A sad time, that of slavery and segregation, now long over. Today, we no longer talk about “races”, because we know that there is only one race: the human race. Today, in the vast majority, especially in our Brazilian society, black people integrate and actively participate, still facing some difficulties, but which decrease day after day, with human advancement. From that time, some speeches by Allan Kardec appear, racist in today's eyes. They say he would be racist without an understanding of the times.

The mistake, always, is trying to confuse Allan Kardec with Spiritism. Spiritism exists by itself, as a fact of nature. Kardec dedicated himself to studying it. He never imposed his ideas or truths on the Doctrine. In fact, as we will see, it was through this study that he was able to verify black people, women and even homosexuals, as we will see, from another angle, as no philosophy had ever done before.

It remains to be remembered that the concept of races was a scientific concept of the time, which was only overcome at the end of the 20th century.

the infamous phrase

The phrase in question, used to claim that Allan Kardec would be racist, belongs to a much more complete and in-depth article, published in the Spiritist Magazine of April 1862 and which precisely comes against the racist idea, demolishing it:

“Thus, as a physical organization, blacks will always be the same; as spirits, it is undoubtedly an inferior race, that is, primitive; they are true children to whom very little can be taught [...]”

Allan Kardec, RE, April 1862

It is, however, the old human craze, cultivated until today: a sentence is isolated, taking it out of an entire context, and presented as complete proof of the opposite point that one wants to prove, almost always with a view to denigrating the image of others.

We need to remember that Allan Kardec was in France ethnocentric mid-1800s, when the entire society EVEN attributed a soul to black people and when science itself adopted a concept racist:

in the 19th century, the process of neocolonialism or European imperialism. England, France, Germany and others European capitalist powers invested in new policies of territorial expansion and practically divided the territories of the Africa, gives Asia and from Oceania.

To justify the exploitation of the riches of those places and the policy of racial segregation, Europeans had to look for a scientific justification, because, in the 19th century, science was already widely disseminated and religion was no longer sufficient to justify any kind of authoritarian action.

In that sense, the anthropology emerged as an attempt to create scientific theories that justified the exploitation of peoples outside Europe by European peoples. The first theories in this area, developed by the English biologist and geographer Herbert Spencer, stated that there was a kind of hierarchy of races.

From this perspective, European whites were superior, followed by Asians, Indians and Africans, the latter being the least developed. This current became known as Darwinism Social or social evolutionism, as it appropriated the theory of biological evolution of Charles Darwin and applied it in the sociological field[…]

Francisco Porfírio – Brasil Escola – https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/sociologia/etnocentrismo.htm

Says Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in A Genesis (ed. FEAL, 2022):

When Allan Kardec wrote this work, the evolutionary hierarchization of the then considered human races was not seen as racism, but adopted by eminent scientists such as Cuvier, Charles Darwin, Buchner, or Carl Vogt, who stated: “As soon as young black people reach the period During puberty, we witness a phenomenon identical to that which occurs in monkeys. From now on, the intellectual faculties remain stationary and the individual, like the entire race, becomes incapable of any progress” (Leçons sur l'homme. p. 253).

This understanding was hegemonic in the scientific environment, thus contextualizing the outdated descriptions developed here, belonging to the Science of the time, and not to Spiritism.

Allan Kardec was, therefore, led to make this error of judgement, racist in today's eyes, based on some prejudices and scientific concepts of the time. while, on the other hand, he demonstrated, through the studies of Spiritism, that all human beings have souls that can even reincarnate wherever and under any color, “race” or creed..

Let's see: Kardec judged black people from the point of view of the concepts of the time, which admitted them only as savages, coming from the African jungles, all far below any civilization and culture. It is on this fundamental error that Kardec bases himself to say: “as Spirits, they are, without a doubt, an inferior race, that is, primitive”. It was a concept of science at the time, guided by racism, even due to interests!

However, if we go beyond this thought by Allan Kardec, racist by definition, studying the Spiritist Doctrine in the background, we will see that it contradicts, I repeat, any and all racial, sexual or caste prejudice.

In fact, let us recover very important excerpts from the article in question:

it is said about black slaves: “They are beings so brute, so unintelligent, that it would be a vain effort to try to instruct them. They are an inferior, incorrigible, profoundly incapable race.” The theory that we have just presented allows us to look at them in a different light.. In the question of the improvement of races, it is always necessary to take into account two constitutive elements of man: the spiritual element and the corporeal element. It is necessary to know both, and only Spiritism can enlighten us as to the nature of the spiritual element, the most important, for being what thinks and what survives, while the corporeal element is destroyed.

Allan Kardec, RE April 1862

Here it is very evident, especially for those who read the entire article, that Kardec precisely brings the issue in vogue, at that moment, for analysis from another perspective – that of Spiritism – which could bring another way of interpreting the subject. Let's go on, presenting the complete paragraph from which the quoted sentence was extracted:

Thus, as a physical organization, blacks will always be the same. As spirits, they are unquestionably an inferior race, that is, primitive. They are true children to whom very little can be taught. But, through intelligent care, it is always possible to modify certain habits, certain tendencies, which already represents a progress that they will take to another existence, and that will allow them, later on, to take on an envelope of better conditions. Working for its improvement, one works less for its present than for its future and, however little it is achieved, for them it is always an acquisition. Each progress is a step forward that facilitates further progress.

ibidem

We see, as presented, that Kardec started from a wrong foundation, based on scientific, social and cultural concepts of the time - that blacks would be a wild and unknowledgeable "race" and that whites would constitute a superior race - in a context, where very likely, either he had no contact with blacks, or, a more reasonable hypothesis, that he only knew them from his socially inferior position, since slavery in France was only abolished in 1848. However, soon after, he adds that, however much they could constitute an inferior “race”, these Spirits, who now occupy a body considered “inferior” to white – nothing further from reality – through their spiritual progression, would occupy “better envelopes”. This is more or less expressed in the following thought, from the Spiritist Magazine of November 1858: “the Spiritist Doctrine is broader than all this. For her, there are no different kinds of men; there are simply men whose spirit is more or less backward, capable, however, of progressing“.

