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

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.

Did you know that Kardec has a real “treatise on social philosophy”? So it is. We will demonstrate this below, but first, let's talk a little about the current state of human society.

Much has been said about the moment we are going through: the social transformations, the commotions, the transition period we are going through towards a planet of regeneration. However, there is a huge shadow hovering over the collective imagination, accustomed to materialistic or emergency workers. It seems that wherever we look, there is nothing but sadness, pain and contempt. we get used to to look at our neighbor as an enemy, as someone willing to do us harm or, at best, to ignore our mere existence. It happens, however, that we are a society that is far from the essential concepts of spirituality and the good. We say we are spiritists, or spiritualists, to, however, for lack of studying Spiritism, materialize the world of spirits, which should be the target of consolation, away from the miseries of the flesh and, when we deal with human beings, we get used to forgetting that , inside and outside that body, there is a Spirit that commands everything, and that is the origin of all its action.

As we will see in Kardec, it is a false assumption to believe that “humanity is lost”, as many have heard. No: humanity is just distracted, because it has ceased to know what underlies moral development. Here's what we're going to recover, in this article.

We have forgotten, we have said, about Kardec, but we are also unaware of everything that was called moral elements, existing in Rational Spiritualism and so well defined by Paul Janet ((JANET, Paul. SMALL ELEMENTS OF MORAL)) to later serve as a basis and be developed, in practice, through the study of Spiritism. There was, with the rational spiritualists, the theory, based on reason, that the human being is an incarnated Spirit, responding to the laws of God, but it was mainly with Kardec that this theory was developed in a practical way, through the study of manifestations spiritists, a study that, at the hands of Allan Kardec, lasted for about twelve years, and which culminated in the most beautiful and elevated philosophical treatises that humanity has ever known, because they are based on ourselves, Spirits, on our journey towards the happiness.

Contained in the original pages of The Genesis ((We use the work by publisher FEAL, based on the 1st French edition, original)), before tampering post-mortem of its fifth edition, at the end of this work of scientific and moral content, there are Kardec's reflections on the social theme and the evolution of humanity. Let's go to it:

signs of the times

Under this title, Kardec begins chapter XVIII of the work, the last, and perhaps the most beautiful of all. Kardec, on the release date of this work, was just over a year away from his death. In it, he demonstrates that humanity inevitably follows the movement of progress, since it is a Law of Nature, that is, a Law of God, which never rests. According to Kardec:

Humanity has made undeniable progress so far. Men, by their intelligence, have reached results that they had never achieved in relation to Science, Arts and material well-being. They still have immense progress to make: to make charity, fraternity and solidarity reign among them in order to ensure their moral well-being.

Leaving the state of childhood, humanity entered a new era, where the necessary moral development would take place, destroying, in itself, all the passions, that is, anything that could give rise to imperfections:

It is no longer just the development of intelligence that is necessary for men, it is the elevation of feelings and, therefore, it is necessary to destroy everything that can over-excite selfishness and pride.

We need to understand that Kardec saw all of this with enormous optimism. Inserted in the context of Rational Spiritualism and Moral Sciences and with the rapid development and wide acceptance of Spiritism by educated men, he predicted that, with the exception of some difficulties, the moral revolution through Spiritism would take great strides. He could not have predicted, however, that, after his death, everything would take such an adverse turn, with the prohibition of the teaching of Moral Sciences in France, the deviation of the Spiritist Movement, mainly by Leymarie((To understand these facts well, it is important to read The Legacy of Allan Kardec, by Simoni Privato)), and the wars, finally, that just launched the world into the necessary search for care in daily survival — in other words, man had to worry much more about matters of matter , not having the opportunity, for a long time, to take care of the things of the Spirit.

Kardec believed that this period definitely marked a new moral phase for the human Spirit:

This is the period we enter from now on and will mark one of the main phases of humanity. This phase, which is currently being worked out, is the necessary complement of the previous state, as adulthood is the complement of youth. It could, therefore, be foreseen and announced in advance, so we can say that the times marked by God have arrived.

At this time, it is not a question of a partial change, of a renewal limited to a region, a people, a race; it is a universal movement that operates in the direction of moral progress. It tends to establish a new order of things, and the men who are its greatest opponents unknowingly contribute to this.

And then, he completes, as if he were talking exactly about the current moments, where philosophers fight spirituality:

It is at this precise moment, when one finds oneself excessively oppressed in one's material sphere, where intellectual life overflows and the feeling of spirituality flourishes, that men claiming to be philosophers intend to fill the void with doctrines of neantism ((Doctrine of nothingness, nihilism)) and materialism! Strange aberration! These men, who intend to boost humanity, strive to circumscribe it within the limits of matter, from which it seeks to escape. They hide the perspective of infinite life and say to him, showing the tomb: Nec plus ultra ((Latin expression meaning “nothing beyond!”))!

the social spirit

So, as we said, looking at the result of more than a hundred years of exacerbated materialism and denial of human spirituality, we see, in society, the evil of passions installed: war, violence, selfishness, pride, vanity, Avarice, in short, everything that is the result of not knowing something better and more important, takes over the social environment, where it is not possible to identify the Gospel maxim, “do to others what you would like to be done to yourself. – Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” We also live under a treaty of social philosophy, but it is materialistic and nihilistic!

Man, stuck in materialistic ideas, forgets that there is a future. He forgets that, in addition to the body, there is his true life, eternal life, which extends from far to infinity, and he ignores, therefore, that it is up to his efforts to live the good, by fulfilling the divine laws for himself and towards all others, sooner or later attain the happiness reserved for the good. Says Kardec:

By the law of the plurality of existences, man is related to what he has done and what he will do with the men of the past and those of the future; it can no longer say that it has nothing in common with the dead, for both of them meet constantly, in this world and in the next, to ascend together the scale of progress, providing mutual support. Fraternity is no longer restricted to a few individuals united by chance during the short, ephemeral duration of a life, but is perpetual like the life of the Spirit, universal like humanity, which constitutes a great family where all the members are in solidarity with one another. others, whatever the time in which they lived.

