INTERVENTION OF THE SPIRITS IN THE CORPOREAL WORLD.

The Spirits' penetration of our thoughts.

— 2. The Spirits' hidden influence on our thoughts and acts.

— 3. The possessed.

— 4. Convulsionaries.

— 5. The affection that Spirits devote to certain persons. — 6. Guardian angels. Protecting, familiar, or sympathetic Spirits.

— 7. Presentiments.

— 8. The Spirits' influence on the events of life. — 9. The Spirits' action upon the phenomena of Nature. —

The Spirits during combats. — 11. Of pacts. — 12. Hidden power. Talismans. Sorcerers. — 13. Blessings and curses.

The Spirits' penetration of our thoughts.

Do the Spirits see all that we do?

“They can see, since they constantly surround you.

Each one, however, sees only that to which he pays attention. They do not occupy themselves with what is indifferent to them.”

Can the Spirits know our most secret thoughts?

“They often come to know what you would wish to hide from yourselves.

Neither acts nor thoughts can be concealed from them.”

a — Thus, it would be easier for us to hide something from a living person than to hide it from that same person after death?

“Certainly.

When you think yourselves quite hidden, you commonly have at your side a multitude of Spirits who observe you.”

What do the Spirits who surround and observe us think of us?

“It depends.

The frivolous ones laugh at the little tricks they play on you and mock your impatiences.

The serious Spirits are moved by your reverses and seek to help you.”

The Spirits' hidden influence on our thoughts and acts.

Do the Spirits influence our thoughts and our acts?

“Far more than you imagine.

They influence to such a degree that ordinarily it is they who direct you.”

Besides the thoughts that are our own, are there others that are suggested to us?

“Your soul is a Spirit that thinks.

You are not unaware that, frequently, many thoughts come to you at once upon the same subject, and, not rarely, contrary to one another. Well then! In the whole of them, yours are always mingled with ours. Hence the uncertainty in which you find yourselves. It is that you have within you two ideas combating each other.”

How are we to distinguish the thoughts that are our own from those that are suggested to us?

“When a thought is suggested to you, you have the impression that someone is speaking to you.

Generally, your own thoughts are those that come first.

In the end, it is of no great interest to you to establish that distinction. Often, it is useful that you do not know how to make it. By not making it, man acts with more freedom.

If he decides for good, it is voluntarily that he practices it; if he takes the bad path, the greater will be his responsibility.”

Is it always from within themselves that intelligent men and men of genius draw their ideas?

“Sometimes they come to them from their own Spirit; but, on many other occasions, they are suggested to them by Spirits who judge them capable of understanding them and worthy of popularizing them.

When such men do not find them within themselves, they appeal to inspiration. They thus make, without suspecting it, a true evocation.”

Were it useful that we could clearly distinguish our own thoughts from those that are suggested to us, God would have provided us with the means of attaining this, as He granted us the means of differentiating day from night. When a thing is kept imprecise, it is because it is fitting that it be so.

It is commonly said that the first impulse is always good. Is this exact?

“It can be good or bad, according to the nature of the incarnate Spirit. It is always good in one who heeds good inspirations.”

How are we to distinguish whether a suggested thought proceeds from a good Spirit or from a bad Spirit?

“Study the case. Good Spirits counsel only for good. It is for you to discern.”

To what end do imperfect Spirits induce us to evil?

“So that you may suffer as they suffer.”

a — And does this diminish their sufferings?

“No; but they do it out of envy, because they cannot bear that there should be happy beings.”

b — Of what nature is the suffering they seek to inflict on others?

“Those that result from the creature being of an inferior order and being far from God.”

Why does God permit Spirits to incite us to evil?

“The imperfect Spirits are instruments fit to put to the test the faith and the constancy of men in the practice of good.

As a Spirit, you must progress in the science of the infinite. Hence you pass through the trials of evil, in order to reach good.

Our mission consists in placing you on the good path.

Since evil influences act upon you, it is because you attract them by desiring evil; for the inferior Spirits hasten to assist you in evil as soon as you desire to practice it.

Only when you will evil can they help you in the practice of evil.

If you are inclined to murder, you will have around you a cloud of Spirits feeding within you that propensity.

But others too will surround you, striving to influence you toward good, which restores the balance of the scales and leaves you master of your acts.”

It is thus that God entrusts to our conscience the choice of the path we are to follow and the freedom to yield to one or the other of the contrary influences that are exerted upon us.

Can man free himself from the influence of the Spirits that seek to drag him into evil?

“He can, for such Spirits attach themselves only to those who, by their desires, call them, or to those who, by their thoughts, attract them.”

Do the Spirits whose influence man's will repels renounce their attempts?

“What would you have them do? When they obtain nothing, they abandon the field.

Nevertheless, they remain on the watch for a favorable moment, like the cat that lies in wait for the mouse.”

By what means can we neutralize the influence of the bad Spirits?

“By practicing good and placing in God all your confidence, you will repel the influence of the inferior Spirits and annihilate the dominion they wish to have over you.

Beware of heeding the suggestions of the Spirits who arouse evil thoughts in you, who blow discord among you, and who breathe into you the bad passions.

Distrust especially those who exalt your pride, for these assault you on your weak side.

That is the reason why Jesus, in the Lord's Prayer, taught you to say: “Lord! lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

The Spirits who seek to induce us to evil and who thus put to the test our firmness in good, do they proceed in this manner in fulfillment of a mission? And, if so, do they bear any responsibility?

“To no Spirit is given the mission to practice evil.

He who does it, does it on his own account, subjecting himself, therefore, to the consequences.

God may permit him to proceed thus, in order to test you; never, however, does He determine such conduct for him. It is for you, then, to repel him.”

When we experience a sensation of anguish, of indefinable anxiety, or of inner satisfaction, without knowing its cause, should we attribute it solely to a physical disposition?

“It is almost always the effect of the communications you unconsciously enter into with the Spirits, or of the communication you had with them during sleep.”

The Spirits who seek to attract us to evil, do they limit themselves to taking advantage of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, or can they also create them?

“They take advantage of the circumstances that arise, but they are also wont to create them, impelling you, in spite of yourselves, toward what you covet.

