We all go through the evolutionary process through incarnations. All, without exception. During this process, because of our choices, we can develop good habits or bad habits. The former become virtues, which bring us closer to happiness, while the latter become imperfections, which distance us from happiness and, therefore, prolong our sufferings.

“All men experience passions. Those who have overcome them, and are not, by nature, proud, ambitious, selfish, spiteful, vindictive, cruel, wrathful, sensual, and do good without effort, without premeditation and, so to speak, involuntarily, it is because they have progressed in the sequence of their previous existences, having freed themselves from this uncomfortable weight. It is unfair to say that they have less merit when they do good, compared to those who fight against their tendencies. It turns out that they have already achieved victory, while the others have not yet. But when they achieve it, they will be like the others. They will do good without thinking about it, like children who read fluently without needing to spell. It is as if there were two sick people: one cured and full of strength while the other is still convalescing and hesitates to walk; or like two runners, one of which is closer to the finish than the other.”

KARDEC, Allan. The Genesis. 4th edition (original), FEAL

Bad habits are of two types: moral and material (which, deep down, always have something moral, that is, the will of the Spirit). Bad moral habits are those easily recognized as avarice, jealousy, vanity, selfishness, pride, etc., the last two of which can be understood as the parents of all others. Bad material habits, on the other hand, are those such as addictions to drugs or the exaggeration of certain animal instincts, such as gluttony, addiction to sex, etc.

Both are very difficult to combat, now installed. Often, they require multiple incarnations and, not infrequently, we find ourselves in the condition of the one who you see where he goes wrong and the suffering it causes him, but who says: “he is stronger than me”. Commonly, in this condition, which is already the beginning of something very important, through simple recognition, we are going to look for different external ways of dealing with these bad habits, whether religious or philosophical, or medicinal. We look for hospitalizations, drugs that aim to combat certain aspects, religions that will commonly classify as sin or that will say that we need to change in a hurry, because “Jesus awaits us”. None of this, however, manages to change what is at the bottom of our souls, except with rare exceptions. It is that, in all this, a fundamental key is missing: the will.

Let's see: all external artifices can, of course, help a lot in the process of overcoming. Prayer or prayer, medication, external practices, in short, everything is a tool, but I am here to say that nothing will change unless the individual acquires the firm will to win. And this is a process, very greatly aided by reason. Spiritism, when it shows us that joy and sadness, pleasure and pain are purely material and transient conditions, but that true happiness lies in getting rid of the conditions that force us to continue incarnating in such brutal conditions, living under the fruit of our own imperfections, tells us: everyone will reach the heavens, but it depends only on each one When it will happen.

By understanding this aspect, we can begin to see life differently. Every difficult situation and every opportunity becomes a learning device. We start to face difficulties with different eyes and become more attentive to the opportunities to which the good Spirits lead us, as long as we have the will.

Still, winning seems something very distant and difficult. Many will say: the flesh is weak. Well, we really can't assume that overnight we will overcome a bad habit that is deeply ingrained in our minds. This is the first fundamental understanding. It is necessary to adopt reason and will to develop better habits, being who of them is the habit of learning to say “not today”. Let's learn to design our future: why do we want to get rid of one imperfection or more? Because we wish we didn't need to go through more lives in the same condition. Who knows, the transformation may be so great that, at the end of this incarnation, we can conquer the possibility of incarnating in slightly happier worlds? Even more: those who know the transformation may, albeit slowly, take place in such a profound way that we can, day after day, find a growing happiness in our hearts, in the face of the realization that we have learned to deal a little better with difficulties and bad habits?

This should be enough to provoke us with firm intentions for change, in the concrete hope of a better tomorrow for ourselves.

Therefore, when we struggle with our imperfections, let us learn to watch our thoughts, moving away, that is, not even thinking, about what leads us to the stumbling processes. And if today we were not strong enough and we stumbled, let's not say: "I can't, I'm not strong", but rather "I'm not perfect and I still haven't been able to overcome", analyzing where the mistake happened and remaining firm in the purpose of change. . We just can't take this principle as an excuse.

Dear reader, know and never forget: if you already notice an imperfection, this is the beginning of your change. Strengthen your will and know that, through it, you will never be abandoned. The friendly spirits themselves will lead you to the opportunities that you will have to accept or not. It's a good book that arrives in due course, it's a word from a friend, it's an article like this, designed to move you. Be aware of bad suggestions, however, which will continue to come from spirits accustomed to disturbance, and build up your strength in study and prayer, always seeking to reform yourself. The other things, such as doing good, studying the gospel, psychological counseling, are, yes, very important, but it depends on you, and only you, wish to achieve happiness.

Remember, after all, that Jesus, nailed to the cross, listening to the repentance and pleas for forgiveness of the thief nailed to the cross next to him, replied: “today you will be with me in paradise”. “Being with Jesus in paradise” means saying that the thief, having repented and found the will change, entered a new learning phase. It was not Jesus who saved him, but himself. Think about it.

We recommend watching the study below. Talk deeply about it:

It is a false concept, although widespread, to say that there is a plan in everything. If so, we would not have free will.

When it is said that even a leaf that falls is under the will of God, it means to say that everything is under his Laws, which are perfect. However, there is no direct effect of the will of God that determines that, at that moment, the leaf will fall or not fall.