Now, how to wish for a fraternal humanity if it lives today, wishing for tomorrow, only with the purpose of supplying its individual material needs and pleasures, ignoring that, in addition to pains and joys, inherent to matter, the Spirit continues, so evolved how much did you try to do? See: the action of the Spirit with society is not an imposition, but a consequence, because the one who understands and starts to live the good in itself, out of moral obligation, extends a helping hand to others:

Fraternity will be the cornerstone of the new social order, but there is no real, solid and effective fraternity without being supported by an unshakable foundation. That basis is faith; not faith in this or that particular dogmas that change with the times and peoples and stone each other, because, by cursing each other, they maintain antagonism. But faith in fundamental principles that everyone can accept: God, the soul, the future, UNLIMITED INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS, THE PERPETUITY OF RELATIONS BETWEEN BEINGS. When men are convinced that God is the same for all; that God, sovereignly just and good, cannot will anything that is unjust; that evil comes from them and not from Him, then all will be considered children of the same Father and will stretch out their hands to one another.

Regarding the materialism of his time, Kardec says that “a no less characteristic sign of the period into which we have entered is the evident reaction that takes place in the direction of spiritualist ideas. ((The reaction to spiritualist ideas occurred in opposition to the post-French Revolution materialist period, represented by ideologists (Destutt de Tracy, Cabanis, Volney, etc.). Rational spiritualists, after 1830, such as Royer-Collard, Victor Cousin, Théodore Jouffroy, among others, established Philosophical Sciences at the University of Paris (and in schools), including Theoretical and Practical Morals, Experimental Psychology, Theodicy, considering the human being as an “incarnated soul”. According to Kardec, Spiritism is found among these Sciences, giving them development. (N. do E.))); an instinctive repulsion manifests itself against materialistic ideas“. Today, on the contrary, we see materialist ideas being defended on all sides. However, we see another movement: society, more and more, rejects the dogmatic ideas of religions, causing a massive emptying of the ranks of religious organizations - including the Brazilian Spiritist Movement, which has become a religion, full of dogmas. It is interesting to note that the religions that still hold some attraction for people are precisely those that spend more time cultivating materialistic ideas than the other way around.

This is actually a move positive. We cannot forget that the spiritualist movement, which gave rise to Rational Spiritualism and, later, to Spiritism, was born in opposition to the materialist ideas of its time, which, in turn, were also born in opposition to the dogmas of religions. Man became materialist because he had nothing better to believe in, until spiritualist and spiritist philosophies developed - which is precisely why they gained so many followers in a short time and among the most educated classes of society.

The movement that is operating in the present, after a gigantic fall that lasted for more than a century, also leads to this result, and we can already see nascent signs of this work that is being carried out, and the recovery of spiritualist philosophy and science spiritism and magnetism are the first steps to support all this:

The new generation will march towards the realization of all humanitarian ideas compatible with the degree of progress at which it has reached. Spiritism, advancing towards the same goal and achieving its objectives, will meet it again on the same ground. Men favorable to progress will find in spiritist ideas a powerful resource, and Spiritism will find, in new men, spirits fully willing to accept it. Faced with this combination of circumstances, what can anyone who wants to stand in your way do?

Spiritism did not create social renewal, because the maturity of humanity makes this renewal a necessity. For its moralizing power, for its progressive tendencies, for the elevation of its purposes, for the generality of the questions that it embraces, Spiritism is, more than all other doctrines, able to support the regenerating movement.

Curious: at certain moments, it seems that Kardec is writing about the current moment. The scenario repeats itself: humanity, not having been able to take advantage of the development of spiritualist ideas, has only been delayed. But, as always, having known the height of evil, man begins to seek new answers to his moral desolation.

The age of regeneration: the stretch we didn't know

In the tampering of this conclusive work, the losses were enormous, especially due to the numerous deletions carried out. If you wish, compare this last chapter and you will see how much it has been mutilated. In the original version, there is a very deep thought, but also hard, by Allan Kardec, regarding the resistance found by Spiritism, among those who are definitely not ready for this order of ideas, because their spiritual age has not yet achieved such resourcefulness. Follow:

Saying that humanity is ripe for regeneration does not mean that all individuals are on the same level, but many have, by intuition, the germ of new ideas that circumstances will make blossom. Then, they will show themselves to be more advanced than one might suppose and will diligently follow the majority's initiative((The majority of individuals are just distracted. They are not necessarily bad, nor do they use their intelligence for evil, but they just don't use it for the good. give them better things, and they will quickly come to reason again)).

There are, however, those who are essentially refractory to these ideas, even among the most intelligent, and who will certainly not accept them, at least in this lifetime.; in some cases, in good faith, out of conviction; others out of interest. sThey are those whose material interests are linked to the current situation and who are not advanced enough to give them up, because the general good matters less than their personal good. – are apprehensive at the slightest reform movement. Truth is a secondary matter for them, or, rather, the truth for certain people lies entirely in that which does not cause them any trouble. All progressive ideas are, from their point of view, subversive ideas, and for that reason they have an implacable hatred for them and make an obstinate war against them. They are intelligent enough to see in Spiritism an aid to progressive ideas and the elements of transformation that they fear and, because they do not feel up to it, they strive to destroy it.. If they thought him worthless and unimportant, they wouldn't worry about him. We have already said it elsewhere: “The more grandiose an idea is, the more it finds opponents, and its importance can be measured by the violence of the attacks to which it is the object”.

The number of stragglers is still large, no doubt, but what can they do against the rising wave, but throw a few stones at it? This wave is the generation that rises, while they disappear with the generation that leaves each day with great strides. Until then, they will defend the ground step by step; there is, therefore, an inevitable struggle, but an unequal struggle, because it is that of the decrepit past that falls in rags against the young future; of stagnation against progress, of the creature against the will of God, because the times appointed by Him have arrived.

