In the first half of 2021, I had — and I don't even remember how — contact with the work of Simoni Privato — The Legacy of Allan Kardec — a work that shook me a lot, given the understanding of everything that happened with the French Spiritist Movement, after Kardec's death, and how much this defined the direction of this movement in the following century, especially in Brazil. Then, “by chance”, someone posted, in a group, a question about a recently released work at the time: “Neither heaven nor hell”, by Lucas Sampaio and Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo (PHF). The first thought was: it must be absurd. But the title was too challenging to pass up. I decided to research and found an article, on a spiritist blog, talking about the work... And, to understand what the bases of what the authors were saying were, I acquired and read the work, with great avidity, I must confess.

. Demerit? None. I studied what was within my reach. Humiliation? Only if I thought that the truth was just what I knew and that, outside of that, nothing would exist. But if there's one thing I knew about Kardec, by tradition of studying The Spirits' Book with my father, it was his great commitment to the scientific search for the truth, which was the reason that instigated me to study, without attachments. But… Study what? I already knew most of the Spirits' Book. The essence of The Mediums' Book, too. I mean: in the face of what was within my reach, the moral and scientific essence seemed to me to be well understood.

A fact that caught my attention and that perhaps intuition reinforced is that there must be something important in this “Spiritist Magazine”, since these authors often resorted to very pertinent and insightful quotes from Kardec or Spirits, contained in these volumes. Thus, this initiative and our study group were born… But you probably already know all of this. That's not the point, I just thought it would be interesting to demonstrate, once again, the path I've taken so far, as this path is taking me to places I've never visited before.

A very important fact that happened in this trajectory was the approximation with the Grupo de Estudos Espiritismo para Todos, which happened because, in contact with Paulo Henrique, he himself referred me to someone from that group, who studied with him the works of Kardec and its scientific context. Then came the knowledge of Rational Spiritualism, which we have discussed here several timesand, more recently, a massive in-depth study of Kardec's entire context, which is unknown today. Metaphysics, something unknown or disconnected from current science, was an elementary part of any scientist's studies at the time, and it was this, along with everything that science provided at the time, that made the formation of the Spiritist Doctrine possible.

In the same way that Science itself has as its object the study of the laws of the material principle, the special object of Spiritism is the knowledge of the laws of the spiritual principle. Now, as this last principle is one of the forces of nature which incessantly reacts on the material principle and reciprocally, it follows that the knowledge of the one cannot be complete without the knowledge of the other; that Spiritism and Science complement each other; that Science without Spiritism is unable to explain certain phenomena resorting only to the laws of matter, and for having dispensed with the spiritual principle, it finds itself in the midst of so many difficulties; that Spiritism without Science would lack support and control and could make mistakes. If Spiritism had arrived before scientific discoveries, it would have failed, like everything that happens before its time.

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis, 1868

It's impossible to describe everything we've studied so far in this article alone. The reader who follows us will be able to identify when reading the texts on this site, various suggestions and clues that we often give and that it is up to each person whether or not they want to investigate. The fact is that we are reaching a point, following the studies of our friend Paulo Henrique, where my first questions are beginning to be answered: is it possible to return to Spiritism, studied scientifically, as Kardec did? Is it possible to resume contact with the Spirits, continuing the formation, or even the doctrinal recovery? Indeed, it is possible (and I write this with a smile on my face).

Have a look: Kardec had understood and advanced on scientific points that we had never suspected, and this could be verified through a method that will soon be made known to us and to the dear reader, because the interest is to present it to humanity. Not just the method, in fact, but the knowledge found through it. In my study with PHF, where this knowledge is being developed, I could feel nothing but very diminished compared to Kardec. I felt ignorant of my previous understanding of Spiritism. With each new realization, I laughed, but it wasn't a laugh of disdain or sarcasm: it was a laugh that was impossible to contain, expressing my level of ignorance in the face of the size of Spiritist science, formed by Kardec's studies through years of learning from the Spirits.

We already know (and if you don't, hurry up and read the Spiritist Review) that when we learn from the spirits, we can't treat them as revelators to whom all we have to do is ask and they'll answer with the theory ready. No.

