Practical Instruction on Spiritist Manifestations · Allan Kardec
Chapter 7 of 15
INFLUENCE OF THE ENVIRONMENT UPON THE MANIFESTATIONS.
It would be a grave error to believe that one must be a medium in order to attract the beings of the invisible world. Space is peopled with them; we have them incessantly around us. They see us, observe us, mingle in our gatherings, follow us or flee from us according as we attract or repel them. The mediumistic faculty plays no part in this: it is merely a means of communication. According to what we have seen regarding the causes of the sympathy or antipathy of the Spirits, it will easily be understood that we must be surrounded by those who have affinity with our own Spirit, according as it is elevated or degraded.
Considering now the moral state of our globe, we shall understand what kind of Spirits must predominate among the wandering spirits. If we take each people in particular, we shall be able to judge, by the dominant character of the inhabitants, by their preoccupations, their more or less moral and humanitarian sentiments, the orders of Spirits we shall preferentially find there. The Spirits are nothing other than our souls detached from our bodies, and which carry with them the reflections of our qualities and of our imperfections. They are good or wicked according to what we have been, except for those who, having left their impurities at the bottom of the terrestrial alembic, have raised themselves above the throng of imperfect Spirits. The spirit world is, then, in reality, nothing but a quintessential extract of the corporeal world, retaining from it the good and the bad odors.
Starting from this principle, let us suppose a gathering of frivolous, thoughtless men, occupied with their pleasures: what will be the Spirits who will be found there preferentially? Certainly they will not be Superior Spirits, just as our scientists and our philosophers would not go there to pass their time. Thus, every time men gather together, they have with them a hidden assembly that sympathizes with their qualities or with their defects, and this leaving aside all thought of evocation. Let us now admit that they have the possibility of conversing with the beings of the invisible world by means of an interpreter, that is, of a medium. Which Spirits will respond to their call? Evidently those who are ready there, and who only await an occasion to communicate. If, in a frivolous assembly, we evoke a Superior Spirit, he may appear, and even make a few weighty words audible, as a good shepherd comes into the midst of his strayed sheep. But, seeing himself neither understood nor heard, he will go away, as you yourselves would do in his place, leaving the others greater freedom of action.
It is not always enough that a gathering be serious for communications of an elevated order to be obtained. There are persons who never smile and whose heart is none the purer for it. Now, it is above all the heart that attracts the good Spirits. Whatever the moral condition may be, none excludes spiritist communications; nevertheless, if one finds oneself in poor conditions, one converses with one's like, who do not scruple to deceive us and who often excite our prejudices.
From the fact of not belonging to a superior order, a Spirit is not always necessarily wicked; often it is merely frivolous. If you amuse yourselves with its jests, it will give itself over to them with all pleasure and will outdo you in biting remarks that will rarely be inapt; and, under a jovial appearance, they often give piquant lessons. They are the clowns of the spirit world, as the Superior Spirits are the sages and the philosophers of that world.
From this one sees the enormous influence of the environment upon the nature of the intelligent manifestations. But this influence is not exercised as some persons claim, when the world of the Spirits was not yet known as it is known today, and before more conclusive experiences came to clear up the doubts. When the communications agree with the opinion of those present, it is not because that opinion is reflected in the Spirit of the medium as in a mirror, but rather because you have with you Spirits who are sympathetic to you both for good and for ill, and who exercise great influence upon your opinion. The proof of this is that, if you have the strength to attract other Spirits, different from those who surround you, that same medium will use toward you a completely different language and will speak to you of things as remote from your thought as from your convictions.
In sum, the conditions of the environment will be all the better the more homogeneity there is for the good, the purer and more elevated the sentiments are, and the more sincere the desire to instruct oneself is, without preconceived thought.
In this environment, three elements can exert influence alternately or simultaneously: the body of those present, through the Spirits they attract; the medium, through the nature of his own Spirit, which serves as interpreter; and the person who interrogates. The latter can, alone, dominate all the other influences, and notwithstanding the unfavorable conditions of the setting, he can sometimes obtain great things thanks to his ascendancy, if the aim he proposes is useful. The Superior Spirits hasten to his call and in his favor; the others fall silent like pupils before their masters.
The influence of the environment makes it understood that the less numerous we are in the gatherings, the better these function, for it is easier to obtain homogeneity. Small intimate gatherings are always more favorable to beautiful communications. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that, if a hundred persons gathered together are sufficiently recollected and attentive, they will obtain more result than ten distracted and noisy creatures. What there must be among those present is, above all, a communion of thoughts. If this communion aims at the good, the good Spirits will come to it easily and willingly. No amount of circumspection is too much in the choice of the new elements introduced into the gatherings; there are persons who carry disturbance wherever they may be. In this case, those whom we should most lament are not those ignorant in the matter, nor even those who do not believe: conviction is acquired only through experience, and there are persons of good faith who desire to enlighten themselves. Those, above all, against whom we should guard ourselves are persons of preconceived ideas, systematic unbelievers, who doubt everything, even the evidence; the proud, who, they alone, claim to have light infused into them and wish to impose their opinion everywhere, looking with disdain upon whoever does not think as they do. Do not let yourselves be carried away by their pretended desire to enlighten themselves. Some of them would be quite vexed if they were obliged to admit that they had been mistaken. Keep yourselves on guard above all against these insipid disputers, who always want to have the last word: the Spirits do not like useless discussions.