Thus, for example, a man finds a certain sum on his way. Do not think it was the Spirits who brought it there. But they can inspire in the man the idea of taking that direction and then suggest to him that of taking possession of the sum found, while others suggest to him that of restoring the money to its rightful owner. The same occurs with respect to all the other temptations.” The possessed.

Can a Spirit temporarily take the corporeal envelope of a living person, that is, introduce itself into an animate body and act in place of the other who is incarnate in this body?

“The Spirit does not enter a body as you enter a house. It identifies itself with an incarnate Spirit whose defects and qualities are the same as its own, in order to act jointly with it. But it is always the incarnate one who acts, as he wills, upon the matter with which he is clothed.

A Spirit cannot substitute itself for the one who is incarnate, since the latter must remain bound to his body until the term fixed for his material existence.”

Since there is no possession properly so called, that is, the cohabitation of two Spirits in the same body, can the soul remain under the dependence of another Spirit, so as to find itself subjugated or obsessed to the point that its will comes to be, in a certain manner, paralyzed?

“Without doubt, and these are the true possessed.

But you must know that this domination is never effected without the consent of the one who suffers it, whether through his weakness or through his desiring it.

Many epileptics or madmen, who needed a physician more than exorcisms, have been taken for possessed.”

The word possessed, in its common acceptation, supposes the existence of demons, that is, of a category of beings evil by nature, and the cohabitation of one of these beings with the soul of an individual, in his body.

Since, in that sense, there are no demons and since two Spirits cannot inhabit the same body simultaneously, there are no possessed in conformity with the idea to which this word is associated.

The term possessed should be admitted only as expressing the absolute dependence in which a soul can find itself with respect to imperfect Spirits that subjugate it. [see Genesis, chapter XIV: Obsessions and possessions, no. 47.]

Can a person by himself drive away the bad Spirits and free himself from their domination?

“It is always possible, for whomsoever it may be, to free himself from a yoke, provided that with a firm will he wills it.”

But may it not happen that the fascination exercised by the bad Spirit be of such a kind that the one subjugated does not perceive it? In that case, can a third person make the subjection of the other cease? And, in that case, what must be the condition of that third person?

“If she is a person of good, her will can have efficacy, provided she appeals for the concurrence of the good Spirits, 2 because the more worthy the person is, the greater power will she have over the imperfect Spirits, to drive them away, and over the good ones, to attract them.

Nevertheless, she will be able to do nothing if the one who is subjugated does not lend her his concurrence.

There are persons whom a dependence pleases that flatters their tastes and their desires.

Whatever, however, the case may be, he who has not a pure heart will exercise no influence. The good Spirits do not heed his call and the bad ones do not fear him.”

Do the formulas of exorcism have any efficacy over the bad Spirits?

“No. These last laugh and persist when they see someone take this seriously.”

There are persons, animated by good intentions, who nevertheless do not cease to be obsessed. What, then, is the best means of freeing ourselves from the obsessing Spirits?

“To wear out their patience, 2 to give no value to their suggestions, 3 to show them that they are wasting their time.

When they see that they obtain nothing, they withdraw.”

Is prayer an efficient means for the cure of obsession?

“Prayer is in all things a powerful aid.

But believe that it is not enough for someone to murmur a few words in order to obtain what he desires.

God assists those who act, not those who limit themselves to asking.

It is, then, indispensable that the obsessed person do, for his part, what becomes necessary to destroy within himself the cause of the attraction of the bad Spirits.”

What should one think of the expulsion of demons, mentioned in the Gospel?

“It depends on the interpretation given to it.

If you call demon the bad Spirit that subjugates an individual, then, once its influence is destroyed, it will truly have been expelled.

If you attribute to the demon the cause of an illness, when you have cured it you will say with accuracy that you expelled the demon.

A thing can be true or false, according to the sense you lend to the words.

The greatest truths are liable to appear absurd, once one attends only to the form, or considers the allegory as reality. Understand this well and never forget it, for it lends itself to a general application.” Convulsionaries.

Do the Spirits play any part in the phenomena that occur with the individuals called convulsionaries?

“Yes, and a very important one, as does magnetism, which is the originating cause of such phenomena.

Charlatanism, however, has often exploited and exaggerated them, so as to cast them into ridicule.”

a — Of what nature are, in general, the Spirits who concur in the production of this kind of phenomena?

“Of little elevation. Do you suppose that superior Spirits delight in such things?”

How does it happen that the abnormal state of the convulsionaries and of those who suffer nervous crises suddenly spreads to an entire population?

“The effect of sympathy.

Moral dispositions communicate very easily, in certain cases.

You are not so foreign to magnetic effects that you do not understand this, and the part that some Spirits naturally take in the fact, out of sympathy with those who provoke them.”

Among the singular faculties noted in the convulsionaries, some are easily recognized, of which somnambulism and magnetism offer numerous examples, such as, among others, physical insensibility, the reading of thought, the transmission of pains, through sympathy, etc. There is, then, no doubting that those in whom such crises manifest are in a kind of waking somnambulism, provoked by the influence they exercise upon one another. They are at the same time magnetizers and magnetized, unconsciously.

What is the cause of the physical insensibility observed in some convulsionaries, as well as in other individuals submitted to the most atrocious tortures?

“In some it is exclusively the effect of magnetism, which acts upon the nervous system, in the same way as certain substances.

In others, the exaltation of thought dulls the sensibility. One would say that in these life has withdrawn from the body, to concentrate itself wholly in the Spirit.

Do you not know that, when the Spirit is keenly preoccupied with a thing, the body feels nothing, sees nothing, and hears nothing?”

Fanatical exaltation and enthusiasm have provided, in cases of torments, multiple examples of a calm and a coldness of blood that would not be capable of triumphing over an acute pain, except on the admission that the sensibility is neutralized, as by the effect of an anesthetic. It is known that, in the ardor of battle, there are combatants who do not perceive that they are gravely wounded, whereas, in ordinary circumstances, a simple scratch would set them trembling.

Since these phenomena depend on a physical cause and on the action of certain Spirits, it becomes licit to ask how a public authority has been able to make them cease in some cases. The reason is simple. The action of the Spirits is here merely secondary, doing nothing more than taking advantage of a natural disposition. The authority did not suppress that disposition, but the cause that maintained and exalted it. From active that it was, it passed to being latent. And the authority had reason to proceed thus, because abuse and scandal resulted from the fact. It is known, moreover, that such intervention has absolutely no power, when the action of the Spirits is direct and spontaneous. The affection that Spirits devote to certain persons.

