To His Highness Prince G.

— Prince, Your Highness has granted me the honor of addressing several questions to me concerning Spiritism. I shall attempt to answer them insofar as the present state of knowledge on the matter permits, summarizing in a few words what study and observation have taught us in this regard. These questions rest upon the very principles of the Science; in order to lend greater clarity to the solution, it is necessary to bear these principles in mind. Allow me, then, to consider the subject from a somewhat more elevated standpoint, establishing as preliminaries certain fundamental propositions which, moreover, will serve as answers to some of your inquiries.

Beyond the visible corporeal world there exist invisible beings, who constitute the world of Spirits.

The Spirits are not separate beings, but the very souls of those who have lived on Earth or in other spheres, and who have cast off their material wrappings.

The Spirits present every degree of intellectual and moral development. Consequently, there are good ones and bad ones, enlightened and ignorant, frivolous, lying, knavish, hypocritical, who seek to deceive and to lead into evil, just as there are those superior in all things, who seek to do nothing but good. This distinction is a capital point.

The Spirits surround us ceaselessly. Without our knowing it, they direct our thoughts and our actions, thus influencing the events and the destinies of Humanity.

The Spirits frequently attest to their presence through material effects. Such effects have nothing supernatural about them, appearing so to us only because they rest upon bases that escape the known laws of matter. Once these bases are known, the effect enters the category of natural phenomena. It is thus that the Spirits can act upon inert bodies and move them without the concurrence of our external agents. To deny the existence of unknown agents for the simple reason that we do not understand them would be to impose limits upon the power of God and to believe that Nature has spoken to us its last word.

Every effect has a cause; no one contests this. It is, then, illogical to deny the cause for the simple fact that it is unknown. If every effect has a cause, every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause. When we see the arm of the telegraph produce signals that correspond to thought, we do not conclude that it is intelligent, but rather that it is moved by an intelligence. The same holds with Spiritist phenomena. If the intelligence that produces them is not our own, it evidently lies outside us.

In the phenomena of the natural sciences we act upon matter and manipulate it at will; in Spiritist phenomena we act upon intelligences that possess free will and do not submit to our will. There is, then, between ordinary phenomena and Spiritist phenomena a radical difference as to principle, which is why common science is incompetent to judge them.

The incarnate Spirit has two envelopes: one material, which is the body, and another semi-material and indestructible, which is the perispirit. On leaving the first, the Spirit retains the second, which, for it, constitutes a kind of body, but whose properties are essentially different. In its normal state the perispirit is invisible to us, although it can become momentarily visible and even tangible: such is the cause of the phenomenon of apparitions.

The Spirits are not, then, abstract, indefinite beings, but real and limited beings, with an existence of their own, thinking and acting by virtue of their free will. They are everywhere, around us; they people the spaces and transport themselves with the rapidity of thought.

Men can enter into relations with the Spirits and receive direct communications through writing, through speech, and by other means. The Spirits being at our side, or being able, through certain intermediaries, to respond to our appeal, we can establish continued communications with them, in the same way that a blind man can do so with persons he does not see.

Certain individuals are more endowed than others with a special aptitude for transmitting communications from the Spirits: these are the mediums. The role of the medium is that of an interpreter; he is the instrument of which the Spirit makes use. This instrument may be more or less perfect, from which result communications more or less easy.

Spiritist phenomena are of two orders: physical and material manifestations and intelligent manifestations. Physical effects are produced by inferior Spirits; elevated Spirits do not occupy themselves with these things, just as our learned men do not give themselves over to actions that require great physical vigor: their role is to instruct through reasoning.

Communications may emanate as much from inferior Spirits as from superior Spirits. Like men, the Spirits are recognized by their language. That of the Superior Spirits is always serious, dignified, noble, and full of benevolence; every trivial or improper expression, every thought that shocks reason and good sense, that denotes pride, acrimony, or malevolence, proceeds necessarily from an inferior Spirit.

Elevated Spirits teach only good things; their morality is that of the Gospel; they preach only union and charity and never deceive themselves. Inferior Spirits utter absurdities, lies, and often even coarseness.

