Of the marvelous and the supernatural.

If the belief in Spirits and in their manifestations represented a singular conception, were the product of a system, it might, with some semblance of reason, deserve to be suspected as illusory. But let them tell us why we find it so vividly alive among all peoples, ancient and modern, and in the holy books of all known religions? It is, the critics reply, because, in all times, man has had a taste for the marvelous. — But what do you understand by the marvelous? — That which is supernatural. — What do you understand by supernatural? — That which is contrary to the laws of Nature. — Do you, perchance, know these laws so well that you can set a limit to the power of God? Well then! Prove, then, that the existence of Spirits and their manifestations are contrary to the laws of Nature; that it is not, nor can be, one of these laws. Follow the Spiritist Doctrine and see whether all the links, uniformly joined in the chain, do not present all the characteristics of an admirable law, which resolves all that the philosophies have until now been unable to resolve.

Thought is one of the attributes of the Spirit; the possibility they have of acting upon matter, of impressing our senses and, consequently, of transmitting their thoughts to us, results, if we may so express ourselves, from the physiological constitution proper to them. Thus, there is nothing supernatural in this fact, nor anything marvelous.

Nevertheless, they will object, you admit that a Spirit can lift a table and hold it in the air without any point of support. Does this not constitute a derogation of the law of gravity? — It does, but of the known law; yet, has Nature already spoken its last word? Before the ascensional force of certain gases had been experimented with, who would have said that a heavy machine, carrying many men, would be capable of triumphing over the force of attraction? In the eyes of the common crowd, would not such a thing seem marvelous, diabolical? He who, a century ago, had proposed to transmit a telegram to a distance of 500 leagues and to receive the answer a few minutes later, would have passed for a madman. Had he done so, everyone would have believed that he had the devil at his orders, for, at that time, only the devil could move so quickly. Why, then, could not an unknown fluid, in given circumstances, have the property of counterbalancing the effect of gravity, as hydrogen counterbalances the weight of the balloon? Let us note, in passing, that we are not making an assimilation, but merely a comparison, and solely to show, by analogy, that the fact is not physically impossible. Now, it was precisely because they wished to proceed by assimilation, in observing these kinds of phenomena, that the learned went astray.

In short, the fact is there. There is not, nor will there be, any denial that can make it cease to be real, for to deny is not to prove. For us, there is nothing supernatural. That is all that, for now, we can say.

If the fact is proven, they will say, we will accept it; we would even accept the cause to which you attribute it, that of an unknown fluid. But who proves to us the intervention of Spirits? There is where the marvelous, the supernatural, lies.

A complete demonstration would be needed here, which, however, would be out of place and, moreover, would constitute a repetition, since it stands out from all the other parts of the teaching. Nevertheless, summarizing it in a few words, we will say that, in theory, it is founded on this principle: every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause; and, from the practical point of view, on the observation that, since the so-called Spiritist phenomena gave proofs of intelligence, the cause that produced them had to lie outside matter, and that, this intelligence not being that of those present — which experience attests — it had to be exterior to them. Since the being that acted was not seen, it was necessarily an invisible being.

Thus it was that, from observation to observation, we came to recognize that this invisible being, to which they gave the name of Spirit, is none other than the soul of those who lived corporeally, from whom death snatched away the gross visible envelope, leaving them only an ethereal covering, invisible in its normal state. Here, then, are the marvelous and the supernatural reduced to their simplest expression.

Once the existence of invisible beings is proven, their action upon matter results from the nature of the fluidic envelope that covers them. This action is intelligent, because, upon dying, they lost only the body, retaining the intelligence that constitutes their very essence. There is the key to all these phenomena wrongly held to be supernatural. The existence of Spirits is not, therefore, a preconceived system, or a hypothesis imagined to explain the facts: it is the result of observations and the natural consequence of the existence of the soul. To deny this cause is to deny the soul and its attributes. Let those who think they can give a more rational explanation of these intelligent effects deign to present it and, above all, to point out the cause of all the facts; only then will it be possible to discuss the merit of each one. For those who consider matter the only power of Nature, all that cannot be explained by the laws of matter is marvelous, or supernatural, and, for them, marvelous is synonymous with superstition. If it were so, religion, which is based on the existence of an immaterial principle, would be a patchwork of superstitions. They do not dare say it aloud, but they say it under their breath and think they save appearances by admitting that a religion is necessary for the people and for children, so that they may become sensible. Now, it is one of two things, either the religious principle is true, or false. If it is true, it is true for everyone; if false, it has no greater value for the ignorant than for the educated.

