The Revue
Spirite of
1863
Part 1
We begin in this issue the study of the Revue Spirite corresponding
to the year of 1863. The condensed text of the mentioned
volume will hereby be presented in sixteen parts, based
on the translation of Julio Abreu Filho and published by
EDICEL.
Issues for discussion
A. What effects does Kardec attribute to the perispirit?
B. To help a sick person through prayer, do you have to
be with the person?
C. What recommendations does Kardec give to those who
wish to begin the psychic practice?
Text for reading
1. Kardec opens this issue with a new article about the
possessed of Morzine; the first one was published in
December 1862. In the study, Kardec informs: I) the
perispirit is the origin of all Spiritist phenomena and
of a large number of moral, physiological and
pathological issues. II) It is also the source of
several types of affection and, due to this, the cause
of instinctive attractions and repulsions, as well as of
magnetic action. III) Due to the perispirit’s fluidic
and expansive nature, the Spirit reaches the person upon
whom it wishes to act: it surrounds, involves,
penetrates and magnetizes it. (P. 1)
2. All of us - Kardec says - live in a fluidic ocean,
constantly under the influence of opposing currents that
we attract or repel; however, man always retains his
free will. (P.
2)
3. The action of the evil Spirits - on those they
managed to possess – show nuances of intensity and
duration extremely varied, according to the degree of
perversity of the Spirit and the moral state of the
person who gives it access. (P.
3)
4. Mentioning the case of a lady who had lost her mind
and was hospitalized, a friend of the family and member
of the Spiritist Society of Paris obtained from the
Spirits the following orientation: I) The fixed idea
that the woman nourished attracted several evil Spirits,
who surrounded her with their fluids and fed her ideas,
preventing her from receiving good influences. II) To
heal her, it would be necessary to oppose a moral force
capable of overcoming this resistance, but such power is
not given to only one. III) Five or six reliable
Spiritists would have to come together every day for a
few moments, diligently asking God and the good Spirits
to assist her. IV) It was not necessary to be with the
patient; by means of their thoughts a beneficial fluidic
current could be taken to her, and its strength would be
in the reason of its intention, increased by the
number. (P.
5)
5. Six people dedicated themselves to this work of
charity and, for a month, did not fail the task they had
accepted. After a few days the patient was calmer;
fifteen days later, the improvement was evident; and now
she had returned to her home, in a perfectly normal
state, not knowing where the cure had come from. (Pages
5 and 6)
6. Prayer therefore has not only the effect of bringing
the patient relief, but it also exercises a magnetic
action. What couldn’t magnetism do through prayer! But
unfortunately, many magnetizers forget the spiritual
element and see only the mechanical action, thus
depriving themselves of a powerful helper. (P.
6)
7. Referring to the pitfalls of mediumistic practice,
Kardec explains: I) before experimenting, one must
study: the least inconvenience of inexperienced psychic
practice is the mystification on the part of misleading
and frivolous Spirits. II) It is not the exercise of
mediumship that attracts evil Spirits, but the physical
or moral predisposition that makes the medium accessible
to their influence. III) When the medium thinks he is
invulnerable to evil Spirits, then he is punished, often
very severely, since it is his pride that gives the evil
Spirits the easiest access. IV) Preliminary study and
prayer are essential factors to prevent the assault of
evil Spirits. V) If we were to understand the essential
and serious purpose of Spiritism and prepare ourselves
for the exercise of mediumship by a diligent
supplication to the Guardian Angel and Protective
Spirits, and if besides this we also studied ourselves,
striving to cleanse our imperfections, then cases of
mediumistic obsession would be even rarer. (Pages 6 to
8)
8. Recalling a case described in December 1862 under the
title "The Shack and the Hall" the Revue copies a
message of a Spirit, who was on Earth a dedicated
servant of an acquaintance of Kardec. In this message,
the ex-servant confirms that, in general, the examples
of dedication of the domestic servants to their masters
are due to past lives. "At times," he said, "such
servants are members of the family, or, like me, obliged
to pay a debt of gratitude and this gratitude helps them
to progress." (Pages 9 and 10)
9. Speaking of the situation of the soul after bodily
death, Kardec says that, upon dying, man leaves only his
heavy and coarse wrap on Earth, preserving the
indestructible fluidic envelope, with which, free of the
obstacle that bound him to the ground, he can rise and
transpose the space. This fluidic mantle, however
invisible and ethereal, is nevertheless of a kind of
matter which, during the incarnation, serves as an
intermediary between the soul and the body. (P. 13)
10. The Revue copies two articles published by a
weekly Bordeaux publication, and by the "Echo de Setif",
from Algeria. These are pro-Spiritism statements from
two readers of those periodicals. In the latter, the
writer says that some of those who do not deny the
Spiritist facts however attribute these communications
to the devil. He then says: "It is what I cannot accept
in the face of communications like this: “Believe in
God, Creator and Organizer of the spheres; love God,
Creator and Protector of souls” (signed: Galileo).
(Pages 14 to 17)
11. Kardec answers a reader from Bordeaux explaining why
Spiritism is not addressed to those who have any
religious faith in order to divert them, but rather to
the large category of those who are uncertain and
unbelieving. (Pages 17 to 20)(Continues
on next issue).
Answers to the proposed issues
A. What effects does Kardec attribute to the perispirit?
According to the Encoder of Spiritism, the perispirit is
the origin of all Spiritist phenomena and of a large
number of moral, physiological and pathological issues,
and it is also the source of several types of affection
and, due to this, the cause of instinctive attractions
and repulsions, as well as of magnetic action. Due to
the perispirit’s fluidic and expansive nature, the
Spirit reaches the person upon whom it wishes to act: it
surrounds, involves, penetrates and magnetizes it. (Revue
Spirite, 1863, Pages 1 and 2.)
B. To help a sick person through prayer, do you have to
be with the person?
No, since by thought one can bring to him a beneficial
fluidic current, and its power is in the ratio of
intention, increased by the number of those who
participate in the act. Prayer has not only the effect
of bringing relief to the patient, but also of
exercising a magnetic action. (Ibid, Page 6.)
C. What recommendations does Kardec give to those who
wish to begin the psychic practice?
Kardec teaches that before experimenting it is necessary
to study, thus preventing the possibility of
mystification by the misleading and frivolous Spirits.
He says that it is not the exercise of mediumship that
attracts evil spirits, but the physical or moral
predisposition that makes the medium accessible to their
influence. The medium’s presumption of being judged
invulnerable to evil Spirits has often been punished
most severely, since it is his pride that gives them the
easiest access. Preliminary study and prayer are
therefore essential factors to prevent the influence of
evil Spirits. (Ibid, Pages 6 through 8.)
Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br
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