By Paulo Degering Rosa Junior

“Text interpretation is dependent on the reading key used by the reader“, told us a correspondent involved in studies, still today, about evidences that would suggest or prove that the 5th edition of A Gênese was not an adulteration.

Of course – I reply – the interpretation depends on the knowledge of the reader. It is even possible not to understand autonomy – foundation of spiritist morality – and, on the contrary, to infer false concepts, such as those linked to karma. What I don't see as a matter of interpretation, however, is the REMOVAL of such essential and important passages from the work, such as the one in item 24 of chap. XVIII (“Saying that humanity is ripe for regeneration does not mean that all individuals are on the same level…”) or the one that ends, in the 4th edition, item 19 of chap. III, regarding the instincts – “All men pass through the passions [...]”. In addition, we have the illogical removal of the end of item 22 of the cap. II, which explains the concept of spiritual interaction through the perispiritual fluid, in line with Mesmer's thesis. Not to mention the handwritten letter where it appears that, in consultation with the Spirits, it was recommended to Kardec that ANYTHING be deleted in the new edition.

It is also interesting to note that it focuses so much on the issues of A Genesis, making a huge silence about Heaven and Hell, which was absurdly torn apart, even becoming contradictory, in the 4th edition.

I really don't understand how, even today, so much time is spent on this discussion that in anything adds to Spiritism and humanity. We already know that the Spiritist Movement has been completely misrepresented by people like Leymarie, who also condemned the future of the once recognized Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies; we already know the pernicious influence of Roustaing and his disciples; we already know about the publications of Kardec's loyal disciples, who signaled, in written screams, the facts that were happening then (according to Beacoup de Lumiere, by Berthe Fropo, a close friend of the couple); we also know that precious Kardec manuscripts were burned, also by the hands of Leymarie; we know the facts widely presented by Simoni Privato, in O Legado de Allan Kardec. Despite so many facts and evidence, for some groups it is inconceivable that the cited works have not been adulterated, and they spend precious time and resources on research that only point to evidence that Kardec planned new editions – which is more than rational.

Meanwhile, the understanding of Rational Spiritualism, Magnetism, Education and Spiritism – all very intrinsically connected – is forgotten in the background, while the Spiritist Movement continues to be trapped by false, materialistic ideas, coming from Aristotle to the days of today – the same ideas that shattered the unassailable philosophy presented by the Spiritist Doctrine. I respect the time and will of each one, after all, we are talking about autonomy and, I hope, today we understand it. But I cannot see, in all of this, anything but one more way of delaying the pace of the doctrine, while, still living in heteronomy, thousands of people “wait” for an official position from bodies such as the FEB, regarding not only the adulterations of works, but from the recognition of the distance they took from the philosophical, scientific and moral essence of Spiritism.

That's it.

Today, August 25, 2022, is the first anniversary of the Allan Kardec Legacy Study Group. In this last year, with the essential cooperation of valuable colleagues, the Group is pleased to have learned so much, developed so much and, every day, to become more useful for understanding the true essence – moral, scientific and philosophical – of Spiritism.

The Group was born right after reading O Legado de Allan Kardec, by Simoni Privato, which alerted us to the facts that we regularly saw highlighting and commenting on and we hope that, from now on, we will have the strength and possibilities to help more and more in the dissemination of the true character of the Spiritist Doctrine, away from false, materialistic and dogmatic ideas.

Spiritism has no “law of return”, “law of action and reaction”, “karma”, “payment of debts” or any idea linked to the dogma of falling into sin; Spiritism demonstrates that the Spirit is the author, The determining factor of the will, not being subjected to – though influenced by – matter. It demonstrates, above all, the principle of autonomy and free will, far from the false concepts of a punitive God or an inquisitive devil.

Let's study!

The sister group, Grupo de Estudos Espiritismo para Todos (EPT) is developing studies of a very interesting and important work, on its YouTube. Weekly, on Saturdays, they look at the book “Ponto Final: o reencontro do Espiritismo com Allan Kardec”, a work in which Wilson Garcia goes deep and scrutinizes the paths that led the current Spiritist Movement to be this religious, dogmatic movement, far from science and averse to reason and logic.

We have no other way of saying it: Wilson Garcia really puts his finger on the wound, in a necessary and urgent action, following the path started many decades ago by other scholars of the Spiritist Doctrine and, more recently, by the works of Simoni Privato and Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.

We'll highlight a short excerpt from the book's introduction, then link to videos from the EPT studies, which you can follow or even participate in.

Certainly, spiritism has been seriously affected in its credibility by the proliferation of charlatans and speculators who present themselves as healers, fortune tellers or fortune tellers, who use the doctrine's name in an inappropriate and abusive way. Similarly, the publication of pamphlets and books full of strange messages loaded with an anachronistic religious mysticism, tempered with supposed revelations and apocalyptic prophecies, announced by entities of heterogeneous origin or category, contributes to discredit the publication of pamphlets and books full of strange messages. It is necessary to add to this pandemonium the proliferation of works of spiritualist or esoteric tendencies that surround the borderline areas of spiritist thought, in whose pages, in a veiled or explicit way, the affirmation that they surpass spiritism, supposedly bearers of more current knowledge or modern.

All this semantic and conceptual chaos, of which the doctrine founded and systematized by Kardec is absolutely foreign, affects to a greater or lesser extent the progress of the spiritist movement from its origins to the present day, in France and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Brazil and in numerous countries on the American continent. It is enough to remember the insistent efforts that are made within the ranks of Kardecism to demarcate and protect themselves from the influences generated by Ramatisism, Ubaldist monism, Trincadism, the Basilio cult, Emanuelism, Umbanda and other syncretisms, and, of course, Roustainuism. , denomination that receives the set of theories and beliefs gathered in the work The four Gospels […]

GARCIA, Wilson. Final point: the reunion of Spiritism with Allan Kardec. EME Publisher, 2020.

If you would like information on how to actively participate in the studies, contact.

Click below to watch the playlist videos of this study.

Let us not forget that Spiritism has enemies interested in hindering its progress, to whom its triumphs cause spite, not being the most dangerous those who attack it openly, but those who act in the shadows, those who caress it with one of their hands and tear each other apart. These evil beings insinuate themselves wherever they claim to be able to do harm. As they know that unity is a force, they try to destroy it, waving waves of discord. Who, since then, can claim that those who, in meetings, sow disturbance and turmoil are not agents provocateurs, interested in disorder? Undoubtedly, they are neither true nor good spiritists; they will never do good and can do much harm.

