Whoever intended to do miracles for Spiritism would be nothing but ignorant

“... Let there never be among you those who consult fortunetellers, who follow dreams and forebodings, who use evil, sorcery, enchantment, or consult those who have a Python Spirit and engage in divination practices by interrogating the dead.” - Deuteronomy, 18:10 and 12.

Some fanatical and naive creatures, full of contentment, use these Deuteronomy statements thinking that by doing this they are casting on Spiritism the definitive and final "lime shovel".

How could Moses forbid something that would only be born thousands of years after his time? If he banned communication with the dead, he had his reason, which we will show later. On the other hand, Moses himself abolished in an inarticulate manner, the mentioned law when manifesting himself to Jesus in Spirit, along with Elijah, on Mount Tabor, having such fact as witnesses Peter, James, and John.

If Spiritism fit the prohibition of Moses, what would be the meaning and value of these Gospel words (Acts 2:17, 18):

- "I will divide my Spirit into all flesh: - your sons and daughters shall prophesy; the young shall have visions and the old shall have dreams. In those days I will divide my Spirit among all my servants, and they shall prophesy".

If Spiritism were included in the prohibition of Moses, why would John the Evangelist recommend later (?): "Do not believe in all Spirits. Test if the Spirits are of God." (John, Epistle 1, 4: 1).

It is necessary not to mistake the civil and transitional law created by Moses - suitable and adequate to govern the destinies of that unruly people - with the Divine and Eternal Law that unchangeable governs the destiny of humanity of all times.

Today, with the lights of Science and the Spiritist enlightenment, we know that Spirits are the souls of the dead and we evoke them only to receive advice from the good, to raise the moral standards of the evils, and to interact with our loved ones.

To support our reasoning, we can draw on the teachings of Allan Kardec, written in the basic book of Spiritism entitled "Heaven and Hell", especially in chapters X and XI of the first part, which proposes:

- (...) the most essential of all dispositions to evoke is the inner contemplation, when we wish to deal with serious Spirits. With faith and the desire for good, we become more apt to evoke Higher Spirits. Raising our souls for a few moments of concentration as we evoke them, we identify with the good Spirits, predisposing them to come. [1]

- No object, medal or talisman has the property of attracting or repelling Spirits, since the matter exercises no action on them. Never does a good Spirit advise such nonsense. The virtue of talismans can exist only in the imagination of simple people. (See: The Gospel According to Spiritism "in fine").

- There are no sacramental formulas to evoke Spirits. Whoever wished to establish a formula could be called a quack, since to pure Spirits the formula is worthless. But the evocation must always be in the name of God. (See "The Book of Mediums”, part 2, chap. XVII).

- The Spirits who prey on interviews in dismal places and at undue hours are the ones who have fun at the expense of those who listen to them. It is always useless and often dangerous to give in to such suggestions. Useless because nothing is gained beyond mystification, and dangerous, not for the evil that Spirits can do, but for the influence such facts can have on weak brains. ⁽¹⁾

- There are no days or time more especially appropriate to evoke. This, like everything that is material, is completely indifferent to Spirits, and the belief in such influences is superstitious. The most favorable moments are those when the one who summons can best refrain from any incompatible action, free himself from his usual concerns, becoming calm in body and Spirit. ⁽¹⁾

If those - who speak of Spiritism without knowing it – tried to study it, they would spare their imagination from working and avoid allegations that only are useful to show their ignorance and ill will. As a piece of information for the people who are unaware of science, we will say that there is no favorable time, one better than the other, and no special days or places, to communicate with the Spirits. We will say more: that there are no formulas or sacramental or Kabbalistic words to evoke them; that there is no need for preparation or initiation; that the use of any material signs or objects to attract or repel them is null and void; and finally, that mediums receive communications from them without departing from their normal state, as simply and naturally as if such communications were dictated by a living person. Only quackery could lend communications eccentric forms, grafting ridiculous accessories on them. (See "What is Spiritism", chap. II, no. 49).

- As a matter of principle, the future is forbidden to man, and only in very rare and exceptional cases does God allow its revelation. If man knew the future, he would surely neglect the present and not act freely. Absorbed by the idea of ​​the fatality of an event, we would either try to conjure it up or we would not care about it. God did not allow it to be like this, so that each might concur for the realization of the very events, which he might have wished to avoid. He allows, however, the revelation of the future, when the prior knowledge of a thing does not hinder, but facilitates the realization, inducing a procedure different from what would have been the case. (See "The Book of Spirits”, Part 3, Chapter X.)

- Spirits cannot guide scientific discoveries or investigations. Science is the work of genius and should only be acquired by work, because it is by this that man progresses. What merit would we have if, to know everything, we just had to interrogate the Spirits? In this manner, every moron could become wise. The same is true regarding industry inventions and discoveries. When the time has come for a discovery, the Spirits in charge of its development look for the man who can cope with these issues and inspire him the necessary ideas, without detracting him from the merits, which is in the elaboration and execution of these ideas. It has been so with all the great works of human intelligence. The Spirits leave each individual in his level: from the man only able to till the land they keep from him the secrets of God, but they know how to withdraw from obscurity the one who proves to be able to support their purposes. Do not let yourselves be dominated by ambition and curiosity, in a field unrelated to Spiritism that has no such aims, for with them you will only get the most ridiculous mystifications. (See "The Book of Mediums", part 2, chap. XXVI.)

