Umbral and the doctrinal basis
“O que é umbral?”; “quem vai para o umbral?”; “qual é o significado de umbral?”; “o que o Espiritismo diz do umbral?”. Os adeptos do movimento espírita estão tão preocupados com algo que, em verdade, não tem razão de ser – não como eles imaginam que seja.
I think that a lot of time is wasted on this subject, the “Umbral”, which is a peaceful point in the Doctrine (therefore, a result of the scientific method of research): it is nothing more than a mental creation of attached, suffering Spirits, when they are not intentionally cultivated ideas and transmitted in order to delay. This is so much a fact that, before Spiritism, the Spirit would say he was suffering in the fires of hell and, before Catholicism, he would say he was in Tartarus. They are not local, they are a state of soul and, if you seek to do good, with all your strength and with all your understanding, you should not worry about this suffering. moral.
Portando, a pergunta “o que é o umbral” fica assim respondida: é uma alegoria, uma figura de linguagem, representando um estado de alma. Também pode ser uma alegoria para representar essa camada espiritual mais densa, dos Espíritos mais ligados à matéria. Esse é o significado de “umbral” e, “quem vai para o umbral”, é todo aquele que esteja apegado às imperfeições, à materialidade, sabendo, contudo, que essa é uma ideia alegórica para ilustrar um estado anterior.
When you focus on what you want, based on previous ideas, you miss the important details of the work. Here's what we're going to demonstrate. This is a simple work analyzing the article “Umbral, is there a doctrinal basis to support it?”, by Paulo da Silva Neto Sobrinho, by Paulo Degering Rosa Junior.
Paulo Neto's study on the umbral
In the study presented by Paulo Neto, “Umbral, is there a doctrinal basis to support it?”, there are some initial problems. Let us check, for example, the very sensitive differences between the first edition of Heaven and Hell and the edition used by him. In the first edition:
In most cases, he is unhappy in this world through his own fault, but if he is imperfect, it is because he was already imperfect before coming to Earth, where it atones not only for current faults, but the previous faults that were not repaired, suffers in a life of trials the suffering imposed on others in another existence. The vicissitudes that man experiences are simultaneously a temporary punishment and a warning about the imperfections that must be eliminated to avoid future misfortunes and progress towards good.
KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell, 1868 (original edition).
In the edition cited by Paulo Neto:
[…] Most of the time he [man] is unhappy through his own fault; however, if it is imperfect, it is because it was already imperfect before coming to Earth, expiating not only current faults, but previous faults not repaired. Suffer in a life of trials what you made others suffer in a previous existence. The vicissitudes he experiences are, at the same time, a temporary correction and a warning regarding the imperfections that he must eliminate from himself, in order to avoid future evils and progress towards good. […].
NETO, Paul. Umbral: Is there a doctrinal basis to support it?. Available in: http://www.paulosnetos.net/artigos/send/6-ebook/806-umbral-ha-base-doutrinaria-para-sustenta-lo. Accessed on: 20 Apr. 2023.
Can you notice that the difference in the use of the verb atone causes a whole change of ideas? In the first version, by Kardec, it is clear that man atones in the land. In the version used by Neto, it is possible to infer that atonement begins before coming to Earth, which would not be true, according to doctrinal conclusions.
Not only that: this edition, by Paulo Neto, does not even match the 4th edition in French, already adulterated:
Le plus souvent, il est malheureux ici-bas par sa propre faute ; mais s’il est imparfait, c’est qu’il l’était avant de venir sur la terre ; il y expie non seulement ses fautes actuelles, mais les fautes antérieures qu’il n’a point réparées ; il endure dans une vie d’épreuves ce qu’il a fait endurer aux autres dans une autre existence. Les vicissitudes qu’il éprouve sont à la fois un châtiment temporaire et un avertissement des imperfections dont il doit se défaire pour éviter les malheurs futurs et progresser vers le bien.
Most of the time he is unhappy down here through his own fault; but if he is imperfect, it is because he was imperfect before he came to earth; he expiates there not only his present faults, but the former faults which he has not repaired; he endures in a life of trials what he made others endure in another existence. The vicissitudes he experiences are both a temporary punishment and a warning of the imperfections he must get rid of in order to avoid future misfortunes and progress towards good.
KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell or Divine Justice According to Spiritism. 4th ed. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2019. Available at: https://kardecpedia.com/roteiro-de-estudos/886/o-ceu-e-o-inferno-ou-a-justica-divina-segundo-o-espiritismo. Accessed on: 20 Apr. 2023.
It is evident that Kardec, in the first edition and also in the fourth, reaffirms that the atonement takes place on Earth, and to infer the opposite would be to assume that the Spirit atones, materially, in the spiritual world, which is intrinsically linked to the ideas of hell, purgatory, umbral, etc.
Let's go.
Spiritist Magazine
One of the most interesting articles in the RE is “About the Spirits who believe they are still alive”, from the 1864 Revista Espírita:
Not everything is proof in existence; the life of the Spirit continues, as you have been told, from its birth to infinity; for some, death is nothing more than a simple accident that has no influence on the fate of the person who dies. A fallen tile, an attack of apoplexy, a violent death, very often, do nothing but separate the Spirit from its material envelope; but the perispiritual envelope preserves, at least in part, the properties of the body that has just succumbed. On a day of battle, if I could open your eyes, which you have but which you cannot make use of, you would see many fights continuing, many soldiers still going up to the assault, defending and attacking the redoubts; ye would hear them even utter their hurrahs! and their battle cries, in the midst of silence and under the gloomy veil that follows a day of carnage; the combat is over, they return to their homes to embrace their old fathers, their old mothers who are waiting for them. Sometimes this state lasts a long time for some; it is a continuation of terrestrial life, a mixed state between corporeal life and spiritual life. Why, if they were simple and wise, would they feel the cold of the tomb? Why should they pass abruptly from life to death, from daylight to night? God is not unfair, and leaves this joy to the poor in spirit, hoping that they will see their state through the development of their own faculties, and that they will be able to pass calmly from the material life to the real life of the Spirit.
We have, in The Spirits' Book, the well-known question 1012, which, in my opinion, Neto completely disregarded to focus only on “we have already answered this question”, making an assumption that it would refer to question 87. This question, for In turn, he interpreted it as he wanted, not taking into account the often figurative language used by the Spirits:
1012. Will there be circumscribed places in the universe for the pains and joys of spirits, according to their merit? “We have already answered that question. Feathers and pleasures are inherent to the degree of perfection of spirits. Each one takes from himself the principle of his happiness or his misfortune. And as they are everywhere, no circumscribed or closed place exists especially for one thing or another. As for the incarnates, they are more or less happy or unhappy, depending on the more or less advanced world they inhabit.”
a) — In agreement, then, with what you have come to say, hell and paradise do not exist, such as man imagines them?
“They are simple allegories: there are happy and unhappy spirits everywhere. However, as we have already said, spirits of the same order gather together out of sympathy; but they can meet wherever they like, when they are perfect.”
The absolute location of the regions of penalties and rewards only exists in man's imagination. It comes from his tendency to materialize and circumscribe things whose infinite essence he cannot understand.
KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Spirits. 1st ed. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2019. Available at: https://kardecpedia.com/roteiro-de-estudos/2/o-livro-dos-espiritos. Accessed on: 20 Apr. 2023.
87. Do Spirits occupy a determined and circumscribed region in space?
“They are everywhere. Infinitely populate the infinite spaces. You have them continually at your side, observing you and acting on you, without realizing it, since Spirits are one of the powers of nature and the instruments that God uses to execute his providential designs. Not everyone, however, goes everywhere, as there are regions forbidden to the least advanced.”
Recorrendo à questão 87, note: “Os Espíritos estão por toda parte. Povoam infinitamente os espaços infinitos”. Espaço não é Universo. O Espaço é infinito; o Universo, não. Universo é material, cíclico, tem começo e tem fim, assim como a matéria. O Espaço, não.
Quando, ao final, ele assevera que “there are regions forbidden to the less advanced“, Neto tomou uma frase figurativa por uma frase literal. Ainda assim, se considerarmos o fato de que os menos adiantados não se desprendem do cenário material com facilidade, podemos facilmente supor a dificuldade de viver em regiões materiais que dão lugar a encarnações de Espíritos mais adiantados.
