“Brazil, heart of the world, homeland of the gospel”? – A critical analysis is produced by Leonardo Marmo Moreira and Jorge Hessen. The text below was extracted in full from the preface of the work, with the aim of safeguarding such an important study as this, replicating it on our website. The full text, which was the basis for this article, is available in PDF, on here.

PREFACE

Jorge Hessen

In my historical investigations I found confreres who assured me at the FEB headquarters that Chico Xavier never warned the so-called “Ismael's tent” (FEB headquarters in DF) about the possible and alleged ideological interpolations in “Brazil, heart of the world, homeland of the gospel”. We do not know any further details behind the scenes of this exchange between the medium and former FEB directors.

I found those who attest to Chico's consent to the insertion of Roustaing in chapter 22 of “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel” demonstrating supposed correspondences between Chico and Wantuil de Freitas, contained in the work “Testimonies of Chico Xavier”. However, we discovered that only a few secondary sources were passed on to the author of the work Suely Caldas Schubert (who does not have a Roustanguist trajectory), typed fragments of the letters and intentionally selected and elaborated by docetists Zeus Wantuil and Francisco Thiesen.

An authenticity of Roustaing's insertion in the “sacred” book of the (im) “Golden Pact” was forged, when former FEB directors visited Chico Xavier so that a Minas Gerais medium could “authenticate” the book or the chapter page 22 of “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel” to corroborate the authenticity of the original psychography (which was inexplicably incinerated by the FEB), but Chico “authenticated” chapter 22 with the “robust” confirmation: “With a hug from the minor server Chico Xavier.” In other words, it didn’t confirm anything! Chico knew that the work had been corrupted.

The coup of the (im)“Golden Pact” was an agenda with eighteen items, the first of which stated: “It is up to the spiritists of Brazil to put into practice the exposition contained in the book “Brazil, Heart of the World, Homeland of the Gospel”. Here we open a parenthesis because we understand that in this device there was a proposition that could have undesirable consequences, considering the focus of unity among spiritists. Now, the most reasonable thing would be to include in the first item that the spiritists put into practice the exposition contained in the Gospel According to Spiritism, in order to accelerate and consolidate the evolutionary march of the Gospel.

There are those who say that the adoption of the book “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel” could have two pretexts, the first because a group of those who discussed the issue wanted to adopt “The Four Gospels” by Roustaing, the second because the “supporters ” of CEPA (Pan-American Spiritist Confederation) did not and do not accept the Gospel According to Spiritism, in this case, therefore, Humberto de Campos' book would be on the balance line and placed Brazil in a central position in the expansion of the Gospel.

Really? Was this what led them to sign without discussion the pact that Herculano Pires called the “papal bull”? Or had the excess of mysticism created a feeling of guilt and the parties to the agreement began to admit infallibility in the president of the FEB? Or would the autocratic presence of Wantuil (who was a kind of “sole owner” of the FEB) have dulled the conscience of the signatories? Or did all the parties to the agreement lack greater doctrinal maturity? One thing, however, we are absolutely certain of: if Herculano Pires, Deolindo Amorim, Júlio Abreu Filho had participated in the “enchanted” Febian meeting of 1949, another would have been the direction of doctrinal definitions for Brazil.

So it is! Let us return to the signatories of the Pact who concluded without further DEBATE and maturation that the book “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel” contained interesting data and demonstrated what the mission of Spiritism in Brazil would be. However, the parties to the agreement were not concerned with the jingoistic and controversial details of the book, perhaps the “X” of the issue.

We do not raise this point to contest the original contents of the work (those that were not supposedly altered by the Febian Docetists). It is very obvious that it is difficult to physically prove tampering because the original psychography was incinerated by the FEB. It is important to emphasize here that we love the literature of Humberto de Campos (without the Febian insertions, of course!), and what's more, it is necessary to separate things well, as the naive enthronement of Roustaing by the supposed “spiritual author” contradicts Kardec's thought contained in Chapter XV of the work Genesis.

The point is that the supposed “Humberto de Campos” evokes “the traditions of the spiritual world”, as the spiritual author himself asserts in the Introduction to the book “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel”. Obviously this “traditions from beyond” argument does not clarify, or even support, the work’s interference. And this becomes clear if we compare the book “Brazil, heart.do world…” with “Crônicas de Além-Túmulo” and “Boa Nova” written by the same Spirit, in which Humberto de Campos uses some information obtained from the so-called “traditions of the spiritual world”, but without committing the various lapses present in “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel”. Regarding the work “Chronicles from Beyond the Grave” in chapter 21 entitled “The Great Missionary”, published before “Brazil, heart of the world…”, only the missionaries Camille Flammarion, Léon Denis and Gabriel are mentioned as collaborators of Allan Kardec Delanne, with no mention of Roustaing. This indicates likely malicious interpolation in the work “Brazil heart of the world homeland of the gospel”.

