Hallucination in Animalsin the symptoms of rabies
One of our colleagues transmitted to the Society the following summary of a report read in the Academy of Medicine, by Dr. H. Bouley, about the symptoms of canine rabies.
“At the early stage of the disease and when it is completely diagnosed, in intermittent accesses, the dog shows a kind of delirious state that one could call canine rabies delirium, first mentioned by Youatt that described it perfectly. The delirium is characterized by strange movements, indicating that the animal sees things and hear noises that only exist in what we can rightfully call their imagination. In fact, the animal sometimes retreats and remain put, attentive, as if ambushing; it suddenly jumps and bites the air, like a healthy dog does when trying to catch a flying insect. On other occasions it jumps against the wall, furiously and howling, as if it had heard threating sounds from the other side. Reasoning by analogy we are led to admit that these are signs of true hallucination. However, an uninformed person would not give importance to those symptoms that are very quick and just require the voice of command of the owner to disappear. It is then followed by a period of rest; the eyes close slowly, the head falls down, the front legs seem to disappear under the body and the animal is about to collapse. It then suddenly stands, and ghosts come to surround it again; it looks around with angry looks, bites as if reaching something near the teeth and dashes up to the extremity of the chain, towards an enemy that only exists in its imagination.”
That phenomenon, carefully observed by the author of that memory, as we can see, seems to indicate that the dog is tormented by the vision of something invisible to us. Is it a real vision or a fantastic creation of its imagination, or in other words, hallucination? If it is hallucination it cannot certainly be by the eyes of the body, since they are not real objects; if they are fluidic beings or Spirits, since they do not produce any effect upon the senses of vision, it is then a spiritual vision that they perceive. In one case as in the other the dog would then have a sense up to a certain extent similar to that in man. Science had not yet ventured into the imagination of animals. From imagination to a principle that is independent of matter is not a great distance, unless one admits that brute matter like wood, rock, etc. may have imagination.
All the phenomena of visions are attributed to a super excited imagination by science. However, there has been reports of children at an early age and that cannot yet speak running after invisible beings, smiling to them and reaching out the them with their arms, trying to get them. In the rabies analogy, hasn’t this gotten a great similarity with the dog cited above? The boy has not started speaking yet but those that can speak positively tell those around that they see invisible beings. We have seen them describing their dead grandparents that they had not met. Super excitation is understandable in a person that is worried about something, but that is certainly not the case of a little child. A super excited imagination may revive a memory; fear, love, and enthusiasm may create fantastic images, we agree; under the impression of certain beliefs an exalted person may see the appearance of someone that is dear, the virgin or saints, we still agree; but we consider only those cause, how to explain the fact that a three or four year old child describing her grandmother that she never met? It cannot certainly be the product of a memory, nor a concern or not even any belief.
Let us say, in passing and as a corollary to what precedes, that clairvoyant mediumship seems to be frequent and even general in little children. Our guardian angels would come to guide us, like by the hand, taking us to the doorway of life, so that the transition from one life to the other is not too abrupt. As the child grows and is capable of using her own forces, the guardian angel keeps an eye only, allowing the free-will to take over. It is as saying: “I came to be with you at the port, taking you to the ship that will transport you through the sea of the world; now it is time to sail; fly with your own wings; but up there, from heavens, I shall watch you; think of me and when you return I will be there welcoming you.” Happy is the one that does not forget their guardian angel during the crossing!
Let us return to the main subject that lead us to this development. As long as we admit an imagination to the dog we could then say that the illness super excites it to the point of producing hallucinations. But many examples tend to prove that the phenomenon of vision do occur in certain animals, in their normal state, in particular with the dog and the horse. At least it is with them that we have observed more. Thinking by analogy, we can suppose that it is the same with the elephant and other animals whose intelligence is closer to man. It is certain that dogs do dream. Don’t we sometimes see them simulating movements in their sleep that resemble running; moaning or manifesting happiness? Their thoughts are then active, free and independent of their instinct properly saying. What is the dog doing? What is it that they see? What can the dog see in their dreams? Unfortunately, they cannot tell us, but the fact is there.
Up until now we were not much concerned with the intelligent principle of the animals and even less with their affinity with the human species, unless from the exclusive point of view of their material organization. Today one tries to reconcile their state and destiny with Dog’s justice; but with that regards only more or less logical systems were created, that are not always in agreement with the facts. If the question remained undefined for a long time it is for the fact that we lacked the elements necessary to its comprehension, like in many other cases. Spiritism that gives the key to so many misunderstood or badly observed and unnoticed phenomena, cannot go without facilitating the solution of this serious problem, to which we give all the attention that it deserves, because it is the solution of continuity of the chain that connects all beings in the harmonious whole of creation.
Why hasn’t Spiritism then immediately solved the issue? It would be the same as to ask a physics professor why she does not teach the laws of electricity and optics since lesson one. She starts from the fundamental principles of the science, by those principles that must serve as the basis for the understanding of the others, keeping for later the explanation of the subsequent laws. That is how the great Spirits that direct the Spiritist Movement act; in good logic, they start from the beginning and wait until we are educated in one point before touching the next. Now, what should be the starting point of their teaching? The human soul. We must be convinced of their existence and immortality. We must know their true attributes and destiny. In a word, we needed to understand our soul before that of the animals. Spiritism has already taught us a lot about the soul and its faculties; it daily teaches us more and casts light upon a new point. But how much still to be explored!
