We live in the great darkness, again. After Spiritism dawned on the face of the Earth as a great light that could launch us into the most accelerated process of human spiritual and moral renewal, spreading with the speed of lightning, it suffered a huge setback and, then, slowly began to be forgotten in its proposals. and true face originals. Then came the wars, the great industrial development, the enormous material facilities, the enormous profits and, behind the big false smiles, the beautiful social masks, happy and fun, the enormous pain and anguish multiplied that, not infrequently, find a way out in giving up on life and in direct or indirect suicide.

Humanity cries out. There is weeping and gnashing of teeth. So, then, the unimaginable happens and a disease that is easily transmitted, although with relatively low mortality rates, spreads across the entire surface of the planet, taking loved ones, neighbors and acquaintances, poor and rich, in a matter of a few weeks – almost always, in less than 20 days. Humanity is once again wounded and vulnerable. The Spirit was forgotten. Morality was put aside as an article of politicking. God has become an article of blind faith, often misunderstood and, although present in many languages, empty in the heart.

The departures of close people shake families and individuals. A great movement accelerates: the search for rapprochement with the spiritual, the search for consolation, the search for answers. And behold, precisely at that same time, great studies and precious works began to increase in our eyes, by the dedicated hands of brothers dedicated to the work of Truth, bringing to us the true face of Spiritism and its history, and great and precious part, hitherto misunderstood or otherwise unknown.

Today, we are experiencing a process very similar to that experienced in the mid-19th century, bringing us an opportunity that is once again extremely grandiose. I see and believe that, as before, we are experiencing a great call back to spirituality. Mediumship phenomena are multiplying everywhere, including physical ones, with a view to attracting our attention. As before, humanity passed through a very serious materialist phase, giving rise to the great wounds of selfishness and pride, in addition to space for the proliferation of all vices and imperfections, physical and moral.

It was made known to us that Spiritism suffered from various manipulations and deviations, sometimes criminal, if not in the eyes of human justice, but at least in the eyes of Divine justice. Lyrics and Movement have been tampered with. Spiritism, after Kardec's death, lost the gigantic force that it had been developing and, with the wars, found shelter in Brazil, to remain in a semi-gestational stage, in the religious environment, for more than a century...

Brothers, as I said, we are living a very important and unique moment. Spiritism was born at a favorable and necessary moment, when humanity was looking for philosophical answers to face materialist denialism, which, in turn, was born to face the fierce dogmatism of the old religions. Today, Spiritism is reborn, in its real exuberance, at the right time, to respond to the cries of those who seek answers to the same strong and fervent materialism that cooled souls during the last century and put man on the path of gain and profit, of ephemeral passions and the cult of the body.

The huge difference is that, today, we find the work already started. We don't need to develop reasoning from scratch, analyzing physical phenomena, talking to Spirits through blows. It is enough for us to study in depth, with great wisdom and dedication, Spiritism and the complementary works that help us to better understand it, placing it in a contextualized way in the historical moment in which it was born, in order to bring it to our days. the exact understanding, which until today we have not had, for the most part, about what really It's Spiritism!

But this will not be possible until we act according to the example of the one whom God has given us as an example in this regard. I'm not talking about our ultimate example, Jesus, but about our great and humble master, affable and charitable, a researcher dedicated to humanity, Allan Kardec. No, until we follow their example, I repeat, the recovery of Spiritism will not be possible. Kardec was not perfect, as none of us are, but he exemplified one very important thing: the total absence of personalism, vanity and pride, as well as the quest to analyze facts, evidence and opinions, from all sides and from all sources. , without, before, form an idea previously conceived. As long as our personalism, our vanity, our pride, our prejudices, in short, speak louder, we will not leave the same place. Unfortunately, this is not what has been done by people who, taking fragile arguments in favor of their personal ideas, continue to deny historical facts and who, therefore, distance themselves from the unfolding of a clear and deep understanding of Spiritism, as already I treated in this article.

Spiritualists, look around: work calls us, hard! The world of regeneration will not come alone! Regeneration needs to come from us, but it won't happen as long as we keep still, sitting, waiting for life and what we think are punishments, to pass. We need to understand that the difficulties of life, which we consider insurmountable punishments, are actually valuable opportunities for learning and correcting our imperfections that lead us to make mistakes. We need to understand that, just as God does not impose punishments on us, but rather difficult opportunities - but totally bearable, as long as we ourselves do not increase their difficulties - for learning and elevation, we also need, with the help of the Spiritist Doctrine, to learn to putting into practice in our lives and, above all, with our children, the same moral: we are imperfect and punishing the error born of imperfection only causes retraction and, often, an increase in imperfection and error. That's what Spiritism comes to show us: no one becomes an angel at the snap of a finger and, also, no one loses what they've already conquered. There are no fallen angels, just as there are no chosen ones by God. We will all reach perfection, no exceptions, but the speed with which we will get there depends, solely and exclusively, of us.