This is my opinion.

Brasilia, April 10, 2018

Jorge Hessen

The Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB) assumed a very distant character and, in many points, diametrically opposed to the fundamental principles of Spiritism, so well demonstrated by the exhaustive studies of Allan Kardec, who gave them his time, his resources, his health and, In the end, your life. The FEB recommends not evoking it, when it is an indispensable tool for the Doctrine; always advises against private meetings, when the superior Spirits themselves have encouraged them; publishes everything without the necessary doctrinal analysis, producing works that are contrary to Spiritism and reaching the point of causing embarrassment to the Doctrine, etc.

Guided by the FEB, most of the Spiritist Movement, unaware of the Roustainuist (or Rustenist) origin of this institution, embarked on an absurdly distorted path. A quick reading of “Ponto Final: o reencontro do Espiritismo com Allan Kardec”, by Wilson Garcia, to understand the reason for all this distortion: people from the Sayão Group, an avowedly Roustainuist group, dominated the FEB since the end of the 19th century , inserting into it and, consequently, into the Brazilian Spiritist Movement, its characteristics contrary to the method and organization necessary for the continued development of spiritist science, as we can see especially in the following articles from the Spiritist Magazine: ORGANIZAÇÃO DO SPIRITISM, December 1861 , and TRANSITIONAL CONSTITUTION OF SPIRITISM, December 1868.

In its philosophical and moral essence, Brazilian Spiritism is also very far from the true face of Consoling Spiritism, as we can understand by reading “Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism”.

As if all this were not enough, we now have diverse evidence of significant adulterations in works psychographed by Chico Xavier, completely altering, in some points, the original meaning of the text. Furthermore, we have the great unknown called “Brazil, Heart of the World, Homeland of the Gospel”, whose original psychography was incinerated by the FEB and which, not by chance, inserts several absurdities against the Doctrine, affirming Roustaing as a great worker of Spiritism, together with Kardec, and the “Angel” Ismael, a Spirit who originally mystified the Sayão Group, as a great spiritual leader of the Brazilian homeland.

For these and many others, we, the undersigned, declare, for record purposes, that we do not feel represented by the FEB and the Brazilian Spiritist Movement, thus highlighting the necessary return to the origins of Spiritism, duly contextualized by the complementary understanding of Spiritualism Rational and Animal Magnetism, in order to prepare the ground for the future resumption of Spiritism as it really is, with the resumption of its development through collaboration between small groups, without institutions above them, as demonstrated necessary by Kardec, in the articles previously mentioned.

The Study Group The Legacy of Allan Kardec inaugurates this effort merely for registration purposes, without any intention of dispute or prohibitions, wishing to soon see Spiritism being understood and recognized as a Philosophical Science of moral consequences, with its method and organization reestablished and removed from the characteristic of religion attributed to him by the FEB, something he never was (Annual session commemorating the dead, RE68).

Click on here to sign the petition.

Recentemente o canal Mesa Girante, no Youtube, produziu um vídeo onde aborda outro vídeo, de Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, falando sobre a obra “Nem Céu, Nem Inferno”, de cerca de 3 anos atrás. A obra trata do fato jurídico ((São legal fact at tampering of A Gênesis and O Céu e o Inferno, for the mere reason that editions were released, with changes, after the death of the author and without legal deposit. That cool fact it is above of any consideration and, because of this, spiritist federations from other countries, respecting the law, returned to the third edition of the work.)) from adulteration of Heaven and Hell and the context of the betrayal plot around Kardec.

In this video, the author of the Mesa Girante channel mockingly tries to invalidate the importance of the work due to Paulo Henrique's supposed rashness when dealing with the topic, on video. I wonder why he, the owner of the Mesa Girante channel, didn't dedicate himself firstly to read this work, which would have enriched too much the debate? Why did he only focus on what seemed incongruous to him, based on Paulo Henrique's speeches, without paying attention to the other relevant points of the work? I say this because I sought it out myself, through the comments, to demonstrate that the adulteration of Heaven and Hell is the unquestionable product of Roustainuist dogmas, in addition to the legal fact.

