The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1859

Allan Kardec

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Celebrated Traveler Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer

Society, September 7th, 1859

The following report was extracted from the Second trip around the world, by Mrs. Ida Pfeiffer, page 345:

“Since I am going to talk about very strange things, it is necessary to mention a more enigmatic event, which happened in Java a few years back, causing such commotion that it even attracted the government’s attention.”

“At the residence of Chéribon there was a little house in which spirits appeared, as people said. When the night came, this event hailed inside the bedroom, in all directions, and from all places, there was siri * spitting. Both the hail and the spit fell near the persons in the room, but did not hit or harm them. As it seems, it was all directed at a particular child, who was in the room. It was so much said about this inexplicable case that the Dutch governor assigned an officer of his trust to examine the case.”

“The officer determined that serious and faithful men should stand guard around the house, blocking anyone from coming in or out. He scrupulously examined all details, took the designated child in his arms and settled in the fatal room. Early evening and as usual, the hail and siri started. All fell near the officer and the boy, not hitting them. Each corner, each hole was examined again. However, nothing was found. The officer could not understand it. He demanded that the stones be put together, marked and hidden in a distant place. It was all in vain. The same stones fell in the room again, at the same usual time.”

“In the end and to stop such inconceivable story, the governor ordered that the house be demolished.”

The person who collected this fact was a really superior lady, less for her instruction and talent than for her incredible energy of character. Besides that fervent curiosity and untamed courage which made her the most remarkable traveler that has ever existed, Mrs. Pfeiffer was not eccentric. She was a lady of kind and enlightened benevolence, having many times demonstrated that she was far from being superstitious. Her rule was only to tell what she had witnessed or captured from an unsuspected source (see the Revue de Paris, September 1st, 1856 and the Dictionnaire des Contemporains, de Vapereau).

1. Evocation - I am here.

2. Are you surprised by our call and for being among us? - I am surprised by the speed of my journey.

3. How were you warned that we wanted to speak with you? - I was brought here unnoticeably.

4. However, you must have received some sort of warning. - I was irresistibly carried away.

5. Where were you when you were invited? - Close to a spirit who I have the mission to guide.

6. Where you aware of the distances that you have to cover to be here or have you suddenly found yourself here, without transition? - Suddenly.

7. Are you happy as a spirit?
- Yes. One cannot be happier.

8. Where did you take your intense like of traveling? - I was a seaman in a preceding existence. The taste acquired for travelling in that existence reflected in this one, despite the sex that I selected.

9. Have the trips contributed to your progress as a spirit? - Yes, because I did these trips with the spirit of observation, which I lacked in the preceding existence where I only got involved with commerce and material things. That is why I thought that I could advance more in a sedentary life. But God, so good and wise in God’s designs, allowed me to utilize my inclinations in favor of the progress that I requested.

10. From all nations that you have visited, which one seemed more advanced and which do you prefer? Haven’t you said when alive that you placed certain tribes of the Oceania above the most civilized nations? - It was a wrong idea. Today I prefer France for I understand its mission and foresee its destiny.

11. What is the destiny that you foresee for France? - I cannot tell you its destiny but its mission is to sow progress and lights, hence the true Spiritism.

12. Why have you found the savages of Oceania more advanced than the Americans? - I saw serious and robust qualities in them, abstraction made of the vices of savage state, which I did not find in other places.

13. Do you confirm that fact that happened in Java, reported in one of your books? - I confirm it partially. The case of the marked stones that were thrown again deserves explanation. Those were similar stones, but not the same.
14. What did you attribute that phenomenon to?

- I did not know what to attribute it to. I asked myself if the devil would not in fact exist and, hence, responding negatively. I did not go beyond that.

15. And now that you know the cause, could you tell us the origin of those stones? Were they transported or specially made by the spirits? - They were transported. To the spirits it was easier to bring than to collect them.

16. And where did that siri came from? It was made by them? - Yes. It was easier and even unavoidable since it would be impossible to find it already prepared.

17. What was the objective of those manifestations? - Like now, attracting attention and attesting a fact that it needed be talked about and an explanation attempted to be found.

OBSERVATION: Someone observes that such verification could not lead to any serious result among those people. One can say that there is a real result because through the report and testimony of Mrs. Pfeiffer the fact came to the knowledge of civilized nations, which comment and make conclusions about them. As a matter of fact, the Dutch were the ones called in to attest them.

18. Was there in the case a special objective, particularly referring to the child tormented by the spirits? - The child had a favorable influence, that is all, and personally she had not suffered a single scratch.

19. Since the spirits produced the phenomena, why have they ceased when the house was demolished? - They stopped because it was judged to be useless to continue, but you are not going to ask if they could have persisted.

20. We thank you for your presence and kindness in answering our questions. - I am entirely at your service.




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* A preparation that the Javanese people chew continually, giving the color of blood to the mouth and saliva.

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