Some people, averse to the idea of the existence of the soul or the Spirit, say about Spiritism (without knowing it): it is just a belief, and nothing more! We urgently ask that these people prove what they say and, in addition, replace Spiritism, in its eventual collapse, with something better.

This article is linked to the previous article, on the lives by Daniel Gontijo which reflect many untruths about Spiritism.

Allan Kardec, in the Spiritist Magazine of September 1860, already spoke about this subject, with an elegance and property that would make anyone envious:

To combat it [the Spiritist Doctrine] effectively, he only has one way, which we are happy to recommend. You don't destroy a tree by cutting its branches, but its roots. It is necessary, therefore, to attack Spiritism at the root and not at the branches, which are reborn as they are cut. Now, the roots of Spiritism, of this nineteenth century madness, to use its expression, are the soul and its attributes. Let it prove, therefore, that the soul does not exist and cannot exist, because without souls there are no more Spirits. When this has been proven, Spiritism will no longer have a reason to exist and we will confess ourselves defeated. If your skepticism doesn't go that far, prove it, not by a simple denial, but by a mathematical, physical, chemical, mechanical, physiological or any other demonstration:

1. ─ That the being who thinks during life no longer thinks after death;

2. ─ That, if you think, you should no longer want to communicate with those you loved;

3. ─ That, if it can be everywhere, it cannot be at our side;

4. ─ That, if he is next to us, he cannot communicate with us;

5. ─ Which, due to its fluidic envelope, cannot act on inert matter;

6. ─ That, if it can act on inert matter, it cannot act on an animated being;

7. ─ That, if you can act on an animated being, you cannot direct your hand to write;

8. ─ That, although you can make him write, you cannot answer his questions and convey his thoughts to him.

When the opponents of Spiritism have demonstrated to us that this is impossible, based on reasons as obvious as those by which Galileo demonstrated that it is not the Sun that revolves around the Earth, then we will be able to say that their doubts are founded. Unfortunately, to this day, all their arguments boil down to this: I don't believe it; therefore, it is impossible. They will no doubt say that it is up to us to prove the reality of the demonstrations; we prove them by facts and reasoning. If they admit neither one nor the other and deny what they see, it is up to them to prove that our reasoning is false and that the facts are impossible.

We therefore repeat the same recommendations as Kardec and ask that you be able to prove, peremptorily, that the Spirit does not exist and cannot exist or, on the contrary, that it exists, but cannot relate to us. Until then (we have been waiting for this proof for more than 150 years), we will be left with the lucid, logical, rational principles and, above all, of unassailable elevation and moral consequences, that Spiritism gives us – with the benefit, also, of knowing that This was not born as a result of anyone's preconceived ideas.

I add Kardec's words in Heaven and hell (original, unadulterated version):

Pela crença no nada, o homem inevitavelmente concentra seu pensamento na vida presente. Não haveria, com efeito, por que se preocupar com um futuro do qual nada se espera. Essa preocupação exclusiva com o presente o leva naturalmente a pensar em si antes de tudo; é, portanto, o mais poderoso estímulo ao egoísmo. O incrédulo é coerente quando chega à conclusão: “Desfrutemos enquanto aqui estamos, desfrutemos o máximo possível, pois, depois de nós, tudo estará acabado; gozemos depressa, porque não sabemos quanto tempo durará”, assim como a esta outra, bem mais grave aliás para a sociedade: “Desfrutemos, não importa à custa de quem; cada um por si; a felicidade, cá embaixo, é do mais astuto”. Se o escrúpulo religioso restringe a ação de alguns, que freio terão aqueles que em nada creem? Para estes, a lei humana somente alcança os tolos, e por isso dedicam seu talento a maneiras de dela se esquivarem. Se há uma doutrina nociva e antissocial é certamente a do neantismo ((Neantismo (néantisme). Segundo essa ideia metafísica do nada, não haveria lei moral ou direito natural, nem existência após a morte, portanto nada a temer ou esperar. A escolha estaria ligada ao resultado e não à intenção de uma ação, consagrando a postura egoísta. Na época de Allan Kardec havia poucos partidários, mas desde o século 20, a comunidade científica e a cultural em geral adotaram esse relativismo moral ou incredulidade enquanto senso comum, sendo que as instituições sociais se estruturaram pelo individualismo. (N. do E.) )), porque rompe os verdadeiros laços de solidariedade e de fraternidade, alicerce das relações sociais.

