Bernard Palissy — Description of Jupiter.

Note: We knew, from earlier evocations, that Bernard Palissy, the celebrated potter of the sixteenth century, inhabits Jupiter. The following answers confirm, on every point, what on various occasions has been told to us about that planet, by other Spirits and through different mediums. We think they will be read with interest, by way of complement to the picture we sketched in our last issue. A notable fact, the identity they present with the earlier descriptions is, at the very least, a presumption of exactness.

Where did you find yourself upon leaving the Earth?

Answer. – I lingered there still.

Under what conditions were you here?

Answer. – Under the features of a loving and devoted woman; it was only a mission.

Did that mission last long?

Answer. – Thirty years.

Do you remember the name of that woman?

Answer. – It is obscure.

Does the esteem in which your works are held please you? And does that compensate you for the sufferings you endured? Answer. – What do the material works of my hands matter to me? What matters to me is the suffering that raised me up.

With what aim did you trace, through the hands of Mr. Victorien Sardou, the admirable drawings you gave us of the planet Jupiter, where you dwell? Answer. – With the aim of inspiring the desire to make yourselves better.

Since you come frequently to this Earth that you have inhabited so many times, you must know its physical and moral state well enough to be able to establish a comparison between it and Jupiter; we beg you, then, to enlighten us on various points. Answer. – To your globe I come only as a Spirit; the Spirit no longer has material sensations.

PHYSICAL STATE OF THE GLOBE.

Can the temperature of Jupiter be compared to that of one of our latitudes?

Answer. – No; it is mild and temperate; always the same, whereas yours varies. Recall the Elysian Fields that were described to you.

Would the picture the Ancients gave us of the Elysian Fields have resulted from the intuitive knowledge they possessed of a superior world, such as Jupiter, for example? Answer. – From positive knowledge; evocation remained in the hands of the priests.

Does the temperature vary according to the latitudes, as on the Earth?

Answer. – No.

According to our calculations, the Sun must appear to the inhabitants of Jupiter under a very small angle and, consequently, give them little light. Can you tell us whether the intensity of the light there is equal to that of the Earth or whether it is less strong? Answer. – Jupiter is enveloped by a kind of spiritual light that bears relation to the essence of its inhabitants. The gross light of your Sun was not made for them.

Is there an atmosphere?

Answer. – Yes.

Is the atmosphere of Jupiter formed of the same elements as the terrestrial atmosphere?

Answer. – No; the men are not the same; their needs have changed.

Are there water and seas?

Answer. – Yes.

Is the water formed of the same elements as ours?

Answer. – More ethereal.

Are there volcanoes?

Answer. – No; our globe is not tormented as yours is; there, Nature has not had its great crises; it is the abode of the blessed; in it, matter scarcely exists.

Do the plants have analogy with ours?

Answer. – Yes, but they are more beautiful.

PHYSICAL STATE OF THE INHABITANTS.

Does the conformation of the inhabitants’ bodies bear relation to ours?

Answer. – Yes, it is the same.

Can you give us an idea of their stature, compared to that of the inhabitants of the Earth?

Answer. – Large and well proportioned. Taller than your tallest men. The body of man is like the mold of his Spirit: beautiful, where he is good; the envelope is worthy of him: it is no longer a prison.

Are the bodies there opaque, diaphanous, or translucent?

Answer. – There are both. Some have one property; others have another, according to their destination.

We conceive this for inert bodies, but our question refers to human bodies.

Answer. – The body envelops the Spirit without concealing it, like a thin veil cast over a statue. In the inferior worlds the gross envelope conceals the Spirit from its fellows; but the good have nothing to hide: they can read in one another’s hearts. What would happen if it were so on the Earth?

Are there different sexes?

Answer. – Yes; there is sex everywhere that matter exists; it is a law of matter.

What is the basis of the inhabitants’ food? Is it animal and vegetable, as here?

Answer. – Purely vegetable; man is the protector of the animals.

