The word violence has the Latin word violentia, created around 1215, to better express the disrespectful use of force to the detriment of the citizen’s rights. “Afterwards, almost three hundred years later, it meant any kind of abuse committed arbitrarily against someone, imposing one’s will, disregarding the values and using force to cruelly subdue.” Professor Carlos Torres Pastorinho, a Spirit, makes these reflections in his book: Impermanence and Immortality, psychographed by Divaldo Franco.

Violence is where expressions of jealousy, revolt, passions, robbery, revenge, impositions, making justice with one’s hands and other demeanors of unfortunate consequences are. That is, it permeates and crowns evil. The ones who resort to it make it the antithesis to Good. “Good is everything that is in accordance with the Law of God and evil is all that steers away from it. Therefore, to do Good is to conform to the Law of God; to do evil is to violate this Law.” This is the answer to question 630 of the Book of Spirits, when Kardec questions how you can tell Good from evil.

We are in a time of changes on this planet. Somewhat predicted, such changes will comfort Man, juxtaposing his imperial condition of son of God, in a cyclical project of evolution. There was a time in which the great Empires when overpowering peoples through the sword and astuteness, used violence as an instrument of fear towards any rebellions from the remainders. So they tortured, murdered, burned villages down and destroyed monuments, erecting instead their mythological landmarks of their cultural ideologies, as if saying to the defeated: now it is us and not you. It was a river of tears and blood that would numb reasoning, which was about to blossom in human consciousness, however, it was shadowed by the turpitude of having and possessing, of taking over in order to feed an inferior ego. What about religion? How many examples of violence some of the followers have left us? Isn’t religion an instrument to get us closer to God? Why impose to others our way of seeking the Lord? Every religion attracts to itself the followers who best juxtapose it. There’s no use to impose religious ideas to anyone. We are free and may pray wherever we want and talk to our Lord in the moment and place where we see fit.

Ever since the studies by Freud, Jung, Stanislav Grof and so many other exponents of science and more recently Joanna de Angelis, we have in our hands true guidelines to be sought and followed. The inferior ego needs, in order to prevail, to show force by shoving down other people’s throats, things, changing circumstances at their own will and shallow reasons.

There’s the silent violence that kills ideals...

Meanwhile, your superior awaits and never loses the opportunity to show Himself, speaking to your reason that violence is not necessary, for standing as a sensible individual, bringer of peace, is after all one ephemerides and a spiritual victory.

But violence still lingers on. We see it in different forms. Among many, it is violent the act of interposing between the being and education, harming both. As it is to curse, constantly complain, create intrigues, exchange blows and kicks at home or not, throw away someone else’s belongings. It is also violent the act of spoiling children’s minds leading them to crime or prostitution. It is a violence to turn your stereo too loud, in your home, or neighborhood, as well as in the street. It is a violence to leave society without the necessary security in order to function properly. To drive under the influence, putting lives at risk, or sell alcohol or drugs to minors. There’s also the silent violence that kills ideals, steal ideas in order to appropriate them, plotting the downfall of one for the unjust rise of another. Plans an ambush in order to see someone suffer. Allows for the death of one for another to show his dissatisfaction to him or to the group he belongs to. Betrays the trust placed on him. Destroys the home that gave him shelter.

Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher from the last century, brings us some important food for thought: “Violence, whichever way it may manifest itself, is always a defeat”. The defeated is the one who lost the chance to be an individual in a higher sense of the word. He becomes derisive, unhappy, presumptuous and cynical. Joanna de Angelis points out in her book: Existential Conflicts, that “Cynicism is an expression that characterizes the conduct of a violent person, that emerges during childhood – and when pathological – extending to adolescence, when more intense aggressive inclinations appear, then reaching adulthood, without a balance adaptation to the social environment”. So everything starts in childhood. Everything emerges as a consequence of the past. Hence bullying, child crime or even suicide, a sorry display of defeat for the individual. To take drugs is also a violent act towards yourself and the society that took you in. That needs to be told to spiritualists and non-spiritualists alike. Egocentricity is the tone of a violent conduct, according to researchers. “I’m in charge and cannot be opposed” – a violent person would say after taking his victim down.

