MEDIUMSHIP IN ANIMALS.

— Can animals be mediums? This question has been asked many times, and some facts seem to answer it in the affirmative.

What has, above all, lent weight to the opinion of those who think so are the remarkable signs of intelligence in certain birds which, when trained, seem to divine one's thought and draw from a deck of cards those that can accurately answer a question put to them. We observed such experiments with special attention, and what we most admired was the skill that must have been employed in the instruction of the said birds.

Incontestably, one cannot deny them a certain measure of relative intelligence, but it must be granted that, in this circumstance, their perspicacity would far exceed that of man, for there is no one who could flatter himself on doing what they do. It would even be necessary to suppose them endowed, for certain experiments, with a gift of second sight superior to that of the most lucid somnambulists. It is known, indeed, that lucidity is essentially variable and subject to frequent intermittences, whereas in these animals it would be permanent and would operate with a regularity and precision seen in no somnambulist. In a word: it would never fail them.

For the most part, the experiments we witnessed are of the nature of those performed by conjurers and could leave us in no doubt as to the use of some of the means they employ, notably that of forced cards. The art of sleight of hand consists in concealing those means, without which the effect would have no charm. Nevertheless, the phenomenon, even reduced to these proportions, is no less interesting, and there is always cause to admire the talent of the trainer as much as the intelligence of the pupil, for the difficulty to be overcome is far greater than it would be if the bird acted solely by virtue of its own faculties. Now, to lead it to do things that exceed the limit of what is possible for human intelligence is to prove, by this simple fact, the use of a secret process. Moreover, there is one circumstance that never fails to be verified: namely, that the birds attain such a degree of skill only after a certain time and by means of special and persevering care, which would not be necessary if only their intelligence were at play. It is no more extraordinary to train them to draw cards than to accustom them to repeat melodies or words.

The same was found when sleight of hand sought to imitate second sight. The patient was driven to the extreme, so that the illusion might last a long time. From the very first time we attended a session of this kind, we saw nothing more than a very imperfect imitation of somnambulism, revealing ignorance of the essential conditions of that faculty.

Be that as it may, with regard to the experiments of which we spoke above, the principal question nevertheless remains, from another point of view, no less entire, since, just as the imitation of somnambulism does not prevent the faculty from existing, so too the imitation of mediumship by means of birds proves nothing against the possibility of the existence, in them, or in other animals, of an analogous faculty.

It is, then, a matter of knowing whether animals are apt, like men, to serve as intermediaries for the Spirits, for their intelligent communications. It seems even very logical to suppose that a living being, endowed with a certain measure of intelligence, would be more apt for this effect than an inert body, without vitality, such as, for example, a table. Yet this is not the case.

The question of the mediumship of animals is completely resolved in the following dissertation, given by a Spirit whose depth and sagacity the readers have been able to appreciate in the quotations, which we have had occasion to make, of his instructions. To fully grasp the value of his demonstration, it is essential to bear in mind the explanation he gave of the role of the medium in communications, an explanation we reproduced earlier. (no. 225.)

He gave this communication following a discussion that had taken place on the subject in the Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies:

“Today I shall expound the question of the mediumship of animals, raised and upheld by one of your most fervent adherents. He maintains, by virtue of this axiom: He who can do the greater can do the lesser, that we can “mediumize” birds and other animals and make use of them in our communications with the human species.

This is what you call, in philosophy, or rather in logic, purely and simply a sophism. “You can animate,” he says, “inert matter, that is, a table, a chair, a piano; a fortiori, you must be able to animate matter already animated and particularly birds.” Well then! in the normal state of Spiritism, it is not so, it cannot be so.

“First, let us understand one another well concerning the facts. What is a medium? It is the being, it is the individual that serves as a connecting link to the Spirits, so that these may communicate easily with men: incarnate Spirits.

Consequently, without a medium, there are no communications, whether tangible, mental, written, physical, of whatever nature they may be.

“There is a principle which, I am certain, all Spiritists admit, namely that like acts with its like and as its like. Now, what are the likes of the Spirits, if not the Spirits, whether incarnate or not?

Must we repeat it to you incessantly? Well then! I shall repeat it once more: your perispirit and ours proceed from the same medium, are of identical nature, are, in a word, alike. They possess a property of assimilation more or less developed, of magnetization more or less vigorous, which permits us, disincarnate and incarnate Spirits, to place ourselves very promptly and easily in communication.

In short, what is peculiar to mediums, what belongs to the very essence of their individuality, is a special affinity and, at the same time, a particular force of expansion, which remove from them all refractoriness and establish, between them and us, a kind of current, a kind of fusion, which facilitates communications for us.

It is, in sum, this refractoriness of matter that opposes the development of mediumship in the greater part of those who are not mediums.

“Men always show themselves prone to exaggerate everything; some, and I do not speak here of the materialists, deny a soul to animals, others readily attribute to them one equal, so to speak, to ours. Why should they thus wish to confound the perfectible with the imperfectible?

No, no, be convinced, the fire that animates the irrational creatures, the breath that makes them act, move, and speak in the language proper to them, has, for the present, no aptitude to mingle, unite, or fuse with the divine breath, the ethereal soul, the Spirit in a word, that animates the essentially perfectible being: man, the king of creation.

Now, is it not this fundamental condition of perfectibility that constitutes the superiority of the human species over the other terrestrial species? Recognize, then, that to man, who alone is perfectible in himself and in his works, no individual of the other races living on Earth can be assimilated.

