Bulletin

Administrative matters: Mr. Ledoyen, treasurer, presents the balance sheet of the Society's financial situation in the second half of the social year, closed on March 30, 1860. The balance sheet is approved.

Various communications: 1st Mr. Chuard, of Lyon, honors the Society with two booklets, one containing the Sacred Ode on the immortality of the soul, and the other, a Satire on limited partnership companies. The Society thanks the author and, although one of these two booklets is foreign to the purposes of its works, both will be added to the collection of its Library.

2nd Reading of three letters from Mr. Morhéry on the cures worked by Miss Godu, healing medium, who went to live in his house and placed herself under his patronage. As a man of science, Mr. Morhéry observes the effects of the treatment practiced by this young lady on the various patients she cares for. He proceeds with exact notes, as he would do in a clinical room, and has even come to verify, in a short space of time, results that are truly prodigious. The Mr. President adds that the Society has a twofold reason to take an interest in Miss Godu; besides the sympathy that examples of charity and selflessness, so rare in our days, naturally excite, from the Spiritist point of view this young woman offers him precious material for study, since she enjoys a faculty in a certain way exceptional. Who would not take an interest in a medium of physical effects, capable of producing extraordinary phenomena? Who could look with indifference upon one whose faculties are beneficial to Humanity, revealing to us, moreover, a new force of Nature? 3rd Letter from the Count of R…, titular member, who departed for Brazil, and who is now detained in the port of Cherbourg, on account of the bad weather. He asks the Society to evoke him in the present session, if possible.

Mr. T… observes that this same person has already been evoked twice, a third evocation seeming to him superfluous.

Mr. Allan Kardec replies that, study being the Society's purpose, the same person may offer useful observations a third time, just as well as he did the second or the first. Experience, moreover, proves that the Spirit is all the more lucid and explicit the more frequently it communicates and, in a certain way, identifies itself with the medium who serves as its instrument. This is not a matter of satisfying a whim or of vain curiosity. In its evocations, the Society seeks neither agreement nor amusement: it wishes to instruct itself. Now, Mr. de R… finding himself in a situation completely different from that in which he was evoked, may give rise to new observations. Consulted about the opportuneness of such an evocation, Saint Louis replies that it could not take place at that moment.

Studies: 1st Two spontaneous dictations are obtained, one from Saint Louis, through Miss Huet, and another from Charlet, through Mr. Didier Son.

2nd Various questions addressed to Saint Louis about the Spirit that communicated spontaneously in the last session under the name of Being, through Miss Boyer, and that revealed the intention of sowing disturbance and discord and of having interfered in various communications. From the answers obtained results an interesting teaching about the manner of action of Spirits upon one another.

3rd Mr. R… proposes the evocation of one of his friends, vanished since 1848 and of whom no further news has been had.

Considering the advance of the hours, such evocation was postponed to the next session.

The Society decides that it will not meet on Good Friday, April 6. Beginning on April 20 the sessions will take place at the new headquarters of the Society, at rue Sainte-Anne, no. 59, passage Sainte-Anne.

FRIDAY, APRIL 13, 1860.

(Private Session.)

Administrative matters: Appointment of four new members, as free associates.

The Society confirms the title of honorary member to five members previously chosen.

Various communications: Mrs. Desl…, member of the Society, having made a journey to Dieppe, proceeded as far as Grandes-Ventes, where she heard, from the baker Goubert himself, the confirmation of all the facts reported in the issue of the month of March, and with even more minute details. By the examination of the places she was able to verify, above all for certain facts, that fraud was impossible. It seems to result from the information obtained that these phenomena had as their cause the presence of a young man, who for some time had been in the baker's service, equally responsible for similar facts that occurred in other houses. The phenomena being independent of his will, he may be classified in the category of natural or involuntary mediums, of physical effects. Since he left Mr. Goubert's house, nothing has been repeated. Studies: 1st Spontaneous dictations, obtained by three mediums.

2nd Evocation of Dr. Vogel, traveler in the interior of Africa, where he died murdered. The evocation did not give the expected results. The Spirit declares it is suffering and calls for prayers to help it emerge from the disturbance in which it still finds itself. It says that later it will be able to be more explicit.

Mr. Allan Kardec proposes, as a subject of study, the deep and detailed examination of certain spontaneous dictations, or others, that could be analyzed and commented upon as is done with literary critiques. Such a kind of study would have the twofold advantage of exercising the appreciation of the value of Spiritist communications and, secondly, as a consequence of this appreciation, of discouraging the deceiving Spirits who, seeing their words censured, controlled by reason and, finally, repelled, as soon as they had a suspicious character, would end up understanding that they are wasting their time. As for the serious Spirits, they could be called upon to give explanations and developments on the points of their communications that needed elucidation. The Society approves the said proposal.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1860.

(Private Session.)

Correspondence: 1st Letter from Mr. J…, of Saint-Étienne, titular member, containing very judicious appraisals of Spiritism. This letter proves that the author understands it from its true point of view.

