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Anyone who has ventured to know a little more about Allan Kardec's history knows that he was educated by the Pestalozzi method, being one of his most exemplary disciples. For his teacher, education must be guided by the principles of fraternity and love, away from the concepts of sin and punishment, which greatly shaped Kardec's way of thinking, which later was based even more fully on Rational Spiritualism and, later, by Spiritism. We also know that the investigative and humble character of Professor Rivail was also fundamentally formed by this education, guided by the exploration of the natural sciences through the scientific method, and this, of course, explains a lot the way in which he acted against Spiritism.

All of this – fraternity, learning about the moral principles of good and God's laws, disinterested charity, which is the fruit of this learning, humility, which is born from the heart of one who never takes as a principle that his word is the last, in short, everything that is contained in the Pestalozzian methodology – provides the basis for a much better quality education, from the first steps of human beings on Earth. It is, I have no hesitation in saying, one of the greatest tools for the (trans)formation of society, greatly complemented by the understanding of the laws that Spiritism came to demonstrate. The two, together, have the greatest power, from childhood, to prevent the installation or development of the most harmful habits for the individual and for society – selfishness and pride – but, to date, neither of them has gained the space it deserves. , due to human attachment to false concepts that, on the surface, seem to please, but that, deep down, only cause unhappiness and delay.

To exemplify all this, nothing better than reproducing, in full, the content of the homonymous article by Allan Kardec, presented in the Spiritist Magazine of February 1864.

Of all the moral wounds of Society, it seems that selfishness is the most difficult to root out. Indeed, it is all the more so the more it is nourished by the very habits of education. It seems that the task is taken to arouse, from the cradle, certain passions that later become second nature. And they marvel at the vices of the Society, when children suck it up with their milk. Here is an example which, as everyone can judge, belongs more to the rule than to the exception.

In a family we know there is a girl between four and five years old, of a rare intelligence, but who has the small defects of spoiled children, that is, she is a little capricious, weepy, stubborn, and does not always thank her when given something. , which the parents take great care to correct, because apart from these defects, according to them, she has a heart of gold, a consecrated expression. Let's see how they manage to remove those small stains and preserve the gold in its purity.

One day they brought the child a sweet and, as usual, they told him: “You will eat it if you are good”. First lesson in sweet tooth. How many times, at the table, do they tell a child that he won't eat that snack if he cries. “Do this, or do that”, they say, “and you will have cream” or anything else that pleases him, and the child is constrained, not for reason, but in order to satisfy a sensual desire ((Desire of the senses)) that stings her.

It is even worse when they are told, which is no less frequent, that they will give their piece to someone else. Here, it's not just gluttony that's at stake, it's envy. The child will do what he is told, not only to have it, but so that the other child does not have it. Do you want to teach him a lesson in generosity? Then they say to him: “Give this fruit or this toy to so-and-so”. If she refuses, they do not fail to add, in order to stimulate a good feeling in her: “I will give you another one”, so that the child does not decide to be generous unless he is sure of losing nothing.

One day we witnessed a very characteristic event in this genre. It was a child of about two and a half years old, to whom they had made a similar threat, adding: “We will give it to your little brother, and you will have nothing.” To make the lesson more sensitive, they put the piece on the little brother's plate, who took the matter seriously and ate the portion. At the sight of this, the other turned red and it didn't take either the father or the mother to see the flash of anger and hatred that came from his eyes. The seed was sown: could it produce good grain?

Let's go back to the girl we talked about. As she did not realize the threat, knowing from experience that they rarely carried it out, this time they were firmer, for they understood that it was necessary to master this little character, and not wait for her to acquire a bad habit with age. They said that it is necessary to train children early, a very wise maxim, and to put it into practice, here is what they did: “I promise you, said the mother, that if you do not obey, tomorrow morning I will give your cake to the first poor girl who pass." No sooner said than done.

This time they wanted to keep their promise and teach him a good lesson. So the next day, in the morning, having seen a little beggar in the street, they brought her in and forced her daughter to take her by the hand and she herself gave her her cake. Then they praised his docility. Moral of the story: The daughter said, “If I had known about this, I would have rushed to eat the cake yesterday.” And everyone applauded this witty response. Indeed, the child had received a strong lesson, but one of pure selfishness, which he will not fail to take advantage of another time, for now he knows how much forced generosity costs. It remains to be seen what fruits this seed will bear later when, at an older age, the child applies this moral to things more serious than a cake.

Do you know all the thoughts that this single fact could have caused to germinate in that little head? After that, how do you want a child not to be selfish when, instead of awakening in him the pleasure of giving and representing the happiness of the recipient, they impose a sacrifice on him as punishment? Is it not inspiring aversion to the act of giving and to those in need?

Another habit, equally frequent, is to punish the child by sending him to eat in the kitchen with the servants. The punishment lies less in exclusion from the table than in the humiliation of going to the servants' table. This is how, from an early age, the virus of sensuality, selfishness, pride, contempt for inferiors, passions, in a word, which are rightly considered as the wounds of Humanity, is inoculated.

It is necessary to be endowed with an exceptionally good nature to resist such influences, produced at the most impressionable age, in which neither will nor experience can find a counterweight. Thus, however little the germ of evil passions may be found there, which is the most ordinary case, given the nature of most spirits who are incarnated on Earth, it cannot fail to develop under such influences, while it would be necessary to observe the slightest traces in order to repress them.

Without a doubt, the fault lies with the parents, but it must be said that they often sin more out of ignorance than out of ill will. In many there is undoubtedly a guilty insouciance, but in many others the intention is good, yet it is the remedy that is worthless, or that is misapplied.

As the first physicians of their children's souls, parents should be instructed, not only in their duties, but in the means of fulfilling them. It is not enough for the doctor to know that he must seek a cure, it is necessary to know how to act. Now, for parents, where are the means of instructing themselves in this most important part of their task? Today, much instruction is given to women; they make her pass rigorous examinations, but was the mother ever required to know how to build up her child's morale?

They teach you homemade recipes, but was it initiated to the thousand and one secrets of ruling young hearts?

Parents, therefore, are left unguided to their own initiative. This is why they so often follow the wrong path. Thus, in the mistakes of their grown children, they pick up the bitter fruit of their inexperience or misunderstood tenderness, and the whole Society receives the backlash.

Whereas selfishness and pride are admittedly the source of most human miseries; that while they reign on Earth, neither peace, nor charity, nor fraternity can be expected, so it is necessary to attack them in the embryo state, without waiting for them to become alive.

Can Spiritism remedy this evil? Undoubtedly, and we do not hesitate to say that he is the only one powerful enough to stop it, from the new point of view with which he allows us to perceive the mission and responsibility of parents; making known the source of innate qualities, good or bad; showing the action that can be exercised on incarnate and disincarnate spirits; giving the unbreakable faith which sanctions the duties; finally, moralizing their own parents. It already proves its effectiveness by the most rational way employed in the education of children in truly Spiritist families. The new horizons that Spiritism opens up make things look differently. Since its objective is the moral progress of Humanity, it will inevitably have to shed light on the serious problem of moral education, the first source of the moralization of the masses. One day it will be understood that this branch of education has its principles, its rules, like intellectual education, in a word, which is a true science. Perhaps one day, too, the obligation to possess this knowledge will be imposed on every mother of a family, as it is imposed on the lawyer to know the Law.

Kardec gives full weight to the responsibility we have towards children and their habits. Spiritism shows the origin of children's innate tendencies, but it also demonstrates that the Spirit incarnated in a child may not yet be strong enough to resist a bad habit that their parents or caregivers teach them from their first steps. This creates imperfections that could be very difficult to overcome…

Commonly, in the flesh, the fruit of these imperfections will lead people to ask: “what did I do to deserve this?”, or “where did I go wrong?”. However, it is enough for reason to speak a little louder to the conscience for them to launch into heavy lamentations, born from the fruit of the realization that the suffering their son may have gone through not just in one, but in many earthly lives, originated , if not in all, but at least in part, in the first seed sown and cultivated by those who should help them develop under the morality of good, and not move away from it.

Therefore, parents and caregivers, pay much more attention to the Spirits that God has entrusted to you as children. It will be their own consciences, and not God, who will hold them accountable tomorrow...

In this article, which presents the evocation of the Spirit of Mehemet Ali (Muhammad Ali), Kardec explores a questioning about the incarnation of this Spirit as an Egyptian priest, at the time of the pharaohs.

In the April 1858 edition, Kardec evoked this Spirit. At the time, he revealed that he was a priest at the time of ancient Egypt. More details Click here

It is important to remember that in the first communication, in April, this Spirit proved not to be elevated. He wasn't mean, but he was still on the "imperfection wheel." Therefore, in his speech, he presents some impatience and lack of benevolence.

Vamos, aqui, destacar algumas partes da longa conversa – evocação que entendemos como principais:

1. ─ In the name of Almighty God, I ask the Spirit of Mehemet-Ali to come and communicate with us. ─ Yes; I know the reason.

2. ─ You promised to come to us in order to instruct us. Would you be kind enough to hear us and answer us? ─ I don't promise, because I didn't make that commitment.

Curious how the characteristics of the evoked Spirit appear clearly as the communication develops. Here it clearly shows to be a non-superior Spirit.(Click here for more features)

Superior spirits are always good and benevolent; in his speech we never find acrimony, arrogance, harshness, pride, bravado, or stolid conceit. They speak simply, advise and withdraw when they are not heard.

Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine: October: 1858

3. ─ Let us replace what you promised by making us wait. ─ You mean: to satisfy your curiosity. It doesn't matter! I'll lend a little.

Comment: Kardec continues to ask the questions he thought necessary to assess the state of knowledge and intentions of that Spirit, confronting science with its answers. Most likely testing the Spirit

4. ─ Considering that you lived in the time of the pharaohs, could you tell us for what purpose the pyramids were built?  ─ They are tombs; tombs and temples. There were large demonstrations.

5. ─ Did they also have a scientific objective? ─ No. Religious interest absorbed everything.