The efficiency of a medium consists not only in the ease of the communications, but above all in the nature of the communications he receives. A good medium is one who is in sympathy with the good Spirits and receives only good communications.

We all have a familiar Spirit, who attaches himself to us from birth, guides, counsels, and protects us; he is always a good Spirit.

Besides the familiar Spirit, there are those whom we attract thanks to their sympathy for our qualities and defects or by virtue of former earthly affections. From this it follows that, in every gathering, there is a multitude of Spirits more or less good, according to the nature of the milieu.

Can the Spirits reveal the future?

The Spirits know the future only in proportion to their elevation. The inferior ones do not know even their own future and, with all the more reason, are ignorant of that of others. The superior Spirits know it, but they are not always permitted to reveal it. In principle, and by a wise design of Providence, the future must be concealed from us. If we knew it, our free will would be hindered. The certainty of success would take from us the will to do anything, because we would not see the necessity of giving ourselves that labor; the certainty of a misfortune would discourage us. Nevertheless, there are cases in which knowledge of the future may be useful, although, in that situation, we can never be the judges. The Spirits reveal it to us when they judge it fitting and when they have the permission of God. They then do so spontaneously and not at our request. One must wait with confidence for the opportunity and, above all, not insist in case of refusal, for otherwise we would run the risk of dealing with frivolous Spirits, who amuse themselves at our expense.

Can the Spirits guide us by means of direct counsels in the things of life?

Yes, they can and they do so willingly. These counsels reach us daily through the thoughts they suggest to us. Often we do things whose merit we attribute to ourselves when, in reality, they result only from an inspiration that has been transmitted to us. Now, since we are surrounded by Spirits who influence us in this direction or that, we always have free will to guide us in the choice; and happy shall we be if we prefer our good genius.

Besides hidden counsels, we can obtain these directly through a medium; but here is the case to recall the fundamental principles we have just set forth. The first thing to consider is the quality of the medium, if it is not we ourselves. A medium who obtains only good communications; who, by his personal qualities, is in sympathy only with the good Spirits, is a precious being, from whom we may hope for great things, provided we second him in the purity of his own instructions and make use of him fittingly; I will say more: he is a providential instrument.

No less important, the second point consists in the nature of the Spirits to whom we address ourselves. We must not believe that we can be correctly guided by the first one who appears. He who would see in Spiritist communications merely a means of divination, and in the medium a reader of fortunes, would be roundly deceiving himself. We must consider that in the world of Spirits we have friends who take an interest in us, far more sincere and devoted than those who take such titles on Earth, and who have not the slightest interest in flattering or deceiving us. They are, besides our protecting Spirit, relatives or persons to whom we were attached when they were alive, or Spirits who wish us well out of sympathy. When called, they come willingly, and even when they are not called; often we have them at our side without suspecting it. Through mediums we can ask them for direct counsels and we receive them, even spontaneously, without our having asked for them. They do so above all in intimacy, in silence, and provided that no strange influence comes to disturb them; they are, moreover, very prudent and, on their part, we must never fear an indiscretion: they fall silent when there are too many ears. They do so still more gladly when they are in frequent communication with us. As they say only things that are appropriate and according to the occasion, one must wait for their good will and not believe that, at first sight, they will come to satisfy all our requests. They wish thus to prove that they are not at our orders. The nature of the answers depends greatly on the manner of putting the questions. It is necessary to learn to converse with the Spirits as one learns to converse with men: in everything experience is needed. On the other hand, habit causes the Spirits to identify themselves with us and with the medium, the fluids to combine, and the communications to become easier; then between them and us true familiar conversations are established; what they do not say on one day they will say on another. They grow accustomed to our manner of being, as we do to theirs: we become reciprocally more at ease. As for the interference of the bad Spirits and the deceiving Spirits, which constitutes the great stumbling block, experience teaches us to combat them and we can always avoid them. If we pay them no attention, they do not come, because they know they will waste their time.

What might be the usefulness of the propagation of Spiritist ideas?

