The attacks on Kardec and the attempts to tarnish Spiritism

Paulo Degering R Jr
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Let us not forget that Spiritism has enemies interested in hindering its progress, to whom its triumphs cause spite, not being the most dangerous those who attack it openly, but those who act in the shadows, those who caress it with one of their hands and tear each other apart. These evil beings insinuate themselves wherever they claim to be able to do harm. As they know that unity is a force, they try to destroy it, waving waves of discord. Who, since then, can claim that those who, in meetings, sow disturbance and turmoil are not agents provocateurs, interested in disorder? Undoubtedly, they are neither true nor good spiritists; they will never do good and can do much harm.

KARDEC, Allan. The Mediums' Book.

The enemies of Spiritism have been known for a long time, who, in the open, attack it from all sides and in all ways. There are those of religions, who fight it for preaching the principles of autonomy and free will; those of the materialist sciences, which cannot admit what they cannot see under the apparatus; those in politics, who see, in their ideas, no more than a threat to their hegemony; those of materialist philosophies, etc. These enemies, however, are declared. Worse are those who emerge, through carelessness or malevolence, in the bosom of the Doctrine, among studious men who should do everything for the good of this science.

There are in all areas the “Judas” of Spiritism. Kardec met some, the most prominent of which was Roustaing, who, out of pride and vanity, turned against Spiritism. They are Spirits who have not yet managed to understand the essence of the Spiritist Doctrine, who consider it a threatening “religion” and who surreptitiously wait for the slightest mistake they can grab onto, causing a real storm in a teacup. For this purpose, they use themselves, when incarnated, or individuals unaware or little aware of the true essence of the Doctrine of Spirits, over whom they influence due to their ideas attached to vanity and pride.

It does not matter that, in the formation of human spiritist science, there are a thousand consoling, liberating and transforming concepts: a single concept, later seen as false or wrong, born from men's ideas of the time, is enough for them to try to put the Doctrine of Spirits, the ideas of the men who investigated it and the Spiritist Movement, three different things, in the same basket, labeled useless or harmful.

One of those ideas that causes the most rage to the unsuspecting and uninformed man is that of racism in Kardec. Yes, Kardec says, in your conclusions, and moved by the concepts of science of the time, that the black, referred to by him as “Hottentot”, the “savage” African, would be a breed materially speaking, where less advanced spirits would incarnate in search of atonement and basic learning. A terrible, racist idea? Yes but only from the current point of view. At that time there was not even the concept of racism, because it was natural, according to science, to classify human beings into races – dozens of them.

Kardec used the scientific concepts and postulates of his time. So it was with fluids, which were later abandoned, so it was with racism. That simple. Starting from this MATERIAL concept of the inferiority of the black race, did he suppose that the Spirits they incarnated were inferior? Why?

Now, let's put ourselves in Kardec's situation: he lived in an ethnocentric society; he saw blacks being classified as inferior, by scientific concepts and treated as animals. Hence, he supposed that the spirits chose to incarnate black people to atone for their imperfections. This is explicit in “O negro pai César”, in the Spiritist Magazine of June 1859. Is there a mistake in this? If we consider how blacks were treated and classified by science and society, which imposed heavy sufferings on them, then it is not easy to suppose that some spirits chose a life like that, just as a spirit chose to be buried alive, thinking he had to pay. a past mistake?

A certain author says: “It is still recurrent spiritist centers that do not accept or accept with reservations communications from old blacks, Indians and other spirits who present themselves in an unconventional way as trustworthy”. Now, it is still recurrent, in the Spiritist centers, to go up to the tribunes to teach concepts of karma and the law of return or even to talk about “fluid water” and “the phone only rings from there to here”. And this is for the same reason that this Spiritist Movement does not accept such communications: the absence of doctrinal and scientific studies. Let's not confuse the Spiritist Movement with Spiritism. They are different things, just as the human aspect and the spiritist aspect of the Doctrine are distinct.

I remember that the same Kardec who was guided by science to classify blacks (and also other peoples) in such a way, made an effort to demonstrate that, “in spite of anything” (in the context of these opinions), they should be treated with respect and respect. dignity. This the author forgot to quote:

829. Are there men who are by nature destined to be the property of other men?

“It is contrary to the law of God every absolute subjection of one man to another man. Slavery is an abuse of force. It disappears with progress, as all abuses will gradually disappear.”