Kardec goes ahead and reproduces the reigning thought, at that moment, regarding the physical body that constitutes the “black race”: “That is why the black race, as a black race, bodily speaking, will never reach the levels of the Caucasian races, but as spirits it is something else: it can and will become what we are. It will only need time and better instruments.“

Is it repugnant to our eyes today? Yes it is. And it is something that we need to discuss, in a non-anachronistic way, in order to understand and separate the thought of man, imperfect, from the thought expressed by Spiritist science, as in everything.

Note that Kardec took a point of view based on human science and the science of Spirits. For the first time, it was based on the ideas of races, thus expressing wrong thinking. For the second time, he was right to understand that we are all equal. Spiritism, therefore, is not racist, but quite the opposite.

It is also worth making another observation: Kardec didn't see black people as beings who should not have the same respect, charity, fraternity and love as we owe to everyone else. We see this very well expressed in the Spiritist Magazine of June 1859, when a deceased black man is evoked, and he expresses himself as follows:

4. ─ However, you were free. What are you most happy about now?
─ Because my Spirit is no longer black.

To which Kardec makes the following note:

NOTE: This answer is more sensible than it seems at first glance. Certainly the Spirit is never black. He means that, as a Spirit, he no longer has the humiliations to which the black race is subjected.

Now, it is necessary, then, to understand this issue, in the right historical context, from both sides: on the one hand, Kardec, the white, European, who believed that the black was an inferior “race”, but who understood that it was a matter of our brother, Spirit like us, who also suffered from humiliation and wanted to be happy. On the other hand, the black man, who not only felt humiliated and mistreated, but was also humiliated and mistreated because of his skin color. Would it be too much to assume that, in this very specific context, very different from what modern society is today (in large part), the Spirit who incarnated in a black body wanted to stop being black in a next life? This is evident in the thought of the Spirit (Father Caesar):

10. (To Father Caesar) – You said that you are looking for a body with which you can advance. Will you choose a white or black body?
─ A white, because contempt would hurt me.

From the point of view that the black was treated as an animal, facing severe difficulties, would it be too much to suppose that, at that time, a Spirit chose to incarnate in a black body in order to face the immense difficulties that this life would offer him, learning from them? Today, living as a black person is no longer as painful as it was at that time and, with the evolution of the human being, the atonements chosen by the Spirits would be different. The question, always, in order to understand these difficult questions, is to separate Spirit and body, in addition to contextualizing terms and ideas according to time, history and social context.

It is also important to remember that, if Kardec was, in a way, prejudiced, on the other was not a slave or even segregationist or, if one day he was, he changed his opinion when in contact with spiritist science:

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.)

Allan Kardec - The Spirits' Book

Let's not stop, however. Let's move on, looking at other important and related issues.

Would Kardec be sexist?

To analyze these themes, I will use as a basis the article produced by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, which can be fully appreciated at the link https://revolucaoespirita.com.br/kardec-homossexualidade/

Starting with the issue of machismo, Kardec makes a very interesting approach in the Spiritist Magazine of January 1866, in the article entitled “Do women have a soul?”. Yes, amazingly, that was the question at the time.

Do women have souls? It is known that the thing was always taken for grantedfor, it is said, was put to deliberation in a council. Denial is still a principle of faith in certain peoples. It is known to what degree of debasement this belief reduced them in most parts of the East.. Even if today, among civilized peoples, the matter is resolved in their favor, the prejudice of his moral inferiority was perpetuated to such an extent that that a writer of the last century, whose name escapes me, defined woman in this way: “An instrument of man's pleasures”, a definition more Muslim than Christian. From this prejudice was born its legal inferiority, still not erased from our codes. For too long they have accepted this enslavement as a matter of course, so powerful is the force of habit. This is how it is with those who are subjected to servitude from father to son., who end up judging themselves to be of a different nature from their masters.

Allan Kardec, RE, January 1866

Amazing, no? It was still questioned, in some societies, if the woman really had a soul and, born of a prejudice, your inferiority cool still existed. Women could not even vote – a fact that is well known even today. Let us note one thing: if Kardec may have been prejudiced against black people, he, however, did not consider them animals that should be enslaved to the will of the white man, just as the woman should not be enslaved to the will of the man.

“After having recognized that they have a soul, if they have been recognized as having the right to conquer the degrees of science, that is already something. But their partial liberation is only the result of the development of urbanity, of the softening of customs, or, if you like, of a more exact feeling of justice; it is a kind of concession that is made to her, and, it is necessary to bless her, haggling over them as much as possible”.

ibidem

Paulo Henrique comments in his article:

At that time, despite the question of the existence of a woman's soul being considered ridiculous, it was still not considered that the “equality of social position between man and woman was a natural right”, and not a concession made by man. The contribution of Spiritism to the debate is extraordinary and current. While the fact that traditional gender differences were established as a function of culture and not of physiological nature is currently being discussed (in order to justify the power of man), Spiritism demonstrates the other extreme of the question: equality is natural, because spirits have no sex distinction! In other words, if the division of sex by gender is cultural (it is known today), equality is natural (the spirits explain).

In The Spirits' Book, Kardec delves into this issue, in a very current way, creating, once and for all, through the teachings of the Superior Spirits, the deepest notion of equality ever seen in a Doctrine, as it is based on the principles of Natural Law, which transcends matter and time:

817. Man and woman are equal before God. women and have the same rights?

“Has not God bestowed on both the intelligence of good and evil and the faculty of progress?”

818. Whence comes the moral inferiority of women in certain regions?

“Of the unjust and cruel predominance that man has taken over her. It is the result of social institutions and the abuse of strength over weakness. Among morally little advanced men, strength makes right.”

