For those who didn't see it, yesterday, on the night of the Oscars 2022, Will Smith, when taking the stage, gave a big slap in the face of the presenter, Chris Rock. It turns out that, shortly before, he had made a joke, associating Will's wife, who suffers from hair loss due to an illness, with the protagonist of an old movie, where the protagonist has her hair shaved.

Will got up, walked towards Chris, “armed”, as we can see in his physical behavior and gave him a big slap in the face. No, it doesn't seem to have been a staging, as we can see in the video to the side and, even if it were, the reflection would remain, as we could do with a film.

And what does that have to do with our subject here? Well, actually, a lot, as with a lot of everyday happenings. Let's see:

First, we can justify Will's action?

Well, we are not here to judge anyone, but only to analyze actions that can give us a guide for timely reflections. We can, at first glance, raise the issue of defense: Will would only be defending the image and honor of his wife, which would justify the act.

If it had been just over a century, the case would have made a beautiful duel: there would be a challenge from which, probably, only one of them would come out alive. In fact, the “slap in the face” comes precisely from this past habit: the challenger, hit in his honor, with his hand or with a glove, hit the offender in the face, challenging him to a gun duel.

757. Can the duel be considered a case of self-defense?

"No; it is murder and an absurd custom, worthy of barbarians. With a more advanced civilization and more moral, man will understand that the duel is as ridiculous as the combats that were once considered to be the judgment of God.”

The Book of Spirits

Dueling, however it may be, is something that makes a man ridiculous. Lives are wasted and suffering unfolds in matters of banal disputes which, moreover, almost always have the honor as the central point of contention.

759. What value has what is called point of honor, in the matter of dueling?

“Pride and vanity: humanity’s double wound.”

The two excerpts above were taken from The Spirits' Book, by Allan Kardec. Of course, we are not here talking about a duel to the death — something that, in different ways, still happens — but we can refer to the Spirits' Book, in terms of the spirits' concurring opinion in this regard. If you don't know what Spiritism is all about, which is a science whose theory was born from the rational and methodological observation of spiritual manifestations and communications, Click here to access a master's thesis on the subject.

Remembering: we are not here taking this work as a sacred code, but rather bringing it to support, through the Doctrine of the Spirits, to our reflection. And we see, after all, what rationally becomes wide open to our eyes, but which we rarely want to admit: behind it all is wounded pride and threatened vanity. After all, in the case at hand, the answer could have been higher: Will could have taken the opportunity to give several moral lessons on the issues involved. But there are more of the aspects enclosed in the question; let's go to them:

the passions

In the past, back in the 19th century, it was very common and clear to use the term passion to designate the strong human attachment to an object, theme, person or feeling. So a man passionate, at that time, he would have been a man frantic in his attachment to a particular issue.

Today, it is more common to be the word emotion associated with that context. However, understanding the meaning of the first, I think that the second does not represent the high degree of attachment as well as the first. For example, a man may be feeling the emotion of anger, but this emotion can be in different degrees, and, to a certain extent, this emotion, which emanates from the instinct, is useful and beneficial (eg, when we feel angry when trying to open a screw-on lid that won't come off: anger gives us even more strength to open it, but if left unchecked, it often hurts us in the process). On the other hand, in saying that man is experiencing the passion from anger, it is very well understood that he is in a very high degree of attachment to this emotion that, despite emanating from instinct, which is always useful and balanced, arrived in a state of madness and incontainment.

And then follows, in the same sequence, a complement by Kardec to the previous question, in OLE:

[759] a) — But are there not cases where honor is truly pledged, and where a refusal would be cowardice?

“That depends on the uses and customs. Each country and each century has a different way of seeing it. When men are better and more advanced in morals, they will understand that the true point of honor is above earthly passions and that it is not killing, nor letting oneself be killed, that they will repair wrongs.”

It is “beautiful” to see that the Spirits themselves, when superior, do not judge us with contempt. They always denote that everything is in accordance with our evolution, that is, with our time and the customs of each people. A simple example: in the old days, Japanese samurai took their own life, with a dagger, when they recognized themselves guilty and without honor.

But the main point is at the end of the paragraph: “the true point of honor is above earthly passions and that it is not killing, nor allowing oneself to be killed, that they will repair grievances”. It is in overcoming the passions that we will find the true point of honor, the true feeling, the true charity. It is through this overcoming that we will advance to a new stage of society, but this is only done by will and individual choice. How, then, to arrive at this new state of earthly things?

Kardec, in A Genesis (chapter III), concludes: “He who does not master his passions can be very intelligent, but, at the same time, very bad. Instinct annihilates itself; the passions can only be tamed by the effort of the will.“. However, this chapter ends here, in the 5th edition of this work, which, we now know, has strong indications of having been tampered with. Taking the 4th edition, we have the following closure:

All men go through passions. Those who have overcome them, and are not, by nature, proud, ambitious, selfish, spiteful, vindictive, cruel, wrathful, sensual, and do good without effort, without premeditation and, so to speak, involuntarily, it is because they have progressed in the sequence. of their previous existences, having rid themselves of this uncomfortable weight. It is unfair to say that they have less merit when they do good, compared to those who fight against their tendencies. It turns out that they have already achieved victory, while the others have not yet. But when they do, they will be like the others. They will do good without thinking about it, like children who read fluently without having to spell. It is as if they were two sick people: one cured and full of strength while the other is still recovering and hesitates to walk; or as two runners, one of which is closer to the finish than the other.