Well then: we, as Spirits, before entering the realm of conscience and choice, are guided solely by instinct. It is he who guides us, for example, when we are animals: hunger makes us look for food, anger helps us to kill the animal that will serve as food and fear keeps us away from dangerous conditions. When we are an animal outside the top of the chain, many times we are killed to serve as food for another animal (see: there is no harm in that, but good, because we are following the Law of God). After death, the Spirit of the animal, which still lacks self-awareness and the ability to choose and, therefore, does not suffer morally, is very quickly reused in another animal that is born.

After entering the realm of free will, we progressively choose our lives, planning them in general terms. If I was very attached to jealousy, which causes me difficulties and suffering, once we understand this, we choose a way of life that will provide us with possibilities to deal with this imperfection. Friendly spirits participate in this planning who, throughout life, help us, influencing us, inspiring us and often leading us to situations that may be useful to ourselves.

All this was necessary to highlight: we are Spirits living incarnations in dense matter. We are therefore subject to spiritual laws and the laws of matter. The latter make us exposed to the conditions of matter, such as, for example, a torrential rain that causes a commotion in a mountain, that comes down on the houses, a volcano that explodes, an earthquake that generates a devastating tsunami or, still, a comet that hits the planet and destroys it completely. The idea of “collective karma”, therefore, is FALSE (in fact, the idea of karma, as we know it, is false).

From another point of view, we are also subject to the choices of other incarnate Spirits. See: God and the superior spirits respect the free will and time of men. This is why there is no divine interruption of a war, nor of a small-scale crime. Of course, good spirits try to dissuade bad choices through their influences, but in the end, man is the one who chooses to listen to them (or to his own conscience) or not. On the other hand, a person who is leading himself into a situation where he becomes a victim may also try to be inspired, if possible, to deviate from it. How many individuals escape accidents and crimes because of a dream or an insistent thought, or even through an event that causes them to get in the way?

Of course, this is not a concession to special people. We all have good spirits who love us, without exception, but we are often too far away from their influences or turn a deaf ear to their suggestions.

One more logical observation that we make is that when a person dies from a crime, he is NEVER “paying” for something from the past (but he may, of course, have been the victim of his own carelessness, when, for example, he gets into a criminal or dangerous environment of their own volition).

Finally, we arrive at the realization: the genre and the time of death can, yes, be planned before the incarnation of the Spirit, but the course of life can, of course, change this planning. There is no predetermined destiny, because if there were, we would be mere puppets in the theater of life. We can change our plans – and we often do. We can even create a disease, by our actions, that kills us sooner than planned, and we can also get rid of a disease or condition that would take us at a young age, if a series of conditions allow (and it is NOT part of these conditions what they call of "deserving".

Think of that person who crosses the street without looking: it is not a Spirit that impels him to such an act, but his own carelessness, a bad habit. Through this bad habit, he may, at any moment, encounter a car speeding along or a driver looking the other way, and he may crash and die. Think, too, of the parachutist who jumps out of an airplane, putting his life on a parachute. Instinct tells him to be afraid to do it, but his will, the fruit of choice, falsifies that instinct, and he, anyway, launches himself. If the parachute fails and he dies, it was not God who wanted it that way, nor a Spirit who spoiled the parachute, but the laws of matter themselves.

We believe that this thought was clear, but we close by highlighting what Kardec presents in Practical instructions on spiritist manifestations:

FATALITY — from Latin. fatalites, in fatum, destiny. Inevitable fate. A doctrine that supposes that all the events of life and, by extension, all our acts, are predestined and subject to a law from which we cannot escape. There are two kinds of fatality: one arising from external causes, which can affect us and react on us; we could call it reactive, exterior, eventual fatality; the other, which originates in ourselves, determines all our actions; it is personal fatality. In the absolute sense of the word, fatality transforms man into a machine, without initiative or free will and, consequently, without responsibility. It is the negation of all morality.

According to the spiritist doctrine, by choosing its new existence, the Spirit practices an act of freedom. The events of life are the consequence of choice and are related to the social position of existence. If the spirit must be reborn in a servile condition, the environment in which it finds itself will create events very different from those that would present itself if it had to be rich and powerful. But whatever that condition may be, he retains free will in all the acts of his will, and he will not be fatally drawn to do this or that, nor to suffer this or that accident. Due to the chosen type of struggle, he has the possibility of being led to certain acts or encountering certain obstacles, but it is not said that this must happen infallibly, or that he cannot avoid it through his prudence and his will. That's why God gives you the ability to reason. It is the same as if you were a man who, in order to reach a goal, had three paths to choose from: the mountain, the plain or the sea. In the first, the possibility of finding rocks and precipices; in the second swamps; in the third, storms. But it is not said that it will be crushed by a stone, that it will get stuck in the marsh, or that it will be shipwrecked here and not there. The choice of path itself is not fatal, in the absolute sense of the word: man will instinctively take the path in which he must find the chosen test. If you have to fight the waves, your instinct will not lead you to take the mountain path.

