Reincarnation According to Spiritism

Paulo Degering R Jr
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Based on the video of the same title by weekly chat of the Study Group Spiritism for All

For to demonstrate (and not to test) reincarnation as a natural law, Kardec is based on the fundamental principles of Spiritism and Rational Spiritualism. Among them are the essential attributes of God1, which are perfect to an infinite degree, since, if it were otherwise, this being would not be God himself, it being necessary, then, that there should be another above, in perfect condition.

It is through the realization and understanding of these essential conditions that the understanding of divine creation derives. As we will see further on, his creation must also be perfect and his creatures – the Spirits – perfectible, which, otherwise, would not match the infinite divine perfection.

Allan Kardec, at first, did not accept the reincarnation. In fact, he didn't even accept the possibility of our interaction with the Spirits, in his youth. He was an emeritus educator, totally linked to the concepts of morality in pedagogy, as well as a researcher of the sciences of the time. He used to say that if children were properly educated, they would not believe in otherworldly souls or ghosts when they grew up.2. It was only after the first contacts with the spiritist facts, that he understood the existence of a natural law, which he began to study, that, defeated by evidence and reason, accepted, as the most rational conclusion, the aforementioned facts.

About the Spirits, Kardec says, in the introduction to The Spirits' Book: “As we noted above, the beings who communicate designate themselves by the name of spirits or jinn“.

As for reincarnation, we found an article of great interest in Spiritist Magazine of 1858, of the month of November, called “Plurality of Stocks“, from which we take the following snippet:

[…] when the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the spirits, she was so far from our thinking, that we had built a completely different system on the antecedents of the soul, system, incidentally shared by many people. On this point, the doctrine of the Spirits surprised us. We will say more: she antagonized us, because it overturned our own ideas. As you can see, it was far from a reflection of them.

This is not all. We we don't give in to the first shock. We fight; we defend our opinion; we raise objections and only surrender in the face of evidence and when we realize the inadequacy of our system to resolve all issues relating to this problem3 .

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book, 2nd edition. Our emphasis.

Kardec, in that same article, whose reading we strongly recommend, gives some preliminary notions about the antiquity of the idea of transmigration of souls. We will cite them, to then present the difficulties encountered in the false ones on which they often rely – or came to rely on.

Of the various doctrines professed by Spiritism, the most controversial is, unquestionably, that of reincarnation or the plurality of corporeal existences. Although this opinion is presently shared by a great number of people, and has already been addressed by us on several occasions, we deem it our duty here to examine it more closely, in view of its extraordinary importance, and in order to answer several objections which have been raised.

Before delving into the matter in depth, we must make a few observations that seem to us to be indispensable.

For many people the dogma of reincarnation is not new: it is resurrected from Pythagoras. We have never said that the Spiritist Doctrine is a modern invention. As a result of a natural law, Spiritism must have existed since the beginning of time, and we have always endeavored to prove that its traces are found in the highest antiquity.

As is well known, Pythagoras is not the author of the metempsychosis system. He drank it from Indian philosophers and from among the Egyptians, where it had existed from time immemorial. Thus, the idea of the transmigration of souls was a common belief, admitted by the most eminent personalities.

Ibid.

It is interesting to note that, although this idea was accepted since antiquity, “by the most eminent personalities”, Kardec did not accept it. Perhaps there are two possible reasons for this: he didn't think about it, because he didn't admit the survival of the Spirit, or he didn't find rationality in these ideas. It is on this point that we will enter next, to demonstrate that the absence of reason resides in the false principles, taken in a dogmatic way by the clergy of the religions and taught, from small children, to their adepts.

Contents hide
1 False principle of soul degradation
2 Reading Recommendations (Books)

False principle of soul degradation

In the article “Doctrine of reincarnation among the Hindus”, of the Spiritist Magazine of December 1859, Allan Kardec takes up the subject of reincarnation in depth, presenting the following:

According to the Hindus, souls had been created happy and perfect and yours decadence resulted from a rebellion; its incarnation in the body of animals is a punishment. According to the Spiritist Doctrine, souls were and still are created simple and ignorant; it is through successive incarnations that, thanks to their efforts and divine mercy, they arrive at the perfection that will provide them with eternal happiness. Having to progress, the soul can remain stationary for a more or less long period, but not retrograde. What he has acquired in knowledge and morality is not lost. If it doesn't advance, it doesn't retreat either: that's why it can't animate beings inferior to Humanity.

Thus, the metempsychosis of the Hindus is founded on the principle of the degradation of souls. Reincarnation, according to the Spirits, is based on the principle of continuous progression..

According to the Hindus, the soul began with perfection to reach abjection.; perfection is the beginning and abjection the result. According to the Spirits, ignorance is the beginning; perfection, goal and result. It would be superfluous to try to show which of these two doctrines is more rational and gives a higher idea of the justice and goodness of God.

It is, therefore, through complete ignorance of their principles that some people confuse them.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine of 1859.