Spiritism being the palpable and evident proof of the existence, the individuality, and the immortality of the soul, it is the destruction of materialism, that negation of all religion, that scourge of all society. The number of materialists whom it has led to sounder ideas is considerable and increases daily: this alone would be a social benefit. Not only does it prove the existence and the immortality of the soul, but it also shows its happy or unhappy state, according to the merits of this life. Future penalties and rewards are no longer a theory, but a fact patent to our eyes. Now, since no religion is possible without belief in God, in the existence of the soul, and in future penalties and rewards, Spiritism brings back to these beliefs the persons in whom they had been extinguished; it follows from this that it is the most powerful auxiliary of religious ideas: it gives religion to those who do not possess it, fortifies it in those in whom it is wavering, consoles through the certainty of the future, makes one bear with patience and resignation the tribulations of life, and turns the thought away from suicide, an idea which we naturally repel when we see its consequences; this is why those who have penetrated its mysteries are happy. For them Spiritism is the light that dissipates the darkness and the anguish of doubt. If we now consider the morality taught by the superior Spirits, we will conclude that it is wholly evangelical; it preaches evangelical charity in all its sublimity and does more: it shows its necessity both for present happiness and for future happiness, because the consequences of the good and the evil that we do are before our eyes. By leading men back to the sentiments of their reciprocal duties, Spiritism neutralizes the effect of the doctrines that subvert the social order.

May not these beliefs represent a danger to reason?

Have not all the sciences furnished their contingent for the asylums of the insane? Must we, on that account, condemn them? Are not religious beliefs largely represented among them? Would it be just, on that account, to proscribe religion? Do we, perchance, know all the madmen produced by fear of the devil? All great intellectual preoccupations lead to exaltation and can react in a lamentable manner upon a weak brain. We would be right to see in Spiritism a special danger if it were the sole cause or the preponderant cause of madness. Great alarm was raised around two or three cases which, in other circumstances, would have merited no attention, when no account was taken of the prior predisposing causes. We could cite others in which, well understood, Spiritist ideas could arrest the development of madness. In sum, Spiritism offers no greater danger of madness than the thousand and one causes that produce it daily. I say more: it offers far less danger, since it carries within itself the corrective and, through the direction it gives to ideas and the calm it affords to the mind of those who understand it, it can neutralize the effect of the foreign causes. Despair is one of these causes. Now, by making us face the most disagreeable things with composure and resignation, Spiritism mitigates the disastrous effects of despair.

Are not Spiritist beliefs the consecration of the superstitious ideas of Antiquity and of the Middle Ages and, thus, ought they not to be endorsed?

Do not people without religion brand the majority of religious beliefs as superstition? An idea is superstitious only when it is false; it ceases to be so when it becomes a truth. It is proven that at the bottom of the majority of superstitions there exists a truth amplified and denatured by imagination. Now, to strip these ideas of all their fantastic content and to leave only the reality is to destroy the superstition. Such is the effect of the Spiritist science, which lays bare what is true and what is false in popular beliefs. For a long time apparitions were considered superstitious beliefs; today, that they are a proven fact and, still more, perfectly explained, they have entered the domain of natural phenomena. However much we may condemn them, we will not prevent them from continuing to occur. Nevertheless, those who have become aware of them and have understood them, not only are not terrified but are satisfied, and that to such a degree that those who do not have these ideas would wish to have them. Leaving the field free to the imagination, misunderstood phenomena represent the source of a host of accessory, absurd ideas, which degenerate into superstition. Let us show the reality, let us explain the cause, and the imagination stops at the limit of the possible; the marvelous, the absurd, and the impossible disappear and, with them, superstition. Such are, among others, the cabalistic practices, the virtue of signs and magic words, the sacramental formulas, the amulets, the inauspicious days, the diabolical hours, and so many other things whose ridiculousness Spiritism, well understood, demonstrates. Such are, Prince, the answers that I have judged appropriate to the questions with which you have honored me. I shall feel happy if they can corroborate the ideas that Your Highness already possesses on the subject and lead you to deepen a question of such elevated interest; happier still if my further assistance can be of some use.

With the most profound respect, I am, of Your Highness, the very humble and very obedient servant.

Allan Kardec.

[1]

[Concerning Prince Dimitry G… see the note at the beginning of the article To the members of the Society of Paris who are departing for Russia.]