Unfortunately, for all that happened, intelligent but refractory individuals found space to spread their ideas that, today, hinder the progress of humanity. The laggards, “neither here nor there”, having nothing to inspire, just remained, for the most part, laggards. They are spirits that, many times, do not want evil, but do not have any understanding of what is good and the need for their own transformation, which is why they fall into the tale of materialism, operating as masses in favor of the former.

the planet of regeneration

Many believe that the planet of regeneration will be reached by a divine imposition, where, in a magic pass, the bad ones will be expelled and the good ones will conquer their deserved paradise. Nothing further from the truth (and from reason). Kardec highlights that

For men to be happy on Earth, it must be populated only by good spirits, incarnate and disembodied, who only want the good. That time having arrived, a great emigration will take place at that time among its inhabitants. Those who do evil for evil and are not touched by the feeling of good, being no longer worthy of the transformed Earth, will be excluded, because they would bring discord and confusion again and would be an obstacle to progress. These will atone for their hardening, some in inferior worlds, others among backward terrestrial races that will be the equivalent of the inferior worlds, where they will take their acquired knowledge and whose mission will be to advance them. They will be replaced by better spirits who will make justice, peace and fraternity reign among them.

Planet Earth will only change for the better when the Spirits that incarnate on it have changed for the better. This transformation will not take place in an instant, however: it takes place on a daily basis, in the process of disincarnation and incarnation of Spirits, because a part of the Spirits that previously incarnated here, will no longer incarnate, as they are no longer able to live here.

This, of course, demonstrates the slowness of this process. However, this process can be leveraged by a new order of ideas, which are those of Spiritism, which was born precisely for this:

The new generation, having to establish the era of moral progress, is distinguished by a generally precocious intelligence and reason, added to the innate feeling of goodness and spiritualist beliefs. It is the indisputable sign of a certain degree of earlier advancement. It will never be composed exclusively of eminently superior spirits, but of those who, having already progressed, are willing to assimilate all progressive ideas and able to support the regenerating movement.

We must not believe, however, that all the laggards will be expelled from the Earth, although this idea pleases many of us, as we think that this would be better, in order to let's get rid of of those who embarrass the general happiness. We need to recognize that it is a very petty thought and, also, lacking in reason. Explain the encoder:

It is not to be understood by this emigration of Spirits that all those laggards will be expelled from Earth and relegated to inferior worlds. On the contrary, many will return, because they had yielded to the influence of circumstances and bad example. In them, the appearance was worse than the essence. Once freed from the influence of matter and the prejudices of the corporeal world, most of these spirits will see things in a completely different way from how they saw them in life, which is in agreement with numerous examples. In this case, they are helped by benevolent spirits, who are interested in them and hurry to enlighten them and show them the wrong path they had followed.. By our prayers and exhortations, we ourselves can contribute to their improvement because there is a perpetual solidarity between the dead and the living.

Let's look at those who displease us, because we think we are superior. We recognize that, in many, there really are bad habits and imperfections that cause general discomfort. However, let's take a closer look at them: what's wrong with them? Often nothing. They are Spirits that, in the observed material life, forgetful of the greater purposes of evolution, are only absorbed in their worries or passing joys, as we have been so many times. They are not disgusting creatures, but only Spirits who, in the present life, could not learn and develop like others, but who, even so, have the sympathy of good Spirits and should also have ours, so that, leaving our selfishness , we can extend the friendly word to them, if possible knowledge and, at least, good thought, through prayer. Can you imagine the joy of seeing, tomorrow, reincarnating with us, the one who used to cause restlessness, now more concerned with the good and its need for progress?

The regeneration of humanity does not absolutely need the integral renewal of the Spirits, since a modification in their moral dispositions is enough. This modification takes place among all those who are predisposed, whenever they are withdrawn from the pernicious influence of the world. Therefore, those who return are not always other Spirits, but often the same Spirits, thinking and feeling differently.

The cataclysms, the mass deaths, far from serving to fulfill a “collective karma” (sic ((This is complete nonsense, an idea that was never in the Spiritist Doctrine and, moreover, something irrational, as we have already discussed in this article), comply with the laws of Nature. Yet they accelerate social change:

When this improvement is isolated and individual, it goes unnoticed and has no overt influence on the world. Another effect occurs when improvement takes place simultaneously on large masses, for then, according to the proportions in a generation, the ideas of a people or a race can be profoundly modified.

This is what is almost always noticed after the great calamities decimate the populations. Destroying scourges only destroy bodies, but do not affect the Spirit. They activate the movement of entry and exit between the corporeal and the spiritual world and, consequently, the progressive movement of incarnate and disincarnate Spirits. It is worth noting that, at all times in history, great social crises have been followed by eras of progress.

Conclusion

It is very clear, therefore, that social changes will not take place by the order of imposition, nor politics, nor that of weapons, nor that of human laws, and even less, by the action of the “finger of God”, who in no way interferes with our progress.

No: social advancement will be a consequence of moral advancement, and this will only happen by retaking, precisely, the forgotten morality, and will be boosted if it is combined with the practical knowledge brought by Spiritism, capable of causing a revolution of ideas at the individual level. and then to society. Is obvious, from the above, that this revolution of ideas is linked to the moral transformation of the individual, and not to the use of this or that political bias — it bears repeating.

Don't let yourself fall into that snare either. In your meetings, carefully put away everything when it comes to politics and irritating matters. In this respect, discussions will only cause embarrassment, while no one will have anything to object to morality, as long as it is good.

Look for in Spiritism what can improve you. Here's the essentials. When men are better, really useful social reforms will follow naturally. By working for moral progress, you will lay the truest and most solid foundations of all improvements.

Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1862 > February > Response to the New Year's Message from the Lionesses Spiritists

In other words, it's no use taking the stage or going to the streets with posters asking for change, when we ourselves are not doing our part. Change modifies by example, it is contagious, because everyone wants to be happy (that's why, mixing joys with happiness, the Instagram profiles of rich and “well-to-do” people gain so many followers).

Let us, therefore, take care of improving ourselves, for the moral consequence that all the study of Spiritism has. Let us also take care to do our part: to study this Doctrine, with dedication, in order to understand it well, spreading its real face of consoling science, far from dogmas and ideas that materialize and imprison the Spirit in the false concepts of sin, punishment, etc. Let us strive to recover the knowledge of the great spiritualist philosophers, but also the forgotten knowledge of Magnetism. Let us strive to bring these concepts to society as well, starting with making an effort to make, from early childhood education, something better, more autonomous and cooperative, fraternal, away from the ideas of punishment, rewards and "ways", based, in short, , in the education of great humanist thinkers, such as Rousseau and Pestalozzi, who excelled in reason and humility in the pursuit of answers, through the scientific method… And, then, we will be tracing a new path for social change.

