SPIRITIST PROPAGANDA
We have already called attention to the spiritists' propagandist tendencies, and there is no need to provide further proof because these tendencies, always intimately linked to their 'moralist' preoccupations, are spread throughout spiritist publications. Moreover, we have noted that this attitude is much more readily understood on the part of spiritists than with other 'neo-spiritualist' schools with esoteric pretensions; proselytism and esoterism are obviously contradictory. But the spiritists, who are imbued with the purest democratic spirit, are far more logical in this respect. We do not want to rehash this matter, but it is worth noting some special characteristics of spiritist propaganda and showing how this propaganda can on occasion be as insinuating as that of sects of more or less direct Protestant inspiration; for in the end all this proceeds from the same mentality.
The spiritists believe they can cite the spread of their doctrine as a proof of its truth. Already Allan Kardec wrote:
Those who say that spiritist beliefs threaten to invade the world thereby proclaim the power of these beliefs, for an idea without foundation and devoid of logic cannot become universal. If, therefore, spiritism is taking root everywhere, and if recruits are found especially among the enlightened classes as everyone recognizes, it is because it has a fund of truth. [1]
This appeal to a claimed 'universal consent' to prove the truth of an idea is an argument dear to certain modern philosophers. Nothing could be more insignificant. First, unanimity is never realized, and even if it were, one would have no means for ascertaining it. This amounts simply to the claim that the majority must be right. But in the intellectual realm there is every likelihood that precisely the contrary will more often be the case, because men of mediocre intelligence are certainly more numerous, and no matter what the issue, incompetents are in the great majority. To fear the invasion of spiritism is therefore to recognize in it no other power than that of the multitude, that is to say of a blind and brutal force. In order for ideas to spread so easily they must be of a very inferior quality, and if they are accepted it is not because they have the least logical force but only because some sentimental interest attaches to them. The claim that spiritism 'recruits especially among the educated classes' is certainly false, but to see this one must understand just what is meant by this claim and that the 'enlightened' may be so only in a thoroughly relative way. Truly, nothing is more lamentable than the results of a half-education.
As we have already said, the fact that certain more or less specialized scientists have adhered to spiritism has for us no further value as proof, because, for matters on which they lack competence, such men are on exactly the same footing as the common man; and anyway, such scientists are only exceptional cases, the great majority of spiritist clientele being incontestably of an extremely low mental level. Certainly, spiritist theories are within the grasp of everyone, and there are those who wish to see in this characteristic a mark of superiority; for example, here is what we read in an article to which we have previously alluded:
Place before a worker who has not been thoroughly educated a chapter of a metaphysical treatise on the existence of God, with all the baggage of ontological, physical, moral, and aesthetic proofs. [2] What will he understand? Nothing at all. Amid such teachings he will be condemned to remain without remission in
the most complete ignorance.... Contrariwise, have him attend a spiritist séance, or even let him be told of one, or read in a journal what takes place there, and he will grasp it right away, without any difficulty, without need for any explanation.... Thanks to its simplicity, enabling it to spread everywhere, spiritism gathers numerous admirers. The good will always progress if everyone understands the truth of spiritist doctrine. [3]
For our part, this vaunted 'simplicity' that is thought so admirable is in fact mediocrity and intellectual indigence. As for the example of the worker lacking elementary religious instruction-which possibility it is prudent to keep in mind-we believe that even 'the most complete ignorance' would be worth far more to him than the illusions and follies of spiritism. Those who know nothing of an issue and those who have erroneous ideas are equally ignorant, but the situation of the first is nevertheless preferable to that of the second, not to speak of the special dangers of the case presently being considered.