“… in the world of spirits a very singular fact occurs, which surely no one had suspected – that there are spirits that do not consider themselves dead. Well then: the superior Spirits, who know this fact perfectly, never came to say in advance: “There are Spirits who suppose they still live in terrestrial life; preserving their tastes, habits and instincts”. Instead, they caused the manifestation of Spirits of this category so that we could observe them. Thus, after seeing Spirits who are insecure about their state, or claiming to belong to this world and carrying out their usual occupations, the rule can be deduced from the example. The multiplicity of similar facts proved that this is not an exception, but one of the phases of spiritual life, allowing us to study all the varieties and causes of this singular illusion, in addition to recognizing, above all, that this situation is typical of Spirits who are not yet morally advanced, and characteristic of certain types of death; which is only temporary, but can last days, months and years. Thus, the theory was born from observation. The same happened with all the other principles of the doctrine.”

KARDEC, Allan. Ibid.

It's easy to see, therefore, how much knowledge these studies require and, in a century where each area is niche, that is, where the physicist doesn't study philosophy; where the mathematician doesn't know botany; where the chemist doesn't know astronomy, and where none of them know metaphysics, it's even easier to understand the difficulty we face. I recognize that adventuring in these studies is not for everyone, and I can only behave like a goose (because I don't want to compare myself to a hen, that would be too humiliating), chasing the crumbs that fall from the hands of the one who planted and who now reaps the grains of the plantation.

Well, as I was saying, new horizons are opening up and everyone who is interested in learning and spreading knowledge can and should throw themselves into their studies in whatever way they can. It's difficult to gather all the lessons learned in order to take up the scientific study of Spiritism in our own hands, but who says we need to be as brilliant as Einstein to understand the essence of the laws of our universe, as demonstrated by this great genius? We can behave in the same way with Spiritism: all it takes is dedication, putting our minds to work and, on our part, researching, questioning and delving into everything that seems nebulous to us. The most important thing of all is that we are not alone: in a group, construction becomes much more fruitful, as each person, being in a position to help and be helped, assists and participates in the construction of knowledge. All that we need to do is get out of the position of being teachers of Spiritism.

We ended our last study with Paulo saying something more or less like this: “if this knowledge is so interesting and transformative for us, who are ignorant, imagine for those who are intelligent!”. Yes. Imagine what it would be like for a mathematician to discover that Spiritism talks about mathematics. Imagine what it will be like for the physicist, the chemist, the doctor, the philosopher, to realize that, in Spiritism, it is all about this, with moral aspect and without mysticism? From what can everything be deduced from Natural Law, and what is Spiritism about?

But, to achieve this, it is necessary to overcome some barriers created by materialism, not only in science, but also within the spiritist movement. Firstly, it will be necessary to demonstrate that modern science, by turning its back on metaphysics, has become as dogmatic as the Church which, in the past, treated as a heretic anyone who stated that the Earth revolved around the sun, or that it burned. witches” for claiming to be hearing or seeing Spirits. Then, it will be necessary to demonstrate that what they think is Spiritism — often based on absurd things they read out there, other times based on what acquaintances present to them, so-called spiritists, but dogmatic and walking on false ideas, or even false confusion between Spiritism and modern, mystical, superstitious and also dogmatic spiritualism — it will be necessary to demonstrate, I said, that this is not Spiritism. It will be necessary to demonstrate that Spiritism was (is) something so rational and serious, an undeniable fact, that, more than 150 years ago, it advanced truths that Science is only now confirming. Finally, for those who reach this point, through the use of common sense, it will be necessary to demonstrate that Spiritism, as a science very well established in its time, was formed in the same way as all other sciences of observation, being, therefore, rational — as rational as the search, in current physics, for the existence of dark matter or the existence of other universes, guided by effects whose causes are not, and may never be, directly observable. Here's the challenge.

I needed help, and, despite the predominance of Catholic religious culture, I found some volumes of the Spiritist Magazine on the shelf! No. I opened it and leafed through it, but at that moment I didn't go any further. It was necessary to pass the trouble, to, only later, give attention to such work, through the process explained above. It is natural for everyone to follow their path, and we must respect each other's choices. Perhaps those who cling to and close themselves off from knowledge believe that they are doing good, just as many of those who burned scientific works believed that they were doing what was right (which does not exempt them from their responsibility, but which mitigates their faults, before their consciences). Let us present the knowledge if we wish, but if they wish to burn it let them be while we do our part. Time takes care of everything.

Well, I've written a lot. I stop here for this moment. I need to harvest some grains that were left along the way.