This original ending is very important. It will precisely show the central point: we tame the passions through our will, in the effort made through many incarnations, in the face of trials and atonements.

So here, taking Will's case as an example, we could say: it was an impetus of passions that led him to act that way. Probably now he regrets, somewhere, for what he did. What if he had a gun and, in a rush, had taken Chris Rock's life? Well, maybe, at some point, he would feel enormous guilt. This guilt could stop you on your journey, because you are under an enormous weight of remorse and, especially, if you believe that you have sinned and deserve punishment. How to resume walking? Realizing, after all, that you have committed a error, precisely for not knowing how to deal with passions. Finally, we ask: what matters more: punishing oneself or looking for ways to exercise the learning to contain these passions? Since the second case allows for learning and evolution, while the first paralyzes, we are left with the second option. There is, then, one last thought:

Who was the cause of all this disagreement?

Well, we know from the study of Spiritism that we are all the time surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses”, as Kardec would say. Spirits are everywhere all the time and, as it is still a very backward planet, it is natural to assume that there are mostly imperfect Spirits.

In the Spiritist Magazine of October 1858, in the article “The evil of fear”, Kardec quotes a teaching from São Luís:

Evil spirits like to have fun. Watch out for them! He who thinks he is saying a pleasant phrase to the people around him and who amuses a society with jokes and acts, is sometimes wrong, and even many times, when he thinks that all this comes from himself. The frivolous spirits that surround him identify with him in such a way that, little by little, they deceive him about his thoughts, deceiving also those who listen to him. In this case, think you are dealing with a man of spirit, who is nevertheless an ignorant. Think carefully, and you will understand what I say to you.

Not that we are here claiming that the presenter is a ignorant in any aspect. We only highlight the passage because, many times, between jokes that make the audience happy, we are mentally fed by Spirits who aim at nothing more than having fun. When we are not aware of this and do not watch ourselves, we can carry this identification very far, until, at the expense of our unhappiness, we fall into traps like these. Now, it would be too much to suppose that, if we were seers, we would see a multitude of inferior spirits, beside the actor, if dying of laughter after seeing the slap caused by the bad suggestion they may have given, mentally, to the presenter?

And that takes the responsibility away from that presenter? Far from it. If we go to a bar and give in to the bad suggestions of frivolous “friends” who incite us to a fight, is it their fault or is it ours? We believe the question is already well answered.

It is thus, in short, that we take different lessons from the spiritist theory for everyday life, as, incidentally, Kardec often did in the Spiritist Magazine. We pray that this theory may spread more and more in order to positively influence society which, perhaps more than ever, seeks so many answers to the moral and social questions of humanity.

We have talked a lot about suicide according to Spiritism and, perhaps, our positions have not always been absolutely clear and concise. Because of this, we believe it is necessary to adopt a new approach, in a succinct and clear way.

by Paulo Degering R. Jr.

Read to the end

the suicidal, as long as you're aware of what you're doing, he will have some moral suffering when he realizes the loss of time that was to interrupt his own life. He said "as long as you're aware of what you're doing” because sometimes there is no such awareness. Furthermore, he will almost always have a greater difficulty in detaching himself from the body, which, far from being weakened, was at the fullest of its strength.

Kardec expressed himself like this, in The Spirits' Book:

This effect is not general; but in no case is the suicidal person exempt from the consequences of his lack of courage, and sooner or later he atones, in one way or another, for the guilt he has incurred. This is how certain spirits, who were very unfortunate on Earth, said they had committed suicide in the previous existence and submitted voluntarily to new tests, to try to bear them with more resignation.

Note the highlighted word: voluntarily. The suicidal person can, in a new incarnation, choose rough trials in order to try to overcome them, learning to bear the vicissitudes with greater resignation.

But then they will tell you: read the book “Memoirs of a suicide”

The book “Memoirs of a suicide”

In this book, very briefly, a Spirit talks about his extreme suffering after death. It was there that the image of the “valley of suicides” was created, something like a “place” where suicidal Spirits would be “purging” their faults.

It turns out that Spirits don't look for locations. Spirits seek Spirits or situations, according to their beliefs and ideas — consciously or not. Spirits — all of them — attract each other by affinity and feelings, as, for example, by love or hate, but also by the same tune of thoughts. Spirits that judge themselves guilty often throw themselves into a real hell mental, in a situation that is often shared by other Spirits in a similar situation, who, then, together, can form true landscapes of suffering, through mental action on fluidic matter.

So Yvonne do Amaral Pereira wrong or lied?

Not necessarily. When it comes to Spirits, we know that they are like us — with the same virtues and imperfections. Thus, they can speak with real wisdom, or with false ideas, in which they believe. They can often even trick. We do not know who this Spirit was who psychographed through Yvonne. He was probably a suffering Spirit, with very limited ideas about the spiritual world. What we know is that, without a shadow of a doubt, we cannot disrespect the basic principle of spirit science: the universal agreement of the teaching of the Spirits. Kardec would say, in A Genesis, right in the first lines:

Generality and agreement in teaching, this is the character essential of doctrine, the very condition of its existence, from which it follows that any principle that has not yet received the consecration of the control of generality cannot be considered an integral part of that same doctrine.. It will be a simple isolated opinion, for which Spiritism cannot assume responsibility.