Spiritists, even apart from their frenzy of proselytism, sometimes make absolutely stupefying claims: 'The new revelation', Léon Denis exclaims,
is manifested outside and above the Churches. Its teaching is addressed to all the races of the earth. Everywhere spiritists proclaim the principles on which they rely. The great voice that recalls man to the thought of God and the future life passes through all the regions of the world. [4]
Let the spiritists go and preach their theories to Easterners; they will see how they are received! The truth is that spiritism addresses itself exclusively to modern Westerners, for it is only among them that it can make itself accepted, both because it is a product of their mentality and because the tendencies spiritism expresses are precisely
those that distinguish this mentality from every other. The search for 'phenomena', belief in progress, sentimentalism and humanitarian 'moralism', the absence of all true intellectuality, in these lie the entire reason for the success of spiritism; its very stupidity is its greatest strength (in the sense of that brutal force just now mentioned), and gains it such a great number of adherents. Moreover, the apostles of the new 'revelation' insist particularly on its 'consoling', 'moralizing', and sentimental character: 'This teaching can give satisfaction to everyone,' says Léon Denis,
to the most refined minds as well as to the most modest; but it is addressed especially to those who suffer, to those bowed under heavy tasks or painful trials, to all who need a virile faith to sustain them in their march, in their works, and in their sufferings. It is addressed to the human multitude. The multitude has become unbelieving and distrustful in regard to all dogma, all religious belief, for it has the sense that it has been abused for centuries. Nevertheless, there always subsists in it confused aspirations toward the good, an innate need for progress, liberty and light which will facilitate the birth of the new idea and its regenerative action. [5]
The so-called 'refined minds' that may be satisfied by spiritism are not really a problem; but let us note that it is especially the multitude that he addresses, and let us also note in passing this pompous phraseology: 'progress, liberty, light', which is common to all sects of this character and which is in a way one of those suspect 'signatures' of which we have spoken. We cite another passage from the same author:
Spiritism reveals the moral law to us, outlines our line of conduct, and brings men together by fraternity, solidarity, and common views. It points all toward more worthy and more elevated aims than those pursued heretofore. It brings with it a new sentiment of prayer, a need to love, to work for others, to enrich our intelligence and our heart.... Come and be quenched by this
celestial spring, all you who suffer, all who thirst for truth. It will make a refreshing and regenerative wave flow into your souls. Vivified by it, you will more cheerfully withstand the combats of existence; you will know how to live and die with dignity. [6]
No, it is not truth for which those thirst to whom such appeals as this are addressed, it is 'consolation'. If they find something 'consoling', or if they are so persuaded, they are eager to believe in it, and their intelligence does not play the slightest role. Spiritism exploits human weakness and profits from something it too often finds in our time, which is so deprived of any higher guidance and bases its conquests on the worst of all declines. In these conditions we do not see what can authorize the spiritists to inveigh against such things as alcoholism as they so readily do, for there are also men who find in drunkenness the easing or forgetting of their sufferings. If the 'moralists' with their great hollow phrases on 'human dignity' are indignant at such a comparison, we challenge them to take a census of the cases of madness due to alcoholism on the one hand and to spiritism on the other. Taking into account the respective numbers and proportions of alcoholics and spiritists, we do not know where the advantage would lie.
The democratic character of spiritism is affirmed by its propaganda in the working class surroundings, where its 'simplicity' makes is particularly accessible. It is among the working classes that sects such as 'Fraternism' recruit most of their adherents, and in this respect Antoinism is quite remarkable. It would seem that the miners of Belgium and the north of France constitute a more favorable recruiting ground than any other. In this connection we reproduce the following account found in a work by Léon Denis:
It is a comforting sight every Sunday to see numerous families of spiritist miners thronging to Jumet [Belgium] and all points in the Charleroi basin. They gather in a vast hall where, after the preliminaries, they listen attentively to the instruction given by their invisible guides through the mouths of sleeping mediums. It is through one of these, a simple and almost illiterate miner
who commonly speaks in the Walloon dialect, that the spirit of Canon Xavier Mouls is manifested, he being a priest of great value and high virtue, who popularized magnetism and spiritism among the miners of the area. After cruel trials and severe persecutions, Mouls left the area, but his spirit still watches over his dear miners. Every Sunday he takes possession of the faculties of his favorite medium, and after citing sacred texts with a thoroughly sacerdotal eloquence he expounds for an hour in pure French on the chosen subject before them, speaking to the intelligence and to the heart of his hearers, exhorting them to duty and to submission to the divine laws. The impression produced on these good men is great; it is the same wherever spiritism is seriously practiced by the humble of this world. [7]
It would be of no interest to continue this citation, regarding which we will only make this simple observation: the spiritists' violent anticlericalism is well known, but it suffices that a priest be in more or less open revolt against ecclesiastical authority for them to hasten to celebrate his 'great value', his 'high virtue', etc. Thus, some time ago Jean Béziat took up the defense of the Abbé Lemire. [8] An interesting area of research would be the more than cordial relations which the originators of contemporary schisms have maintained with 'neo-spiritualists' of diverse schools.
