunic of innocence. Poor child may your prayers addressed to the Lord in my favor soon free me from the remorse that will chase me like a well-deserved atonement.

-My friends, please keep praying for my miserable companions that chase me with their malicious envy because I escape them. Still yesterday I asked myself about what they thought of me. Today I can tell them: I won. My past is forgiven because I was able to repent. Do as I did. Engage in the battle against evil that keeps you slaved to this place of torment and desperation and leave it as winners. If your hand is stained by the blood of crime, like mine, it will also take you the sacred water of prayer that washes the stigmas of the sinner. God, forgive me!

Julio



On January 17th and following Julio’s promise, the girl experienced no ill-feeling and did not feel bad at all even in her stomach. Little Carita announced that she would still go endure a moral test at 5 pm for a few days or during her sleep, but that would not be painful to her and the only symptoms would be smiles and sweet tears and that is what really happened for two days. The following days showed a total absence of any crisis. Yet we still watched and prayed for the girl. On February 18th Little Carita gave us the following instruction:

-My good friends, have no fear. The obsession is over and very much so. It is an order of strange things to you but soon it will all seem very natural as perhaps a consequence of this obsession but not the works of Julio. Some developments are needed here for your instruction. Now that you know the Doctrine obsession or subjugation of the material being is no longer a supernatural phenomenon to you but only a different character of the organic diseases. The subjugating Spirit penetrates the perispirit of the person that is to be acted upon. The perispirit of the obsessed receives the fluidic body of the Spirit as an envelope and that is how the person is thoroughly hit. The material body experiences the pressure indirectly imposed. I seemed strange that the soul could have physically acted upon the animated matter. Yet the soul is the true actor of all those facts. Intelligence and will are the attributes of the soul. It acts from that will and the agent is the perispirit that operates like an instrument utilized by the soul. The physical discomfort is just apparent but the fluidic combination that your senses cannot detect hides an infinite number of mysteries that will be revealed with the progress of the Doctrine, considered from a scientific point of view.



When the Spirit abandons its victim its will no longer acts upon the body but the impression received by the perispirit from the strange Spirit does not vanishes instantaneously and thus continues to influence the material organization for some time still. In the case of our ill young lady it is through sadness, tears, sleepiness, insomnia and vague disturbs that will be produced as a consequence of her liberation but rest assured and make sure she and her family understand that this will not bring her any danger. It is my duty to successfully carry out the task I started with you. It is now necessary to act upon the Spirit of the girl through a moralizing influence.

As for yourselves, my friends, continue to attentively observe all of these phenomena. Study them unstoppably since it is a vast open field before you. Have all these things known and the Spiritist ideas will gradually penetrate the soul of your brothers that were found incredulous or indifferent by the surge of the Spiritist Doctrine.

Little Carita

OBSERVATION: We owe a fair tribute of praise to our brothers from Marmande by their care, prudence and enlightened devotion that they demonstrated in these circumstances. For such a brilliant success they were rewarded by God in their faith, perseverance and moral selflessness since they did not seek any satisfaction to their self-love. Things would have been different had they stained their good actions with pride. God withdraws the gifts from anyone that does not use them with humility. The most eminent mediumistic faculties are perverted, altered and extinguished under the domain of pride because the good Spirits remove their support. Deceptions, annoyances and effective disgraces in this life are many times the consequence of deviations of such faculty from its providential objective. We could mention several sad examples among mediums that anticipated the most beautiful hopes. It is never too much to revisit the instructions found in The Imitation of the Gospels, numbers 285, 326 and next, 333, 392 and the following ones. We recommend the obsessing Spirit above, Julio, to every good Spiritist in order to give him the strength needed to his good resolutions and to allow him to understand the rewards of doing good.





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