The organizational culture of a spiritist center

Paulo Degering R Jr
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by Marco Milani
Text published in Spiritist Leader Magazine, ed. 188 – Mar/Apr 2022, p. 9-11

This article reinforces our recent observations regarding the Spiritist Movement, and demonstrates that we are not alone in this path.

Despite the different sizes and complexities of the services offered, all effectively Spiritist institutions have, as a common identity characteristic, the theoretical structuring of their principles and values in the teaching of Spirits organized and presented by Allan Kardec. Much more than the formal denomination displayed on its facade and documents, it is the internal culture guided by the content of Kardec's works that becomes the central element that makes any spiritist center recognized as such.

Historically, one can point to the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies (SPEE), founded on 04/01/1858, as the first spiritist center in the world and served as a reference for the constitution of numerous groups focused on the study and practice of Spiritism.

Although it was the model for the formation of other centers, SPEE's organizational culture was unique, as the set of practices, routines, norms, needs, concerns and expectations of its members is something that cannot be reproduced. Likewise, each spiritist institution, past or present, reflects particular aspects of its founders, maintainers and collaborators that give it a unique characteristic and subject to changes over time, but always distinct from other organizations.

It can, therefore, be said that the spiritist center has a common identity in Kardec, shared with other spiritist institutions, and its own microculture, resulting from the direct action of its participants, which differentiates it to a greater or lesser degree from the other centers.

The microcultural plurality is also determined by the doctrinal maturity of the leaders of each house.

A critical identity problem is generated when the institution's microculture conflicts with the common identity that would make it recognized as a spiritist. In other words, when the spiritist principles and values start to be reinterpreted and re-signified due to doctrinal immaturity and/or the particular interests of the leaders, the house moves away from the Kardecian direction and approaches it to a spiritualist context, but not a spiritist one.

Doctrinal dynamism, the need to add new knowledge and conceptual updating are often misused to justify the subversion or abandonment of the teaching of the Spirits in Kardec's work. Isolated opinions of disincarnated authors come to be assumed as new truths that legitimize themselves because they were revealed by supposed mediumistic communications and by infallible mediums. The universal control method adopted by Kardec is also rendered useless or distorted by the novices, devaluing the care necessary to accept information as valid.

It is not by chance that the relationship between power and culture in organizations is widely explored in the scientific literature in the area of Applied Social Sciences. The influence exerted by leaders, mainly charismatic ones, in institutions can change and consolidate the organizational culture in the long term and make the spiritist doctrinal references migrate from their Kardecian base to new theoretical frameworks, generally syncretic and mystical.

It was precisely the syncretism with Theosophy, Catholicism and Orientalism, in addition to superstitious hints, some of the factors that negatively impacted the development of the French Spiritist Movement after the disincarnation of Allan Kardec. The reflection of the cultural distortion was the dissemination of Roustainguism, for example, in some nascent groups, including Brazilians. Once the syncretic microculture is implemented, its harmful impact on the spiritist identity issue is visible.

Mistakenly, some more daring and distant from the careful analysis under sociological methods, confuse the countless organizational microcultures with their own common spiritist identity, leading them to suppose that there are “various spiritisms”. What exists, in fact, is an expected microcultural heterogeneity that does not represent, by itself, the Spiritist Doctrine, which is unique. Thus, there is only one Spiritism, but different degrees of doctrinal maturity of its adherents.

The more coherent with the teaching of the Spirits presented by Allan Kardec, the closer to the spiritist identity is the profiteer. The coder himself recognized and classified the different types of spiritists, signaling that there is no strict uniformity nor that the isolated thoughts and acts of those who declare themselves adept will necessarily characterize the doctrine.

In the book The Gospel According to Spiritism, in its chapter XVII, item 4, the characteristics of the true spiritist are explained, but even in this item the hasty reading prevents the real understanding of its deeper meaning. The following excerpt stands out:

“He who can rightly be qualified as a true and sincere spiritist is in a higher degree of moral advancement. The Spirit, who dominates matter more completely in him, gives him a clearer perception of the future; the principles of the Doctrine make you vibrate fibers that in others remain inert (emphasis mine). In short: he is touched in the heart, so his faith becomes unshakable. One is like a musician that a few chords are enough to move, while another only hears sounds. The true spiritist is recognized for his moral transformation and for the efforts he uses to tame his evil inclinations.”

               As can be seen, it is a limited interpretation to characterize the true spiritist only through moral transformation and efforts to tame bad inclinations, since these attitudes, although extremely positive and necessary, can be done by any human being, be it whatever your philosophical belief or orientation, including atheists. To be good, you don't have to be spiritual. That's why the maxim is outside charity (not Spiritism) there is no salvation. There are morally higher atheists than many religious people.

On the other hand, to be a spiritist, one must understand and experience the doctrinal principles and, for that, one must study and learn about the nature, origin and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationship with the corporeal world, according to the Spiritism. Science has, therefore, a prominent role in the production and advancement of knowledge about the reality that surrounds us, even entering spiritualist proposals, even if it displeases researchers still trapped in materialism.

Considering that it is not enough to be good to be a true spiritist, a spiritist organization must imperatively be conducted according to doctrinal principles and values. Conceptual deviations incorporated in organizational microculture under the claim that the only thing that matters is striving to transform morally generate spaces for subtle or clear anti-doctrinal infiltrations.

In summary, the spiritist movement, composed of thousands of institutions and activists, expresses a rich microcultural diversity and degrees of doctrinal maturity, but Spiritism is unique, expressing the teaching of the Spirits that were validated by the method of universal control and march, side by side. , with scientific advances as long as they are properly validated, overcoming the hypothetical stage. The organizational culture of the true spiritist center has, therefore, Kardec as ballast, it distances syncretic, mystical and superstitious postures, and welcomes the invitation to dialogue based on facts and on reasoned faith for the production and advancement of knowledge, which do not occur due to mere psychic opinion.

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