The Spirit and the little dog.

Mr. G. G…, of Marseille, transmits to us the following fact: “A young man died eight months ago and his family, in which there are three medium sisters, evokes him almost daily, by means 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, letting out little yelps. The first time this happened, the basket wrote: “My brave little dog, who recognizes me.” “I did not witness the fact, but the persons from whom I heard it several times witnessed it and are excellent Spiritists and too serious for me to be able to call their veracity into doubt. I asked myself whether the perispirit retained material particles sufficient to affect the dog’s sense of smell, or whether the latter was endowed with the faculty of seeing Spirits. It is a problem that seems to me useful to delve into, in case it is not yet resolved.”

Evocation of Mr. M***, dead eight months ago, of whom we have just spoken.

Ans. – Here I am.

Do you confirm the fact relating to your dog, which comes to sniff the basket that serves for your evocations, and which seems to recognize you? Ans. – Yes.

Could you tell us the cause that draws the dog to the basket?

Ans. – The extreme keenness of the senses can lead it to divine the presence of the Spirit and even to see it.

Does the dog see you or sense you?

Ans. – The sense of smell, above all, and the magnetic fluid. Charlet.

Observation. – Charlet, the painter, gave to the Society a series of very remarkable communications about animals, which we shall publish shortly. It was certainly by that title that he interfered spontaneously in the present evocation [the replies from 1 to 3 are from the young man evoked, the 4th is from Charlet].

Considering that Charlet does indeed wish to intervene in the question with which we are occupied, we ask him to give some explanations in this regard. Ans. – With pleasure. The fact is perfectly plausible and, consequently, natural. I speak in general, for I do not know the one of which it is a matter. The dog is endowed with a very particular organization; it understands man, that is all. It senses him, follows him in all his actions with the curiosity of a child; it loves him and even goes so far — and we have many examples to confirm what we advance — as to devote itself to him. The dog must be — I am not certain, understand well — one of those animals come from an already advanced world, to sustain man in his suffering, to serve him, to guard him. I have just spoken of the moral qualities which, positively, the dog possesses. As for its sensitive faculties, they are extremely refined. All hunters know the subtlety of the dog’s scent; besides that faculty, the dog understands almost all the actions of man; it understands the importance of his death. Why would it not divine his soul and why, even, would it not see it? Charlet. n The following day Mrs. Lesc…, medium, member of the Society, obtained in private the following explanation, on the same subject: “The fact cited in the Society is true, although the perispirit detached from the body has none of its emanations. The dog scented the presence of its master; when I say scented, I mean that its organs perceived without the eyes seeing, without the nose smelling; but its whole being was warned of the master’s presence, and that warning was given to it, above all, by the will that emanated from the Spirit of those who evoked the dead man.

The human will reaches and warns the instinct of animals, principally of dogs, before some exterior sign has revealed it. The dog is put, by its nervous fibers, in direct contact with us, Spirits, almost as much as with men; it perceives apparitions; it realizes the difference existing between them and real or terrestrial things and has a great terror of them. The dog howls at the Moon, according to the common expression; it also howls when it senses death approaching. In both cases, and in many others still, the dog is intuitive. I will add that its visual organ is less developed than its perceptive organ; it sees less than it senses. The electric fluid penetrates it almost habitually. The fact that served me as a point of departure has nothing surprising about it, because, at the moment of the unfolding of the will that called its master, the dog sensed his presence almost as quickly as the Spirit itself heard and answered the call that was made to it.” [For information about the Spirit Georges see: Preliminary Observations.]

GEORGES. (Familiar Spirit.)

[1]

[see Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet.]