Worlds spinning on a magical carousel of flaming lights, along paths that intersect in unfathomable space. Worlds that glide before our curious and dazzled gaze, which slides through the night space, that immense and immeasurable space. As much as human science tries to probe its bins, using high-definition instruments invented by the urge to know and to be aware of, our gaze remains poorly trained to deepen these paths covered by the immensity of infinity.

Faced with such vastness that, if we do not glimpse it, at least we foresee it through intelligence and reasoning, we are forced to wonder why and what is the function all this extension of worlds that extend and rotate beyond the space and the time known by us.

The Earth, our natural habitat, we understand it to be a tiny little grain lost in this sidereal immensity. And yet it is a nursery of sublime and enriching experiences, without which millions of reincarnated Spirits would not be able to evolve, redeeming debts, rehearsing evidence and seizing new steps that lead them along the path of progress.

The Earth, a blessed planet, but so unloved, understood and protected by its inhabitants, as misbehaving and uneducated students, forgotten from the sublime lessons, offers us a thousand opportunities for spiritual evolution, if we take full advantage of the growth opportunities offered by the Beloved Father, Lord of all that is and Father of Infinite Goodness, which we never lack, even when we do not know how to perceive His help and protection.

However, the Earth does not include all evolutionary trajectories that we must travel on the path to perfection announced by the Master Jesus. It was He Himself who informed us of this when He said, "There are many mansions in my Father's house". Why should there be many dwellings in the Father's house, we may very legitimately ask, if the Earth and only it is inhabited and offers all there is to live and learn?

Alongside today's science, which in many ways is still searching for answers, it is more and more convinced of the logical possibility of living in space beyond what our imperfect instruments have achieved since the 19th century with the advent of Spiritism, the Comforter promised by Jesus; the Spirits are the ones that enlighten us and help us to see this issue more clearly. To Allan Kardec's question 55, part V - Plurality of the Worlds - of Chapter III, Creation, of The Book of Spirits, “Are all the globes that circulate in space inhabited?”, the answer is objective: “Yes, and man is far from being, as he believes, the first in intelligence, goodness, and perfection. There are, however, men who think themselves strong spirits and imagine that only this little globe has the privilege of being inhabited by rational beings. Pride and vanity! They believe that God created the Universe just for them”. And the Encoder adds: “God has populated the worlds of living beings, and all contribute to the ultimate goal of Providence. To believe that living beings are limited only to the extent to which we dwell in the Universe would be to cast doubt on the wisdom of God, which has done nothing in vain and must have destined these worlds for a more serious purpose than to cheer our eyes. Nothing, by the way, nor in the position, volume or physical constitution of the Earth, can reasonably lead us to the assumption that it has the privilege of being inhabited, to the exclusion of so many thousands of similar worlds”.

And we might add: what about so many other worlds that we can't even see? After all, if they do not even have the futile purpose of delighting our eyes, what is the purpose of their existence if we were the only lonely inhabitants of space?

We are led to question the unlikely objectivity of belief rooted in many minds, only justified by vanity and human pride, which tends to disbelieve what might undermine its supremacy.

But, like everything else, our intelligence has evolved over the centuries and millennia, and with it our ability to deduce, to reason and to conclude, as well as the urge to question and seek beyond what our physical senses can prove. It is part of spiritual growth. Only in doubt do we find the light. For this reason, man today is no longer content with childish and vain explanations that lead us away from the real knowledge and our true essence of Spiritual Beings.

But then, other underlying issues may come to our mind. If we are not the only ones, why don't scientists seeking extraterrestrial life find greater signs of life beyond our atmosphere? If there are so many other worlds sown by the Universe, why can't we find them? If, as the Spirits say, we are not even the most advanced, whether morally or intellectually, to inhabit space, why not contact these intelligent beings (even for the purpose of sharing knowledge and moral values, helping in our growth)?

These and many other questions are legitimate. But it is also legitimate for us to use reasoning and intelligence to discern what is good for us and what could only be a further obstacle to our evolution.

Consider the following:

1) God, who foresees everything and provides everything, knows much better than our smallness allows what is good and what is not good, either for our personal progress or for the progress of humanity. There is a time for everything. As the Spirits warned, knowledge is given to us according to our ability to absorb it. We cannot make the mistake of wanting to win stages;

2) Humanity progresses and advances according to its work, study, and commitment. If we were given on credit, knowledge would not be the result of effort and therefore would not result in the advancement of intellectual capacity. In addition, free will must be relied upon. While man endeavored to reject any hypothesis of existence outside the earthly realm, he made no effort to seek it. Now that science is beginning its search in this field, surely advances will be made, undoubtedly under the spiritual protection that man may need and deserve; 

3) What would we humans do – us who are still so imperfect and "followers" of litigation, war, racism, discrimination, immersed in the craving for power - if we found intelligent life off Earth? If we found planets, inhabited or not, that would offer us higher resources than we have in our earthly world? We, who do not even respect our habitat, squander what the Creator has made available to us with such love and care? We can imagine what would happen: we would soon make every possible and impossible effort to realize our worst ambitions of colonization, exploitation of the resources found to the last possibility, enslavement by the force of those who we found there... So, once again, everything will have to come in time. Perhaps we still have much to mature, grow and moralize, until we have the conditions and make certain discoveries that we yearn for, if, on the one hand, we have no right to disturb and hinder other beings that populate the Universe, the discoveries, that we may come across, unable to understand them and to use them for the well, would be a far greater evil than a good; 

4) Last but not least, what are we looking for anyway? What is science looking for in its extraterrestrial explorations? Life similar to ours? Planets that offer conditions identical to those on Earth, which were essential for the emergence and maintenance of life in our world?

Once more we turn to – with the purpose of shedding light on this subject -considerations that The Book of Spirits offers us:

Question 56 of the chapter above: “Is the physical constitution of the different globes the same?” Answer: “No; they absolutely don't resemble each other”. 

Question 57: “Since the physical constitution of the worlds is not the same for all, the beings that inhabit them, will they be differently organized?” Answer: “No doubt, in the same manner as among you the fish are made to live in water and birds in air”. Given this, the question remains: if we find extraterrestrial life, can we easily identify it? Or are we, on a possible space travel, convinced that nothing exists because our earthly physical senses could not perceive anything? 

We must conclude with the consideration that if it is true that there are many abodes in the Father's house, and if we are not alone in the Universe, beyond the incessant search for the knowledge that humanity currently undertakes, it is essential that we learn to know, respect and take care of this little grain in the Universe, which is our home, for now. If you don't take care of our home, how can we wish to visit other dwelling places? 

God never forsakes us. Proof of this is the Comforting Doctrine, which, sent by Jesus, enlightens us and encourages constant progress. Days will come when we will be able to inhabit other worlds where intelligence and morality are more advanced. And days, surely, will come too, when, even inhabiting the Earth, we will be blessed by the possibility of broadening our horizons through this immeasurable and infinite space that is the Father's House.