O que é espiritismo | Plenitudess

Spiritist Doctrine or Spiritism

Spiritism

Spiritism is the new science that reveals to mankind, through irrefutable proof, the existence and nature of the spiritual world and its relations with the corporeal world. It shows us this no longer as something supernatural, but rather as one of the living and constantly active forces of Nature, as the source of an immense number of phenomena that are still misunderstood and, therefore, relegated to the realm of the fantastic and the marvelous. It is to these relations that Christ alludes on many occasions, and hence much of what he said has remained unintelligible or falsely interpreted. Spiritism is the key with the help of which everything can be easily explained.

(In "The Gospel According to Spiritism", Chapter I - I Did Not Come to Destroy the Law, Spiritism, Allan Kardec, translated by J. Herculano Pires)

History of Spiritism

Around 1848, attention was drawn in the United States of America to various strange phenomena consisting of noises, knocks, and movements of objects without any known cause. These phenomena occurred frequently, spontaneously, with singular intensity and persistence; but it was also noted that they occurred particularly under the influence of certain people, who were given the name of mediums, who could in a certain way provoke them at will, which made it possible to repeat the experiments. For this purpose, tables were mainly used; not that this object is more favorable than another, but only because it is movable and more comfortable, and because it is easier and more natural to sit around a table than around any other piece of furniture. In this way, the rotation of the table was obtained, then movements in all directions, jumps, reversals, fluctuations, violent blows, etc. The phenomenon was initially designated by the name of turning tables or table dancing.

Until then, the phenomenon could be perfectly explained by an electric or magnetic current, or by the action of an unknown fluid, and this was, in fact, the first opinion formed. But it was not long before intelligent effects were recognized in these phenomena; thus, the movement obeyed the will; the table moved to the right or to the left, towards a designated person, stood on one or two feet on command, struck the floor the number of times requested, struck regularly, etc. It then became evident that the cause was not purely physical, and from the axiom: If every effect has a cause, every intelligent effect must have an intelligent cause, it was concluded that the cause of this phenomenon must be an intelligence.

What was the nature of this intelligence? That was the question. The first idea was that it could be a reflection of the intelligence of the medium or of the assistants, but experience soon demonstrated the impossibility of this, because things were obtained that were completely outside the thinking and knowledge of the people present, and even in contradiction with their ideas, will and desires; it could only belong to an invisible being. The way to confirm this was quite simple: it was enough to start a conversation with this entity, which was done by means of a conventional number of knocks signifying yes or no, or designating the letters of the alphabet; in this way, answers were obtained to the various questions that were addressed to it.

The phenomenon was called talking tables. All the beings who communicated in this way, when questioned about their nature, declared themselves to be spirits and to belong to the invisible world. Since these effects were produced in a large number of localities, by the intervention of different people, and observed by very serious and enlightened men, it was not possible that they were the plaything of an illusion.

From America, this phenomenon spread to France and the rest of Europe where, for a few years, turning and talking tables were all the rage and became the entertainment of the salons; then, when people got tired of them, they left them aside to move on to other distractions.

The phenomenon soon presented itself under a new aspect, which took it beyond the domain of mere curiosity. The limits of this summary do not allow us to follow it in all its phases; we pass, without transition, to what is most characteristic of it, to what especially captures the attention of serious people.

We say, first of all, that the reality of the phenomenon has met with many contradictors; some, without taking into account the disinterest and honesty of the experimenters, saw nothing more than a clever game of deception. Those who do not admit anything outside of matter, who believe only in the visible world, who believe that everything dies with the body, the materialists, in a word; those who call themselves strong spirits, have dismissed the existence of invisible spirits as absurd fables; they have branded those who took the matter seriously as crazy, and have heaped sarcasm and mockery on them. Others, unable to deny the facts, and under the influence of certain ideas, have attributed these phenomena to the exclusive influence of the devil and have sought, by this means, to frighten the timid. But today the fear of the devil has lost its prestige; people have talked so much about him, and portrayed him in so many ways, that people have become familiar with this idea and many have felt that it was necessary to seize the opportunity to see what he really is. It turned out that, apart from a small number of timid women, the announcement of the arrival of the real devil had something spicy for those who had only seen him in pictures or on the stage; for many people it was a powerful stimulant, so that those who wanted to raise a barrier to new ideas by this means acted against their own purpose and became, unwittingly, agents of propagation, all the more effective the louder they shouted. The other critics were not more successful because, with categorical reasoning, they could only oppose denials to the facts they had established. Read what they published and you will find everywhere proof of their ignorance and lack of serious observation of the facts, and nowhere a peremptory demonstration of their impossibility. Their entire argument can be summed up as follows: "I do not believe, therefore he does not exist; all those who believe are madmen and only we have the privilege of reason and common sense." The number of followers made by serious or burlesque criticism is incalculable, because in all of them one finds only personal opinions, devoid of contrary evidence.