Kardec built and presented, in the Spiritist Magazine of 1858 and in the Spirits' book, the Spiritist Scale (click here for 1858 Spiritist Scale ). He elaborated it for us to better identify the Spirits who communicated through mediums, thus facilitating the understanding and content of the communications.

However, when faced with item 100 of the Spirits' Book with the Spiritist Scale, everyone is looking for their defects and qualities in it... And they ask themselves: What class am I? Will I be a Spirit that has a lot to evolve or will I be a Spirit already able to teach and risk new horizons?

Some important points can be clarified for us to better understand what stage we are at. Let's go to them...

God is the creator of all things.

According to the communications of the Spirits, there are 3 general elements in the Universe: God, matter and Spirits.

God, matter and Spirits. These three things are the beginning of all that exists, the universal trinity.

Kardec, The Spirits' Book, issue 27

The Spirits also taught us, from the various communications, the understanding of the continuous creation of matter and Spirits by God:

This is how universal creation is made. It is therefore correct to say that the operations of nature, being the expression of the divine will, God has always created, creates incessantly, and will never cease to create.

Allan Kardec. GENESIS – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, chapter 2 – God – item 18

We can deduce, then, that in Antiquity, at the time of Christ, in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, in short, EVER souls of all classes existed among us: from the simplest ignorant to the most advanced, superior spirits. This means that we will always have in our socializing incarnate souls who teach us to be better spirits, as well as others inferior to us that we can help for their progress. Souls who are of the same degree of advancement accompany us in our learning, always in cooperation.

Saint Vincent de Paul says exactly that in his communication published in the RE of 1859:

Never forget that the Spirit, whatever its degree of advancement and its situation, as reincarnated or in erraticity, is always placed between a superior, who guides and perfects it, and an inferior, before whom it has the same duties to fulfil.

Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine 1859 (pp. 476)

And he even adds:

Be charitable, therefore, not only with that charity that leads you to take out of your pocket the offering that you give coldly to anyone who dares to ask, but go out to meet hidden miseries. Be indulgent towards the faults of your fellow men. Instead of despising ignorance and vice, educate and moralize them. Be meek and benevolent towards everything that is inferior to you. Do it even before the smallest beings of Creation, and you will have obeyed the Law of God.

Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine 1859 (p. 477)

We understand, based on the teachings of Saint Vincent de Paul, that we should not worry about where on the Spiritist Scale our Spirit is. But how can we contribute to accelerating our progress and the progress of everyone on our journey!

We are not all imperfect. This is a false idea, when understood from a certain angle, as we will demonstrate.

Spiritism demonstrates, complementing Rational Spiritualism, that imperfection is something developed by the conscious repetition (habit) of error. When it becomes an imperfection (it is called “acquired imperfection”), it can even become an addiction, which will require autonomous and conscious effort to be overcome, through the choice of tests and opportunities in new incarnations.

This is what evil consists of: moving away from the good, which is the morality of divine laws, through the development of imperfections. And not everyone does. The Spirit who has not developed imperfections, or the one who is bravely fighting to overcome them, is in the good or walking towards it... And this strengthens him enough to overcome, too, outside influences, and even to repel them.

But there is also the aspect of imperfection from the point of view that we are all perfectible. Thus, until we become relatively perfect Spirits (because only God can be perfect), we will be imperfect.

Both aspects of the term are treated by Kardec in the Spiritist Doctrine, and we can prove:

Those who are not only interested in facts and understand the philosophical aspect of Spiritism, admitting the morality that arises from it, but without practicing it. The influence of the Doctrine on your character is insignificant or null. They do not change their habits in any way and would not deprive themselves of any of their pleasures. The miser remains insensitive, the proud person full of self-love, the envious and jealous person always aggressive. For them, Christian charity is nothing more than a beautiful maxim. They are the imperfect spiritists.

KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Mediums, 23^The Edition. LAKE Publisher

The excerpt is part of the part in which Kardec is classifying the types of spiritualists. Ora, não haveria porque classificar uma parte deles como “imperfeitos” se somos todos imperfeitos. Isso demonstra que, nesse ponto, Kardec está tratando das imperfeições adquiridas, conforme explicadas acima.

We also talked about this in the recent article Intimate reform and Spiritism and, in the study below, the topic was addressed in groups.

