The following article, dealing with the principle of the non-retrogradation of the Spirit and eliminating the idea of reincarnation as a punishment, was obtained from the article “On the principle of the non-retrogradation of the Spirit”, from the Spiritist Magazine of June 1863. It contradicts what was included in the adulteration of Heaven and Hell, as we demonstrated “The strongest evidence of tampering with Allan Kardec's Heaven and Hell“.

Since questions have been raised several times about the principle of the non-retrogression of spirits, a principle that has been interpreted differently, we will try to resolve them. Spiritism wants to be clear to everyone and not leave its future followers any reason to argue about words, so all points susceptible to interpretation will be elucidated successively.

Spirits do not retrograde, in the sense that they lose nothing of the progress they have made. They may remain momentarily stationary, but they cannot become evil from being good, nor ignorant from being wise. This is the general principle, which only applies to the moral state and not to the material situation, which from good can become bad, if the Spirit has deserved it.

Let's make a comparison. Suppose a man of the world, educated, but guilty of a crime that leads him to Wales. Certainly there is for him a great decline as a social position and as a material well-being. Appreciation and consideration were followed by contempt and abjection. Meanwhile, he has lost nothing in terms of the development of intelligence. He will take his faculties, his talents, his knowledge to prison. He is a fallen man, and this is how fallen spirits must be understood. God can therefore, after a certain time of trial, withdraw from a world where they have not advanced morally, those who have not known him, who have rebelled against his laws, ordering them to atone for their errors and their hardening in a lower world, among even less advanced beings. There they will be as they were before, morally and intellectually, but in an infinitely more painful condition, by the very nature of the globe, and above all by the environment in which they are. In a word, you will be in the position of a civilized man forced to live among the savages, or a polite man condemned to the society of the forced. They have lost their position and their advantages, but have not regressed to the primitive state. From adults, they didn't become children. This is what you mean by regression. Al no have taken advantage of their time, it is up to them to start again. In his goodness, God does not want to leave them more time among the good, whose peace disturb, and therefore sends them to live among men whose mission will be to make them progress teaching them what they know. Through this work they will be able to advance and regenerate themselves, atoning for past faults, like the slave who saves little by little to buy a day of his freedom. But, like the slave, many only save money instead of accumulating virtues, the only ones that can pay for their ransom.

This has so far been the situation on our Earth, a world of atonement and trials, where the Adamic race, an intelligent race, was exiled among the inferior primitive races that inhabited it before it. That is why there is so much bitterness here, bitterness that is far from being felt to the same degree by savage peoples.

There is certainly a retrogression of the Spirit in the sense that it slows down its progress, but not from the point of view of its acquisitions, because of which and the development of its intelligence, its social degradation is more painful. This is why the man of the world suffers more in an abject environment than someone who has always lived in the mud.

According to a system that is somewhat specious at first glance, spirits were not created to incarnate and incarnation would only be the result of their lack. Such a system is undermined by the mere fact that if no spirit had failed, there would be no human beings on Earth or on other worlds. Now, since man's presence is necessary for the material improvement of the worlds; since he contributes by his intelligence and activity to the general work, he is one of the essential cogs in Creation. God could not subordinate the accomplishment of this part of his work to the eventual fall of his creatures, unless he counted on an ever-sufficient number of guilty people to provide laborers for the worlds created and yet to be created. Common sense rejects such an idea.

Incarnation is therefore a necessity for the Spirit who, in carrying out its providential mission, works for its own advancement through the activity and intelligence it must develop in order to provide for its life and well-being.

But incarnation becomes a punishment when, having not done what it should, the Spirit is forced to start again and multiplies its painful corporeal existences through its own fault. A student only graduates after having passed all the classes. Are these classes a punishment? No. They are a necessity, an indispensable condition for their progress. But if, due to laziness, you are forced to repeat them, then it is a punishment. Passing some of them is a merit. What is certain, therefore, is that incarnation on Earth is a punishment for many who inhabit it, because they could have avoided it, whereas they may have doubled, tripled, centupled it, through their own fault, thus delaying their entry into better worlds. What is wrong is to admit, in principle, the incarnation as a punishment.

Another question that is often discussed is this: Since the Spirit was created simple and ignorant, with the freedom to do good or evil, wouldn't it have a moral fall when it takes the wrong path, considering that it ends up doing evil that it didn't do before?