So, brothers, more than ever, that important exhortation is worth: “spiritualists! love–you, this is the first teaching; instructyou, this is the second”. We need to put aside divisions. We need to put aside prejudices. We need, like Kardec, to listen to all opinions, from all sources, but only like Kardec, understanding his work, his example and his method very well, can we unite, love and educate each other. And above all, we need to produce, in our good and in favor of the next, because time is pressing and, after a year and a half of closed spiritist centers, many without none production, even among its closest members, we need to recover Spiritism that is not lived in closed temples, but in our family intimacy and, from there, to the outside world!

Once again, here is the exhortation, the request, so that you, brothers, also read the works so important and necessary for our understanding:

• Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato
• Neither heaven nor hell, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo and Lucas Sampaio
• Autonomy: the untold story of Spiritism, by Paulo Henrique de Figueiredo
• A lot of light, by Berthe Fropo

Closing the First Chapter of the first edition of Revista Espírita, Kardec mentions the publication of The Book of Spirits, bringing to light a very interesting and sensible article published in Paris courier, of June 11, 1857, as well as some letters addressed to him, thanking him for the consoling work presented in that work. It is interesting to note how the press, at the time, cited such events without the great need to criticize them without foundation, as we often see today.

Reading the admirable responses of the Spirits in the work of Mr. Kardec, we told ourselves that there would be a beautiful book to write. We quickly recognized that we had been wrong: the book is already written. We would only spoil it if we tried to complete it.

G. Du Chalard – Paris courier, of June 11, 1857

Kardec ends up talking about how the Book was created, in its first edition, largely with the help of the Baudin sisters. After the first edition, it was recommended by the Spirits themselves to carry out a review of the work. It is important to highlight that Kardec always sought to confirm the answers obtained mainly by intuitive mediums with mechanical mediums, where the influence of the medium would be less or non-existent. In addition, on the more complicated issues, he sought a greater number of “opinions”, asking the same question to different spirits, through mediums everywhere. This is the well-known Universal Concordance of the Teachings of the Spirits.

Here Kardec cites the case of Joana D'Arc, without delving into it. She would have herself conveyed a message to Miss Dufaux, telling the heroine's story in more depth, highlighting having been a medium and explaining her journey. Kardec says he will return to this case on another occasion, but it is interesting to mention that he accepted such content, verifying that the medium in question was only 14 years old when he received it and that, even though he came from an educated family, he would hardly have found it in libraries. such little-known details about the character in question.

It is interesting to point out that Miss Dufaux had an important participation in the Spiritist Magazine itself, where, according to Canuto de Abreu, she cooperated in transmitting valuable guidelines for this journal:

At the end of 1857, Kardec had the idea of publishing a spiritist journal and wanted to hear the opinion of the spiritual guides. Ermance was the chosen medium and, through her, a Spirit gave the Master of Lion many excellent directions. The organ was named “Revista Espírita” and was launched in January of the following year.

It was also Mr. Dufaux, Ermance's father, who cooperated a lot in the foundation of the Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, when he managed to obtain authorization for the Society's meetings in just 15 days (the laws in force did not allow the free meeting in closed places, being Kardec himself many sometimes followed by “police officers” in order to verify and report their encounters and meetings).

She was also a great cooperator in the revision of The Spirits' Book, in the 2nd edition of the work.

In this somewhat more extensive approach, Kardec draws attention to the fact that spiritual manifestations are evidently recognized even within the Roman Catholic Church, from which he cites a great article, published at the time, in Civiltà Cattolica, from Rome. Very interesting to note the tone of the article, where, at times, it seems that we are reading a text by Kardec himself, given the lucidity and honesty of the analysis of the facts in question.

It is worth remembering the case of the work “Purgatory Manuscript”, where a Sister, within the context of the Catholic Church, received and published several psychographs of other brothers, from within the same context, already deceased. The work begins with a long introduction, full of however and meanwhile, aiming to explain what happened as something allowed by God only in that very strict situation, but which is worth at least a superficial analysis.

Here Kardec addresses two cases of visions spiritual. Although we are aware of visual spiritual manifestations, none of them here seem to be about that, but rather of double-sight phenomena, somnambulism or ecstasy, as in the last case, where the spirit of the incarnate is transported to another place, living other experiences. which later come to be confirmed. 

“As dreams are nothing more than a state of incomplete natural somnambulism, we will designate the visions that occur in this state under the name of somnambulistic visions, to distinguish them from those that occur in the waking state, which we will call double-sight visions. ”

Below, we separate an excerpt that aims to provoke a certain provocation and that opens the field for a necessary reflection:

“When the visions have as their object the beings of the incorporeal world, one could, apparently with some reason, call them hallucinations, because nothing can demonstrate their accuracy.”

