The Revue Spirite of 1862

Part 14

We continue in  this issue the study of the Revue Spirite corresponding to the year of 1862. The condensed text of the mentioned volume will hereby be presented in sixteen parts, based on the translation of Julio Abreu Filho and published by EDICEL.

Issues for discussion

A. Can anyone be incarnated on Earth for the first time?

B. Who paid the travel expenses when Kardec traveled to the service of the Spiritist Movement?

C. Why was Guillaume Remone buried alive?

Text for reading

146. Kardec mentions his plan to write the history of Spiritism, but stresses that such a work will not be ready so soon and perhaps not even in this life. For this purpose he had already gathered a lot of documentation. (Pages 304 and 305)

147. From Cherbourg, the Revue publishes a communication transmitted by a former seaman of the navy named Arsene Gautier, of whom no one remembered and who, nevertheless, gave evidence of having been in the house of the medium, where he had died fifteen to sixteen years before. As the Spirit said to be his first incarnation, Kardec asked one of the guides of the Society of Paris if this was possible. Here is the answer: a first incarnation on Earth is possible; but as a Spirit, no. We are all very far from our first incarnations and we have no consciousness of them. (Pages 305 and 306)

148. Answering a lady-friend who asked him if it was possible for an incarnate Spirit to retreat from a trial already begun, Kardec replied that it was. Spirits often retreat from their trials and this is the cause of most suicides. And they retreat also when they dismay and murmur, thus losing the benefits of the trial. (Page 307)

149. Is it possible to evoke a Spirit mentally, without uttering its name and it answers the questions asked mentally without the medium knowing anything? Kardec said yes and this is even very common, but rarely obtained at will, as they occur spontaneously at every step. (Pages 307 and 308)

150. "The Child and the Atheist," by the Spirit of Dulcis, and "The Pumpkin and the Sensitive," by Dombre, also make up the October 1862 issue of the Revue. (Pages 309 to 312)

151. Hippolyte Fortoul, communicating in the group of Sainte-Gemme, writes about Spiritism and the Evil Spirit, stating that pride is the most virulent enemy of the human race and that the day will come when they will be forced to explain themselves publicly all those who attribute the Spiritist manifestations to the devil. (Pages 312 to 316)

152. Three communications signed by Sonnet, Barbaret and Lamennais close the October issue. Here are some of the teachings contained therein: I - Pride obliterates judgment about what we do. II. To subtract ourselves from the influence of the evil Spirits, we must ascend, ascend a lot by virtue, and they will not reach us. III - Look for sobriety and conciseness in the word: few words, many things. The Book of Spirits is a revolution because it is concise and sober: few words, many things. IV - We should not measure the importance of communications by their extension, but by the ideas they contain in a small space. V - Restricted in intelligence and sensations and unable to understand beyond certain limits, man then pronounces the sacramental word: supernatural. VI - Spiritism is the light that should illuminate, from now on, all intelligence vested in common progress. (Pages 316 to 319)

153. Kardec mentions, in the November edition, his trip to Lyon, Bordeaux and several other places, in a total of 20, which lasted for more than six weeks; he traveled the equivalent to 693 leagues and attended more than fifty meetings. Since the information regarding the trip and the instructions transmitted to the Centers he visited would occupy almost two numbers of the Revue, a booklet of the same format was then made. (Note from the Editor: presently this booklet is an independent work. Its title is "Spiritist Journey in 1862"; and it was published in Brazil by “Casa Editora O Clarim”). (Pages 321 and 322).

154. The Encoder took the opportunity to clarify that the expenses of this and other journeys were covered by his personal resources, and not by the Spiritist Society of Paris, as many thought. (Page 322)

155. Kardec also excuses himself because he is not able to answer to all the letters sent to him during the six-week period when he was away from Paris. (Page 322)

156. Evoked in the Spiritist Society of Saint Jean d'Angely in August, 1862, the Spirit of Guillaume Remone was present. His body - buried alive - would be one of the mummified ones in the basement of the Tower of St. Michael, in the city of Bordeaux. Here is, in short, what the Spirit reported: I - His atonement was due to the fact that he murdered his own wife, whom he had smothered with two pillows, in the marriage bed. II - The reason for this crime was jealousy. III - It was by mistake that he was buried alive. IV - Soon after his death, he saw himself on the Earth, an impression that lasted for about 18 days. When leaving the body, he found himself surrounded by a lot of Spirits, suffering like himself. VI - The Spirit of the wife was the first to appear to him, as if to censor his crime, and he saw her for a long time, also unhappy. (Pages 323 to 328) (Continues on next issue).

Answers to the issues

A. Can anyone be incarnated on Earth for the first time?

Yes, a first incarnation on Earth is possible, but not a first incarnation of the Spirit, since we are all very distant from our first incarnations and we are not aware of any of them. (Revue Spirite of 1862, pages 305 and 306).

B. Who paid the travel expenses when Kardec traveled to the service of the Spiritist Movement?

He paid for these expenses out of his own pocket; and not those who he visited nor the Spiritist Society of Paris, as many thought. (Ibid, pages 321 and 322).

C. Why was Guillaume Remone buried alive?

Guillaume, himself, in a communication transmitted in August, 1862, explained it. His atonement was due to the fact that he killed his own wife by suffocating her with two pillows in their bed. The reason was his jealousy. However, they buried him not knowing that he was alive. (Ibid, pages 323 to 328).

Translation:

Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br