The Ethiopian Empire, also known as Abyssinia, was an empire that occupied the present territories of Ethiopia and Eritrea, existing from approximately the year 1270 (beginning of the Solomonic dynasty) until 1974, when the monarchy was deposed by a coup d'état. Therefore, it still existed at the time of Allan Kardec.

Kardec opens the article by citing a narration by James Bruce (1730 – 1794), a Scottish explorer and writer, in his work Voyage aux sources du Nil, in which he says he is appalled by the practices of witchcraft and evocation of the Devil practiced by the king of Gingiro, a small kingdom in the southern part of Abyssinia.

Kardec points out that, had Bruce known Spiritism, he would have seen that there was nothing absurd there (in terms of evocations). In addition, it would be a people that, for sure, kept a large number of Jewish traditions and some rudimentary ideas of Christianity in which, for lack of knowledge, they absorbed the idea of the Devil, not understanding that they were for inferior spirits who made their sacrifices.

Two ambassadors that Socinius, to the king of Abyssinia, sent to the pope, around 1625, and who had to cross the Gingiro. It was then necessary that the king be asked for an audience for the caravan to cross his territory. The king happened to be in ceremonial, and he ordered the ambassador and his attendant to wait eight days for the audience with him. After the deadline, the delegation was received.

What Kardec thinks is that at such a short distance there was still degradation and ignorance in doing everything through consultations with Spirits being so close to the main intellectual centers. It merges this idea with the local temperature, which, being hot, could be potentiated in cold climates. He compares the Ethiopians, who cover almost the whole of Abyssinia, with the Gingerans, who neither worship the devil, nor pretend to have any communication with him; nor do they sacrifice men on their altars; in short, there was no trace of this revolting atrocity among them.

Our encoder continues the censorship by stating that the king of Gingiro sacrificed to Devil, at that time of the slave trade, the poor people who would have the destiny of being exiled, given the proximity of that kingdom to the sea, because, away from the coast, their safety was guaranteed.

As we have seen, Mr. Bruce is the narrator of the story, and if he had seen what we are witnessing today, he would have found nothing astonishing in the practice of the evocations used in Gingiro. He only saw in them a superstitious belief, while we find its cause in the fact of falsely interpreted manifestations, which could take place there as in other documented places.

To end the article, when sacrificing human beings, Kardec concludes, with complete confidence in the light of Spiritism, that they could not attract superior Spirits to their midst. It is attributed to credulity the fact that the barbarian peoples worshiped an evil power the phenomena that they could not explain, because it was a very backward people morally and spiritually.

This article was inspired by the article “The Genesis case“, presented on the Portal Luz Espírita. In this article, which is quite extensive, several details are presented, step by step, which finally lead the author, Ery Lopes, and his collaborators — Adair Ribeiro, Adriano Calsone, Carlos Luiz, Carlos Seth Bastos, Jorge Hessen and Wanderlei dos Santos — to assume that, no, the Genesis was not adulterated and that we can be completely confident that the 5th edition, according to them edited and printed in 1869, was indeed a version printed by Allan Kardec.

I must recognize that the article has the merit of having tried to remain impartial, including the works of Simoni Privato, in The Legacy of Allan Kardec, where he presents a huge collection of evidence and evidence of adulterations.

At what point, then, does the article move on to assuming that such tampering does not exist and that all the evidence is wrong? Mainly from item 37 — “Clues from the Rational Catalog — which I reproduce below:

In this context, some clues are presented, obtained through the analysis of the work Catálogo Racional, which would have had its first edition distributed on April 1, 1869, the day after the death of Allan Kardec:

1. There is a quote from the work La clef de la vie (The key to life), by Michel de Figagnères, on which Kardec would have made a comment referring to items 4 to 7 of chapter VIII of A Genesis. Item 7, however, The Soul of the Earth, only came into existence from the 5th edition of this work.
2. Next, there is evidence that the work the four gospels, by Roustaing, would have already been cited by Professor Rivail himself in this first edition of the Catalog, unlike what some people would have said, supposing that such a citation would only have been due to adulteration. 

There is, however, a very important piece of information that was left out at this point: Kardec's reference to items 64 to 68 of chapter XV of A Genesis. It turns out that item 68 only existed until the 4th edition of this work, transformed into item 67 from the 5th edition, when the original item 67 was withdrawn. This item was very important, because it dealt with the question that the disappearance of the body of Jesus, until then, would be an unsolvable issue, due to the absence, until then, of the sanction of the double control of confirmation by rigorous logic and by the general teaching of the Spirits, and its withdrawal seems very strategic, if we consider that the contrary ideas, coming from Roustaing, could not be sustained, due to the absence of this double control.

Now, why this contradiction in Kardec's references? Why would he have simultaneously referred, at one point, to an item that would still be inserted in A Genesis, in the 5th edition, while, at another, he referred to an item that would be removed from it, in the same edition?

Logic takes me down the following path:

• Kardec had already prepared the printing of the Rational Catalogue, but he was still in the process of finishing the printing of A Genesis, which was still, apparently, in the final stages of reprinting for corrections and editions.
• In the Catalog, Kardec refers to an item that did not yet exist in The Genesis (Chap. VIII, item 7) and another that, from the 5th known edition, ceased to exist (item 68). This may demonstrate that Kardec, in the Catalog, would refer to an item from the new edition of A Gênese, and that would keep the reference to item 68, cited above. A would-be adulterer, determined to remove the all-important principle of double-checking sanction, missed the problem.
• The Catalog had already been ordered and printed with Kardec's knowledge, but that does not mean that it would be readily distributed. Most likely, by the logic of the facts, he would expect the printing of the new version of The Genesis.

I also suppose, by the logic of the facts, that the 5th edition of A Genesis, known to us, was based on changes to Allan Kardec's own clichés, since, in this edition, item 7 of chapter VIII presents content in accordance with with his own style and thinking (in my opinion). Thus, the alterations that we know, I suppose, are not all tampering, but the tampering hypothesis is very evident by all the evidence and evidence already presented, until today, and by the simple analysis of some altered or suppressed points, which are out of line with the thought, of Kardec's style and purposes and, above all, of the teaching of the Spirits during the entire first phase of Spiritism.

I add that I see no reason why Kardec has not cited Roustaing's work in his Catalogue, since he himself suggests, just below the recommendation, that the reader seek better clarifications in A Genesis, in the items mentioned. In fact, in the 5th edition of A Gênese, there is a reference to the Spiritist Magazine of September 1868, p. 261, which refers to the same theme contained in item 7 of the first work: A Alma do Mundo.