12. From the dual point of view of God and the soul, did the priests have healthier ideas than the people? ─ Yes. They had the light in their hands and while they hid it from others, they still saw it.

Comment: Here it becomes clear how religions are used to control the people, subjugating them, completely without individual autonomy. It is clear that the priests knew and taught the initiates, but did not instruct the population. To this day it is so.

14. ─ What is the origin of the worship given to animals? ─ They wanted to turn man away from God and lower him under himself, giving him inferior beings as gods.

15. – To a certain extent, the cult of useful animals can be understood; but that of unclean and harmful animals, such as serpents, crocodiles, etc., is not understood. ─ Man loves what he fears. It was a yoke for the people. The priests could not believe in gods made by their hands!

Comment: The priests knew the teachings and kept them for a small circle of initiates. They did not instruct the people in order to subjugate them. This shows how religions are not autonomous.

18. How to reconcile the Egyptians' respect for the dead with their contempt and horror for those who buried and mummified them?  ─ The corpse was an instrument of manifestations. As they thought, the Spirit returned to the body it had animated. As one of the instruments of the cult, the corpse was sacred and contempt persecuted anyone who dared to violate the sanctity of death.

Comment: Interesting: the individual, taught this way, died believing it. Therefore, although he found his body preserved, he continued there, manifesting himself. It could be, in this way, an obstacle to their progress, which leads to the conclusion that it would be better to die as part of the people. In the same way that, even today, there are those who stay by the coffin, not wanting to leave it, because they believe in this same modernized dogma (we cannot forget that Christianity brought many of these Egyptian dogmas mentioned here to their beliefs).

19. ─ Did the conservation of the body allow for a greater number of manifestations? ─ Longer, that is, the Spirit returned for longer, as long as the instrument was docile.

23. Did the teaching given in the Mysteries have the sole purpose of revealing extra-human things, or were the precepts of morality and love of neighbor also taught? ─ All this was very corrupted. The purpose of the priests was to dominate, not to instruct.

Comment: To this day they embalm the body! It's a very big attachment to matter!

Under a very interesting title, I found this work today, a compendium of questions and answers, freely distributed in PDF on the Internet. I then went to analyze it, which is why I leave here my observations on this work.

I must emphasize that the intention is not to denigrate or mock the efforts that many make, and that, I believe, it has a good intention, almost always. However, when we talk about Spiritism, we need to understand that this science, in short, do not make isolated opinions, and that any spiritist communication that has not met the method of double control of reason and the universality of the teachings of the Spirits cannot be taken, but as an opinion. In the article "The role of the researcher and the medium in communications with the Spirits” We have already pointed out, according to Spiritism, the various reasons for this.

This work begins like this:

This work, created by incarnate and disincarnate spirits, is structured in questions and answers, explanatory notes and complementary texts, footnotes and prayers. It is intended for all who wish to initiate or deepen their bond with the Creator through instructive and reflective reading, prayer, the practice of love and charity, self-knowledge and the constant search for intimate reform.

Until recently, I didn't see this as a problem. Today, however, I understand that there is a big mistake in the so-called “intimate reform”, which Never was, neither with these words nor with others, in the work of Allan Kardec. Because? Simply because you don't reform what isn't broken. Well, we are spirits in evolution, making mistakes and getting it right and, sometimes, acquiring bad habits that become imperfections. When there is imperfection, we will have to do some work to detach ourselves from it - then there is a certain work of "reform" - however we cannot accept as a generalized assumption the fact that we all must reform ourselves, as the Spiritist Movement has widely proclaimed . This places a heavy burden of guilt on the shoulders of those who are simply seeking to learn and evolve, but who start to believe themselves, always, as “broken things” – and this is, deep down, linked to the false conceptions of the fall through sin.

Complementation

In Chapter I - Complementation - I - Purpose of the Work, the following is said:

1. For what purpose was The Spirits' Book released in 1857 by Allan Kardec?
— To liberate the incarnates through the truth, to instruct them and, consequently, to lead them to the practice of good.

A. Has this purpose been achieved?
- Yea; obviously it depends on the free will of each individual, but everything is in God's plans.

B. Given this, is it necessary to complement it?
— Yes, communications and ways of understanding change over time, and it is important that the teachings keep pace with these changes.

Note: The intention will never be to contest what has already been written, but to state it with more clarity and objectivity, so that there is no dubious understanding, bringing the truth more explicitly, in order to promote the practice once exemplified by the master Jesus.

It is clear that, in order to complement something, especially when it comes to complementing Spiritism, through “communications from Superior Spirits”, it is absolutely necessary that a series of requirements be fulfilled:

1. The human being must be prepared for this, having known and understood deeply, and in a contextualized way, everything that gave basis to the formation of this Doctrine. As we shall see, this first point has not been met.
2. When the Spirits demand to help the man to reach new knowledge, they act distributing the same knowledge through all the corners of the world, simultaneously. That is required so that, in the light of logic and reason, researchers of the doctrine can confront the ideas transmitted from all sides, carrying out the same scientific method that Kardec did. Perhaps researchers have carried out a certain rational analysis, but since this is not due to the universality of the Spirits' teachings and since we were not given knowledge of the method employed - which seems to consist only of questions and answers given to some Spirits, supposedly superior , through a medium or more, from the same group, this second point was not answered either.

Then the following appears:

2. When the first work was released, was the intention to create a new religion?
— At the launch of the first work, the intention was to assist in the transformation of humanity through knowledge, making it abdicate from pride and selfishness, enhancing the practice of love through charity. Every religion created with the intention of aggregating rather than segregating the incarnate is positively viewed (see item V – Religion cannot cause division).

And, in addition to this, let's look for what is presented in item V of the same chapter:

16. How to promote the integration of Spiritism with other religions?
— The content must be the guide of your conscience; it has no religion, only the discernment of right and wrong. Therefore, everything that pleases her should be a factor of union, and not of segregation.

Now, the interlocutor starts from the wrong concept that Spiritism is more of a religion, contrary to what Allan Kardec has already demonstrated in the past (read more by clicking here). Thus, it biases, with a previous concept, the characteristic of the response.

Regarding the reliability of the work, there is the following:

7. What guarantees that this work comes from high spirits?

— The guarantee lies in cohesion and content, aligning them to what you feel at the core, to understand whether there is coherence or not. By filtering through consciousness, you will understand that the intention of the work is not to demonstrate the elevation of the one who instructs you, just as it is not to convince you that there is only a new communication, but rather to make you practice love and goodness.

My italics.

When the Spirit supposedly says that the guarantee is in the cohesion and content, “aligning them to what you feel in the core”, it is only stating that the answers will be cohesive, since they are born from the same idea, in the same group – which is contrary to Kardec's method - and set the precedent for this group, based on their ideas, and seeing them corroborated by the Spirits, only confirm them. Then, in “by filtering, through consciousness”, precedence is given so that the “filter” is consciousness itself, and not the rational and scientific logic of Kardec who, incidentally, was never satisfied with any spiritist idea , without judging it under the sieve of reason and, many times, he fought against them, according to science, to accept them only when he verified that the idea met, with excellence, all the questions involved.

The author follows:

8. What would Kardec say about a complement to your coding work?

— Who never intended to be the owner of the absolute truth, but to open the way so that, through science and discoveries, updates happen naturally and constantly. I would also say that truth accompanies human moral evolution; therefore, it needs updates as we evolve.

Furthermore, Kardec would say that, without the double control method, scholars would be easily led astray.

A. How can spiritists who believe that the first work is immutable be able to receive this complement?

— We hope that you will receive it with great love, but if not, you will obtain it through consistency, searching your conscience for the necessary discernment.
Nothing is immutable but God. You are all learners of eternal progress; today you know more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.

It's needed very careful with the “complicated” contents that are hidden under the different truths, taken as refrains. I am not saying that the communicating spirits necessarily wanted to carry out a mystification, but, at the very least, they reflected the same tendencies and the same thoughts of the group in question, which believed in its role in bringing, by itself, the updating of Spiritism, which it is also contrary to the lucid words of Allan Kardec in the Spiritist Magazine of December 1868.

Another issue is that we need to note the beliefs that those involved in this research were imbued with: why the need to copy the way of expressing themselves at that time, imitating the language of The Spirits' Book? “Will they get it”? Nobody uses these words anymore, nowadays, and it is natural that the Spirits would communicate differently nowadays, since they don't stick to languages.

About the work of the incarnates, it is said that:

12. Could the participants have been influenced by false prophets?

— We know the veracity of something by the content. The embodiment also matters. False prophets make a lot of fuss, but they can't hold the lie for long..

The simple fact that this work was completed with so much effort, dedication and in an unpretentious way already cancels this possibility..

Now, Roustaing's Four Gospels belie these claims: the wrong ideas were kept from beginning to end, and it was produced with a lot of effort on the part of the parties involved. Whether the effort is unpretentious or not is another matter. In fact, the Spirit does not need to want to lie to produce a work with wrong concepts: it is enough for him to believe in these concepts, presenting them. We see that in André Luiz all the time.

Another criticism of the work is that it does not make it clear, except in the questions and answers, whose text is presented: is it from the group? Is it from the reviewer? Is it from the Spirit? So it is in each of the introductions to the chapters.

General Elements of the Universe

Chapter II begins with a text talking about four energetic changes in the terrestrial globe, something that seems to have come out of eastern doctrines, which speak so much about energies, than from the Spiritist Doctrine. The text is given to Socrates, a weighty name, as if to give it more reliability.

24. Is there a predetermined hierarchy in Creation or is it the result of the evolutionary process?
— In Creation, the “hierarchy” is a consequence of the evolutionary process; as evolution takes place, the being or element increases its hierarchical position.

Although the author released a note in comparison to question nº 29 of OLE (The Spirits' Book), the answer has nothing of what a Spirit knowledgeable about the doctrinal truths recorded by Kardec would say. In OLE, the Spirits succinctly respond that the Spirits belong to different orders, not different hierarchies, which are quite different concepts. Furthermore, the Spirit says that “the being or element increases its hierarchical position”: well, do elements evolve?