KARDEC, Allan. The Mediums' Book.

The enemies of Spiritism have been known for a long time, who, in the open, attack it from all sides and in all ways. There are those of religions, who fight it for preaching the principles of autonomy and free will; those of the materialist sciences, which cannot admit what they cannot see under the apparatus; those in politics, who see, in their ideas, no more than a threat to their hegemony; those of materialist philosophies, etc. These enemies, however, are declared. Worse are those who emerge, through carelessness or malevolence, in the bosom of the Doctrine, among studious men who should do everything for the good of this science.

There are in all areas the “judases” of Spiritism. Kardec met some, the most prominent of which was Roustaing, who, out of pride and vanity, turned against Spiritism. They are Spirits who have not yet managed to understand the essence of the Spiritist Doctrine, who consider it a threatening “religion” and who surreptitiously await the slightest error where they can catch on, creating a true storm in a teapot. For this, they rely on themselves, when incarnated, or on unsuspecting individuals or those who are not fully aware of the true essence of the Doctrine of Spirits, over whom they exert influence due to their ideas attached to vanity and pride.

It does not matter that, in the formation of human spiritist science, there are a thousand consoling, liberating and transforming concepts: a single concept, later seen as false or wrong, born from men's ideas of the time, is enough for them to try to put the Doctrine of Spirits, the ideas of the men who investigated it and the Spiritist Movement, three different things, in the same basket, labeled useless or harmful.

One of those ideas that causes the most rage to the unsuspecting and uninformed man is that of racism in Kardec. Yes, Kardec says, in your conclusions, and moved by the concepts of science of the time, that the black person, referred to by him as the “Hottentot”, the African “savage”, would be a breed materially speaking, where less advanced spirits would incarnate in search of atonement and basic learning. A terrible, racist idea? Yes but only from the current point of view. At that time there was not even the concept of racism, because it was natural, according to science, to classify human beings into races – dozens of them.

Kardec used the scientific concepts and postulates of his time. So it was with fluids, which were later abandoned, so it was with racism. That simple. Starting from this MATERIAL concept of the inferiority of the black race, did he suppose that the Spirits they incarnated were inferior? Why?

Well, let's put ourselves in Kardec's situation: he lived in an ethnocentric society; saw blacks being classified as inferior, by scientific concepts and treated like animals. Hence, he assumed that spirits chose to incarnate black people to atone for their imperfections. This is explicit in “O Negro Pai César”, in the Spiritist Magazine of June 1859. Is there an error in this? If we consider how blacks were treated and classified by science and society, which imposed heavy suffering on them, then it is not easy to assume that some Spirits chose a life like that, just as a Spirit chose to be buried alive, thinking that they would have to pay a past mistake?

A certain author puts it like this: “It is still recurring spiritist centers that do not accept or accept with reservations communications from pretos Velhos, Indians and other spirits that present themselves in an unconventional way as trustworthy”. Now, it is still recurrent, in Spiritist centers, to go up to the tribunes to teach concepts of karma and the law of return or even talk about “fluid water” and “the phone only rings from there to here”. And this happens for the same reason that leads this Spiritist Movement to not accept such communications: the lack of doctrinal and scientific studies. Let's not confuse the Spiritist Movement with Spiritism. They are different things, just as the human aspect and the spiritist aspect of the Doctrine are distinct.

I remember that the same Kardec who was guided by science to classify blacks (and also other peoples) in such a way, made an effort to demonstrate that, “in spite of anything” (in the context of these opinions), they should be treated with respect and dignity. This the author forgot to mention:

829. Are there men who are by nature destined to be the property of other men?

“It is contrary to the law of God every absolute subjection of one man to another man. Slavery is an abuse of force. It disappears with progress, as all abuses will gradually disappear.”

The human law that enshrines slavery is contrary to nature, since it makes man the irrational and degrades him physically and morally (note by Allan Kardec)

831. Does not the natural inequality of aptitudes place certain human races under the dependence of the more intelligent races?

“Yes, but for them to elevate them, not to further brutalize them through enslavement. For a long time, men considered certain human races as working animals, equipped with arms and hands, and thought they had the right to sell those of those races as beasts of burden. Those who do so are considered to be of purer blood. fools! They see nothing but matter. More or less pure is not the blood, but the Spirit.” (361–803.)

This same Kardec also made an effort to bring women to the same level of dignity and rights, as in the RE of January 1866 and in questions 817 to 821 of OLE. Still, in the same issue of the Magazine, he undoes, through Spiritist principles, the prejudices that give rise to homophobia:

“If this influence of the corporeal life has repercussions on the spiritual life, the same happens when the Spirit passes from the spiritual to the corporeal life. In a new incarnation he will bring the character and inclinations he had as a Spirit; if he is advanced, he will be an advanced man; if he is late, he will be a late man.

By changing his sex, he will therefore be able, under this impression and in his new incarnation, to retain the tastes, tendencies and character inherent in the sex he has just left. That's how they explain certain apparent anomalies which are seen in the character of certain men and women.”

Therefore, there is only difference between man and woman in relation to the material organism, which is annihilated with the death of the body. But as for the Spirit, the soul, the essential, imperishable being, it does not exist, because there are not two kinds of souls.

Allan Kardec, RE, Jan/1866

 And then Paulo Henrique highlights the use of scientific concepts of the time, again, by Kardec, to explain the term “apparent anomaly”:

It is very important to highlight here that the term “apparent anomaly”, used by Kardec, was present in the sciences of the time, referring to phenomena that escape the explanation of accepted theories, not being “normal” for them; but that, when a new natural explanation for the phenomenon is found in new theories, they cease to be “anomalies” and become natural phenomena. That's why she's "apparent"

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, Spiritist Revolution website, 08/25/2016

It was already a big step, for a man of that time, to have given soul to a people treated like a machine. But, we know, the march of progress advances and, as Kardec always said, we should always follow scientific advances, abandoning the opinion that proves to be wrong in the face of science. That's what we do here and that's what Allan Kardec would do if he were incarnated among us today. I disagree that there is a “lapse” of character in Kardec, as he demonstrated the opposite, all the time. There are concepts of the time, of a man deeply connected to the sciences.