The next day, I produced a video, under the influence of irritation at the way the topic was approached, with a mocking tone and without any intention of cooperation, but of competition, since I didn't go looking for Paulo Henrique to talk about the differences. of understandings. I decided to delete this video, which I produced, because I ended up treating with affectation a topic where there should be absolutely nothing like that. Instead of this video, I recorded a new one, where I talk about the central focus of tampering, as you can see at the end of this article.

It turns out, however, that as soon as I recorded it, a live broadcast with Lucas Sampaio, co-author of the book Neither Heaven, Nor Hell, came to my attention, where he explains in detail all the issues involved in this topic of adulteration. The content is very explanatory in itself, so I reproduce the same video below and take the opportunity to comment on its content.

Comments on Lucas Sampaio's live

• IT'S legal fact at tampering of A Gênesis and O Céu e o Inferno, for the mere reason that editions were released, with changes, after the death of the author and without legal deposit. That cool fact it is above of any consideration and, because of this, spiritist federations from other countries, respecting the law, returned to the third edition of the work.
• Kardec was, indeed, making revisions to these works, preparing new editions. This is recorded in letters. However, less than a month after the letter mentioning the translation work into German, there is a letter from Kardec to a friend of his, saying that, due to health problems, he needed Suspend all activities that are not strictly necessary.
• The Spirits, evoked by Kardec, say that he nothing should be removed from new editions. Exactly the opposite was done in the editions published after his death, with the deletion of points important in the works.
• The original psychography, where the Spirits told Kardec not to suppress anything in the new editions, was tampered with by Leymarrie in Posthumous Works, removing precisely this advice, to give credibility to the 5th edition of A Gênesis. This happened after Henry Sausse's complaint.
• Those who deny legal facts and evidence of adulteration even use testimonies from people linked to Leymarie to support their theses.
• It is extremely important to read the work The Legacy of Allan Kardec, which provides diverse evidence about the facts surrounding the adulteration of A Gênesis.
• There is talk of the Society's accounting records, signed by Kardec's wife, three years after his death, where the costs of printing O Céu e o Inferno in February 1869 would be recorded. Anonymous (company)? Does it make sense to trust documents from the Sociedade Anônima, the same company that carried out the post-mortem coup on Kardec? As we will see below, official documents show that the work was not printed on that date.
• In the legal records of the National Library, printer's declaration no. 8,584 with a request for authorization from the typographer Rouge registered on 7/9/1869 to print 2,000 copies of the same fourth edition of Heaven and Hell, according to page 294 of document F/18(II)/128, more than three months after the disembodiment of Allan Kardec.
• In the Revista Espírita of June 1869, the Sociedade Anônima published the article titled “On sale on June 1, 1869”, dealing with the edition that was ready only on the 19th of the following month. And the notice further explains:

Fourth edition of Heaven and Hell or divine justice according to Spiritism, containing numerous examples on the situation of Spirits in the spiritual world and on Earth; 1 vol. in-12, price: 3 fr. 50.

Note – The doctrinal part of this new edition, entirely revised and corrected by Allan Kardec, went through significant changes. Some chapters in particular have been entirely reworked and considerably expanded.

(SOCIETY ANONYMOUS, [RE] 1869, jul., p. 224)

• Everything indicates that Amelie, over 70 years old, in mourning, was deceived by the Public Limited Society, and trusted what they said or presented to her. Berthe Froppo mentions that she believed that the SA would sell Kardec's books at popular prices (and they did the opposite). Sweet Gabi, as Kardec called her, gave everything, believing that the best would be done, as he did not have a leadership spirit. She was removed from any decision-making role in the SA. In short, deceived. She did not oppose the new editions, as she knew that her husband was working on them. He chose to hand over all of Kardec's work to the SA, as he thought, following Kardec's purposes, that Spiritism should belong to everyone, and no longer be centered on anyone. It was the promise of Society, finally unfulfilled.
• There is a lack of will (and here I reiterate: including by the CSI of Espiritismo and the owner of the Mesa Girante channel) to carry out a careful and applied study, including comparative. No: we just keep focusing on the surface of affirmations and simple denials, in a desire to deny what we see to be obvious to our eyes.
• Denial theses do not respect the legal fact; they don't care about Kardec's plans for the future of Spiritism; they do not care about the various blows suffered by Kardec and Spiritism; they do not care about the blow to the unity of method and organization, necessary for doctrinal continuity; they do not carry out doctrinal analyzes of the previous content and changes; do not care about the fact that the Public Limited Company has set on fire a large number of Kardec's manuscripts, after his death; they do not talk about the real plot being formed around Kardec, by Roustaing and his followers; do not bring to light the countless facts and evidence of interests contrary to good, by people around Kardec.

