I'm going to give myself the luxury of “getting wet”, just because the subject is important and requires, I think, reflection and rationality. The attacks carried out in schools were regrettable, but even more regrettable is hearing the absurdities that speak in the name of Spiritism.

In the face of the events in question, we see again the search for “spiritualist” answers to the reasons why those children went through such tragedies, and it is not uncommon to come across speakers who, in the name of Spiritism, will say that “they are indebted spirits who came together to redeem past faults”. Having overcome the initial moment of true disgust due to the lack of empathy of someone who puts himself in the position of judge of the path of others, without putting himself in the position of a father or mother listening to such words – a real disservice to Spiritism – I feel it necessary to reiterate: no it is possible, much less reasonable, to point to anyone to say whether the situation that the person is going through is the result of their choices – I repeat: choices – or whether it is a simple result of natural law, that is, the result of being alive.

We've covered this a few times already (see Can a person die before his time or is it always fate or fate?, The Petrópolis disaster from the point of view of Spiritism: collective rescue? and Karma and Spiritualism. There is no karma, everything is the effect of the Spirit's choices, which, only in exceptional cases, due to lack of reasoning capacity, is subjected to compulsorily incarnate (ref. OLE, p. 262). God does not punish his children for making bad choices, because he knows that everything is the result of ignorance, and when that ignorance is so great as to obliterate his ability to judge, his laws make up for this momentary incapacity.

Let's say that participating in certain disasters, private or collective, could even be the effect of a lucid choice of the Spirit who believes that that will teach him something or who believes in the law of talion or karma, judging it necessary to go through the same kind of suffering to in order to "debug". This has its basis in logic and truth, and we will see some cases like this permeating Allan Kardec's studies.

Could all these children have chosen to be there voluntarily, as a result of a choice made in Spirit? Let's assume so, and analyze the logic of the assumption. For that, one of two things: either these Spirits would have to know, in advance, that that individual, practically of the crime, would choose that school where they would have have to study, to commit their crime, premeditated for years, or these Spirits would have to, through themselves or others, instigate this individual to commit a crime (taking on, in turn, a “debt”) just so that they could carry out your “rescue” – a true never-ending cycle.

Yes, a particular Spirit could have premeditatedly foreseeing the crime and managed to be there, to suffer its consequences, who knows why, just as another could have chosen to leave that place, that day, due to the same premonition. We see this all the time. It becomes inconceivable, however, to imagine that all those who are killed in any disaster chose to be there, often months or years before, just waiting for all the aligned circumstances to provoke the situation that would offer the opportunity of “rescue”. Furthermore, when Kardec or other Spirits speak of “rescue”, it is the rescue of oneself, through the process “repentance, expiation and reparation – in short: a serious, effective improvement, as well as a sincere return to the good“((KARDEC, Allan. O Céu e o Inferno. Translation by Emanuel G. Dutra, Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo and Lucas Sampaio. 2021.)), and not a redemption of reciprocal debts or with divine law – because God does not charge debts that, in truth, do not even exist.

Children who died in such tragic cases are not paying for anything. They died as a result of being incarnated and as a result of a bad choice by another individual. This individual, who already suffers as a result of his choices, even if he does not realize it, will suffer when his conscience awakens, either because of a feeling of guilt in the face of the crime committed, or because of the realization of his own condition of attachment, because of the effect of his actions, even who doesn't even remember the specific case in question. Children's Spirits may have already moved on, evolved a lot, by the time the criminal's Spirit becomes aware. There is no need to consider, therefore, a joint incarnation with the aim of any reciprocal rescue, but we can imagine the spirit of one of these children, touched with compassion for the other, choosing be born with him to help him on his way back to goodness. Or not. The spirit of the criminal can choose, if he is aware of it, to be born in the midst of a very good family, with great spiritual values, which can help him to learn... Or he can choose to be born in the midst of criminality, to put himself to the test of resistance. What is better? How to know who and for what reason made this or that choice? I don't know. Neither do you. The point is: any of the choices, for that Spirit, will be an atonement, and “atonement” does not mean punishment, but condition in which he has his “unceasingly concentrated attention on the consequences of this evil, understands its inconveniences better and is motivated to correct itself“((Ibidem)).

If you have already gone through something similar or if you have someone close to you who has gone through it, my message is this: the Spirit survives and will continue its journey. Those who go and those who stay need to make an effort not to get attached to what happened, understanding that whoever commits the crime will suffer alone, and that getting attached to him or the situation will lead you to suffer too. Sadness is part of it. Miss you, hurt. But attachment is unhappiness. Pray that you and the Spirit who passed away will not become attached to all of this, nor the personality that died with the body. Spirits that love each other communicate instantly, without intermediaries, and it is enough for one to think of the other for them to be together, without any need for this to be perceived as a sensation of presence. Thought reaches everything, anywhere in the Universe.

Finally: be careful when accepting “spiritist visions” without studying the foundations of Spiritism. Spirits, incarnated or disembodied, say what they want and, due to carelessness, often serve as a tool for the enemies of the Doctrine.

Text fully reproduced from the Spiritist Magazine of July 1863, where Kardec graces us with a wonderful reflection on the power of the will and the responsibility of the Spirit. Emphasis and notes ours.

(Extract from the works of the Spiritist Society of Paris)

A young man of twenty-three years old, Mr. A…, from Paris, initiated into Spiritism just two months ago, so quickly assimilated its scope that, without having seen anything, he accepted it in all its moral consequences. They will say that this is not surprising on the part of a young man, and only one thing proves it: levity and unreflective enthusiasm. It is. But let's continue. This thoughtless young man had, as he himself recognizes, a large number of defects, the most prominent of which was an irresistible disposition to anger, from his childhood. For the slightest annoyance, for the most futile causes, when I entered the house and didn't immediately find what I wanted; if a thing was not in its usual place; If what he had ordered wasn't ready within a minute, he would go into a rage, to the point of everything breaking down. It got to the point that one day, in a paroxysm of anger, throwing himself at his mother, he said to her: “Go away, or I’ll kill you!” Then, exhausted by overexcitation, he would fall unconscious. It should be added that neither the advice of his parents nor the exhortations of religion had been able to overcome this indomitable character, which was compensated by vast intelligence, careful instruction and the noblest feelings.

