ResponseMr. Jourdan asks a question, or even better, makes an objection motivated
by his limited knowledge about the subject as below:
“…Thus, it is not absolutely impossible that some of those beings may
accidentally get in touch with us but what does seem trivial is the
need for a material support of a table, a basket or a medium so that
those relationships may be established.”
“Those communications are either useful or pointless. If useful
then the spirits must not need to be mysteriously evoked and questioned
in order to teach people what people need to know. If useless,
why resort to using them?” In his book A Philosopher by the fire, he
adds: “That is a dilemma that the spiritist school will hardly solve.”
No. There is no difficulty for the spiritist school to solve it since it was
proposed and solved long ago and if according to Mr. Jourdan that is
not the case it is because his knowledge is limited with that respect. We
believe that had Mr. Jourdan read The Mediums’ Book that deals with the
practical and experimental part of Spiritism and he would have a different
idea about the subject.
Yes, there is no doubt that it would be trivial, and this word used by
Mr. Jourdan would be weak; we say that it would be ridiculous, absurd
and unacceptable, that in order to establish such serious relationships like those between the visible and the invisible worlds the spirits would need
to resource to such common utensils like a table, a basket or a planchette
to transmit their teachings to us, because the natural consequence of that,
would be that once those utensils were not available we would also be
deprived of their lessons. No. That is not the case. The spirits are just
the souls of people, without the dense covering, and the spirits exist since
there have been people in the universe (we don’t say on Earth). These
spirits form the invisible world that populates the space that surrounds
us; space in which we live unsuspectingly, as we do amidst the microscopic
world. The spirits have exerted influence upon the visible world
at all times; those who are good helped the people of genius with their
inspiration, while the others provide us with guidance in our day to day
lives. But those inspirations that occur by the transmission of thoughts are
invisible and leave no material trace.
If the spirit wants to communicate outwardly he needs to act upon
matter; if he wants to give his lessons with accuracy and stability rather
than with fuzziness and uncertainty then material signs are necessary
and for that – allow us the expression – the spirit uses everything at
hand as long as under the conditions that are appropriate to his nature.
When willing to write the spirit utilizes a pen or a pencil; willing to rap
the spirit will use any object like a table or a saucepan and he will not
feel humiliated for having used that. Is there anything more common
than a goose feather? Isn’t that what the greatest geniuses use to create
the masterpieces that remain for posterity? What can they do if they are
denied of any means of writing? They think but their thoughts are lost
if not collected. Suppose a handicapped writer, how would he write? An
assistant may capture the message. Well then, since the spirits cannot
hold the pen without an intermediary they do so through someone that
is called a medium, inspired and guided by the spirits. That type of
medium, sometimes acts as aware of what is going on; in that case it is a
medium in the true meaning of the term. Others act without knowledge
of what is happening behind the action; that is the case of the inspired
mediums that are unknowingly mediums. Thus, the subject of tables and planchettes is totally secondary and not of substance as people who
are not well informed may think. Those objects were the prelude of the
great and powerful means of communication like the alphabet was the
prelude of reading.
The second part of the dilemma is not less easy to resolve. Mr. Jourdan
says: “If the communications are useful then there is no need to evoke the spirits
mysteriously, etc.”
Let us say for starters that it is not up to us to regulate what happens
in the spiritual world. We cannot say: - things should be this or that way
since it would be the same as trying to conduct God’s business. It is true
that the spirits want to initiate us into their world because that will perhaps
be ours tomorrow. We must accept it as is and if it is not convenient
to us it will not change here or there because God will not accommodate
our caprices.
Having said that let us promptly state that there is never a mysterious
or Kabbalistic evocation. It is all done openly and with simplicity and
without any compulsory formula. Those who believe that these things are
necessary totally ignore the fundamentals of the Spiritist Science.
Next, if the spiritist communications only existed as a consequence
of evocations it would then follow that those communications would be
a privilege of those who can be evoked, and that the great majority of
those who have never even heard about it would be deprived. This is in
contradiction with what we have just mentioned above about the occult
and spontaneous communications. These communications happen to everyone,
from the little to the big one, from the rich to the poor, from the
ignorant to the scholar. The spirits that protect us, and our lost relatives,
they don’t need to be called. They are around us and although invisible
they surround us with their solicitude; we only need a thought to attract
them, demonstrating our affection, because if we don’t think of them it is
very natural that they don’t think of us. People may then ask: what is the
objective of the evocation? Let us see.
Suppose you are out in the street, surrounded by a dense crowd that
speaks and hums in your ears; far away in the crowd you see someone that you know and to whom you would like to speak to in private. What do
you do if you cannot reach that person? You call and the person comes to
you. That is what happens with the spirits. Besides those that we love and
they may not always be around, there is the swarm of indifferent ones. If
you want to speak to a given spirit and since you cannot go to him for you
are tied to the corporeal links, you call him, and that is the whole mystery
of the evocation whose only objective is to provide you with the ability
of addressing anyone that you like, instead of listening to the first one
that shows up. In the occult and spontaneous communications that we
mentioned earlier the spirits that assist us are unknown to us; they do so
in spite of us. They reveal their presence in an objective way through the
material manifestations, written or otherwise, and they may even provide
their identity if it is their wish to do so. It is a means of knowing those
around us with whom we are synchronized and if we have friends or foes
around us. There is no lack of adversaries in the spiritual world as in our
world. There as here, the most dangerous ones are the ones that we don’t
know. Practical Spiritism provides us with the means of getting to know
them. In short, anybody that only knows Spiritism through the phenomenon
of the turning tables has such a limited and trivial idea about it as
someone else that only knows Physics from children’s toys. Nevertheless,
the more one advances, the more the horizon broadens, and it is only then
that its true reach is understood because it reveals one of the most powerful
forces of nature, a force that acts simultaneously upon the physical as
well as the moral world. Nobody denies the influence exerted upon us by
the material world, be it visible or invisible. If we are part of a crowd we
suffer its moral and physical influence.
With death our souls go somewhere in space. Where to? Since there
is no restricted or limited space Spiritism says and demonstrates that such
a place is space as a whole, forming around us a countless population.
Now, how can we admit that the intelligent space has less action than the
unintelligent space? That is the key to a large number of misunderstood
facts, that people interpret according to their own prejudices and exploit
them to the taste of their passions. When these things are understood by everyone the prejudice will disappear and the progress will steadily follow
its march.
Spiritism is a light that illuminates the darkest recesses of society; it
is then natural that those who fear light try to extinguish it. However,
when that light has penetrated everywhere, it will be necessary that those
who seek darkness will have to decide to accept the light of day. We will
then see their masks fall. Every person that truly wishes progress cannot
remain indifferent to one of its most powerful contributors, a contributor
that prepares one of the greatest moral revolutions up until now experienced
by humanity. As it can be seen, we are far away from the turning
tables. The distance between that modest beginning and its consequences
is the same that one day had existed between Newton’s apple and the law
of universal gravitation.