According to the type of tests chosen by the Spirit, man is exposed to certain vicissitudes. As a result of these same vicissitudes, he is subjected to drags from which he must escape. He who commits a crime is not fatally driven to commit it: he has chosen a path of struggle that can excite him to it; if you yield to temptation, it is through weakness of your will. Thus, free will exists for the Spirit in the errant state, in the choice it makes of the tests to which it must submit, and it exists in the condition of being incarnated in the acts of corporeal life. Only the moment of death is fatal: because the kind of death is still a consequence of the nature of the tests chosen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uF6VAEmXPI

In this article, Kardec leads us to think about the evil that exists in fear and how it can affect us. 

The case: a man had left a very expensive bottle of liquor in a carriage and, fearing that he would be drunk, went to the parking lot manager, to whom he said the bottle contained poison. When he had just returned to his apartment, he was hurriedly sought out: three coachmen were suffering from terrible stomach pains. With effort, he convinced them of his rudeness.

Can the case be explained simply by the power of suggestion? Kardec says, initially, that it could not be an action of magnetism, as it was not the case, and then questions São Luís:

─ Your reasoning is very fair in relation to imagination. But the malevolent spirits who induced those men to commit an impolite act, cause a shiver of fear to pass through their blood, through matter, that you could well call magnetic shiver, which stretches the nerves and produces a cold in certain regions of the body. You well know that any cold in the abdominal region can produce colic. It is, therefore, a means of punishment that amuses the spirits who provoked carrying out the theft and at the same time making them laugh at the expense of those to whom they sin [language neologism, to make himself understood, since S. Luís himself speaks of autonomy, between the lines].

Sao Luis, RE 1858

Comment: when talking about induction it cannot, in any way, replace the responsibility that the incarnate has to accept these suggestions.

Comment: Magnetic Shiver: since magnetism is an action of the will on the perispirit, which reflects on matter, we understand this term well.

Observation: THE punishment it is in the following sense: God “places” us to live among Spirits as imperfect as we are, or more. This contact is an ordeal of our imperfections, learning from it as they learn from us.

“They do so whenever an opportunity is offered to them, which they even seek, for their satisfaction. We can avoid this, I assure you, by raising ourselves to God by thoughts less material than those that occupied the minds of those men. Evil spirits like to have fun. Watch out for them! He who thinks he is saying a pleasant phrase to the people around him and who amuses a society with jokes and acts, is sometimes wrong, and even often, when he thinks that all this comes from himself.. The frivolous spirits that surround him identify with him in such a way that little by little they deceive him about his thoughts, also deceiving those who listen to him. In that case, you think you are dealing with a man of spirit, who, however, is only an ignorant. Think carefully, and you will understand what I say to you. Superior spirits are not, however, enemies of joy. Sometimes they like to laugh to make themselves nice to you. But everything has its opportune moment.”

Idem

KARDEC NOTE: “Saying that in the reported case there was no emission of magnetic fluid, perhaps we were not being very accurate. Here we venture a guess. As we said, it is known that transformations of the properties of matter can be operated under the action of the fmagnetic liquid driven by thought. Now, it is not possible to admit that, by the thought of the doctor who wanted to make believe in the existence of a toxic and give thieves the anguish of poisoning, there had been a kind of magnetization of the liquid at a distance, which would have acquired new properties, whose action would have been corroborated by the moral state of individuals whom fear had made impressionable? This theory would not destroy St. Louis's on the intervention of frivolous spirits in similar circumstances. We know that spirits act physically by physical means; they can therefore, in order to carry out certain designs, make use of those which they themselves provoke and which we inadvertently provide them with..”

Comment: Kardec is speaking in the following sense: through suggestion, Spirits can obtain physical results, through those who perform them. It is clear that, in order to act directly on matter, the existence of a medium with such capacities is necessary.

Doubts: Here, we raise a question: if we can saturate an object with our perispiritual fluid, by the action of our will, why can't a Spirit do it? Because the Spirit cannot act on matter directly, nor with his perispirit. He needs matter or an intermediary medium of physical effects.

Doubts: Could we explain the phenomenon, also, only by autosuggestion, not as an effect of the imagination, but as a patent effect of the individual himself on his perispirit? Yes we can, like the placebo effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uF6VAEmXPI

In this article, Kardec highlights that the Magnetism it was taught as a fact even within the Catholic Church.

“We have in our hands a booklet entitled Abrégé, en form de catéchisme, of the elementary course of Christian instruction, for use in catechism and in Christian schools.

In one of the chapters on the first commandment, where sins against religion are treated, and after having spoken of superstition, magic and sorcery, he says the following:

Q. ─ What is magnetism?

R. ─ It is a reciprocal influence that sometimes operates on individuals, according to a harmony of relationships., either by the will or by the imagination, or by the physical sensibility, and whose main phenomena are somnolence, sleep, somnambulism and the convulsive state.

"P. ─ What are the effects of magnetism?

“R. ─ Ordinarily, it is said, magnetism produces two main effects: 1st) A state of somnambulism, in which the magnetized person, completely deprived of the use of the senses, sees, hears, speaks and answers all the questions that are asked to him. directed; 2nd) An intelligence and wisdom that only exist in crisis: he knows his condition, the suitable remedies for his ailments, as well as what certain people, even distant, do.

