BICORPOREITY AND TRANSFIGURATION.

Apparitions of the Spirits of living persons. Double men.

— Saint Alphonsus Liguori and Saint Anthony of Padua.

— Vespasian.

— Transfiguration. Invisibility.

— Agenerous beings.

These two phenomena are varieties of that of the visual manifestations and, however marvelous they may appear at first sight, one will easily recognize, from the explanation that can be given of them, that they do not lie outside the order of natural phenomena.

Both rest on the principle that everything that has been said of the properties of the perispirit after death applies to the perispirit of the living.

We know that during sleep the Spirit regains part of its freedom, that is, it isolates itself from the body, and it is in this state that, on many occasions, there is the opportunity to observe it.

But the Spirit, whether the man be alive or dead, always carries the semimaterial envelope which, by the same causes we have already treated of, can become visible and tangible.

There are very positive facts that permit no doubt in this regard.

We shall cite only a few examples, of which we have personal knowledge and whose accuracy we can guarantee, while it is possible for everyone to record others analogous to them by consulting their own recollections.

[Apparitions of the Spirits of living persons. Double men.]

The wife of one of our friends saw, on repeated occasions, a fruit-seller whom she knew by sight, residing in the vicinity but with whom she had never spoken, enter her room during the night, whether there was light or not.

This apparition caused her great terror, not only because, at the time when it occurred, she still knew nothing of Spiritism, but also because it occurred very frequently.

Now, the fruit-seller was perfectly alive and, at those hours, was probably asleep. Thus, while in her own house her material body rested, her Spirit, with its corresponding fluidic body, went to the house of the lady in question. For what reason? That is what is not known. Faced with a fact of such a nature, a Spiritist initiated into this kind of phenomena would have asked it; of this, however, the lady had no idea.

Every time, the apparition vanished without her knowing how, and every time as well, after the disappearance, she took care to make sure that the doors were well shut, so that no one could enter her room. This precaution gave her proof that she was always completely awake on the occasion and had not been the plaything of a dream.

At other times she saw, in the same manner, a man who was unknown to her, and one day she saw her own brother, who was in California. He presented himself to her with so perfect an appearance of a real person that, at the first moment, she believed he had returned and wished to address him. Soon, however, the figure disappeared, without giving her time for that. A letter that subsequently reached her brought her proof that the brother she had seen had not died.

This lady was what may be called a natural seeing medium. But then, as we said above, she had never yet heard tell of mediums.

Another lady, residing in the province, being gravely ill, saw one night, around ten o'clock, an elderly gentleman who resided in the same town and with whom she sometimes met in society, but without there being close relations between the two.

She saw him near her bed, seated in an armchair and taking, from time to time, a pinch of snuff. He had the air of watching over her. Surprised by such a visit at such an hour, she wished to ask him for what reason he was there, but the gentleman made a sign to her not to speak and to try to sleep. Every time she attempted to address him, the same gesture prevented her from doing so. The lady ended by falling asleep.

A few days later, having recovered, she received a visit from the said gentleman, but at a more suitable hour, and this time it was really he who was there. He wore the same clothes, the same snuffbox, and his manners were the same.

Persuaded that he had visited her during her illness, she thanked him for the trouble he had taken. The man, much astonished, declared that for a long time he had not had the satisfaction of seeing her.

The lady, being acquainted with the Spiritist phenomena, understood what it was about; but, not wishing to enter into explanations, she limited herself to saying that it had probably been a dream.

That is the most likely thing, the incredulous will say, the “strong spirits,” which, for themselves, is synonymous with persons of wit.

The certain thing, however, is that the lady of whom we speak, just like the other, was not asleep. Then she had dreamed while awake, or, rather, she had had a hallucination. — There is the magic word, the universal explanation of everything that is not understood. Since, however, we have already sufficiently refuted that explanation, [no. 111] we shall proceed, addressing ourselves to those who can understand us.

Here now is another fact still more characteristic, and we would have great curiosity to see how it could be explained solely by means of the imagination.

It concerns a provincial gentleman who had never wished to marry, despite the urgings of his family, who had insisted greatly, notably in favor of a young woman residing in a nearby town and whom he had never seen. One day, being in his room, he had the enormous surprise of finding himself in the presence of a maiden dressed in white and with her head adorned by a crown of flowers. She told him that she was his betrothed, held out her hand to him, which he took in his, seeing on one of her fingers a ring. After a few moments, everything disappeared.