This proposition is no more tenable than the previous one. There is only a fall when passing from a relatively good state to a worse one. Now, created simple and ignorant, the Spirit is, in its origin, in a state of moral and intellectual nullity, like the child that has just been born. If it hasn't done evil, it hasn't done good either; it is neither happy nor unhappy; it acts without conscience and without responsibility. Since it has nothing, it can lose nothing and cannot retrograde. Its responsibility only begins when its free will develops. Its primitive state is therefore not one of intelligent, reasoned innocence. Consequently, the evil it does later on, by breaking God's laws and abusing the faculties it has been given, is not a return from good to evil, but the consequence of the bad path it entered on.

This brings us to another question. Could Nero, for example, while incarnated as Nero, have committed more evil than in his previous incarnation? To this we answer "yes", which does not imply that in the existence in which he had done less evil he would have been better. To begin with, evil can change form without being a greater or lesser evil. Nero's position as emperor, having put him in the spotlight, allowed his actions to be noticed more. In an obscure existence, he may have committed equally reprehensible acts, albeit on a smaller scale, which went unnoticed. As a ruler, he could have ordered the burning of a city. As an ordinary person, he could burn down a house and cause his family to perish. An ordinary murderer who kills a few travelers to dispossess them, if he were on the throne, would be a bloodthirsty tyrant, doing on a large scale what his position only allows him to do on a small scale.

Looking at the question from another point of view, we can say that a man can do more evil in one existence than in the previous one, show vices that he didn't have, without this implying moral degeneration. It is often the occasions that are lacking to do evil. When the principle exists in a latent state, the occasion comes and the bad instincts are revealed.

Ordinary life offers us numerous examples of this: A man who was thought to be good suddenly reveals vices that no one suspected, and which cause admiration. It's simply because he knew how to conceal it, or because a cause provoked the development of a bad germ. It is quite certain that those in whom good feelings are strongly rooted do not even have the thought of evil. When such a thought exists, the germ exists. Often all that is missing is the execution.

Then, as we said, evil, even in different forms, is still evil. The same vicious principle can be the source of many different acts stemming from the same cause. Pride, for example, can cause a great number of faults to be committed, to which one is exposed as long as the radical principle is not extirpated. A person can therefore have faults in one life which he would not have shown in another, and which are nothing more than the various consequences of the same vicious principle.

For us, Nero is a monster because he committed atrocities. But is it believable that these perfidious, hypocritical men, real vipers who sow the poison of slander, despoil families through cunning and abuse of trust, who cover their misdeeds with the mask of virtue in order to reach their ends more safely and receive praise when they only deserve execration, is it believable, we said, that they are better than Nero? Certainly not. Being reincarnated in a Nero would not be a regression for them, but an opportunity to show themselves in a new light. In this condition, they will display the vices they used to hide. They will dare to do by force what they used to do by cunning - that's all the difference. But this new trial will only make their punishment more terrible if, instead of taking advantage of the means given to them to make amends, they use them for evil. However, every existence, no matter how bad, is an opportunity for the Spirit to progress. It develops its intelligence and acquires experience and knowledge that will later help it to progress morally.

Based on the video of the same title by weekly chat of the Study Group Spiritism for All

For to demonstrate (and not to test) reincarnation as a natural law, Kardec is based on the fundamental principles of Spiritism and Rational Spiritualism. Among them are the essential attributes of God ((Eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, almighty, sovereignly just and good. See The Spirits' Book, Chapter I, item III – Attributes of Divinity)), which are perfect to an infinite degree, even though, if it were different, this would not be God himself, making it necessary, then, for there to be another above, in perfect condition.

It is through the observation and understanding of these essential conditions that understanding of divine creation is derived. As we will see later, its creation must also be perfect and its creatures – the Spirits – perfectible, which, otherwise, would not be consistent with infinite divine perfection.

Allan Kardec, at first, did not accept reincarnation. In fact, he did not even accept the possibility of our interaction with the Spirits, in his youth. He was an educator emeritus, fully linked to the concepts of morality in pedagogy, as well as a researcher in the sciences of the time. He said that, if the education of children was carried out well, they, when they grew up, would not believe in souls from the other world or in ghosts ((RIVAIL, H.- L.- D. Discurso pronounced at the Distribution of prizes. Paris, 1834 )). It was only after his first contacts with spiritist facts, where he understood the existence of a natural law, which he began to study, that, defeated by evidence and reason, accepted, as the most rational conclusion, the aforementioned facts.

About Spirits, says Kardec, in the introduction to The Spirits' Book: “As we noted above, the beings who communicate designate themselves by the name of spirits or jinn“.