Communications by means of tapping were slow and incomplete; it was recognized that by attaching a pencil to a movable object: a basket, a board or something else, on which the fingers were placed, this object could be set in motion and trace characters. Later it was recognized that these objects were merely accessories that could be dispensed with; experience demonstrated that the Spirit, which acted on an inert body, directing it at will, could act in the same way on the arm or hand, to guide the pencil. We then had writing mediums, that is, people who wrote involuntarily, under the impulse of the Spirits, of whom they could be instruments and interpreters. From then on, communications no longer had limits, and the exchange of thoughts could take place with as much speed and development as between the living. It was a vast field open to exploration, the discovery of a new world: the world of the invisible, just as the microscope had made the world of the infinitely small discoverable.

Who are these Spirits? What role do they play in the universe? For what purpose do they communicate with mortals? Such were the first questions that had to be resolved. It was soon learned from them that they are not beings apart from creation, but the very souls of those who lived on Earth or in other worlds; that these souls, after having shed their corporeal envelope, populate and travel through space. There was no longer any room for doubt when relatives and friends were recognized among them, with whom it was possible to converse; when they came to give proof of their existence, to demonstrate that death for them was only that of the body, that their soul or Spirit continues to live, that they are there with us, seeing us and observing us as when they were alive, surrounding with solicitude those they loved, and whose memory is for them a sweet satisfaction.

We generally have a completely false idea of spirits; they are not, as many imagine, abstract, vague and undefined beings, nor something like a flash or a spark; they are, on the contrary, very real beings, with their individuality and a determined form. We can get an approximate idea from the following explanation: There are three essential things in man:

1st - the Soul or Spirit, the intelligent principle in which thought, will and moral sense reside;

2nd - the body, a material, heavy and coarse covering, which places the Spirit in relation with the external world;

3rd - the perispirit, a fluidic, light envelope that serves as a link and intermediary between the Spirit and the body. When the outer envelope is worn out and can no longer function, it falls and the Spirit sheds it like a fruit sheds its bark, a tree sheds its crust; in short, like discarding an old garment that no longer fits; this is what we call death.

Death, therefore, is nothing more than the destruction of the gross covering of the Spirit: only the body dies, the Spirit does not die. During life the Spirit is in a certain way compressed by the bonds of matter to which it is united, which often paralyzes its faculties; the death of the body frees it from its bonds; it frees itself and regains its freedom, like a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. But it only abandons the material body; it retains the perispirit, which constitutes for it a sort of ethereal, vaporous body, imponderable to us and in human form, which seems to be the typical form. In its normal state, the perispirit is invisible, but the Spirit can cause it to undergo certain modifications that make it momentarily accessible to sight and even to contact, as happens with condensed vapor; this is how they can sometimes show themselves to us in apparitions. It is with the help of the perispirit that the Spirit acts on inert matter and produces the various phenomena of noise, movement, writing, etc.

Knocking and movements are, for the Spirits, a way of attesting their presence and attracting attention, just as when a person knocks to let someone know that they are there. There are those who do not limit themselves to moderate noises, but who even make a noise like dishes breaking, doors opening and closing, or furniture being knocked over.

Through combined beats and movements they were able to express their thoughts, but writing offers them the complete, quickest and most convenient means; it is what they prefer. For the same reason that they can form characters, they can guide their hand to draw pictures, write music, play a piece on an instrument; in short, in the absence of their own body, which they no longer have, they use that of the medium to manifest themselves to men in a sensitive way.