The human law that enshrines slavery is contrary to nature, since it makes man the irrational and degrades him physically and morally (note by Allan Kardec)

831. Does not the natural inequality of aptitudes place certain human races under the dependence of the more intelligent races?

“Yes, but for them to elevate them, not to further brutalize them through enslavement. For a long time, men considered certain human races as working animals, equipped with arms and hands, and thought they had the right to sell those of those races as beasts of burden. Those who do so are considered to be of purer blood. fools! They see nothing but matter. More or less pure is not the blood, but the Spirit.” (361–803.)

This same Kardec also made an effort to bring women to the same level of dignity and rights, as in the RE of January 1866 and in questions 817 to 821 of OLE. Still, in the same issue of the Magazine, he undoes, through Spiritist principles, the prejudices that give rise to homophobia:

“If this influence of the corporeal life has repercussions on the spiritual life, the same happens when the Spirit passes from the spiritual to the corporeal life. In a new incarnation he will bring the character and inclinations he had as a Spirit; if he is advanced, he will be an advanced man; if he is late, he will be a late man.

By changing his sex, he will therefore be able, under this impression and in his new incarnation, to retain the tastes, tendencies and character inherent in the sex he has just left. That's how they explain certain apparent anomalies which are seen in the character of certain men and women.”

Therefore, there is only difference between man and woman in relation to the material organism, which is annihilated with the death of the body. But as for the Spirit, the soul, the essential, imperishable being, it does not exist, because there are not two kinds of souls.

Allan Kardec, RE, Jan/1866

 And then Paulo Henrique highlights the use of scientific concepts of the time, again, by Kardec, to explain the term “apparent anomaly”:

It is very important to highlight here that the term “apparent anomaly”, used by Kardec, was present in the sciences of the time, referring to phenomena that escape the explanation of accepted theories, not being “normal” for them; but that, when a new natural explanation for the phenomenon is found in new theories, they cease to be “anomalies” and become natural phenomena. That's why she's "apparent"

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, Spiritist Revolution website, 08/25/2016

It was already a big step, for a man of that time, to have given soul to a people treated like a machine. But, we know, the march of progress advances and, as Kardec always said, we should always follow scientific advances, abandoning the opinion that proved to be wrong in the face of science. That's what we do here and it's the same thing that Allan Kardec would do if, today, he were incarnated among us. I disagree that there is a "lapse" in Kardec's character, as he demonstrated the opposite, all the time. There are concepts of the time, of a man deeply connected to the sciences.

The same author goes on to say that “Furthermore, it was very common for rich families to have black servants for all kinds of work. So, Kardec not only saw black people, but had the opportunity to meet, talk and learn about African societies, because the black presence in France was common”, on which I make the following observations:

First, the reference given to the first statement — McCloy, Shelby T. Negroes and Mulattoes in Eighteenth-Century France. The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Jul., 1945), pp. 276-292 — brings references only from the late 18th century. Rivail, having been born in 1804, would reach maturity only around 1816 at the earliest. There are 16 years of possible changes, and we cannot forget that France was a colonialist country and that, therefore, it sent most blacks to its colonies.

Second, the second statement lacks logic. Kardec was educated primarily in Yverdon, by Pestalozzi, where, at the age of 14, he taught other students. Afterwards, he lived, as far as we know, mostly among scientific and educational circles, dominated, of course, by the white man. Could it be that Kardec had so many opportunities to live with black people? Now, knowing Rivail's common sense, it is to be assumed that NO, otherwise he would have a different opinion in this regard.

And it remains to remember that the Spirits DO NOT advance the science that it is up to man to acquire, through his own efforts and intelligence. In the same way that the Spirits did not deny the false concepts of fluids (electrical, vital, etc.), abandoned by Kardec in A Genesis, to stay only with the theory of the Universal Cosmic Fluid, they also did not deny the human thesis of races, which only came to be overcome about a century later.

I cannot understand and agree with a text that, in a way, analyzes the subject in a partial way. It is not a matter of minimizing the fact, but of presenting it in full. It happens that a person who does not know the facts completely, reads a criticism like this, which puts, in the same basket, Doctrine, Kardec and the Spiritist Movement, and concludes: “Spiritism is really no good”. And that, my friends, is a great disservice to the Doctrine, so that, even today, many blacks and adepts of Afro religions still show rancor, prejudice and distance from spiritist science. Far from attracting, such opinions continue to drive them away.

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