  No, and they cannot, because paying attention to the fact of the disasters suffered by Kardec and Spiritism would be feeding the arguments of adulteration, which would not be in their interest. On the contrary: they strive to place unjustifiable doubt on people like Berthe Froppo, a close friend of the Kardec couple, who made some serious accusations against Leymarie and the limited company! No, for them Froppo's testimony is not valid, but the allegations of the adulterer, Leymarie, and his wife, as well as the others involved, out of interest, in their affairs are valid. spiritual business!

• The preface to Genesis and the introduction to chapter 8 of Heaven and Hell (3rd edition) deal precisely with the method of Spiritism, which protects it from becoming a personal system, which greatly bothered Roustaing and Pezzani, his personal friend , which had their own conceptions of what Spiritism should be. Is it chance that both were removed in the new editions?
• The excerpts removed in the adulteration of Genesis they denounce exactly how people think and act enemies of the true idea.
• Each of the 25 items in chapter VIII of Heaven and Hell had a basis in the rest of the work. In the 4th edition, which was tampered with, many items lost this correspondence, as demonstrated in O Céu e o Inferno, from the publisher FEAL (click on here to download for free).

Live with Lucas Sampaio about Tampering in Kardec's works

Video from my channel talking about the video from the Mesa Girante channel

How can Our Home? How would it be possible, given the doctrinal knowledge brought to light with so much care, with appropriate methodology, gathered from the study of a multitude of Spirits, of all evolutionary degrees, to communicate everywhere? Does not make sense.

Segundo diz o Espírito de André Luiz, o próprio Governador da “cidade astral” assevera:

Somos, em “Nosso Lar”, mais de um milhão de criaturas devotadas aos desígnios superiores e ao melhoramento moral de nós mesmos.

How can we reconcile, however, the idea of millions of “creatures”, devoted to superior designs, but still so absurdly attached to earthly materialism? Does not make sense. We do not object to the idea that inferior Spirits, attached to materialism, when leaving the body, remain attached to false needs and false ideas of the earthly personality. In fact, this is abundantly demonstrated by the Spiritist Doctrine. Here, however — in theory — we speak of Spirits devoted to superior designs.

I ask: how can we admit a hierarchical organization of supposedly superior Spirits devoting themselves to the systematization and cultivation of false ideas? Bonus hours? After all, doesn't the Spiritist Doctrine teach us that charity is a moral duty, which is practiced without waiting for a return? In Nosso Lar, according to André Luiz, Narcisa's Spirit worked out of obligation, to earn the right to reincarnate:

I need to find some beloved spirits on Earth for joint upliftment services. For much
time, due to my past deviations, I prayed, in vain, for the possibility necessary for my ends. She was disturbed, distressed. They advised me, however, to turn to Minister Veneranda, and our benefactor of Regeneration
promised that he would endorse my purposes in the Ministry of Aid, but demanded ten consecutive years of work here, so that I can correct certain imbalances of feeling. At first, I wanted to refuse, considering the demand too much; later, I recognized that she was right. After all, the advice was not aimed at her interests but rather my own benefit. And I gained a lot by accepting his opinion. I feel more balanced and more human and I believe I will live my future experience on Earth with spiritual dignity.

Now, in addition to a superior Spirit interfering with the free will of that Spirit, demanded, against his will, the fulfillment of a “sentence”, so that she could later reincarnate. I wonder where Nosso Lar or any other spiritual colony would be, which did not interfere with the choice of Spirits like that of the Assassin Lemaire (Revista Espírita, March 1858) who thought he was strong enough to challenge himself in a type of test in the face of which succumbed. And what about the Spirit of Charles Dupont (The Spirit of Castelnaudary, RE60), who, having previously lived among savages, in another world, chose to incarnate on Earth, where, without yet having control over his instincts and emotions, he ended up killing his brother and his wife?

Não, não é possível. Nosso Lar, com suas grandes muralhas, reproduz fielmente as falsas ideias terrenas, onde os não “eleitos” são mantidos para fora dos muros. Nosso Lar, com sua plêiade de milhões de Espíritos “devotados aos desígnios superiores”, seria o retrato do egoísmo distraído pelo materialismo pujante.

What a difference with the communications frequently presented by Kardec from superior Spirits! There is no attachment to materiality in his descriptions: his occupations are working for infinite Space, acting in Creation:

What are your palaces and your golden halls before the aerial abodes, the vast field of space variegated with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, compared to journeys through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, given the grand spectacle of the worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the powerful hand of the Almighty?

