This great champion of Spiritism was an important worker of the early days of Spiritism, a great researcher of the soul, and whose works were also burned in Spain by the Holy Inquisition on 9 October 1861 in the well-known AUTO-DA-FÉ IN BARCELONA. Baron Johann Ludwig Guldenstubbé, who passed away on 27 May 1873, at his residence in Paris, 29 rue de Trévise, at the age of 53, was chiefly known for his investigations and experiments in pneumatography. Of Swedish origin, he belonged to an ancient Scandinavian family of historical renown; two of his forebears of the same name were burned alive in 1309, together with Jaques de Molav, by order of Pope Clement IV. The Baron led a secluded life in the company of his virtuous sister. His memory is fondly honoured for his noble, courteous and benevolent conduct, and for his numerous acts of modest charity. He devoted himself chiefly to experiments in direct writing in France, where on 13 August 1856 he achieved the first success in this mode of spiritist communication. He wrote the book entitled “La Réalité des Spirites et de leurs Manifestations” (The Reality of Spirits and Their Manifestations), as well as the work “Pensées d’outre-tombe” (1858). In a few years of experimental work, the Baron obtained a considerable number of direct writings, some of them produced without the aid of pencil, paper, or slate. The communicating spirits themselves conveyed the material necessary for obtaining the messages. “These phenomena,” he says, “are now established upon a solid basis of facts, allowing us henceforth to regard the immortality of the soul as a scientific fact, and Spiritism as a bridge cast between this world and the Invisible.”

Direct Writing

Baron von Guldenstubbé was the first to obtain direct writing in France. Here is how he recounts the event (“La Réalité des Esprits”, pp. 66 and 67): “On a fine day (1 August 1856), he conceived the idea of testing whether Spirits could write directly, without the aid of a medium. Being acquainted with the mysterious direct writing of the Decalogue, according to Moses, the likewise direct and mysterious writing in the banquet hall of King Belshazzar, according to Daniel, and having heard of the modern mysteries of Straford in America, where certain illegible and strange characters were found traced on a piece of paper and did not appear to originate from mediums, the author wished to ascertain the reality of a phenomenon whose scope would be immense, if it were true. “He therefore placed a blank sheet of paper and a sharpened pencil inside a small box locked with a key, always keeping this key with him and telling no one of his experiment. For twelve days he waited in vain, without observing the slightest trace of pencil on the paper; but on 13 August 1856 his astonishment was great when he noticed certain mysterious characters on the paper; as soon as this occurred, he repeated the experiment ten times on the same day, forever memorable, placing a new blank sheet of paper in the box at the end of every half hour. The experiment was crowned with complete success. “On the following day, 14 August, he again carried out some twenty experiments, leaving the box open and not losing sight of it; he then saw that characters and words in the Estonian language formed or were imprinted on the paper, without the pencil moving. From then on, seeing the uselessness of the pencil, he ceased to place it on the paper; and by simply placing a sheet of paper inside a drawer in his house, he also obtained communications.” (At the end of the Baron’s work are facsimiles of these writings.) Baron von Guldenstubbé repeated the experiment in the presence of Count d’Ourches, and the latter obtained a communication from his mother, whose signature and handwriting were recognised as authentic when compared with the autographs the Count possessed. These first trials were followed by many others, and the author acquired the certainty that it was not he himself who was writing in a somnambulistic state, as he had initially supposed.