In this issue, we end the study of the
Revue Spirite of 1858, a monthly newspaper focused on the divulgation of Spiritism, founded and directed by Allan Kardec. This study is based on the translation into the Portuguese language made by Julio Abreu Filho and published by EDICEL. The answers to the questions are at the end of the text for reading.
Questions for discussion
A. To what properties does Kardec refer to in the Revue when he speaks about the perispirit?
B. Is there a relation between the Spirit’s pain and its behavior when incarnated?
C. How can we explain the “dreams”?
D. What did Kardec say to the women in the Revue of 1858?
Text for reading
209. The Revue copies a short story by Frederic Soulie, "A Forgotten Night", psychographed by Caroline Baudin, a fully passive medium, who was not conscious of what she wrote. First, she made use of the beak basket; then she used direct psychographic. (Page 329)
210. Kardec says that the Gazette de Cologne published the story of General Marceau's apparition, which many people claim to have seen at night on a horse in his white cape of the French hunters. (Page 333)
211. Speaking of apparitions, Kardec reminds us that the Spirit is joined to the body by a semi-material substance, called the perispirit. The embodied, therefore, have two wraps: the destroyable body and the ethereal, vaporous, indestructible body - the perispirit. (Page 335)
212. The perispirit is invisible, but it can become visible. Another property of it is the penetrability. No matter is an obstacle for it: he crosses them all, as the light crosses the transparent bodies. (Page 336)
213. Kardec says he knows a young lady who often saw in her house and in her bedroom men, indeed Spirits, who came in and out, even though the doors were closed. (Page 337)
214. Kardec talks about Mr. Adrien, noting that of all his faculties as a medium the most remarkable is clairvoyance. (Page 339)
215. We put Mr. Adrien, says the Encoder, among the most remarkable mediums and in the first rank of those who provided us with the most precious elements for the knowledge of the Spiritist world. (Page 340)
216. With Mr. Adrien, Kardec went to theaters, dances, hospitals, cemeteries and churches, and attended burials, weddings, baptisms and sermons, everywhere observing the Spirits who were there. (Page 340)
217. Kardec tells the case of the death of a friend of Mr. Adrien, victim of apoplexy. Hours after his death, the seer saw the Spirit of the deceased, looking the same as before, pacing from side to side, and not understanding what was happening. (Page 341)
218. The next day the medium saw the Spirit wandering beside the coffin, but it was now wrapped in a kind of a tunic. Mr. Adrien talked to him and saw that he was unaware of his death. (Page 341)
219. Then the medium saw him approaching his crying son. He bent over him, stood for a moment in this position, and then left quickly. The medium noticed then that what he said had reached the heart of the child. (Page 342)
220. The Revue discusses bi-corporeity and mentions the cases of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori, canonized before the time required, for having been seen simultaneously in two places; and of St. Anthony of Padua, who preached in Spain when he was seen in Padua. (Page 344)
221. When evoked, Afonso de Liguori confirmed the fact attributed to him and explained its mechanism. (Page 344)
222. Kardec studied the Spirits’ feelings, trying to explain how they deal with pain. (Pages 347 and 348)
223. The conclusion seems clear: the pain that the Spirits go through is always a consequence of the way they lived on this Earth. (Page 351)
224. A Spirit teaches that when one sleeps the soul becomes completely free from the body: when we sleep we are momentarily in the state in which we will ultimately find ourselves after death. (Page 353)
225. The dream, he says, is the remembrance of what your Spirit saw in your sleep; however, notice that you do not always dream, because you do not always remember what you saw or everything you saw. (Page 354)
226. Kardec writes about women and compliments them by saying: "Women are more finely designed than men, and this indicates, of course, a more delicate soul". This is how in similar ways, and in all worlds, the mother will be more beautiful than the father, because it is the one the child sees first". (Page 357)
227. "Women, do not fear to dazzle men by your beauty, by your graces, by your superiority", says Kardec, "but let men know that to become worthy of you they must be as great as you are beautiful; as wise as you are good, as learned as you are original and simple". (Page 357)
228. Kardec evokes a widow of Malabar, one of these women of India, subject to the custom of burning the corpse of her husband. Of course, she said she would prefer to marry another man, rather than be burned. (Page 361)
229. When evoked, Luiza Charly, called Labe, nicknamed "A Bela Cordoeira", explains that although she was happy on Earth, the happiness of Heaven is very different. When she says Heaven, she says she refers to other worlds. (Page 363)
230. Luisa confirms that Jupiter is a blissful world, but warns that it is not the only one favored by God. Fortunate worlds are as numerous as the sand grains of the ocean. (Page 363)
231. Mr Ch. Renard, subscriber of the Revue, residing in Rambouillet, tells in a letter to Kardec about his experiences with the Spiritist phenomena, long before the advent of the revolving tables, and talks about the experiences of the Fox family and the works of Davis, considered by Conan Doyle the main precursors of the Spiritism. (Page 366)
232. At the end of 1858, a contented Kardec says that from that moment onwards, the existence of the Revue was assured by an increasing number of subscribers, and states that Spiritism is marching with big steps throughout the world. (Pages 367 and 368)
233. Kardec says that the Spirits then told him: "This is the first period; it will soon pass to give rise to higher ideas". New facts will unfold, marking a new philosophical period, and the Doctrine will grow quickly, like a child that leaves its crib”. (Page 368)
Answers to the proposed questions
A. To what properties does Kardec refer to in the Revue when he speaks about the perispirit?
To begin with, he says that the embodied have two wraps: the body that can be destroyed and the ethereal, vaporous, and non-destroyable – the perispirit. The perispirit is invisible, but can become visible. Another of its properties is penetrability. No matter is an obstacle for it: it penetrates and goes through all of them, in the same manner light goes through the transparent bodies. And to confirm this he says he knows a young lady who saw several men in her house and bedroom, who were, indeed, Spirits entering and leaving although the doors were closed. (Revue Spirite, 1858, Pages 335 to 337).
B. Is there a relation between the Spirit’s pain and its behavior when incarnated?
Yes, in the Revue, Kardec presents a study about the Spirits’ feelings in which he tries to explain how they feel their pain. And his conclusion is: the Spirits’ sufferings are always a consequence of the way they lived on this Earth. (Ibid, pages 347 and 351)
C. How can we explain the “dreams”?
According to a spiritual teacher, when we sleep, our soul is completely free from the body; we are then momentarily in the state in which we will ultimately find ourselves after death. A dream is a remembrance of what we saw while sleeping. (Ibid, pages 353 and 354)
D. What did Kardec say to the women in the Revue of 1858?
The Encoder writes about women and compliments them by saying: "Women are more finely designed than men, and this indicates, of course, a more delicate soul". This is how in similar ways, and in all worlds, the mother will be more beautiful than the father, because it is the one the child sees first". "Women, do not fear to dazzle men by your beauty, by your graces, by your superiority", says Kardec, "but let men know that to become worthy of you they must be as great as you are beautiful; as wise as you are good, as learned as you are original and simple". (Ibid, Page 357)
The End