As for reincarnation, we found an article of great interest in Spiritist Magazine of 1858, from the month of November, called “Plurality of Stocks“, from which we take the following excerpt:

[…] when the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the spirits, she was so far from our thinking, that we had built a completely different system on the antecedents of the soul, system, incidentally shared by many people. On this point, the doctrine of the Spirits surprised us. We will say more: she antagonized us, because it overturned our own ideas. As you can see, it was far from a reflection of them.

This is not all. We we don't give in to the first shock. We fight; we defend our opinion; we raise objections and only surrender in the face of evidence and when we realize the inadequacy of our system to resolve all issues relating to this problem ((we already talked about how important this type of attitude is towards spiritist research. Far from constituting an act of arrogance or arrogance, it is necessary and instigated by the Spirits themselves – when superior)) .

KARDEC, Allan. The Spirits' Book, 2nd edition. Our emphasis.

Kardec, in that same article, whose reading we strongly recommend, gives some preliminary notions about the antiquity of the idea of transmigration of souls. We will cite them, to then present the difficulties encountered in the falsehoods on which they often rely – or have come to rely.

Of the various doctrines professed by Spiritism, the most controversial is, unquestionably, that of reincarnation or the plurality of corporeal existences. Although this opinion is presently shared by a great number of people, and has already been addressed by us on several occasions, we deem it our duty here to examine it more closely, in view of its extraordinary importance, and in order to answer several objections which have been raised.

Before delving into the matter in depth, we must make a few observations that seem to us to be indispensable.

For many people the dogma of reincarnation is not new: it is resurrected from Pythagoras. We have never said that the Spiritist Doctrine is a modern invention. As a result of a natural law, Spiritism must have existed since the beginning of time, and we have always endeavored to prove that its traces are found in the highest antiquity.

As is well known, Pythagoras is not the author of the metempsychosis system. He drank it from Indian philosophers and from among the Egyptians, where it had existed from time immemorial. Thus, the idea of the transmigration of souls was a common belief, admitted by the most eminent personalities.

Ibid.

It is interesting to note that, although this idea was admitted since antiquity, “by the most eminent personalities”, Kardec did not admit it. Perhaps there are two possible reasons for this: he did not think about it, because he did not admit the survival of the Spirit, or he did not find rationality in these ideas. It is on this point that we will enter below, to demonstrate that the absence of reason resides in false principles, taken in a dogmatic way by the clergy of religions and taught, from childhood, to their followers.

False principle of soul degradation

In the article “Doctrine of reincarnation among the Hindus”, from the Spiritist Magazine of December 1859, Allan Kardec takes up the subject of reincarnation in depth, presenting the following:

According to the Hindus, souls had been created happy and perfect and yours decadence resulted from a rebellion; its incarnation in the body of animals is a punishment. According to the Spiritist Doctrine, souls were and still are created simple and ignorant; it is through successive incarnations that, thanks to their efforts and divine mercy, they arrive at the perfection that will provide them with eternal happiness. Having to progress, the soul can remain stationary for a more or less long period, but not retrograde. What he has acquired in knowledge and morality is not lost. If it doesn't advance, it doesn't retreat either: that's why it can't animate beings inferior to Humanity.

Thus, the metempsychosis of the Hindus is founded on the principle of the degradation of souls. Reincarnation, according to the Spirits, is based on the principle of continuous progression..

According to the Hindus, the soul began with perfection to reach abjection.; perfection is the beginning and abjection the result. According to the Spirits, ignorance is the beginning; perfection, goal and result. It would be superfluous to try to show which of these two doctrines is more rational and gives a higher idea of the justice and goodness of God.

It is, therefore, through complete ignorance of their principles that some people confuse them.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine of 1859.

The Hindu belief in the fall into sin is shared by many other currents of thought, including the Roman Church. According to this belief, it would be necessary to suppose that God would not be so perfect, because, after a mistake of his son, created perfect, therefore, without experience, he submits him to a punishment in the flesh.

In the article “On the principle of non-retrogradation of spirits”, in the RE of June 1863, Kardec highlights that:

According to a system, the spirits would not have been created to be incarnated, reincarnating only when they commit faults. Common sense repels such a thought.

The incarnation is a need for the Spirit who, to fulfill his providential mission, works on his own advancement through activity and intelligence, which he must develop in order to provide for his life and well-being. But the incarnation becomes a punishment when, having not done what it should, the Spirit is constrained ((This constraint, of course, occurs as a result of natural, divine law, and not by the direct and arbitrary action of God) ) to resume his task and multiply his painful corporeal existences through his own fault.