This collectivity in agreement with the opinion of the Spirits, passed on to the others, by the criterion of logic, is what constitutes the strength of the Spiritist doctrine and assures its perpetuity.

The problems of false concepts in the Spiritist Movement

In spiritist circles, it is commonplace nowadays to hear statements such as “the suicide goes to the valley of suicides”, or “the suicide will encounter enormous suffering, as he will be trapped in his body and will feel the worms gnawing at him” or, even , “the suicide, in the next incarnation, will come with a defective body, to 'redeem' his faults”. None of this reflects the reality of suicide according to Spiritism, in a generic way.

The current spiritist movement began to adopt several false concepts and half-truths, obtained through individual and isolated reports from some Spirits, as if it were the unquestionable truth about all situations. A colleague of ours would say: modern spiritualists began to place a whole universe of variable possibilities in “little boxes”. For example: did you kill yourself? Go to the “box” in the suicide valley. Burned a person? It goes to the “death in fire in the next life” “box”. All this, as a general rule, it's not a truth.

Unfortunately, many of us - myself included - for lack of previous studies and, often, willingly, wanting to help, we release these phrases that often cause revolt and distance from people who come to seek, precisely in Spiritism, an answer different of what is being said out there.

It happens that, in the last year, after the beginning of our studies on the Spiritist Magazine, many concepts were clarified, others were replaced and many others were forgotten. Kardec, already in the first editions of RE, in 1858, makes evocations of at least three suicidal spirits, analyzing their individual cases. Others that were made on other occasions also appear in later issues, as well as in the book O Céu e o Inferno (from Editora FEAL, corresponding to the original, unadulterated). And, analyzing these communications, there is a very big lesson, which we will try to explain objectively below.

Rather, it is important to remember that Spiritism, as a Scientific Doctrine, does not stop man by imposing fear, because the brake of passions by this type of device is only temporary and without great results. No: Spiritism comes to present the truth based on the analysis of the facts, through the rational and concordant study of the communications of the Spirits given by all parts and for all times. When studying Spiritism, we are no longer guided by fear, but for the reason, and it is only when the Spirit enters the state of reason that it actually makes better and clearer decisions.

Well, well: on the subject of suicide, we repeat that, based on these studies, the results initially highlighted cannot be taken as a general rule. Yes, there are Spirits in enormous disturbance that believe being gnawed by worms, for his mind was still on the sight of the torn body. There are also those who find themselves in hellish places, because they believe that it should be so and because if throw themselves into hellish mental situations, where, alone or in a group, they create true diabolical or purgatorial scenarios. In addition to these, there are those who piously believe that death is the end of life and then fall into a more or less prolonged sleep, as there are also those rare who, after the fateful act, momentarily they see themselves freed from physical pain, believing themselves, then, to be free from moral pain, which they still do not know how to distinguish from the first.

Therefore, the situation of each one, after death by suicide, will vary much, on a case-by-case basis and according to the — degree of awareness of what they do. That is why a Spirit who takes his life in an impetus of despair almost always has a much lower degree of guilt - before his own conscience - than one who, knowing Spiritism and the doctrine of choice of proofs and expiations, after taking the life of his own body, he falls into a deep sense of guilt and heavy lamentations, for he regrets having given up the opportune proofs for his own advancement. Furthermore, it is important to say that, almost always, these acts cause pain in those who love us, which increases the bitterness of the Spirit when evaluating the extent of the results of their act.

What we seek to say, after all, is that the Spirit does not suffer materially, in any way. You may believe that you suffer and, mentally, create a false sense of physical pain, but in fact, suffering is moral and consistent with the degree of conscience and guilt you have, towards yourself, about the harm done to yourself. . We would say that, since suicide is the abandonment of the tests chosen by oneself, it will almost always accompany a lesser or greater moral suffering, but it will never represent an end in the opportunities granted by God for our evolution, nor will it, as a rule, cause a expiatory suffering in the next incarnation. Once again, depends on one's mindset, beliefs and knowledge.

But in the end, what's the point of killing yourself?

We know that, almost always, suicide is an attempt to escape from pain or despair that one does not know how to deal with. You see, however: the fact that that situation is happening is precisely an important learning opportunity, in order to deal with these situations. If we don't know how to deal with it, it's because we still have acquired imperfections or passions, that is, emotions that we still do not completely know how to deal with. Going to the extreme of taking life from the body will only prolong this state of ignorance or imperfection, with consequent suffering. moral, since we didn't win the test, that is, we didn't acquire experience and strength to overcome it.

Where, then, to find strength? Well, we are incarnated for a reason: to learn and to let go of possible imperfections created by ourselves. In the world of Spirits - Space - time does not exist, so that the Spirit who has developed imperfections is incessantly occupied with them, either in an illusion of pleasures, or in a self-persecution caused by remorse. Thus, if we have developed any imperfection, this imperfection will be, for us, the reason for worries that seem endless - this is the explanation why certain spirits, in a state of suffering, say that such a situation seems to them to have no end.

