165th Anniversary of the Publication of The Spirits' Book

Paulo Degering R Jr
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Today is the anniversary of the publication of The Spirits' Book.

Many still think that it is a book dictated by a Spirit; others still think that it is a work created by Allan Kardec. Few know, however, that the first version of OLE was largely obtained through a systematic and rational study of numerous communications, obtained in a more or less systematic and organized way, by other scholars of mediumistic communications - many of them rational spiritualists. – even before Kardec even dreamed of talking to the Spirits of the dead.

After the first version, where Kardec sought a rational and consistent meaning for the content presented, the second edition came, almost three years later, and with practically twice the volume of questions, better organized and distributed. This second edition was born, above all, after the methodological study born of all that (and a little more) that is presented in the Revista Espírita, between 1858 and 1860, and with this publication, the objective of obtaining mediumistic information from everywhere from Europe (and the world) was very well attended w reinforced.

Therefore, no, The Spirits' Book is not a religious or philosophical work, produced by an individual or group: it is, in fact, a work produced through an observational and rational scientific method, and that never accepted any word from the Spirits as a unquestionable revelation. In fact, about this, Kardec states, in the Spiritist Magazine (about which we always recommend the study, for showing the most real possible face of Spiritist science) of November 1858:

“We will repeat, therefore, what we have already said about it, that is, that when the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the Spirits, it was so far from our thinking that we had built a completely different system on the antecedents of the soul, a system in fact. shared by many people. On this point, the doctrine of the Spirits surprised us. We will say more: it antagonized us, because it overthrew our own ideas. As you can see, it was far from a reflection of them.

This is not all. 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 questions relating to this problem.”

More than 50 years ago, Herculano Pires said:

We need to meditate in order to look for the way we lack to offer the world the spiritual solution to the social problem. Finally, we make spiritism fulfill its historical mission, overcoming the crisis that reduces it, for the moment, to a flickering light in the midst of dense darkness, to a kind of simple individual refuge for disappointments and human afflictions. For its destiny, as Sir Oliver Lodge has pointed out, is not only to comfort disheartened hearts, but to open up to the world the prospects of a new era. If dogmatic faith determined the religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages, with its sinister bonfires, reasoned faith will create the religious positivism of the third millennium, with the pyres of brotherhood lit in all quarters of the planet. Because, as Kardec had already said, the task of spiritism is to elevate the Earth on the scale of the worlds, transferring it from the expiatory category to that of a regenerating world. (PIRES, 1971)

What are we (not) doing? Why is the spiritist philosophy still not widely (re)known? In this search for a north, I answer, as my grandmother once answered me, in Espírito: “at least study”.

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