Did you know that Kardec has a real “treatise on social philosophy”? So it is. We will demonstrate this below, but first, let's talk a little about the current state of human society.

Much has been said about the moment we are going through: the social transformations, the commotions, the transition period we are going through towards a planet of regeneration. However, there is a huge shadow hovering over the collective imagination, accustomed to materialistic or emergency workers. It seems that wherever we look, there is nothing but sadness, pain and contempt. we get used to to look at our neighbor as an enemy, as someone willing to do us harm or, at best, to ignore our mere existence. It happens, however, that we are a society that is far from the essential concepts of spirituality and the good. We say we are spiritists, or spiritualists, to, however, for lack of studying Spiritism, materialize the world of spirits, which should be the target of consolation, away from the miseries of the flesh and, when we deal with human beings, we get used to forgetting that , inside and outside that body, there is a Spirit that commands everything, and that is the origin of all its action.

As we will see in Kardec, it is a false assumption to believe that “humanity is lost”, as many have heard. No: humanity is just distracted, because it has ceased to know what underlies moral development. Here's what we're going to recover, in this article.

We have forgotten, we have said, about Kardec, but we are also unaware of everything that was called moral elements, existing in Rational Spiritualism and so well defined by Paul Janet ((JANET, Paul. SMALL ELEMENTS OF MORAL)) to later serve as a basis and be developed, in practice, through the study of Spiritism. There was, with the rational spiritualists, the theory, based on reason, that the human being is an incarnated Spirit, responding to the laws of God, but it was mainly with Kardec that this theory was developed in a practical way, through the study of manifestations spiritists, a study that, at the hands of Allan Kardec, lasted for about twelve years, and which culminated in the most beautiful and elevated philosophical treatises that humanity has ever known, because they are based on ourselves, Spirits, on our journey towards the happiness.

Contained in the original pages of The Genesis ((We use the work by publisher FEAL, based on the 1st French edition, original)), before tampering post-mortem of its fifth edition, at the end of this work of scientific and moral content, there are Kardec's reflections on the social theme and the evolution of humanity. Let's go to it:

signs of the times

Under this title, Kardec begins chapter XVIII of the work, the last, and perhaps the most beautiful of all. Kardec, on the release date of this work, was just over a year away from his death. In it, he demonstrates that humanity inevitably follows the movement of progress, since it is a Law of Nature, that is, a Law of God, which never rests. According to Kardec:

Humanity has made undeniable progress so far. Men, by their intelligence, have reached results that they had never achieved in relation to Science, Arts and material well-being. They still have immense progress to make: to make charity, fraternity and solidarity reign among them in order to ensure their moral well-being.

Leaving the state of childhood, humanity entered a new era, where the necessary moral development would take place, destroying, in itself, all the passions, that is, anything that could give rise to imperfections:

It is no longer just the development of intelligence that is necessary for men, it is the elevation of feelings and, therefore, it is necessary to destroy everything that can over-excite selfishness and pride.

We need to understand that Kardec saw all of this with enormous optimism. Inserted in the context of Rational Spiritualism and Moral Sciences and with the rapid development and wide acceptance of Spiritism by educated men, he predicted that, with the exception of some difficulties, the moral revolution through Spiritism would take great strides. He could not have predicted, however, that, after his death, everything would take such an adverse turn, with the prohibition of the teaching of Moral Sciences in France, the deviation of the Spiritist Movement, mainly by Leymarie((To understand these facts well, it is important to read The Legacy of Allan Kardec, by Simoni Privato)), and the wars, finally, that just launched the world into the necessary search for care in daily survival — in other words, man had to worry much more about matters of matter , not having the opportunity, for a long time, to take care of the things of the Spirit.

Kardec believed that this period definitely marked a new moral phase for the human Spirit:

This is the period we enter from now on and will mark one of the main phases of humanity. This phase, which is currently being worked out, is the necessary complement of the previous state, as adulthood is the complement of youth. It could, therefore, be foreseen and announced in advance, so we can say that the times marked by God have arrived.

At this time, it is not a question of a partial change, of a renewal limited to a region, a people, a race; it is a universal movement that operates in the direction of moral progress. It tends to establish a new order of things, and the men who are its greatest opponents unknowingly contribute to this.

And then, he completes, as if he were talking exactly about the current moments, where philosophers fight spirituality:

It is at this precise moment, when one finds oneself excessively oppressed in one's material sphere, where intellectual life overflows and the feeling of spirituality flourishes, that men claiming to be philosophers intend to fill the void with doctrines of neantism ((Doctrine of nothingness, nihilism)) and materialism! Strange aberration! These men, who intend to boost humanity, strive to circumscribe it within the limits of matter, from which it seeks to escape. They hide the perspective of infinite life and say to him, showing the tomb: Nec plus ultra ((Latin expression meaning “nothing beyond!”))!

the social spirit

So, as we said, looking at the result of more than a hundred years of exacerbated materialism and denial of human spirituality, we see, in society, the evil of passions installed: war, violence, selfishness, pride, vanity, Avarice, in short, everything that is the result of not knowing something better and more important, takes over the social environment, where it is not possible to identify the Gospel maxim, “do to others what you would like to be done to yourself. – Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.” We also live under a treaty of social philosophy, but it is materialistic and nihilistic!

Man, stuck in materialistic ideas, forgets that there is a future. He forgets that, in addition to the body, there is his true life, eternal life, which extends from far to infinity, and he ignores, therefore, that it is up to his efforts to live the good, by fulfilling the divine laws for himself and towards all others, sooner or later attain the happiness reserved for the good. Says Kardec:

By the law of the plurality of existences, man is related to what he has done and what he will do with the men of the past and those of the future; it can no longer say that it has nothing in common with the dead, for both of them meet constantly, in this world and in the next, to ascend together the scale of progress, providing mutual support. Fraternity is no longer restricted to a few individuals united by chance during the short, ephemeral duration of a life, but is perpetual like the life of the Spirit, universal like humanity, which constitutes a great family where all the members are in solidarity with one another. others, whatever the time in which they lived.

Now, how to wish for a fraternal humanity if it lives today, wishing for tomorrow, only with the purpose of supplying its individual material needs and pleasures, ignoring that, in addition to pains and joys, inherent to matter, the Spirit continues, so evolved how much did you try to do? See: the action of the Spirit with society is not an imposition, but a consequence, because the one who understands and starts to live the good in itself, out of moral obligation, extends a helping hand to others:

Fraternity will be the cornerstone of the new social order, but there is no real, solid and effective fraternity without being supported by an unshakable foundation. That basis is faith; not faith in this or that particular dogmas that change with the times and peoples and stone each other, because, by cursing each other, they maintain antagonism. But faith in fundamental principles that everyone can accept: God, the soul, the future, UNLIMITED INDIVIDUAL PROGRESS, THE PERPETUITY OF RELATIONS BETWEEN BEINGS. When men are convinced that God is the same for all; that God, sovereignly just and good, cannot will anything that is unjust; that evil comes from them and not from Him, then all will be considered children of the same Father and will stretch out their hands to one another.

Regarding the materialism of his time, Kardec says that “a no less characteristic sign of the period into which we have entered is the evident reaction that takes place in the direction of spiritualist ideas. ((The reaction to spiritualist ideas occurred in opposition to the post-French Revolution materialist period, represented by ideologists (Destutt de Tracy, Cabanis, Volney, etc.). Rational spiritualists, after 1830, such as Royer-Collard, Victor Cousin, Théodore Jouffroy, among others, established Philosophical Sciences at the University of Paris (and in schools), including Theoretical and Practical Morals, Experimental Psychology, Theodicy, considering the human being as an “incarnated soul”. According to Kardec, Spiritism is found among these Sciences, giving them development. (N. do E.))); an instinctive repulsion manifests itself against materialistic ideas“. Today, on the contrary, we see materialist ideas being defended on all sides. However, we see another movement: society, more and more, rejects the dogmatic ideas of religions, causing a massive emptying of the ranks of religious organizations - including the Brazilian Spiritist Movement, which has become a religion, full of dogmas. It is interesting to note that the religions that still hold some attraction for people are precisely those that spend more time cultivating materialistic ideas than the other way around.

This is actually a move positive. We cannot forget that the spiritualist movement, which gave rise to Rational Spiritualism and, later, to Spiritism, was born in opposition to the materialist ideas of its time, which, in turn, were also born in opposition to the dogmas of religions. Man became materialist because he had nothing better to believe in, until spiritualist and spiritist philosophies developed - which is precisely why they gained so many followers in a short time and among the most educated classes of society.

The movement that is operating in the present, after a gigantic fall that lasted for more than a century, also leads to this result, and we can already see nascent signs of this work that is being carried out, and the recovery of spiritualist philosophy and science spiritism and magnetism are the first steps to support all this:

The new generation will march towards the realization of all humanitarian ideas compatible with the degree of progress at which it has reached. Spiritism, advancing towards the same goal and achieving its objectives, will meet it again on the same ground. Men favorable to progress will find in spiritist ideas a powerful resource, and Spiritism will find, in new men, spirits fully willing to accept it. Faced with this combination of circumstances, what can anyone who wants to stand in your way do?

Spiritism did not create social renewal, because the maturity of humanity makes this renewal a necessity. For its moralizing power, for its progressive tendencies, for the elevation of its purposes, for the generality of the questions that it embraces, Spiritism is, more than all other doctrines, able to support the regenerating movement.

Curious: at certain moments, it seems that Kardec is writing about the current moment. The scenario repeats itself: humanity, not having been able to take advantage of the development of spiritualist ideas, has only been delayed. But, as always, having known the height of evil, man begins to seek new answers to his moral desolation.

The age of regeneration: the stretch we didn't know

In the tampering of this conclusive work, the losses were enormous, especially due to the numerous deletions carried out. If you wish, compare this last chapter and you will see how much it has been mutilated. In the original version, there is a very deep thought, but also hard, by Allan Kardec, regarding the resistance found by Spiritism, among those who are definitely not ready for this order of ideas, because their spiritual age has not yet achieved such resourcefulness. Follow:

Saying that humanity is ripe for regeneration does not mean that all individuals are on the same level, but many have, by intuition, the germ of new ideas that circumstances will make blossom. Then, they will show themselves to be more advanced than one might suppose and will diligently follow the majority's initiative((The majority of individuals are just distracted. They are not necessarily bad, nor do they use their intelligence for evil, but they just don't use it for the good. give them better things, and they will quickly come to reason again)).

