324. Spiritist meetings may be very useful, by affording opportunities for mutual enlightenment through a reciprocal exchange of ideas, and through the questions and remarks made by each, and from which all may profit; but, for such meetings to be profitable, they must take place under certain special conditions, in regard to which we will now add a few remarks; premising, however, that such meetings are only an enlargement of the private sittings of those who are interested in the subject of Spiritism, and that their members will therefore naturally pursue the same ends, and take the same precautions to preserve themselves from the same dangers, as those we have already pointed out for the guidance of individuals. Spiritist meetings are of three different characters, according to the aim they have in view; and may be designated, in consequence, as frivolous, experimental or instructive.

325. Frivolous meetings are composed of persons who regard these manifestations only as an amusement, and who divert themselves with the facetious remarks of light minded spirits, always delighted to take part in assemblies of this kind, which give them an opportunity for disporting themselves and which they take care not to miss. In such gatherings, all sorts of foolish questions are asked and answered; people get their fortunes told, or try to test the spirits' acumen by setting them to tell the ages of those who are present, what they have in their purses or pockets, what they are thinking of and various other things of equal interest and importance.

Such meetings lead to no serious results; but, as frivolous spirits are sometimes intelligent, and are generally good tempered and jovial, they sometimes give rise to very curious incidents, which may be profitable to the attentive observer; but he who has seen nothing else, and who should judge of the world of spirits by such a sample, would have as false a notion of it as though he should judge of the population of a great city by what he found going on in some of its lowest quarters. Common sense suffices to assure us that elevated spirits would not be likely to attend meetings of this character, and that the invisibles, in such cases, are not likely to be more serious than the human beings who attract them. If people only wish to occupy themselves with futilities, let them frankly call up trivial spirits, as people call for Merry-Andrews, to amuse them, at a fair; but, in such a case, there would be both folly and profanation in attempting to evoke spirits of higher advancement, who would certainly pay no heed to such an evocation.

326. Experimental meetings have for their special object the production of physical manifestations. For many persons, these constitute a spectacle more curious than instructive; the incredulous, when they have seen nothing else, often going away from them more astonished than convinced, and only intent on discovering the tricks by which they suppose them to have been produced; for, being unable to account for them in any other way, they jump to the conclusion that they are a result of trickery. It is altogether different with persons who have previously studied the subject; for they have become convinced, beforehand, that many things hitherto regarded as impossible may and do occur, and they are therefore prepared to accept the facts which may present themselves, and which serve to confirm and complete their conviction; on the other hand, if trickery is resorted to, the knowledge they have previously acquired enables them to detect it.

Meetings for experimentation, notwithstanding their frequent uselessness to persons unprepared for them, are, nevertheless, of incontestable importance. It is through the phenomena thus elicited that we have been enabled to discover the laws which govern the invisible world; and there are, undoubtedly, very many inquirers for whom they constitute a powerful means of conviction. What we mean to say is, that the sight of the phenomena, alone, is not sufficient to initiate us into the theoretic knowledge of spiritism, any more than the sight of an ingenious piece of mechanism can suffice to teach mechanics to those who know nothing of mechanical laws, although the value of the results arrived at, by experimentation of this character, will always be proportioned to the regularity and acumen with which they are conducted. We shall recur to this subject a little further on.

327. Meetings for obtaining instruction from spirit-communications are quite different in character from the two other kinds of meetings just examined; and, since it is mainly from these that doctrinal information may be obtained, we think it incumbent upon us to be still more explicit in pointing out the conditions under which they should be held.

The first of these conditions is a grave and concentrated state of mind. We must remember that, if we would obtain teachings of high import, we must address ourselves to spirits of high degree, who alone are capable of imparting them. And we must also remember that the mere demand for the presence of such spirits does not suffice to attract them; that such spirits will certainly not come into an assembly of the frivolous and superficial, anymore than they would do if they were still living upon the earth; and that, if we desire to enter into communication with them, we must place ourselves in the conditions which are most likely to attract them. A society which seeks to obtain communications from advanced spirits must devote itself exclusively to that aim; if it were wished to obtain extra-ordinary phenomena, the spirits who produce such phenomena would come for that purpose, but the higher ones would retire. In a word, whatever the character of a meeting, there will always be spirits ready to second it. A meeting for the elucidation of moral questions would consequently depart from its programme, if it allowed its attention to be diverted to other aims. Physical manifestations, as we have said, have their own special utility, and should be sought for, in experimentation meetings, by those who wish to witness them; and those who seek to obtain clearer views of truth and of duty should seek them in meetings in which the moral and intellectual aspects of Spiritism form the subject of research. In this way, all may complete their education in the intellectual and practical branches of spiritism, as, in the schools of art and of science, some of the students follow the theoretic lectures, and others the practical classes.

328. Theoretic Spiritism includes both the search after truth and the study of the phenomena, with the aid of the spirits who come to elucidate these two aspects of the matter; it is thus that the knowledge of the nature and causes of the phenomena are arrived at; and it is, therefore, only through observation, methodically and perseveringly carried on, in meetings of the two distinct characters now under consideration, that our knowledge of the spirit world can be advanced. And it would be a mistake to suppose that the more extraordinary phenomena are the only ones to be studied; for the phenomena of intelligent communication furnish us, at every step, with valuable indications that should not be overlooked by serious investigators; indications which it would be impossible to point out beforehand, but which naturally arise in the course of the meetings, and which, though less striking than the physical phenomena, are yet of the deepest interest to the observer, who finds in them the confirmation of principles already accepted, or the revelation of new principles, enabling him to penetrate still further into the mysteries of the invisible world.