One more evidence that shows that the alterations in the 5th edition of A Gênese are not totally the result of adulterations, although, even on this item, I cannot say whether it would have been, in addition to being introduced, also adulterated, since the passage that in the 5th edition of A Gênese, he ends item 7 of chap. VIII, continues, in the Spiritist Magazine, in a very important way: “Spiritism would, with good reason, be ridiculed by its opponents if it made the editor responsible for utopias that do not stand up to scrutiny. If the ridiculous didn't kill you, it's because it only kills what is ridiculous.“

About the very common statement that some letters confirm the printing of the 5th edition of the work by the hands of Kardec himself, I have already addressed the case in the article “The adulterations in Kardec's works and the "CSI of Spiritism” (click here to read).

What I want to say with all this is that, yes, it is a very deep and complex subject, with a lot of cross information to be analyzed under a very rational, logical and truly impartial methodology. Unfortunately, it seems that many people desperately try to cling to any evidence that the tampering did not occur, and in doing so, fail to analyze the facts with all the care the matter deserves.

I always repeat: the content presented in the works “The Legacy of Allan Kardec” and “Neither Heaven nor Hell” is complete and too profound to be taken as if it were just any error, based on incomplete or false information. Even so, if there is room for doubt, let the other information be analyzed with the utmost scientific criteria, as Kardec himself taught us and, while they cannot be remedied, let us remain safe with the works undoubtedly printed by his own hand and pocket.

Finally, I would like to highlight the following: one of the most used proofs to affirm that the 5th edition was fully authored by Kardec himself, the 5th edition of 1869, presents on its cover, as a printing address, the new address of the headquarters from the Parisian Spiritist Society: “Librairie Spirite et des Sciences Psychologiques”, at “7, rue de Lille”.

We know that Kardec died before of the Company's establishment at the new address, which proves that this edition was only printed after your death. Read more by clicking on here.

We live in a world hitherto dominated by the concepts of heteronomy. To understand this concept well, we need to analyze the etymology of the word: heteronomy is formed from the Greek radical “hetero” which means “different”, and “nomos” which means “law”, therefore, it is the acceptance of norms that are not ours, but that we recognize as valid to guide our conscience that will discern the moral value of our actions. This understanding is fundamental.

the heteronomous world

In the heteronomous world, we attribute everything to something external: the fault lies with the devil or the obsessor, the effect lies with divine wrath, and reparation lies with the imposition. karma. Everything, absolutely everything in the heteronomous world comes as an external imposition, through laws that we respect out of obligation and not out of understanding. And in the absence of her or her actors, we find ourselves without limits and even without self-love.

Heteronomy is something inherent and perhaps even necessary to a condition of little spiritual advancement, when, without a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of life and evolution, we are forced to attend, out of fear, to the impositions of divine laws, humanized, or even human laws, divinized. Unfortunately, as we already know, it is also widely used by religions to maintain control over their faithful. But this is something that, as we can see, changes as the human spirit advances, both in science and in morality.

A big problem with the concept of heteronomy, or, rather, with the belief in it, is that for a certain time the evolution of the Spirit was involved: well, if the individual believes that his difficulties in life are a punishment imposed by God, he only accepts his submissively (which, yes, is important), but without doing anything to change it. He just waits for the end of his trials. Not even charity can really be understood and practiced in a heteronomous context, as the individual practices charity expecting a return, without understanding that it is a moral and natural obligation of the thinking being.

Another very problematic point is that when the individual believes in divine punishment - and, even worse, in eternal punishment - it is very common for him to lose any limit after making a mistake. Surely, the reader has heard the statement countless times: “I'm already going to hell, so one more sin, whatever”.

But we are wrong if we think that the heteronomous concept is found only in religions. Unfortunately, even in the spiritist milieu, this concept has also infiltrated, especially with the adulteration of the works O Céu e o Inferno and A Genesis, by Allan Kardec. If today we constantly hear, from the mouths of spiritists, the words “karma”, “law of action and reaction”, “rescue”, this is largely due to these adulterations, passed from generation to generation and that today make many of us , spiritists, we still believe that “karma” makes me reborn in this life to “rescue” a past mistake.

Let's see: it is precisely one of the most serious adulterations in O Céu e o Inferno that instilled this heteronomous thought, which delays the advance of the Spirit, in the heart of a Doctrine that was totally focused on the autonomy of being. In chapter VII, item 9 of the cited work, we read: “Every fault committed, every wrong done is a debt that must be paid; if not in one lifetime, it will be in the next one or more.” This item did not exist until Kardec's death, and only appeared in new editions made more than two years after the Professor's death.

No — I insist on saying: in Spiritism there is no karma, nor "law of action and reaction” and, much less, “rescue”. These are concepts that, deep down, have the same effect as the belief in divine punishment.

Autonomy

Opposed to the concept of heteronomy, autonomy (self — of oneself) places the individual at the center of its evolution. It depends on your will, solely and exclusively, both your actions and your thoughts and the spirits attracted or repelled by them.

In the concept of autonomy, which was not born with Spiritism, but which was expanded by this Doctrine — and demonstrated — the Spirit is master of itself and of its choices from the moment it develops consciousness and, with that, comes to have the free will. Thus, he chooses between good and bad, or rather, he chooses ways to act in the face of situations and whether or not he congratulates himself on its effects. However, when the effect is negative, it does not mean that you are being effectively punished by a punishing God, but that you are suffering the moral consequences of your actions. And these moral consequences only exist for the Spirit who is already aware of their existence, which is why animals, for example, do not have them.

This is how, evaluating the consequences of our actions and, when more conscious, the moral imperfections that lead us to make mistakes, we impose on ourselves lives full of evidence and atonements, in order to try to get rid of these imperfections, by learning:

“Some, therefore, impose upon themselves a life of miseries and privations, aiming to bear them with courage”, when they wish to acquire patience, resignation or know how to act with few resources. Others wish to test whether they have already overcome inferior passions and then “prefer to experience the temptations of wealth and power, which are far more dangerous, through the abuses and misapplications to which they can give rise”. Those who struggle with the abuse they have committed, “decide to test their strength in the struggles they will have to sustain in contact with addiction” (The Book of Spirits, p.220).

It is clear: when doing evil against Inferior Spirits, we will have an almost guaranteed chance of receiving, in return, revenge; but this revenge, if any, is the effect of choice of the other Spirit, and not of a “karmatic” reaction of a supposed “law of action and reaction” — which, by the way, is a law of Newtonian Physics, and not a divine one. When practicing revenge, the other Spirit also errs, as it gives rise to the habit of its imperfections and, therefore, it can enter a circle of error and revenge with the other that can last centuries. When this does not occur - and this is the key point - the effect is only the Spirit who errs to remain longer away from the happiness of good Spirits, due to his own imperfections.

There is no “law of action and reaction” in Spiritism

Many people, attached to old concepts of the past, feel perplexed by such a statement, but anyone who has dedicated themselves to studying Spiritism can perceive that autonomous morality, in everything, is made very clear to our eyes, through the agreement universal teachings of the Spirits. What do we gain by doing good? We will move faster. And what will we suffer for doing evil? We will be longer held back by spiritual inferiority and around successive incarnations in lower worlds.