How are your most melodious concerts sad and noisy, in the face of this harmony that makes the fluids of the ether and all the fibers of the soul vibrate? How sad and insipid your great joys are compared to the ineffable sensation of happiness that incessantly saturates our being in the form of a beneficent effluvium, without any mixture of restlessness, any worry, any suffering! Here everything breathes love and trust and sincerity. Everywhere loving hearts, everywhere we see friends, no envious and jealous. This is the world I find myself in, my friend, and you will all reach it infallibly by following the right path.

However, uniform happiness would soon become boring. Do not think that our happiness is free from vicissitudes. This is not a perpetual concert, nor an endless party, nor of beatific contemplation through eternity. No. It is movement, life, activity. The occupations, although free from fatigue, present an incessant variety of aspects and emotions, due to the thousand incidents that contain them. Each one has their mission to fulfill, their protégés to assist, friends from Earth to visit, Nature's processes to direct, suffering souls to console. There is a back and forth, not from one street to another, but from one world to another. Creatures come together, separate to come together again; they meet here and there, they talk about what they do, they congratulate each other on their successes; They understand each other and assist each other in difficult cases. Anyway, I assure you that no one has a second of time to get bored.

Spirit of Countess Paula, Heaven and Hell

Careful reading is enough to realize that this Spirit figuratively uses the term “aerial dwellings”. What beauty, what a completely different scenario from that world of material attachment and false physiological needs presented by André Luiz in his first work, whose logical disparity with the Doctrine and common sense we cannot explain until Kardec's methodology, with the use of evocations, be recovered.

By changing our mentality, we will leave our attachment to materialism to be useful, acting, according to our possibilities, in the Good, in Divine Creation. We can learn and teach, ever. Detached, in the world of Spirits, we do not attach ourselves to things, nor to forms. The universal divine creation itself is enough for us: the Universes to travel through, the processes of Nature to participate in, the planets to visit, the souls to help and those to learn from. But the idea of Our Home is a place where we need to work to earn “spiritual money” so that we can then buy a small house, where we can have “utilities”, such as a comfortable bed, a beautiful table with spiritual mahogany chairs, where we can sit comfortably to drink a fluidic soup (sic). Sorry for the sarcasm.

As on Earth, property here is relative. Our purchases are made based on working hours. The hourly bonus, in essence, is our money. Any utilities are purchased with these coupons, obtained by ourselves, through effort and dedication.

Our home

Now, why have a house, if infinite Space serves as our Home? Why have a house if the Spirit does not feel any material need? Why protection if you don't feel fear or pain? Why soup or water if the Spirit doesn't feel thirsty? For what "aerobus“, oh, meu Deus, se o Espírito se transporta pelo pensamento — mesmo os menos elevados?

No, Spirits do not need any of this, and only Spirits who are still very disturbed, very attached to earthly ideas, are confused with the body they left behind and believe they need rest, food, protection, etc.

39. Could you tell us what your occupations are?

– R. I have them like you; I first try to educate myself and, therefore, I mix with better societies than I am; as leisure I do good, and my life is spent in the hope of achieving greater happiness. We have no material needs to satisfy and therefore all our activity is directed towards our moral progress.

Spirit of Mrs Reynaud, RE59

There are sensations that have as their source the state of our organs. Now, the needs inherent to the body cannot be verified as long as there is no longer a body. Thus, the Spirit does not experience fatigue, nor the need for rest or food, because it has no loss to repair. He is not affected by any of our illnesses. The needs of the body determine social needs, which for them do not exist. Thus, there are no longer the worries of business, the discord, the thousand and one tribulations of the world and the torments to which we surrender to meet our needs or the superfluities of life. They feel sorry for the effort we make because of frivolities. However, the happier the elevated Spirits are, the more the lower ones suffer, but these sufferings are mainly anguish that, although they have nothing physical, are no less poignant.

KARDEC, ibid.

The case here is not to accuse Chico of lack of care. Chico was the communication tool, like a pencil in a writer's hand. No, we would have questioned the Spirit that communicated, in possession of the knowledge of all the problems and all the care that revolve around mediumship and the communication of Spirits. That's not what we did: simply accepting, placing on Chico Xavier's account the weight of responsibility for communications that we should have evaluated.

Many people use the case of this Spirit, Countess Paula, presented in Heaven and Hell, to support their theories of “astral cities”.

What are your palaces and your golden halls before the aerial abodes, the vast field of space variegated with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, compared to journeys through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, given the grand spectacle of the worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the powerful hand of the Almighty?

