Nosso último encontro virtual de estudos, no dia 06/04/23, deu-se em cima do artigo “Refutação de um artigo de L ‘Univers”, da Revista Espírita de maio de 1859.

Kardec's article begins with a full citation of a publication by Abbot Chesnel in the aforementioned newspaper, a publication that is, by the way, somewhat complex to understand and, in fact, quite confused in its ideas. Despite citing several current ideas at that time, such as Spiritualism, Magnetism and Spiritism (although he confuses Spiritism with Rational Spiritualism), it is very easy to notice the confusion of concepts made by the Abbot, who, as a central point, defends the idea that Spiritism (Spiritualism) would be a new religion, presenting dangers and a threat to the Catholic religion.

The text, although written with some depth, is notably frivolous, in the sense of making several statements about Spiritism (which, I reiterate, he calls Spiritualism), without having read even The Spirits’ Book – which is certain, because, right at the beginning of the work, Kardec makes a clear distinction between Spiritism and [Rational] Spiritualism. But that is not the main point of this discussion.

What we noticed in our study, and about what we had already talked about other times, is the distance between the modern Spiritist Movement and Spiritism "of Kardec" - with great care when using this term, because Spiritism was never of Kardec, neither created nor imagined by him. Now, it is not possible to deny that the Spiritist Movement made Spiritism a religion, a definition that many defend fiercely, while Kardec makes, with all letters, an arduous rational defense to the contrary, demonstrating that Spiritism had no aspect of a religion, but that of a science. We already talked about this in the article “Spiritism is religion?”, “Science and Spiritism: matters in opposite dimensions?“, “The distance between Spiritism and the Spiritist Movement” and on other occasions, but we decided to return to the subject due to the new opportunity provided and the emphatic persistence of Kardec – which continues in the RE of July, with a reply to the Abbot’s response.

The more we study the Spiritist Magazine, the more we notice this enormous distance mentioned. We invite the reader to ask: why? Is "our" Spiritism, based on information from Spirits not verified in a scientific and controlled manner, "more correct" than the Spiritism studied so seriously, in a methodical and controlled manner, by Kardec and other members of the Parisian Society of Studies Spiritualists? Note the following:

Its true character is, therefore, that of a science and not of a religion, and the proof is that it counts as adherents men of all beliefs, who have not, for that reason, renounced their convictions: fervent Catholics, who practice all the duties of his cult; Protestants of all sects; Israelites, Muslims and even Buddhists and Brahmanists.

Kardec, Spiritist Magazine, May 1859

Let's look coldly at the Spiritist Movement and try to find people from other religions inserted in it: they practically don't exist. They are very rare and, almost always, they are people who say they have “no defined religion”. Is this normal, compared to what Kardec demonstrated? Another question: if a Census agent asks you what your religion is and you are a follower of Spiritism, what will you answer?

All these questions are not intended to attack the personal belief of each one (because, in fact, Spiritism is not made of beliefs, but of scientific investigation), but to raise a serious aspect that, perhaps, many do not notice : defining Spiritism as a religion has become the reason for the downfall of the Spiritist Movement, which is increasingly emptied. Read the article quoted right at the beginning – you can find it on here – at least from Kardec’s answer and try to analyze, for yourself, how much the definition of “religion” makes Spiritism lose in reach and help in the development of terrestrial humanity. See the Abbot's position, compatible with the modern position of most of his opponents: instead of understanding in this science support for your beliefs; instead of having it as an aid to their uncertainties, they have an enemy in it, as if the fact of filling the pews of a spiritist center means emptying the pews of a church. Sadly, very unfortunately, this has come to be true.

We are extremely happy to have, among our most active students, at least one person who identifies himself as a practicing Catholic, who goes to Mass, who takes Communion, who practices, in short, his religion, but who studies deeply and who, many times, understands better than us the moral, philosophical and scientific precepts of Spiritism, understanding its scientific character with clear distinction. Spiritism is the science of what we are and what creation is; religion is the choice of human, material practices, with a spiritualist meaning.

Finally, think about the following: while Kardec recommended the practice of spiritist studies at home, which was really common at that time, ask yourself: is there, today, Spiritism outside the centers? What is said about mediumistic practice outside the spiritist center?

Finally, the invitation is reiterated: study the Spiritist Magazine. Many well-known mediums did not have access to it. Today, we have it, and in a very, very easy and practical way. Leaving it aside to study mediumistic novels, without contestation or investigation, is attachment, and brings demerit, difficulties and errors to Spiritism, which, today, in the Spiritist Movement, has nothing.

Once again, and always with joy, we invite you, dear friend, to participate with us in our Spiritist Magazine study group, live, online. In this group, we are not teaching, but learning. If you are interested in the Spiritist Doctrine, come and study with us!

we gathered every thursday, at 7:30 pm (entering at 19:20), and the study lasts about 1:15h to 1:30h.

You will need:

– Camera and microphone, and a quieter corner to study

– Around 01:15h free

– detachment own opinion and interest in to help, cooperate and learn.

Interest? Then just call on WhatsApp: 15 998 628 392

“God will be ahead”; “God will not allow this or that fact to happen”. But then the fact, seen as negative, is consummated. And at that moment, the faith of many falters. “How could God allow such a thing?”, many will ask. We will approach and face this problem in the following lines.

Many, in moments of suffering, injustice, barbarism, fall into this questioning and, without having a concrete answer, see their faith almost crumbling, to the point where they often turn away from religion and spirituality, falling into the grip of materialism. This movement occurs only for one reason: because we are almost entirely based on false ideas. Now the false idea, being false, does not stand against the natural law. It is denied and collapses, before the course of the divine law, no matter our protests. Was this divine impiety? Or, worse, would all this demonstrate that God does not exist?

We talk about false ideas. Well, one of them is that God interferes with our choices. Another is that God would have an opposite, the Devil. Both are linked to the same problem: the false assumption that we are guided, either by God, or by the Devil, or by the “forces”, or by the stars or by the “universe”. It is the false idea of heteronomy, which, created on a philosophical doctrine that dominates society, makes us fall into these moral and intellectual traps.

Therefore, the question arises: is it wrong to reason if this reasoning leads us away from God? Would human science be reprehensible in this sense? I say: the problem is not in reasoning, but in reasoning on false principles. Since man is God's creation, his intellect is also. To deny the intellect, reasoning, would be to deny God. Reasoning is necessary – it is an imposition of the law – and when reasoning leads us to a denial of the law (here, referring to the natural, divine law) and of reason itself, it means that we are basing ourselves on a false idea, which leads to false results.

I will not spend time stressing the impossibility of the existence of a force contrary to God, or even the non-existence of evil. Allan Kardec has already done an excellent and unassailable job in the works Heaven and hell and The Genesis. We recommend the study to the reader, preferably based on FEAL editions. We also recommend that readers who have never studied Spiritism, and who only have inaccurate ideas about this doctrine, read the booklet “Spiritism in its simplest expression”, available for download using the button below.

Let's talk about the impossibility of the interference of God, Jesus or any superior being in our choices, asking: how is any learning really established in ourselves? By imposition, or by the exercise of reason? Of course, the answer can only be the latter, otherwise life itself would be meaningless, and all materialistic logic would be right.

Imagine the situation of a father and his son. The first is the best father we can imagine: centered, affable, sensible, fraternal, but energetic, as well as intelligent and very wise. The second is a rebellious son, with a “strong temper”, as some would say. Despite all his father's efforts, this son insists on making decisions contrary to his recommendations, always ignoring his thoughtful warnings. Once, the son says to his father: “I'm going to a party with Dona Maria's children”, to which the father replies: “Son, be careful. They, unfortunately, do not listen to reason. They are always involved with bad people, with drugs and I heard that, recently, they even got involved in some robberies”. The son responds, “Bullshit, dad. I'm going!".

