Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1867

Dear Mr. Kardec,



It has been some time since I spoke to you about the result of our Spiritist work that we are pursuing with perseverance, and I am glad to say, with satisfactory success. The obsessed and the sick are always the object of our exclusive care. Moralization and fluids are the main means indicated by our guides.



Our good Spirits, who have dedicated themselves to the propagation of Spiritism, have also taken on the task of popularizing magnetism. In almost all the consultations, for the various cases of illnesses, they ask for the help of relatives: a father, a mother, a brother or a sister, a neighbor, a friend, are required to give passes. These good people are quite surprised to stop the crises, to calm the pains. It seems to me that this is an ingenious and sure means of making followers, so the confidence is spreading more every day in our region. The groups that deal with healings might do well in giving the same advice; the fortunate results obtained would clearly prove the truth of magnetism, and give the certainty that the faculty of healing or relieving a fellow person is not the exclusive privilege of a few persons; that all that is needed for that is good will and trust in God; I am not talking about good health, that is an essential condition, we understand that. By recognizing that we ourselves have this power, we acquire the certainty that there is no juggling, no spell, or pact with the devil. It is, therefore, a means of destroying superstitious ideas.



Here are some examples of obtained healings:

“A 6-7 year old girl was bedridden, having a continual headache, fever, frequent cough with mucus, sharp pain in her left flank; pain also in the eyes that, from time to time, got covered with a milky substance, forming a kind of nubecula.[1]Under the hair, the skin of the skull was covered with white films; thick, cloudy urine. The frail and dejected child neither ate nor slept. The doctor ended up suspending his visits. The poor mother, in the presence of her sick and abandoned child, came to find me. Our guides, once consulted, prescribed the laying on of hands and fluidic passes, on the part of the mother, as the only remedy, recommending me to go, for a few days, to show her how she should go about it. I started by raising the blisters and drying them out. After three days of passes and laying on of hands on the head, kidneys and chest, performed as lessons, but done with heart, the child asked to get up; the fever had yielded, and all the symptoms described above disappeared after ten days.



This healing, that the mother described as miraculous, made me call, two days later, another 3 or 4 years-old little girl that had a fever. After the passes and the laying on of hands, the fever ceased since the first day.



The cures of some obsessions do not give us less satisfaction and confidence. Marie B… a young woman of 21, from Samazan, near Marmande, would get naked like a worm, run in the fields, and go to lie down next to the dog, in a straw hole. The moralization of the obsessing Spirit, on our part, and the fluidic passes given by the husband, following our instructions, soon released her. The whole commune of Samazan witnessed the inability of medicine to cure her, and the effectiveness of the simple means employed to bring her back to her normal state.



Mrs. D… aged 22, from the commune of Sainte-Marthe, not far from Marmande, fell into extraordinary and violent crises; she roared, bit, rolled around, felt terrible blows in the stomach, fainted, and often remained unconscious for four or five hours; one time she remained eight days without regaining conscience. Doctor T ... treated her without success. The husband, after reaching out to professionals, priests from our regions, reputed to be healers and exorcisers, fortunetellers – he confessed to having consulted some – came to us to, asking us to please take care of his wife if, as he had heard, it was in our power to heal her. We promised to write to him, telling him what he should do.



Our guides were consulted, and told us: stop all the medical treatment: the remedies would be useless; that the husband raise his soul to God, that he lay his hands on his wife's forehead, and give her fluidic passes with love and confidence; that he punctually observe the recommendations that we are going to make to him, whatever the difficulties he may experience (followed by personal recommendations), and if he fully understands the idea that they are necessary, for the benefit of his poor patient, he will soon have his reward.



They also told us to call and moralize the obsessing Spirit, by the name Lucie Cédar. This Spirit revealed the cause that led her to torment Mrs. D… This cause was precisely linked to the recommendations made to the husband. The latter having complied with everything, had the satisfaction of seeing his wife completely released, in the space of ten days. He said to me: “Since the Spirits communicate with each other, I am not surprised that they told you what was known only to me, but I am much more astonished that no remedy could cure my wife; if I had spoken to you from the beginning, I would still have 150 francs in my pocket, that are no longer there, and that I spent on drugs.”



I cordially shake your hand,

Dombre”





These healing cases are nothing more extraordinary than those we have already cited from the same center; but they prove, by the persistence of success, for several years, what can be obtained with perseverance and devotion, so that the assistance of good spirits is never lacking. They only abandon those who leave the right path, that is easy to recognize in the decline of success, while they support until the last moment, even against the attacks of malice, those whose zeal, sincerity, self-sacrifice and humanity are tested by the vicissitudes of life. They elevate those that lower themselves, and they bring down those that elevate themselves. This applies to all kinds of mediumship.



Nothing discouraged Mr. Dombre; he fought strongly against all obstacles that were created for him, and he succeeded over them; he ignored the insults and threats of our common adversaries, and he forced them to silence by his firmness; he spared neither his time, nor his trouble, nor material sacrifices; he has never sought to take advantage of what he does to give himself relief or to make some stepping stone out of it; his moral selflessness equals his material self-sacrifice; if he is happy to succeed, it is because each success is one for the doctrine. These are the serious titles of recognition of all present and future Spiritists, titles to which we must associate the members of the group who support him, with as much zeal as self-sacrifice, and whose names we regret not being able to name.



The most characteristic fact pointed out in this letter is that of the intervention of the relatives and friends of the sick, in the healings. It is a new idea whose importance will escape no one, for its propagation cannot fail to have considerable results; it is the announced popularization of the healing mediumship. The Spiritists will notice how ingenious the Spirits are in the multiple means they employ to make the idea penetrate the masses. How could it not be achieved, if new channels are constantly being opened, and the means to knock on all doors are given?



This practice, therefore, cannot be encouraged enough; however, we must not lose sight of the fact that the results will be due to the good direction given to the thing, by the leaders of the healing groups, and the momentum they will know how to communicate by their energy, their devotion and their own example.

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[1] A cloudy formation (as in urine) or speck (as in the eye) – merrian-webster.com/dictionary (T.N.)