The agenères.

— We have already referred several times to the theory of apparitions. In our last issue we recalled it, in connection with the strange phenomena we reported. For a better understanding of what follows, we beg our readers to refer back to them.

Everyone knows that, among the most extraordinary manifestations produced by Mr. Home, was the apparition of hands, perfectly tangible, that everyone could see and touch, that pressed and squeezed but which, suddenly, offered only emptiness when one tried to seize them by surprise. Here is a positive fact, which occurred in various circumstances, attested by numerous eyewitnesses. However strange and abnormal it may seem, the marvelous ceases from the moment we can give it a logical explanation. It then enters into the category of natural phenomena, although of an order entirely different from that of those which are produced before our eyes, and with which one must be on guard not to confuse them. In ordinary phenomena we can find points of comparison, such as that of the blind man who perceived the brightness of light and of colors by the sound of the trumpet, but not similitudes. It is precisely the mania of wanting to assimilate everything to that which we know that is the true cause of so much disillusion in certain persons: they think they can manipulate these new elements as if they were hydrogen and oxygen. Now, therein lies the error. These phenomena are submitted to conditions that escape the habitual circle of our observations; it is necessary, above all, to know them and to conform ourselves to them, if we wish to obtain results. It is necessary, above all, not to lose sight of the fact that this essential principle, the true key of the Spiritist science and the agent of common phenomena, is a physical, material force, which can be submitted to the laws of calculation, whereas in Spiritist phenomena this agent is constantly an intelligence which has its own will and which we cannot submit to our caprices. In those hands was there flesh, skin, bones, real nails? No, evidently; it was merely an appearance, but of such an order that it produced the effect of a reality. If a Spirit has the power to render visible and palpable any part whatever of its ethereal body, there is no reason why it could not do so with the other organs. Let us suppose that a Spirit extends this appearance to all parts of the body: we will then have the impression of seeing a being similar to us, acting as we do, when it is nothing but a vapor momentarily solidified. Such is the case of the little madman of Bayonne. The duration of this appearance is submitted to conditions which are unknown to us; it depends, no doubt, on the will of the Spirit, who can produce it or make it cease at will, although within certain limits, which it is not always free to transgress. Questioned in this regard, as well as about all the intermittences of any manifestations whatsoever, the Spirits have always said that they acted by virtue of a superior permission. If, for certain Spirits, the duration of the corporeal appearance is limited, we can say that, in principle, it is variable, being able to persist for a longer or shorter time; it can be produced at any time and at any hour. A Spirit whose body was thus visible and palpable would have, for us, all the appearance of a human being; it could converse with us and sit in our home as if it were some ordinary person, for we would take it as one of our fellow beings.

We set out from a patent fact — the apparition of tangible hands — to arrive at a supposition which is its logical consequence. However, we would not have brought it up had the story of the boy of Bayonne not set us on the path, by showing us its possibility. Questioned on this point, a superior Spirit answered that we may indeed encounter beings of this nature, without our suspecting it; it added that this is rare, but possible. As, in order to understand one another, we need to give a name to each thing, the Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies calls them agenères, thus indicating that their origin is not the result of a generation. The following fact, which occurred lately in Paris [see Father Dégenettes, medium], appears to belong to this category:

— A poor woman was in the church of Saint-Roch and prayed to God to assist her in her affliction. On leaving, in the Rue Saint-Honoré, she meets a gentleman who approaches her and says: “Good woman, would you be glad to find work?” — “Ah! my good sir” — she answers — “I pray to God to grant me that favor, for I am in great need.” — “Well then! Go to such a street, such a number. Ask for Madame T…: she will give you work.” Then he continued on his way. The poor woman went without delay to the indicated address. — “Indeed, I have some work to have done” — says the lady in question — “but since I had not mentioned it to anyone, how were you able to come and find me?” Then the poor destitute woman, catching sight of a portrait hanging on the wall, answered: — “Madame, it was that gentleman who sent me here.” — “That gentleman!” — replied the lady, astonished — “But that is not possible, this is the portrait of my son, dead three years ago.” — “I do not know how this can be, but I assure you that it was that gentleman whom I just met on leaving the church, where I had gone to ask God to assist me. He approached me and it was he himself who sent me here.” In accordance with what we have just seen, there would be nothing surprising in the fact that the Spirit of that lady's son, in order to render a service to the poor woman, whose prayer he had no doubt heard, had appeared to her in corporeal form to indicate to her his own mother's address. Into what was he then transformed? No doubt into what he was before: a Spirit, unless, continuing his stroll, he judged it fitting to show himself to other persons under the same appearance. That woman would thus have met an agenère, with whom she had conversed. But then — it will be said — why would he not have presented himself to his mother? In these circumstances the determining motives of the Spirits are completely unknown to us. They act as they see fit, or rather, as they have said, by virtue of a permission without which they cannot reveal their existence in a material manner. It is understood, moreover, that the sight of him could cause the mother a dangerous emotion. And who knows whether he did not present himself to her during sleep or in some other manner? And, besides, will it not have been a means of revealing his existence to her? It is very probable that he witnessed that conversation between the two ladies.