Comment: We could add to this the magnetic interaction between individuals at will. A question of autonomy enters here, because, in this context, nothing happens with the individual without his will.

"P. ─ In good conscience, is it lawful to magnetize or allow oneself to be magnetized?

“R. ─ 1st) If, for the magnetic operation, means are used, or if effects are obtained by it that presuppose diabolic intervention, it will be a superstitious work and must never be allowed; 2) The same is true when magnetic communications are contrary to modesty; 3rd) Assuming care is taken to keep away from the practice of magnetism any abuse, any danger to faith or customs, any pact with the devil, it is doubtful whether he is allowed to have recourse to it as a natural and useful remedy.”

Despite the contradiction, it is a book intended for the religious education of the masses. Completes Kardec: “The author's qualification is of great importance here. It is not an obscure man who speaks or a simple priest who expresses his opinion: he is a vicar general who teaches.

Another setback and another warning to those who judge too hastily.”

Kardec opens the month of September 1858 with a long and deep digression – a real lesson on the DANGERS OF SPIRITISM. As at that time, today it is still said that mediumship can pose dangers to mediums and assistants. In a word, that contact with spirits can be dangerous. Will it be?

“[…] If we wanted to banish from Society everything that could pose danger and give rise to abuse, we would not know very much what would be left, even of those essential things, starting with fire, the cause of so many misfortunes; then the railways, &c. etc”. 

Kardec's Thought, RE 1858

This denotes that, yes, there are some dangers, but, taking the necessary precautions, if the advantages outweigh the inconveniences, then one should not outlaw such investigation.

Kardec continues, highlighting: 

“Actually, Spiritism presents a real danger, but it is not the one that is supposed. It is necessary to be initiated in the principles of Science to understand it well. We do not address those who are alien to it, but the adepts themselves, those who practice it, since it is for them that there is danger.”

Idem

Observation: Mediums and scholars. For example: Roustaing was fascinated by what he received through a medium.

See also the group study we did on the topic.

What does this danger consist of, anyway? It consists of the haste or the exaggerated enthusiasm of those who put themselves in contact with the Spirits, who often allow themselves to be influenced. Now, when they obtain any mediumistic phenomenon, how many are not amazed by it – and why do they sink?

Here, the big question is precisely with regard to the medium's knowledge: he could avoid many evils, including his morals. We already know that spirits are not special beings, but only human beings outside the flesh and that, therefore, as shown, they guard their vices and their virtues.

We also know that we are incessantly surrounded by a “cloud” of Spirits, of the most diverse classes and inclinations, the quasi connect to us as they become attached to our spiritual reality, in acting and in thinking, that is, to our deepest inclinations towards the passions or for the virtues.

Passion is a term that designates a very strong feeling of attraction to a person, object or topic. Passion is intense, enveloping, an enthusiasm or a strong desire for something. The term is also often applied to designate a lively interest or admiration for an ideal, cause, or activity. In the 19th century, psychology called passions what we now call emotions.

Due to the condition of our planet, we know that the inferior spirits are more abundant here than the superior ones. This should put us on alert, us, initiates in the Spiritist science, in relation to the Spirits that we attract to us.

We also know that imperfect spirits, when they find a breach in the human heart, can attach themselves to it and, if their moral ancestry – however inferior it may be – is accepted, it can reach the point of subdue, fascinate and obsess the incarnate.

Returning to the mediums, Kardec observes: 

"The cold man, on the contrary [from excited], is impassive. He is not deceived; it combines, weighs, examines maturely and does not allow itself to be seduced by subterfuges. This is what gives you strength. The malevolent spirits, who know this as well or better than we do, also know how to take advantage of the situation to subjugate those they wish to have under their dependence.”

idem

Let us remember the imposter spirit of Father Ambrósio, questioned by Kardec (July/1858):

“16. ─ Why don't you sustain the imposture in our presence? ─ Because my language is a touchstone, with which you cannot be deceived.”

Let's see, friends, that Kardec, here, is giving solid foundations for the formation and maintenance of spiritist research.

"Whether for enthusiasm, or for the fascination of the Spirits, or for self love, in general the psychographic medium is led to believe that the spirits that communicate with him are superior, and all the more, the more the spirits, seeing their propensity, do not cease to adorn themselves with pompous titles, according to the need”

“From blind and thoughtless belief in the superiority of spirits who communicate, to trust in their words, there is only one step, as it happens among men.” – And Kardec will give a very practical example of that.

Allan Kardec tells that a young man, educated, carefully educated, of a mild and benevolent character, but a little weak and indecisive, he became a psychographic medium with very quickly and became obsessed by a Spirit. This Spirit began to dictate to him true absurdities, which, as a result, almost led the boy to illness and madness:

"Subjugation had reached a point where he had been told to throw himself into the water or go to the antipodes. [other side of Earth], he would have done. When they wanted to force him to do something he disliked, was dragged by an invisible force.”

“When the creature managed to replace the devil with Jesus, it still does not possess the truth. to have it, it is necessary to believe. God does not give the truth to those who doubt: it would be to do something useless and God does nothing in vain. As most new mediums doubt what they say and write, good spirits, begrudgingly, by God's formal order, they are obliged to lie and have no choice but to lie until the medium is convinced; but as soon as he believes one of these lies, the high spirits rush to reveal to him the secrets of heaven: the whole truth dissipates in an instant that cloud of errors with which they had been forced to envelop their protege.