How are your most melodious concerts sad and noisy, in the face of this harmony that makes the fluids of the ether and all the fibers of the soul vibrate? How sad and insipid your great joys are compared to the ineffable sensation of happiness that incessantly saturates our being in the form of a beneficent effluvium, without any mixture of restlessness, any worry, any suffering! Here everything breathes love and trust and sincerity. Everywhere loving hearts, everywhere we see friends, no envious and jealous. This is the world I find myself in, my friend, and you will all reach it infallibly by following the right path.

Unfortunately, many stop reading the points that interest them. When the Spirit speaks of “aerial dwellings”, that’s enough to say that she was speaking of spiritual cities! What point do biases adopted in a hurry lead to…

Right after the quote about “aerial addresses”, he continues:

[…] the vast space field tinted with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, in front of Travels through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, compared to the grand spectacle of worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the mighty hand of the Most High?

These Spirits are talking about Space! He is not talking about astral cities, but about the Space! “Aerial addresses” is a figurative language to say about Space, “above” us!

She continues:

However, uniform happiness would soon become boring. Do not think that our happiness is free from vicissitudes. This is not a perpetual concert, nor an endless party, nor of beatific contemplation through eternity. No. It is movement, life, activity. The occupations, although free from fatigue, present an incessant variety of aspects and emotions, due to the thousand incidents that contain them. Each one has their mission to fulfill, their protégés to assist, friends from Earth to visit, Nature's processes to direct, suffering souls to console. There is a back and forth, not from one street to another, but from one world to another. Creatures come together, separate to come together again; they meet here and there, they talk about what they do, they congratulate each other on their successes; They understand each other and assist each other in difficult cases. Anyway, I assure you that no one has a second of time to get bored.

What exists “on the other side”, for detached Spirits, is action in divine creation! It is the transit through infinite Space, where they come together, here and there, with other Spirits, to act in the processes of Nature, to console suffering souls, incarnate and disembodied! That's it, and not a life limited by walls and false physiological needs!

Check out a more complete approach in the article Umbral and the doctrinal basis.

I am always emphatic in demonstrating that the Spiritist Movement is considerably far from true Spiritism. We almost always find the Spiritist Movement, represented by the Spiritist Centers, the FEB, the USE and the speakers and representatives of these institutions, surrounded by atavisms, trapped in systems of ideas built on distortions and spiritist romances, attached to their own opinions gradually formed over decades. of a teaching distanced from Kardec and full of Roustaing, or supported on the false ideas born by adulteration of Heaven and Hell. As a result, the Spiritist Movement distanced itself from the logical and clear face of spiritual science and became a new religious variant, something that Spiritism has never been (nor will it ever be).

In the last almost four years (I write in February 2024), what I thought I knew about Spiritism has suffered a huge shock. It started with reading Allan Kardec's Legacy, followed by the reading of “Nem Heaven, Nor Hell: the laws of the soul according to Spiritism” and then went deeper with the inauguration of our Study Group, where we began to study the Spiritist Magazine and also with the reading of the works of Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, dealing both with Rational Spiritualism, a scientific-philosophical movement of the 19th century that gave basis to the emergence of Spiritism, and with the true face of Spiritism.

I am, therefore, interested in summarizing, in this article, some recommendations for the Spiritist student, wishing to free themselves from the webs of the stagnant and dogmatic Spiritist Movement, to get to know and experience true Spiritism in their lives. Let's go in order:

1. Study the work Neither Heaven nor Hell: the laws of the soul according to Spiritism, where it will be possible to understand the importance of the adulteration of the work Heaven and Hell.
2. Study the work Autonomy — The Untold History of Spiritism: https://amzn.to/3PIvbyy
3. Study the work “Final Point: the reunion of Spiritism with Allan Kardec“, where it will be possible to understand what actually happened to Spiritism on Brazilian soil.
4. Create a study group on the Revista Espírita (1858–1869). It is there that you can learn about the formation of the Spiritist Doctrine, with a great gain in understanding through the study of the previous work — “Autonomy”.

Concomitantly with these previous steps, here are some suggestions for content that can be studied with great benefit:

• Lecture Allan Kardec and the moral revolution of humanity.
• Study Good and Evil, Punishments and Rewards, Shadow and Light.
• Spiritist Revolution. Allan Kardec's forgotten theory: https://amzn.to/3t7HIUH
• Allan Kardec's Legacy: https://amzn.to/3RIn2gv
• Genesis, Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism https://amzn.to/3RM91hF
• Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism: https://bit.ly/3vVYQhu (Free PDF) / https://amzn.to/3ZGrcal (book)
• Mesmer. The denied science of animal magnetism: https://amzn.to/3PYc1X2
• PDFs of Kardec's works: https://bit.ly/3sXXBxk

I hope this can be very useful to you. If you have any doubts, contact.

