Considerations on the propagation of healing mediumship.

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE PROPAGATION OF HEALING MEDIUMSHIP.

(See the previous month's article on the healing zouave.)

First of all, we must make some corrections to our report of Mr. Jacob's cures. We know from the latter that the cure of the girl, who came to Ferté-sous-Jouarre, did not take place in a public square; it is true that it was there that he saw her, but the cure occurred at her parents' home, where he had her come in. This in no way alters the result; but this circumstance gives the action a less eccentric character.

For his part, Mr. Boivinet writes to us: With respect to the proportion of patients cured, I meant to say that out of 4,000, one quarter experienced no results, and that of the rest, or 3,000, one quarter were cured and three quarters relieved. From another passage of the article one might think that I had attested to the cure of ankylosed limbs; I meant to say that Mr. Jacob had straightened stiffened limbs, rigid as if they were ankylosed, nothing more, which does not mean that he has not cured ankyloses; I simply do not know. As for limbs stiffened by pains, partly paralyzing the faculty of movement, I observed most recently three cases of instantaneous cure; the next day one of the patients was completely cured; the other had freedom of movement, with a residual pain persisting which, he told me, he would gladly accommodate himself to forever. I did not see the third patient again.” It would indeed have been surprising had the devil not come to meddle in this affair. Another person writes to us from one of the localities where the rumor of Mr. Jacob's cures had spread: “Here, great commotion in the commune and in the presbytery. The servant of the parish priest, having met Mr. Jacob twice on the only street of the region, is convinced that he is the devil and that he is pursuing her. The poor woman took refuge in a house where she almost had a nervous fit. It is true that the zouave's red garb may have led her to believe that he came out of hell. It seems that a crusade against the devil is being prepared here, to dissuade the sick from having themselves cured by him.”

Who could have put into that woman's head that Mr. Jacob is the devil in person and that the cures are a piece of trickery on his part? Were the poor of a certain town not told that they should not receive the bread and alms of the Spiritists, because it was a seduction of Satan? and, elsewhere, that it was better to be an atheist than to return to God through the influence of Spiritism, because here again it was a ruse of the demon? In any case, by attributing so many good things to the devil, they do everything necessary to rehabilitate him in public opinion. What is most strange is that populations a few leagues from Paris are still fed on such ideas. Thus, what a reaction there will be when light is shed upon the fanaticized brains! It must be admitted that there are very clumsy people.

— Let us return to our subject: the general considerations on healing mediumship.

We have said, and it could never be repeated too often, that there is a radical difference between healing mediums and those who obtain medical prescriptions from the Spirits. The latter differ in no way from ordinary writing mediums, except by the specialty of the communications. The former cure solely by fluidic action, in a longer or shorter time, sometimes instantaneously, without the use of any remedy. The healing power lies entirely in the purified fluid for which they serve as conductors. The theory of this phenomenon has been sufficiently explained to prove that it falls within the order of natural laws, and that it has nothing miraculous about it. It is the product of a special aptitude, as independent of the will as all the other mediumistic faculties; it is not a talent that can be acquired; one does not make a healing medium as one makes a physician. The aptitude for healing is inherent in the medium, but the exercise of the faculty takes place only with the concurrence of the Spirits; whence it follows that if the Spirits do not wish, or no longer wish, to make use of him, he is like an instrument without a musician, and obtains nothing. He may, therefore, instantly lose his faculty, which excludes the possibility of making a profession of it. Another point to consider is that, this faculty being founded on natural laws, it has limits traced by those same laws. It is understood that fluidic action may give sensitivity to an existing organ, dissolve and cause to disappear an obstacle to movement and perception, heal a wound, because then the fluid becomes a true therapeutic agent; but it is evident that it cannot remedy the absence or destruction of an organ, which would be a true miracle. Thus, sight may be restored to one blind from amaurosis, ophthalmia, leucoma, or cataract, but not to those whose eyes have been pierced. There are, then, diseases incurable by nature, and it would be an illusion to believe that healing mediumship would free Humanity from all its infirmities.

Moreover, account must be taken of the variety of nuances presented by this faculty, which is far from being uniform in all who possess it. It presents itself under very diverse aspects. According to the degree of development of the power, the action is more or less rapid, extensive, or circumscribed. In given circumstances, a certain medium triumphs over certain diseases in certain persons, but fails completely in cases apparently identical. It even seems that in some the healing faculty extends to animals.