This father would have two choices: the first would be to use his physical and moral strength to physically prevent his son from leaving home in such bad company; the other would be to always warn him, but leave it to his free and autonomous choice of what to do. It was always this second choice that she decided to make, since her son's childhood. He believes that it is only through his own choices and their results, and not through imposition, that the child will really learn what he is still unable to learn through reason and intuition.

The son leaves and, hours later, the father receives a call: it's from the police. They are saying that the son was involved in a case of armed robbery and, although he was not the one who drew the weapon, he was arrested for collaborating with the group, taking a woman's purse and necklace, a fact pointed out by the two sons. from Dona Maria, who wanted to see their feathers reduced. Sadness overwhelms this father, who, however, does not become unhappy: “I did everything I could do”, he has it on his conscience. Convicted after trial, his son spends the next eight years of his life behind bars, while he visits him weekly, advising and morally stimulating him. The other two are in the same prison and, formerly companions of vagrancy, now subject him to vexatious acts. The son says he regrets it, but if it's just remorse, for the punishment received, or if it's moral regret for the acts performed, only time will tell.

This small allegory demonstrates that God, incomparable to this father, whose morals and way of acting cannot be criticized on a single point, could not act differently, always leaving us free will and choice as fundamental tools of our evolution . And that, transposed to the social level, explains everything that affects us through these means. God gives us matter as a tool of the Spirit, but guarantees us free will, always. Of course, he does not abandon us – on the contrary: through his own creation, which is solidary, we are constantly influenced by spirits more advanced than ourselves, who, however, do not interpose obstacles in our choices:

“To rise, man must be tried. To impede their action and put an obstacle to their free will would be to go against God and in this case the tests would become useless, because the spirits would not commit faults. The Spirit was created simple and ignorant. To reach the happy spheres, it is necessary for him to progress and to rise in knowledge and wisdom, and it is only in adversity that he acquires an elevated heart and better understands the greatness of God.”

Quote from São Luis in the Spiritist Magazine of November 1858

Let's see: it was the people themselves – which is a mass of individuals, each with their choices – who elected and glorified Hitler, who, inflaming a materialistic pride, led the nation to that state of barbarism. It was, in fact, the people who, inflamed against the truths that hurt their pride or seduced by gold, chose to release Barabbas, condemning Jesus to martyrdom. And what followed from that, if not a lot of learning, in the midst of absolutely adverse conditions?

But how to explain, within this dynamic, the suffering of those who no fall into the bad choices? We speak of those who, by their own will and for a different state of spiritual progress, make better choices, more connected to the morality of the divine law.

Now, in the same way that that father suffered, limiting his life in many aspects, to be with his son, doing him the good of seeking to help him exercise his reason; in the same way that the apostles of Jesus suffered, who, far from throwing themselves at arms, threw themselves at good, through the propagation of the ideas of Christ. They are proofs, derived from natural law. They are not arbitrary impositions of a wrathful God, with the purpose of collecting debts, but only consequences of divine law, which imposes effects that, in one way or another, bring learning to the Spirit. the natural law imposes that a layer of the Earth's crust, under pressure from the mantle, may crack, causing earthquakes or the explosion of volcanoes, whose effects will inevitably bring difficulties. This same law imposes that our choices will produce effects, which, of course, are not the result of a system of sin and punishment, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” or “karma”.

Look: the father did not choose that the son make those decisions, any more than the Jews chose that Hitler was elected. A person, murdered by a criminal, did not choose to be murdered: it was the criminal who chose to commit the crime, without reflection. Because we are incarnated, we are subject to the choices of others, and that is not a penance imposed by God: on the contrary, it is a reflection of the natural law, which brings us, I repeat once more, learning, useful for our progress. Now, how many Jews, imprisoned and treated like animals, have not seen their souls lifted by the exercise of fraternity and faith, while they dealt with so many and suffered adversities? An example: Anne Frank, who lived for two years locked in an attic, with her family, without being able to make a sound, went from the state of hatred of her mother to the state of brotherly pity, and probably learned a lot from it. The Spirit of the person murdered by a criminal may learn a lot from this, or may become attached to the fact, which may cause him suffering. One way or another, you will learn, after all, as we know, the end of a life in matter does not represent the end of the Spirit's progress.

For the liberated Spirit, the suffering of the flesh is nothing more than a passing detail, which it gets rid of with happiness, when fulfilled in God's time, and with commitment to learning, or which it narrows even more, when fulfilled with rebelliousness. or terminated ahead of time, by the regrettable act of ending one's own life - and that, once again, not by an act of divine punishment, but by the very condition of connection to the matter in which that Spirit places itself.

God, after all, has not abandoned us, and he has no material suffering or a single injustice that demonstrates that he is not, in fact, “in charge”. It is enough for us to detach ourselves from the false idea that it interferes with our choices, individual and collective, as well as the idea that the individual who acts in evil would be guided by a power contrary to God. No: everything stems from choices, relative to the moral and intellectual state of each one. The evil that arises from these choices does not exist by itself, as the individual is only choosing with a view to satisfying his own desires and inclinations, which, at the root of the problem, is linked to selfishness and pride. Kardec would say, in the August 1863 Spiritist Magazine:

So why evil and how to explain it? Evil does not come from a primitive fall that would have changed all conditions of human life. He has because of the non-fulfillment of God's law and the disobedience of man, misuse of free will.

These very deep roots are not destroyed with an axe: they need to be slowly unearthed by a continuous effort, in which education and fraternity play a fundamental role.

God, far from seeing himself diminished by this, exalts himself in all his attributes, as he gives us autonomy, progress through his own effort and the opportunity for learning and teaching: those who are a little above, teach those who are a little below. , in all the infinite levels of evolution.

Thus, everything is connected, everything is linked in the Universe. Everything is subject to the great and harmonious law of unity, from the most compact materiality to the purest spirituality. The Earth is like a vessel from which a thick smoke escapes, which is rarefied as it rises, and whose rarefied parts are lost in infinite space.

The divine power shines in all parts of this grandiose ensemble, and yet they wanted, to better prove the power if God, that he, not content with this, come to disturb this harmony! Let him lower himself to the role of a magician with puerile effects, worthy of a conjuror! And they dare, in addition, to rival him in skill with Satan himself! Never has the divine majesty been lowered so low, and they are astonished at the progress of unbelief!

There is reason to say, "Faith is gone!" But it is faith in everything that shocks common sense and reason; faith similar to that which, in times past, caused them to say: “The gods are gone!” But faith in serious things, faith in God and immortality is always alive in the heart of man and has been smothered by the silly stories with which they oppressed. It rises stronger, as soon as it is released, as a plant in a dark place recovers when it receives the rays of the Sun again!

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis, 1868. FEAL Publisher.

As for the question “Does God exist?”, we will answer that it is enough to look at everything we have said, with a look elevated above matter, and the finding cannot be otherwise. However, if your reason still struggles with the things you've learned, give the aforementioned works a chance, and study them. Most likely you will find there such a clear, brilliant rationality that you will find the answers you are looking for so much.

One last observation: we said at the beginning that, in the face of the fact, seen as negative, many faint. From our narrow earthly view, everything is negative, everything is bad, everything is retrogression. Let us look, however, to the past: how many advances, in all fields of humanity, were harvested from adversities? How much learning? This means that, although God does not interfere arbitrarily, his Law is perfect, and everything converges to a single point: progress, which is irresistible.

Optimism, therefore. Let's keep studying and doing our part. No individual, much less the world, will be changed by imposition or violence - and here is the collapse of many materialist systems and ideologies, which continue to seduce many unwary people - but only by autonomous will and conscious of each individual. Forward: the work is great, it begins with ourselves and spreads in fraternity to the next. I leave, on here, a suggestion of excellent studies.

Text fully reproduced from the Spiritist Magazine of July 1863, where Kardec graces us with a wonderful reflection on the power of the will and the responsibility of the Spirit. Emphasis and notes ours.