There are, however, those who are essentially refractory to these ideas, even among the most intelligent, and who will certainly not accept them, at least in this lifetime.; in some cases, in good faith, out of conviction; others out of interest. sThey are those whose material interests are linked to the current situation and who are not advanced enough to give them up, because the general good matters less than their personal good. – are apprehensive at the slightest reform movement. Truth is a secondary matter for them, or, rather, the truth for certain people lies entirely in that which does not cause them any trouble. All progressive ideas are, from their point of view, subversive ideas, and for that reason they have an implacable hatred for them and make an obstinate war against them. They are intelligent enough to see in Spiritism an aid to progressive ideas and the elements of transformation that they fear and, because they do not feel up to it, they strive to destroy it.. If they thought him worthless and unimportant, they wouldn't worry about him. We have already said it elsewhere: “The more grandiose an idea is, the more it finds opponents, and its importance can be measured by the violence of the attacks to which it is the object”.

The number of stragglers is still large, no doubt, but what can they do against the rising wave, but throw a few stones at it? This wave is the generation that rises, while they disappear with the generation that leaves each day with great strides. Until then, they will defend the ground step by step; there is, therefore, an inevitable struggle, but an unequal struggle, because it is that of the decrepit past that falls in rags against the young future; of stagnation against progress, of the creature against the will of God, because the times appointed by Him have arrived.

Unfortunately, for all that happened, intelligent but refractory individuals found space to spread their ideas that, today, hinder the progress of humanity. The laggards, “neither here nor there”, having nothing to inspire, just remained, for the most part, laggards. They are spirits that, many times, do not want evil, but do not have any understanding of what is good and the need for their own transformation, which is why they fall into the tale of materialism, operating as masses in favor of the former.

the planet of regeneration

Many believe that the planet of regeneration will be reached by a divine imposition, where, in a magic pass, the bad ones will be expelled and the good ones will conquer their deserved paradise. Nothing further from the truth (and from reason). Kardec highlights that

For men to be happy on Earth, it must be populated only by good spirits, incarnate and disembodied, who only want the good. That time having arrived, a great emigration will take place at that time among its inhabitants. Those who do evil for evil and are not touched by the feeling of good, being no longer worthy of the transformed Earth, will be excluded, because they would bring discord and confusion again and would be an obstacle to progress. These will atone for their hardening, some in inferior worlds, others among backward terrestrial races that will be the equivalent of the inferior worlds, where they will take their acquired knowledge and whose mission will be to advance them. They will be replaced by better spirits who will make justice, peace and fraternity reign among them.

Planet Earth will only change for the better when the Spirits that incarnate on it have changed for the better. This transformation will not take place in an instant, however: it takes place on a daily basis, in the process of disincarnation and incarnation of Spirits, because a part of the Spirits that previously incarnated here, will no longer incarnate, as they are no longer able to live here.

This, of course, demonstrates the slowness of this process. However, this process can be leveraged by a new order of ideas, which are those of Spiritism, which was born precisely for this:

The new generation, having to establish the era of moral progress, is distinguished by a generally precocious intelligence and reason, added to the innate feeling of goodness and spiritualist beliefs. It is the indisputable sign of a certain degree of earlier advancement. It will never be composed exclusively of eminently superior spirits, but of those who, having already progressed, are willing to assimilate all progressive ideas and able to support the regenerating movement.

We must not believe, however, that all the laggards will be expelled from the Earth, although this idea pleases many of us, as we think that this would be better, in order to let's get rid of of those who embarrass the general happiness. We need to recognize that it is a very petty thought and, also, lacking in reason. Explain the encoder:

It is not to be understood by this emigration of Spirits that all those laggards will be expelled from Earth and relegated to inferior worlds. On the contrary, many will return, because they had yielded to the influence of circumstances and bad example. In them, the appearance was worse than the essence. Once freed from the influence of matter and the prejudices of the corporeal world, most of these spirits will see things in a completely different way from how they saw them in life, which is in agreement with numerous examples. In this case, they are helped by benevolent spirits, who are interested in them and hurry to enlighten them and show them the wrong path they had followed.. By our prayers and exhortations, we ourselves can contribute to their improvement because there is a perpetual solidarity between the dead and the living.

Let's look at those who displease us, because we think we are superior. We recognize that, in many, there really are bad habits and imperfections that cause general discomfort. However, let's take a closer look at them: what's wrong with them? Often nothing. They are Spirits that, in the observed material life, forgetful of the greater purposes of evolution, are only absorbed in their worries or passing joys, as we have been so many times. They are not disgusting creatures, but only Spirits who, in the present life, could not learn and develop like others, but who, even so, have the sympathy of good Spirits and should also have ours, so that, leaving our selfishness , we can extend the friendly word to them, if possible knowledge and, at least, good thought, through prayer. Can you imagine the joy of seeing, tomorrow, reincarnating with us, the one who used to cause restlessness, now more concerned with the good and its need for progress?

The regeneration of humanity does not absolutely need the integral renewal of the Spirits, since a modification in their moral dispositions is enough. This modification takes place among all those who are predisposed, whenever they are withdrawn from the pernicious influence of the world. Therefore, those who return are not always other Spirits, but often the same Spirits, thinking and feeling differently.

The cataclysms, the mass deaths, far from serving to fulfill a “collective karma” (sic ((This is complete nonsense, an idea that was never in the Spiritist Doctrine and, moreover, something irrational, as we have already discussed in this article), comply with the laws of Nature. Yet they accelerate social change:

When this improvement is isolated and individual, it goes unnoticed and has no overt influence on the world. Another effect occurs when improvement takes place simultaneously on large masses, for then, according to the proportions in a generation, the ideas of a people or a race can be profoundly modified.

This is what is almost always noticed after the great calamities decimate the populations. Destroying scourges only destroy bodies, but do not affect the Spirit. They activate the movement of entry and exit between the corporeal and the spiritual world and, consequently, the progressive movement of incarnate and disincarnate Spirits. It is worth noting that, at all times in history, great social crises have been followed by eras of progress.

Conclusion

It is very clear, therefore, that social changes will not take place by the order of imposition, nor politics, nor that of weapons, nor that of human laws, and even less, by the action of the “finger of God”, who in no way interferes with our progress.

No: social advancement will be a consequence of moral advancement, and this will only happen by retaking, precisely, the forgotten morality, and will be boosted if it is combined with the practical knowledge brought by Spiritism, capable of causing a revolution of ideas at the individual level. and then to society. Is obvious, from the above, that this revolution of ideas is linked to the moral transformation of the individual, and not to the use of this or that political bias — it bears repeating.

Don't let yourself fall into that snare either. In your meetings, carefully put away everything when it comes to politics and irritating matters. In this respect, discussions will only cause embarrassment, while no one will have anything to object to morality, as long as it is good.

Look for in Spiritism what can improve you. Here's the essentials. When men are better, really useful social reforms will follow naturally. By working for moral progress, you will lay the truest and most solid foundations of all improvements.

Spiritist Magazine — Journal of Psychological Studies — 1862 > February > Response to the New Year's Message from the Lionesses Spiritists

In other words, it's no use taking the stage or going to the streets with posters asking for change, when we ourselves are not doing our part. Change modifies by example, it is contagious, because everyone wants to be happy (that's why, mixing joys with happiness, the Instagram profiles of rich and “well-to-do” people gain so many followers).

Let us, therefore, take care of improving ourselves, for the moral consequence that all the study of Spiritism has. Let us also take care to do our part: to study this Doctrine, with dedication, in order to understand it well, spreading its real face of consoling science, far from dogmas and ideas that materialize and imprison the Spirit in the false concepts of sin, punishment, etc. Let us strive to recover the knowledge of the great spiritualist philosophers, but also the forgotten knowledge of Magnetism. Let us strive to bring these concepts to society as well, starting with making an effort to make, from early childhood education, something better, more autonomous and cooperative, fraternal, away from the ideas of punishment, rewards and "ways", based, in short, , in the education of great humanist thinkers, such as Rousseau and Pestalozzi, who excelled in reason and humility in the pursuit of answers, through the scientific method… And, then, we will be tracing a new path for social change.

Cover photo: INTERNATIONAL SPIRITIST COUNCIL (CEI) – https://cei-spiritistcouncil.com/obras-de-allan-kardec-para-download/

In many minds, the old image of God remains, linked to the concepts of a humanity that could not understand what was outside of matter and human figures. So they created a God in their image: a bearded man, sitting on a throne above the clouds, looking – and judging – to everything and everyone.

However, the human mentality is no longer like that. In more than two thousand years, it has developed in reason and science, and it no longer accepts, so easily, the old dogmas of human religions. In fact, in terms of science, since we know that the sky is not a vault and that the infinite Universe extends to all sides, we can no longer assume this image of God. Furthermore, reason shows that God does not deal with us directly, controlling our lives. Far from it, it is demonstrated, by the study of Spiritism, that God acts through his Laws, which are the Natural Laws, which govern everything with perfection.

However, a doubt arises: is God everywhere, as they say? Does God hear us? Is that proverb that says “not a leaf falls without God’s will” correct?

As always, the study of Spiritism clarifies the horizon for irrefutable reason. We are going to demonstrate the beauty of Kardec's conclusions, in A Genesis, but remember that it is important to base yourself on the new edition, by FEAL, which is a translation based on the fourth edition of this work, since the fifth edition – the one that provided the basis for all other editions and translations – was tampered with.

This is how Allan Kardec expresses himself in the cited work:

20. Providence is God's solicitude for all creatures. God is everywhere, He sees everything and presides over everything, even the little things; and that is what his providential action consists of. “How can God, so great, so powerful, so superior to everything, meddle in minute details, worry about the smallest acts and thoughts of each individual? This is the question that unbelief asks itself, from which it concludes that, admitting the existence of God, his action must only be done on the general laws of the Universe; that it works for all eternity, in virtue of these laws, to which each creature is submitted in its sphere of activity, without the need for the incessant assistance of providence.

21. In their present state of inferiority, men hardly understand an infinite God, because, being themselves restricted and limited, they only understand him restricted and limited as they do. They represent him as a circumscribed being and make him an image similar to themselves. The pictures that paint him with human traits only help to keep this error in the minds of peoples, who adore form in him more than thought. For many people, he is a mighty ruler, seated on an inaccessible throne, lost in the immensity of the heavens; and because their faculties and perceptions are limited, they do not understand that God can or deign to intervene directly in small things.

22. Faced with the impossibility of understanding the essence of divinity, man can only make an approximate idea of it through comparisons, necessarily very imperfect, but which can at least show him the possibility of what, at first, it seems impossible.