The same author goes on to say that “In addition, it was very common for wealthy families to have black servants for all types of work. So, Kardec not only saw black people, but he had the opportunity to meet, talk and learn about African societies, as the black presence in France was common”, on which I make the following observations:

First, the reference given to the first statement — McCloy, Shelby T. Negroes and Mulattoes in Eighteenth-Century France. The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1945), pp. 276-292 — brings references only from the late 18th century. Rivail, having been born in 1804, would reach maturity only around 1816 at the earliest. There are 16 years of possible changes, and we cannot forget that France was a colonialist country and that, therefore, it sent most blacks to its colonies.

Second, the second statement lacks logic. Kardec was educated primarily in Yverdon, by Pestalozzi, where, at the age of 14, he taught other students. Afterwards, he lived, as far as we know, mostly among scientific and educational circles, dominated, of course, by the white man. Could it be that Kardec had so many opportunities to live with black people? Now, knowing Rivail's common sense, it is to be assumed that NO, otherwise he would have a different opinion in this regard.

And it remains to remember that the Spirits DO NOT advance the science that it is up to man to acquire, through his own efforts and intelligence. In the same way that the Spirits did not deny the false concepts of fluids (electrical, vital, etc.), abandoned by Kardec in A Genesis, to stay only with the theory of the Universal Cosmic Fluid, they also did not deny the human thesis of races, which only came to be overcome about a century later.

I cannot understand and agree with a text that, in a way, analyzes the subject in a partial way. It is not a question of minimizing the fact, but of presenting it in full. It happens that a person who does not know the facts completely, reads a criticism like this one, which puts, in the same basket, Doctrine, Kardec and the Spiritist Movement, and concludes: “Spiritism really sucks”. And that, my friends, is a great disservice to the Doctrine, so that, even today, many black people and followers of Afro religions still express resentment, prejudice and distancing from the spiritist science. Far from attracting, such opinions continue to drive them away.

[Originally published in Guia-Heu by Marinei Ferreira de Rezende — http://www.guia.heu.nom.br/Lombroso.htm]

Cesare Lombroso was an Italian university professor and criminologist, born on November 6, 1835, in Verona. He became world famous for his studies and theories in the field of characterology, or the relationship between physical and mental characteristics.

Cesare Lombroso was born on November 6, 1835 and passed away on October 19, 1909. A scientist universally known for his important work in the legal field, he dedicated himself to letters from an early age. At the age of twelve, he wrote the work entitled “Grandeza e Decadencia de Roma”, which had great repercussions in the intellectual circles of the time.

About the work of Mazolo, a great Italian psychologist, he wrote an article, which was published in one of the Italian newspapers. Mazolo read this article and invited Lombroso to his house, as he wanted to meet the new writer. In front of the boy, who was only fourteen years old, he was surprised, given his precocious intelligence.

Lombroso converted to Spiritism after carrying out experiments on the mediumship of Eusapia Paladino, presented to him by Professor Chiaia, from Naples. In one of the sessions with this medium, he witnessed the materialization of the Spirit of his own mother. From then on, Lombroso had no doubts about the spirits' survival and communicability.

He wrote several works, both in the fields of Medicine and Philosophy.
Among them, the notable monograph “Criminal Anthropology”, “L'Uomo di Gênio”, “L'Uomo Delinquente”, as well as others on psychology and psychiatry stand out. On Spiritism, we cannot fail to mention the “Research on Hypnotic and Spiritist Phenomena”, through which he reports all the experiences carried out, not only with Eusápia_Paladino, but also with other mediums of physical effects, such as Elizabeth D'Esperance and Politi .

It was slow and arduous, however, continuous and sure, the march of Lombroso towards Spiritism. At first, he ridiculed psychic manifestations. He mocked mediums and “turning tables”. He even went so far as to insult the Spiritists. However, on a certain occasion, through a letter from his friend Ercole Chiaia, he came to know the figure of a Neapolitan woman, illiterate, of humble, robust class and whose name was Eusápia Paladino.

As a skeptic, he refused to attend sessions, having as a medium the great medium Eusápia Paladino. But his friend Chiaia insisted so much that Lombroso insisted on imposing the conditions. The other participants in the meetings, including the Medium, accepted all the conditions imposed by Lombroso. Thus, in March 1891, in the presence of Lombroso, under strict supervision, with the Medium being held by two people, phenomena took place...

• object transport,
• of partial materializations,
• of typtology, (transcendental message obtained through blows),
• of direct voices
• and others of the same strain.

After all that he had witnessed, without a doubt, Lombroso surrendered to the Truth and confessed: “I am very ashamed and disgusted for having fought with such persistence the possibility of the so-called spiritual facts; but the facts exist and I am proud of them to be a slave”.

Lombroso passed away serenely in the arms of his talented daughter Dr. Gina on October 19, 1909, in Turin, at the age of 74.

In the midst of his research on mediumship, he first starts attempts to study the phenomenon under the positivist aspect of factual evidence – as other scientists of the time did elsewhere, several of them imbued with positivist ideals – and at the end concludes by scientifically confirming the doctrine and studied phenomena. He then became a defender of Spiritism in Italy at the time, as did several trends in the positivist movement at the time.

His works cover several areas such as: anthropology, criminal sociology, psychology, criminology, philosophy and medicine.

His studies became known as criminal anthropology.

Lombroso's work with the medium Eusápia Paladino followed and progressed. Under the ectoplasm released by Eusapia, Lombroso, ever vigilant, obtained wonderful revelations. The aforementioned revelations overcame Lombroso's scientific distrust and did not fail to illuminate his Moral Conscience. In a certain session, Lombroso's full conviction was strengthened even more, before the materialization of his mother's Spirit. Eusapia promised Lombroso a surprise and it came about through the materialization of her own mother's Spirit. Yes, my friends, the Spirit of Lombroso's mother materialized and, approaching her son, said: "Cesare, fio mio" and then, removing, for a moment, the veil that covered his face, she gave him a kiss. And Lombroso confesses that, at the moment when the materialization of his mother's Spirit took place, Eusápia had her hands trapped by two people and that Eusápia's stature was also much taller than that of her mother's materialized Spirit. Here, my friends, is the Truth through the testimony of a Man of Science, a Sage. Will anyone be able to dispute it, we believe not…

Born on the 18th of November to a wealthy family in Verona and graduated in Medicine at the University of Pavia, he graduated in 1858. A year after graduating in medicine, he obtained a degree in surgery in Genoa. He improved his knowledge in Vienna and Padua, where he perfected his knowledge, aligning himself with positivist thinking.