(Extract from the works of the Spiritist Society of Paris)

A young man of twenty-three years old, Mr. A…, from Paris, initiated into Spiritism just two months ago, so quickly assimilated its scope that, without having seen anything, he accepted it in all its moral consequences. They will say that this is not surprising on the part of a young man, and only one thing proves it: levity and unreflective enthusiasm. It is. But let's continue. This thoughtless young man had, as he himself recognizes, a large number of defects, the most prominent of which was an irresistible disposition to anger, from his childhood. For the slightest annoyance, for the most futile causes, when I entered the house and didn't immediately find what I wanted; if a thing was not in its usual place; If what he had ordered wasn't ready within a minute, he would go into a rage, to the point of everything breaking down. It got to the point that one day, in a paroxysm of anger, throwing himself at his mother, he said to her: “Go away, or I’ll kill you!” Then, exhausted by overexcitation, he would fall unconscious. It should be added that neither the advice of his parents nor the exhortations of religion had been able to overcome this indomitable character, which was compensated by vast intelligence, careful instruction and the noblest feelings.

They will say that it is the effect of a bilious-sanguine-nervous temperament, a result of the organism and, consequently, irresistible entrainment. It follows from such a system that if, in his folly, he had committed a murder, it would have been perfectly excusable, because it would have been due to an excess of bile ((Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo, in “Mesmer: the negated science of Animal Magnetism”, says that "Galen was wrong to rigidly defend the theory of humours as an authentic doctrine of Hippocrates. He disseminated and developed this theory widely by commenting, exhaustively, on Polybius' treatise On the Nature of Men. According to Galen's interpretation, life was maintained by the balance between the four humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, which came, respectively, from the heart, brain, liver and spleen. The imbalance would be the disease. According to the natural predominance of one of these humors In the constitution of individuals, we would have different physiological types: sanguine, phlegmatic, bilious or choleric and melancholic. “ To this day, when someone is happy and in a good mood, we say that he is in a good mood, and someone who is angry , we say he is in a bad mood.”)). It also follows that, unless he changed his temperament, changed the normal state of his liver and nerves, this young man would be predestined to all the disastrous consequences of cholera.

─ Do you know a remedy for such a pathological state?

─ None, unless, with time, age can attenuate the abundance of morbid secretions.

─ Now, what Science cannot, Spiritism does, not slowly and by force of a continuous effort, but instantly. A few days were enough to make this young man a gentle and patient being. The acquired certainty of the future life; knowledge of the purpose of earthly life; the feeling of man's dignity, revealed by free will, which places him above the animal; the liability arising therefrom; the thought that most earthly evils are the consequence of our actions; all these ideas, taken up in a serious study of Spiritism, produced a sudden revolution in his brain. It seemed to him that a veil had been lifted over his eyes and life had presented itself to him under another face. Certain that he had in himself an intelligent being, independent of matter, he said: “This being must have a will, whereas matter does not. So he can master matter.” Hence this other reasoning: “The result of my anger was to make me sick and unhappy, and it doesn't give me what I lack, so it's useless, because that's how I didn't progress. She produces evil for me and gives me no good in return. Furthermore, it can drive me to reprehensible and even criminal acts.”

He wanted to win, and he won. Since then, a thousand occasions have arisen that would have infuriated him before, but before them he was impassive and indifferent, much to his mother's astonishment. He felt the blood boil and rise to his head, but, of his own accord, it repressed it and forced it to descend..

A miracle could not have done better, but Spiritism has done many others, which our Magazine would not suffice to record them if we wanted to report all those that are of our personal knowledge, relating to moral reforms of the most inveterate habits. We cite this as a remarkable example of the power of the will and, moreover, because it raises an important problem that only Spiritism can solve.

By the way, Mr. A… asked us if his Spirit was responsible for his movements, or if he was simply influenced by matter. Here is our answer:

Your Spirit is so responsible that, when you seriously wanted it, you stopped the blood movement. Thus, if you had wished to do so before, the attacks would have stopped sooner and you would not have threatened your mother. Besides, who is angry? Is it the body or the Spirit? If the attacks came for no reason, they could be attributed to the blood flow, but, futile or not, they were caused by an annoyance. Now, it is evident that the body was not upset, but the Spirit, which was very susceptible. Annoyed, the Spirit reacted on an irritable organic system, which would have remained at rest, had it not been provoked.

Let's make a comparison. You have a fiery horse. If you know how to direct him, he submits. If you mistreat him, he shoots and knocks you down. Who is missing? Yours or the horse's?

It is evident to me that your spirit is naturally irascible, but as each one carries with him his original sin, that is, a remnant of his former inclinations, it is no less evident that, in your previous existence, you must have been a man of extreme violence that you probably had to pay dearly, perhaps with your life. In erraticity, your good qualities helped you to understand errors. You took the resolution to overcome yourselves, and for this to fight in a new existence. But if you had chosen a soft and lymphatic body, not encountering any difficulties, your Spirit would have gained nothing, which would result in the need to start over. It was for this purpose that you chose a bilious body, in order to have the merit of the fight. Now the victory is won. You have conquered the enemy of your rest and nothing can hinder the free exercise of your good qualities.

As for the ease with which you accepted and understood Spiritism, it can be explained by the same reason. You were a spiritist a long time ago. This belief was innate in you, and materialism was only the result of the false direction given to your ideas. At first muffled, the spiritist idea remained in a latent state and a spark was enough to awaken it. Bless Providence that allowed this spark to arrive at a good time to stop an inclination that perhaps would have caused you bitter grief, while you still have a long career to travel in the path of good.

All philosophies clashed with these mysteries of human life, which seemed unfathomable until Spiritism brought them its torch.

In the presence of such facts, one can still ask what it is for? Are we not in a position to send good omens about the moral future of Humanity when it is understood and practiced by everyone?

Ao fazermos o estudo do livro O Céu e o Inferno (( https://mundomaior.com.br/produtos/ceu-inferno-allan-kardec-feal/#:~:text=O%20C%C3%A9u%20e%20o%20Inferno%20%C3%A9%20uma%20das%20cinco%20obras,a%20respeito%20de%20seu%20destino. )), nos chamou a atenção a Nota do Editor 149 ((

With the spiritist autonomous moral theory, prejudices, privileges, pride, selfishness, fanaticism, incredulity, typical of the old world, no longer have any meaning. Competition, which highlights the most capable, proves to be unfair, and should be replaced by cooperation that integrates all of them in solidarity. The resources of education must be invested more widely among the simpler souls, so that they participate actively in society. On this path, humanity will find happiness: “Man is in solidarity with man. It is in vain that he seeks the complement of his being, that is, happiness in himself or in what surrounds him in isolation: he can only find it in MAN or in Humanity. You therefore do nothing to be personally happy, while the unhappiness of a member of humanity, of a part of yourselves, may afflict you.”

Allan Kardec. Heaven and Hell, NE 149 (p. 368). Kindle Edition.

This note he refers to an article that is in the Spiritist Magazine of March 1867. It is one of the Spiritist Dissertations of this edition.

He is particularly interesting for emphatically showing the importance of solidarity in our humanity. In addition, there is a good reflection on the paths that lead to happiness.

We fully share with you:

SOLIDARITY

(Paris, November 26, 1866 – Medium: Mr. Sabb…)

Glory to God and peace to men of good will!
The study of Spiritism must not be in vain. For certain
frivolous men, it's a diversion; for serious men it should be
for real.

First of all, I thought about one thing. you are not on earth
to live there in the manner of animals, to vegetate in the manner of
grasses or trees. The grasses and trees have life
organic, but they do not have intelligent life, as animals do not have
the moral life. Everything lives, everything breathes in Nature, but only the
man feels and feels.

How pitiful and foolish are those who
despise to the point of comparing themselves to a blade of grass or a
elephant! Let us not confuse the genera or the species. They are not
great philosophers and great naturalists who, for example, see in
Spiritism a new edition of metempsychosis and, above all, of
an absurd metempsychosis. Metempsychosis is nothing else

but the dream of a man of imagination. One animal, one
plant produces its congener, nothing more, nothing less. What is this
be said to prevent old false ideas from being again
believed, in the shadow of Spiritism.