Suppose a fluid subtle enough to penetrate all bodies. It is evident that each molecule of this fluid, meeting with each molecule of matter, will produce on bodies an action identical to that which would produce the totality of the fluid. This is what chemistry demonstrates every day, in limited proportions.

This fluid, not being intelligent, acts mechanically, only through material forces; but if we suppose him endowed with intelligence, with perceptive and sensitive faculties, he will no longer act blindly, but with discernment, with will and freedom; he will see, understand and feel.

[…]

23. No matter how high they are, Spirits are creatures limited in their faculties, in their power and in the extension of their perceptions, and they would not know, in this aspect, how to approach God. But we can use them as a point of comparison. What the Spirit cannot perform, except within a restricted limit, God, who is infinite, performs in infinite proportions. There is still the difference that the action of the Spirit is momentarily subordinated to circumstances, and that of God is permanent; the thought of the Spirit encompasses a limited space for a time, that of God embraces the Universe and eternity. In a word, between the Spirits and God there is a distance from the finite to the infinite.

24. The perispiritual fluid is not the thought of the Spirit, but the agent and intermediary of this thought; as it is he who transmits it, somehow impregnated with it. Due to our impossibility of isolating thought, it seems to us that it and the fluid are confused, as is the case with sound and air, so that we can, so to speak, materialize it. In the same way that we say that the air becomes sonorous, taking the effect for the cause, we can say that the fluid becomes intelligent.

25. Whether or not this is the case with regard to God's thought, that is, whether he acts directly or through a fluid, for our reasoning, we are going to represent him in the concrete form of an intelligent fluid, filling the infinite Universe, penetrating all parts of creation: all of nature is immersed in the divine fluid. Now, in virtue of the principle that the parts of a whole are of the same nature and have the same properties as the whole, each atom of this fluid, if we may so express it, would possess thought, that is, the essential attributes of divinity, and this fluid being everywhere, everything is subject to his intelligent action, to his foresight, to his solicitude. There will not be a being, however tiny, that is not somehow immersed in it. We are, therefore, constantly in the presence of the divinity and we cannot remove a single one from our actions, from his gaze; our thought is in unceasing contact with his thought, and it is rightly said that God reads into the deepest bowels of our hearts; we are in him, as he is in us, according to the word of Christ.

In order to extend his solicitude over all creatures, God has no need to cast his gaze from the heights of immensity. In order for him to hear our prayers, he does not need to cross space, nor for them to be said with a resounding voice, because God being incessantly by our side, our thoughts reverberate in him; they are like the sounds of a bell that make all the molecules in the ambient air vibrate.

26. Far be it from us to think of materializing divinity. The image of a universal intelligent fluid is, of course, only a comparison capable of giving a fairer idea of God than the paintings that represent him under a human figure. This comparison only aims at understanding the possibility of God being everywhere and taking care of everything.

We see, therefore, that the Universal Cosmic Fluid, which originates all matter, in any possible state, permeates everything. It is this fluid, as Spiritism demonstrates, that guides thought everywhere. That's why it's easy to understand that God is in everything and that it is not necessary to kneel, look up and formulate certain words: he hears and knows our most intimate thoughts and needs.

In fact, it is this same fluid that leads our thought through infinite space and arrives at the thought of a Spirit in which we think:

The spiritual fluids that constitute one of the states of the universal cosmic fluid are the atmosphere of spiritual beings. It is the element from which they extract the materials on which they act; the medium where special phenomena take place, perceptible to the sight and hearing of the Spirit and which escape the carnal senses impressed only by tangible matter. It is, in short, the vehicle of thought, as air is the vehicle of sound.

ibidem

It is for this reason that Spirits – good or bad – come, almost always promptly, to our mental call. And it is as a result of this principle that we need to recognize that Never we are devoid of company, since this company does not need to be “physical”, like a Spirit that stays with us all the time. A good Spirit, including a protective Spirit or guardian angel, does not need to be “planted” at our side: it is enough for his or her thoughts to be projected onto us and, in the same way, that our thoughts are projected onto his.

It is through the same action of fluids that we are able to assimilate good or bad intuitions and influences, even if unconsciously. If we're trying hard live in good (and not just do the good, which is very different) our thoughts shape the vibration of the fluids around us, making us more accessible to good Spirits. The same happens, in the opposite direction, when we are disconnected from the good, that is, immersed in passions and bad habits. That is why, in this state, it is said, in the works of Spiritism, that good Spirits move away from us. It is not that they turn their backs on us and our needs, because even the spirit most attached to evil will still have the sympathy of superior spirits, but it is that, in this mental state, we thicken our perispirit and the fluids around us. , making us inaccessible to good fluids, that is, to the good thoughts of superior spirits.

We ask, then: how to get out of the last state? Now, relatively simple: through the effort constant and dedicated to improving one's thoughts and actions, which can be greatly helped by the action of prayer, which is (should be) an honest action of seeking, through thought, to modify one's mental dispositions in order to ask for help, which it has already been shown that it is not difficult, since God is around us and in us. It is enough to wish for the change itself, honestly, recognizing the situation of shortage, caused by the misuse of the faculties of the intelligence, and the good Spirits will come to our aid, to give Support to our action, but never to do the work that must be done for us. And how will they act? Influencing us, and the people around us, to lead us to the opportunities, and also to the tests, necessary for our change.

The fact that it is the Spirits who come to help us, and not God himself in person, does not diminish Him at all, since it is through His Creation and His Laws that everything works. It is in this sense that we can explain that proverb quoted above: “not a leaf falls without God willing”, which means that even a leaf that falls from a tree is responding to a Law of Nature, Creation of God, and not that God take His attention to say "this leaf will fall now, but that one will not." It is logical to understand that God You know of everything, because if he didn't know, he wouldn't be God, but, in the same way, it's logical to understand that he doesn't need to interfere in anything, because his creation is perfect.

Arrived at this point, we cannot fail to highlight the total inconsistency preached by human religions, for all times, which aim, for the purposes of controlling their faithful, “stealing” God for himself, claiming that God is only within the Church, or that God benefits more those who follow that religion, giving them prizes and titles to possessions, material wealth, etc.

To Kardec, a spirit said that “God would not allow” an inferior spirit to materialize in a horrendous way, to scare. We had found that it is clear that there was a law that we do not yet know about. So, in one of the last studies of Revista Espírita, another Spirit suggested that materializations and physical phenomena, caused by inferior Spirits, always take place by the “command” of superior Spirits, with a purpose. This is why, as we understand it, a lower spirit could not materialize in a horrendous way: because a higher spirit would not help him to do so.

Divine creation is, we understand, autonomous. God, intervening, would practice heteronomy. So if he could intervene in certain aspects, why not in all? Why wouldn't he himself intervene, for example, to extinguish a war or violence, or, rather, to even let it start? We fall, then, into the questions that those who are guided by the heteronomous principles of religions fall into, often causing, in them, a complete abandonment of spirituality.

Rationally, we understand that God made his laws, and they are the ones that act in the Universe. His very creation, which appears to us imperfect when we look at it from a very petty aspect of our lower views, is actually perfect on the whole, and regulates itself in the path of evolution.

All this explained in this way, it is rationally easy to understand that there is no destiny predetermined by God in our lives, and that we act according to our free will, always, as long as we conquer our conscience. But that is a subject for another article.

We close with this beautiful reflection, given by São Luís and Santo Agostinho, about the doctrine of guardian angels, in The Spirits' Book:

495. Could it be that the protective Spirit abandons its protégé, for showing itself to be this rebel to the councils?

“He walks away when he sees that his advice is useless and that stronger is, in his protege, the decision to submit to the influence of inferior spirits. But he does not abandon it completely and always makes himself heard. It is then the man who covers his ears. The protector comes back as soon as he calls him.

“It is a doctrine, this, of the guardian angels, which, by its charm and sweetness, should convert the most incredulous. It does not seem very consoling to you to have beings who are superior to you, always ready to advise and support you, to help you in the ascent of the abrupt mountain of goodness; more sincere and devoted friends than all those who are most intimately connected to you on Earth? They are on your side by order of God. It was God who placed them there and, remaining there for the love of God, they carry out a beautiful but painful mission. Yes, wherever you are, they will be with you. Neither in prisons, nor in hospitals, nor in places of debauchery, nor in solitude, are you separated from those friends whom you cannot see, but whose gentle influence your soul feels, at the same time that it listens to their thoughtful advice.

“Oh! if only you knew this truth well! How much it would help you in times of crisis! How much would it deliver you from evil spirits! But oh! How many times, on the solemn day, will this angel be constrained to observe you: “Did I not advise you this? However, you didn't. Did I not show you the abyss? Yet thou hast plunged into it! Have I not made the voice of truth echo in your conscience? You preferred, however, to follow the advice of the lie!” Oh! Interrogate your guardian angels; establish between them and yourselves that tender intimacy that reigns between the best of friends. Do not think of hiding anything from them, for they have the gaze of God and you cannot deceive them. Think of the future; seek to advance yourselves in the present life. By doing so, you will shorten your trials and make your lives happier. Come on, men, courage! Once and for all, cast away all prejudices and hidden thoughts. Enter the new path that opens to you before the steps. walk! You have guides, follow them, that you will not fail to reach the goal, because that goal is God himself.

“To those who consider it impossible for truly elevated spirits to consecrate themselves to such a laborious task at all times, we will say that we influence your souls, although many millions of leagues are distant from you. Space, for us, is nothing, and despite living in another world, our spirits maintain their connections with yours. We enjoy qualities that you cannot understand, but rest assured that God has not imposed a task that is greater than our strength and that He has not left you alone on Earth, without friends and without support. Each guardian angel has his protégé, for whom he watches, as a father does for his son. He rejoices when he sees him on the right path; suffers when he despises her advice.

“Do not be afraid to bore us with your questions. On the contrary, try to be always in relationship with us. You will be stronger and happier this way. It is these communications from each one with their familiar Spirit that make all men mediums, mediums ignored today, but that will manifest later and spread like an ocean without shores, taking in unbelief and ignorance. Learned men, instruct your fellow men; men of talent, educate your brothers. You cannot imagine what work you do in this way: that of Christ, which God imposes on you. Why has God given you intelligence and knowledge, if not to share them with your brethren, but to make them go forward on the path that leads to blessedness, to eternal happiness?”
Saint Louis, Saint Augustine

Perhaps this is one of the most interesting reported communications of the year 1858, because it is the Spirit of a soldier killed in war, a Spirit with an appearance of tranquility and even kindness.

It happened like this: “Having gathered in our house some people with the purpose of verifying certain manifestations, in several sessions the following facts were produced: a Spirit manifested by blows, not beaten by the table foot, but in the very texture of the table. table." Then Kardec goes on to say that in addition to the answers to several yes and no questions, the blows played marches, imitated rifle fire, something completely unusual.

