The healer zouave of the Camp of Châlons.

— One reads in the Écho de l’Aisne, of August 1, 1866:

“In our region people speak of nothing but the marvels accomplished at the camp of Châlons by a young Spiritist zouave who daily performs new miracles.

“Numerous convoys of sick people make their way to Châlons and, incredible thing, a good number of them return cured.

“In these last days a paralytic, having come by carriage, after being seen by the ‘young Spiritist,’ found himself radically cured and returned home jauntily on foot.

“Let whoever can explain these facts, which border on the prodigious; there are always those that are exact and affirmed by a great number of intelligent persons worthy of belief.”

Renaud.

This article is reproduced textually by the Presse illustrée of August 6. The Petit Journal, of August 17, narrates the fact in these terms:

“After having visited the imperial barracks, which I think you have already described to your readers, that is, the most fitting and at the same time most simple dwelling that a sovereign can have, even if only for a few days, I spent the night running about in search of the magnetizing zouave.

“A mere musician, this zouave has been, for three months, the hero of the camp and its surroundings. He is a small, thin, dark-skinned man, with deeply sunken eyes; a true physiognomy of a Mohammedan monk. They tell incredible things about him, and I am forced to speak only of what they tell, because, for several days now, by superior order, he has had to interrupt the public sessions he was giving at the ‘hôtel de la Meuse.’ They came from ten leagues away, one at a time; he received twenty-five to thirty sick people at the same time, and at his voice, at his glance, at his touch, at least so they say, suddenly the deaf heard, the mute spoke, the lame went off, crutches under their arms. “Is all this true? I know nothing about it. I conversed with him for an hour. He is called Jacob, he is a simple Burgundian, expresses himself with ease, gave me the impression of one of the most convinced and most intelligent of men. He has always refused any kind of remuneration and does not even like thanks. Moreover, he promised me a manuscript that was dictated to him by a Spirit. Needless to say that I will speak to you of it as soon as I receive it, if, however, the Spirit has spirit.”

René de Pont-Jest.

Finally, the Écho de l’Aisne, after having cited the fact in its number of August 1, comments on it in the following manner, in the number of the 4th of the same month:

“In last Wednesday’s number, you said that in our region people spoke of nothing else but the cures accomplished at the camp of Châlons by a young Spiritist zouave.

“I believe I do well to ask you to restrain it, because a veritable army of sick people makes its way daily to the camp; those who return satisfied encourage others to imitate them; on the contrary, those who gained nothing do not cease to criticize and to scoff.

“Between these two extreme opinions, there is a prudent reserve, which ‘a good number of sick people’ ought to take as a rule of conduct, as a guide to what they may do.

“These ‘marvelous cures,’ these ‘miracles,’ as the common run of mortals call them, have nothing marvelous about them, nothing miraculous.

“At first contact, they cause admiration because they are not common; but since nothing that occurs is without a cause, it was necessary to seek what produces such facts, and Science has explained them.

“Vivid moral impressions have always had the faculty of acting upon the ‘nervous system’; — the cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave operate only upon the maladies of this system. In every epoch, in Antiquity as in modern times, cures have been recorded solely by the force of the influence of the imagination, an influence attested by a great number of facts; — there is, then, nothing extraordinary in the fact that today the same causes produce the same results.

“It is, then, only to the sick of the ‘nervous system’ that it is possible ‘to go and see and hope.’”

X.