In other words: can we really trust mediumistic “visions” from other planes and worlds? It is necessary, as Kardec reminds us, to always be very careful, not believing for the sake of believing in what anyone says.

A brief overview of the ecstatic, remembering that such somnambulistic mediumship, which today is confused with the so-called “astral journeys”, lacks knowledge and vigilance on the part of the medium himself. Faced with the wonders of visions, in this specific case, being able to move away from your carnal body in such a way, making your connection with it so tenuous that it even breaks, under your desire to abandon it. Always remembering that “It is not the departure of the Spirit that causes the death of the body, but it is the death of this that causes the departure of the Spirit.”

Here Kardec discusses a case that occurred in which an institution determined the payment of a premium to those who could prove some spiritist phenomena, which none of the subscribers was able to attend, although, outside of there, many of them obtained such phenomena easily, as it happened, he recalls. Kardec, ten years earlier, with some magnetized sleepwalkers, in France, who, in other circumstances, “read closed books and deciphered an entire letter, sitting on it or placing it well folded and closed on their stomach”. 

We've seen this recently, too. It is important to understand, with this approach, that spirituality is not at our command and is not interested in such shows, especially when aiming, through this, obtain material gains of any gender. In fact, it is interesting to note how this repulses both the superior and inferior spirits, which gives rise to a great discussion about mediums who launch themselves, for example, to read fortune.

It also brings to mind the various controversial cases in which several "Spiritists" have already been involved, as happened to Leymarie himself, in what became known as "The Process of the Spiritists", a fact that caused great shame to the Spiritist Movement at the time, and the well-known case of the controversial spiritual materialization, in which Chico Xavier participated. We cannot judge whether they are expensive out of sheer levity or not, but they are quite complicated cases, which do not deny the possibility and even the veracity of such phenomena, but which serve to call our attention to some points:

1. Spiritism conquers many more adepts through its consoling and enlightening philosophy than through phenomena, before which, whoever is decidedly skeptical, will not become less convinced;
2. Human beings are fallible, most of the time more out of vigilance than malice. We can not deify anyone, especially when we remember that mediums they are, in general, Spirits who have been quite faulty in the past, who receive mediumship as a grateful opportunity to correct their deviations;
3. Spirits do not attend to us when we we want, but when they want him;
4. Spirits do not lend themselves to answering trivial things that are within our reach, nor do they lend themselves to proving what is easily verifiable by our intelligence, as much as a man of great knowledge does not lend himself to answering questions already answered, to which many don't dare to search out of sheer laziness.

The scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would very much like you to show us a wonder.” Jesus replied, “This wicked and adulterous generation asks for a wonder, but none other than that of Jonah will be given to them.”

(Matthew, 12:38 and 39.)

The issue of tampering in A Genesis is already factually sanctioned, that is, there is no longer any doubt that Allan Kardec no was responsible for the changes presented from the fifth edition of A Genesis. All this is very clear in the work. Allan Kardec's Legacy, by Simoni Privato, but we have also covered some of this in the article Adulterations in Kardec's works and the "CSI of Spiritism". However, one question still remained: how did Kardec's wife, Amélie Boudet, let this serious adulteration pass?

The answer came quite simply and clearly: she did not know of such changes (or tampering), nor did she expect them, even because there was never a legal deposit for the new edition, necessary, at that time, for any change in the content of the work. . Allan Kardec has always made such deposits, when necessary, for a new work or for a new edition, with changes to the previous one. That's why he Never made legal deposit of no other edition of A Genesis, since in the first four editions it has not been altered.

All this becomes clearer in the video below. We invite the reader to watch, carefully, and leave your comment here in this article.

In this item, Kardec addresses some particular evocations in order to promote an analysis with general gain.

About this, in fact, I am wondering to what extent we should really advise against people seeking such evocations to obtain some consolation regarding their deceased relatives or even to seek some personal advice, given that in my own family this has so often happened in form spontaneous. Wouldn't I be contradicting myself? Does a medium that lends itself to such an end, in a serious and disinterested way, not also fulfill an important role?

We understand, however, that here, as in everything else, the big question is: what is the utility and purpose? More than 160 years after the “beginning” of Spiritism, we already understand very well what life after death is like, the continuity of our imperfections and virtues, the need for the incarnate to move on with his life, without lamenting about the ones who are disincarnate and, thus, we do not see the need to go to a medium to seek psychography of each disembodied entity. We really need to move forward on this point, seeking to cultivate communications with Spirits with deeper purposes, which, in my view, does not exclude the possibility of seeking support and, who knows, advice on serious and important matters, such as Kardec himself did.