They will say that it is the effect of a bilious-sanguine-nervous temperament, a result of the organism and, consequently, irresistible entrainment. It follows from such a system that if, in his folly, he had committed a murder, it would have been perfectly excusable, because it would have been due to an excess of bile ((Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in “Mesmer: the negated science of Animal Magnetism”, says that "Galen was wrong to rigidly defend the theory of humours as an authentic doctrine of Hippocrates. He disseminated and developed this theory widely by commenting, exhaustively, on Polybius' treatise On the Nature of Men. According to Galen's interpretation, life was maintained by the balance between the four humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, which came, respectively, from the heart, brain, liver and spleen. The imbalance would be the disease. According to the natural predominance of one of these humors In the constitution of individuals, we would have different physiological types: sanguine, phlegmatic, bilious or choleric and melancholic. “ To this day, when someone is happy and in a good mood, we say that he is in a good mood, and someone who is angry , we say he is in a bad mood.”)). It also follows that, unless he changed his temperament, changed the normal state of his liver and nerves, this young man would be predestined to all the disastrous consequences of cholera.

─ Do you know a remedy for such a pathological state?

─ None, unless, with time, age can attenuate the abundance of morbid secretions.

─ Now, what Science cannot, Spiritism does, not slowly and by force of a continuous effort, but instantly. A few days were enough to make this young man a gentle and patient being. The acquired certainty of the future life; knowledge of the purpose of earthly life; the feeling of man's dignity, revealed by free will, which places him above the animal; the liability arising therefrom; the thought that most earthly evils are the consequence of our actions; all these ideas, taken up in a serious study of Spiritism, produced a sudden revolution in his brain. It seemed to him that a veil had been lifted over his eyes and life had presented itself to him under another face. Certain that he had in himself an intelligent being, independent of matter, he said: “This being must have a will, whereas matter does not. So he can master matter.” Hence this other reasoning: “The result of my anger was to make me sick and unhappy, and it doesn't give me what I lack, so it's useless, because that's how I didn't progress. She produces evil for me and gives me no good in return. Furthermore, it can drive me to reprehensible and even criminal acts.”

He wanted to win, and he won. Since then, a thousand occasions have arisen that would have infuriated him before, but before them he was impassive and indifferent, much to his mother's astonishment. He felt the blood boil and rise to his head, but, of his own accord, it repressed it and forced it to descend..

A miracle could not have done better, but Spiritism has done many others, which our Magazine would not suffice to record them if we wanted to report all those that are of our personal knowledge, relating to moral reforms of the most inveterate habits. We cite this as a remarkable example of the power of the will and, moreover, because it raises an important problem that only Spiritism can solve.

By the way, Mr. A… asked us if his Spirit was responsible for his movements, or if he was simply influenced by matter. Here is our answer:

Your Spirit is so responsible that, when you seriously wanted it, you stopped the blood movement. Thus, if you had wished to do so before, the attacks would have stopped sooner and you would not have threatened your mother. Besides, who is angry? Is it the body or the Spirit? If the attacks came for no reason, they could be attributed to the blood flow, but, futile or not, they were caused by an annoyance. Now, it is evident that the body was not upset, but the Spirit, which was very susceptible. Annoyed, the Spirit reacted on an irritable organic system, which would have remained at rest, had it not been provoked.

Let's make a comparison. You have a fiery horse. If you know how to direct him, he submits. If you mistreat him, he shoots and knocks you down. Who is missing? Yours or the horse's?

It is evident to me that your spirit is naturally irascible, but as each one carries with him his original sin, that is, a remnant of his former inclinations, it is no less evident that, in your previous existence, you must have been a man of extreme violence that you probably had to pay dearly, perhaps with your life. In erraticity, your good qualities helped you to understand errors. You took the resolution to overcome yourselves, and for this to fight in a new existence. But if you had chosen a soft and lymphatic body, not encountering any difficulties, your Spirit would have gained nothing, which would result in the need to start over. It was for this purpose that you chose a bilious body, in order to have the merit of the fight. Now the victory is won. You have conquered the enemy of your rest and nothing can hinder the free exercise of your good qualities.

As for the ease with which you accepted and understood Spiritism, it can be explained by the same reason. You were a spiritist a long time ago. This belief was innate in you, and materialism was only the result of the false direction given to your ideas. At first muffled, the spiritist idea remained in a latent state and a spark was enough to awaken it. Bless Providence that allowed this spark to arrive at a good time to stop an inclination that perhaps would have caused you bitter grief, while you still have a long career to travel in the path of good.

All philosophies clashed with these mysteries of human life, which seemed unfathomable until Spiritism brought them its torch.

In the presence of such facts, one can still ask what it is for? Are we not in a position to send good omens about the moral future of Humanity when it is understood and practiced by everyone?

A correspondent of ours highlighted the disparity between what André Luiz tells about the whole scenario he described, of the spiritual world, and what Allan Kardec says, in the quoted passage, extracted from the Spiritist Magazine of 1859. We repeat the quoted passages below. :

“She showed a desire to eat and was immediately served with a warm and comforting broth, which was delicious on her palate…”

André Luiz – And life goes on

“The Spirit does not experience fatigue nor the need for rest or nutrition, because it has no loss to repair. … Inferior Spirits have all the passions and desires they had in life – and their punishment is not being able to satisfy them.”

Kardec – Spiritist Magazine – April 1859

It is worth noting the observation that the book “E a Vida Continua”, by André Luiz, through the psychography of Chico Xavier, is the last book in the series that began with Nosso Lar. I mean: it is interesting that the ideas presented by this Spirit did not change throughout all these publications, which supposedly reflect a certain time, with various experiences and learnings, as previously reported by him. At this point, this Spirit continues to present ideas that are contrary to what formed the Spiritist Doctrine – the methodological study of the universality of the Spirits' communications.

Why did this happen? Why is it that, during all this time, this Spirit did not learn the reality of the Spiritual world? I suppose it is reasonable to accept that more enlightened Spirits do not shock those who are still in the illusions of material attachments, a fact for which they could even provide “soup” to Spirits who, in that state, requested them. From there, however, to dictate a whole psychographic work, considered as “complementary” to the Doctrine, without clarifying the reader the reality of the facts, goes a long way.

Having said that, let's proceed.