Do the Spirits become attached by preference to certain persons?

“The good Spirits sympathize with men of good, or those susceptible of improving themselves.

The inferior Spirits with vicious men, or those who may become such.

Hence their affections, as a consequence of the conformity of sentiments.”

Is the affection that Spirits devote to certain persons exclusively moral?

“True affection has nothing carnal about it; 2 but, when a Spirit attaches itself to a person, it does not always do so out of affection alone.

To the esteem that this person inspires in it there may be added a reminiscence of human passions.”

Do the Spirits take interest in our misfortunes and in our prosperity? Are those who wish us well afflicted by the ills we endure during life?

“The good Spirits do all the good that is possible to them and feel happy at your joys.

They are afflicted by your ills, when you do not bear them with resignation, because you then draw no benefit from them, resembling, in such cases, the sick man who rejects the bitter draught that is to cure him.”

Among our ills, of what nature are those over which the Spirits are most afflicted on our account? Are they the physical ills or the moral ones?

“Your egoism and the hardness of your hearts. From this flows all the rest. They laugh at all those imaginary ills that are born of pride and ambition. They rejoice at those that result in the shortening of the time of your trials.”

Knowing that corporeal life is transitory and that the tribulations inherent to it constitute means of attaining a better state, the Spirits are more afflicted by our ills due to causes of a moral order than by our physical sufferings, all of them passing.

They are little troubled by the misfortunes that touch only our worldly ideas, just as we do with the puerile sorrows of children.

Seeing in the bitternesses of life a means of advancing ourselves, the Spirits consider them as the occasional crisis from which the salvation of the sick man will result. They have compassion for our sufferings, as we have compassion for those of a friend. But, viewing things from a more just point of view, they appreciate them in a manner different from ours.

Then, while the good ones raise our courage in the interest of our future, the others impel us to despair, aiming to compromise us.

Do the relatives and friends who preceded us into the other life devote greater sympathy to us than the Spirits who are strangers to us?

“Without doubt, and almost always they protect you as Spirits, according to the power at their disposal.”

a — Are they sensible to the affection we keep for them?

“Very sensible, but they forget those who forget them.”

Guardian angels; protecting, familiar, or sympathetic Spirits.

Are there Spirits who attach themselves particularly to an individual in order to protect him?

“There is the spiritual brother, the one you call the good Spirit or the good genius.”

What should one understand by guardian angel, or angel of guard?

“The protecting Spirit, belonging to an elevated order.”

What is the mission of the protecting Spirit?

“That of a father with respect to his children; to guide his protégé along the path of good, to assist him with his counsels, to console him in his afflictions, to raise his courage in the trials of life.”

Does the protecting Spirit devote itself to the individual from his birth?

“From birth until death, and often it accompanies him in the spiritual life, after death, and even through many corporeal existences, which are nothing more than very short phases of the life of the Spirit.”

Is the mission of the protecting Spirit voluntary or obligatory?

“The Spirit is bound to assist you, once it has accepted that charge.

It has, however, the right to choose beings sympathetic to it. For some, it is a pleasure; for others, a mission or a duty.”

a — In devoting itself to one person, does the Spirit renounce protecting other individuals?

“No; but it protects them less exclusively.”

Is the protecting Spirit fatally bound to the creature confided to its guard?

“It frequently happens that some Spirits leave their positions as protectors to perform diverse missions. But, in that case, others substitute for them.”

May it happen that the protecting Spirit abandons its protégé, when the latter shows himself rebellious to its counsels?

“It withdraws when it sees that its counsels are useless and that, in its protégé, the decision to submit to the influence of the inferior Spirits is the stronger. But it does not abandon him completely and always makes itself heard. It is then man who stops his ears. The protector returns as soon as the latter calls it.

“This doctrine of the guardian angels is one that, by its charm and gentleness, should convert even the most incredulous. Does it not seem to you greatly consoling, the idea of having always near you beings who are superior to you, always ready to counsel and support you, to help you in the ascent of the abrupt mountain of good; more sincere and devoted friends than all those who are most intimately bound to you on Earth?

They are at your side by order of God. It was God who placed them there and, remaining there for the love of God, they perform a beautiful, yet painful, mission. Yes, wherever you may be, they will be with you. Neither in prisons, nor in hospitals, nor in places of debauchery, nor in solitude, are you separated from those friends whom you cannot see, but whose gentle influx your soul feels, at the same time that it hears their measured counsels.

“Ah! if you knew this truth well! How much it would help you in moments of crisis! How much it would free you from the bad Spirits! But, oh! how many times, on the solemn day, will that angel be constrained to observe to you: “Did I not counsel you this? Yet you did not do it. Did I not show you the abyss? And yet, into it you cast yourself! Did I not make the voice of truth echo in your conscience? You preferred, nevertheless, to follow the counsels of falsehood!”

Oh! question your guardian angels; establish between them and you that tender intimacy which reigns among the best friends. Do not think to hide anything from them, for they have the gaze of God and you cannot deceive them.

Think of the future; seek to advance yourselves in the present life. Doing so, you will shorten your trials and render your existences happier. Come, men, courage!

Once and for all, cast far from you all prejudices and preconceived ideas. Enter upon the new path that opens before your steps. Walk on! You have guides, follow them, for the goal cannot fail you, since that goal is God Himself.

“To those who consider it impossible that truly elevated Spirits should consecrate themselves to a task so laborious and of every instant, we will say that we influence your souls, even though we are many millions of leagues distant from you.

Space, for us, is nothing, and, notwithstanding our living in another world, our Spirits keep their bonds with yours. We enjoy qualities you cannot understand, but be assured that God has not imposed a task superior to our forces and that He has not left you alone on Earth, without friends and without support.

Each angel of guard has its protégé, over whom it watches, as the father over the son. It rejoices when it sees him on the good path; it suffers when he disdains its counsels.

“Do not fear to weary us with your questions. On the contrary, seek to be always in relation with us. You will thus be stronger and happier.

It is these communications of each one with his familiar Spirit that make all men mediums, mediums ignored today, but who will manifest themselves later and will spread like an ocean without shores, sweeping away incredulity and ignorance.

