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INFLUENCE OF SURROUNDINGS ON SPIRIT-MANIFESTATIONS.

231. -

1. Is the action of medianimity affected by the quality of the spirits with whom a medium is habitually surrounded?

"All the spirits who surround a medium influence him for good or for evil."

2. Cannot the higher spirits neutralise the evil tendency of the incarnate spirit who serves as their interpreter and of the inferior spirits by whom he is surrounded?

"Yes, when they consider it useful to do so. We have already said that spirits are sometimes enabled, by a special favour, to transmit a communication correctly, despite the imperfection of the medium and his surroundings; but, in such cases, the influence of the latter is nullified by their action."

3. When people seek to obtain manifestations merely as an amusement, do higher spirits sometimes respond to their evocation, in order to lead them on, if possible, to more serious thoughts?

"Superior spirits do not go to circles where they know that their presence would be thrown away. We willingly go to circles of which the members are but little enlightened, provided we see them to be animated by a sincere desire for light, even though we know that we shall find only inferior instruments among them; while we do not go to meetings of more educated persons, if we see that they have been brought together by a sentiment of hostility or of

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scorn. Such persons must be convinced through the eyes and the ears; and that is a work which must be performed by the rappers and the mountebanks of the spirit-world.

It is fitting that those who are puffed up by what they call their 'science,' should be puzzled and baffled by the least scientific and the least advanced of the people of the world so contemptuously ignored by their 'science.' "

4. Is access to serious meetings forbidden to inferior spirits?

"No; they sometimes attend them in order to profit by the instructive communications received in them; but they are obliged to remain silent, like ignorant listeners in the assemblies of the wise.”

232. It is a mistake to suppose that a man must be a medium in order to attract to himself the beings of the invisible world. Space is peopled with spirits; they are always around us, always beside us; they see us and watch us; they mingle in our meetings, and follow or avoid us, according as we attract or repel them. The medianimic faculty has no influence in this respect; for that faculty is only a means of communication. After what we have said respecting the causes of sympathy and antipathy in spirits, it will be easily understood that we are surrounded by those who are in affinity with us, whether our state be one of elevation or of degradation. If we consider the moral condition of our globe, we see what must be the character of the vast majority of the wandering spirits about us; and if we take each country separately, we may judge, by the ruling characteristics of its inhabitants, by their occupations, and by their moral and humanitary sentiments, what sort of spirits are most intimately connected with it.

Keeping this indication in view, let us imagine a party of gay, frivolous, unreasoning people, busy only with what they call "pleasure;" what kind of spirits would be most apt to keep them company? Certainly not spirits of a high order, who would be as little attracted to them as would be philosophers and men of science among ourselves. Thus, whenever men assemble together, they have around them

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an invisible assembly, sympathising with their good or bad qualities, and this, as a matter of course, and without any evocation having been made or even thought of. Let us suppose, still farther, that the human beings thus assembled possess the means of conversing with the invisible beings about them through an interpreter, - that is to say, through a medium, - and that they make an evocation; what spirits would be most likely to answer to their call? Evidently those who are already present; ready, and waiting, and only too glad of an opportunity to talk with them. If, in an assembly of such a character, a superior spirit should be evoked, it is possible that he may come, and may even give a communication, in the shape of good advice; but as soon as he finds that he is not attended to, he retires, as all sensible persons would do in his place, and leaves them to give free reign to their folly.

233. But it is not always enough for a meeting to be seriously inclined, in order to obtain high-toned communications. There are men who never smile, but whose hearts are none the purer for this eternal gravity; and it is by purity of heart, more than by anything else, that elevated spirits are attracted. No moral condition excludes spirit communications; but if our moral conditions are bad, we enter into conversation with spirits of a similar badness, who do not scruple to deceive us by flattering our weakness or our prejudices, in order to lead us astray.

From the preceding considerations we perceive how enormous is the influence exercised by our surroundings on the nature of the intelligent communications we receive; but this influence is not exercised as was formerly supposed, when the world of spirits was comparatively unknown to us. When the communications received by an assembly are in accordance with the opinion of its members, it is not because that opinion is reflected in the medium's mind as in a mirror, but because we all have with us spirits who think as we do, and who sympathise with us for good or for evil, as is proved by the fact, that, if the persons who form a circle have the moral force to attract other spirits

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than those who habitually surround him, the same medium will hold a language altogether different from that which he had previously held, and may even make statements at variance with his usual thoughts and convictions.

To sum up, the influence of conditions and surroundings will be favourable in proportion to the similarity of thought and feeling between the members of a circle and the spirits about them, in the love of truth, the purity and elevation of their aspirations, and the sincerity of their desire for enlightenment.