Mother, I am here!

Madame *** had lost, some months ago, her only daughter, of fourteen years, the object of all her tenderness and very worthy of her grief, by the qualities that promised to make of her a perfect woman. This young girl had succumbed to a long and painful illness. Inconsolable at this loss, day by day the mother saw her health decline, repeating ceaselessly that she would soon go to rejoin her daughter. Instructed of the possibility of communicating with the beings of beyond the tomb, Madame *** resolved to seek, in a conversation with her daughter, a relief for her sorrow. A lady of her acquaintance was a medium; but the two, with little experience for such evocations, above all in a circumstance so solemn, begged me to assist them. We were only three: the mother, the medium, and I. Here is the result of this first session: The mother: In the name of God Almighty, Spirit Julia ***, my dear daughter, I ask you to come, if God permits it.

Julia: Mother! I am here!

The mother: Is it you yourself, my daughter, who reply to me? How can I know that it is you?

Julia: Lili.

(This was a little pet name given to the young girl in her childhood; it was known neither to the medium nor to me, considering that, for several years, she had been called only by her name of Julia. At this sign, the identity was evident; unable to master her emotion, the mother bursts into sobs.) Julia: Mother! Why do you afflict yourself? I am happy, very happy: I suffer no more and I see you always.

The mother: But I do not see you. Where are you?

Julia: Here, at your side, my hand upon Madame *** (the medium) to make her write what I tell you. See my handwriting (the handwriting was, in fact, that of her daughter).

The mother: You say: my hand; you have, then, a body?

Julia: I no longer have that body which made me suffer so much, but I keep its appearance. Are you not glad that I suffer no more and can converse with you?

The mother: If I saw you, then, would I recognize you?

Julia: Yes, without doubt, and you have already seen me many times in your dreams.

The mother: Indeed, I have already seen you again in my dreams, but I thought it was an effect of the imagination; a memory.

Julia: No; it is I myself who am always with you and seek to console you; it was I who inspired in you the idea of evoking me. I have many things to tell you. Distrust Mr. ***; he is not sincere. (This gentleman, known only to the mother, and cited thus spontaneously, was a new proof of the identity of the Spirit who was manifesting.)

The mother: What, then, can Mr. *** do against me?

Julia: I cannot tell you; this is forbidden to me. I only warn you to distrust him.

The mother: Are you among the angels?

Julia: Oh! Not yet; I am not perfect enough.

The mother: Yet I saw no defect in you; you were good, gentle, amiable, and benevolent toward all; is that not enough?

Julia: For you, dear mother, I had no defect; and I believed it, for you told me so many times! But now I see what I lack to be perfect.

The mother: How will you acquire the qualities that you lack?

Julia: In new existences, which will be more and more happy.

The mother: Is it on Earth that you will have these new existences?

Julia: I know nothing of that.

The mother: Considering that you had not done evil during your life, why did you suffer so much?

Julia: A trial! A trial! I bore it with patience, through my confidence in God; I am very happy today, for that reason. Until soon, dear mother!

In the presence of such facts, who would dare speak of the emptiness of the tomb, when the future life reveals itself to us so palpably? This mother, undermined by grief, experiences today an ineffable happiness in being able to converse with her daughter; there is no more separation between them; their souls mingle and expand within the bosom of one another, through the exchange of their thoughts. Despite the discretion with which we have surrounded this account, we would not permit ourselves to publish it, were we not formally authorized to do so. That mother said to us: may all those who have lost their loved ones on Earth feel the same consolation that I experience! We shall add only one word for those who deny the existence of the good Spirits; we ask how they could prove that the Spirit of that young girl was a malevolent demon.

[1] This section title was replaced by Allan Kardec with: “Conversations from beyond the tomb” and subsequently: “Familiar conversations from beyond the tomb”.