Spiritism shows us that, when we enter the circle of consciousness, we start to talk about our own destinies, and the trials and atonements that we face in the current incarnation are due to our own choices, made before incarnating, although very difficult, since, in a state of wandering spirit (freed from the body), we evaluate our imperfections much more clearly and, thus, choose opportunities, even if suffered, to learn and rise. Spiritism, by the way, when well understood, favors us to make better choices, because we stop only wishing for atonement past mistakes, in a mechanics of sin and punishment, and we start to choose opportunities that take us deeper to learn and develop better habits, hiding the imperfections that we have turned into habits.

We have already addressed a very typical case, extracted from the Spiritist Magazine, which deals with the question of the Spirit's choices regarding its tests, treated by Kardec in Evocation of the assassin Lemaire, in the March 1858 issue.

Another very interesting case is that of Antonio B, who, having walled up his wife alive in the previous life, not knowing how to deal with this guilt, planned an incarnation where he ended up buried alive, after being thought dead. He woke up in his coffin and inside he suffered horribly until his death, as if he had “paid” that debt with his own conscience. What really matters in this case is that, effectively, in life, he was a worthy and good man, and he wouldn't need this tragic end to “require” anything.

A rational proof that there is no such “law”: if an inferior Spirit does evil against a superior Spirit, what will he receive in return? Nothing but understanding and love. The example of the murderer Lemaire demonstrates this. So where would the return be? In another Spirit that God would designate for his "vengeance", to "collect a debt", thus making him also a Spirit in debt to the Law?

No, dear brother: there is no return except in the realization, sooner or later, on the part of the Spirit itself, that he is not happy as long as he is imperfect. Of course, we also need to remember: the Spirit is in the environment where it likes, and it attracts Spirits of the same vibration to itself. Therefore, he may even feel happy, but the Spirit will never be happy, which, due to its predispositions, only attracts inferior Spirits to itself. In this also consists a kind of punishment.

Reason explains, guides and comforts

The greatest characteristic of Spiritism is to be a rational scientific Doctrine, whose theory was born from the logical observation of the facts and the teachings of the Spirits. Now, when it comes to God, what would be the reason for him to punish us with punishments, since he created us and knows that our mistakes are born of our imperfections? There is no rationality in that. It's as if we punish our children for getting math wrong or putting their finger in the socket: in either case, the pain or feeling of being left behind is the punishment itself, and by adding an additional punishment to that, we are only conditioning the being not to think and only to be afraid of making mistakes - and therefore, to be afraid to try.

We were talking about reason: because it is mainly through reason that Spiritism leads us to better evolutionary choices. By deeply understanding the Doctrine, we stop making choices because of impositions or external expectations, either because “God wants”, because “Jesus waits”, or because “the devil haunts”. We start to make better choices, with a more active will, when we understand that the more time we allow for our imperfections or our materiality, the longer it will take to get out of this painful and brutish “wheel of incarnations”.

This understanding is also great remedy against suicide: we no longer see it with the concepts of sin and punishment - which are still disseminated and defended even in the spiritist environment - but, with a rational understanding: if I am an inferior Spirit, full of imperfections, it means that life is a rich opportunity for apprenticeship. Shortening it by my choice, in addition to being a huge missed opportunity, will just be a waste of time, because I will see myself, in Spirit, imperfect as I am, maybe even more wide open, and I will have to go back and start a new existence to be able to learn and get rid of imperfections that make it impossible for me to become happier.

The atonement explained in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine

Kardec defines it like this, in Practical Instructions on Spiritist Manifestations, from 1858:

ATONEMENT — penalty suffered by Spirits in punishment of faults committed during corporeal life. As moral suffering, the atonement it is found in the errant state; as physical suffering, in the incarnate state. The vicissitudes and torments of bodily life are, at the same time, tests for the future and atonement to the past.

It seems, from this text, that Kardec then defended that, yes, we pay in the present life for past mistakes? Not exactly. We cannot forget that, for the Spiritist Doctrine, autonomy, or the Spirit as the central actor of everything, is the key piece of everything. Therefore, even in the case of atonement, is something that consists in the choice of the Spirit itself, in order to seek to overcome an acquired imperfection:

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

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

And, to better understand the use of the terms punishment and punishment, by Allan Kardec, it is necessary to understand the philosophical context of Rational Spiritualism, in which it was inserted. We already talked about this in the article “Punishment and reward: you need to study Paul Janet to understand Allan Kardec“.

However, we are well aware that “the times have come” and that the planet Earth will slowly cease to be a planet of trials and atonements to be a world of regeneration, where there should be incarnations a little happier than the current ones. Let us use, for a moment, reason to evaluate all that we have exposed so far:

If the Spiritist Doctrine, teaching us autonomous morality, outlines better paths and better choices, let's think: what does it teach the individual more? A suffering of the same kind and degree, as in the case of Antônio B, above, or, understanding the imperfections that led us to do evil, in the first place, a life full of opportunities, often quite challenging and laborious, to exercise learning and doing good?

Do you understand where we are going? everything, absolutely everything, depends on our choices in face of our ability to consciously understand ourselves, and, in this, the study of Spiritism leverages us in several steps.

This is why the world will cease to be a world of trials and expiations: because the Spirits who incarnate here will begin to choose their incarnations better, ceasing to apply the law of talion (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth) to themselves in order to then take care to develop healthier moral habits. Even in this we contact that everything comes from the individual to the outside, and not the other way around.

Conclusion

Therefore, brothers, onward: let us study Spiritism in depth and, today knowing the adulterations in O Céu e o Inferno and A Genesis, let us study the original versions (already made available by FEAL) so that we no longer waste time with heteronomous concepts and, above all, so that we no longer repeat, in the Spiritist environment, the pitiful statements like those who say that “so and so was born with mental problems because he is paying for a mistake in his past life”. This, in addition to being an absurd mistake, keeps people away from Spiritism.

See an example:

Let's be amazed: this sentence is not from Kardec. Nor does it appear to be yours, nor can it be found in ANY of your works. This is one more proof of how much Spiritism was invaded by false ideas, almost always anti-doctrinal.

Our tests are rich opportunities, almost always chosen by ourselves, being imposed only in cases in which we do not have consciential conditions for such choices and, even so, they are given by action of benevolence of superior Spirits, and not as divine punishment.

The soul or Spirit suffers in the spiritual life the consequences of all the imperfections that it has not been able to correct in the corporeal life. Your state, happy or unhappy, is inherent in your degree of purity or impurity. (Heaven and hell).

The greatest punishment is that we continue for countless ages dragging ourselves in the mud of our imperfections. That's enough.

