Questions
A. In what consists the spiritual atmosphere of the earth?
B. Is the tangible matter is actually compact?
C. What is the perispirit?
Text for reading
813. Apparitions; transfigurations - One particular effect of this type of phenomena is that vaporous and even tangible apparitions are not perceptible to everyone indiscriminately. Spirits show themselves only when they want and to whom they want. Thus, a spirit could appear to a group or to one or more of those present without being seen by the others. This happens because these types of perceptions occur by means of spirit sight and not physical sight.
814. Since the spirit can perform transformations within the contours of its perispiritual envelope, and since this envelope radiates all around the body like a fluidic atmosphere, a phenomenon similar to an apparition can be produced on the surface of the body itself. Under the fluidic layer, the real image of the body can be erased more completely or less so and take on other traits; or the original traits seen through the modified fluidic layer — as through a prism — can take on a different expression.
815. If, while setting aside the everyday world, the incarnate spirit identifies itself with things of the spirit world, the semblance of a homely face can become beautiful, radiant and at times even luminous. On the other hand, if the spirit is enticed by evil passions, an attractive face can take on a horrendous appearance.
816. This is what happens during transfigurations, which are always a reflection of the predominant qualities and sentiments of the spirit. This phenomenon is therefore the result of a fluidic transformation. It is a type of perispiritual apparition that may even be produced upon a living body, and sometimes at the moment of death instead of at a distance, as in apparitions per se.
817. What distinguishes the apparitions of this kind is that they are usually perceptible to everybody watching and by the physical eyes, precisely because they are based on visible corporeal matter, whereas in purely fluidic apparitions, there is no tangible matter.
818. Physical manifestations; mediumship - The phenomena of turning and talking tables, the suspension of heavy objects in the air and mediumistic writing are as ancient as the world itself; more common nowadays, they provide the key to some of the spontaneous, similar phenomena to which, due to ignorance about the law that governs them, have been attributed a supernatural and miraculous character. 819. Such phenomena rest on the properties of the perispiritual fluid of either incarnate or discarnate spirits. It is with the help of its perispirit that the spirit acts upon its living body.
820. Furthermore, it is with this same fluid that it can manifest itself by acting upon inert matter, which produces noises and the movement of tables and other objects that it lifts, drops or carries. These phenomena contain nothing surprising considering that among us the most powerful motors may be found in the most rarified and even imponderable fluids such as air, steam and electricity.
821. It is also with the help of its perispirit that the spirit enables mediums to write, speak or draw. Since it no longer has a tangible body for acting ostensibly whenever it wants to manifest, it borrows the organs of the medium’s body, which, by means of the fluidic emanation that it pours out on it, makes act as if it were its own body.
822. It is by the same means that the spirit acts upon a table, whether to make it move without any predetermined meaning, or whether to make it produce intelligent raps by indicating letters of the alphabet in order to form words and sentences — a phenomenon known as typtology.
823. The table is merely an instrument the spirit utilizes, as someone would utilize a pencil to write with. The spirit endows it with a momentary vitality by means of the fluid it injects into it; however, it does not become identified with it. Persons who, in their emotion upon seeing a loved one manifest, embrace the table perform a foolish act, because it is as if they were embracing the stick that a friend uses to strike.
824. When communications occur in this way, we must realize that the spirit is not within the table but to the side just as it would be if it were alive, and just as it would be seen if at that moment it could make itself visible. The same applies to written communications: the spirit could be seen beside the medium, guiding the hand or transmitting its thought by means of a fluidic current.
825. When the table leaves the floor and floats in the air without any point of support, the spirit does not lift it with its arms. It envelops it and injects it with a kind of fluidic atmosphere that neutralizes the effect of gravity, as the air does with balloons and kites. The fluid with which the table is injected momentarily gives it greater specific lightness. When it remains stuck to the floor, it is in a state like that of the pneumatic bell jar that has had a vacuum created inside it.
826. When raps are heard within tables or elsewhere, the spirit is not striking it with its hand or some other object. It directs a stream of fluid to the point where the noise comes from and this produces the effects of an electric jolt. The spirit can change the sound just as one can modify the sounds produced by the air.
827. A highly frequent phenomenon in mediumship is the ability of certain mediums to write in a language unknown to them or to address subjects orally or by writing that are beyond the reach of their education. It is not rare to see those who write correctly without ever having learned how to write; others who compose poems without ever having learned how to compose a verse; others who draw, paint, sculpt, compose music or play an instrument without knowing design, painting, sculpting or the art of music.
828. It often happens that writing mediums reproduce flawlessly the handwriting and signature that the spirits who communicate through them used while alive, even though such mediums had not known them.
829. This phenomenon is no more extraordinary than that of seeing children write by guiding their hand: one can make them write what one wants. Anyone can be made to write in any language by dictating the words to him or her letter by letter. One can understand how the same would apply to mediumship if one recalls the way in which spirits communicate with mediums, who are actually for them no more than passive instruments.
830. If mediums possess the mechanism, if they have overcome the practical difficulties, if they are familiar with the various terms, and if, finally, they have in their brain the elements of whatever it is that the spirit wants them to execute, they are in the situation of someone who knows how to read and write correctly. The work is easier and quicker; the spirit only has to transmit the thought that its interpreter reproduces through the means at hand.
831. The aptitude of mediums for things foreign to them is also frequently connected with the knowledge they possessed in another existence, and of which their spirit has retained an intuition. For example, if they were poets or musicians it will be easier to assimilate the poetic or musical thought that a spirit wants them to reproduce. Languages unknown today could have been known in another existence: hence a greater aptitude for writing mediumistically in that language.
Answer Key
A. In what consists the spiritual atmosphere of the earth?
The starting point for the universal fluid is its degree of absolute purity, about which nothing can give us an idea; the opposite point is its transformation into tangible matter. Between these two extremes are innumerable transformations that approximate one extreme or the other to varying degrees. The fluids closest to materiality, and consequently the least pure, comprise what may be called the spiritual atmosphere of the earth. It is within this environment — also comprised of various degrees of purity — that the incarnate and discarnate spirits of the earth absorb the elements needed for the economy of their existence. As subtle and intangible as these fluids may be to us, they are nevertheless of a rather coarse nature when compared to the ethereal fluids of the higher spheres. (Genesis, chap. XIV, items 5 and 8.)
B. Is the tangible matter is actually compact?
Perhaps it is compact only in relation to our senses. This may be demonstrated by the ease with which spiritual fluids and spirits pass right through it. It offers no more of an obstacle to them than what transparent objects offer to light. (Genesis, chap. XIV, item 6)
C. What is the perispirit?
The perispirit, or the fluidic body of spirits, is one of the most important products of the cosmic fluid. It is a condensation of that fluid around a focal point of intelligence or soul.
The corporeal body also has its origin in this same fluid condensed and transformed into tangible matter. In the perispirit, the molecular transformation operates differently because the fluid retains its imponderability and ethereal qualities. The perispiritual body and the corporeal body thus have their source in the same primitive element; both are matter, although in two different states. (Genesis, chap. XIV, items 7 and 8)