Man, be man; I know where you come from and to
where do you go You are the beloved son of Him who made everything and gave you a
end, a destiny that you must fulfill without knowing it at all.
You were necessary to his designs, to his glory, to his own
happiness? Useless questions, because insoluble. You are; thirst
recognized for this; but being is not everything; it must be according to
laws of the Creator, which are your own laws. released on
existence, you are both cause and effect. at least how much
at present, you cannot determine your role, nor how
cause or effect, but you can follow your laws. Well, the
The main one is this: Man is not an isolated being, he is a collective being.
Man is in solidarity with man. It is in vain that you seek the
complement of his being, that is, happiness in himself or in what
surrounds him in isolation; cannot find it except in man or in
Humanity. So you do nothing to be personally happy, as much
as to the unhappiness of a member of Humanity, on a part
of yourself, may afflict you.

But, you will say, it is morality that you teach. Now, morality is a
old commonplace. Look around you: what else is there?
ordinary, more common than the periodic succession of day and
night, what need to feed and clothe yourself? IT IS
to this that all your cares, all your
efforts. And it is necessary, as the material part of the
your being But your nature is not double, and you are no longer spirit
than body? How, then, is it more difficult for you to hear remembering the laws
moral than physical laws, which you apply at all times? if you were
less preoccupied and less distracted this repetition would not be as
necessary.

Let us not stray from our subject. Well
understood, Spiritism is, for the life of the soul, what
Material work is for the life of the body. Take care of him with this
objective and rest assured that when you have done, for your
moral improvement, half of what you do to improve your
material existence, you will have made Humanity take a great step forward.

a spirit

The word psychology literally means “study of the soul” (ψυχή, psyché, “soul” – λογία, logia, “treatise”, “study”). This is not, however, what we see reflected in current – and long-standing – studies on the subject, because, as much as this area approaches the understanding of the soul as “the intelligent principle, rationality and thought”, it still seeks to in the cerebral matter the origin of all the characteristics of the individual

“Our brain, involuntarily, looks for elements to lean on, reinforce its convictions or interests, which leads to an individualized, own lifestyle. No matter what you use to strengthen or motivate your desires, your hopes, all the various forms are valid. People who don't believe in anything tend to be pessimistic and negative., because for them, nothing can happen to change their lives. For the dominion of reason binds man to what is earthly. Genetics explains the origin of faith.”

SOUZA, Andreia Maria S. “What is the soul: meaning in psychology and psychoanalysis”. Available at https://www.psicanaliseclinica.com/alma-o-que-e/. Accessed on 09/10/2022. Emphasis added.

As can be seen, even faith, for modern psychology, is still materialistic, conditioned, for it, to genetics and not to the soul (necessarily, therefore, in progress).

)).

The search area of to be human being, of his “psyché” (psyche) is predominantly characterized by the Aristotelian ideas that define the to be as a result of the body – ideas that, going through the centuries, created, contrary to the philosophy of Socrates and Plato, autonomous and spiritualist in essence, a regrettable heteronomous and materialist doctrine, which, in addition to removing from the to be the principles of autonomy and will gave rise to the absurd ideas of racism, eugenics and, in the individual field, heteronomy, which, from the individual, contaminates his social environment and, finally, defines social, philosophical and political structures.

Guided and contaminated by the Aristotelian idea, where the individual attributes, when purely materialistic, all his moral characteristics to the genetics of the body and, when “spiritualist”, to one or more beings acting as arbitrators (as if God, or “the gods” , whether vengeful, interfering) or evil-enhancing beings – the devil, demon(s), etc. – society mischaracterizes itself as social, becoming predominantly selfish and insulating the being in itself, aiming at the care of your material needs, instead of leading him to the understanding of his will as the principle of everything, in the daily exercise and in solidarity with the other.

Religions, finally, took away, for sectarian interests, the autonomy of the individual, to subordinate him to the whims and punishments of other beings, interfering, bellicose and vindictive, when not malicious, while science, not seeing rationality in the dogmatic principles of religions, denying it completely, denied human spirituality, only to fall into the same error, taking away the individual's autonomy by transforming him into a “ventriloquist's dummy” of body chemistry. It is not by chance that Darwinian eugenics was based on Aristotle, because, if on the one hand it is right in observing the natural fact of selection, on the other hand, it extends it to the human being, placing it, once again, as It is made of your body, and not as a determining factor about it. Darwin said: “Linaeus and Cuvier were my two deities, but they are nothing more than schoolboys compared to old Aristotle.”.

We did not know, however, that for an expressive amount of time, and in capital of the world From the 18th and 19th centuries, a philosophical current was born that resumed the concepts of the autonomy of the individual as a fundamental principle of existence and the definition of (or of) to be. a philosophy that defined at moral sciences French ((Says Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo in “Autonomia”: The first division of the sciences, presented in Paul Janet's Treatise on Philosophy, according to the structure prevailing at the Sorbonne University in the 19th century, was between:

a) The exact sciences or mathematics.

b) The natural sciences, which study the objects of the physical world (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.).

c) The moral sciences, which study the moral world, which comprises the actions and thoughts of the human race.

The moral sciences, in turn, were divided into four groups:

• The philosophical sciences, divided into two classes: psychological (psychology, logic, morals, aesthetics) and metaphysical (theodicy, rational psychology, rational cosmology).
• The historical sciences (history, archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, geography) study human events and development over time.
• The philological sciences (philology, etymology, paleography, etc.), whose object is language and human symbolic expression.
• The social and political sciences (politics, jurisprudence, political economy), which study the social life of human beings (JANET, 1885, p. 15-17).)) and which became a fundamental subject in the Normal School, in teacher training, and which later began to be adopted in lyceums and colleges, but which was surreptitiously erased from human history, together with two other philosophical sciences of the same foundation, as we will see below.

It was at the beginning of the 19th century that Maine de Biran and, later, Victor Cousin, among others, took up the concept of will as a principle psychologically elaborated by the soul, defining free will. For these thinkers – at a time when, as we have seen, philosophy was treated as a science – the autonomy of the individual is based on the will as a characteristic of the soul. From this fundamental principle, the principles that distanced the being from heteronomy were born, placing it as an autonomous agent of itself and, through its solidary action, of society. The individual was no longer a reflection of his genetics (or, as they thought at the time, their dispositions bile ((White bile defined good and black bile defined evil, in body chemistry. Based on this principle, many doctors performed bloodletting, often deadly, seeking to eliminate the black bile.)), but the primary reflection of its will.

This revolutionized the psychology of the time and totally transformed the moral sciences, as it placed the individual in the condition of being solely responsible for his moral conditions and choices. More: it started to deal with moral issues, under these principles, in order to separate what was external to the individual - the emotions (at the time called passions), pleasures, physical pain, etc. internal to the individual – the choices, born from the will of his soul (being that the soul would be, for them, the being that defines the will and that survives death, without, however, investigating it in that state) that, in the end, would determine your state of happiness or unhappiness.

This knowledge is fantastic and deserves to be recovered and studied! See: today, we define (or confuse) our state of happiness and unhappiness by external factors – if I don't have money to travel, or if I have a weakened body, or if I lost dear people, think unhappy, since happiness, for the current materialist thought, would be in the things of the world - parties, travel, money, etc. By understanding this morality defined by this spiritualist philosophy – rational spiritualism, as it became known – we begin to separate things: can I be unhappy because of a condition or event, or not having pleasures because of not having money, or having poor health, or physical limitations, but that is not what defines my happiness, for this is a construction of the will of my soul as far as morals are concerned, that is, in my striving for detachment of everything that arises from conditions external to my will. For example: as a condition external to my will, defined by my soul, there is the bodily impulse to react violently to a given situation; By allowing this impetus, which is born from the protective instinct, to dominate my will, I can perform actions that later make me regret (when I become aware), for what I will suffer. If I cling to such a way of acting, I will develop a habit and, hence, an addiction, which will make me suffer indefinitely, until, repenting, I consciously resolve to seek to detach myself from this error, in an effort that can only be autonomous. , and not imposed.

