https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uF6VAEmXPI

In this article, Kardec highlights that the Magnetism it was taught as a fact even within the Catholic Church.

“We have in our hands a booklet entitled Abrégé, en form de catéchisme, of the elementary course of Christian instruction, for use in catechism and in Christian schools.

In one of the chapters on the first commandment, where sins against religion are treated, and after having spoken of superstition, magic and sorcery, he says the following:

Q. ─ What is magnetism?

R. ─ It is a reciprocal influence that sometimes operates on individuals, according to a harmony of relationships., either by the will or by the imagination, or by the physical sensibility, and whose main phenomena are somnolence, sleep, somnambulism and the convulsive state.

"P. ─ What are the effects of magnetism?

“R. ─ Ordinarily, it is said, magnetism produces two main effects: 1st) A state of somnambulism, in which the magnetized person, completely deprived of the use of the senses, sees, hears, speaks and answers all the questions that are asked to him. directed; 2nd) An intelligence and wisdom that only exist in crisis: he knows his condition, the suitable remedies for his ailments, as well as what certain people, even distant, do.

Comment: We could add to this the magnetic interaction between individuals at will. A question of autonomy enters here, because, in this context, nothing happens with the individual without his will.

"P. ─ In good conscience, is it lawful to magnetize or allow oneself to be magnetized?

“R. ─ 1st) If, for the magnetic operation, means are used, or if effects are obtained by it that presuppose diabolic intervention, it will be a superstitious work and must never be allowed; 2) The same is true when magnetic communications are contrary to modesty; 3rd) Assuming care is taken to keep away from the practice of magnetism any abuse, any danger to faith or customs, any pact with the devil, it is doubtful whether he is allowed to have recourse to it as a natural and useful remedy.”

Despite the contradiction, it is a book intended for the religious education of the masses. Completes Kardec: “The author's qualification is of great importance here. It is not an obscure man who speaks or a simple priest who expresses his opinion: he is a vicar general who teaches.

Another setback and another warning to those who judge too hastily.”

Kardec opens the month of September 1858 with a long and deep digression – a real lesson on the DANGERS OF SPIRITISM. As at that time, today it is still said that mediumship can pose dangers to mediums and assistants. In a word, that contact with spirits can be dangerous. Will it be?

“[…] If we wanted to banish from Society everything that could pose danger and give rise to abuse, we would not know very much what would be left, even of those essential things, starting with fire, the cause of so many misfortunes; then the railways, &c. etc”. 

Kardec's Thought, RE 1858

This denotes that, yes, there are some dangers, but, taking the necessary precautions, if the advantages outweigh the inconveniences, then one should not outlaw such investigation.

Kardec continues, highlighting: 

“Actually, Spiritism presents a real danger, but it is not the one that is supposed. It is necessary to be initiated in the principles of Science to understand it well. We do not address those who are alien to it, but the adepts themselves, those who practice it, since it is for them that there is danger.”

Idem

Observation: Mediums and scholars. For example: Roustaing was fascinated by what he received through a medium.

See also the group study we did on the topic.

What does this danger consist of, anyway? It consists of the haste or the exaggerated enthusiasm of those who put themselves in contact with the Spirits, who often allow themselves to be influenced. Now, when they obtain any mediumistic phenomenon, how many are not amazed by it – and why do they sink?

Here, the big question is precisely with regard to the medium's knowledge: he could avoid many evils, including his morals. We already know that spirits are not special beings, but only human beings outside the flesh and that, therefore, as shown, they guard their vices and their virtues.

We also know that we are incessantly surrounded by a “cloud” of Spirits, of the most diverse classes and inclinations, the quasi connect to us as they become attached to our spiritual reality, in acting and in thinking, that is, to our deepest inclinations towards the passions or for the virtues.

Passion is a term that designates a very strong feeling of attraction to a person, object or topic. Passion is intense, enveloping, an enthusiasm or a strong desire for something. The term is also often applied to designate a lively interest or admiration for an ideal, cause, or activity. In the 19th century, psychology called passions what we now call emotions.

Due to the condition of our planet, we know that the inferior spirits are more abundant here than the superior ones. This should put us on alert, us, initiates in the Spiritist science, in relation to the Spirits that we attract to us.

We also know that imperfect spirits, when they find a breach in the human heart, can attach themselves to it and, if their moral ancestry – however inferior it may be – is accepted, it can reach the point of subdue, fascinate and obsess the incarnate.

Returning to the mediums, Kardec observes: 

"The cold man, on the contrary [from excited], is impassive. He is not deceived; it combines, weighs, examines maturely and does not allow itself to be seduced by subterfuges. This is what gives you strength. The malevolent spirits, who know this as well or better than we do, also know how to take advantage of the situation to subjugate those they wish to have under their dependence.”

idem

Let us remember the imposter spirit of Father Ambrósio, questioned by Kardec (July/1858):

“16. ─ Why don't you sustain the imposture in our presence? ─ Because my language is a touchstone, with which you cannot be deceived.”

Let's see, friends, that Kardec, here, is giving solid foundations for the formation and maintenance of spiritist research.

"Whether for enthusiasm, or for the fascination of the Spirits, or for self love, in general the psychographic medium is led to believe that the spirits that communicate with him are superior, and all the more, the more the spirits, seeing their propensity, do not cease to adorn themselves with pompous titles, according to the need”

“From blind and thoughtless belief in the superiority of spirits who communicate, to trust in their words, there is only one step, as it happens among men.” – And Kardec will give a very practical example of that.

Allan Kardec tells that a young man, educated, carefully educated, of a mild and benevolent character, but a little weak and indecisive, he became a psychographic medium with very quickly and became obsessed by a Spirit. This Spirit began to dictate to him true absurdities, which, as a result, almost led the boy to illness and madness:

"Subjugation had reached a point where he had been told to throw himself into the water or go to the antipodes. [other side of Earth], he would have done. When they wanted to force him to do something he disliked, was dragged by an invisible force.”

“When the creature managed to replace the devil with Jesus, it still does not possess the truth. to have it, it is necessary to believe. God does not give the truth to those who doubt: it would be to do something useless and God does nothing in vain. As most new mediums doubt what they say and write, good spirits, begrudgingly, by God's formal order, they are obliged to lie and have no choice but to lie until the medium is convinced; but as soon as he believes one of these lies, the high spirits rush to reveal to him the secrets of heaven: the whole truth dissipates in an instant that cloud of errors with which they had been forced to envelop their protege.

"At this point, the medium has nothing to fear anymore.. The good spirits will never leave you. However, he must not believe that he always has the truth and only the truth. Whether to try it out, or to punish it for past faults, or even to punish it for selfish or curious questions, the good spirits him inflict physical and moral corrections, come to torment him by the command of God.”