"At this point, the medium has nothing to fear anymore.. The good spirits will never leave you. However, he must not believe that he always has the truth and only the truth. Whether to try it out, or to punish it for past faults, or even to punish it for selfish or curious questions, the good spirits him inflict physical and moral corrections, come to torment him by the command of God.”

RE October, 1858 (quotes from the psychographs of the fascinated Spirit

The report that Kardec gives, obtained from the psychographies of these obsessing Spirits, through the boy, is even difficult to read, let alone to understand, such is the level of disparity of the ideas presented there. For its extension, we will abstract from the citation. It is worth highlighting Kardec's observation, only: 

"Note that in all this there is nothing coarse or banal. It is a series of sophistical reasonings linked together with the appearance of logic. There is indeed an infernal art in the means employed to deceive him, and if it had been possible for us to relate all these manifestations, one would have seen to what extent the cunning was carried and with what skill they used honeyed words.”

In the midst of all this struggle, however, Kardec highlights that it was easy to recognize another spirit, kind, who struggled to make himself ear. It was his father, who, at one point, wrote: "Yes, my son, courage! You undergo a harsh ordeal, which will be for your good in the future. Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't do anything to free you, and it costs me a lot. Go see Allan Kardec; listen to him and he will save you”

The boy, listening to the good advice, goes to look for Kardec, who starts what today we would call disobsession:

"I used all my willpower to call the good spirits through you; all my rhetoric to prove to him that he was a victim of detestable spirits; that what he wrote was senseless and profoundly immoral. For this charity work I joined a colleague, Mr. T… and little by little we got him to write sensible things. He took a dislike to that bad temper, repelling him willingly each time he tried to manifest himself, and slowly the good spirits triumphed.”

To change his ideas, he followed the advice of the Spirits, to give himself to a rough job, that did not leave him time to listen to bad suggestions.

• But disobsession it does not only aim at the incarnate, who can drive away bad Spirits at will, but it can positively affect the Spirit as well (and often does):

Dillois himself ended up confessing himself defeated and expressed a desire to progress in a new existence. He confessed the evil he had tried to do and gave evidence of repentance. The fight was long and painful and offered the observer really curious features. Today Mr. F. feels free and happy. It's as if you've dropped a burden. He regained his joy and thanks us for the service we have given him.

Kardec begins the conclusion of the article with a reflection: far from proving the danger of mediumship, cases like these show its utility. Now, the spirits are around us, with or without mediumship, and with or without it they can obsess us, if we allow. 

Mediumship only puts us in direct contact with them, which provides an important tool for the spirits themselves to reveal themselves and accuse themselves, allowing the medium or someone else to try to open their eyes – exactly as it happened with the boy.

Finally, mediumship is not what makes the communication of ideas from inferior spirits exclusive. Says Kardec: 

"Who says that among all these ridiculous or dangerous speculations there will not be some whose authors are driven by malevolent spirits? Three-quarters of our evil actions and our evil thoughts are the fruit of this hidden suggestion.”

"In short, the danger is not exactly in Spiritism, because it can, on the contrary, serve as a control[…]. The danger lies in the propensity of certain mediums to, very lightly, believe themselves to be instruments exclusive to superior spirits and in a kind of fascination that does not allow them to understand the nonsense of which they are interpreters. Even those who are not mediums can be dragged along.”

In closing, Kardec makes some remarks. Some we have already dealt with recently, regarding the language of the Spirits and the contradictions:

1st – Every medium must guard against the irresistible excitement that leads him to write incessantly and even at inopportune moments; he must be master of himself and not write unless he wants to;

2nd – We do not dominate superior spirits, not even those who, not being superior, are good and benevolent, but we can dominate and tame inferior spirits. He who is not master of himself cannot be master of the spirits;

3rd – There is no other criterion than common sense to discern the value of spirits. Any formula given for this purpose by the spirits themselves is absurd and cannot emanate from superior spirits;

4th – Spirits, like men, are judged by their language. Every expression, every thought, every concept, every moral or scientific theory that clashes with common sense or does not correspond to the idea that we have of a pure and elevated Spirit, emanates from a more or less inferior Spirit;

5th – Superior spirits always speak the same language with the same person and never contradict each other;

6th – Superior spirits are always good and benevolent. In their language we never find acrimony, arrogance, harshness, pride, boasting, or foolish presumption. They speak plainly, advise, and withdraw when they are not heard;

7th – We should not judge spirits by their material form or by the correctness of their language, but probe their depths, scrutinize their words, weigh them coldly, maturely and without prejudice. Any escape from common sense, reason and wisdom cannot leave any doubt as to its origin, whatever the name under which the Spirit is masked;

8th – Inferior spirits are afraid of those who analyze their words, they unmask their turpitude and do not allow themselves to be caught by their sophistry. Sometimes they try to resist, but they always end up running away, when they realize that they are the weakest;

9th – He who in everything acts with a view to the good, rises above human vanities, expels selfishness, pride, envy, jealousy and hatred from his heart, and forgives his enemies, putting this into practice. Christ's maxim: “Do to others what you want done to you”; he sympathizes with the good spirits, while the bad ones fear him and move away from him.

