Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865

One must not create systems out of badly conceived and equally badly expressed essays that absolutely change the mediumistic inspiration if that had ever existed at all. I will let others explain the theory of progress since it is useless that all mediums deal with the same subject. I will talk about mediumship, that never ending matter of serious studies and research.

Mediumship is a faculty inherent to human nature. It is neither an exception nor a favor; it is part of the human whole and as such it is subjected to physical variations e moral inequalities; it endures the terrible duality between instinct and intelligence. It has its own geniuses, crowds and abortions.

Those meaningless and shapeless essays must never be attributed to the Spirits, I mean the elevated Spirits, dictations that add the ridicule of being signed by illustrious names. Serious mediumship only takes place with minds that are provided with sufficient instruction or, at least, tested by the trials of the heart. The best mediums are the only ones to connect to the spiritual waves; the others may only feel the material fluidic impulse that drags their hands, not affecting their minds that can only produce what they were capable of doing in their latent state. They must be encouraged to work but not to initiate the crowds in their elucubrations.

The Spiritist manifestations must take place with the greatest reservation. When necessary to protect one’s personal dignity then collect all the necessary proofs of a perfect good-faith regarding physical manifestations, precluding the spiritual communications from the ridicule of being easily associated to systems and ideas undersigned by famous names that are and will continue to be totally alien to such productions. I do not question people’s honesty when they say they receive the influence of the electric shock, confounding it with mediumistic inspiration. Science has its own pseudo-wise men and mediumship its false mediums, in the spiritual order I must clarify.

Here I try to establish the difference between mediums inspired by the spiritual fluid and those that only act by the influence of the corporeal fluid, that is, between those that vibrate intellectually and those whose physical resonance only leads to an unconscious and confusing production coming out of their own ideas, or ideas that are common and without elevation. There is, therefore, a dividing line that is perfectly outlined between the writing mediums: some obeying a spiritual influence that only lead to the writing of useful and elevated things; the others suffering a material influence that only acts upon their organs, like the physical fluids that act upon inert matter. This first classification is absolute but allows for a large number of intermediary variations. I only point out to the main aspects of an important study that other Spirits shall complement. We are the pioneers of the terrestrial progress, in solidarity with one another. In the spiritual phalanx we form the core of the future.

Georges



Observation: The statement by the Spirit in which he allow others to take on the work of explaining the theory of progress was motivated by several questions that had been proposed about the subject during the session. When he says that mediumship is an endless source of research and serious investigations he is perfectly correct.

Although the study of this part of Spiritism is far from complete, we are already far from the time in which people believed that it was only necessary to receive the influence of a mechanical impulse to be called medium and believe to be capable of receiving communications of every Spirit. This would be equivalent to believing that someone that could play a short aria at the piano must necessarily be an excellent musician. The progress of the Spiritist science that progresses daily with new observations shows us the up until recently unsuspected abundance of possible causes and subtle influences onto the intelligent relationships with the spiritual world. The Spirits could not have taught us everything at once. But, like skillful teachers, they give us more details as the ideas are better developed and unfold the principles that if given prematurely would not have been understood and would have created confusion in our minds.

Hence mediumship requires a serious study from the part of whoever sees a serious thing in Spiritism. As the true mechanisms of that faculty are better understood we shall be less exposed to deception because we will all know what it can produce and under which conditions it can happen. And the more people we have enlightened about that point the less people will fall victim of charlatanism.