Cover photo: INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL (CEI) – https://cei-spiritistcouncil.com/obras-de-allan-kardec-para-download/

In many minds, the old image of God remains, linked to the concepts of a humanity that could not understand what was outside of matter and human figures. So they created a God in their image: a bearded man, sitting on a throne above the clouds, looking – and judging – to everything and everyone.

However, the human mentality is no longer like that. In more than two thousand years, it has developed in reason and science, and it no longer accepts, so easily, the old dogmas of human religions. In fact, in terms of science, since we know that the sky is not a vault and that the infinite Universe extends to all sides, we can no longer assume this image of God. Furthermore, reason shows that God does not deal with us directly, controlling our lives. Far from it, it is demonstrated, by the study of Spiritism, that God acts through his Laws, which are the Natural Laws, which govern everything with perfection.

However, a doubt arises: is God everywhere, as they say? Does God hear us? Is that proverb that says “not a leaf falls without God’s will” correct?

As always, the study of Spiritism clarifies the horizon for irrefutable reason. We are going to demonstrate the beauty of Kardec's conclusions, in A Genesis, but remember that it is important to base yourself on the new edition, by FEAL, which is a translation based on the fourth edition of this work, since the fifth edition – the one that provided the basis for all other editions and translations – was tampered with.

This is how Allan Kardec expresses himself in the cited work:

20. Providence is God's solicitude for all creatures. God is everywhere, He sees everything and presides over everything, even the little things; and that is what his providential action consists of. “How can God, so great, so powerful, so superior to everything, meddle in minute details, worry about the smallest acts and thoughts of each individual? This is the question that unbelief asks itself, from which it concludes that, admitting the existence of God, his action must only be done on the general laws of the Universe; that it works for all eternity, in virtue of these laws, to which each creature is submitted in its sphere of activity, without the need for the incessant assistance of providence.

21. In their present state of inferiority, men hardly understand an infinite God, because, being themselves restricted and limited, they only understand him restricted and limited as they do. They represent him as a circumscribed being and make him an image similar to themselves. The pictures that paint him with human traits only help to keep this error in the minds of peoples, who adore form in him more than thought. For many people, he is a mighty ruler, seated on an inaccessible throne, lost in the immensity of the heavens; and because their faculties and perceptions are limited, they do not understand that God can or deign to intervene directly in small things.

22. Faced with the impossibility of understanding the essence of divinity, man can only make an approximate idea of it through comparisons, necessarily very imperfect, but which can at least show him the possibility of what, at first, it seems impossible.

Suppose a fluid subtle enough to penetrate all bodies. It is evident that each molecule of this fluid, meeting with each molecule of matter, will produce on bodies an action identical to that which would produce the totality of the fluid. This is what chemistry demonstrates every day, in limited proportions.

This fluid, not being intelligent, acts mechanically, only through material forces; but if we suppose him endowed with intelligence, with perceptive and sensitive faculties, he will no longer act blindly, but with discernment, with will and freedom; he will see, understand and feel.

[…]

23. No matter how high they are, Spirits are creatures limited in their faculties, in their power and in the extension of their perceptions, and they would not know, in this aspect, how to approach God. But we can use them as a point of comparison. What the Spirit cannot perform, except within a restricted limit, God, who is infinite, performs in infinite proportions. There is still the difference that the action of the Spirit is momentarily subordinated to circumstances, and that of God is permanent; the thought of the Spirit encompasses a limited space for a time, that of God embraces the Universe and eternity. In a word, between the Spirits and God there is a distance from the finite to the infinite.

24. The perispiritual fluid is not the thought of the Spirit, but the agent and intermediary of this thought; as it is he who transmits it, somehow impregnated with it. Due to our impossibility of isolating thought, it seems to us that it and the fluid are confused, as is the case with sound and air, so that we can, so to speak, materialize it. In the same way that we say that the air becomes sonorous, taking the effect for the cause, we can say that the fluid becomes intelligent.

25. Whether or not this is the case with regard to God's thought, that is, whether he acts directly or through a fluid, for our reasoning, we are going to represent him in the concrete form of an intelligent fluid, filling the infinite Universe, penetrating all parts of creation: all of nature is immersed in the divine fluid. Now, in virtue of the principle that the parts of a whole are of the same nature and have the same properties as the whole, each atom of this fluid, if we may so express it, would possess thought, that is, the essential attributes of divinity, and this fluid being everywhere, everything is subject to his intelligent action, to his foresight, to his solicitude. There will not be a being, however tiny, that is not somehow immersed in it. We are, therefore, constantly in the presence of the divinity and we cannot remove a single one from our actions, from his gaze; our thought is in unceasing contact with his thought, and it is rightly said that God reads into the deepest bowels of our hearts; we are in him, as he is in us, according to the word of Christ.

In order to extend his solicitude over all creatures, God has no need to cast his gaze from the heights of immensity. In order for him to hear our prayers, he does not need to cross space, nor for them to be said with a resounding voice, because God being incessantly by our side, our thoughts reverberate in him; they are like the sounds of a bell that make all the molecules in the ambient air vibrate.

26. Far be it from us to think of materializing divinity. The image of a universal intelligent fluid is, of course, only a comparison capable of giving a fairer idea of God than the paintings that represent him under a human figure. This comparison only aims at understanding the possibility of God being everywhere and taking care of everything.

We see, therefore, that the Universal Cosmic Fluid, which originates all matter, in any possible state, permeates everything. It is this fluid, as Spiritism demonstrates, that guides thought everywhere. That's why it's easy to understand that God is in everything and that it is not necessary to kneel, look up and formulate certain words: he hears and knows our most intimate thoughts and needs.