Then, in III – Scientific Discoveries, the author, whoever he may be, starts from a wrong assumption, according to Spiritism, that morality must advance so that, only afterwards, we can advance in science. This is clearly opposite to what they themselves presented, shortly before, in note 27, of The Spirits' Book, and confirmed by the observations:

The Spirits' Book, question 780: “Does moral progress always follow intellectual progress? — It's its consequence, but it doesn't always follow immediately.”

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book. My emphasis.

When the author says that "one step at a time. Solidifying morals, science will take leaps and unravel many mysteries“, is leaving aside the well-known fact that the Spirit only progresses morally when he makes an effort of his conscious will. This demands intellectual advancement.

In the immediately preceding paragraph, it is said that “Technological advancement could be the salvation or destruction of the planet. It is for this reason that men will only have more answers when they have the morals compatible with this privilege.“. It is as if we said that God places a limit on human intelligence, man must first learn to love and then learn to build rockets. This would be illogical, because it is the consequence of building the rocket, which generates the bomb that is used to decimate thousands of people, which precisely promotes moral advancement, due to the consequences of the act.

Then the following question is asked:

28. What is the relationship between material and spiritual science?

— In material science, resources are limited, in spiritual science, they are unlimited. Spiritual science complements the material, because, offering infinite resources, it makes scientific advances happen through the use of human intelligence.

What is fake. Human science advances through the development of man's intellect, and not through scientific revelations from the Spirits, which, by the way, is not materialistic at all. Spirits do not develop super-technological automobiles, because they do not need matter at all, except when they incarnate to advance.

In question 35, another incongruity is found:

35. Since the first work, there have been significant advances in science.
How do the spirits see this advance?

— Naturally, because it is a reflection of the collective effort of humanity. However, the use of these findings was not always positive; they were allowed by God for the incarnate to use them for good, but, on many occasions, they used them for evil.

God neither permits nor forbids the use of science, nor its advancement. It is in accordance with the capacity of human intellectuality. The human being, through the use of intelligence, often makes mistakes and, with them, learns. This is not doing evil: it is the fruit of development.

The chapter follows with a slew of questions and answers about scientific concepts that actually go nowhere. I will not repeat them here, but I leave the question: would this be the “scientific update” of the Doctrine? Now, we know that, with regard to science, one of the points that was most studied by Allan Kardec, although limited to the science of his time, is the issue of the Universal Cosmic Fluid and the perispirit. Wouldn't this be very important knowledge to advance in the face of our scientific discoveries?

Another issue: the superior spirits, as shown by Kardec in Genesis, chap. XVI – Theory of Prescience, does not have our material references to talk about a matter of time or questions that belong to human science. That's why, even in Kardec's time, they never entered the scope of particularities, and it is up to man, in the role of researcher, to draw his conclusions, based on the comments, and not in the “revelations”.

Creation – The Childhood of the Spirit

This chapter begins with a question answered in a totally contrary way to the Doctrine of the Spirits:

60. Does the childhood period of spirits take place in a primitive world?
— Yes, in most cases, spiritual childhood begins in the primitive world, where the human stage begins.

A. Why mostly?
— The evolution of each being depends on its choices, free will and worthiness. In rare cases, the animal can also make evolutionary leaps, to the point of spending spiritual childhood on other worlds..

Note: In those cases, where the leap takes place from the terrestrial animal world to generate a childhood in another world, there is merit in that spirit, which, through its effort and resignation, although with few intellectual tools, he managed to evolve to the point of not needing to experience childhood in a world of trials and atonements.. Although it may seem confusing in your eyes, this is proof that God recognizes the effort in an individual and particular way.

My italics.

The answers attributed to a spiritual origin are completely contrary to Spiritism, as we said. Evolution does not make leaps, much less of a Spirit experiencing the animal phase, where has no self-awareness, no free will, to soon experience a human phase. Incidentally, it is in total contradiction to the answer given in OLE: “There is between the soul of animals and that of man a distance equivalent to that between the soul of man and God”. Furthermore, the absurd mistake is made of assuming that a Spirit can evolve without going through the tests, at least, which are the material vicissitudes that stimulate it to intellectual and moral development.

Soon after, in II – Material principle, in question 62:

62. Do molecules have a spiritual principle?

“No, they are part of matter. Have vital fluids, which, in turn, support them.
Molecular movements begin with the vital principle and are composed of vital and magnetic fluids. Molecules are exclusively organic, not spiritual, but they serve the spirit, through matter, when they compose the human organism.

Italics mine

The first error is in supposing the vital fluid, which was a materialist theory of science at the time of Kardec which, not being able to explain the invisible, assumed the existence of imponderable particles, such as the caloric fluid, the electric fluid, etc. Allan Kardec, who initially started from this idea, in A Genesis, abandoned her, leaving only the term "vital principle", generic, and with Mesmer's theory - that everything that exists, in matter of matter and energy (it is obvious that the Spirits are not part of either of the two) originate of the Universal Cosmic Fluid. This is well explained in The Genesis:

Is the vital principle something distinct, having an existence of its own? Or else, to be
integrated into the unity system of the generating element, it is only a particular state, a
of the modifications of the universal cosmic fluid, which becomes the principle of life, as it becomes
light, fire, heat, electricity? It is in this latter sense that the issue is resolved by the
previously reproduced communications. (Chap. VI, General Uranography).

The Genesis – Editora FEAL

It amazes me, moreover, that researchers, so penetrated by scientific formulas, which they discussed with the Spirits, have lacked this fundamental principle theorized by Mesmer and supported by modern science. We will soon see that this same mistake caused other mistakes, in the "updating" of The Spirits' Book, by the group in question.

Having reached this point, I now realize that I was wrong: the notes are almost all, if not all, of the Spirits. I wonder what the researchers did besides analyzing them, according to their ideas, and accepting them.

Fluids in the Universe

The chapter in question makes the same mistakes mentioned above: not having known and understood the science of Mesmer's magnetism and Kardec's concussions, they start from the false assumptions of an outdated science. In other words: to complement Spiritism, which, according to assumptions, would be outdated in science, they use a science that Spiritism itself has already surpassed, more than 100 years ago. Strange, no?

This is how a very wrong opinion is repeated and which, moreover, would be promptly corrected by a superior Spirit:

74. Is it the vital fluid that determines the time of human stay on Earth?
— The amount of vital fluid is determined by God, however, through your choices, you can shorten or extend the time you stay in the
orb.

First, as we have shown, does not exist vital fluid, let alone an amount of it. Second, it is not God who determines anything, but ourselves. This is exactly why animals, without free will, die, from natural causes, almost all at the same age, according to their species and race, while man dies, from the same causes, at the most different ages. And the foundation of it also is in A Genesis, presented by Kardec:

To be more exact, it is necessary to say that it is the Spirit itself that elaborates its envelope and adapts it to its new needs. He perfects, develops and completes his organism as he experiences the need to manifest new faculties. In a word, he molds you according to his intelligence. God provides you with the materials. It's up to him to use it. It is in this way that the more advanced races have an organism, or if they prefer, a more perfected tool than that of the primitive races. This also explains the special style that the character of the Spirit gives to the features of the physiognomy and the manners of the body.

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis. FEAL Publisher.

Errors, based on these misconceptions, follow in droves in the chapter. I will not comment on them. In the following chapter, “Energy and Fluidic Transmission”, the authors continue to repeat false concepts, based on the same errors, of materialistic origin, spread by fluidists of the past, which opposed the ideas of the sciences of Magnetism and Spiritism. That's how they repeat, ipsis letteris, the very wrong idea that the pass would be an “energetic and/or fluidic transmission”. This is false, as false as the ideas that the supposed spirits repeat in the answer to question nº 92:

• “Magnetism instigates curiosity and is an intriguing science, but it requires the necessary knowledge so as not to offer risks to those who practice it or to those who receive it. You cannot include its practice in the Doctrine or confuse it with magnetic fluid.” – There is no magetic fluid, so what is this Spirit talking about?
• “Magnetizing is an ancient activity, which uses the vital fluid” – there is no vital fluid!
• “Magnetic fluid is different from magnetism and is exhaled whenever there is a need, through the assistance of the disembodied or incarnated people with due preparation” – same error, with an aggravating factor: magetism is the interaction of the will, through conscious thought, about the will of the other, who also needs to be consciously willing to be helped. There is no transfer of anything ((Mesmer – The Denied Science of Animal Magnetism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo)).

Return to Spiritual Life

Of course, from what we've seen, it couldn't be missing, even if contrary to everything that Spiritism has already taught and that reason confirms, a great discussion about the concepts of “spiritual colonies”, threshold, physical pain in the Spirits, etc. It's the old mania of wanting to materialize the spirit world.

Sexuality, sex and morals

To complete our analysis, we refer to question nº 505, Part Three, chap. III - abortion:

505. If conception occurs through rape, is it right to abort?

- No, it's not correct. under no circumstances, for you must all pass your own tests. No one is a mother or child by chance. The divine law is wise and its main goal is to correct or alleviate suffering. The law of cause and effect generates responsibilities for all your actions, in this and other incarnations.. Interrupting the reincarnation of a spirit, even as a result of rape, is not correct: it will only bring more pain and increase the suffering of those involved. The preservation of life in the face of the pain of violence is an act of love. May you always fight evil with love, however difficult it may be.

Italics mine

A complete nonsense! Contrary to what we find in The Spirits' Book, question 359,

359. In the event that the birth of the child endangers the life of the mother, is there a crime in sacrificing the first to save the second?

“It is preferable to sacrifice the being that does not yet exist than to sacrifice the one that already exists.”

The answer to question nº 505, of the work under analysis, states that never abortion must be committed. Worse: that if the woman was raped, it is because, in the words of the Spirits, “the law of cause and effect generates responsibilities for all your actions, in this and other incarnations“. In other words: what is being said in this work, which aims to complementary and update Spiritism is that the raped woman is only paying, by the law of talion, for a lack of another life. This is complete and demoralizing nonsense. I need to reaffirm, in meeting the OLE, that abortion is preferable when the mother is at risk, and who are we to assess the emotional and psychological risk of a woman who has gone through such trauma, which is born of the crime committed by choice on the other, and not by the effect of a supposed debt collection!

