A conversion.

The following evocation arouses no less interest, though from another point of view.

A gentleman, whom we shall designate by the name of Georges, a pharmacist in a town in the south, had recently lost his father, the object of all his tenderness and of a profound veneration. Mr. Georges's father combined with a very vast learning all the qualities that distinguish the man of good, although he professed very materialistic opinions. In this respect the son shared and even exceeded his father's ideas; he doubted everything, God, the soul, the future life. Spiritism could not recognize such thoughts as true. Nevertheless, the reading of The Spirits' Book produced in him a certain reaction, corroborated by a direct interview we had with him. “If my father,” he said, “could answer me, I would doubt no longer.” It was then that the evocation we are about to relate took place, and in which we shall find more than one teaching. — In the name of the Almighty, I ask the Spirit of my father to manifest. Are you near me? “Yes.” — Why did you not manifest directly to me, when we loved one another so much? “Later.” — Shall we be able to find one another again one day? “Yes, soon.” Shall we love one another, as in this life? “More.” — In what environment are you? “I am happy.” — Are you reincarnated or wandering? “Wandering for a short time.”

— What sensation did you experience when you left your bodily envelope? “Confusion.” — How long did that confusion last? “Little for me; much for you.” — Can you estimate the duration of that confusion according to our manner of counting? “Ten years for you, ten minutes for me.” — But all that time has not passed since I lost you; is it not only four months? “If you were in my place, you would have felt that time.”

— Do you now believe in a just and good God? “Yes.” Did you believe in Him when you were on Earth? “I had the foreknowledge, but I did not believe in Him.” — Is God Almighty? “I have not raised myself up to Him to assess His strength; He alone knows the limits of His power, because He alone is His equal.” Does He occupy Himself with men? “Yes.” — Shall we be punished or rewarded according to our acts? “If you do evil, you will suffer the consequences of it.” — Shall I be rewarded if I do good? “You will advance along your road.” — Am I on the right path? “Do good and you will be on it.” — I believe myself to be good, but I would be better if one day, as a reward, I were to find you. “May that thought sustain you and encourage you!” — Will my son be good like his grandfather? “Develop his virtues, stifle his vices.” — I can scarcely believe that we are communicating, so marvelous does this moment seem to me. “From where does your doubt come?” — From the fact that, sharing your philosophical opinions, I was led to attribute everything to matter. “Do you see by night what you see by day?” — Am I then in darkness, my father? “Yes.” — What do you see that is most marvelous? “Explain yourself better.” — Have you found again my mother, my sister, and Ana, good Ana? “I have seen them again.” Do you see them whenever you wish? “Yes.”

— Do you find it painful or agreeable that I should communicate with you? “For me it is a happiness, if I can lead you to good.” — On returning home, what could I do to communicate with you, which makes me so happy? This would serve to lead me better and would help me to educate my children better. “Each time that an impulse leads you toward good, it is I; it will be I who inspire you.”

— I fall silent, for fear of importuning you. “If you still wish to, speak.” — Since you permit it, I shall address a few more questions to you. Of what affliction did you die? “My trial had reached its term.” — Where did you contract the pulmonary abscess that manifested itself? “It matters little; the body is nothing; the Spirit is everything.” What is the nature of the illness that so frequently wakes me at night? “You will know it later.” — I consider my affliction grave, and I would like to live still for my children. “It is not; the heart of man is a machine of life; let nature act.” — Since you are present here, under what form do you present yourself? “Under the appearance of my bodily form.” — Are you in a determined place? “Yes, behind Ermance” (the medium). Could you make yourself visible to us? “For what? You would be afraid.”

— Do you see all of us, gathered here? “Yes.” — Do you have an opinion of each of us? “Yes.” — Could you tell us something? “In what sense do you ask me that question?” — From the moral point of view. “Another time; for today it is enough.”

The effect produced on Mr. Georges by this communication was immense; an entirely new light already seemed to illuminate his ideas; a session that took place the following day, at the house of Mrs. Roger, a somnambulist, ended by dissipating the few doubts that remained to him. Here is a summary of the letter that he wrote to us about it:

“This lady spontaneously entered into details with me, so precise, concerning my father, my mother, my children, my health; she described all the circumstances of my life with such precision, recalling even certain facts that had long since faded from my memory; in a word, she gave me proofs so manifest of that marvelous faculty with which lucid somnambulists are endowed, that the reaction of ideas was complete in me from that moment on. In the evocation, my father had revealed his presence; in the somnambulistic session I was, so to speak, an eyewitness of the extracorporeal life, the life of the soul. To describe with such minuteness and exactness, and at a distance of two hundred leagues, that which was known of me alone, it was necessary to see; now, since this was not possible with the eyes of the body, there must therefore be a mysterious, invisible bond, linking the somnambulist to absent persons and things, which she had never seen; there was, then, something outside of matter; what could that something be, if not that which is called the soul, the intelligent being, of which the body is only the envelope, but whose action extends far beyond our sphere of action?” Today, not only has Mr. Georges ceased to be a materialist, but he is one of the most fervent and zealous adherents of Spiritism, which makes him doubly happy, by the confidence that the future now inspires in him and by the pleasure he experiences in practicing good. [v. Psychological Period, the observations made by Mr. Georges.]

This evocation, quite simple at first sight, is no less remarkable in many respects. The character of Mr. Georges, the father, is reflected in the brief and sententious answers that were among his habits; he spoke little, never said a useless word; it is no longer the skeptic who speaks: he recognizes his error; his Spirit is freer, more clairvoyant, depicting the unity and the power of God by these admirable words: He alone is His equal; he who in life referred everything to matter now says: The body is nothing, the Spirit is everything; and this other sublime phrase: Do you see by night what you see by day? For the attentive observer everything has an importance, and it is thus that at every step he finds the confirmation of the great truths taught by the Spirits. [1] This section title was replaced by Allan Kardec with: “Conversations from beyond the grave” and later: “Familiar conversations from beyond the grave.”