Theme: Spiritism History

Birth of Spiritism

When Jesus lived here on Earth, he said that after he died and returned to the spirit world, he would send a Comforter, who would remain forever with men.

This Comforter would explain everything, would remember what Jesus said and would say what he could not say because people still would not understand.

It took many years, even centuries, for humanity to evolve and be able to understand other teachings.

Jesus then assembled a team of highly evolved spirits and gave them the mission to bring the promised Comforter to Earth.

The Comforter would not be a person, but a set of ideas, thoughts and teachings, which is, a doctrine. So it could stay with us forever, comforting us, teaching and guiding, as Jesus said the Comforter would do.

For this purpose, many spirits were sent to reincarnate on Earth to exercise mediumship, which is the ability to perceive the spirits and record their messages. Other spirits, of great wisdom, remained in the spiritual world, being responsible for the transmission of the teachings.

On October 3, 1804, in a city of France called Lyon, was born one of the most important personages of this history who received the name of Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail.

It was given to him the most important task of being the codifier of the new doctrine. He should gather, organize and explain the teachings dictated to the mediums by the spirits.

As a child, Hippolyte was already very intelligent. Soon he was sent by his parents to study at a famous institute run by the great educator Pestalozzi, in Switzerland, where he stayed for many years until he graduated in pedagogy. There he became professor of chemistry, anatomy, physics and astronomy. He knew science and philosophy well. He spoke many languages, such as French, English, German, Italian, Dutch and Spanish, and wrote books on education.

One day, when Hippolyte was already an adult, married and a teacher, his friend Fortier invited him to attend a meeting at a friends’ house, where a very interesting phenomenon was happening that they called "rotating tables".

At these meetings, people would sit around a table and place their hands flat on it. After a while, the table began to move. Sometimes it would shake, stand on one foot, spin or rise from the ground, without the influence of any perceived force. It could also be felt and heard knocks on the furniture.

Everyone was amused by this, but Hippolyte was very intrigued. As a researcher, accustomed to the method of science, he thought:

- Every effect has a cause. What will it be the cause of these tables to move?

He then went on attending these meetings, because he wanted to find an explanation for that.

After some time, people started asking questions for the "spinning tables" and they responded through beats. They then established codes to understand the answers. They spoke, for example:

- Table, if what I said is right, give it one beat. If it is wrong, give two beats.

At first, they asked simple questions, and it was amusing to get the answers right.

Professor Hippolyte Rivail, however, was curious about everything and was increasingly encouraged to study what was happening.

- How a table, which is a simple object, without life and without intelligence, can understand what was asked and still answer correctly? An intelligent effect has to have a clever cause! Where does the intelligence of this table come from? - He wondered.

He researched the conditions in which that strange phenomenon happened and realized that factors such as weather, time, the presence of men or women, the number of people, the places where they sat and the position of the hands did not interfere with anything so that the "Physical effects" occurred. But he also discovered that the presence of certain people was necessary, which he identified them as mediums. If the mediums did not attend the meeting, even if many other people were present, nothing happened.

Over time, other forms of communication with the table were established. It was placed a disk on it, with the letters of the alphabet written on the edge, in addition to the words "Yes" and "No". A needle stood in the center and spun on the disk, pointing to the letters, like the hand of a clock that rotates pointing the numbers. In this way, by writing down the letters pointed out, it was possible to form words and phrases. The answers could now be more complete.

One day, Professor Rivail asked who was causing those effects. And the response was surprising. They were the spirits of men, who had already died.

The great doubt was clear. But do you think Professor Rivail stopped there? No, because it had appeared other questions. In fact, he was just getting started.

Communication with the spirits improved more and more, replacing the tables with scribe baskets, which had a pen attached to it and wrote the messages directly. Then came the communications of the mediums, who began to write or speak what the spirits told them without needing objects.

Professor Rivail organized the questions and answers given by the spirits and made a book called "The Spirits’ Book". He signed the book under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec, which was a name he had in another incarnation, and that is how he came to be known in the spirit milieu.

The Spirit Doctrine arose by “The Spirits’ Book”, the promised Comforter by Jesus.

Allan Kardec continued his studies and other books were written with the knowledge taught by the spirits.

This is a real story and with a happy ending.

Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com

marcelapradacontato@gmail.com