PDF version - Geae

instruments of spiritual propaganda. Friends and relatives bring to doubting minds proofs unquestionable and
irrefutable of their identity, and in this way spread the great truths of life without end over the earth. There
seems to be a majestic accord in all the voices, which are simultaneously lifter to make a skeptical society
listen to the good news of the survival of the soul, and to the explanation of the problems of life and sorrow.
This revelation has penetrated into the heart of family and society. The multiplication of the sources of
this revelation, and its diffusion, constitutes a permanent basis for this science, which renders sterile all
opposition and intrigues. Spiritual truth, if extinguished for a moment by falsification, is illumined again soon
at a hundred other points. In this immense movement of spiritual revelation, souls are obeying orders from on
high; they act under a plan traced in advance, and which unrolls and amplifies with majesty. An invisible
council presides in the bosom of space; it is composed of great spirits of all races and all religions, and souls of
the spiritual elite who have lived on earth according to the law of love and sacrifice. Their powerful influence
unites earth with heaven by rays of light on which mount the prayers of the fervent and on which descends
inspiration for mortals.
Certain students of spiritual revelations are puzzled by the contradictory nature of many
communications. There are, for instance, spirits who affirm the law of successive lives, and others who deny it.
This subject will be more thoroughly examined in later chapters of this volume.
Like all new doctrines, this modern spiritual revelation has met with criticism and objections: its
followers have been called hasty in their assertions, and accused of building hurriedly on a foundation of
phenomena, a frail and premature system of philosophy.
There are always the skeptics, and the indifferent, and the laggards to attack every new movement. No
progress would be possible in the world if pioneers awaited the cooperation of laggards. It is amusing to hear
such minds attempt to criticize men like Allan Kardec, who gave years of laborious research to his study
before giving it to the world; or such brilliant scientists as Frederick Myers, the eminent professor of
Cambridge, author of The Survival of Human Personality; or Sir Olive Lodge, the world-famous scientist and
Member of the Academy, who stands bravely forth as the leader of this philosophy today.
In face of such appreciations, the recriminations of lesser minds fall through their own weakness.
To what can we attribute an aversion to a belief in communication with our dead? It must be because
this belief and its teachings impose a moral responsibility of thought and action, which becomes very
troublesome to many minds incapable of grasping, and indifferent to, an intellectual philosophy. In his
Survival of Human Personality Professor Frederick Myers says, "For every conscientious seeker, psychical
research leads logically to vast syntheses of philosophy and religion: the observations and experiences it brings
open the door to a revelation."
It is evident that the day when such relations are established with the world of spirits by the force of
events, the problem of life and destiny will also be established under new aspects. At no epoch of history has
man been able to flee from the great problems of life, of death, of sorrow. Despite his incapability to solve
them, they have without cessation haunted him, returning each time with more force as he attempted to escape
them, gliding into all the events of his life, and knocking at the doors of his conscience. And when a new
source of knowledge, of consolation, and moral force with vast horizons of thought open to the mind, how can
he remain indifferent? And does it not indeed appeal to all of us? Is it not our future, our tomorrow, which is in
question? Why this torment, this anguish, which has besieged the human heart across the centuries - this
confused intuition of a better world, longed for and desired - this anxiety, that God and Justice should exist in a
larger and more satisfying measure? Is there not in this desire - in this need - of the thought to probe the great
mystery, one of the most beautiful privileges of human existence? Is it not therein lies the dignity and reason
of being in this life? And each time that man has failed to recognize this privilege and has renounced turning
his eyes Beyond, refused to direct his thought toward a higher life, and has circumscribed his horizon to earth,
has he not seen the miseries of mortals aggravated, the burden grow heavier upon the shoulders of the
unfortunate, despair and suicide multiply, and society descend toward anarchy and decadence?
It is claimed by our opponents that the spiritual philosophy is inconsistent, and that the
communications come frequently from the mind of the mediums, or from those present, and who have formed
their ideas upon this subject. But how can our critics explain the fact that in my own group, three mediums
through whom I have made investigations gave descriptions of the worlds beyond, utterly at variance with the
19