Conclusion

The work itself seems like a real struggle of incongruities, false concepts, and some truths. It seems that, if there is really the participation of more than one Spirit, these Spirits have different knowledge, because the contradiction is frequent. There are several absurd and wrong ideas, contradicting the most basic postulates of Spiritism, as there are some truths scattered around. What to do then? We believe it is best to follow the advice of the Spirit of Erastus:

[…] it is better to reject ten truths momentarily than to admit a single lie, a single false theory, because on that theory, on that lie you could build a whole system that would collapse at the first breath of truth, like a monument erected on quicksand, whereas if today you reject certain truths, certain principles, because they are not logically demonstrated to you, then a brutal fact or an irrefutable demonstration will come to confirm their authenticity.

It remains to reaffirm that the intention of this article is nothing more than to warn, including the group from which this book originated, to be very careful not to get involved in these webs of false ideas, which will cost them a lot of peace in the future. that study in the background Allan Kardec, including – and mainly – in the Spiritist Magazine. That they study the new works, which come to recover the knowledge forgotten in time. Let them set aside, at least for the time being, the concepts resulting from mediumistic works, in order to seek the necessary learning. And let them never forget the very important exhortation of Allan Kardec, in The Genesis:

General concordance in teaching is the doctrine’s essential character, the condition even of its existence. It is evident that all principles which have not received the consecration of general agreement can only be considered as a fractional part of this same doctrine, merely as a simple, isolated opinion for which Spiritism cannot assume the responsibility.

It is the concordant, collective teaching of the spirits who have passed beyond which constitutes the logical criterion, giving strength to the spiritual doctrine and assuring to it perpetuity.

It is clear that Spiritism, to a certain extent, in terms of human knowledge, is interminable, but it will not be about errors that it will be continued, especially when starting from the fundamental error, which is to treat Spirits as revelators, not respecting the necessary method, because the Spirits are not revealers of the truth, the Doctrine is not made only by questions and answers, but also by the investigation and observation of Spirits of all orders, from the lowest to the highest.

It is also interesting to note that, in the case of supposed superior spirits, as the human researchers involved assume, at no time have they corrected the flagrant errors of the latter, since doctrinal knowledge already exists. Instead, they always corroborated the information and misconceptions from which the incarnates departed.

The main error of this work arises from the lack of observation, as we have shown, of the fundamental characteristics of spiritist science, so well explained by Allan Kardec in the introduction to The Gospel According to Spiritism (emphasis mine):

The agreement in what the spirits teach is, therefore, the best proof. It is important, however, that it takes place under certain conditions. The weakest of all occurs when a medium, alone, interrogates many spirits about a doubtful point.. It is evident that if he is under the dominion of an obsession, or dealing with a mystifying spirit, he can tell him the same thing under different names. Nor will there be any sufficient guarantee in the conformity that presents what can be obtained by several mediums, in the same center, because they can all be under the same influence..”

At a time when efforts to revive Spiritism are multiplying, opposing efforts are multiplying, with the aim (foolish, let's face it) of causing confusion and delay. It is necessary to be on guard, especially with regard to the frequent invitation of the shadows, instigated by human imperfections, such as vanity and pride. Now, is there anything more exciting, in this sense, than saying the new elected to continue the great work of Allan Kardec? Let's not be us, and don't be you, in your group and in your lectures, to help the work of the Spirits that still don't understand the good and that are contrary to the progress of humanity.

“Spiritists!, love one another, this is the first teaching. Instruct yourselves, here is the second.” – Spirit of Truth

This is one of the stories from the 1858 Revista Espírita, where Kardec studies the case of a 12-year-old boy who murders 5 other children. Briefly: a 12-year-old boy put five children in a trunk, locked the trunk, and left them there until they died. Having been seen by another girl, the 12-year-old boy was reported and then confessed everything, in the most cold-blooded manner and without expressing regret.

Here, too, a reflection on a crime such as these is in order. Could it be that, as many say, these five children were killed to fulfill the “redemption of past debts”? If so, what would be the degree of responsibility of the other? We deal with this matter in this other article, click here

Another question: is the spirit of the murderer boy necessarily evil? In The Spirits' Book, Kardec clarifies:

“In fact, consider that in your homes children are possibly born whose spirits come from worlds where they have contracted habits different from yours, and tell me how these beings could be in your midst, bringing passions different from those you nurture, inclinations, tastes, entirely opposites. to yours; how could they rank among you, but as God ordained, that is, passing through the tamis of childhood?”

OLE, question 385

Continuing in the article, Kardec interrogates the spirit of a medium's sister, “who passed away twelve years ago and always showed superiority as a spirit”. Let's present the main points of these questions and their answers:

2. ─ What motives would have impelled a boy of that age to commit such an atrocious action and with such cold-bloodedness? ─ Evil has no age. It is natural in a child and reasoned in an adult man.

Observation: “The child is not good or bad until he has the discernment of one or the other. It is what is called the state of innocence, which is somehow the sleep of consciousness.” Paul Janet, Little Elements of Morals. Already in the adult, or man who makes the distinctions of his moral conscience, who uses reason, he choose to do or not do an action, which results in a good or bad deed. Even so, if he acts in “evil”, it is only because he is not aware of the good, he has not progressed enough to understand.

3. ─ Doesn't its existence in a child, without reasoning, denote the incarnation of a much inferior Spirit? - It comes directly from the perversity of the heart: it is his own Spirit that dominates him and drives him to perversity.

5. ─ In his previous existence, would he have belonged to Earth or to an even lower world? ─ I'm not sure, but it must belong to a world much more backward than Earth. He dared (?) come to Earth. You will be doubly punished.

Comment: When the evoked Spirit explains about double punishment, we understand that he means that this Spirit has acquired some consciousness and he chose come to Earth. Here, being born, he preferred to experience his passions and imperfections, instead of trying to overcome them. Most likely, you still don't understand divine laws, such as the law of progress.

6. - At that age, would the boy enough aware of the crime he committed? Will you be responsible as a Spirit? ─ He was the age of conscience. This is enough.

7. ─ Once this Spirit dared come to Earth, for him very high, can he be constrained to return to a world in relation to his nature? ─ Your punishment is precisely retrograde; it is hell itself. This is the punishment of Lucifer, of the spiritual man who has lowered himself to the level of matter; it is the veil that henceforth hides from him the gifts of God and his divine protection. Make an effort, then, to win back those lost goods and you will have reconquered the paradise that Christ came to open for you. It is the presumption, the pride of the man who wanted to conquer what only God could have (?).

At this point, with answer 7, we have arrived at several understandings:

• To dare means to choose. The principle of autonomy is always present in Kardec.
• The Spirit does not retrograde. Here, it is a material retrogradation, according to the state of development of the Spirit. It is like the student who is forced to repeat the year, because, in fact, he has not learned;
• We understand that while the Spirit experiences negative habits, vices, he is far from understanding the good;
• It may look like the picture of falling into sin, but we can understand it from the point of view of sinking into habits that lead to imperfections.

It is the picture of original sin explained by Spiritism: the Spirit is not created full, pure and wise, but ignorant and simple and, when it lives in matter, it acquires experiences. When he errs, he does not commit a sin, but only errs. The error can be totally unconscious, from which learning is born, or it can be, in a certain way, conscious, that is, by choice, which is when the Spirit developed a habit that gave rise to an imperfection. Hence we have the following: if the Spirit no understands that imperfection causes delay and suffering, he just continues to follow in incarnations, until he acquires knowledge to understand the wrong he has done, and he repents. then pass to atone the fruit of your imperfections, by the free choice of your trials, through the incarnations, in order to deal with this habit, with a view to getting rid of it.

We all go through it, and all of us will reach relative perfection.

The questions follow the evoked Spirit:

8. In what way is the Earth superior to the world to which the Spirit of whom we have just spoken belonged? ─ There is a weak idea of justice there. It's a start of progress.

9. ─ Does it follow that in worlds inferior to Earth there is no idea of justice? ─ No. Men live there only for themselves and their motive is nothing but the satisfaction of their passions and instincts.

10. ─ What will be the position of this Spirit in a new existence? ─ If repentance erases, if not totally, at least in part, the enormity of your faults, then you will remain on Earth; if, on the contrary, he persists in what you call final impenitence, he will go to a place where man is on the level of animals.

Note: Kardec developed this understanding much later, in the work Heaven and Hell: “Repentance is useless when it is only a consequence of suffering. Beneficial repentance is that which is based on the regret of having offended God, and the ardent desire for reparation. I haven't gotten to that point yet, unfortunately. Recommend me to the prayers of all those who dedicate themselves to the suffering, because I need them”. Heaven and Hell, Allan Kardec

"O repentance sincere is an act of the Spirit's free will, predisposing him to free himself from the condition of unhappiness by his effort. Thus, the soul's repentance is not the fear of continuing to suffer, which constrains it, submitting it to an external will (heteronomy). In fact, he represents the awareness of divine laws, which makes him understand his own ability to achieve happiness through improvement (autonomy). This condition makes him recognize the strength of his will and awakens his self-esteem, leading him back to the path of good.”
In other words: if he repents, he can reincarnate here, which is a planet of proofs and atonements. If not, you will have to reincarnate on a planet that gives you the conditions to learn through the reincarnation exercise itself.

note by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo on Heaven and Hell

11. ─ So can he find on Earth the means to atone for his fault, without being forced to return to a lower world? ─ In the eyes of God, repentance is sacred, because it is man who judges himself, which is rare on your planet.

In this article from November 1858, the second article talks about the Plurality of Existences or Reincarnation. Kardec will make a very informative approach about reincarnation. It is an article of great interest, as it demonstrates the scientist, demystifying the encoder:

“The dogma of reincarnation is not new, say some; they resurrected him from the doctrine of Pythagoras. We never said that the Spiritist Doctrine was a modern invention. constituting a law of nature, Spiritism must have existed since the beginning of time and we have always endeavored to demonstrate that signs of it can be discovered in the most remote antiquity.”