Learned men, instruct your fellows; men of talent, educate your brothers. You do not imagine what work you do in this way: that of the Christ, that which God imposes upon you. For what did God grant you intelligence and knowledge, if not to share them with your brothers, if not to make them advance along the path that leads to blessedness, to eternal happiness?” [Spiritist Review of January 1859.]

Saint Louis Saint Augustine

There is nothing surprising in the doctrine of the guardian angels, watching over their protégés, in spite of the distance that lies between the worlds. It is, on the contrary, grand and sublime. Do we not see on Earth the father watching over his son, even from very far away, and assisting him with his counsels by corresponding with him? What cause for astonishment will there be, then, that the Spirits can, from another world, guide those who, inhabitants of the Earth, they have taken under their protection, since, for them, the distance that goes from one world to another is less than that which, on this planet, separates the continents?

Do they not, moreover, have at their disposal the universal fluid, which interlaces all the worlds, making them interdependent; an immense vehicle of the transmission of thoughts, as the air is, for us, that of the transmission of sound?

The Spirit that abandons its protégé, that ceases to do him good, can it do him harm?

“The good Spirits never do harm.

They let those who take their place do it.

You are then wont to lay to the account of fate the misfortunes that overwhelm you, when you suffer them only through your own fault.”

Can a protecting Spirit leave its protégé at the mercy of another Spirit that wishes to do him harm?

“The bad Spirits unite to neutralize the action of the good ones.

But, if he wishes it, the protégé will give all the strength to his protector.

It may happen that the good Spirit finds elsewhere a good will to be assisted. It then applies itself to assisting it, while awaiting that its protégé return to it.”

Is it because it cannot struggle against malevolent Spirits that a protecting Spirit lets its protégé go astray in life?

“It is not because it cannot, but because it does not wish to.

And it does not wish to, because from the trials its protégé comes out more instructed and perfect.

It assists him always with its counsels, giving them by means of the good thoughts it inspires in him, but which are almost never heeded.

Man's weakness, carelessness, or pride is exclusively what lends strength to the bad Spirits, whose power all comes from the fact that you offer them no resistance.”

Is the protecting Spirit constantly with its protégé? Is there not some circumstance in which, without abandoning him, it loses sight of him?

“There are circumstances in which it is not necessary that the protecting Spirit be near its protégé.”

Will there be moments in which the Spirit ceases to need, from then onward, its protector?

“Yes, when he attains the point of being able to guide himself, as happens to the student, for whom a moment comes when he no longer needs a master.

This, however, does not occur on Earth.”

Why is the action of the Spirits upon our existence hidden, and why, when they protect us, do they not do so in an ostensible manner?

“If it were given to you to count always on their action, you would not act by yourselves and your Spirit would not progress.

In order for it to advance, it needs experience, frequently acquiring it at its own cost.

It is necessary that it exercise its forces, without which, it would be like the child to whom one does not allow to walk alone.

The action of the Spirits who wish you well is always regulated in such a manner as not to hamper your free will, for, if you had no responsibility, you would not advance along the path that is to lead you to God.

Not seeing who supports him, man trusts in his own forces.

Over him, nevertheless, his guide watches and, from time to time, cries out to him, warning him of danger.”

Does the protecting Spirit, that succeeds in bringing its protégé to the good path, gain any good for itself?

“This constitutes a merit that is credited to it, whether for its progress or for its happiness.

It feels happy when it sees its efforts succeed, which represents, for it, a triumph, as the good successes of his pupil are a triumph for a preceptor.”

a — Is it responsible for the bad result of its efforts?

“No, since it did what depended on it.”

Does the protecting Spirit suffer when it sees that its protégé follows a bad path, notwithstanding the warnings he receives from it? Is there not here a cause of disturbance of its happiness?

“The errors of its protégé, whom it pities, grieve it.

Such affliction, however, has no analogy with the anguish of earthly paternity, because it knows that there is a remedy for the ill and that what is not done today, will be done tomorrow.”

Can we always know the name of the Spirit who is our protector, or angel of guard?

“How would you know names that are nonexistent for you? Do you suppose that there are only the Spirits you know?”

a — How then can we invoke it, if we do not know it?

“Give it the name you wish, that of a superior Spirit who inspires sympathy or veneration in you. Your protector will heed the appeal you direct to it with that name, since all good Spirits are brothers and assist one another mutually.”

The protectors who give known names, are they always, really, the Spirits of the personalities who bore those names?

“No.

Often, those who give them are Spirits sympathetic to those who used such names on Earth and, at the command of these, answer your call.

You make an issue of names; they take one that inspires confidence in you.

When you cannot personally perform a given mission, are you not wont to send another, for whom you answer as for yourselves, to act in your name?”

In the spiritual life, shall we recognize the Spirit who is our protector?

“Certainly, for it is not rare that you knew it before incarnating.”

Do all the protecting Spirits belong to the class of elevated Spirits? Can some be counted among those of the middle class? A father, for example, can he become the protecting Spirit of his son?

“He can, but protection presupposes a certain degree of elevation and a power or a virtue in addition, granted by God.

The father who protects his son can also be assisted by a more elevated Spirit.”

Can the Spirits who were in good conditions on leaving the Earth always protect those who are dear to them and who survive them?

“More or less restricted is the power they enjoy. The situation in which they find themselves does not always allow them entire freedom of action.”

When in a state of savagery or of moral inferiority, do men likewise have their protecting Spirits? And, if so, are these Spirits of an order as elevated as that of the protecting Spirits of very advanced men?

“Every man has a Spirit that watches over him, but the missions are relative to the end they aim at.

You do not give to a child who is learning to read a professor of philosophy.

The progress of the familiar Spirit keeps a relation with that of the protected Spirit.

Having a Spirit that watches over you, you can become, in your turn, the protector of another inferior to you, and the progress this one makes, with the aid you grant it, will contribute to your advancement.

God does not require of the Spirit more than its nature and the degree of elevation to which it has already arrived can bear.”

When the father who watches over his son reincarnates, does he continue to watch over him?

“That is more difficult. Nevertheless, in a certain way he does it, asking, in an instant of detachment, a sympathetic Spirit to assist him in that mission.

Moreover, the Spirits accept only missions that they can perform to the end.

“Incarnate, especially in a world where existence is material, the Spirit is too subject to the body to be able to devote itself wholly to another Spirit, that is, to be able to assist it personally.

