Spiritism presents its entirely scientific bases, through the analysis of the
natural fact, i.e., of the phenomenon inherent to nature. The fact, in this
case, is basically the mediumistic phenomenon, which unequivocally demonstrates
that the soul exists and is independent of the body and mainly that it survives
the death of the physical organism.
From
the qualitative-quantitative evaluations of the mediumistic phenomena in
general, and from other related phenomena, such as magnetism and emancipation of
the soul, a deep study is developed regarding the conditions of the spiritual
life of the so-called "dead", which continually demonstrate to be "alive" in
another reality, retaining their character and personality features of their
last physical life. These entities, known to many as "the souls of men who lived
in the world" (apart from possible souls who may not have had reincarnations on
Earth but who can still spiritually visit our planet), demonstrate, through
mediumistic communications , that physical life constitutes only a small stage
of the immortal Spirit in its process of intellectual-moral perfection. In other
words, the "dead" lives a certain time in the spiritual world, but if he has not
reached a relative level of perfection, he will sooner or later develop other
reincarnation experiences.
Communicating Spirits also provide countless and compelling evidence that their
respective states of relative happiness or their levels of personal suffering
depend directly on the type of life they had on Earth, involving their choices,
work, paths, moral failings, and spiritual attainments.
Spiritism is not syncretic -
Moreover, the tasks developed in the spiritual world, including new learning and
projects, dependent of the intellectual-moral prerequisites acquired by the
Spirit in question.
In
the aforementioned context, the semi-material reality of the perispirit and its
properties and the variety of implications associated with the different levels
of materiality of the perispirit, there is concrete evidence of the objective
reality of the spiritual world and, simultaneously, of the existence and
immortality of the soul.
The
personal experience of all the "dead", who communicate with the "living" through
mediums, demonstrates the existence of Universal Principles, such as the "Law of
Progress" and the "Necessity of Reincarnation", in this uninterrupted process of
improvement of the Immortal Spirit.
Therefore, a deep philosophical body comes from the scientific bases, making of
Spiritism a "Scientific Philosophy". Thus, the philosophical body of Spiritism
is intrinsically related and consequent with its scientific basis. Spiritism, on
the contrary, is not syncretic because it constitutes a uniform conceptual set,
whose fundamental principles mutually reinforce each other.
This
implies that those, who randomly accept some Spiritism doctrinal principles -
but still do not understand the scientific basis that furnished the evidence of
the real existence of such principles and neither the mutual correlation of
support between them - still show a more spiritualistic than Spiritist
mentality.
In
addition, the scientific-philosophical body of Spiritism, the more it is studied
and understood, it must have repercussions on the moral consequences of the
highest religiosity/spirituality for each follower.
Spiritism presents three aspects
- This makes it possible for Spiritists to study in depth the essence of the
ethical reflections and paradigms of the greatest moralizers, philosophers and
religious in the whole History of Humanity, with a special focus on the essence
of the Man, who was identified by the Spirits themselves as the most evolved who
already incarnated on Earth, and who was Jesus of Nazareth (question 625 of "The
Book of Spirits"). This triple construction of the doctrinal body of Spiritism
thus constitutes a scientific-philosophical-religious block, showing, among
other things, that Spiritism studies the Gospel, but does not submit to the
supposed character of "infallibility" of the so-called "sacred" texts, which is
an irrational and therefore reckless attitude, since not respecting scientific
criteria for the evaluation of the Truth, it can lead to mistaken dogmatic
visions of reality (see chapter "Strange Moral" of "The Gospel According to
Spiritism").
Understanding reality on logical bases, we reflect on life and on ourselves deep
spirituality and objectivity, being able to study ancient texts of Jesus and of
other enlightened Spirits in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine in search of a
constant spiritual maturation.
However, not always the logic of Spiritist thought, constituted from this
innovative construction, i. e., starting from the sequential
scientific-philosophical-religious block, has been respected. It is important to
note that Spiritism presents three aspects, which are constituted in a specific
sequence (and not in an independent or random way), that is, from the scientific
bases the philosophical body arises with all the deep consequences of deep
religiosity that the Spiritist Doctrine provides.
Not
every spiritualist is a Spiritist
- As an illustration of the fact that this sequential
scientific-philosophical-religious block has not been respected, we can mention
the predisposition and, in many cases, the "conviction" of the understanding
that "all" verses of The Gospel, and in some cases all the Bible, are spiritual
revelations, which shows an attitude of ignorance regarding the manner through
which the texts appeared. Moreover, they show a "mystical-magical" tendency that
the text is perfect in every way because it was originated directly from God,
without any intervention of man.
