Specific Language of Spiritist Science
Did you know that most of those who call themselves Spiritists… don't know anything about Spiritism? Nor do they use the specific language of Spiritist science to explain its phenomena and concepts.
Being a spiritualist is not a matter of emotional adherence, nor of consuming supposedly “spiritualist” novels.
Being a Spiritist means seriously studying Spiritist Science, understanding its foundations and putting its principles into practice — as Allan Kardec taught.
Spiritism is a doctrine of study, reason, and observation. Replacing this science with fiction is a great harm to Spiritism. As it is a Philosophical Science it must be studied with specific scientific terms.
In Kardec's time, the Philosophical Sciences were part of the teaching.
At the University of Sorbonne in the 19th century, disciplines were divided into: a) Exact or mathematical sciences. b) Natural sciences, which study objects in the physical world (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.). c) The moral sciences, which study the moral world, which comprises the actions and thoughts of the human race. Among the moral sciences, the division was 4: 1. The philosophical sciences, divided into two classes: psychological (psychology, logic, morality, aesthetics) and metaphysical (theodicy, rational psychology, rational cosmology); 2. The historical sciences (history, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, geography) study events and human development over time; 3. The philological sciences (philology, etymology, paleography, etc.), which have as their object language and human symbolic expression; 4. The social and political sciences (politics, jurisprudence, political economy), which study the social life of human beings.
When Allan Kardec launched his First Edition of the Spiritist Magazine in 1858, he immediately defined it in his introduction to justify its title Journal of Psychological Studies. Spiritist Science is, according to its time presented in the table above: Moral Science
As a science, its language is specific to the elements of this science so that everyone can understand each other. Terms are extremely important for the adequate communication of spiritual ideas. We see, today, a mixture of the totally materialistic science of our time in which the study of metaphysical hypotheses, for example, is ignored. Furthermore, words from one field are mixed with the other. Because of this, there is a confusion of materialist concepts mixed with the study of spiritual matters, which are also studied metaphysically.
We will give some examples of the mistaken use of materialistic terms that go unnoticed:
- USE PSYCHOPHONY – DO NOT USE EMBEDDING: We see many speakers or even descriptions of manifestations in so-called Spiritist texts that use the term "incorporation." Spirit is not matter that occupies a physical place. Spirit does not incorporate any body, nor does your own spirit incorporate you. The Spirit speaks through the medium through a phenomenon called PSYCHOPHONY. The medium's spirit is WITH them and does not incorporate their physical body. This point is very important to avoid creating the false idea that the medium is possessed by another spirit, or that the spirit communally takes over the medium's body, or even that the medium's spirit goes to other places while the medium is in psychophony. This does not exist in Spiritist Science!
- THE ACTION OF THE SPIRIT IS SOLELY AND ONLY THROUGH ITS THOUGHT: The spirit does not have a material body. According to studies of Spiritist Science, God created two general elements: SPIRIT and MATTER. Spirit has no analogue in our material world. The perispirit is matter. The material of which the perispirit is made is unknown to us, but even without knowing its characteristics, it is matter. The perispirit is not part of the spirit, just as the perispirit is not spirit. The spirit acts through and solely through thought. How exactly this happens is still unknown to us, but there are several theories in books that explain this mechanism (read Genesis, chap. XIV – The Fluids.)
- USE EMANATION OR PROPAGATION – DO NOT USE ENERGY: The term energy is defined in Physics as the capacity of a body, substance, or physical system to perform work. Figuratively (non-scientific) speaking, energy is vigor or moral power; philosophically speaking, according to Aristotle, it is the action of a physical or metaphysical motor (metaphysics is not considered science today) that allows the actualization of a potentiality. Note, all definitions take into account something physical acting on something physical. One of the principles of Spiritist Science is that we are an incarnate soul. If we are a soul, we do not have a body, so it cannot be energy (something physical) leaving the spirit or soul (non-physical) and arriving at a body (physical). The more appropriate term would be an emanation or even propagation.
- USE SPIRIT – DO NOT USE MIND: The mind is used in other areas of current materialist science. Some confuse the mind with the brain; the brain is an organ of the body, the brain is matter. Since Materialist Science does not admit the spirit as a hypothesis, it attributes the thinking process to the brain, but that is not what the spirits explained. According to Spiritist Science, through its observation, it is the spirit that controls the body, not the brain. The brain sends the commands. The brain is born, lives, and dies, and the spirit remains and carries with it the knowledge acquired through various incarnations. It is the spirit, not the mind, that possesses and carries knowledge. It is the spirit that thinks. You who understand the Spiritist doctrine know this and always use Spirit instead of Mind, don't you?