Spirits can also manifest themselves in various ways, including through sight and hearing. Some people, known as auditory mediums, have the ability to hear them and can thus converse with them; others see them - these are clairvoyant mediums. Spirits who manifest themselves to sight generally appear in a form similar to the one they had when alive, but vaporous; at other times, this form has all the appearance of a living being, to the point of being completely deceptive, so much so that sometimes they have been taken for creatures of flesh and blood, with whom it has been possible to converse and shake hands, without suspecting that they were Spirits, except by reason of their sudden disappearance.

The permanent and general vision of Spirits is quite rare, but individual apparitions are quite frequent, especially at the moment of death; the freed Spirit seems to be in a hurry to see his relatives and friends again, as if to let them know that he has just left the earth and to tell them that he continues to live.

Let each one gather his memories, and we will see how many authentic facts of this kind, of which we were unaware, occurred not only at night, during sleep, but in broad daylight and in the most complete state of wakefulness. In the past we saw these facts as supernatural and marvelous, and attributed them to magic and witchcraft; today, unbelievers attribute them to imagination; but since the science of Spiritism gave us the key, we know how they occur and that they do not go beyond the order of natural phenomena.

It was also believed that spirits, simply because they are spirits, must have supreme knowledge and supreme wisdom. This is an error that experience has not been slow to demonstrate. Among the communications made by spirits, some are sublime in their depth, eloquence, wisdom, and morality, and exude only goodness and benevolence. But alongside these, there are those that are very vulgar, futile, trivial, and even crude, through which the spirit reveals the most perverse instincts. It is therefore clear that they cannot emanate from the same source, and that, if there are good spirits, there are also bad ones. Spirits, being nothing more than the souls of men, naturally cannot become perfect by leaving their bodies. Until they have progressed, they retain the imperfections of corporeal life. This is why we see them in all degrees of goodness and evil, of knowledge and ignorance.

Spirits generally communicate with pleasure, and it is a satisfaction for them to see that they have not been forgotten; they willingly describe their impressions upon leaving the earth, their new situation, the nature of their joys and sufferings in the world in which they find themselves. Some are very happy, others unhappy, and some even suffer horrible torments, depending on the way they lived and the good or bad, useful or useless use they made of their lives. By observing them in all the phases of their new existence, according to the position they occupied on earth, their manner of death, their character and their habits as men, we arrive at a knowledge, if not complete, at least sufficiently precise, of the invisible world, to have an explanation of our future state and to foresee the happy or unhappy destiny that awaits us there.

The instructions given by high-ranking Spirits on all subjects that concern humanity, the answers they gave to the questions posed to them, were carefully collected and coordinated, constituting an entire science, an entire moral and philosophical doctrine, under the name of Spiritism. Spiritism is, therefore, the doctrine founded on the existence, manifestations and teachings of Spirits. This doctrine is fully explained in The Spirits' Book, in its philosophical part; in The Mediums' Book, in its practical and experimental part; and in The Gospel According to Spiritism, in its moral part. We can evaluate, through the analysis that we will make below of these works, the variety, scope and importance of the subjects it encompasses.

Como vimos, o Espiritismo teve seu ponto de partida no fenômeno vulgar das mesas girantes; mas como esses fatos falam mais aos olhos que à inteligência, despertam mais curiosidade que sentimento; satisfeita a curiosidade, fica-se tão menos interessado quanto maior é falta de compreensão. A situação mudou quando a teoria veio explicar a causa; sobretudo quando se viu que dessas mesas girantes com as quais as pessoas se divertiram algum tempo, saía toda uma doutrina moral que fala à alma, dissipando as angústias da dúvida, satisfazendo a todas as aspirações deixadas no vácuo por um ensinamento incompleto sobre o futuro da humanidade; as pessoas sérias acolheram a nova doutrina como um benefício e, a partir de então, longe de declinar, ela cresceu com incrível rapidez. No espaço de alguns anos conseguiu adesões em todos os países do mundo, sobretudo entre as pessoas esclarecidas, inúmeros partidários que aumentam todos os dias em uma proporção extraordinária, de tal forma que hoje pode-se dizer que o Espiritismo conquistou direito de cidade. Está assentado sobre bases que desafiam os esforços de seus adversários mais ou menos interessados em combatê-lo e a prova é que os ataques e críticas não retardaram sua marcha um só instante - este é um fato obtido pela experiência, cujo motivo os oponentes nunca puderam explicar; os espíritas dizem simplesmente que, se ele se propaga apesar da crítica, é que o acham bom e que se prefere seu modo de raciocinar ao de seus contraditores.

