The Forest of Dodona and the Statue of Memnon

Paulo Degering R Jr
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Kardec begins this article by contextualizing the reader in the environment of a room, as in countless others, where the phenomena occurred typological so common at that time. Removing the possibility of fraud, knowing the environment in which he found himself, in order to look for valid hypotheses for the cause of these phenomena, he continues to unfold a logical and rational sequence of ideas, in order to demonstrate the need to never accept any idea, positive or negative, blindly:

A young bachelor's student was in his room, studying points from his Rhetoric exam, when there was a knock on the door. I think everyone admits that it is possible to distinguish the nature of the noise, and especially in its repetition, whether it is caused by a crack of wood, by the stirring of the wind or by some other fortuitous cause, or if it is someone knocking, wanting to enter. In the latter case, the noise has an intentional character, which cannot be confused. That's what our student thinks. However, in order not to be unnecessarily bothered, he wanted to make sure, putting the visitor to the test. If it's somebody, he says, knock once, twice, three, four, five, six times; tap high, low, right or left; beat the musical time; ring the military call, etc., and to each of these requests the noise obeys with the most perfect exactitude. Surely, he thinks, it can't be the crack of wood, or the wind, or even a cat, no matter how clever. Here's a fact. Let us see what consequences the syllogistic arguments will lead to.

Thus, he made the following reasoning: I hear a noise, therefore, it is something that produces it. This noise obeys my orders, therefore, the cause that produces it understands me. Now, what understands has intelligence, therefore the cause of this noise is intelligent. If it's intelligent, it's not the wood or the wind; if, then, it is not the wood or the wind, it is someone. Then he went to open the door. Let us see that it is not necessary to be a doctor to reach this conclusion and we believe that our future bachelor is sufficiently attached to its principles to conclude as follows:

Suppose that when he opens the door he finds no one, and that the noise continues exactly as before. He will follow his sorites¹: “I have just proved to myself, without question, that noise is produced by an intelligent being, since it responds to my thought. I always hear that noise in front of me and it's certain that it's not me who knocks, so it's someone else. Now, if this other one I don't see, of course he's invisible. The corporeal beings that belong to Humanity are perfectly visible. This knocker, being invisible, is not a corporeal human being. Now, since we call incorporeal beings spirits, he who knocks, not being corporeal, is therefore a spirit”.

Although Kardec made a simplification, as he did not address the need to look for possible hidden causes responsible for the “knocking on the door” (which he always sought to do), a very clear and simple line of logical thoughts is evident that, if followed, it would make many stop falling into contradictions and denials in face of what is so clear and evident.

It was in this way, when the phenomena of typtology, that answers were obtained about the questions made to the Spirits: through blows, in a defined shape or number, letters, numbers, binary answers, etc., were indicated, in addition to, for a more developed, they often indicated, by a particular sign, that they wanted to write; “then the writing medium would take the pencil and transmit his thoughts in writing”.

Among the attendants, not to mention those around the table, but of all the people who filled the hall, there were genuine unbelievers, half believers and fervent believers who, as is well known, constitute an unfavorable mix. The first ones, we leave them at ease, waiting for the light to shine for them. We respect all beliefs, even unbelief, which is a kind of belief, when it is respected enough not to shock opposing opinions. So, then, we will not say that his observations are useless. His reasoning, much less verbose than that of our student, can generally be summarized as follows: I don't believe in spirits, therefore, they cannot be spirits, and since they are not spirits, it is a trick. Such an assumption leads them to admit that the table would have a mechanism, in the manner of Robert Houdin.

Kardec cites the assistants, or witnesses, highlighting those who were convinced that everything was a farce, presenting their logic of thought. The answer follows:

First, it would be necessary for all tables and all furniture to have machinery, since they are not privileged; second, no mechanism is known to be sufficiently ingenious to produce at will all the effects just described; Third, it would be necessary for Ms. B… had purposely prepared the walls and doors of his apartment, which is unlikely; fourthly, finally, it would have been necessary to prepare the tables, the doors, the walls of all the houses where similar phenomena occur daily, which is also not to be assumed, because then the skillful builder of so many wonders would be known. .

It can be seen that they do not want to take the path of a bachelor's degree and, in advance, they have already decided to discredit.

We also have the “half-believers”, to whom Kardec recommends returning to the arguments of the future bachelor.

And, among believers, there are still three nuances, three other types of believers: the curious, who do not take moral advantage of the phenomena in question; the learned and serious, who do; and blind faith believers, who believe in the table as they would in a oracle (priest in charge of consulting the deity and transmitting his answers), without reflecting on his answers, accepting them without submitting them to the sieve of reason and agreement.

Ending the article, Kardec goes back twenty-five centuries in the past, in the sacred forest existing in Epirus (Greece), where the oaks preferred oracles and where, adding “the prestige of the cult and the religious pomp”, it is easy to understand the veneration of an ignorant and gullible people. The hissing of the wind between the leaves, the sounds emitted by the statues and other phenomena, when true, were the beginnings of spiritist communications which, however, were taken as absolute truth and blindly followed.

  1. Logic or reasoning composed of a series of propositions linked together in such a way that the predicate of one becomes the subject of the next, and so on until the conclusion, which has as subject the subject of the first and as predicate the predicate of the last previous proposition. the conclusion.
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