KARDEC, Allan. Heaven and Hell, 3rd edition (original). FEAL Publisher

We ask, then, that, if you cannot prove that Spiritism is just a belief, you can at least produce something better in its place: something that makes human beings not focus all their energy on enjoying the present, to the detriment of others; that leads you to act in a charitable manner towards your fellow man, using your resources in the name of good and not accumulation; that makes the individual abandon the regrettable ideas of suicide, not for fear of punishment, but for the understanding of why we are here and for the way of seeing difficulties through different eyes. Furthermore, they can replace it with another belief (using the word they use), that gives the mother the consolation of knowing that her son, who died when he was still trying to overcome certain mistakes, is not lost, and that his efforts were not in vain. That, in fact, does not cause humanity to disbelieve in the effort to improve itself, something that materialist dogmatism has produced with great force. That ultimately makes human beings respect everyone, regardless of ethnicity, sex, color, age, social class, and that does not produce precisely the opposite of all of this, as materialism has produced, going so far as to give basis to regrettable ideas of genocide, like that carried out by Hitler.

We eagerly await to learn about this new doctrine.

How can Our Home? How would it be possible, given the doctrinal knowledge brought to light with so much care, with appropriate methodology, gathered from the study of a multitude of Spirits, of all evolutionary degrees, to communicate everywhere? Does not make sense.

Segundo diz o Espírito de André Luiz, o próprio Governador da “cidade astral” assevera:

Somos, em “Nosso Lar”, mais de um milhão de criaturas devotadas aos desígnios superiores e ao melhoramento moral de nós mesmos.

How can we reconcile, however, the idea of millions of “creatures”, devoted to superior designs, but still so absurdly attached to earthly materialism? Does not make sense. We do not object to the idea that inferior Spirits, attached to materialism, when leaving the body, remain attached to false needs and false ideas of the earthly personality. In fact, this is abundantly demonstrated by the Spiritist Doctrine. Here, however — in theory — we speak of Spirits devoted to superior designs.

I ask: how can we admit a hierarchical organization of supposedly superior Spirits devoting themselves to the systematization and cultivation of false ideas? Bonus hours? After all, doesn't the Spiritist Doctrine teach us that charity is a moral duty, which is practiced without waiting for a return? In Nosso Lar, according to André Luiz, Narcisa's Spirit worked out of obligation, to earn the right to reincarnate:

I need to find some beloved spirits on Earth for joint upliftment services. For much
time, due to my past deviations, I prayed, in vain, for the possibility necessary for my ends. She was disturbed, distressed. They advised me, however, to turn to Minister Veneranda, and our benefactor of Regeneration
promised that he would endorse my purposes in the Ministry of Aid, but demanded ten consecutive years of work here, so that I can correct certain imbalances of feeling. At first, I wanted to refuse, considering the demand too much; later, I recognized that she was right. After all, the advice was not aimed at her interests but rather my own benefit. And I gained a lot by accepting his opinion. I feel more balanced and more human and I believe I will live my future experience on Earth with spiritual dignity.

Now, in addition to a superior Spirit interfering with the free will of that Spirit, demanded, against his will, the fulfillment of a “sentence”, so that she could later reincarnate. I wonder where Nosso Lar or any other spiritual colony would be, which did not interfere with the choice of Spirits like that of the Assassin Lemaire (Revista Espírita, March 1858) who thought he was strong enough to challenge himself in a type of test in the face of which succumbed. And what about the Spirit of Charles Dupont (The Spirit of Castelnaudary, RE60), who, having previously lived among savages, in another world, chose to incarnate on Earth, where, without yet having control over his instincts and emotions, he ended up killing his brother and his wife?

Não, não é possível. Nosso Lar, com suas grandes muralhas, reproduz fielmente as falsas ideias terrenas, onde os não “eleitos” são mantidos para fora dos muros. Nosso Lar, com sua plêiade de milhões de Espíritos “devotados aos desígnios superiores”, seria o retrato do egoísmo distraído pelo materialismo pujante.

What a difference with the communications frequently presented by Kardec from superior Spirits! There is no attachment to materiality in his descriptions: his occupations are working for infinite Space, acting in Creation:

What are your palaces and your golden halls before the aerial abodes, the vast field of space variegated with colors that would make the rainbow pale? What are your step-by-step walks in the parks, compared to journeys through the immensity, faster than lightning? What are your limited and cloud-laden horizons, given the grand spectacle of the worlds moving in the limitless universe, under the powerful hand of the Almighty?