RE October, 1858 (quotes from the psychographs of the fascinated Spirit

The report that Kardec gives, obtained from the psychographies of these obsessing Spirits, through the boy, is even difficult to read, let alone to understand, such is the level of disparity of the ideas presented there. For its extension, we will abstract from the citation. It is worth highlighting Kardec's observation, only: 

"Note that in all this there is nothing coarse or banal. It is a series of sophistical reasonings linked together with the appearance of logic. There is indeed an infernal art in the means employed to deceive him, and if it had been possible for us to relate all these manifestations, one would have seen to what extent the cunning was carried and with what skill they used honeyed words.”

In the midst of all this struggle, however, Kardec highlights that it was easy to recognize another spirit, kind, who struggled to make himself ear. It was his father, who, at one point, wrote: "Yes, my son, courage! You undergo a harsh ordeal, which will be for your good in the future. Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't do anything to free you, and it costs me a lot. Go see Allan Kardec; listen to him and he will save you”

The boy, listening to the good advice, goes to look for Kardec, who starts what today we would call disobsession:

"I used all my willpower to call the good spirits through you; all my rhetoric to prove to him that he was a victim of detestable spirits; that what he wrote was senseless and profoundly immoral. For this charity work I joined a colleague, Mr. T… and little by little we got him to write sensible things. He took a dislike to that bad temper, repelling him willingly each time he tried to manifest himself, and slowly the good spirits triumphed.”

To change his ideas, he followed the advice of the Spirits, to give himself to a rough job, that did not leave him time to listen to bad suggestions.

• But disobsession it does not only aim at the incarnate, who can drive away bad Spirits at will, but it can positively affect the Spirit as well (and often does):

Dillois himself ended up confessing himself defeated and expressed a desire to progress in a new existence. He confessed the evil he had tried to do and gave evidence of repentance. The fight was long and painful and offered the observer really curious features. Today Mr. F. feels free and happy. It's as if you've dropped a burden. He regained his joy and thanks us for the service we have given him.

Kardec begins the conclusion of the article with a reflection: far from proving the danger of mediumship, cases like these show its utility. Now, the spirits are around us, with or without mediumship, and with or without it they can obsess us, if we allow. 

Mediumship only puts us in direct contact with them, which provides an important tool for the spirits themselves to reveal themselves and accuse themselves, allowing the medium or someone else to try to open their eyes – exactly as it happened with the boy.

Finally, mediumship is not what makes the communication of ideas from inferior spirits exclusive. Says Kardec: 

"Who says that among all these ridiculous or dangerous speculations there will not be some whose authors are driven by malevolent spirits? Three-quarters of our evil actions and our evil thoughts are the fruit of this hidden suggestion.”

"In short, the danger is not exactly in Spiritism, because it can, on the contrary, serve as a control[…]. The danger lies in the propensity of certain mediums to, very lightly, believe themselves to be instruments exclusive to superior spirits and in a kind of fascination that does not allow them to understand the nonsense of which they are interpreters. Even those who are not mediums can be dragged along.”

In closing, Kardec makes some remarks. Some we have already dealt with recently, regarding the language of the Spirits and the contradictions:

1st – Every medium must guard against the irresistible excitement that leads him to write incessantly and even at inopportune moments; he must be master of himself and not write unless he wants to;

2nd – We do not dominate superior spirits, not even those who, not being superior, are good and benevolent, but we can dominate and tame inferior spirits. He who is not master of himself cannot be master of the spirits;

3rd – There is no other criterion than common sense to discern the value of spirits. Any formula given for this purpose by the spirits themselves is absurd and cannot emanate from superior spirits;

4th – Spirits, like men, are judged by their language. Every expression, every thought, every concept, every moral or scientific theory that clashes with common sense or does not correspond to the idea that we have of a pure and elevated Spirit, emanates from a more or less inferior Spirit;

5th – Superior spirits always speak the same language with the same person and never contradict each other;

6th – Superior spirits are always good and benevolent. In their language we never find acrimony, arrogance, harshness, pride, boasting, or foolish presumption. They speak plainly, advise, and withdraw when they are not heard;

7th – We should not judge spirits by their material form or by the correctness of their language, but probe their depths, scrutinize their words, weigh them coldly, maturely and without prejudice. Any escape from common sense, reason and wisdom cannot leave any doubt as to its origin, whatever the name under which the Spirit is masked;

8th – Inferior spirits are afraid of those who analyze their words, they unmask their turpitude and do not allow themselves to be caught by their sophistry. Sometimes they try to resist, but they always end up running away, when they realize that they are the weakest;

9th – He who in everything acts with a view to the good, rises above human vanities, expels selfishness, pride, envy, jealousy and hatred from his heart, and forgives his enemies, putting this into practice. Christ's maxim: “Do to others what you want done to you”; he sympathizes with the good spirits, while the bad ones fear him and move away from him.

Let's study?

Check out the study groups that exist, dealing with the Spiritist Doctrine, in which we have learned A LOT. Click here.

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In this article, Kardec brings a letter from one of his subscribers, saying that, despite the medium Victorien Sardou say that, in Mozart's house drawing, only saw the treble clef repeated, and never the bass clef, this subscriber saw the existence of the bass clef, as well as the C clef, in minor details of the drawing, which went unnoticed by the eyes of Mr. Sardou.

According to Kardec, this is yet another point that demonstrates the good faith of this medium, who did not act deliberately and, in fact, demonstrated that he was oblivious to the drawings obtained through mediumship.

“All the parts are thus begun and simultaneously continued, without any one of them being completed before another begins. This results, at first sight, in an incoherent whole, whose end is only understandable when everything is finished.”

Kardec, RE 1858

And here we have an important aspect of the arts, including the Spiritists: morality, united to the beautiful, creating important mental connections.

We also highlight the pictorial mediumship. We leave here a video of mediums who for years made paintings in this way:

In this September 1858 edition of RE, Kardec presents the case of Louis G., a shoemaker officer, who seven or eight months earlier had committed suicide at the door of his girlfriend, Victorine R., who was a seamstress of boots.

Once, Victorine R. and Louis G, who were already engaged, got into a deep argument for a trivial reason, to the point that Louis got up and promised never to return.

The next day, from cold head, the boy went to apologize, but was unsuccessful: Victorine R. refused to reconcile, despite her despair. 

After a few more days, thinking that his beloved would be reasonable, Louis went to try again to apologize, to which he was again rejected. At his beloved's door, he said to her: "Then farewell, you wicked one!" finally exclaimed the poor boy, “Farewell forever! Find a husband who wants you as much as I do!” – and plunged his shoemaker's knife into his chest, exhaling right there.