As they listened, they observed that the Spirit had a certain predilection for the drum roll.

In addition to a special medium of physical influence, a psychograph was present. Because of that, they got the conversation very explicit, like name, place of birth, date of death, etc. Spontaneous communication started like this:

1 – Write anything, whatever you want. – Ran plan plan, ran, plan, plan.

2 – Why did you write this? – I was a drummer.

He said he died in a battle, and he still takes on that drum beater characteristic, that's why he did those marching effects.

16- Are you reincarnated? - No, because I come to talk to you.

17- Why do you manifest yourself by blows, without you being called? – It is necessary to make noise for those whose hearts believe nothing. If you don't have enough, I will give you even more.

Observation: He demonstrates a certain moral superiority.

18 – Is it your own will that you came to knock, or did another spirit force you to do so? — I come of my own accord; there is another, whom you call Truth, who can force me to do this too. But I've wanted to come for a long time.

19 – For what purpose did you want to come? – To converse with you; it was what I wanted; But there was something that stopped me. I was forced by a familiar spirit in the house, who urged me to make myself useful to people who asked me questions.

19.1 – Does this Spirit, then, have a lot of power, since it commands other Spirits? — More than you can imagine, and he uses it only for good.

Note: Spirits are always assisted.

22- Which existence do you prefer: the current one or the terrestrial one? – I prefer the existence of the Spirit to that of the body. Because we are much better off than on Earth. Earth is a purgatory; all the time I lived there, I always wanted death.

25 – Would you be satisfied if you had a new bodily existence? – Yes, because I know that I must elevate myself.

26 – Who told you that? – I know it well.

27 – Will you reincarnate soon? - I don't know.

From question 28 onwards, for the first time in RE, those present ask the manifesting Spirit about other Spirits in Erraticity:

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? ─ As spirits can be seen, but not through the eyes.

31. ─ And you, in what form are you here? ─ Under what 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.

RE July 1858

See how interesting: He sees the other Spirits around him without any form! He is not an advanced Spirit, but outside of the moment they are evoked, in erraticity, Spirits DO NOT have a form.

Spirits have no eyes, no ears, no touch... because they have no need in the spiritual plane for this type of manifestation. “Our form is only apparent,” says the drum.

The communication follows with questions about the manifestation of the knocking on the table, in which he says that he is beside her, that he does not get inside her.

37-How do you produce the noises you make heard? – I believe it is through a kind of concentration of our strength.

38 – Could you explain to us the way in which the different noises that you imitate are produced, the scratches, for example? - I wouldn't know much about the nature of the
noises; it's hard to explain. I know I scratch, but I can't explain how I make that noise you call scratching.

Then he was asked what he depended on to lift a table, to which he replied: – It depends on me, because I use the medium as an instrument. And besides, it has to be with specific mediums, which I am attracted to.

48 – What do you occupy yourself with in your existence as a Spirit, considering that you shouldn't spend all your time just knocking? – I often have missions to fulfill; we must
obey superior orders and, above all, do good to human beings.
humans who are under our influence.

49 – Certainly your earthly life was not free of faults; do you recognize them now? - Yes; and for that reason I expiate them, remaining stationary among the inferior spirits; I will only be able to purify myself enough when I take another body.

OBSERVATION: Here recognition of their faults and repentance is evident.

55 – Are you always on Earth, in your spiritual existence? – Most often in space.

56 – Do you sometimes go to other worlds, that is, to other globes? – Not to the more perfect ones, but to the inferior worlds.

57 – Do you sometimes enjoy seeing and hearing what men do? - No; however, I sometimes pity them.

65 – Were you immediately aware of your new existence? – No, but I no longer felt cold.

RE July 1858

NOTE: He was no longer aware of his body.

KARDEC'S COMMENT ON THE COMMUNICATION: – Little advanced in the spiritist hierarchy, as can be seen, the Spirit of the Drum himself recognized his inferiority. Your knowledge is limited; but he has good sense, praiseworthy feelings, and benevolence. As a Spirit, his mission lacked meaning, as he played the role of a Spirit beater to call unbelievers to faith; yet, even in the theater, cannot the humble attire of a partner involve an honest heart? His answers have the simplicity of ignorance; however, due to the fact that they do not have the elevation of the philosophical language of the superior spirits, they are nevertheless less instructive, especially for the study of spiritist customs, if we can express it that way. It is only by studying all the classes of this world that awaits us that we can get to know it and mark out in it, in some way, in advance, the place that each one of us will be given to occupy. Seeing the situation that, by their vices and virtues, created men, our equals here on Earth, we feel encouraged to elevate ourselves as quickly as possible from this life: it is the example next to the theory. In order to know something well, and to form an idea of it free from illusions, it is necessary to dissect it in all its aspects, just as the botanist cannot know the plant kingdom except by observing it from the humblest cryptogam, which the moss hides. , even the towering oak, which soars in the air.

Extracted from the work “Psychophonic Instructions”, by Chico Xavier.

“Brother “F” by which we will designate the companion, whose message we are going to transcribe, was a great banker on Earth. He was certainly not a criminal, in the common sense of the term, but, from the spiritual content of his manifestations, he seems to have been one of those “neither cold nor hot” men of the evangelical symbol, who, bringing his mind warm to the idea of gold, during his existence in the flesh, he was dominated by it in his early days, beyond death.“

“[…] Troubled and afflicted, I felt the need for confession. After all, I was a Catholic who had relaxed his faith. Without anyone listening to my pleas, I asked for the presence of a priest. I advanced towards the confessional and got down on my knees, but in a few moments the confessional became a bank window for me. Startled, I raised my eyes to the altar. The altar, however, had been transformed into a safe. I tried to console myself with the sight of the missal, but the book of worship suddenly appeared metamorphosed into an old book of mine, in which I secretly entered my notes of real income. I tried to isolate myself. I feared complete madness. Still, I lifted my gaze to the image of the Virgin Mary. Naturally, she would feel sorry for me, however, before my attention, the image was reduced to a high-priced jewel... It was made entirely of gold, of pure gold...

[…]

I asked for a water tank that I was familiar with at the top of the Santo Antônio neighborhood. The water, there, ran in spurts. I could bend over... I could drink as if I were an animal and, prostrate, no longer on my knees but crawling, I would implore God's grace. I found running water, clear water visited by sunlight and I stretched out on the ground... But, at the precise moment that my thirsty lips touched the pure liquid, only gold, gold appeared... I recognized that I had descended to the condition of a mentally insane person. . Then I remembered an old friend... Cícero Pereira... Cícero was a spiritist and, for that reason, he became someone I supposed, in my sad blindness, to have left behind in madness. The memory was enough for his voice to be heard. He answered my call. Supported me. Talked to me […]

A great example that one cannot blindly take the communications of a Spirit as if they were the expression of the truth. Imagine if that Spirit, being taken to a spiritual aid meeting, told only the part of the illusion in question and the unsuspecting people left stating that, in the world of Spirits, there is gold...

In this article, Kardec presents the following case: having the medium Mr. D. presented a very interesting phenomenon - that of writing with a much better handwriting when inspired by the Spirits - one of the members of the Society, Dr. V., had the idea of evoking the Spirit of a calligrapher, Bertrand, for observation purposes.

According to The Mediums' Book,

270. When you want to communicate with determined Spirit, it is absolutely necessary to evoke it. (Item 203.) If he can come, the answer is usually: Yea, or I'm here, or yet: What do you want from me? Sometimes he enters directly into the matter, answering in advance the questions that were asked of him.

271. It is often surprising how quickly an evoked Spirit presents itself, even the first time. One would say he was forewarned. This is, in fact, what happens when the one who evokes it is preoccupied with its evocation. This preoccupation is a kind of anticipated evocation and, as we always have our familiar spirits with us, who identify with our thought, they prepare the way in such a way that, if no obstacle arises, the Spirit we wish to call is already present. when evoked.

But is there danger in Summoning Spirits?

278. An important question arises here, that of knowing whether or not there is any inconvenience in evoking bad spirits..

Kardec, OLM

“That depends on the end you have in mind and the influence you can exert on them. The inconvenience is null when they are called for a serious purpose, which is to instruct and improve them; it is, on the contrary, very great, when called out of mere curiosity or for fun, or even when the caller puts himself at their dependence, asking them for some service.. The good spirits, in this case, can very well give them the power to do what is asked of them, which does not exclude the daredevil who dared to ask for help and suppose them more powerful than God from being severely punished later on. . It will be in vain if he promises himself, whoever does so, to make good use of the help requested from then on, and to dismiss the servant once the service has been rendered. This same service that was requested, however minimal, constitutes a true pact signed with the bad Spirit and he does not easily let go of his prey..” (See item 212.).

279. No one exercises ascendancy over inferior spirits, except for moral superiority. Perverse spirits feel that good men dominate them. Against those who are only opposed by will energy, a kind of brute force, they fight and are often the strongest. To someone who was trying to tame a rebellious Spirit, only by the action of his will, he replied to that one: Leave me in peace, with your air of slaughterhouses, which are not worth more than I am; one would say a thief preaching morals to another thief.

282. 11th. Is there any inconvenience in evoking inferior spirits? And is it to be feared that, by calling them, the summoner will come under their dominion? “They only dominate those who allow themselves to be dominated. He who is assisted by good spirits has nothing to fear. It is imposed on the inferior spirits and not the latter on him. Isolated, mediums, especially beginning ones, must refrain from such evocations.. (item 278.)

Continuing with the article, where the medium brings communication:

3. ─ Do you know the main objective that led us to ask for your coming? ─ No, but I want to know.

NOTE: The Spirit of Mr. Bertrand is still under the influence of matter, as might be supposed, given his earthly life. It is known that such spirits are less apt to read minds than those already more dematerialized.

From then on, the Spirit continues to give some more details about his life. In general terms, he showed regret for having misused, or at least not as well as he could, his time incarnate: 

9. ─ What was your lifestyle? ─ I sought to satisfy the needs of the body.

10. ─ Did you take care of things from Beyond the Grave? ─ Almost nothing.

11. ─ Do you regret not belonging to this world anymore? ─ I regret not having put my existence to good use.

12. ─ Are you happier than on Earth? ─ No. I suffer for the good I failed to do.

13. ─ What do you think of the future that is in store for you? ─ I think that all the mercy of God is necessary for me.

14. ─ What are your relationships in the world in which you find yourself? ─ Regretful and unhappy relationships.