A student only graduates after passing all classes. Are these classes a punishment? No: they are a necessity, an indispensable condition for their advancement. ((This is completely in line with Kardec's pedagogical thinking, aligned with Pestalozzi's pedagogy, totally focused on autonomy and away from the concepts of punishment or punishment, which, says Rivail, in his “Proposed Plan for the Improvement of Public Education” (Paris, 1828), “they irritate children instead of convincing them”)). But if, due to laziness, you are forced to repeat them, then it is a punishment ((Remembering that the word “punishment”, for Spiritism and Rational Spiritualism, has the meaning of being the result of an action, and not of a divine imposition (see This one article). Thus, it is possible to understand that repeating a year, for the student, would be a consequence of their actions, and not a punishment inflicted by them.)). Being approved in some is a merit.

What is false is to admit in principle the incarnation as a punishment.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine of 1863. Emphasis ours.

Incredible as it may seem, this false principle dominated the Spiritist Movement, after Kardec. Today, without studies, in the spiritist world, people talk about karma, the law of return and the law of action and reaction, imputing this arbitrarily punitive characteristic, of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”, to reincarnation. . It is complete nonsense, which only exists, as we said, due to the absence of study.

In the Spiritist Magazine of February 1864, in the article “Spiritist Dissertations – Necessity of Incarnation”, Kardec presents the communication of a Spirit, assisted by another, named Pascal:

God wanted the Spirit of man to be linked to matter in order to suffer the vicissitudes of the body. ((After all, reincarnation is a law. As Kardec would say in the first article cited, “God does not ask us for permission; he does not consult our taste. Either he is, or he is not.”)), with which he identifies himself to the point of deluding himself and taking it for himself, when it is no more than its temporary prison; it is as if a prisoner is confused with the walls of the cell...

If God wanted his spirit creatures to be momentarily united to matter, it is, I repeat, to make them feel and, in fact, so that they suffer the necessities that matter demands of their bodies, with regard to their sustenance and conservation..

From these needs arise the vicissitudes that make you feel the suffering and understand the pity you must have for your brothers in the same position.. That transient state it is therefore necessary for the advancement of your Spirit, which, without this, would be stagnant.

The needs that the body makes you experience stimulate your spirits and force them to seek the means to provide them; from this forced labor is born the development of thought. Constrained to preside over the body's movements to direct them, aiming at their conservation, the Spirit is led to material work and from there to intellectual work, necessary to each other, because the realization of the conceptions of the Spirit requires the work of the body and this can only be done under the direction and impulse of the Spirit.

KARDEC, Allan. Spiritist Magazine, 1864. Our emphasis.

To what Kardec observes:

To these remarks, which are perfectly fair, we will add that, working for himself, the incarnate Spirit works for the improvement of the world he inhabits, thus helping his transformation and his material progress., which are in the designs of God, whose intelligent instrument it is. In your farsighted wisdom, Providence wanted everything to be linked in Nature; that all, men and things, would be in solidarity ((This fundamental principle of natural law, demonstrated by Spiritism, goes against the false principle of the Spirit isolated in itself. Let us see that, even without knowing or wanting, the Spirit works for the whole, since always. If it had been created perfect ( which is also nonsense), there would be no need.)).

Reincarnation is necessary while matter dominates Spirit. But since the incarnate Spirit came to dominate matter and annul the effects of your reaction on morale, the reincarnation it has no more use nor reason to be.

In fact, the body is necessary to the Spirit for progressive work until, having managed to handle this instrument at will, to impress its will on it, the work is done..

Ibid. Idem.

I don't think further explanation is needed. The principle of successive progress, through multiple incarnations, is shown to be the only one capable of giving reason to all the questions raised to date about divine justice.

In a next article we will continue the subject.

In this article from November 1858, the second article talks about the Plurality of Existences or Reincarnation. Kardec will make a very informative approach about reincarnation. It is an article of great interest, as it demonstrates the scientist, demystifying the encoder:

“The dogma of reincarnation is not new, say some; they resurrected him from the doctrine of Pythagoras. We never said that the Spiritist Doctrine was a modern invention. constituting a law of nature, Spiritism must have existed since the beginning of time and we have always endeavored to demonstrate that signs of it can be discovered in the most remote antiquity.”

RE, November 1858

Note: It says it was not new as it was in the Bible and was removed by the Second Council of Constantinople.

Spiritism is in everything and touches all areas of science. He, in himself, in his depth, is the science of everything. This effort by Kardec was very important, and it must be the same on our part, as it demystifies Spiritism.

The ancients, including Pythagoras (6th century BC), believed in metempsychosis, while Spiritism demonstrates the impossibility of this theory.

Metempsychosis: It is a fundamentally Eastern belief, mainly Hindu, linked to the dogma of the fall for sin, which has no basis in the reason developed by Spiritism.

