VarietiesClairvoyance in Children
One of our correspondents writes from Caen:
“A few days ago I was at hotel St. Peter in Caen. I was drinking a glass of beer and reading a newspaper. The little girl of the house, of approximately four years old, was sitting at the stairs, eating cherries. She did not notice that I saw her that seemed entirely entertained in a conversation with invisible beings, to whom she offered cherries. It all seemed that way: the physiognomy, the gestures, the inflexions of the voice. She soon turned roughly and said:
-You will not have it, because you are not nice.
-This is for you, she said to another one.
-What is it that you throw at me? She asked a third one.
One would say that she was surrounded by other children. She sometimes extended her hand offering what she had, sometimes her eyes followed objects that were invisible to me, that made her sad or laugh. That little scene lasted more than half a hour and the conversation only ended when the little one noticed that I was observing her. I know that children many times have fun with sidetracks of this kind, but here it was completely different; the face and the gestures reflected real impressions that were not those of a representation. I thought that it was undoubtedly about a clairvoyant medium in her infancy, and said to myself, that if every mother had been initiated in the laws of Spiritism, they would then collect many cases of observation, and would understand may facts that go unnoticed, whose knowledge could be useful to the education of their children.”
It is regrettable that our correspondent did not have the idea of question the little girl about the persons she was talking to. He could have ensured if the conversation had really been with invisible beings. In such a case it could have produced an important instruction, since our correspondent is a Spiritist and very enlightened, and could have usefully addressed those questions. Nevertheless, many other facts demonstrate that the clairvoyant mediumship, if it is not general, it is at least very common in children, and that is providential. When the child leaves the spiritual world, her guides come to take her to the port of disembark onto the earthly world, as they come to get her on the return. They appear to them in their first moments so that there isn’t too much of a rough transition; they then fade away progressively, as the child grows and can act on her own free-will. She is then left to her own strength, disappearing from her eyes, without losing sight of her. The girl above, instead of being, as our correspondent believes, a clairvoyant medium that begins, she could well be declining, and no longer enjoy such a faculty for the rest of her life. (See Spiritist Review, February 1865: Spirits Instructors of Childhood).