— It does not seem to us that the little madman of Bayonne should be considered as an agenère, at least in the circumstances in which he manifested himself, since he always had, for the family, the character of a Spirit, a character which he never sought to dissimulate: it was his permanent state, and the corporeal appearances which he assumed were merely accidental, whereas the agenère properly speaking does not reveal his nature and, to our eyes, is nothing more than an ordinary man. His corporeal apparition may be of long duration, according to the need, in order to establish social relations with one or several individuals.

We asked the Spirit Saint Louis to enlighten us on these different points, and he deigned to answer our questions:

Could the Spirit of the little madman of Bayonne show himself corporeally in other places and to persons other than his family?

Answer. — Yes, no doubt.

Does this depend on his will?

Answer. — Not exactly. The power of the Spirits is limited; they do only what they are permitted to do.

What would happen if he presented himself to an unknown person?

Answer. — He would have been taken for an ordinary child. I will tell you, however, one thing: at times there exist on Earth Spirits who have assumed this appearance, and who are taken for men.

Do these beings belong to the class of inferior or superior Spirits?

Answer. — They may belong to both; they are rare facts. You have examples of them in the Bible.

Rare or not, their possibility alone suffices to merit our attention. What would happen if, taking such a being for an ordinary man, one inflicted a mortal wound on him? Would he be killed?

Answer. — He would disappear suddenly, like the young man of London. (See the issue of December 1858 — Phenomenon of bicorporeity.)

Do they have passions?

Answer. — Yes; as Spirits they have the passions of Spirits, according to their inferiority. If they sometimes take an apparent body it is to enjoy human passions; if they are elevated, it is with a useful aim that they do so.

Can they procreate?

Answer. — God would not permit it. It would be contrary to the laws which He established on Earth, and these cannot be derogated.

If such a being presented itself to us, would there be a means of recognizing it?

Answer. — No, unless its disappearance occurred in an unexpected manner. It would be the same as the transport of furniture from one floor to another, facts which you read earlier.

Observation. – An allusion to a fact of this nature reported at the beginning of the session.

What aim can lead certain Spirits to take this corporeal state? Is it rather evil than good?

Answer. — Frequently evil; the good Spirits have in their favor inspiration; they act through the soul and through the heart. As you know, physical manifestations are produced by inferior Spirits, and these are of that number. However, as I have said, the good Spirits can equally take this corporeal appearance with a useful aim. I have spoken in a general manner.

In this state, can they become visible or invisible at will?

Answer. — Yes, since they can disappear whenever they please.

Do they have an occult power superior to that of other men?

Answer. — They have only the power afforded them by their position as Spirit.

Do they have a real need of nourishment?

Answer. — No; the body is not real.

Yet, although he did not have a real body, the young man of London lunched with his friends and shook their hands. Into what would the absorbed food have been transformed?

Answer. — Before shaking the hand, where were the fingers that shook? You understand that the body disappears? Why will you not understand that the matter likewise disappears? The body of the young man of London was not a reality, since he was in Boulogne. It was, then, an appearance; the same is the case with the nourishment that he seemed to absorb.

If we had among us such a being, would it be a good or an evil?

Answer. — It would be rather an evil. Besides, one cannot acquire great knowledge from these beings. We cannot tell you much; such facts are exceedingly rare and never have a character of permanence, notably the instantaneous apparitions, such as that of Bayonne.

Does the familiar protecting Spirit sometimes take this form?

Answer. — Absolutely not; does it not dispose of interior resources? It manipulates them with more ease than it would under a visible form and if we took it for one of our fellow beings.

They ask whether the Count of Saint-Germain might not belong to the category of the agenères.

Answer. — No; he was a skillful mystifier.

— The story of the young man of London, reported in our issue of December, is a fact of bicorporeity, or, better said, of double presence, which differs essentially from the one we are dealing with. The agenère has no living body on Earth; only his perispirit takes a palpable form. The young man of London was perfectly alive. While his body slept in Boulogne, his Spirit, enveloped by the perispirit, went to London, where it took a tangible appearance.

— We know of an almost analogous fact. While we were calmly lying in our bed, one of our friends saw us several times in his house, although under a non-tangible appearance, seating ourselves at his side and conversing with him. Once he saw us in a robe de chambre; on other occasions, in a frock coat. He transcribed our conversation and sent it to us the following day. It was, as it could not but be, relative to our favorite labors. Wishing to make an experiment, he offered us refreshments. Here is our answer: “I have no need of this, since it is not my body that is here. You know, thus, that there is no need to produce an illusion in you.” A rather bizarre circumstance presented itself on that occasion. Whether by natural predisposition, or as a result of our intellectual labors, serious from our youth, and we might say, from childhood, the foundation of our character has always been of extreme gravity, even at the age when one thinks of nothing but pleasures. This constant preoccupation gives us a countenance of coldness, of very great coldness indeed. It is, at least, what we have often been reproached with. However, beneath this glacial appearance, perhaps the Spirit feels more keenly than in the case of allowing itself outward expansions. Now, in our nocturnal visits to our friend, he was quite surprised to see us completely different: we were more open, more communicative, almost cheerful. Everything in us breathed the satisfaction and the calm afforded by well-being. Is there not in this an effect of the Spirit released from matter?