Well, I was talking about the reason for incarnation, which, far from the false idea of being a punishment, is, on the contrary, a divine blessing, as it offers an opportunity for common learning and detachment from acquired imperfections. Here, it is possible to put ourselves in contact with people of all kinds, carry out different activities, etc., everything that leads us to leave, or at least break the cycle, of these situations of moral suffering. What is, however, the first and greatest mistake that those who suffer morally usually make - also induced by imperfect spirits? isolate yourself. There is the first step towards the fall, because isolation will cause precisely this scenario of endless self-persecution. Do not make this mistake, and seek to help those who do, if possible following the reasoning above.

Faced with a difficult test, who says we have to go through it alone? Often, this thought of solitary confrontation also originates from false ideas or even from a certain pride, which turns into a shell, for fear of exposing yourself. Certainly we will not go out on the street telling anyone who passes by about our difficulties, but certainly, with the purpose of seeking help, you will find it, perhaps not in the first psychologist, perhaps not in the first friend, perhaps not in the first group of activities. any, but you will find it, because you are not alone: by your side, leading you towards good, there is a good Spirit, higher than you - your guardian angel or protective spirit. The important thing is not to isolate yourself, nor to isolate yourself. Seek. Look for a charity activity group, look for a morning walk group, look for, above all, be useful, and that will make you gravitate towards situations and people that can, slowly and progressively, help in its construction.

It is up to each of us to will to change or not, to learn or not, but this work is much favored by the development of reason — this is why we so defend the study of Spiritism. Through our modification, we will become stronger and advance several steps in a single life and, who knows, tomorrow we will not need to return to this same kind of painful situation, perhaps conquering the happiness of being able to live in better worlds or that, if here reincarnate, let us be much more strengthened and prepared.

I'm not talking lip service here: I'm talking about what I myself have lived and learned. I went through a kind of restlessness, I went through isolation, I went through self-persecution. I allowed myself, however, to be influenced by good spirits, and that moved me to various situations that, slowly and progressively, brought me here. One of these situations was very interesting: I decided to visit a nursing home close to my house, where I had contact with several elderly people who taught me a lot about perseverance; I was welcomed with great affection by a Catholic prayer group, whose leader was a medium and probably didn't know it; but the most interesting thing is that, on the shelf of that institution, where there was a predominance of Catholicism, there were, on the shelf in the common room, some copies of the Spiritist Magazine, which I got to pick up, I even leafed through, but I ended up not reading it at that time. I only came to know the Magazine about a year later. Evaluate for yourself the paths along which the good spirits lead us, leaving us the freedom to go ahead or not, open the door or keep it closed.

Remember, after all: no one can do us harm but ourselves. Interrupting your own life is a waste of time, which generates guilt and remorse and no stops the moral suffering caused by imperfections that may still exist in us ((Remembering that ignorance and imperfection are different things. Imperfection is acquired by the habit of repeating a mistake; ignorance can lead to error, but, as long as we overcome it, it's just a mistake)).

And if someone close to you is thinking about killing himself, bring that kind of thought to him. If someone has already taken their own life, in your prayers for that person, talk to this Spirit, so that he can leave the feeling of helplessness in the face of guilt, get up and resume the evolutionary path.

Let us study, precisely, in order to to throw, from people's minds and from the Spiritist movement, the false ideas that hinder more than help. A Spirit that does not want to leave the coffin, does so because it believes that only Jesus himself will come to take him by the hand, on the day of final judgment. Let us not act like those prisoners of conscience, let us not create false conceptions in people's thinking. Matter and sensations after death are not anything. All that matters is thought, will and reason. And finally, let's not take the opinion of isolated spirits as if they were the pure truth - regardless of the medium that made it possible.

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Today I was “philosophizing” about this subject, and I came up with the following ideas which, I highlight, are based on my way of seeing the topic and on my knowledge of Spiritism – which may not reflect the most complete reality. Below are my considerations:

Let us reflect: modification does not come from the top down, as an imposition, but from the bottom up, from the individual to society, as choice. Therefore, the planet will only be transformed by the change of its inhabitants. And when we talk about regeneration, what is a Spirit that regenerates itself, failing to undergo trials and atonements? In my understanding, it is the Spirit that starts to look within itself, moving from planning lives that only aim to bring “reparative sufferings”, to planning lives that give them more opportunities for learning to smother their imperfections. And how does this happen? Only by will, fueled by reason. Therefore, as I understand, it is precisely the knowledge reinforced by Spiritism that will enable us to conquer a new terrestrial “environment”.

As long as the spirits continue to be shackled to the old con- – an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. However, as they understand that what they really need is to strengthen themselves through learning and reason, in contact with valuable knowledge, in order to deal with their imperfections, they will, in my view, plan their lives more wisely.

After all, which causes more suffering: physical pain, which ends with death, or moral pain, which continues until the factor that caused it is resolved? Isn't that how we act here? When we make a mistake, we often want to be punished in order to relieve our conscience, so that we want to put aside the real problem, which is our imperfection and the moral suffering that originates from it, due to mistakes. The more mature individual, however, knows that punishment does not solve it, and seeks to face his own problems, which made him wrong.