In this phenomenon a true chemical reaction takes place, analogous to that produced by medicines. The fluid acting as a therapeutic agent, its action varies according to the properties it receives from the qualities of the medium's personal fluid. Now, by reason of the temperament and constitution of the latter, the fluid is impregnated with diverse elements, which give it special properties. It may be, to make use of material comparisons, more or less charged with animal electricity, with acid or alkaline principles, ferruginous, sulfurous, dissolving, astringent, caustic, etc. From this results a different action, according to the nature of the organic disorder; this action may, therefore, be energetic, very powerful in certain cases and nil in others. It is thus that healing mediums may have specialties: this one will cure pains or straighten a limb, but will not give sight to a blind person, and conversely. Only experience can make known the specialty and the extent of the aptitude; but, in principle, it may be said that there are no universal healing mediums, by virtue of there being no perfect men on Earth, and whose power is unlimited. The action is completely different in obsession, and the faculty of healing does not imply that of delivering the obsessed. The healing fluid acts, in a certain way, materially upon the affected organs, whereas, in obsession, one must act morally upon the obsessing Spirit; one must have authority over it, in order to make it release its prey. These are, then, two distinct aptitudes, which are not always found in the same person. The concurrence of the healing fluid becomes necessary when, which is quite frequent, the obsession is complicated by organic afflictions. There may, therefore, be healing mediums powerless against obsession, and conversely.

Healing mediumship does not come to supplant Medicine and physicians; it comes, simply, to prove to the latter that there are things they do not know and to invite them to study them; that Nature has laws and resources of which they are ignorant; that the spiritual element, which they fail to recognize, is not a chimera and that, when they take it into account, they will open new horizons to Science and triumph more often than they do now. If this faculty were the privilege of a single individual, it would pass unnoticed; it would be regarded as an exception, an effect of chance, that supreme explanation which explains nothing, and ill will could easily stifle the truth. But when they see the facts multiplying, they will be forced to recognize that they cannot be produced except by virtue of a law; that if ignorant men prevail where the learned fail, it is because the latter do not know everything. This in no way harms Science, which will always be the lever and the resultant of intellectual progress. Only the self-love of those who confine it within the limits of their knowledge and of materiality can suffer from this. Of all the mediumistic faculties, healing mediumship made common is the one that is called to produce the most sensations, because everywhere there are sick people, and in great number, and it is not curiosity that draws them, but the imperious need of relief. More than any other, it will triumph over incredulity, as well as over fanaticism, which sees everywhere the intervention of the devil. The multiplicity of facts will necessarily lead to the study of the natural cause and, thence, to the destruction of the superstitious ideas of sorcery, of occult power, of amulets, etc.: If one considers the effect produced in the vicinity of the camp of Châlons by a single individual, the multitude of suffering persons who came within a radius of ten leagues, one may judge what this would be if ten, twenty, a hundred individuals appeared under the same conditions, whether in France or in foreign countries. If you tell these patients that they are the plaything of an illusion, they will answer you by showing the straightened leg; that they are victims of charlatans? they will say that they paid nothing and that no drug was sold to them; that their confidence was abused? they will say that nothing was promised to them. It is also the faculty that most escapes the accusation of charlatanry and of fraud; it braves mockery, because there is nothing visible in a cured patient whom Science had abandoned. Charlatanism can simulate, more or less crudely, the majority of mediumistic effects, and incredulity always seeks in them its cords. n But where will it find the cords of healing mediumship? Feats of dexterity may be performed for mediumistic effects, and the most real effects may, in the eyes of certain people, pass for masterstrokes, but what would he gain who unduly assumed the quality of healing medium? One of two things: he cures or he does not cure. There is no sham that can take the place of a cure.

