The excellent book "Communication with Afterlife", released by "Editora Phase Ltda.", with exclusive rights in the Portuguese language reserved to Editors Otto Pierre, presents several cases of communication between embodied and disembodied, and premonition, an irrefutable proof of afterlife.

It is a fascinating work, which proves it is possible to establish communication between our material world and the invisible world, as per the Spiritist Doctrine. Therefore, we decided to present one of the episodes included in the mentioned book, mainly because it refers to people who did not profess the Doctrine codified by Allan Kardec.

We studied the Reverend James A. Pike's biography, Bishop of the Anglican Church of San Francisco - California - USA, and came across the suicide of his son Jim, on February 4, 1966. This same matter can be accessed on internet on www.caminhosluz.com.br, Centro Espirita Caminhos da Luz (Path of Light Spiritual Centre), authored by one of the most well known and admired Spiritist writers, Herminio Correa de Miranda, who coincidentally refers to the same story we wanted to write about.

Our intention was to address the fact only superficially, reaffirming one of the doctrinal bases of Spiritism, which is that life, continues even after death and the consequent deterioration of the body. However, after reading Herminio C. Miranda's masterful work, we became aware of our inability to write about something already brilliantly done. Therefore, we decided that it would be better for the reader to arrive to his own conclusions by reproducing the article "The Bishop and the Spirits." The author brilliantly resumed a long story. Thus, he could not tell us about all the characters involved and their stories in "Communication with Afterlife" and "The Other Side." There is much more to be said about this subject.

We hereby reproduce a statement by the Minister Benezech Shepherd, of Montauban, giving his opinion about Spiritism. It is contained in a letter addressed to the French writer, Leon Denis, in February 1905, and quoted in the book of the latter, "Christianity and Spiritism:" (...) religion established on facts based on experience and fully in accordance with Science and rationalism."

THE BISHOP AND THE SPIRITS

- Dad, I just took LSD. Would you like to sit with me, and guide me on my "trip"?

The question was addressed to the famous James A. Pike, Bishop of California, of the American branch of the Anglican Church. There was nothing to do but to help Jim in his crazy adventure under the influence of drugs. It was no longer secret to the Bishop that his 19 years old son was using drugs for some time now. Everything had been done to take the boy away from that nightmare. When this question was put to him, father and son were in England, away from the rest of the family who remained in the United States. It was an attempt to help young Pike to break from the bad habit of escaping reality by using drugs. His father had already examined his own conscience to find out where he had failed, and had gone through all possible grief, seeing his son in that condition. He had certainly dreamed of another type of life for his son. 

The narrative, dense and dramatic, with a touching sincerity and frankness, is in the book "The Other Side," published in 1968 in the United States. Bishop Pike died tragically the following year, on a trip to the Holy Land. His great passion was to write about the origins of Christianity. He was an eminent figure in his Church. Dynamic, agonistic, and frank in expressing his opinions, he had problems with his more orthodox colleagues and superiors, who at a time blamed him for heresy.

After some time in London, where father and son lived for a few months doing intensive university studies, they decided to return to the United States separately. The father to attend a convention of his church (and then he would return to England) and his son to enroll at the University of San Francisco.

The Bishop was in his church when he received the terrible news that Jim had committed suicide in a hotel room in New York.

The tragedy stroke this man of sensibility and culture, a renowned member of a religious organization, who, however, confessed he was unable to comfort the family "based on a belief that accepted the existence of afterlife." We will confirm, several times in the book, his disbelief on the continuity of the Spirit upon death, in spite of being a religious leader of a large Christian community. He had already confessed previously that "lacking other evidence," he had to admit, with all honesty, that he did not have enough information on which to base an affirmation of life after death. 

THE DRAMATIC STORY HAD ONLY BEGUN  

Surely, the whole structure of religious thought, which was the object of his life and his preaching, is based on the belief that we survive bodily death, but belief is not evidence and, for a perspicacious man, lucid, and accustomed to dealing with the study of ideas, belief is not sufficient when a man confronts the problem of death.

By that time, however, the dramatic story of Bishop Pike was only beginning. Back in England in order to continue his studies, he took with him his chaplain, David Barr, and Mrs. Maren Bergrud, from the Diocese of California, who had assisted him before in the preparation of several of his books. The three were occupying the same apartment where Pike and his son had lived for some time. 

One night, when they walked into the house, they found on the floor, two postcards placed to form an angle of 140 degrees. Later it was found that the position of the postcards indicated the clockwise on the exact moment Jim had committed suicide. Naturally, Jim had the hobby of buying postcards and the first thing he did, when he arrived to a city, was to buy some of them, which, according to his father, he mailed. It was strange to find those cards and the cleaning woman stated categorically that she had nothing to do with them. She was honest, reliable, and a very meticulous person. The incident, although strange, was of no great significance. At least that is what all thought and Pike confessed, "It would never occur to us that he (Jim) could somehow be related to the cards."  

On Tuesday, February 22, something strange happened. Mrs. Bergrud appeared in the morning for coffee with part of her hair burnt. Everybody was surprised and she herself too, because she had not yet realized what had happened. A lock of hair on her forehead had been burnt in a straight line, the points were black, but there was no sign of skin burn. It was a mystery!

The next morning, new portions of Mrs. Bergrud's hair also appeared burned. After much speculation, she seemed resigned and said:

- Well, some people did not like my hair with a fringe, so it might be better as it is.

The phrase shook Pike, because he remembered perfectly well Jim commenting once that he did not like Maren's fringe and even suggested that she cut it. 

PIKE STARTS TALKING IN A STRANGE WAY 

Days later, Ms. Bergrud woke up with serious hand injuries. It seemed as if a sharp instrument had been inserted under her fingernails. One was broken and actually fell later, the other was not broken, but the flesh beneath it was sore.

In the following discussion and the concern about the healing, they did not notice that the remaining of Mrs. Bergrud's fringe had disappeared!

These were the first phenomena, the first obvious manifestations of a Spirit in despair and confusion, trying to convey signs of his survival to people completely unprepared for this type of situation.

- I just want to understand what is happening here, says the Bishop to his friends. 

During the conversation that followed, they found out that the Bishop himself, according to our knowledge of Spiritism, had served as a psychic thus allowing the Spirit of his son to manifest itself.

To his surprise and his friends, he did not remember absolutely anything of what he had said in a trance, but the thoughts expressed were very shocking to those who heard the words, as they revealed an entirely different mental attitude, certainly not usual in the Bishop.

According to what they told him, Pike, after going to his room at night, sat on the bed and started talking in that strange manner, as if he was talking to himself. It was not difficult to recognize Jim in those words. It certainly was not old Pike. This is why Mrs. Bergrud was so shocked when she heard her friend saying such words, since she was unaware of the origin and reason of the phenomenon.

Pike then began to entertain the possibility that this series of events had something to do with his dead son. However, where should he begin the careful and conscious investigation of the facts? He had no idea, was not prepared, and had no guidance. He as a Protestant Bishop, who had devoted his entire life to the Church and its theology and certainly always had the habit of putting aside without examination, the phenomena and references that had connection with the world of the Spirits. (To continue in the next issue)