Poverty, drugs, gang
fights, absent parents,
lack of love, easy
access to weapons,
prejudice,
overpopulation, social
inequalities, among
others, are social
factors that facilitate
the outbreak of
violence, crime, suicide
and mental disorders.i
However, according to a
respectable portion of
Spiritist scholars,
there has been a
significant lack of
Spiritist debates around
the social factors of
human problems. They
rightly state that the
Spiritist lectures and
seminars focus almost
exclusively on the
personal, psychic or
Spiritual factors of
corporeality, relegating
to a secondary level the
social elements involved
in the suffering and
decisions of the
incarnate Spirit.
Deolindo Amorim, a
renowned sociologist and
journalist, proposing a
dialogue between
Spiritism and the social
sciences, wrote:ii
The Spiritist
movement cannot remain
oblivious to social
problems, and is
therefore responsible
for interfering in the
solution of these
problems. We must
develop and improve more
and more the awareness
of participation in
social life, in harmony
with the legitimate
thinking of the
Doctrine, which does not
want the Spiritist
outside the world, but
inside the world,
helping to transform it.
Still Deolindo:
It is true that the
Doctrine is concerned,
above all, with the
Spiritual side of life,
but we should not ignore
the omissions of
society, which is guilty
of many dramas and
conflicts because of its
indifference in the face
of injustices of all
kinds. In addition,
society is all of us, so
we also have a share of
responsibility. [...]
Such inequality is
incomprehensible under
the sky of a Christian
civilization.
However, we cannot blame
the Spiritist literature
in general, and the
works of Kardec, in
particular, for this
phenomenon, since an
abundant reference on
the influences of the
environment on the
Spirit is available to
the Spiritist reader.
Emmanuel, in a work from
1940, called attention
to the fact that it is
essential for the
enlightened heart to
cooperate in
transforming the
environment in which
they live for good,
improving and elevating
the material and moral
conditions of all those
who live in their area
ofinfluence.i
Providing theoretical
elements that help us to
better understand the
incarnate Spirit/environment relationship,
we present some
considerations extracted
from Kardecian texts,
relating them to three
assertions extracted
from the texts
themselves.
First assertion:
Evolution has a personal
component, linked to
self-effort, and a
solidary component,
linked to a concern for
the whole, hence the
commitment of each one
to collaborate with
collective development.
Incarnation has yet
another purpose, which
is to put the Spirit in
a position to face his
part in the work of
creation. It is in order
to carry it out that he
takes an apparatus in
each world, in harmony
with its essential
matter, in order to
fulfill, from that point
of view, the orders of
God. Moreover, in this
way, contributing to the
general work, it
progresses too.
The action of corporeal
beings is necessary for
the march of the
Universe. However, God,
in His wisdom, wanted
them to have, in that
very action, a means of
progressing and of
approaching Him. This is
how, by an admirable law
of His providence,
everything is in chains,
and everything is
solidary in Nature. LE
(The Book of Spirits), item
132
***
Are there not men
reduced to begging
through their own fault?
- Undoubtedly, but if a
good moral education had
taught them to practice
the law of God, they
would not have fallen
into the excesses that
led to their loss. It is
on this, above all, that
the improvement of your
globe depends. LE,
item 889
***
[...] the Spirits must
contribute to reciprocal
progress. LE, item 218
Second assertion: The
incarnation places the
Spirit under strong
environmental
influences, which are
evidently related to the
formation of his
personality and his
attitudes towards life.
This influence will be
greater the smaller its
evolutionary condition,
considered from an
intellectual and moral
point of view.
Does man retain, in his
new existences, the
traits of the moral
character of previous
existences?
***
- Yes, that can happen.
However, as it improves,
it changes. Its social
position may also not be
the same. If from a
master it becomes a
slave, its inclinations
will be very different
and you would have
difficulty in
recognizing it. The
Spirit being the same,
in the different
incarnations, its
manifestations may have,
from one to the other,
certain similarities.
These, however, will be
modified by the customs
of the new position,
until a remarkable
improvement will
completely change their
character, for from
being proud and evil,
they can become humble
and human, provided they
have repented. LE,
item 216
***
Is not the environment
in which certain men
live the main reason for
many vices and crimes?
- Yes, but even in this
there is a test chosen
by the Spirit in the
state of freedom; he
wanted to expose himself
to temptation in order
to have the merit of
resistance. LE,
item 644
***
With a judicious and
farsighted social
organization, man can
only lack what is
necessary through his
fault. However, his own
faults are often the
result of the
environment in which he
is placed. When he
practices God's law, he
will have a social order
founded on justice and
solidarity, and he will
also be better.
