Flageolet, mystifying Spirit
The following fact is reported to us by one of our correspondents from Maine-et-Loire, Dr. E. Champneuf. Although the fact itself does not fall outside the circle of known phenomena of physical manifestation, it is instructive in that it proves once more the diversity of types that are encountered in the invisible world, and that by entering it, certain Spirits do not immediately change their character; this is what we did not know before Spiritism brought us into contact with the inhabitants of this world. Here is the story that was sent to us:
“Allow me to tell you a rather curious fact, not of a transportation, but of a subtraction by a Spirit, that took place eight days ago among us.
There is a Spirit that attends our group for several years in Saumur, who for some time now has become even more familiar with our group in Vernantes; he said his name is Flageolet; but our medium, to whom he made himself known, and that in fact knew him when he lived in this world, tells us that his name was Biron, a violin player, quite a brave man, living a life of pleasure, and running around the taverns where he made people dance. He is a lighthearted, mystifying Spirit, but not wicked.
Flageolet then moved in with my brother, where our sessions take place; lunches and dinners are brightened by the played arias that are asked of him or not asked of him, happy when glasses and dishes are not upset by his overly boisterous laughter.
A week ago, my brother, a strong tobacco user, had his snuffbox beside him on the table as usual, and as usual Flageolet also attended the family dinner. After a few arias and marches were played, the Spirit began playing the song: “I have good tobacco in my snuffbox.” At that moment my brother was looking for his, that was no longer with him; he looks around, searches his pockets, nothing; the same tune continues with more enthusiasm; he gets up, explores the shelf of the fireplace, the furniture, continues the search in the neighboring rooms, and the song of the snuffbox pursues him with more intensity, redoubling its mockery as he moves away and gets more animated in his search. If he approaches the fireplace, the knocks become louder and faster. Finally, the seeker, annoyed by that pitiless harmony, thinks of Flageolet, and says to him:
- Did you take my snuffbox?
- Yes.
- Will you give it back to me?
- Yes.
- Well! speak.
They took the alphabet and a pencil, and the Spirit dictated: "I set it on fire.” They searched the burning ashes and found there, at the back of the grate, the snuffbox whose powder was charred.
Every day there is some surprise on his part or some trick in his way. Three days ago, he informed us of the contents of a well-tied basket that had just arrived.
Yesterday evening, it was a new prank addressed to my brother. The latter, returning home during the day, looked for the cap he was wearing inside, and unable to find it, he gave up and thought no more of it. In the evening Flageolet, undoubtedly annoyed for playing songs without anyone paying attention to him, and without anyone thinking of questioning him, he asked for someone to write. We placed ourselves at his disposal, and he dictated:
- I snatched your cap.
- Will you tell me where it is?
- Yes.
- Where did you put it?
- I gave it to Napoleon.
Convinced that it was a bad joke from the Spirit, we asked him:
- Which one?
- Yours.
For many years there has been a half-size statue of Napoleon in the room where our sessions are held. We walked towards the statue, a lamp in hand, and found the missing bonne covering the historic little hat."
Observation: Everything in Spiritism is a subject of study for the serious observer; apparently insignificant facts have their cause, and this cause may be linked to the most important principles. Aren’t the great laws of nature revealed in the smallest insect as in the gigantic animal? In the falling grain of sand as in the movement of the stars? Does the botanist neglect a flower because it is simple and uninspiring? It is the same in the moral order where everything has its philosophical value, as in the physical order everything has its scientific value.
While some people will see in the fact reported above only a curious, amusing thing, a subject of distraction, others will see in it an application of the law that governs the progressive march of the intelligent beings and will learn from it. The invisible world being the environment where humanity inevitably ends up, nothing that can help to make it known could be indifferent. The corporeal world and the spiritual world, incessantly pouring into each other through deaths and births, are explained by each other. This is one of the great laws revealed by Spiritism.
Isn’t the character of this Spirit that of a naughty child? However, during his lifetime he was a grown man and even of a certain age; would some Spirits therefore become children again? No; the truly adult Spirit does not turn back as the river does not run towards its source. But the age of the body is no indication of the age of the Spirit. As it is necessary that all the Spirits that are incarnate pass by the corporeal childhood, it follows that in the bodies of children there are inevitably advanced Spirits; however, if these Spirits die prematurely, they reveal their superiority as soon as they have stripped from their envelope. For the same reason, a young Spirit, spiritually speaking, unable to mature during an existence that is less than an hour in the life of the Spirit, an adult body can harbor a child Spirit by character and moral development.
Flageolet undoubtedly belongs to this last category of Spirits; he will advance faster than others, because there is nothing but lightness in him and the substance is not bad. The serious environment in which he manifests himself, the contact with enlightened men, will ripen his ideas; his education is an incumbent task upon them, while he would have gained nothing with futile persons who would have amused themselves with his pranks, like those of a buffoon.
