Spiritism is an essentially moral science. Therefore, those who claim to be his followers cannot, without committing a serious inconsistency, evade the obligations he imposes.

(Spiritist Magazine, Paris, April 1866 ─ Medium: Mrs. B…)

[emphasis added; read to the end]

These obligations are of two orders.

The first concerns the individual who, aided by intellectual clarity that doctrine spreads, he can better understand the value of each of his acts, better probe all the folds of his conscience, better appreciate the infinite goodness of God, who does not want the death of the sinner but that he convert and live, and who, in order to leave him the possibility of rising from his falls, gave him the long series of successive existences, in each of which, bearing the weight of his past faults, he was able to acquire new knowledge and new strength, making him avoid evil and do what is consistent with justice and charity. What can be said of the one who, thus clarified about his duties towards God, towards his brothers, remains proud, greedy, selfish? Doesn't it seem that the light blinded him because he wasn't prepared to receive it? Since then he walks in darkness, although he is in the midst of light. He is only a spiritist in name. The fraternal charity of those who really see must strive to cure him of this intellectual blindness. But for many of those who resemble him, the light that the tomb brings will be necessary, because their hearts are too attached to material pleasures and their spirits are not mature to receive the truth. In a new incarnation you will understand that the inferior planets, like the Earth, are nothing more than a kind of mutual school, where the soul begins to develop its faculties, its aptitudes, to then apply them to the study of the great principles of order, justice, love and harmony that govern the relationships of souls among themselves and the functions they play in the direction of the Universe. They will feel that, called to such a high dignity as that of becoming a messenger of the Most High, the human soul must not debase itself, degrade itself in contact with the filthy pleasures of voluptuousness; from the ignoble temptations of avarice that deprive some children of God of the enjoyment of the goods that he has given to all; they will understand that selfishness, born of pride, blinds the soul and makes it violate the rights of justice, of humanity, since it engenders all the evils that make the Earth a place of pain and atonement. Instructed by the hard lessons of adversity, your spirit will be tempered by reflection, and your heart, after being grated by pain, will become kind and charitable. This is how what appears to us to be evil is sometimes necessary to bring back the hardened. These poor retards, regenerated by suffering, enlightened by that interior light which we can call the baptism of the Spirit, will carefully watch over themselves, that is, over the movements of their heart and the use of their faculties, in order to direct them according to the laws of justice and fraternity. They will understand that they are not only obliged, themselves, to improve themselves, a selfish calculation that prevents the achievement of the objective aimed at by God, but that the second order of obligations of the spiritist, which necessarily follows from the first and completes it, is that of example. , which is the best means of propagation and renewal.

Indeed, he who is convinced of the excellence of the principles he is taught and which, if his conduct conforms to them, will bring him lasting happiness, cannot, if he is truly animated by that fraternal charity which is in the very essence of Spiritism, but wanting them to be understood by all men. Hence the moral obligation to conform your conduct to your belief and to be a living example, a model, as Christ was for Humanity.

You, feeble sparks from the eternal focus of divine love, certainly cannot claim such a vast radiance as that of the Word of God incarnated on Earth, but each one, in your sphere of action, can spread the benefits of good example. You can make virtue loved, surrounding it with the charm of that constant benevolence that attracts, captivates and finally shows that doing good is an easy thing; which generates the intimate happiness of the conscience that has placed itself under its law, since it is the fulfillment of the divine will that made us say, through His Christ: Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Now, Spiritism is nothing but the true application of the principles of morality taught by Jesus, because it is only with the aim of making it understood by all, so that through it all progress more quickly, that God allows this universal manifestation. of the Spirit, coming to explain to you what seemed obscure to you and to teach you all the truth. It comes, like Christianity well understood, to show man the absolute need for his interior renewal by the very consequences of each of his acts, of each of his thoughts, because no fluidic emanation, good or bad, escapes from the heart or mind. man's brain without leaving an imprint somewhere. The invisible world that surrounds you is for you this book of life where everything is inscribed with incredible fidelity, and the Scales of Divine Justice it is nothing but a figure that reveals each of your actions, each of your feelings. It is, in a way, the weight that weighs down your soul and prevents it from rising, or that brings balance between good and evil.

Happy is he whose feelings come from a pure heart. He spreads around him a soft atmosphere that makes virtue loved and attracts good spirits; its power of radiation is the greater the more humble it is, and consequently the more detached from the material influences that attract the soul and prevent it from progressing.