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Note: the name of the article comes from the text of the same title, which served as inspiration for this one, from the book Autonomia: a história sem contada do Espiritismo, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.

study suggestions

We suggest to the reader the following additional content:

• Autonomy: the never-told story of Spiritism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.
• Article "The true law that governs our life!“, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo
• Article "For spiritism there is no karma or cause and effect.“, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo
• Heaven and Hell, by Allan Kardec (search for recent FEAL publications, based on the first French edition)
• Channel Spiritism for All

Kardec brings to light the fact that Spiritism entered, after the initial moments of purely material manifestations, in the Psychological Period.

He disagrees, however, that human science would be closed: far from that, it would still have a lot to develop in the future.  

To better understand the article, we need to understand the meaning of psychology in the context of Allan Kardec and in the current context.

Current Psychology

Psychology, nowadays, with a materialistic therapeutic characteristic, has 3 aspects:

Psychology in the context of Kardec

In Kardec's context, Psychology did not have the materialistic therapeutic characteristic of today: it was a moral science, spiritualist, inserted in the context of Rational Spiritualism, and its main objective was to investigate and analyze the natural laws that govern human nature, including experimentally.

In this context, Psychology understood the human being as a being constituted of body and soul. The soul, which would survive the body, was the primary cause of the psyche, which was not just a material effect of chemistry and stimuli.

Before Allan Kardec, or before Rational Spiritualism, traditional philosophy dealt with the soul in a speculative way, through systems created by thinkers such as Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz and Kant. The advent of experimental psychology opened a new path: that of the philosophical sciences, which Spiritism complementary. In the words of Allan Kardec:

Spiritism, in its turn, comes to give its theory. It relies on experimental psychology; he studies the soul, not only during life, but after death; he watches her in a state of isolation; he sees it acting in freedom, whereas ordinary philosophy sees it only in union with the body, subject to the constraints of matter, which is why it often confuses cause and effect.

 Allan Kardec – RE – May 1864

Psychology is the science that studies mental processes (feelings, thoughts, reason) and human behavior. It derives from the Greek words: psique, which means “soul” and logia, which means “the study of”.

And how does Spiritism study the soul? Through the spiritist phenomena that, however, are no longer studied just for entertainment or curiosity, but precisely with the aim of investigating the natural laws that govern human nature!

And why did it all end?

The end of the psychological period, or rather, the twilight of the Philosophical Sciences, according to Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, was due to the union of the power of the Church with the Dictatorial State, which were hostile to the enlightenment of society and against the liberal doctrine defended by Rational Spiritualism.

It is important to say: liberalism in this context does not refer to unbridled freedom, the fruit of selfishness, but to a freedom guided by reason and enlightened by conscience.

Allied to this, a strong materialist movement begins to rise in Germany, around 1860, and ends up invading France, where it removes the Moral Sciences from the official chair.

It's in Brazil? Rational Spiritualism, which formed the first philosophical school established in the country and which came to be implanted in the teaching curricular structure, also faced

 […] adverse conditions that the first individuals aware of the original theory faced when they intended to create a Brazilian spiritist movement. A combative Church, struggling to maintain its privileges and the power that had been ebbing away since the Second Empire. And a materialist scientific current, rocked by the retrograde thoughts of Comte and German physiologists, such as Vogt, Moleschott, Virchow and Büchner. The rational spiritualist current, bravely defended by the leadership of Gonçalves de Magalhães and Porto-Alegre, who became disseminators of animal magnetism and later of Spiritism, despite infecting teachers and students of their time, was soon silenced and forgotten. In fact, it was not possible to establish in our lands the favorable scenario that Kardec found in France

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo – Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism

The result of all this is what we see today: a totally materialistic society, focused on the pleasures of the flesh and forgetful of spirituality, afraid of life and desperate before the grave!

What to expect for the future?

Only the best, because, in the same way that Rational Spiritualism was born in opposition to the materialism of the time, we are now experiencing a swarm of initiatives like ours and even better ones, which will certainly produce, in a few years, very important fruits for this time. of changes we are going through!

Remember Kardec, with which we end the article:

These excesses, however, have their utility, their reason for being. They frighten society, and good always comes out of bad; it takes the excess of evil to make the need for the best feel, without this man would not get out of his inertia.

(KARDEC, [RE] 1868, p. 201)

Karma and Spiritism are like oil and water: they do not mix. Be careful with people who preach the doctrine of karma within the spiritist environment, as the understanding of Spiritist Doctrine goes in the opposite direction: we are not incarnated to pay anything to anyone, because we owe nothing to anyone, much less to God!

We incarnate to experience our choices and learn from them, through trials and difficulties, but also through blessed opportunities, which is to have contact with Spiritism, which leverages our progress in many steps, when well understood and experienced.

Everything is part of our choices, including, most of the time, our way of dying. But in that there is no Karma. “But Paulo, so-and-so said that people burned to death at the Kiss nightclub because they killed others by burning other lives!”

Sorry to say, but so-and-so is almost completely wrong. What God would that be, who punishes ignorance in the same coin, in the fashion of Talion, in a way that teaches nothing to anyone? That said, I want to say: yes, there are Spirits that CHOOSE punishment, whether during life or in the way of dying, for BELIEVING in karma and not knowing how to deal with the guilt over their mistakes. We shall see this in Heaven and Hell, Part Two, Chapter VIII: having killed his walled-in wife in the preceding life, even though he had been forgiven by her, he PLANNED a horrible death in order to try to rid himself of this guilt. Look: planned! And needed? No, because in his current life, he was a good man, that is, he sought to LEARN to be a better person.

He understands? We are not here to pay debts, but to learn to be happier Spirits, through the smothering of our imperfections through learning! And this is often done through harsh penalties, including difficult contact with a person to whom, in the past, we have done some harm, and who, still suffering its effects, we try to help in a new incarnation. But, you see: it is a matter of conscious choice.

It is in this sense that the Earth is no longer a planet of trials and atonements to be a planet of regeneration, since the atonement consists precisely in the type of choice made by Antonio B, or by the murderer Lemaire (chapter VI), while better enlightened Spirits they choose not only to suffer in their skin, but rather better opportunities to learn. And, along with that, we come to the topic of education proposed by Pestalozzi, which is increasingly so necessary and important every day.

So, enough blaming yourself. It is clear: if we have done an evil that still exists at the moment our consciousness awakens about it, let us seek, yes, to repair it, but through work, and not through self-flagellation. And that goes for any moment, whether in the flesh or in erraticity. What really matters is learning, developing better habits, developing humility and charity. This does interrupt the cycle of evil and pain.

Earlier today I came across exactly this opinion, in a discussion in a certain Youtube group. It is understandable that many people have it, because they do not understand what Spiritism is, but it is unquestionable that only those who have not dedicated themselves to reading the introduction of The Spirits' Book can issue it - let alone Allan Kardec's other works. . But, before entering these paths, let's make an explanatory introduction to the subject here.

