Example 5 - SIXDENIERS.

Can you give us any details about your death? — A. After being drowned, yes. — Q. And why not before? — A. Because you already know them. (The medium did, in fact, know them.)

Will you then describe your sensations after death? — A. I remained a long time without recognizing myself, but by the grace of God and the help of those who surrounded me, when the light came, it flooded me. Have confidence, and you will always find more than you expect.

Nothing here is material; everything strikes the hidden senses without the aid of sight or touch: do you understand? It is a wonder, because there are no words to explain it. Only the soul can perceive it.

Very happy was my awakening. Life is one of those dreams which, despite the coarse idea attributed to it, can only be qualified as a frightful nightmare. Imagine that you are shut up in a foul dungeon where your body, gnawed by worms to the marrow of the bones, hangs above a burning furnace; that your parched mouth does not even find air to refresh it; that your terrified Spirit sees around it only monsters ready to devour it; picture to yourself, in short, all that a fantastic dream can engender of the hideous, of the most terrible, and then transport yourself suddenly to a delightful Eden. Awaken surrounded by all those you loved and mourned; see, around you, adored faces smiling with happiness; breathe the sweetest perfumes; slake your parched throat at the spring of living water; feel your body floating in the infinite Space that supports it and rocks it, like the flower that detaches from the bough at the impulses of the breeze; deem yourself enveloped in the love of God like the newborn in maternal love, and you will have an idea, though only an imperfect one, of that transition.

I sought to explain to you the happiness of the life that awaits man after the death of the body, and I could not. Is it possible to explain the infinite to one whose eyes are closed to the light and who cannot leave the narrow circle that encloses him? To explain to you eternal happiness, I will tell you only this: love, for only love allows the foreknowledge of it, and whoever says love says absence of selfishness.

Was your position happy from the moment you entered the world of the Spirits? — A. No; I had to pay the human debt. My heart had foreseen the future of the Spirit, but I lacked faith. I had to expiate my indifference toward my Creator; however, his mercy took into account the insignificant good I was able to do, the sorrows I bore with resignation, despite my sufferings, and his justice, whose balance men will never comprehend, weighed the good so benevolently and lovingly that the evil was quickly extinguished.

Could you give me news of your daughter? (who died four or five years before) — A. She is on a mission there on Earth.

Is she unhappy as an incarnate being? Note that I do not wish to ask indiscreet questions. — A. I know. Or would I not see your thought like a picture before my eyes?!

My daughter is not happy, incarnated; rather, on the contrary, she must undergo all the earthly miseries, preaching by example the great virtues of which you make mere resounding words. I shall help her, nevertheless, certain that it will not be painful for her to overcome the obstacles, for she is on Earth on a mission, and not in expiation. Be at ease about her, and thank you for the remembrance.

At this juncture, experiencing difficulty in writing, the medium says: If it is a suffering Spirit that hinders me, I ask it to write its name. — A. An unhappy one. — Q. Please tell me your name. — A. Valéria.

Could you tell me the cause of your suffering? — A. No.

Are you repentant of your errors? — A. You can judge that.

Who brought you here? — A. Sixdeniers.

With what aim? — A. That you might help me.

And was it you who, a little while ago, prevented me from writing? — A. Sixdeniers placed me in his stead.

What relation is there between you and him? — A. He guides me.

Ask him to join us in the prayer. (After the prayer, Sixdeniers takes up the word again, saying: Thank you for her. You have already understood; I will not forget you; think of her.)

(To Sixdeniers.) Do you have many suffering Spirits to guide? — A. No; meanwhile, regenerating one, we soon seek another, and so on, without abandoning the first.

How can you provide a vigilance that must multiply infinitely in the course of the centuries? — A. Those whom we regenerate purify themselves and progress without thereby giving us greater care; besides, we too keep rising, and, as we ascend, the faculties, like the powers, expand, in direct proportion to our purity.

— NOTE. The inferior Spirits, as we see, are assisted by good Spirits with the mission of guiding them, a task which is not exclusively delegated to the incarnate, who are not for that reason released from aiding it, since this too constitutes for them a means of progress.

It is not always with good intention that an inferior Spirit comes to interrupt good communications, but it is certain that they do so sometimes, as in the present case, with the permission of the good Spirits, whether as a trial, or with the aim of obtaining from the one to whom it is directed the help necessary for its progress.

It is a fact that persistence, in such cases, can degenerate into obsession; but the greater the tenacity, the more it will prove the need for assistance. It is an error and a wrong to repel such Spirits, whom we should regard as beggars asking for alms. Let us rather say: It is an unhappy Spirit whom the good ones send me to educate. Succeeding in it, there will remain to us all the joy arising from a good action, and none better than that of regenerating a soul, relieving its sufferings.

This task is often painful, and it would certainly be better to receive continually beautiful communications, to converse with chosen Spirits; but it is not by seeking our own satisfaction, nor by repudiating the occasions offered to us to practice good, that we shall attract the protection of the good Spirits.