15. ─ When you come to Earth, are there places you go, rather than others? ─ I am looking for souls who grieve for my sufferings or who pray for me.

17. ─ It is said that in life he was very tolerant. It is true? ─ I was very violent.

18. ─ What do you think about the purpose of our meetings? ─ I would very much like to have known them in life. They would have made me better.

19. ─ Do you see other spirits there? ─ Yes, but I feel very confused in your presence.

20 – We beg God to have him in his holy mercy. The feelings you have just expressed should allow you to find favor with him. We do not doubt that they will help you in your progress.

NOTE: The teachings provided by the Spirit of Mr. Bertrand are absolutely exact and agree with the way of life and the character they knew him. Only by confessing its inferiority and its mistakes, language is more serious and higher than could be expected. Once again we have proof of the painful situation of those on Earth who are very attached to matter. This is how the inferior spirits themselves sometimes give us, by example, valuable moral lessons..

Do umbral and “Nosso Lar” exist? Where it is? Short answer: they do not exist as people believe, due to lack of knowledge of Spiritism. But, as this is a study group, you should not simply accept this answer, without reasoning, in the same way that you should not accept the isolated ideas of any Spirits, regardless of the medium.

Why is it that many spirits, before Spiritism or under other religions, say that, after death, they found themselves in Hell? Why, in Roman times, did the Spirits claim to be in Tartarus? Why do Spirits who have known Spiritism (that distorted one) say that they found themselves on the umbral or in the valley of suicides, and not in hell? It is very clear that this is due to their own conceptions, because, if one or the other were a reality, there would always be a uniformity in the ideas presented by the Spirits, at all times and everywhere.

Therefore, it is easy to see that these are conceptions of the imaginary. Are they an abomination? Of course not: they are part of our evolution. However, Spiritualism did not come to continue these ideas, in a more pleasant way: it came to present reality, helping human beings to get rid of these limiting conceptions that delay their step. Now, it is a fact that Spiritism has this purpose of leveraging progress, like all science, because, if it were not so, and since the Spirit is immortal, could God, in his Laws, let each one reach progress through infinite incarnations, learning by trial and error, only, and without any support. But He, being all goodness, gives us the tools, the greatest of which is intelligence and reason; it is up to us to use them or not, according to our will.

The role of the medium

The role of the medium is not to interfere in the communication of a Spirit and, through him, any type of Spirits can communicate, depending on the circumstance and the purpose, either of the medium or of the superior Spirits. The role of the scholar is to analyze and to judge these communications, based on the science already acquired and the riddle of reason((Read the article “The role of the researcher and the medium in communications with the Spirits“)).

After Kardec's death and with all the deviation that the Spiritist Movement took, mainly with the true plantation of tares that were Roustaing's ideas, the Spiritists, away from studies, they stopped reasoning and began to allow different ideas, without doctrinal basis, began to flood the imagination of the adepts of the Doctrine. Thus, fantastic and superstitious concepts began to slowly and progressively transform the Movement, which today presents itself as a religion, full of dogmas and false concepts.

What is in Spiritism?

Now, dear reader, there is in The Spirits' Book the following conclusion, presented in question 1012 of The Spirits' Book:

1012((Reviewers' Note: It should be noted that, in the numbering of the book's items, Kardec skipped no. 1011. Despite the obvious oversight, the text was kept that way in the fourteen editions that followed until Allan Kardec's death. To avoid confusion, this edition did not attempt to “correct” the numbering.)). Will there be limited places in the universe for the pains and enjoyments of spirits, according to their merit? 

“We have already answered that question. Pains and pleasures are inherent to the spirits' degree of perfection. 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 intended for one thing or another. As for the incarnates, they are more or less happy or unhappy, depending on whether the world they inhabit is more or less advanced.”

The) - In accordance, then, with what you come to say, do not hell and paradise 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 exists only in man's imagination. It stems from their tendency to materialize and circumscribe things, whose infinite essence it is not possible for him to understand.

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book. 1860

It is very clear that the places, in the world of Spirits, do not exist by themselves. They are mere allegories and, mainly, states of consciousness. The happy Spirit is “in heaven”, while the unhappy and suffering Spirit is “in hell” of his own conscience.

Let us note, however, an important detail, in question 1012-a: “However, as we have already said, spirits of the same order gather together in sympathy.“. This means that, according to their ideas and their states of evolution, the Spirits can come together. Now, knowing that less evolved Spirits are attached to the concepts of matter and knowing that, through the action of the will, the Spirit can act on fluidic matter, coming from the Universal Cosmic Fluid, it is easy to conceive that, together, the suffering Spirits gathered together can create veritable hellish or purgatorial landscapes, which, however, exist only as long as these Spirits shape them, that is, they are not places that precede them, but that exist only as creations of these groupings of intelligences.

Nor can we forget that we, mentally, are capable of creating true illusions, due to our ideas, beliefs, fears, etc. Therefore, it is easy to understand when a suffering Spirit says he is hurt, hungry, thirsty or even tired.

Important: the Spirits, in Spiritism, were categorical in this regard: there are no circumscribed places. On the other hand, about other concepts, they said: “calm down. This cannot be understood yet. Wait for the development of the Doctrine”. This demonstrates that it is false the idea that such concepts could not be taught at that time (which doesn't even make sense).

Let's not stop here, however. In July 1858, in the article “Berezina's Drum“, Kardec asks the following questions, after carrying out a series of inquiries trying to understand the moral and rational state of that Spirit, who was a soldier in his last incarnation:

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? ─ As spirits can be seen, but not through the eyes.

31. ─ And you, in what form are you here? ─ Under what 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.

The last answer was quite interesting, but so far it was just the opinion of a Spirit. Worthy of note is Kardec's methodology, probing matters of interest, instead of asking direct questions that could be answered in a biased way. Then, in September of the same year, in the article “Lectures from beyond the grave — Mrs. Schwabenhaus. Ecstatic Lethargy“, Kardec asks the following questions, getting the following answers. Please note:

29. ─ In what form are you among us? ─ Under my last female form.

30. ─ Do you see us as distinctly as if you were alive? ─ Yes.

31. Since you have been here with the form you had on Earth, is it through the eyes that you see us? ─ No, the Spirit has no eyes. I only find myself in my last form to satisfy the laws that govern spirits when evoked and forced to resume what you call perispirit.

Let's see, then: there are already two Spirits, of different elevations, besides the one who answered OLE's questions, saying the same thing: for the Spirit freed from matter, there is no form, like the one we understand. They assume the perispirit, attending to a natural law, only when they need to act materially, when, for example, they approach us to communicate (with materially I mean: they need to assume the perispirit to be able to put themselves in communication with us, which, above all, happens through this “clothes”).

General teaching and reason

Kardec always highlighted, as an indispensable method for the formation of spirit science, the double control of reason and the general teaching of the Spirits. But that's not all: the teaching, emphasizes Kardec, when it must be spread, it is given simultaneously over various points of the globe. The concepts presented here, however, were not established in this way: they were brought by a Spirit or medium, at a time, and, over time, began to be accepted by other individuals, who began to reproduce them. It is as if it were an inverted pyramid, in time: currently, from a construction of illusory theories of the past, a series of others were developed, contrary to the Spiritist Doctrine itself and recovering several concepts of the old religions.

“But I saw it on astral travel”

For the Doctrine student, it is very clear that the individual's ideas play a fundamental role in what he sees and how his physical mind interprets these “visions”.

Kardec, in A Genesis, cap. XIV, highlights that:

27. Spiritual vision is necessarily incomplete and imperfect among incarnate spirits and, consequently, subject to aberrations. Having its seat in the soul itself, its state must influence the perceptions. According to the degree of its development, the circumstances and the moral state of the individual, it can give, whether in sleep or in the waking state: 1st) the perception of certain real material facts, such as the knowledge of occurrences that happen at a distance, the descriptive details of a locality, the causes of an illness and the convenient remedies; 2) the perception of equally real things in the spiritual world, such as the vision of spirits; 3rd) fantastic images created by the imagination, analogous to the fluidic creations of thought (see above, no. 14). These creations are always in relation to the moral dispositions of the Spirit who creates them. This is how the thinking of people strongly imbued and preoccupied with certain religious beliefs presents them with hell, its boilers, its tortures and its demons, in the way they themselves imagine: it is sometimes an entire epic; pagans seeing Olympus and Tartarus, as Christians see hell and paradise. If, upon awakening or coming out of ecstasy, these people retain an accurate memory of their visions, they regard them as reality and confirmation of their belief, even though they are only the product of their own thoughts. A very strict distinction must be made from static views before accepting them. In this sense, the remedy for excessive credulity is the study of the laws that govern the spiritual world.

28. Dreams themselves present the three natures of visions described above. To the first two belong dreams of prediction, presentiments and warnings. In the third, that is, in the fluidic creations of thought, one can find the cause of certain fantastic images, which have nothing real in relation to material life, but which, for the Spirit, have such a reality that the body suffers an impact. , as hair has been seen to whiten under the impression of a dream. These creations can be provoked by exalted beliefs, memories, tastes, desires, passions, fear, remorse, habitual worries, bodily needs or malaise related to the organism's functions; finally, by other spirits, with a benevolent or malevolent objective, according to their nature.

That is to say, dear reader, that, according to spiritist science, places in the world of spirits are nothing more than false concepts. Unfortunately, falling into novel curiosity and absent from these foundations, the Spiritists began to admit the fruits of the isolated ideas of certain Spirits as if they were the full truth.

It remains to say, therefore, that there is no umbral, there is no valley of suicides and there are no spiritual colonies. as we believe: there are Spirits that come together, according to their ideas, and that, the more they are distracted from the purpose of the interval between incarnations, which should be to reflect and learn, reinforcing their will to overcome their imperfections in the next incarnation, they create “material” scenarios. , replicating earthly habits, which constitutes, for them, a real delay towards happiness.

Teaching the false concepts of umbral, suicide valleys, spiritual hospitals, etc., which are the external representation of moral suffering, is failing to teach what really matters: the analysis of one's mistakes and successes, the understanding that everything depends on the own will and the necessary action for one's own evolution. For a Spirit that suffers, and for ourselves, let's say: any suffering or physiological need, in the spiritual world, are FALSE sensations, a kind of moral repercussion ((see The Spirits' Book, second part, chap. VI, item 257)) . Now, it is Kardec's conclusion that the death of the body causes the Spirit to leave, disconnecting the perispirit, cell by cell ((see Genesis, chapter XI)). Since all the cells are dead and the perispirit is “released” (which will not take more than 24 hours after brain death) there is no repercussion from the body to the Spirit, other than through an externalization of moral suffering!

