Socrates and the plurality of existences

Is reincarnation in the Bible?

The question above is the title of one of the highlights of this edition - the special signed by Hugo Alvarenga Novaes, author of the e-book The idea of ​​reincarnation is in the Gospel, published on July 29, 2016 by EVOC – Virtual Publisher of The Comforter.

Talking about reincarnation is always important, but it seems excessive in our midst to be concerned to show in the Bible the confirmation of the fundamental principles of Spiritism, among which reincarnation is inserted.

Reincarnation is not a theory, a revelation, a teaching. Reincarnation is a fact, which stems from a natural law, to which all, whether we like it or not, we are on its demand, regardless of our convictions and beliefs, because atheists, Catholics and evangelicals also reincarnate and will reincarnate, until the process that impels us to perfection is in progress.

Much more important than locating the evidence of successive lives here and there in the biblical texts it is to show to the public that long before the advent of Christianity the theme was known and propagated by important figures in science and philosophy, such as Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato.

Socrates, who was born in 469 BC and disincarnated at age 70 in 399 BC, dealt openly with the subject, which is easy to see in works such as Plato's Phaedo, which the reader can easily find in commercial bookstores. ⁽¹⁾

In the book The Gospel according to Spiritism - Introduction, part IV - entitled "Socrates and Plato, forerunners of the Christian idea and of Spiritism", Allan Kardec presents a summary of the ideas of the two well-known thinkers who are intimate with the Spirit and Christian teachings.

Great ideas, Kardec reminds us, never break out suddenly. Those who are based on the truth always have precursors that prepare the ways. When the time comes, God sends us someone with the mission to summarize, coordinate and complete the sparse elements and bring them together in body of doctrine.

This was precisely what had happened to Christian ideas, which had been foretold many centuries before Jesus and the Essenes, it had as main precursors, among them Socrates and Plato, in whose writings the fundamental principles of Spiritism, such as the immortality of soul and reincarnation.

Here are two examples taken from the ideas of Socrates and Plato, as gathered by Kardec in the Introduction of The Gospel according to Spiritism:

- Man is a soul incarnate. Before its incarnation, it existed united to the primordial types, to the ideas of the true, the good and the beautiful; it separates from them, incarnates, and, remembering its past, is more or less tormented by the desire to return to it.

- After our death, the genie (daimon), who had been assigned to us during our lifetime, takes us to a place where all who have to be led to Hades are assembled to be judged. The souls, after having been in Hades as long as necessary, are brought back into this life in multiple and long periods.

In addition to referring to the doctrine of guardian angels or protective spirits, the two writings are very clear with regard to the immortality of the soul and the plurality of existences.

We will find, however, those who do not give it any value and who will insist on the idea that we live on Earth only once, and when death comes our future will definitely be traced.

What to do?

With people like this we can only proceed as a long-suffering companion of Spirit lusts did, today in the spiritual homeland. To anyone who objected to the idea of reincarnation, he proposed: - Friend, can we talk about this again in a hundred years?

⁽¹⁾ In 2012, Edipro - Edições Profissionais Ltda. - www.edipro.com.br - published Plato's Phaedo, based on the translation made directly from the Greek by Edson Bini.