Day 77: Spiritism Explained

Spiritualist Philosophy

The Spirits’ Book
Containing
The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine
on
The immortality of the soul: the nature of spirits
and their relations with men; the moral law:
the present life, the future life, and
the destiny of the human race

according to the teachings of spirits of high degree,
transmitted through various mediums,

collected and set in order
by
Allan Kardec

Translated from the Hundred and Twentieth Thousand
by
Anna Blackwell

Extract from Translator’s Preface:

“When, about 1850, the phenomenon of “table turning” was exciting the attention of Europe and ushering in the other phenomena since known as “spiritist”, Allan Kardec [born in Lyons, France, in 1804, and then living in Paris] quickly divined the real nature of those phenomena, as evidence of the existence of an order of relationships hitherto suspected rather than known – viz., those which unite the visible and invisible worlds. Foreseeing the vast importance, to science and to religion, of such an extension of the field of human observation, he entered at once upon a careful investigation of the new phenomena. A friend of his had two daughters who had become what are now called “mediums”. They were gay [happy], lively, amiable girls, fond of society, dancing, and amusement, and habitually received, when “sitting” by themselves or with their young companions, “communications” in harmony with their worldly and somewhat frivolous disposition. But, to the surprise of all concerned, it was found that, whenever he was present, the messages transmitted through these young ladies were of a very grave and serious character; and on his enquiring of the invisible intelligences as to the cause of this change, he was told that “spirits of a much higher order than those who habitually communicated through the two young mediums came expressly for him, and would continue to do so, in order to enable him to fulfil an important religious mission.”

Much astonished at so unlooked-for an announcement, he at once proceeded to test its truthfulness by drawing up a series of progressive questions in relation to the various problems of human life and the universe in which we find ourselves, and submitted them to his unseen interlocutors, receiving their answers to the same through the instrumentality of the two young mediums, who willingly consented to devote a couple of evenings every week to this purpose, and who thus obtained, through table-rapping and planchette-writing, the replies which have become the basis of the spiritist theory, and which they were as little capable of appreciating as of inventing.

When these conversations had been going on for nearly two years, he one day remarked to his wife, in reference to the unfolding of these views, which she had followed with intelligent sympathy: “It is a most curious thing! My conversations with the invisible intelligences have completely revolutionised my ideas and convictions. The instructions thus transmitted constitute an entirely new theory of human life, duty, and destiny, that appears to me to be perfectly rational and coherent, admirably lucid and consoling, and intensely interesting. I have a great mind to publish these conversations in a book; for it seems to me that what interests me so deeply might very likely prove interesting to others.” His wife warmly approving the idea, he next submitted it to his unseen interlocutors, who replied, in the usual way, that it was they who had suggested it to his mind, that their communications had been made to him, not for himself alone, but for the express purpose of being given to the world as he proposed to do, and that the time had now come for putting his plan into execution. “To the book in which you will embody our instructions,” continued the communicating intelligences, “you will give, as being our work rather than yours, the title of Le Livre des Esprits (The Spirit’s Book); and you will publish it, not under your own name, but under the pseudonym of ALLAN KARDEC (translator’s note: an old Breton name in his mother’s family). Keep your own name of Rivail for your own books already published; but take and keep the name we have now given you for the book you are about to publish by our order, and, in general, for all the work that you will have to do in the fulfilment of the mission which, as we have already told you, has been confided to you by Providence, and which will gradually open before you as you proceed in it under our guidance.”

The book thus produced and published sold with great rapidity, making converts not in France only, but all over the Continent, and rendering the name ALLAN KARDEC “a household word” […] “

From Page 132:

Physical and Moral Likeness

207. Parents often transmit physical resemblance to their children; do they also transmit to them moral resemblance?
“No; because they have different souls or spirits. The body proceeds from the body, but the spirit does not proceed from any other spirit. Between the descendants of the same race there is no other relationship than that of consanguinity.”
- What is the cause of the moral resemblance, that sometimes exists between parents and children?
“The attractive influence of moral sympathy, which brings together spirits who are animated by similar sentiments and tendencies.”

208. Are the spirits of the parents without influence upon the spirit of their child after its birth?
“They exercise, on the contrary, a very great influence upon it. As we have already told you, spirits are made to conduce to one another’s progress. To the spirits of the parents is confided the mission of developing those of their children by the training they give to them; it is a task which is appointed to them, and which they cannot without guilt fail to fulfil.”

209. How is it that good and virtuous parents often give birth to children of perverse and evil nature? In other words, how is it that the good qualities of the parents do not always attract to them, through sympathy, a good spirit to animate their child?
“A wicked spirit may ask to be allowed to have virtuous parents, in the hope that their counsels may help him to amend his ways; and God often confides such a one to the care of virtuous persons, in order that he may be benefited by their affection and care.”