It is interesting to note, however, that a Spirit, at the beginning of its evolution, can and will incarnate in animals: (AG, chap. XI, “HYPOTHESIS ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY” )

HYPOTHESIS ON THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY

15. From the similarity of external forms that exists between the body of man and that of an ape, some physiologists have concluded that the former is only a transformation of the latter. In this there is nothing impossible and, if that is so, there is no reason for man to feel his dignity affected. The bodies of apes may well have served as a garment for primitive human spirits, necessarily not very advanced, who came to incarnate on Earth, because they were the most appropriate to their needs and the most adequate to the exercise of their faculties than the bodies of any other person. another animal. Instead of a special garment that was made for the Spirit, he would have found a ready-made one. He then dressed himself in the skin of a monkey, without ceasing to be a human spirit, as man sometimes dresses himself in the skin of certain animals without ceasing to be a man. Let it be understood that here it is only a question of a hypothesis which is in no way stated as a principle, but which is only presented to show that the origin of the body does not harm the Spirit, which is the main being, and that the likeness of the body of the man with that of the ape does not imply parity between your Spirit and his.

16. Admitting this hypothesis, it can be said that, under the influence and by the effect of the intellectual activity of its new inhabitant, the envelope has been modified, embellishing itself in the details, conserving in the whole the general form of the set. The improved bodies, when procreating, reproduced under the same conditions, as happens with grafted trees, and gave birth to a new species that, little by little, distanced itself from the primitive type, as the Spirit progressed. The simian spirit, which was not annihilated, continued to procreate for its use the bodies of apes, just as the fruit of the wild tree reproduces trees of this species, and the human spirit procreated bodies of men that were variants of the first mold in which it was established. The trunk forked; produced a branch, and it became a trunk. As there are no sudden transitions in nature, it is likely that the first men who appeared on Earth differed little from the ape, in outward form and, no doubt, little also in intelligence. There are still, in our days, savages who, by the length of their arms and feet, and the conformation of the head, bear so much resemblance to apes that they only lack hair for the resemblance to be complete.

Allan Kardec. GENESIS – Miracles and Predictions According to Spiritism

This is quite different, however, from supposing that a human spirit, due to a punishment, can be condemned to incarnate in a monkey, which, for him, would be a retrogradation.

Some contradictors say: “you already shared this idea, so the spirits only communicated concepts that they already accepted”. A mistake, as we will see below:

“When the doctrine of reincarnation was taught to us by the Spirits, it was so far from our thinking that, on the background of the soul, we had built a completely different system, shared, in fact, by many people. In this aspect, therefore, the Doctrine of the Spirits deeply surprised us; we will say more: it antagonized us, because it overthrew our own ideas. As can be seen, it was far from reflecting them. But that's not all: we don't give in to the first shock; we fight, we defend our opinion, we raise objections and we only surrender to the evidence when we realize the insufficiency of our system to resolve all the difficulties raised by this question..”

"In the eyes of some people, the word evidence will doubtless seem singular in such a matter; it will not, however, be inappropriate for those who are used to scrutinizing spiritist phenomena. For the attentive observer, there are facts which, although not of an absolutely material nature, nevertheless constitute true evidence, at least from a moral point of view..”

Today, we have not only the moral evidence, but the factual evidence of reincarnation, which, however, has not yet been (and will never be) proven in the laboratory.

“We have yet another refutation to oppose: it is that not only was it taught to us; it was also taught in many other places, in France and abroad: in Germany, Holland, Russia, etc., and this even before the publication of The Spirits' Book.

We also add that, since we dedicated ourselves to the study of Spiritism, we have obtained communications through more than fifty writing, speaking, psychic mediums, etc., more or less enlightened, with more or less limited normal intelligence, some even completely illiterate. and, consequently, absolutely strangers to philosophical matters; nohowever, in no case did the spirits contradict themselves on this issue..”

Observation: Most communications, as far as we know, were from mechanical psychic mediums, often put into somnambulistic sleep (called crisis, in season). But Kardec never stopped looking for value in other forms of communication and in manifestations in general, always seeking to highlight those that could arouse interest and demonstrate the reality of spiritual intervention. For his eyes as a researcher, even a mediumistic painting, as we will see later, could represent a phenomenon of interest.

Not only is this doctrine supported by evidence, but chiefly by reason. Without her does not exist autonomy, because the Spirit would not be given the opportunity to advance, through learning from successes and mistakes. This is what happens with the Doctrine taught by the Catholic Church and other religions, to the point that we are amazed today that there are still people who think like this.