The obligations imposed by Spiritism are, therefore, of an essentially moral nature., because they are a consequence of belief; each is a judge and party in his own cause; but the intellectual clarity it brings to those who really want get to know yourself and working on its improvement are such as to frighten the faint-hearted, and that is why it is rejected by so many people. Others try to reconcile the reform that their reason shows them to be a necessity with the demands of today's Society. Hence a heterogeneous mixture, a lack of unity that makes the current epoch a transitory state.. It is very difficult for your poor corporeal nature to strip itself of its imperfections to put on the new man, that is, the man who lives according to the principles of justice and harmony desired by God. With persevering efforts, however, you will get there, because the obligations imposed on the conscience, when sufficiently clarified, have more force than human laws based on the constraint of a religious obscurantism that does not bear examination will ever have. But if, thanks to the lights from above, you are more educated and understand more, you must also be more tolerant and use only reasoning as a means of propagation, because every sincere belief is respectable.. If your life is a beautiful model in which everyone can find good examples and solid virtues, where dignity is combined with a gracious amenity, rejoice, because you will have understood, at least in part, what Spiritism obliges.

LOUIS OF FRANCE (Saint Louis)

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The problem with the current idea of “intimate reform” is not a matter of words, but that it has become a central point, as if the individual’s mission were to improve themselves, only. Every day, it is demonstrated that the true spiritist, because he understood the light that opened to him before the spiritual horizons, improves himself in a humble way, helping his neighbor with the same humility, not punishing his conscience with punches and knives. . The true face of good is cooperation, not dispute. The highest, serves.

Luís begins the text by stating: Spiritism is a science and, as such, spreads intellectual clarity. Spiritism serves knowledge, which is a necessary part for the individual's progress. But this is not enough: example is necessary, and we have several proofs of this in humanity, Christ being the most expressive of them. He, who came to wash our feet, demonstrated: the highest, serves, giving himself the selfless example.

In the end, Luís points out: if we are better educated, it is thanks to the “lights from on high”, not because we don't have the personal effort, but because, without the charitable cooperation of the one who is higher, we wouldn't learn! By the way, those who enter into the false idea and isolate themselves due to selfishness and pride, leave the possibility of this learning, for some time. This is the truest possible face of Creation, as Spiritism demonstrates! The dispute, the idea that the world is one of the smartest, selfishness, pride, in short, are all false conceptions, linked to false human ideas, which lead the being to the abyss that imprison him and from which it is only his effort. in escaping. Absolutely, these are ideas that do not represent the truth about Creation or relationships as Spirits!

This is a communication that must be read, reread, discussed and, who knows, placed at the head of the table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Spirits' Book. Emphasis added.

But how can this happen?

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

This is also in Kardec, in A Genesis:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“8th) The duration of the punishment is subject to the perfection of the guilty spirit. No sentence for a fixed time is pronounced against him. What God requires to put an end to suffering is repentance, atonement and reparation – in short: a serious, effective improvement, as well as a sincere return to goodness.”

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

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

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

Allan Kardec, before this pseudonym, already produced texts on education. It is clear that their thoughts changed and expanded after the advent of Spiritism, but, like Hypolite Leon Denizard Rivail, many of them already showed an enviable lucidity of reasoning.

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We talk a lot about heteronomy and autonomy, and we greatly highlight how religious doctrines, adulterated by clergy, and also materialist doctrine, exert a pernicious influence on the propagation of heteronomous thought. However, let's face it, when it comes to doctrines, they are actually more present in the post-childhood phase, when the individual has more developed reason.

There is, however, a type of [bad] education that affects the individual from his first steps and throughout his childhood, habituating him to heteronomous habits: that commonly reproduced, thoughtlessly, by the family and school, still today based on the punishment of errors through punishment – in the most diverse ways – and in the formation of a culture of dispute and the “way”, that is, of bending the rules to win, since this has become the only objective.

We will reproduce, very succinctly, a part of Rivail's text, presented in the Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education (Click here to download), which expresses very well some considerations in this regard.

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“There are habits of three different natures: they are physical, intellectual or moral. The first are those that most particularly modify our animal constitution; the second consist in the more or less perfect possession of a science. Thus, for example, someone who is very familiar with a language speaks it without effort and without thinking; he who has perfect knowledge of mathematics, makes his calculations without difficulty: this is what can be called having the habit of a science; and by the way, it is the acquisition of the habit, which is neglected, in the common method; It is generally limited to a very elusive theory, which barely touches the mind. Finally, moral habits are those that lead us, despite ourselves, to do something good or bad.