819. To what end weaker physically than man is the women?

“To assign you special functions. To man, for being the strongest, the rough works; The women, light work; to both of them the duty to help each other to endure the trials of a life full of bitterness.”

Allan Kardec - The Spirits' Book

And, further, worthy of note, presents this incredible and profound thought:

821. The functions to which the women destined by Nature will be as important as those deferred to man?

“Yes, even bigger. It is she who gives him the first notions of life.”

ibidem

We have already seen, so far, that Kardec goes in the opposite direction of the thought in force at that time: women, of course, have a soul and, being equal to men, should be treated with the same conditions guaranteed by natural law, given to men. Spiritism demonstrates that equality is Natural, since the Spirit has no sex and, therefore, no color or race, as is exemplified in the communication with the Spirit of Mr.

“Spirits do not have sex; but as you were still a man a few days ago, do you tend in your new state to be male nature rather than female nature? Is it the same with a spirit who has left his body a long time ago?”

And, through the medium, Sanson replied:

“We don't have to be male or female: Spirits don't reproduce. God creates them at his will, and if, for his wonderful purposes, he wanted spirits to be reincarnated on Earth, he had to add the reproduction of species for male and female. But you feel it, without any explanation being necessary, spirits cannot have sex.”

So, finally, we come to the question:

Kardec homophobic?

Dear reader, I have to say that I don't even know where people get these thoughts from. In fact, I know: from common sense, that well-known “cordless phone”, which transmits ideas from one to the other without seriously analyzing them.

Those who really seek to study and understand Spiritism and Allan Kardec already understood, just from the above, that he could not be homophobic. However, we will end the article with the following quote, in the same issue of Revista Espírita, followed by the quote by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo about this passage:

“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. This explains certain apparent anomalies 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

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

Final considerations

There are very good people of all colors, including people of the worst kind, also of all colors and sexual options. There are high spirits in misshapen bodies, just as there are terrible spirits in the most beautiful bodies. We need to learn to stop judging the next, as well as to stop creating concepts and prejudices based on how people look, in our eyes.

The understanding of Spiritism comes precisely in this sense, when we understand that the body is just a vessel, which can contain more or less crystalline water. The human Spirit can incarnate into any type of human body, according to its needs. How, then, knowing this very well, Kardec could have expressed such an erroneous opinion about black people?

This is partly explained by a strong ethnocentric prejudice that, in France in the mid-1800s, saw black people as an inferior “race”, savages, without knowledge and without culture. On the other hand, let's understand clearly, Allan Kardec, based on the racist ideology of current science, assumed that the Spirits that incarnated in black people were also Spirits of lesser evolution, in a phase of spiritual infancy. Nothing, I repeat, nothing further from the truth, since we know how much moral value and knowledge these brothers had, still used as slaves shortly before in France and, for many decades to come, in Brazil. However, at the same time as he started from this wrong starting point, he added: “they are Spirits like us, doomed to evolution and perfection”.

It was already a big step, for a man of that time, to have given soul to a people who were treated like machines. But, we know, the march of progress advances and, as Kardec always said, we should always follow scientific advances, abandoning the opinion that proved to be wrong in the face of science. That's what we do here and it's the same thing that Allan Kardec would do if, today, he were incarnated among us.

However, none of this changes our way of understanding Spiritism, in its true conception, and not even in relation to the great role that Kardec had in his study, since he was an imperfect man, although committed to charity and science. In fact, he adds, to the Doctrine of Spirits, the real beauty that it has, understood in its depth and without the human prejudices and concepts that, after all, it does not have, but rather undoes.

supposed? No, they are not supposed. They are factual, with numerous evidence and strong evidence presented, including obtained by field research and others based on historical documents by Allan Kardec that, little by little, come to light.

Unfortunately, the FEB, based on Carlos Seth's arguments, is basing itself on very weak evidence to argue in favor of what it believes – non-adulteration – without presenting, as Kardec would do, the opposite argument, without going deep into them. I discuss that in this article: https://geolegadodeallankardec.com.br/2021/09/01/as-adulteracoes-nas-obras-de-kardec-e-o-csi-do-espiritismo/

worse than that, the defense of non-adulteration, against the existing evidence, hurts Allan Kardec's own image, as if he, who always carried out everything with all the necessary care, under all the requirements of human law, had then decided to submit an amendment illegally, without making the legal deposit, obligatory at that time, making him a self-confessed criminal. I believe that we can and must do more than that, not only in the name of Allan Kardec, but in the name of something much bigger and more serious: Spiritism, a doctrine that finally comes to provoke and help the great changes necessary for humanity.

I feel a great dissatisfaction when verifying not that there are contrary opinions, but, yes, that many spiritists do not even try to follow the example of Kardec, honest and humble, verifying all serious sources, even contrary to his previously developed ideas, going deep into them and analyzing what is true or probable in them and, modifying one's own opinion in the face of scientific evidence and, when not, scrutinizing such ideas in order to show where they fail.

Unfortunately, many have not acted like this, despite countless serious spiritualists, already since the 19th century and, later, passing by Silvino Canuto de Abreu and Herculano Pires himself, having raised serious accusations against the deviations that the Doctrine suffered after Kardec.

In true, I don't want you to agree with me, but that we all act conscientiously, mirrored in the example of Professor Rivail. Several works, since a few years, have presented evidence that is too serious and too well-founded to the point of being put aside and discarded. If we are going to discuss tampering, let us discuss it in the light of reason, in the face of logical reasoning and evidence and evidence, as Kardec would do.

As we call ourselves Spiritists, which is a science born from the observation of facts and evidence, I ask once again: let us not leave these works aside, because what they bring, even if it were false, is too important and serious to ignore. them, as the Brazilian spiritist movement has done.

