The Revue Spirite of 1863

Part 1

We begin in this issue the study of the Revue Spirite corresponding to the year of 1863. 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. What effects does Kardec attribute to the perispirit?

B. To help a sick person through prayer, do you have to be with the person?

C. What recommendations does Kardec give to those who wish to begin the psychic practice?

Text for reading

1. Kardec opens this issue with a new article about the possessed of Morzine; the first one was published in December 1862. In the study, Kardec informs: I) the perispirit is the origin of all Spiritist phenomena and of a large number of moral, physiological and pathological issues. II) It is also the source of several types of affection and, due to this, the cause of instinctive attractions and repulsions, as well as of magnetic action. III) Due to the perispirit’s fluidic and expansive nature, the Spirit reaches the person upon whom it wishes to act: it surrounds, involves, penetrates and magnetizes it. (P. 1)

2. All of us - Kardec says - live in a fluidic ocean, constantly under the influence of opposing currents that we attract or repel; however, man always retains his free will. (P. 2)

3. The action of the evil Spirits - on those they managed to possess – show nuances of intensity and duration extremely varied, according to the degree of perversity of the Spirit and the moral state of the person who gives it access. (P. 3)

4. Mentioning the case of a lady who had lost her mind and was hospitalized, a friend of the family and member of the Spiritist Society of Paris obtained from the Spirits the following orientation: I) The fixed idea that the woman nourished attracted several evil Spirits, who surrounded her with their fluids and fed her ideas, preventing her from receiving good influences. II) To heal her, it would be necessary to oppose a moral force capable of overcoming this resistance, but such power is not given to only one. III) Five or six reliable Spiritists would have to come together every day for a few moments, diligently asking God and the good Spirits to assist her. IV) It was not necessary to be with the patient; by means of their thoughts a beneficial fluidic current could be taken to her, and its strength would be in the reason of its intention, increased by the number. (P. 5)

5. Six people dedicated themselves to this work of charity and, for a month, did not fail the task they had accepted. After a few days the patient was calmer; fifteen days later, the improvement was evident; and now she had returned to her home, in a perfectly normal state, not knowing where the cure had come from. (Pages 5 and 6)

6. Prayer therefore has not only the effect of bringing the patient relief, but it also exercises a magnetic action. What couldn’t magnetism do through prayer! But unfortunately, many magnetizers forget the spiritual element and see only the mechanical action, thus depriving themselves of a powerful helper. (P. 6)

7. Referring to the pitfalls of mediumistic practice, Kardec explains: I) before experimenting, one must study: the least inconvenience of inexperienced psychic practice is the mystification on the part of misleading and frivolous Spirits. II) It is not the exercise of mediumship that attracts evil Spirits, but the physical or moral predisposition that makes the medium accessible to their influence. III) When the medium thinks he is invulnerable to evil Spirits, then he is punished, often very severely, since it is his pride that gives the evil Spirits the easiest access. IV) Preliminary study and prayer are essential factors to prevent the assault of evil Spirits. V) If we were to understand the essential and serious purpose of Spiritism and prepare ourselves for the exercise of mediumship by a diligent supplication to the Guardian Angel and Protective Spirits, and if besides this we also studied ourselves, striving to cleanse our imperfections, then cases of mediumistic obsession would be even rarer. (Pages 6 to 8)

8. Recalling a case described in December 1862 under the title "The Shack and the Hall" the Revue copies a message of a Spirit, who was on Earth a dedicated servant of an acquaintance of Kardec. In this message, the ex-servant confirms that, in general, the examples of dedication of the domestic servants to their masters are due to past lives. "At times," he said, "such servants are members of the family, or, like me, obliged to pay a debt of gratitude and this gratitude helps them to progress." (Pages 9 and 10)

9. Speaking of the situation of the soul after bodily death, Kardec says that, upon dying, man leaves only his heavy and coarse wrap on Earth, preserving the indestructible fluidic envelope, with which, free of the obstacle that bound him to the ground, he can rise and transpose the space. This fluidic mantle, however invisible and ethereal, is nevertheless of a kind of matter which, during the incarnation, serves as an intermediary between the soul and the body. (P. 13)

10. The Revue copies two articles published by a weekly Bordeaux publication, and by the "Echo de Setif", from Algeria. These are pro-Spiritism statements from two readers of those periodicals. In the latter, the writer says that some of those who do not deny the Spiritist facts however attribute these communications to the devil. He then says: "It is what I cannot accept in the face of communications like this: “Believe in God, Creator and Organizer of the spheres; love God, Creator and Protector of souls” (signed: Galileo). (Pages 14 to 17)

11. Kardec answers a reader from Bordeaux explaining why Spiritism is not addressed to those who have any religious faith in order to divert them, but rather to the large category of those who are uncertain and unbelieving. (Pages 17 to 20)(Continues on next issue).

Answers to the proposed issues

A. What effects does Kardec attribute to the perispirit?

According to the Encoder of Spiritism, the perispirit is the origin of all Spiritist phenomena and of a large number of moral, physiological and pathological issues, and it is also the source of several types of affection and, due to this, the cause of instinctive attractions and repulsions, as well as of magnetic action. Due to the perispirit’s fluidic and expansive nature, the Spirit reaches the person upon whom it wishes to act: it surrounds, involves, penetrates and magnetizes it. (Revue Spirite, 1863, Pages 1 and 2.)

B. To help a sick person through prayer, do you have to be with the person?

No, since by thought one can bring to him a beneficial fluidic current, and its power is in the ratio of intention, increased by the number of those who participate in the act. Prayer has not only the effect of bringing relief to the patient, but also of exercising a magnetic action. (Ibid, Page 6.)

C. What recommendations does Kardec give to those who wish to begin the psychic practice?

Kardec teaches that before experimenting it is necessary to study, thus preventing the possibility of mystification by the misleading and frivolous Spirits. He says that it is not the exercise of mediumship that attracts evil spirits, but the physical or moral predisposition that makes the medium accessible to their influence. The medium’s presumption of being judged invulnerable to evil Spirits has often been punished most severely, since it is his pride that gives them the easiest access. Preliminary study and prayer are therefore essential factors to prevent the influence of evil Spirits. (Ibid, Pages 6 through 8.)

Translation:

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