So much so that those who have not yet elevated themselves enough are also assisted by others, who are above them, in such a manner that, if by any circumstance one comes to be lacking, another supplies the lack.”

To each individual, will there be bound, besides the protecting Spirit, a bad Spirit, with the aim of impelling him to error and of providing him with occasions to struggle between good and evil?

“Bound is not the term.

It is certain that the bad Spirits seek to turn man away from the good path when occasion presents itself to them. Whenever, however, one of them binds itself to an individual, it does so of itself, because it counts on being heeded.

There is then a struggle between the good and the bad, the victor being the one by whom man lets himself be influenced.”

Can we have many protecting Spirits?

“Every man counts always on Spirits, more or less elevated, who sympathize with him, who devote affection to him and take interest in him, 2 as he also has near him others who assist him in evil.”

Do the Spirits who sympathize with us act in fulfillment of a mission?

“Not rarely, they perform a temporary mission; 2 but, most often, they are merely attracted by the identity of thoughts and sentiments, both for good and for evil.”

a — It seems licit to infer from this that the Spirits to whom we are sympathetic can be good or bad, no?

“Yes; whatever his character, man always finds Spirits who sympathize with him.”

Are the familiar Spirits the same as those we call sympathetic Spirits or protecting Spirits?

“There are gradations in protection and in sympathy. Give them the names you wish.

The familiar Spirit is rather the friend of the house.”

From the explanations above and from the observations made on the nature of the Spirits who become attached to man, the following can be deduced:

The protecting Spirit, angel of guard, or good genius is the one whose mission is to accompany man in life and to help him progress. It is always of a superior nature, with respect to the protégé.

The familiar Spirits attach themselves to certain persons by bonds more or less durable, with the aim of being useful to them, within the limits of the power, almost always very restricted, at their disposal. They are good, but often little advanced and even somewhat frivolous. They occupy themselves willingly with the particularities of intimate life and act only by order or with the permission of the protecting Spirits.

The sympathetic Spirits are those who feel attracted to our side by particular affections and also by a certain resemblance of tastes and of sentiments, both for good and for evil. Ordinarily, the duration of their relations is subordinated to circumstances.

The bad genius is an imperfect or perverse Spirit, that binds itself to man to turn him away from good. It acts, however, by its own impulse and not in the performance of a mission.

The tenacity of its action is in direct relation with the greater or lesser facility of access it finds on man's part, who always enjoys the liberty of listening to its voice or of closing his ears to it.

What should one think of those persons who attach themselves to certain individuals to lead them to perdition, or to guide them along the good path?

“Indeed, certain persons exercise over others a kind of fascination that seems irresistible.

When this occurs in the direction of evil, they are bad Spirits, of whom other Spirits, also bad, make use in order to subjugate them.

God permits such a thing to occur in order to test you.”

Could our good and bad genii incarnate, in order to accompany us more closely in life?

“That sometimes occurs. But, what is more frequently verified is that they charge other incarnate Spirits, sympathetic to them, with that mission.”

Will there be Spirits who bind themselves to an entire family in order to protect it?

“Some Spirits bind themselves to the members of a given family, who live together and united by affection; 2 but, do not believe in protecting Spirits of the pride of races.”

Just as they are attracted, through sympathy, to certain individuals, are the Spirits likewise, for particular reasons, attracted to gatherings of individuals?

“The Spirits prefer to be in the midst of those who resemble them. They are there more at ease and more certain of being heard.

It is by his tendencies that man attracts the Spirits, and this whether he is alone or forms part of a collective whole, such as a society, a city, or a people.

Therefore, societies, cities, and peoples are, in accordance with the passions and the character predominant in them, assisted by Spirits more or less elevated. The imperfect Spirits keep away from those who repel them.

It follows that the moral improvement of collectivities, like that of individuals, tends to keep away the bad Spirits and to attract the good ones, who stimulate and feed in them the sentiment of good, as others may breathe into them the gross passions.”

Do the agglomerations of individuals, such as societies, cities, nations, have special protecting Spirits?

“They have, for the reason that these aggregates are collective individualities which, marching toward a common objective, need a superior direction.”

Are the protecting Spirits of the collectivities of a more elevated nature than those who bind themselves to individuals?

“Everything is relative to the degree of advancement, whether it be a matter of collectivities or of individuals.”

Can certain Spirits aid the progress of the arts, protecting those who devote themselves to the arts?

“There are special protecting Spirits who assist those who invoke them, when worthy of that assistance. But what would you have them do with those who judge themselves to be what they are not? It is not for them to make the blind see nor the deaf hear.”

The ancients made, of these Spirits, special divinities. The Muses were nothing but the allegorical personification of the protecting Spirits of the sciences and the arts, as the gods Lares and Penates symbolized the protecting Spirits of the family. Also in modern times, the arts, the different industries, the cities, the countries have their patrons, who are nothing more than superior Spirits, under various designations.

Every man having Spirits who sympathize with him, it is clear that, in collective bodies, the generality of the Spirits who devote sympathy to them is in proportion with the generality of the individuals; that the foreign Spirits are attracted to those collectivities by the identity of tastes and of ideas; in short, that those aggregates of persons, as much as the individuals, are more or less well assisted, and influenced, in accordance with the nature of the sentiments dominant among the elements that compose them.

In peoples, the attraction of the Spirits is determined by the customs, the habits, the dominant character, and the laws, the laws above all, because the character of a nation is reflected in its laws. Making justice reign within their bosom, men combat the influence of the bad Spirits. Wherever the laws consecrate unjust things, contrary to Humanity, the good Spirits remain in the minority and the multitude of the bad ones, which flocks in, keeps the nation fastened to its ideas and paralyzes the partial good influences, which are lost in the whole, like isolated ears of grain among brambles.

By studying the customs of peoples or of any gathering of men, one easily forms an idea of the hidden population that insinuates itself into their manner of thinking and into their acts. Presentiments.

Is the presentiment always a warning from the protecting Spirit?

“It is the intimate and hidden counsel of a Spirit that wishes you well.

It is also in the intuition of the choice that one has made.

It is the voice of instinct.

Before incarnating, the Spirit has knowledge of the principal phases of its existence, that is, of the kind of trials to which it submits.