Here, it is interesting to take care not to take the exception as a rule, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as a general rule, not to admit the exception. The Spiritist Movement currently takes isolated communications, full of its own ideas, false ideas and illusions, as a rule of natural law, while Kardec studied, in thousands of communications with Spirits, the foundations of this and other aspects of the law. Natural.

When Kardec says that the Spirit does not experience fatigue or need for rest or nutrition, he means that, as an aspect of natural law, the Spirit really does not have ANY of our physical needs, nor emotions, which are of the body, nor pain. However, he himself communicated with several Spirits who declared such needs or sensations. In the Spiritist Magazine of December 1858, the article Sensações dos Espíritos talks a little about this, starting with a quote from the communication of a Spirit who came to join them, around the fireplace, complaining of being cold.

It happens, of course – and this is what I insist on calling everyone to study – that the Spirit, like us, creates for itself the sensations arising from its state of attachment and/or suffering MORAL – I repeat: MORAL! Just as we can create pain and illness through the body, through the psychosomatic process, the suffering or attached Spirit does the same with his spiritual body - the perispirit - with the difference that, for us, the reversal process is more difficult, while that, for the Spirit, everything depends only on the change of its thought.

Through all of Allan Kardec's serious and profound study, it is evident that it is - I repeat - the degree of attachment to material things and false ideas, allied, almost always, to moral suffering, which creates such illusions to the Spirit, illusions these that are allowed by God, since He does not make us progress by blows, but guarantees time and autonomy to each one.

Finally, I add that this is the great problem of the current ME: to instill in the ideas of the masses the ATTACHMENTS to matter, based not on serious study, but on isolated opinions, thus promoting, instead of an awakening of the Spirit, an attachment continued to the ideas of matter, which HOLD spiritual progress, since the Spirit, when leaving the flesh, instead of seeing itself conscious and seeking to evaluate its state, its choices, etc., on the contrary, it puts itself to think if goes to Nosso Lar or Umbral, if he's going to get a little house to rest (sic!), if he's going to get soup, if he's going to eat broth or the meat he liked... Do you understand the problem?

Anyway: it's each one's time and head. I quote the article “On the Spirits who believe they are still alive”, from the Spiritist Magazine of 1864:

“Not everything is proof in existence; the life of the Spirit continues, as you have already been told, from its birth to infinity; for some, death is nothing more than a simple accident that has no influence on the fate of the person who dies. A fallen tile, an attack of apoplexy, a violent death, very often, do nothing but separate the Spirit from its material envelope; but the perispiritual envelope preserves, at least in part, the properties of the body that has just succumbed. On a day of battle, if I could open your eyes which you have, but which you cannot make use of, you would see many fights continue, many soldiers still rising to the assault, defending and attacking the redoubts; you would even hear them utter their hurrays! and their battle cries, in the midst of the silence and under the dismal veil that follows a day of carnage; the fight is over, they return to their homes to embrace their old fathers, their old mothers who are waiting for them. Sometimes this state lasts a long time for some; it is a continuation of terrestrial life, a mixed state between corporeal life and spiritual life. Why, if they were simple and wise, would they feel the cold of the grave? Why would they pass abruptly from life to death, from daylight to night? God is not unjust, and he leaves this joy to the poor in spirit, hoping that they will see their state by the development of their own faculties, and that they can pass calmly from the material life to the real life of the Spirit.”

We recently obtained the following observation from a correspondent of ours, Ms. A…:

Science today does not confirm much of what we believe to be the spirit world and the intervention on our plane. The turntable itself has already been accused of being just the result of the ideomotor effect and not messages from the spirits. We don't have scientific proof of many things and yet we believe them. Science at the time of Kardec evolved and did not confirm everything. Spiritism, as much as it has used the scientific method, is not proven by science, perhaps in the future it will be. But it's still not science. We can call philosophy, religion based on the scientific method. There are things that we know are not real like the name of the person who gave certain messages in psychographs and we are told to just consider the content of the message given and ignore the supposed false identity. There are things we prefer not to know or accept to be weird. But when we see these same things in other doctrines and in other groups, we accuse them of lack of common sense and scientific method.

We summarize our response to these observations below:

Dear Miss. A... well said: TODAY's science and, we add, since always, materialistic, dogmatic science, do not accept the findings that the Spirits came to demonstrate. However, even before Kardec, many honest scientists even found the existence of something beyond the material body. Says Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in "Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism":

“The magnetizers proved very early on the relationships of somnambulists with invisible beings. Deleuze, a disciple of Mesmer, in his correspondence maintained with doctor GP Billot for more than four years, from March 1829 to August 1833, was initially reluctant, but finally affirmed: “Magnetism demonstrates the spirituality of the soul and its immortality; it proves the possibility of communication between intelligences separated from matter and those still connected to them.” (BILLOT, 1839)”

In turn, Deleuze stated: “I see no reason to deny the possibility of the appearance of people who, having left this life, take care of those they loved here and come to manifest themselves to them, to give them salutary advice. I just had an example of this.” (Ibid.)

“Years later, the magnetizer Louis Alphonse Cahagnet (1809-1885), with courage and determination, talked to the spirits through his somnambulists in ecstasy, mainly Adèle Maginot, recording in his work more than one hundred and fifty letters signed by witnesses who recognized the identity of the communicating spirits. Cahagnet anticipated this research instrument of Spiritist science by more than ten years.”

We then see Rivail, educator emeritus, years before, saying, regarding the education of children that, if it were done well, it would prevent them from believing in souls from the other world or in ghosts; that they would not take will-o'-the-wisps for Spirits ((RIVAIL, H.- L.- D. Speech given at the Distribution of prizes. Paris, 1834)). See the incredible change that took place in his ideas – not without resistance, as we can see in the article “Plurality of stocks“, from the Revista Espírita of November 1858 – to then, like Kardec, say that “in general, a very false idea is given about the state of Spirits. They are not, as some think, vague and indefinite beings, nor flames, like will-o'-the-wisps, nor ghosts, as in apparition tales. They are beings similar to us, having a body like ours, but fluid and invisible in a normal state ((Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1864 > April > Summary of the law of Spiritist phenomena))”.

