Spontaneous mediumistic somnambulism.

– The last session of the Spiritist Society of Paris, before the holidays, was one of the most remarkable of the year, both for the number and the scope of the communications obtained there, and for the production of a spontaneous phenomenon of mediumistic somnambulism. Around the middle of the session, Mr. Morin, a member of the Society and one of the habitual mediums, fell asleep spontaneously under the influence of the Spirits, something that had never happened to him before. He then spoke with ardor, with eloquence, on a subject of high gravity and of the greatest interest, with which we shall occupy ourselves later. The reopening session of Friday, October 5, presented an analogous phenomenon, but on a larger scale. There were thirteen mediums at the table. During the first part, two of them, Mrs. C… and Mr. Vavasseur, fell asleep under the influence of the Spirits, as had occurred with Mr. Morin, without any provocation and without anyone having thought of it. Mr. Vavasseur is the poet medium, who with the greatest ease obtains remarkable poems, of which we have published some samples. Mr. Morin was about to fall asleep as well. Now, here is what took place during his sleep, which lasted nearly an hour. Mr. Vavasseur, in a grave and solemn voice, said: “All will, all magnetic action is and must remain foreign to this phenomenon. No one is to speak either to my sister or to me.” In speaking of his sister, he designated Mrs. C…, that is, a spiritual sister, since they are not relatives. Then, addressing Mr. Morin, placed at the other end of the table, and extending his hand toward him with an imperative gesture: “I forbid you to sleep.” Mr. Morin, in fact, already almost asleep, awoke of his own accord. Moreover, it was expressly recommended that no one touch the two mediums. Mr. V…, continuing: “Ah! I feel here a bad fluidic current, which fatigues me… Sister, do you suffer too? – Mrs. C…: Yes.

– Mr. V…: Look! the company is numerous this evening. Do you see? – Mrs. C…: Not yet very clearly; – Mr. V…: I want you to see. – Mrs. C…: Oh! yes; the Spirits are numerous! – Mr. V…: Yes, very numerous; they can no longer be counted!… But, look in front of you; do you see a more luminous Spirit, with a more brilliant halo… He seems to smile upon us with benevolence!… They say he is my patron (Saint Louis)… Come, let us march; let us go toward him… Oh! I have many faults to repair… (addressing the Spirit): Dear Spirit! at my birth into life, my mother gave me your name. Then, I remember, that poor mother said to me every day: “Oh! my son, pray to God; pray to your guardian angel; pray, above all, to your patron.” Later, I forgot everything… everything! Doubt, incredulity pursued me; in my delirium I failed to recognize you, I failed to recognize the will of God… Today, dear Spirit, I come to ask of you the forgetting of the past and pardon in the present!… O Saint Louis, behold my grief and my repentance, forget and forgive.” (These last words were spoken with a poignant inflection of despair). Mrs. C…: “You must not weep, brother… Saint Louis forgives you and blesses you… The good Spirits hold no resentment against those who turn back from their faults. I tell you that he forgives you!… Oh! this Spirit is good!… Look, he smiles upon us. (Bringing her hand to her breast) Oh! how it hurts to suffer thus!”

Mr. V…: “He speaks to me… Listen!… Courage, he says, work with your brothers. The year that begins will be fertile in great events. Around you will arise great geniuses, poets, painters, writers. The era of the arts succeeds that of philosophy. If the first worked prodigies, the second will work miracles.” (Mr. V… expresses himself with extraordinary vehemence; he is at the supreme degree of ecstasy).

Mrs. C…: “Calm yourself, brother; you put too much ardor into this, and it does you harm; calm yourself.”

Mr. V… (continuing): “But there begins the mission of your Society, a mission very great and very beautiful for those who understand it… A focus of the Spiritist Doctrine, it must defend it and propagate its principles by every available means. Besides, its president will know what he must do.

“Now sister, he withdraws; still he smiles upon us; he says to us with his hand: until soon… Come, let us ascend, sister; you must witness a splendid spectacle, a spectacle that the earthly eye has never seen… never, never!… Ascend… ascend… I will it!… (Silence). What do you see?… Behold this army of Spirits!… The poets are here and surround us… Oh! sing also, sing!… Your songs are the canticles of heaven, the hymn of creation!… Sing!… And their murmurs caress my ears… and their harmonies lull my spirit to sleep… Do you not hear?…” Mrs. C…: “Yes, I hear… They seem to say that with the spiritist year now beginning, a new phase begins for Spiritism… a brilliant phase, of triumph and of joy for sincere hearts, of shame and of confusion for the proud and the hypocrites! For these, the disappointments, the abandonment, the forgetting, the misery; for the others, the glorification.”

