an interesting dialogue
– Oh, are you a Spiritist? Cool. Do you go to a center?
– Yes, I go to one near my house.
– And what do you do there?
– Ah, we watch a lecture on the Gospel, then take a pass… Then we say a few prayers, and leave. There is also child evangelization.
– Aaah… So it’s like a Catholic church.
- No! Because Spiritism has no ritual.
- Huh?! But it's just the same. At church, you arrive, there was a sermon on the Gospel, then you receive the host, then you pray, and you leave. Children participate in catechism.
- No but…
- Admit it, it's the same. Even evangelization, which I know has a positive aspect, is done in this kind of imposing way, isn't it? But what surprises me is that I've already studied a little of Spiritism, but I've never attended a center... And, from what I've studied, there wasn't any of that in Spiritism. For example: do you evoke Spirits to help them?
– No, you cannot evoke Spirits, because you could end up obsessed.
- Our! Who told you that?
- Huh?! Everyone from the center! FEB itself says so!
– Ah, the FEB… But… If Kardec himself evoked Spirits to learn from them, Spirits even of suicides, and often ended up helping them to reflect?!
– Ah, but that was in a controlled group, and these Spirits were already calmer. And it was Kardec.
– It wasn't what I read. And it wasn't just Kardec who evoked. Did you know that, at that time, people practiced studies, with evocations even of disturbed spirits, in their homes, in small groups?
– Wow, and weren’t they obsessed, feeling bad, about these inferior Spirits?
– Look, we are all inferior in relation to the most advanced spirits. And no, they weren't obsessed or sick. In fact, they often helped these Spirits while learning from them.
There is an evocation, for example, of this suicide, which was just a few days after his death, and he appeared to be in full disarray. Kardec asked some questions, trying to understand what was going on with that Spirit, and with these questions, he understood something. Then he asked for prayers and said goodbye, because he didn't want to talk anymore. I agree that seriousness and control are needed, but Kardec never mentioned any of the mediums becoming obsessed while trying to learn, with the analysis of the situation of Spirits like this, and even murderers!
- Murderers?!
- Yes! There is an evocation of Assassin Lemaire, look for it in the Spiritist Magazine of 1858, it is very interesting.
– And you said they evoked DAYS after death?
– Yes. Sometimes, hours later!
– Hours?! But I've always heard that, in addition to not being able to evoke, you have to wait patiently for that Spirit to gain the light and come to communicate of its own accord.
- This is not true. It all depends on the purpose. As the intention was to analyze these Spirits psychologically, there was no problem. Furthermore, it is clear that they respected the will of the Spirits. Many times they did not want to talk about their sufferings. There is another problem there: Kardec has always shown that being available to any Spirit brings the danger of purposeless, often misleading, communications.
But then you don't do evocations in the center?
– No. There is even a meeting of mediums, but it is closed to the public.
– Oh, natural. But there they evoke, then, to learn and help?
- No no. They are available to any spirit that wants to communicate. These days, they received communication from the Apostle John!
– How do they know it was John, and not another? Did they later question the guiding Spirit of the group?
– Spirit guide? No, the Spirit SAID that he was John the apostle and spoke of Jesus and the need for much prayer because the deadline is coming.
– Ah… But… What if this Spirit was using the apostle’s name and beautiful words to pass on wrong teachings?
– Oh, but…
– And at home, do you practice Spiritism?
– What do you mean, practice?
– Study, evoke Spirits for learning purposes by analyzing their situations…
– If we don't evoke it even in the center, do you think we're going to evoke it at home? Get out! Will a Spirit decide to stay there?
– What do you mean, “stay there”? Spirits are everywhere. There are definitely some here right now.
– Good God!
- Yes of course! And they are attracted by affinity of thoughts. If the evocation is done with serious intent and with knowledge, there is no problem. The wrong thing is to evoke it as a joke or lightly. If the evocator is proud, for example, a frivolous spirit can appear and say things that feed that pride. There, without studying, and willing to cultivate his own pride, the subject enters the spirit and ends up fascinated. This is the danger, but this can happen even through intuition, indirectly.
– Wow, I didn’t know that. I had already heard that, if you evoke a disturbed Spirit, it “sticks” to you.
- No of course not. It depends on the intention and preparation. Well, but is there at least a study at this center? Like, studying the works of Kardec, the Revista Espírita…
– Spiritist Magazine? What's that? No, we study works by Chico and Divaldo, because we know that Kardec's works are outdated in many points, right?!
– Outdated? My friend, I know that there are even beautiful and correct things in these mediumistic works, but they were the result of uncontrolled communications. How, without studying Kardec, do they recommend the study of mediumistic works? Spiritism is science!
– Science? No! Spiritism is religion!
– That was not what Kardec demonstrated. Have you read Genesis?
– Wow, I already took a leaf, but very difficult and, as I said, outdated! Imagine they believed there was life on the moon!!
– But, my friend, that was part of the human science of the time. But there is the part of the spiritist science.
– Spiritist Science?
– Yes, what was developed by the methodological study of Kardec, with the use of reason and with the need for universal confirmation of the teachings of the Spirits. But then, if there is a group of mediums in the house, how did it form?
– Ah, they are very old mediums in the house, and the group is closed.
– But what about other people’s mediumship?
– Ah, if a “good” medium appears there, he has to take a 5-year course in Spiritism!
– But what course, if they don’t study Kardec?
– No, there, there, there are some FEB booklets, where Kardec is discussed…
– At least something!
– And then there is the complement with mediumistic works. Have you seen the works of Ramatis, about mediumship??
- My God…
- What?
– Friend, Ramatis is a pseudo-sage.
– Pseudo what?
– It means that he pretends to be a wise man, but there are several absurdities in these works. We don't even know, in fact, if it's just a Spirit, because anyone can use that name.
– But I've seen some of his things, they seemed coherent
– Consistent? Well, being a Spirit, it is clear that something or other will be true... But the problem is that they accept what this or these Spirits say without even reasoning! These works are mystic, not doctrinal.
– How are they not doctrinal? The same thing he says, many others also say. It's not that?
- Not only that. It is necessary to submit this to reason, which demands knowledge. What is already established by this process can only be undone by the same process, that is, it is not enough to say the same thing everywhere, when there is no control, no method, no rationality. For example: Ramatis talks about seven spiritual bodies, which is mystical – you know those things about biblical, kabbalistic numbers? Then!
Kardec has already demonstrated, through studies with the Spirits and in a scientific way, that what exists is the perispirit, formed by the universal cosmic fluid. Just that. This story of seven bodies, after all, is materialistic.
– Friend, I don’t understand anything anymore! You mean everything I've been told is wrong?
– Not all, but most of it. When Spiritism was disseminated in Brazil, the Spiritist Movement was already worn out and weakened, due to an adulteration of principles after Kardec's death.
Well, the question is this: do you want to study, or are you comfortable with what you experience in this center?
– Ah, I feel good, and it’s so difficult trying to understand Kardec!
– Really, there are things difficult to understand in Kardec. But the dedicated study of the Spiritist Magazine, from 1858 to 1864, helps to understand a lot! Also, there are many study groups, and I myself participate in one. But, you see, these are study groups. There is no professor, nor is it a course.
Give it a chance, study it, and your reason will lead you, with the intuition of good spirits, along the path that best suits you.
– Yeah... I'll think about it...
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I didn't want to title this text. We don't need to give exhaustive names. It is enough that we understand the distance that exists between the Spiritist Movement and Spiritism. This distance needs to be overcome through dialogue, through facts, but only by those open to dialogue and learning. It's no use fighting the recalcitrant.