We would produce an endless text, seeking to reaffirm the countless points that demonstrate the strength of the formation of Spiritism as a science – science, which, in fact, was developed on Rational Spiritualism ((see “Autonomy: the never told story of Spiritism”, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo)) – a task that can only be well performed and achieved by those who, freely, decide to leave their preconceptions and STUDYING Spiritism, in all its formation, which is easily found in the Spiritist Magazine and, later, deeply established in anthology, philosophy and morals in the works O Céu e o Inferno and A Genesis (in their original, unadulterated versions).

It can be seen that the path is long and can only be followed by those who are really interested in leaving heteronomy, which freezes the pace, towards autonomy, which puts us in charge of the helm of our own ship.

See, just to complement, that Spiritism was born like every science we know: by methodological and rational observation of facts of nature. If it has not yet reached the status of a recognized science, it is not its fault, but due to the great deviation that the spiritualist philosophical sciences took at the end of the 19th century, which turned off the lights of reasoning supported by morality to leave us in the shadows of Aristotelian materialism, which contaminates and defines our society until today. We reached the height of seeing Psychology forgetting its own definition – the study of the soul – to look at man only from a behaviorist, materialist point of view. Do you see the gap between the current point of view and the philosophical, moral, psychological and rational sciences of the past?

The big mistake is wanting to define science by current understanding, as if it were just what is done in the laboratory, forgetting that, even today, inference and the elaboration of ideas through hypotheses are still part of the scientific method. It is incredible, then, to see that Kardec, corroborating Mesmer and supported by spiritualist research, had already, at that time, arrived at the concepts of field and wave, approaching Modern Physics ((See A Gênesis, publisher FEAL)). We see, finally, that natural science is one, subdivided, however, by the specialties of men.

Kardec would say, in the Spiritist Magazine of January 1858:

Perhaps we are challenged by the name of science that we give to Spiritism. It would, without a doubt and in no case, have the characteristics of an exact science and precisely in this lies the error of those who try to judge and experiment with it as a chemical analysis or a mathematical problem; it is enough that it be a philosophical science. All science must be based on facts, but facts alone do not constitute science. It 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 a finished science, it will undoubtedly be premature to answer in the affirmative, but the observations are already numerous enough to allow at least to deduce the general principles, where science begins.

When Miss A… says that “there are things we prefer not to know or we accept that they are really strange”, she is only speaking from her point of view, which does not include our ideas. We don't act that way. We just don't accept it. We search, we seek answers. If, really, there are no answers, we are waiting for the day when we will be able to obtain them, through the scientific method necessary to establish communication with beings that we cannot judge otherwise than by reason. If, today, the Spiritist Movement does not excel in this method, once again, the fault is not Spiritism, but the misrepresentations made in the doctrinal core, but which, for those who are willing to study, are being quickly corrected and annulled, with the consequent restoration of true Spiritism.

Shall we be part of this movement?

By Suely GO Caine

We know how instinctive and from the beginnings the idea of continuity of existence of the spirit, after the death of the body. The comments to question 148 of The Spirits' Book highlight this issue:

(...) Man instinctively has the conviction that everything does not end for him with life; he has a horror of nothingness; it is in vain that he persists against the idea of a future life, and when the supreme moment arrives, there are few who do not ask what will become of them, because the idea of leaving life forever has something poignant about it. Who, in fact, could face with indifference an absolute and eternal separation from everything he loves? 

(…)

No one, it is said, has come back from there to tell us what exists. This, however, is an error, and the mission of Spiritism is precisely to enlighten us about this future, to make us, to a certain extent, see and touch it, no longer through reasoning, but through facts. Thanks to spiritist communications, this is no longer a presumption, a probability about which each one imagines at will, which poets embellish with their fictions or embellish with allegorical images that seduce us. It is reality that shows us its face, because it is the beings from beyond the grave who come to tell us about their situation, tell us what they do, allow us to witness, so to speak, all the adventures of their new life and by this means show us the inevitable fate that is in store for us, according to our merits or our crimes.”

Well then! It is not necessary to consider that anyone has “come back” to tell how he is in the spiritual plane, since there are countless reports, studies carried out around narratives obtained in mediumistic sessions, sometimes with rich details, that Kardec collected and gathered through of a developed scientific method, and in chapter VIII, Future penalties according to Spiritism, of the book Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism, clarifies:

“The Spiritist Doctrine, with regard to future penalties, is no more founded on a preconceived theory than its other parts. In everything she relies on observations, which is what gives her authority. No one then imagined that souls, after death, should find themselves in this or that situation. It is the very beings who left the Earth who come today - with God's permission and because humanity enters a new phase - to initiate us into the mysteries of the future life, to describe their happy or unhappy position, their impressions and their transformation in the death of the body. . The spirits come today, in short, to complete the teaching of Christ on this point.”

But… after all… will we find ourselves in a circumscribed place in the spiritual life? The answer is negative; there are no records in the spiritist doctrine of places reserved for the suffering or the happy, nor any subdivisions.

Spiritism teaches us that the spirit in need of progress, which is attached to matter, shares the world to which it naturally maintains affinity, to which it has an attraction, while the one that has evolved, having detached itself from matter, travels through different worlds. . Answers 232 and 233 of The Book of Spirits clarify the issue:

232. In the wandering state, can spirits go to all worlds? - According. When the Spirit leaves the body, it is not yet completely disconnected from matter and still belongs to the world in which it lived or to a world of the same degree; unless, during his lifetime, he has risen. This is the objective to which he must turn, for without it he would never be perfected. He can, however, go to some higher worlds, passing through them as a foreigner. He does nothing more than catch a glimpse of them, and that is what gives him the desire to improve himself, to be worthy of the happiness that is enjoyed in them and to be able to inhabit them.

233. Do spirits already purified come to the lower worlds? – They come often to help them progress; without it, these worlds would be left to themselves, without guides to guide them.

However, we often come across messages from spirits that narrate that they are in certain places of suffering, or that experience physical sensations, such portray the illusions that the spirit attached to matter can create for itself, but which are nothing more than a perception of the spirit that narrates it, and which, therefore, is not universal. 