De volta à RE, temos em 1858, “O Tambor de Berezina”:
28. ─ Do you see other spirits around you?
─ Yes, many.
29. ─ How do you know they are spirits?
─ Among us, we see ourselves as we are.
30. ─ How do you see them? ─ How one can see spirits, but not through the eyes.
31. ─ And you, in what form are you here?
─ Under the one I had when I was alive, that is, as a drum.
32. ─ And do you see the other spirits with the forms they had in life?
─ No. We don't take on an appearance until we are evoked. Other than that, we are formless.
In the same year, in “Lectures from beyond the grave — Mrs. Schwabenhaus. Ecstatic Lethargy”:
29. ─ In what form are you among us?
─ Under my last female form.
30. ─ Do you see us as clearly as if you were alive?
─ Yes. 31. ─ Since you are here with the form you had on Earth, is it through the eyes that you see us?
─ ─ No, the Spirit does not have eyes. I only find myself in my last form to satisfy the laws that govern the Spirits when evoked and forced to resume what you call perispirit.
In the Spiritist Magazine of March 1860, Kardec, talking (via mediums) with three different Spirits, questions one of them, the Spirit of Charles Dupont, the one involved in the “History of a Damned”, an inferior Spirit, quite late and still very linked to matter. Kardec asks how he sees the Spirit of Dr. Vignal, a living person, evoked for that study:
53. ─ Do you see the Spirit of the doctor, with whom we spoke?
─ Yes.
54. ─ How do you see it?
─ I see him with a less transparent envelope than that of other Spirits.
55. ─ How do you know that he is still alive?
─ Ordinary Spirits have no apparent form. This one has a human form; he is enveloped in a mist-like matter, which repeats his earthly human form. The Spirit of the dead no longer has this envelope, as it is detached from it.
In other words: the Spirits continue to affirm that, for them, form is nothing. In the last case, Charles Dupont's Spirit, being inferior, himself affirms the same principle: common (detached) Spirits have no apparent shape. Kardec realizes, based on all this, that, when they claim otherwise, they are in a state of suffering. Ever. The big mistake, allow me to repeat, is wanting to say that, outside of the methodological study, it is enough to collect something that is said everywhere and it becomes true. If so, we should include elves, fairies and mermaids in the Spiritist Doctrine.
It is not enough and we cannot simply believe in the Spirits
From then on, Paulo Neto began to catalog several statements by Spirits, after Kardec — among them André Luiz — and other conclusions by Spiritists or Spiritualists who, putting the Doctrine aside, were left with their partial conclusions.
It is a very big problem to assume that the universal communication of the Spirits is enough for the acceptance of a new doctrinal idea. No: it must also attend to reason and respect what has already been climbed by the same method. So, when a lot of people read a book that talks about “umbral”, a lot of people start to accept this idea, which becomes an illusion after death; that becomes illusion in “unfoldings”; that the medium inserts, finally, through their own ideas, when translating a thought of a Spirit, during a communication.
É notável constatar que, no meio espírita, existe grande preocupação se, ao morrer, vai-se para “Nosso Lar” ou para o “Umbral”. Como “Nosso Lar” não poderia suportar bilhões de Espíritos em seus leitos e lares, logo surgiram centenas de novas “colônias”, cada uma situada, asseveram, sobre certas cidades ou regiões da Terra. O espírita deixou de estar preocupado com sua moral, mediante seu progresso espiritual, para estar preocupado se será castigado com o umbral ou premiado com uma cama confortável e sopa quente em Nosso Lar ou em outra “colônia” qualquer!
Neto misinterprets the concepts of atonement and punishment. I say this with certainty, because Kardec and the Spirits were using concepts present at that time, based on Rational Spiritualism, to express themselves.
When the author cites the article “O Dia de Todos-os-Saints”, in the RE of 1862, we have an excerpt highlighted in bold: “[...] unhappy spirits who endure the anguish of punishment and isolation”. It turns out that “punishment” was considered the legitimate consequence of evil, not an external action of a punitive force. The irresponsible father's punishment, for example, is to see his beloved son go astray. If the father is blamed for human justice and imprisoned for his irresponsibility, this, perhaps, means absolutely nothing for him, compared to the real punishment he himself suffers. Punishment is not something external, imposed, but as a result of natural law. We thus understand Spiritism from another point of view, much more congruent.