From another angle, spiritists, like Theosophists, seek to extend their propaganda even to children; many do not dare go so far as to admit children to their séances, but they certainly try to inculcate the theories, which are precisely what constitutes spiritism. We have already noted the 'classes in goodness' instituted by the 'Fraternists', the name of which unquestionably smacks of Protestant humanitarianism. [9] In the journal of the same sect we read the following:
We know that the idea of sections for children is gaining ground, and we have not neglected their Fraternist education. To educate
the child, as has so often been said and written, is to prepare the Fraternism of tomorrow. The child will himself prove to be an excellent propagandist at school and in his circle; he can do much for our work. Therefore know how to direct him in this good way and how to encourage his good dispositions. [10]
Compare these words with those spoken on another occasion by the director of this same journal, Jean Béziat:
Is it not intolerable in our day to see children inculcated with religious ideas, and what is much more serious, their being made to perform religious acts before they are entirely conscious of what they are doing, acts that they will deeply regret later? [11]
Thus one must not give religious instruction to children, but they should be instructed in spiritism. The spirit of competition animating these pseudo-religious sects could not manifest itself more clearly. Furthermore, we know that there are spiritists who, notwithstanding the advice given them, have children participate in their experiments, and, not content with that, go so far as to develop mediumistic faculties in them, especially clairvoyance. It is quite easy to guess the effects of such practices. Moreover, 'schools for mediums', even if for adults, constitute a public danger. These institutions, which often function under cover of 'study groups', are not as rare as might be believed; and if spiritism continues to wreak havoc, the outlook is not reassuring. As Léon Denis says:
In future, an experienced spiritist organization will include the creation of special asylums where, along with the material means of life, mediums will find satisfactions of the heart and mind, the inspirations of art and nature-all that can impress on their faculties a character of purity and elevation, in an atmosphere of peace and confidence. [12]
We know only too well what the spiritists mean by 'purity' and 'elevation'; and these 'special refuges' run a great risk of becoming insane asylums. Unfortunately, their residents will not remain confined there indefinitely, and sooner or later they will go forth to spread abroad their eminently contagious folly. Such enterprises of collective ruin have already been realized in America, [13] and some have recently come into existence in Germany; in France there have only been attempts of more modest proportions so far, but it will happen here, too, unless carefully watched.
We have said that spiritism exploits every kind of suffering in order to win adherents to its doctrines. This is true even of physical suffering, thanks to the exploits of the 'healers'. The 'Fraternists', notably, reckon that 'healings are a powerful means of propaganda. [14] It is easy to see how this comes to pass: someone is sick and does not know where to turn; he finds a spiritist 'healer', and the invalid's state of mind at the time predisposes him to receive the healers 'teachings'; the latter hastens to oblige, presenting these, if need be, as likely to facilitate his recovery. In fact, at the Béthune trial, mentioned above, this statement was made: 'Although considerably abetting recovery by making its mechanism understood, the sick are not obliged to subscribe to Le Fraterniste'; [15] but if they are not obliged to subscribe, they can at least be so advised, and oral propaganda is still more effective. If no amelioration is produced, the sick man will be urged to return, and will be persuaded that the lack of amelioration is due to his lack of 'faith'. Perhaps he will 'convert' from the simple desire to be healed; and this point will all the more surely be reached if he experiences the least alleviation that to him seems, rightly or wrongly, attributable to the 'healer'. By publishing the healings that are effected (and there are always some, especially because the element of critical control is weak), other invalids are attracted; and even among those in good health there are some who are impressed by these accounts and who, already
sympathetic to spiritism, believe they find in them proof of its truth. In fact, there is a strange confusion here: let us posit a man with unquestionable and powerful healing faculties, but whose professed ideas have no relation to them; in such cases the explanation he himself gives of his own faculties may be completely erroneous. Only the singular mentality of our time, which is almost totally extroverted, would find the criterion for truth in sensible manifestations, and make it needful to insist on such obvious matters.