This article on the history of Louis G and Victorine R. appeared in Siècle on April 7, 1858.

Seeking to obtain moral teachings about the fact, on August 10, 1858 Kardec evokes São Luís:

1. ─ Does the girl, the unintentional cause of her boyfriend's death, have responsibility? ─ Yes, because I didn't love him.

Comment: This answer causes initial strangeness. Is anyone to blame for not loving someone else? Let's understand.

2. To avoid this misfortune, should she marry him, even though she did not love him? ─ She was looking for an occasion to part with him; did at the beginning of his call what he would have done later.

Comment: Here, St. Louis is saying that, sooner or later, she would separate from him, because, we understand, she didn't really love him.

3. ─ So the guilt consists in having nourished in him feelings that he did not share and that were the cause of the boy's death? ─ Yes. That's it.

4. In this case, your responsibility must be proportionate to the fault, which must not be as great as if it had intentionally caused death. ─ This is obvious.

Comment: Her “guilt” wasn’t so great because she didn’t actually want the other person’s misfortune. He just fed something that caused him suffering.

Observation: Remembering that "guilt" here is not something before an external judge, but before your own conscience. After all, it can be assumed that, since that moment, she must have carried some feeling of guilt because of the misfortune that happened to the boy.

5. Did Louis G.'s suicide find justification in the frenzy into which Victorine's obstinacy plunged him? - Yes, because his suicide, provoked by love, is less criminal in the eyes of God than that of a man who wants to get rid of life out of cowardice.

Comment: Here, when we talk about “crime in the eyes of God”, we need to understand that it was a neologism of the time. The “crime” is to impose a waste of time, perhaps with a great accumulation of suffering, due to the unconquered test. It is also important to remember two aspects: the first is that St. Luís is a Spirit who was, in his life, Catholic. The second is that, even if he doesn't bring concepts from Catholicism, he spoke as they could understand him.

Observation: By saying that this suicide is less criminal in God's eyes, evidently means that there is criminality, although less. The fault consists in the weakness that he did not know how to overcome. It is undoubtedly proof that he succumbed. Now, the spirits teach us that the merit lies in fighting victoriously against trials of all kinds, which are the essence of earthly life.

Here we have two problems to discuss. The first is to reinforce the knowledge brought by Spiritism, which presents its conclusions, without the intention of creating fantasies that try to subjugate through fear. Suicide, seen by many as something that will throw the soul into hell - whatever name is given to it - and even cause it to be born with deformations in the next life, in reality has different effects, depending on each being and each individual. situation.

Secondly, in no way is Saint Louis saying that suicide for love is a good thing: it is only more excusable, before one's own conscience, because it is practically a state of madness, whereas one who kills himself to escape life he almost always does it on his own, and it will cause him greater suffering when he discovers the truth.

Days later, Kardec evokes the Spirit of Louis G., the suicide, asking him the following questions:

1. ─ What do you think of the action that you performed? ─ Victorine is ungrateful. I was wrong to kill myself for her, because she didn't deserve it.

2. ─ So she didn't love you? ─ No. At first she thought so, but she was deluded. The scene I made opened his eyes. Then he was happy with this excuse to get rid of me.

3. - And did you love her sincerely? ─ I had passion for her. I believe it was just that. If I had loved her with pure love, I wouldn't have wanted to hurt her.

4. ─ If she had known that you really wanted to kill yourself, would she have persisted in refusing? ─ I don't know. I don't think so, because she wasn't evil. However, it would have been unfortunate. It was better for her.

We see that this Spirit reached an important conclusion, seeing that it killed itself for a passion. He understands that if he really loved her, he wouldn't have wanted to hurt her, that is, he wouldn't have committed an act so terrible as to shock her feelings so much.

Passion is a term that designates a very strong feeling of attraction to a person, object or topic. Passion is intense, enveloping, an enthusiasm or a strong desire for something. The term is also often applied to designate a lively interest or admiration for an ideal, cause, or activity. In the 19th century, psychology called passions what we now call emotions.

Who knows, in a new incarnation, a spirit like the one who committed suicide, for having found this lucidity, instead of planning a life of suffering as a form of punishment, could not choose tests and opportunities precisely to give himself the chance to learn to get rid of the passions, which often cast us into disgrace? How many murders, by the way, take place not out of hatred or evil thoughts, but simply by passions (today calls emotions)?

Continuing with the account of the evocation of the suicidal Louis G.:

5. ─ When you arrived at your door, did you have any intention of killing you, if you were refused? ─ No. Didn't even think about it. I didn't think she was so obstinate. It was only when I saw your stubbornness that I was taken by a vertigo.

6. ─ It seems that you only regret suicide because Victorine didn't deserve it. Is it your only feeling? ─ Right now, yes. I still feel disturbed. It seems to me to be at your door. But I feel something I cannot define.

7. ─ Will you understand later? ─ Yes, when I'm free... What I did was bad. I should have left her alone… I was weak and I suffer the consequences… As you can see, passion drives man to blindness and to make absurd mistakes.. He only understands when it's too lates.

8. ─ You said that you suffer the consequences. What penalty do you suffer? ─ I made a mistake by shortening my life. I shouldn't have done it. It should resist instead of ending everything prematurely. […]

Comment: he doesn't say that he was being gnawed by worms, nor that he was in a hellish region, nor that he was attached to the body, anything like that. In the disturbed state in which he found himself, his mind became attached to the fateful scene, the origin of his present moral sufferings, and it was in this that his thought became trapped. Well, we ourselves do this incarnate, every day.

 Here we have confirmed the state of “madness”, driven by passions, into which this man entered, who killed himself in a thoughtless act. How many suicides of this kind are there? They would be numbered in the thousands, if something was publicized. Unfortunately it is not. These suffer, as the Spirit of Louis G. suffered, because they understood that the thoughtless act cost them time and imposed suffering on others. Hence to say that this will lead them to spend years dragging themselves in the "valley of suicides" or that they will bring physical changes to the new incarnation because of this guilt, there is a great distance.

If you think about it, he doesn't even want to kill himself. it was an act of rage at the time. And we think that we should pay a lot of attention to the teachings of this article, because it is a global problem in our current society. The number of suicides has increased a lot. We see here the how urgent is it tame our passions.

Note: This account by Louis G. appears in the Book Heaven and Hell by Allan Kardec.((1)) Book Heaven and Hell by Allan Kardec, Editora FEAL, 2021, second part, chapter. V, pg. 337, the subtitle: Louis and the Shoe Seamstress.