They are, but not only:

• The Legacy of Allan Kardec, by Simoni Privato
• Neither Heaven nor Hell: The Laws of the Soul according to Spiritism, by Lucas Sampaio and Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo
• Much Light (BEAUCOUP DE LUMIÈRE), by Berthe Fropo
• Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo

Brothers, read, study, inform yourself and spread this motivation everywhere. It is high time to restore the original understanding of Spiritism!

We live in the great darkness, again. After Spiritism dawned on the face of the Earth as a great light that could launch us into the most accelerated process of human spiritual and moral renewal, spreading with the speed of lightning, it suffered a huge setback and, then, slowly began to be forgotten in its proposals. and true face originals. Then came the wars, the great industrial development, the enormous material facilities, the enormous profits and, behind the big false smiles, the beautiful social masks, happy and fun, the enormous pain and anguish multiplied that, not infrequently, find a way out in giving up on life and in direct or indirect suicide.

Humanity cries out. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, then, the unimaginable happens and a disease that is easily transmitted, although with relatively low mortality rates, spreads across the entire surface of the planet, taking loved ones, neighbors and acquaintances, poor and rich, in a matter of a few weeks – almost always, in less than 20 days. Humanity is once again wounded and vulnerable. The Spirit was forgotten. Morality was put aside as an article of politicking. God has become an article of blind faith, often misunderstood and, although present in many languages, empty in the heart.

The departures of close people shake families and individuals. A great movement accelerates: the search for rapprochement with the spiritual, the search for consolation, the search for answers. And behold, precisely at that same time, great studies and precious works began to increase in our eyes, by the dedicated hands of brothers dedicated to the work of Truth, bringing to us the true face of Spiritism and its history, and great and precious part, hitherto misunderstood or otherwise unknown.

Today, we are experiencing a process very similar to that experienced in the mid-19th century, bringing us an opportunity that is once again extremely grandiose. I see and believe that, as before, we are experiencing a great call back to spirituality. Mediumship phenomena are multiplying everywhere, including physical ones, with a view to attracting our attention. As before, humanity passed through a very serious materialist phase, giving rise to the great wounds of selfishness and pride, in addition to space for the proliferation of all vices and imperfections, physical and moral.

It was made known to us that Spiritism suffered from various manipulations and deviations, sometimes criminal, if not in the eyes of human justice, but at least in the eyes of Divine justice. Lyrics and Movement have been tampered with. Spiritism, after Kardec's death, lost the gigantic force that it had been developing and, with the wars, found shelter in Brazil, to remain in a semi-gestational stage, in the religious environment, for more than a century...

Brothers, as I said, we are living a very important and unique moment. Spiritism was born at a favorable and necessary moment, when humanity was looking for philosophical answers to face materialist denialism, which, in turn, was born to face the fierce dogmatism of the old religions. Today, Spiritism is reborn, in its real exuberance, at the right time, to respond to the cries of those who seek answers to the same strong and fervent materialism that cooled souls during the last century and put man on the path of gain and profit, of ephemeral passions and the cult of the body.

The huge difference is that, today, we find the work already started. We don't need to develop reasoning from scratch, analyzing physical phenomena, talking to Spirits through blows. It is enough for us to study in depth, with great wisdom and dedication, Spiritism and the complementary works that help us to better understand it, placing it in a contextualized way in the historical moment in which it was born, in order to bring it to our days. the exact understanding, which until today we have not had, for the most part, about what really It's Spiritism!

But this will not be possible until we act according to the example of the one whom God has given us as an example in this regard. I'm not talking about our ultimate example, Jesus, but about our great and humble master, affable and charitable, a researcher dedicated to humanity, Allan Kardec. No, until we follow their example, I repeat, the recovery of Spiritism will not be possible. Kardec was not perfect, as none of us are, but he exemplified one very important thing: the total absence of personalism, vanity and pride, as well as the quest to analyze facts, evidence and opinions, from all sides and from all sources. , without, before, form an idea previously conceived. As long as our personalism, our vanity, our pride, our prejudices, in short, speak louder, we will not leave the same place. Unfortunately, this is not what has been done by people who, taking fragile arguments in favor of their personal ideas, continue to deny historical facts and who, therefore, distance themselves from the unfolding of a clear and deep understanding of Spiritism, as already I treated in this article.

Spiritualists, look around: work calls us, hard! The world of regeneration will not come alone! Regeneration needs to come from us, but it won't happen as long as we keep still, sitting, waiting for life and what we think are punishments, to pass. We need to understand that the difficulties of life, which we consider insurmountable punishments, are actually valuable opportunities for learning and correcting our imperfections that lead us to make mistakes. We need to understand that, just as God does not impose punishments on us, but rather difficult opportunities - but totally bearable, as long as we ourselves do not increase their difficulties - for learning and elevation, we also need, with the help of the Spiritist Doctrine, to learn to putting into practice in our lives and, above all, with our children, the same moral: we are imperfect and punishing the error born of imperfection only causes retraction and, often, an increase in imperfection and error. That's what Spiritism comes to show us: no one becomes an angel at the snap of a finger and, also, no one loses what they've already conquered. There are no fallen angels, just as there are no chosen ones by God. We will all reach perfection, no exceptions, but the speed with which we will get there depends, solely and exclusively, of us.

So, brothers, more than ever, that important exhortation is worth: “spiritualists! love–you, this is the first teaching; instructyou, this is the second”. We need to put aside divisions. We need to put aside prejudices. We need, like Kardec, to listen to all opinions, from all sources, but only like Kardec, understanding his work, his example and his method very well, can we unite, love and educate each other. And above all, we need to produce, in our good and in favor of the next, because time is pressing and, after a year and a half of closed spiritist centers, many without none production, even among its closest members, we need to recover Spiritism that is not lived in closed temples, but in our family intimacy and, from there, to the outside world!