It is a fact: we are far from perfection. In fact, we will never reach absolute perfection, for if we did, we would be like God. We will reach relative perfection… However, this does not make us imperfect, but only relatively simple and ignorant, that is, still developing will and conscience.

Em O Céu e o Inferno, na versão original e não adulterada (vide a edição produzida pela editora FEAL), essa filosofia está claramente exposta, em toda a sua racionalidade inatacável; contudo, desde o início da formação da Doutrina, essa informação já era conhecida. Basta verificar a Escala Espírita, em O Livro dos Espíritos, e veremos que, na Terceira Ordem – Espíritos Imperfeitos, estão apenas os Espíritos que desenvolveram imperfeições: “Predominância da matéria sobre o espírito. Propensão para o mal. Ignorância, orgulho, egoísmo e todas as paixões que lhes são consequentes”. E basta raciocinar: nem todo mundo desenvolve essas imperfeições, porque alguns podem escolher não repetir os erros, como já se encontra expresso em O Livro dos Espíritos:

133. The Spirits who From the beginning they followed the path of good?

“All are created simple and ignorant and are instructed in the struggles and tribulations of bodily life. God, who is just, could not make some happy, without toil and work, therefore without merit.”

The) - But, then, what is the use of spirits to have followed the path of good, if this does not exempt them from the sufferings of bodily life?

"They reach the end faster. Furthermore, the afflictions of life are often the consequence of the imperfection of the Spirit. The fewer imperfections, the less torment. He who is not envious, nor jealous, nor avaricious, nor ambitious, will not suffer the tortures that originate from these defects.”

The Spirits' Book. Emphasis added.

But how can this happen?

To understand this foundation of natural law, we need to understand that the simple and ignorant Spirit is the one in its first conscious incarnation, in the human kingdom. In this state, having just left the animal kingdom, it still retains all the remnants of instinct, which governed it unconsciously until then, in good, because good is being in the natural law, and the animal that kills another to feed itself is following the natural law, acting only to meet their instinctive needs, with intelligence, but without conscience. Upon entering the kingdom of man, the conscious Spirit begins to make choices — not between good and evil, but between acting in this or that way. These choices will produce results, which may be correct — they are within divine law — or an error — they are outside divine law, that is, they exceed rational necessity. The individual can then choose not to repeat this mistake, but they can also choose to repeat it, as it is something that, in some way, pleases their emotions or gives them pleasure. It is at this moment that imperfection develops, the error is repeated constantly. But he can also choose not to repeat the mistake, as he realizes that it has a bad effect on him. In this sense he is happy in his simplicity and ignorance, this happiness being relative to his present ability..

This is also in Kardec, in A Genesis:

“If we study all passions, and even all vices, we see that they have their principle in the instinct of conservation. This instinct, in all its strength in animals and in the primitive beings that are closest to animal life, dominates alone, because, among them, there is still no counterbalance to the moral sense. The being has not yet been born for intellectual life. Instinct weakens, on the contrary, as intelligence develops, because it dominates matter. With rational intelligence comes free will that man uses at will: then only, for him, does the responsibility for his actions begin.”

In the original version of this work, as presented in the FEAL edition, Kardec adds that:

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

So, is one who has developed an imperfection inferior to those who have not? Is it a bad spirit? Should he be punished for that? No no and no!

He who developed an imperfection did so because he did not really know the good, otherwise he would have acted adversely. It's just a mistake — consciously repeated — and that's it. It is not a characteristic of the Spirit. God does not create anyone evil, nor does he create evil. Evil does not exist! It's just the absence of good. It is clear, therefore, that God would not punish his child for making mistakes. No: he gives him the ability to reason and autonomy, so that he himself can realize that the results of his mistakes cause him suffering and, realizing this, repent and demand correction of these imperfections.

It is at this point that modern spiritualism and the current spiritist movement diverge from the original spiritist morality: for these, when understanding the error, the Spirit is obliged to repair THE EFFECTS, while, for the latter, the Spirit is left free to choose how and when it will attempt to repair THE IMPERFECTION (in itself), which may or may not involve remediation of harmful effects that you have performed.