As we move on in knowledge with respect to our spiritual state, our attention is called to every question that may be related, near or far away, and that of the animals is not of minor interest. Man understands the analogies better; tries to understand what he sees; seeks the consequences; tests theories, one after the other, confirmed or belied by observations. That is how, out of the efforts of his own intelligence, he gradually approaches the objective. Here, as in everything else, the Spirits do not preclude us from the work of research, because we must use our own intelligence; they help, guide and that is a lot already, but they do not provide us with the finished science. As long as it is on the path of truth, they come to clearly reveal, muting uncertainties and annihilating false systems. But while wait, the Spirit is better prepared to understand and accept it, and when truth shows up, there is no surprise since it was already in the depth of thoughts. See the path walked by Spiritism. Has it arrived out of improvisation? Certainly not, and not to mention the facts that are present at all times since it is part of nature. Like electricity, from the point of view of the principle, it had prepared its appearance; Swedenborg, Saint-Martin, the theosophists, Charles Fourier, Jean Reynaud and so many others like Mesmer that brought the knowledge of the fluidic force, Puységur, the first to observe somnambulism, all raising the tip of the veil of the spiritual life; all of them circulated around and got more or less closer to light; all of them paved the way and prepared the spirits, so that in a way Spiritism only had to complete what had already been sketched. That is why it promptly conquered so many sympathizers. We do not speak of the other multiple causes that came in support, proving that certain ideas were no longer at the level of human progress, giving rise to the presentiment of a new order of things, because humanity cannot remain stationary. That is the same with every great idea that change the face of the world. None of them has come as a fascination, like a lightning. Haven’t Socrates and Plato sown the seeds of the Christian ideas five centuries before Christ?
Another reason had made us postpone the solution relative to the animals. This issue touches long lasting and strong prejudices and that would have been unwise to attack, being that the reason why the Spirits did not do it. The subject is discussed now; it is mentioned everywhere, even outside Spiritism; the discarnate take part in the discussion, each one according to their personal opinions; those several theories are discussed, examined; a number of facts, like for example the one in this article, and that would have gone unnoticed in the past, today call our attention, for the very reason of preliminaries studies that have been carried out.
Without adopting an idea or the other we become familiar with the idea of a contact between the animality and humanity, and when the final solution comes, whatever its direction, it will be supported by solid arguments that will not allow any doubt. If the idea is true, it would have been presented; if it is false, it means that we found something more logical to replace it. In nature everything is connected, chained and in harmony. Spiritism came to give a mother-idea and we can see how fecund that idea is. Before the light that Spiritism cast onto psychology we would have difficulty in believing that so many considerations could have been brought about by a raving dog.
After the summary above about the report by Dr. Bouley was read at the Society, a Spirit gave the following communication.
Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, June 30th, 1865 – medium Mr. Desliens
Do the dog and some other animals have the vision in which the phenomena described by Mr. Bouley may be produced? To me there is no doubt about it. Yes, the dog and the horse do see the Spirits. Haven’t you ever witnessed the disgust that sometimes these animals show by passing by a place where they did not know there was a buried body? You will say that their senses are excited by the odor of the rotten bodies. Then, why would they go quietly when the body is of another animal? Why is it that they say the dog presents death? Haven’t you heard a dog howling by the window of an agonizing and unknown person? Outside the super excitation of rage, don’t you see several animals refusing to obey their owners, stepping back before an invisible obstacle that seems to block their passage, infuriating them, and later on they will pass calmly through the same path that terrified them before, as if the obstacle had been removed? Animals have been seen saving their owners from imminent danger by refusing to go in a given direction where they could have died. Facts of animal vision are found in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, as they are in our days. Animals, therefore, do see the Spirits. In fact, by saying that they have imagination, isn’t that an assumption that they do have a point of similarity with the human spirit, and isn’t their instinct a rudimentary intelligence appropriate to their needs, before they go through the modifying crucibles that wil transform them and give them new faculties? A man also has instincts that make him act unconsciously, in the interest of one’s own preservation. But as intelligence and free-will are developed, the instinct weakens giving rise to reason, because a blind guide is less necessary.
The instinct that has all of its power in the animal, perpetuating in man where it gradually fades away, is certainly a common trace between the two species. The subtleness of senses in the animal, like in the savage and primitive man, replacing in them the absence of a moral sense, is another point of contact. Finally, the spiritual vision that is evidently common to them, although in some varying degrees, also com to reduce the distance that seemed to erect an unsurpassable barrier. However, do not make any absolute conclusion but carefully analyze the facts because it is from that observation alone that truth will come one day.
Moki
Observation: This is a very wise advice because evidently a solid theory can only be founded on facts. Beyond that it is only opinions and systems. Facts are arguments without replica whose consequences, sooner or later, when they are attested, will have to be accepted. That was the principle that created the foundation of the Spiritist Doctrine and that allows us to say that it is a science of observation.