Moreover, healing mediumship escapes completely from the law on the illegal practice of Medicine, since it prescribes no treatment. With what penalty could one strike the one who cures solely by his influence, seconded by prayer, and who, moreover, asks nothing as the price of his services? Now, prayer is not a pharmaceutical substance. In your opinion it is a foolishness; so be it. But if the cure lies at the end of that folly, what will you say? A folly that cures is well worth the remedies that do not cure. They were able to forbid Mr. Jacob from receiving patients at the camp and from going to their homes, and he submitted, saying that he would resume the exercise of his faculty only when the interdiction was officially lifted, because, being a soldier, he wished to show himself a scrupulous observer of discipline, however harsh it might be. In this he acted wisely, for he proved that Spiritism does not lead to insubordination; but here is an exceptional case. Since this faculty is not the privilege of a single individual, by what means could they prevent it from propagating? If it propagates, whether they wish it or not, they will have to accept it with all its consequences. As healing mediumship depends on an organic disposition, many persons possess it, at least in germ, but it remains in a latent state for want of exercise and of development. It is a faculty that many covet, and with reason. If all those who desire to possess it asked for it with fervor and perseverance through prayer, and with an exclusively humanitarian aim, it is probable that, from this concurrence, more than one true healing medium would emerge.

It is not surprising to see persons favored with this precious gift who, at first sight, do not seem worthy of this favor. It is that the assistance of the good Spirits is dispensed to everyone, in order to open to all the path of good; but it ceases if one does not know how to make oneself worthy of it, by improving oneself. The same occurs with the gifts of fortune, which do not always come to the most deserving; it is, then, a trial as to the use that is made of it: happy are those who emerge victorious.

By the nature of its effects, healing mediumship imperiously requires the concurrence of purified Spirits, who could not be replaced by inferior Spirits, whereas there are mediumistic effects for the production of which the elevation of the Spirits is not a necessary condition and which, for this reason, are obtained more or less in any circumstance. Certain Spirits even, less scrupulous than others as to these conditions, prefer the mediums in whom they find sympathy. But by the work the workman is known.

There is, then, for the healing medium an absolute necessity of attracting the concurrence of superior Spirits, if he wishes to preserve and develop his faculty, otherwise, instead of growing, it declines and disappears through the withdrawal of the good Spirits. The first condition for this is to work at his own purification, so as not to alter the salutary fluids he is charged with transmitting. This condition could not be fulfilled without the most complete material and moral disinterestedness. The first is easier; the second is rarer, because pride and egoism are the sentiments most difficult to extirpate and because several causes contribute to over-excite them in mediums. As soon as one of them reveals himself with faculties somewhat transcendent – we are speaking here of mediums in general, writing, seeing, and others – he is sought out, flattered, and some succumb to the temptation of vanity. Without delay, forgetting that without the Spirits he would be nothing, he considers himself indispensable and the sole interpreter of the truth; he denigrates the other mediums and judges himself above advice. The medium who thus finds himself is lost, because the Spirits take it upon themselves to prove to him that they can do without him, by causing other, better-assisted mediums to arise. By comparing the series of communications of a single medium, one can easily judge whether he is growing or degenerating. How many have we seen, oh! of all kinds, fall sadly and deplorably on the slippery ground of pride and vanity! One may, then, expect to see a multitude of healing mediums arise. Among that number, several of them will remain as dried fruits and will be eclipsed, after having shone fleetingly, while others will continue to rise.

— Here is an example of this, which one of our correspondents pointed out to us six months ago. In a Department of the South, a medium who had revealed himself as a healer had performed several remarkable cures, and great hopes rested upon him. His faculty presented peculiarities which gave, in a group, the idea of making a study about it. Here is the answer they obtained from the Spirits, which was transmitted to us at the time. It may serve as instruction to all.

“X… really possesses the faculty of healing medium remarkably developed. Unfortunately, like many others, he greatly exaggerates its scope. He is an excellent fellow, full of good intentions, but whom an inordinate pride and an extremely short view of men and things will soon cause to falter. His fluidic power, which is considerable, well used and seconded by moral influence, could produce excellent results. Do you know why many of his patients experience only a momentary well-being, which disappears when he is no longer there? It is that he acts solely by his presence, but leaves nothing to the Spirit to triumph over the sufferings of the body.