Those who attack Spiritism, in the name of the marvelous, generally rely on the materialist principle, for, denying any extra-material effect, they deny, ipso facto, the existence of the soul. But probe the depth of their consciences, scrutinize well the sense of their words, and you will almost always discover this principle, if not categorically formulated, germinating beneath the cloak with which they cover it, that of a supposed rational philosophy. If you approach them plainly, asking whether they believe they have a soul, perhaps they will not dare say no, but they will answer that they know nothing or are not certain. Charging to the account of the marvelous all that flows from the existence of the soul, they are, then, consistent with themselves: not admitting the cause, they cannot admit the effects. Hence, among them, a preconceived opinion, which renders them unfit to judge Spiritism fairly, since the principle from which they set out is that of the denial of all that is not material. As for us, will it be that we accept all the facts qualified as marvelous, for the simple reason that we admit the effects that are the consequence of the existence of the soul? Will it be that we are champions of all dreamers, adepts of all utopias, of all systematic eccentricities? Whoever thinks so will demonstrate a very meager knowledge of Spiritism. But our adversaries do not attend to this very closely. What they care least about is the necessity of knowing that of which they speak.

According to them, the marvelous is absurd; now, Spiritism rests on marvelous facts; therefore, Spiritism is absurd. And they consider this sentence to be without appeal. They think they oppose an irrefutable argument when, after having conducted erudite researches concerning the convulsionaries of Saint-Médard, the fanatics of the Cévennes, or the nuns of Loudun, they have come to the discovery of patent frauds, which no one contests. But will such stories be the Gospel of Spiritism? Have its adepts denied that charlatanism has exploited, for its own profit, certain facts? that others are fruits of the imagination? that many have been exaggerated by fanaticism? It is as solidary with the extravagances committed in its name as true science is with the abuses of ignorance, or true religion with the excesses of sectarianism. Many critics limit themselves to judging Spiritism by the fairy tales and the popular legends that are its fictions. It would be the same as judging History by historical novels, or by tragedies. In elementary logic, in order to discuss a thing, it is necessary to know it, for the opinion of a critic has value only when he speaks with perfect knowledge of the cause. Then, only, his opinion, though erroneous, may be taken into consideration. But what weight will it have when he deals with what he does not know? Legitimate criticism must demonstrate not only erudition, but also profound knowledge of the object it treats, sound judgment and unfailing impartiality, without which any minstrel could arrogate to himself the right to judge Rossini, and a dauber that of censuring Raphael.

Thus, Spiritism does not accept all the facts considered marvelous, or supernatural. Far from it, it demonstrates the impossibility of a great number of them and the ridiculousness of certain beliefs, which constitute superstition properly so called. It is true that, in what it admits, there are things that, for the incredulous, are purely in the domain of the marvelous, or rather, of superstition. So be it. But, at least, discuss only these points, for, with respect to the others, there is nothing to say and you preach in vain.

But how far does the belief of Spiritism go? they will ask. Read, observe, and you will know it. Only with time and study is the knowledge of any science acquired. Now, Spiritism, which touches upon the gravest questions of philosophy and upon all the branches of the social order, which encompasses both physical man and moral man, is, in itself, a science, a philosophy, that can no longer be learned in a few hours, like no other science.