At the age of twenty, he demonstrates his line of interests with a study on madness. Lombroso already outlines the subjects that will make him famous: the contrast between the genius of man and theories about degenerative nature. As a medical officer, he wrote, in 1859, “Memory on Wounds and Amputations by Firearms”, which is still considered one of his most original works. Then he was drawn to Calabria by the anthropological and ethnic problems of the region. These observations were developed in a psychiatry course, which he began in Pavia in 1862, where he began to analyze the possible influences of the environment on the mind, ideas that at first achieved success and, later, distrust. He starts a course in psychiatry and the following year transforms it into a course in “clinical mental illness and anthropology”. His frequent visits to the mental hospital, where he assisted patients free of charge, allowed him to deepen his study of the relationship between genius and neurosis. “The ideas of the greatest thinkers burst out of the blue, unfold involuntarily like the compulsive acts of maniacs,” he wrote. At the International Congress of Anthropology held in Milan, several criticisms were raised against Lombroso's position, but his pioneering role in therapy with the mentally ill was recognized: rational relaxation of treatment, introduction of manual work, conversations with outsiders, collective entertainment , diaries written and printed by the patients themselves. It was a new method, used today by psychotherapy.

In 1864, Lombroso became known for the book "Genius and Madness". Psychiatrist and director of the asylum in Padua from 1871 to 1876, he collected enough data for his theories. From the examination of hundreds of mental patients and criminals, he comes to the conclusion that the criminal is formed by some basic tendency inherent in his destiny, and that the "seeds of a criminal nature" can often be identified in the child. He also believed that the social environment, combined with astral influences, prepared individuals whose nature was anti-social for criminal action. The ideas defended by Lombroso about the “born criminal” advocated that, by analyzing certain somatic characteristics, it would be possible to foresee those individuals who would turn to crime. Many other beneficial changes adopted by criminal legislators around the world derived from the studies pioneered by Lombroso. Lombroso's main idea was partially inspired by genetic and evolutionary studies at the end of the 9th century and proposes that certain criminals have physical evidence of an atavism (reappearance of characteristics that were presented only in distant ancestors) of a hereditary type, reminiscent of more primitive stages of human evolution.

These anomalies, called stigmata by Lombroso, could be expressed in terms of abnormal shapes or dimensions of the skull and jaw, asymmetries in the face, etc., but also in other parts of the body. Subsequently, these associations were considered highly inconsistent or completely non-existent, and theories based on the environmental cause of crime became dominant.

In 1882, in his booklet “Study on Hypnotism”, he ridiculed spiritist manifestations, but, invited by prof. Morselli to study the subject better, participated in sessions with the medium Eusápia Palladino, becoming convinced of the incontestable veracity of the facts. For many years he denied psychic and spiritual phenomena as quackery and simple-minded credulity.

On July 15, 1891, a letter was published in which he declared his surrender to spiritual facts: I am very ashamed and disgusted for having fought so persistently against the possibility of so-called spiritual facts; I say facts, because I am still opposed to theory. But the facts exist, and I'm proud to be a slave to them.

When he goes to Moscow, it is in 1897, as a participant in the Psychiatric Congress, he meets Tolstoy, who knew very well his ideas about genius and madness.

He then became a defender of Spiritism in the Italy of his time, as did various currents of the positivist movement of the time.
Lombroso, always faithful to the experimental method, bequeathed to the spiritists an excellent collection of information about mediumship and the vast phenomenological field. A deeply honest man defended the veracity of Spiritism until his death, which was prominently reported around the world, on October 19, 1909.

It was the end of the mission, which in his case, started in reverse, from the position of ridicule to that of sincere defender, would strengthen the spiritist movement through its own inclusion in the midst of its researchers and defenders.

God has many ways for men. For Lombroso, the path was to retrace his own path, that is, to consolidate what he, through ignorance of reality, had attacked, by formulating mistaken concepts about Spiritism, portraying himself intimately and publicly a posteriori through the immense work he carried out.

Lombroso was one of the greatest criminal doctors of the last century.

A good medium must always be ready to criticize his work, since it does not belong to him, never being hurt or humiliated when any idea comes from an imperfect spirit and cannot be accepted as doctrinal.

This criticism and judgment, when dealing with a good medium, should not and need not be extended to the medium itself. However, if in the mediumistic group there is the invigilant individual, almost always moved by habits of vanity and pride, which often promote frames of obsession and fascination, he must be advised privately, firmly, but with benevolence. If reason speaks louder to you, you will understand and seek to change your picture; if not, it will often turn away. 🇧🇷In this case, whatever faculties it possesses, its removal is not to be missed.”, Kardec would say [RE, July 1858]

The role of the medium is to transmit the content, including those of inferior spirits, and the role of a good spiritist should be to judge, based on study and reason, mediumistic communications and even learn from those that come from inferior spirits, not for accepting them blindly, but for understanding the ideas, the difficulties, the illusions, the reflections on the previous life, etc. And that, dear reader, also applies to dear Chico Xavier, Divaldo, Sueli Caldas and all mediums, as none have the divine grace to be "armored” against imperfect spirits — quite the contrary, as I believe is clear from the very purpose of mediumship.

An absurd distortion was created, not only in the Spiritist Movement, but also in the entire spiritualist movement, with mediumistic works, since this principle was forgotten and Mediums began to be treated as infallible oracles. It is important to remember that this idea was precisely the one inculcated by Roustaing, the greatest enemy of Spiritism and that, unfortunately, permeated and dominated the Spiritist Movement since its arrival in Brazilian lands, before 1900, having found wide support for dissemination in the FEB, self-titled organ maximum representation of Spiritism in Brazil (contrary to what Kardec himself recommended and planned to start, if he had not died so soon, as presented in Transitory Constitution of Spiritism — RE — December 1869).

Mr. Roustaing, one of the "Judas of Spiritism", was not a medium. But by a good medium, Mrs. Emilie Collignon, who even communicated with Kardec, began to obtain communications attributed to the four evangelists, who came to say that Roustaing would be the new prophet, producing what became known as The Four Gospels, which until today negatively influence, with various concepts, the Spiritist Movement in Brazil, mainly.