In the first case discussed, it is clear a very consoling communication, by the deceased daughter, but also the verification of three facts:

• The Spirits are happy to be able to help us in what is allowed;
• Spirits cannot inform us about everything. We need to make an effort to get on with our legs and, in this way, have our own merit, which structures us;
• Enduring trials with resignation and trust in God, but in an active way, allows us to make great use of it and, thus, great happiness in the future (and even during the trial);

In the second case, “a conversion”, we see a notorious case of a father and a son who shared a materialistic or, so to speak, denialist thinking about spirituality and God. It so happens that, after the father's death, the son had contact with The Spirits' Book and, having read it, sought a medium, with intense curiosity. He wanted to get a communication from his father, 4 months after his death, in order to put an end to his doubts (note that the Spirits' Book had a great impact on him).

The father brings him personal information, which confirms his legitimacy. In the conversation that takes place, he shows his son that life really continues after the grave. However, I would like to highlight a passage that caught our attention:

15. — Will we be punished or rewarded according to our actions?

“If you do wrong, you will suffer.

16. — Will I be rewarded if I do good?

— It will advance on your path.

It is important to remember that Kardec sought universal agreement and that he always made notes and considerations regarding opinions contrary to what was already established by the teaching of the Spirits. 

The passage in question denotes that it is part of Kardec's ideas, since it is expressed by the thinking of the communicating Spirit, the understanding that no one is punished or rewarded externally. “If you do evil, you will suffer”, denotes this deep understanding of the Spiritist Doctrine: suffering is born as a direct consequence of our actions, while the reward for good behavior is the advancement in our paths. There is no payment of debts, there are no judgments, punishments or even external rewards. 

This is another point that corroborates the (factual) statement that the item “Criminal Code of Future Life”, present in chapter VII from the 4th edition of the Heaven and hell, known to have been tampered with, is in total disagreement with the coder's thinking, especially with regard to what is presented in item 9:

Every fault committed, every wrong done, is a debt that must be paid; if it is not so in one existence, it will be so in the next one or the following ones, because all existences are solidary with each other. He who discharges it in the present existence will not have to pay a second time.

Here Kardec only addresses the question that the intervention of incorporeal beings, seen as leprechauns, imps and others, has always permeated humanity and, in itself, does not cease to be a truth. It so happens that, before Spiritism, which explained it, it was taken as superstition, a product of the imagination, or else surrounded by superstition.

In fact, it is interesting to note how even within Spiritism these interventions are often taken with old wives' tale and, therefore, discredited, without first being analyzed.

On the other hand, it is interesting to discuss how, for more than 160 years, Kardec was already trying to explain, in the light of the teachings of the spirits and reason, these facts before surrounded by superstitions. Unfortunately, even today this superstition or this mysticism persists in the spiritualist environment, where, in some religions, limiting terms and beliefs are still used, even, as is the case of the so-called "Tranca-Rua", "Zé Pilantra", etc. who are nothing more than Spirits, in the simple and pure way they themselves have taught us.

Here's something that caught my attention. There is a much deeper purpose in the Magazine, which we had not yet understood: in it, Kardec, in addition to seeking to disseminate Spiritism to the masses, also seeks to universal agreement of the teachings!

We know very well that Kardec used a few mediums, automatic psychographers, to formulate mainly the first two works. How, then, could he judge whether what the Spirits responded to would have universal agreement, in addition to agreement with reason and logic? In addition to the letters he sent and received from various places, with questions and answers from the Spirits, he also found a great source of these reports through the Spiritist Magazine. 

Like Ernesto Bozzano (who, in fact, followed in his footsteps), Allan Kardec collected reports from all parts, analyzing them in essence and, in the most interesting cases, he sought to verify their origins, the seriousness of those involved, the lack of interest, etc. and, thus, he compared the contents and facts obtained there with the teachings that were or were transmitted to him by more direct means!

Now talking about this chapter specifically, Kardec is addressing concepts that will later be confirmed in The Mediums' Book, as is the case of the finding that physical phenomena are always performed by Inferior Spirits, as he shows in the answer “Who makes the monkeys dance in the streets? Will the men be superior?” that Spirits gave to such questioning. That is to say: just as, at that time, the people who made monkeys dance in the streets, to earn money, were people of a more brutish gender, illiterate, perhaps frivolous, but not necessarily malicious, so it also happened with the Spirits who made the tables. “dance”.

We have, in fact, strong evidence of this in the various cases of communications by blows and, especially, in the case of Fox sisters, where the main concern of the Spirit who communicated there was to make known that he had been murdered in that locality, revealing his hidden remains and the author of the crime committed. It was, therefore, a serious communication, but not one high or wise communication.

Kardec emphasizes that the teachings obtained through the reports in the publication "Le Spiritualiste de la Nouvelle-Orléans" are very consistent with the teachings obtained, as well, given by the Superior Spirits: that a serious, well-developed and balanced medium offers a moral ascendant on these Spirits, acting in favor of attenuating their manifestations and even helping them to find better reflections.