The publisher FEAL recently released the free PDF of the work Heaven and Hell, by Allan Kardec. The big difference for this edition is that it recovers the work originally written by Allan Kardec, free from the absurd disfigurement that this work suffered in its 4th edition, tampered with after Kardec's death.

Adulteration? Yes, if you don't already know, this work was tampered with after Kardec's death and released with a huge variety of removals of original, very clear ideas and the addition of exiguous ideas to the Spiritist Doctrine, contrary to what Kardec often denied or stated. You can understand this adulteration a little better by clicking on here and also by reading “Neither Heaven Nor Hell – The laws of the soul according to Spiritism“.

Click on the link below to download the free PDF of Heaven and Hell, by Allan Kardec, by FEAL:

https://portalmundomaior.com.br/artigo/o-ceu-e-o-inferno-ou-a-justica-divina-segundo-o-espiritismo

Esse texto, intitulado “Remorso e Arrependimento”, foi integralmente extraído da Revista Espírita de maio de 1860:

"I am happy to see you all united by the same faith and love for Almighty God, our divine Lord. May he always guide you on the right path and shower you with his benefits, which he will do if you make yourselves worthy.

Always love one another as brothers; help one another, and let love of neighbor not be a meaningless word to you.

Remember that charity is the most beautiful of virtues, and that of all, it is the most pleasing to God, not only that charity which gives an offering to the unfortunate, but that charity which pities the miseries of our brothers and sisters; which makes you share in their moral pain, lighten the burden that oppresses them, in order to make their pain less vivid and their lives easier.

Remember that sincere repentance obtains forgiveness for all faults, so great is God's goodness. Remorse has nothing in common with repentance. Remorse, my brothers, is already the prelude to punishment. Repentance, charity and faith will lead you to the happiness reserved for good spirits.

Go and listen to the words of a superior Spirit, beloved of God. Retreat and open your heart to the lessons he will give you."

A GUARDIAN ANGEL

Repentance, for Spiritism, is not something external, subject to a figure of others, as it is for religions: no, repentance is the movement of the Spirit that understands its own deviation and then seeks to correct itself, through the atonement and reparation.

A Brazilian Spiritist group, with unquestionable merit for its approach to practical Spiritism through evocations and dialog with the Spirits, recently published an article in which, having evoked the Spirit of Allan Kardec, he supposedly commented on the ten Moisaic laws - the Ten Commandments. In this evocation, he said something about atonement that caught our attention.

We don't doubt the possibility of this Spirit communicating. In fact, he must be very keen to do this essentially spiritist work, wherever he is called. However, reading the comments attributed to him, we find the following:

Who punishes the iniquity of the fathers in the children who hate me to the third generation.

"That would be a denial of God's sovereign justice and supreme goodness. Truly, this is what has been said: everyone will be punished for his sin. Isn't that a refutation of these sad words? The guilty atone for their faults, for which they have no regretsin a series of painful incarnations."

Spiritist Review Group. "Explanations of the Ten Commandments given by the Spirits". Available at https://www.revistaespirita.net/pt-br/artigo/184/explicacoes-dos-dez-mandamentos-dadas-pelos-espiritos. Accessed on 01/12/2023. Emphases added.

The conclusion is not correct. I ask you to bear with me amicably, because I'm not here to throw stones at anyone.

"The guilty atone for their faults, which they do not repent of, in a succession of painful incarnations." This leads to the idea that atonement is a punishment given by God to unrepentant spirits:

The word atone means to purify, to pay for sins. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can purify ourselves in order to be reconciled with our Heavenly Father.

Available at https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/true-to-the-faith/atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

This cannot be Kardec's thinking. The third edition of Heaven and Hell contains the following, later removed in the adulteration of this work:

“8º) The duration of the punishment is subordinated 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 repentance, atonement, and reparation—in short: a serious, effective improvement, as well as a sincere return to the good.”

The spirit is thus always the arbiter of its own destiny; he can prolong his sufferings by his hardening in evil, alleviate them or abbreviate them by his efforts to do good.

A sentence for any given period of time would have the double disadvantage of either continuing to affect the spirit that had been perfected, or ending while it was still in evil. God, who is just, punishes evil while it exists; and ends punishment when evil no longer exists.