In this article, we are going to deal with a medal that one of the readers of Revista Espírita bought with interesting and enigmatic details. First of all, it is important to present what the cabalism and esotericism

THE Kabbalah or Kabbalah (in Hebrew: קַבָּלָה; romanize.: Kabbalah or Qabbalâ;^{[nt 1]} literalmente: “receber/tradição”) é um método esoteric, discipline and school of thought at the jewish mysticism.^[1] The traditional Kabbalists of Judaism are called Mekubalim (Hebrew: מְקוּבָלים) or Maskilim (   משכילים; “initiates“). 

already the esotericism is the generic name that highlights a set of traditions and philosophical interpretations of doctrines and religions – or even of Initiatic Fraternities – that seek to convey a list of certain subjects that concern aspects of the nature of life in an esoteric, that is, occult way. . Only a certain part of people can have the teachings.

we see that cabalism, esotericism, mysticism and occultism, todas “Ciencias Esotéricas”, se confundem, hoje, num grande caldeirão. Não significa dizer que não tenham anything for real: it happens that the sages they knew, in their own way, the truth about spirits and mediumship, but kept the knowledge within a restricted circle, leaving a mystical and fantastic face to the people. There were few initiates...

In this article, Kardec presents the history of that medal, the talisman, that his reader, Mr. M., bought in an antique shop, which was sold as a Luck charm…

Luck charm: object to which its bearer attributes the magical power to fulfill his wishes; object when used that can provide magical power and/or enchantment.

Interrogating Ms. J., a sleepwalking medium, it was said that this medal had belonged to cazotte and who owned the special power to attract Spirits and facilitate evocations.

Mr. Caudemberg, author of a series of communications that he says he received, as a medium, from the Virgin Mary, told him that it was an evil object, suitable for attracting demons. Miss de Guldenstube, medium, sister of Baron of Guldenstube, author of a work on pneumatography, or direct writing, told him that the medal had a magnetic virtue and could provoke somnambulism.

Not being satisfied, Mr. M. presented this medal, asking for a personal opinion about it, at the same time asking that a superior Spirit could speak about the reality of the influence of this object. Here are excerpts from Kardec's answer:

“Spirits are attracted or repelled by thought and not by material objects, which have no power over them. At all times, superior spirits have condemned the use of signs and cabalistic forms, and every spirit that attributes any virtue to them or that intends to give them talismans that denote magic, thus reveals their own inferiority, whether when they act in good faith. and through ignorance, carried away by ancient earthly prejudices, with which he is still imbued, either when he consciously enjoys credulity, as a mocking Spirit. […] Whoever has studied the nature of spirits will not be able to rationally admit the influence of conventional forms on them, nor of substances mixed in certain proportions. It would be to renew the practices of the witches' cauldron, of black cats, of black chickens and other secret machinations.”

Who uses the medal, the talisman, effectively, will have an uncontrollable, magical, fantastic force, external to our senses? Are they effective? Is it just mysticism? Or is it just a mental trigger to remind us that spirituality is all around us? There are several statements regarding these tools, which many, many religions and sects use.

So objects can't have any power? Kardec continues:

“The same is not the case with a magnetized object, since, as is known, they have the power to provoke somnambulism or certain nervous phenomena on the body. organic economy”.

Now, is there support in the power of talismans, crystals, etc?

“But then, the virtue of such an object resides solely in the fluid with which it is momentarily impregnated and which is thus transmitted, indirectly, and not in the form, in the color, nor, above all, in the signs with which it may be overloaded. ”

Here, we are specifically talking about the influence about the Spirit – inclusive o encarnado. Se falarmos sobre a matter, then we cannot rule out the interference that material objects specifics may have about it. 

The central point of this discussion is: the object itself, like a color, a sign or a plant, has no magnetic power (speaking of magnetism, which is what acts on the perispirit). However, when used, even in an esoteric way (as always happened) by someone with magnetic power, they gain, momentarily, a “charge” of magnetism. 

Now, since today we have access to knowledge about magnetism (Magnetism and Spiritism, by Carlos Bernardo Loureiro; Mesmer: The Denied Science of Magnetism, by PHF) wouldn't it be more interesting to study this science, in order to increase its usefulness, no longer being attached to mysticism, which often hinders the understanding of truths and their practical use?

In other words: hypnosis works because of a magnetic power (to explain) of the hypnotist, who is a magnetizer (even if he doesn't know it). This theme has often been confused with occultism and magic.

What hypnotizes, after all, is not the clock that swings, but the magnetism from which it he can be impregnated, or from the magnetism direct from the magnetizer.

And Kardec follows:

“A spirit may say: “Draw such a sign and by it I will know that you call me, and I will come.” But in this case the traced sign is the expression of thought; it is an evocation translated in a material way. Now, whatever the nature of spirits, they do not need such means of communication. Superior spirits never use them. Inferior spirits can do it in order to seduce gullible people who want under their dependence.

General rule: For superior spirits form is nothing. thought is everything. Every spirit that attaches more importance to the form than to the background is inferior, and does not deserve any trust, even when, from time to time, say some good things, because good things are sometimes a means of seduction.

Such was, in general, our thinking about talismans, as a means of entering into a relationship with the Spirits. Needless to say, it also applies to other superstitiously employed means, such as preservatives from illness and accidents.”

Once again, the focus is to put aside mysticism to understand, for the reason, the mechanics of magnetism and thought. And that is faith: Jesus practiced it all the time. He said, "if you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you would move mountains" and, let's see: who you see the spiritist science and the science of magnetism, has a faith unshakable, to the point that, by the time these sciences were established, even the tables were moving.

Kardec, then, to complement the studies, evokes the Spirit of Saint Louis, asking for observations about the talisman in question. He answers:

"You do well not to admit that material objects can have any power over manifestations, either to provoke them or to prevent them..

Very often we have said that the demonstrations are spontaneous and that, moreover, we never refuse to respond to your call. Why do you think that we are obliged to obey a thing made by creatures??”

Q. ─ For what purpose was this medal made? ─ It was made with the aim of drawing the attention of people who might believe it; but only by magnetizers could it have been made with the intention of magnetizing and putting a sensitive to sleep. The signs are mere fantasy.

Q. ─ They say it belonged to Cazotte. Could we invoke him to give us some information about it? ─ It's unnecessary. Occupy yourselves before more serious things.”

Here, Kardec publishes the German-tomb conversation of the Schwabenhaus Password. She entered NDE days before she disincarnated. The article opens the field to, once again, talk about the phenomenon of ecstasy It's from sleep-walking, the former being a special class of the latter.

