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 was the communication process known by dance of the tables?
B. What is typtology and how does it occur?
C. What is direct psychographics? What is indirect psychographics used before the mediums adopted its use?
Reading Text
76. The Imperfect Spirits are divided into four classes or main groups: Impure Spirits, Frivolous Spirits, Pseudo Wise Spirits and Neutral Spirits. (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 77-80).
77. The second order is that of the Good Spirits: predominance of Spirit over matter and desire to do well. Their ability to do well is according to their level of spiritual development: some have acquired scientific knowledge, others wisdom and goodness; the most advanced have acquired knowledge and moral qualities. Still not yet fully dematerialized, they retain more or less, according to their level of development, traces of their bodily existence, either in their language, or in their habits, in which some of their quirks can still be seen. They understand God and the Infinite and already enjoy the good of happiness. They are happy for the good they practice and for the evil they prevent. The love that unites them is a source of endless happiness, but all of them still have to go through trials until they reach perfection. (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, page 80).
78. The Good Spirits are divided into four classes or main groups: Benevolent Spirits, Wise Spirits, Prudent or Sensible Spirits and Higher Spirits. (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 81 and 82).
79. The Higher Spirits (whose involvement in the Spiritism Encoding is highlighted by Kardec) have knowledge, and are wise and good. Their language is benevolent. It is often dignified and sublime. Their higher level make them more fit to give to us the most accurate teachings and information on the incorporeal world, within the limits of what man is allowed to know. They willingly communicate with those that are in good faith searching for the truth, and whose soul is free enough from the earthly ties to understand it. But they turn away from those who are only curious or that are still influenced by matter and due to this deviate from good practice. When, by exception, they incarnate on Earth, it is because they have a progress mission to accomplish. They offer us then the prototype of the perfection to which humanity can aspire in this world. (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 81 and 82).
80. The first order consists of the Pure Spirits and their general features are: matter does not influence them and they are intellectually superior and of an absolute moral if compared to the Spirits of other orders. It is a single class. These Spirits have gone through all the levels of the scale and left all material impurities behind. Having acquired the perfection, which the human being is capable of reaching, they no longer have to suffer Trials and Atonement. Sometimes they are called by the names of Angels, Archangels and Seraphim. Men can communicate with them, but he would have to be very conceited to even imagine they would always be at his service. (Kardec in “Genesis”, Chapter XV, section 2, considers Jesus a Pure Spirit, and this is confirmed by Leon Denis and Emmanuel in the book "Path of Light", Chapter 1). (Chapter I, Spiritist Scale, pages 82 and 83).
81. Spirits act frequently on our thought, unbeknownst to us, and they ask us to do this or that. We believe to act spontaneously and we end up by giving in to a strange suggestion. But it should not be inferred that we do not have initiative: the incarnate Spirit always has his free will. In the end, he only does what he wants, and most of the times he follows his natural impulse. (Chapter II, page 85).
82. The influence of the strange Spirit is not a constraint but a kind of advice he gives our soul, advice which may be more or less sensible, and that the soul can follow or reject. (Chapter II, page 85).
83. It is not always easy to distinguish the suggested thought from our personal thoughts, since usually they get confused. However, it is assumed that it comes from a strange source when it is spontaneous, when it comes to us as an inspiration and it is in opposition to our way of seeing. (Chapter II, page 86).
84. The overt manifestations differ from hidden manifestations because they are felt through our senses. (Chapter II, page 86).
85. The physical manifestations are limited to the material phenomena such as noise, movement and displacement of objects. The simplest effects of this kind are the blows heard with no known cause, and the circular movement of a table or of any object. (Chapter II, pages 86 and 87).
86. If every effect has a cause, every intelligent effect has an intelligent cause. If the object that moves reveals an intentional movement, if it gives a signal, then it is clear that there is intervention of an intelligence thought. So, these are then the intelligent manifestations. You cannot think about analysis, or mathematical calculations. Now it is precisely in this error that most of the scientists incurred. The Spiritist phenomenon, being subordinated to a free intelligence, is not a matter for exact sciences. (Chapter II, pages 87 and 88).
87. The most common outward manifestations occur during sleep, through dreams: these are the visions. Dreams were never explained by Science. (Chapter II, page 88).
88. Dreams can be: a current view of present or absent things; a retrospective view of the past; and in some exceptional cases, a presentiment of the future. Also, sometimes they are allegorical pictures that Spirits make us see as useful warnings and salutary advice, if they are good Spirits, or to induce us to error and flatter our passions, if they are imperfect Spirits. (Chapter II, page 89).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. How was the communication process known by dance of the tables?
The dance of tables or the turning tables are expressions that describe the phenomenon by which a Spirit makes use of a table to convey a message. It was enough to touch the table with the tips of one’s fingers, fully or lightly, in the same manner as when touching the keys of a piano. This was not really very important, but on the contrary, there were other essential conditions to fill, such as concentration, total silence, and patience. Sometimes, the movement took place after five or ten minutes, but often it took half an hour or more. In certain cases, the table did not only spin: it stirred, raised and stood only on one foot, rocked like a ship and ended up by moving away from the floor with no support at all. When it was possible to produce an energetic phenomenon, the contact of hands was no longer needed. People could move away from the table, and it moved according to the given order, answering the questions made to the invisible agent through rapping. (Ibid, Chapter IV, pages 107 to 109).
B. What is typtology and how does it occur?
Typtology is the name of the phenomenon through which the Spirits communicate by rapping or a similar process. You can get it by two different processes. The first, which we call typtology by movement, consists of blows originated by the table itself, by knocking the floor with one foot. These strokes can answer “yes” or “no” according to the number of raps, previously agreed. The answers are, as conceived, incomplete, subject to deceit and unconvincing for the beginners, because they can always assign them at random. The intimate typtology is produced in a completely different way. It is no longer the table that raps; it is perfectly still, but the blows resound in the very substance of wood, stone or any other body, and often hard enough to make themselves heard in a neighboring room. If one puts an ear or hand to the table, it vibrates from the feet to the surface. This phenomenon is obtained by proceeding in the same way as to make it move, with the difference that the pure and simple movement can occur without evocation, whereas to obtain the raps one has to almost always evoke a Spirit. (Chapter IV, pages 111-113).
C. What is direct psychographics? What is indirect psychographics used before the mediums adopted its use?
The direct automatic writing is obtained using the medium's hand. Under the influence of the Spirit, the medium directly uses his hand to write, directed, sometimes mechanically, by the communicating entity. In indirect psychographics, it uses an object - a clipboard or a basket with a pencil, for example. The medium’s hand acts on the object; and the object in turn acts on the pencil. Many devices were imagined to reach the same purpose. Among them, the most comfortable was the nozzle basket (corbeille à bec), which consisted in adapting a basket to an inclined wooden rod. (Chapter IV, pages 114 to 117).
