Manifestation of the Spirit of Animals
We got this in a letter from Dieppe:
“…Dear Sir, I believe that we come to a time in which unbelievable things are to happen. I do not know what to think of a phenomenon that just took place in my house. Given the current skepticism of our days I would dare not speak to anyone about it for I fear to be taken by a mad person. But, dear Sir, even at the risk of making you laugh I would like to tell you about the fact. Although apparently futile, it may perhaps
be more serious after all. My poor son, deceased in Boulogne-sur-Mer where he carried out his studies, had a charming little greyhound given to him by some friends and that we had trained with extreme care. It was the most adorable little creature of that breed. We did love her very much as anything beautiful and good can be loved. She understood us from our gestures and looks. She showed such a vivacity in her eyes that it seemed that she would respond back to us when we talked to her.
After the death of the young owner, the little Mika – her name – was brought back to me in Dieppe and according to her habits she would sleep by the feet of my bed. In the winter, with the inclement weather, she would stand, produce a sweet groan as if asking for something; I would then invite her closer, allowing her to be with me. She would then tuck in between two pieces of cloth and stick her nose into under my neck that she used as her pillow; she would then sleep like the fortunate ones on Earth, feeling the warmth of my body and allowing me to feel hers and that was not unpleasant to me. The poor little one spent happy days with me. She missed nothing but last September she fell sick and died, despite everything that was done by the vet that I had assigned to her. My wife and I frequently talked about her, missing her almost as much as if a child of ours, for the amount of fidelity and affection that she had intelligently and kindly given us.
A short while ago I heard, in the middle of the night, in bed but not asleep, from the feet of my bed, that little groaning that my dear little dog used to do when she wanted something. I was so shocked that I reached out with my arm as if calling her, truly believing that I would feel her caress. When I woke up in the morning I told the story to my wife who said: I heard the same thing, not once but twice. It seemed to come from the door of the room. My first thought was that our little dog was not dead and that it had escaped from the vet’s house, returning to her own home. My sweet daughter that sleeps near her mom also affirm to have heard the same groaning. The sound to her was not coming from the door but from the bed itself near the door. I must say dear Sir that my wife’s bedroom is above mine. Would such strange sounds come from the street, as my wife believes since she does not share my Spiritist ideas? That is impossible. If they came from the street I would not be able to hear them since I am going deaf and even at night I cannot hardly hear the sound of a passing-by carriage. During a storm I don’t hear the sound of a thunder. On another hand if the sound came from the street how can we explain the fact that my wife heard it from the other side of the house and my daughter from her bed? I confess, dear Sir, that although these events refer to an irrational being, they make me think indeed. What to think about it? I cannot make up my mind and cannot elaborate much more. But I ask myself if the immaterial principle that must outlive the animals as it does to men, wouldn’t acquire the faculty of communication with human souls, up to a certain degree. Who knows! Do we know all secrets of nature? Evidently not. Who can explain the law of affinities? The laws of repulsion? Nobody! If affection that is in the domain of feelings, as feelings are in the domain of the soul, has an attractive power in itself, what would be the surprise if a little animal were be dragged by its own affection in the immaterial state? But some may ask how about the sound? How can that be admitted? And if one can hear that once, twice why not every day? Such an objection may seem serious, however would it be unreasonable to believe that such sounds could be produced by certain combinations of fluids that react in a given direction, like in Chemistry there are certain effervescences, certain explosions that take place due to the mixture of x and y elements? I will not discuss if such a hypothesis has merit or not. I will just say that I believe it to be among possible things and without pushing it any further I say that I attest a fact witnessed by three persons and that if the fact took place it is because it can happen. Besides, we want to give time and wait to hear about other phenomena of the same kind.”
Our honorable correspondent does well in not considering the matter definitely resolved. He does not propose an absolute conclusion based on a unique event which, in fact, is just a probability. He observes and attests, waiting for further enlightenment. That is what prudence requires. Facts of such a kind are not yet in significant numbers nor sufficiently demonstrated so that one can deduce a positive or negative theory from them. The issue of the principle and fate of the Spirits of the animals just begins to materialize and the event above is essentially related to that. If it is not an illusion, it at least attests the link of affinity that exists among the Spirits of the animals, or better saying, of certain animals and people. As a matter of fact, it seems that it has been positively demonstrated that the animals see the Spirits and are impressed by them. We have reported several examples in the Spiritist Review, among others the Spirit and the Little Dog in our June 1860 issue. If the animals do see the Spirits that evidently cannot be done by the eyes of the body. In that case they also have a spiritual vision.