The Bible

First, it is necessary to understand what the Bible really is: a doctrinal compendium made up of man's stories, statements and opinions about divinity and Spirituality. We cannot object, however, that it has not been tampered with at various points by personal interests and by different groups, as the Roman Catholic Church did in historically known episodes. So, in short, it is a work full of a lot of morality, but also permeated with human errors everywhere, including introduced by an anachronistic interpretation of both history, culture and the original language. We know today that, especially in the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament, the language was full of neologisms and figures that, for that people, at that time, made perfect sense.

There is also an enormous difference between the two books that make up the Bible – The Old Testament and The New Testament – since, between them, there is a space of centuries that introduced a new mentality in humanity. At first, the "sacred texts" are full of even more backward ideas and permeated with laws and human statements, unacceptable today, which, at that time, had the purpose of legislating with divine powers over a people who had no ability to understand concepts that would later be acceptable. The New Testament, on the other hand, carries an enormous moral content, unassailable in its essence, taught and exemplified by a Pure Spirit, known to us as Jesus. Kardec, in The Gospel According to Spiritism, deals only with the New Testament, due to its degree of elevation, leaving the Old Testament aside.

The big question is that, through the ages, with or without adulterations, the Bible, as a whole, has always been used as a “word of salvation”, which should be obeyed blindly. Precisely there, religions found a wide field to disseminate their own ideas, introducing the various dogmas that, in fact, were not there, in order to command their faithful according to their particular political and material interests.

Spiritism

Unlike the Bible, which was born from the reports and stories of a few men, the spiritist theory, which constitutes a Philosophical Science, was born from the rational observation of facts spread over the entire globe and throughout all times. It is precisely under this authority that Kardec sees space and the need to seek to bring to the spiritist understanding the facts or stories narrated in the Bible. The in-depth study of Spiritism shows us, as always, that Allan Kardec cannot be considered the “father” or “prophet” of Spiritism, as no other could, because his quality was only that of a researcher, like so many others, who, to a “new” discovery, he begins to analyze it with patience, persistence and method, putting together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to compose an image that, in its separate pieces, cannot be understood or that does not make any sense.

The Spirits' Book was the first work completed by him, born of a vast study of the various spiritual messages obtained before and after the beginning of his studies. Even so, there are huge differences between the first and second editions, especially in concepts that were later investigated further and complemented or corrected. But how did Kardec carry out such a study?

The Methodological Study of Spiritism

The world of spirits cannot be glimpsed as we see our world. It does not produce the effects that in our senses produce the dense matter that constitute our world: the air, invisible to the eye, through the wind is felt by touch; the taste is felt by the taste buds; light is captured by the eyes and processed by the brain. However, the world of spirits can only be perceived by the senses. specials, which constitute what we call mediumship.

In mediumship there are different types of sense – to make an approximation with the world that we understand – and that give, to their “carriers”, the capacities to feel and communicate, or to give communication, to the beings that constitute this world, and these beings are the Spirits, more or less freed from matter and more advanced and superior or rather backward and inferior. Through mediumship, we can verify the existence of something above the material world, of an intelligence that survives matter, and some of them, like several researchers, in addition to Kardec himself, are only questionable due to the worst of pride, such as are mediumship of physical effects and somnambulism. The first obtains physical effects without great moral extension, while, in the second, the moral content is often vast, totally outside the capacities and knowledge of the medium who transmit it. But we will reserve that subject for another article.

It is important to say that it was mainly in the mediums sleepwalkers it is us mechanical psychographers that Kardec most sought out communications, as he perceived them to be richer and less susceptible to his own content. Even so, as a researcher, Kardec knew very well that he could not rely only on the opinion of one or another medium or one or another Spirit: he needed to seek in the generality and agreement of the Spirits' teachings the unshakable basis of the Spiritist Doctrine:

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.

Allan Kardec – Genesis

And it couldn't be otherwise, after all, from the researcher's point of view, the world of Spirits is unattainable and impossible to probe and analyze. Let's make a brief effort of imagination: let's say that, wanting to move to another country, without knowing it, we want to gather as much information about that place and its people. Let's say we don't have access to the Internet and we only have the telephone. We got a number from an inhabitant of that country and called him – of course, we think they both speak one same language--in order to get an account of that place: what are the people like there? Are they good or bad? Is there violence or not? Will I be able to count on support or not? Well, it's easy to assume that this single person's account will be in line with their cultural, political, educational, historical, social and even their own perceptions. Tendencies and own concepts. It could be, moreover, that we have inadvertently called a criminal, without knowing it. Shall we, then, sway our decision or our conception of that people by a single account? Of course not: we need, in this context, to call many other people, analyze bibliographic and artistic works produced by its inhabitants, etc.

It is exactly the same as what Allan Kardec did, analyzing countless communications obtained from all sides, by countless mediums and by countless Spirits, drawing, from all this, rational and logical conclusions, postulates and, sometimes, scientific theories, which only future studies could sanction or derogate.

Conclusion

We could truly spend hours and hours talking much more about Allan Kardec's studies, but the fact is that there is already a lot of material about it, especially in Kardec's own work, which, as he always demonstrated, did not have a content born of his own ideas. We leave this necessary search to the reader. We limit ourselves to closing this article, after all this previous approach, demonstrating that Spiritism is not a religion and that, as Science is a Doctrine that presents its studies and its conclusions, in a rational and logical way, and leaves to each one the task to reason for yourself about all the content presented. Now, as even the Modern Sciences, so well established, find their dissidents with their most absurd ideas, Spiritism could not expect less. Still, it's a question of everyone's freedom.

We spiritualists we believe in Spiritism not out of fear or imposition, but because we naturally understand the rationality contained in this Scientific Doctrine. We believe in reincarnation not because of inconclusive evidence, but because of an inconclusive rationality; we believe in the existence of spirits and in their communication with us also for reason, but also for the seriousness of researchers who have already set out to study the manifestations with great care and who, by themselves, have found irrefutable evidence of such existence; but we do not believe blindly in the teachings of the Spirits, much less in any supposed phenomenon. Kardec himself asserted: Spiritism must go hand in hand with Science. If, one day, it denies some postulates of its Doctrine, we must abandon them and stay with Science. On the contrary, Modern Science is getting closer and closer and confirming the spiritist postulates, just as the Science of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century did.

Maybe you who are reading, like me, have already asked that question: “God, why me?”

This questioning, quite natural when we still do not have a full understanding of the teachings of the superior spirits through Spiritism, still finds many inexact or even wrong explanations, precisely because of this lack of understanding, which is born from the lack of study.