Mr. V…: “They have already said it, and this is confirmed.”

Mrs. C…: “Oh! what a feast! what magnificence! what dazzling splendor! My eye can scarcely sustain its brilliance. What a sweet harmony makes itself heard and penetrates the soul!… See all these good Spirits who prepare the triumph of the Doctrine under the guidance of the superior Spirits and of the great Spirit of Truth!… How resplendent they are, and how much it must cost them to descend to inhabit a globe like ours! This is painful, but it makes one progress.” Mr. V…: “Listen!… listen, I tell you!”

– Mr. V… begins the following improvisation in verse. It was the first time that he composed mediumistic poetry verbally. Until then, poems of this kind had always been given in writing, spontaneously.

Night of tempest, The sea rolled the dead, Upon the merciless shore In mournful song!…

A small child, Standing upon a rock Waited, serene, For the dawn’s glad gleam To go along the shore To seek her sister Who was emerging from the shipwreck, Or… render her up this morning.

Could she from a height See her, then, as before, Smiling and with a leap Hear her sonorous voice?

But on this horrible night, Upon the restless waves, That invisible hand Which parted them, does it intend To unite them once again?

It was a vain hope!

The dawn rises smiling, But… nothing, only morning;

Nothing… the sad certainty Of a wrecked boat!

Nothing… of the wave’s coldness Carrying off what is lost.

The wave, with mystery, Touched, gliding, In its agile judgment, Expressing only the abyss That hid the victim, stifling her sob, Of its crime the Waves would absolve The plaintive breeze!

The child, searching, Along the shore, anxious, Could walk no more…

Unable to draw breath, Limping… weak… afflicted…

And scarcely able to hold herself up, She had become, without happiness, And upon the warm stone Of a polished rock, She makes an ardent prayer, Before a stranger.

And surprised, he sees her In touching supplication.

– Oh, child! May God give you Love; arise then!…

It was God who, for your weeping, Placed me in your path To console you as much As I am able, with tenderness!

Do not hold yourself back in grief;

My home shall be your home, My family be yours, I make your sorrow my own.

Come; speak to me, child;

Have love in my heart, Very soon will hope Soothe your grief.

(Addressing Mrs. C…) – “You see him, he stops!… but he must speak still!… Yes, he draws near!… the sounds become more distinct… I hear… ah!…”

I am… the poor lost one…

You are (addressing Allan Kardec) the stranger, Master, I wish to honor you!

For you came to show me That there exists: … Eternity And… immortality!

Two names: God, who is Light!

The other, the soul that shines forth!

And you, my dear friend, You offer me shelter, My family you are Where, tranquil, then, I shall end my days!

Love me! You are my guides!…

“He flees… Casimir Delavigne!… Oh! dear Spirit… still!… He flees!… Come, I am not strong enough to witness this divine concert… Yes, it is too beautiful… it is most beautiful!…

Mrs. C…: “He would speak still if you had wished it, but your exaltation prevented him. Here you are broken, afflicted, panting; you can speak no more.”

Mr. V…: “Yes, I feel it; it is still a weakness (with a keen feeling of sorrow), and I must awaken you!… too soon… Why not remain always in this place? Why return to Earth? Come, since it must be, sister, we must obey without murmuring… Awaken, I will it. (Mrs. C… opens her eyes). As for me, you may awaken me by waving your handkerchief. I suffocate!… air!… air!”

These words, and above all the verses, were spoken with an inflection, an effusion of feeling, and a warmth of expression of which the most dramatic and most pathetic scenes can give only a faint idea. The emotion of the assembly was general, because one felt that it was not declamation, but the very soul, detached from matter, that was speaking…

Exhausted with fatigue, Mr. V… was obliged to leave the room and for a long time remained shattered, dominated by a sleep from which he emerged only little by little, of his own accord, without wishing anyone to help him.

– These facts come to confirm the predictions of the Spirits regarding the new forms that mediumship would not be slow to take. The state of spontaneous somnambulism, in which speaking and seeing mediumship develop at the same time, is, in effect, a new faculty, in the sense that it seems to be becoming general; it is a particular mode of communication that has, more than ever, its reason for being at this moment.