Here, a conclusion is in order: the doctrine of the “law of return” or karma, which has never been part of Spiritism, states that, when we do harm to a person, we will have to reincarnate with them to repair this error. However, it has already been established that we only do harm to ourselves – if, when making a mistake with someone, that person chooses to cultivate a feeling of anger, hatred or revenge, they are doing harm to themselves. It is, therefore, up to each person's autonomy to detach themselves from such feelings. If the executioner were forced to reincarnate with his victim to repair a mistake and, no matter how much he tried to have an irreproachable attitude towards good, the victim chose not to let go of such feelings, it means that the mistake would not have been paid for and would demand as many were incarnations necessary for this, linking the progress of the other, which has already returned to good, to the other's choice? What if, on the other hand, the victim didn't get attached, he moved on, but the tormentor continues with his imperfections? Will she have to reincarnate with him so that he, who still doesn't even understand her suffering, can “pay off his debts”? Does not make sense!

Returning to our point, we were talking about the return of the Spirit to good. In O Céu e o Inferno (FEAL publisher, based on the original, unadulterated version), we have the following:

“8th) The duration of the punishment is subject to the perfection of the guilty spirit. No sentence 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 goodness.”

Since punishment – or punishment, as we do not know for sure what the intention of the original word was – is a consequence of the error made, the suffering inherent to imperfections will be a true punishment. It is not an arbitrary divine punishment, but a consequence of natural law. There is no condemnation: everything depends on the individual's willingness to repent and demand reparation for the imperfection, thus returning to good.

We conclude by reproducing, once again, Paul Janet's recommendation ((In Small Elements of Moral, available on here for download.)) regarding habits:

It is true that habits become, over time, almost irresistible. It is a frequently observed fact; but, on the one hand, if an inveterate habit is irresistible, the same is not true of a habit that begins; and thus man remains free to prevent the invasion of bad habits. That is why moralists advise us above all to watch the origin of our habits. “Be especially careful with the beginnings.”

We’re all born. We’re all going to die.

From this truth of life comes the preoccupation of the moment of death are always recurring issues.

In this article, we do not intend to close the subject, quite the contrary! We are only bringing a very small part of this vast subject. After all, we are all going to experience this event.

The Spirits explained that not all Spirits go through the same processes. Each being is a consciousness different from the other. So, The Book of Spirits brings the following conclusions in its chapter III – Return of the Corporeal Life to the Spiritual Life:

163. Leaving the body, is the soul immediately aware of itself? – Immediate awareness is not the term: it is disturbed for some time.

164. Do all spirits experience, to the same degree and for the same time, the disturbance that follows the separation of soul and body? – No, it depends on your elevation. The one who is already purified recognizes himself almost immediately, because he detached himself from matter during his corporeal life, while the carnal man, whose conscience is not pure, retains the impression of matter for much longer.

Comment: Here it is evident that each person experiences a type of perception of death, according to what he has experienced in matter.

Now, in this question 165, Allan Kardec manages to go deeper into the nature of the disturbance, as well as better describe what the Spirits taught in their communications. Note that there is nothing with a set time. This part of the answer, in our view, is the most enlightening.

165. Knowledge of Spiritism exerts some influence on the longer duration
or less of the disturbance? – A great influence, because the Spirit understands his situation in advance: but the practice of goodness and purity of conscience are what exerts the greatest influence.

Kardec continues explaining in the same item how the Spirit experiences these first moments:

“At the moment of death, everything is confused at first; the soul needs some time to recognize itself; she feels stunned, in the same state as a man who has come out of a deep sleep and is trying to understand the situation. The lucidity of ideas and the memory of the past return, as the influence of matter fades and that kind of fog that clouds his thoughts dissipates.

The duration of the after-death disturbance is very variable: it can be from a few hours, to many months and even many years. Those in which it is shorter are those who have identified during their lifetime with their future state, because they are immediately aware of their position. “

Comment: In our emphasis, it seems that he gives a kind of advice.

“This disturbance presents particular circumstances, according to the character of the individuals and above all according to the type of death. In violent deaths, by suicide, torture, accident, apoplexy, injuries, etc., the Spirit is surprised, amazed, does not believe that he is dead and stubbornly maintains that he did not die. However, he sees his body, he knows that it is his, but he does not understand that he is separate. He seeks out the people he loves, addresses them, and doesn't understand why they don't listen to him. This illusion is maintained until the Spirit's complete detachment, and only then does it recognize its state and understand that it is no longer part of the world of the living.”

Comment: There are several reports of Spirits who attend his funeral, who do not understand why they are lying inside the coffin. They are completely lost!