210. Can parents, by their intentions and their prayers, attract a good spirit into the body of their child, instead of an inferior spirit?
“No; but they can improve the spirit of the child whom they have brought into the world, and is confided to them for that purpose. It is their duty to do this; but bad children are often sent as a trial for the improvement of the parents also.”

211. What is the cause of the similarity of character so often existing among brothers, especially between twins?
“The sympathy of two spirits who are attracted by the similarity of their sentiments, and who are happy to be together.”

212. In children whose bodies are joined together, and who have some of their organs in common, are there two spirits, - that is to say, two souls?
“Yes; but their resemblance to one another often makes them seem to you as though there were but one.”

213. Since spirits incarnate themselves in twins from sympathy, whence comes the aversion that is sometimes felt by twins for one another?
“It is not a rule that only sympathetic spirits are incarnated as twins. Bad spirits may have been brought into this relation by their desire to struggle against each other on the stage of corporeal life.”

214. In what way should we interpret the stories of children fighting in their mother’s womb?
“As a figurative representation of their hatred for one another, which, to indicate its inveteracy, is made to date from before their birth. You rarely make sufficient allowance for the figurative and poetic element in certain statements.” “

Later in the book, questions are posed against those who doubt reincarnation:

1. Why do souls manifest so great a diversity of aptitudes independently of the ideas acquired by education?
2. Whence comes the extra-normal aptitude for certain arts and sciences displayed by many children wile still very young, although others remain in a state of inferiority, or of mediocrity, all their life?
3. Whence do some individuals derive the innate or intuitive ideas that are lacking in others?
4. Whence do some children derive the precocious instincts of vice or virtue, the innate sentiments of dignity or of baseness, which often contrast so strikingly with the situation into which they are born?
5. Why is it that some men, independently of education, are more advanced than others?
6. Why is it that among the races which people the globe some are savage and others civilised?

Religious people who reject reincarnation can read:

“[…](T)he principle of reincarnation is implied in many passages of Holy Writ, and is explicitly formulated in the Gospels:-
“When they came down from the mountain (after the transfiguration), Jesus gave this commandment, and said to them – ‘Speak to no one of what you have just seen, until the Son of Man shall have been resuscitated from among the dead.’ His disciples thereupon began to question Him, and inquired, ‘Why, then, do the Scribes say that Elias must first come?’ But Jesus replied to them, ‘It is true that Elias must come, and that he will re-establish all things. But I declare to you that Elias has already come, and they did not know him, but have made him suffer as they listed. It is thus that they will put to death the Son of Man.’ Then His disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.” (St Matthew, chap. xvii.)

Since John the Baptist is declared by Christ to have been Elias, it follows that the spirit or soul of Elias must have been reincarnated in the body of John the Baptist.”
…
“To sum up:- We assert the doctrine of the plurality of existences is the only one which explains what, without this doctrine, is inexplicable; that it is at once eminently consolatory and strictly conformable with the most rigorous justice; and that it is the anchor of safety which God in His mercy has provided for mankind.

The words of Jesus Himself are explicit as to the truth of this last assertion; for we read in the 3d chapter of the Gospel according to St John that Jesus, replying to Nicodemus, thus expressed Himself:-
“Verily, verily, I tell thee that, if a man be not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And when Nicodemus inquires, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter again into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Jesus replies, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. Be not amazed at what I have told thee; you must be born again.”

Resurrection of the Body.

1010 . Is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body an implication of that of reincarnation, as now taught by spirits?
“How could it be otherwise? It is with regard to that expression as to so many others, that only appear unreasonable because they are taken literally, and are thus placed beyond the pale of credibility; let them only be rationally explained, and those whom you call free-thinkers will admit them without difficulty, precisely because they are accustomed to reflect. Free-thinkers, like the rest of the world, perhaps even more than others, thirst for a future; they ask nothing better than to believe, but they cannot admit what is disproved by science. The doctrine of the plurality of existences is conformable with the justice of God; it alone can explain what, without it is inexplicable; how can you doubt, then, that its principle is to be found in all religions?”

1011. The Church, then, in the dogma of the resurrection of the body, really teaches the doctrine of reincarnation?
“That is evident; but it will soon be seen that reincarnation is implied in every part of Holy Writ. Spirits, therefore, do not come to overthrow religion, as is sometimes asserted; they come, on the contrary, to confirm and sanction it by irrefragable proofs. But, as the time has arrived to renounce the use of figurative language, they speak without allegories, and give to every statement a clear and precise meaning that obviates all danger of false interpretation. For this reason there will be, ere long, a greater number of persons sincerely religious and really believing than are to be found at the present day.”

Proofs of the Existence of God

4. What proof have we of the existence of God?
“The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, “There is no effect without a cause.’ Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question.”

9. What proof have we that the first cause of all things is a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelligences?
“You have a proverb which says, ‘The workman is known by his work.’ Look around you, and, from the quality of the work, infer that of the workman.”