Bulletin

The minutes of the session of January 20 were read and approved.

Receipt of a request for admission. Its reading, examination, and opinion postponed to the next private session.

Various communications: 1st A letter from Mr. Hinderson Mackenzie, of London, member of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, giving details of the highest interest on the use of crystal or metallic globes as a means of obtaining Spiritist communications. This is what he uses, with the help of a special seeing medium, according to the advice of one of his friends who, for thirty-five years, has been making the most complete and conclusive experiments. The medium sees, in that kind of mirror, the written answers to the proposed questions, thus obtaining communications very developed and so rapid that it is often difficult to keep up with the medium. 2nd Reading of an article from the Siècle, of January 22, 1860, in which the following passage is noted: “Tables spoke, turned, and danced long before the existence of the American sect that claims to have given rise to them. This dance of tables was already famous in Rome, in the first centuries of our era, and here is how, in chapter XXIII of the Apologetics, Tertullian expressed himself, in speaking of the mediums of his time: “If it is given to magicians the power to make phantoms appear, to evoke the souls of the dead, to force the mouths of children to give oracles; if those charlatans imitate a great number of miracles, which seem due to the circles and currents that persons form among themselves; if they induce dreams, if they make conjurations, if they have at their orders lying Spirits and demons, by virtue of which prophesying chairs and tables are a common fact, etc.” It is observed, in this regard, that the modern Spiritists never claimed to have discovered or invented the manifestations. On the contrary, they have constantly proclaimed the antiquity and the universality of the Spiritist phenomena, and this very antiquity is an argument in favor of the doctrine, demonstrating that it has its principle in Nature and that it does not result from a systematic combination. Those who claim to oppose such a circumstance to it prove that they speak without knowing its principles, for otherwise they would know that modern Spiritism rests on the incontestable fact that it is found in all times and among all peoples. Studies: 1st Questions on the phenomenon of the metallic or crystal globes, as a means of obtaining communications. It is answered that: “The theory of this phenomenon cannot yet be explained; for its understanding certain prior knowledge is lacking, which will be born of themselves and will arise from later observations. It will be given in due time.”

2nd New evocation of Urbain Grandier, who confirms and completes certain historical facts and gives, moreover, on the planet Saturn, explanations that support what has already been said on this subject.

3rd Two spontaneous dictations are obtained simultaneously: the first, from Abelard, through Mr. Roze; the second, from John the Baptist, through Mr. Colin.

Then, one of the suffering Spirits, who had requested the help of prayers, having been asked to come and communicate spontaneously, one of the mediums wrote what follows: “Be blessed for having consented to pray for the filthy and useless being whom you called and who showed himself still so shamefully attached to his miserable riches. Receive the sincere thanks of Père Crépin.”

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1860.

(Private Session.)

The minutes of the session of January 27 are approved. Reading of the nominal list of the listeners who attended the last general assembly. No inconvenience noted in their presence.

Dr. Gotti, director of the Homeopathic Institute of Genoa (Piedmont), is admitted as a corresponding member.

Reading of two new requests for admission. Postponed to the next private session.

Various communications: 1st Mr. Allan Kardec announces that a lady subscriber from the province has just sent him a sum of ten thousand francs, to be used in favor of Spiritism.

This lady having received an inheritance, on which she had not counted, wishes the Spiritist Doctrine to share in it, to which she owes supreme consolations and the being enlightened on the true conditions of happiness, in this life and in the other. “You made me – she says in her letter – understand Spiritism, by showing me its true object; it alone was able to overcome the doubts and uncertainties that, for me, were a source of inexpressible anxieties. I was marching in life at random, cursing the stones that I found on the way. Now I see clearly around me; before me the horizon has expanded, and I walk with certainty and confidence in the future, without worrying about the thorns sown along the road. I wish that this humble mite may help you to spread upon others the beneficent light that has made me so happy. Use it as you see fit: I want neither receipt nor control. The only thing on which I insist is the strictest incognito.” I shall respect – adds Allan Kardec – the veil of modesty with which this lady wishes to cover herself, and I shall endeavor to correspond to her generous intentions. I believe I cannot better attend to her than by applying this sum to whatever shall be necessary for the installation of the Society, in conditions more favorable to its works.

A member expresses regret that the anonymity kept by this lady does not allow the Society to testify its gratitude to her directly.

Mr. Allan Kardec answers that, the donation having no special destination other than Spiritism in general, he has taken charge of its keeping in the name of all the serious partisans of Spiritism. He insists on the qualification of serious partisans, in view of the fact that this name cannot be applied to those who, seeing in Spiritism only a question of phenomena and of experiments, cannot understand its elevated moral consequences and, what is worse, take advantage of it or make others take advantage of it. [See also: Testament in favor of Spiritism.] 2nd The president deposited with the secretary a sealed letter, sent by Dr. Vignal, titular member, which is only to be opened at the end of next March.