“The dog which, by its intelligence superior among the animals, has become the friend and table-companion of man, will it be perfectible by itself, by its personal initiative? No one would dare affirm it, for the dog does not cause the dog to progress. The one among them that shows itself best trained was always so by its master.

Since the world has been the world, the otter has always built its hut over the water, following the same proportions and an invariable rule; the nightingales and the swallows have never built their respective nests except in the same way as their parents did. A sparrows' nest from before the flood, like a sparrows' nest of modern times, is always a sparrows' nest, built under the same conditions and with the same system of interlacing the bits of straw and the fragments gathered in spring, in the season of mating. The bees and ants, which form little well-administered republics, have never changed their habits of provisioning, their manner of proceeding, their customs, their productions. The spider, finally, weaves its web always in the same way.

“On the other hand, if you seek the leafy cabins and the tents of the first ages of the world, you will find, in the place of both, the palaces and castles of modern civilization. The garments of rough hides have given way to fabrics of gold and silk. In short, at every step, you find proof of the incessant march of Humanity along the path of progress.

“From this constant, invincible, undeniable advance of the human Spirit and from this indefinite standstill of the other animal species, you must conclude with me that, if it is certain that there exist principles common to all that lives and moves on Earth: the breath and matter, it is no less certain that you alone, incarnate Spirits, are subject to the inevitable law of progress, which fatally impels you forward and ever forward.

God placed the animals at your side as auxiliaries, to feed you, to clothe you, to support you. He gave them a certain measure of intelligence, because, to help you, they needed to understand; but He granted them intelligence only in proportion to the services they are called to render. But, in His wisdom, He did not will that they should be subject to the same law of progress. Just as they were created, so they have kept themselves and will keep themselves until the extinction of their races.

“They say: the Spirits “mediumize” inert matter and make chairs, tables, pianos move. They make them move, yes; “mediumize” them, no! 20 for, once more I say it, without a medium none of these phenomena can be produced.

What is extraordinary in our making, with the aid of one or of many mediums, inert, passive matter move, which, precisely by virtue of its passivity, of its inertia, is suited to execute the movements and impulses we wish to impart to it?

For this, we need mediums, that is positive; but it is not necessary that the medium be present, or conscious, since we can act with the elements he furnishes us, against his will and in his absence, above all to produce the facts of tangibility and that of transports.

Our fluidic envelope, more imponderable and more subtle than the most subtle and most imponderable of your gases, with a property of expansion and of penetrability inappreciable to your gross senses and almost inexplicable to you, uniting itself, wedding itself, combining itself with the fluidic, but animalized, envelope of the medium, permits us to impart movement to any furniture and even to break it in uninhabited rooms.

“It is true that the Spirits can render themselves visible and tangible to animals and, often, the sudden terror they display, without your perceiving its cause, is occasioned by the sight of one or of many Spirits, ill-disposed toward the persons present, or toward the owners of the animals.

Still more frequently you see horses that refuse to advance or to back up, or that rear before an imaginary obstacle. Well then! hold it as certain that the imaginary obstacle is almost always a Spirit or a group of Spirits that take pleasure in preventing them from moving.

Recall Balaam's she-donkey which, seeing an angel before it and fearing its flaming sword, persisted in not taking a step. And that, before manifesting himself visibly to Balaam, the angel had wished to make himself visible to the animal alone.

But, I repeat, we do not directly mediumize either the animals or inert matter. We always need the conscious, or unconscious, concurrence of a human medium, because we need the union of similar fluids, which we find neither in the animals nor in raw matter.

“Mr. T. says he magnetized his dog. To what result did he come? He killed it, for the unfortunate animal died, after having fallen into a kind of atony, of languor, consequent upon its magnetization. Indeed, by saturating it with a fluid drawn from an essence superior to the special essence of its canine nature, he crushed it, acting upon the animal after the manner of lightning, though more slowly.

Thus, then, as there is no assimilation possible between our perispirit and the fluidic envelope of the animals, properly so called, we would annihilate them instantly if we mediumized them.

“This said, I fully recognize that there are in animals diverse aptitudes; that certain sentiments, certain passions, identical to human passions and sentiments, develop in them; that they are sensitive and grateful, vengeful and full of hatred, according as one behaves well or ill toward them. It is that God, who made nothing incomplete, gave to the animals, companions or servants of man, qualities of sociability, which are wholly lacking in the wild animals, inhabitants of the solitudes.

But, from this to their being able to serve as intermediaries for the transmission of the thought of the Spirits, there is an abyss: the difference of natures.

“You know that we take from the brain of the medium the elements necessary to give to our thought a form that is perceptible and apprehensible to you; it is with the aid of the materials he possesses that the medium translates our thought into common language.

Now then! what elements would we find in the brain of an animal? Has it there words, numbers, letters, any signs, similar to those that exist in man, even the least intelligent? Yet, you will say, the animals understand the thought of man, they even divine it. Yes, trained animals understand certain thoughts, but have you ever seen them reproduce them? No. You must then conclude that the animals cannot serve us as interpreters.

“To sum up: the mediumistic facts cannot occur without the conscious, or unconscious, concurrence of mediums; and only among the incarnate, Spirits like us, can we find those who serve us as mediums. As for training dogs, birds, or other animals, to perform such and such exercises, that is your work and not ours.”

Erastus.

NOTE. In the Spiritist Review of September 1861, one finds, in detail, a process employed by the trainers of learned birds, with the aim of making them draw from a deck of cards those that are wanted.