Let's present some of these opinions incongruous with Spiritism:

• because God wants
• 'Cause I'm paying for a bad one
• 'Cause I'm being punished for a mistake from other lives
• because it's chance
• It's karma (or karma)
• It's the Law of Action and Reaction (which reflects a bad past)
• It’s “rescuing” other lives

All explanations, except the one that says it is the work of chance, basically reflect the same opinion: if I am suffering it is because God is subjecting me to a punishment, since I made a mistake. One opinion even goes further: God doesn't like me.

We need to detach ourselves a little more from these old conceptions, from a time when the human mentality was not ready to move a few steps forward and understand a God who is all kindness and love. In the past, we believed that God was a cruel, vengeful being, full of wrath and wrath, because we attributed our imperfections to Him, because we were unable to understand a being that did not have them. Today, however, it is no longer that way.

Allan Kardec, in The Spirits' Book, presents a face of God, obtained from the teachings of superior Spirits, never before known on the face of the Earth - at least not as a doctrine:

1. What is God?

“God is the supreme intelligence, primary cause of all things” *

2. What is to be understood by infinity?

“That which has neither beginning nor end; the unknown; all that is unknown is infinite.”

3. Could it be said that God is infinite?

“Incomplete definition. Poverty of the language of men, insufficient to define what is above their intelligence.”

[…]

13. When we say that God is eternal, infinite, immutable, immaterial, unique, omnipotent, sovereignly just and good, do we have a complete idea of his attributes?

“From your point of view, yes, because you believe that you encompass everything. Know, however, that there are things that are above the intelligence of the most intelligent man, which your language, restricted to your ideas and sensations, has no means of expressing. In fact, reason tells you that God must possess these perfections in a supreme degree, since if he lacked one, or were not infinite, he would no longer be superior to all, therefore he would not be God. To be above all things, God must find himself exempt from any vicissitude and from any imperfections that the imagination can conceive.”

Since our conception of God has evolved a lot, how then can we attribute to him the execution of punishments or demands, since he You know that the imperfections we have are only momentary and will disappear with our evolution?

But, we may object, facts are facts: if there is no chance, but I suffer, then there must be a reason for such sufferings. If it wasn't me who caused the suffering, then someone else is subjecting me to them, so it can only be God.

However, we need to analyze this chain of thoughts in a rational way, which is the invitation always made by Kardec in the face of any questions:

First of all, we need to understand that we are incarnate Spirits and while we are connected to the body, especially in such a dense state, we will be subject to the vicissitudes of matter, including the pain and suffering naturally caused by something like, for example, cold and heat.

Secondly, we need to learn to analyze and distinguish the types of suffering caused by ourselves, in the present incarnation, by our ways of acting and thinking. In this sense, Kardec calls us to reflect:

Going back to the origin of earthly evils, it will be recognized that many are a natural consequence of the character and course of those who suffer them.

How many men fall through their own fault! How many are victims of their improvidence, their pride and their ambition!

How many are ruined for lack of order, for perseverance, for bad behavior, or for not knowing how to limit their desires!

How many unfortunate unions, because they resulted from a calculation of interest or vanity and in which the heart took no part!

How many dissensions and fatal disputes would have been avoided with a little moderation and less susceptibility!

How many diseases and infirmities result from intemperance and excesses of every kind!

How many parents are unhappy with their children, because they have not fought their bad tendencies from the beginning! Out of weakness, or indifference, they allowed the seeds of pride, selfishness and foolish vanity to develop in them, which produce the dryness of the heart; then later, when they reap what they have sown, they marvel and grieve at the lack of deference with which they are treated and their ingratitude.

Coldly question their consciences all who are wounded in the heart by the vicissitudes and disappointments of life; go back step by step to the origin of the evils that torture you and check if, more often than not, you will not be able to say: If I had done, or not done, such a thing, I would not be in such a condition.

Allan Kardec – The Gospel According to Spiritism – chap. V

It is very evident that there are many sufferings that are born on account of our actions, even in thought, and about which we can only accuse ourselves.

But what about the sufferings we don't cause in this life? Where do they come from then? If it doesn't come from today, many will say, it is a reflection of other lives. I am just paying for past mistakes. But, we will reflect, if God does not charge or punish us, who is charging me for supposed debts? My victims of the past, some will say. We even suppose that, many times, our victims persecute us for more than one incarnation, seeking revenge. But would that be a rule? Aren't there the countless cases of spirits who forgive their tormentors and go on with their lives? Who, then, who would be charging and punishing us? Where would the court be?

There is, at this point, a very important teaching given by the superior spirits, quoted in The Spirits' Book:

621. Where is the law of God written?

“In conscience.”

This answer is so succinct, but so complete, that it amazes us. Now, we already understand that the Spirit only has free will when it enters the realm of consciousness. Before that, their actions are mechanical, responding only to instincts. When, consciously, however, he begins to have the free choice about his actions and, so to speak, between good and bad.

I am taking a very constructive line of exposition in order to elaborate the thought well: we understand, then, that, from the moment we develop conscience, the Law of God becomes effective in our own mind. So, finally, we come to the crucial answer: who pursues us are ourselves.

When we make an imperfection a habit, we start making mistakes that then make us unhappy. from the moment we become aware of them. When in the state of erraticity, then, we evaluate our actions and their consequences, on ourselves and on others, and to plan new incarnations with trials that we aim to help us learn and overcome these imperfections. Often, however, haunted by great guilt and still undeveloped in understanding, we come to the point of planning great and painful atonements, like the child who, not knowing how to deal with the guilt for some wrong committed, asks his father to punish him.

We see, therefore, that the difficulties and pains of our lives, when not arising from our present actions, are rich opportunities for learning and readjustment. Other times, tragedies and terrible pain are planned by the Spirit itself to seek to ease your conscience about something past. However, a very important lesson remains: as we understand more deeply the mechanics of spiritual evolution, we will make better plans for our incarnations.

We are still spirits very connected to these conceptions of sin and punishment, reaching the point of elaborating reincarnation plans linked to the “Law of Talion” – an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But, as we understand that what really matters is to identify our imperfections transformed into bad habits and correct them, understanding that punishment itself teaches little or nothing, we will seek better ways to plan new opportunities, progressively disconnecting ourselves from the need for very brutes to then seek opportunities more linked to a basic spiritual education, from the first steps of material childhood, with a view to strengthening virtues and smothering imperfections.

After all, we want to say: the difficulties of this life, however bad they may seem, if they are not a negative effect of our present actions or of Nature itself, they are opportunities planned by ourselves for our elevation. Let us strive, therefore, to face these trials differently, seeking to learn from them, always relying on prayer and studies of Spiritism, which can do a lot to help change our conceptions even in this life.

To complement this reading, we suggest reading the article on Punishment and Reward, recently published.

---

Reading suggestions:

1. The case of Antonio B, in Heaven and Hell
2. our reflections about the article A Fatality and Presentiments, presented in the March edition of the Spiritist Magazine of 1858
3. The Lemaire Killer, in the Spiritist Magazine of March 1858

In this article, very connected to the previous one, Kardec, referring to the Spiritist Scale, makes some other conjectures about what a planet could be inhabited by Spirits of the ninth (tenth) class, the immense difficulties, the general state of crime, horror, of physical and moral suffering.