In fact, it is this same fluid that leads our thought through infinite space and arrives at the thought of a Spirit in which we think:

The spiritual fluids that constitute one of the states of the universal cosmic fluid are the atmosphere of spiritual beings. It is the element from which they extract the materials on which they act; the medium where special phenomena take place, perceptible to the sight and hearing of the Spirit and which escape the carnal senses impressed only by tangible matter. It is, in short, the vehicle of thought, as air is the vehicle of sound.

ibidem

It is for this reason that Spirits – good or bad – come, almost always promptly, to our mental call. And it is as a result of this principle that we need to recognize that Never we are devoid of company, since this company does not need to be “physical”, like a Spirit that stays with us all the time. A good Spirit, including a protective Spirit or guardian angel, does not need to be “planted” at our side: it is enough for his or her thoughts to be projected onto us and, in the same way, that our thoughts are projected onto his.

It is through the same action of fluids that we are able to assimilate good or bad intuitions and influences, even if unconsciously. If we're trying hard live in good (and not just do the good, which is very different) our thoughts shape the vibration of the fluids around us, making us more accessible to good Spirits. The same happens, in the opposite direction, when we are disconnected from the good, that is, immersed in passions and bad habits. That is why, in this state, it is said, in the works of Spiritism, that good Spirits move away from us. It is not that they turn their backs on us and our needs, because even the spirit most attached to evil will still have the sympathy of superior spirits, but it is that, in this mental state, we thicken our perispirit and the fluids around us. , making us inaccessible to good fluids, that is, to the good thoughts of superior spirits.

We ask, then: how to get out of the last state? Now, relatively simple: through the effort constant and dedicated to improving one's thoughts and actions, which can be greatly helped by the action of prayer, which is (should be) an honest action of seeking, through thought, to modify one's mental dispositions in order to ask for help, which it has already been shown that it is not difficult, since God is around us and in us. It is enough to wish for the change itself, honestly, recognizing the situation of shortage, caused by the misuse of the faculties of the intelligence, and the good Spirits will come to our aid, to give Support to our action, but never to do the work that must be done for us. And how will they act? Influencing us, and the people around us, to lead us to the opportunities, and also to the tests, necessary for our change.

The fact that it is the Spirits who come to help us, and not God himself in person, does not diminish Him at all, since it is through His Creation and His Laws that everything works. It is in this sense that we can explain that proverb quoted above: “not a leaf falls without God willing”, which means that even a leaf that falls from a tree is responding to a Law of Nature, Creation of God, and not that God take His attention to say "this leaf will fall now, but that one will not." It is logical to understand that God You know of everything, because if he didn't know, he wouldn't be God, but, in the same way, it's logical to understand that he doesn't need to interfere in anything, because his creation is perfect.

Arrived at this point, we cannot fail to highlight the total inconsistency preached by human religions, for all times, which aim, for the purposes of controlling their faithful, “stealing” God for himself, claiming that God is only within the Church, or that God benefits more those who follow that religion, giving them prizes and titles to possessions, material wealth, etc.

To Kardec, a spirit said that “God would not allow” an inferior spirit to materialize in a horrendous way, to scare. We had found that it is clear that there was a law that we do not yet know about. So, in one of the last studies of Revista Espírita, another Spirit suggested that materializations and physical phenomena, caused by inferior Spirits, always take place by the “command” of superior Spirits, with a purpose. This is why, as we understand it, a lower spirit could not materialize in a horrendous way: because a higher spirit would not help him to do so.

Divine creation is, we understand, autonomous. God, intervening, would practice heteronomy. So if he could intervene in certain aspects, why not in all? Why wouldn't he himself intervene, for example, to extinguish a war or violence, or, rather, to even let it start? We fall, then, into the questions that those who are guided by the heteronomous principles of religions fall into, often causing, in them, a complete abandonment of spirituality.

Rationally, we understand that God made his laws, and they are the ones that act in the Universe. His very creation, which appears to us imperfect when we look at it from a very petty aspect of our lower views, is actually perfect on the whole, and regulates itself in the path of evolution.

All this explained in this way, it is rationally easy to understand that there is no destiny predetermined by God in our lives, and that we act according to our free will, always, as long as we conquer our conscience. But that is a subject for another article.

We close with this beautiful reflection, given by São Luís and Santo Agostinho, about the doctrine of guardian angels, in The Spirits' Book:

495. Could it be that the protective Spirit abandons its protégé, for showing itself to be this rebel to the councils?

“He walks away when he sees that his advice is useless and that stronger is, in his protege, the decision to submit to the influence of inferior spirits. But he does not abandon it completely and always makes himself heard. It is then the man who covers his ears. The protector comes back as soon as he calls him.

“It is a doctrine, this, of the guardian angels, which, by its charm and sweetness, should convert the most incredulous. It does not seem very consoling to you to have beings who are superior to you, always ready to advise and support you, to help you in the ascent of the abrupt mountain of goodness; more sincere and devoted friends than all those who are most intimately connected to you on Earth? They are on your side by order of God. It was God who placed them there and, remaining there for the love of God, they carry out a beautiful but painful mission. Yes, wherever you are, they will be with you. Neither in prisons, nor in hospitals, nor in places of debauchery, nor in solitude, are you separated from those friends whom you cannot see, but whose gentle influence your soul feels, at the same time that it listens to their thoughtful advice.

“Oh! if only you knew this truth well! How much it would help you in times of crisis! How much would it deliver you from evil spirits! But oh! How many times, on the solemn day, will this angel be constrained to observe you: “Did I not advise you this? However, you didn't. Did I not show you the abyss? Yet thou hast plunged into it! Have I not made the voice of truth echo in your conscience? You preferred, however, to follow the advice of the lie!” Oh! Interrogate your guardian angels; establish between them and yourselves that tender intimacy that reigns between the best of friends. Do not think of hiding anything from them, for they have the gaze of God and you cannot deceive them. Think of the future; seek to advance yourselves in the present life. By doing so, you will shorten your trials and make your lives happier. Come on, men, courage! Once and for all, cast away all prejudices and hidden thoughts. Enter the new path that opens to you before the steps. walk! You have guides, follow them, that you will not fail to reach the goal, because that goal is God himself.

“To those who consider it impossible for truly elevated spirits to consecrate themselves to such a laborious task at all times, we will say that we influence your souls, although many millions of leagues are distant from you. Space, for us, is nothing, and despite living in another world, our spirits maintain their connections with yours. We enjoy qualities that you cannot understand, but rest assured that God has not imposed a task that is greater than our strength and that He has not left you alone on Earth, without friends and without support. Each guardian angel has his protégé, for whom he watches, as a father does for his son. He rejoices when he sees him on the right path; suffers when he despises her advice.