O Espiritismo, entretanto, não é uma descoberta moderna; os fatos e princípios sobre os quais ele repousa perdem-se na noite dos tempos, pois encontramos seus vestígios nas crenças de todos os povos, em todas as religiões, na maior parte dos escritores sagrados e profanos; só que os fatos, não completamente observados, foram muitas vezes interpretados segundo as idéias supersticiosas da ignorância, e não foram deduzidas todas as suas conseqüências.

Com efeito, o Espiritismo está fundado sobre a existência dos Espíritos, mas os Espíritos não sendo mais que as almas dos homens, desde que há homens, há Espíritos; o Espiritismo nem os descobriu, nem os inventou. Se as almas ou Espíritos podem manifestar-se aos vivos, é que isso é natural e, portanto, eles devem tê-lo feito em todos os tempos; assim, em qualquer época e qualquer lugar encontramos a prova dessas manifestações abundantes, sobretudo nos relatos bíblicos.

O que é moderno é a explicação lógica dos fatos, o conhecimento mais completo da natureza dos Espíritos, de seu papel e seu modo de ação, a revelação de nosso estado futuro, enfim, sua constituição em corpo de ciência e de doutrina e suas diversas aplicações. Os Antigos conheciam o princípio, os Modernos conhecem os detalhes. Na Antigüidade, o estudo desses fenômenos constituía o privilégio de certas castas que só os revelavam aos iniciados em seus mistérios; na Idade Média, os que se ocupavam ostensivamente com isso eram tidos como feiticeiros e, por isso, queimados; mas hoje não há mistérios para ninguém, não se queima mais ninguém; tudo se passa claramente e todo mundo pode esclarecer-se e praticá-lo, pois há médiuns em toda parte.

A própria doutrina que os espíritos ensinam hoje não tem nada de novo; é encontrada em fragmentos na maior parte dos filósofos da Índia, do Egito e da Grécia, e inteira no ensinamento de Cristo. Então o que vem fazer o Espiritismo? Vem confirmar novos testemunhos, demonstrar, por fatos, verdades desconhecidas ou mal compreendidas, restabelecer em seu verdadeiro sentido as que foram mal interpretadas.

O Espiritismo não ensina nada de novo, é verdade; mas não é nada provar de modo patente, irrecusável, a existência da alma, sua sobrevivência ao corpo, sua individualidade depois da morte, sua imortalidade, as penas e recompensas futuras?

Quanta gente crê nessas coisas, mas crê com um vago pensamento oculto de incerteza, e diz em seu foro íntimo: "E se não fosse assim!" Quantos não foram levados à incredulidade porque lhes apresentaram o futuro sob um aspecto que sua razão não podia admitir! Então, não é nada para o crente vacilante, poder dizer: "Agora tenho certeza!", para o cego, rever a luz? Pelos fatos e por sua lógica, o Espiritismo vem dissipar a ansiedade da dúvida e trazer de volta à fé àquele que dela se afastou; revelando-nos a existência do mundo invisível que nos rodeia, no meio do qual vivemos sem suspeitar, ele nos dá a conhecer, pelo exemplo dos que viveram, as condições de nossa felicidade ou infelicidade futura; ele nos explica a causa de nossos sofrimentos aqui na terra e o meio de amenizá-los. Sua propagação terá por efeito inevitável a destruição das doutrinas materialistas, que não podem resistir à evidência. O homem, convencido da grandeza e da importância de sua existência futura, que é eterna, compara-a com a incerteza da vida terrestre, que é tão curta, e eleva-se, pelo pensamento, acima das mesquinhas considerações humanas; conhecendo a causa e o propósito de suas misérias, ele as suporta com paciência e resignação, porque sabe que elas são um meio de chegar a um estado melhor. O exemplo daqueles que vêm do além-túmulo descrever suas alegrias e dores, provando a realidade da vida futura, prova ao mesmo tempo que a justiça de Deus não deixa nenhum vício sem punição e nenhuma virtude sem recompensa. Acrescentemos, finalmente, que as comunicações com os seres queridos que perdemos acarretam uma doce consolação, provando não só que eles existem, mas que estamos menos separados deles que se estivessem vivos num país estrangeiro.