The Doctrine of Reincarnation, as explained by Spiritism, is the only doctrine that fits all the pieces of the puzzle, explaining the differences between beings and divine goodness.

“We have reasoned, abstracting ourselves, as we said, from any spiritist teaching that, for certain creatures, lacks authority. It is not just because it came from the Spirits that we and so many others became fans of the plurality of existences.. It is because this part of the doctrine seemed to us to be the most logical and because it alone resolves issues that were hitherto insoluble..”

Let's see:

“If there is no reincarnation, there is, of course, only a corporeal existence. If our present corporeal existence is the only one, the soul of every man was created at his birth, unless the soul's antecedence is admitted, in which case it would be fitting to ask what it was before birth and whether the state in which it was born. that it was thought did not constitute an existence in any form. There is no middle ground: either the soul existed or it did not exist before the body. If so, what is your status? Was she or was she not aware of herself? If it didn't, it's almost as if it didn't exist. If it had individuality, was it progressive or stationary? In either case, to what degree had he taken the body? Assuming, according to popular belief, that the soul is born with the body, or, what comes to the same thing, that, before incarnating, it has only negative faculties, we ask: "

Kardec, RE November 1858

1. Why does the soul show such diverse aptitudes and independent of the ideas that education made it acquire? 

2. Whence comes the extranormal aptitude that many children show at an early age, for this or that art, for this or that science, while others remain inferior or mediocre throughout their lives? 

3. Whence, in some, the innate or intuitive ideas, which in others do not exist?

4. Whence, in certain children, the precocious instinct that they reveal towards vices or virtues, the innate feelings of dignity or baseness, contrasting with the environment in which they were born? 

5. Why, apart from education, are some men more advanced than others? 

6. Why are there savages and civilized men? If you take a newborn Hottentot boy and bring him up in our best high schools, will you ever make him a Laplace or a Newton?

Comment: This issue of the African savage is in line with the various, quite severe, criticisms of “racism” in Kardec. As, further down, Kardec repeats that “Regarding the sixth question, it will be said, without a doubt, that the Hottentot is from an inferior race”, we believe that we should take a moment to allude to Kardec's scientific context, which it was, by definition, racist, that is, classified the human being by races. See our article Click here

“Which philosophy or theosophy is capable of solving these problems? It is beyond doubt that either souls are equal at birth, or they are unequal. If equal, why, among them, such a great diversity of aptitude? It will be said that it depends on the organism. But then we find ourselves in the presence of the most monstrous and immoral of doctrines. Man would be a mere machine, a plaything of matter; he would no longer be responsible for his actions, as he could attribute everything to his physical imperfections. If souls are unequal, it is because God created them that way. In that case, however, why the innate superiority bestowed on some? Does this partiality correspond to the justice of God and to the love which he equally consecrates to all his creatures?”

Kardec, RE 1858

So far we have analyzed the soul by its past and its present. And what would be your future according to Kardec?

1. - If it is only our present existence that must decide our future, what will be the respective position of the savage and the civilized man in the future life? Will they be on the same level or apart in the sum of eternal bliss?

2. Will the man who has worked to improve himself all his life be on the same level as the man who remained inferior, not because of his fault, but because he had neither the time nor the possibilities to improve himself?

3. ─ Is the man who does evil because he has not been able to clarify himself subject to circumstances that did not depend on him?

Note item 2: We perceive here the contextual and philosophical knowledge of the Rational Spiritualists was present in these questions.

4. ─ We work to enlighten men, moralize them, civilize them; but for every one who becomes enlightened, there are millions who die daily, before the light reaches them. What is their fate? Are they treated as reprobates? If not, what did they do to be kept in the same class as others?

5. ─ What is the fate of children who die at an early age, before they can do good or evil? If they are among the elect, why this favor, when they have done nothing to deserve it? By what privilege were they released from the tribulations of life?

Kardec concludes the article:

“Is there a doctrine that can resolve these issues? Assume successive existences and everything will be explained according to the justice of God. What cannot be done in one life, will be done in another.. In this way, no one will escape the law of progress and everyone will be rewarded according to real merit and no one will be excluded from the supreme happiness to which he can aspire, whatever the obstacles encountered in his way.”

“These questions would easily multiply to infinity, because there are countless psychological and moral problems that only find a solution in the plurality of existences. We limit ourselves to formulating those of a more general order.”

Idem

Comments: Is there any urgency to make any progress? Many speakers have used an alarmist tone, saying that we have to change ourselves “for yesterday”, do the intimate reform, because “the planet” will enter a new phase, that of regeneration. If we suffer from an imperfection, the urgency is in our own time; if we are only in the process of learning, this will only take place in the time of each one, according to their will.

