Example 7 - FERDINAND BERTIN.

— A medium at Le Havre evoked the Spirit of a person known to him, who answered: — “I want to communicate, but I cannot overcome the obstacle existing between us. I am compelled to let these unfortunate sufferers approach.” There then followed this spontaneous communication:

“I am in a dreadful abyss! Help me… Oh! my God! who will draw me out of this abyss? Who will succor with a merciful hand the wretch swallowed up by the waves? On every side the surging of the billows, and not one friendly word to console and help me in this supreme moment. Yet, this deep night is indeed death with its horrors, when I do not want to die!…

Oh! my God! it is not the death to come, it is the past one! I am forever separated from those who are dear to me…

I see my body, and what I felt a moment ago was only the memory of the anguished separation…

Have pity on me, you who know my suffering; pray for me, for I no longer want to feel the lacerations of agony, as has happened since the fatal night!… It is that, however, that is the punishment, I clearly foresee it… I conjure you to pray!…

Oh! the sea… the cold… I am going to be swallowed up by the waves!… Help!… Have pity: do not repel me! We two will save ourselves upon this plank!… Oh! I am drowning! The billows are going to swallow me up, without the consolation remaining to my loved ones of seeing me again… But no! what do I see? my body tossed by the waves…

My mother's prayers will be heard… Poor mother! if she could suppose her son to be as miserable as he truly is, she would surely ask for more; she believes, however, that death has sanctified the past and mourns me as a martyr and not as an unfortunate one punished!… Oh! you who know it, will you be implacable? No, surely you will intercede for me.” F. Bertin. n

— That name being entirely unknown, it did not even suggest to the medium's memory a vague recollection, wherefore he supposed it was that of some unfortunate shipwrecked person who came to manifest to him spontaneously, as happened several times. Later he learned that it was, indeed, the name of one of the victims of the great maritime catastrophe that occurred in those waters on December 2, 1863.

The communication was given on the 8th of the same month, six days, therefore, after the disaster. The man had perished while making unheard-of attempts to save the crew, and at the moment when he believed himself safe from death.

Having no kinship with the medium, nor even acquaintance, why would he have manifested to him rather than to some member of the family? It is because the Spirits do not find in all persons the fluidic conditions indispensable to manifestation; 4 this one, in the disturbance he was in, did not even have freedom of choice, being led instinctively and attractively to this medium, endowed, it seems, with a special aptitude for communications of this kind; it is also to be supposed that he sensed a particular sympathy, as others have found in identical circumstances.

The family, strangers to Spiritism, perhaps even hostile to this belief, would not have welcomed the manifestation as this medium did.

Although the death dated back some days, the Spirit still experienced all the anguish of it.

It is evident, therefore, that he had no consciousness of the situation; he believed himself alive, struggling with the waves, but at the same time referring to the body as if he were separated from it; he cries for help, says he does not want to die, and speaks right after of the cause of his death, recognizing in it a punishment; 8 all this incoherence denotes the confusion of ideas, a fact common in nearly all violent deaths.

— Two months later, on February 2, 1864, the Spirit again communicated spontaneously through the same medium, telling him the following:

“The pity you took on my so horrible sufferings has relieved me.

I understand hope, I glimpse pardon, but after the punishment of the fault committed.

I suffer continually, and, if for moments God permits me to glimpse the end of my misfortune, I owe it to the prayers of charitable souls taking pity on my situation.

Oh! hope, celestial ray, how blessed you are when I feel you dawning in my soul!… But, oh! the abyss gapes open, terror and suffering absorb the thought of mercy. Night, always night!… the water, the roaring of the waves that swallowed me up, are but a pale image of the horror in which my Spirit is wrapped…

I become calmer when I can remain near you, for just as the confiding of a secret to a friendly breast relieves us, so your pity, prompted by the confiding of my misery, calms the suffering and gives repose to my Spirit…

Your prayers do me good; do not refuse them to me. I do not want to take back possession of that horrid dream that turns into reality when I see it…

Take up the pencil more often. It will greatly relieve me to communicate with you.”

Days later, at a Spiritist gathering in Paris, the following questions were addressed to this Spirit, to which he answered in a single communication and through another medium.

Who led you to communicate spontaneously through the other medium? — How long ago was your death when you manifested yourself? — When you did so, you seemed still to doubt your state, while at the same time you expressed the anguish of a horrible death: do you now have a better understanding of that situation? — You stated positively that your death was an expiation: could you tell us the reason for that affirmation? It will constitute a teaching for us and will be a relief to you. By a sincere confession you will earn the mercy of God, which we shall solicit in our prayers.

Answer. — “In the first place it seems impossible that a human creature could suffer so cruelly. God! How painful it is to find oneself constantly enveloped in the raging billows, experiencing incessantly this torment, this glacial cold that rises to the stomach and constricts it!

“But, what use is it to entertain you with such scenes? Ought I not to begin by obeying the laws of gratitude, thanking all of you who took interest in my torments?

You asked whether I manifested myself a long time after death? I cannot answer easily. Reflecting, you will gauge in what horrible situation I still am. I think that to be near the medium I was brought by a force foreign to my will; and, an inexplicable thing, I made use of his arm with the same ease with which I make use, at this moment, of yours, persuaded that it belonged to me.

Now I even experience a great pleasure, a kind of particular relief, that… but ah! here it is about to cease. But, my God! shall I have the strength to make the confession that is incumbent upon me?”

After being much encouraged, the Spirit added: — “I was very guilty, and what tortures me most is to be taken for a martyr, when in truth I was not… In the preceding existence I had ordered several victims to be put into sacks and cast into the sea… Pray for me!”

Commentary by Saint Louis on this communication.

— This confession will bring great relief to the Spirit, who was indeed very guilty! Honorable, however, was the existence he has just left; he was loved and esteemed by his superiors; this circumstance was the fruit of his repentance and of the good resolutions he made before returning to Earth, where, as much as he had been cruel, he had wished to be humane.

The devotion he showed was a reparation, yet it was necessary for him to redeem his past faults by a final expiation, that of the death he had; he himself wished to purify himself through the suffering of the tortures he had inflicted upon others, 3 and note that one idea pursues him: the sorrow of being taken for a martyr. This humility will be taken into consideration.

In short, he has left the path of expiation to enter that of rehabilitation, on which by your prayers you can sustain him, causing him to tread it with a firmer and more resolute step. [1]

The Spirit, on the previous page, was designated by the name Ferdinand, exactly as in the original. We consulted several French editions (pages 324/5), including the 4th of 1869. (Note of the Publisher (FEB) to the 21st edition) [We believe this to be a composition error, because by observing the index it will be found Ferdinand Bertin, and that the next name is that of François Riquier. Therefore, we abbreviated the signature, supposedly composed in error, from François Bertin to F. Bertin.]