But what draws most men to spiritism, and in the most direct manner, is the sorrow caused by the loss of a relative or friend. How many have let themselves be seduced by the idea that they can communicate with the departed? We will recall the case already mentioned of two individuals as different as possible in every other respect: Sir Oliver Lodge and 'Father Antoine'. It was after losing a son that each became a spiritist; in spite of appearances, it was sentimentality that predominated in both the scientist and the ignorant man, as it does with the great majority of contemporary Westerners. Moreover, the incapacity to understand the absurdity of the spiritist theory sufficiently proves that the scientist's intellectuality is only a pseudo-intellectuality. We apologize for returning so often to this, but such insistence is necessary as a reaction against the superstition of science. Let no one boast to us of the benefits of these claimed communications with the dead; first, we refuse to admit that any illusion whatever is in itself preferable to the truth; then, if the illusion happens to be destroyed, which is always possible, there is the risk that for some it will only leave in its place a real despair. Finally, before spiritism existed, sentimental aspirations found satisfaction in a hope derived from religious concepts, and there was no need to imagine anything else in this regard. The notion of establishing contact with the dead, especially by procedures such as those employed by spiritists, is in no way natural to man. It can come only from those who have undergone the influence of spiritism, the adherents of which do not fail to exercise by word and pen the most indiscreet propaganda. The most typical example of the spiritists' particular ingenuity is the institution of offices of communication, where everyone may go to obtain news of the dead in whom they may be interested. We have spoken of the bureau of the 'Vinedressers of the
Lord', which was the Antoinists' starting-point, but there is another that is much better known, and functioned for three years in London under the name of the 'Julia Bureau'. The founder was the English journalist W.T. Stead, former director of the Pall Mall Gazette and the Review of Reviews, who died in 1912 in the shipwreck of the Titanic. But after him, the idea of this creation came to a 'spirit' named Julia. Here is the information that we find in a journal which claims to be 'psychic' but which is fundamentally spiritist:
Julia was the first name of Miss Julia A. Ames; she was on the editorial staff of the Union Signal of Chicago, the journal of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, a Christian temperance [that is, Protestant] and feminist society. Born in Illinois in 1861, she was of pure Anglo-American background. In 1890, during a trip to Europe, she went to see Mr Stead, and they became fast friends. The autumn of the following year she returned to America, fell ill at Boston, and died in a hospital in that city. Like many other pious souls, Miss Ames had made a pact with her closest friend, who had been practically a sister to her for many years. It was agreed that she would return from the beyond and make herself seen in order to prove the survival of the soul after death and the possibility that the deceased could communicate with their survivors. Many have undertaken this pledge, but few have kept it. Miss Ames, on the advice of Mr Stead, was one of the latest. [16] It was only a short time after the death of Miss Ames that the personality 'Julia' proposed to open a Bureau of Communication between this world we inhabit and the other. For twelve years or more Mr Stead was unable to put this suggestion into effect. [17]
It seems that in particular the 'messages' from his dead son finally led him in April 1909 to open the 'Julia Bureau' with the aid of several other persons, among whom we will mention only Robert King
the Theosophist, who is today head of the Scottish branch of the 'Old Catholic Church. [18] We take from another spiritist journal several details illustrating the Protestant character of the ceremonial which surrounded the séances:
Following arrangements made by Julia herself, each took his turn as leader of the 'service', which consisted first in prayers, followed by a reading of the minutes of the previous meeting, then requests addressed to the Bureau from all points of the world. After it had been in operation for a week or two, Julia asked that the prayer at the beginning of the séances be followed by a short Bible reading. Mr Stead read several paragraphs of the Old or New Testament. Others took their inspiration from communications from Julia or Stainton Moses, [19] and still others from Fénelon or other authors.... The morning séances were reserved exclusively for the small circle comprising the Bureau staff. Strangers were not admitted except in rare cases. The purpose was to form a cenacle which, as Julia explained, being composed of a group of sympathetic persons chosen by herself, would produce a core from which the psychic force could continue to grow. It must form, she said, a chalice or cup of inspiration [sic], a pure light vibrating among the seven rays (alluding to the seven persons in the group) who would form a mystical gathering. [20]
And here is something else that is very significant as regards the pseudo-religious character of these manifestations:
In her letters, Julia recommends the use of the Rosary, but the modernized Rosary. This is how she understands it. Note the names of all those, dead or living, with whom you have had any contact. Each of these names represents a bead of the Rosary.