There would be as much puerility in wishing to see all of Spiritism in a turning table, as all of physics in some children's toys. For whoever does not limit himself to staying on the surface, not only some hours, but months and years are necessary, to sound all its mysteries. From this one can appreciate the degree of knowledge and the value of the opinion of those who attribute to themselves the right to judge, because they saw one or two experiments, most often out of distraction or amusement. They will certainly say that they have no leisure to spare to consecrate to such studies all the time they demand. Very well; nothing constrains them to it. But whoever does not have time to learn a thing should not discourse upon it and, still less, judge it, if he does not wish to be accused of frivolity. Now, the more elevated the position we occupy in science, the less excusable it is to treat, frivolously, a subject we do not know. We summarize in the following propositions what we have set forth: 1st All Spiritist phenomena have as their principle the existence of the soul, its survival of the body, and its manifestations.

2nd Being founded on a law of Nature, these phenomena have nothing of the marvelous, nor of the supernatural, in the common sense of these words.

3rd Many facts are held to be supernatural, because their cause is not known; attributing a cause to them, Spiritism replaces them in the domain of natural phenomena.

4th Among the facts qualified as supernatural, there are many whose impossibility Spiritism demonstrates, including them in the number of superstitious beliefs.

5th Though it recognizes a foundation of truth in many popular beliefs, Spiritism in no way gives its solidarity to all the fantastic stories that the imagination has created.

6th To judge Spiritism by the facts that it does not admit is to give proof of ignorance and to take away all value from the opinion expressed.

7th The explanation of the facts that Spiritism admits, of their causes and moral consequences, forms a true science and a whole philosophy, which demand serious, persevering, and deep study.

8th Spiritism can consider a serious critic only one who has seen, studied, and deepened everything with the patience and perseverance of a conscientious observer; who knows as much of the subject as any instructed adept; who has, consequently, drawn his knowledge elsewhere than from the novels of science; one against whom no fact can be set that is unknown to him, no argument that he has not already considered and whose refutation he makes, not by mere denial, but by means of other more peremptory arguments; one, finally, who can indicate, for the verified facts, a more logical cause than the one Spiritism points out for them. Such a critic has yet to appear.

Nor is it necessary to say that the critics of the marvelous, with all the more reason, relegate miracles to the realm of the chimeras of the imagination. A few words on the subject, though gleaned from a preceding article, find here their natural place, and it will not be useless to recall them: n In its primitive acceptation, and by its etymology, the word miracle signifies an extraordinary thing, a thing admirable to see. But, like so many others, this word has lost its original sense and today is said, according to the Academy, of an act of divine power contrary to the common laws of Nature. Such, in effect, is the common acceptation, so that only by comparison and by metaphor is the word applied to common things that surprise us, and whose cause is unknown. It does not at all enter into our considerations whether God might judge it useful, in certain circumstances, to derogate laws established by Himself. Our objective is merely to demonstrate that the Spiritist phenomena, however extraordinary they may be, do not absolutely derogate these laws, have no miraculous character, just as they are not marvelous or supernatural. The miracle is not explained; the Spiritist phenomena, on the contrary, are explained in the most rational manner. They are not, then, miracles, but simple effects that have their reason for being in the general laws. Another characteristic of the miracle is its being unusual, isolated. Now, as soon as a phenomenon is reproduced, so to speak, at will and by various persons, it cannot be a miracle. In the eyes of the ignorant, Science performs miracles every day. That is why, in former times, those who knew more than the common crowd passed for sorcerers. And as they believed that all superhuman science came from the devil, they were burned. Today, that we are much more civilized, we content ourselves with sending them to the asylums.

If a man, who is really dead, is called back to life by divine intervention, there will be a true miracle, since this is a fact contrary to the laws of Nature. But if in such a man there are only appearances of death, if a latent vitality remains in him and Science, or a magnetic action, succeeds in reanimating him, for enlightened persons a natural phenomenon will have occurred, but, for the ignorant crowd, the fact will pass for miraculous. Let a physicist, from the midst of certain meadows, launch an electric kite and cause the lightning to fall upon a tree and certainly this new Prometheus will be held to be armed with a diabolical power; but Joshua, halting the movement of the Sun, or, rather, of the Earth, there is the true miracle, for we know of no magnetizer endowed with so great a power, to accomplish so great a prodigy. Of all the Spiritist phenomena, one of the most extraordinary, without doubt, is that of direct writing, and one of those that demonstrate in the most patent manner the action of the hidden intelligences; but, by the fact that the phenomenon is produced by hidden beings, it is no more miraculous than all the other phenomena due to invisible agents, because these hidden beings who populate the spaces are one of the forces of Nature, whose action is as incessant upon the material world as upon the moral world.