Therefore, you will not go “over the umbral”, but you will have to face your own conscience, at one time or another, and your conscience, depending on how you are and the concepts you carry, can very clearly indicate the path of readjustment. , or else it may set you in time-wasting states. Heaven or hell will be on your own conscience. Therefore, take care to learn Spiritism and draw from it the moral consequences in support of your own will. In this way, you will reach, sooner, the desired happiness, which is not living in a cozy little house in a spiritual colony where the Spirits are concerned with working to earn money in exchange, but the possibility of acting for good, through infinite space, making their part in divine creation.

And make no mistake: the Spirit is transported by thought, wherever he projects that thought. No need for a flying bus.

Where is the key to understanding all this, then?

It's in A Genesis, by Allan Kardec. Read with attention:

14. Spirits act on spiritual fluids, not manipulating them as men manipulate gases, but with the help of thought and will, which are for the Spirit what the hand is for man. Through thought, they imprint this or that direction on the fluid; they agglomerate, combine or disperse them and form sets with an appearance, a shape, a certain color; they change their properties, as a chemist changes those of a gas or other bodies, combining them according to certain laws. It is the great workshop or laboratory of the spiritual life.

Sometimes these transformations are the result of an intention, but often they are the product of an unconscious thought, because the Spirit just thinks about something for it to be done.

This is how, for example, a spirit appears to an incarnate spirit, endowed with spiritual vision, under the appearance he had when he was alive, at the time he met him, although he has already had several other incarnations. He presents himself with clothes, external signs, diseases, scars, amputated limbs, etc. who had; a beheaded one will present himself without his head. I do not say that they preserved such appearances; no, certainly, because, as a Spirit, he is neither lame nor one-armed, nor one-eyed nor decapitated. But his thought, referring to the time when it was like that, his perispirit instantly takes on this appearance, which also changes instantly. If he had been once black and once white, he will present himself as either black or white, according to which of the two incarnations he is evoked and where his thoughts go.

By an analogous effect, the Spirit's thought fluidly creates the objects it was used to using. A miser will handle gold; a soldier will have his weapons and his uniform; a smoker, his pipe; a workman, his plow and his oxen; an old woman, her distaff. These fluidic objects are as real to the Spirit as they would be in the material state to the incarnate man. But because they are created by thought, their existence is as ephemeral as it [thought].

It is very easy to understand, therefore, what we said: “why does it exist? Because they believe.” We therefore need to recognize the need understanding and separating what is false from what is true, because, as soon as someone says that, in the world of spirits, there are bogeymen who eat children, or spirits that vampirize the perispiritual fluid of the incarnate (the what no can happen, knowing the principle of universal laws that govern matter and Spirit), and that people start to, without thinking, believe, without reasoning, in these concepts, themselves, after they die, depending on their state of consciousness, will manufacture their own hauntings, that is, by the action of thought, will create such images and, then, in their mediumistic communications, they will reproduce the same ideas, probably increased here and there, after all, “whoever tells a tale, increases one point”.

Do you understand the problem, dear reader?

Explanatory video, with Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo

Conclusion

With all this, are we saying that Chico Xavier was wrong? NO, by the principle of Chico Xavier being just the medium. However, André Luiz, who was not even a spiritualist person, on Earth, presented his truth of things, according to his conceptions. And, since this opinion has no doctrinal and rational basis, it cannot be part of Spiritism.

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 end by remembering what is printed on our homepage:

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.

It is the concordant, collective teaching of the spirits who have passed beyond which constitutes the logical criterion, giving strength to the spiritual doctrine and assuring to it perpetuity.

Allan Kardec – Genesis

By Marco Milani

(Text published in Senda Magazine – FEEES, May/Jun 2022, p.5-6 ((Source: https://www.feees.org.br/?jet_download=3739)))

Throughout his speech to the community of spiritists in the French cities of Lyon and Bordeaux, in 1862, Kardec ((Book Viagem Espírita em 1862. Speeches given at the general meetings of spiritists in Lyon and Bordeaux. Speech I)) categorized the followers into three large groups: I) Those who believe purely and simply in the phenomena of manifestations, but who do not deduce any moral consequences from them; II) Those who perceive the moral reach, but apply it to others and not to themselves; III) Those who personally accept all the consequences of the doctrine and who practice or strive to practice their morals.

The true spiritist, therefore, applies to himself what many only manifest in normative discourses loaded with ennobling lessons, but empty of actions.

Among each of these categories, multiple subcategories could be identified, proportional to the moral and intellectual maturity of the individuals. One of them would be formed by those who present themselves as adepts, but adapt the teachings to their own interests and not infrequently seek to legitimize their particular opinions on various controversial subjects, claiming these are based on Spiritism. Such is the spiritist for convenience, who customizes the faith according to his interests and ambitions.

Customized faith is adopted at the expense of doctrinal coherence by new sophists who distort reality to shape the appearance of truth. Such distortion often stems from the passions that the supposed adept carries and directs his cosmovision and consequent argumentation. Instead of using doctrinal premises to get to know himself, improve himself and rethink his previous beliefs with a natural change of attitudes, he does the opposite, starting from deep-rooted ideological convictions to fit Spiritism into these proposals. What does not fit or is divergent, is simply ignored or reinterpreted.

 This is what happens with political passions. In a world of expiations and trials, there is no shortage of old social revolutionary proposals that promise the realization of the kingdom of justice on Earth as long as a certain guideline already devised by interpreters of history and planners of collective behavior is followed. Almost all of these utopian recipes for happiness ignore the interexistential process of development and preach the imposition of artificial and collectivist economic relations such as those that would morally transform the individual, but which end up suffocating him. For these, the Spirit Erastus ((Excerpt taken from Erastus' epistle to the spiritists of Lyon – 1861. A warning against materialist utopias. Revista Espírita, Oct/1861.)) manifests itself in this way. 

I just said the word egalitarian. I think it is useful to dwell a little on it, because we have absolutely not seen impractical utopias preached in your midst, and also because, on the contrary, we vigorously reject everything that seems to be linked to the prescriptions of an antisocial communism; above all, we are essentially propagandists of individual freedom, indispensable for the development of the incarnate; therefore, declared enemies of everything that comes close to these convent legislations, which brutally annihilate individuals.

 Fruit of utopian illusions, many spiritualists for convenience select and reinterpret doctrinal concepts to legitimize the political model they carry of systems of socioeconomic relations that depend on the moral perfection of all.

Transitory social issues were recurrently present in Allan Kardec's dialogues with the Spirits and the respective doctrinal teaching contains the fundamental elements for the construction of a more just and fraternal earthly society, based on the knowledge of the spiritual reality and the purpose of reincarnation.

The primordial contribution of Spiritism in social progress is evident in the condition of a powerful agent of moral transformation of humanity, without any framing in political-ideological conceptions already conceived.

As an inter-existentialist philosophy, Spiritism is not limited to the relationships of the material world, as it expands the understanding of reality and shifts the ultimate purpose of being towards the conquest of the true Kingdom of God in itself. Human miseries are reflections of the moral level of individuals, confronting them with the wounds of pride and selfishness, encouraging them to exercise their intelligence and practice charity in its true sense, in harmony with divine laws.

Spiritism, by demonstrating the responsibility of each one for their actions and respective consequences during the reincarnation process in full compliance with natural laws, moves away from the myopic materialist historical perspective that conceives man as a product of his environment and ignores his reincarnation baggage. , your evolutionary tendencies and needs for spiritual attainment. The expression “to each one according to his works” summarizes the meritocratic essence of the individual effort in the inner journey in search of true happiness, according to Spiritism.

Trust and rational belief in divine justice and in the future guided by the consequent benefits of the practice of charity, here understood as benevolent, indulgent action aimed at the forgiveness of offenses, should guide the adept's balanced conduct, promoting comfort and courage to overcome material challenges. The spiritist's conduct reflects his own moral progress in the works carried out and is recognized as consistent with the principles of peace and solidarity he professes.

Reasoned faith, from this angle, critically analyzes and admits the consistency of the set of teachings presented by Allan Kardec, inviting the adept of the spiritist philosophy to act according to doctrinal principles, reducing and attenuating habits and proud and selfish postures. Certainly, in a world of expiations and trials, sudden perfection should not be demanded and moral progress is gradual and proportional to the efforts and maturity of each one.

Social transformation, for Kardec, will not occur in an imposing and totalitarian way on the individual, but in the opposite way, resulting from the improvement of the individual while respecting each person's freedom of conscience. As stated in the February 1862 edition of the Revista Espírita ((Excerpt taken from the text Response addressed to the spiritists of Lyon on the occasion of the New Year, Revista Espírita, Revista Espírita, Feb/1862)), we have:

Look for in Spiritism what can improve you: this is the essential thing. When men are better, really useful social reforms will follow naturally; working for moral progress, you will lay the truest and most solid foundation of all improvements, and will leave it to God to see that they arrive in due time. In the interest of Spiritism, which is still young, but which matures quickly, oppose an unshakable firmness to those who want to drag you down a dangerous path..

 By believing only in what is in agreement with their political-ideological passions and rejecting everything in the spiritist doctrine that contradicts them, the adept for convenience exemplifies the selfish and proud posture that leads to doctrinal folly. Political militancy, with the aim of occupying spaces and disseminating its proposals to convince the largest number of people, disrespects the freedom of thought and free will of others in spiritist institutions and causes schisms.

Allan Kardec, addressing the spiritists in Lyon in 1862, already warned about the trap prepared by opponents of Spiritism who aimed to bring political discussion to spiritist groups ((ibidem)).

I must also point out to you another tactic of our opponents, that of seeking to compromise spiritists, inducing them to move away from the true objective of the doctrine, which is morality, to address issues that are not within their scope and that, just title, could arouse susceptibilities and mistrust. Don't let yourself fall into that trap; carefully remove from your meetings all that pertains to politics and irritating matters; In this respect, discussions will only cause embarrassment, while no one will have anything to object to morality, as long as it is good.

                       Acting as promoters of cizânia in the name of varied political passions, the supposed adherents who customize the faith enthusiastically launch themselves into the proselytizing of their personal convictions, camouflaging them from doctrinal matters, fostering discussions against or in favor of rulers, defending or attacking behavior of others, or even, trying to make believe that only those who share their political-ideological passions could be considered a legitimate spiritist.

That in these agitated times by political polarization, we can understand Kardec's warning about care in dealing with passions and respect for freedom of thought and exemplify in ourselves the behavior we would like others to have.