From what we can infer is that the happy or unhappy state is inherent to the degree of purification or imperfections of the spirit, as we can conclude by reading items 1 to 25 of chapter VIII. book Heaven and Hell, or divine justice according to Spiritism, with emphasis on items 1 to 3 transcribed below:

1°) The soul or spirit is subject, in the spiritual life, to the consequences of all the imperfections of which it did not get rid of during the corporeal life. Your happy or unhappy state is inherent to the degree of your debugging or your imperfections. 

2°) Since all spirits are perfectible, by virtue of the law of progress, they carry within themselves the elements of their happiness or future unhappiness and the means of acquiring one and avoiding the other by working towards their own advancement. 

3°) Perfect happiness is linked to perfection, that is, to the complete purification of the spirit. Every imperfection is a cause of suffering, just as every acquired quality is a cause of satisfaction and alleviation of suffering; whence it follows that the sum of happiness and unhappiness is in proportion to the sum of the good or bad qualities possessed by the spirit.

However, let us pay attention to the study of the first edition of the book Heaven and Hell, or Divine Justice According to Spiritism and from the book Genesis – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism, by Allan Kardec, behold, the adulterations found in the 4th and 5th editions of the aforementioned books do not hover over this edition, respectively.

Another information obtained through the method of the universality of spirits, and which makes up the spiritist doctrine, is that spirits come together by a kind of affinity (not associated with the idea of merely material affinity) and form groups, according to the answer 278 of O Spirits Book:

278. Are Spirits of different orders mixed? - Yes and no; that is, they see each other, but they are distinguished from each other. They move away or approach according to the similarity or divergence of their feelings, as between you. It is a whole world, of which yours is the dark reflection. Those of the same order come together by a kind of affinity, and form groups or families of spirits united by sympathy and purposes; the good, by the desire to do good; the wicked, from the desire to do evil, from the shame of their faults and from the need to find themselves among beings similar to them. Like a big city, where men of all classes and of all conditions see each other and meet, without being confused, where societies are formed by the similarity of tastes, where vice and virtue rub shoulders, without speaking. .

In the Spiritist Magazine May/1858, under the title Eternal Halves , the spirit of São Luís also leaves interesting notes: 

"No. There is no particular and fatal union of two souls. There is union between all spirits, but in different degrees, according to the position they occupy, that is, according to the perfection acquired: the more perfect, the more united. From discord all human ills spring; from concord comes complete happiness.

(...) 3 ─ Once united, two perfectly sympathetic spirits remain united for eternity or can they separate and unite with other spirits? All Spirits are united with each other. I speak of those who have reached perfection. In the lower spheres, when a Spirit rises, he is no longer sympathetic to those he has left. 4 ─ Are two sympathetic spirits complementing each other or is this sympathy the result of a perfect identity? The sympathy that attracts one Spirit to another results from the perfect agreement of their inclinations and their instincts. If one were to complete the other, it would lose its individuality.”

These are reduced reflections on the subject. And what are yours? What texts do you know that could expand our studies? Would you like to study with us?!

Study sources:

Recently, an alleged psychographed letter from the director of Chapecoense appeared. The subject is tiresomely repetitive: whenever a tragedy occurs, whether individual or in a group, which draws the attention of society, a supposed psychographic appears that, due to the lack of care of the Spiritist Movement, no accident come repeat the false ideas linked to the dogmas of falling into sin and paying debts, karma, punishment, law of return, etc., already far surpassed by the spiritist science developed by the studies of Allan Kardec.

See an excerpt from supposed psychography:

“What appears to be injustice, when seen from above, all ideas and concepts about the divine are rethought, redone, put to the test, in remaking. First, I want you to know that nothing happens by chance. There are no victims in the Universe. We reap what we sow. I learn here that this is the universal and unalterable law, (…) the law of action and reaction […] We were together in other lives and we caused several air disasters during the wars. And divine good justice called us to right!”.

We never tire of highlighting how false this idea is, as we have already covered in length more than once ((refer to the articles “Law of action and reaction, law of return, karma: why do we suffer, according to Spiritism?“, “Karma (or karma), punishment, sin and punishment: how Kardec approached all this in A Genesis“, “Spiritism in the face of wars“)).

We will not repeat what we have already said in the cited articles. We will just remember: be careful, spiritists, because the spirits deceive the unsuspecting, the majority of mediums and workers who do not study the Spiritist Doctrine. To these, they reproduce communications full of false concepts, with a single objective: to keep the minds that blindly accept them away from true spiritist morality, which is autonomous and which is guided by the principle of successive progress.

These are ideas repeated by “teachers” of Spiritism, with channels and groups filled with hundreds of thousands of people, and which could do enormous good for themselves and society, but which choose to blindfold their eyes and cover their ears to the necessary study, because they believe they already know everything, since they are even “teaching” others.

They are, in fact, individuals who do not think about the great harm they do to Spiritism and the disrespect to these families, judging deceased loved ones, when they are told “criminals of the past“.

Divine Justice is not guided by collecting debts, but by allowing all spirits to reach their destination, which is relative perfection, by self effort, conscious and autonomous. Therefore, supposed psychographics like this supposed psychographed letter from the Chapecoense director can only be one of three things:

• Fruits of an obsessive Spirit to which the medium surrenders;
• Fruits of an inferior Spirit, with almost no ability to understand the spiritist world and attached to old religious ideas;
• Fruits of the medium's own opinion.

In any case, the supposed psychographics must be ever analyzed by other people, knowledgeable about Spiritism, and only made public when verified as important and rational for the general interest.

O Study Group The Legacy of Allan Kardec repudiates this type of inconsequential act, which increasingly distances Spiritism from those who, judging by what they see reproduced by the Spiritist Movement, absent from studies, do not conform with such nonsense and with the absence of reason and charity in the Doctrine that says to excel in these two fundamental principles.

Many have spoken in silence that the Spiritist Movement would need to break with respect to politics. We must remember, of course, that the silence of the Spiritist Movement is not only reflected in a political nature, but is a generalized silence before the Doctrine itself, which has recently been agitated under the studies of Kardec's original works and works that recover knowledge forgotten in time.

Of course, when it comes to politics, we will never be supporting anyone who seeks to link Spiritism to ideologies, especially when these ideologies are not guided by the ideas that we will express below.

There are several initiatives that are seeking to counteract the aforementioned silence. Only from study groups, we know of three or four that are very strong, in addition to the roles of current researchers, among which it is impossible not to highlight Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in his exhausting work of recovering unknown information, especially those related to autonomous morality. and to rational spiritualism, as well as in the work so important that it is to resume Kardec's original works, unadulterated.