“This phenomenon is easily explainable. Surprised by the unforeseen death, the Spirit is stunned by the sudden change that takes place within him. For him, death is still synonymous with destruction, annihilation; Now, how he continues to think, how he still sees and listens, don't consider yourself dead. And what increases his illusion is the fact that he sees himself in a body similar to the one he left on Earth, whose ethereal nature he has not yet had time to verify. He considers it solid and compact like the first, and when his attention is drawn to this point, he is surprised that he cannot feel it. This phenomenon is similar to that of inexperienced sleepwalkers, who do not believe they are sleeping. For them, sleep is synonymous with the suspension of faculties; Now, as they think freely and can see, they don't think they are sleeping. Some Spirits present this particularity, although death did not take them unexpectedly; but it is always more widespread among those who, despite being sick, did not think about dying. We then see the singular spectacle of a Spirit who attends his own funerals like those of a stranger, speaking about them as if about something that does not concern him, until the moment he understands the truth.”

Comment: The Spirit confuses its spiritual envelope (perispirit) with its carnal body, so that it does not realize that it no longer has a carnal body!

The disturbance that follows death is not at all painful for the good man: it is calm and in every way similar to that which accompanies a peaceful awakening. For one whose conscience is not pure it is full of anxieties and anxieties.

Comment: Once again, the clarifications of the Spirits give us the tips on how to make the moment of death so much softer!

Surprisingly, in the last paragraph of this chapter, Kardec says clearly about the collective disincarnations that occurred in accidents or catastrophes!

“In cases of collective death, it has been observed that all those who perish at the same time do not always see each other immediately. In the turmoil that follows death, each one goes his own way or only concerns himself with those who interest him.”

Kardec, The Spirits' Book, item 165

Comment: Dying at the same time in the same accident doesn't mean much after disincarnation! Everyone pursues their interests.

We do not intend to close the matter! After all, from what you've read so far, it's not conclusive, because each one has its particularities! Throughout Kardec's coding there are many descriptions of that moment and more explanations that the Spirits brought.

But one thing we will never escape: the moment of death.

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, because understanding autonomous morality makes a total difference in understanding Spiritism.

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 belief in divine punishment and the fall through sin, which were both ideas overcome by Spiritism.

Autonomous Morality

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.

---

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

The ever-frequent question is: What will happen in the future of our Spirit? What happens to us after death? Will we go to the Illuminated Sky? Or is Hell our destiny? Who decides where we go? Can we find the beings that are dear to us?

Human beings have always pursued the idea of what will happen in the future of their Spirit. And it is perhaps the most frequent question in the spiritist environment.

In-depth study of the book Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism, makes us understand more and more the Spiritist Doctrine. At first part, your chapter VIII under the title Future Penalties According to Espiritismo practically we find the compilation of the entire Doctrine making it as if it were its heart, that is, the main part. There is a series of 25 items where each one was developed throughout the entire work, except, of course, A Genese, which was published later. The 25 items elucidate what happens to our Spirit after disincarnation. The explanations came through countless disembodied spirits in thousands of communications, from various parts of the world, by many different mediums. Kardec, through the Spiritist Magazine, showed a considerable amount of communications.

The particularity of this book is precisely to bring, before all this material, the conclusions of all the communications studied. Furthermore, in the second part of the book, many of these messages are presented. The content of these, published in the book Heaven and Hell, is a subject for another time.

Let's go back to Chapter VIII of the first part of the book. He begins by making important considerations, which we put here in full:

The lot of souls being in God's hands, no one in this world can, by his own
authority, enact the divine penal code. Any theory is nothing more than a hypothesis that
it only has the value of a personal opinion and, for that very reason, it can be more or less ingenious,
rational, bizarre or ridiculous. Only the sanction of facts can give it authority,
making it pass to the condition of principle.

