Example 13 - ANNA BITTER.

— The loss of an adored child is cause for bitter grief; but to see the only child, the object of all hopes, the repository of all affections, waste away visibly and without sufferings, from unknown causes, from one of those caprices of Nature that mock Science, and, after exhausting every resource, to have not even a single hope by way of compensation; to endure that anguish of every moment, for long years, without foreseeing its end, is a cruel torment that fortune aggravates rather than soothes, given the impossibility of seeing it enjoyed by the adored being.

Such was the situation of the father of Anna Bitter, who therefore gave himself over to an intimate despair. His character became exasperated before such a spectacle, which cut his heart, and whose consequences could not but be fatal, though indeterminate.

A friend of the family, an adherent of Spiritism, thought it his duty to question his spiritual protector about it, and obtained the following response:

“I greatly wish to explain to you the case that now concerns you, all the more because I know that you do not turn to me out of indiscreet curiosity, but out of the interest that that poor child merits from you, and also because, a believer in divine justice, you will only gain by it.

All those who draw upon themselves the justice of the Lord must bow their heads without curses or revolt, for there is no punishment without a cause.

The poor child, whose sentence of death was suspended by God, must soon return to our midst, since she has merited the divine compassion; as for her father, that unhappy man, he must be punished in his only worldly affection, since he has mocked the trust and the sentiments of all who surround him.

For some moments his repentance touched the Omnipotent and death stayed the blow over the being so dear to him; but soon came the revolt, and punishment always accompanies revolt. In such conditions, it is still a fortune to be punished in this world!

My friends, pray for that poor child, whose youth will make her last moments difficult. In that being the sap is so abundant that, despite her organic depletion, the soul will have difficulty detaching itself.

Oh! pray… Later she too will aid and console you, since her Spirit is more advanced than those who surround her.

“So that her detachment may be aided, it has fallen to me, as a special grace of the Lord, the power to guide you in this regard.”

— After having expiated his isolation, the father of Anna Bitter died. Below, we give of one and the other the first communications immediately following their respective disincarnations.

From the daughter. “Thank you, my friend, for your intercession on behalf of this child, as well as for having followed the counsels of your good guide. Yes. Thanks to your prayers, it was easier for me to leave the earthly envelope, 3 because my father… Ah! he did not pray, he cursed! Yet I do not bear him ill will for it: it was a consequence of the great tenderness he devoted to me.

I pray to God to grant him light before he dies; and, as for me, I urge and encourage him, for it is my mission to soothe his last moments.

There are times when it seems that a ray of divine light descends upon him and moves him; yet that is no more than a fleeting gleam, which soon leaves him delivered up to his former ideas.

He has within him a germ of faith, but one so stifled by worldly interests that it can only flourish by means of new and crueler trials; at least so I well believe.

As for me, I had only to bear a remnant of trial, of expiation, and so it was neither very painful nor very difficult.

My singular illness brought no sufferings; I was, as it were, the instrument of my father’s trial, who, seeing me in such a state, suffered more than I myself. Besides, I had resignation and he did not.

Today I am rewarded. God, graciously, shortened my stay on Earth, for which indeed I thank Him.

I am happy among the good Spirits who surround me; we all fulfill our obligations with satisfaction, all the more because inactivity would be a cruel torment.”

— (The father, approximately one month after his death.)

In evoking you, our aim is to inform ourselves of your situation in the world of Spirits and to be useful to you according to our strength. — A. The world of Spirits? I do not see it…

What I see are men I knew, who do not concern themselves with me and do not lament my fate either, but rather seem to me content to be rid of me.

But do you form an exact idea of your condition? — A. Perfectly.

For some time I believed myself still in your world, but today I know very well that I no longer belong to it.

Why, then, can you not discern other Spirits who surround you? — A. I do not know, although everything around me is quite clear.

Have you not yet seen your daughter? — A. No, she is dead; I seek her, I call for her in vain.

What a horrible void her death left me on Earth! In dying, I thought I would find her, but nothing! Isolation always and ever! no one to address to me a word of consolation and of hope. Farewell, I am going to seek my daughter.

— The guide of the medium. This man was neither an atheist nor a materialist, but one of those who believe vaguely, without concerning themselves with God and the future, engrossed as they are in earthly interests.

Profoundly selfish, he would sacrifice everything to save his daughter, but he would also, without the least scruple, sacrifice the interests of others to his personal profit.

He took an interest in no one, apart from his daughter. God punished him in the manner you saw, snatching from him on Earth his only consolation; and since he did not repent, the sequestration subsists in the spiritual world.

Taking an interest in no one there, here too no one takes an interest in him. He remains alone, isolated, abandoned, and in that consists his punishment. Yet his daughter is beside him, but he does not see her; if he saw her he would not be punished.

But what does he do? Does he address himself to God? Does he repent? No: he murmurs, always, even blasphemes; he does, in a word, what he did on Earth. Help him, then, by prayer as well as by counsel, to clear away his blindness.”