“Do not be afraid to bore us with your questions. On the contrary, try to be always in relationship with us. You will be stronger and happier this way. It is these communications from each one with their familiar Spirit that make all men mediums, mediums ignored today, but that will manifest later and spread like an ocean without shores, taking in unbelief and ignorance. Learned men, instruct your fellow men; men of talent, educate your brothers. You cannot imagine what work you do in this way: that of Christ, which God imposes on you. Why has God given you intelligence and knowledge, if not to share them with your brethren, but to make them go forward on the path that leads to blessedness, to eternal happiness?”
Saint Louis, Saint Augustine

Extracted from the work “Psychophonic Instructions”, by Chico Xavier.

“Brother “F” by which we will designate the companion, whose message we are going to transcribe, was a great banker on Earth. He was certainly not a criminal, in the common sense of the term, but, from the spiritual content of his manifestations, he seems to have been one of those “neither cold nor hot” men of the evangelical symbol, who, bringing his mind warm to the idea of gold, during his existence in the flesh, he was dominated by it in his early days, beyond death.“

“[…] Troubled and afflicted, I felt the need for confession. After all, I was a Catholic who had relaxed his faith. Without anyone listening to my pleas, I asked for the presence of a priest. I advanced towards the confessional and got down on my knees, but in a few moments the confessional became a bank window for me. Startled, I raised my eyes to the altar. The altar, however, had been transformed into a safe. I tried to console myself with the sight of the missal, but the book of worship suddenly appeared metamorphosed into an old book of mine, in which I secretly entered my notes of real income. I tried to isolate myself. I feared complete madness. Still, I lifted my gaze to the image of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, she would feel sorry for me, however, before my attention, the image was reduced to a high-priced jewel... It was made entirely of gold, of pure gold...

[…]

I asked for a water tank that I was familiar with at the top of the Santo Antônio neighborhood. The water, there, ran in spurts. I could bend over... I could drink as if I were an animal and, prostrate, no longer on my knees but crawling, I would implore God's grace. I found running water, clear water visited by sunlight and I stretched out on the ground... But, at the precise moment that my thirsty lips touched the pure liquid, only gold, gold appeared... I recognized that I had descended to the condition of a mentally insane person. . Then I remembered an old friend... Cícero Pereira... Cícero was a spiritist and, for that reason, he became someone I supposed, in my sad blindness, to have left behind in madness. The memory was enough for his voice to be heard. He answered my call. Supported me. Talked to me […]

A great example that one cannot blindly take the communications of a Spirit as if they were the expression of the truth. Imagine if that Spirit, being taken to a spiritual aid meeting, told only the part of the illusion in question and the unsuspecting people left stating that, in the world of Spirits, there is gold...

Do umbral and “Nosso Lar” exist? Where it is? Short answer: they do not exist as people believe, due to lack of knowledge of Spiritism. But, as this is a study group, you should not simply accept this answer, without reasoning, in the same way that you should not accept the isolated ideas of any Spirits, regardless of the medium.

Why is it that many spirits, before Spiritism or under other religions, say that, after death, they found themselves in Hell? Why, in Roman times, did the Spirits claim to be in Tartarus? Why do Spirits who have known Spiritism (that distorted one) say that they found themselves on the umbral or in the valley of suicides, and not in hell? It is very clear that this is due to their own conceptions, because, if one or the other were a reality, there would always be a uniformity in the ideas presented by the Spirits, at all times and everywhere.

Therefore, it is easy to see that these are conceptions of the imaginary. Are they an abomination? Of course not: they are part of our evolution. However, Spiritualism did not come to continue these ideas, in a more pleasant way: it came to present reality, helping human beings to get rid of these limiting conceptions that delay their step. Now, it is a fact that Spiritism has this purpose of leveraging progress, like all science, because, if it were not so, and since the Spirit is immortal, could God, in his Laws, let each one reach progress through infinite incarnations, learning by trial and error, only, and without any support. But He, being all goodness, gives us the tools, the greatest of which is intelligence and reason; it is up to us to use them or not, according to our will.

The role of the medium

The role of the medium is not to interfere in the communication of a Spirit and, through him, any type of Spirits can communicate, depending on the circumstance and the purpose, either of the medium or of the superior Spirits. The role of the scholar is to analyze and to judge these communications, based on the science already acquired and the riddle of reason((Read the article “The role of the researcher and the medium in communications with the Spirits“)).

After Kardec's death and with all the deviation that the Spiritist Movement took, mainly with the true plantation of tares that were Roustaing's ideas, the Spiritists, away from studies, they stopped reasoning and began to allow different ideas, without doctrinal basis, began to flood the imagination of the adepts of the Doctrine. Thus, fantastic and superstitious concepts began to slowly and progressively transform the Movement, which today presents itself as a religion, full of dogmas and false concepts.

What is in Spiritism?

Now, dear reader, there is in The Spirits' Book the following conclusion, presented in question 1012 of The Spirits' Book:

1012((Reviewers' Note: It should be noted that, in the numbering of the book's items, Kardec skipped no. 1011. Despite the obvious oversight, the text was kept that way in the fourteen editions that followed until Allan Kardec's death. To avoid confusion, this edition did not attempt to “correct” the numbering.)). Will there be limited places in the universe for the pains and enjoyments of spirits, according to their merit? 

“We have already answered that question. Pains and pleasures are inherent to the spirits' degree of perfection. Each one takes from himself the principle of his happiness or his misfortune. And as they are everywhere, no circumscribed or closed place exists especially intended for one thing or another. As for the incarnates, they are more or less happy or unhappy, depending on whether the world they inhabit is more or less advanced.”

The) - In accordance, then, with what you come to say, do not hell and paradise exist, such as man imagines them?

“They are simple allegories: there are happy and unhappy spirits everywhere. However, as we have already said, spirits of the same order gather together out of sympathy; but they can meet wherever they like, when they are perfect.”