- Spirits cannot contribute to the discovery of hidden treasures. The Higher ones are not concerned with such things, and only mockers can entertain themselves with them, already indicating treasures that most often do not exist, already pointing out diametrically opposed places to those in which they actually exist. This circumstance, however, has a utility in showing that true fortune lies in work. When Providence has destined for anyone any hidden riches, that person will find them naturally; otherwise no; never. (See "The Book of Mediums”, part 2, chap. XXVI.)

- Clarifying us about the properties of the fluids - agents and means of action of the Invisible World constituting one of the forces and powers of Nature - Spiritism gives us the key to countless facts and things that are unexplained and otherwise inexplicable, facts and things that were considered wonders in other ages. Like magnetism, it reveals to us a law, if not unknown, at least misunderstood, or, to put it better, effects of all known times, since they have been produced in all times, but the law pertaining to them was ignored and from this ignorance sprang superstition. Once this law is known, the wonderful disappears and the phenomena are classified as natural things. This is why the Spirits do not produce miracles, turning tables or the dead writing, in the same way as it is not a miracle when a physician brings back the dying patient to life.

Anyone who intended to work miracles through Spiritism would be nothing but an ignorant, or a mere juggler. ("The Book of Mediums" Part 1, Chapter II.)

There are people who have a very false idea regarding evocations: some even believe that the dead evoked present themselves with the whole gloomy apparatus of the tomb. Such assumptions can be attributed to what we see in the theater or read in the novels and fantastic tales, where the dead appear shrouded with the rattling of bones. Spiritism, which never performed miracles, does not do this one either, since it never revived a dead body. The intelligent, fluidic Spirit does not go down into the grave with the gross casing, which is definitely there. It separates from it at the moment of death, and they have nothing more in common with each other. ("What is Spiritism", ch. II, no. 48.)

We broaden these quotations to show that the principles of Spiritism have nothing to do with those of magic. Thus, neither Spirits are at the command of men; there are no means of embarrassing them; no signs or kabbalistic formulas; no treasure discoveries; neither processes for enrichment, nor miracles or wonders, divinations, and fantastic apparitions: nothing at all of what constitutes the end and the essential elements of magic. Spiritism not only reproves such things but demonstrates their impossibility and ineffectiveness. There is no, we say once again, analogy between the processes and ends of magic and those of Spiritism; only ignorance and bad faith can mistake them ... Thus, such an error cannot prevail, since the Spiritist principles do not evade examination, and they are formulated unequivocally and clearly for all.

Let us follow Allan Kardec's enlightening reasoning in chapter X of the first part of the book "Heaven and Hell": “(...) Spiritism does not allow the manifestation of any Spirits, good or bad, without God's permission. It says more: that by such permission and corresponding to the call of the living, the Spirits do not make themselves available to them.

Does the evoked Spirit come voluntarily, or is it constrained to manifest?

Obeying the will of God, that is, the law that governs the Universe, He judges the usefulness or uselessness of its manifestation, which constitutes a prerogative of His free will.

The High Spirit does not cease to come whenever it is evoked for a useful purpose, and only refuses to respond when in a gathering of unreliable people who take it in the air of jest [2].

Can the evoked Spirit refuse to come through the evocation addressed to it?

"Perfectly, since you have your free will". Can you believe that all beings in the Universe are at your disposal? And you yourselves feel compelled to answer all who utter your name? But when I say that the Spirit may refuse, I subordinate this denial to the evoker's request, and that is why an inferior Spirit may be constrained by a Superior to manifest.

The Spiritists are so convinced that they can do nothing about the Spirits directly, without God's permission, that they say when they evoke a Spirit: "We pray to God Almighty to allow a good Spirit to communicate with us, as well as our Guardian Angels to protect and keep us and drive away the evil Spirits”.

And when it comes to the evocation of a determined Spirit [3]: - "We pray God Almighty to allow such a Spirit to communicate with us", and so on…

The accusations made by the Church and other detractors against the evocations do not, therefore, affect Spiritism, but the practices of magic, with which it has nothing in common. Spiritism condemns as much as those practices, while not giving the superior Spirits a role unworthy of them, or asking or seeking without the permission of God.

Surely, there are those who abuse or evocate or denature their providential character for the sake of personal interests, and there may still be those who out of ignorance, thoughtlessly, pride, or ambition depart from the true principles of the Doctrine; true Spiritism, serious Spiritism also condemns them, just as true religion condemns hypocritical believers and fanatics. Therefore, it is not logical or reasonable to impute to Spiritism abuses that it is the first to destroy, and the errors of those who do not understand it. Before you accuse, you should know if it is fair. So we will say: the censorship of the Church and other detractors of Spiritism falls on the charlatans, the speculators, the practitioners of magic and spells, and rightly so. When religious or skeptical criticism, dissecting abuse, condemns quackery, it only enhances the purity of sound doctrine, assisting it in purging evil elements and facilitating our task. The error of criticism lies in confusing the good and the bad, which is often the result of the bad faith of some and ignorance of the majority".

Let us now consider with Kardec the reasons that led Moses to forbid communication with the “dead”: "(...) He wanted his people to abandon all customs acquired in Egypt, where the evocations were in use and they facilitated abuse, as is inferred from these words of Isaiah [4]: "The Spirit of Egypt shall annihilate itself and I will precipitate its counsel; they will consult their idols, their soothsayers and their magicians”. (Continued in next issue).

References:

[1] - KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Mediums. 71^st.ed. Rio [de Janeiro]: FEB, 2003, 2^nd part, chap. XXV.

[2] - KARDEC, Allan. The Book of Mediums. 71^st.ed. Rio [de Janeiro]: FEB, 2003, 2^nd part, chap. XXV.

[3] - Idem, ibidem, 2^nd part, chap. XVII, 203.

[4] - Isaiah 19: 3.