How are your most melodious concerts sad and noisy, in the face of this harmony that makes the fluids of the ether and all the fibers of the soul vibrate? How sad and insipid your great joys are compared to the ineffable sensation of happiness that incessantly saturates our being in the form of a beneficent effluvium, without any mixture of restlessness, any worry, any suffering! Here everything breathes love and trust and sincerity. Everywhere loving hearts, everywhere we see friends, no envious and jealous. This is the world I find myself in, my friend, and you will all reach it infallibly by following the right path.

However, uniform happiness would soon become boring. Do not think that our happiness is free from vicissitudes. This is not a perpetual concert, nor an endless party, nor of beatific contemplation through eternity. No. It is movement, life, activity. The occupations, although free from fatigue, present an incessant variety of aspects and emotions, due to the thousand incidents that contain them. Each one has their mission to fulfill, their protégés to assist, friends from Earth to visit, Nature's processes to direct, suffering souls to console. There is a back and forth, not from one street to another, but from one world to another. Creatures come together, separate to come together again; they meet here and there, they talk about what they do, they congratulate each other on their successes; They understand each other and assist each other in difficult cases. Anyway, I assure you that no one has a second of time to get bored.

Spirit of Countess Paula, Heaven and Hell

Careful reading is enough to realize that this Spirit figuratively uses the term “aerial dwellings”. What beauty, what a completely different scenario from that world of material attachment and false physiological needs presented by André Luiz in his first work, whose logical disparity with the Doctrine and common sense we cannot explain until Kardec's methodology, with the use of evocations, be recovered.

By changing our mentality, we will leave our attachment to materialism to be useful, acting, according to our possibilities, in the Good, in Divine Creation. We can learn and teach, ever. Detached, in the world of Spirits, we do not attach ourselves to things, nor to forms. The universal divine creation itself is enough for us: the Universes to travel through, the processes of Nature to participate in, the planets to visit, the souls to help and those to learn from. But the idea of Our Home is a place where we need to work to earn “spiritual money” so that we can then buy a small house, where we can have “utilities”, such as a comfortable bed, a beautiful table with spiritual mahogany chairs, where we can sit comfortably to drink a fluidic soup (sic). Sorry for the sarcasm.

As on Earth, property here is relative. Our purchases are made based on working hours. The hourly bonus, in essence, is our money. Any utilities are purchased with these coupons, obtained by ourselves, through effort and dedication.

Our home

Now, why have a house, if infinite Space serves as our Home? Why have a house if the Spirit does not feel any material need? Why protection if you don't feel fear or pain? Why soup or water if the Spirit doesn't feel thirsty? For what "aerobus“, oh, meu Deus, se o Espírito se transporta pelo pensamento — mesmo os menos elevados?

No, Spirits do not need any of this, and only Spirits who are still very disturbed, very attached to earthly ideas, are confused with the body they left behind and believe they need rest, food, protection, etc.

39. Could you tell us what your occupations are?

– R. I have them like you; I first try to educate myself and, therefore, I mix with better societies than I am; as leisure I do good, and my life is spent in the hope of achieving greater happiness. We have no material needs to satisfy and therefore all our activity is directed towards our moral progress.

Spirit of Mrs Reynaud, RE59

There are sensations that have as their source the state of our organs. Now, the needs inherent to the body cannot be verified as long as there is no longer a body. Thus, the Spirit does not experience fatigue, nor the need for rest or food, because it has no loss to repair. He is not affected by any of our illnesses. The needs of the body determine social needs, which for them do not exist. Thus, there are no longer the worries of business, the discord, the thousand and one tribulations of the world and the torments to which we surrender to meet our needs or the superfluities of life. They feel sorry for the effort we make because of frivolities. However, the happier the elevated Spirits are, the more the lower ones suffer, but these sufferings are mainly anguish that, although they have nothing physical, are no less poignant.

KARDEC, ibid.

The case here is not to accuse Chico of lack of care. Chico was the communication tool, like a pencil in a writer's hand. No, we would have questioned the Spirit that communicated, in possession of the knowledge of all the problems and all the care that revolve around mediumship and the communication of Spirits. That's not what we did: simply accepting, placing on Chico Xavier's account the weight of responsibility for communications that we should have evaluated.