The Spirit of an idiot.

Charles de Saint-G… is a young idiot of thirteen years, lively, whose intellectual faculties are of such nullity that he does not even recognize his parents and is only capable of feeding himself. There is in him a complete arrest of development in the whole organic system. It was thought that he might constitute an interesting subject of psychological study.

(To Saint Louis.) Could you tell us whether we may evoke the Spirit of this child? Answer. – You may do so as if you were evoking a dead man.

Your reply makes us suppose that the evocation could be made at any moment. Answer. – Yes. His soul is bound to the body by material ties, but not spiritual ones; it can always detach itself.

Evocation of Ch. de Saint-G…

Answer. – I am a poor Spirit, bound to the Earth like a bird by its foot.

In your present state, as a Spirit, are you conscious of your nullity in this world? Answer. – Certainly; I feel my captivity well.

When your body sleeps and your Spirit detaches itself, do you have ideas as lucid as if you were in a normal state? Answer. – When my unhappy body rests, I am a little more free to raise myself to heaven, to which I aspire.

As a Spirit, do you experience a painful thought of your corporeal state? Answer. – Yes, for it is a punishment.

Do you recall your preceding existence?

Answer. – Oh, yes! It is the cause of my present exile.

What was that existence?

Answer. – A young libertine in the time of Henry III.

You said that your present condition is a punishment; then you did not choose it? Answer. – No.

How can your present existence serve your progress, in the state of nullity in which you find yourself? Answer. – It is not null to me before God, who imposed it.

Do you foresee the duration of your present existence?

Answer. – No; a few more years and I shall return to my homeland.

From your preceding existence until the present incarnation, what did you do as a Spirit? Answer. – Because I was a frivolous Spirit, God imprisoned me.

In the waking state are you conscious of what passes around you, despite the imperfection of your organs? Answer. – I see, I understand, but my body does not comprehend and sees nothing.

Can we do anything that may be useful to you?

Answer. – Nothing.

(To Saint Louis.) Can prayers for a reincarnated Spirit have the same efficacy as that addressed to a wandering one?

Answer. – Prayers are always good and agreeable to God. In the position of this poor Spirit, they will be able to serve him in nothing; they will serve later, for God keeps them in reserve. Observation. – No one will fail to recognize the high moral teaching that results from this evocation. Furthermore, it confirms what has always been said about idiots. Their moral nullity has nothing to do with the nullity of the Spirit, which, abstraction made of the organs, enjoys all its faculties. The imperfection of the organs is only an obstacle to the free manifestation of the faculties; it does not annihilate them. It is the case of a vigorous man, whose limbs would be compressed by bonds. It is known that, in certain regions, far from being an object of contempt, cretins are surrounded with benevolent care. Would this sentiment not derive from an intuition of the true state of these unfortunate ones, all the more worthy of attentions as their Spirit, which comprehends the position in which it finds itself, must suffer at seeing itself as an outcast of society?