In this issue, we continue the study of the book, Practical Instructions on Spiritist Manifestations, work published by Allan Kardec in 1858. This work which we suggest you read, refers to the edition published by “Casa Editora O Clarim”, and is based on Cairbar Schutel’s translation.
Questions for discussion
A. How can we classify and define psychographics?
B. What is second sight? Is there any relation between second sight and clairvoyance?
C. What is somnambulism and which is one of the characteristic signs of sleepwalking?
Reading Text
37. Instinct: kind of a rudimentary intelligence that drives beings into acting in default of their will, and in the interest of their preservation. When a decision is taken, instinct becomes intelligence. Instinct makes us act without thinking; through intelligence we think before going into action. In humans instinctive ideas are often mistaken with intuitive ideas. The latter are the ones he drew, either in the state of a Spirit or in previous lives and of which he has a vague idea. (Vocabulary, page 34).
38. Intelligence: is the ability to conceive, to understand and reason. It would be unfair not to consider a kind of intelligence in animals and believe they only follow mechanically the blind impulse of instinct. In many cases they act with a deliberate purpose and according to circumstances. However, as much as this intelligence is admirable, it is always limited to the satisfaction of their material needs, while the man’s intelligence allows him to rise above his human condition. The limiting line between animals and man is drawn by knowledge, which is given to him by the Supreme Being. (Vocabulary, page 34).
39. Free will: man’s moral freedom; the capacity he has to be guided by his will in carrying out his actions. Man is deprived of his free will only when his mental faculties are changed due to an accident or natural cause. Out of this, he is always the one who chooses to do or not to do something. He has this same freedom when he is in the state of Spirit and it is based on this faculty to freely choose his life and the tests necessary to his progress; he maintains the free will in his bodily state, in order to accomplish those same tests. (Vocabulary, page 37).
40. Magic, magician: the word comes from mageia - a thorough knowledge of Nature - that resulted in mage, priest, scholar and philosopher among the ancient Persians. Magic was in its origin, the science of the wise; all those who knew astrology, and boasted of predicting the future, and of making extraordinary and incomprehensible things to the common people, were called magicians or wizards. Magic was discredit by abuse and charlatanism; however the phenomena we now reproduce by magnetism, by sleepwalking and by Spiritism prove that magic was not a purely chimerical art and, among many absurdities, it was certainly very real phenomena. We now know that there is nothing supernatural in this world, and that certain things seem to derogate from the Laws of Nature just because we do not know their causes. (Vocabulary, page 38).
41. Manifestation: act through which a Spirit reveals its presence. Manifestations can be hidden or open; physical or intelligent; spontaneous or provoked, and apparent. (Vocabulary, page 40).
42. Medianimity, mediumship: the faculties of Mediums. These two words are often used meaning the same thing. If we want to make a distinction, we can say that mediumship has a more general sense and medianimity, a more restricted sense. Example: he has the gift of mediumship - mechanical medianimity. (Vocabulary, page 41).
43. There are other entries frequently used in Spiritism and which are also included in the Spiritist Vocabulary prepared by Kardec. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 43).
44. Mediunato: Mediums’ divine mission. This word was created by the Spiritists. (Vocabulary, page 43).
45. Metempsychosis: transmigration of the soul from one body to another. The dogma of metempsychosis was originated in Indian. This belief passed from India to Egypt, and later Pythagoras brought it to Greece. His disciples taught that the Spirit, when freed from the ties of the body, goes to the Empire of the Dead, where it remains waiting in an intermediate state for a longer or shorter period. Then it will give life to other bodies of men or animals during the purification period so that it can then return to the source of life. There is one major difference between the Indian Metempsychosis and the Doctrine of Reincarnation, as we are taught by Spiritism. Firstly, Metempsychosis admits the transmigration of the soul to the body of an animal, and this would be degrading. Secondly, this transmigration does not only operate on Earth. The Spirits tell us, on the contrary, that reincarnation is a constant progress, that man is a being whose soul has nothing in common with the soul of animals, and the different lives can take place on this Earth or in other worlds, and this, as Pythagoras says, until the purification period elapses. (Vocabulary, pages 44 and 45).
46. Death: ending of the vital forces of the body by the exhaustion of the organs. The body is deprived of the principle of organic life, and the soul leaves the body, and enters the World of Spirits. (Vocabulary, page 45).
47. Spiritist, or World of Spirits: group of intelligent beings stripped of their corporeal shell. The Spirit World is a normal world, primitive, pre-existing and surviving it all. The corporeal state is for the Spirits, transient and fleeting. They change their casing as we change our clothes. They abandon what was marred, as we put aside an old or useless costume. (Vocabulary, page 45).
48. Oracle: according to pagan beliefs, it is the response of the gods to the questions made to them. The name derives from the fact that the answers were usually transmitted orally by the Pythias. By extension, the oracle was also the name given to the person who spoke the answer, as well as the different means employed to know the future. It is evident that the belief in oracles began with Spiritist communications, of which cheaters, greed, and love for control took advantage and gave them all the prestige. We them today in all its simplicity. (Vocabulary, pages 46 and 47).
49. Paradise: where the blessed ones live. The Ancients located it in the part of Hell called Elysian Fields; modern people place it in the upper regions of Space. It is synonymous of Heaven, with the difference that the word Heaven binds an idea of infinite beatitude, whereas the word Paradise is more limited and reminds us of a little more material pleasures. The Doctrine shows us that the good Spirits live not indoors, and not in those pretense spheres surrounded by ignorance, but everywhere where there are good Spirits, in Space for those who are still wandering, or in the most perfect worlds for those who are embodied. This is where the Earthly Paradise or the Elysian Fields are. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 47 and 48).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. How can we classify and define psychographics?
The word comes from the Greek psyche, butterfly, soul, and grapho, I write; psychographics means the transmission of the Spirits’ thought through writing using the hand of a medium. In the medium that writes, his hand is the instrument, but his soul (or the Spirit in the medium’s body) is the intermediary or the interpreter of the other Spirit who communicates through him. Immediate or direct psychographics occurs when the medium himself writes making use of a pencil or pen. Mediate or indirect psychographics is when the pencil or pen is adapted to any object that works as an appendix of the hand, such as a basket, a clipboard, and so on. (Spiritist Vocabulary, page 55).
B. What is second sight? Is there any relation between second sight and clairvoyance?
Second sight is the ability to see Spirits and absent things as if they were present. Those who are gifted do not see it through their eyes, but through their soul which perceives the image of the objects wherever the soul goes. This faculty is not permanent. Some people have it without being aware of it: it seems to them a natural effect and produces what we call visions. Second sight is also called clairvoyance. Clairvoyant is therefore the name given to the person who is endowed with second sight. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 60, 61, 69 and 70).
C. What is somnambulism and which is one of the characteristic signs of sleepwalking?
From the Latin somnus, sleep, and ambulare, marching, walking, sleepwalking designates one of the states of emancipation of the soul; it is more complete than what we see in a dream. A dream is imperfect somnambulism. In somnambulism, the clarity of the soul, that is, the ability to see, which is one of the attributes of its nature, is more developed. It sees things more accurately and clearly. The absolute oblivion at the time of awakening is one of the characteristic signs of the true somnambulism, since the independence of the soul from the body is more complete than in the dream. (Spiritist Vocabulary, pages 63 to 65).