Up until now science has only attested the physiological relationship between people and the animals. It shows us all the links of the chain in the body, without a solution of continuity. Nonetheless, between the spiritual principles of both Spirits there was an abyss. If the better observed psychological facts lay down a bridge onto that chasm then it will be a new step to the unity of the scale of the beings of creation. Such a serious issue will not be solved by systems but by facts. Spiritism, by creating the experimental psychology, is the only one to provide the means for that. In any case if there are points of contact between the animal soul and the human soul that cannot be, in the case of the soul of the animal, from the part of the most advanced ones. An important fact to be attested is that among the creatures of the spiritual world there has never been an indication that there are Spirits of animals. That seems to indicate that they do not maintain their individuality after death and the manifestation of the little dog above seems to contradict it.
From all the above it can be seen that the issue is still not much understood and its solution must not be hurriedly established. Once the letter above was read at the Parisian Society, the following communication was given about the subject:
Paris, April 21st, 1865 – Medium Mr. E.Vézy
Tonight I will touch on a serious matter by speaking about the relationships that may exist between the animal world and humanity. In this room, however, when for the first time I taught you about the solidarity that does exist between all existences and the affinities among them there was an uproar here and I went silent. Should I do the same today, despite your question? No, because I finally see you entering the path that I showed you. But it is not at all limited to the belief in the unstoppable progress of the Spirit, an embryo in matter, developing through the sieve of the mineral, vegetal and animal, arriving at humanity where it begins to proudly test the soul that will reincarnate and carry out its mission with the human race. Between those multiple phases there are important links that must be understood and that I call latent or intermediary periods because it is when the successive transformations take place. Later I will talk about the links that unit the mineral to the vegetal and the vegetal to the animal. Since the subject that caught your attention is the bonds between the animal and mankind I will now discuss this matter.
The affinity between domesticated animals and people is produced by the fluidic charges that surround you and involve them. It is somewhat like humanity influencing the animal world, not affect the colors of one or the other. Hence the superior intelligence of the dog against the brutal instinct of the wild animal and that is the only cause that may explain the manifestations that were just read to you. Therefore, they were not mistaken when they heard the happy sounds of the animal, acknowledging the love of its owner, coming to bring them a memory before transitioning to the intermediary state between two phases of development. Thus, the manifestation may occur but it is momentarily because in order to move up another step the animal needs a latent work that eliminates any sign of exterior life to all of them. That is like a spiritual cocoon where the soul is elaborated, a shapeless perispirit, without any trace of a material body, breaking up in a mature state, dragged by the carrying currents, like the embryos of souls that will blossom from that. It would, therefore, be difficult to us to talk about the Spirits of animals because they do not exist, or even better, their passage is so fast that it is like it was null, and they could not be described in their state of chrysalis. You know already that nothing dies from succumbing matter. When a body dissolves it breaks into the multiple composing elements. Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon return to their primitive state to feed other bodies. The same happens to the spiritual body: during the passage, the organized spiritual fluids take colors, perfume, and instincts, up to the final constitution of the soul. Do you understand that well? I would certainly need to explain all that better but to finish tonight and not allowing you to suppose the impossible, I assure you that what belongs to the domain of animal intelligence cannot reproduce in human intelligence. Their ideas are rudimentary only. In order to express itself as a person would do the animal would need ideas and knowledge that it does not have and it cannot have. Be assured that neither dog, nor the cat, the donkey, the horse nor the elephant may manifest through mediumistic means. The Spirits that arrived at the humanity level, and only them, can do it and still in proportion to their level of development because the Spirit of a savage cannot speak like the one of a civilized person.
OBSERVATION: The late observations by the Spirit were motivated by comments made during the session about people that pretended to have received communications from animals. As an explanation of the fact mentioned above, the theory given by the Spirit is rational and its bottom line is in agreement with the one that prevails today and is given in the majority of the centers. When we have gathered enough documents we will summarize them in a methodical body of doctrine that will be submitted to the universal control. Until then they are only guidelines given to clarify the path.