In the absence of appropriate facts to define their conception of the future life, the
men have given free rein to their imaginations and created that diversity of systems that
shared, and still share, beliefs. If some elite men, in different
epochs, glimpsed one side of the truth, the ignorant mass remained under the dominion of the
prejudices that were usually imposed on him. The doctrine of eternal punishment is in this
number. This doctrine had its time; today it is repelled by reason. What to put in your
place? A system replaced by another system, even if more rational, will always have only
higher probability, but not certainty. That's why man, arrived at this period
intellectual property that allows him to reflect and compare, finding nothing that satisfies
fully his reason and respond to his aspirations, vacillates indecisively. some, terrified
for the responsibility of the future and wanting to enjoy the present without embarrassment, they try to deceive themselves and proclaim the nothingness after death, believing in this way to keep their conscience calm;
others are in the perplexity of doubt; the greatest number believe in something, but don't know
exactly what you believe.
One of the results of the development of ideas and acquired knowledge is the
scientific method96. Man wants to believe, but he wants to know why he believes. He doesn't leave anymore
take by words. Your vigorous reason wants something more substantial than theories. In a
word, he needs the facts.
God, then, judging that humanity has left childhood, and that man is now mature
to understand truths of a higher order, allows the spiritual life to be
revealed by facts that put an end to their uncertainties, causing the scaffolding of the
hypotheses 97. It is reality after illusion.
The Spiritist Doctrine, with regard to future penalties, is no longer founded on a theory
preconceived than its other parts. Everything is based on observations, which is the
that gives you authority. No one then imagined that souls, after death, should
find in this or that situation. It is the very beings who left the Earth who come today
– with God’s permission and because humanity enters a new phase – to initiate us into
mysteries of the future life, to describe its happy or unhappy position, its impressions and its transformation in the death of the body. The spirits come today, in short, to complete the teaching of Christ on this point.
It is not a question here of the relationship of just a spirit that could see things only from its
point of view, under a single aspect, or still being dominated by terrestrial prejudices,
nor of a revelation made to a single individual who could be deceived by the
appearances, nor of an ecstatic vision that lends itself to illusions and is often only the
reflection of an exalted imagination98, but of countless intermediaries disseminated over
all points of the globe, in such a way that the revelation is nobody's privilege, that each
one can at the same time see and observe, and that no one is compelled to believe by the faith of another.
The laws that follow from it are deduced only from the agreement of this immensity of
comments; this is the essential and special character of the Spiritist Doctrine99. never a principle
general is taken from an isolated fact or the affirmation of a single spirit, or from the teaching given to a single individual, or from a personal opinion. What man could he believe?
whether fair enough to measure the righteousness of God?

The numerous examples cited in this work to establish the future fate of the soul could
be multiplied to infinity, but as one can observe other analogues, it would be
enough in a way to give the types of the various situations. From these observations, one can
to deduce the conditions of happiness or unhappiness in the future life; they prove that the
penalty is not lacking in any wrongdoing, and that, while not eternal, the punishment is not
it is less terrible under the circumstances.

Allan Kardec, Heaven and Hell

Note: Allan Kardec defines the presuppositions of spirit science. Every theory, whether proposed by a man or a spirit, is a personal opinion. Chances range from ingenious to ridiculous. Therefore, Spiritism is based on the observation of facts, in thousands of testimonies, to extract from them the general principles, confirming the teaching of good spirits. It is the universality of the teaching of the spirits. (Note 94 of Heaven and hell by the editor Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo)

Notice how this introduction explains scientific thinking based entirely on facts. There is no dogma, no prophets, no fantasy.

After this careful introduction, Allan Kardec continues enumerating the general principles that the many Spirits gave. They appear progressively. They defined them as representing the law of divine justice.

As we have studied, there is no static system, no general pattern where the future is an Illuminated Heaven or the Dark Darkness of Hell. But if you, the reader, do the study, you will be able to reach your own conclusions.

We invite you to read and reflect! Very worth reading.

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

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

This work begins like this:

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

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

Complementation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then the following appears:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My italics.

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

The author follows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

General Elements of the Universe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then the following question is asked:

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

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

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

In question 35, another incongruity is found:

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

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

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

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

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

Creation – The Childhood of the Spirit

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

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

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

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

My italics.

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

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

62. Do molecules have a spiritual principle?

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

Italics mine

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

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

The Genesis – Editora FEAL

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

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

Fluids in the Universe

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

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

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

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

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

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis. FEAL Publisher.

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

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

Return to Spiritual Life

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

Sexuality, sex and morals

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

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

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

Italics mine

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo explains:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The reward and the punishment

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

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

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

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

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

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

ibid.

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

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

ibid.

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

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

ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

ibid.

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

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

ibid.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

O spiritualism in Kardec

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

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

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

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book. 1857

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

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

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine, November 1868

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

signs of the times

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the social spirit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

the planet of regeneration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[…]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ibidem

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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