Run through them every day, sending to each of the names an affectionate thought. This radiance diffuses a considerable current of sympathy and love which are like the divine essence of humanity, like pulsations of life; and a thought of love is like an angel of God, bringing a benediction to souls. [21]
Let us now resume our first citation:
Mr Stead declares that Julia herself has undertaken the day-today direction of operations; that is to say that the invisible direction of the office will be hers. Whoever has lost a friend, a dear relative, can turn to the Bureau, which will make known the sole conditions in which an attempt at communication can be made. In case of approval, the consent of the management must be obtained. This consent will be refused to all who do not come to hear those loved and lost. On this point Julia explains her position very positively.... The Julia Bureau, as Julia herself never tires of repeating, must focus on its own proper goal, which is to enable devoted persons to communicate after they are separated by the change called death,
Explanations given by Julia on the aim of the foundation are then given:
The aim of the Bureau ... is to come to the aid of those who wish to meet again after the change called death. It is a kind of postal general delivery where, examining the correspondence anew, one again tries to distribute it. Where there are no messages of friendship, or of desire on either side to correspond, there is no reason to address the Bureau. The employee charged with this work may be compared with the good town constable who does all he can to find a child lost in the crowd and return it in tears to its mother. Once the two are reunited, the constable's task is done. It is true that one will constantly be tempted to go further and make of the Bureau a center for the exploration of what is beyond. But to yield to this temptation could only be premature. Not that I have any objection to this exploration. It is a
completely natural, necessary, and most important consequence of our work. But the Bureau, my Bureau, must not take that responsibility. It must limit itself to its first duty, which is to reestablish communication between those who have been deprived of it. [22]
This is clearly an exclusively sentimental and pietistic spiritism. But is it so easy to establish a neat line of demarcation between this and a spiritism with 'scientific' pretensions? Or, as some say, between 'religion-spiritism' and 'science-spiritism'? And is not the second often a simple mask for the first? At the beginning of 1912, the 'Institute for Psychic Research' directed by Messrs Lefranc and Lancelin, whose journal has furnished us the greater part of the preceding citations, wanted to start a 'Julia Bureau' (this became a generic denomination) in Paris, organized on a more 'scientific' basis than its London counterpart. To this end 'a definitive choice of the processes for spirit identification' was made, among which pride of place went to 'the digital anthropometry of the partial materialization of the deceased'; they even went so far as to provide an 'identification sheet' with squares for photographs and impressions of the 'spirits. [23] Spiritists who want to play at being scientists are surely at least as ridiculous as the others! At the same time
a school for mediums was opened with the aims of (1) instructing and directing mediums of both sexes, and (2) developing the special faculties of the better endowed subjects in order to facilitate the spirit identification research of the 'Julia Bureau' of Paris.
And it was added that
each subject will receive the theoretical and practical instructions necessary for the development of their particular mediumship. The subjects will meet twice a week at a given time, for their development. These courses are free. [24]
This is truly one of those enterprises of collective ruin spoken about above. We believe that it had little success, although it must be noted that spiritism in France did not then have the importance it has lately assumed. [25]
These facts call for some commentary: in reality, there are not two spiritisms, there is only one. But it has two aspects, the one pseudo-religious and the other pseudo-scientific, and according to the temperament of those one is addressing, one can emphasize whichever is preferred. In Anglo-Saxon countries the pseudo-religious side seems more developed than anywhere else. In Latin countries it sometimes seems that the pseudo-scientific side enjoys better success. This is true only in a general way, and the spiritists' skill consists above all in adapting their propaganda to the various groups they wish to reach. Moreover, everyone thus finds matter to occupy himself according to his personal preferences, but the divergences are more apparent than real; in sum, all is reduced to a question of opportunity. Thus some spiritists may on occasion disguise themselves as psychists, and we do not think anything else should be seen in this 'Institute of Psychic Research' whose carryings-on we have outlined. This tactic is encouraged by the fact, well suited to the situation, that the scholars who have joined spiritism have come by way of psychism; this latter can therefore form a means of propaganda to be profitably exploited. These are not simple suppositions on our part: proof is to be found in the counsels addressed to the spiritists by Albert Jounet, an occultist, but one with an unwonted 'eclecticism'. In 1910 he created a Spiritualist Alliance in which he hoped to unite all the 'neo-spiritualist' schools. [26] The same year he attended the International Spiritist Congress at Brussels where he gave a lecture from which we excerpt the following:
Without some organization, spiritism does not have the influence in the world that it merits.... Let us endeavor to furnish
the organization it lacks. It must be doctrinal and social. The truths of spiritism must be gathered and presented in such a way as to become more readily acceptable. And spiritists themselves must come together and present themselves in such a way as to become more invincible among men.... It is, I admit, bitter and humiliating for spiritists, when truths were disclosed and propagated by spiritism, to see that these were not well received in official circles, or by the middle classes, but taken up by psychism. Nevertheless, if spiritists accept this humiliation it will assure their exaltation. This apparent retreat will yield a triumph. But then, you ask indignantly, must we change our name, cease to be spiritists, disguise ourselves as psychists, abandon our masters who at the beginning of this movement suffered and discovered? This is not at all what I counsel. Humility is not cowardice. By no means do I ask you to change your name [as spiritists]. I do not say to you: 'Abandon spiritism for psychism.' It is not a question of a substitution, but of an order of presentation. I say to you: 'Present psychism before spiritism.' You have borne the hardest part of the campaign and combat. It only remains to finish the conquest. In order to accomplish this more quickly, I counsel you to send before you those inhabitants of the country who have rallied to you and who speak the language of the country. The maneuver is both simple and primary. In your propaganda and polemics, in discussions with the unbelieving and with adversaries, instead of declaring that spiritists have for long taught such and such a truth and that today psychist scholars confirm it, declare rather that the psychist scholars confirm such a truth, and only later show that the spiritists have brought it out and teach it. Hence the dominant formula for your doctrinal organization is: first psychism, then spiritism.