Besides, this phenomenon serves much more as a complement to the instruction of the Spirits than for the conviction of the incredulous, who would see in it merely a comedy. Only enlightened Spiritists can understand it and discover in it the proofs of sincerity or of hypocrisy, as in all the other kinds of mediumship; only they can single out what is useful, drawing its consequences for the progress of the science, into which it makes them penetrate sooner. This is why these phenomena generally occur only in intimacy, where the mediums would have no interest in simulating a nonexistent faculty and where the deception would soon be unmasked. The nuances of observation here are so delicate and subtle that they require continuous attention. In this state of emancipation, the sensibility and the impressionability are so great that the faculty cannot develop in all its splendor except under an entirely sympathetic fluidic influence; a contrary current is enough to alter it, like the breath that clouds the ice. The painful sensation that the medium thereby feels makes him fold in upon himself, like the sensitive plant at the approach of the hand. His attention then turns in the direction of that disagreeable current; he penetrates the thought that is its source, he sees it and reads it, and the more he feels it to be antipathetic, the more it paralyzes him. From this one may judge of the effect that must be produced by a concurrence of hostile thoughts! These kinds of phenomena are also absolutely not suited to public exhibitions, in which curiosity is the dominant sentiment, when it is not malevolence. Moreover, they require of the witnesses an excessive prudence, because one must not lose sight of the fact that, in these moments, the soul is attached to the body only by a fragile bond, and that a shock may cause, at the least, grave disorders in the economy [in the organism]. An indiscreet and brutal curiosity may bring about the most fatal consequences. This is why one could never act with too much precaution.

– In accordance with this, one understands why the greater part of the men of science, called upon to verify phenomena of this kind, are disappointed. It is not on account of their lack of faith, as they claim, that the effect is refused by the Spirits: it is they themselves who, by their moral dispositions, produce a contrary reaction; instead of placing themselves in the conditions of the phenomenon, they wish to place the phenomenon in their own condition. They would like to find in it the confirmation of their anti-spiritualist theories, since, for them, the truth lies only there, and they feel vexed and humiliated at receiving a denial from the facts. Then they obtain nothing, or obtain only things that contradict their way of seeing; instead of revising their opinions, they prefer to deny, or to say that it is an illusion. And how could it be otherwise among persons who do not admit spirituality? The spiritual principle is the cause of phenomena of a particular order; to seek their cause outside that principle is to seek the cause of lightning outside electricity. Not understanding the special conditions of the phenomenon, they make experiments upon the patient as if he were a test tube, full of chemical products; they torture him as if it were a matter of a surgical intervention, at the risk of compromising his life or his health.

– Ecstasy, which is the highest degree of emancipation, demands all the more precautions in that, in this state, intoxicated by the sublime spectacle that he has before his eyes, the Spirit generally asks only to remain where he is and to leave the Earth completely; often, even, he makes efforts to break the last bond that attaches him to the body and, if his reason were not strong enough to resist the temptation, he would willingly let himself go. It is then that it becomes necessary to come to his aid by a strong will, drawing him out of that state. It is understood that here there is no absolute rule and that one must conduct oneself according to the circumstances.

– On this subject, one of our friends offers us an interesting subject of study.

Formerly they had sought to magnetize him, but in vain. For some time now he falls spontaneously into magnetic sleep under the influence of the slightest cause; it is enough for him to write a few lines mediumistically and, at times, a simple conversation. In his sleep, he has perceptions of a higher order; he speaks with eloquence and deepens with remarkable logic the most serious questions. He sees the Spirits perfectly, but his lucidity presents diverse degrees, through which he passes successively; the most ordinary is that of a semi-ecstasy. At certain moments he becomes exalted and, if he experiences a keen emotion, which is frequent, he exclaims with a kind of terror, and this often in the midst of the most interesting conversation: Awaken me immediately, which it would be imprudent not to do. Fortunately, he has indicated to us the means of awakening him instantly, which consists in blowing strongly upon his forehead, for the magnetic passes produce a very slow effect, or none at all. Here is the explanation that was given to us concerning his faculty by one of our guides, with the assistance of another medium:

“The Spirit of Mr. T… is hampered in his impulse by the material trial that he has chosen. The instrument that he sets in motion, his body, in the present state in which it finds itself, is not pliable enough to allow him to assimilate the necessary knowledge, or to use that which he possesses, of his own accord, and in the waking state. When the body is asleep, ceasing to be a hindrance, it becomes merely the mouthpiece of his own Spirit, or of those with whom he is in relation. The material fatigue, inherent in his occupations, the relative ignorance in which he suffers this incarnation, since he knows, in matters of science, only what has revealed itself to him, all this disappears to give place to a lucidity of thought, to an enlargement of reasoning, and to an exceptional eloquence, which are the fact of the prior development of the Spirit. The frequency of his ecstasies has for its object solely to accustom his body to a state which, during a certain period and for a special ulterior goal, may become, in a certain manner, normal. When he asks to be awakened promptly, it is that he wishes to accomplish his mission without failing. Under the charm of the sublime scenes that present themselves to him, and of the milieu in which he finds himself, he would like to free himself from the earthly bonds and remain definitively among the Spirits. His reason and his duty, which retain him on Earth, combat this desire; and for fear of letting himself be dominated and of succumbing to the temptation, he cries out to you to awaken him.”