Our suggestions for a documentary and book about Reincarnation – Plurality of Existences:

This is a recurring subject. It doesn't take much effort to find such a statement: a reluctant Spirit, that is, one who resists moving forward, could be “forced” into a compulsory reincarnation, understanding, in this concept, that superior Spirits would force him to face trials and expiations.” for your own good".

Well, my brothers, “calm down”! We need to be very careful with the statements we make out there, often based on concepts that have a basis of truth, but that become generically applied as “law” — and here we have already addressed several of these cases.

Firstly, we need to recover what we learned from the study of Spiritism — that science that many resist in studying and who formed, through Kardec's studies, the Spiritist Doctrine or Spiritism: firstly, Spiritism is based on the doctrine of the choice of evidence, that is, it states that, as long as we have the capacity, us ever we choose our trials and our atonements. It doesn't hurt to remember: test it is an opportunity to face a situation, to learn from that situation and overcome an imperfection; already the atonement it happens when the Spirit imposes any kind of suffering in order to face, in his own skin, an evil that he has imposed on others.

We said: “it imposes itself”, because no one, not any Spirit, not even God, imposes punishments on anyone. When, in Kardec's context, we say “God willed”, “God allowed”, “God punished”, it means that all of this occurs as an effect of Creation. Now, as we are his creatures, intelligent beings capable of free will, when we impose any ordeal on ourselves it means that, indirectly, God allows it, just as he allows evil – or, rather, the absence of good – to exist.

Well, we introduced the concept of proofs and atonements, which aim to bring a learning to the Spirit. However, we know that we only learn something when we really understand that we made a mistake, which brings us guilt, remorse and the desire to make amends – which may or may not happen with the victims of our mistakes. We also recall that the choice of proofs and atonements is a primordial principle, as taught by the Spirits. In fact, this is clearly exposed in The Spirits' Book:

258. When in erraticity, before starting a new corporeal existence, does the Spirit have awareness and foresight of what will happen to him in the course of his earthly life?

“He himself chooses the kind of tests he has to go through, and that is his free will.”

The) - Is it not God, then, who imposes on him the tribulations of life, as a punishment?

“Nothing happens without God's permission, because it was God who established all the laws that govern the universe. Go now and ask why he decreed this law and not that one! Giving the Spirit the freedom to choose, God leaves him fully responsible for his actions and the consequences they have. Nothing stands in the way of your future; open if thus the way of good is found, as well as the way of evil. If he succumbs, he will be left with the consolation that not everything is over, and that divine goodness grants him the freedom to start over what was wrongly done. Furthermore, it is necessary to distinguish what is the work of God's will from that of man. If a danger threatens you, it was not you who created it, but God. But yours was your desire to expose yourselves to him, because you saw in it a way to progress, and God permitted it.”

So where is this “forced reincarnation”?

Let's see, in question 262, the following:

262. How can Spirit, who in its origins is simple, ignorant and lacking in experience, choose an existence with knowledge of the facts and be responsible for that choice?

“God supplies him with inexperience, laying out the path he must follow, as you do with a little child. Little by little, however, as his free will develops, he leaves the master to make the choice, and only then does it often happen to him to go astray, taking the wrong path, by disregarding the advice of the Spirits. Good. This is what can be called the fall of man.”

The) - Quando o Espírito goza do livre-arbítrio, a escolha da existência corporal dependerá sempre exclusivamente de sua vontade, ou essa existência lhe pode ser imposta ((Reencarnação compulsória)), as atonement, by the will of God?

“God knows how to wait, he does not hasten atonement. However, it can impose a certain existence on a Spirit, when this, due to its inferiority or ill-will, is not able to understand what would be more beneficial to it, and when it sees that such existence will serve for the purification and progress of the Spirit, by while serving as an atonement for him.”

Now, does God then impose the atonement? It's not like that. What happens is that when the Spirit is in denial or resistance, he cannot see the good that would provide him with facing his imperfections through trials and atonements. It cannot, therefore, choose lucidly…. But it keeps reincarnating. Let's see, still in OLE:

167. What is the end aimed at with reincarnation?

“Atonement, progressive improvement of humanity. Without this, where is justice?”