For example: in that case of the Assassin Lemaire (RE – March 1858) he knew he had to deal with his imperfections. How did you think about doing this? He planned to be born in the midst of crime, but he failed in his attempt, as the environment was stronger than him, who still did not have much stronger will and reason. When he failed in his attempt, he was one more to spread criminality, allying other spirits to his intentions. What if – what if! – would he, more consciously, have planned a different life? What if, instead of putting himself under the environment of crime, to fight with his passions, he had chosen a firm and kind family, which would give him a better education and put him in contact with contents that could help him to strengthen his will to overcome your imperfections, through reason? Perhaps he had managed to overcome many of his imperfections, in addition to no longer being one of the criminals.

Isn't that, as a general understanding, generating better decisions, great for the planet? Wouldn't it cause a huge change to society? I think so. But this requires, in the foreground, that the Spirit faces itself: that it places itself under a critical perspective and that it faces its own “demons”. Now, in a society that insists on believing, because it is easier, in the imposition of divine punishments, we see how far we are still from this new era on this planet... , develop our virtues and seek to elevate ourselves, in the good, so that we can conquer the possibility of incarnating in happier worlds.

Who knows….

I finish with Kardec, in A Gênesis (4th edition, original – the excerpt was deleted in the 5th edition, which many say has not been tampered with):

To say 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 bring about. Then they will prove to be more advanced than one might suppose, and they will eagerly follow the lead of the majority. 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 for interest. They are those whose material interests are linked to the current conjuncture and who are not advanced enough to give them up, as the general good matters less than their personal good – they are apprehensive at the slightest reform movement. The truth is a secondary issue for them, or, better said, the truth for some people lies entirely in that which does not cause them any trouble. All progressive ideas are, from their point of view, subversive ideas, and therefore they have an implacable hatred for them and make a stubborn war against them. They are intelligent enough to see Spiritism as 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”.

Kardec, The Genesis, 4th Edition – FEAL

This article provides an important complement to the article “Imposter Spirits – The False Father Ambrósio”, from July 1858, which served as the basis for the article called “The role of the researcher and the medium in communications with the Spirits“. Click here to read.

In this edition, Kardec begins by addressing the problem of certain contradictions in spiritist communications: “At first glance these contradictions really seem to be one of the main stumbling blocks of the Spirit Science”

Remembering that Spiritism is a science, not a religion, for a few reasons:

• It is a development of Rational Spiritualism[1]
• It is, objectively, a positive science – an expression always used by Kardec – in the sense of a knowledge formed from the methods of observation and experimentation of the facts.
• It can only be seen as religion from the point of view of natural religion, as approached by the ER, and the “moral” aspect comes from precisely this same origin!

Kardec emphasizes that all science, in its beginning, has its contradictions, which only disappear as this science develops and one begins to understand what was not understood before.

“By the way, the Spirits always told us not to worry about these small differences and that in a short time everyone would be taken to the unity of belief. In fact, this prediction is realized daily, as we penetrate more and more into the causes of these mysterious phenomena and as the facts are better observed. On the other hand, the dissidences manifested at the origin evidently tend to weaken. It can even be said that currently they are nothing more than isolated personal opinions[2].”

"Although Spiritism is in Nature and has been known and practiced since the highest antiquity, it is a fact that at no other time was it so universally spread as it is today..

[…]

It was reserved for our century, in which progress receives an incessant impulse, to bring to full light a science which, so to speak, only existed in a latent state. It was only a few years ago that the phenomena were seriously observed[3]. In fact, Spiritism is a new science, which is gradually implanted in the minds of the masses, hoping to occupy an official position.
At first this science seemed very simple. To superficial creatures it was nothing more than the art of moving tables. A closer look, however, revealed that it was, in its ramifications and consequences, much more complex than had been imagined. Turntables are like Newton's apple, which in its fall ends the world system.

Kardec points out that, for each new discovery, multiple hypotheses arise, not necessarily wrong, as each one sees according to their conceptions and their knowledge and reasoning. Unity can only emerge in a science when it advances through the scientific method: if a hypothesis is shown to be incorrect by the evidence, it must be abandoned in favor of the truth.

On which side is the truth?

It's what fits to the future[4] to demonstrate. But the general trend could not waver. Evidently, a principle dominates and little by little unites the premature systems. A less exclusive observation will unite everyone to a common origin and soon we will see that the divergence will definitely be more accessory than fundamental.

The various spiritist theories have, therefore, two sources: some were born from the human brain; others were given by the Spirits. The first ones emanate from men who, trusting too much in their own lights, believe they have the key to what they are looking for, when more often than not they have only found a lockpick.fake key]. This is not surprising, but that, among the spirits, some said one thing and others said another, it was less conceivable. However, this is now perfectly explainable.

At first, there was an absolutely false idea of the nature of spirits. They were imagined as beings apart, of an exceptional nature, having nothing in common with matter and having to know everything. […] On the news of the recent manifestations, the first idea which generally came to the minds of most creatures was, that this was a means of penetrating all hidden things; a new mode of divination less subject to doubt than ordinary processes.

Remembering that Kardec analyzed with depth and attention all the manifestations and communications with which he had contact, from which he obtained the Spiritist Scale, from which a simple study that could save many from the difficulties they get into.