— Before any other commentary, we shall make a slight observation on this last article. The author records the facts and explains them in his own manner. In his opinion, these cures have nothing marvelous or miraculous about them. On this point we are perfectly in agreement: Spiritism says clearly that it works no miracles; that all the facts, without exception, that are produced by mediumistic influence are due to a natural force and are realized by virtue of a law as natural as the one that causes a telegram to be transmitted to the other side of the Atlantic in a few minutes. Before the discovery of the law of electricity, such a fact would have passed for the miracle of miracles. Let us suppose for a moment that Franklin, still more initiated than he was into the properties of the electric fluid, had cast a metallic wire across the ocean and established an instantaneous correspondence between Europe and America, without indicating the process to anyone; what would they have thought of him? Incontestably they would have cried miracle; they would have attributed to him a supernatural power; in the eyes of many people he would have passed for a sorcerer and for having the devil at his orders. The knowledge of the law of electricity reduced this supposed prodigy to the proportions of natural effects. So it is with a host of other phenomena. But are all the laws of Nature known? the property of all fluids? Is it not possible that an unknown fluid, as electricity for so long was, may be the cause of unexplained effects and produce, upon the economy [the organism], results impossible for Science, with the aid of the limited means at its disposal? Well then! therein lies the whole secret of mediumistic cures, or rather, there is no secret, for Spiritism has secrets only for those who do not take the trouble to study it. These cures have quite simply for their principle a fluidic action directed by thought and by the will, instead of being so by a metallic wire. Everything lies in knowing the properties of this fluid, the conditions under which it can act, and knowing how to direct it. Moreover, a human instrument is needed sufficiently provided with this fluid, and apt to give it sufficient energy. This faculty is not the privilege of one individual; for since it is in Nature, many possess it, but in very different degrees, as everyone shall see, though more or less remotely. Among the number of those who are endowed with it, some act with knowledge of the cause, like the zouave Jacob; others without their own awareness, and without realizing what is taking place within them; they know that they cure, and that is all. Ask them how, and they know nothing. If they are superstitious, they will attribute their power to an occult cause, to the virtue of some talisman or amulet which, in reality, serve for nothing. The same is true of all unconscious mediums, and their number is great. Innumerable persons are themselves the first cause of the effects that surprise them and that they cannot explain. Among the most obstinate deniers many are mediums without knowing it. The newspaper in question says: “The cures obtained by the Spiritist zouave operate only upon the maladies of the nervous system; they are due to the influence of the imagination, attested by a great number of facts; there were such cures in Antiquity, as in modern times; thus, they have nothing extraordinary about them.”

By saying that Mr. Jacob cured only nervous afflictions the author advances himself somewhat lightly, because the facts contradict that affirmation. But let us admit that it is so; these kinds of afflictions are innumerable and precisely those in which Science is, most often, forced to confess its impotence. If, by some means or other, one can triumph over it, is that not an important result? If this means lies in the influence of the imagination, what does it matter? why neglect it? Is it not better to cure by the imagination than not to cure at all? Nevertheless, it seems difficult to us that the imagination alone, even though excited to the highest degree, could make a paralytic walk and straighten an ankylosed limb. In any case, since, according to the author, cures of nervous diseases have in all times been obtained through the influence of the imagination, physicians are the less excusable for obstinately persisting in employing impotent means, when experience shows them other efficacious ones. Without wishing it, the author attacks them. But, he says, Mr. Jacob does not cure everyone. — That is possible and even certain. But what does this prove? That he does not have a universal healing power. The man who had such a power would be equal to God, and the one who had the pretension of possessing it would be nothing but a presumptuous fool. Even if he cured only four or five sick people out of ten, recognized as incurable by Science, that would already suffice to prove the existence of the faculty. Are there many physicians who can do as much?

— For a long time we have known Mr. Jacob personally as a writing medium and zealous propagator of Spiritism; we knew that he had made some partial trials of healing mediumship, but it seems that this faculty had in him a rapid and considerable development during his stay at the camp of Châlons. One of our colleagues of the Society of Paris, Mr. Boivinet, who resides in the Department of the Aisne, was so good as to send us a very detailed report of the facts that are within his personal knowledge. His profound knowledge of Spiritism, joined to a character free of exaltation and enthusiasm, allowed him to appreciate things judiciously. His testimony has, then, for us, all the value of an honorable, impartial, and enlightened man, and his report all the authenticity that could be desired. We thus have the facts attested by him as established, as if we ourselves had witnessed them personally. The extent of these documents does not permit us to publish them in their entirety in this review, but we have coordinated them in order to make use of them later, limiting ourselves for today to citing some of their essential passages: “…With the aim of well justifying the confidence you placed in me, I informed myself, both by myself and also through absolutely honorable persons worthy of belief, of the well-established cures, operated by Mr. Jacob. Moreover, these persons are not Spiritists, which removes from their affirmations all suspicion of partiality in favor of Spiritism.

“I reduce by a third Mr. Jacob’s estimates as to the number of sick people received by him; but it seems that I am below, perhaps far below the truth, estimating this figure at 4,000, of whom a quarter were cured and three quarters relieved. The influx was such that the military authority became alarmed, prohibiting future visits. I know from the station-master himself that the railway transported daily masses of sick people to the camp.

“As to the nature of the diseases upon which he exercised more particularly his influence, it is impossible for me to say. They are, above all, the infirm who turned to him and, consequently, it is they who figure in the greatest number among his satisfied clients; but many other afflicted persons could present themselves to him with success.