Enlightening us as to this force, Spiritism gives us the key to a host of things that are inexplicable, and unexplained by any other means and that could, in remote times, pass for prodigies. Like magnetism, it reveals a law, if not unknown, at least ill understood or, better said, of which the effects were known, because they were produced in all times, but the law was not known, and it was this ignorance of the law that engendered superstition. This law being known, the marvelous disappears and the phenomena enter into the order of natural things. That is why Spiritists no longer perform miracles in making a table turn or a dead person write, than the physician in making a dying man revive or the physicist in making the lightning fall. He who, aided by this science, claimed to perform miracles, would be either ignorant of the subject or a charlatan. The Spiritist phenomena, like the magnetic phenomena, must have passed for prodigies, before their cause was known. Now, like the skeptics, the strong spirits, that is, those who have the exclusive privilege of reason and good sense, do not believe a thing to be possible from the moment they do not understand it. That is why all the facts reputed prodigious are the object of their mockeries; and as religion contains a great number of facts of this kind, they do not believe in religion, and from there to absolute incredulity there is but a step. By explaining the majority of these facts, Spiritism gives them a reason for being. It comes, then, to the aid of religion, by demonstrating the impossibility of certain facts which, by no longer having a miraculous character, are no less extraordinary. God is not less great, nor less powerful, for not having derogated His laws. How much joking were the levitations of Saint Cupertino not the object of? Now, the suspension in the air of heavy bodies is a fact explained by Spiritism; of these we were personally an eyewitness, and Mr. Home, like other persons of our acquaintance, repeated several times the phenomenon produced by Saint Cupertino. Thus, this phenomenon enters into the order of natural things. In the number of facts of this kind one must place, in the first rank, the apparitions, since they are the most frequent. That of La Salette, which divides the clergy itself, has for us nothing unusual. Certainly we cannot affirm that the fact occurred, for we have no material proof. For us, however, it is possible, since thousands of analogous recent facts are within our knowledge. We believe in them, not only because their reality was verified by us, but, above all, because we account perfectly for the manner in which they are produced. Let them please refer to the theory we gave, of apparitions, n and they will see that such a phenomenon becomes as simple and as plausible as a host of physical phenomena, which are prodigious only for the lack of their key. As for the personage that presented itself at La Salette, it is another question; its identity was in no way demonstrated; we merely note that there may have been an apparition; the rest is not within our competence. On this subject, each one may keep his convictions, with which Spiritism has nothing to occupy itself. We only say that the facts produced by Spiritism reveal to us new laws and give us the key to a host of things that seemed supernatural. If some of them that passed for miraculous now find a logical explanation, it is a reason not to be in a hurry to deny that which one does not understand. The facts of Spiritism are contested by certain persons, precisely because they seem to escape the common law, and because they do not understand them. Give them a rational basis and the doubt will cease. In this century where words are not spared, the explanation is, then, a powerful element of conviction. Thus, daily we see persons who witnessed no fact, who neither saw a table turn, nor a medium write, and who are as convinced as we are, solely because they read and understood. If we ought to believe only in what our eyes have seen, our convictions would be reduced to very little.

[1] Tr. note: This article was included by Allan Kardec in The Mediums' Book, whose first edition appeared in 1861. It corresponds to chapter II, First Part, of the cited book.

[2] Tr. note: With some modifications, Allan Kardec inserted part of this text in chapter XIII of Genesis, the last book of the Spiritist Codification, published in 1868. (Characteristics of Miracles).

[3] Tr. note: Theory expounded in the Spiritist Review, December 1858 fascicle.