Then, he conjectures a planet inhabited by Spirits all of the third order – impure, frivolous, pseudo-wise and neutral spirits. There, evil would still dominate, although less and less present as those Spirits moved away from the ninth (tenth) class. Pride, selfishness, passions, enslavement and various other moral imperfections would still dominate there.

IN SUCH A SOCIETY, IF IT DOMINATES, THE IMPURE ELEMENT WILL CRUSH THE OTHER; OTHERWISE, THE LESS EVIL WILL SEEK TO DESTROY THEIR ADVERSARY; IN ANY CASE THERE WILL BE A FIGHT, A BLOODY FIGHT, OF EXTERMINATION, BECAUSE THEY ARE TWO ELEMENTS THAT HAVE OPPOSITE INTERESTS. TO PROTECT GOODS AND PEOPLE, LAWS WILL BE NECESSARY, BUT THESE WILL BE DICITED BY PERSONAL INTEREST AND NOT JUSTICE; WILL BE MADE BY THE STRONG, TO THE DETRIMENT OF THE WEAK

Next, Kardec invites us to imagine, in the midst of these Spirits, some of the second order: we would see, then, amidst the perversities, some virtues.

IF THE GOOD ARE A MINORITY, THEY WILL BE VICTIMS OF THE BAD; HOWEVER, AS ITS PREDOMINIUM RISES, LEGISLATION BECOME MORE HUMAN, MORE EQUITABLE AND CHRISTIAN CHARITY IS NO LONGER A DEAD LETTER FOR EVERYONE. FROM THAT SAME GOOD ANOTHER ADDICTION WILL BE BORN. DESPITE THE WAR WHICH THE BAD INCESSANTLY DECLARE TO THE GOOD, THEY CANNOT AVOID esteeming them in their intimate forum. SEEING THE ASCENDANT OF VIRTUE OVER ADDICTION AND NOT HAVING THE STRENGTH OR WILLING TO PRACTICE IT, THEY SEEK TO PARODIATE IT AND TAKE THE MASK OF IT. WHEN THE HYPOCRITES, SO NUMEROUS IN ALL SOCIETY WHERE CIVILIZATION IS STILL IMPERFECT.

After all, Kardec arrives, through imagination, to a whole world inhabited by spirits of the second order, to where, by simple reading, we would like to transport ourselves at this exact moment. Absolute equality does not reign there, since the second order still encompasses Spirits of various degrees of development. However, this inequality does not generate envy of the less advanced nor pride of the most advanced: everyone would be united in the purpose of learning and elevation.

THE CONSEQUENCES WE DRAW FROM THIS FRAMEWORK, ALTHOUGH HYPOTHETICALLY PRESENTED, ARE NO LESS RATIONAL, AND EVERYONE CAN DEDUCT THE SOCIAL STATE OF ANY WORLD, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROPORTION OF THE MORAL ELEMENTS OF WHICH WE SUPPOSE IT TO COMPOSE.

WE HAVE SEEN THAT, WITHOUT THE REVELATION OF THE SPIRITS, ALL PROBABILITIES ARE FOR THE PLURALITY OF WORLDS. NOW, IT IS NO LESS RATIONAL TO THINK THAT NOT EVERYONE IS IN THE SAME DEGREE OF PERFECTION AND THAT, FOR THIS VERY REASON, OUR ASSUMPTIONS CAN PERFECTLY BE THE EXPRESSION OF REALITY.

We see, through this exercise, in which spiritual moment the Earth is and in which it has already found itself. Based on this thought and on the Spiritist Scale, we see which evils we still need to root out of our individualities in order to advance to better positions.

About some neighboring planets, Kardec informs that, according to the Spirits, Mars would be an even more backward planet than Earth, where would incarnate Spirits almost exclusively of the ninth (tenth) class. But, since we didn't find anything on Mars other than dust, should we imagine that the Spirits deceived Kardec? Why, no! just that this incarnation it must take place in a fluidic state, outside of our senses.

Follows Allan Kardec commenting on some teachings about other planets, the most interesting being those that talk about Jupiter, which would be a planet of much higher spiritual elevation than ours. There, according to the reports of the Spirits, only Spirits of the second order would incarnate. These spirits portray wonderful cities.

Will we one day land a probe there and see a civilization that is perceptible to our senses and devices? Maybe yes maybe no. Maybe one day we'll land there and find an icy, desert planet, how can we find some way of life. We don't know and, if the first case occurs, we can also assume that such cities and civilization are also constituted in ethereal matter, as we already know that even in the surroundings of our planet this fact occurs.

Anyway, they are conjectures of a past time that, although valid in many ways, maybe one day – when the methodological studies of the Spirits' communications can be resumed – revisited and complemented or corrected.

The science of Kardec's time is something quite different from what it is today. Many scientific advances were made and, while Kardec could only imagine what the neighboring planets and even the moon would be like, today we have visited the last celestial body several times, we have already landed at least 3 autonomous vehicles on Mars and, a little while ago, we made it reach the orbit of Mercury the first human probe. Huge revolution, compared to a time when you could only think through a telescope.

We started like this in order to place ourselves in Kardec's time, which is essential to understand his conjectures about nearby astral bodies. It is also very important to note that there are two distinct parts in the Spiritist Doctrine in this regard: human knowledge and conjectures and the knowledge taught by Spirits, in the way that man could understand at that time.

On the human side, Kardec, in this article, makes several conjectures about what other worlds would be like, based on what human science at that time had already been able to observe. It creates hypotheses, quite plausible for the knowledge of the time, about the atmospheric formations of these distant orbs, conjecturing, then, about the possible forms of life that could exist there, including those not detectable by our five senses, that is, those that could be in much more subtle states of matter.

But the intention of this article by Kardec is not only to make philosophical conjectures about life, seen in a scientific way, outside the Earth: it is also to make the reader reflect on the divine greatness, which does nothing by chance and that, also in this sense , would not have made planets just for our enjoyment. In fact, Kardec makes this approach based on the teachings of the Spirits, as we can see in The Spirits' Book:

55. ARE ALL THE GLOBS THAT MOVE IN SPACE inhabited?

“YES AND EARTHLY MAN IS FAR FROM BEING, AS YOU SUPPOSE, FIRST IN INTELLIGENCE, IN KINDNESS AND IN PERFECTION. HOWEVER, THERE ARE MEN WHO HAVE VERY STRONG SPIRITS AND WHO IMAGINE THE PRIVILEGE OF CONTAINING RATIONAL BEINGS TO BELONG TO THIS LITTLE GLOBE. PRIDE AND VANITY! THEY JUDGE THAT GOD CREATED THE UNIVERSE ONLY FOR THEM.”