Let's study?

Check out the study groups that exist, dealing with the Spiritist Doctrine, in which we have learned A LOT. Click here.

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In this article, Kardec brings a letter from one of his subscribers, saying that, despite the medium Victorien Sardou say that, in Mozart's house drawing, only saw the treble clef repeated, and never the bass clef, this subscriber saw the existence of the bass clef, as well as the C clef, in minor details of the drawing, which went unnoticed by the eyes of Mr. Sardou.

According to Kardec, this is yet another point that demonstrates the good faith of this medium, who did not act deliberately and, in fact, demonstrated that he was oblivious to the drawings obtained through mediumship.

“All the parts are thus begun and simultaneously continued, without any one of them being completed before another begins. This results, at first sight, in an incoherent whole, whose end is only understandable when everything is finished.”

Kardec, RE 1858

And here we have an important aspect of the arts, including the Spiritists: morality, united to the beautiful, creating important mental connections.

We also highlight the pictorial mediumship. We leave here a video of mediums who for years made paintings in this way:

In this September 1858 edition of RE, Kardec presents the case of Louis G., a shoemaker officer, who seven or eight months earlier had committed suicide at the door of his girlfriend, Victorine R., who was a seamstress of boots.

Once, Victorine R. and Louis G, who were already engaged, got into a deep argument for a trivial reason, to the point that Louis got up and promised never to return.

The next day, from cold head, the boy went to apologize, but was unsuccessful: Victorine R. refused to reconcile, despite her despair. 

After a few more days, thinking that his beloved would be reasonable, Louis went to try again to apologize, to which he was again rejected. At his beloved's door, he said to her: "Then farewell, you wicked one!" finally exclaimed the poor boy, “Farewell forever! Find a husband who wants you as much as I do!” – and plunged his shoemaker's knife into his chest, exhaling right there.

This article on the history of Louis G and Victorine R. appeared in Siècle on April 7, 1858.

Seeking to obtain moral teachings about the fact, on August 10, 1858 Kardec evokes São Luís:

1. ─ Does the girl, the unintentional cause of her boyfriend's death, have responsibility? ─ Yes, because I didn't love him.

Comment: This answer causes initial strangeness. Is anyone to blame for not loving someone else? Let's understand.

2. To avoid this misfortune, should she marry him, even though she did not love him? ─ She was looking for an occasion to part with him; did at the beginning of his call what he would have done later.

Comment: Here, St. Louis is saying that, sooner or later, she would separate from him, because, we understand, she didn't really love him.

3. ─ So the guilt consists in having nourished in him feelings that he did not share and that were the cause of the boy's death? ─ Yes. That's it.

4. In this case, your responsibility must be proportionate to the fault, which must not be as great as if it had intentionally caused death. ─ This is obvious.

Comment: Her “guilt” wasn’t so great because she didn’t actually want the other person’s misfortune. He just fed something that caused him suffering.

Observation: Remembering that "guilt" here is not something before an external judge, but before your own conscience. After all, it can be assumed that, since that moment, she must have carried some feeling of guilt because of the misfortune that happened to the boy.

5. Did Louis G.'s suicide find justification in the frenzy into which Victorine's obstinacy plunged him? - Yes, because his suicide, provoked by love, is less criminal in the eyes of God than that of a man who wants to get rid of life out of cowardice.

Comment: Here, when we talk about “crime in the eyes of God”, we need to understand that it was a neologism of the time. The “crime” is to impose a waste of time, perhaps with a great accumulation of suffering, due to the unconquered test. It is also important to remember two aspects: the first is that St. Luís is a Spirit who was, in his life, Catholic. The second is that, even if he doesn't bring concepts from Catholicism, he spoke as they could understand him.

Observation: By saying that this suicide is less criminal in God's eyes, evidently means that there is criminality, although less. The fault consists in the weakness that he did not know how to overcome. It is undoubtedly proof that he succumbed. Now, the spirits teach us that the merit lies in fighting victoriously against trials of all kinds, which are the essence of earthly life.

Here we have two problems to discuss. The first is to reinforce the knowledge brought by Spiritism, which presents its conclusions, without the intention of creating fantasies that try to subjugate through fear. Suicide, seen by many as something that will throw the soul into hell - whatever name is given to it - and even cause it to be born with deformations in the next life, in reality has different effects, depending on each being and each individual. situation.

Secondly, in no way is Saint Louis saying that suicide for love is a good thing: it is only more excusable, before one's own conscience, because it is practically a state of madness, whereas one who kills himself to escape life he almost always does it on his own, and it will cause him greater suffering when he discovers the truth.

Days later, Kardec evokes the Spirit of Louis G., the suicide, asking him the following questions:

1. ─ What do you think of the action that you performed? ─ Victorine is ungrateful. I was wrong to kill myself for her, because she didn't deserve it.

2. ─ So she didn't love you? ─ No. At first she thought so, but she was deluded. The scene I made opened his eyes. Then he was happy with this excuse to get rid of me.

