Telepathy and Presentiments
 

We present in this issue the topic #93 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions

1. How can we define telepathy?

2. Regarding to telepathic manifestations, are they produced with higher intensity before or after corporeal death?

3. Which cases are included in the called spontaneous telepathy?

4. How does Kardec define presentiment?

5. According to the Spiritism, the occurrence of presentiments is due to what?

 Text

Telepathy is the transmission of thought from one being to another

1. Spirits exercise such influence upon our thoughts and acts that we are often driven by them. This fact occurs because they populate the same spaces which we live, they accompany us in our activities and occupations, mediate in our meetings and follow or avoid us, depending on whether we attract or repel them. We are, then, surrounded by Spirits, independently of being productive mediums or not, and their occult influence upon us is felt according to the level of affinity that we maintain with them.

2. This influence is, sometimes, so subtle that we cannot establish a separation between what is ours and what is theirs. Hence, it is easy to deduce that among our ideas and mental images can be disseminated ideas and wishes of strange Spirits, being us not aware of this.

3. Analysing this influence we can understand better the phenomenon commonly named as telepathy, which consists, in essence, in the occurrence of an intense psychic impression that usually manifests itself suddenly, whether during being awake or during the sleep, an impression that has a link with an event happened in a distance. Summarising, telepathy is the transmission of thought from one being to another.

4. There is, among certain individuals, a certain communication of thoughts that enables them seeing and comprehending each other without having to use the ostensive signs of language. It can be said that they speak the language of the Spirits. In such phenomenons there is always someone who is more apt to transmit the thought and other with a higher disposition to be the receptor.

The term telepathy was proposed by Frederic Myers in 1882

5. The study of telepathy started around 1825, when the first magnetic experiences were carried out in France, but it was only much later when telepathy begun to be seen with scientific seriousness. The term was proposed by Frederic Myers in 1882 and adopted in the works of Society Psychical Research. Myers affirmed: “I understand that telepathy is the transmission of the thought and sensations felt by the Spirit of one individual to another without one word being pronounced, one vocable being written or one signal being sent”.

6. Telepathy makes us ascend one more step in the scale of psychic life. We find ourselves before this phenomenon in the presence of a powerful act of the will. The telepathic manifestations do not hold limits. The power and the independence of the soul reveal themselves sovereignly because the physical body does not play any role in the phenomenon; actually, it constitutes more an obstacle than an assistance. For this reason, such manifestations produce themselves with higher intensity after death.

7. Telepathy can be spontaneous or experimental.

8. The spontaneous telepathy subdivides in: a) related to an imminent future event – cases of presentiments, premonitions, premonitory visions and apparitions of the dying; b) related to the present or to a recent past – cases of clear visions or predictions of distant events, as well as apparitions of the living. Very often, the phenomenon regards to a person who is connected to the percipient by affective bonds more or less strong.

Presentiment is a vague intuition of future things

9. The experimental telepathy includes cases which translate the psychic impression produced in a distance upon a person by the action and will power of another person. Studious recognise, however, that the experimental telepathy is far to be established in such clear way as the spontaneous one.

10. Another kind of influence of the Spirits in our thoughts and acts is the presentiment, which is defined by Allan Kardec in The Book on Mediums as being a vague intuition of future things. Some people, says the Codifier, have this faculty more or less developed. This fact is due to, sometimes, a sort of double vision, which allows the individual to predict the consequences and the source of the events; but, in many cases, is the result of occult communications. It is then, mainly in these cases, which can be given to those who are talented the name of mediums of presentiments, which constitute a variety of inspired mediums.

11. In that last case, in the presentiment as a consequence of an occult communication, who usually communicates is a kind and friend Spirit, someone who brings an intimate advice or a caring warning to a dear person.

12. The presentiment can, as well, be manifested through a vague recollection of the tests and events that the Spirit will have to submit oneself. Having the presentiment of the time of disincarnation, for example, has been an occurrence, up to an extent, quite common to many individuals. And if some feel their disincarnation is because they were warned by relatives or disincarnated friends, others, however, have a strong conviction without being able to explain the reason. 

Answer Key

1. How can we define telepathy?

A.: The phenomenon commonly named as telepathy consists in the occurrence of an intense psychic impression that usually manifests itself suddenly, whether during being awake or during the sleep, an impression that has a link with an event happened in a distance. Summarising, telepathy is the transmission of thought from one being to another.

2. Regarding to telepathic manifestations, are they produced with higher intensity before or after corporeal death?

A.: They are produced with higher intensity after death.

3. Which cases are included in the called spontaneous telepathy?

A.: Cases relate to future events - presentiments, premonitions, premonitory visions and apparitions of the dying – and cases relate to present or to a recent past – cases of clear visions or predictions of distant events, as well as apparitions of the living.

4. How does Kardec define presentiment?

A.: Presentiment is, according to Allan Kardec, a vague intuition of future things.

5. According to the Spiritism, the occurrence of presentiments is due to what?

A.: The presentiment, sometimes, is due to a sort of double vision, which allows the individual to predict the consequences and the source of the events; but, in many cases, is the result of occult communications. The presentiment can, as well, be manifested through a vague recollection of the tests and events that the Spirit will have to submit oneself.


Bibliography:

The Spirit’s Book; by Allan Kardec, questions 421, 459 and 522.

The Book on Mediums; by Allan Kardec, items 184 and 232.

The Problem of the Being, of Destiny and of Suffering; by Léon Denis, FEB, Page 91.

The Unknown and the Psychic Problems; by Camille Flammarion, FEB, Volume 1, Pages 111 and 112; Volume 2, Pages 38, 39 and 47.

The subconscious Being; by Gustave Geley, FEB, Pages 109 to 111.

Pictured Encyclopaedic Dictionary; by Joao Teixeira de Paula, Pages 257 and 258.