[…]

57. IF THE PHYSICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE WORLDS IS NOT ONE FOR ALL, WILL THE BEINGS THAT inhabit them have different ORGANIZATIONS?

“NO DOUBT, IN THE SAME WAY THAT FISH ARE MADE TO LIVE IN WATER AND BIRDS IN THE AIR.”

Scientifically, at that time, it was already possible to verify that the Moon had no atmosphere, that Mercury would be very hot and that Saturn would be very cold. How, then, could there be life in these orbs? About this, we have two hypotheses, adopted by Allan Kardec:

1. The beings that live there, if they have a physical constitution of the same density as ours, could be adapted to these places, as on Earth there are living beings that survive extreme cold and heat or even chemical compounds that would kill us in a short time, as well as there are animals adapted to live their entire lives in water and others only on land.
2. The beings that live there are made up of ethereal matter, more subtle than our matter and, therefore, they live in conditions that are totally adverse to ours. About this, also in The Spirits' Book, there is an indication:

58. WILL THE WORLD FAR AWAY FROM THE SUN BE DEPRIVED OF LIGHT AND HEAT, BECAUSE THAT ASTRO IS SHOWN TO THEM WITH ONLY THE APPEARANCE OF A STAR?

“THEN DO YOU THINK THAT THERE ARE NO SOURCES OF LIGHT AND HEAT OTHER THAN THE SUN, AND IN NO WAY DO YOU THINK OF ELECTRICITY, WHICH, IN CERTAIN WORLDS, PLAYS A ROLE THAT YOU KNOW AND MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN IT HAS TO PLAY ON EARTH? FURTHERMORE, WE DO NOT SAY THAT ALL BEINGS ARE MADE OF THE SAME MATTER AS YOU OTHERS AND WITH ORGANS OF IDENTICAL CONFORMATION TO YOURS.”

What Kardec does in this article is, in possession of information obtained by human science and spirit science, reason, together with the reader, about the very natural possibility of there being life, in some way, in all existing orbs in space, and even in space, that is, in “empty” space. There is nothing wrong with this thinking.

However, we can think: “We have already arrived at the Moon and Mars and we have not found anything of what he imagined. Kardec, therefore, was wrong”. Now, by the second hypothesis, no, he was not wrong. There may exist beings in an ethereal state, as among us the Spirits live, walk and interact, through their perispirits, without us even noticing them (except when we have mediumistic faculties for such). Furthermore, we must remember that Kardec never claimed to be the owner of the ultimate truth: he only reasoned based on what science provided him.

It may be that one day we land on a nearby planet and there we find new forms of life, sensitive to our senses, or it may be that all the nearby planets are empty of biological life, perhaps even by divine wisdom that, who knows, understands that man it would only find reasons for wars if it found other living beings on nearby planets. Now, you see, it's just me guessing.

The time for the lecture at the Spiritist Center hits. The speaker, apparently well-prepared and with eloquent language, rises to the rostrum and, in the midst of topics related to the current spiritist environment, begins to issue different opinions about a supposed purpose of Spiritism as the foundation of political movements.

Most likely you too, dear reader, have already witnessed such feats, or heard close reports. And, of course, such opinions – personal, we remember – arouse sympathies and antipathies, because, in the political field, there is a lot of clash and disagreement of ideologies.

We are not going to name sides, parties, ideologies or whatever. What we are going to defend here is that Spiritism is not and will never be a political movement. And those who involve the Doctrine in such matters, did not understand it in its depth and are based on a distorted understanding to base their own political ideological inclinations, keeping away from Spiritism people who do not agree with their way of thinking - almost always quite closed in a circle. specific to ideas.

Spiritism, we remember, is a moral science with a philosophical aspect, whose theory was born from the observation of spiritist facts - that is, from the manifestation of Spirits. Its essence, in its original clarity, is aimed at the reform of ideas, in the sense of how the human spirit faces its evolution, its trials, its difficulties and its opportunities. It is not by chance, by the way, that Allan Kardec was formed at the Castle of Yverdon, by the method of Pestalozzi: it is through the pedagogy of fraternity and love, and not through punishment, that the Spirit really acquires a real understanding about its potentialities and your imperfections, perfecting yourself and leaving your bad habits behind.

Why do we say all this? Because political ideologies, on all sides, have supporters – to the exclusion of those many only use politics for their own benefit – who aim at social improvement. When these adepts are spiritists, they are often led to believe, by a very shallow understanding, that spiritist ideas are allied to their political ideologies, and they start to spread such beliefs to the four winds, without caring about the antipathies they will arouse. By the way, we also need to remember: most political ideologies trample on individual freedoms of thought, and Spiritism does just the opposite.

And all this, I repeat, for a very shallow understanding, for not delving into the studies of the Doctrine to the point of understanding that the purpose of Spiritism is to re-educate the human Spirit and, allied to education from childhood, improve the way in which the Spirit faces material life, promoting in him a change of ideas about the difficulties of life and about the need to stifle his impetus of pride and selfishness and to act in a charitable way, as a moral obligation, respecting the free will that each one has.

This does change society, as it changes the way the individual sees life and others. Spiritism offers us common ground, being a science available to people of all beliefs and ideologies, as long as they understand that its real proposal is individual modification, through free conscience, and not by force of law.

In the same way that an individual who knocks on the door of the center looking for consolation but listens to the most diverse zucchinis is scared away, brothers are also scared away when involving political issues in the spiritist environment. Unfortunately, I see many spiritualists supporting ideas and individuals who, directly or indirectly, hurt or declaredly wish to hurt the first basic principle of divine law, supported by Spiritism, which is free will.

I don't want to say that I'm someone so worthy of being important for their presence or absence, but I think I'm not the only one to walk away because of this kind of bias that shouldn't, in my humble opinion, be part of Doctrine studies – thinking that, although we want to imprint our own personalities and ideas on groups, we have a lot of responsibility for others, in the same way that someone who “welcomes” the mother of a person with disabilities by saying that he is like that because he committed suicide in the family has a responsibility. past life and that, therefore, pushes it away.

Therefore, no, Spiritism can never be mixed with any political movements.

To finish, let's remember

Allan Kardec who, in Spiritist Magazine February 1862, gives an alert:

“I must also call attention to another tactic of our adversaries: that of seeking to compromise the spiritists, inducing them to move away from the true objective of the Doctrine, which is that of moral (emphasis ours), to address issues that are not within their competence and that could, with good reason, arouse susceptibility and distrust.

Don't let yourself fall into that trap either; carefully remove from your meetings all that pertains to politics and irritating issues, in which case discussions will lead to nothing and only cause embarrassment, while no one will question morals, when it is good.

Look for in Spiritism what can improve you; here's the essentials. When men are better, truly useful social reforms will follow naturally.”