We easily understand that the incarnation is a need for the advancement of the Spirit and that, when he is still simple and ignorant, which easily gives him the state of resistance, can easily resist facing their own imperfections. It is there, therefore, that the mechanics of the Divine Law make up for your inexperience: through a “forced” incarnation, that is, a “common” incarnation, but without choices of tests and expiations, the Spirit will face the school of material life, which will, in one way or another, confront its imperfections , according to the way in which choose act on the matter. So, you can choose – deep down, there is always the choice, from the moment the Spirit enters the age of consciousness – to continue giving in to the passions, a practice from which it will reap bitter results (and that is the involuntary atonement), until, one day, this moral suffering motivate you to say: “enough! I'm tired of acting like this! I'm tired of suffering for being imperfect! I need to get rid of these imperfections!” It is at this moment that this Spirit returns to choosing tests and expiations.

Finally, we remind you that the knowledge brought by Spiritism is of substantial importance to leverage the process of evolution of the Spirit, because, at the moment when, through science, that is, through reason, he understands that he has to have will firm to overcome its imperfections, it can advance in years what it did not advance in successive incarnations.

We often find ourselves asking: why reincarnate? Could we not make all progress on the spiritual plane?

Spiritism, as in everything that we are already able to understand, comes to our rescue, explaining this point, which is actually fundamental to our lives, since we see so many brothers and, sometimes, ourselves, with thoughts of discouragement and giving up. . How many brothers have not taken their own lives from their bodies, through suicide, interrupting a reincarnation plan so important to them?

What Spiritism teaches us, dear brother or sister, is that, when in Spirit, in the state of erraticity, that is, in the period between one incarnation and another, our true self emerges with emphasis and transparency. Thus, our good and bad virtues, embedded in our minds, show themselves as they are, and with greater truth. It is as if we are a crystal vase that has the cloudy water thrown away and then starts to shine in its original clarity, although this does not always show a crystallity of heart.

The Spirit that has been struggling for some time due to moral imperfections - and even material vices - and that, from incarnation to incarnation, has not yet found the strong decision for its change, when disincarnating, it starts to experience this moral environment at its disposal. , as they move, with the speed of thought, to the companies and environments they most desire. Thus, many spirits easily become part of the ranks of spirits who agonize in the misunderstanding that, in order to leave, a firm will is enough, which until then, even in physical life, they often failed to have.

Also, there are cases of obsessed and persecuted spirits, often demented by the extent of their own guilt and misunderstanding.

Then comes the opportunity of reincarnation as a very valuable device that allows the Spirit, through the obliteration of integral memory, to regain breath and correct imperfections, especially through the so important but still so forgotten role of parents or caregivers, from early material childhood that the Spirit goes through, a phase in which it becomes more docile and malleable to learning - which should always be done on the basis of love and fraternity, in a constructive way and never violent or imposing.

But, we remember, reincarnation, or reincarnation planning, only happens in an “impositional” way when the Spirit does not yet have the consciousness developed to the point of understanding the needs for its advancement. It is at this point that he is constrained to reincarnate, by other Spirits who, in the name of charity, dedicate themselves to such a task.

From the moment, however, in which the Spirit develops its own awareness of its own imperfections and the need to correct them, it starts to act positively in this process, often requesting a new incarnation, full of tests and atonements, with the purpose of learning and correcting its imperfections.

Therefore, the incarnation, the present life, is a divine gift, a blessed opportunity to readjust the factors that, in ourselves, lead us to make mistakes and, therefore, to suffer. It has never been and will never be a punishment or a punishment and, if we ourselves do not increase our sufferings by our own actions, we will be able to go through the trials and atonements many times chosen by us, because we will never be abandoned in this endeavor and, in addition to the brothers who assist us from the spiritual plane, there will always be people around us, ready and often devoted to this planning, to help us.

Dear brothers, let us spread this simple and so powerful truth, so that the brother who is about to give up on life, reconsider his position and that he does not have to, only from the spiritual plane, wrapped in suffering, look back and verify that the suffering that he was going through was about to end and that he had a lot to help him change, never to suffer like that again, if he had his will very firm and decided. And remember, always: we will all reach happiness and perfection, some faster than others, by the action of their own will:

133. Do spirits who from the beginning have followed the path of good need incarnation?

“All are created simple and ignorant and are instructed in the struggles and tribulations of bodily life. God, who is just, could not make some happy, without toil and work, therefore without merit.”

The) - But, then, what is the use of spirits to have followed the path of good, if this does not exempt them from the sufferings of bodily life?

“They reach the end faster. Furthermore, the afflictions of life are often the consequence of the imperfection of the Spirit. The fewer imperfections, the less torments. He who is neither envious, nor jealous, nor greedy, nor ambitious, will not suffer the tortures that arise from these defects.”

The Book of Spirits

Did you like it? Then SHARE this text with everyone who can benefit from it!