Two blind Spirits.

Among the Spiritist groups and societies that send us documents and submit for our appraisal the instructions given to them, we have the good fortune of counting the Society of Marseille, which could serve as a model for the gravity and importance of its works and for the intelligent and logical method with which it proceeds in the study of Spiritist problems. It would be desirable for all centers to conduct themselves in this manner; thereby the Spiritists would surely gain in science and dignity, and the Doctrine in consideration and development. We consider it a duty to make known to our readers the account of a manifestation obtained in that Society through speaking mediumship, a faculty that tends today to become widespread and that will become, undeniably, for all friends of truth and progress, a source of studies fruitful in happy results.

(Marseille, September 1869 – Speaking medium: Mme. G.).

I. – One of the protecting guides of the group brings two suffering Spirits, announcing them in these terms:

“Dear friends, I bring you two blind men; hear them attentively and receive them with sympathy. I leave you for a few moments to yield the place to them, but I shall soon return to contribute to your instruction.”

Brunat.

As soon as the Spirit of Brunat withdrew, the medium's countenance changes abruptly and announces the arrival of a suffering Spirit. The latter takes the floor and says:

“Where am I, my God? What is my situation? Is it permitted to suffer as I suffer? and yet, what have I done? I did not do much good, it is true, but I did not practice evil!… O you who hear me, know how cruel my sufferings are!… I was suddenly torn from the Earth when I least expected it, leaving, in that world that I lament so bitterly, a wife whom I adored.

“I do not know how long I have been wandering; but many days passed before I understood that I was dead. A few days, several years? I know nothing; but it seems to me that I have endured the sufferings of an entire eternity. Bound to the body by powerful ties, I felt the worms gnawing at my flesh; I suffered all the tortures of putrefaction. For this reason, I well understand today that I am dead. But, alas! I am blind… Thus, I arrive in your midst led by I know not whom, driven by I know not what! I am a poor wretch who sees no more and who still finds, by groping, the places that are familiar to him; but, while the blind man knows that he is led by his dog, although he does not see it, I know nothing. – Oh! how painful it is to suffer thus, to search without ceasing and never to find!… “As I told you, I left on Earth a being whom I loved; it is my wife. Since death struck me down, I have not ceased to search for her, but I have not yet been able to find her. What has become of her?… How many times do I crack my whip before the door of the house! How many times have I climbed the stairs; I reached the door of the room and could not enter… How can I enter the house? I know nothing; this is my ceaseless torment, the cruel suffering that at times makes me despair of the existence of God. They say that he is powerful, and he cannot open my eyes! He is good, and he cannot calm my pain!… In short, no doubt I deserved this torment, which leaves me no repose. Oh! to search always and always to search in vain… If love were not an empty word, it seems that I would already have drawn to me that being whom I love and without whom I cannot live… “Do you not know what has become of her? – No; I see that you know nothing! no one can give news of her; I believe I would be calmer if I could see her and speak with her! A short while ago I was more resigned, because I still hoped for her; but today my patience is exhausted!…

“I suffer, my God! Why? Nothing… no consolation, no answer, no light… Everywhere, around me, a lugubrious silence, a glacial darkness… How much must those suffer who sowed their life with crimes!… Remorse must consume them, since I, who did nothing, am incapable of describing my anguish… and, then, I have forgotten everything, except that I cannot return; I have even forgotten the street where we lived and, nevertheless, I go there without realizing it… I climb the stairs… I call and no one answers me; meanwhile, something tells me that he hears me. “Oh! if only I had patience! You are good, I feel it well; if you believe that prayer may do me some good; pray for me, pray for an unfortunate blind man.”

Mouraille.

II. – This Spirit was followed by that of Brunat, protector of the group; addressing himself to the unfortunate Mouraille, he said to him:

“Dear Spirit, if I make use of the organ of an incarnate being to speak to you, it is that under the oppression of the carnal ties that still dominate you, you will be able to speak better thus, to hear my words and to understand their meaning.

“We heard your laments and your pain touched us; we feel keen compassion and desire with all our soul to contribute to your enlightenment. But, for this, we must make known to you whence comes this thick cloud that obscures your sight!

“You complain with reason, because you suffer truly and greatly!… but, if you believe in the existence of God, you must not be ignorant that you owe everything to him. The joys of your existence and this existence itself, it was he who gave them to you!… What did you do for the unfortunate of the Earth, whom you left behind? Did you come to their aid? were you in the garret of the sick and of the ashamed poor? did you ever console the afflicted? in short, did you pattern your life according to your conscience, that divine voice that speaks to each one the language of charity, of fraternity, and of justice? Alas! what can you answer me?… “As you see, yours was the life of an egoist: if you did not commit crimes as you understand it, like many others you lived for the satisfaction of your passions. You clung to matter; of your belly you made a god… and, suddenly, at a feast, in the midst of a banquet, death came to strike you. In a few seconds you passed from the tempestuous pleasures of an egoistic existence to the deep obscurity in which you wander today. This isolation and these shadows, did you not deserve them? why would you now see, you who left in the night of ignorance those whom you might have enlightened? why would you be sought after and welcomed, since you cannot offer your friends of the Earth the pleasures that brought you together, and since you neither welcomed nor sought after those to whom you could have given a little hope and resignation, those riches of the heart that even the poorest may possess in abundance? Why are you so unfortunate? Ah! we see it, we, from whom nothing is hidden; what you lament are the pleasures that you can no longer enjoy, the company that shared your merry life, whom the orgy made you forget the sufferer and the unfortunate. “Of all those pleasures, of which you had made the sole object of your life, what remains to you, now that your body has returned to the earth? Believe us, resign yourself to a misfortune that you owe to none but yourself. Devote to meditating on the uselessness of your past life the time that you employ in moaning; and if you wish to obtain the light that you so ardently desire, detach yourself entirely from those material ties that still keep you chained. “Until then, the woman you seek will remain invisible to you. She herself is so affected by that terrible obscurity that she cannot dissipate it except when she recognizes her errors and makes good resolutions to bear the trials before which she failed.