The source of these latter habits lies, we said, in impressions long resented or perceived in childhood.. It is thus understood how important it is to carefully avoid anything that could make the child experience dangerous impressions; but I don't just regard as bad impressions, the example of vice, bad advice or inappropriate conversations; no one doubts the disastrous effects of such models and there is no mother of a family who does not put all her care into avoiding them; but there are a great number of others, minutiae in appearance, and which do not fail to exercise an influence often more pernicious than the ugly spectacle of vice, which one can even sometimes take advantage of to make one conceive its horror; I want above all to speak of those that the child receives directly in his relationships with the people around him, who, without giving him either bad examples or bad advice, nevertheless give birth to very serious vices, like the parents, due to their weakness or teachers because of a rigidity that is misunderstood, or when little care is taken to adapt their behavior to the child's character when, for example, they yield to their importunities, when their faults are tolerated under vain pretexts, when they submit to their whims, when he is allowed to perceive that he is a victim of his tricks, when the motive that makes him act is not known, and that in this way he takes defects or germs of vices for qualities, which often happens to parents; when the subtle circumstances that can modify this or that action of the child are not taken into account, when, above all, nuances of character are not taken into account, he is made to experience impressions that are often the source of very serious vices. A smile, when you had to be serious; a weakness when it would be necessary to be firm; severity when sweetness would be needed; a word without thinking, a nothing, in short, are sometimes enough to produce an indelible impression and to make a vice germinate.
What will happen then when these impressions are felt from the cradle, and often throughout childhood? In this aspect, the punishment system is one of the most important parts to consider in education; for they are commonly the source of most defects and vices. Often too harsh or inflicted with partiality and in a bad mood, they irritate children rather than convince them.. How many tricks, how many means of diversion, how many frauds do they employ to avoid them! This is how the seeds of bad faith and hypocrisy are thrown into them and this is often the only result that is obtained.. The angry and unpersuaded child submits only to force; nothing proves to him that she did wrong; she only knows 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.

How is she commonly made to feel physical superiority rather than moral superiority, she waits impatiently to have enough strength herself to escape this; hence this hostile spirit that reigns between the masters and their students. There is no mutual trust between them, no attachment; on the contrary, there is a continual exchange of tricks; whoever is smart enough to surprise the other wins, and it is already known who wins most often. These are two parties that, when not at open war, are continually distrusting each other. How is it possible to have a good education in such a state of affairs?

RIVAIL, HLD Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education. Paris, 1828.

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We see how important it is to rescue this educational base, guided by morality. We add the importance of understanding the morals brought by thinkers such as Paul Janet (Click here to download one of his works). If you liked this article and see its importance, do more: share it with whoever you can!

What does Spiritism have to say about pornography? This is a complicated subject, because it is not a subject that has been directly addressed by the Doctrine. To talk about this, we need to extrapolate knowledge and understanding that the Doctrine gives us.

Spiritism places, above all, freedom of conscience and autonomy. Let this be noted, as a result of the study of the Spiritist Doctrine in its moral and philosophical content.

Apart from this principle, we will verify in Spiritism, developing the thought of Rational Spiritualism, that man can acquire bad habits by repeating an act related to pleasure. This can become an imperfection, which becomes an addiction, of which the work of overcoming will cost the Spirit a lot, through the CONSCIOUS and AUTONOMOUS reincarnation effort.

Paul Janet talks about this in Little Elements of Morals, which I highly recommend reading (Click here For download):

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

The big problem with entering into materialistic habits – which are those that surpass physiological needs – is that, by developing attachments, not only will it be more difficult and painful for us to disconnect from matter at the moment of death, but we will also attract the “clouds of witnesses”. ”, Spirits also attached to such vices. Normally, this will lead us to live in a troubled and difficult spiritual and social context.

But look: there is no sin. There is an error. No one will be punished for making mistakes, nor for choosing, consciously, to cling to an addiction or any bad habit; however, the results of our choices can be harmful to us, which we can call punishment, which, at all, is not a deliberate imposition of God.

It should be noted that no one should be martyred by an imperfection or any bad habit to the point of getting sick. It takes little ant work, perhaps slow but constant, so as not to do like those who promise not to eat sweets in the new year, but, being a very heavy commitment, talk after the first few days, saying, then: “I am not strong is impossible. I will therefore eat whatever I want, whenever I want.” This figure, by the way, represents the exact image of the non-use of reason to contain instinct. Kardec, in A Genesis, adds:

The man who acted on instinct alone might be very good, but he would keep his intelligence dormant. He would be like a child who didn't leave the walkers and didn't know how to use his limbs. He who does not master his passions can be very intelligent, but at the same time very bad. Instinct annihilates itself; the passions can only be tamed by the effort of the will.

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

Kardec, A Genesis, 4th edition — FEAL Publisher

Calm down, please don't run away! It's not that much work.

I would like to make a very simple invitation to you, who are dedicated to studying Spiritism: help yourself to spread it too!

Often, we study individually or in groups a topic that can serve as the basis for a simple article, succinct, punctual, but of great interest to other people. I invite you, then, to write! Just take notes, indicate sources of studies, or even indicate video excerpts of up to 10 minutes, for posting on TikTok, the fastest growing video network in the world.

where to post articles? Well, you can count on our support to use our platform, after analyzing the content, and you can also count on our help to help you create your own blog.