“It was thus that at Chartères, a hamlet very near the one in which I live, I saw and saw again a man of about fifty years who, since 1856, vomited everything he ate. At the moment when he went to see the zouave, he had set out very ill and vomited at least three times a day. Seeing him, Mr. Jacob said to him: ‘You are cured!’ and, during the session, invited him to eat and drink. The poor peasant, mastering his apprehension, ate and drank and did not feel ill. For more than three weeks he has not felt the least malaise. The cure was instantaneous. Needless to add that Mr. Jacob did not have him take any medicine, nor prescribed for him any treatment. His fluidic action alone, like an electric shock, had sufficed to restore the organs to their normal state.” Observation. – This man is of those rude natures, who become exalted very little. If, then, a single word had sufficed to overexcite his imagination to the point of instantaneously curing a chronic gastritis, it would have to be agreed that the phenomenon was even more surprising than the cure, and well deserved some attention.

“The daughter of the proprietor of the ‘hôtel de la Meuse,’ at Mourmelon, ill in the chest, was so weak as to be unable to leave her bed. The zouave invited her to rise, which she did immediately; to the stupefaction of the numerous spectators, she descended the stairs without help and went to walk in the garden with her new physician. From that day on the young woman is well. I am not a physician, but I do not believe that this is a nervous disease.

“Mr. B…, manager of a boarding house, who leaps at the idea of the intervention of Spirits in the matter, told me that a lady, long ill in the stomach, had been cured by the zouave and that, since then, she had gained weight notably, about twenty pounds.”

Observation. – This gentleman, who is exasperated at the idea of the intervention of Spirits, would he not be very vexed when, being dead, his own Spirit could come to assist the persons who are dear to him, to cure them and prove to them that he is not lost to them?

“As to the infirm properly speaking, the results obtained by them are more astounding, because the eye appreciates the results immediately.

“At Treloup, a hamlet situated 7 or 8 kilometers from here, an old man of seventy years was crippled and could do nothing. To leave his chair was almost impossible. The cure was complete and instantaneous. Yesterday they were still speaking to me of the case. Well then! they said to me, I saw him, old man Petit; he was reaping!

“A woman of Mourmelon had her leg crippled and immobilized; the knee was at the height of the stomach. Now she walks and is well.

“On the day when the zouave was prohibited, a mason went about Mourmelon exasperated, saying that he wanted to confront those who prevented the medium from working. This mason had both fists turned toward the interior of his arms. Today his fists move like ours and he earns two francs more a day.

“How many people arrived carried and were able to return alone, having recovered the use of their limbs during the session!

“A child of five years, brought from Reims, who had never walked, walked immediately.

“The following fact was, properly speaking, the starting point of the medium’s faculty, or, at least, of the public exercise of this faculty, which became remarkable:

“Arriving at Ferté-sous Jouarre, and making its way to the camp, the regiment of zouaves was gathered in the public square. Before dispersing the soldiers, the band performs a musical piece. Among the number of the spectators was a little girl in a little carriage, pushed by her parents. The little girl was pointed out to the zouave by one of his comrades. The music ended, he makes his way toward her and, addressing the parents, asks them: So this little girl is ill? — She cannot walk, they answered him. For two years she has had an orthopedic apparatus on her leg. — Remove, then, the apparatus; she no longer needs it. This was done, not without some hesitation, and the little girl walked. Then they went to the café and the father, mad with joy, wanted the man of the refreshments to bring his entire stock, so that the zouaves might drink.

— Now I am going to tell how the medium proceeded, that is, I am going to relate a session, which I did not attend, but which was detailed to me by several sick people.

“The zouave has the sick people enter. The dimensions of the place determine their number. Thus, as they affirm, he had to transfer himself from the ‘hôtel de l’Europe,’ where he could admit only eighteen persons at a time, to the ‘hôtel de la Meuse,’ where it was possible to admit twenty-five to thirty. They enter. Those who live in the more remote regions are generally invited to come first. Certain persons want to talk: ‘Silence!’ he says; ‘those who talk I will… put out into the street!’ At the end of ten to fifteen minutes of silence and general immobility, he addresses some of the sick people, rarely questions, but tells them what they suffer from. Then, walking along the great table, around which the sick people are seated, he speaks to all, but without order; he touches them, but without gestures that recall those of the magnetizers; then he dismisses everyone, saying to some: ‘You are cured; go away;’ to others: ‘You will cure without doing anything; you have only weakness;’ to a few, more rarely: ‘I can do nothing for you.’ They want to thank him and he answers very militarily, that there is nothing to thank for and puts the clients out. Sometimes he says to them: ‘It is to Providence that you should address your thanks.’

— “On August 7 an order from the marshal came to interrupt the course of the sessions. Soon after the prohibition, and given the enormous influx of sick people at Mourmelon, they had to employ with regard to the medium a means without precedent. As he had committed no fault and observed discipline with great rigor, they could not arrest him. They engaged a sentry to follow him everywhere and prevent anyone from approaching him, whoever it might be.

