Mrs. Mally’s Guide
PARISIAN SOCIETY, JULY 8th, 1859
1. (Evocation of Mrs. Mally’s guide)
- Here I am. This is easy to me.
2. How can we call you?
- However you wish. Use the name by which you know me
already.
3. What was the reason that attached you to Mrs. Mally and her
children?
- First of all, old relationships; then a friendship, a sympathy
always protected by God.
4. They say that it was a somnambulist, Mrs. Dupuy, who assigned
you to Mrs. Mally. Is that true?
- It was the somnambulist who affirmed that I was with her.
5. Do you depend on that somnambulist?
- No.
6. Could she keep you away from that lady?
- No.
7. In case the somnambulist died would that have any influence on
you?
- None.
8. Was it long ago since you left your body?
- Yes, many years ago.
9. What were you then?
- A boy, deceased when I was eight years old.
10. As a spirit are you happy or unhappy?
- Happy. I have no personal concerns about the others and if I
suffer it is because of them.
11. Was that you who appeared to Mrs. Mally at the stairway, making
her suppose that was an intruder?
- No, it was a companion.
12. How about the other day, in the form of a cadaver? That could
impress her unpleasantly. That was a naughty thing that demonstrates
lack of benevolence.
- Far from that, in many cases, but in that one the intention
was to stimulate more courageous thoughts in Mrs. Mally.
What is so frightening about a cadaver?
13. You then have the power of becoming visible at will?
- Yes, but as I said it was not me.
14. Then you don’t have anything to do with the other manifestations
that took place in her house either?
- Excuse me! That I do. It was what I have imposed myself to
do on her side, as a material work, but I do another work for
her, much more useful and serious.
15. Can you become visible to everyone?
- Yes.
16. Could you become visible here, to one of us?
- Yes if you ask God for that. I can but I dare not.
17. If you don’t want to become visible could you at least give us a
manifestation, as for example, bringing anything to this table?
- Certainly, but what would be the usefulness? For her that is
how I give testimony of my presence, but for you it would be
useless since we are talking.
18. Wouldn’t the obstacle be the lack of a medium, needed to produce
such manifestations?
- No, that is a small obstacle. Don’t you frequently see sudden
apparitions to persons without any mediumistic faculty?
19. Then everyone is capable of seeing spontaneous apparitions?
- Yes, since every human being is a medium.
20. However, doesn’t the spirit find better conditions in the organization
of certain persons in order to communicate?
- Yes but I told you – and you must know – that the spirits have
the power on their own. The medium is nothing. Don’t you
have the direct writing? Do you need a medium for that? You
only need faith and this sometimes happens even in spite of
human beings, that is, without faith and desire.
21. Do you think that the manifestations, like the direct writing for
example, will become more common than in our days?
- Certainly. How do you understand the full potential of
Spiritism without spreading in more direct ways like this?
22. Can you explain to us what was it that Mrs. Mally’s daughter
took in her hand and ate when she was sick?
- It was manna; a substance created by us that contains the
principle of an ordinary manna and the sweetness of the
sugar.
23. Is that substance formed in the same way as the clothes and other
objects which the spirits produce at their will and by the action
exerted upon matter?
- Yes but the elements are very different. The ingredients that
form the manna are not the same that I used to create wood
or clothes.
24. (to St. Louis) Were the elements utilized by the spirit to form the
manna different from those utilized to form other things? We
have always been told that there is only one primitive universal
element, from which all bodies are simple modifications.- Yes. It means that such a primitive element is in space, here
under a given form, there under another. This is what he
means. He obtains his manna from one part of that element
that he supposes different, but it is always the same.
25. The magnetic action through which one can give special properties
to a given substance, like the water for example, does it bear
a relationship with that of the spirit that creates one substance?
- The magnetizer does not employ anything beyond his own
will. It is a spirit that helps him who is in charge of preparing
the medicine.
26. (to the guide) Sometime ago we reported curious facts of manifestations
of a spirit who we called “the Gnome of Bayonne”. Do
you know that spirit?
- Not particularly, but I followed what you did regarding his
case and that was how I learned about him.
27. Is he a spirit of inferior order?
- Does inferior mean bad? No. If simply meaning not entirely
good, not much advanced? Yes.
28. We thank you for your kindness in coming to us and for the explanations
you gave us.
- At your service.
OBSERVATION: This communication offers a complement to what we
have said in the two preceding articles about the formation of certain
bodies by the spirits. The spirits prepared the substance given to the child
during her illness. This manna added in her healing. Where did they take
this material from? They took it from the universal element, transformed
for the desired application. This strange phenomenon of the properties
transmitted through magnetic action, an unexplained problem we outline
below, which has entertained the incredulous, is now resolved. In fact, we
know that it is not only the spirits of the dead that act but also the living
ones that have their part in the action in the invisible world. The man
with the snuffbox gives us this proof.
What is remarkable about the fact that the wishes of a person, acting
for the good, may operate transformations in the primitive matter, giving
it special properties? In our opinion this is the key to many supposedly supernatural
phenomena, which we will have the opportunity to talk about.
That is how, through observation, we come to observe things that are part
of the reality and wonderful. However, who can assure that such a theory
is true? Be it! It has at least the merit of being rational and in perfect agreement
with the observed facts. If any human brain finds another theory
more logical than this one given by the spirits, may them be compared.
One day, perhaps, we will be thanked for opening the path to the rational
study of Spiritism.
Someone told us the other day: “I really liked to have a servant spirit
at my command, even to the price of having to bear some of its tricks.”
It is a satisfaction that we all enjoy unnoticeably, for not all spirits who
assist us manifest in an ostensive way, but it does not mean that they are
not by our side, and just because their influence is occult, it is not less real.