Based on a study carried out with a lot of rationality and common sense regarding the communications of the different Spirits, Kardec continues the long article giving simple examples of how Spirits of different orders and classifications express themselves. The whole contradiction arises from the failure to observe this fundamental point, in addition to the insistence on obtaining answers that cannot be given, to whose questions inferior spirits answer, without any scruples.

Kardec gives the example of the possibility that “one day” man will reach the Moon and, there, find its inhabitants: how could they know humanity through the reports of a few.

The causes of the contradictions in the language of spirits can therefore be summarized as follows:

1st. ─ The degree of ignorance or knowledge of the Spirits to whom we address;

2nd. ─ The deceit of inferior spirits who can, through malice, ignorance or malevolence, taking a borrowed name, say things contrary to those that were said elsewhere by the Spirit whose name they usurped;

3rd. ─ The medium's personal faults, which can influence communications and alter or deform the spirit's thinking;

4th. ─ The insistence on obtaining an answer that a spirit refuses to give, and that is given by an inferior spirit;

5th. ─ The Spirit's own will, which speaks according to time, place and people and may not think it convenient to say everything to everyone;

6th. ─ The insufficiency of human language to express the things of the incorporeal world;

7th ─ The interpretation that anyone can give to a word or an explanation, according to their ideas, their prejudices or the point of view from which they view the matter.

There are many difficulties, which can only be overcome through long and assiduous study. We also never said that Spiritist Science is easy. The serious observer, who delves into everything maturely, with patience and perseverance, apprehends a lot of delicate nuances that escape the superficial observer. It is through such intimate details that he initiates himself into the secrets of this science. Experience teaches us to know spirits, as it teaches us to know men.

1 – Since 1832, at the Sorbonne University, Paris, the school of rational spiritualism has established itself as official philosophy, structuring the human sciences, which in France are called moral sciences. Moral because the object of their study are the facts derived from human action; sciences such as history, law, philosophy, letters, among others. Differing from the natural sciences, which are dedicated to the phenomena of nature.

Among the moral sciences, there was the group of philosophical sciences, with the proposal to understand the human being, through the following disciplines, divided into two classes: psychological (psychology, logic, moral, aesthetics) and metaphysical (theodicy, rational psychology, rational cosmology). (FIGUEIREDO, 2019)

2 – Same as today. Only by the honest scientific method will these contradictions, which have been widely installed in the spiritist movement, be able to be dissipated.

3 – The confidence of nineteenth-century researchers in the power of science to describe reality led to the investigation, through the observation of mediumistic phenomena, of the modern spiritualism (the study of the works of Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo largely complement this theme). Many scholars and freethinkers, based on the observation of the turning, dancing and talking tables, began to consider the possibility of scientifically investigating the post-mortem survival of the human being. (PIMENTEL, 2014 – click to read).

Kardec has his first contact with Spiritism in 1854, when a friend of yours, the magnetizer Auguste Fortier reports that the “magnetic fluid” employed by a magnetizer was now causing the tables to move. Kardec receives the news with disinterest, as he supposed that the magnetic or electric fluid could explain the phenomenon.

Months later, Mr. Fortier sought him out again, this time to say that the tables didn't just move, but they responded intelligently to the questions of the assistants. Kardec, skeptical, still saw it as a “tale to make us sleep standing up”.

About a year later, in 1855, another friend, Mr. Carlotti, speaks for the first time of the intervention of the Spirits in the sessions. This friend's enthusiastic statement increased Kardec's distrust. It was after some time, in the same year, that Mr. Pâtier, an educated man, serious, calmly and coldly, convinced Rivail to attend a mediumistic session.

“Using his vast erudition, as a professor, writer and member of several scientific societies, he carried out a broad approach to the cause of psychic phenomena arising from the turning tables. Kardec proposed an empirical and rational approach to the subject, until then, considered metaphysical, in which several pertinent discussions were produced on epistemological and methodological aspects of exploration of mediumistic phenomena” (Ibid.)

4. Let's see Kardec's humility, which Never He said, “The truth is with me.”

This is a recurring subject. It doesn't take much effort to find such a statement: a reluctant Spirit, that is, one who resists moving forward, could be “forced” into a compulsory reincarnation, understanding, in this concept, that superior Spirits would force him to face trials and expiations.” for your own good".

Well, my brothers, “calm down”! We need to be very careful with the statements we make out there, often based on concepts that have a basis of truth, but that become generically applied as “law” — and here we have already addressed several of these cases.

Firstly, we need to recover what we learned from the study of Spiritism — that science that many resist in studying and who formed, through Kardec's studies, the Spiritist Doctrine or Spiritism: firstly, Spiritism is based on the doctrine of the choice of evidence, that is, it states that, as long as we have the capacity, us ever we choose our trials and our atonements. It doesn't hurt to remember: test it is an opportunity to face a situation, to learn from that situation and overcome an imperfection; already the atonement it happens when the Spirit imposes any kind of suffering in order to face, in his own skin, an evil that he has imposed on others.

We said: “it imposes itself”, because no one, not any Spirit, not even God, imposes punishments on anyone. When, in Kardec's context, we say “God willed”, “God allowed”, “God punished”, it means that all of this occurs as an effect of Creation. Now, as we are his creatures, intelligent beings capable of free will, when we impose any ordeal on ourselves it means that, indirectly, God allows it, just as he allows evil – or, rather, the absence of good – to exist.