Surprised by that apparition, after having made sure that he was perfectly awake, he inquired whether anyone had been there during the day. He was told that no one had been seen in the house.

A year having elapsed, yielding to fresh solicitations from a kinswoman, he resolved to go and see the young woman they were proposing to him. He arrived in the town where she lived on the day of the feast of Corpus Christi. They all returned from the procession, and one of the first persons who appeared before his eyes, as he entered the house to which he was going, was a young woman whom it cost him no trouble to recognize as the same one who had appeared to him. She was dressed exactly as the apparition had been, since this had also taken place on a Corpus Christi day.

He was dumbfounded, and the young girl, for her part, uttered a cry and felt faint. Coming to herself, she said she had already seen that gentleman a year before, on a day like the one they were on. The marriage took place.

This occurred in 1835, a time when Spirits were still not thought of, with the added fact that both protagonists of the episode are extremely positivistic and possessed of the least exalted imagination in the world.

It will perhaps be said that both had their minds awakened by the idea of the proposed union and that this preoccupation determined a hallucination. It is important, however, not to forget that the husband had remained so indifferent to it that he let a year pass without going to see his intended. Even, however, if this hypothesis be admitted, there would still remain pending of explanation the double apparition, the coincidence of the attire with that of the Corpus Christi day, and, finally, the physical recognition reciprocally occurring between persons who had never seen each other, circumstances that cannot be the product of the imagination.

Before going further, we must immediately answer a question that will not fail to be formulated: how can the body live while the Spirit is absent?

We could say that the body lives the organic life, which is independent of the Spirit, and the proof is that plants live and have no Spirit.

But we must add that, during life, the Spirit is never completely separated from the body.

In the same way as some seeing mediums, the Spirits recognize the Spirit of a living person by a luminous trail that ends in the body, a phenomenon that absolutely does not occur when the latter is dead, because then the separation is complete.

By means of this communication, between the Spirit and the body, the former receives notice, whatever be the distance at which it finds itself from the latter, of the need the latter may experience of its presence, in which case it returns to its envelope with the swiftness of lightning.

From this it results that the body cannot die during the absence of the Spirit and that it cannot happen that the latter, on returning, finds the door shut, as some novelists have said in stories composed to entertain. (The Spirits'

Book, no. 400 and following.)

[Saint Alphonsus Liguori and Saint Anthony of Padua.]

Let us return to our subject. Isolated from the body, the Spirit of a living person can, like that of a dead person, show itself with all the appearances of reality.

Moreover, by the same causes we have set forth, it can acquire momentary tangibility. This phenomenon, known by the name of bicorporeity, is what gave rise to the stories of double men, that is, of individuals whose simultaneous presence in two different places came to be proven.

Here are two examples, drawn not from popular legends but from ecclesiastical history. Saint Alphonsus Liguori was canonized before the prescribed time, for having shown himself simultaneously in two different places, which passed for a miracle.

Saint Anthony of Padua was preaching in Italy when his father, in Lisbon,[1] was about to be executed, on the accusation of having committed a murder. At the moment of the execution, Saint Anthony appears and demonstrates the innocence of the accused. It was proven that, at that instant, Saint Anthony was preaching in Italy, in the city of Padua.

Evoked and questioned by us about the above fact, Saint Alphonsus (Liguori) answered in the following manner:

Could you explain this phenomenon to us?

“Perfectly. When man, by his virtues, has come to dematerialize himself completely; when he has succeeded in raising his soul toward God, he can appear in two places at the same time.

Here is how: the incarnate Spirit, on feeling sleep coming upon it, can ask God to be permitted to transport itself to some place. Its Spirit, or its soul, as you wish, then abandons the body, accompanied by a part of its perispirit, and leaves the material body in a state close to that of death.

I say close to that of death, because there remained in the body a bond that links the perispirit and the soul to matter, a bond that cannot be defined. The body then appears in the desired place. I believe this is what you wish to know.”