329. Meetings for the study of spiritist questions with the aid of spirits are, moreover, very useful for the development of mediums who desire to obtain intelligent manifestations, and to fit themselves for becoming the instruments of superior spirits. One of the principal stumbling blocks of mediumship, as we have shown, is the obsession of spirits who fascinate their medium, and puff him up with a belief in his own infallibility; and the frequentation of those who are united in the pursuit of truth, and who bring their united judgement to the examination of the messages received from spirits, is, for writing mediums, the best preservative from this very serious danger.

Every medium who would not become a cat's paw for the dissemination of error should make a point of attending meetings of the serious character we are considering, and should avail himself of the friendly criticism of those about him, for the appraising of the communications he receives. He will thus get rid of deceptive spirits by showing them that he is open to conviction, and does not intend to allow himself to be imposed upon. No medium can reasonably be pained or offended by such criticism, because what he obtains is not from himself, and he is therefore no more responsible for it than he would be for the defects of an earthly writer for whom he should have acted as an amanuensis.

We have insisted on this point, because, if fascination be a trial for the mediums themselves, it is also such for the assemblies they attend (to which the co-operation of an obsessed or fascinated medium must always be more injurious than profitable), and to the spiritist public, from the false and erroneous ideas which ignorant, presumptuous, or lying spirits, are thus enabled to disseminate.

330. The prime object of meetings for spiritist study should be to keep off deceptive spirits; it would be an error to suppose that the object of such meetings, or the excellence of their mediums, will suffice to ensure this end, which can only be attained by favourable conditions on the part of the Society itself.

In order fully to comprehend what occurs in such a meeting, we beg our readers to refer to

No 231, concerning the influence of surroundings on spirit manifestations. Every human being is incessantly surrounded by a number of invisible sympathisers attracted to him by his temper, tastes, and tendencies; so that every person who enters a meeting brings with him a group of spirits in sympathy with himself. According to their number and their nature, these spirits exercise a good or bad influence on the assembly and on the communications received. A perfect meeting would be one in which all the members, animated with the same love of truth and goodness, should bring with them none but good and enlightened spirits; the next best would be one in which goodness and the desire for light should preponderate over vanity and evil; an assertion too self-evident to need further comment.

331. A meeting is a collective being whose qualities and properties are the result of the totality of those of its members, and that may be compared to a bundle of rods or a faggot, the strength of which is in proportion to its homogeneity. If our readers have weighed what has been stated (282, quest. 5) respecting the manner in which spirits in space are made aware of our evocation, the powerful attraction exercised by the consentaneous thought of an entire assembly will be readily understood. If a spirit be struck, so to say, by a thought as we are by a voice, the united thoughts of many persons must necessarily strike him with greater force than the isolated thought of a single individual; but, for all these thoughts to concur to the same end, they must vibrate in unison, their action blending into one; and this cannot occur without serious concentration of thought and purpose on the part of all who are present.

On the other hand, a spirit, finding himself in the midst of sympathetic surroundings, is more at his ease; evoked by friends, he comes more willingly, and is both more disposed and better able to reply. Whoever has attentively observed the course of spirit communications will have seen that, when the thoughts of the assembly are divergent, they produce a jarring of ideas which is disagreeable to the spirit, and is consequently prejudicial to his communication. It is the same as with a man who is about to make a speech; if he feels that the thoughts of his hearers are sympathetic and kindly, the impression he receives from them reacts upon his own mind and gives more life and energy to his ideas; for his concurrence of sentiment exercises over him a sort of magnetic action which increases his power a hundredfold, while he is confused and paralysed by indifference or hostility. In the same way, actors are electrified by applause; and spirits, being far more impressionable than men, are still more powerfully affected by the influences around them.

Every meeting for spiritist purposes should therefore cultivate unity of sentiment, as the means of obtaining the co-operation of wise and good spirits; but if its aim is simply to obtain communications of any sort, no matter what, and without reference to the qualities of the spirits who give them, it is evident that such a precaution is unnecessary; but, in that case, people must not complain of the quality of the results obtained by them.

332. Earnestness of purpose and harmony of feeling being essential conditions of every serious meeting, the presence of too many persons may be prejudicial to the attainment of the desired homogeneity of influence. No absolute rule, however, can be laid down as regards numbers; and it is evident that a meeting of a hundred persons, if earnest and sympathetic, may offer more favourable conditions than one of ten, if disunited and frivolous; but experience has shown us that, in general, the greater the number of persons assembled, the more difficult it is to obtain the requisite conditions, and that small, intimate circles are usually those which offer the most favourable conditions for spirit-action.

333. Another point of no less importance to the success of spiritist meetings is regularity. When meetings are held on stated days and at fixed hours, the spirits with whom we are in communication make their arrangements in consequence, and rarely fail to be present. There are spirits, not, however, the highest class, who are punctual even to excess, take offence at being kept waiting, and, if they have themselves appointed the time of converse, would be expected in vain if evoked a single instant too soon, or too late. Spirits can come, undoubtedly, at other hours than those appointed, and they do so, voluntarily, if the object to be attained is important; but nothing is more unfavourable to the obtaining of fine communications or successful manifestations, than the calling of spirits at random, just when the fancy takes us, and without any serious motive. The spirits whom we evoke at random may decline to come; and, in such cases, inferior spirits are tolerably sure to take their places and to borrow their names.