Auguste Michel

Auguste Michel was young, rich, smart, charming, and naturally kind, but he lived for pleasure, luxury, vanity, and physical indulgence. He committed no great crime, yet he did no real good. He died in an accident after being thrown from a carriage.

The medium’s hand begins writing...

Auguste MichelI've barely been separated from my body, so it's hard for me to speak to you.

Auguste MichelThe terrible fall that killed my body has thrown my spirit into deep confusion.

Auguste MichelI'm anxious about what's going to happen to me, and that uncertainty is very painful.

Auguste MichelThe dreadful suffering my body felt is nothing compared with the confusion I'm in now.

Auguste MichelPray for me, that God may forgive me.

Auguste MichelOh, what misery.

Auguste MichelOh God, have pity on me.

Auguste MichelWhat misery.

Auguste MichelFarewell.

Ten days later he returned, still attached to his body and still confused.

Auguste MichelI came to you the other day, but I could hardly speak. Even now it's still hard for me.

Auguste MichelYou're the only medium through whom I can ask for prayer, so God's mercy may deliver me from the confusion I'm in.

Auguste MichelWhy do I still suffer when my body doesn't suffer anymore?

Auguste MichelWhy does this horrible pain, this terrible anguish, still cling to me?

Auguste MichelPray, oh, pray for me, that God may give me rest.

Auguste MichelWhat terrible uncertainty.

Auguste MichelI'm still attached to my body.

Auguste MichelI can't understand where I am.

Auguste MichelMy body is there. Why am I still there too?

Auguste MichelCome and pray over it, so I can be released from its cruel hold.

Auguste MichelSurely God will forgive me.

Auguste MichelI see spirits near you. It's with their help that I can speak to you.

Auguste MichelPray for me.

On April 6, he again begged the medium to go where his body was lying and pray there. The medium delayed because he didn't understand why the request mattered so much.

On May 11, the medium finally went to the grave and received this message there.

Auguste MichelI was waiting for you.

Auguste MichelI'd been longing for the moment when you'd come to the place where my spirit seems fixed to its bodily covering, to beg the God of mercy to calm my suffering.

Auguste MichelYour prayers can do me good.

Auguste MichelI beg you, don't stop praying for me.

Auguste MichelI can now see how far my life was from what it should've been.

Auguste MichelI see the faults I committed.

Auguste MichelI was of no use while I was in the world.

Auguste MichelI made no good use of my abilities.

Auguste MichelMy fortune only served my passions, my love of luxury, and my vanity.

Auguste MichelI thought only of physical pleasures, and not of my soul.

Auguste MichelWill the pity of God ever reach me, an unhappy spirit still suffering for the faults of life on Earth?

Auguste MichelPray that He may forgive me, and that I may be freed from the pain I still feel.

Auguste MichelThank you for coming here to pray over me.

By June, he was calmer and thinking more clearly.

Auguste MichelI'm able to speak to you, and I thank God for letting me do it.

Auguste MichelI see my faults, and I hope God will forgive me.

Auguste MichelHold to the belief that guides you all your life, because that way you'll gain a peace I still haven't received.

Auguste MichelThank you for your prayers. I will come to you again.

In a later communication, he spoke more freely and warned others about the life he had lived.

Auguste MichelI'm less unhappy now, because I no longer feel the chain that held me to my body.

Auguste MichelAt last I am free.

Auguste MichelBut my atonement isn't finished.

Auguste MichelI have to make up for lost time if I don't want to drag out my suffering.

Auguste MichelI trust that God will see that my repentance is sincere and grant me His forgiveness.

Auguste MichelI beg you, keep praying for me.

Auguste MichelMen, my brothers, I lived only for myself. Now I'm paying for that wrong, and I suffer.

Auguste MichelMay God give you the grace to avoid the thorns that are tearing me apart.

Auguste MichelWalk the broad road of holiness, and pray for me, because I made bad use of the things God lends to His creatures.

Auguste MichelAnyone who sacrifices intelligence and higher feelings to animal instincts lowers himself toward the animals.

Auguste MichelA person should use with moderation the property he's only a keeper of.

Auguste MichelHe should train himself to live for the eternity waiting for him, and in that way detach himself from material pleasures.

Auguste MichelFood should have no purpose but to sustain life.

Auguste MichelLuxury should always stay below the real needs of one's position.

Auguste MichelTastes, and even natural tendencies, should be governed by reason.

Auguste MichelWithout that control over our lower nature, we drag ourselves down instead of purifying ourselves.

Auguste MichelHuman passions are a tight bond that cuts into the flesh.

Auguste MichelBe careful not to tighten it.

Auguste MichelLive, but don't live in excess.

Auguste MichelYou don't know what that kind of excess costs when we return to the homeland of the soul.

Auguste MichelEarthly passions strip us of everything before they leave us, and we arrive before God naked, completely naked.

Auguste MichelSo free yourselves from those passions, and clothe yourselves with good deeds.

Auguste MichelThey'll help you cross the distance that separates you from eternity.

Auguste MichelThey'll cover your human weakness with a shining mantle.

Auguste MichelClothe yourselves with charity and love, divine garments that no one can take from you.

The guide then explained the spiritual state of people who live only for the senses.

Mediums’ GuideThis spirit is on the right road, because along with repentance he now gives good advice about the dangers of the path he once followed.

Mediums’ GuideAdmitting one's faults is already meaningful, and it's the first step toward reform.

Mediums’ GuideFor that reason, his condition, though not happy yet, is no longer that of a suffering spirit in the strict sense.

Mediums’ GuideBut do you want to know the condition of spirits whose life on Earth was entirely sensual and never stirred the spirit to any activity except inventing new bodily pleasures?

Mediums’ GuideThe influence of matter follows them beyond the grave.

Mediums’ GuideTheir appetites remain after death, but their outlook is as narrow as it was on Earth, and they search in vain for ways to satisfy them.

Mediums’ GuideSince they never developed mental or moral pleasures, their soul wanders through space, which is emptiness to them, without purpose and without hope.

Mediums’ GuideThey're seized by the anxiety of someone who sees nothing ahead but a boundless desert.

Mediums’ GuideThe emptiness of their inner life on Earth naturally becomes the emptiness of the spirit's life after death.

Mediums’ GuideNo longer able to satisfy the body, and still unable to satisfy the soul, they fall into crushing weariness and can't see any end to it.

Mediums’ GuideTo escape it, they would gladly accept total destruction.

Mediums’ GuideBut total destruction does not exist.

Mediums’ GuideThey may destroy the body, but they cannot destroy the soul.

Mediums’ GuideSo they're forced to keep living through all that mental torture until, worn down by exhaustion, they finally decide to turn toward God.