Le Livre des Esprits

...duced. This completes the word "produced" from the previous page. It would therefore be necessary for the medium to have applied themselves to changing their own handwriting in twenty different ways, and above all, that they could remember the specific style belonging to this or that Spirit.

The second circumstance results from the very nature of the responses which are, most of the time—especially when dealing with abstract or scientific questions—notoriously beyond the knowledge and sometimes the intellectual scope of the medium, who, moreover, usually has no awareness of what is being written under their influence; very often they do not even hear or understand the question asked, since it may be posed in a language foreign to them, or even mentally, and the response may be given in that language. Finally, it often happens that the basket: a small wicker basket (corbeille) fitted with a pencil, used in early séances as a precursor to the planchette writes spontaneously, without a prior question, on some subject that is entirely unexpected.

These answers, in certain cases, bear such a mark of wisdom, depth, and relevance; they reveal thoughts so elevated, so sublime, that they can only emanate from a higher intelligence, imbued with the purest morality; at other times they are so light, so frivolous, even so trivial, that reason refuses to believe they could proceed from the same source. This diversity of language can only be explained by the diversity of the intelligences manifesting themselves. Are these intelligences within humanity or outside of humanity? This is the point to be clarified, and of which a complete explanation will be found in this work as it is given by the Spirits themselves.

Here, then, are evident effects occurring outside the usual circle of our observations, which do not take place in mystery but in broad daylight, which everyone can see and verify, and which are not the privilege of a single individual, but which thousands of people repeat every day at will. These effects necessarily have a cause, and from the moment they reveal the action of an intelligence and a will, they move beyond the purely physical domain.

Several theories have been put forward on this subject; we will examine them shortly, and we will see if they can account for all the facts that occur. Let us admit, in the meantime, the existence of beings distinct from humanity, since such...