Perhaps the person who best defined these concepts is Paul Janet, in two main works: “Small Elements of Morals”, a very succinct and simple to read work (we recommend reading it!), available for download here and also available on Amazon Kindle, and “Elementary Treatise on Philosophy“, a much larger and more complex work.

But does not stop there. We mentioned the issue of black bile and white bile, which took over the medical concepts of the time and which, due to the absurd actions imposed on patients, such as bloodletting or “medicines”, which even mixed poison, weakened and sometimes killed the sick. Contrary to these ideas, still in the 18th century, Mesmer, observing some patients, arrived – in a very summarized way – to elaborate concepts that were also autonomous in the treatment of health, theorizing that the individual could also if heal by the action of your will. Hahnemann, with homeopathy, followed the same principle. For Mesmer, the external agent, acting through the will of the sick individual – what became known as magnetism – could help him to achieve, through persistent work, cures that, for many, would be impossible and, in some cases, almost miraculous (which, in fact, it was not: it is just an unknown science). Such was the accuracy of his theories that, already at that time, and against the scientific theories of the time, they were aligned with the concepts now in force and demonstrated by modern physics, such as those of the Quantum Field Theory and the existence of elementary matter, " quintessenced”, which gives rise to all matter (dark matter). It is all knowledge that would require a real book to treat it. As this book already exists, we recommend reading it: “Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism”, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.

We also mentioned the question that the study of rational spiritualists was limited to understanding the soul as an agent of the will, external to the body and dominant over it, surviving death (by mere rational inference from the previous postulates), but with an unknown subsequent fate, since unobservable. It turns out, however, that “something” was happening, gaining ground for the establishment of a new science, born, at the time, like all the others: through the rational and methodological observation of the facts of nature.

Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo says, in “Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism”:

“The magnetizers proved very early on the relations of somnambulists with invisible beings. Deleuze, a disciple of Mesmer, in his correspondence with Dr GP Billot for more than four years, from March 1829 to August 1833, was initially reluctant, but eventually stated: “Magnetism demonstrates the spirituality of the soul and its immortality; he proves the possibility of communication between intelligences separated from matter with those still linked to them..” (BILLOT, 1839)”

[…]

Deleuze, in turn, stated: “I see no reason to deny the possibility of the appearance of people who, having left this life, take care of those they loved here and come to express themselves to them, to give them healthy advice. I just got an example of this.” (Ibid.)

[…]

“Years later, the magnetizer Louis Alphonse Cahagnet (1809-1885), with courage and determination, talked to the spirits through his ecstatic somnambulists, especially Adèle Maginot, recording in his work more than one hundred and fifty letters signed by witnesses who recognized the identity of the communicating spirits. Cahagnet anticipated this spiritist science research instrument by more than ten years.”

FIGUEIREDO. Mesmer: the denied science of animal magnetism.

We have arrived, therefore, at the birth of the spiritist science, a science, and not, as many believe, a “religion”. Being aware of the facts that swarmed across Europe (and the world, in fact) and, removing, through investigation, the quackery that only aimed to attract curious people and their bags of money, Professor Rivail ((Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail.)) set out, after much insistence from some known people, to a study that culminated in what became known as Spiritism, which, instead of being born, like all religious doctrines, from the isolated opinion of an individual or a group, was born from the rational analysis of thousands of communications, obtained from all “corners” of the world, in the same way that the magnetizers who preceded him also obtained theirs: through individuals placed in a state of somnambulism, induced by magnetism (from Mesmer). A fact was established, supported by reason: the soul, previously uninvestigatable, could, by its will, communicate through the soul of the individual placed in a somnambulistic state.

Through these communications, Allan Kardec, the name adopted by Rivail in order not to confuse his work as an educator and scientist with his new studies, inaugurated a new era in psychological study, because now, fully aligned with the concepts already developed by rational spiritualism, he studied the soul in its state, after death, of happiness or unhappiness, fruits of its choices. Not only: against the preconceived ideas he had, along with other scholars, regarding the origin of the soul, communications from countless Spirits evidenced, by reason, the law of reincarnation as a necessary element for the incessant progress of the Spirit ((Highlights Kardec, in his Magazine:

“Undoubtedly, say some opponents, you were imbued with such ideas and that is why the spirits agreed with your way of seeing. It is an error that proves, once again, the danger of hasty and unexamined judgments. If, before judging, such people had taken the trouble to read what we write about Spiritism, they would have spared themselves the trouble of such a light objection. We will therefore repeat 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 that we actually shared. by many people. On this point, the doctrine of the Spirits surprised us. We'll say more: it upset us, because it overthrew our own ideas. As you can see, it was far from being 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 issues relating to this problem.

In the eyes of some people, it may seem strange to use the term evidence, in such a subject, however, it will not be inappropriate for those who are used to scrutinizing spiritist phenomena. For the attentive observer, there are facts which, although not of an absolutely material nature, nevertheless constitute true evidence, at least moral evidence.

This is not the place to explain these facts, which can only be understood through continuous and persevering study. Our aim was only to refute the idea that this doctrine is nothing more than a translation of our thinking.”

KARDEC, Allan. Spirit Magazine. 1858.

)), in their choices to return to the subject, to continue their learning and, in many cases, to, after the repentance process, through your choices, and not by an arbitrary imposition, give rise to the necessary evidence for the search for detachment from habits and vices that, transformed into imperfections, led them to suffering.

Such studies complemented what Rational Spiritualism could not explain and demonstrated that the autonomy of the being, defined by his will and his free will, was indeed a determining factor in his progress and, consequently, in his state of happiness or unhappiness, as happiness would be the closer to the law natural would be, while unhappiness would be in fighting it, developing attachments. In recognizing the state of unhappiness and its reason, the Spirit would choose new opportunities that would provide learning, not being, under any circumstances, the effect of a punishment imposed by the mistake committed.

Here, dear reader, are the facts of the true psychological and philosophical revolution that, for more than a century, remained unknown to society, swept under the rug by a strong materialist reaction. Once recognized as a science, today, under the empire of a materialist – and inexact – understanding of what is science, is treated as pseudoscience, discredited and discredited under this classification. Here are the facts that, currently, are inconceivable to be addressed in the classrooms of philosophy, medicine, psychology and similar classes. Here are the facts, finally, that led the whole world to dive or remain under the fearsome principles that take away autonomy from being and that transform man into a veritable mass of flesh, defined by his body chemistry and, consequently, by his DNA. . Today, in general, one does not seek to investigate the origin of unhappiness, depression or disturbances by investigating the soul and its will: on the contrary, one seeks to investigate what is the gene of psychopathy, not considering that the “anomalies ” would be defined by the soul, not the other way around.

It happens, however, that the human being, precisely through spiritual progress, which does not cease, more and more search autonomy, because, slowly and progressively, it approaches, by reason itself, the verification and understanding of these principles, since the progress of the Spirit does not occur only in the state of incarnation. Autonomous ideas are starting to gain strength, both in society in general and in scientific circles, which, every day, come closer to this truth arbitrarily erased from human knowledge in the past. That is why, vehemently, we recommend the study of the cited works to, later, indicate, to those who feel compelled to do so, the study of the Spiritist Magazine, prepared by Kardec, from January 1858 to April 1869, where it is exposed, very clearly, the formation of this philosophical and moral doctrine that, in order to be well understood, lacks the understanding of the context in which it was born and formed.

We spoke of truth arbitrarily erased from human knowledge. Spiritism, having been the only scientific and philosophical doctrine that deepened the study of the psychology of the Spirit after the death of the body – this is why the Spiritist Magazine received, as subtitle, “Journal of Psychological Studies” – studied the facts that they were given rationally and with scientific methodology (which can be very well understood through a serious study of the work of Allan Kardec, and about which we have spoken a few times in our articles).

