The ability to summon and converse with spirits from another world existed long before the word itself appeared - spiritualism. Art is as old as the world. All existing religions are unanimous in one thing - there is a world of the living and the dead, there are souls of the dead, that is, the spirits of dead people.
Since ancient times, since time immemorial, the living have always called out to those who left this world. As a rule, this happened in a hopeless situation, when someone's very strong help was needed, or when the mother, mourning the child, longing for him, called him to come. The children prayed to be heard by their dead parents. The widow called her deceased husband … People always turned and turn to heaven so that departed souls could hear them.
Hands were wrung in tears and in deep despair, and souls from the afterlife responded to this frantic cry. From time to time, here and there there were conversations and rumors that a person had heard or even saw a dead man, and a lot of people saw and heard the voice of the deceased or his shadow.
Sometimes, and quite often, the spirits of the dead appear on their own and without any challenge. Many different cases are known about this. This has happened in ours and in other times. Here are just two examples of the appearance of a spirit without any challenge:
This happened in Moscow in 1998. From a letter:
There were many situations when spirits who appeared without being called spoke to people, warning them of trouble …
In Russia, from time immemorial, there have been, are and will be those who know how to summon dead spirits - these are sorcerers, sorcerers and spellcasters. Beginning somewhere in the 13th century, societies began to appear and form, consisting of spiritualists, people who know how and who want to call those who have gone to another world. With the dawn of spiritualism in Europe, as in any other business, this was done openly, and even orders were awarded to all those who were particularly successful in this.
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Over time, the fashion for spiritualism reached Russia. At first this was done stealthily, then many ardent admirers of spiritualism appeared everywhere, among whom were aristocrats, intellectuals and persons of high birth - royalty. It is unlikely that we can now know what really attracted these extraordinary people to spiritualism - a thirst for knowledge, the secrets of the other world, or a keen desire to make sure that there is an afterlife. Who knows, maybe such a pastime was some kind of entertainment for them, because at that distant time, except for balls and theaters, there was nothing!
Be that as it may, diaries and memoirs have come down to us, in which the sessions of calling the spirits are described in detail, as well as the names of the people present. I will quote an entry from the diary of Anna Feodorovna Tyutcheva, the personal lady-in-waiting of Empress Maria Alexandrovna:
"Yesterday, a revolving table was again organized in the Winter Palace (as the session of spiritualism was called then)." Further, the maid of honor of the Empress lists those who were present at this session: Emperor Alexander II, Empress Maria Alexandrovna, Mother Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich, Crown Prince of Württemberg, Count Peter Andreevich Shuvalov, Count Vladimir Fedorovich Adlerberg, Alexey Tolstoy, Alexey Bobrinsky, and also two maids of honor - Alexandra Dolgorukova and Anna Fedorovna Tyutcheva, who wrote this diary herself.
From the notes of the lady-in-waiting, we can see that many other historically famous personalities also attended all the seances. Some of them are so deeply imbued with the opportunity to talk with those who are far from us today that they even made it a rule to never make decisions without the advice and guidance of the omnipresent spirits.
Such was, for example, the Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, the wife of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. It is also known from the notes of the imperial persons that the benefits of the advice of spirits were invaluable. One of the closest friends of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna wrote in her memoirs about how, in her presence, at the next session of the rotating table, Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna summoned the spirit of Alexander III, and the spirit gave his son certain advice.
Of course, how useful such advice can be, only everyone can be convinced for himself. Another question is whether the one to whom the advice was given always listened to it and walked in his actions in spite of the evil fate. Take, for example, Nicholas II, whom all his entourage considered a very, very restrained person, but in one of his diaries he spoke to himself too emotionally, and all because he did not listen to what the spirit told him.
The story of one memoirist has survived to this day about how Count Sheremetev, yearning for his dead wife, more than once resorted to calling her spirit. The spirit of the deceased not only consoled the inconsolable widower, but also told him how to continue to live, as well as when and what to fear.
In general, the topic of spiritualism was raised in ancient and modern literature more than once, in the cinema there were also many different subjects, not counting the prototype of Hamlet. But few people probably thought about where it came from. And if this question was raised, then many different, contradictory statements sounded to his address.
Nihilists said one thing, and spiritualists said another. Personally, I believe that the origins of this phenomenon come from the distant past, from all of us known to ancient witchcraft. When comparing the methods of summoning spirits during a spiritualistic seance with summoning a spirit by a sorcerer, significant differences are immediately visible.
If, for example, the participants of the session can afford to sit at a round table when invoking the spirit, then the sorcerer must do this alone, standing in a delineated circle, in white clothes and barefoot. There are practically no conventions, laws and rules for participants in a spiritualistic session. They do not need to observe fasting before this, clothe themselves in white clothes and diligently learn spells. All they have to do is correctly call the spirit of the dead man to them, conduct a respectful tone of conversation and let it go in time.