- USE “AS IF IT WERE A VIBRATION” – DO NOT USE “VIBRATION” IN ITS FORM WHEN TALKING ABOUT SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA: There are hypotheses about the mechanism itself (see item 2) and only hypotheses. Using the term vibration may lead one to believe that the spiritual phenomenon is a wave as studied in Wave Physics, where it presents different types of waves and different vibrations, etc.
- USE PERISPIRIT – DO NOT USE GHOST: Those who study Spiritist Science know that there are apparitional phenomena that evoke these figures that impress our imagination. But they are nothing more than spirits and their phenomena, often to play with or frighten the incarnate. There's no such thing as a Spiritist being afraid of spirits!
- WE ARE ALWAYS IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD: According to Spiritist Science, when we are incarnated, we live in a dual world: the world of matter and the world of spirit. When we die, we disincarnate, that is, we leave matter, but we CONTINUE IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. Do not use the terms “he died and went to the spiritual homeland” (He was already in the spirit world); “now he will meet his loved ones who have already died” (his loved ones are never far away. Remember that Spirits do not stay in any one place? (see item 1); “he left us”, etc.
- USE CAUSE AND EFFECT – DO NOT USE THE LAW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT: Causality is generally considered a fundamental principle, rather than a specific law, in philosophical and scientific contexts. It describes the cause-and-effect relationship between events, where one event (the cause) is understood as the reason behind the occurrence of another event (the effect). Causality is a fundamental principle that helps understand the nature of the relationship between cause and effect, and is used in a variety of fields, from physics and natural sciences to philosophy and law. Although causality is often referred to as the "law of cause and effect," it is not a scientific law in the sense of a quantitative, experimentally verifiable relationship, like the laws of physics. It is more of a concept or principle that describes the nature of the relationship between cause and effect. Causality is important for understanding the world around us, as it allows us to identify the causes of phenomena and predict their effects. It is fundamental to science, technology, and everyday life, as it helps us understand and interact with the world more efficiently. An example: Imagine a hunt, an animal is shot and dies. The effect is death. The cause was the shotgun blast. It wasn't a law. In Spiritist Science, Kardec used many of these principles to explain the intelligent effects of intelligent spirit manifestations. There, he explains that for every intelligent effect, there is an intelligent cause. There are countless accounts of this in his works.
- USE TRIALS AND EXPIATIONS – DO NOT USE KARMA: Karma and Spiritism are like oil and water: they do not mix. Be careful with people who preach the doctrine of karma within the spiritist environment, as the understanding of Spiritist Doctrine goes in the opposite direction.(click on the link to read the full explanation).
- USE PARKED SPIRIT – DO NOT USE RETROGRADATION: Many people mix other reincarnationist doctrines with spiritual science. According to Spiritual Science, we spirits, when we are immersed in imperfections, such as pride and selfishness, remain stuck in a loop and do not evolve. But this doesn't mean we're going back and reincarnating as animals. It just means we're stuck in the evolutionary process! A human spirit never loses the knowledge it previously had, so it will never reincarnate as an animal because of its imperfections. It simply won't progress until it repents and sincerely returns to goodness.
- THOSE WHO WILL REGENERATE WILL BE THE SPIRITS OF PLANET EARTH – PLANET EARTH WILL NOT REGENERATE: The planet will not change, and therefore spirits will have to evolve. There is no deadline, year, century, or anything like that. It's the other way around! The spirits on the planet will evolve. It will simply be when the majority of incarnate spirits are more evolved, no longer needing trials and atonements to evolve. One day, Planet Earth will become extinct, as any other planet will. This is the order of the material universe as we know it.
- USE PURE SPIRIT – DO NOT USE PERFECT SPIRIT: The ideal of perfection is God, so a spirit will never be perfect. A spirit will reach perfection relative to its evolutionary level. A pure spirit no longer needs to reincarnate to evolve because it is no longer influenced by matter. Even though they are pure, they will evolve (Law of Progress).
- PASS IS NOT ENERGY TRANSFER: see item 3
If you remember any incorrect expression, just leave a comment.