3. - And did you love her sincerely? ─ I had passion for her. I believe it was just that. If I had loved her with pure love, I wouldn't have wanted to hurt her.

4. ─ If she had known that you really wanted to kill yourself, would she have persisted in refusing? ─ I don't know. I don't think so, because she wasn't evil. However, it would have been unfortunate. It was better for her.

We see that this Spirit reached an important conclusion, seeing that it killed itself for a passion. He understands that if he really loved her, he wouldn't have wanted to hurt her, that is, he wouldn't have committed an act so terrible as to shock her feelings so much.

Passion is a term that designates a very strong feeling of attraction to a person, object or topic. Passion is intense, enveloping, an enthusiasm or a strong desire for something. The term is also often applied to designate a lively interest or admiration for an ideal, cause, or activity. In the 19th century, psychology called passions what we now call emotions.

Who knows, in a new incarnation, a spirit like the one who committed suicide, for having found this lucidity, instead of planning a life of suffering as a form of punishment, could not choose tests and opportunities precisely to give himself the chance to learn to get rid of the passions, which often cast us into disgrace? How many murders, by the way, take place not out of hatred or evil thoughts, but simply by passions (today calls emotions)?

Continuing with the account of the evocation of the suicidal Louis G.:

5. ─ When you arrived at your door, did you have any intention of killing you, if you were refused? ─ No. Didn't even think about it. I didn't think she was so obstinate. It was only when I saw your stubbornness that I was taken by a vertigo.

6. ─ It seems that you only regret suicide because Victorine didn't deserve it. Is it your only feeling? ─ Right now, yes. I still feel disturbed. It seems to me to be at your door. But I feel something I cannot define.

7. ─ Will you understand later? ─ Yes, when I'm free... What I did was bad. I should have left her alone… I was weak and I suffer the consequences… As you can see, passion drives man to blindness and to make absurd mistakes.. He only understands when it's too lates.

8. ─ You said that you suffer the consequences. What penalty do you suffer? ─ I made a mistake by shortening my life. I shouldn't have done it. It should resist instead of ending everything prematurely. […]

Comment: he doesn't say that he was being gnawed by worms, nor that he was in a hellish region, nor that he was attached to the body, anything like that. In the disturbed state in which he found himself, his mind became attached to the fateful scene, the origin of his present moral sufferings, and it was in this that his thought became trapped. Well, we ourselves do this incarnate, every day.

 Here we have confirmed the state of “madness”, driven by passions, into which this man entered, who killed himself in a thoughtless act. How many suicides of this kind are there? They would be numbered in the thousands, if something was publicized. Unfortunately it is not. These suffer, as the Spirit of Louis G. suffered, because they understood that the thoughtless act cost them time and imposed suffering on others. Hence to say that this will lead them to spend years dragging themselves in the "valley of suicides" or that they will bring physical changes to the new incarnation because of this guilt, there is a great distance.

If you think about it, he doesn't even want to kill himself. it was an act of rage at the time. And we think that we should pay a lot of attention to the teachings of this article, because it is a global problem in our current society. The number of suicides has increased a lot. We see here the how urgent is it tame our passions.

Note: This account by Louis G. appears in the Book Heaven and Hell by Allan Kardec.((1)) Book Heaven and Hell by Allan Kardec, Editora FEAL, 2021, second part, chapter. V, pg. 337, the subtitle: Louis and the Shoe Seamstress.

Why, of course! Jesus was neither a demagogue nor a hypocrite when he called us “brothers”. He demonstrated that he was like us, an evolving Spirit.

This is a fundamental postulate of the science of Spirits: all of us, without exception, were created simple and ignorant and, from there, we followed the path of evolution. When and where, only God knows. Since God is the sovereign justice and Love in essence, he could not create privileged, full and evolved creatures, while creating others to suffer. This is a very ancient dogma taught mainly by the Roman Church, which we will not go into, given the extent of its discussion.

Everything that is exposed here is abundantly postulated in Kardec's works, with great clarity and rationality, and it is possible to find the necessary bases already in The Spirits' Book.

The fact that we highlight here is that nobody evolves in a straight line towards God. This is a false concept. The evolution of any Spirit goes through the same steps, passing through all kingdoms, including that of the animal, and then, upon entering the realm of consciousness, acquiring free will, that is, the ability to choose.

However, how can the Spirit choose in the face of a situation it has never faced before? It's impossible. He acts, obtaining a result that can be a mistake or a success. So, the next time you face the same situation, having already some knowledge of the result according to your way of acting, you can choose to act the same way again, or you can try to act in another way, which can make you right or wrong again.

While the Spirit is trying, it's making progress. The error that is born of the attempt is not a sin, but only an error. He is not committing evil, but good, for he had no basis for his own judgment on how to act. It's how much he spends choose act wrong, for whatever reasons, that the mistake becomes a habit and then becomes an imperfection.

Kardec, in A Genesis (chapter III), concludes:

“He who does not control his passions can be very intelligent, but at the same time, very bad. Instinct annihilates itself; passions can only be tamed by the effort of the will.”