We have been told that they absorb a part of their nourishment from the surrounding environment, from which they inhale the emanations; is this exact? Answer. – Yes.

Compared to ours, is the duration of life longer or shorter?

Answer. – Longer.

What is the average duration of life?

Answer. – How to measure time?

Can you not take one of our centuries as a term of comparison?

Answer. – I believe more or less five centuries.

Is the development of childhood proportionally more rapid than ours?

Answer. – Man keeps his superiority; childhood does not compress his intelligence, nor does old age extinguish it.

Are men subject to illnesses?

Answer. – They are not subject to your ills.

Is life divided between waking and sleep?

Answer. – Between action and repose.

Could you give us an idea of the various occupations of men?

Answer. – It would be necessary to say much. Their principal occupation is to encourage the Spirits who inhabit the inferior worlds to persevere in the good path. As there is no misfortune among them to relieve, they go to seek them out where suffering exists; they are the good Spirits who sustain you and draw you to the good path.

Are certain arts cultivated there?

Answer. – There they are useless. Your arts are toys that distract your pains.

Does the specific density of the human body allow it to transport itself from one place to another, without remaining, as here, bound to the ground? Answer. – Yes.

Is tedium and disgust with life experienced there?

Answer. – No; disgust with life proceeds only from contempt of oneself.

Being less dense than ours, is the body of the inhabitants of Jupiter formed of compact and condensed matter, or of vaporous matter? Answer. – Compact for us; but it would not be so for you: it is less condensed.

Is the body, considered as made of matter, impenetrable?

Answer. – Yes.

Do its inhabitants have an articulate language, like ours?

Answer. – No; among them there is communication of thoughts.

Is second sight, as we have been told, a normal and permanent faculty among you?

Answer. – Yes, the Spirit has no fetters; nothing is hidden from it.

If nothing is hidden from the Spirit, does it then know the future? We refer to the Spirits incarnated in Jupiter. Answer. – Knowledge of the future depends on the perfection of the Spirit; it has fewer drawbacks for us than for you; it is even necessary for us, up to a certain point, for the accomplishment of the missions we are to carry out; but, to go from this to saying that we know the future, without restriction, would be to place us in the same position as God.

Can you reveal to us all that you know about the future?

Answer. – No; wait until you have deserved to know it.

Do you communicate with the other Spirits more easily than you do with us?

Answer. – Yes! always: matter no longer exists between them and us.

Does death inspire the horror and dread it provokes among us?

Answer. – Why would it be dreadful? Evil no longer exists among us. Only the wicked face their last moment with dread: they fear their judge.

Into what are the inhabitants of Jupiter transformed after death?

Answer. – They grow ever in perfection, without having any more trials to undergo.

Are there not, in Jupiter, Spirits who submit to trials in order to fulfill a mission?

Answer. – Yes, but it is no longer a question of a trial; only the love of good leads them to suffer.

Can they fail in their missions?

Answer. – No, since they are good; there is no weakness except where there is fault.

Could you name some of the Spirits inhabiting Jupiter who fulfilled a great mission on the Earth?

Answer. – Saint Louis.

Could you indicate others?

Answer. – What does it matter to you? There are unknown missions whose only aim is the happiness of a single one; they are, at times, greater: and they are more painful. OF THE ANIMALS.

Is the body of the animals more material than that of men?

Answer. – Yes; man is the king, the terrestrial God.

Among the animals are there those that are carnivorous?

Answer. – The animals do not tear one another to pieces; they all live submitted to man, loving one another mutually.

But are there not animals that escape the action of man, such as insects, fishes, birds?

Answer. – No; all are useful to him.

We have been told that the animals are the servants and the laborers who carry out the material works, build the dwellings, etc.; is this true? Answer. – Yes; man no longer lowers himself to serve his fellow man.

Are the servant animals attached to a person or to a family, or are they taken and exchanged at will, as here? Answer. – They all attach themselves to a particular family; you change more, to find a better one.

Do the servant animals live in a state of slavery or of liberty? Are they a property, or can they change masters at will? Answer. – They are there in a state of submission.