SOURCE OF GOOD AND EVIL
Extracted from A Genesis, 4th edition, FEAL — Allan Kardec

1. God being the beginning of all things, and that beginning being all wisdom, all
goodness and all righteousness, whatever comes from him must share these attributes, for the
who is infinitely wise, just, and good cannot produce anything unreasonable, evil, and unjust. The evil we observe cannot have originated from him.

2. If evil were in the attributions of a special being, be he called Ahriman, or Satan, of two, one: either he would be equal to God and, consequently, also powerful and eternal, or he would be inferior.

In the first case, there would be two rival powers, fighting incessantly, each seeking to undo what the other is doing, opposing each other. This hypothesis is irreconcilable with the harmony that is revealed in the order of the Universe.

In the second case, being inferior to God, this being would be subordinate to him. Not being able to be eternal like him without being his equal; could only have been created by God. If it was created, it could only have been by God. In that case, God would have created the Spirit of evil, which would be a denial of his infinite goodness.

3. According to a certain doctrine, the evil Spirit, created good, would have become evil, and God,
to punish him, would have condemned him to remain eternally evil, giving him the mission of
seduce men to lead them into evil. Now, with the possibility of a single fall ((The fall, for dogmatic religions represents an event in which man, in his origin, committing a serious offense against God, losing his original sanctity, justice and wisdom, falling through punishment in his present condition: with suffering, ignorance, drift into sin and death. In other words, there would be degradation of the soul. The Spiritist Doctrine, based on the concept of the evolution of the soul from being simple and ignorant due to its effort, establishes its theory through this solid logic. (N. do E .))) cost them the cruelest punishments for eternity, without hope of forgiveness, there would not only be a lack of kindness. However, a premeditated cruelty, because, to make the seduction easier and better hide the trap, Satan would be authorized to to transform himself into an angel of light and to simulate the works of God, even to the point of deceiving. Thus, there would be more iniquity and improvidence on the part of God, because giving Satan all the freedom to emerge from darkness and surrender to worldly pleasures to drag men, the provoker of evil would be less punished than the victims of his tricks, for these, falling through weakness, once into the abyss, they can no longer come out. God refuses them a glass of water to quench their thirst, and throughout eternity, with the angels, He hears their groans, without being moved, while allowing Satan all the pleasure he desires.

Of all the doctrines on the theory of evil, this is undoubtedly the most irrational and the
most offensive to the deity. (To see Heaven and Hell according to Spiritism.
First part, chapter IX, The demons.)

4. However, evil exists and has a cause.

There are several classes of evil ((At the time of Allan Kardec, the Philosophy taught at universities, in normal schools (currently teaching) and in colleges was rational Spiritualism. In the discipline of theoretical morality (one of the Philosophical Sciences), it was taught to difference between physical and moral evil, to demonstrate a revolutionary theory based on personal freedom, contrary to the dogma of the fall and divine punishment of ancestral religions and external coercion, by materialism: “Physical evil consists of pain, illness, death . They are inevitable consequences of the organization of sentient beings, an essential stimulant for their activity. Moral evil is the fundamental condition of freedom. Without evil, good is not possible in the world, because if man could not make mistakes, he would not be free nor would I be able to do good. This life is a time of trial and, without physical and moral evil, there is no place for courage, patience, dedication and other virtues.” (Le Mansois-Duprey. Cours de Philosophie Élémentaire em L 'école normale: journal de l'enseignement pratique. v. 13. Paris: Larousse et Boyer, 1864. p. 235.) Spiritist moral theory was a development of rational Spiritualism: “Spiritism rests, therefore, on general principles independent of all dogmatic questions. It has, it is true, moral consequences like all Philosophical Sciences.” (Spiritist Magazine, 1859.). (N. do E.))). Firstly, there is physical evil and moral evil. We can also classify evils into those that man can avoid and those that are independent of his will. Among the latter, it is necessary to include natural scourges.

Man, whose faculties are limited, cannot understand all of them or encompass all the Creator's designs; he judges things from the point of view of his personality, interests and artificial conventions he has created for himself, which do not belong to the order of nature. That is why, in general, what he would consider just and admirable, if he knew its cause, its objective and the final result, seems to him harmful and unjust. By investigating the reason for being and the usefulness of each thing, you will recognize that everything has the imprint of infinite wisdom and will bow before that wisdom, even in relation to things that you do not understand.

5. Man has been given an intelligence by which he can ward off, or at least
greatly diminish the effects of natural scourges. The more knowledge you acquire and
advances in civilization, the less these calamities are disastrous. with wise organization
social, may even neutralize their effects, when they cannot be fully
avoided. In this way, for the same scourges which are useful in the general order of nature and for the future, but which attack us in the present, God has given to man, with the faculties with which he has endowed his Spirit, the means to paralyze their effects.

Thus, man cleanses unhealthy regions, neutralizes pestilent miasmas, fertilizes
uncultivated lands, preserves them from flooding; healthier houses are built, stronger to withstand the winds, so necessary for the purification of the atmosphere, and protection from the climate. It is thus, finally, that, little by little, necessity made him create the Sciences, with the help of which he improves the conditions of habitability of the globe and expands the whole of its well-being.

As man must progress, the evils to which he is exposed constitute an incentive for the exercise of his intelligence and of all his physical and moral faculties, inviting him to research the means to avoid them. If he had nothing to fear, none
necessity would drive him to seek the best; he would numb himself in the inactivity of his mind; I wouldn't invent or discover anything. Pain is the sting that pushes man forward, on the path of progress..

6. But the most numerous evils are those created by man through his own vices;
from your pride, your selfishness, your ambition, your greed, your
excesses in all things. This is the cause of the wars and calamities that cause
disagreements, injustices, the oppression of the weak by the strong, and, finally, most diseases.

God has established laws full of wisdom, the aim of which is good. man finds
in itself all that is necessary to follow them. Your path is traced by your
conscience, and the divine law is engraved in his heart. Furthermore, God remembers him,
constantly, by its messiahs and prophets, by all the incarnate spirits that
received a mission to clarify, moralize and contribute to their improvement, as well as
as, in recent times, by the multitude of disembodied spirits that manifest themselves on all sides. If men strictly conform to divine laws, there is noThe doubt that they would avoid the most serious evils, living happily on Earth. If he doesn't, it's because of his free will, and he must accept the consequences.

7. But God, full of goodness, placed the remedy on the side of the evil; that is, from evil itself it gives birth to good. There comes a time when the excess of moral evil becomes intolerable and makes man feel the need to change his life. Instructed by experience, he feels obliged to look for the medicine he needs in the good, always by virtue of free will. When he takes a better path, it is of his own volition and because he has recognized the disadvantages of the other road. Necessity compels him to improve morally in order to be happier, as this same necessity compelled him to improve the material conditions of his existence.

it can be said that evil is the absence of good, as cold is the absence of heat. The evil
it is no longer a distinct attribute, any more than cold is a special fluid; one is the
denial of the other. Where good does not exist, there is necessarily evil. Not doing evil is already the beginning of good. God only wants good, evil only comes from man. If there were in Creation a being in charge of evil, man could not avoid him. However, having the cause of evil in yourself and, at the same time, having his free will and the divine laws for his guide, he will avoid it when he will.

Let's take a common fact by comparison: an owner knows that, at the
of your land, there is a dangerous place where you can be injured or die. What do you do to avoid
accidents? Place, near the place, a sign to move away, because of danger. This is the law; she is wise and provident. If, in spite of this, a reckless person ignores the warning and has an accident, who could be held responsible but himself?

So it is with evil. Man would avoid it if he observed divine laws.
God, for example, has placed a limit on the satisfaction of needs; the man is
warned by satiety; if he goes beyond that limit, he acts voluntarily. The illnesses, the bodily weaknesses, the death that can result are your doing, not God's.

8. Evil being the result of man's imperfections, and man created by God, they will say, that if he did not create evil, at least he would have created the cause of it. If I had created the perfect man, evil would not exist.

If man had been created perfect, he would be fatally inclined towards good. Now,
by virtue of his free will, he does not inevitably tend towards either good or evil. God wanted him to be subjected to the law of progress, and for this progress to be the result of his own work, so that the merit would be his, even though he is responsible for the evil he commits by his will. The question, therefore, is to know what, in man, is the origin of his propensity to evil((The error consists in claiming that the soul came perfect from the hands of the Creator, when he, on the contrary, wanted perfection to be the result of the gradual refinement of the spirit and its own work. God wanted the soul, by virtue of its free will, to be able to choose between good and evil, reaching its ultimate ends through a dedicated life and resistance to evil. If he had created the soul with perfection in his likeness – and, leaving his hands, he had linked it to his eternal beatitude –, God would have made it, not in his image, but similar to himself, as already said. Knowing all things due to its essence and without having learned anything, but moved by a feeling of pride born of the awareness of its divine attributes, the soul would be induced to deny its origin, to ignore the author of its existence, remaining in state of rebellion against its Creator. (Bonnamy, investigating judge. The reason for Spiritism, chapter VI.) (Note by Allan Kardec.))).

9. If we study all passions, and even all vices, we see that they have their principle in the instinct of conservation. This instinct, in all its strength in animals and in the primitive beings that are closest to animal life, dominates alone, because, among them, there is still no counterbalance to the moral sense. The being has not yet been born for intellectual life. Instinct weakens, on the contrary, as intelligence develops, because it dominates matter. With rational intelligence, free will is born, which man uses at will: then only, for him, does the responsibility for his actions begin ((In the spiritist moral theory, free will arises after the development of rational intelligence. From this In this way, moral responsibility only begins there and gradually expands, in direct proportion to rational development. In animals and in beings that are still simple and ignorant, free will, moral sense and responsibility for their actions did not arise. These concepts Psychological approaches completely remove the dogmas of original sin, the fall and incarnation as punishment. The scientific hypotheses of selfishness and antisocial feelings innate in all individuals are also false. It brings encouragement, because the greater the intelligence, the greater the responsibility. Finally , for the full moral evolution of humanity it is necessary to guarantee for all individuals the opportunity for rational development through education. (N. do E.))).

10. The destiny of the Spirit is spiritual life. But in the early stages of its existence
bodily, he has only material needs to satisfy. For that purpose, the
exercise of the passions is a necessity for the conservation of the species and individuals,
materially speaking. However, coming out of this period, he has other needs, at first semimoral and semimaterial, and later exclusively moral. It is then that Spirit dominates matter. As he frees himself from his yoke, he advances through the proper life and approaches his final destination. If, on the contrary, he lets himself be dominated by matter, he delays and identifies himself with the irrational. In this situation, what was once a good, because it is a necessity of its nature, becomes an evil, not only because it is no longer a necessity, but because it becomes harmful to the spiritualization of the being.. Therefore, evil is relative, and responsibility is proportional to the degree of progress.