The absolute location of the regions of penalties and rewards exists only in man's imagination. It stems from their tendency to materialize and circumscribe things, whose infinite essence it is not possible for him to understand.

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book. 1860

It is very clear that the places, in the world of Spirits, do not exist by themselves. They are mere allegories and, mainly, states of consciousness. The happy Spirit is “in heaven”, while the unhappy and suffering Spirit is “in hell” of his own conscience.

Let us note, however, an important detail, in question 1012-a: “However, as we have already said, spirits of the same order gather together in sympathy.“. This means that, according to their ideas and their states of evolution, the Spirits can come together. Now, knowing that less evolved Spirits are attached to the concepts of matter and knowing that, through the action of the will, the Spirit can act on fluidic matter, coming from the Universal Cosmic Fluid, it is easy to conceive that, together, the suffering Spirits gathered together can create veritable hellish or purgatorial landscapes, which, however, exist only as long as these Spirits shape them, that is, they are not places that precede them, but that exist only as creations of these groupings of intelligences.

Nor can we forget that we, mentally, are capable of creating true illusions, due to our ideas, beliefs, fears, etc. Therefore, it is easy to understand when a suffering Spirit says he is hurt, hungry, thirsty or even tired.

Important: the Spirits, in Spiritism, were categorical in this regard: there are no circumscribed places. On the other hand, about other concepts, they said: “calm down. This cannot be understood yet. Wait for the development of the Doctrine”. This demonstrates that it is false the idea that such concepts could not be taught at that time (which doesn't even make sense).

Let's not stop here, however. In July 1858, in the article “Berezina's Drum“, Kardec asks the following questions, after carrying out a series of inquiries trying to understand the moral and rational state of that Spirit, who was a soldier in his last incarnation:

28. ─ Do you see other spirits around you? ─ Yes, many.

29. ─ How do you know they are spirits? ─ Among us, we see ourselves as we are.

30. ─ How do you see them? ─ As spirits can be seen, but not through the eyes.

31. ─ And you, in what form are you here? ─ Under what I had when I was alive, that is, as a drum.

32. ─ And do you see the other spirits with the forms they had in life? ─ No. We don't take on an appearance until we are evoked. Other than that, we are formless.

The last answer was quite interesting, but so far it was just the opinion of a Spirit. Worthy of note is Kardec's methodology, probing matters of interest, instead of asking direct questions that could be answered in a biased way. Then, in September of the same year, in the article “Lectures from beyond the grave — Mrs. Schwabenhaus. Ecstatic Lethargy“, Kardec asks the following questions, getting the following answers. Please note:

29. ─ In what form are you among us? ─ Under my last female form.

30. ─ Do you see us as distinctly as if you were alive? ─ Yes.

31. Since you have been here with the form you had on Earth, is it through the eyes that you see us? ─ No, the Spirit has no eyes. I only find myself in my last form to satisfy the laws that govern spirits when evoked and forced to resume what you call perispirit.

Let's see, then: there are already two Spirits, of different elevations, besides the one who answered OLE's questions, saying the same thing: for the Spirit freed from matter, there is no form, like the one we understand. They assume the perispirit, attending to a natural law, only when they need to act materially, when, for example, they approach us to communicate (with materially I mean: they need to assume the perispirit to be able to put themselves in communication with us, which, above all, happens through this “clothes”).

General teaching and reason

Kardec always highlighted, as an indispensable method for the formation of spirit science, the double control of reason and the general teaching of the Spirits. But that's not all: the teaching, emphasizes Kardec, when it must be spread, it is given simultaneously over various points of the globe. The concepts presented here, however, were not established in this way: they were brought by a Spirit or medium, at a time, and, over time, began to be accepted by other individuals, who began to reproduce them. It is as if it were an inverted pyramid, in time: currently, from a construction of illusory theories of the past, a series of others were developed, contrary to the Spiritist Doctrine itself and recovering several concepts of the old religions.

“But I saw it on astral travel”

For the Doctrine student, it is very clear that the individual's ideas play a fundamental role in what he sees and how his physical mind interprets these “visions”.

Kardec, in A Genesis, cap. XIV, highlights that:

27. Spiritual vision is necessarily incomplete and imperfect among incarnate spirits and, consequently, subject to aberrations. Having its seat in the soul itself, its state must influence the perceptions. According to the degree of its development, the circumstances and the moral state of the individual, it can give, whether in sleep or in the waking state: 1st) the perception of certain real material facts, such as the knowledge of occurrences that happen at a distance, the descriptive details of a locality, the causes of an illness and the convenient remedies; 2) the perception of equally real things in the spiritual world, such as the vision of spirits; 3rd) fantastic images created by the imagination, analogous to the fluidic creations of thought (see above, no. 14). These creations are always in relation to the moral dispositions of the Spirit who creates them. This is how the thinking of people strongly imbued and preoccupied with certain religious beliefs presents them with hell, its boilers, its tortures and its demons, in the way they themselves imagine: it is sometimes an entire epic; pagans seeing Olympus and Tartarus, as Christians see hell and paradise. If, upon awakening or coming out of ecstasy, these people retain an accurate memory of their visions, they regard them as reality and confirmation of their belief, even though they are only the product of their own thoughts. A very strict distinction must be made from static views before accepting them. In this sense, the remedy for excessive credulity is the study of the laws that govern the spiritual world.

28. Dreams themselves present the three natures of visions described above. To the first two belong dreams of prediction, presentiments and warnings. In the third, that is, in the fluidic creations of thought, one can find the cause of certain fantastic images, which have nothing real in relation to material life, but which, for the Spirit, have such a reality that the body suffers an impact. , as hair has been seen to whiten under the impression of a dream. These creations can be provoked by exalted beliefs, memories, tastes, desires, passions, fear, remorse, habitual worries, bodily needs or malaise related to the organism's functions; finally, by other spirits, with a benevolent or malevolent objective, according to their nature.

That is to say, dear reader, that, according to spiritist science, places in the world of spirits are nothing more than false concepts. Unfortunately, falling into novel curiosity and absent from these foundations, the Spiritists began to admit the fruits of the isolated ideas of certain Spirits as if they were the full truth.