Does this not give us an explanation of the visibility and tangibility of the perispirit? “Finding itself freed from matter, in accordance with the degree of its elevation, the Spirit can make itself tangible to matter.”

Is the sleep of the body indispensable for the Spirit to appear in other places? “The soul can divide itself when it feels drawn toward a place different from that where its body is.

It can happen that the body is not asleep, although this is very rare; but in any case it will not be found in a perfectly normal state; it will always be a state more or less ecstatic.”

NOTE. The soul does not divide itself, in the literal sense of the term: it radiates in various directions and can thus manifest itself at many points without having been fractioned. What happens is what happens with light, which can be reflected simultaneously in many mirrors.

What would happen if, the man being asleep while his Spirit shows itself elsewhere, someone were suddenly to awaken him? “That would not occur, because, if someone had the intention of awakening him, the Spirit would return to the body, foreseeing the intention, since the Spirit reads thoughts.”

NOTE. An entirely identical explanation has been given to us, many times, by Spirits of dead or living persons. Saint Alphonsus explains the fact of the double presence, but not the theory of the visibility and tangibility. [Vespasian.]

Tacitus relates an analogous fact:

During the months that Vespasian spent in Alexandria, awaiting the return of the summer winds and of the season in which the sea offers safety, many prodigies occurred, through which were manifested the protection of Heaven and the interest the gods took in that prince…

These prodigies redoubled the desire that Vespasian nourished of visiting the sacred dwelling of the god, to consult him about the affairs of the empire. He ordered that the temple be kept closed to whomsoever, and, having entered it, he was wholly attentive to what the oracle was going to say, when he perceived, behind him, one of the most eminent Egyptians, called Basilides, whom he knew to be ill, in a place many days distant from Alexandria.

He inquired of the priests whether Basilides had come to the temple that day; he inquired of the passersby whether they had seen him in the city; finally, he dispatched some men on horseback to learn of Basilides and came to ascertain that, at the moment when the latter had appeared to him, he was eighty miles away.

From then on, he no longer doubted that the vision had been supernatural, and the name of Basilides remained to him as the equivalent of an oracle. (Tacitus: Histories, book IV, chapters LXXXI and LXXXII. Translation by Burnouf.)

The individual who shows himself simultaneously in two different places has, then, two bodies.

But of these two bodies, only one is real, the other is mere appearance.

It may be said that the first has the organic life and that the second has the life of the soul.

When the individual awakens, the two bodies reunite, and the life of the soul returns to the material body.

It does not seem possible, at least we know of no example of it, and reason, in our view, demonstrates it, that, in the state of separation, the two bodies can enjoy, simultaneously and in the same degree, active and intelligent life.

Moreover, from what we have just said it stands out that the real body could not die while the apparent body remained visible, since the approach of death always draws the Spirit toward the body, even if only for an instant.

From this it likewise results that the apparent body could not be killed, because it is not organic, it is not formed of flesh and bone. It would disappear at the moment when one wished to kill it.[2]

[Transfiguration. Invisibility.]

Let us pass to the second phenomenon, that of transfiguration. It consists in the change in the aspect of a living body.

Here is a fact of this nature whose perfect authenticity we can guarantee, having occurred during the years 1858 and 1859, in the environs of Saint-Étienne.

A young girl, of about fifteen years, enjoyed the singular faculty of transfiguring herself, that is, of taking on, at given moments, all the appearances of certain dead persons.

So complete was the illusion that those who were present at the phenomenon believed they had before them the very person whose appearance she took on, such was the resemblance of the physiognomic features, of the gaze, of the sound of the voice, and even of the particular manner of speaking.

This phenomenon repeated itself hundreds of times without the will of the young girl interfering in it.

She took on, on various occasions, the appearance of her brother, who had died some years before. She reproduced not only his countenance, but also his bearing and his corpulence.

A physician of the place, who had been a witness, many times, of these strange effects, wishing to make sure that there was no illusionism in it, performed the experiment we are going to relate. We know the facts from what he himself, the girl's father, and various other eyewitnesses, very honorable and worthy of credit, related to us.

It came into this physician's mind to weigh the girl in her normal state and to do the same to her in the state of transfiguration, when she presented the appearance of her brother, who, at his death, was twenty-odd years old and was taller than she and of stronger build. Well then! he verified that, in the second state, the girl's weight was almost double her normal weight.