“When he departs, nothing remains of him, not even the thought that follows the patient, of whom he thinks no more, whereas mental action could, in his absence, continue the direct action. He believes in his fluidic power, which is real, but whose action is not persistent, because it is not corroborated by moral influence. When he succeeds, he is more pleased at being noticed than at having cured; and yet he is sincerely disinterested, for he would blush if he received the slightest remuneration. Although he is not rich, he has never thought of making this a resource. What he desires is that people speak of him. He also lacks the affability of heart that attracts. Those who come to him are shocked by his manners, which do not generate sympathy, resulting in a lack of harmony that hinders the assimilation of the fluids. Far from calming and appeasing the bad passions, he excites them, believing he is doing what is needed to destroy them, and this through lack of reasoning. He is an instrument out of tune; at times he gives harmonious and good sounds, but the whole can only be bad, or, at least, unproductive. Nor is he as useful to the cause as he might be; most of the time he harms it, because, by his character, he causes the results to be very poorly appreciated. He is one of those who preach with violence a doctrine of gentleness and of peace.” Q. – Then you think he will lose his healing power?

Answer. – I am persuaded of it, unless he were to enter upon the good path, which, unfortunately, I do not believe him capable of. Advice would be superfluous, because he is convinced that he knows more than everyone else. Perhaps he would appear to listen to it, but he would not follow it. Thus, he doubly loses the benefit of an excellent faculty.

The event justified the prediction. Later we learned that this medium, after a series of failures which his self-love had to suffer, had renounced new attempts at cures.

— The power to heal is independent of the medium's will; it is a fact established by experience. What depends on him are the qualities that can render that power fruitful and durable. These qualities are, above all, devotedness, abnegation, and humility. Egoism, pride, and cupidity are stopping points, against which the most beautiful faculty is shattered.

The true healing medium, the one who understands the holiness of his mission, is moved by the sole desire for good; he sees in the gift he possesses only a means of making himself useful to his fellow creatures, and not a step to raise himself above others and put himself in evidence. He is humble of heart, that is to say, in him humility and modesty are sincere, real, without dissembled thought, and not in words, which often belie the acts. Humility is sometimes a cloak, under which pride takes shelter, but which could not deceive anyone. He seeks neither brilliance, nor fame, nor the noise of his name, nor the satisfaction of his vanity; there is, in his manners, neither boastfulness nor bragging; he does not display the cures he performs, whereas the proud one enumerates them with complacency, often amplifies them, and ends by convincing himself that he has done all that he says. Happy at the good he does, he is no less so at the good others can do; not judging himself the first nor the last capable, he neither envies nor denigrates any medium. For him, those who possess the same faculty are brothers who concur toward the same goal: he says that the more of them there are, the greater will be the good.

His confidence in his own strength does not go so far as the presumption of judging himself infallible and, still less, universal; he knows that others can do as much as or more than he; his faith is more in God than in himself, for he knows that he can do all through Him, and nothing without Him. This is why he promises nothing, except under the reservation of the permission of God.

To the material influence, he joins the moral influence, a powerful auxiliary that doubles his strength. By his benevolent word, he encourages, raises the morale, gives birth to hope and confidence in God. This is already a part of the cure, because it is a consolation that predisposes one to receive the beneficial effluvium or, better said, the benevolent thought that is, in itself, a salutary effluvium. Without the moral influence, the medium has in himself only the fluidic action, material and, in a certain way, brutal, insufficient in many cases.

Finally, for those who possess the qualities of the heart, the patient is drawn by a sympathy that predisposes to the assimilation of the fluids, whereas pride and the lack of benevolence shock and cause one to experience a feeling of repulsion, which paralyzes that assimilation.

Such is the healing medium esteemed by the good Spirits. Such is, also, the measure that can serve to judge the intrinsic value of those who reveal themselves and the extent of the services they will be able to render to the cause of Spiritism. This does not mean that mediums are to be found only under these conditions, and that one who did not unite all the qualities cannot momentarily render partial services, it being, therefore, an error to repel him. The harm is for him, because, the more he departs from the model, the less he can hope to see his faculty develop and the nearer he finds himself to its decline. The good Spirits attach themselves only to those who show themselves worthy of their protection, and the fall of the proud one, sooner or later, is his punishment. Disinterestedness is incomplete without moral disinterestedness. [1] Translator's note: Our emphasis. An allusion to the “invisible” cords manipulated by the Davenport brothers in their conjuring, with a view to simulating some mediumistic phenomena in their theatrical performances.