Well then: this work, which emphasizes the issue of autonomy, is unquestionably based on the power of autonomous choice that the Spirit must have. There would be no lack of citations in Kardec's work, of him and of different spirits, in this regard: the Spirit, to really change, needs to act by its own free will and reason, which is the basis for the other. There is no initiative, political or otherwise, that has succeeded in any lasting and real social change, however small, on the basis of authority alone. That is why I always see very carefully the issue of politics linked to any spiritist thought: it should, inexorably, be guided by the principle of morality, applied to relationships, from the first steps of the child on this planet.

I never tire of highlighting, and this will always be my flag, after understanding Spiritism in its essence: social transformation will only occur through the transformation of the individual, through family and school education. That's what we need to go back to ALL our efforts, inside and outside of politics, the latter being an effective way to return to society the morality guided by Rational Spiritualism, which understands and distinguishes the difference between happiness and unhappiness, which are characteristics of the soul's advances towards to the good, from emotions and pleasures, which are purely material. This is the missing understanding. Man will stop living under bridges when he understands that his progress depends on himself, and on no one else, and when others understand that charity is a moral and disinterested duty, going far beyond the alms that humiliate the parties.

Let us turn our intelligence to this purpose, dear brothers! Children continue to grow into youth and adults, full of acquired imperfections, or of those not corrected, largely purely because of bad habits of education, simply because no one is aware of the urgent need to bring the family and all public education officials to their senses. and private. Kardec saw the future with radiant eyes, because he believed that the educational model, guided by Rational Spiritualism, would continue to flourish and spread... matter.

We need to go back and understand Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Rivail, Biran, Janet and so many other free-thinkers who never wanted to bring about change by force, as they soon realized that it, in reality, only produces anger and irritation. Rivail would say, in his “Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education”:

“The irritated and unpersuaded child submits only to force; nothing proves to him that she did wrong; she knows only that she did not act according to the master's will; and this will he regards, not as just and reasonable, but as a caprice and a tyranny; it believes itself to be always subject to the will. As she is commonly made to feel physical superiority rather than moral superiority, she waits impatiently to have enough strength herself to withdraw from it; hence this hostile spirit that reigns between the masters and their students.”

So it will be, because so it is, in any aspect of the Spirit. Rivail did not think of this when he wrote this work, but we know today, as he later came to know: the child is animated by the same Spirit as the adult, only a little more limited in his perceptions and capacities. It is your Spirit, therefore, and not your body, that does not submit to force. Let us remember this.

Paulo Degering Rosa Junior

Dear reader, the topic of abortion is on the rise... And how many absurd opinions, issued as a “spiritist view of abortion”, have we seen, on this subject, in the Spiritist Movement (which, today, does not represent Spiritism)! “Women who are infertile are paying for abortions in past lives” is just one of them. We always remember: there is no karma, no law of return, no payment of debts, none of that.

These days, the theme has returned to full activity, due to the case of the girl from Santa Catarina, who became pregnant at the age of 11, and which divided society between opinions, and it did not happen less in the Spiritist milieu. Many, guided by false ideas implanted in the Movement, speak of sin, karma, debts... Anyway, as we have already pointed out, none of this really exists, and Spiritism explains it very well.

Let's go back to The Spirits' Book, checking what there is in it on the subject:

357. What consequences does abortion have for the Spirit?
“It is a nullified existence and he will have to start over.”

358. Is it a crime to provoke abortion at any period of pregnancy?

“There is crime whenever you transgress the law of God. A mother, or whoever,
will commit a crime whenever he takes the life of a child before birth, which is why
prevents a soul from passing through the tests to which the body that
was forming.”

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

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

KARDEC, Allan. My italics.

In the study of Spiritism, an isolated passage can never be taken as a general rule. It is necessary to understand the whole, as the superior spirits often respond objectively to a question, complementing it or clarifying other points at another time. By not carrying out the study in this way, we would see contradictions that, in fact, do not exist.

The Spirits, in Kardec's time, often used the word “crime” to highlight any act we took against Natural Law. However, Spiritism is not a doctrine of dogmas, but rather a scientific and rational doctrine. Now, given that the fact of pregnancy can put the mother at risk, isn't it fairer to preserve the mother's life, who, perhaps, could even attempt a new pregnancy? It is important to remember that the Spirit's progress is uninterrupted and, if that existence is not possible, he will need to choose another.

There is, however, the materialist thinking that currently prevails regarding abortion, and which, by making the human being a mere biological machine, wants to transform the practice into something banal. This is a mistake, of course, but let's say that the fact happens, and that it becomes legal to carry out an abortion by the simple will of the mother. What will be the consequences, then, for those involved, before the law of God?

We have already seen that, for the Spirit of the fetus, there will be a need to restart the incarnation planning, which is never easy. But what about the mother, who practices the act? She, as we read above, would be committing a crime against the divine law. Will there therefore be condemnation?

It must be remembered, dear reader, that there is no condemnation, and that punishment is always an effect of consciousness of the Spirit on the act performed. By making a mistake many times, the Spirit can acquire an imperfection, which will make it suffer and, eventually, repent and seek reparation (in itself). On this subject, we recommend the reader to watch the studies carried out in this video, with Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo. But what if the individual is not aware what do you do?

A woman can, for example, without planning, become pregnant. being away from understanding of divine laws, and not wanting to have that child, then practices abortion, at any stage of pregnancy. She doesn't even think about it, because for her it's something simple and without implications. Technically, he committed a “crime”, but what will be his suffering in the face of it? Perhaps none, at least until, through understanding, your thinking changes. But in that case, perhaps, when she understand the mistake he made, and never made again, is so far gone that there will only be regret, but it will not necessarily generate suffering. It is a mistake. We make mistakes in our progress. The problem is knowingly repeating the mistake.