RE, November 1858

Note: It says it was not new as it was in the Bible and was removed by the Second Council of Constantinople.

Spiritism is in everything and touches all areas of science. He, in himself, in his depth, is the science of everything. This effort by Kardec was very important, and it must be the same on our part, as it demystifies Spiritism.

The ancients, including Pythagoras (6th century BC), believed in metempsychosis, while Spiritism demonstrates the impossibility of this theory.

Metempsychosis: It is a fundamentally Eastern belief, mainly Hindu, linked to the dogma of the fall for sin, which has no basis in the reason developed by Spiritism.

It is interesting to note, however, that a Spirit, at the beginning of its evolution, can and will incarnate in animals: (AG, chap. XI, “HYPOTHESIS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY” )

HYPOTHESIS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY

15. From the similarity of external forms that exists between the body of man and that of an ape, some physiologists have concluded that the former is only a transformation of the latter. In this there is nothing impossible and, if that is so, there is no reason for man to feel his dignity affected. The bodies of apes may well have served as a garment for primitive human spirits, necessarily not very advanced, who came to incarnate on Earth, because they were the most appropriate to their needs and the most adequate to the exercise of their faculties than the bodies of any other person. another animal. Instead of a special garment that was made for the Spirit, he would have found a ready-made one. He then dressed himself in the skin of a monkey, without ceasing to be a human spirit, as man sometimes dresses himself in the skin of certain animals without ceasing to be a man. Let it be understood that here it is only a question of a hypothesis which is in no way stated as a principle, but which is only presented to show that the origin of the body does not harm the Spirit, which is the main being, and that the likeness of the body of the man with that of the ape does not imply parity between your Spirit and his.

16. Admitting this hypothesis, it can be said that, under the influence and by the effect of the intellectual activity of its new inhabitant, the envelope has been modified, embellishing itself in the details, conserving in the whole the general form of the set. The improved bodies, when procreating, reproduced under the same conditions, as happens with grafted trees, and gave birth to a new species that, little by little, distanced itself from the primitive type, as the Spirit progressed. The simian spirit, which was not annihilated, continued to procreate for its use the bodies of apes, just as the fruit of the wild tree reproduces trees of this species, and the human spirit procreated bodies of men that were variants of the first mold in which it was established. The trunk forked; produced a branch, and it became a trunk. As there are no sudden transitions in nature, it is likely that the first men who appeared on Earth differed little from the ape, in outward form and, no doubt, little also in intelligence. There are still, in our days, savages who, by the length of their arms and feet, and the conformation of the head, bear so much resemblance to apes that they only lack hair for the resemblance to be complete.

Allan Kardec. GENESIS – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism

This is quite different, however, from supposing that a human spirit, due to a punishment, can be condemned to incarnate in a monkey, which, for him, would be a retrogradation.

Some contradictors say: “you already shared this idea, so the spirits only communicated concepts that they already accepted”. A mistake, as we will see below:

“When the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the Spirits, it was so far from our thinking that, on the background of the soul, we had built a completely different system, shared, in fact, by many people. In this aspect, therefore, the Doctrine of the Spirits deeply surprised us; we will say more: it antagonized us, because it overthrew our own ideas. As can be seen, it was far from reflecting them. But that's not all: we don't give in to the first shock; we fight, we defend our opinion, we raise objections and we only surrender to the evidence when we realize the insufficiency of our system to resolve all the difficulties raised by this question..”

"In the eyes of some people, the word evidence will doubtless seem singular in such a matter; it will not, however, be inappropriate for those who are used to scrutinizing spiritist phenomena. For the attentive observer, there are facts which, although not of an absolutely material nature, nevertheless constitute true evidence, at least from a moral point of view..”

Today, we have not only the moral evidence, but the factual evidence of reincarnation, which, however, has not yet been (and will never be) proven in the laboratory.

“We have yet another refutation to oppose: it is that not only was it taught to us; it was also taught in many other places, in France and abroad: in Germany, Holland, Russia, etc., and this even before the publication of The Spirits' Book.

We also add that, since we dedicated ourselves to the study of Spiritism, we have obtained communications through more than fifty writing, speaking, psychic mediums, etc., more or less enlightened, with more or less limited normal intelligence, some even completely illiterate. and, consequently, absolutely strangers to philosophical matters; nohowever, in no case did the spirits contradict themselves on this issue..”

Observation: Most communications, as far as we know, were from mechanical psychic mediums, often put into somnambulistic sleep (called crisis, in season). But Kardec never stopped looking for value in other forms of communication and in manifestations in general, always seeking to highlight those that could arouse interest and demonstrate the reality of spiritual intervention. For his eyes as a researcher, even a mediumistic painting, as we will see later, could represent a phenomenon of interest.

Not only is this doctrine supported by evidence, but chiefly by reason. Without her does not exist autonomy, because the Spirit would not be given the opportunity to advance, through learning from successes and mistakes. This is what happens with the Doctrine taught by the Catholic Church and other religions, to the point that we are amazed today that there are still people who think like this.

The Doctrine of Reincarnation, as explained by Spiritism, is the only doctrine that fits all the pieces of the puzzle, explaining the differences between beings and divine goodness.

“We have reasoned, abstracting ourselves, as we said, from any spiritist teaching that, for certain creatures, lacks authority. It is not just because it came from the Spirits that we and so many others became fans of the plurality of existences.. It is because this part of the doctrine seemed to us to be the most logical and because it alone resolves issues that were hitherto insoluble..”

Let's see:

“If there is no reincarnation, there is, of course, only a corporeal existence. If our present corporeal existence is the only one, the soul of every man was created at his birth, unless the soul's antecedence is admitted, in which case it would be fitting to ask what it was before birth and whether the state in which it was born. that it was thought did not constitute an existence in any form. There is no middle ground: either the soul existed or it did not exist before the body. If so, what is your status? Was she or was she not aware of herself? If it didn't, it's almost as if it didn't exist. If it had individuality, was it progressive or stationary? In either case, to what degree had he taken the body? Assuming, according to popular belief, that the soul is born with the body, or, what comes to the same thing, that, before incarnating, it has only negative faculties, we ask: "

Kardec, RE November 1858

1. Why does the soul show such diverse aptitudes and independent of the ideas that education made it acquire? 

2. Whence comes the extranormal aptitude that many children show at an early age, for this or that art, for this or that science, while others remain inferior or mediocre throughout their lives? 

3. Whence, in some, the innate or intuitive ideas, which in others do not exist?

4. Whence, in certain children, the precocious instinct that they reveal towards vices or virtues, the innate feelings of dignity or baseness, contrasting with the environment in which they were born? 

5. Why, apart from education, are some men more advanced than others? 

6. Why are there savages and civilized men? If you take a newborn Hottentot boy and bring him up in our best high schools, will you ever make him a Laplace or a Newton?

Comment: This issue of the African savage is in line with the various, quite severe, criticisms of “racism” in Kardec. As, further down, Kardec repeats that “Regarding the sixth question, it will be said, without a doubt, that the Hottentot is from an inferior race”, we believe that we should take a moment to allude to Kardec's scientific context, which it was, by definition, racist, that is, classified the human being by races. See our article Click here

“Which philosophy or theosophy is capable of solving these problems? It is beyond doubt that either souls are equal at birth, or they are unequal. If equal, why, among them, such a great diversity of aptitude? It will be said that it depends on the organism. But then we find ourselves in the presence of the most monstrous and immoral of doctrines. Man would be a mere machine, a plaything of matter; he would no longer be responsible for his actions, as he could attribute everything to his physical imperfections. If souls are unequal, it is because God created them that way. In that case, however, why the innate superiority bestowed on some? Does this partiality correspond to the justice of God and to the love which he equally consecrates to all his creatures?”

Kardec, RE 1858

So far we have analyzed the soul by its past and its present. And what would be your future according to Kardec?

1. - If it is only our present existence that must decide our future, what will be the respective position of the savage and the civilized man in the future life? Will they be on the same level or apart in the sum of eternal bliss?

2. Will the man who has worked to improve himself all his life be on the same level as the man who remained inferior, not because of his fault, but because he had neither the time nor the possibilities to improve himself?

3. ─ Is the man who does evil because he has not been able to clarify himself subject to circumstances that did not depend on him?

Note item 2: We perceive here the contextual and philosophical knowledge of the Rational Spiritualists was present in these questions.

4. ─ We work to enlighten men, moralize them, civilize them; but for every one who becomes enlightened, there are millions who die daily, before the light reaches them. What is their fate? Are they treated as reprobates? If not, what did they do to be kept in the same class as others?

5. ─ What is the fate of children who die at an early age, before they can do good or evil? If they are among the elect, why this favor, when they have done nothing to deserve it? By what privilege were they released from the tribulations of life?

Kardec concludes the article:

“Is there a doctrine that can resolve these issues? Assume successive existences and everything will be explained according to the justice of God. What cannot be done in one life, will be done in another.. In this way, no one will escape the law of progress and everyone will be rewarded according to real merit and no one will be excluded from the supreme happiness to which he can aspire, whatever the obstacles encountered in his way.”

“These questions would easily multiply to infinity, because there are countless psychological and moral problems that only find a solution in the plurality of existences. We limit ourselves to formulating those of a more general order.”

Idem

Comments: Is there any urgency to make any progress? Many speakers have used an alarmist tone, saying that we have to change ourselves “for yesterday”, do the intimate reform, because “the planet” will enter a new phase, that of regeneration. If we suffer from an imperfection, the urgency is in our own time; if we are only in the process of learning, this will only take place in the time of each one, according to their will.

Our suggestions for a documentary and book about Reincarnation – Plurality of Existences:

After the discovery that I didn't know anything about Spiritism (which happened almost a year ago) and with the confirmation that a series of doubts that I always kept in my mind, and that were accentuated as I started to put my head to work, I stopped reading the works carried out through the mediumship of Chico Xavier.

