Mother's Chronicles - Book Three

20

The Gambler and the Spirit

"Oh, I could write you a book with all the examples I've had of those things," said Mother talking about the forces one contacts through automatic writing or other kindred means.

And as was her wont, she first cleared the decks. "It all depends on the person practising it."

But to be frank, she viewed all this spiritism with a rather scornful eye. "Sometimes there are no forces at all!" she said. "Ninety-eight times out of a hundred, what works the planchette is the mental and vital vibrations of those present, and they call up their own subconscious ideas.

"At one time I actually wanted to prove to people that what they were calling up was nothing else but themselves. So I had a little fun furniture-rapping, table-moving and so on, simply through a

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concentration of the will."

She spoke plainly, hiding nothing so that people would not be lured blindfolded into this type of trap. "The atmosphere in which we live is filled with any amount of small vital entities that are the product of unsated desires, of a very low type of vital movements, as well as the decompositions of more important beings of the vital world —in short, it swarms with all this. You know, it's certainly a protection that most people don't see what's going on in that vital atmosphere, for it's not too pleasant."

But there are some very cocksure people about who would, at any cost, come into contact with that atmosphere. So "they set about trying automatic writing or table-turning or . . . well, any similar kind of thing, just out of unhealthy curiosity."

In case they do manage to get in contact with those small entities then what happens is that the latter have fun at the farmer's expense. "It's a fine booby-trap, all this business," said Mother. "In some cases the vital entities really get hold of a person, and then it is dangerous."

She was telling us all this in 1958. "Long, long

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ago, when I was in France, I knew a man who had a little aptitude and who indulged in all kinds of practices known as 'spiritism'; and through repeated exercises he had succeeded in coming in conscious contact with what he called a 'spirit.' He was a businessman, a financier. The man happened to be a gambler and spent his time on speculations and roulette-playing. Part of the year he passed in Monte Carlo gambling at roulette and the other part he lived in the South of France, and speculated on the Stock Exchange.

"Now, there really was someone using him —it was through automatic writing —using him and, for years together, giving him absolutely precise, exact information. His relation with his 'spirit' was of a very practical nature. When he played roulette it would tell him, 'Put your wager on this number,' or 'Place your bet on this place,' and he would win. Naturally enough, he worshipped this 'spirit' which gave him such sensational revelations. At the Exchange too it would tell him when the stocks and shares were going to move upward and when downward: 'Sell this,' or 'Buy that,' or 'Wager on this,' or 'Bid on that' —it would provide him with very precise financial details.

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"For years this man had been listening to his 'spirit' and acting on it, and he was fantastically successful. The man became colossally rich. He always boasted to all his friends about the method by which he had grown rich and about the spirit who 'guided' him. He would tell everybody, 'You see, it's worthwhile learning how to put oneself in contact with these spirits.' But one day he met a man who was a little wiser and who put him on his guard, saying, 'Be careful, it doesn't look very honest. You should beware of this spirit.' So swollen with his ambition and power was he that he didn't listen. He fell out with that person.

"A few days later he was in Monte Carlo and . . . He always played for high stakes, didn't he, since inevitably he always won; he always broke the bank, and he was much dreaded. So then the spirit gave him a final piece of advice. 'Now you can become the richest man in the world. Your ambition will be fulfilled. You just follow my direction. Do this: Put all you possess in this transaction and you will become the richest man in the world. Stake everything, ALL that you have, on it.' The stupid fool didn't even perceive the trap laid for him. He did as he was told, and at a

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single stroke lost everything! But then, he still had some money left from his Exchange speculations. He told himself, 'That's just bad luck.' Again he received a very precise direction, 'Do this,' as usual. For years he had followed his 'guide' and succeeded, so he followed the last direction and did it —completely cleaned out! To the last penny. And as a finishing touch, the spirit told him —it must have its good fun! —'Now you commit suicide. Fire a shot into your head.' And he was so much under its sway that he did it.

"That's the end of the story. And it is an authentic story," said Mother.

Then someone brought to her notice the case of an American clairvoyant who saw a child playing on a railway track, in danger. Suddenly he saw an apparition by the child's side and sighed with relief, thinking, "The child will be safe." But to his great consternation the apparition put its hand over the child's eyes and, in a way, pushed him under the train. The man was aghast, not understanding why a higher being —as he took it to be —should push a child to his death.

"It could have been one of two quite different things," replied Mother. "Perhaps, for some reason, it

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was a predestined death. Or . . . or, it was a hostile being whom the man mistook for an angel of light, because people generally make this mistake-when they see an apparition they always believe it's something heavenly. It's heavenly if you like, but it depends on which heaven it comes from!"

Mother was silent for a few minutes, then she again took up the first question. "Generally, spiritism isn't a good line of approach." And she added discouragingly, "The least one could say about such pursuits is that they are dangerous."

She put forth another argument. "Besides, they have never served to prove anything to anybody. One might say, 'Oh, it's to make you understand that there is an inner life, an invisible life, that it puts you in touch with things you don't see and proves to you their existence.' It's not true," she averred.

"I have known people ... I knew one man in particular who was a man of science, intelligent and worthy; he had done higher science studies, become an engineer, and he held an important position.

"This man was a member of what is known as a society of 'spiritism,' which had discovered a medium

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with really altogether exceptional abilities. Now, the man attended every séance with the idea of learning, in order to convince himself and get tangible proofs of an invisible world's existence, the concrete and real existence of an invisible world. He had seen all that could be seen, under the strictest control, in the most scientific way possible —all the controls were foreseen to the least detail. He narrated to me the most extraordinary things he had seen. I had in my hand a piece of something resembling what they make nowadays, those plastic cloths, which are not woven, a piece of plastic

—but in those days plastic was not made, it had not yet been discovered, it was a long time ago. I had it in my hand, just a little piece, torn, with a small, very pretty design on it. He recounted to me how it had all come to pass. When the medium had been put into trance, a person appeared, dressed in a robe of that substance

—it was a materialization. That person passed in front of him and, like the little brute he was, he tore off a piece so as to have a proof, and he kept the piece. The medium screamed, and everything, everything vanished immediately. But the piece remained in his hand and he gave it to me. I gave it back to him. He simply

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showed it to me; I had it in my hand.

"It was therefore a completely concrete thing, wasn't it, since he still had the piece; he couldn't tell himself that it was a hallucination. Well, despite all that, despite the most extraordinary stories which could make an entire book, he believed in NOTHING! He could explain NOTHING. He wondered who was mad, he himself or the others or . . . All that hadn't advanced his knowledge even half a step."

Mother concluded, "No amount of external proof will ever give you any knowledge.

"It is only when you yourself are developed within, capable of having a direct and inner contact with these things, that you know what they are. But no material proof—material and of this kind —can give you knowledge if you don't have within you the BEING capable of gaining this knowledge." Thus in her customary way Mother placed her finger on the very nub of the problem.

"Hence, the conclusion is that this kind of experiment is perfectly useless," she said bluntly.

"I consider these things an unhealthy curiosity, that's all."

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