Another case would be that of a woman who, given over to her emotions, often, through an inconsequential act, becomes pregnant and who, every time she becomes pregnant, miscarries. She will, every time, be aborting the planning of a Spirit, but the picture demonstrates that what she does arises from a lack of knowledge and also from a sinking into the pleasures of matter. Do you see the path she will need to take, until she reaches the understanding that what she does is wrong? Will she need to “pay” for what she does? No, of course, because, at present, she already suffers from the effects of her way of thinking and acting, which keep her away from good — even if she is not aware of it. It may be that, when you become aware and understand your error, you will choose a way of life that leads you to fight directly against your imperfections, or it may be that, depending on your beliefs, you will feel so guilty that you choose to reincarnate without the possibility of having children, which can be more or less useful in their atonement, that is, in the process of overcoming those imperfections.

And what about the Spirit of the aborted fetus? Will you be sad, angry? Will you hate the ex-mother? Will you want revenge? Of course, all this depends on your degrees of understanding and evolution, all depending on your choices.

In everything, as far as transgressions of divine or natural law are concerned, the effects and possibilities are infinite, because they depend on the individual's level of consciousness about what he does. It is a fact that thoughtless and widespread abortion is a profound mistake for the Holy Spirit., but this happens, I think, much less because of the act itself, and much more because of the context that leads the error to exist, and which is always the result of a complete lack of knowledge of spiritualist morals. Those who practice abortion inconsequentially almost always demonstrate a materialistic thinking that, for sure, in various aspects of life, makes the individual suffer.

Much better than trying to guess, from the present vision of suffering, the infinity of past possibilities that gave rise to it, is to seek to study Spiritism, in Kardec, and spread the knowledge. If most of the world knew the Spiritist Doctrine and evaluated it rationally, we wouldn't be here talking about it. But as long as humanity is immersed in materialism or dogma, which leads to materialism, the same mistakes and their painful consequences will continue to be perpetrated.

It is clear that Spiritism cannot be in favor of facilitated abortion. In a way, we cannot be in favor of legalizing this practice. But then, we fall into the old discussion: to what extent can the State interfere in individual decisions that, at least from a materialist point of view, affect only the individual himself? We see, once again, that the political struggle will not change society through imposition. The transformation has to come from the base, from childhood, through education, embracing morality and rationality.

We leave below, for the aroused interest, the advice given by Allan Kardec, in 1862, regarding the formation of Spiritist groups, given on the occasion of the Spiritist Journey of 1862.

In several places I was asked for advice on forming spiritist groups. I have little to say about it, other than the instructions contained in The Mediums' Book. I will add just a few words.

The first condition is to form a group of serious people, however restricted it may be. Five or six enlightened, sincere members, penetrated by the truths of the Doctrine and united by the same intention, are worth a hundred times more than the inclusion, in this group, of the curious and indifferent. Then, that these founding members establish a regulation that will become law for the new adherents.

This regulation is very simple and almost only includes measures of internal discipline, as it does not require the same details required for a large and regularly constituted society. Each group can therefore establish itself as it sees fit. However, for greater ease and uniformity, I will give a model, which can be modified according to the circumstances and needs of the place. In any case, the essential objective proposed must be the collection, the maintenance of the most perfect order and the removal of any person who was not animated by serious intentions and could become a cause of disturbance. This is why one would never be too severe with regard to the new elements to be admitted. Do not be afraid that this severity will harm the propagation of Spiritism. Quite the contrary: serious meetings are the ones that make the most proselytes. Frivolous meetings, those that are not conducted with order and dignity, in which the first curious person who appears may come to pour out his cheeks, inspire neither attention nor respect, and unbelievers leave them less convinced than when they enter. These meetings make the enemies of Spiritism happy, while the others are their nightmare and I know people who would gladly see their multiplication, as long as the others disappeared. Fortunately, the opposite happens. One must, moreover, be persuaded that the desire to be admitted to serious meetings increases by reason of difficulty. As for propaganda, it is done much less by the number of attendees, which one or two sessions cannot convince, than by the previous study and the conduct of the members outside the meetings.

[…]

Nor should you fear the admission of young people. The gravity of the assembly will be reflected in its character; they will become more serious and will soon be able to draw, in the teaching of good spirits, this living faith in God and in the future, this feeling of family duties, which will make them more docile, more respectful, and which moderates the effervescence of passions.

[…]

Recently, some special groups were formed, whose multiplication we would never fail to encourage: they are the so-called teaching groups. In them, little or nothing is concerned with the manifestations, but with the reading and explanation of The Book of Spirits, in 'The Mediums' Book and articles from Spiritist Magazine((The study of Revista Espírita, being carried out by this group, can be better understood on here and followed on our channel, on here)).

Some devoted persons gather for this purpose a number of listeners, supplying them with the difficulties of reading and studying for themselves. We wholeheartedly applaud this initiative which, we hope, will have imitators and cannot, as it develops, fail to produce the happiest results.

For that, you don't need to be a speaker or a teacher; it is a family reading, followed by some explanations without any pretense of eloquence, and which is within everyone's reach.

[…]

I hope you don't think it's wrong for me to indicate these works as a basis for teaching, since they are the only ones in which the spiritist science is developed in all its parts and in a methodical((In 1862, these were the existing and published works. Today, with the restoration of the original versions of O Céu e o Inferno and A Gênesis (published by FEAL), it is also recommended to study these, especially to understand the philosophical part of the Spiritist Doctrine. The Spiritism for All Study Group (EPT) is developing a large and rich study of these works (find out more by clicking on here))).

[…]

Here is another habit, the adoption of which is no less useful. It is essential that each group collects and cleans up the communications obtained, in order to easily refer to them in case of need. Spirits who saw their instructions disregarded would soon leave the meetings; but it is necessary, above all, that a special collection, organized and clear, of the most beautiful and instructive communications be set aside, and reread some of them in each session, in order to make better use of them.

Few know, but Kardec didn't stay silent after his death. The book Beacoup de Lumiere (Too Much Light), by Berthe Fropo (click here to download), presents some of his post-mortem communications, always in a tone of extreme agreement with his way of expressing himself, always serious, but kind and fraternal.

On May 18, 1882, a very touching communication regarding the Spiritist Doctrine was given to Gabriel Dellane, which we reproduce below in full:

I was with you for some time, happy to see you resolved to valiantly resume your role as propagator of the spiritist faith.