In a historic past, when mankind never stopped waging war in order to constitute a forum when dialogue could clarify things, violence was taken as an instrument of personal, national and territorial surveillance after all.   

Everyone, without exception, has the whole
Kingdom inside them 

It was the infamous “vigilantism” – institutionalized violence that has rages in the past and is still raging now in social communities throughout time. Armies, battalions, troops, mercenaries, special agents of needles and poisons, strategists, commanders-in-chief, Peace Corps – social as well as domestic and institutional – make up the hall of history of violence in the world. There’s an Arab saying that well explains it: “Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; me, my brother and my cousin against our enemies”. Why’s that? Just to watch over personal and territorial possessions. But the world is so big! The Universe is even bigger, and what about Creation? There’s room for everybody. Everyone has the whole Kingdom inside themselves. Why so much violence? Why cling on to the minute when there’s an infinite dome inviting us to discover it and to build other domes in eternity?

In traffic, at home, in the street, in the garage of your building, on the beach, inside companies, in stadiums, in so many places and even, check this out, funeral services there’s this happening. In these cases there’s always a target: the enemy, the adversary, the opponent.

Who is the enemy? They say the opposite part in a dispute, a match or conflict, either a person or a group, for ideas, thoughts, activities or radical political reasons. Let’s see what Andre Luiz says in the book ‘Libertacao’, chapter 19: “The enemy is not always a consciousness deliberately acting in evil. In most cases, it is incomprehensible to most of us.

Who’s the adversary? In common language is the rival creature that you’re fighting with. In the words of the spiritual world: “it is the working ground waiting for us” and also ‘what steers us away from the energy of Christ”. We quote here Victor Hugo in “Sublime Expiation” and a page from “Correio Fraterno” issued by FEB. We have to know our enemies. According to the current view, it is the one who “opposes, is against something or someone”. Spirituality says those are the terrains in which we must recuperate the sowing of our coming happiness. In our humble opinion, the opponent is also the one who teaches us to win when we face the big chess game that is life. 

We are not subject to injustices from God 

Jesus advised us to reconcile with all of them, while we’re on the same path. However, even knowing all of this, many enthroned violence as an instrument of defense. But from what? That’s the question. We don’t die. We are not subject to injustice from God. And we know that everyone, without exception, is a son of Him, and He does not award one instead of another. The cause of our pains and dishonors lies on us, as the Gospel According to Spiritualism points out in chapter 5. It’s no use to acquire goods or territory, for they will remain here when we go back to the spiritual world! Is all about rational thinking. It’s all about accepting what’s to come after destroying the ‘cuffs of violence’. What about my opinion? What do I have to put up with... the excuses I don’t accept; am I far from forgiveness?

Bruce Malina, an American theologian and professor says that: “…established violence can be considered a process by which the moral enterprise seeks to defend its interests… In this perspective, institutionalized violence defends the status quo against the deviant and subversive”. One example of this is the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. John (11-50), tells that Caifas, before Jesus, proclaimed: “Don’t you realize that it is better only one man die for the people that one whole nation perish?” We see there the vigilantism. Jesus represented danger. So it is better to get rid of it in the conception of the unhappy Priest. Later, the Master would say: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. Violence permeates the paths of our traditional views in detriment of the new ones that may steer us away from our comfort zone.

Jesus asked for forgiveness for the violent ones because he knew they’d change one day with the knowledge of them being free Spirits going towards perfection. The same conduct spread by superior beings, who are now in charge of steering mankind, justifying why the saints were so passive before their executioners. Why would they fight back? They should show that their minds evolved to the peace that Jesus preached and left as cornerstones of Good.

When we violate someone or any social institution we use to build our personal or social structures. However, and according to Molina: “…they serve more as monuments of the destruction of an old system of social and political control than as authentic symbols of a new viable order”.

