Lapommeray

At a meeting of the Paris Society, after a discussion about the confusion that often follows death, a spirit came forward on his own. Though he did not sign the message, he was recognized as Lapommeray, a notorious criminal who had recently been executed.

The medium’s hand begins writing...

LapommerayWhy do you talk about confusion? Why these empty words? You are dreamers and visionaries. You know absolutely nothing about the things you pretend to study.

LapommerayNo, sirs. The confusion you speak of does not exist, except perhaps in your own minds. I am as truly dead as possible, and I see with perfect clarity in myself, around me, everywhere.

LapommerayLife is a dark comedy. The real fools are those who let themselves be pushed off the stage before the curtain falls.

LapommerayDeath is terror, punishment, and desire, depending on whether people fear it, face it, or beg for it. For everyone, it is a bitter mockery.

LapommerayLight blinds me and pierces me like sharp arrows into the deepest part of my being.

LapommerayThey punished me with the darkness of prison, and they thought they would punish me with the darkness of the grave, or with what Catholic superstition imagines there. But it is you, sirs, who are in darkness.

LapommerayAnd I, the man society degraded, stand above you, and I mean to keep standing above you.

LapommerayStrong in my self-control, I despise the so-called warnings sounding around me.

LapommerayI see clearly.

LapommerayCrime? It is only a word. Crime exists everywhere. When whole crowds commit it, people glorify it. When a private person commits it, people condemn it. Absurd.

LapommerayI reject your pity.

LapommerayI ask for nothing.

LapommerayI am enough for myself, and I will be able to resist this hateful light.

His cynicism and condition were deeply instructive. Unlike spirits punished by darkness, isolation, or the repeated agony of their last moments, he was punished by light. He knew perfectly well that he was dead, kept all his mental powers, asked for no help, and still defied divine law just as he had defied human law.

But he did not escape punishment. For him, light itself became torture. What would be joy for one spirit became pain for him. In his own words, the light pierced him like arrows and exposed him completely.

He stayed stubborn for a long time and showed no repentance. Later, though, he gradually improved, gave wise and good communications, and eventually came to belong among the repentant and progressing spirits.

The spirit guides then gave three explanations of his condition.

Mediums’ GuideSpirits in the wandering state between earthly lives are in a waiting state, but they can still go through atonement there.

Mediums’ GuidePride and stubborn attachment to error can hold them back at the very moment when they should prepare to move forward.

Mediums’ GuideThis criminal is a terrible example. He struggles against divine justice as he once struggled against the justice of men.

Mediums’ GuideIn such cases, suffering does not immediately help the spirit understand the meaning of the punishment. Instead, it can stir rebellion, what scripture poetically calls the grinding of teeth.

Mediums’ GuideThey feel defeated, crushed by anguish, yet still refuse to accept the reality of reward and punishment.

Mediums’ GuideGreat errors can remain in the spirit world for a long time, just like this criminal’s personal character. He insists on being himself in spite of everything. He displays his imagined independence before the Infinite.

Mediums’ GuideSuch a spirit stays trapped in blindness, contempt, selfish absorption, and the stopping of all progress.

Mediums’ GuideThere is a deep harmony between the good name of a pure life on Earth and the true immortality a spirit keeps through its trials.

Mediums’ GuideIf a man is plunged into darkness or into a flood of blinding light, the result can seem the same. In both cases, he sees nothing clearly around him.

Mediums’ GuideBut the spirit in question has described his suffering well when he says, "Oh! I will be able to free myself from this hateful light!"

Mediums’ GuideThis light is more terrible because it passes through him completely and makes his most secret thoughts visible to everyone.

Mediums’ GuideThat is one of the cruelest parts of his punishment. He seems shut inside a glass house. What would have been joy and peace for a wise soul becomes shame and endless punishment for the wicked soul, the criminal, the murderer, horrified by the exposure of his own evil nature.

Mediums’ GuideImagine the terror of someone who spent his whole dark life hiding his worst thoughts in the depths of his mind like a wild beast in its den, and who is now driven out of that hiding place.

Mediums’ GuideHis mask is torn away. Every thought of his heart is written openly on his face.

Mediums’ GuideFrom now on he has no rest and no refuge. His evil thoughts, and God knows how many rise in him, are visible in him and on him, as if lit up by a flash of electricity.

Mediums’ GuideHe tries to hide from the crowd around him, but the hateful light makes him transparent.

Mediums’ GuideHe tries to flee. He rushes through immense space, breathless and desperate, and still the light follows him.

Mediums’ GuideThe eyes of those around him reach the deepest fibers of his being.

Mediums’ GuideHe runs without stopping, looking for shade, looking for night, but shade and night no longer exist for him.

Mediums’ GuideHe calls on death to help him, but death is only a word with no meaning.

Mediums’ GuideThe miserable man keeps fleeing. He is on the road toward spirit-madness, a terrible punishment, a fearful misery in which he struggles with himself, trying to get rid of himself.

Mediums’ GuideThat is a supreme law beyond the Earth: the guilty spirit becomes his own relentless punishment.

Mediums’ GuideHow long will this punishment last? Until his will is finally conquered by remorse, until his proud head bows before his appeased victims and before the justice of the spirits.

Mediums’ GuideHuman law punishes the same crime in the same way, with little regard for the inner condition of the guilty person. Divine justice is different.

Mediums’ GuideIts punishments match the degree of the spirit’s development. The same outward crime does not always mean the same amount of guilt.

Mediums’ GuideA more advanced mind can suffer more intensely, not through darkness, but through the power of spiritual light that pierces the stained soul like a probe entering a wound.

Mediums’ GuideSome spirits suffer through the direct and visible image of their crimes, almost through the senses. Others, because they are more intellectually advanced, suffer through a pain even deeper and more bitter.

Mediums’ GuideA man may be intellectually advanced and still morally corrupt. Led by passion, he may act like a brute while his mind has risen above the lower levels.

Mediums’ GuideThis unequal progress of intellect and morality often creates such painful contradictions.

Mediums’ GuideThe light that tortures the guilty soul is a spiritual ray. It shines into the deepest places of pride and shows the spirit how small his personal importance really is.

Mediums’ GuideThese torments are the first signs of a future separation between the higher and lower elements still struggling inside the human being. That inner war will end only when spiritual unity is reached.