Recently, however, instigated by the suggestion of a girl, in a group, who recommended studying the work Ação e Reação to understand why animals suffer pain, I found several inconsistencies, from the many already known, among the “teachings” transmitted by André Luiz and the doctrinal postulates of Spiritism, passed through the double control of the sieve of reason and the general teaching of the Spirits.

I can no longer blindly overlook various concepts that were previously more or less accepted without reasoning. Not after getting to know Allan Kardec in his essence, through the studies of the Spiritist Magazine, and also after beginning to understand the concepts of autonomy and morality, based on Rational Spiritualism and developed by Spiritism.

Collective rescues? Action and reaction? Look, if there is any way to get something useful out of this work, it is first necessary to know Spiritism, deeply, understanding it as the development of Rational Spiritualism and making use of its concepts, because the most absurd ideas have spread, in the Doctrine , due to this lack of knowledge.

just see that complicated:

In our study, however, we analyzed the pain-atonement, which comes from the inside out, marking the creature on the path of the centuries, holding it in complicated labyrinths of affliction, to regenerate it, before the… It is very different… "

Now, it is established, by the study of Spiritism, that atonement and pain do not inherently go together. The passage above leads the unwary reader to understand that, in the face of “[divine] Justice”, the being is regenerated by the ache, being that pain is an inherent condition of the incarnate Spirit, and differs from moral suffering. From physical pain, he suffers the bad and the good. Atonement can go far beyond pain, but rely only on difficulties, often morally suffered, which, according to the planning of the Spirit, aim to give you opportunities for learning.

However, in possession of the new (actually, old) knowledge, we could give a whole different meaning to this passage, by simply observing the term “that comes from the inside out”, which implies that this pain is coming from consciousness to the outside.

It is necessary to be very careful to focus on these works - which, in fact, are novels, and not sources of studies - because we know the enormous reservations that Kardec always had in relation to spiritual ideas not passed by the double control of reason and general teaching. of the Spirits. Furthermore, without having the aforementioned knowledge, novels, in general, lead readers to a totally adverse path to what Spiritism teaches, in fact, and can cause (as they have caused) more harm than good.

So, to studies!

Cover image: photo by asiama junior at the pexels

Just yesterday, I wrote here, on this blog, the article “Root Spiritism“, talking about the absurd subversions being carried out by people who adopt the title of Spiritists, but who, about Spiritism, don't say anything. They talk a lot about concepts of certain Spirits, which, in short, does not constitute the Doctrine. These individuals, who, under the false guise of the “evangelizer”, with sweet words from the Gospel of Jesus (we have already seen such a case in practice, presented by Kardec, in the article Obsessed and Subjugated: The Dangers of Spiritism), take them to, slowly and progressively, subvert it to the most absurd and wide-open ideas, even prior to Christ himself, worthy of the time when human beings were consciously enslaved by the religious ideas of heteronomy, sin and punishment.

Behold, right after the conclusion of this article, going to Spiritist groups to share, I come across, in the largest of them, with hundreds of thousands of followers, the following post, from one of the administrators from the group:

MULTI-GENERATION DNA CLEANING

I, _____________ (your name), break, destroy, disintegrate and pulverize all the negativity that I bring in the family tree of my Father and my Mother, from the first generation that formed their families to the inheritance we receive from them in this life((This idea is directly subordinate to dogma of original sin, which, despite starting from a figure of language, in a very distant time, was instituted by the Roman Catholic Church as such, with the purpose of imprisoning the consciences of the faithful at its pleasure)).

[…]

I'm taking it all out of my DNA((Deoxyribonucleic acid is an organic compound whose molecules contain the genetic instructions that coordinate the development and functioning of all living beings and some viruses, and that transmit the hereditary characteristics of each living being (ref: Wikipedia). This phrase sums it all up : contrary to the demonstration, by Spiritism, of the soul and its relations with the Spirits as the principle of all what concerns the incarnate being, it is totally materialistic!))!
DECREE AND INSTALL HERE AND NOW:
A system of health, love, abundance, prosperity, serenity, trust and happiness guided by universal laws.

I was and still am perplexed and stupefied! I would consider it valid to find a message of this content in a group of religious linked to the ideas of original sin and materialism, contrary to Spiritism and its liberating doctrine... But within a group "spiritist", which establishes, as the first of its rules, that "our main objective is the STUDY OF THE SPIRITIST DOCTRINE“, and by the hands of an administrator?! Never! Now, it comes to disrespect the Spiritist Doctrine itself and Kardec's effort to fight, in the light of reason and with great effort, precisely these two systems contrary to Spiritism and the liberation of man: materialism and religious dogmatism.

The intention here is not to descend to the level of personal attack. Each one with their conscience and with the results of their actions. What I want to firmly emphasize is the following two very important points:

1. Caution, dear reader, with the wave of evangelical moralism spread in the spiritist environment! The Gospel is indeed very important, but Spiritism must be studied to understand it well. There are many "wolves in sheep's clothing” who hide under the words of the Gospel, but who actually spread ideas contrary to him.
2. We have been absorbed for a long time in inaction and in the absence of studies. This is why false ideas spread at a gallop. IT'S our responsibility, facing the doctrine and ourselves, study it, apply its moral consequences in our own lives and spread it in its essence! We can no longer accept that such ideas continue to be disseminated in the spiritist environment, undermining the Doctrine from the inside out!

the spiritist does not study not even the Gospel According to Spiritism, because, if study, could be on guard. It is not for nothing that Saint Louis expresses himself in this way, about false prophets:

If they say to you: “Christ is here”, don't go; on the contrary, be on your guard, because the false prophets will be numerous.. Do you not see that the leaves of the fig tree begin to whiten; you do not see its many shoots awaiting the time of flowering; and did not Christ say to you, Is a tree known by its fruit? If, then, the fruit is bitter, you already know how bad the tree is.; but if they are sweet and wholesome, you will say, “Nothing pure can come from an evil source.”

It is thus, my brethren, that you must judge; are the works that you must examine. If those who claim to be invested with divine power show signs of a mission of a high nature, that is, if they possess the highest degree of Christian and eternal virtues: charity, love, indulgence, the kindness that reconciles hearts; if, in support of the words, they present the acts, then you can say: These are really sent from God.

But be wary of honeyed words, be wary of the scribes and Pharisees who pray in the public squares, dressed in long robes. Be wary of those who claim to have a monopoly on the truth!

KARDEC, Allan. The gospel According to spiritism. My italics.

The Spirit of Erastus, in the same work, says the following:

False prophets are not only found among the incarnate. There are also them, and in much greater numbers, among the proud spirits who, appearing to love and charity, sow disunity and delay the work of emancipation of humanity, throwing their absurd systems through it, after having made their mediums accept them.. And, to better fascinate those whom they wish to deceive, to give more weight to their theories, they unscrupulously appropriate names that only men pronounce with great respect.

Ibid. Idem.

This exhortation, however, does not carry the meaning that we should not be on guard against the wolves in sheep's clothing, for it is they themselves who sow the disunity by throwing, in the midst of consoling ideas, the thorny fruit of the old religions. Kardec, by the way, highlights the need to keep away from these individuals, even when mediums:

It should be noted that when good spirits see that a medium is no longer well assisted and becomes, due to his imperfections, the prey of deceiving spirits, circumstances almost always arise that reveal his defects and distance him from serious and well-respected people. -intentioned, whose good faith could be lacquered. In this case, whatever faculties he possesses, his departure is not to be missed.

KARDEC, Allan. The Mediums' Book. 1862. Italics mine.

None of this means that we should fight with rudeness or hatred, on the contrary, because we would be in error too. But we must fight false ideas by disseminating true Spiritism, the one that is truly consoling. And how to do it? Understanding Spiritism and its context! It is necessary to understand Rational Spiritualism ((we recommend studying the book Small Elements of Morals, by Paul Janet, in addition to studying the work Autonomy: the never-told history of Spiritism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, or following the several videos on this subject, with this author, on Youtube)), it is necessary to study the Doctrinal essence in its unadulterated works((as always, we recommend studying the works O Céu e o Inferno and A Gênesis according to the editions of the publisher FEAL, translated and commented, among others, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, as well as also following the study of these works in channel Spiritism for All)) and it is necessary to study the Spiritist Magazine, as we have done, in order to understand what Spiritism really is and how this doctrine was formed.

Finally, it's time to move. It is not only the spiritist milieu that lacks the recovery of the ideas of the moral theory developed by Spiritism and based on the Rational Spiritualism: is all mankind.

Do your part.

Root spiritism is to look at Allan Kardec, contextualized for knowledge of Rational Spiritualism and Animal Magnetism. It is not, in any way, adopting mystical ideas born from one's own or others' opinions, as unfortunately Eduardo Sabbag, from Espiritismo Raiz, has unfortunately done. Another individual with such great potential to help human progress, but who only sees the surface of Spiritism and favors delay, by spreading false ideas.

Tough times, those we live in. Everywhere, the spiritist doctrine of the most varied absurdities is undermined. Through the unwary, the unsuspecting and the great mass of resistant to the necessary study, Spiritism suffers as much as Isaac Newton's Physics would suffer if there were no Physics scholars to defend it against ideas such as the non-existence of the Law of Gravity or how Astronomy would suffer if there were no people to defend it against the ideas persistence of geocentrism or flat Earth.

Of course, the doctrinal basis will be understood more or less clearly, depending on the progress that the Spirit itself has made in this sense. This is what Kardec refers to when he says about innate ideas, which find, in many, full rational acceptance, because, for them, they are as natural as discovering that water vapor is the result of its evaporation. However, what is widely seen is that the absence of “instruct yourselves” leaves the ship adrift, at the whim of the wind.

“Spirits!, love one another, here is the first teaching. Educate yourselves, here is the second. All truths are found in Christianity; the errors that took root in it are of human origin. And behold, beyond the grave, in which you believed nothingness, voices come to cry out to you: Brothers! nothing perishes. Jesus Christ is the conqueror of evil, be the conquerors of wickedness!” – (Spirit of Truth. Paris, 1860.)