The doctrine, so to speak, has been dormant since my departure. It was impossible for it to be otherwise, since my sudden disappearance did not give me time to carry out the projects I had done and which would allow a homogeneous collectivity to continue the work that had been started. So, the misfortunes that arose in our dear homeland forced everyone to work materially to improve their own situation and that of our dear country. For it must be admitted that the greater part of Spiritualists, being like the first apostles, without fortune, have a duty to provide for the daily necessities of their families.

This is an obligation from which no one has the right to escape. Work is a law imposed on man by the Creator, it is important to perform it. It was therefore preferable to spiritualism that it should continue to spread among the lackluster families, rather than be led astray from its true path., which is the study of the facts and the recognition of the manifestations of the disincarnate who lived on earth.

Don't be afraid to call them, no matter how big they may seem to you, and any role they may have played down here; the more evolved they are, the easier it is for them to surrender to your call., the perispiritual envelope of the spirit, having been bathed in the environmental fluid of the planet, preserves in it, eternally, the faculty of going to all the places where memory calls it, and especially when this spirit has fulfilled a missionary role in one of those worlds where it is wanted. The more the spirit is elevated, the easier it is for it to cross the spaces. The spirit can travel through all the worlds in which it has lived, as easily as it is for you to go from one country to another, without you being obliged to leave a part of yourselves on the way; if, for example, you travel from north to south, you will leave a warm garment to put on a fresh one; you will adjust to the environment in which you find yourself, and nothing will be able to oppose your transitory transformation, if you have been careful. It is the same with the superior spirits, having acquired omnipotence over matter, they transform it as they wish without any law opposing it. Whoever says superior spirit, says humility, love and charity. Example: Christ came to incarnate in a humble and poor family. He had his reasons. It was to show us that we shouldn't be afraid to call him to us, as it was the environment he preferred. Do not be afraid to call all those you have great sympathy for. They will always be happy with YOUR evocations.

I am delighted with the awakening that is taking place and I must tell you that I am not indifferent to it.; nor to the new acquaintance you make of these dear friends, full of good will and who will do all they can to bring the work to a good end. But they need to be helped and assisted.

It is the duty of every sincere spiritist to prevent the doctrine from being diverted from its true course.; therefore, my friends, I am counting on you. I know how much you love our dear philosophy and how much you want to see it succeed; this is why I told you these things; these are friendly advice that I give you, knowing that I will please you, and that you will strive to work for the work of regeneration to which I devoted myself, a sublime mission which is to teach your brothers and sisters the way to happiness, which is, as the Christ, "of eternal life."

Return, therefore, courageously to the fight; the more you work for others, the more will be given to you by yourselves.

A cause can only be judged when it has been studied well and when it is well identified with it.. It's the same with work. To know the laws, it is necessary to work for yourself., if one wants to reason with precision and help to solve the biggest question of the century, which is the understanding of labor and capital.

Oh! If the men in charge of the march of progress wanted to seriously occupy themselves with spiritism, what a powerful lever would they have had in their hands?!

The chapter on responsibilities is the only one capable of making workers and gentlemen well understand that they are similar to the powerful, but that it is not only to themselves that they owe the momentary situation they now occupy, a situation that they will be able to improve easily the day after. who understand the law of reincarnation. Work, therefore, tirelessly and courageously for the social and moral edifice of our doctrine; the means will be given to you. The time has come, the occasion presents itself today, second it, dear friends, with all your strength; appeal to us. Organize yourselves into a committee. Read, reread, comment on all the facts that subject you and be careful not to be absolute on any point other than those fundamental., that is, the belief in manifestations and in reincarnation. Do not advance the facts that are under reservation. In a word, do as I did. You saw me at work.

Allan Kardec. My italics.

Nothing could be more clear and beautiful. The Doctrine lacks of defense, and it needs of the individual effort of each one of us.

Following this communication, there was this complement:

I do not wish to fatigue the medium. In the meantime, I urge you to go and see my dear wife. It is necessary in the interests of doctrine (this for you personally). It is very difficult to judge the human heart, because if it has its hours of fainting, it also has its hours of rebuilding. Go, therefore, without delay, and you will be very pleasing to me.

Allan Kardec

We believe it is also important to cite the following two paragraphs, by the author, which complement this communication presented:

Despite this urgent injunction, Mr and Mrs Delanne allowed us to spend the month of July undisturbed; only at the end of August, from the new communications, telling them how harmful their delay was to the doctrine, that they went there and Madame Kardec welcomed them with deep joy; she saw, at last, the dawn of that long-promised society. They proposed her to be the president, but she declined, on the grounds that she was already quite ill. “In my heart I am with you,” she told them, but she refused to fight “and destroy the society that my husband and I founded. I will give you a president, my best and most faithful friend, a reflection of myself, and I will remain neutral.”

Mr. Delanne told him that in Belgium there was fear of a disturbing split in doctrine, that a very zealous Spiritist wanted to make Spiritism a religion with worship and ceremonies. She rejected this idea forcefully, saying: "If Spiritualism becomes a religion, we will be nothing more than a sect, and the doctrine, this beautiful philosophy, will be lost." She also rejects the word federation, which sounded bad to ears after the commune. It was established that we would make an appeal to all sincere spiritists, we would draw up the statute and that the society would receive the title of “French Spiritist Union“.

Berthe Fropo

Friends, the communication and the facts mentioned above could not be more contemporary. How much longer will we let time pass, doing nothing? How much longer will we leave Allan Kardec's work, so serious and so important, in the transformation of humanity in oblivion? We very much criticize the Spirits who distort Spiritism with their false conceptions of the Doctrine, but what would they be, if not mere voices that few listen to, if the strength of the majority were under Spiritism in its essence - in other words: if Spiritists study?

To paraphrase Kardec, “It is the duty of every sincere spiritist to prevent the doctrine from being diverted from its true course.“. And both our group and the friendly group, SPIRITISM FOR ALL Study Groups (EPT), we lack volunteers. We are quite overloaded!

Examples of aid that could help all of us:

• sharing content in possible groups
• creation of short videos, with interesting excerpts, to share on video platforms (tiktok, reels, etc).
• creation of essential texts, linking the videos of studies and the texts covered, by Kardec, for publication on our blogs (and others)
• extraction of audios for publication on podcast platforms
• others

If you can help and would like to volunteer to cooperate in this important work, please contact us via WhatsApp: https://wa.me/5515998628392.

But if you just want to study, Click here.