Em resumo, o Espiritismo suaviza a amargura das tristezas da vida; acalma os desesperos e as agitações da alma, dissipa as incertezas ou os terrores do futuro, elimina o pensamento de abreviar a vida pelo suicídio; da mesma forma torna felizes os que aderem a ele, e está aí o grande segredo de sua rápida propagação.

Do ponto de vista religioso, o Espiritismo tem por base as verdades fundamentais de todas as religiões: Deus, a alma, a imortalidade, as penas e as recompensas futuras; mas ele é independente de qualquer culto particular. Seu objetivo é provar aos que negam ou duvidam que a alma existe, que ela sobrevive ao corpo, que ela sofre depois da morte as conseqüências do bem e do mal que fez durante a vida corpórea; ora, isto é de todas as religiões. Como crença nos Espíritos, é igualmente de todas as religiões, assim como é de todos os povos, visto que, onde há homens há almas ou Espíritos; que as manifestações são de todos os tempos, cujos relatos se encontram em todas as religiões, sem exceção. Pode-se, pois, ser católico grego ou romano, protestante, judeu ou muçulmano, e crer nas manifestações dos Espíritos e, por conseguinte ser espírita; a prova está em que o Espiritismo tem aderentes em todas as seitas. Como moral, ele é essencialmente cristão, pois a que ensina não é senão o desenvolvimento e a aplicação da do Cristo, a mais pura de todas, e cuja superioridade não é contestada por ninguém, prova evidente de que ela é a lei de Deus; ora, a moral é para uso de toda gente.

O Espiritismo, sendo independente de toda forma de culto, não prescreve nenhum, e, por não se ocupar com dogmas particulares, não é uma religião especial, pois ele não tem nem seus padres nem seus templos. Aos que lhe perguntam se fazem bem em seguir tal ou tal prática, ele responde: Se credes que vossa consciência o solicita a fazê-lo, fazei-o: Deus leva sempre em conta a intenção. Em uma palavra, ele não se impõe a ninguém; ele não se dirige aos que tem fé, e aos quais essa fé basta, mas à numerosa categoria dos incertos e dos incrédulos; ele não os tira da Igreja, pois eles já estão dela separados moralmente, em tudo ou em parte; ele os leva a percorrer os três quartos do caminho para a ela voltar; cabe a ela fazer o resto.

O Espiritismo combate, é verdade, certas crenças, tais como a eternidade das penas, o fogo material do inferno, a personalidade do diabo, etc.; mas não é certo que essas crenças, impostas como absolutas, hão feito incrédulos em todos os tempos e os fazem ainda todos os dias? Se o Espiritismo, dando destes e de outros dogmas uma interpretação racional, reconduzindo à fé aqueles que dela desertam, não presta ele serviço à religião? A esse propósito, um venerável eclesiástico disse: “O Espiritismo faz crer em alguma coisa; ora, é melhor crer em alguma coisa do que em nada crer.”

Não sendo os Espíritos senão as almas, não se pode negar o Espírito sem negar a alma. Admitindo-se as almas ou Espíritos, a questão reduzida à sua mais simples expressão, é essa: As almas dos que morreram podem se comunicar com os vivos? O Espiritismo prova a afirmativa por fatos materiais; que prova pode-se dar de que isso não é possível? Se é, todas as negações do mundo não impedirão que seja, pois não é nem um sistema, nem uma teoria, mas uma lei da natureza; ora, contra as leis da natureza a vontade do homem é impotente; é preciso, bom grado, mal grado, lhe aceitar as consequências, e a elas conformar suas crenças e seus hábitos.