O ecstasy it is the state in which the independence of the soul, in relation to the body, manifests itself most sensitively and becomes, in a certain way, palpable.

At the dream and not sleep-walking, the soul wanders through earthly regions. In ecstasy, he penetrates an unknown world, that of ethereal Spirits, with whom he enters into communication […].

In the state of ecstasy, the annihilation of the body is almost complete. All that remains, one might say, is organic life. One feels that the soul is attached to it only by a thread, that one more tiny effort would break without remission.

Kardec, The Spirits' Book

“Many ecstatics are pawns of their own imagination and of mocking spirits who take advantage of the exaltation their. There are very few who deserve complete trust.”

The Mediums' Book, Kardec

444. What confidence can be placed in the revelations of ecstatics?

“The ecstatic is liable to be deceived very often, especially when he tries to penetrate what must remain a mystery to man, because then he lets himself be carried away by the current of his own ideas, or becomes the plaything of mystifying spirits, who take advantage of your enthusiasm to fascinate you.”

The Spirits' Book, Kardec

Briefly: Mrs. Schwabenhaus entered state cataleptic (or lethargic) and was judged dead. Then the funeral took place, while, in fact, she was in state of ecstasy and he glimpsed a whole consoling spiritual truth, together with his daughter, who died at the age of 7. it was you granted the gift of returning and saying goodbye to his loved ones, which he attended with extreme happiness. Shortly after, he definitively disincarnated. At the time, there was no knowledge about these states of the body.

At lethargy, the vital forces are dissipated and the body acquires the appearance of death, in a deep sleep. At catalepsy, this suspension of vital forces is sometimes localized. You lethargic and cataleptics they usually observe what is happening around them. The soul is aware of itself, but cannot communicate. It would be a near death.

Kardec evokes her on April 27, 1858 and clarifies some doubts, reinforcing the thesis of her ecstasy and other interesting points, in doctrinal agreement:

3. During your apparent death, did you hear what was happening around you and did you see the funeral apparatus? ─ My soul was very concerned about your coming happiness.

OBSERVATION: It is known that in general the lethargic see and hear what is going on around them and when waking up retain the memory. The fact that we portray offers the particularity of being lethargic sleep accompanied by ecstasy, which explains the diversion of the patient's attention.

5. ─ Can you tell us the difference between natural sleep and lethargic sleep? ─ Natural sleep is the rest of the body; the lethargic is the exaltation of the soul.

7. ─ How did your return to life take place?  ─ God allowed me to return to comfort the afflicted hearts around me.

8. ─ We would like a more material explanation.  ─ What you call perispirit still animated my earthly envelope.

OBSERVATION: It means to say that while the life of the body remains, the perispirit is connected to the cells. In OLE, we will see: 155. How does the separation of soul and body work? “The ties that held her are broken, she breaks free.” (it is the death of the body that causes the “exit” of the Spirit): a) – Does the separation occur instantly by a sudden transition? Is there a sharply drawn line of demarcation between life and death? "No; the soul gradually detaches, it does not escape like a captive bird that is suddenly restored to freedom. Those two states touch and confuse each other, so that the Spirit gradually breaks free from the bonds that bound it. These bonds are untied, not broken.”

Kardec comments on Ms. S., when he says that his daughter would be a pure Spirit. Of course it should be higher, but pure, here is relative.

In question 16, Kardec continues investigating the form by which spirits see each other. It is interesting how the response of a higher Spirit matches the response of the Spirit quoted in the article “The Drum of Beresina”, July 1858. Let us see Mrs. S.:

16. ─ Did you recognize her [the daughter] in any form? ─ I only saw her as Spirit.

In the article by Tambor de Beresina:

29. ─ How do you know that they are Spirits [the others you see]? ─ Among us, we see ourselves as we are.

32. ─ And do you see the other spirits with the forms they had in life? ─ No. We don't take on an appearance until we are evoked. Other than that, we are formless.

Question 31 (in the present article):

31. Since you have been here with the form you had on Earth, is it through the eyes that you see us? ─ No, the Spirit has no eyes. I only find myself in my last form to satisfy the laws that govern spirits when evoked and forced to resume what you call perispirit..

RE September /1858, Kardec

This affirmation of the evoked Spirit is one of the conclusions that Kardec reaches regarding the form of the Spirits:

88. Do spirits have a determined, limited and constant form?

“Not for you; for us, yes. The Spirit is, if you like, a flame, a flash, or an ethereal spark.”

a) – Does this flame or spark have color?

“It has a coloring that, for you, goes from a dark and opaque color to a brilliant color, like that of ruby, depending on whether the Spirit is more or less pure.”

Geniuses are usually represented with a flame or star on their foreheads. It is an allegory, which recalls the essential nature of Spirits. They place it on top of the head, because that is the seat of intelligence.

Book of Spirits, Kardec

Another cause of interest at the time, although it took place in 1572. O Saint Bartholomew's Night Massacreu or the night of Saint Bartholomew, was an episode, in the history of France, in the repression of Protestantism, engendered by the French kings, who were Catholics. These murders took place on August 23 and 24, 1572, in Paris, on St. Bartholomew's Day.[1] It is estimated that between 5,000 and 30,000 people were killed, depending on the attributed source.

Eight days after the São Bartolomeu Massacre, terrifying screams and groans were heard “in the air” by countless witnesses. The noise lasted about half an hour, then stopped. Himself King Charles IX he must have heard, for he looked somber, pensive, and wild.

Kardec brings the report only to demonstrate the similarity with the case of Mademoiselle Clairon (Feb/58) ee to demonstrate, once again, that the spiritist facts have always been in our history.

In this picture, which, if written in the Brazilian context, would probably be called “spiritist stories”, Kardec cites the cause reported by Patrie, on August 15, 1858:

an officer of French Directory(Name given to the Government of France), while traveling, he stayed in a hovel. During his sleep, he saw a terrible apparition: a “specter” that came out of the shadows, hair red with blood, throat cut, etc., came to him and gave him details of his own murder, indicating the place where his body was buried and the perpetrators of the crime. It evoked the officer's help to call the police and solve the case.

The officer did not listen, as he considered it to be his imagination. The next day, as he fell asleep, he had the vision of the Spirit again, this time more sad and threatening. He has ignored it again, the next day he saw the Spirit again, in sleep, now even more irritated and threatening. The officer thought it best not to ignore this time: he returned to the indicated place, called the officers and solved the case. This shows that this Spirit was very attached to material concepts, still, and that it had many imperfections, as it sought revenge.

Another apparition, this time with the contentment of the Spirit, more “kind” and affable. He said he would show himself again two hours before the officer's death, which he did years later.

