The Mediums’ Book

Announced long ago, but with its publication delayed by reason of its very importance, this work will appear between the 5th and 10th of January, at the bookshop of Mr. Didier, our publisher, located at the Quai des Augustins, 35. n It represents the complement of The Spirits’ Book and encloses the experimental part of Spiritism, just as the latter contains the philosophical part.

The fruit of long experience and laborious studies, in this work we have sought to clarify all the questions connected with the practice of manifestations. In accordance with the Spirits, it contains the theoretical explanation of the various phenomena, as well as of the conditions under which they may be reproduced. Nevertheless, above all the matter relating to the development and the exercise of mediumship merited from us a most special attention.

Experimental Spiritism is surrounded by far more difficulties than is generally thought, and the pitfalls encountered there are numerous. This is what causes so many disappointments to those who occupy themselves with it without the necessary experience and knowledge. Our aim was to forewarn against these pitfalls, which do not always fail to present inconveniences for whoever ventures imprudently into this new terrain. We could not neglect a point so capital, and we have treated it with the care that its importance demands.

The inconveniences almost always originate from the frivolity with which so serious a problem is treated. Whatever they may be, the Spirits are the souls of those who lived, in the midst of whom we shall infallibly be, from one moment to the next. All Spiritist manifestations, intelligent or not, have, then, for their object, to put us in contact with these same souls; if we respect their mortal remains, with all the more reason should we respect the intelligent being who survives and who constitutes their true individuality. To make a game of the manifestations is to fail in the respect that perhaps tomorrow we shall claim for ourselves, and which is never violated with impunity. The first moment of curiosity caused by these strange phenomena has now passed. Today, when their source is known, let us guard against profaning it with unseemly pranks, and let us strive to draw from it the appropriate teaching that will assure us future happiness. The field is very vast and the object too important not to captivate all our attention. Until now, all our efforts have tended to make Spiritism enter upon this serious path. If this new work, making it still better known, can contribute to preventing it from being diverted from its providential destination, we shall be amply rewarded for our cares and our vigils. We do not deny that this work will provoke more than one criticism on the part of those whom the severity of the principles disturbs, as well as of those who, seeing things from another point of view, already accuse us of wishing to found a school in Spiritism. If to found a school is to seek in this science a useful and profitable end for Humanity, we would have the right to feel flattered by this accusation. But such a school needs no other chief than the good sense of the masses and the wisdom of the good Spirits, who would have created it without our participation. This is why we decline the honor of having founded it, happy to place ourselves under its banner, aspiring to nothing but the modest title of propagator. If a name be necessary, we shall inscribe upon its frontispiece: School of Moral and Philosophical Spiritism, and to it we shall invite all those who have need of hopes and consolations. Allan Kardec.

[1] It is likewise found at the offices of the Spiritist Review, Rue Sainte-Anne, 59, Sainte-Anne passage. One large volume in-18, of 500 pages; Paris, 3 fr. 50; by post, 4 fr.