God lets Man chose the path 

In The Book of Spirits, question 634, Kardec questions why evil is in the nature of things and if God could create a better Mankind. Yes, this is the wish of the sincere and deep leaders. They wish welfare, they wish long-lasting peace, and they wish harmony between the beings. They fight for that, while others kill or unthrone someone’s consciousness. Or others put the lives of many at risk in order to keep the high post as businessman or community member who preaches blind compliance. Spirituality then answered Kardec and all of us: “God lets man choose the path: so much worse if he chooses evil; his journey will be longer”. To go on a journey means to walk and walk a lot, hurting your feet, bleeding them, until you find a safe spot.

Violence has its degrees. A couple who drinks, smokes or uses drugs or argue in the presence of their kids are practicing violence to a certain degree, for they teach their offspring that the world is cruel and must be treated with disregard and aggression. There are those who bring their kids to bars or social gatherings and act the same way when they’re at home. And then sit in front of the TV and get outraged when the news shows someone who stole something, raped, kill, corrupted or did not follow safety rules causing the disincarnating of many. What about him? Didn’t he show his children the path of corruption and illegalities?

“God’s Law is the same for everybody; but evil depends, mostly, on the will of the one doing it. Good is always Good and evil is always evil, whichever walk of life you have, the difference lies in the degree of responsibility” – Superior Spirits tell us in question 636 of The Book of Spirits. Responsibility – that’s the word, the phrase, the context, the superior content. We always answer for our acts and violence will bring upon the ones who practice it the pay back of the same violence. You need to organize your mind so that it can protect us at the tough times in which we are hit with something that disturbs the “peace” of the inferior ego. He, when approached, usually grows quite strong, disturbing the one who’s housing it, leading them to stages of savagery and a time which he studied more, live better, away from the caves.

Criminals, sinners, deviants, subversive, dissidents and the heretic have fed violence throughout the world, for the law at the time showed their roughhouse with the tortures and killings. Still today, those who incite to violence belong to the group above.  

Violence is temporary and one day it’ll go away 

According to Emmanuel’s thinking, the aggressor is mentally disturbed and a master in disguise. Exceptional information for us to build within ourselves a healthy and free man, intelligent and wise. When we wish a better future for us and our families, let’s not demand so much from our governments and the others. Let’s do our part. Those who walk the path of righteousness are held by God. “Eternal Good is a blessing from God available to all of us”, says Andre Luiz in his book: Spiritualist Conduct. “In the moral education through example and righteousness lies the most efficient preventive and healing psychotherapy, for all society’s ailments within itself or those who constitute important cells”, adds Joana de Angelis in her book Existential Conflicts.

Gandhi knew very well about violence and non-violence. He understood the fake cover of violent acts because he knew their temporary effects and that evil prevailed. It’s not worth hitting in order to defend oneself, or kill in order to survive. I the Divine Constitution it is written in article 5: Thou shall not kill. And there are no paragraphs. Not to kill means not to destroy anything or anybody under no circumstances. In the preface of The Gospel According to Spiritualism, in its last paragraph the Spirit of Truth advises: “Fellows, beloved brothers, we are near you. Love each other and say from the depth of your hearts, fulfilling the wish of our Father who is in Heaven: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and you may enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. And for this we must think of a therapy that frees us from violence. Joanna de Angelis advises us to seek and offer a true contribution of familiar affection, in order for the violent to find his self-confidence again and develop his self-esteem. According to her, the “inclination for violence attracts your peers from beyond grave, generating a harmful exchange, in which the ferocity of the intruding personalities mingles with the disorganized temper of the host, making this disease, that threatens citizens and the society, even more serious”. To her, the recourse of therapy of a psychological kind introducing the ill to other patterns of conduct, elevated expressions of solidarity, of compassion, of love, of charity that exist in this world, allowing for a self-realization and plenitude joined by the power of prayer. This habit will attract benefactors of the Higher World who will then free the patient. It is advisable to check out chapter 10 of the book: Existential Conflicts by Joanna de Angelis.

We conclude by saying that violence is temporary and will disappear from the planet as we men have the good will of building here a world of study and reflections, of healthy, solidary and brotherly living based on loving God above all and your neighbor as yourself, and also infuse in himself the sincere wish to seek superior principles that bring us back to the Heavenly Father and Creator of all of us, in order for us to live in harmony together and with Him.