These having a marked character, it keeps, in its inner self, a kind of impression of such trials, and this impression, which is the voice of instinct, making itself heard when the moment comes for it to suffer them, becomes presentiment.”

It happening that the presentiments and the voice of instinct are always somewhat vague, what should we do, in the uncertainty in which we remain?

“When you find yourself in uncertainty, invoke your good Spirit, or pray to God, sovereign lord of all, and He will send you one of His messengers, one of us.”

Do the warnings of the protecting Spirits aim solely at our moral conduct, or also at the conduct we are to adopt in the affairs of private life?

“Everything. They strive that you may live as best as possible. But, almost always you stop your ears to the salutary warnings and you make yourselves unhappy through your own fault.”

The protecting Spirits help us with their counsels, by means of the voice of conscience that they make resound within our inner self. As, however, we do not always attach to this the due importance, they give us other, more direct counsels, making use of the persons who surround us.

Let each one examine the various circumstances, happy or unhappy, of his life and he will see that on many occasions he received counsels of which he did not avail himself and which would have spared him many troubles, had he listened to them. The Spirits' influence on the events of life.

Do the Spirits exercise any influence on the events of life?

“Certainly, since they counsel you.”

a — Do they exercise that influence in any form other than merely by the thoughts they suggest, that is, do they have direct action upon the accomplishment of things?

“Yes, but they never act outside the laws of Nature.”

We wrongly imagine that it falls to the Spirits only to manifest their action through extraordinary phenomena. We would wish that they come to help us by means of miracles and we always figure them armed with a magic wand. Because it is not so, the intervention they have in the things of this world seems to us hidden, and what is executed with their concurrence seems to us very natural.

Thus it is that, by provoking, for example, the meeting of two persons, who will suppose they meet by chance; by inspiring in someone the idea of passing through a given place; by calling his attention to a certain point, if from this results what they have in view, they act in such a manner that man, believing he obeys an impulse of his own, always keeps his free will.

Having, as they do, action upon matter, can the Spirits provoke certain effects, with the aim that an event occur? For example: a man is to die; he climbs a ladder, the ladder breaks, and he dies of the fall. Was it the Spirits who broke the ladder, so that the destiny of that man might be fulfilled?

“It is exact that the Spirits have action upon matter, but for the fulfillment of the laws of Nature, not to derogate from them, making it so that, at a given moment, an unexpected occurrence happens contrary to those laws.

In the example you figured, the ladder broke because it was rotten, or because it was not strong enough to bear the weight of a man. If it was that man's destiny to perish in such a manner, the Spirits would inspire in him the idea of climbing the ladder in question, which would have to break with his weight, death resulting to him from this by a natural effect and without it being necessary, for that, to produce a miracle.”

Let us take another example, in which matter does not enter in its natural state. A man is to die struck by lightning. He takes refuge under a tree. The lightning bursts and kills him. Could it be that the Spirits provoked the production of the lightning and directed it toward the man? “The same occurs as previously. The lightning fell upon that tree at such a moment, because it was in the laws of Nature that it should so happen. It was not directed toward the tree because the man was beneath it. To him, yes, was inspired the idea of sheltering himself under a tree upon which the lightning would fall, for the tree would not fail to be struck, only because the man was not beneath its foliage.”

In the case of an ill-intentioned person firing upon another a projectile that merely passes close to him without striking him, could it have happened that a benevolent Spirit deflected the projectile?

“If the individual aimed at is not to perish in that manner, the benevolent Spirit will inspire in him the idea of turning aside, or else it may dazzle the one who grips the weapon, so as to make him aim badly, for, once the weapon is fired, the projectile follows the line it has to traverse.”

What should one think of the enchanted bullets, of which some legends speak and which fatally strike the target?

“Pure imagination.

Man likes the marvelous and is not content with the marvels of Nature.”

a — Can the Spirits who direct the earthly events have their action obstructed by Spirits who wish the contrary?

“What God wills is executed.

If there is delay in the execution, or obstacles arise to it, it is because He so willed.”

Can the frivolous and mocking Spirits not create small impediments to the realization of our projects and upset our forecasts? Are they, in a word, the causers of what we call the small miseries of human life?

“They take pleasure in causing you vexations that represent for you trials destined to exercise your patience.

They tire, however, when they see that they obtain nothing.

Nevertheless, it would not be just, nor accurate, to impute to them all the disappointments you experience and of which you are the principal culprits through your thoughtlessness.

Be assured that, if your crockery breaks, it is more through your clumsiness than through the fault of the Spirits.” a — Of these, do those who provoke contrarieties act impelled by personal animosity, or do they proceed thus against anyone, without determined motive, out of pure malice?

“For one and the other thing. Sometimes those who thus molest you are enemies you made in this or in a preceding existence. At other times, there is no motive.”

Is the malevolence of the beings who did us harm on Earth extinguished with corporeal life?

“Many times they recognize the injustice with which they proceeded and the harm they caused. But, also, it is not rare that they continue to persecute you, full of animosity, if God permits it, in order to still test you.”

a — Can one put an end to this? By what means?

“You can. By praying for them and repaying their evil with good, they will end up understanding the injustice of their conduct.

Moreover, if you know how to place yourselves above their machinations, they will leave you, on verifying that they gain nothing.”

Experience demonstrates that some Spirits continue in another existence to exercise the vengeances they had been taking and that thus, sooner or later, man pays for the harm he has done to another.

Do the Spirits have the power to keep ills away from certain persons and to favor them with prosperity?

“Not entirely; for there are ills that are in the decrees of Providence. They soften your pains for you, however, giving you patience and resignation.

“Know likewise that it depends on you many times to spare yourselves ills, or, at the least, to attenuate them. Intelligence, God granted it to you so that you may make use of it, and it is principally by means of your intelligence that the Spirits assist you, suggesting to you ideas propitious to your good.

But they assist only those who know how to assist themselves. This is the sense of these words: Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.

“Know also that what seems to you to be an ill is not always one. Frequently, from what you consider an ill a much greater good will come. You almost never understand this, because you attend only to the present moment or to your own person.”

Can the Spirits make those who ask them for it obtain riches?

“Sometimes, as a trial.

Almost always, however, they refuse, as one refuses a child the satisfaction of an inconsiderate request.”

a — Is it the good or the bad Spirits who grant these favors?

“Both. It depends on the intention.