Consider the recordings of spiritistic sessions of invoking spirits by the famous 19th century spiritualist Allan Kardek. The author of these recordings was obsessively devoted to the phenomenon of spiritualism. He not only enthusiastically studied all the responses of the spirits from the seances conducted throughout Europe, but also published a number of amazing books containing the conversations of living and dead people.
From conversations with spirits, you will definitely understand that all of them - both light and fallen - are always very strongly drawn to the world of the living. To the places where they once lived, loved, suffered, gave birth to children and were tormented by enemies and doubts. They are all drawn to the graves where their ashes lie, they want to see us living in this world. Rarely does any of the spirits fail to respond to our challenge, because this is the only opportunity to hear and answer our question. We do not know for what reason our challenge remains unanswered. It is possible that we call them in those days when even the key - the spell can not open the otherworldly door for us. Be that as it may, the spirits always ask us to call them again and again into this forsaken world.
During my many years of practice, asking questions to the spirits of the other world, I realized: all the souls (spirits) of deceased people, upon their death, after they leave the body, initially go to completely different places, in accordance with the life or death that they themselves chose for yourself.
For example, murderers or suicides are found in darker worlds. They are so burdened with their condition and the burden of their guilt that they cannot communicate with those who are like themselves. The uncertainty of their future fate weighs them madly. They do not find rest, and their essence languishes with longing. When a witch, a spellcaster, or a spirit, summons a similar spirit to himself, he finds in this a kind of bliss, a distraction from his ordeals and painful existence.
The spirits of murderers and suicides seek from outside, that is, from us on earth, at least some small support. They are ready to please us in conversation and answer any questions in order to be in demand and necessary at least someone. Even the most notorious atheists after their death regret their error and in every possible way cherish hope for God's mercy and forgiveness. When a spirit, whose earthly life proceeded according to God's laws, comes to the call of a spiritualist or an exorcist, then from the conversation with the spirit it becomes clear that his fate is far from being so bad.
He is in a fabulously beautiful, pleasant world, and joy overwhelms him! Spirits in that world communicate with the same, like them, light spirits. They have no obstacles to see those who loved them and whom they loved - these are their relatives and relatives, married spouses, their glorious ancestors, as well as the angels (agels) surrounding them. At a time when on their deathbed their bodies were separated from their souls, striving to leave our earthly, mortal world, the angels appeared after them and took them to the right place, or as we used to say on earth - to the light, heavenly kingdom. But even there, according to the answers of the spirits, they yearned for our land.
I also have to tell you this: while talking with otherworldly spirits, I drew attention to the fact that there is a contradiction in their answers, only in some issues they are unanimous. Reflecting on this, I came to the conclusion that all spirits - both light and dark - are nothing more than the souls of dead people, and after leaving life they actually retain their character traits, as well as personal opinion. That is, if two people think about the same thing differently, then after their death their souls (spirits) will say the same thing!
Summoning spirits at spiritualistic seances
I offer you some excerpts of conversations that took place between the spiritists and the spirits of the other world, whom they once summoned in their sessions.
Explanation of Allan Kardek to the challenge of the spirit of Mr. Gerard Farseny G., who committed suicide: "The challenge was made at the request of his mother."
A brief explanation in the diary of Allan K. to the notes made after the summoning of the spirit: “Below I will describe the content of the conversation with the spirit of Anita Furozi, who died on February 28, 1854. I found the grave with her tombstone in the local cemetery and decided to invoke her spirit.”
Explanation of Kardek to the session below: “In the evening newspaper I read about the public execution of the murderer Matisse A. and decided to talk to his spirit. Matisse responded only from the 9th time, this is the dialogue."
Kardek's explanation of the session below: "Today we tried to summon the spirit of Monsieur Maurice Sorge, who died of a heart attack in his home around noon on February 24, 1860. We tried to make the call six times, but he did not come."
Explanation of Kardek to the session below: “It is supposed to invoke the spirit of Monsieur Jobard, who during his earthly life was not only a friend for us, but also an honorary president of the spiritualist society in Paris. Mr. Jobar was the director of the Museum of Industry in Brussels. Born in Besse and died of stroke on October 27, 1861 in Brussels, 69 years old. During his lifetime, he proposed, in the event of his death, to call his spirit. Which we are ready to do today. I record the dialogue immediately after calling it."
Explanation of Kardek to the session below to challenge the spirit of the Russian doctor: “Mr. Popov was equally famous in Moscow both for his outstanding moral qualities and for his scientific knowledge. One of the ladies present spoke with the spirit of the deceased doctor, since she knows Russian. She wrote down the results of this dialogue for me."
N. Stepanova