By not understanding this fundamental idea, Neto infers that suffering or pleasure, in the spiritual world, is an external, materialistic condition, as I have already demonstrated.
Next, Neto emphasizes the following passage:
“My dear brother, what horrible torments for all these [those who have chosen the path of materialism]! It's just like the Scripture says, "There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." They will be plunged into the deep abyss of darkness. These unfortunates are commonly called the damned, and although it is more accurate to call them the punished, they still suffer the terrible tortures that are attributed to the damned amidst the flames. Wrapped in the thickest darkness of an abyss that seems unfathomable to them, although it is not circumscribed, as you are taught, they experience indescribable moral sufferings, until they open their hearts to repentance.”
From this passage, Neto sticks to the idea of a “deep abyss of darkness”, without paying attention to the fact that this abyss, if it seems unfathomable and not circumscribed, can only exist as a mental creation of suffering spirits, being, therefore, , ephemeral. Let us evoke these Spirits and help them to understand that their pain is moral and not physical, and the abysses, mud, etc. , where they will have the new opportunity to work on their past attachments.
Did you know that there are spirits who put themselves in such circumstances because they made a mistake and because they believe in the Doctrine of Sin? Yes. An individual may, for example, have killed another because he believed that the other was coming to take his life. He believes that this is a sin and, thus, mentally submits himself to this suffering, which he externalizes in fluidic creations (which are not matter like ours, but something much more subtle, formed by the “condensation” of the Universal Cosmic Fluid). . Make him understand that this apparent error was born of an instinctive reaction; that God does not punish; that he can seek, in new lives, to work this instinct, to dominate it by will; that, finally, the one he killed has nothing against him, because he understands his mistake, and that Spirit will get rid of such ideas, really disturbing.
André Luiz himself makes this clear when he cites the case of the girl who, having died, her spirit did not want to leave the coffin, because she believed that Christ himself would come to take her out of there, subjecting her to judgment.
No mais, o autor, por uma ideia prévia, adota um paradigma que o leva a entender todos os exemplos dados segundo o que lhe convém. Ao citar “esferas espirituais”, “camadas espirituais”, não percebe que se trata de uma linguagem figurada e, nesse último caso, em referência à classificação dos Espíritos por “camadas”, como é feito na Spiritist Scale. By the way, this is very clear in question nº 1017 of OLE, which the dear Paulo Neto did not include in his assessment (my emphasis):
1017 [1016]. Some Spirits said they were inhabiting the fourth, fifth heavens, etc. What did they mean by that?
“If you ask them what heaven they inhabit, it is that you form an idea of many heavens arranged like the floors of a house. They then respond according to your language. But for these words room and fifth heavens express different degrees of purification and, therefore, happiness. It's exactly like when you ask a spirit if he's in hell. If he is unhappy, he will say Yesbecause, for him, hell is synonymous with suffering. He knows, however, very well that it is not a furnace. A heathen would say to be in Tartarus.”
The same occurs with other analogous expressions, such as: city of flowers, city of the elect, first, second or third ball, etc., which are only allegories used by some Spirits, either as figures or, sometimes, out of ignorance of the reality of things, and even of the simplest scientific notions.
When you focus on what you want, based on previous ideas, you miss the important details of the work.
The Countess Paula – Heaven and Hell
Many people use the case of this Spirit, Countess Paula, presented in Heaven and Hell, to support their theories of “astral cities”.
What are your palaces and your golden halls before the aerial abodes, the vast field of space variegated with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, compared to journeys through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, given the grand spectacle of the worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the powerful hand of the Almighty?
How are your most melodious concerts sad and noisy, in the face of this harmony that makes the fluids of the ether and all the fibers of the soul vibrate? How sad and insipid your great joys are compared to the ineffable sensation of happiness that incessantly saturates our being in the form of a beneficent effluvium, without any mixture of restlessness, any worry, any suffering! Here everything breathes love and trust and sincerity. Everywhere loving hearts, everywhere we see friends, no envious and jealous. This is the world I find myself in, my friend, and you will all reach it infallibly by following the right path.