Most often, however, those who grant them are the Spirits who wish to drag you toward evil and who find an easy means of obtaining it, by facilitating for you the enjoyments that riches provide.”

Is it by the influence of some Spirit that, fatally, the realization of our projects seems to meet obstacles?

“Sometimes it is the effect of the action of the Spirits; much more often, however, it is that you are mistaken in the elaboration and in the execution of your projects.

The position and the character of the individual have much influence in these cases. If you persist in going by a path you should not follow, the Spirits bear no blame for your failures. You yourselves constitute yourselves into your bad genii.”

When something fortunate happens to us, is it to the Spirit who is our protector that we should give thanks for it?

“Give thanks first of all to God, without whose permission nothing is done; then, to the good Spirits who were the agents of His will.”

a — What would happen if we forgot to give thanks?

“What happens to the ungrateful.”

b — And yet, there are persons who neither ask nor give thanks and to whom everything turns out well!

“So it is, in fact, but it matters to see the end. They will pay very dearly for that happiness of which they are not deserving, for the more they shall have received, the greater the accounts they will have to render.”

The Spirits' action upon the phenomena of Nature.

Are the great phenomena of Nature, those that are considered as a disturbance of the elements, due to fortuitous causes, or, on the contrary, do they all have a providential end?

“Everything has a reason for being and nothing happens without the permission of God.”

a — Do these phenomena always have man as their object?

“Sometimes they have man as their immediate reason for being.

In the majority of cases, however, they have for their sole motive the reestablishment of the equilibrium and of the harmony of the physical forces of Nature.”

b — We perfectly conceive that the will of God is the primary cause, in this as in everything; but, knowing that the Spirits exercise action upon matter and that they are the agents of the will of God, we ask whether some among them do not exercise a certain influence over the elements to agitate, calm, or direct them?

“But, evidently. Nor could it be otherwise.

God does not exercise direct action upon matter. He finds devoted agents in all the degrees of the scale of the worlds.”

The mythology of the Ancients was founded entirely on Spiritist ideas, with the sole difference that they considered the Spirits as divinities. They represented these gods or these Spirits with special attributions. Thus, some were charged with the winds, others with the lightning, others with presiding over the phenomenon of vegetation, etc. Is such a belief totally destitute of foundation? “So little is it destitute of foundation, that it still falls far short of the truth.”

a — Could there then be Spirits who inhabit the interior of the Earth and preside over the geological phenomena?

“Such Spirits do not positively inhabit the Earth.

They preside over the phenomena and direct them in accordance with the attributions they have.

A day will come when you will receive the explanation of all these phenomena and will understand them better.”

Do the Spirits who preside over the phenomena of Nature form a special category in the spiritual world? Are they beings apart, or Spirits who were incarnate like us?

“Who were or who will be.”

a — Do these Spirits belong to the superior or to the inferior orders of the spiritual hierarchy?

“That is according to whether the role they perform be more or less material, more or less intelligent.

Some command, others execute.

Those who execute material things are always of an inferior order, both among the Spirits and among men.”

Is the production of certain phenomena, of tempests, for example, the work of a single Spirit, or do many gather, forming great masses, to produce them?

“They gather in innumerable masses.”

Do the Spirits who exercise action in the phenomena of Nature operate with knowledge of the cause, using free will, or by effect of instinct or unreflecting impulse?

“Some yes, others no.

Let us establish a comparison. Consider those myriads of animals that, little by little, make islands and archipelagos emerge from the sea. Do you judge that there is no providential end in this and that this transformation of the surface of the globe is not necessary to the general harmony? Yet, it is animals of the lowest order that execute these works, providing for their needs and without suspecting that they are instruments of God.

Well then, in the same way, the most backward Spirits offer utility to the whole. While they are training for life, before they have full consciousness of their acts and are in full enjoyment of free will, they act in certain phenomena, of which they unconsciously constitute themselves the agents.

First, they execute. Later, when their intelligences shall have already attained a certain development, they will order and direct the things of the material world.

Afterward, they will be able to direct those of the moral world.

It is thus that everything serves, that everything is linked together in Nature, from the primitive atom n up to the archangel, who also began by being an atom.

An admirable law of harmony, which your narrow spirit cannot yet appreciate in its whole!” The Spirits during combats.

During a battle, are there Spirits assisting the combats and supporting each of the armies?

“Yes, and who stimulate their courage.”

The ancients figured the gods taking the side of this or that people. These gods were simply Spirits represented by allegories.

Justice being, in a war, always on one of the sides, how can there be Spirits who take the side of those who fight for an unjust cause?

“You well know that there are Spirits who take pleasure only in discord and in destruction. For these, war is war. The justice of the cause little preoccupies them.”

Can some Spirits influence the general in the conception of his plans of campaign?

“Without any doubt. They can influence him in that respect, as with regard to all conceptions.”

Could bad Spirits arouse erroneous plans in him with the aim of leading him to defeat?

“They can; but, does he not have free will?

If he has not judgment enough to distinguish a false idea, he will suffer the consequences and would do better to obey, instead of commanding.”

Can the general, at some time, be guided by a kind of second sight, by an intuitive vision, that shows him beforehand the result of his plans?

“That happens often with the man of genius. It is what he calls inspiration and what makes him act with a kind of certainty.

That inspiration comes to him from the Spirits who direct him, who take advantage of the faculties with which they see him endowed.”

In the tumult of combats, what happens with the Spirits of those who succumb? Do they continue, after death, to take interest in the battle?

“Some continue to take interest, others withdraw.”

There occurs, in combats, what occurs in all cases of violent death: in the first moment, the Spirit is surprised and as if stunned. It judges that it is not dead. It seems to it that it still takes part in the action; only little by little does reality dawn upon it.

After death, do the Spirits who as living men warred against one another continue to consider themselves enemies and remain fierce against one another?

“On these occasions, the Spirit is never calm. It may happen that in the first instants after death it still hates its enemy and even persecutes him.

When, however, serenity is reestablished in its ideas, it sees that there is no longer any foundation for its animosity.

Nevertheless, it is not impossible that it keep traces of it, more or less strong, according to its character.” a — Does it continue to hear the noise of the battle?

“Perfectly.”

Does the Spirit who, as spectator, calmly attends a combat observe the act of the soul separating from the body? How does this phenomenon present itself to its observation?