Once again, here is the exhortation, the request, so that you, brothers, also read the works so important and necessary for our understanding:

• Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato
• Neither heaven nor hell, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo and Lucas Sampaio
• Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo
• A lot of light, by Berthe Fropo

The issue of tampering in A Genesis is already factually sanctioned, that is, there is no longer any doubt that Allan Kardec no was responsible for the changes presented from the fifth edition of A Genesis. All this is very clear in the work. Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato, but we have also covered some of this in the article Adulterations in Kardec's works and the "CSI of Spiritism". However, one question still remained: how did Kardec's wife, Amélie Boudet, let this serious adulteration pass?

The answer came quite simply and clearly: she did not know of such changes (or tampering), nor did she expect them, even because there was never a legal deposit for the new edition, necessary, at that time, for any change in the content of the work. . Allan Kardec has always made such deposits, when necessary, for a new work or for a new edition, with changes to the previous one. That's why he Never made legal deposit of no other edition of A Genesis, since in the first four editions it has not been altered.

All this becomes clearer in the video below. We invite the reader to watch, carefully, and leave your comment here in this article.

For those who follow our work and have already found out about the information on this initiative, you know that it was born, mainly, by a great personal agitation caused after reading the works “The Legacy of Allan Kardec”, by Simoni Privato, and “Neither heaven nor hell: The laws of the soul according to Spiritism”, by Lucas Sampaio and Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo. After having contact with these works, which, I reiterate and defend, are extremely well based on the evidence of historical facts, combined with the irrefutable rationality of their authors and others involved, it remains clearly evident that Spiritism suffered a great setback, after the death of Allan Kardec, with the adulteration in the lyrics, in A Gênesis and in O Céu e o Inferno, and in the spiritist movement. That's not what Carlos Seth, from CSI of Spiritism, but we'll talk about that in a moment.

in the letter, two works by Professor Rivail (Allan Kardec) were tampered with, after his death, inserting in it contents that cause understandings many different of those that the Encoder and the Superior Spirits previously reflected in these works.

on the move spiritist the adulteration was in the sense that, according to Kardec's plans, this should stop being centralized in a person or group, spreading over countless groups, in solidarity with each other, continuing their studies in the same molds of logic, reason, universal agreement and, above all, charity and fraternity. After his death, the movement, under the name of Parisian Spiritist Society, founded by Kardec, and at the expense of its notorious image and previous contribution, started to be governed according to the private wishes and personal interests. The said Society became the temple full of money changers.

Before continuing, however, I beg you: don't just believe me. You can also read these works, in addition to the work “Muita Luz”, by Berthe Fropo, easily found in PDF on the Internet.

I believe that as Spiritualists we must seek the upright and just example of the great master, Professor Rivail, who never gave affirmative or negative on any subject without, first, knowing it completely. And here, we cannot do otherwise, if we really want to be loyal to the Spiritist Doctrine which, in order to spread light, needs to be confirmed and understood everywhere.

Well, well! Driven by this impulse, I came to a Facebook page called “CSI of Spiritism“, where, among some articles, there is a very special one, by Carlos Seth, on 11/04/2020, dealing with a handwritten letter, with the unmistakable handwriting of Allan Kardec, which would imply that, “without a shadow of doubts”, the work “A Genesis” would not have been tampered with in its 5th edition, but produced by Allan Kardec himself.

I want to advance that I think strange an article on a supposedly spiritist page and which, by its very name, suggests the great commitment to the investigatedog, based only on one side of the story, not going deep into the citation and analysis of contrary statements, as is the case of those presented largely by the author Simoni Privato in the previously mentioned work and, later, by Paulo and Lucas in the work “Nem heaven nor hell”.

IT'S very strange, as a matter of fact. There seems to be a hurry, an anxiety even, very big, in even find a source that give foundation, although skewed, to the thesis that all this enormous amount of information that points to adulterations would, in fact, be a mistake, or that the authors were mere carelessness in the peremptory analysis of all this material.

IT'S totally different from what I did and what Allan Kardec recommended, which, on numerous occasions, presented and discussed opposing ideas, even those that could, at a first glance, win sympathies contrary to Spiritism. But he wasn't worried about that. His concern was truth, drawn from the verification of the logic of facts and reason.

For my part, I do not intend to make the same mistake and, therefore, I reproduce below some excerpts from this article, which can be read in full through from this link.

The article on the CSI page of Spiritism and my considerations

I will highlight the most important excerpts from the cited article, making my considerations just below each excerpt.

It is informed by Allan Kardec (see part in bold in the table containing the transcription/translation of the manuscript) that the translation should be made from the new edition of the work (A Genesis), which was being reprinted at that time – in September 1868. and that it contained important corrections and additions.

This does not prove that it was a new edition, but, yes, of the reprint, most likely from same edition – the 4th, in the finalization stage at that moment. Now, we cannot suppose that Kardec, methodical and always extremely careful with everything, would have submitted a new edition for printing without having carried out the legal deposit with the National Library, which was still required by law and which was strictly complied with to all at new editions of all the works he produced.

We still have something very substantial here: in “The Legacy of Allan Kardec”, by Simoni Privato, the author gives a deep explanation of how prints worked at that time. In short, while the editing of a work was not completed, that is, there were still corrections to be made, they were made on movable types, with the printing of few copies. After the corrections and adjustments were finalized, the movable types were used for the casting of matrices, which functioned as molds for the production of fixed types, in metal, for large-scale production.

It turns out that there is a statement, from Mr. Rouge, typographer of the first six editions of A Genesis, stating that the work's matrices were made at the end of 1868 and charged to Mr Rivail (Kardec), that is, shortly after the aforementioned letter in which he speaks of reprint of the work, as it contains errors and additions. In other words: the edition was in the final stages of elaboration, having been completed soon after!

We noted that it would clearly be possible to reprint new editions without changes. The opposite (making changes) would require the submission of a new record to the French National Library, without which the author would be acting illegally and could face reactions from the government itself, then under the Second Empire of Napoleon III.