“You hear me, you, you understand me. Poor Spirit: Listen to my voice; it is a friend who speaks to you; it is a brother who knew weakness and who makes use of his experience to enlighten you. Reflect well upon my words, profit from them, and when you return to this sympathetic assembly, we hope that you will then lament the life so frivolously squandered, and that you will prepare for yourself a more worthy future, through firm resolutions. Do not lose precious time searching for your wife; you would not yet be able to find her, because it is part of your trial to be ignorant of whether she lives or is in the world of Spirits. “Farewell, unfortunate brother. You have our sympathy and our sincere interest in your fate.”

Brunat.

III. – After a few moments, a Spirit even more unfortunate than the first took possession of the medium and put him into a state of extreme agitation. Finally, little by little, calm returns and the Spirit can communicate and speak.

“I want him, I want him!… I killed myself to see him again!… Why is he not there? What must I do? Must I hang myself once more?… – Mouraille! Mouraille! where are you? I know that I died… I hanged myself!… I could no longer endure life! – and, nevertheless, I am still separated from you… If I did not feel that I am alive, I would say that death annihilates everything! But I live, my God, a terrible life!… and so… then you must live too!… and you are lost to me as on the first day of your death! – Ah! how I suffer… “Oh! how many times, when I was still alive, did I hear the crack of the whip before the door! I heard your steps on the stairs… I felt well that it was you; but I could not see you… I heard it not once, but a hundred times, and always at the same hour!

“My God, I left this world by a horrible death; I abandoned everything; why? To see nothing… to have neither support nor consolation… Often I still go to my room and, when I am there, I always hear the crack of the whip and I hear you walk, but I see nothing…

“Oh! how this night frightens me, how this silence overwhelms me… Is this the consolation that death gives?… If it is true that a supreme God exists, why does he make us be born? why does he make us live? why does he make us suffer?… and, after death, one must suffer still more… But, why do I speak? no one hears me, no one understands me. I call, and not even the echo answers me. Nothing… nothing but a terrible silence that agitates me and makes me suffer… Oh! if there are still beings who can hear me, who can listen to me, come to my aid, I implore you! “Where am I?… I go to the cemetery; I find the body of him who called me to eternity… But, no consolation… I return to my house… still nothing! And, nevertheless, I speak, from what I have been able to understand, through an unknown voice, which is sympathetic to me… But, to whom do I speak? and why express my complaints and give words to my laments, since no one hears me nor can understand me?

“Oh! my God! how horrible this night is!… How many torments! it is hell; oh! certainly it is hell!… I believed that one burned in hell… But to burn must be nothing in comparison with what I suffer… I am seated in an isolated and dark place… I feel a glacial cold and from here I make two journeys: I go to the cemetery, and from the cemetery to my house, and I always return crushed with fatigue, death in my soul!… No sleep to numb my eyelids! no truce, nor repose… no calm for my agitated soul! “The void surrounds me!… I am going to begin again my harsh and painful journey… Perhaps I will see him; but, if I do not see him, at least I will go to listen to the cracks of his whip and his noisy steps!…”

IV. – After a pause of a few moments, the features of the medium take on a gentle and calm expression; the Spirit Brunat returns and, with a sympathetic voice, addresses this poor Spirit and speaks to her thus:

“Listen to me, poor suffering soul: You believe yourself alone and abandoned; you hear a friendly voice, though invisible to you. You said a short while ago that not even the echo answered your laments; but, remember that you destroyed your life, voluntarily, violently, this life that did not belong to you, that you were to dedicate to your unfortunate brothers. You knew that you were acting wrongly! Cease your useless searches! You are separated by an abyss of darkness. Pray; replace your vain laments with an ardent and sincere regret and with good resolutions, the only ones that can bring you a ray of light. “Courage!… Implore the God of goodness and of mercy, and he will help you to emerge one day from this horrible situation. “Remember well, in your most painful crises, that you have in me a friend and a brother.”

Brunat.

— Observation of the president of the group: “Neither the medium, nor any of the persons present knew these two suffering Spirits.”

“Having had occasion to speak of the case, we were told that, in fact, the husband died in the midst of a banquet some months ago, and that his wife had hanged herself a few days earlier.

“The person who gave this information added, regarding the wife, that her suicide surprised no one in the quarter, and that Mme. Mouraille, after the death of her husband, often said that she heard him cracking the whip in the air (he was a cattle dealer), walking on the stairs, and that she ardently desired to die in order to go to meet him as quickly as possible.”

[A. DESLIENS.]