The Hindu belief in the fall into sin is shared by many other currents of thought, including the Roman Church. According to this belief, it would be necessary to suppose that God would not be so perfect, because, after a mistake of his son, created perfect, therefore, without experience, he submits him to a punishment in the flesh.

In the article “On the principle of non-retrogradation of spirits”, from the June 1863 RE, Kardec highlights that:

According to a system, the spirits would not have been created to be incarnated, reincarnating only when they commit faults. Common sense repels such a thought.

The incarnation is a need for the Spirit who, in order to fulfill his providential mission, works towards his own advancement through activity and intelligence, which he must develop in order to provide for his life and well-being. But the incarnation becomes a punishment when, not having done what it should, the Spirit is constrained.4 to recommence his task and multiplies his painful bodily existences through his own fault.

A student only graduates after passing all classes. Are these classes a punishment? No: they are a necessity, an indispensable condition for their advancement.5. But if, through laziness, you are forced to repeat them, then it is a punishment.6. To be approved in some is a merit.

What is false is to admit in principle the incarnation as a punishment.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine of 1863. Emphasis ours.

Incredibly, this false principle dominated the Spiritist Movement after Kardec. Today, without studies, there is talk, in the spiritist environment, about karma, the law of return and the law of action and reaction, attributing, to reincarnation, this arbitrarily punitive characteristic, of the “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” . It is a complete nonsense, which only exists, as we said, by the absence of the study.

In the Spiritist Magazine of February 1864, in the article “Spiritist Dissertations – Necessidade da Incarnation”, Kardec presents the communication of a Spirit, assisted by another, named Pascal:

God wanted the Spirit of man to be linked to matter in order to suffer the vicissitudes of the body.7, with which he identifies himself to the point of deluding himself and taking it for himself, when it is no more than its temporary prison; it is as if a prisoner is confused with the walls of the cell...

If God wanted his spirit creatures to be momentarily united to matter, it is, I repeat, to make them feel and, in fact, so that they suffer the necessities that matter demands of their bodies, with regard to their sustenance and conservation..

From these needs arise the vicissitudes that make you feel the suffering and understand the pity you must have for your brothers in the same position.. That transient state it is therefore necessary for the advancement of your Spirit, which, without this, would be stagnant.

The needs that the body makes you experience stimulate your spirits and force them to seek the means to provide them; from this forced labor is born the development of thought. Constrained to preside over the body's movements to direct them, aiming at their conservation, the Spirit is led to material work and from there to intellectual work, necessary to each other, because the realization of the conceptions of the Spirit requires the work of the body and this can only be done under the direction and impulse of the Spirit.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine, 1864. Our emphasis.

To what Kardec observes:

To these remarks, which are perfectly fair, we will add that, working for himself, the incarnate Spirit works for the improvement of the world he inhabits, thus helping his transformation and his material progress., which are in the designs of God, whose intelligent instrument it is. In your farsighted wisdom, Providence wanted everything to be linked in Nature; that all, men and things, would be in solidarity8.

Reincarnation is necessary while matter dominates Spirit. But since the incarnate Spirit came to dominate matter and annul the effects of your reaction on morale, the reincarnation it has no more use nor reason to be.

In fact, the body is necessary to the Spirit for progressive work until, having managed to handle this instrument at will, to impress its will on it, the work is done..

Ibid. Idem.

I don't think further explanation is needed. The principle of successive progress, through multiple incarnations, is shown to be the only one capable of giving reason to all the questions raised to date about divine justice.

In a next article we will continue the subject.

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Reading Recommendations (Books)

  1. Eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, all-powerful, sovereignly just and good. See The Spirits' Book, Chap. I, item III - Attributes of the Divinity [↩]
  2. RIVAIL, H.- L.- D. Speech delivered at the Distribution of Prizes. Paris, 1834 [↩]
  3. we already talked about how important this type of attitude is towards spiritist research. Far from constituting an act of arrogance or arrogance, it is necessary and instigated by the Spirits themselves - when superior [↩]
  4. This constraint, of course, is a result of natural, divine law, and not by the direct and arbitrary action of God. [↩]
  5. This is totally in line with Kardec's pedagogical thinking, aligned with Pestalozzi's pedagogy, totally focused on autonomy and away from the concepts of punishment or punishment, which, says Rivail, in his "Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education" (Paris , 1828), “annoy children instead of convincing them” [↩]
  6. Remembering that the word “punishment”, for Spiritism and for Rational Spiritualism, has the meaning of being the result of an action, and not of a divine imposition (see This one article). Thus, it is possible to understand that repeating a year, for the student, would be a consequence of their actions, and not a punishment inflicted by them. [↩]
  7. After all, reincarnation is a law. As Kardec would say in the first article cited, “God does not ask us for permission; does not consult our taste. Either it is, or it isn't.” [↩]
  8. This fundamental principle of the natural law, demonstrated by Spiritism, goes against the false principle of the Spirit isolated in itself. Let's see that, even without knowing or wanting to, the Spirit works for the whole, since always. If he had been created perfect (which is also nonsense), there would be no such need. [↩]

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