Like all teaching, it is progressive. As humanity evolves its understanding changes. This article on Plato and Socrates is about that.

Remember the teachings of Last week's Sao Vicente de Paul? So, Saint Vincent de Paul spoke of the Gospel, that we should study it. Now, RE shows us something before Jesus, from the 5th and 4th century BC, from Plato and your mentor Socrates (remembering that it was Plato who wrote).

In the Spiritist Society, they had never imagined before:

“Today we will not discuss this theory, which was so far from our thinking when the Spirits revealed it to us, which surprised us strangely, because — we humbly confess — what Plato had written on this special subject was then completely unknown to us, new evidence, among others. so many others, that the communications given to us absolutely do not reflect our personal opinion. As for Plato's, we have only established the main idea, it being easy for each one to decide the form in which it is presented and to judge the points of contact that, in certain details, it may have with our current theory.

Kardec, Allan. Spiritist Magazine: first year: September/1858

The teachings of Socrates and Plato really carry the precepts of Jesus and are similar to those of the communicating spirits of Kardec's century.

In this article, RE presents as main ideas coming from Plato: the immortality of the soul, the succession of existences, the choice of existences as a result of free will, in short, the happy and unhappy consequences. Of course, Socrates, described by Plato, used parables to explain, because that was how they understood the lessons at that time. 

In his allegory of the Spindle of Necessity, Plato imagines a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, attributing to the former the speech of the RE, about the revelations of the Armenian Er, a fictional character, in all probability, although some take him for Zoroaster. worth reading.

Kardec presents the essence of an allegory by Plato, where a man would have had an NDE and came back telling “the other side”. It is very figurative, and it shows the idea of the Trial Choices before we reincarnate.

In these teachings, when Plato quotes the Daughters of Necessity, he is talking about divine laws. See what he says:

Passenger souls, you will start a new career and be reborn (reincarnate) in the mortal condition. Genius will not be pointed out to you; you will choose it yourself. You will choose the one that luck calls first, and that choice will be irrevocable. Virtue belongs to no one: it allies itself to those who dignify it and abandons those who despise it. Each one is responsible for the choice he makes, God is innocent.'

Kardec, RE September/1858

Then he goes on to describe how the rebirth takes place, which is very similar to what the Spirits in Kardec's times explain.

Therefore, each one is responsible for the choice! God is innocent in his free will!

In OLE, these issues are addressed in depth, as in  Part Two — On the Spiritist World or World of Spirits, Chapter VI — On the Spiritist Life, Choice of Evidence, as well as the questions 337 and 975. 

This RE article is Kardec's seed for the elaboration of the Gospel According to Spiritism (April 1864). in your introduction exposes the relationship with the ideas of Christianity and soon after the morals of Socrates and Plato.

Note: we also indicate this great video about the Morals of Socrates and Plato of the channel Spiritism for All

At the time of writing this article, we are entering the study of the 10th edition of Revista Espírita — October 1858. We started this weekly study (Click here to get to know it), broadcasting it live, knowing, by an intuition, that it would be very important and useful, but, in fact, we didn't know what to expect from this study. The truth is that, if not for reading some quotes from excerpts from this work, we didn't even know what the Spiritist Magazine was about.

Listen to the podcast:

Today, then, after nine editions of this publication, among the 136 of which Kardec himself was at the forefront, from January 1858 to April 1869 (he died in March, but he had already finished this last and important edition, which we will talk about later) — and we keep asking ourselves where he found the time and disposition for this, something worthy of a missionary — we have already managed to glimpse a little of Rivail's brilliance in the logical sequence of the development of the themes that, now we understand a little, give basis and towards the growth and strengthening of the Spiritist Doctrine — let us remember that the next works were produced, in large part, precisely from many of the themes and studies developed in the Spiritist Magazine.

It is important to say, first of all, that the Revista Espírita, as the name demonstrates, was a monthly periodical, where Allan Kardec presented several themes, some of them totally doctrinaire, others related to social, historical and scientific issues and others in which we realized a growing and uninterrupted elaboration of researches and knowledge that were giving more and more basis to the Spiritist Doctrine.

Spiritist Magazine: Journal of Psychological Studies

Many do not know, but this is the full subtitle of this journal: study journal psychological. And this is important to be highlighted, because, by today's eyes, it doesn't seem that psychology has much to do with a spiritist journal, does it? This is where the valuable and important work of Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo comes in, one of the most prominent spiritist researchers of our time, who sought, in the past, for a forgotten knowledge, swept under the rug: in short, the one that was closed in the context of Rational Spiritualism, about which we have already spoken a little on here. It is only through the study of this forgotten knowledge that we can, we say, contextualize much of what is said in RE and, in this regard, we highlight the importance of the work Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, by the same author.

In Kardec's context, Psychology did not have the materialistic therapeutic characteristic of today: it was a moral science, spiritualist, inserted in the context of Rational Spiritualism, and its main objective was to investigate and analyze the natural laws that govern human nature, including experimentally.

In this context, Psychology understood the human being as a being constituted of body and soul. The soul, which would survive the body, was the primary cause of the psyche, which was not just a material effect of chemistry and stimuli. We deal with this a little in the studies based on the article “The Psychological Period”, which you can read on here.

The birth of the Journal and its purpose

Kardec created the Spiritist Magazine based, in part, on the suggestions of a Spirit who communicated through Ms. Hermance Dufaux (it's with H, really) who, according to Canuto de Abreu, cooperated in transmitting valuable guidelines for this journal:

At the end of 1857, Kardec had the idea of publishing a spiritist journal and wanted to hear the opinion of the spiritual guides. Hermance was the chosen medium and, through her, a Spirit gave the Master of Lion many excellent directions. The organ was named “Revista Espírita” and was launched in January of the following year.

One of Kardec's greatest interests was to correspond, in an easy way, with the followers of Spiritism spread across Europe. Through the Magazine, a publication of easy circulation and of general interest — Kardec, in it, even addressed everyday facts and of great interest, involving the Spirits — the Doctrine quickly permeated the masses, who eagerly read its pages. There was no shortage of letters subscribers, thousands of them, many of which Kardec didn't even find time to answer.

We emphasize the word “subscribers” on purpose: Kardec, or rather the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, charged for a subscription to this journal, but never for self-enrichment, but with the aim of obtaining resources to reduce the costs of the works, provide social support, etc. We quote about this in the article Propagation of Spiritism.

We were talking about the purposes of the Magazine. We know very well that Kardec identified, right from the start, with his perspicacity as a researcher trained, since childhood, by the investigative method of Nature, by Pestalozzi, that…

… The isolated opinion of a spirit is just that — an opinion — therefore, it cannot be taken, in isolation, as if it were an unquestionable source of truth, since spirits of all types can communicate, and deceiving spirits take the names even of the saints and of Jesus, without shame, especially when they realize that they are not questioned.

