A. Does Kardec agree with those who dislike religion?

B. Do the Spirits need to be close to influence a person?

C. What must we do to avoid being deceived by the Spirits who are frivolous or liars?

D. According to Spiritism, who are the children?

Text for reading

1. In the Spiritist phenomena we act on intelligences that dispose of free will and do not submit to our will. That is why common Science is not qualified to judge them. (Page 2)

2. A good medium is the one who sympathizes with good Spirits and receives only good communications. (Page 3)

3. Spiritism is the most powerful support of the religious ideas: it gives religion to those who do not possess it; it strengthens it in those who still hesitate; it consoles by the certainty of the future, makes endure with patience and resignation the tribulations of this life and removes the thought of suicide. (Page 5)

4. The perispirit, whose nature is essentially flexible, is subject to all changes that the Spirit wants to give it. In its normal state, the ethereal casing has a human form. (Page 8)

5. The vision of the Spirit by the medium is realized by a kind of fluidic radiation, which goes from the Spirit to the medium. (Page 10)

6. Kardec refers to the case "The elf of Bayonne", in which a Spirit with the aspect of a 10 to 12 years old boy appeared to his little sister. (Page 17)

7. The Spirit of Diogenes communicates and says that after his life in Athens he only reincarnated in other worlds. (Page 21)

8. The Spirits of St. Louis and St. Augustine say that Spirits can influence us even though they are millions of miles from us, and that every guardian angel has his protégé, over whom he watches as a father over his son. (Pages 22 and 23)

9. Kardec says that the good but ignorant Spirits confess their shortcoming as to what they do not know; the bad guys say they know everything. Here and there, boasting is always a sign of mediocrity. (Pages 28 and 29)

10. The gift of mediumship depends on causes not yet well known, and it seems that the body has a great influence in it. (Editor’s note: Today there is no doubt that mediumship is settled in the body). (Page 31)

11. Thought is the bond that links us to the Spirits; it is through the thought that we attract those who sympathize with our ideas and inclinations. (Page 32)

12. Higher Spirits do not choose to convey serious instructions to a medium that is familiar with frivolous Spirits, unless they find no other medium and they need him. (Page 33)

13. The good intentions and the very morality of the mediums are not always enough to avoid the interference of Spirits who are frivolous, liars or pseudo wise men in their communications. If we do not want to be a victim of them, we must judge them by their language, passing through the sieve of logic and common sense everything they say. (Pages 34 and 35)

14. Of all moral dispositions, the one that offers the greatest entrance to imperfect Spirits is pride, which often appears in the medium as this gift develops in him and, therefore, he becomes more important. (Page 36)

15. The other moral imperfections are so many other doors open to the Lower Spirits, or at least they are causes of weakness. To repel such Spirits, it is not enough to tell them to leave; we must close the doors and our ears, proving that we are stronger – and that we want to be good, sweet, modest, detached, and practice charity. (Page 37)

16. It would be unfair to attribute all bad communications to the account of the medium, since the medium is very important. It is a general rule that the best communications occur in a concentrated and homogeneous circle. (Page 38)

17. The “agêneres” (in Spiritism it is a Spirit momentarily materialized, appearing like an embodied person, and producing a total illusion – see Kardec “The Book of Mediums”) do not reveal their nature, and in our eyes they are but an ordinary man; their bodily apparition may therefore have a long duration, according to the necessity of the Spirit. (Page 41) 

18. The facts of bi-corporeity should not be mistaken by those of the “agêneres”. These have no living body on Earth; only their perispirit becomes tangible. (Page 43)

19. Kardec admits he has a very cold, extremely cold look. At least this is what his friends thought and rebuked him for it. (Page 43)

20. Kardec copies Hermann's fantastic story, published in the Journal des Débats, dated 11-26-1858, and says that it is nothing but an untrue story, since the soul cannot animate two bodies. (Page 48)

21. Referring to the phenomena of the raps and movement of objects in the village of Coujet in the department of Lot, Kardec reminds us that the Higher Spirits do not subject themselves to this type of thing: only Spirits of a much lower order submit to this. (Page 49)

22. In general there is no reason to be frightened of them; their presence may be intrusive, but they are not dangerous, and it is always good to try and find out what they want with such phenomena. (Page 50)

23. The Spirits say that children are the beings that God sends to live again and to which He gives an appearance of innocence, so that no one can complain of their great rigor. When they no longer need this protection, their real character appears in all its nakedness. (Page 52)

24. The Spirits only enter into the corporeal life for their improvement; the fragility of childhood makes them flexible and accessible to the counsel of experience; it is then that their character can be corrected by the repression of their evil inclinations. Such is the duty that God entrusts to their parents. (Page 53)

25. Dr. Morhéry tells Kardec that the famous professor Gay-Lussac taught in his course - regarding the imponderable and invisible bodies - that these were inaccurate expressions, and that it would be more logical to call them imponderable. (Page 54)

Answers to the proposed questions