After going into some detail regarding the 'order of presentation' which he proposed for the different classes of phenomena, the speaker continued in these terms:
Such an organization would be capable of conferring on experimental survival [sic] all the invasive intensity that such a passionate certitude, one with such formidable consequences, must
have. Arranged and offered in this way, spiritist truths will shed the light of day through the density of prejudice, the resistance of old mentalities. This will be a colossal transformation of human thought. The greatest upsets of history, peoples swallowed up by other peoples, migrations of races, the advent of religions, a titanic overflowing of liberties, all will seem small compared to the soul's takeover of man [sic]. Social organization will be added to doctrinal organization. For just as with the spiritist truths themselves, it is urgent that spiritists themselves be arranged and grouped. There, too, I would interpose the formula: psychism first, spiritism afterward. You wish to develop a Universal Spiritist Federation. I entirely approve this work. But I would wish that the Spiritist Federation have a psychist section which one might initially enter. It would serve as an antechamber. Do not misunderstand me as regards my project. The name of the society itself would not change. It would remain the Spiritist Federation. But it would have a psychist section as a preliminary and as an annex. I believe that in the social as well as in the doctrinal domain, this layout would contribute to victory. An analogous arrangement would be repeated with the national Societies or Federations, members of the Universal Spiritist Federation. [27]
The importance of this text will be understood; it is the only one to our knowledge wherein anyone has dared advocate such a 'maneuver' (the word is that of Jounet himself) so openly. That is a tactic which it is indispensable to denounce, for it is far from being inoffensive, and it permits spiritists to annex to themselves, without their being aware, all those whom the attraction of phenomena draws near to them but who nevertheless are reluctant to call themselves spiritists.
Without making any real concessions, the spiritists behave so as not to alarm such people and subsequently endeavor to win them insensibly to the 'cause', as they say in these circles. The great danger in an effort of this kind is the power, in our time, of the 'scientific' mentality; and it is this mentality to which the spiritists appeal. In
the same lecture, which was warmly applauded by the members of the Congress, Jounet said further:
The proclamation of immortality under these conditions [that is, as a consequence of the psychists' work], is a revolutionary fact, one of those powerful blows that force a change of direction of the human race. Why? Because the immortality of the soul is established not by faith or abstract reasoning but by experiment and observation, by science. And science managed not by spiritists, but by professional scientists.... We can cry to the unbelieving: 'You do not want faith, you do not want abstract philosophy. Here is rigorous experiment and observation, here is science.' And we can further say to them: 'You do not want spiritists. Here are scientists.' The incredulous will be unable to respond. The work of Myers and his school [the Society for Psychical Research of London], this is immortality entering into the heart of what is most modern in the modern world, the most positive of the positive. It is the soul anchored in the method of official science and in the professional scientist. It is spiritism, conqueror and master even outside spiritism. Recognize that it is not a bad tactic to present psychism first of all.