Therefore, Kardec sought a way to strengthen the basic and inexorable principle of the Doctrine, which is that of universal agreement of the teaching of the Spirits, which must, in addition, comply with logic, reason, common sense and already formed science, both on the part of men and on the part of Spirits, by the same method. Now, as we can already see, through the Spiritist Magazine, where he received the various reports from various parts of the world, through his correspondents, the Lyonnais master obtained just that, in large part! We see an example of this in letter from Mr. Jobard, in July 1858, and in the observations of a correspondent in September 1858.

Kardec's Evocations

There is also an even more important aspect presented in the Magazine, which clearly demonstrates a very little known face of Spiritism in the current spiritist movement: that of the nature and usefulness of evocations of Spirits. Now, at a time when the famous phrase of dear Chico Xavier became law — “the telephone only rings from there to here” — about which we have already analyzed in the article “Spiritism without the Spirits” — which was our surprise (at least for those who did not know this reality) when we found that Kardec used evocations as naturally — but with the necessary seriousness — as the one we use to talk to people around us.

In practically all editions, Kardec presents evocations of Spirits, which he carried out in order to obtain better understandings about the morality understood in certain events, as well as to try to probe some scientific facts involving Spiritist phenomena, as happened in "A new photographic discovery", of July 1858.

This is how, number after number, Kardec presented the most diverse evocations, some made by himself and others made by his correspondents. Spirits of suicides, madmen, murderers, kings, commoners, people of great morals and benevolence and inferior spirits were evoked. Many of these, by the way, were very few days after their death, which contradicts what a large part of the current spiritist movement has said.

It is important to point out, of course, that the evocations were not intended to serve anyone's empty and inferior curiosity or fun: in addition to the teachings that could be gathered from all of them, for the superior spirits it was always a happiness to help us and, for the lower ones often provided precious moments of reflection and rebalancing.

Strengthening of the Doctrine and deconstruction of false or incomplete concepts

The form to the Spirit

To give a practical example, in these deconstructions of ideas that are widely rooted today, we have, even if in the beginning, one of them that began to draw our attention: the question of form for the wandering Spirit (between incarnations). It is customary, nowadays, the conception of a whole fantastic world and full even of automobiles in the spiritual plane… However, Kardec, from a certain edition, starts to probe what is form for spirits, through questions such as “how would we see him if we could see him with our eyes?” or “do you see other spirits? In what way?".

This is how, in July 1858, in the article “Berezina's Drum“, Kardec asks the following questions, after carrying out a series of inquiries trying to understand the moral and rational state of that Spirit, who was a soldier in his last incarnation:

28. ─ Do you see other spirits around you? ─ Yes, many.

29. ─ How do you know they are spirits? ─ Among us, we see ourselves as we are.

30. ─ How do you see them? ─ As spirits can be seen, but not through the eyes.

31. ─ And you, in what form are you here? ─ Under what I had when I was alive, that is, as a drum.

32. ─ And do you see the other spirits with the forms they had in life? ─ No. We don't take on an appearance until we are evoked. Other than that, we are formless.

The last answer was quite interesting, but so far it was just the opinion of a Spirit. Worthy of note is Kardec's methodology, probing matters of interest, instead of asking direct questions that could be answered in a biased way. Then, in September of the same year, in the article “Lectures from beyond the grave — Mrs. Schwabenhaus. Ecstatic Lethargy“, Kardec asks the following questions, getting the following answers. Please note:

29. ─ In what form are you among us? ─ Under my last female form.

30. ─ Do you see us as distinctly as if you were alive? ─ Yes.

31. Since you have been here with the form you had on Earth, is it through the eyes that you see us? ─ No, the Spirit has no eyes. I only find myself in my last form to satisfy the laws that govern spirits when evoked and forced to resume what you call perispirit.

Let's see, then: there are already two spirits, of different elevations, saying the same thing: for the spirit freed from matter, there is no form, like the one we understand. They assume the perispirit, attending to a natural law, only when they need to act materially, when, for example, they approach us to communicate (with materially I mean: they need to assume the perispirit to be able to put themselves in communication with us, which, above all, happens through this “clothes”. It is, therefore, matter, but a very subtle matter, extracted from the universal cosmic fluid[1]).

Does this mean that Kardec's studies belie André Luiz? Well, despite the fact that Kardec's methodology is quite logical, leaving little room for error, it would perhaps be hasty to draw conclusions based only on these two Spirits — we still don't know if there are, further on, more evocations that support this thesis — but we also don't know. we are saying that Chico Xavier was wrong, since he was a tool of the Spirits, nor that André Luiz lied, but rather that he spoke according to his conceptions and understandings. Who knows, he could be talking about a situation of “incarnation” of Spirits, in a more subtle matter? Nor do we rule out the existence of true cities, formed by Spirits still very dependent on matter and form — which, in short, is not good at all, but we understand that it is a phase.

the suicide

Another topic that has been largely deconstructed from its modern conceptions is that of suicide. Today, in the spiritist milieu, there are assertions that the suicidal person is on the “threshold” or “the valley of suicides”; that he will be attached to the body, “feeling” it being gnawed by worms; that he will be years in extreme disturbance, being impossible to communicate; and, also, that the suicidal person will be born tomorrow with physical defects in order to “redeem a karmic debt” (this last passage causes an aversion even to write).

Well, so far, Kardec has already evoked two suicides: The Samaritan Suicide, in June 1858, and Suicide for Love — September 1858 — where a young man killed himself on his girlfriend's doorstep, at the height of his emotions, as she had stubbornly refused to take him back after a big argument.

The first is evoked about two months after the fateful episode: “I ask Almighty God to allow the spirit of the individual who committed suicide on April 7, 1858, in the baths of the Samaritan woman, to come and communicate with us” — note the simplicity in evocation. This Spirit denoted great moral suffering, which had been going on since before his death, which he sought out of despair in not knowing how to deal with the heartbreaks and trials of life. São Luís ends the communication saying only that suicide abruptly interrupts life, which can cause a certain momentary difficulty in letting go of the body.

The second is evoked seven or eight months after the suicide. This spirit no longer suffers so much, because it understood the lack of usefulness in what it did, and that it did it by a thoughtless act driven by unrestrained passions (emotions). In this one, there is only a “mental imprisonment” at the moment of the act, which kept repeating itself in the mind of this Spirit, since it was linked to it with repentance.

