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Kardec brings the story of an actress, written by herself, already in her 60s. In it, Clairon tells that a man who fell in love with her, after dying, began to haunt her for two long years – out of anger at her indifference.
She says that, day after day, and witnessed by many other people, including police officers, she began to suffer several very unique episodes:
- Piercing screams under her window, almost every night, at 11 pm.
- At a certain point, the screams turned into “rifle shots” that, although they did not materially hit anything, not even the windows, they promoted sound and light disturbances, believing whoever witnessed them was the target of a sniper.
- Once, they would have been “hit” by a slap, delivered by the ghost:
“Accustomed to my ghost, who I considered a poor devil who limited himself to doing mischief, I didn't realize the time. As it was hot, I opened the bad window and, with the steward, we leaned over the balcony. Eleven o'clock strikes, the shot is heard and we are both thrown into the middle of the room, where we fall like dead. Coming back to ourselves and feeling that everything had passed, examining ourselves to see that we had both received - he on the left cheek and I on the right - the most terrible slap that could ever be applied, we laughed like madmen.
An anonymous writer commented attributing the reports to the girl's imagination, since everything would have happened at the time when "she was from twenty-two and a half to twenty-five years old, which is the age of inspiration and that this faculty in her was continually exercised and exalted by the way of life she led, in the theater and outside of it.”. The author follows: “It is also necessary to remember that she said, at the beginning of her memoirs, that in childhood she was only entertained with adventures of apparitions and sorcerers, who told her that they were true stories.”.
The unsigned comment seems to refer to the fact that Clairon demonstrated, in everything, that she was only exaggerating a fertile imagination. However, Kardec counters:
“We only know the fact through the account of Mademoiselle Clairon. Thus, we can only judge by induction. Now, our reasoning is the following: Described by the same Mademoiselle Clairon in its most minute details, the fact has more authenticity than if it had been reported by third parties. It should be added that when he wrote the letter where the fact is described, he was about sixty years old and, therefore, he had passed the age of credulity, of which the author of the note speaks. This author does not question Mademoiselle Clairon's good faith in relation to her adventure: he only admits that she was the victim of an illusion. That it had been done once is nothing extraordinary, but that it had been for two and a half years already seems more difficult to us. It is even more difficult to suppose that such an illusion was shared by so many people, ear and eye witnesses of the facts, including the police themselves.”
Kardec continues, saying that the report seems likely, but, as a good researcher, he does not accept it as absolute truth, since he could not analyze it more closely. Regarding the facts, we remember that no they are in disagreement with the spiritist teachings and the facts already known, such as those of different physical effects. In fact, we remind you that there are very serious studies on such facts, as reported and analyzed, very seriously, by the Spiritist researcher Ernesto Bozzano. We cite the works “Transport Phenomena” and “Spiritism and the Supranormal Manifestations”, recommending the reading, in addition to The Mediums' Book, which presents an important theoretical introduction to such phenomena.
Over the ghost, it is noted, says Kardec, that it is not a necessarily evil spirit, but a bottom (our word), full of passions and imperfections:
The violent passion under which he succumbed as a man proves that earthly ideas predominated in him. The deep traces of this passion, which survived the destruction of the body, prove that, as a Spirit, it was still under the influence of matter. His revenge, however harmless, denotes low feelings. If, therefore, we refer to our table of classification of spirits, it will not be difficult to determine its class: the absence of real evil naturally separates it from the last class, that of impure spirits, but evidently it had much of the other classes of the same order. , for nothing in him could justify a superior position.
Reading Suggestions
- “Transport Phenomena”, by Ernesto Bozzano
- “Spiritism and the Supernormal Manifestations”, idem
- The Mediums' Book, by Allan Kardec
Reading Recommendations (Books)
- Free PDFs by Kardec – https://bit.ly/3sXXBxk
- Autonomy – The Untold History of Spiritism: https://amzn.to/3PIvbyy
- Allan Kardec's Legacy: https://amzn.to/3RIn2gv
- Final point – the reunion with spiritualism with Allan Kardec: https://amzn.to/48PLaE7
- Neither Heaven nor Hell – The Laws of the Soul According to Spiritism: https://amzn.to/3F2voYO
- Genesis – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism (unadulterated): Free PDF or https://amzn.to/3RM91hF
- Heaven and Hell: Or divine justice according to Spiritism (unadulterated): Free PDF or https://amzn.to/3ZGrcal
- Spiritist Revolution. Allan Kardec's forgotten theory: https://amzn.to/3t7HIUH
- Mesmer. The denied science of animal magnetism: https://amzn.to/3PYc1X2
- The Book of Mediums: https://amzn.to/3PDNTHK
- The Spirits' Book: https://amzn.to/3QkcFx9
- Spiritist Magazine – complete collection: https://amzn.to/48Uxh7s
- Practical Instructions on Spiritist Manifestations: https://amzn.to/3QiR8Gc
- Spiritism in its Simplest Expression: https://amzn.to/3M6fXT5
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