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. What does Kardec recommend regarding time and place of the mediumship meetings?
B. Kardec says we can evoke all Spirits. We ask: a) Is there a special formula for this? b) Is an evocation a guarantee that the Spirits will attend?
C. Is it convenient to question the Spirits?
Reading Text
128. The first indication of a willingness to write is a kind of shudder in the arm and hand. The hand is gradually pushed by an impulse that it cannot master. (In "The Book of Mediums", Chapter XVII, item 214, we see that this is a typical sign of mechanical psychics, not of the intuitive). (Chapter V, page 134).
129. If many try it, we will see that in almost every family there is a writing medium, even if it is a child. (Chapter V, page 135).
130. Everyone, who received the faculty of writing under the influence of Spirits, has a precious resource. He becomes the interpreter between the visible and the invisible. His mission is to do well, but he must not take advantage of this, since this gift can be removed, if it is misused. (Chapter V, pages 135 and 136).
131. Why don’t the mediums write in every language? The outside Spirit understands all languages, because languages are the expression of thought. But to convey that thought, an appropriate tool is required, which is the medium. The soul of the medium can only transmit through his organs; these organs do not have, when transmitting a foreign language, the same flexibility they have for the one that is familiar to them. This creates a difficulty and a mechanical resistance to the fluency of communication. A good workman does not like to use bad tools. (Chapter VI, pages 140 and 141).
132. Therefore, with some exceptions, the medium conveys the thought of the Spirits by the use of mechanical means at his disposal, and the expression of that thought may resent the imperfection of these means. So the uneducated man, the peasant, might say the most beautiful things, express the highest thoughts, speaking as a peasant. To the Spirits the thought is everything, the form means nothing. This answers the objection of certain critical about the style and spelling mistakes that can be censored and they depend both of the medium and Spirit. (Chapter VI, page 142).
133. The mediumistic faculty is not enough to ensure good communications. It is necessary, first of all and as an express condition, a friendly medium to good Spirits. Certain people are, however, poorly gifted with regard to communications. This is a true indication of the nature of the Spirits who are grouped around them since Superior Spirits do not transmit trivial or coarse communications. (Chapter VI, page 143).
134. Every effort these mediums do to get rid of these not recommended Spirits is not enough, unless they like this type of conversations. (Chapter VI, page 143).
135. You do not have to be a medium to attract the beings of the invisible world. The space is populated by them: we have them constantly around and beside us. They see us, observe us, they are at our meetings, follow us or run away from us, as we attract or repel them. The psychic ability plays no role in this: it is only a means of communication. (Chapter VII, page 145).
136. Let us consider the moral state of our globe and understand what type of Spirits prevails among the wandering Spirits. The Spirits are nothing else than our souls detached from our bodies and who carry with them our qualities and imperfections. The Spiritist world is therefore only a quintessential statement of the corporeal world and it conveys the good and the bad odors. (Chapter VII, pages 145 and 146).
137. It is not always enough that a meeting be serious to obtain communication from a high order Spirits There are people who never laugh, and this does not make their hearts purer. Now, it is mainly the heart that attracts the Good Spirits. No moral condition can be neglected in Spiritist communications. (Chapter VII, pages 146 and 147).
138. Frivolous meetings have a serious drawback: certain people can consider a communication serious and it may be nothing but a joke of the frivolous spirits, who amuse themselves. (Chapter VIII, page 151).
139. Silence and introspection are conditions of primary importance in Spiritist meetings. However, what is also important is that they are regular. (Chapter VIII, page 151).
140. If there is the possibility of evoking disembodied Spirits, there is also the same possibility of evoking a living person. He then answers as a Spirit and not as a man and often the ideas as a Spirit are not often the same. Such evocations require caution, because there are circumstances that could have drawbacks. (Chapter VIII, page 160).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. What does Kardec recommend regarding time and place of the mediumship meetings?
Meetings should be held on fixed days and at the same time. The time should be as distant as possible from daily occupations and therefore those, favored by tranquility and peace, are preferable.
As for the location, it is appropriate to keep the meetings always at the same place and not making unnecessarily changes. The vital fluid of every wandering or embodied Spirit is, in a sense, a focus that radiates around it through their thought. Therefore, it is believed that in a permanent place there must a breath of this fluid creating a moral atmosphere with which the Spirits are identified.
The best place is the one that in addition to being exclusively devoted to this practice is never profaned by common concerns, since it would be a kind of sanctuary from where the evil Spirits would be excluded. Moreover, the elements of the moral atmosphere would not so mixed as in any other place. (Ibid, Chapter VIII, pages 152 to 154).
B. Kardec says we can evoke all Spirits. We ask: a) Is there a special formula for this? b) Is an evocation a guarantee that the Spirits will attend?
There is no sacramental or mystical formula to be used in evocations. Just do it in the name of God, in the following terms or other equivalent: I pray to Almighty God to allow the Spirit of... to communicate with us. Or: In the name of Almighty God I pray for the Spirit... to come and communicate with us.
The faculty to evoke any Spirit does not imply that he is under our orders. He will make himself present when he is available and not with this or that medium, despite who evokes him, but the one he chooses. In addition, several conditions - independent or not of his will - can prevent him to attend. (Chapter VIII, pages 156 to 161).
C. Is it convenient to question the Spirits?
Yes. The lessons transmitted by the Spirits would often be very limited, if not stimulated by our questions. There are cases in which even they themselves provoke questions, saying, "What do you want? Question me and I will answer you". In other situations they themselves interrogate us, not to educate, but to put us to the test and lead us to more clearly express our thoughts. To reduce ourselves, in their presence, to a purely passive role would therefore be an excess of submission that they do not require.
We must follow the general rule: When a Spirit speaks, we do not interrupt him; and when he expresses, by some sign, his intention to speak, we should wait and not interrupt him, and only talk when we are sure that he has nothing to say.
If, in principle, the questions do not displease the Spirits, there are questions that are very unpleasant to them and which we should completely abstain, otherwise we will not obtain an answer or we will obtain a poor one. When we say that certain questions are unpleasant, we mean for the High Spirits.
As to reply to our question or not, we must understand that Spirits can refrain from responding for several reasons: 1) the question may displease them; 2) they do not always have the expertise; 3) there are things that they are forbidden to reveal. If they do not give a satisfactory answer is because they do not want to do it, or cannot, or should not. Whatever the reason, it is an invariable rule that whenever a Spirit categorically refuses to answer, one should never insist. (Chapter VIII, pages 166 and 167).