LE item 930
***
Do you believe that you
have acquired all the
moral perfection of
which a being is
susceptible on Earth? In
other words, do you
suppose that there are
people who are worth
more than you? Do you
believe that they are
worth less than you are?
Among all the men who
have lived on Earth
since it was inhabited,
will there be many who
have attained
perfection? Will there
be many who could not
reach this perfection
for reasons independent
of their will, that is,
because they were not in
a position to become
enlightened about Good
and Evil? If the
condition of men after
death is the same for
everyone, is it
necessary to do well
instead of evil? If, on
the other hand, the
condition is relative to
the merit acquired,
would you think it fair
that those, on whom it
did not depend, if they
find themselves impure,
should they be deprived
of happiness forever?
LE, first edition, note
04 by Kardec
***
Do these Spirits not
wish to shorten their
sufferings?
- “They desire it,
without a doubt, but
they lack enough energy
to want what can relieve
them. How many
individuals are among
you who would rather die
of poverty than work?” LE,
item 995th
***
Accordingly, does the
diversity of aptitudes
in man derive solely
from the state of the
Spirit?
- “Only it is not at all
exact. The qualities of
the Spirit, which may
have a greater or lesser
evolution, constitute
the principle, but it is
necessary to take into
account the ascendancy
of the matter that
entered, more or less,
the exercise of these
faculties.” LE,
item 370
***
Examining a case of
suicide related to human
misery (The inhuman
baker), the Spirit
Lamennais made the
following assessment of
the fact in question:
“This unfortunate woman
is one of the victims of
your world, your laws
and your society. God
judges souls, but he
also judges times and
circumstances; He judges
forced things and
despair; judge the
background and not the
form. In addition, I
dare say, this
unfortunate died not for
a crime, but for
modesty, for fear of
shame. It is that where
human justice is
inexorable, it judges
and condemns material
facts, divine justice
verifies the depths of
the heart and God
blesses the state of
conscience [...] this
woman because she is
unhappy and this man is
cursed because he
refused bread. O God!
When, then, will all
your gifts be recognized
and put into practice?
In the eyes of your
justice, the one who
refused bread will be
punished, because Christ
said: He, who gives
bread to his neighbor,
gives it to me" Spiritist
Magazine, May 1862
***
Who does not know the
force of rapture that
dominates agglomerations
where there is
homogeneity of thoughts
and wills? One could not
imagine how much
influence we are thus
subject to, with our
ignorance. Cannot these
occult influences be the
determining cause of
certain thoughts? Of
those thoughts that are
common to us, at the
same moment, with
certain people, of those
vague forebodings that
make us say, is there
something in the air
that foreshadows such or
such an event?
Finally, certain
indefinable sensations
of well-being or moral
malaise, of joy or
sadness, would in no way
be the effect of the
reaction of the fluidic
environment in which we
are to the sympathetic
or antipathetic effluvia
that we receive and that
surround us like
emanations from a
fragrant body?
***
If one could doubt the
immense mechanism that
thought brings into
play, and the effects it
produces from one
individual to another,
from one group of beings
to another group, and,
finally, the universal
action of men's thoughts
on one another, man
would be dazzled! He
would feel annihilated
in the face of this
infinity of details, in
the face of these
innumerable networks
linked together by a
powerful will, and
acting in harmony to
achieve a single
objective: universal
progress. Posthumous
Works, Introduction to
the Study of Thought
Photography
***
With a provident and
wise social
organization, man cannot
suffer needs, unless
they are due to his
fault. However, man’s
own faults are often the
result of the
environment in which he
lives. When man
practices the law of
God, he will have a
social order based on
justice and solidarity,
and by doing this, he
will be better. LE,
item 930
***
Third assertion: By
submitting to the laws
of corporeity, we come
to live under powerful
influences of the body
and the environment.
Even so, in the vast
majority of cases, our
free will prevails to
give in or not to the
moral drags. Denying the
option of individual
choice would be the same
as allying oneself with
the follies of
materialism.
When a man is immersed
in the atmosphere of
vice, does not evil
become for him an almost
irresistible drag?
- Drag, yes,
irresistible, no,
because in the midst of
this atmosphere of vices
you can find great
virtues. They are
Spirits who had the
strength to resist, and
who had, at the same
time, the mission of
exerting a good
influence on their
fellow men. LE, item
645
***
[...] to judge an
individual, it is
necessary to take into
account the degree of
influence of each one,
due to his development,
then put temperament,
environment, habits and
education into the
balance.
Spiritist Magazine,
1862, p. 95.
__________________________
I Social
psychology, chap.
10,
Aroldo Rodrigues et
al.
ii
Spiritism and human
problems, Deolindo
Amorim, part I,
Definition and
option
iii The
Comforter, item
121
|