We have seen what must be thought of the supposed experimental demonstration of immortality, but the unbelievers of whom Jounet speaks are not very hard to convince; it suffices to invoke 'science' and 'experimentation' in order to render them speechless. Spiritism harvesting the fruits of positivism, there is something Auguste Comte certainly did not foresee. Nevertheless, one sees 'healers' and other mediums forming the priesthood of the 'religion of Ilumanity'... Let us repeat here what we have said already: psychism, if it is well understood, should be totally independent of spiritism; but spiritists take advantage of tendencies that certain psychists have in common with them, and also of confusions current among the public. We hope that serious psychists finally understand all the harm done them by these connections and that they may find the means to react effectively. For that is not enough for them to protest that they are not spiritists; they must realize the absurdity of spiritism and dare to proclaim it. Let no one object that
it is proper to maintain a pretended scientific impartiality; to hesitate to reject an hypothesis when one is certain it is false is an attitude that has nothing genuinely scientific about it. And it happens that scientists in many other circumstances avoid or deny theories which are however at least possible, whereas the spiritist theory is not possible. If the psychists do not understand it, so much the worse for them; neutrality vis-à-vis certain errors comes very close to complicity. And if they mean to make common cause with spiritists, however slight, they would be more honest to acknowledge it, even while making whatever reservations they might wish; at least one would know with whom one is dealing. Anyway, for our part we intentionally exercise our option of discrediting psychist research, for its popularization is probably more dangerous than useful. If, however, there are those who wish to take up these investigations on more solid bases, let them carefully guard against spiritist or occultist intrusions, let them be wary in every way, and let them find more adequate means of experimentation than those of medical doctors and physicists. But those who possess the qualifications necessary to really know what they are doing in such a domain are not numerous; and in general, phenomena interest them only modestly.
It is when they invoke sentimental arguments in their propaganda that the spiritists best exhibit their essential tendencies; but as they claim to base their theories on phenomena, the two aspects which we have noted, far from being in opposition, are in reality complementary. The quest for phenomena and sentimentalism go together; and there is nothing astonishing about this, because the sensible and the sentimental orders are very close to one another. In the modern West, they are tightly joined in order to stifle all intellectuality. One of the preferred subjects of properly sentimental propaganda is the concept of reincarnation; to those who argue that it helps some people bear painful situations with resignation we might respond by repeating nearly all that we said just now about the claimed benefits of communication with the 'departed', and we refer again to the chapter where we recounted some of the extravagances occasioned by this idea-an idea that terrorizes more people than it consoles. In any event, the very insistence on inculcating these theories in 'those who suffer' proves that it is a question of real
exploitation of human weakness; there is reliance on a state of mental or physical depression in order to gain acceptance for these theories, and this certainly does not stand in their favor. At the present time the theory of reincarnation is the one most vigorously propagated among the masses, and to accomplish this every means is considered good. There is recourse to the artifices of literature, and today this notion is spread through the productions of some novelists. The result is that many people who believe themselves very far from spiritism or 'neo-spiritualism' are nevertheless contaminated with the absurdities emanating from these circles. This indirect propaganda is perhaps the most harmful of all because it assures the greatest penetration of the theories in question. It presents them in an agreeable and seductive form, hardly awakening the suspicion of readers who do not go to the bottom of things and who do not suspect that behind what they see there is an 'underground' whose ramifications extend everywhere, entangled in a thousand ways.
All this enables one to understand that the number of adherents of spiritism continues to grow in a frightening manner; and further, to the adherents properly so called, we must add all those who are subject to the influence or more or less indirect suggestion thereof, as well as all those who move in this direction by imperceptible degrees, whether they began with psychism or otherwise. It would be quite difficult to produce statistics, even for avowed spiritists; the multiplicity of groups, not to speak of isolated individuals, is the chief obstacle inhibiting a somewhat precise evaluation. Already in 1886 Dr Gibier wrote 'that he did not believe he was exaggerating in saying there were one hundred thousand spiritists in Paris. [28] At the same time, Mme Blavatsky estimated twenty million throughout the world, [29] and the United States alone must have accounted for more than half this number, for Russell Wallace has spoken of eleven million. Today these figures must be considerably greater. France, where spiritism is much less widely spread than in America or England, is perhaps the country where it has gained the most ground in recent years because of the state of turmoil and general
disequilibrium resulting from the war. It seems moreover that almost the same can be said of Germany. From day to day the danger becomes more menacing; to underrate it, one would have to be completely blind and ignore the whole mental ambience of our time, or else be oneself under the power of suggestion and be the more irremediably so insofar as one doubts that this is the case. In order to remedy such a state of affairs, we hardly believe in the efficacy of intervention by public authorities, even supposing they might wish to intervene, which many complicities and hidden affinities make doubtful. Such an intervention could only reach some exterior manifestations and it would remain without effect on the state of mind that is the real cause. It is rather for each one to react by himself and in the measure of his own means, once he has understood the need.