All that I am pointing out was exactly what Kardec pointed out to Roustaing. The medium herself even stated, to Kardec, that she did not agree with those communications, but whenever she was with Roustaing, they were obtained. After Kardec drew Roustaing's attention to the obsession of which he was a victim, trying to do him some good, he rebelled, out of vanity and pride... And then the damage was done.

After the death of Prof. Rivail (Kardec), a rich (quite rich) follower of Roustaing, Jean Guérin, approached Leymarie, the “continuer” of Spiritism who, for less elevated interests, sold himself and, among so many crimes against Spiritism, started to publish , in the Spiritist Magazine, contents from this ideology, even though contrary to the Doctrine. This provoked revolt in the true followers of Kardec, among them Berthe Fropo, a close friend of the couple, Camille Flamarion, Leon Denis and Gabriel Delanne. Fropo even published:

I appeal to all spiritists, my brothers. Can this man [Leymarie] remain in the direction of spiritualism? since he is no longer a spiritist? He, who has no belief, who has only interests, who has renounced the doctrine he was supposed to defend and protect, has debased it in himself by preferring another. Now he wants to make the doctrine enter the theological phase, to establish it as a religion, and to make our beautiful philosophy be lowered through congresses, ceremonies and, later, by dogmas, and all this for the love of money, to please the ideas. of Mr. Guérin, the millionaire. He became a Roustangist, advocated subversive ideas about the nature of Jesus and, currently, puts to study even the non-existence of Christ.

In the name of our revered master, we cannot leave our doctrine of life in the hands of a man without belief, without conviction, and who has disowned it. I beg all spiritists who have shares in the Anonymous Society founded by Mrs. Allan Kardec to meet in a general meeting; they have the right as shareholders. If they are sincere spiritists, honorable people, great hearts who desire the happiness of all our humanity through the propagation of the doctrine in all its purity, they must consider that it is a right and above all a duty for them, and that if they do not fulfill it , whether out of fear or inertia, that would be a cowardly abandonment of our dear philosophy, which, you are persuaded, is in danger, and in great danger. How is it possible to respect spiritism when one sees, in order to represent and advance it, people without morality, without belief and without loyalty?

Allan Kardec's Magazine is nothing more than an abominable rhapsody; under the pretext of eclecticism, the most subversive ideas are inserted into it, and the judgment of those brothers of ours is perverted who, as they do not have sufficient education to do justice to all these ridiculous conceptions, are confused and become of a credulity that can be dangerous to your home.

Let us study the teaching of our dear master Allan Kardec, let us accept what this high intelligence has made up for thirty years of tenacious work, and above all let us know how to understand and apply it to ourselves in order to become better, fair, loyal and fraternal, dedicated to consoling doctrine that the Spirits revealed to us.

Jesus, who so well taught us love, charity and fraternity, however, in a moment of indignation, expelled the sellers from the temple, and the thongs he used are not yet worn out. I used those of our time; God and the good spirits will judge me.

I consider that I have fulfilled the mission with which I was entrusted. It is up to the Spiritist shareholders to act now and save Villa Ségur, which, according to the master's idea, was destined to be a shelter for elderly Spiritists; he wanted to build there, moreover, a building large enough to establish a meeting place, a museum and a spiritualist library.

Fropo, Beacoup de Lumiere

Kardec, for defending the basic and necessary principles of Spiritist science, was also called orthodox, proud, pedantic, vain, etc. Precisely he, who always demonstrated that he did not even begin the studies of Spiritism and that, having only dedicated himself to this study in a methodological, scientific and organized way, being often contradicted, in his ideas, by the force of reason, by the Spirits themselves, He always emphasized that everything belonged to the Spirits and not to anyone's private ideas, much less his own.

These are the facts that many find it difficult to accept, but which are already well known and which are reported in Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato, and End, by Wilson Garcia.

References

• Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato
• End, by Wilson Garcia
• Beacoup de Lumiere by Berthe Fropo
• Spiritist Magazine of 1858

Today is the anniversary of the publication of The Spirits' Book.

Many still think that it is a book dictated by a Spirit; still others think that it is a work created by Allan Kardec. Few know, however, that the first version of OLE was, in large part, obtained through a systematic and rational study of countless communications, obtained in a more or less systematic and organized way, by other scholars of mediumistic communications – many of them rational spiritualists. – even before Kardec even dreamed of talking to the spirits of the dead.

After the first version, where Kardec sought a rational and consistent meaning for the content presented, the second edition came, almost three years later, and with practically twice the volume of questions, better organized and distributed. This second edition was born, above all, after the methodological study born of all that (and a little more) that is presented in the Revista Espírita, between 1858 and 1860, and with this publication, the objective of obtaining mediumistic information from everywhere from Europe (and the world) was very well attended w reinforced.

Therefore, no, The Spirits' Book is not a religious or philosophical work, produced by an individual or group: it is, in fact, a work produced through an observational and rational scientific method, and that never accepted any word from the Spirits as a unquestionable revelation. In fact, about this, Kardec states, in the Spiritist Magazine (about which we always recommend the study, for showing the most real possible face of Spiritist science) of November 1858:

“We will therefore repeat what we have already said about it, that is, that when the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the spirits, it was so far from our thinking that we had built a completely different system on the antecedents of the soul, a system in fact shared by many people. On this point, the doctrine of the Spirits surprised us. We'll say more: it upset us, because it overthrew our own ideas. As you can see, it was far from being a reflection of them.

This is not all. We do not give in at the first shock. We fight; we defend our opinion; we raised objections and only surrendered in the face of the evidence and when we noticed the insufficiency of our system to solve all the questions related to this problem”

More than 50 years ago, Herculano Pires said:

We need to meditate in order to look for the way we lack to offer the world the spiritual solution to the social problem. Finally, we make spiritism fulfill its historical mission, overcoming the crisis that reduces it, for the moment, to a flickering light in the midst of dense darkness, to a kind of simple individual refuge for disappointments and human afflictions. For its destiny, as Sir Oliver Lodge has pointed out, is not only to comfort disheartened hearts, but to open up to the world the prospects of a new era. If dogmatic faith determined the religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages, with its sinister bonfires, reasoned faith will create the religious positivism of the third millennium, with the pyres of brotherhood lit in all quarters of the planet. Because, as Kardec had already said, the task of spiritism is to elevate the Earth on the scale of the worlds, transferring it from the expiatory category to that of a regenerating world. (PIRES, 1971)

What are we (not) doing? Why is Spiritist philosophy still not widely (re)known? In this search for a north, I answer, as my grandmother once answered me, in Spirit: “at least study”.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Logic takes me down the following path:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allan Kardec was, above all, a scholar. At the beginning of the chapter of the Spirits' Book (Chapter II – General Elements of the Universe, 2. Spirit and Matter item 27.), new terms appear such as Universal Fluid, or UNIVERSAL COSMIC FLUID. It is about him that we intend to deal here.