In none of them, there is no mention of what has become commonplace in the Spiritist environment, which, in fact, are half-truths: there are different possibilities, according to the mentality of each one, but the current Spiritist insists on taking the exception as a rule. .

Autonomous Morality

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo has spoken a lot and defended the essence of Spiritism as an autonomous morality. And much has been criticized by a few who have not yet been able to see this in the Doctrine. Here, there is one more current concept deconstructed by the study of Revista Espírita. I will not delve into the matter further, as in this article I have already introduced the concept. I just want to point out that, in the Magazine itself, we see this concept very well founded, and not just by Kardec, but by the Spirits.

In the first edition of RE, in January 1858, we have the article “a conversion", which presents the following sequence of questions and answers, made to the deceased father of a boy, by that same boy, who sought to believe in Spiritism:

15. — Will we be punished or rewarded according to our actions? — If you do wrong, you will suffer.

16. — Will I be rewarded if I do good? — It will advance on its way.

17. — Am I on the right track? “Do good and you will be.

Note the moral depth of this simple dialogue. There is no punishment and reward, but only ourselves, before our own conscience, according to our choices.

Later, in October 1858, in the article “Murder of five children by another twelve-year-old—Moral problem“, Kardec asks São Luís about the possibility of that Spirit, of the murderer, returning to incarnate on Earth, and not on an even more backward planet:

11. ─ So can he find on Earth the means to atone for his fault, without being forced to return to a lower world?

─ In the eyes of God, repentance is sacred, because it is man who judges himself, which is rare on your planet.

Dear friend, do you see the beauty of the Spiritist Doctrine, truly consoling and autonomous, shown in its original face? No karma. No “action and reaction”. No “law of return”. Let's study, let's study, because the current spiritist movement, flooded with narrow concepts and contrary to the Doctrine of Spirits, is far from its original essence and reality!

How to study the Spiritist Magazine

Very well: we have already presented the inestimable importance of this periodical by Kardec; we have also presented the depth it has and the logical and rational chaining of something that forms the body of a very well established Scientific Doctrine, which is Spiritism. It remains to be seen: how to study these 136 numbers of this publication?

We believe there are two main ways, on which, by the way, we are discussing and adapting, at the moment, in order to arrive at the best method. The first of them is the one that respects the chronological form, edition by edition; the second is the one that “crosses the line”, in a good way, in Kardec, and advances by subjects, in a more or less chronological way. I explain:

In the first modality, which is what we have done so far, we take the Revisa, edition by edition, and dedicate ourselves to studying it individually, in the first place, in order to extract the best understanding of each issue and subject, enriching the study. This is because there are, in it, accessory subjects, which do not present great gain in bringing to group study, as is the case of the phenomena presented by Kardec, in what we would call today “spiritist stories”. Not that they are not useful articles, as they greatly reinforce the understanding of the fact of spiritist phenomena, especially for those who still have doubts about them.

On the other hand, other subjects are so important and profound that they deserve special attention, sometimes seeking complements not only in Kardec, but also in complementary works by other researchers, contemporaneous or not with Kardec. Several times we have found it very useful to approach not only other works by Kardec that, if we were to base ourselves on the correct chronology, had not even been published, but also works such as those by Ernesto Bozzano and recent ones by Paulo Henrique.

Another way to carry out this study is, as we said, "outrun" Kardec and advance on the subjects in all the years of the Journal and the Professor's complete work. But this in a good way: Kardec, chronologically, which is obvious, is maturing his own understanding of the Doctrine of Spirits, through incessant research. Thus, we can see, for example, Kardec talking about vital fluid, in 1858, but, in A Genesis, discarding fluids and staying with Mesmer's thesis, Animal Magnetism and the vital principle. Therefore, one can disregard the chronological order in order to study the subjects covered in the Journal, complementing and remembering them as one advances through the numbers, in order.

At the moment, we are opting for a middle ground: we discard the deepening in the accessory subjects, focusing on the main subjects and, from them, doing the due deepening, as we see the need. Perhaps we will approach more than one edition in the same study, when we see that the subjects of more than one of them are built and complemented sequentially. We just don't think it's useful to go too far, because understanding the construction of Kardec's thought, his method, the teachings of the Spirits between the lines, is something that we consider very useful and important.

The end of the Spiritist Magazine under Kardec's tutelage

Finally, we come to the end of the article, citing the end of the Spiritist Magazine with the death of Allan Kardec. “But, Paulo, Revista Espírita continued to be published for many years after his death”. Yes, it continued… But, unfortunately, it was subverted by the petty interests of money and vanity. While it was under Kardec, it was a methodical, well-formulated publication and, above all, impersonal, focused on the interests of Spiritism, that is, of the Doctrine of Spirits, which does not belong to any incarnate and does not come out of the ideas of any of them, in isolation.

After Kardec's death, those who took over and subverted the Society (for more details read Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato) began to use this periodical to publish the most complete absurdities, among them, under the direction of Pierre Leymarie, articles promoting a false medium, who claimed to obtain photographs of the Spirits. The promotion was literal, because, in the Revista Espírita, it was even given the indication and the amounts charged to obtain a supposed photograph of a dead relative. The case resulted in a major lawsuit against Leymarie and her associates, in what became known as The Spiritist Process and which absurdly tarnished the Doctrine's reputation in society.

But it did not stop there. The Spiritist Magazine, after 1869, became a constant place for publishing absurd articles, many contrary to the Doctrine until then formed by the indispensable methodology applied by Kardec. That is why, together with the other damages caused to the Doctrine, that, today, we are with the Journal only for the time it was under the conscientious hands of Allan Kardec, and it is for all the above, so far, that…

… We invite everyone to set up study groups on this publication, adding to it the most current research, so that the learning of Spiritism, as a Scientific Doctrine that it is, can, every day, leave the circles of Spiritist scholars and spread its influences on society, which is desperate for answers once again.

For this, we recommend observing the recommended works for study, as well as accompanying the studies of the group Spiritism for All, in the YouTube.

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1. Says Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in Genesis (FEAL, 2018):

“There was the theory of the universal cosmic fluid, initially adopted by Franz Anton Mesmer (in the Science of Animal Magnetism), according to which the Universe would be composed of a single generating element, fully occupying space, divided into innumerable phases of density, progressively, from tangible, liquid, gaseous matter, the ether and other even more subtle conditions, imperceptible to the senses. In this other theory, the forces would not be substances, but states of vibration at various subtle levels of the universal fluid. For example, light would be a state of ether vibration. By analogy, considering the adoption in this work of the theory of the single generative element as a universal explanation of physical phenomena, spiritual fluids would be among the most subtle states of the universal cosmic fluid”. We recommend the work Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism, by the same author.