Well, we introduced the concept of proofs and atonements, which aim to bring a learning to the Spirit. However, we know that we only learn something when we really understand that we made a mistake, which brings us guilt, remorse and the desire to make amends – which may or may not happen with the victims of our mistakes. We also recall that the choice of proofs and atonements is a primordial principle, as taught by the Spirits. In fact, this is clearly exposed in The Spirits' Book:

258. When in erraticity, before starting a new corporeal existence, does the Spirit have awareness and foresight of what will happen to him in the course of his earthly life?

“He himself chooses the kind of tests he has to go through, and that is his free will.”

The) - Is it not God, then, who imposes on him the tribulations of life, as a punishment?

“Nothing happens without God's permission, because it was God who established all the laws that govern the universe. Go now and ask why he decreed this law and not that one! Giving the Spirit the freedom to choose, God leaves him fully responsible for his actions and the consequences they have. Nothing stands in the way of your future; open if thus the way of good is found, as well as the way of evil. If he succumbs, he will be left with the consolation that not everything is over, and that divine goodness grants him the freedom to start over what was wrongly done. Furthermore, it is necessary to distinguish what is the work of God's will from that of man. If a danger threatens you, it was not you who created it, but God. But yours was your desire to expose yourselves to him, because you saw in it a way to progress, and God permitted it.”

So where is this “forced reincarnation”?

Let's see, in question 262, the following:

262. How can Spirit, who in its origins is simple, ignorant and lacking in experience, choose an existence with knowledge of the facts and be responsible for that choice?

“God supplies him with inexperience, laying out the path he must follow, as you do with a little child. Little by little, however, as his free will develops, he leaves the master to make the choice, and only then does it often happen to him to go astray, taking the wrong path, by disregarding the advice of the Spirits. Good. This is what can be called the fall of man.”

The) - When the Spirit enjoys free will, the choice of bodily existence will always depend exclusively on its will, or this existence can be imposed on it ((Compulsory reincarnation)), as atonement, by the will of God?

“God knows how to wait, he does not hasten atonement. However, it can impose a certain existence on a Spirit, when this, due to its inferiority or ill-will, is not able to understand what would be more beneficial to it, and when it sees that such existence will serve for the purification and progress of the Spirit, by while serving as an atonement for him.”

Now, does God then impose the atonement? It's not like that. What happens is that when the Spirit is in denial or resistance, he cannot see the good that would provide him with facing his imperfections through trials and atonements. It cannot, therefore, choose lucidly…. But it keeps reincarnating. Let's see, still in OLE:

167. What is the end aimed at with reincarnation?

“Atonement, progressive improvement of humanity. Without this, where is justice?”

We easily understand that the incarnation is a need for the advancement of the Spirit and that, when he is still simple and ignorant, which easily gives him the state of resistance, can easily resist facing their own imperfections. It is there, therefore, that the mechanics of the Divine Law make up for your inexperience: through a “forced” incarnation, that is, a “common” incarnation, but without choices of tests and expiations, the Spirit will face the school of material life, which will, in one way or another, confront its imperfections , according to the way in which choose act on the matter. So, you can choose – deep down, there is always the choice, from the moment the Spirit enters the age of consciousness – to continue giving in to the passions, a practice from which it will reap bitter results (and that is the involuntary atonement), until, one day, this moral suffering motivate you to say: “enough! I'm tired of acting like this! I'm tired of suffering for being imperfect! I need to get rid of these imperfections!” It is at this moment that this Spirit returns to choosing tests and expiations.

Finally, we remind you that the knowledge brought by Spiritism is of substantial importance to leverage the process of evolution of the Spirit, because, at the moment when, through science, that is, through reason, he understands that he has to have will firm to overcome its imperfections, it can advance in years what it did not advance in successive incarnations.

In this article, Kardec concludes the case of Bergzabern, telling some more remarkable facts about the girl, Filipina Soënger. It is up to each one to read, due to the general interest in such phenomena, but the sad thing is to know that the girl ended up being hospitalized:

“Concerned by the facts that we have just reported, the government of the Palatinate proposed that Sänger have his daughter committed to a nursing home in Frankenthal, which was accepted. We are informed that in your new residence, the presence of Filipina has given rise to the wonders of Bergzabern and that the doctors of Frankenthal, as well as those of our city, cannot determine the cause. Furthermore, we are informed that only doctors have access to the girl.”

The book Pensamento e Vontade, by Ernesto Bozzano, brings us a very timely complement on this subject:

“Using the term photography of thought in a generic sense at this moment, I will say that the first attempts of this kind date back to 1896, when Commander Darget and another friend of his, convinced that thought was an externalizable force, decided to concentrating one's thought on a particular image in order to project it onto a photographic plate.

On May 27, 1896, he, Darget, fixed a very clear image of a bottle on a sensitized plate, on which he had thought so intensely, that it gave him a severe headache.”

“This experiment was repeated on the 5th of June of the same year, with complete success […]

But the next day, when we made the revelation on paper, what impressed us the most was a female figure, with a characteristic haircut. It was indisputably a spirit who had intended to photograph himself.