Allan Kardec – The Gospel According to Spiritism, Cap. VI, item 5.

The exhortation of the Spirit of Truth, when recommending “instruct yourselves”, makes clear the need to study the Spiritist Doctrine, the voices beyond the grave – which requires scientific methodology. But the “spiritists” forgot who Allan Kardec was. They buried their work, next to their body, and began to limit themselves to knowing the basics of the essentials: the law of reincarnation and our relationships with the Spirits. Even this, however, did not survive the absurd ideas unscathed, as reincarnation, with a consoling law, was filled with ideas of sin and punishment, and our relationships with the Spirits lost their former objective of enlightenment, becoming, again, in the same type of relationship that, amazingly, man had with the Spirits before of the coming of Christ.

932. Why, in the world, so often does the influence of the bad overcome that of the good?“

Because of their weakness. The bad are intriguing and daring, the good are shy. When they want it, they will prevail.” (The Spirits’ Book)

Yes, the scenario of the Spiritist Movement is sad. With the death of Allan Kardec, we are not only going back decades, but millennia, therefore, without the necessary instruction, we once again allow ourselves to be subjugated by the ideas that imprison consciences and, consequently, of progress. The Doctrine was emptied of its philosophical aspect.

The “spiritist” responds to the census, saying, “this is my religion”, but he does not know that what he claims to embrace is a science, and not a religion. He says he reads and studies it, but he has never studied Kardec in depth: he prefers to read novels, full of ideas from both sides, no matter how absurd they may be. He retired his reasoning and, with it, his own autonomy, in a scenario that, for him, seems much more comfortable – without knowing, however, that it is also one of the most painful. He embraces the ideas of karma, “law of return”, “law of action and reaction” and accepts mediumistic prophecies without even questioning his own conscience. And, finally, when he is presented to reason, by the few who try to demonstrate true Spiritism, the one that Kardec studied, dedicating his life, health and resources, finally, when he gets attention, he fights fiercely to keep clinging to the halter that leads him .

It desolates us to leave the cave, attracted by the light, to see that, everywhere, that light is muffled by the dust and the webs of old religious concepts. It hurts to see unconscious consciences, trapped in materialistic and petty concepts, without the ability, by choice, to see how much they suffer from ignorance!

Look at that one! At your side, a kind Spirit, full of light, breathes good advice into your ears. It leads you, in a moment of mental elevation, to the door of knowledge. Someone invites you: “Shall we study?” But the light goes out of his conscience: “who is this to tell me to study? Already read The Spirits' Book and I've already gone through the entire famous collection of that Spirit who taught about the threshold and spiritual life - although he wasn't even spiritualized. Furthermore, I am a medium and, in my astral travel, I see the truth with my own eyes!”

Look at that other one: he is a volunteer at the Spiritist Center, but he doesn't study. A mother, in full suffering, came to look for him: her son, born with physical disabilities, demands too much of his energy. Is tired. Your son is tormented daily under heavy commotions: screams, contortions. The volunteer tries to comfort her based on what he knows, and tells her that her son is suffering the law of action and reaction, as he was probably suicidal in his previous life. The woman is horrified and walks away: “who is this to say such a thing about my beloved son? This Spiritism is useless!”.

There goes one more. She is desperate, because they told her, in a certain spiritist center, that the man she loves is her soul mate. It happens, however, that the man married another woman. What will become of her now? how can you live half? Better to end your own suffering, she thinks. In a flash of inspiration, she goes to the spiritist center of the previous case, where she talks to the same volunteer, who tells her that she must never think about committing suicide, because, if she does, she will spend years wandering on the threshold or in the valley of suicidal, and that she must endure this “ordeal”, as it must be the consequence of a past life debt. She did, regretfully, but, leaving there, she thinks: wouldn't it be better to suffer punishment there than to suffer here?

Here's a man: he's haunted by thoughts of self-destruction too. Hear voices: kill yourself, enough suffering, they say. He arrives at the same center. The boy diagnoses him with obsessors, orders him to say a famous prayer to drive away spirits and also recommends him to clean the house with indigo. The scenario does not change and, after a few months, the man ends up taking his own life.

Another day, another scenario, the volunteer is looking for a woman. She is suffering psychological and physical abuse from her husband, who, addicted to alcohol, returns home with the worst company. It exposes the whole scenario. The volunteer tells her that she must be suffering the consequence of the law of action and reaction, as she must have done her husband wrong in her past life. Therefore, he must bear everything with courage, in order to “redeem this debt”.

As we said, the scenario is, yes, a bit bleak. But, if we are aware of this, it is because we need to do our part, starting with studying, knowing, because the Spirit only advances in morality through its own will. conscious. Root spiritism is to look at Allan Kardec, contextualized by the knowledge of Rational Spiritualism and Animal Magnetism. It is studying it carefully, in its original pages, away from the adulterations of Heaven and Hell and Genesis. It is to understand and retake the philosophical and moral aspects of Spiritism, so that, living in our own lives, we are active parts, and no longer inoperative, in social transformation.

There are many speaking, writing, acting in the name of something called Spiritism on the poster, but which is essentially dogma, because there are still few studying and acting in the name of the Doctrine, inspired by the honest and conscientious model of Allan Kardec, a man who, with his effort, helped to form the Doctrine with the greatest capacity to leverage change in the world.

Spiritualists: instruct yourselves!

Janet was a contemporary of Allan Kardec. His works demonstrate, with excellence, the philosophical context in which the coder was inserted, making use of his concepts.

Many, when reading Kardec, suppose that he, due to the words he used in his works, was just reproducing ideas and concepts originating from the Catholic Church. Nothing could be further from the truth, as we will see below, because Kardec was, in fact, using the concepts widely widespread and understood in the midst of French cultured society, which, by the way, was the class that was most interested in the study of Spiritism.

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo explains:

During the nineteenth century, what we call the human sciences were established from a spiritualist assumption for their constitution. Meanwhile, in the natural sciences, such as Physics and Chemistry, materialism predominated. This condition is very different from what we are used to today, when the university is almost completely guided by materialistic thinking.

This current of thought was known as Rational Spiritualism. For it was completely independent of formal religions and their dogmas. The fundamental basis was psychology, science of the soul, which had as a guideline: “The human being is an incarnate soul”.

As is explained at length in the book Autonomy, the untold story of Spiritism, Allan Kardec made psychology the conceptual basis for developing the Spiritist Doctrine. His monthly newspaper was the Spiritist Magazine, journal of psychological studies.

Rational Spiritualism was taught, since 1830, at the University of Paris, also at the Ecole Normale, where teachers were trained, and also at the Lyceums, in the education of young people. For these, there were manuals, like Paul Janet's. This manual has been translated into several languages and adopted in many countries, including Brazil.

This manual is of fundamental importance to understand the conceptual basis of Kardec's studies, especially regarding spiritist morals.

FIGUEIREDO, Paulo Henrique de. Paul Janet's Treatise on Philosophy. Portal do Espírito, July 22, 2019. Available at . Accessed on May 19, 2022.

Using, we said, the concepts of Rational Spiritualism, which was taught at the University of Paris and at the Escola Normal Superior in Paris, Kardec develops the most diverse philosophical concepts of the Spiritist Doctrine, in the light of the agreed teachings of the Spirits. Thus, it will give a deep development to the ideas of moral treated by these scholars, approaching the concepts of pain and pleasure, good and bad, to owe, disinterested charity, freedom, merit, punishment and reward. Let us, by way of illustration, demonstrate the construction of these last two concepts:

The reward and the punishment

in your work Small Elements of Morals, available for download, in PDF, in this link, Janet builds the various philosophical concepts that will support those of the reward and gives punishment. He expresses himself thus: "pleasure, considered as the consequence due to the accomplishment of good, is called reward, and pain, considered as the legitimate consequence of evil, is called punishment".

Pleasure, for him, is the quest to experience what life allows, and there would thus be good pleasures and bad pleasures, varying, in this interval, according to certainty, purity, intensity, duration, etc. Thus, the fugitive pleasure of drunkenness would be a bad pleasure, while the lasting pleasure of health would be a good pleasure:

There are pleasures that are very lively, but fleeting and fugitive, such as the pleasures of passion ((This is how the Oxford dictionary defines it: “in the Kantianism, violent emotional inclination, capable of completely dominating human behavior and moving it away from the desirable capacity for autonomy and rational choice. This is the meaning of passion, used by Kardec and the philosophers of his time)). There are others that are durable and continuous, such as health, safety, convenience, consideration. Will those pleasures that last a lifetime be sacrificed for pleasures that last only an hour?

JANET, 1870((JANET, Paul. Small Elements of Moral. Translation by Maria Leonor Loureiro. Paris, 1870))

Therefore, morally, the human being should always seek the good pleasures, that do not produce regrets, passing them over to the bad pleasures, which generate regrets and complications:

Experience teaches us that pleasures must not be sought without discernment and without distinction, that it is necessary to use reason to compare them with each other, to sacrifice the uncertain and fleeting present for a lasting future, to prefer simple and peaceful pleasures, not followed. of regrets, to the tumultuous and dangerous pleasures of passions, etc., in a word, to sacrifice the pleasant to the useful.

ibid.

It is clear, therefore, that the concept of reward, used in this context, is linked to the understanding of the joy of having performed an action linked to the good, while the punishment is the pain generated as legitimate consequence from evil. There is no attribution, therefore, to a mechanical imposition of a supposed “law of return” or “law of reparation”, by God or by the “Universe”, for bad action, as many insist on proclaiming, nor are there any rewards given for good action. Everything is a consequence moral, from the individual to himself, which necessarily depends on the knowledge of the Law:

In morals, as in legislation, no one takes advantage of ignorance of the law. There is, therefore, in every man a certain knowledge of the law, that is, a natural discernment of good and evil: this discernment is what is called conscience or sometimes the moral sense.

ibid.

