The Spiritist review — Journal of psychological studies — 1858

Allan Kardec

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Dr. Xavier

A very talented doctor who we shall call Xavier, who died a few months ago, was heavily involved with magnetism, leaving a manuscript which he thought would change Science. Before he died he had read the Spirits’ Book, wishing he could have had a contact with its author. The illness which killed him would not allow it. His evocation followed a request from his family and the eminently instructive answers it contains led us to insert it in this collection, subtracting however everything which was of particular interest.

1. Do you remember the manuscript you left? - I give little importance to that.

2. What is your current opinion about it?
- Vain work of a being who ignored himself
3. Nevertheless you thought that work would revolutionize Science. - Now I see very clearly.

4. As a spirit could you correct and finalize the work?
- I started from a point which I hardly knew. I would have perhaps to redo everything.

5. Are you happy or unhappy? - I wait and suffer.

6. What do you wait for? - New trials.

7. What is the cause of your suffering? - The evil things I have done.

8. However, you have not done evil intentionally. - Do you know human heart well?

9. Are you errant12 or incarnate?
- Errant
10. When you were alive, what was your opinion about Divinity? - I did not believe it.

11. And now?
- I don’t believe enough.

12. You wanted to contact me, do you remember that? - Yes.

13. Do you see me and recognize the person with whom you wanted to establish a relationship?

- Yes.
14. Which impression the Spirits’ Book had on you?

- It unsettled me.
15. What do you think about it now? - It is a great piece of work.

16. What do you think about the future of the Spiritist Doctrine? - It is great but certain disciples cause it harm.

17. Who cause it harm? - Those who attack real things: the religions, the first and simplest beliefs of men.

18. As a doctor and considering your own studies, no doubt you can answer the following questions: Can the body preserve, for a few moments, its organic life after the separation of the soul?
- Yes.

19. For how long?
- There isn’t a time.

20. I ask you to please clarify.
- This only lasts a few moments.

21. How does the separation between soul and body happen?
- Like a fluid which escapes from any container.

22. Is there a real line separating life and death? - Both states touch and confuse each other. Thus, the spirit gradually loosens its ties, but does not break them.

23. This loosening of the soul, does it happen more promptly on some people than on others?
- Yes, on those who elevated above matter when alive, as their souls belong more to the spiritual world than to the Earthly one.

24. When the union between the soul and the body of a child takes place?
- When the child breathes, as if receiving the soul with the exterior air.

OBSERVATION: This opinion is a consequence of the Catholic dogma. In fact, church teaches that the soul will only be saved by baptism; well, as the intrauterine death is very frequent, what would then happen to that soul who, according to the church, was subtracted from the only mean of salvation, in case it existed in the body before birth?
To be consistent it would be necessary that baptism took place, if not in fact, at least intentionally, at the very moment of conception.


25. How do you then explain intrauterine life?
- Like the plant which vegetates. The child lives the animal life.
26. Is there a crime in subtracting life before birth, considering that in such occasions the child has no soul, thus it is not a human being?
- The mother or any other person who would take the life of a child before birth would commit a crime as it would impede the soul from withstanding the trials to which the body would be an instrument.
27. Nevertheless the expiation which the reincarnating soul would have to suffer would take place?
- Yes but God knew that the soul would not bond to that body. Thus, no soul should bond to that corporeal covering: it was the mother’s trial.
28. In case the mother’s life was at risk due to the child’s birth, would it be a crime to sacrifice the latter to save the former?
- No. It is preferable to sacrifice the non-existent being than the existing one.
29. Does the union between the soul and the body take place instantly or gradually, that is, there would be the need for an appreciable time for such a union to be complete?
- The spirit does not suddenly enter the body. To measure that time imagine that the first breath that the child receives is the soul entering the body: the time for the chest to move up and down.
30. Is the union between the soul and this or that body predestined or does the choice only take place at the moment of birth?
- God marked it. This question requires more developments. Choosing their trials, the spirit requests to incarnate. Thus, God who knows and sees everything, previously knew that a given soul would unit to a given body. When a spirit is born in the low social classes, he knows that his life will be of hardship and suffering. The child who will be born has an existence which results, up to a certain degree, from the position of her parents.
31. Why do good and virtuous parents have children of perverse nature? Put differently, why the good qualities of the parents do not always attract, by sympathy, a good spirit to animate their child?
- A bad spirit requests good parents hopping that their good advices guide them through a better path.


32. Can the parents, through their thoughts and prayers, attract to the body of the child a good spirit instead of an inferior one?

- No. They can, however, improve the spirit of the child to which they gave birth. It is their duty. Bad children are a trial to the parents.

33. The maternal love for the conservation of the child’s life is understood but, taking into account that such a love is natural, why there are mothers who hate their children, and many times since birth?

- Bad spirits who try to obstruct the spirit of the child, so that the child succumb the desired trials.

34. We thank you for the explanations you gave us. - I will do everything to instruct you.

NOTE: The theory given by this spirit about the union between soul and body is not that accurate. The union begins since conception, that is, since the moment when the spirit, not yet incarnated, attaches to the body by a fluidic tie which progressively reinforces, up until birth. The incarnation only completes when the child breathes. (See the Spirits’ Book, Q 344 and next).

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