3rd Mr. Netz sends an issue of the Illustration, containing the account of an apparition. The fact will be the object of a special examination.

Studies: 1st Observations regarding the effects of visions in certain bodies, such as glasses, crystal globes, metallic balls, etc., which were dealt with in the last session. Mr. Allan Kardec thinks it necessary to carefully discard the name of magic mirrors, commonly given to these objects. He proposes to call them psychic mirrors. In the opinion of several members, the assembly judges that the designation of psychographic mirrors would correspond better to the nature of the phenomenon. 2nd Evocation of Dr. Vignal, who offered himself for a study on the state of the Spirit of living persons. He answers with perfect lucidity the questions addressed to him. Two other Spirits, that of Castelnaudary and that of Dr. Cauvière, communicate at the same time through another medium, resulting in an exchange of very instructive observations. The physicians each end with a dictation, which bears the mark of the high capacities known to be theirs. (Published further on.) 3rd Two other spontaneous dictations are obtained: the first, from Saint Francis de Sales, through Mrs. Mallet; the second, through Mr. Colin, signed Moses, Plato, and, afterward, Julian.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1860.

(General Session.)

The minutes of February 3 read and approved.

Letter with a request for admission – Decision postponed to the next private session.

Reading of the communications received in the last session.

Various communications: Various communications – Mr. Soive transmits the following note, inquiring whether it would not be useful to make an evocation in this regard: “A certain Mr. T…, thirty-five years old, residing on the Boulevard de l’Hôpital, was persecuted by a fixed idea, that of having involuntarily killed one of his friends in a quarrel. Despite everything that had been done to dissuade him, showing him the friend alive, he believed himself to be before his shade. Tormented by the remorse of an imaginary crime, he asphyxiated himself.” The evocation of Mr. T… will be made, if there is time.

Studies: 1st Five spontaneous dictations are obtained simultaneously: the first, through Mr. Roze, signed by Lamennais; the second, through Miss Eugénie, signed by Staël; the third, through Mr. Colin, signed by Fourier; the fourth, through Miss Huet, from a Spirit who, he says, will make himself known later and announces a series of communications; the fifth, through Mr. Didier the Son, signed by Charlet.

2nd After the reading of the dictation of Fourier, the president observes, for the understanding of persons foreign to the Society and who may not be acquainted with its manner of proceeding, that this communication seems to him, at first sight, susceptible of some comments; that, among the Spirits who manifest themselves, there are those of all degrees; that their communications are the reflection of their personal ideas, not always perfectly correct; the Society, according to the advice that was given to it, receives them as the expression of an individual opinion and reserves the right to judge them, submitting them to the control of logic and reason. It is essential that it be very well known that it does not adopt as true everything that comes from the Spirits; through their communications the Spirit makes known what it is for good or for ill, in science or in ignorance. They are for it subjects of study; it accepts what is good and rejects what is bad. 3rd Evocation of Miss Indermuhle, of Bern, deaf-mute from birth, thirty-two years old, living. This communication offers a great interest, from the moral and scientific point of view, by the sagacity and precision of the answers, which denote in her an already advanced Spirit.

4th Evocation of Mr. T…, of whom we spoke above. He gives signs of great agitation and breaks several pencils before being able to trace a few almost illegible lines. The disturbance of his ideas is evident; at first he persists in the belief that he killed his friend, ending by convincing himself that it was only a fixed idea; but he adds that, if he did not kill him, he had the wish to do so, not doing it simply because courage had failed him. – Saint Louis gives some explanations on the situation of this Spirit and the consequences of his suicide. This evocation will be repeated later, when the Spirit is more freed.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1860.

(Private Session.)

The minutes of the session of February 10 read and approved.

There are admitted as titular members, according to written request and favorable opinion: Mrs. Regnez, of Paris; Mr. Indermuhle de Wytenbach, of Bern; Mrs. Lubrat, of Paris.

Reading of two new requests for admission. – Postponed.

to the next private session.

Mr. Allan Kardec transmits to the Society the following observations, regarding the donation made:

He says: “If the donor demands, as far as she is concerned, no account of the use of the funds, I must not, for my own satisfaction, allow their use not to be submitted to a control. This sum will form the first fund of a Special Fund, which will have nothing in common with my personal affairs, and which will be the object of a distinct accounting, under the name of Fund of Spiritism.

“This fund will be increased subsequently by the funds that may come to it from other sources and destined exclusively to the needs of the doctrine and to the development of the Spiritist studies.

“One of my first concerns will be the creation of a special library, and, as I have already said, to provide the Society with what it materially lacks, for the regularity of its works.

“I have asked several colleagues to accept the control of this fund and to verify, on dates that will be determined later, the useful use of the funds.

“This commission is composed of Messrs. Solichon, Thiry, Levent, Mialhe, Krafzoff, and Mrs. Parisse.”

Reading of the communications received in the last session.

The Society then occupied itself with the examination of several administrative questions.