It remains to say, therefore, that there is no umbral, there is no valley of suicides and there are no spiritual colonies. as we believe: there are Spirits that come together, according to their ideas, and that, the more they are distracted from the purpose of the interval between incarnations, which should be to reflect and learn, reinforcing their will to overcome their imperfections in the next incarnation, they create “material” scenarios. , replicating earthly habits, which constitutes, for them, a real delay towards happiness.

Teaching the false concepts of umbral, suicide valleys, spiritual hospitals, etc., which are the external representation of moral suffering, is failing to teach what really matters: the analysis of one's mistakes and successes, the understanding that everything depends on the own will and the necessary action for one's own evolution. For a Spirit that suffers, and for ourselves, let's say: any suffering or physiological need, in the spiritual world, are FALSE sensations, a kind of moral repercussion ((see The Spirits' Book, second part, chap. VI, item 257)) . Now, it is Kardec's conclusion that the death of the body causes the Spirit to leave, disconnecting the perispirit, cell by cell ((see Genesis, chapter XI)). Since all the cells are dead and the perispirit is “released” (which will not take more than 24 hours after brain death) there is no repercussion from the body to the Spirit, other than through an externalization of moral suffering!

Therefore, you will not go “over the umbral”, but you will have to face your own conscience, at one time or another, and your conscience, depending on how you are and the concepts you carry, can very clearly indicate the path of readjustment. , or else it may set you in time-wasting states. Heaven or hell will be on your own conscience. Therefore, take care to learn Spiritism and draw from it the moral consequences in support of your own will. In this way, you will reach, sooner, the desired happiness, which is not living in a cozy little house in a spiritual colony where the Spirits are concerned with working to earn money in exchange, but the possibility of acting for good, through infinite space, making their part in divine creation.

And make no mistake: the Spirit is transported by thought, wherever he projects that thought. No need for a flying bus.

Where is the key to understanding all this, then?

It's in A Genesis, by Allan Kardec. Read with attention:

14. Spirits act on spiritual fluids, not manipulating them as men manipulate gases, but with the help of thought and will, which are for the Spirit what the hand is for man. Through thought, they imprint this or that direction on the fluid; they agglomerate, combine or disperse them and form sets with an appearance, a shape, a certain color; they change their properties, as a chemist changes those of a gas or other bodies, combining them according to certain laws. It is the great workshop or laboratory of the spiritual life.

Sometimes these transformations are the result of an intention, but often they are the product of an unconscious thought, because the Spirit just thinks about something for it to be done.

This is how, for example, a spirit appears to an incarnate spirit, endowed with spiritual vision, under the appearance he had when he was alive, at the time he met him, although he has already had several other incarnations. He presents himself with clothes, external signs, diseases, scars, amputated limbs, etc. who had; a beheaded one will present himself without his head. I do not say that they preserved such appearances; no, certainly, because, as a Spirit, he is neither lame nor one-armed, nor one-eyed nor decapitated. But his thought, referring to the time when it was like that, his perispirit instantly takes on this appearance, which also changes instantly. If he had been once black and once white, he will present himself as either black or white, according to which of the two incarnations he is evoked and where his thoughts go.

By an analogous effect, the Spirit's thought fluidly creates the objects it was used to using. A miser will handle gold; a soldier will have his weapons and his uniform; a smoker, his pipe; a workman, his plow and his oxen; an old woman, her distaff. These fluidic objects are as real to the Spirit as they would be in the material state to the incarnate man. But because they are created by thought, their existence is as ephemeral as it [thought].

It is very easy to understand, therefore, what we said: “why does it exist? Because they believe.” We therefore need to recognize the need understanding and separating what is false from what is true, because, as soon as someone says that, in the world of spirits, there are bogeymen who eat children, or spirits that vampirize the perispiritual fluid of the incarnate (the what no can happen, knowing the principle of universal laws that govern matter and Spirit), and that people start to, without thinking, believe, without reasoning, in these concepts, themselves, after they die, depending on their state of consciousness, will manufacture their own hauntings, that is, by the action of thought, will create such images and, then, in their mediumistic communications, they will reproduce the same ideas, probably increased here and there, after all, “whoever tells a tale, increases one point”.

Do you understand the problem, dear reader?

Explanatory video, with Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo

Conclusion

With all this, are we saying that Chico Xavier was wrong? NO, by the principle of Chico Xavier being just the medium. However, André Luiz, who was not even a spiritualist person, on Earth, presented his truth of things, according to his conceptions. And, since this opinion has no doctrinal and rational basis, it cannot be part of Spiritism.

It is important to note, however, that if such creations exist, it is because God allows them. In fact, this is something linked to the divine benevolence itself, which guarantees, to each one, a gradual and shock-free development. In the article “About the Spirits who believe they are still alive”, from the Spiritist Magazine of 1864, there is an important spiritual communication, from which we take the following excerpt:

Not everything is proof in existence; the life of the Spirit continues, as you have been told, from its birth to infinity; for some, death is nothing more than a simple accident that has no influence on the fate of the person who dies. A fallen tile, an attack of apoplexy, a violent death, very often, do nothing but separate the Spirit from its material envelope; but the perispiritual envelope retains, at least in part, the properties of the body that has just succumbed. On a day of battle, if I could open your eyes which you have, but which you cannot make use of, you would see many fights continue, many soldiers still rising to the assault, defending and attacking the redoubts; you would even hear them utter their hurrays! and their battle cries, in the midst of the silence and under the dismal veil that follows a day of carnage; the fight is over, they return to their homes to embrace their old fathers, their old mothers who are waiting for them. Sometimes this state lasts a long time for some; it is a continuation of terrestrial life, a mixed state between corporeal and spiritual life. Why, if they were simple and wise, would they feel the cold of the grave? Why would they pass abruptly from life to death, from daylight to night? God is not unjust, and He leaves this joy to the poor in spirit, hoping that they will see their state through the development of their own faculties, and that they may pass calmly from the material life to the real life of the Spirit.

We see, therefore, that the existence of such “places” is a fact, permitted by divine benevolence, to those who are not yet developed to understand something above and outside of matter and material needs.

We end by remembering what is printed on our homepage:

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.

Allan Kardec – Genesis