Do the laboring animals receive any remuneration for their efforts?

Answer. – No.

Do the faculties of the animals develop through a kind of education?

Answer. – They do it by themselves.

Do the animals have a more precise and more characterized language than that of the terrestrial animals? Answer. – Certainly.

MORAL STATE OF THE INHABITANTS.

Are the dwellings of which you gave us a sample through your drawings gathered together in cities, as here? Answer. – Yes; those who love one another gather together; only the passions establish solitude around man. If, while still wicked, he seeks out his fellow man, who for him is only an instrument of pain, why would the pure and virtuous man flee from his brother?

Are the Spirits equal or of different gradations?

Answer. – Of various degrees, but of the same order.

We beg you to refer to the Spiritist Scale that we gave in the second issue of the Review, and to tell us to what order the Spirits incarnated in Jupiter belong. Answer. – All good, all superior; at times good descends as far as evil; but evil never mingles with good. [see the answer to question 31.]

Do the inhabitants form different peoples, as on the Earth?

Answer. – Yes; but all unite among themselves by the bonds of love.

This being so, are wars unknown?

Answer. – Useless question.

On the Earth, will man be able to attain a sufficient degree of perfection to exempt him from wars? Answer. – He will surely attain it; war will disappear with the egoism of the peoples and to the extent that they better understand fraternity.

Are the peoples governed by chiefs?

Answer. – Yes.

On what is the authority of the chiefs based?

Answer. – On their superior degree of perfection.

In what consists the superiority and the inferiority of the Spirits in Jupiter, considering that all are good? Answer. – They have a greater or lesser store of knowledge and experience; they are purified, to the extent that they become enlightened.

As on the Earth, are there peoples more or less advanced than others?

Answer. – No; but there are some in various degrees.

If the most advanced people of the Earth were transported to Jupiter, what position would it occupy? Answer. – That of your monkeys.

Are the peoples there governed by laws?

Answer. – Yes.

Are there penal laws?

Answer. – There are no more crimes.

Who makes the laws?

Answer. – God makes them.

Are there rich and poor, that is, men who live in abundance and superfluity, and others who lack the necessary? Answer. – No; all are brothers; if one possessed more than the other, with that one he would share; he would not be happy when his brother was deprived of the necessary.

According to this, would fortunes be equal for all?

Answer. – I did not say that all are rich in the same degree; you asked whether there would be those who possess the superfluous and others who lack the necessary.

These two answers seem contradictory to us; we ask you to establish the concordance between them.

Answer. – No one lacks the necessary; no one possesses the superfluous, that is, the fortune of each is in relation with his condition. Are you satisfied?

Now we understand; but we ask, further, whether the one who has less is not unhappy, relatively to the one who has more? Answer. – He cannot be unhappy, so long as he is neither envious nor jealous. Envy and jealousy make more people unhappy than misery does.

In what does wealth consist in Jupiter?

Answer. – What does it matter to you?

Are there social inequalities?

Answer. – Yes.

On what are such inequalities founded?

Answer. – On the laws of society. Some are more or less advanced in perfection. Those who are superior exercise over the others a kind of authority, like a father over his children.

Do the faculties of man develop through education?

Answer. – Yes.

Can man acquire enough perfection on the Earth to deserve to pass immediately to Jupiter?

Answer. – Yes, but on the Earth man is subjected to imperfections, in order to be in relation with his fellows.

When a Spirit who leaves the Earth is to reincarnate in Jupiter, does it remain wandering for some time until it finds the body to which it is to unite itself? Answer. – It is so for a certain time, until it has freed itself from terrestrial imperfections.

Are there several religions?

Answer. – No; all profess good and all worship a single God.

Are there temples and a form of worship?

Answer. – For a temple there is the heart of man; for worship, the good that he does. [see also: On the subject of the drawings of Jupiter – Dwellings of Jupiter.]

[1]

[see Bernard Palissy.]

[2] [see Victorien Sardou.]