Beforehand, we recommend that the reader study the work Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.

O Universal Cosmic Fluid it is a hypothesis that explains much of the spiritual manifestations and phenomena, that is why its understanding is so important for the student of the Spiritist Doctrine. In your latest book, Genesis, Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism , Allan Kardec concluded the entire Spiritist Doctrine. It has a whole chapter dedicated to the fluids, chapter XIV. I suggest the new edition of FEAL as it contains a more faithful translation of Kardec's first edition of January 1868. It is worth reading. (note: Editions currently published in Brazil are from A Genesis from the 5th French edition onwards, which have been tampered with by a former helper involved with other ideas.)

O Universal Cosmic Fluid was first described by Frans Anton Mesmer, in 1784. He was a German physician who lived between 1734 and 1815. He developed the Animal Magnetism Theory.

In 1775, after many experiences, Mesmer recognized that he could heal through the application of his hands. He declares: "Of all the bodies of Nature, it is man himself who most effectively acts upon man." The disease would just be disharmony in the creature's equilibrium, he believes. Mesmer, who charged nothing for treatments, preferred to treat disorders linked to the nervous system. In addition to the imposition of hands on the sick, to extend the benefit to a greater number of people, he magnetized water, dishes, bed, etc., whose contact subjected the sick.

FEB article

His theory is that all phenomena in nature originate from a single principle, The original matter of the entire universe: O Universal Cosmic Fluid, because? Because all phenomena are explained from it.
And how does he explain?

It will grant the hypothesis that nature works through vibration states. each state of Universal Cosmic Fluid, which is for where is the vibration, it would have degrees of subtlety. And the vibration of each of these degrees would result in different phenomena. He talked about electromagnetic waves, but in other words... The “little problem” is that there was still no study on electromagnetic waves, nor was it known if they existed... At the time, in the 18th century, they believed that there was nothing between molecules. The Fluid would be where the transmission takes place.

note: Magnetism is the name given to the studies of phenomena related to the properties of magnets. The first magnetic phenomena were observed in ancient Greece, in a city called Magnesia. The first studies carried out in this area were carried out in the 6th century BC by Thales of Miletus, who observed the ability of some pebbles, which today are called magnetite, to attract each other and also to iron. The first practical application of magnetism was found by the Chinese: the compass, which is based on the interaction of the magnetic field of a magnet (the compass needle) with the earth's magnetic field. In the sixth century, the Chinese already dominated the manufacture of magnets. Studies on magnetism only gained strength from the 13th century onwards, when some work and observations were made on electricity and magnetism, which were still considered completely different phenomena. This theory was accepted until the 19th century. Experimental studies in the area were carried out by Europeans. Pierre Pelerin de Maricourt, in 1269, described a large number of experiments on magnetism. The names of the North Pole and South Pole to the ends of the magnet are due to him, as well as the discovery that the compass needle pointed exactly to the geographic north of the Earth. The great revolution in the study of magnetism was made by Oesterd in 1820. He discovered that electrical and magnetic phenomena are interrelated. According to this theory, called electromagnetism, moving electric charges generate a magnetic field, and a moving magnetic field generates an electric current. These studies were completed by Maxwell, who established solid theoretical foundations on the relationship between the electric and magnetic fields, that is, electromagnetic waves.

Dr. Mesmer believed that the ANIMAL MAGNETISM, that is, of vital principle, was an invisible natural force possessed by all living/animate beings (humans, animals, plants, etc.). He believed that such a force could have physical effects, including healing properties. This theory is known as MESMERISM.

He said that the denser matter is "vibrating" the waves materials through the fluid.

Let's exemplify, to illustrate: imagine the wind/pressure make water waves; then the waves of air, a little more subtle than those of water, would result in the phenomenon of sound; more subtle waves generate the phenomenon of light, which would be, for him, the vibration of matter in an even more subtle state. It's the most we can see.
So, Mesmer will grant a hypothesis: after the fluid of light, there would be something even more subtle, which would receive the vibration of our thoughts and our will. And these vibrations of thoughts and will, then, would extend throughout the Universe from a focus that is each one of us. and that the nervous system of other individuals could interpret that thought.

Note: Today it is known that the light it's a kind of wave visible electromagnetic field, formed by the joint propagation of an electric and a magnetic field. As is characteristic of electromagnetic radiation, the light it can propagate through different media and undergo changes in speed when passing from one propagation medium to another. Light can propagate in a vacuum with velocity of approximately 300 thousand km/s. The frequencies of light that are visible to the human eye are called visible spectrum, these waves have lengths between 400 no and 700 no. Electromagnetic waves that have frequencies lower than that of visible light are called infra-red, while those with higher frequencies are called ultraviolet. In Mesmer's time, there was no such understanding, yet... They believed that there was always a fluid, such as magnetic fluid, electric fluid, chloric fluid, etc. and the prevailing theory was mechanist, that is, everything was transmitted from one molecule to another.

Dr. Mesmer performed a series of experiments with applications of his hands to heal people. He realized that his patients, when awake, influenced perception at the time of healing. He then imagined the following: if I put this patient in a state of sleep, putting the body to sleep (this would be our hypnosis today), he would begin to perceive the subtlety of the vibration of the thoughts of others. This was his way of explaining somnambulistic lucidity by this method. It will grant the existence of a 6th. Sense, which, for him, would be in the our nervous system(I didn't think it was something spiritual). He will also perceive states of vibration above light, it would be a state of vibration of the universal cosmic fluid that would have thought waves. The Fluid is the medium through which the thought of the healing will reached the patient.

Mesmer says it like this: that's why, just thinking about the question, the sleepwalker, who is perceiving everything through the sixth sense, captures my thought.

quote from Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo in a lecture for the Spiritism For All Channel on 02/01/2021

Mesmer's hypothesis was that matter is the same in different states. And who acts on matter is the movement of this sixth Sense from our nervous system.
Mesmer spoke of conditions of matter veryuntessentialthe, most subtle, where thought can act. That would be the spirit world only he, at the time, didn't use the "spirit world" to explain...
He knew that at a certain point the matter was so subtle that it was possible for thought to act there.

