Castelnaudary Spirit

Near Castelnaudary there was a small house known for strange noises and violent disturbances. It was even exorcised in 1848, but nothing changed. One owner later died there suddenly. His son, entering one of the rooms alone, was struck hard across the face by an invisible hand and immediately abandoned the house. Local tradition said a great crime had once been committed there.

When the spirit behind these events was called by the Paris Spiritist Society in 1859, he at first showed only violence. A clairvoyant medium described him as shaking the medium's arm furiously, wearing a bloodstained shirt, and holding a dagger.

The medium’s hand begins writing...

MediumSaint Louis, please describe the punishment this spirit suffers.

Mediums’ GuideIt is terribly painful for him.

Mediums’ GuideHe has been condemned to remain in the house where the crimes were committed, unable to turn his thoughts to anything but those crimes, which are constantly before him.

Mediums’ GuideHe believes himself condemned to this torture forever.

Mediums’ GuideHe sees himself again and again at the moment when he committed those murders.

Mediums’ GuideEvery other memory has been taken from him.

Mediums’ GuideHe is forbidden to communicate with other spirits.

Mediums’ GuideOn Earth, he can only be in that house.

Mediums’ GuideAnd if he goes into space, he finds only darkness and solitude.

MediumIs there any way to remove him from the house?

Mediums’ GuideIt is always easy to get rid of such spirits by praying for them.

Mediums’ GuideBut that is exactly what people usually neglect to do.

Mediums’ GuideThey prefer exorcisms meant to frighten them away, but those ceremonies amuse rather than frighten them.

MediumIf the people concerned pray for him, and if we pray for him ourselves, can we dislodge him?

Mediums’ GuideYes, but only by praying with sincerity and fervor.

MediumHe has been in this state for more than two hundred years. Does time seem long to him?

Mediums’ GuideYes. It seems longer.

Mediums’ GuideSleep does not exist for him.

MediumWe are told that for spirits, time no longer exists, and that a century is only a point in eternity. Is the sense of time not the same for all spirits?

Mediums’ GuideCertainly not.

Mediums’ GuideTime means nothing to spirits who are highly advanced.

Mediums’ GuideBut for low spirits, especially those who suffer, time often seems very long.

MediumBefore his last life on Earth, where did this spirit come from?

Mediums’ GuideHe had lived among the most ferocious savages of your world.

Mediums’ GuideBefore that, he had been born on a world lower than Earth.

MediumHe is punished very severely for the crimes of his last life. If he lived before among barbarians, must he not have committed horrors there too? Was he punished so severely then?

Mediums’ GuideHe was punished less severely, because being more ignorant, he knew less clearly the evil of what he did.

MediumIs his state what people commonly call that of the damned?

Mediums’ GuideAbsolutely.

Mediums’ GuideAnd there are states even more dreadful.

Mediums’ GuideThe sufferings of spirits are far from being the same for all, even among those who committed the same crimes.

Mediums’ GuideThey vary according to whether the guilty one is more or less open to repentance.

Mediums’ GuideFor this spirit, the house where he committed his crimes is his hell.

Mediums’ GuideOthers carry their hell within themselves in the passions that torment them and that they cannot satisfy.

MediumWe have seen that prayer affects even a spirit as low and brutal as this one. Why then do some more intelligent spirits seem completely empty of good feeling, laugh at what is sacred, and are touched by nothing?

Mediums’ GuidePrayer has a good effect only on spirits who have begun to repent.

Mediums’ GuideThe one who, driven by pride, rebels against God, persists in his error, and goes from bad to worse, gets no benefit from prayer until the day a first glimmer of repentance enters his soul.

Mediums’ GuideThe powerlessness of prayer is itself a punishment for spirits who remain hardened.

Mediums’ GuidePrayer brings relief only to those who are not entirely hard.

MediumWhen we see a spirit inaccessible to prayer, should we stop praying for him?

Mediums’ GuideCertainly not.

Mediums’ GuideSooner or later your action may overcome his hardness and awaken in him the seed of saving thoughts.

Later information showed that in 1608 this spirit had lived in that same house. He murdered his sleeping brother by cutting his throat because he suspected him of being a rival over a woman he wanted to marry. A few years later he murdered that woman too, after marrying her. He died at eighty without ever being punished by human justice.

After repeated prayers and later calls, he became calmer, more submissive, and finally repentant.

MediumWhy could you not write the first time we called you?

MediumWhy did you refuse?

Castelnaudary SpiritI refused out of ignorance and brutishness.

MediumAre you now able to leave the house at Castelnaudary when you wish?

Castelnaudary SpiritI am now allowed to leave because I have benefited from the advice given to me.

MediumDo you feel any relief in your sufferings?

Castelnaudary SpiritI am beginning to hope.

MediumIf we could see you now, what appearance would you have?

Castelnaudary SpiritYou would still see me in my shirt, but without the dagger.

MediumWhy do you no longer have the dagger?

Castelnaudary SpiritI curse it, and God spares me from seeing it.

MediumIf Mr. D, the son who received the slap, returned to the house, would you do him any harm?

Castelnaudary SpiritNo, because I am repentant.

MediumAnd if he again dared you to hurt him?

Castelnaudary SpiritOh, do not ask me that.

Castelnaudary SpiritI would not be able to restrain myself.

Castelnaudary SpiritIt would be beyond my power, for I am still only a villain.

MediumDo you begin to see the end of your sufferings?

Castelnaudary SpiritNot yet.

Castelnaudary SpiritIt is already more mercy than I deserve to know that they will not last forever.

MediumPlease describe the state you were in before we first called you. We ask only to help you, not from curiosity.

Castelnaudary SpiritI knew nothing but my crimes.

Castelnaudary SpiritI could leave the house only to rise into space, where there was nothing but solitude and darkness.

Castelnaudary SpiritI cannot explain it.

Castelnaudary SpiritThe moment I rose, there was only blackness and emptiness.

Castelnaudary SpiritNow I feel much more remorse.

Castelnaudary SpiritI am no longer forced to remain in that fatal house.

Castelnaudary SpiritI am allowed to wander on Earth and learn from what I see.

Castelnaudary SpiritBut this makes me understand my wickedness even more clearly.

Castelnaudary SpiritSo although I suffer less in one way, I suffer more in another because of repentance.

Castelnaudary SpiritBut now, at least, I have hope.

MediumDuring your long isolation, your captivity, did you feel remorse?

Castelnaudary SpiritAt first I felt none at all, and that is why I suffered so long.

Castelnaudary SpiritOnly when remorse began did the circumstances come together that led to the evocation and began the work of my deliverance.

Castelnaudary SpiritI thank all of you who took pity on me and enlightened me.

Allan explains that the same faults are not punished in exactly the same way. Coarse, brutal spirits may need punishments that strike them in a more direct and almost physical way before they understand their condition, while more advanced spirits may suffer more through shame, moral pain, and remorse.

He also insists that no spirit is condemned forever. The smallest movement toward goodness is taken into account. Prayer may seem slow to work, but it still plants the first seeds of repentance.