All passions have their providential utility, without which God would have done something useless.
and harmful. It is abuse that constitutes evil, and man abuses, according to his free will. Later, enlightened by self-interest, he freely chooses between good and evil.

Postulate. Mesmer's theory and the Spiritist Doctrine affirm that Spirits act on matter only through thought and will:

Spirits act on spiritual fluids, not manipulating them as men manipulate gases, but with the help of thought and will, which are for the Spirit what the hand is for man.

(KARDEC, [1868] 2018, p. 290)

For Mesmer, there are no fluids, as the science of his time postulated, such as caloric, electric, magnetic, vital fluids, etc. His theory conceived the Universal Cosmic Fluid, whence all matter would be formed and therefore fills everything, as if we were fish, immersed in the ocean ((FIGUEIREDO, Paulo Henrique de. Mesmer – A Ciência Negada do Magnetismo Animal. FEAL, 2022)). The different states of matter would be linked to a different wave state, which is proven by modern physics. Thus, for a Spirit to act on fluid matter, it does not act with its hands or with physical force, but through its will. This is how a Spirit can, through its perispirit, appear in different forms, shaping it as it wishes. However, it can only act on fluid matter. To act on denser matter, something more is necessary: either a body, in which to incarnate, or a body whose control is momentarily ceded by another incarnated Spirit, or, simply, the help of an incarnated, lucid and by his own will.

It is for this principle that a Spirit, as proved in the experiments at the time of Kardec, CANNOT make itself visible, materially, much less tangible, without the existence of a special medium, who provides the "ectoplasm", which would be a species of more animalized spiritual fluid. If it were not so - what is determined by the laws of Nature, or Divine Laws - it would be enough for a Spirit, who wants to do evil, take a knife or a pistol and commit any crime. He can, however, inspire someone to do so, and that person, in accepting the suggestion, has his own responsibility.

Do spirits act on the phenomena of Nature?

At first, we are going to find something that seems incongruous with everything that has been said so far. I make it clear that, in this topic, I am relying on what was born of my understanding, and not entirely on postulates of Spiritism.

First, we have question nº 537 of The Spirits' Book:

537. The mythology of the ancients was based entirely on spiritist ideas, with the only difference being that they considered spirits to be divinities. They represented these gods or these spirits with special attributions. Thus, some were in charge of the winds, others of lightning, others of presiding over the phenomenon of vegetation, etc. Is such a belief without foundation?

“So little is it destitute of foundation, that it is still far from the truth.”

So the Spirits are saying that there are those who govern the phenomena of Nature? It seems so. But, in the first place, we were taught, by Kardec, to accept nothing without passing through the sieve of reason. Now, we know today the forces of nature that cause storms to arise. We know the action of temperature on the winds, the reason for the formation of clouds that generate precipitation and even the reason for the electrical discharge by lightning. These phenomena are so predictable that there are already mathematical computational models that can predict, with a high accuracy rate, when and how much it will rain, and with a few weeks in advance.

So, why should there be Spirits commanding something predictable and that obeys the Laws of Nature?

Proceed to question 538:

538. Do the Spirits who preside over the phenomena of nature form a special category in the spirit world? Are they beings apart, or Spirits who were incarnated like us?

“Which were or will be.”

The) - Do these spirits belong to the higher or lower orders of the spiritist hierarchy?

“That depends on the more or less material, more or less intelligent the role they play. Some command, others execute. Those who perform material things are always of a lower order, both among spirits and among men.”

Thus, it is understood that the higher spirits no they would interact directly on the elements, but leave that to the less developed spirits — which is rational, after all this becomes a learning exercise for them too. Kardec follows, with my emphasis:

539. Is the production of certain phenomena, storms, for example, the work of a single Spirit, or do many come together, forming large masses, to produce them?

“They gather in innumerable masses.”

540. Do the Spirits that exert action in the phenomena of nature operate with knowledge of the cause, using their free will, or by the effect of instinctive or unreflected impulse?

“Some yes, others no. Let's make a comparison. Consider these myriads of animals that, little by little, make islands and archipelagos emerge from the sea. You think that there is no providential end there and that this transformation of the surface of the globe is not necessary for the general harmony? Nonetheless, they are animals of the lowest order that perform these works, providing for their needs and without suspecting that they are instruments of God.. Well, well: in the same way, the most backward spirits offer utility to the whole. While rehearse for life, before they are fully aware of their acts and are in the enjoyment of free will, they act on certain phenomena, of which the agents are unconsciously constituted.. First, execute. Later, when their intelligences have already reached a certain development, they will order and direct the things of the material world. Then they will be able to direct those of the moral world. This is how everything works, how everything is linked together in nature, from the primitive atom to the archangel, who also started with the atom.. Admirable law of harmony, which your timid spirit cannot yet grasp in its entirety.!”

Here we come to something very important. In the answer to question n.º 539, it is clarified that the spirits acting on such phenomena act together in masses. Is not a Spirit, then, that interacts on these phenomena. Since they are masses of Spirits, in question No. 540 Kardec seeks to understand whether these masses are intelligent and rational, acting by their will or not.

Let us first note something important: the Spirit does not use storms to exemplify its response, but uses the example of an island that can be formed by the action of infinite tiny animals, with the action of time, as happens with corals. In question no. 537, Kardec gives several examples of the possibilities of spiritual action, including, among them, winds, lightning and the phenomena of vegetation. The Spirit's answer, limited by several questions, the first being the commitment not to reveal to man what he himself must conclude, by science, was answered in a generic way, and fits well with the phenomena of the last class.

The answer to question #540 demonstrates that inferior beings (from the evolutionary point of view) obey the laws of nature, that is, instinct, blindly, but that, in doing so, they serve a greater purpose. This greater purpose is not fulfilled by miracles or fits, but through the laws of Nature, which are the laws of God, which aim at general harmony. This means that it is not Spirits of any kind that cause a natural disaster, but the consequence, precisely, of Nature. A disaster can happen, for example, by the action of bacteria that slowly corrode the iron of a bridge that, at a certain moment, falls, or by the action of fungi that act in a certain way in a soil of a mountainous region that, saturated then by the rain, become soaked and slide over a whole city.

And here we come to an important point: the simplest living beings, from the cell, the virus and the bacterium, also have a spiritual principle. Estaria explicado, portanto, os Espíritos reunidos em “massas inumeráveis”, governadas pela Natureza, que fazem a harmonia que nosso “acanhado espírito ainda não pode apreender em seu conjunto”.

So, when it is said that Spirits preside over the phenomena of Nature, what is being said is that there are higher Spirits, who, by your influence, govern the lower, linked directly school subjects.

Can a Spirit act directly on matter?

I believe that the issue has been clarified, but to reinforce the concept, let's go back to The Spirits' Book. In the following three questions and in their answers, the principle that Spirits you can not act directly on the matter:

526. Having, as they have, action on matter, can spirits cause certain effects, with the aim of causing an event to occur? For example: a man has to die; climbs a ladder, the ladder breaks and he dies from the fall. Was it the spirits who broke the ladder, so that that man's destiny could be fulfilled?

“It is true that spirits act on matter, but in order to comply with the laws of nature, not to derogate from them, causing, at a given moment, an unexpected event to occur and contrary to those laws. In the example you pictured, the ladder broke because it was rotten, or because it wasn't strong enough to support a man's weight. If it was that man's destiny to perish in such a way, the Spirits would inspire him to climb the ladder in question, which would have to break under his weight, resulting in his death by a natural effect and without being forced to do so. mister the production of a miracle.”

527. Let us take another example, in which matter does not enter its natural state. A man has to die by lightning. Take refuge under a tree. Pops the lightning and kills him. Could it be that it was the Spirits who caused the lightning, directing it towards man?

“It is the same as before. Lightning struck that tree at such a moment because it was in the laws of nature that it should. He was not directed to the tree because the man was under it. To this one, yes, the idea was inspired of taking shelter under a tree on which the lightning would strike, because the tree would not fail to be hit, just because the man was not under its frond.”

528. In the case of a malicious person shooting at another a projectile that only passes close to him without hitting him, could it have happened that a good spirit had deflected the projectile?

“If the individual shot does not have to perish in this way, the kind Spirit will inspire him to deviate, or else he will be able to dazzle the one who is holding the weapon, in order to make him aim badly, because, once the weapon is fired, the projectile follows the line it has to travel.”

Spirits do not derogate from the Laws of Nature by a moral principle, but simply because these Laws are natural and are fulfilled as much as it is fulfilled that, on the surface of any celestial body, when releasing an object, it will fall, due to the law of gravity, with a speed that will depend on the mass of that body (planet, star, etc.).

conclusions

The digression carried out so far served to give a greater basis to another article of my authorship, “Black magic, spells, baths in rock salt and herbs, amulets, Wicca: does it all exist?” (click here to read). Magic, as many imagine, does not exist. Otherwise, we would be subject to being hit, against our will, and no matter how well we are, by any spell. We can, of course, be reached by material means, by the action of the individual's will, supported or not by incarnate Spirits. But, by non-material means, the maximum possible is for a Spirit to interact with fluidic matter, which, in order to identify with ours, depends exclusively on our ostensible permission or our impotence to fight it, as we do not have moral subsidies to so much.

And you, what did you think of all this thinking developed here? Leave your comment below!

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

KARDEC, Allan. The Mediums' Book.

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

There are in all areas the “judases” of Spiritism. Kardec met some, the most prominent of which was Roustaing, who, out of pride and vanity, turned against Spiritism. They are Spirits who have not yet managed to understand the essence of the Spiritist Doctrine, who consider it a threatening “religion” and who surreptitiously await the slightest error where they can catch on, creating a true storm in a teapot. For this, they rely on themselves, when incarnated, or on unsuspecting individuals or those who are not fully aware of the true essence of the Doctrine of Spirits, over whom they exert influence due to their ideas attached to vanity and pride.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allan Kardec, RE, Jan/1866

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I cannot understand and agree with a text that, in a way, analyzes the subject in a partial way. It is not a question of minimizing the fact, but of presenting it in full. It happens that a person who does not know the facts completely, reads a criticism like this one, which puts, in the same basket, Doctrine, Kardec and the Spiritist Movement, and concludes: “Spiritism really sucks”. And that, my friends, is a great disservice to the Doctrine, so that, even today, many black people and followers of Afro religions still express resentment, prejudice and distancing from the spiritist science. Far from attracting, such opinions continue to drive them away.