Thus this expression is confirmed: I do not want the sinner to die, but for him to live, and I will accuse him UNTIL HE REPENTS

Then, in a passage removed in the 5th edition of The Genesis, he states:

"Far from replacing one exclusivism with another, Spiritism presents itself as the absolute champion of freedom of conscience. It combats fanaticism in all its forms, cutting it out at the root, announcing salvation for all good people, as well as the possibility for the most imperfect to reach, through their efforts, through atonement and reparation, the unique perfection that leads to supreme happiness. Instead of discouraging the weak, it encourages them by showing them the port they can reach."

Of course the atonement is a result of the Spirit's repentance. Before that he only suffers remorse, but sincere repentance puts him on the conscious path of reparation through atonement, the fruit of his choices (remorse and regret are different things). This is the result of all Kardec's long years of study and research, and is constantly evidenced in the Spiritist Review.

The clear evidence of adulteration, especially in Heaven and Hell, have disfigured the doctrine and tarnished Kardec's reputation as a fool who contradicts himself or someone who has lost his capacity for judgment. We have shown that item 10 of the 4th edition of this work demonstrates, without a doubt, that there has been tampering, and this tampering does not allow us to know the reality of Kardec's conclusions.

I suggest the following thoughts, which have inspired me, as a prayer for the good Spiritist student. They are thoughts that I think are useful to reflect on before study meetings.

"Good Spirits, I'm about to start another learning activity together with the group that welcomes me. Much more than a pastime, I understand the depth of this knowledge, which over time will change me and, from me, the human family around me.

I ask my guardian Spirit and the good Spirits who guide me to inspire me with good thoughts at this time. Spirits of our mothers, fathers, grandparents, relatives or close friends; spirits of people who I may not even remember, but who may be grateful to me for the slightest good I have done them, or sympathetic to my difficulties and my will: may my thoughts be more accessible to their good influences, thus warding off the influences of those who, unhappily, even without knowing it, aim at malevolence or frivolity.

Right now, may I look inward, so as not to be hypocritical with myself. Help me to notice my inner dispositions, my mistakes, my bad habits and, perhaps, my imperfections. Before I say "but him", may I turn to myself and say "what about me?", so that I can first see the beam in my own eye before I see the speck in someone else's. May I learn not to see what is wrong with me. May I learn not to see the evil in someone else's mistake, thus creating the evil in myself. May "judge not" be clear in my mind, understanding that seeing another person's mistake should not lead me to judge them for that mistake, which they may not even be aware of and which they often commit while trying to do good.

Help me, finally, not to deceive myself. Learning can only be built through collaborative effort, and happiness is no less a joint effort. If my purpose is to learn, in order to share and help, may I, in learning, first apply the consequences of Spiritism to myself, making the effort that the true Spiritist, the one who has understood the Doctrine at the core of their Being, must make. So, wishing to be a good tool, may I use all this knowledge to develop better habits, replacing the bad ones; may I learn, day after day, to tame my emotions, counting on the good inspiration of you, my fellow Spirits, as well as the group that welcomes me with open arms.

May pride and selfishness gradually leave my being and be replaced by true humility and charity. May personalism find no place in my soul. May vanity not instigate me to think I am superior to anyone, when I am only a mere apprentice, trying to keep on the learning curve of God's Law, and may levity, still characteristic of Spirits like us, not lead me to be careless and behave like pseudo-wise Spirits, who think they know what they don't know. Let praise not instigate my vanity, which I must firmly combat, and let criticism be taken only as an opportunity for reflection. If I have mediumship, may I not think I'm infallible, nor be led to blindly believe in the Spirits who may communicate with me or inspire me, and may, when I may have my attention drawn to them, sullenness and pride be far from my thoughts.

May the innermost purposes of this group with which I sympathize be mine too, and may I learn to do my part, carrying my blocks for the effort that, together, will help to restore the foundations and re-erect the edifice of Spiritist science, so that one day it can once again illuminate the whole of humanity with its torch of light, today overshadowed by contempt and neglect.

Help me so that, leaving this meeting, I can maintain these dispositions in my daily life, knowing that true prayer is experienced every moment, through will, founded on knowledge. Intuade me, out of charity, to remember to find more moments to study this Doctrine, replacing idle time with knowledge of the Good, so that I can ultimately become a more useful individual for the group and for humanity.

Thank you, etc…

Cover photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/pt-br/foto/aluna-com-dor-de-cabeca-na-biblioteca-3808057/