When he did the healings he was talking to me out of matter. “He talked with the Spirit, by thought. Your proposal was very advanced.”

Kardec would say about Mesmer.

Around the 1850s, around 70 years later, Allan Kardec began his studies. He did not have access to all of Mesmer's work, but the Spirits knew, knew and talked with him about the Mesmer principle. The Spirits will explain that it is not an organ of the body's physiology that perceives the vibrations of thought, but our perispirit(which is a means by which the Spirit can communicate with the body). Kardec, then, developed the hypothesis that it is the Spirit who activates the fluid through thought-will and moves it. would be the smart principle.

So there is a difference between Mesmer, who conceived a Hypothesis, and Spiritism, which works from the observation of the Spirits of the reality of the spiritual world.

Mesmer never thought of perispirit. He couldn't "invent" something that far. He imagined that it was the nervous system that perceived the vibrations of thought. would never be a perispiritual fluid of a spiritual principle not belonging to the material world. Kardec, then, explained the phenomena from these hypotheses of Mesmer regarding matter. And the Spirits will explain to Kardec that no, “our thoughts really vibrate matter, but that matter does not belong to our universe”. This matter is spiritual.

This is very important for every spiritist to understand: the vibrations of our thoughts are not of our observable world. No device will be able to capture it. It is above the light. And light is our limit. Light and electromagnetic waves are at the limit of our observable universe. Thought vibrates above that. In other words, it belongs to another universe. And the Spirits explain this, they say: This is the spiritual universe. And there in the spiritual universe there is the “matter” that they will call perispiritual fluid and he who makes the matter of thought vibrate. And they go even further: that in the spiritual universe matter has various stages of subtlety, that as Spirit evolves, both Spirit and thought will vibrate in this higher range. That's why we're going to have a difference between the more evolved Spirits and less evolved Spirits.

So, the Spirits explained it like this: we have 3 things in the Universe: God, matter and Spirit. Matter is inert, and would be represented by the Universal Cosmic Fluid, because it is inert, it has no form. For a form to emerge, someone has to think. So the Spirit, in its simplest condition, when it thinks (or has a will), the form that appears in matter is the simplest particle.

And what is this unity of the Universal Fluid? She is like the thought of God. But as God created in all times, there are Spirits of all evolutionary scale: there are beings who live in the vegetable kingdom, in the animal kingdom, there are human spirits that range from the simple ignorant to the pure Spirit, all of this concomitant. And among us, Spirits in an evolutionary process, none is equal to the other. If an individual, with his characteristics, will reflect what he is, which is different than another form of another incarnate, with other virtues, other abilities, and so on. Each one completely different from the others, due to the choices and knowledge they made. In such a way that we present the most absolute variety. and everything inside Universal Cosmic Fluid.

Observation: We have to understand that Never does a Spirit manifest with a physical effect alone.. There has to be a medium, there has to be someone alive to mediate with a vital principle. There is no action in the world of the disembodied for the material world. The disembodied spirit acts in the intelligent principle of atoms, which is physical, that from there it effects motion. He acts in the THOUGHT of the incarnate. It is necessary that there be one or more mediums for this interference in the material world to happen. Spirit alone cannot transfer energy to us. You have to understand this very clearly. It is a animalized principle donated by the medium, human being. It can be conscious or unconscious. The spirit that wants the cure uses the vital principle of the medium. But that part is for another article… (coming soon)

So, the spiritual world is invisible, obscure, imponderable (we cannot measure).
We do not possess the foundations of the invisible and spiritual world… We do not know how it is made…

O The future holds for us the knowledge of new laws, which will allow us to understand what remains a mystery.
It may be that the Electromagnetism explain a lot of what mesmer theorized and then Allan Kardec explained with your hypothesis?

YEA!!!

But it may be that the future tells us that this mechanism is all different from that…

Source: Kardec, Allan, GENESIS – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, chapter XIV – Fluids, chapter III, chapter I; Kardec, Allan Book of Spirits question 223 and following; Lecture given by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo on 02/01/2021; Channel Spiritism for All, Study of Genesis by Allan Kardec; FEB – https://www.feeb.org.br/index.php/institucional/artigos/372-biografia-de-mesmer ; Figueiredo, Paulo Henrique Mesmer. The denied science of animal magnetism ; https://kardecpedia.com/roteiro-de-estudos/2/o-livro-dos-espiritos/64/parte-primeira-das-causas-primarias/capitulo-ii-dos-elementos-gerais-do-universo

It is very common to hear that “Spiritism is religion”, including comparing it to other existing religions. Is it really a religion?

Well, for that, first, we need to conceptualize the term religion.

What is it religion

Although many understand it primarily as a set of beliefs in one or more deities, there are even atheistic or agnostic religions. So, to avoid further confusion, let's stick to two main ways of understanding the term religion:

1. A set of principles, beliefs and practices of religious doctrines, based on sacred books, commonly separated between priests and faithful, the former being organized through clearly distinct hierarchies that culminate, at the top, in a high priest, who represents all the Church and has the final, unquestionable word.

2. A system of rules and moral values established through beliefs that characterize a group of individuals.

In the first aspect, the religious doctrine is indisputable by the faithful and by the lower levels of the priestly hierarchy. A change, if it comes, comes from the top down. Very commonly, one finds in them ideas that are debated in front of human science, in an irrational way.

The second aspect is more in line with the idea of natural religion, which is understood by our natural connection to God and Spirituality.

And in which of these two aspects would Spiritism fit more?

We know very well that Spiritism, in its essence, never had any of the aspects of the first classification. But… What about the second? To discuss this, we need to conceptualize Spiritism in its historical moment.

Rational Spiritualism and Spiritualism

as we already talked in this article, Spiritism emerged in the midst of the movement called Rational Spiritualism, adopted in France from the third decade of the 19th century, mainly as an opposition to the materialist movement and the old religions that enslaved thought. According to Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in the work Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, the movement:

"is characterized by the adoption of scientific methodology, seeking to do with the human being what has been successfully achieved by studying the matter: the understanding of the natural laws that underlie it. In other words, it replaced blind faith with a rational faith, a requirement of the new times.”.