Unfortunately, many stop reading the points that interest them. When the Spirit speaks of “aerial dwellings”, that’s enough to say that she was speaking of spiritual cities! What point do biases adopted in a hurry lead to…
Right after the quote about “aerial addresses”, he continues:
[…] the vast space field tinted with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, in front of Travels through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, compared to the grand spectacle of worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the mighty hand of the Most High?
These Spirits are talking about Space! He is not talking about astral cities, but about the Space! “Aerial addresses” is a figurative language to say about Space, “above” us!
She continues:
However, uniform happiness would soon become boring. Do not think that our happiness is free from vicissitudes. This is not a perpetual concert, nor an endless party, nor of beatific contemplation through eternity. No. It is movement, life, activity. The occupations, although free from fatigue, present an incessant variety of aspects and emotions, due to the thousand incidents that contain them. Each one has their mission to fulfill, their protégés to assist, friends from Earth to visit, Nature's processes to direct, suffering souls to console. There is a back and forth, not from one street to another, but from one world to another. Creatures come together, separate to come together again; they meet here and there, they talk about what they do, they congratulate each other on their successes; They understand each other and assist each other in difficult cases. Anyway, I assure you that no one has a second of time to get bored.
What exists “on the other side”, for detached Spirits, is action in divine creation! It is the transit through infinite Space, where they come together, here and there, with other Spirits, to act in the processes of Nature, to console suffering souls, incarnate and disembodied! That's it, and not a life limited by walls and false physiological needs!
Conclusion
It is important to note, however, that if such creations exist, it is because God allows them. In fact, this is something linked to the divine benevolence itself, which guarantees, to each one, a gradual and shock-free development. In the article “About the Spirits who believe they are still alive”, from the Spiritist Magazine of 1864, there is an important spiritual communication, from which we take the following excerpt:
Not everything is proof in existence; the life of the Spirit continues, as you have been told, from its birth to infinity; for some, death is nothing more than a simple accident that has no influence on the fate of the person who dies. A fallen tile, an attack of apoplexy, a violent death, very often, do nothing but separate the Spirit from its material envelope; but the perispiritual envelope retains, at least in part, the properties of the body that has just succumbed. On a day of battle, if I could open your eyes which you have, but which you cannot make use of, you would see many fights continue, many soldiers still rising to the assault, defending and attacking the redoubts; you would even hear them utter their hurrays! and their battle cries, in the midst of the silence and under the dismal veil that follows a day of carnage; the fight is over, they return to their homes to embrace their old fathers, their old mothers who are waiting for them. Sometimes this state lasts a long time for some; it is a continuation of terrestrial life, a mixed state between corporeal and spiritual life. Why, if they were simple and wise, would they feel the cold of the grave? Why would they pass abruptly from life to death, from daylight to night? God is not unjust, and He leaves this joy to the poor in spirit, hoping that they will see their state through the development of their own faculties, and that they may pass calmly from the material life to the real life of the Spirit.
We see, therefore, that the existence of such “places” is a fact, permitted by divine benevolence, to those who are not yet developed to understand something above and outside of matter and material needs.
We remember what is printed on our home page:
General concordance in teaching is the doctrine’s essential character, the condition even of its existence. It is evident that all principles which have not received the consecration of general agreement can only be considered as a fractional part of this same doctrine, merely as a simple, isolated opinion for which Spiritism cannot assume the responsibility.
This collective agreement of the opinion of the Spirits, passed, to the rest, by the criterion of logic, is what constitutes the strength of the spiritist doctrine and ensures its perpetuity.Allan Kardec – Genesis
Kardec gave the safe guide to the research method, often presenting it in RE. Current rescues of science at the time allow us to deepen this knowledge. Spiritists need to learn to study, just as those who do not study science end up believing in theories such as the flat Earth. I argue that the most interesting thing is to resume Kardec, understand Spiritist science (which depends on a scientific understanding of its context and current affairs) and then resume contact with the Spirits. With the detachment of one's own ideas and the firm purpose of research, it will be very easy to resume the step, clearing up this confusion caused in the Spiritist Movement with a single purpose: delay of moral progress.