Strange violation of a grave.

— The Observateur, of Avesnes (April 20, 1867) reports the following case:

“Three weeks ago a workman of Louvroil, named Magnan, 23 years old, had the misfortune of losing his wife, struck down by a disease of the chest. The deep grief he felt was soon increased by the death of his son, who survived his mother by only a few days. Magnan spoke ceaselessly of his wife, refusing to believe that she had left him forever and imagining that she would not be long in returning. It was in vain that his friends sought to console him; he repelled them all and shut himself up in his affliction.

“Last Thursday, after much difficulty, his workshop comrades persuaded him to accompany to the railway a mutual friend, a soldier on leave who was returning to his regiment. But scarcely had he arrived at the station when Magnan slipped away and returned alone to the town, even more preoccupied than usual. He drank in a tavern a few glasses of beer, which finished disturbing him, and it was in this disposition that he entered his house, around nine o’clock in the evening. Finding himself alone, the thought that his wife was no longer there over-excited him still further, and he felt an insurmountable desire to see her again. He then took an old hoe and a plowshare in poor condition, and went to the cemetery, where, despite the darkness and the torrential rain that was falling at the moment, he soon began to remove the earth that covered his dear departed. “Only after several hours of superhuman labor did he succeed in pulling the coffin out of the grave. With his bare hands alone, breaking all his nails, he tore off the lid; then, taking in his arms the body of his poor companion, he carried it home and laid it on the bed. It would then have been about three o’clock in the morning. After having made a good fire, he uncovered the face of the dead woman; then, almost joyful, he ran to the house of the neighbor who had shrouded her, to say that his wife had come back, as he had foretold.

“Without giving the least importance to the words of Magnan, who, she said, had visions, she rose and accompanied him to his house, in order to calm him and make him lie down. Imagine her surprise and her terror upon seeing the exhumed body. The unfortunate workman was speaking to the dead woman as if she could hear him and was seeking with touching tenacity to obtain a response, giving to his voice a sweetness and all the persuasion of which he was capable. This affection beyond the grave offered a painful spectacle.

“Meanwhile, the neighbor had the presence of mind to persuade the poor deluded man to put his wife back in the coffin, which he promised, seeing the obstinate silence of the one he believed he had called back to life. It was on the faith of such a promise that she returned home, more dead than alive.

“But Magnan did not give himself up as defeated; he went to wake two neighbors, who got up, like the first, to try to reassure the unfortunate man. Like her, once the first moment of stupefaction had passed, they compelled him to carry the dead woman to the cemetery; and this time, without hesitating, he took the woman in his arms and went back to place her in the coffin from which he had taken her, put her back in the grave and covered her again with earth.

“Magnan’s wife had been buried for seventeen days; nevertheless, she was still in a perfect state of preservation, for the expression of her face was exactly the same as at the moment she was buried.

“When they questioned Magnan the next day, he seemed to remember neither what he had done nor what had taken place a few hours earlier. He said only that he believed he had seen his wife during the night.” (Siècle, April 29, 1867).

INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING THE PRECEDING FACT.

(Society of Paris, May 10, 1867. – Medium: Mr. Morin, in spontaneous somnambulism.)

Facts show themselves everywhere, and everything that occurs seems to have a special direction, which leads to spiritual studies. Observe carefully, and at every moment you will see things which, at first sight, seem anomalies in human life, and whose cause one would seek in vain anywhere other than in spiritual life. No doubt, for many people these are merely curious facts, of which they think no more as soon as the page is turned; but others think more seriously; they seek an explanation and, by dint of seeing spiritual life rise up before them, they will even be obliged to recognize that only there lies the solution of what they cannot comprehend. You, who know spiritual life, examine carefully the details of the fact that has just been read to you, and see whether it does not show itself with evidence. Do not think that the studies you make on these matters of current interest and others are lost upon the masses, because, until now, they go almost only to the Spiritists, to those who are already convinced. No. First, be assured that Spiritist writings go beyond the adepts; there are persons too interested in the question not to keep themselves abreast of all that you do and of the march of the Doctrine. Without seeming so, the society, which is the center where the works are elaborated, is a focal point, and the wise and rational solutions that come from it cause more reflection than you think. But a day will come when these same writings will be read, commented upon, analyzed publicly; in them they will gather by the handful the elements upon which the new ideas must rest, because there they will find the truth. Once again, be convinced that nothing of what you do is lost, even for the present, and with all the more reason for the future. Everything is a subject of instruction for the man who reflects. In the fact that occupies you, you see a man possessing his intellectual faculties, his material strength, and who seems, for a moment, completely stripped of the former; he performs an act which, at first sight, seems senseless. Well then! there is a great teaching in it.

Did this happen? some people will ask. Was the man in a state of natural somnambulism, or did he dream? Was the Spirit of the woman involved in this? Such are the questions that may be asked in this regard. Why, the Spirit of Mrs. Magnan was very much in this business, and far more so than the Spiritists themselves could have supposed.

If one follows the man with attention from the moment of his wife’s death, one will see that he changes little by little; from the first hours of the wife’s departure, one sees his Spirit take a direction, which becomes more and more pronounced, until it arrives at the act of madness of the exhumation of the corpse. There is in this act something other than grief; and, as The Spirits’ Book teaches, as all the communications teach: it is not in the present life, it is in the past that one must seek the cause. We are here only to fulfill a mission or to pay a debt; in the first case, one carries out a voluntary task; in the second, make the counterpart of the sufferings you experience and you will have the cause of those sufferings. When the woman died, she remained there in Spirit, and as the union of the spiritual fluids and those of the body was difficult to break, by reason of the inferiority of the Spirit, she needed a certain time to recover her freedom of action, a new work for the assimilation of the fluids; then, when she was in condition, she took possession of the man’s body and possessed it. Here, then, is a true case of possession.

The man is no longer himself, and note: he is no longer himself except when night comes. It would be necessary to enter into long explanations to make you understand the cause of this singularity; but, in two words: the mixture of certain fluids, like that of certain gases in chemistry, cannot bear the brilliance of light. That is why certain spontaneous phenomena occur more often at night than by day.

She possesses this man; she leads him to do what she wants; it is she who conducts him to the cemetery to force him to perform a superhuman labor and to make him suffer. And, the next day, when they ask the man what happened, he is stupefied and only remembers having dreamed of his wife. The dream was reality; she had promised to return and she returned; she will return and will drag him along.

In another existence, a crime was committed; the one who wished to avenge himself let the first incarnate and chose an existence which, putting him in relation with him, allowed him to carry out his vengeance. You will ask why this permission? but God grants nothing that is not just and logical. One wishes to avenge himself; he must have, as a trial, the occasion to master his desire for vengeance, and the other must undergo the trial and pay for what he made the first suffer. Here the case is the same; only, the phenomena not being ended, it does not extend much longer: there will still be something else.