Duly contextualized in its time, the Spiritist Doctrine was so rational and logical, clear and, in a way, simple, that it “converted” ((Of course, the meaning given here to “convert” is to adopt principles and ideas of a doctrine, and not of affiliating with any religious system.)) countless people, even atheists and materialists, from the working classes to those occupying the highest social positions. Today, however, the Spiritist Movement, contaminated, for more than a century, by adulterations in Kardec's two final works and by ideas instilled in his environment, has lost precisely this rational and logical characteristic of an observational science. Currently, many move away from the spiritist environment precisely because they see their reasoning clashing with false concepts of debt payment, karma, divine punishment through reincarnation and unreasonable acceptance of any supposed spiritist psychography, without subjecting it, as Kardec recommended, to the scrutiny of reason.

This is why there is a need to study and get to know Spiritism in the original works ((The works Heaven and Hell and Genesis were respectively adulterated in their 4th and 5th editions, but the publisher FEAL currently already has the original works, with a huge amount of contextualizing notes by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo.))] by Kardec. Spiritism Never it was a religion, nor was it born with the intention of competing with religions for a position that does not belong to it ((Kardec would say, in the Revista Espírita of 1862:

“With regard to the issue of the miracles of Spiritism that was proposed to us, and which we dealt with in our last issue, this is also proposed: 'The martyrs sealed the truth of Christianity with their blood; where are the martyrs of Spiritism?'

You are therefore very urged to see the Spiritists placed on the bonfire and thrown to the wild beasts! Which should make you suppose that your good will would not be lacking if that were still the case. You want, therefore, with all your strength to elevate Spiritism to the status of a religion! Note well that he never had that pretension; he never set himself up as a rival to Christianity, of which he claims to be the son; that he fights his cruelest enemies: atheism and materialism. Once again, it is a philosophy resting on the fundamental foundations of all religion, and on the morals of Christ.; if he denied Christianity, he would contradict himself, he would commit suicide. It is these enemies that show it as a new sect, which gives it priests and great priests. They will shout so much, and so often, that it is a religion, that one could end up believing in it. Is it necessary to be a religion to have its martyrs? Have not science, the arts, genius, work, at all times, had their martyrs, as have all new ideas?”

Allan Kardec – Spiritist Magazine of 1862

)). It is, first of all, a moral science, as we have demonstrated, but also a science born from the observation of the facts of nature. Studied as such, it removes prejudices and attacks the only real enemy of human autonomy, materialism, demonstrating it to be false and unsustainable.

“The Sorrows of Young Werther” is an epistolary novel by Goethe, from 1774, where its protagonist, a young man from the high German aristocracy, exchanges correspondence with a friend named Guilherme, telling about his travels and everyday experiences (see introductory paragraph of the article), until the encounter with the beautiful Charlotte.

Although both Werther and Charlotte are, in fact, living a love story, the boy cannot be completely reciprocated by his beloved, as she is married to another man. Werther, in turn, sees no other way out and puts an end to his life, shooting himself in the head. The moment of his suicide is one of the most moving episodes in the book and, considered by many, in the history of literature.

The realistic and disturbing tone of the novel caused a real commotion among the young people of the time, who, attracted by the passionate and depressive spirit of their respective protagonist, decided to follow the same path, putting an end to their own lives. There were a large number of suicides related to the reading of Goethe's little-great novel, quickly becoming a cursed work for the church. In psychoanalysis, a term called the Werther Effect was created, in reference to the character and characterized by his suicidal phenomenology.

And what does this story have to do with the Spirits? Why, everything! Goethe was a personality of an incarnated Spirit – a Spirit who, incidentally, later showed himself to be very sorry for the ideas thrown at unsuspecting minds, when, in 1859, evoked by Kardec, he responded like this, as presented in the Spiritist Magazine of that year:

12. ─ What do you think of Werther?

─ Now I disapprove of the outcome.

13. ─ Wouldn't this work have done a lot of harm, exalting passions?

─ It did, and it caused misfortunes.

14. ─ It was the cause of many suicides. Are you responsible for that?

─ Since there was an evil influence spread over me, that's exactly why I still suffer and regret it.

We are responsible for what we say and, if we cannot be fully responsible for the actions that others take as a result of our own – since it is up to the autonomy and will of the other to choose between acting in this or that way – we are, at least, largely responsible for inducing other minds in the mistakes of imperfections that, many times, hinder ourselves.

We follow, therefore, this brief reflection, presenting, in full, an article by Allan Kardec, in the Spiritist Magazine of November 1859 – “Should we publish everything that the Spirits say”?

This question was addressed to us by one of our correspondents.

We answer it as follows:

Would it be good to publish everything that men say and think?
Anyone who has a notion of Spiritism, however superficial, knows that the invisible world is made up of all those who left the visible envelope on Earth. But putting off the carnal man, not all, for that very reason, put on the robe of angels. There are, therefore, Spirits of all degrees of knowledge and ignorance, of morality and immorality. Here is what we must not lose sight of. Let us not forget that among Spirits, as on Earth, there are frivolous, inattentive and playful beings; false sages, vain and proud of incomplete knowledge; hypocrites, malevolents and, what would seem inexplicable to us, if we somehow didn't know the physiology of this world, there are sensuals, villains and debauchees who crawl in the mud. Alongside these, as on Earth, there are good, human, benevolent, enlightened beings endowed with sublime virtues. As, however, our world is neither in the first nor in the last position, although it is closer to the last than to the first, it follows that the world of spirits encompasses beings more intellectually and morally advanced than our more enlightened men, and others who are in an inferior position to that of the lowest men.

Since these beings have a patent means of communicating with men and of expressing their thoughts by intelligible signs, their communications must effectively reflect their feelings, their qualities or their vices.

According to the character and elevation of the Spirits, communications may be frivolous, trivial, gross and even obscene, or marked by intellectual elevation, wisdom and sublimity. They reveal themselves by their own language. Hence the need not to blindly accept everything that comes from the occult world, and to subject everything to severe control. With the communications of certain spirits, in the same way as with the speeches of certain men, one could make a very unedifying collection. We have before our eyes a small English work, published in America, which is proof of this. It can be said that a lady would not recommend it for reading to her daughter. Therefore, we do not recommend it to our readers.

There are people who find this funny and amusing. Let them delight in intimacy, but keep it to themselves. What is even less conceivable is that they should boast of obtaining unseemly communications. This is always an indication of sympathies that cannot be a reason for vanity, especially when these communications are spontaneous and persistent, as happens to certain people. This absolutely does not allow us to make a hasty judgment of their present morality, for we know people afflicted with this kind of obsession, to which their character in no way lends itself. However, like all effects, this one too must have a cause, and if we do not find it in present existence, we must look for it in previous experience. If this cause is not within us, it is outside of us. However, there is always a reason why we are in this situation, even if that reason is just a weakness of character. The cause is known, it is up to us to make it
cease.

In addition to these frankly bad communications, which shock any slightly delicate ear, there are others that are simply trivial or ridiculous. Will there be any inconvenience in publishing them? If they are publicized for what they are worth, there will be only a lesser evil. If they are studied as a study of the genre, with the necessary precautions and with the necessary comments and restrictions, they may even be instructive, insofar as they contribute to getting to know the spiritist world in all its nuances. With prudence and skill, anything can be said. The evil is in presenting as serious things that shock common sense, reason or conveniences. In this case, the danger is greater than you think.