“Rare are the truly instantaneous deaths. In the majority of cases, the Spirit, whose body has just been mortally wounded, does not have immediate consciousness of this fact.

Only when it begins to recognize the new condition in which it finds itself can the bystanders distinguish it, moving beside the corpse.

This seems so natural that the sight of the dead body causes it no disagreeable effect.

Life having been wholly concentrated in the Spirit, it alone holds the attention of the others. It is with it that these converse, or to it that they make their determinations.” Of pacts.

Will there be anything of truth in the pacts with the bad Spirits?

“No, there are no pacts.

There are, however, bad natures that sympathize with the bad Spirits.

For example: you wish to torment your neighbor and you do not know how you are to do it. You then call upon inferior Spirits who, like you, wish only evil and who, in order to help you, demand that you too serve them in their bad designs.

But, it does not follow that your neighbor cannot free himself from them by means of an opposite conjuration and by the action of his will.

He who intends to practice a bad action, by the simple fact of feeding that intention, calls to his aid bad Spirits, whom he is then obliged to serve, because these Spirits also need him, for the evil they wish to do. In this alone consists the pact.”

The fact of man remaining, at times, under the dependence of the inferior Spirits is born of his giving himself over to the bad thoughts they suggest to him and not of any stipulations whatever that he makes with them.

The pact, in the common sense of the term, is an allegory representative of the sympathy existing between an individual of a bad nature and maleficent Spirits.

What is the sense of the fantastic legends in which figure individuals who would have sold their souls to Satan in order to obtain certain favors?

“All fables enclose a teaching and a moral sense. Your error consists in taking them to the letter.

That to which you refer is an allegory, which can be explained in this manner: he who calls to his aid the Spirits, to obtain from them riches, or any other favor, rebels against Providence; he renounces the mission he received and the trials it behooves him to bear in this world. He will suffer in the future life the consequences of that act.

This does not mean that his soul remains forever condemned to unhappiness. But, since, instead of detaching himself from matter, he buries himself in it more and more, he will not have, in the world of the Spirits, the satisfaction he enjoyed on Earth, until he has redeemed his fault, by means of new trials, perhaps greater and more painful.

He places himself, for the love of material enjoyments, under the dependence of the impure Spirits. There is thus established, tacitly, between these and the delinquent, a pact that leads him to his ruin, but that will always be easy for him to break, if he firmly wills it, gaining the assistance of the good Spirits.” Hidden power. — Talismans. — Sorcerers.

Can a bad man, with the aid of a bad Spirit devoted to him, do harm to his neighbor?

“No; God would not permit it.”

What should one think of the belief in the power, that certain persons would have, of bewitching?

“Some persons have at their disposal great magnetic force, of which they can make bad use, if their own Spirits are bad, in which case it becomes possible for them to be seconded by other bad Spirits.

Do not believe, however, in a pretended magical power, which exists only in the imagination of superstitious creatures, ignorant of the true laws of Nature.

The facts they cite, as proof of the existence of that power, are natural facts, badly observed and above all badly understood.”

What effect can the formulas and practices produce by means of which there are persons who claim to have at their disposal the concurrence of the Spirits?

“The effect of making them ridiculous, if they proceed in good faith.

In the contrary case, they are knaves who deserve punishment.

All the formulas are mere charlatanry.

There is no sacramental word whatever, no cabalistic sign, nor talisman, that has any action over the Spirits, 5 for these are attracted only by thought and not by material things.” a — But, is it not exact that some Spirits have dictated, themselves, cabalistic formulas?

“Indeed, there are Spirits who indicate signs, strange words, or prescribe the practice of acts, by means of which the so-called conjurations are made.

But, be assured that they are Spirits who scoff at you and mock your credulity.”

Cannot he who, with or without reason, trusts in what he calls the virtue of a talisman, attract a Spirit, by the very effect of that confidence, since, then, what acts is thought, the talisman being nothing but a sign that merely aids his concentration?

“It is true; but, on the purity of the intention and on the elevation of the sentiments depends the nature of the Spirit that is attracted.

Now, very rarely will he who is simpleton enough to believe in the virtue of a talisman fail to aim at an end more material than moral.

Whatever, however, the case may be, that belief denounces an inferiority and a weakness of ideas that favor the action of the imperfect and scoffing Spirits.”

What sense should one give to the qualifier of sorcerer?

“Those whom you call sorcerers are persons who, when in good faith, enjoy certain faculties, such as magnetic force or second sight.

Then, as they do things generally incomprehensible, they are held to be endowed with a supernatural power. Have not your wise men many times passed for sorcerers in the eyes of the ignorant?”

Spiritism and magnetism give us the key to an immensity of phenomena about which ignorance has woven a countless number of fables, in which the facts present themselves exaggerated by imagination. The lucid knowledge of these two sciences which, to tell the truth, form a single one, by showing the reality of things and their true causes, constitutes the best preservative against superstitious ideas, because it reveals what is possible and what is impossible, what is in the laws of Nature and what is nothing but ridiculous credulity.

Do some persons truly have the power to cure by simple contact?

“The magnetic force can reach that far, when seconded by purity of sentiments and by an ardent desire to do good, because then the good Spirits come to its aid.

It behooves one, however, to distrust the manner in which very credulous and very enthusiastic persons recount things, always disposed to consider marvelous what is most simple and most natural.

It matters to distrust also the self-interested narratives that those are wont to make who exploit, to their own profit, the credulity of others.” Blessings and curses.

Can the blessing and the curse attract good and evil to him upon whom they are cast?

“God does not listen to the unjust curse and culpable before Him becomes he who utters it.

As we have the two opposite genii, good and evil, the curse can exercise a momentary influence, even upon matter.

Such influence, however, is verified only by the will of God as an increase of trial for him who is its object.

Moreover, what is common is that the bad are cursed and the good are blessed.

Never can the blessing and the curse turn aside from the path of justice Providence, which never strikes the cursed one, save when he is bad, and whose protection shelters only him who deserves it.” [1] When Humberto de Campos in the book Words of the Infinite says that “every atom of matter has its genesis in the invisible atom of a psychic nature,” he generalized the definition to all the vibratory patterns of matter, regardless of whether it be dense or subtle matter; when he says “psychic nature,” his conception coincides perfectly with this answer of the Spirits to question 540 presented by Allan Kardec.