However, for the individual to act morally, he must have free will:

It is not enough for man to know and distinguish between good and evil, and to experience different feelings from one to the other. It is also necessary, to be a moral agent, that man is capable of choosing between one and the other((Here the studies of Spiritism lead us to another understanding: in truth, man does not choose between good and evil, because, deep down , if you choose poorly, it is because you do not yet know the law. The Spirit that really knows and understands the Law of God only does good, always.)); You cannot order him what he could not do, nor prohibit him what he would be forced to do. This power to choose is freedom, or free will.

ibid.

But it is important to remember that man, as an incarnate soul, is a basic concept of Rational Spiritualism, as defined by Janet, in the same work:

Every law presupposes a legislator. The moral law will therefore presuppose a moral lawgiver: this is how morality elevates us to God. Every human or earthly sanction being shown to be insufficient by observation, the moral law needs a religious sanction. This is how morality leads us to the immortality of the soul.

From all this, the understanding of vice and virtue is born:

Human actions, we said, are sometimes good and sometimes bad. These two qualifications have degrees, because of the importance or difficulty of the action. This is how an action is convenient, estimable, beautiful, admirable, sublime, etc., on the other hand, bad action is sometimes a simple fault, sometimes a crime. It is reprehensible, base, hateful, execrable, etc.

If, in an agent, the habit of good deeds be regarded as a constant tendency to conform to the law of duty, that constant habit or tendency is called virtue, and the contrary tendency is called vice.

ibid.

Evil, however, is a judgment of oneself (no one can do harm to another((According to the rational principle of autonomy, developed so far, the individual can only commit physical harm against another, but never moral harm. A subject can stealing someone else's belongings, which will cause him some difficulties, but, in truth, he does harm to himself, as he violates the moral law, for which he will suffer depending on his state of consciousness. The victim, for his Once, apart from the material setback, she may or may not do harm to herself, depending on whether or not she clings to what happened and generates some suffering for herself. This will also depend on her awareness of the moral law))), which depends on the awareness of what one does:

The judgment that is made from yourself It differs according to the principle of action that is admitted. He who lost at the game may feel distressed about himself and his recklessness ((In other words: he may realize that he did himself wrong by losing money at the game)); but he who is conscious of having cheated in the game (even though he has won by that means) must despise himself when he judges himself from the point of view of the moral law ((Because, when he becomes aware of what he has done, he realizes that he has harmed the another, and this makes him remorse)).

ibid.

And then, a little further on, still in the same work, Janet develops the understanding of moral satisfaction and repentance:

Regarding our own actions, feelings change depending on whether the action is to be done or already done. In the first case, we feel, on the one hand, a certain attraction to the good (when the passion is not strong enough to suffocate it), on the other, a repugnance or aversion to evil (more or less attenuated according to circumstances by the habit or violence of the desire). These two feelings were not usually given particular names.

When, on the contrary, the action has been performed, the pleasure that results from it, if we act well, is called moral satisfaction, and if we act badly, remorse or regret..

Remorse is the burning pain, and, as the word indicates, the wound that tortures the heart after a reprehensible action. This suffering can be found in the very ones who have no regrets for having done wrong and would do it again.. It has, therefore, no moral character, and must be regarded as a kind of punishment inflicted on crime by its very nature. “Malice, said Montaigne, poisons itself with its own poison. Addiction leaves as it were an ulcer in the flesh, a regret in the soul, which is always scratching and bleeding itself.”

Repentance is also, like remorse, a suffering born of wrongdoing; but there is added to it the regret for having carried it out, and the desire (or the firm resolution) not to carry it out any more..

For Janet, then, remorse would not yet be the suffering generated by regret, but just a certain torture for carrying out the reprehensible action. In other words, one does not suffer because evil has been done, but only because what has been done is reprehensible. And then, Kardec, in Heaven and Hell ((Always remembering that this work was tampered with and mutilated starting from the fourth French edition, which served as the basis for all other editions and translations. The topics covered in this article were those that suffered most from these adulterations)), speaking of punishment, which has, for Janet, the same meaning as punishment ((Says Janet: “The idea of punishment or punishment would also not be explained if the good were only the useful. You don't punish a man for having been unskillful; you punish him for having been guilty”)), it is expressed as follows:

The duration of the punishment is subject to the improvement of the guilty spirit. No condemnation for a fixed time is pronounced against him. What God requires to put an end to suffering is the repentance, expiation and reparation – in short: a serious, effective improvement, as well as a sincere return to the good.

KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and hell. Translation by Emanuel G. Dutra, Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo and Lucas Sampaio. 2021.

In other words: God does not pronounce punishments or punishments against the individual. It is he himself who punishes himself, through legitimate consequences of the evil done. So, to end this suffering, you need to repent, in the first place, that is, identify that you have done something reprehensible (remorse) and add to that the regret of having done it (repentance, which is moral), as well as the desire to no longer do it. In order to reach this understanding, it is necessary for the Spirit to advance in intelligence and, in order to repair the harm done (which it is already clear that he has committed against himself, and not against others, from which it follows that he must repair in itself the origin of this evil), Spiritism demonstrates, without the possibility of error, the existence of the law of reincarnation.

All this, in short, to understand the concepts of punishment and reward. Behold, in accordance with all the above, Kardec says, in an excerpt prior to the one mentioned above:

Punishment is always the natural consequence of the fault committed. The spirit suffers for the evil it has done, so that, as its attention is incessantly focused on the consequences of this evil, it better understands its inconveniences and is motivated to correct itself.

And then, because of all this, Kardec thus begins chapter IV of this work - The hell:

Man has always intuitively believed that the future life should be more or less happy in the ratio of good and evil practiced in this world. But the idea he has of this future life is in proportion to the development of his moral sense and the more or less just notion he has of good and evil. The penalties and rewards are a reflection of the instincts that predominate in him..

But it is worth remembering that, using these philosophical concepts of his time, Kardec, at the same time, developed them for the moral consequences of spirit science.

O spiritualism in Kardec

It is worth, before closing, to remember that Allan Kardec several times used the word spiritualism in your work. It is to Rational Spiritualism that he refers:

Whoever believes that there is something more in himself than matter is a spiritualist. It does not follow from this, however, that he believes in the existence of spirits or in their communications with the visible world. instead of the words spiritual, spiritualism, we use, to indicate the belief to which we refer, the terms spiritist and spiritualism, whose form recalls the origin and the radical meaning and which, for that very reason, have the advantage of being perfectly intelligible, leaving the word spiritualism its own meaning. We will say, therefore, that the doctrine spiritist or the spiritism its principle is the relations of the material world with the Spirits or beings of the invisible world. The adepts of Spiritism will be the spiritists, or, if you like, the spiritists.

As a specialty, the Book of Spirits contains the doctrine spiritist; in general, it is linked to the doctrine spiritualist, one of whose phases presents. This is the reason why it has the words in the header of its title: spiritual philosophy.

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book. 1857

This is, finally, proved by the following excerpt from the Spiritist Magazine of 1868:

The work of Mr. Chassang is the application of these ideas to art in general, and to Greek art in particular. We are happy to reproduce what the author of the Patrie review says about it, because it is further proof of the energetic reaction that takes place in favor of spiritualist ideas and which, as we said, every defense of rational spiritualism opens the way to Spiritism, which is its development, fighting its most tenacious adversaries: materialism and fanaticism.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine, November 1868

Conclusion

Here is clearly presented proof that we cannot know and understand Kardec's philosophy without understanding the philosophy and morals of his time, fully inserted in the context of French Rational Spiritualism, just as we cannot fully understand the spiritist science without understanding the sciences of Magnetism [by Mesmer] and Psychology (the latter also included in the ER, under the division of moral sciences).

It was clearly evidenced that Kardec no he used dogmatic religious concepts, but only words that, found in these concepts, were first re-signified under the philosophy of the time and, later, under the spiritist philosophy.

Therefore, it is very necessary to study and disseminate this knowledge. Once again, we invite the reader to study and distribute, in all possible spiritist media, the work referred to in this article, as well as the present text, which is the result of an effort made in this direction as well.

Cover image: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio at the pexels

The Spiritist Doctrine has suffered a lot because of individuals who think that, because read Kardec — which is quite different from study and understand Kardec, which requires other knowledge, properly contextualized, as is the case of Rational Spiritualism — they believe that they can put themselves in the position of teaching, in your own way, what Spiritism is and, worse, how are the concepts and themes that were not even approached or developed in the space of time in which Spiritism developed as it should be: as a science.

See: Spiritism is a natural law. As such, it has always existed and will always exist and, of this law, we know only a small part, the doctrine named Spiritism. Recognizing, however, that we know very little about this law of nature does not mean to say that what we know is invalid and, in certain respects, conclusive, as long as it is very well grounded, with certainty, in doctrinal concepts. It just means recognizing that the spiritist science is not concluded, but rather that it is the basis, just as the studies of Isaac Newton provided the basis for Physics.

Our role first must be that of a humble student, because, most of the time, we do not even understand all the concepts brilliantly developed by Allan Kardec in his works. In fact, knowing that his last two works, O Céu e o Inferno and A Genesis were tampered with and that Rational Spiritualism and Magnetism were almost erased by time, we have to recognize that we learned a lot wrong and that we failed to learn so many others.

What we have today, in general, is a very meager and superficial knowledge, in addition to being often distorted, of Spiritism “contained” in Kardec's works. As if that weren't enough, putting Kardec into oblivion, we started to admit as doctrinal other concepts that, in most cases, did not pass through the sieve of reason, nor the control of the scientific method, so well developed by the coder. And, armed with all this lack of knowledge, many have wanted to dictate Spiritism, according to their visions and conceptions. That is why, of what we are not sure about, because there is nothing conclusive in Spiritism, we cannot say anything, although we can say, paradoxically, that many certainties, which persist today in the spiritist movement, are not exact, like the existence of the threshold.

We don't go much further. Our texts and studies are full of notes and examples of everything we said above. We end up reaffirming: we are not teachers, but students, and we will never be closed to re-evaluating any idea or content that proves to be wrong or incomplete, according to an irrefutable and irrefutable logic of facts that, perhaps, we have come to not fully understand or know.

That's it, for the sake of humanity, which we invite everyone.