To begin with, such publications have the inconvenience of misleading people who are not in a position to examine them and discern what is true and what is false, especially in a matter as new as Spiritism. Secondly, they are weapons provided to opponents, who do not miss the opportunity to draw arguments against the high morality of spiritist teaching from this fact, because, once again, the evil lies in seriously presenting notoriously absurd things. Some may even see a desecration in the ridiculous role we give to certain justly venerated characters, to whom we attribute language unworthy of them. People who have studied spirit science in depth know what attitude should be adopted in such cases. They know that mocking spirits do not have the slightest scruple to adorn themselves with respectable names, but they also know that these spirits only abuse those who like to be abused and who do not know or do not want to destroy their tricks by the means of control already known. The public, who is ignorant of this, sees only one thing: an absurdity offered to their admiration as if it were a serious thing, and because of this they say to themselves that if all Spiritualists are like this, they do not despise the epithet with which they were bestowed. Without the slightest doubt, such a judgment is hasty. You rightly accuse its authors of levity and say to them: study the matter and do not examine only one side of the medal. There are, however, so many people who judge a priori, without bothering to raise a straw, especially when there is no good will, that it is necessary to avoid everything that might give them grounds for censure, considering that if ill will joins If they give in to malevolence, which is all too common, they will be delighted to find something to criticize.

Later, when Spiritism is popularized, better known and understood by the masses, such publications will have no more influence than a book of scientific heresies would have today. Until then, circumspection would never be too much, because there are communications that can essentially harm the cause they want to defend, on a much larger scale than the rude attacks and injuries of certain adversaries. If some were made for that purpose, they would not be less successful. The mistake of some authors is to write about a subject before having delved into it sufficiently, thus giving rise to a reasoned critique. They complain about the reckless judgment of their antagonists, not paying attention to the fact that they are often the ones who reveal their weak point. Moreover, in spite of all precautions, it would be presumptuous to assume that they are safe from all criticism, at first because it is impossible to please everyone; then, because there are those who laugh at everything, even the most serious things, some because of their condition, others because of their character. They laugh a lot about religion. It is not surprising, therefore, that they laughed at the spirits, whom they do not know. If only these jokes were witty, there would be compensation. Unfortunately, they generally don't shine for their finesse, for their good taste, or for their urbanity, much less for their logic. Let us, therefore, do the best we can, bringing reason and convenience to our side, and in this way we will also bring mockers to our side.

These considerations will be easily understood by all, but there is one no less important, as it concerns the very nature of spiritist communications, and for this reason we must not omit it. Spirits go where they find sympathy and where they know they will be heard.. Gross and inconvenient communications, or simply false, absurd and ridiculous, can only emanate from inferior spirits.

Simple common sense indicates it. These spirits do what men do who see themselves complacently listened to. They attach themselves to those who admire their follies and often seize and dominate them to the point of fascination and subjugation.

The importance given to their communications by advertising attracts, excites and encourages them. The only true way to drive them away is to prove to them that we are not deceived, ruthlessly rejecting, as apocryphal and suspect, everything that is not rational; everything that belies the superiority attributed to the Spirit who manifests himself and whose name he uses. So when he sees that he's wasting his time, he walks away.

We believe that we have satisfactorily answered our correspondent's question about the convenience and opportunity of certain spiritist publications. To publish without examination, or without correction, everything that comes from this source, would, in our opinion, show a lack of discernment.. This, at least, is our personal opinion, which we submit to the appreciation of those who, disinterested in the matter, can judge impartially, putting aside any individual consideration. Like everyone else, we have the right to say our way of thinking about the science that is the object of our studies, and to treat it in our own way, not intending to impose our ideas on anyone, nor to present them as laws. . Those who share our way of seeing it because they believe, as we do, to be with the truth. The future will show who is wrong and who is right.

If we are responsible for our actions, we are no less responsible for propagating false or harmful ideas, resulting from the thinking of others, through an ostensible lack of care and study. We are dealing with Spiritism, and this matter is serious. Let us not do less, in this matter, than what is necessary, which is to study it without ceasing, in all its context, never giving as final affirmations what we have not found concluded in the doctrinal theses. We always remember that Allan Kardec himself left several issues open, due to the impossibility of advancing on them at that time, but we urge that this not be a reason to lightly accept any later communication as a complement to these matters, because, without the knowledge and the necessary methodology, we would make the mistake of not observing everything that Kardec pointed out in the text above, a summary of years of study in the face of Spiritism.

It is also our opinion that "to publish without examination, or without correction, everything that comes from this source, would, in our opinion, give evidence of poor judgment"! Goethe made the decision to publish something that was the fruit of his mind – and, very likely, of other spiritual minds, which led him to such ideas. What if those same minds, or Goethe's own Spirit, communicated to us a novel of such content, through mediumistic means? Should we just publish it?

Note that, in no way, this Group is critical of the medium. After all, it is the tool for exchanging ideas. The problem that stands out here is with regard to the analysis of these communications and the use that is made of them and, therefore, the reader can imagine how much we regret the various publications of supposed psychographed letters or even books that, indiscriminately, favor the dissemination and the inculcation of false ideas connected with the dogmas of the fall into sin, divine punishment, attachment to material things even in the spiritual world, etc.

– suicide is a mistake, of course. It may be the result of great despair, of a total lack of faith in the future – the result of materialism – it may be the result of a habit – whenever he faces a difficulty, he chooses to give up -, etc., but the fact, seen already in the study from the first year of the Revista Espírita (1858), is that we cannot link the action of suicide to standardized effects, such as, for example, saying that this spirit will suffer in the “valley of suicides” (which is not a place, as many think). Each case is different. And, after all, it is a mistake, like so many others. There is nothing “major sin” or “major crime” before God. God doesn't charge.

– I remember, finally, that the serious study of the Spiritist Doctrine in its originality, removed from the religious dogmas of sin, fall and punishment, linked to its inseparable twin sister – the science of Magnetism – led and leads many non-believers to reasoned and to regain the spirit for life.

– the Spiritist Doctrine is not a doctrine of false ideas, but a Doctrine that returns the Spirit to responsibility for itself, for autonomy and conscience.

– Moreover, I think that the best way to help someone in a state of depression or giving up is to demonstrate that:

1. He is not being punished for anything. Pains and sorrows, joys and pleasures are part *of matter*, and we all go through them. Happiness, however, is the conquest of the Spirit, who walks towards good and self-improvement, while unhappiness is the result of imperfections, developed by autonomous and conscious actions of the Spirit, linked to sensations, pleasures and passions. A happy Spirit will also go through pain and sadness in the flesh, but this will not define its state of happiness or unhappiness. Therefore, in order to achieve happiness and inner peace, we need to learn and place ourselves, in all honesty, under constant analysis of ourselves, seeking to detach ourselves from those factors that lead us to imperfections - remembering that making mistakes and learning is one thing, every world does in the learning process, while making mistakes and clinging to mistakes, in a conscious effort, because of pleasures and passions, is the big problem.

2. The difficulties faced are sometimes the result of wrong choices, even in this life. Other times, they are planned as tests, with the purpose of helping to overcome an imperfection. Anyway, these are opportunities that need to be faced, and the spiritist knowledge helps *too much* in this process.

3. Interrupting a life through direct or indirect suicide will only cause suffering*moral* last longer, because, as it originates from imperfections, it will only cease when these are overcome, through autonomous and conscious effort.

4. Trying to help someone to overcome the ideas of suicide through fear, which arises from false ideas, is a mistake, because the person who believes himself to be unfortunate or even sinful is already desperate. Instead, it is necessary to seek to help her to reason about the usefulness of every second of incarnate life to precisely overcome the imperfections that prevent her from being truly happy.

You have to be careful and study hard. False ideas are linked to our spiritist education for more than a century, but they are not an original part of the Doctrine.

Finally, I highlight question 957, from The Spirits' Book, which points to a very important conclusion:

957. What, in general, in relation to the state of the Spirit, are the consequences of suicide?

"The consequences of suicide are very diverse.. There are no specific penalties and in all cases they always correspond to the causes that produced it. There is, however, one consequence that the suicidal person cannot escape: the disappointment. But luck is not the same for everyone; depends on the circumstances. Some atone for the fault immediately, others in a new existence, which will be worse than the one whose course they interrupted.”