The aforementioned work (A Genesis) had 3 editions made with Kardec in life. The 1st edition of the work came to light, in Paris, on January 6, 1868, followed, in that same year, by the publication of the 2nd and 3rd editions, absolutely identical,
mere reprints of the 1st edition (This is why there are only two legal deposits of the work: the first edition and the 4th edition.).

The 4th edition, although containing the year 1868 on the cover and title page, was only published in the first half of 1869, with the Encoder already disincarnated, but keeping the same characteristics of the first three editions, with which it does not differ in point. any, that is, produced on the matrices commissioned by Kardec himself at the end of 1868.

The manuscript contains the information that the printed sheets of the new edition (A Genesis) would be sent by Allan Kardec (to the recipient of the letter for translation), in addition to saying that there were about half of them (reference to the printed sheets with the content of the new edition) already ready, proving that the master had completed the amended text of the new edition.

I don't understand French, much less understand Kardec's handwriting. I have to consider what the author of the text is saying and, here, I ask myself: after all, was it a REPRINT or from a NEW EDITION? However, when searching in the texts transcribed from French (available on here) There is not, as far as I saw, the word “édition” related to the work A Genesis, nor to the work “O Céu e o Inferno”.

NOTE: after careful reading, I noticed that, yes, the word “édition” – “nouvelle édition – new edition – exists in the original letter. Even so, at this moment, this does not prove that the supposed 5th edition, from 1869, is entirely from Kardec's hands.

Considering that the “printed proofs” were already being made by the typography in September 1868, and if they would be sent for translation into German, we can say that we have substantial reinforcement for the hypothesis that the Printing Declaration of 02/04/1869 refers to to the 5th “revised, corrected and enlarged” edition. Furthermore, if the printing matrices were practically ready in September 1868 – since the printer was already printing the sheets – the attempt to interfere in the work’s content after Kardec’s death, and before the publication of the 5th edition of 1869 – my emphasis – (April, May or June), would be quite unlikely. How to justify any change to the typographer? Who would assume this cost of redesigning the entire book and making new matrices? Why? What evidence is there for this hypothesis?

The fifth edition was only officially published in 1872. There is, to date, A copy of a supposed fifth edition, from 1869, but which is evidently clandestine, as can be seen here: https://espirito.org.br/artigos/sobre-5a-edicao-clandestina-genese-de-1869/

In the manuscript of the letter of 09/25/1868 we also have the important information that the book “O Céu e o Inferno” would also be reprinted with corrections (see part in bold in the table containing the transcription/translation of the manuscript )

Same case. reprint is not New Edition.

It is the primary source that proves((Fallacious argument, since it starts from the analysis of only one side of the facts, and in a biased way.)) that Allan Kardec made changes to the book A Genesis, with important corrections and additions. In addition to indicating that the master had already started the process of reprinting the new edition of the 5th edition, already in September 1868((Starting is different from finishing. At that time, mainly, the process involved printing copies for analysis and correction. Only at the end of this, with the edition finished, did the headquarters for mass printing – which never happened, as Privato reports)). The letter manuscript confirm that at least half of the printed pages of the texts of the revised edition would already be ready on that date ((This only supports the thesis that the new edition was in progress, in the process of review and correction, but not finished.)).

Final considerations

Only at the end of the cited article, apparently as a way of “resting” the conscience, there is a very brief quote to the Name by Simoni Privato, with thanks for her fraternal work (?), with no previous citation, either from her work or from a bibliography, in order to seek to compare the evidence she pointed out.

The page in question, CSI of Spiritism, have been widely indicated as a “reliable source”, as the last word regarding these investigations, by several other entities, individual or representative, as is the case of the FEB, in its article “About the alleged adulteration of the book O Céu e hell, by Allan Kardec”. It happens, however, that the necessary methodological and concordant study, submitted to reason, is not being carried out, even on these FATYOU:

1. It constitutes adulteration and, therefore, becomes illegal, any alteration to a work, carried out posthumously, other than for the necessary grammatical updating. Kardec was not alive to say whether he wanted that work published in that way, even though it was produced by his own hand.
2. For the simple fact that there is not legal deposit, by Allan Kardec, from the 5th edition of A Genesis, nor from the 4th edition of O Céu e o Inferno, whose alterations, by the way, include the elimination of the work's preface, which doesn't even make sense to reason, we should safely stick with the 4th Edition of A Genesis and the 3rd Edition of Heaven and Hell.
3. The Spiritist Society of Paris, commanded by Leymarie, distanced itself from totally Kardec's purposes, letting this unfortunate gentleman succumb to the temptation of vanity and money. reached the point of kick out, from one of the apartments destined by Allan Kardec for charity purposes, an elderly couple, for simple delay in payments of the rent, when the same and the Society had large sums of possessions and money. Furthermore, put aside the plans for the continuity of the spiritist movement, with the multiplication of study groups and spiritist “investigations”, governed by the necessary methodology – well, how could those who would be denied by it be applied, right?
4. One of the most used proofs to affirm that the 5th edition was entirely authored by Kardec himself, the 5th edition of 1869, presents on its cover, as a printing address, the new address of 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.

Something very serious, too, is that, indirectly, Mr. Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (Allan Kardec) a serious crime: that of having carried out a new edition, with alterations, without having legally submitted it, through the legal deposit necessary, as it has always done, also stating it is irresponsible. Now, those who in their right mind have studied Kardec a little more deeply will easily verify that something he never did not do was to act seriously and legally, taking every care to ensure a safe future for the Spiritist Doctrine.

In fact, in possession of Kardec's manuscripts, made available by the CDOR, from FEAL, it was possible to identify that:

Some handwritten letters show that, in February 1868, Kardec was interested in adding excerpts in The Genesis, as it was his custom, after a while of release, to review his works. For this, he asked the spirits for advice to organize this work.