We can do a lot of good with a little effort from each one! Don't deny yourself that: the world needs everyone's help! Sharing knowledge is the fastest and most powerful way to change society!

Contact.

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:

“Good spiritists, my beloved ones, you are all workers of the last hour. He would be very proud if he said: I started the work at dawn and I will only finish it at dusk. You all came when you were called, a little earlier, a little later, to the incarnation whose shackles you drag; but how many centuries and centuries ago the Lord called you to his vineyard, without your wishing to penetrate in it! Here you are at the time of pocketing the salary; make good use of the hour you have left and never forget that your existence, however long it may seem to you, is but a fleeting moment in the immensity of times that form eternity for you.. – Constantine, Protective Spirit. (Bordeaux, 1863.)”

“Don't be scared anymore! Tongues of fire are over your heads. O true adepts of Spiritism!. . . you are the chosen of God! Go and preach the divine word. The time has come when you must sacrifice your habits, your work, your futile occupations to its propagation.. Go and preach. With you are the elevated Spirits.” – Erastus, the medium's guardian angel. Paris, 1863.

The Gospel according to Spiritism » Chapter XX – Workers at the last minute » Instructions from the Spirits » The last will be the first.

As always, we can't take anything literally. Of course, we cannot put aside work, which is necessary for the sustenance of the flesh, or even moments of joy or relaxation, which are necessary for the health of the body… Nor does it mean going out into the streets bothering others with gossip about reincarnation. But it means studying and producing. We can, with a little that each can study and do, do much more. Let's work, friends.

It is a fact that we are eternal, but don't we want to reach the happiness of those who live in goodness sooner, without the stain of imperfections? And do we not wish this also for our brethren? It has been about 150 years since the spiritist morality stopped developing. We have the knife and cheese in hand, and we are hungry. Let's study?

Here are some suggestions for important studies on Spiritism, carried out by us and by sister groups.

Studies of the Spiritist Magazine – Study Group The Legacy of Allan Kardec:

What is the Spiritist Magazine and how to study it?

Studies of the book Spiritist Revolution – Philosophy and Moral Education

Weekly Studies of the Spiritist Revolution Work, with the Spiritism for All Study Group

Studies from O Céu e o Inferno – Study Group Spiritism for All – EPT:

Heaven and Hell Studies – Spiritism Study Groups for All (EPT)

Studies by A Gênese – Study Group Spiritism for All – EPT:

Genesis Studies – Spiritism for All Study Groups (EPT)

Studies on the work Ponto Final, by Wilson Garcia – Grupo de Estudos Espiritismo para Todos – EPT:

Final point: the reunion of Spiritism with Allan Kardec – study of the work

EPT chat

Click to know:

https://www.geolegadodeallankardec.com.br/artigos/category/bate-papo-espiritismo-para-todos/

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

the heteronomous world

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autonomous Morality

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reason explains, guides and comforts

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

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

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

The atonement explained in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Conclusion

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

See an example:

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

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

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

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

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

study suggestions

We suggest to the reader the following additional content:

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

O Espiritismo “é uma total revolution that operates in ideas; revolução maior e mais poderosa porquanto não se restringe a um povo nem a uma casta, pois alcança simultaneamente, pelo coração, todas as classes, todas as nacionalidades, todos os cultos” (Allan Kardec – A Gênese)

To reach this revolution of ideas, which starts from the individual to his social circle and, from there, to the world, it is necessary to study and knowledge, which feeds and underpins individual and autonomous transformation. So let's study!

We meet weekly, on Wednesdays, 15:00h (São Paulo time, GMT -3), as of 08/03/22.

Attention: We will start on the 03/08/22.

good conduct agreement

The work in question touches on quite controversial topics, as it analyzes several of the social problems and systems of social reform, including Marxism and socialism. Following in Kardec's footsteps, we emphasize that It will not be our intention to carry out in-depth analyzes on these topics; we will limit ourselves to maturing, together with the author, the understanding of the spiritist philosophy in its educational application, since Spiritism promotes a revolution of ideas, which go from the individual to society, respecting the autonomy and conscience of each one, differently from what proposes most of these systems. Entering the path of debate on these issues, which easily becomes a passionate political debate, should not be our purpose, and will always be restrained, in the name of the good progress of our studies.

Application form

To participate in the study room, fill in the form below. You will receive a confirmation in your email, which must be sent to the address geolegadodeak@gmail.com.

At first, the studies will be recorded, for later evaluation and posting on Youtube (you must agree with this). However, we will not carry out simultaneous transmission of these studies, in order to better evaluate the recorded content.