Orson Peter Carrara

Magnetic field

You must have already heard about certain spots that never reach a commercial success no matter what you do. Also, we all know the famous popular saying "stepping on embers without burning one’s feet" used during the season of the June festivals, throughout the country. Or about accidents where many people die and where there is always one that survives with not even a scratch... Or about places that seem to attract accidents, and tragedies. And dates or coincidences to which popular folklore attributes powers and that originate tales and popular traditions, often considering these places “haunted”. And there are also the spiritual surgeries without anesthesia, without pain or blood and often followed by an almost immediate healing.

And there are also "blessings", "reading" the lines of the hands, and so on. These are interesting issues. But what does the Doctrine say about these facts?

Faith in the magnetic action

Let us look for some definitions and transcriptions in the books of the Codification:

"(...) All Spiritist phenomena are based on the existence of the soul, its survival to the body and its manifestations. Being such phenomena based on a Law of Nature, they are neither wonderful nor supernatural in the common sense of these words. Many facts are only considered supernatural because the causes are unknown to them; when Spiritism attributes a cause to these facts, then, it shows that they are only natural phenomena. And among the facts qualified as supernatural, there are many that Spiritism considers impossible and therefore are considered superstitious beliefs. Although Spiritism recognizes in many popular beliefs a fund of truth, it in no way accepts all the fantastic stories created by imagination. (…) ¹

"(...) the power of faith has a direct and special application in the magnetic action; through it man acts on the fluid, universal agent, modifies the qualities and gives it an impulse, so to speak, irresistible. That is why he, who has a great normal fluidic power, as well as a strong faith, can - by only using his will directed to doing good - operate these strange phenomena of healing; and others that once would pass by prodigies are only the consequences of a natural law.

But Christ... showed what man can do when he has Faith, that is to say, when he has the will to want... These miracles were but natural effects, the cause of which was unknown to the men of the time, but which are largely explained today, and which will be fully understood by the study of Spiritism and Magnetism. (…) ²
 

"Spiritism and Magnetism give us the key to infinity of phenomena over which ignorance has woven many fables, in which facts are exaggerated by imagination. The enlightened knowledge of these two sciences, which are summarized in one, showing the reality of things and their true cause, is the best way of preserving against superstitious ideas, because it reveals what is impossible, what is in the Laws of Nature and what does not pass from a ridiculous belief. (...)" ³

Magnetism: how to define it

And what is the definition of Magnetism?
 

Magnetism: it is a common designation of the properties specific to the fields of magnetic influence of people, animals and things. Magnetism is the influence practiced by an individual or group of individuals on the will or organization of others. We also call magnetism the phenomenon officially accepted and used by Science, which belongs to Physics and is defined as being the essential property of the magnet. (*)

Without entering into the mastery of the material laws of magnetism - which we leave to the study of Physics - let us think about the spiritual question, basing ourselves on the above transcriptions.
 

The principle is the same: there is an attraction, a concentration of forces. In cures and surgeries without anesthesia, cures or unexpected rescues in situations of extreme danger or in the many cases reported or not at the beginning of the article, there is the formation of what we can designate as a magnetic field. It is the concentration of forces for a specific purpose, achieved in a conscious or unconscious way, induced or assisted by Spirits or by the own individual or collective human capacity.

Thus, mediums heal using the magnetic power; places attended by Spirits in attachment situations create the so-called "haunted houses"; commercial spots or places impregnated by fluids emanating from misguided minds establish environments where nothing seems to go right; spiritual surgeons use psychics in cures without anesthesia; men "step" on embers without burning themselves - isolating the soles of their feet; people are isolated in this field and suffer nothing in dreadful accidents; certain places "seem" to attract accidents; "hand readers" can see in the lines of the hands certain situations - when based on honesty - and "those who bless" achieve cures that medicine could not solve...

And in these last two examples we must consider that it is not the lines of the hands (**) or the effect of the known "rue twig" that determine the effects. These are only expendable paraphernalia, true crutches. In fact it is the soul that sees, that heals, that has the "will to want", as Kardec quoted.

How the Protecting Spirits work

At this point it is advisable to read again item a) above. The phenomena of psychic or animistic origin are related to the qualities of the soul, whether incarnated or disembodied. The potentiality in the production of conscious or unconscious phenomena is in the Spirit, which has attained this stage through its effort in successive reincarnations. There is, therefore, nothing supernatural in seemingly inexplicable facts. We were just waiting to become aware to be able to judge better. And in this case it is considered that many facts and phenomena still escape human understanding.
 

However, the ultimate fact is that thoughts - the potentiality of the soul attained by effort and experience - determine the very environment in which the being moves. His own persistent will, his previous conquests enable him to perform actions or provoke phenomena - and here it is important to repeat, consciously or unconsciously - not always understood but perfectly framed in the Natural Laws.
 