Observation really shows that the effects of suicide are not always the same. There are some, however, common to all cases of violent death and which are the consequence of the sudden interruption of life. There is, first, the more prolonged and tenacious persistence of the bond that unites the spirit to the body, since this bond is almost always in the fullness of its strength at the moment it is broken, whereas in the case of natural death it gradually weakens, and often dissolves before life is completely extinguished. The consequences of this state of affairs are the prolongation of the disturbance that follows death and of the illusion in which, for more or less time, the Spirit maintains that it still belongs to the number of the living. (155 and 165.)

By Paulo Degering Rosa Junior

“Text interpretation is dependent on the reading key used by the reader“, told us a correspondent involved in studies, still today, about evidences that would suggest or prove that the 5th edition of A Gênese was not an adulteration.

Of course – I reply – the interpretation depends on the knowledge of the reader. It is even possible not to understand autonomy – foundation of spiritist morality – and, on the contrary, to infer false concepts, such as those linked to karma. What I don't see as a matter of interpretation, however, is the REMOVAL of such essential and important passages from the work, such as the one in item 24 of chap. XVIII (“Saying that humanity is ripe for regeneration does not mean that all individuals are on the same level…”) or the one that ends, in the 4th edition, item 19 of chap. III, regarding the instincts – “All men pass through the passions [...]”. In addition, we have the illogical removal of the end of item 22 of the cap. II, which explains the concept of spiritual interaction through the perispiritual fluid, in line with Mesmer's thesis. Not to mention the handwritten letter where it appears that, in consultation with the Spirits, it was recommended to Kardec that ANYTHING be deleted in the new edition.

It is also interesting to note that it focuses so much on the issues of A Genesis, making a huge silence about Heaven and Hell, which was absurdly torn apart, even becoming contradictory, in the 4th edition.

I really don't understand how, even today, so much time is spent on this discussion that in anything adds to Spiritism and humanity. We already know that the Spiritist Movement has been completely misrepresented by people like Leymarie, who also condemned the future of the once recognized Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies; we already know the pernicious influence of Roustaing and his disciples; we already know about the publications of Kardec's loyal disciples, who signaled, in written screams, the facts that were happening then (according to Beacoup de Lumiere, by Berthe Fropo, a close friend of the couple); we also know that precious Kardec manuscripts were burned, also by the hands of Leymarie; we know the facts widely presented by Simoni Privato, in O Legado de Allan Kardec. Despite so many facts and evidence, for some groups it is inconceivable that the cited works have not been adulterated, and they spend precious time and resources on research that only point to evidence that Kardec planned new editions – which is more than rational.

Meanwhile, the understanding of Rational Spiritualism, Magnetism, Education and Spiritism – all very intrinsically connected – is forgotten in the background, while the Spiritist Movement continues to be trapped by false, materialistic ideas, coming from Aristotle to the days of today – the same ideas that shattered the unassailable philosophy presented by the Spiritist Doctrine. I respect the time and will of each one, after all, we are talking about autonomy and, I hope, today we understand it. But I cannot see, in all of this, anything but one more way of delaying the pace of the doctrine, while, still living in heteronomy, thousands of people “wait” for an official position from bodies such as the FEB, regarding not only the adulterations of works, but from the recognition of the distance they took from the philosophical, scientific and moral essence of Spiritism.

That's it.

Today, August 25, 2022, is the first anniversary of the Allan Kardec Legacy Study Group. In this last year, with the essential cooperation of valuable colleagues, the Group is pleased to have learned so much, developed so much and, every day, to become more useful for understanding the true essence – moral, scientific and philosophical – of Spiritism.

The Group was born right after reading O Legado de Allan Kardec, by Simoni Privato, which alerted us to the facts that we regularly saw highlighting and commenting on and we hope that, from now on, we will have the strength and possibilities to help more and more in the dissemination of the true character of the Spiritist Doctrine, away from false, materialistic and dogmatic ideas.

Spiritism has no “law of return”, “law of action and reaction”, “karma”, “payment of debts” or any idea linked to the dogma of falling into sin; Spiritism demonstrates that the Spirit is the author, The determining factor of the will, not being subjected to – though influenced by – matter. It demonstrates, above all, the principle of autonomy and free will, far from the false concepts of a punitive God or an inquisitive devil.

Let's study!

A correspondent of ours highlighted the disparity between what André Luiz tells about the whole scenario he described, of the spiritual world, and what Allan Kardec says, in the quoted passage, extracted from the Spiritist Magazine of 1859. We repeat the quoted passages below. :

“She showed a desire to eat and was immediately served with a warm and comforting broth, which was delicious on her palate…”

André Luiz – And life goes on

“The Spirit does not experience fatigue nor the need for rest or nutrition, because it has no loss to repair. … Inferior Spirits have all the passions and desires they had in life – and their punishment is not being able to satisfy them.”

Kardec – Spiritist Magazine – April 1859

It is worth noting the observation that the book “E a Vida Continua”, by André Luiz, through the psychography of Chico Xavier, is the last book in the series that began with Nosso Lar. I mean: it is interesting that the ideas presented by this Spirit did not change throughout all these publications, which supposedly reflect a certain time, with various experiences and learnings, as previously reported by him. At this point, this Spirit continues to present ideas that are contrary to what formed the Spiritist Doctrine – the methodological study of the universality of the Spirits' communications.

Why did this happen? Why is it that, during all this time, this Spirit did not learn the reality of the Spiritual world? I suppose it is reasonable to accept that more enlightened Spirits do not shock those who are still in the illusions of material attachments, a fact for which they could even provide “soup” to Spirits who, in that state, requested them. From there, however, to dictate a whole psychographic work, considered as “complementary” to the Doctrine, without clarifying the reader the reality of the facts, goes a long way.

Having said that, let's proceed.

Here, it is interesting to take care not to take the exception as a rule, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as a general rule, not to admit the exception. The Spiritist Movement currently takes isolated communications, full of its own ideas, false ideas and illusions, as a rule of natural law, while Kardec studied, in thousands of communications with Spirits, the foundations of this and other aspects of the law. Natural.

When Kardec says that the Spirit does not experience fatigue or need for rest or nutrition, he means that, as an aspect of natural law, the Spirit really does not have ANY of our physical needs, nor emotions, which are of the body, nor pain. However, he himself communicated with several Spirits who declared such needs or sensations. In the Spiritist Magazine of December 1858, the article Sensações dos Espíritos talks a little about this, starting with a quote from the communication of a Spirit who came to join them, around the fireplace, complaining of being cold.

It happens, of course – and this is what I insist on calling everyone to study – that the Spirit, like us, creates for itself the sensations arising from its state of attachment and/or suffering MORAL – I repeat: MORAL! Just as we can create pain and illness through the body, through the psychosomatic process, the suffering or attached Spirit does the same with his spiritual body - the perispirit - with the difference that, for us, the reversal process is more difficult, while that, for the Spirit, everything depends only on the change of its thought.

Through all of Allan Kardec's serious and profound study, it is evident that it is - I repeat - the degree of attachment to material things and false ideas, allied, almost always, to moral suffering, which creates such illusions to the Spirit, illusions these that are allowed by God, since He does not make us progress by blows, but guarantees time and autonomy to each one.

Finally, I add that this is the great problem of the current ME: to instill in the ideas of the masses the ATTACHMENTS to matter, based not on serious study, but on isolated opinions, thus promoting, instead of an awakening of the Spirit, an attachment continued to the ideas of matter, which HOLD spiritual progress, since the Spirit, when leaving the flesh, instead of seeing itself conscious and seeking to evaluate its state, its choices, etc., on the contrary, it puts itself to think if goes to Nosso Lar or Umbral, if he's going to get a little house to rest (sic!), if he's going to get soup, if he's going to eat broth or the meat he liked... Do you understand the problem?

Anyway: it's each one's time and head. I quote the article “On the Spirits who believe they are still alive”, from the Spiritist Magazine of 1864:

“Not everything is proof in existence; the life of the Spirit continues, as you have already 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 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 life 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 by the development of their own faculties, and that they can pass calmly from the material life to the real life of the Spirit.”