The experiment shows itself conclusive, making it impossible to attribute that appearance to a mere optical illusion. Let us try to explain this fact, which in another time would have been qualified as a miracle and which today we very simply call a phenomenon.

Transfiguration, in certain cases, can originate from a mere muscular contraction, capable of giving the physiognomy an expression very different from the habitual one, to the point of making the person almost unrecognizable.

We have observed it frequently with some somnambulists; but, in that case, the transformation is not radical.

A woman may appear young or old, beautiful or ugly, but she will always be a woman, and above all, her weight will neither increase nor diminish. In the phenomenon with which we are concerned, there is something more.

The theory of the perispirit is going to enlighten us.

It is admitted, in principle, that the Spirit can give to its perispirit all appearances; 5 that, by means of a modification in the molecular disposition, it can give it visibility, tangibility, and, consequently, opacity; 6 that the perispirit of a living person, isolated from the body, is susceptible to the same transformations; 7 that this change of state operates through the combination of the fluids.

Let us now picture the perispirit of a living person, not isolated, but radiating around the body in such a way as to envelop it in a kind of vapor. In this state, it becomes susceptible to the same modifications it would undergo if the body were separated.

The perispirit losing its transparency, the body can disappear, become invisible, remain veiled, as if plunged into a mist.

The perispirit may then change its aspect, make itself brilliant, if such be the will of the Spirit and if the latter has the power for it.

Another Spirit, combining its fluids with those of the first, may, upon this combination of fluids, imprint the appearance that is proper to it, in such a way that the real body will disappear beneath the exterior fluidic envelope, whose appearance can vary at the will of the Spirit.

This appears to be the true cause of the strange and rare phenomenon, it must be said, of transfiguration.

As for the difference in weight, it is explained in the same manner in which it is explained in relation to inert bodies. The intrinsic weight of the body did not vary, since the quantity of matter in it did not increase. It underwent, however, the influence of an exterior agent, which can increase or diminish its relative weight, as we explained above, no. 78 and following. It is probable, therefore, that, if the transformation is produced with the person taking on the aspect of a child, the weight diminishes proportionally.

It is conceivable that the body can take on another appearance of dimension equal to or greater than the one proper to it. How, however, will it be possible for it to take on one of smaller dimension, that of a child, as we have just said?

In this case, is it not to be foreseen that the real body would exceed the limits of the apparent body? For the very reason that such can occur, we do not say that the fact has been produced.

Merely, referring to the theory of specific weight, we wished to make it felt that the apparent weight could have diminished.

As for the phenomenon in itself, we affirm neither its possibility nor its impossibility.

Granted, however, that it occurs, the circumstance that a satisfactory solution is not offered for it would in no way invalidate it. It is important not to forget that we find ourselves in the early days of the science and that it is far from having said the last word on this point, as on many others.

Besides, the excess parts could perfectly well be rendered invisible.

The theory of the phenomenon of invisibility stands out very naturally from the preceding explanations and from those that were furnished concerning the phenomenon of transports, no. 96 and following. [Agenerous beings.]

It remains for us to speak of the singular phenomenon of the agenerous beings which, however extraordinary it may appear at first sight, is no more supernatural than the others.

But, since we explained it in the Spiritist Review (February 1859), we deem it useless to treat of it here in detail.

We shall say only that it is a variety of the tangible apparition. It is the state of certain Spirits who can momentarily clothe themselves in the forms of a living person, to the point of causing complete illusion. (From the Greek a, privative, and geine, geinomai, to generate: that which was not generated.)

[1] In the original French: “était en Espagne, et au temps où il prêchait, son père, qui était à Padoue, allait au supplice accusé d’un meurtre.” [2] See in the Spiritist Review, January 1859: The Goblin of Bayonne. February 1859: The agenerous beings; my friend Hermann. May 1859: The bond that binds the Spirit to the body. November 1859: The wandering soul. January 1860: The Spirit on one side and the body on the other. March 1860: Studies on the Spirit of living persons; Dr. Vignal and Miss Indermuhle. April 1860: The manufacturer of Saint Petersburg; Tangible apparitions. November 1860: Story of Maria de Agreda. July 1861: A providential apparition.