Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

223
THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
In this state, all earthly thoughts disappear, and give place to the purified perception that is
the very essence of our immaterial being. Entirely absorbed in this sublime contemplation, the
ecstatic regards the earthly life as being merely a momentary halt upon our eternal way; the
successes and misfortunes of this lower world, its gross joys and sorrows, appear to him only
as the futile incidents of a journey of which he is delighted to foresee the end.
It is with ecstatics as with somnambulists; their lucidity may be more or less perfect, and their
spirit, according as it is more or less elevated, is also more or less apt to apprehend the truth
of things. In their abnormal state, there is sometimes more of nervous excitement than of true
lucidity; or, to speak more correctly, their nervous excitement impairs their lucidity, and, for
this reason, their revelations are often a mixture of truths and errors, of sublime ideas and
absurd or even ridiculous fancies. Inferior spirits often take advantage of this nervous
excitement (which is always a source of weakness to those who are unable to control it), in
order to subjugate the ecstatic; and to this end they assume to his eyes the appearances which
confirm him in the ideas and prejudices of his waking state. This subjugation of clairvoyants
by the presentation of false appearances is the "rock ahead" of this order of revealment. But
all of them are not equally subject to this dangerous misleading; and it is for us to weigh their
statements coolly and carefully, and to judge their revelations by the light of science and of
reason.
The emancipation of the soul occurs sometimes in the waking state, and gives, to those who
are endowed with the faculty designated by the name of second-sight, the power of seeing,
hearing, and feeling, beyond the limits of the bodily senses. They perceive things at a
distance, at all points to which their soul extends its action; they see them, so to say, athwart
their ordinary sight, and as though in a sort of mirage.
At the moment when the phenomenon of second-sight occurs, the physical state of the seer is
visibly modified. His glance becomes vague; he looks before him without seeing; his
physiognomy reflects an abnormal state of the nervous system. It is evident that his organs of
sight have nothing to do with his present perceptions; for his vision continues, even when his
eyes are shut.
The faculty of second-sight appears to those who are endowed with it to be as natural as
ordinary sight. It seems to them to be an attribute of their being; and they are not aware of its
exceptional