[…]

Only a few days later, in the course of a session at the home of the well-known writer Mr. Leon Denis, is that they had the manifestation of a personality who called herself Sofia and declared that she was the one who, aided by other Spirits, had carried out the phenomenon.

[…]

Incidentally, her identity was established, as a vegetable merchant in Amiens, who died a short time before. The Revista Científica e Moral do Espiritismo reproduced this scotograph, in which the face of the manifested woman is clearly visible, above the bottle”

sir William Crookes was also a great scholar of spiritist phenomena, having managed to obtain photographs of spirits.

“Florence Cook, who at the time was only 15 years old, alone in the Crookes house and with his family and friends as witnesses, materialized the spirit of Katie King, who walked in the house, talked, allowed herself to be weighed and measured, and still held the baby of the family in her arms. The sessions were done in the dark, so that the materializations were better, although red light was occasionally used to obtain photographs.“.

Crookes' report, published in 1874, claimed that Florence Cook, as well as the mediums Kate Fox and Daniel Dunglas Home, produced genuine spiritual phenomena. The publication of this caused quite a stir, and her testimony about Katie King was considered the most controversial point in the report. Crookes almost lost his membership in the Royal Society, no longer engaging in spiritist investigations.

We had in Brazil one of the most spectacular mediums the world has known: Carmine Mirabelli, whose name was later changed to Carlos or Carlo Mirabelli. By him, some photos of materialization phenomena were also obtained.

Kardec observes: “[…] Generally, the perispirit is invisible, however, in certain circumstances, it condenses and, combining with other fluids, it becomes perceptible to the eye and sometimes even tangible. That's what you see in the apparitions”.

“Whatever the subtlety and weightlessness of the perispirit, it is still a kind of matter, whose physical properties are still unknown to us. Since it is matter, it can act on matter. This action is evident in magnetic phenomena.”

By an action of unknown material laws, the perispirit of Mr. Badet remained imprinted on the material of the glass, although invisible, until a fortuitous action of another force, perhaps atmospheric (or, who knows, spiritual?), came to reveal it.

Kardec cites, by way of comparison, the daguerreotype, developed in 1837 by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre: before Daguerre, there were no daguerreotyped images, although he did not invent either light, nor copper plates, nor silver, nor chlorides.

It is necessary that the human being fulfills its evolution, acquires and develops science, so that, then, new spiritual discoveries can be reached. We remember that it is a time when a simple combustion caused by a bottle of water, which turns into a lens, was a cause of astonishment and admiration.

The article “a new photographic discovery”, in the Revista Espírita of July 1858, opened the way to remember this fact well known in the spiritist milieu.

That name was given to the sad case of the process brought against Mr. Pierre-Gaëtan Leymarie and Messrs. Buguet and Firman, in 1875, after they began to publish supposed spiritual photographs in Revista Espírita.

For some, the process was based on false accusations that this gentleman was publishing fraudulent photographs of disembodied spirits (see “Process of Spiritists”, by Marina Leymarie).

For others, the fraud was real and well documented. He quotes Simoni Privato, in his work Allan Kardec's Legacy, that Leymarie did not take the proper care that the master himself would have taken care of, so that he subjected himself to supporting clearly controversial practices, among them the promotion, in RE, of mediumistic sessions paid which the medium Alfred Henry Firman performed twice a week.

He quotes Simoni Privato, in The Legacy of Allan Kardec:

“On learning that the photographer Édouard Buguet was obtaining photographs of spirits in Paris, Leymarie, together with a group of people, investigated these phenomena at the end of 1873. At that time, Leymarie was the sole administrator and the representative of all members of the Anonymous Society, as well as managing secretary and editor of Revista Espírita.”

“Leymarie began to advertise, in the Spiritist Magazine, Buguet's photographic work. He presented the photographer as “an artist without pretensions, full of amiability, who greatly appreciates his faculty for what it is, that is, a pure and simple act of mediumship”. He also informed the conditions that the interested parties had to fulfill to carry out the experiments with Buguet and the price of the service. In short, Leymarie publicly supported and encouraged, in the Revista Espírita, the paid mediumship”.

In this article, Kardec brings a very peculiar case: after the death of a man, Mr. Badet, who was in the habit of watching the street from his window, some people began to notice his image printed on the glass – a phenomenon hitherto unknown.

Presenting the fact to the family, the latter promptly destroyed that window, closing, perhaps, a very opportune possibility of studies.

Kardec, seeing the opportunity for learning by the Spirit himself, makes his evocation. This gives some important information:

• The phenomenon was true, but involuntary. It was produced through physical agents that until then were unknown - and we believe that they still are - that, acting on the perispirit, printed your image on the windowpane.
• Responding to Kardec's question about the possibility of revealing the factors that produced such a phenomenon, he replies: “I would like to, but this is a task for others spirits and human work”
• While the assistants discussed some hypotheses, Mr. Badet spontaneously communicated:

  “And do you not take into account electricity and electroplating, which also act on the perispirit?”

-The fact that the glass was destroyed by the family causes Kardec to express the following expression, with which the article ends:

Such a curious monument would have facilitated research and observations for the proper study of the issue. Perhaps they saw in this image an art of the devil. In any case, if somehow the devil is involved in this, it is surely in the destruction of glass, because he is the enemy of progress.

We can imagine how outraged Kardec felt at such events.