“They told me that all these cures would be tolerated, provided that the word Spiritism was not pronounced, and I do not believe that Mr. Jacob did so. It was from that moment that they used rigor against him.

“Whence comes the terror caused by the mere name of Spiritism, even when it does only good, consoles the afflicted and relieves suffering Humanity? For my part, I believe that certain people are afraid that it may do too much good.

— “In the first days of the month of September Mr. Jacob wished to come spend two days at my house, in fulfillment of a possible promise he had made me at the camp of Châlons. The pleasure I had in receiving him was multiplied tenfold by the services he was able to render to a good number of unfortunates. After his departure, almost daily I kept myself informed of the state of the sick people treated and below I give you the result of my observations. In order to be exact like a statistical survey, and by way of further information, should it be the case, I here record them by name. (There follows a list of thirty-odd names, with designation of age, of disease, and of the result obtained). “Mr. Jacob is sincerely religious. What I do, he said to me, does not surprise me. I would do things much more extraordinary and would not be more astonished, because I know that God can do whatever He wills. I marvel at only one thing: it is to have had the immense favor of having been the instrument that He chose. Today they are astonished at what I obtain, but who knows whether in a month, in a year, there will not be ten, twenty, fifty mediums like me and stronger than me? Mr. Kardec, who seeks and ought to seek to study facts like those that take place here, ought to have come. Today, tomorrow, I may lose my faculty, which for him would be a study lost; he ought to make the history of such facts.” OBSERVATION.

Without doubt we would have felt happy to witness the facts related above, and we probably would have gone to the camp of Châlons, if we had had the possibility and if we had been informed in good time. We learned of it only by the indirect way of the newspapers, when we were traveling, and we confess to not having an absolute confidence in their reports. We would have a great deal to do if it were necessary to go personally to verify all that is reported of Spiritism, or even all that is pointed out to us by our correspondence. There we could go only with the certainty of not having a disappointment, and when Mr. Boivinet’s report reached us, the camp was prohibited. Besides, the sight of these facts would have taught us nothing new, for we believe we understand them. It would have been simply to establish their reality. But the testimony of a man like Mr. Boivinet, to whom we had sent a letter for Mr. Jacob, asking him to instruct us about what he would have seen, sufficed us completely. There was, then, no loss for us, except the pleasure of having seen Mr. Jacob personally at work, which, we hope, can happen as well at the camp of Châlons as in another place. Thus, we speak of Mr. Jacob’s cures only because they are authentic. If they had appeared suspect to us, or tainted by charlatanism or by a ridiculous boastfulness, which would have made them more harmful than useful to the cause of Spiritism, we would have abstained, in spite of whatever might have been said, as we have done in various other circumstances, for we do not wish to pass as the editor responsible for any eccentricity, nor to second the ambitious and self-interested aims, which at times conceal themselves under appearances of devotion. This is why we are circumspect in our appreciations of men and of things, and also why our Review does not transform itself into a censer for the benefit of anyone. But here it is a matter of a serious thing, fertile in results, and capital from the double point of view of the fact in itself and of the realization of one of the predictions of the Spirits. Indeed, since long ago they announced that healing mediumship would develop in exceptional proportions, in such a way as to draw general attention, and we congratulate Mr. Jacob for being one of the first to set the example. But here, as in all genres of manifestations, for us the person fades away before the principal question.

Since the gift of healing is not the result of labor, nor of study, nor of an acquired talent, the one who possesses it cannot boast of it. One praises a great artist, a scholar, because they owe what they are to their own efforts. But the most well-endowed medium is nothing but a passive instrument, of which the Spirits make use today and may abandon tomorrow. What would Mr. Jacob be if he lost his faculty, which he is prudent to foresee? What he was before: the musician of the zouaves; whereas, happen what may, there will always remain to the scholar Science and to the artist talent. We are happy to see Mr. Jacob share these ideas; consequently, it is not to him that these reflections are addressed. We have no doubt that he will likewise be of our opinion, when we say that what constitutes a real merit in a medium, what one can and ought rightly to praise, is the use he makes of his faculty; it is the zeal, the devotion, the disinterestedness with which he places himself at the service of those to whom it can be useful; it is also the modesty, the simplicity, the abnegation, the benevolence that breathe in his words and that all his actions justify, because these qualities belong to him as something particular. Thus, it is not the medium that should be placed on a pedestal, from which tomorrow he may descend, but the man of good, who knows how to make himself useful without ostentation and without profit to his vanity. The development of healing mediumship will necessarily have consequences of high gravity, which will be the object of a special and deepened examination in a forthcoming article. [The following one.]