However, that chapter ends here, in the 5th edition of this work, which, today we know, has strong indications of having been tampered with. Taking the 4th edition, we have the following closing, VERY IMPORTANT:

All men go through passions. Those who have overcome them, and are not, by nature, proud, ambitious, selfish, spiteful, vindictive, cruel, wrathful, sensual, and do good without effort, without premeditation and, so to speak, involuntarily, it is because they have progressed in the sequence. of their previous existences, having rid themselves of this uncomfortable weight. It is unfair to say that they have less merit when they do good, compared to those who fight against their tendencies. It turns out that they have already achieved victory, while the others have not yet. But when they do, they will be like the others. They will do good without thinking about it, like children who read fluently without having to spell. It is as if they were two sick people: one cured and full of strength while the other is still recovering and hesitates to walk; or as two runners, one of which is closer to the finish than the other.

Therefore, Jesus also went through the same path, including wrong and right. He is just a Spirit that has already run the entire scale, while we are still at the beginning of it, making efforts to get out of the third order of the classification of the Spirit Scale. Today, if a Spirit at the beginning of its life could evaluate us, we would think that we are demigods and would judge how wonderful the few deeds we can perform.

Far from this thought lowering Jesus, it elevates him and, at the same time, gives us hope, as it demonstrates that a Spirit who has already walked this entire path of evolution, through a free gesture of kindness and charity, has returned to teach us. One day we will be working with him, but let's not forget that, from now on, we can also make a difference in people's lives, without expecting anything in return.

No, Spirit never retrogrades. It always goes forward, sometimes it stops, but it never goes back. If it returns to appearance, as in the case where it no longer fits into the moral evolution of a population and will incarnate in another, more backward civilization, it is because it has not yet advanced morally, in fact.

God creates us simple and ignorant. During the first steps of our evolution, we have no conscience, but only instinct, which is from the Law of God and, therefore, is good by definition. The lion that kills the zebra does not do evil, but good, for he is responding to instinct.

Further on, when we enter the realm of consciousness, we conquer free will, that is, the ability to choose. With it, we start to TRY and, from the attempt, mistakes and successes are born. The one who errs trying, is not doing evil, but good, because he is following the laws of God. Evil consists only when the individual starts to err by will, thus cultivating imperfections. When creating an imperfection, the Spirit will suffer on account of it, for more or less time, until it realizes the harm it does to itself, repents and honestly wants to overcome this imperfection, through atonement.

That is why, in Kardec's works, more than once the Spirits used the expression "will be doubly punished": it does not mean that God will punish him more or less - because God does not punish - but that, after acquiring an imperfection , the Spirit will spend a lot of time trying to get rid of it.

During the nineteenth century, what we call the human sciences were established from a spiritualist assumption for their constitution. Meanwhile, in the natural sciences, such as Physics and Chemistry, materialism predominated. This condition is very different from what we are used to today, when the university is almost completely guided by materialistic thinking.

[originally posted on https://espirito.org.br/autonomia/livros-tratado-de-filosofia-paul-janet/]

This current of thought was known as rational spiritualism. For it was completely independent of formal religions and their dogmas. The fundamental basis was psychology, science of the soul, which had as a guideline: “The human being is an incarnate soul”.

As is explained at length in the book Autonomy, the untold story of Spiritism, Allan Kardec made psychology the conceptual basis for developing the Spiritist Doctrine. His monthly newspaper was the Spiritist Magazine, journal of psychological studies.

Rational Spiritualism was taught since 1830 at the University of Paris, also at the Ecole Normale, where teachers were trained, and also at the Lyceums, in the education of young people. For these, there were manuals, like Paul Janet's. This manual has been translated into several languages and adopted in many countries, including Brazil.

This manual is of fundamental importance to understand the conceptual basis of Kardec's studies, especially regarding spiritist morals.

The first division of the sciences, presented in the treatise on philosophy, by Paul Janet, work in two volumes, which can be downloaded here, according to the structure in force in Sorbonne University, in the 19th century, was between:

• a) The exact sciences or mathematics.
• b) The natural sciences, which study the objects of the physical world (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.).
• c) The moral sciences, which study the moral world, which comprises the actions and thoughts of the human race.

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

1) The philosophical sciences, divided into two classes: psychological (psychology, logic, morals, aesthetics) and metaphysical (theodicy, rational psychology, rational cosmology).

2) The historical sciences (history, archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, geography) study human events and development over time.

3) The philological sciences (philology, etymology, paleography, etc.), whose object is language and human symbolic expression.

4) The social and political sciences (politics, jurisprudence, political economy), which study the social life of human beings (JANET, 1885, p. 15-17).

The last three classes of the moral sciences (historical, philological and social) deal with moral facts or phenomena that are external to the human being, seen from the objective point of view. But, considering the human spirit “the set of the intellectual and moral faculties of man, such as they manifest themselves internally in each of us”, everything that concerns the I, an interior principle conscious of itself, is the subjective point of view, or “study of the soul itself” (JANET, 1885, p. 17). Hence a group of sciences called psychological sciences. They adopt the methodology of introspection and were a development of the scientific school started by Maine de Biran. However, to support the psychological study from a spiritual perspective, the conceptual bases of this paradigm needed to become an object of research, comprising a science of man (human spirit) and a science of first causes, or metaphysics. These are the objects of the philosophical sciences.

See more details at work Autonomy, the untold story of Spiritism.