It is by the application of this fabulous possibility that the Protecting Spirits act - in the fluid manipulation in favor of man - using men themselves in the production of unexpected phenomena or directing innumerable facts that awaken man from that spiritual drowsiness in which many of us still lie. It is by this law that like-beings are attracted, and that an environment where friendly people and friends come together causes a great well-being or even the opposite; it is through it that dreams come true - a magnetic field is created and is nourished by the daily and continuous effort to achieve this dream; unfortunately it is also where great tragedies are originated – due to the directed force. But it is also because of it, finally, among so many other situations, that there is a permanent solidarity between beings and worlds, since we are all linked to one another - even if the distances are incommensurable - since we are all children of the same Kind Father of Love, Happiness and Progress.

Link between Magnetism and Spiritism

The writers Eliseu F. da Mota Junior, in an article published in this Magazine in February 1997 - Magnetism and Spiritism - (year LXXI – no. 1), and Gil Restani de Andrade with an article of the same name, in the August 1999 issue LXXIV - no. 7), deepen the subject even with historical aspects and rich in information. Eliseu emphasizes the use in curing diseases and Gil focuses the historical aspect. Both, however, draw on the deep connection between Magnetism and Spiritism, including Allan Kardec's statement in the Spiritist Magazine 4: "Magnetism prepared the way for Spiritism, and the rapid progress of this last Doctrine is undoubtedly due to popularization Knowledge of the first. From the phenomena of somnambulism and ecstasy to Spiritist manifestations there is only one step; their connection is such that it is impossible to speak of one without speaking of the other”.
 

From both these works, we partially copy:

"(...) Mesmer, in his doctorate in Vienna in 1765, defended the thesis "De Planetarium Influxu", based mainly on the researches of Paracelsus. In 1779, already in Paris, he publishes "The Memory on the discovery of the Animal Magnetism", whose main propositions are: a) The influence of the stars, on one another and on animate bodies; b) The Universal Fluid is the great agent of this influence; c) This reciprocal action is subject to mechanical laws; d) The bodies have properties similar to those of the magnet; e) These properties can be transmitted to other animate and inanimate bodies; f) The disease is only the result of the lack or the imbalance in the distribution of magnetism by the body. (...)" ⁵ 
 

Let us read again items c) and e) of the above transcription. In both propositions lies the cause of the phenomena we are discussing.
 

Magnetism and Spiritism are, in fact, two twin sciences, which complement and explain each other, and of the two, the one that does not want to immobilize, cannot reach its complement without relying on its congener ; isolated from each other, they will come to an impasse; they are reciprocally like Physics and Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology. (...)" ⁶

Divine faith and human faith

This is all because we are immersed in a permanent field of forces that are concentrated, attracted or dispersed by influence of thought, but also governed by the physical Laws of the Universe, determinants of its balance in all areas and knowledge. It is enough for man to deepen this knowledge. The reader will be able to find many references of the Encoder regarding such an exciting subject. In all the works of the Codification, as well as in the Spiritist Magazine, there are studies and quotations. It is a subject for an extensive research that is not only about the physical laws, but also has a moral scope for the use it allows. They are forces of the soul that concentrate or attract the formation of a magnetic field that involves places or people, with power of action in the various situations of human life.
 

Finally, even to leave the reader an extraordinary reference, we suggest reading and studying Chapter XIX of The Gospel According to Spiritism, specifically in the subtitle The Divine Faith and the Human Faith, where we will find this pearl of enlightenment brought by a Spirit who signed “A Protecting Spirit”, in the last paragraph of the quoted text: "(...) faith is human and divine; if all the incarnates were well persuaded of the force they have in themselves and if they wished to place their will in the service of that force, they would be capable of realizing what has hitherto been called wonders and which is nothing but a development of human faculties".
 

Unfortunately, however, we still use this force that is in us in behind-the-scenes manipulations, the desire for control over others, the foolish illusion of staying in positions or possessions - as if we were owners of something - in centralizing despair or arrogance of vanity, carrying out prodigies that oppose what the Fraternity and the Law of Progress propose with such clearness...

We still have a lot to learn, do we not?

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* From the book Kardecian Lexicon, by L. Palhano Jr., publisher CELD; our griffins.

** We suggest reading in Posthumous Works (page 277 - 1st edition IDE - Salvador Gentile’s translation, Chapter My first initiation in Spiritism, second part), where the Encoder makes interesting placements on hand reading in the subtitle The spiritual tiara, in communication of May 6, 1857.

References:

1. Spiritist Review, September 1860 (Vol 9, year III), Publisher Edicel, and translated by Julio Abreu Filho. The same article was copied by the Encoder to be used on Chapter II of The Book of Mediums.

2. The Gospel according to Spiritism, Chapter XIX, items 5 and 12 (pages 245 and 250 of the 107th edition IDE-Araras-SP, Salvador Gentile’s translation.

3. The Book of Spirits, Kardec's comment to question 555, 3rd edition FEESP, translated by J. Herculano Pires.

4. Spiritist Magazine, March 1858 (Year I, Vol 3), Edicel Publishing House, translation by Julio Abreu Filho.

5. Gil Restani de Andrade, International Review of Spiritism, August 1999 (year LXXIV, no. 7).

6. Eliseu F. da Mota Junior, International Review of Spiritism, February 1997 (year LXXI, no. 1).