Miss Indermuhle.

(Session of February 10, 1860.)

(To Saint Louis) May we enter into communication with the Spirit of Miss Indermuhle? Answer. – You may.

Evocation.

Answer. – Here I am, and I affirm it in the name of God.

(To Saint Louis) Can you tell us whether the Spirit who answers is really that of Miss Indermuhle? Answer. – I can affirm it and I do affirm it to you. You are more advanced and do you believe that, if it were another who answered in her place, this would be embarrassing? The affirmation proves to you that she is here. It is up to you to guarantee a good communication, by the nature and motive of your questions. ª Do you know exactly where you are at this moment? n Answer. – Perfectly. Do you think I have not been instructed about this?

How can you answer here, if your body is in Switzerland?

Answer. – Because it is not my body that answers. Besides, as you well know, it is absolutely incapable of doing so.

What is your body doing at this moment?

Answer. – It dozes.

Is it in health?

Answer. – Excellent.

Observation. – Miss Indermuhle's brother, who was present, confirms that she does indeed enjoy good health.

How long did you take to come from Switzerland to here?

Answer. – A time imperceptible to you.

Did you see the path you took?

Answer. – No.

Are you surprised to find yourself in this gathering?

Answer. – My first answer proves to you that I am not.

What would happen if your body awoke, while you are speaking to us here? Answer. – I would be there.

Is there any bond whatever between your Spirit, here present, and the body, which is in Switzerland? Answer. – Yes; were it not so, who would warn me that I must return to it?

Do you see us quite distinctly?

Answer. – Yes, perfectly.

Do you understand that you can see us, but that we do not see you?

Answer. – But, without doubt.

Do you hear the noise I make at this moment, by knocking?

Answer. – Here I am not deaf.

How do you perceive it, since, by comparison, you have no recollection of noise in the waking state? Answer. – I was not born yesterday.

Observation. – The recollection of the sensation of noise comes to her from the existences in which she was not deaf. This answer is perfectly logical.

Would you listen to music with pleasure?

Answer. – With all the more pleasure as this has not happened to me for a long time. Sing something for me.

We are sorry not to be able to do so now, and that there is no instrument here to procure you this pleasure. But it seems to us that your Spirit, freeing itself every day during sleep, must transport itself to places where you can hear music. Answer. – This happens to me very rarely.

How can you answer us in French, since you are German and do not know our language? Answer. – Thought has no language; I communicate it to the medium's guide, who translates it into the language familiar to him.

What is this guide of whom you speak?

Answer. – His familiar Spirit. It is always thus that you receive communications from foreign Spirits, and it is in this way that Spirits speak all languages. Observation. – In this manner, the answers would often reach us only at third hand. The Spirit interrogated transmits the thought to the familiar Spirit, the latter to the medium, and the medium translates it, whether by writing or by speech. Now, the medium being able to be assisted by Spirits more or less good, this explains how, in many other circumstances, the thought of the Spirit interrogated may be altered. Thus, at the beginning, Saint Louis said that the presence of the evoked Spirit is not always sufficient to assure the integrity of the answers. It is up to us to appreciate them and judge whether they are logical and whether they are in relation with the nature of the Spirit. Besides, according to Miss Indermuhle, this triple relay would occur only with foreign Spirits.

What is the cause of the infirmity that afflicted you?

Answer. – A voluntary cause.

By what singularity were all your brothers and sisters, six in number, stricken by the same infirmity? Answer. – By the same causes as I.

Thus, it was voluntarily that you all chose this trial; we think that this gathering in the same family must have occurred as a trial for the parents. Is this a good reason? Answer. – It approaches the truth.

Do you see your brother here?

Answer. – What a question!

Are you pleased to see him?

Answer. – The same answer.

Observation. – It is known that Spirits do not like to repeat. Our language is so slow for them that they avoid everything that seems useless to them. Here is a point that characterizes serious Spirits; the frivolous, the mockers, the obsessors, and the pseudo-learned are generally talkative and prolix. Like men who lack foundation, they speak to say nothing;

words substitute for thoughts and they think to impose themselves by redundant phrases and a pedantic style.

Would you like to say something to him?

Answer. – I ask him to receive the expression of my sincere thanks, for the good thought he had of calling me here, where I happily find myself in contact with good Spirits, although I see some who are not worth much. I have gained in instruction and I shall not forget what I owe him. [1] Translator's note: No. 3 is repeated just as it is found in the original.