– As these phenomena of spontaneous mediumistic somnambulism are bound to multiply, the foregoing instructions have for their object to guide the groups where they might occur, in the observation of the facts, and to make them understand the necessity of using the most extreme prudence in such a case. One must abstain absolutely from transforming them into an object of experimentation and of curiosity. Spiritists may gather there great teachings, fit to enlighten and to fortify their faith, but, we repeat, they would be without profit for the incredulous. The phenomena destined to convince the latter, and which can be produced in full light, are of another order, and among them, some will take place, and already are produced, at least in appearance, outside of Spiritism; the word Spiritism horrifies them. As it is not pronounced, this will be one more reason for them to occupy themselves with it. The Spirits are, then, prudent when, at times, they change the label. As for the special usefulness of this mediumship, it lies in the proof, in a certain manner palpable, that it furnishes of the independence of the Spirit through its isolation from matter. As we have said, manifestations of this kind enlighten and fortify the faith; they put us in more direct contact with the spiritual life. What apathetic or undecided Spiritist would remain indifferent in the presence of facts that make him, so to speak, touch with his finger the future life? Who could still doubt the presence and the intervention of the Spirits? What heart is hardened enough not to be moved by the aspect of the future that unfolds before it, and that God, in his goodness, permits it to glimpse? But these manifestations have a more practical, more present usefulness, because, more than others, they will be capable of raising up courage in the hard moments that we must cross through. It is in the moment of the storm that one will be happy to feel invisible protectors near oneself; it is then that one will know the worth of this knowledge, which raises us above Humanity and above the miseries of the Earth, which calms our sorrows and our apprehensions, making us see only what is great, imperishable, and worthy of our aspirations. It is a succor that God sends in due time to his faithful servants, and here again is a sign that the appointed times have arrived. Let us know how to profit from it for our advancement. Let us thank God for having permitted us to be enlightened in time, and let us pity the incredulous for depriving themselves of this immense and supreme consolation, for the light has been spread for all. Through the voice of the Spirits, who speak throughout all the Earth, he makes a last appeal to the hardened. Let us implore his indulgence and his mercy for the blind.

– As we have said, ecstasy is a superior state of detachment, of which the somnambulic state is one of the first degrees, but which does not in any way imply the superiority of the Spirit. The most complete detachment is, assuredly, that which follows death. Now, we see at this moment the Spirit retaining his imperfections, his prejudices, committing errors, deceiving himself, manifesting the same tendencies. It is that the good and the bad qualities are inherent in the Spirit and do not depend on exterior causes. Exterior causes may paralyze the faculties of the Spirit, which he recovers in the state of liberty, but they are powerless to give him those that he does not have. The savor of a fruit is in it; do what one may, place it where one will, if it is insipid by nature, it will not become savory. It is the same with the Spirit. If complete detachment, after death, does not make him a perfect being, still less will a partial detachment. The ecstatic detachment is a physiological state, an evident indication of a certain degree of advancement of the Spirit, but not of absolute superiority. The moral imperfections, which are due to the influence of matter, disappear with that influence, which is why one notes, in general, in somnambulists and in ecstatics, more elevated ideas than in the waking state; but those which are due to the very quality of the Spirit continue to manifest themselves, sometimes even with less intensity than in the normal state. The Spirit, freed from all constraint, sometimes gives free course to sentiments that, as a man, he seeks to dissimulate from the eyes of the world. Of all the bad tendencies, the most persistent and those which one least confesses to oneself are the radical vices of Humanity: pride and selfishness, which engender jealousies, the petty susceptibilities of self-love, the exaltation of personality, which often reveal themselves in the state of somnambulism. It is not detachment that produces them, for it only lays them bare; from latent they become perceptible in consequence of the liberty of the Spirit. Thus, one must not expect to find any kind of infallibility, neither moral nor intellectual, in somnambulists and ecstatics. The faculty they enjoy may be altered by the imperfections of their Spirit. Their words may be the reflection of their thoughts and of their sentiments. Moreover, they may suffer the effects of obsession, as much as in the ordinary state, and be, on the part of frivolous or ill-intentioned Spirits, the plaything of the strangest illusions, as experience demonstrates. It would therefore be an error to believe that the visions and revelations of ecstasy can only be the expression of the truth. Like all the other manifestations, it is necessary to submit them to the crucible of good sense and of reason, to take into account the good and the bad, what is rational from what is illogical. If these kinds of manifestations multiply, it is less with the object of giving us extraordinary revelations than of furnishing us new subjects of study and of observation upon the faculties and the properties of the soul, and of giving us a new proof of its existence and of its independence from matter.