2nd Letter from Mr. L…, workman of Troyes, containing reflections regarding the moralizing influence of the Spiritist Doctrine upon the working classes. He invites the serious adherents to occupy themselves with propaganda in their ranks, in the interest of order, aiming in them to revive the religious sentiments, which are dying out, giving way to scepticism, which is the plague of our century and the negation of all moral responsibility. These two gentlemen have already declared in other letters that they have never seen anything in the matter of practical Spiritism, but that they are no less convinced for that, on account of the philosophical scope of the science. The President draws attention in this regard, recalling that daily he has similar examples, not on the part of persons who believe blindly, but, on the contrary, of those who reflect and take the trouble to understand. For these the philosophical part is the principal thing, because it explains what no other philosophy has resolved; the fact of the manifestations is accessory. 3rd Letter from Mr. Dumas, of Sétif, Algeria, member of the Society, transmitting interesting new details about facts whose results he witnessed. He cites principally a young medium, who presents a singular phenomenon, namely, that of entering spontaneously, and without being magnetized, into a kind of somnambulism, every time one wishes to make an evocation through him, and in that state to write or verbally dictate the answers to the questions proposed. Various communications: 1st Mrs. R…, of the Jura, corresponding member of the Society, transmits a curious fact that is personal to her. It concerns an old clock, to which family recollections are attached, and which seems to be subjected to a singular and intelligent influence in certain circumstances.

2nd Reading of a communication obtained in another Spiritist meeting and signed by Joan of Arc. It contains excellent counsels to mediums about the causes that can annihilate or pervert their mediumistic faculties. (Published further on).

3rd Mr. Col… begins the reading of an evocation of Saint Luke, evangelist, given by him in private.

Perceiving that in this evocation various questions of religious dogmas are addressed, the President interrupts the reading by virtue of the regulation, which forbids such subjects to be treated in the Society.

Mr. Col… observes that, the communication having nothing that is not orthodox, he had not thought there could be any inconvenience in proceeding with its reading.

The President objects that answers always suppose questions. Now, whether the answers be orthodox or not, they nonetheless give rise to the supposition that the Society occupies itself with things that are forbidden to it. Another consideration comes to corroborate these reasons, namely, that among the members there are those who belong to different cults; what for some would be orthodox might not be so for others, all the more reason for us to abstain. Besides, the regulation prescribes the prior examination of every communication obtained outside the Society, a measure that must be rigorously observed. Studies. Evocation of Mr. B…, friend of Mr. Royer, vanished from home since June 25, 1848. He gives some information about his accidental death during the skirmishes that occurred at that time. By the language and by some intimate particularities, Mr. Royer recognizes the identity.

FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 1860.

(General Session.)

Various communications: 1st Letter from Dr. Morhéry, containing new studies on the cures he obtained with the concurrence of Miss Godu, by means of what may be called intuitive Medicine. (Published below).

2nd Apropos of intuitive medicine, Mr. C…, one of the listeners present at the session, after being invited by the President, gives information of the highest interest about the healing power enjoyed by certain black castes. A native of Hindustan, of Indian origin, Mr. C… was an eyewitness of numerous facts of this kind, of which he did not account at that time. Today he finds the key in Spiritism and in magnetism. The black healers make wide use of certain plants, but often content themselves with palpating and rubbing the patient, acting according to the instructions of hidden voices that speak to them. 3rd Curious fact of detailed intuition of a previous existence. The person in question, who consigns the fact in a letter to one of his friends, who read it, says that since his childhood he has a precise recollection of having perished during the massacres of Saint Bartholomew, recalling even details of his death, places, etc. The circumstances do not permit one to see in this thought the result of an exalted imagination, considering that such a recollection goes back to an era in which there was absolutely no thought either of Spirits or of reincarnation. 4th Mr. Georges G…, of Marseille, transmits the following fact: A young man died eight months ago, and his family, in which are found three medium sisters, evokes him almost daily, making use of a basket. Each time the Spirit is called, a little dog, of which he was very fond, jumps onto the table and comes to sniff the basket, giving out grunts. The first time this happened, the basket wrote spontaneously: My brave little dog, you recognize me! Mr. G… says he can vouch for the reality of the fact. He did not see it, but the persons who tell it, and who have often witnessed it, are very good Spiritists and serious enough that one cannot doubt their sincerity. After this, he asks whether the perispirit, even though not tangible, has any aroma at all, or whether certain animals are endowed with a kind of mediumship.

A special study will be made later on this interesting subject, on which other facts no less curious seem to throw some light.

5th Verification of a bad Spirit, brought to a private meeting by a visitor, from which one may deduce the influence exercised by the presence of certain persons, in determined circumstances.

6th Reading of a private evocation, made by Mr. Allan Kardec, of one of the principal convulsionaries of Saint-Médard, deceased in 1830, and in the presence of her own daughter, who was able to verify the identity of the evoked Spirit. Such evocation presents, under various points, a high degree of instruction, lending a particular interest to the circumstances in which it was made. (Published further on). Studies: 1st Spontaneous dictation obtained through Mrs. P.

2nd Evocation of Stevens, companion of Georges Brown.