Some spiritual friends gave guidelines for a review of the work, with the express indication not to change the doctrinal issues in any way, as can be seen from the following excerpts from this communication:

"My opinion is that there is absolutely nothing of doctrine to be taken away; everything there is useful and satisfying in every way" and

"It is necessary to leave intact all theories that first appear in the public eye.”.

In this case, in addition to the legal demonstration of tampering with The Genesis, this communication also reinforces the fact due to the doctrinal changes identified in the work, with the suppression of several passages in which Kardec criticizes the heteronomous moral of religious fanaticism, among other manipulations.

Still in this communication, the spirit also suggested that he work without haste and without dedicating a lot of time:

"Above all, don't rush too much. (…) Start working immediately, but not in an exaggerated way. Do not hurry”.

https://espirito.org.br/autonomia/ncni-conselhos-sobre-a-genese/

It becomes absurd. These letters mentioned above have been available since at least 2020, and the confreres of the “CSI of Spiritism” don’t even touch on this subject!

These facts, added to countless others, which, today, can be easily collected and verified by the work of the cited authors, should light a great, a huge warning sign in Brazilian spiritist institutions, provoking the search for a deep analysis of the past, without bias (because it is not enough to take just one side of the story – the one that most pleases certain opinions) but, above all, for the recovery of the continuity projects and the exemplary model of Allan Kardec, these yes forgotten by the time and, obviously, because of the adulterations in the Movement.

This one, no sophistry, is the true way of paying tribute to this man, Professor Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, who, together with his wife, Amélie Gabrielle Boudet, dedicated their time, happiness, tranquility and health in the name of the cause of charity and the spread of the consoling doctrine across Europe and around the world.

– Agradecimentos iniciais aos participantes.

– Description of how the initiative for this Project came about::

“O divisor de águas foi uma mensagem de Paul of Tarsus (on the question Mother: work, wait, forgive). Then came the whole trajectory for the intuited Intimate Reformation. Then the literature on pedagogy of love appeared, a post from Revista Espirita and the book fell in front of me Neither Heaven nor Hell (Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo and Lucas Sampaio). Then another book dropped: Allan Kardec's Legacy (Simoni Privato Goidanich). And the inspiration came on a particular Saturday in August… When I opened my eyes I had set up this ENTIRE website! was born The Study Group The legacy of Allan Kardec”  https://geolegadodeallankardec.com.br/

Paul Degering's account

 Briefly: In the book Neither Heaven nor Hell the authors start with the issue of adulteration that occurred in the book Heaven and hell (Allan Kardec) and tells a little about what happened. They give evidence of all the deviation from the content of Kardec's book that he had. In this book, they quote from the book of Allan Kardec's Legacy (Simoni Privato Goidanich)

Simoni Privato identified the change in the work The Genesis (Allan Kardec). It showed what happened at the time, very well reasoned. Read the book that is part of our recommendations.

The big issue is not tampering. The big question is the deviation that the movement suffered. If it had been the way Kardec had planned, and continued methodologically, the spirits would be different from what they are today. He gave input to matters that did not match mediumship. For example, at the time, a gentleman, in contact with a medium, received messages from a false Higher Spirit. With tactics, Kardec warned that it was false. He didn't listen, he was fascinated. In the sequence, Kardec disincarnated, this medium approached leymarie, and so he entered the Spiritist Society and society fell.

If Leymarie had adopted Kardec's universal agreement methodology, he would have been able to verify.

Leon Denis, Gabriel Delanne, etc., did not come forward with the necessary energy. They were lost with the death of Allan Kardec, Kardec's widow was fragile.

After Kardec, some continued the movement as Ernesto Bozzano. he proceeded on The Crisis of Death. He sought the same methodology as Kardec. This was lost over time, as it did not have the same strength.

– Temos que reiniciar o movimento, é importante estudar muito, mas temos que atualizar. Muitos falam que está ultrapassado, discordamos quanto ao fundamento: it is not outdated, but outdated.

We think that Kardec did a great job at his time, in just 11 years, but a lot deserves an update. In his time, the most common practice was psychography. Today is not so much. To understand psychophony we had to look for other means like the author Leon Denis to understand.

– Citamos o termo Karma The term Karma is not part of Spiritism.

– Citamos Perispírito: Tem várias camadas ou não? Como é isso? Where does the word Perispirit come from? Where did it come from? The first person who mentioned spoke was Paul of Tarsus in Bible,. he used the term spirit body that made the communication between the body and the Spirit. Later, Paracelsus (sixteenth century) created the name Astral Body. There was nothing to be said about Occultism at that time because of the Inquisition, so the term became Esoteric (which is taught to a restricted and closed group). It turns out that the term Astral Body it is not Esoteric, for it simply means Body of the Stars, that is, outside the Earth. Afterwards, Kardec did not want to use any of those terms that referred to Esotericism or the Bible and created the word perispirit, that is, around the Spirit (Peri=around), more technical, without mysticism. Then André Luís came up with the term psychosoma, (junction of Psycho=mind, Soma=body). All are the same in other words.

– As Obras de Chico Xavier brought many teachings in the work of André Luís. There are many people who say that it cannot be accepted as a Spiritist Work, because there was no methodology. It is important that we seek reason, but agreement can be timeless. There is much teaching in these works. For example, the “Spiritual Colonies” that were not mentioned by Kardec, but in Bozzano's work he talks about it, that small things can be molded. Why couldn't a colony? As for the medical knowledge cited in the books, we have not yet had the opportunity to extend this study. We had to wait. Another example: the gland that André Luís mentioned earlier, which studies have now shown that Apatite is the Pineal Crystal. And more: Reading André Luís is very pleasant, because he talks about the mediumistic process, as if it were a flame, a flower of the gland, the disincarnation process, when he sees the emanation of the Perispirit after the disconnection of the body, which he can't even detach right with the question that is of the Spirit. So, we have a lot of room to move forward.

