Francois Simon Louvet
On February 12, at a Spiritist meeting in Le Havre, a spirit spoke on his own. He was later identified as Francois Simon Louvet, an old laborer who, in poverty and drunken despair, had thrown himself from the Tower of Francis the First on July 22, 1857. He was sixty-seven years old.
The medium’s hand begins writing...
Francois Simon LouvetHave pity on a poor miserable man who has been suffering such terrible torment for so long.
Francois Simon LouvetOh...
Francois Simon LouvetEmptiness...
Francois Simon LouvetSpace...
Francois Simon LouvetI am falling!
Francois Simon LouvetI am falling!
Francois Simon LouvetHelp me!
Francois Simon LouvetMy God...
Francois Simon LouvetMy life was so miserable.
Francois Simon LouvetI was very poor.
Francois Simon LouvetIn my old age, I was so often hungry.
Francois Simon LouvetThat is why I took to drinking.
Francois Simon LouvetAnd so I grew ashamed and disgusted with my life.
Francois Simon LouvetI wanted to die.
Francois Simon LouvetAnd I threw myself down.
Francois Simon LouvetOh, my God...
Francois Simon LouvetWhat a moment that was.
Francois Simon LouvetWhy couldn't I have waited a little longer, when I was already so near the end of my days?
Francois Simon LouvetPray for me.
Francois Simon LouvetPray that I won't always have this dreadful emptiness under me.
Francois Simon LouvetI am going to be dashed to pieces on the stones.
Francois Simon LouvetI beg you...
Francois Simon LouvetHelp me.
Francois Simon LouvetYou who know the horrors suffered by those who are no longer on Earth...
Francois Simon LouvetI speak to you even though you do not know me.
Francois Simon LouvetBecause I suffer so much.
Francois Simon LouvetWhy ask me for proofs?
Francois Simon LouvetI am miserable.
Francois Simon LouvetIs that not enough?
Francois Simon LouvetIf I were hungry, instead of having to bear this horrible misery, so much more terrible because you cannot see it...
Francois Simon LouvetYou wouldn't hesitate to relieve me by giving me a piece of bread.
Francois Simon LouvetI ask you to pray for me.
Francois Simon LouvetI cannot stay any longer.
Francois Simon LouvetAsk the happy spirits who are here.
Francois Simon LouvetThey will tell you who I was.
Francois Simon LouvetPray for me.
Mediums’ GuideThe one who has just spoken to you, my child, is a poor miserable man who had to go through the trial of poverty on Earth.
Mediums’ GuideBut he became disgusted with life.
Mediums’ GuideHis courage failed.
Mediums’ GuideAnd instead of looking upward as he should have, he gave himself over to drunkenness.
Mediums’ GuideWhen he had sunk into the deepest despair, he put an end to his badly borne trial by throwing himself from the Tower of Francis the First on July 22, 1857.
Mediums’ GuideTake pity on his unhappy soul.
Mediums’ GuideIt has advanced only a little.
Mediums’ GuideBut it has gained enough knowledge of the future life to suffer and to desire a new trial.
Mediums’ GuidePray to God that this favor may be granted to him.
Mediums’ GuideAnd you will do a good deed.
Research later confirmed the details. Kardec notes that six years after death, this spirit still felt himself falling from the tower and being crushed on the stones. He was terrified by the emptiness under him and by the impact still awaiting him. The account is meant to show that such punishments were described by the spirits themselves, not invented by human imagination.