Now,
admitting this mythical idea, the verses could not be mutually contradictory,
and this happens systematically throughout the Bible, causing every year the
birth of new religious denominations on our planet. This is because each
religious leader, proponent of a new religion, values
some
verses to the detriment of others that contradict them, and there we have a new
doctrine.
The
above mentioned behavior is indirectly related to attitudes of deep fanaticism
such as the behavior of primary religious leaders, who try to distort the
meaning of the biblical text to "make it teach" in accordance with their own and
personal doctrinal preferences, rather than the essence of teaching.
Another example of disrespect to the sequential
scientific-philosophical-religious block is to state that any spiritualist
philosopher, who is a reincartionist and accepts the mediumistic phenomenon, is
a Spiritist. We have seen this happen several times along the history of the
Spiritist movement.
Is
Umbanda Spiritism?
- In fact, Leymarie, after the death of Allan Kardec, published Theosophy
articles in the "Revue Spirite", created by the Encoder; the president of the
Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB) at the time, Wantuil de Freitas,
contributed with a serious historical confusion in defending that "Umbanda is
Spiritism"; the “ubaldistas” (followers of Ubaldi) - based on a pretentious
proposal of Pietro Ubaldi that the Spiritist movement should accept his books so
that "Spiritism would not become stagnant" - insist on imposing on the movement
the works of the Catholic writer Pietro Ubaldi.
Unfortunately, the Spiritist movement was not and is not free from this type of
behavior. The causes vary widely and often accompany certain followers and
Spiritist institutions.
Some
have this attitude, because they think that Spiritism can embrace various
spiritualistic tendencies, and that often mutually exclude themselves. The
Spiritist Doctrine does not represent a religious syncretism. As Jose Raul
Teixeira (USEERJ-1994) would say, "Spiritism is not a can of worms", in which
"everything that speaks about God is good". Those who have this tendency did not
understand how the Spiritist Doctrine was born and what it represents in terms
of the "Alliance between Science and Religion" (see "The Gospel According to
Spiritism"). Those who have this tendency may have been better suited and
coherent with the respective proposals in other movements, which do not have as
solid doctrinal bases as it does with Spiritism.
However, paradoxically, spiritualists (but not always Spiritists) with strong
Catholic, Africanist, syncretic, ecumenical, and other tendencies often feel
very comfortable in our Spiritist places, taking advantage of the speech of
religious tolerance and of charity as well as of the low level of doctrinal
study that, in some cases, occur in the Spiritist Movement.
The
famous recommendation of Erasto remains forgotten
- Such scenario tends to minimize the critical analysis of the content of the
Spiritist message and the responsibility of its dissemination with high quality,
which was very much emphasized by Allan Kardec, Emmanuel, and Divaldo Franco,
among others. Moreover, the leaders’ wish to break records of attendance at
their Spiritist houses (even to the detriment of the doctrinal quality
conveyed), alongside with the production and sale of a gigantic number of
doctrinally poor works, has caused a dangerous permissiveness in the Spiritist
houses.
Some
authors shield themselves by donating the copyrights to social assistance (among
others who do not even do this), and therefore they feel they have the right to
publish merely spiritualists works as if they are Spiritists, and even defend
ideas in opposition to the basic principles of Spiritism. The fact of donating
the copyrights does not necessarily make this work something of quality, much
less of Spiritist quality. After all, some Catholic and Protestant authors also
donate the copyrights to charity works and this does not make them Spiritists.
Not respecting the scientific bases of the Doctrine and the controlling methods
of the Universality of the Teaching of the Spirits, as well as the Kardecian
scruple that states that "in doubt, abstain yourself", the authors risk,
consciously or not, divulging ideas that are completely wrong.
It
is important to emphasize that the responsibility is not only of the authors,
but of the Spiritist publishers, the directors of Spiritist libraries, the
exhibitors and the leaders of Spiritist centers that sell and/or disseminate
such texts.
Erastus' recommendation in "The Book of Mediums" that "it is preferable to
reject ten truths than to accept a single lie, a single false theory" is still
forgotten by many writers, exhibitors and leaders, who work in the Spiritist
movement. The Spiritist Doctrine prefers a slower, more gradual, and more secure
conceptual advance than rapture with no support in the "evidence of the fact",
that is, without scientific basis. Regarding the "utopias, we will expect them
to materialize in the natural facts," as taught in the text of the Kardecian
Codification.