– Situação da Pandemia e Reuniões Espíritas. There are many complications in having mediumistic meetings virtually. General understanding that Mediumship is in everyday life and not only in the spiritist meeting. There are people who don't even think it's mediumship. And there are people who confuse diseases with mediumship and lead an unruly life under the influence of evil spirits.

“We are living in a very important moment. It is part of the emergence of mediumship in everyone. Looks like it's time. People are talking a lot about seeing things, feeling things, etc. The number of mediums who did not know before that they were mediums greatly increased. They are looking more inward. The study helps to understand.  The study helps to understand.  Com estudo podemos ajudar os outros a encontrarem saídas.”

by Paulo Degering

Study calms down. We become more aware of each other. We reflect more on how we react. Always with surveillance.

There are so many people who looking for the right path can be part of a new tomorrow. Mediumship serves to correct people and to bring light to the world. So we have a huge field of possibilities. This is for the future.

the sensitivity it's the basis of everything: that feeling comes, it causes a nuisance and it contaminates itself energetically. Or someone comes from the street and you feel uneasy… This is showing that you are not balanced. When you feel someone contaminated, you don't justify getting close to that someone and contaminating yourself. It doesn't work like that. Contamination doesn't happen that easily.

– Relato de exemplo de que estudo melhora a educação mediúnica: “In the beginning, I had mediumship all out of control, with spirits at home, on the street, etc. I started to study, to dedicate, nowadays all that has passed. It seems I don't even have mediumship anymore. We learn either through pain or through love. I went in for the pain. Glad I'm here with you. I was forced to lose fear, because I am no longer afraid of the Spirits.”

by Joel Moura

– Temos que tirar o misticismo do sobrenatural quanto aos Espíritos. They are all around us. They are just like us, they think and feel like us. They're just disembodied. It has difficulties like every human being has. They are totally natural phenomena.

– Existem os Espíritos que querem fazer o mal. What to do? Say a prayer, whatever, and look inside myself. What did I do, why is it happening.

– Questão que mediunidade é seria, Kardec didn't have a base. He did the coding, He who studied the effects suffered from not knowing anything. Today we have it. I disagree with places that have to study a long time to start doing something. If the person has mediumship, he has to understand what he is going through, seek intimate reform, and take it seriously. Kardec always looked for answers in mediums.

– Paulo de Tarso before starting anything, he spent years in the wilderness to start evangelizing. He had a very beautiful story. He is the greatest proof that the issue is not sin. When you make a mistake and you're guilty, you have to get up and that's it. And continue if you believe it. Saul was cruel, Paul was the good doer. Christianity used Paul a lot to be convincing. They used him to spread the gospel, and that's when he woke up. Spirituality was very smart in choosing him.

– Nós vamos nos reunir semanalmente. The group will meet regularly at 7:30 pm every Thursday. We will use the various possible means, seeking to hold online, recorded meetings, in order to make the content of these studies available through means such as Youtube. Transcripts or creation of articles on these contents will be welcome and will be made available in the group's collection. Once a week, dealing primarily with the Spirit Magazine by Allan Kardec. To be clear:

In our site has all the information on how everything will happen. It also has the initiative so that other people create your groups and maybe one day if we return to mediumistic studies with the confederative groups as we call it here. Maybe open other groups if there's a lot of demand. For us to base ourselves on, we don't have everything ready, but we will consider and structure everything. To make a starting point.

Congratulations on the initiative.

– We're all here together. Really. For you who arrived and whoever comes: the right people are arriving. Sometimes with difficulties, but with cohesion and trust we will always be able to overcome the problems. The site is beautiful and organized, practical, very good.

At the time of Kardec, it was easy to obtain contents with a great guarantee that they had not been “contaminated” by other mediums or groups, that is, when the same teaching came from different parts of the globe, or even from Europe, at the same time, it was possible to have great confidence that the medium from Provence, for example, had no contact with the medium from Tuscany, obtaining from the latter and not from spirituality the content transmitted, even if inadvertently.

How to adopt a necessary methodology, in times when communication can be in the same second on the other side of the globe? In times of global Internet and telephony, this becomes a great challenge, but we believe we can lessen this possibility of bias through the following methodological precepts, in a way already prescribed by Allan Kardec:

1. The groups constituted need keep in touch with each other, giving news of their existence. 
2. Through this, they can form other groups, which we will call Confederative Groups, because we lack a better term, made up of members of each of the Study Groups, and that, necessarily, don't be the psychics who participate as mediators of the contents transmitted by spirituality, in Study Groups.
3. The members of the Study Groups will be able to share with the mediums of their groups only the knowledge that has already passed through the sieve of agreement and reason, through verification by the Confederative Groups.
4. The contents obtained through the mediums of each study group you can not be shared with other study groups, nor with other people outside that group, but with those belonging to the Confederative Groups.

In this way, great reliability is guaranteed that the teachings coming from different study groups, through their participating mediums, are not biased by content from other groups and mediums. The work of the Confederative Group, then, would be to coordinate these contents, seeking to analyze them in the Kardec fashion, accepting those that appear to be in agreement and that meet the sieve of reason and logic, as well as the teachings previously affirmed by the same method. There is also the problem that has always existed that a given content is biased by other previously known, but not necessarily correct, content, as is the case with the theory of the seven astral bodies. However, groups endowed with good faith and humility will be able to easily verify what are the contents that (1) go against what was already affirmed by the Kardequian codification itself and that (2) can be easily denied by the study itself.

We remind you that our condition will not be that of researchers who put themselves to ask the most varied questions, hoping that they will be answered according to our will, but that of people who, starting from the precept of humility and availability to learn, will be attentive to the teachings received. , seeking to understand them in their entirety, within the limits that superior spirituality sets for us, as was done at the time of Allan Kardec. So, like Kardec, we will need to organize questions in a constructive way, moving forward or changing directions as the answers are given.