FIGUEIREDO, Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism

And, in another passage, he highlights:

In their time, rational spiritualists, away from formal religions, made use of the concepts of religion and natural morals to study the acts of the human soul and its social relationships.

ibidem

Thus, the concept of natural religion was something studied in a scientific way (by the moral sciences) in that historical context in which Spiritism was born. And so, and only for that, that Kardec admitted a religious aspect in Spiritism, since he was born as development of Rational Spiritualism, as Kardec himself highlights:

[…] every defense of Rational Spiritualism opens the way for Spiritism, which is its development, fighting its most tenacious adversaries: materialism and fanaticism.

KARDEC, [RE] 1868, p. 223

Not only was Spiritism never been a religion – according to the first concept – but, on the contrary, it was born and grew up as a moral science with a philosophical aspect, based on the observation of facts to support the logical and rational deduction on which the theory is based:

All science must be based on facts; but facts alone do not constitute science; science is born from the coordination and logical deduction of facts: it is the set of laws that govern them. Has Spiritism reached the state of science? If it is a question of perfect science, it would undoubtedly be premature to answer in the affirmative; but the observations are, as of today, numerous enough to be able, at least, to deduce the general principles, and that is where science begins.

KARDEC, [RE] 1858, p. 3

Spiritism was never a new religion

We see, after all, that Spiritism, being a development of Rational Spiritualism, and with the aspects of a rational science, was born diametrically opposed to the ideas of religious dogmatism that have always prevailed in humanity. The main purpose of the Doctrine of Spirits is precisely to take control of human faith from religious groups that, acting for different interests, enslaved consciences to their sacred books and rituals.

However, it is very important to say that Spiritism is not a Doctrine that was born to fight with others. It does not come to cast anathema on other beliefs, but, as a science, to provide a neutral ground where people of all faiths can take shelter:

Spiritism comes, in its turn, not like a religion, but as a philosophical doctrine, to bring its theory, supported on the fact of the manifestations; does not impose; does not claim blind trust; he stands and says: Examine, compare, and judge; if you find anything better than what I give you, take it. He does not say: I come to know the fundamentals of religion and replace it with a new cult; he says: I do not address those who believe and who are satisfied with their belief, but those who desert your ranks through unbelief, and whom you did not know or could not retain.; I come to give you, about the truths you reject, an interpretation of a nature to satisfy your reason and which makes you accept it. (Ibid.)

KARDEC, [RE] 1862, p. 70

But Spiritism is a religion

The contradiction is purposeful, because I want us to force ourselves to understand the distinction that is given to the term religion according to the understanding given to it. This is imperative. Depending on how we understand – if by the philosophical aspect of natural religion, relating to the historical context of Allan Kardec, or if from the aspect of a religious system, which comprises rituals, priests and dogmas – then Spiritism can be said to be a religion or not. Kardec conceptualizes this distinction very well in the Spiritist Magazine of 1868:

[…] so Spiritism is a religion?

“Why, yes, no doubt, gentlemen; in the philosophical sense, Spiritism is a religion[1], and we glorify ourselves for this, because it is the doctrine that founds the bonds of fraternity and communion of thoughts, not on a simple convention, but on the most solid foundations: the very laws of Nature.”

"Why, then, have we declared that Spiritism is not a religion?? Because there is no word to express two different ideas, and because, in the general opinion, the word religion is inseparable from the idea of worship; because it exclusively awakens an idea of form, which Spiritism has no. If Spiritism called itself a religion, the public would only see there a new edition, a variant, if you will, of the absolute principles in matters of faith; a priestly caste with its procession of hierarchies, ceremonies and privileges; he would not separate it from the ideas of mysticism and abuses against which public opinion has so often risen.”

“Since Spiritism does not have any of the characteristics of a religion, in the usual sense of the word, it could not and should not adorn itself with a title about whose value people would inevitably have been mistaken. That is why it is simply said: philosophical and moral doctrine.”

KARDEC, [RE], 1868

Where is the problem then?

Arriving here, to close, I need to reinforce my thinking, which compacts with Kardec: we should not call Spiritism a religion, much less present it as one, because, in people's minds, there is no such distinction of understandings. – especially nowadays. It is said that it is a religion and, promptly, the adept of some religious line will ask himself: “but then can I be a spiritist, since I am Catholic/Evangelical/Hindu/etc?”. Or, worse, he will say: “I already have my religion. That other I do not care" .

Now, we cannot deny that, when treating Spiritism as a religion, according to the popular understanding given to the term, we will be creating a great difficulty expansion of the Spiritist Doctrine in the masses, since they will understand that, if Spiritism is other religion, so they cannot leave their own religions to study it. Let us present it, however, as a science with a philosophical aspect – that he is and the difficulties are resolved: everyone can study Spiritism, sipping from the knowledge given by the Spirits everywhere and from the studies of Allan Kardec and others, on such knowledge, without the need to leave your religion, their rituals, etc. In fact, about this, Spiritism, whether in Kardec's words or in the words of the Spirits themselves, has always been very clear: it does not force anyone to believe or change; logically presents his ideas about causes and effects and leaves everyone the freedom to change or not.

By the way, Spiritism does not even place the need to visit or attend a spiritist center – although, of course, we do not deny the great use that spiritist centers can have – because Spiritism is a Doctrine to be studied and lived individually and in the family nucleus.

Conclusion

Here, in conclusion, we come to a crucial point: the way in which Spiritism spread in Brazil. For a series of questions, the main one being the lack of knowledge of the real face of Spiritism, for lack of study of Kardec's works, but also due to ignorance of the tampering suffered after Kardec's death, the Doctrine gained several aspects of religion, "going to live" in temples, attending to rituals and hierarchies and, mainly, leaving behind all the methodology of studies based in the evocation of Spirits, as we have already in this article.

However, just as Jesus Christ never founded a religion, but, on the contrary, dealt with all the morals brought by him in a natural way - then, yes, acquiring the traits of a "natural religion" - Spiritism never was and never will be a religion as we understand it today. It is up to us to understand it deeply, seeking to restore its true face, applying it in our own lives and spreading it, in a fraternal and clear way, to all those who can benefit from it in their lives.

We add, to enrich, the interview in this regard with Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo:

1. See that, when Kardec says that “in the philosophical sense, Spiritism is a religion“, he is referring to Spiritism as a moral science with a philosophical aspect, and such science, at that moment, addressed the natural religion, away from the dogmas of the old religions.