FROM  THE  WORLD  OF  DEATH   TO   THAT   OF   LIFE
Andrei   Melnikov

In this article we are going to examine the concept of  death  in  the history of spirituality. From the very early days of the existence  of humanity, death has been the most sorrowful and  terrible  thing  that ever may happen to us; no one will  avoid  it.  This  feeling  is  not proper only to humans as animals know well the same  emotion;  we  can even say that the fear of death descends from the animal part of human nature. However the psychology of humans  is  totally  different  from that  of  animals  in  several  decisive  points,  one  of  which   is self-awareness that leads us to think there is something besides  body in our Ego. No wonder that humans have always  tried  to  connect  the invisible non-material Ego with immortality to  save  themselves  from death at least partially.(*)

The social institute that reflects this  side  of  human  activity  of thought has been religion. In its earliest form, religion  represented a cult of ancestors who went to another world and  became  spirits  of nature one could get in contact with. This type is still  alive  among the least developed tribes of Africa and Australia; the high level of their occult competence being compared to  their  total  backwardness, refutes atheists' statement  that  religion  appeared  itself  without supernatural influence or that religious  thought  was  not  primarily proper to human mind.

The next step in religious evolution was  heathendom;  nature  spirits became gods whose human roots became less evident but still  sensible. According to Scandinavian myths,  souls  of  bold  warriors  left  for Valholl where they would play and feast with gods;  however  even  the latter ones could die and obeyed the law of  fate.  Consequently  this period is characterized by faith in fate as something that one  cannot get rid of like in the case of death, so the fear of death is the same as fear of fate.

No matter what you do on the opposite, what is destined to happen will happen. The traces of pessimistic fatalism and the fear of  inevitable death are seen in the book of Job in Old Testament - the holy writ  of the first well-known monotheistic religion:

"I loathe my life; I would not live for ever. Let  me  alone,  for  my days are breath." (7:16) "If a man die, shall he live  gain?  All  the days of my service I would wait, till my release  should  come...  But the mountain falls and crumble away and the rock is removed  from  its place; the waters wear away the stones; the  torrents  wash  away  the soil of the earth; so thou destroyest the hope of man." (14:14-19)

The Bible, especially the Old Testament, has attracted a good deal  of critical arrows from humanists and atheists because of the cruelty of the image of God - a new figure in human religion who personifies  the strongest power existing in the  universe.  Illnesses,  wars,  murders caused by this divine power are so many that the common look seems too dark, fatal and mournful. However a question raises in our  mind:  How can God who is so perfect and an example of ideal being (Matthew 5:48) be also cruel? Either God is not that  perfect  or  His  cruelty  has another meaning. We think that the latter point of view  is  not  very far from truth and in order to save the situation we  suppose  here  a very special meaning of death: sinfulness caused  by  separation  from God, Adam's sin, unobeying divine laws or  whatsoever  it  is  called. Thus the idea of God's cruelty  disappears  at  once,  it  should  be understood as an ancient metaphor like that of the victim  offered  by man in God's favor - it used to be imaged as dead offered  animals and not our egoistic wishes and private plans what is the  true  sense  of this sacred act. So if we transform  God's  "cruelties"  into  modern language a quite different look  opens  to  our  eyes:  it  shows  His justice and strictness to sinners. This means that the  formula  "save our souls from death" means "save us from sin" rather  than  "save  us from death" in its literary interpretation. On the other  hand,  being physically alive does not mean being alive in spiritual sense.

The same meaning of death appears in New  Testament  but  in  a  quite different situation. First we remember Lucas 9:59-60:

"To another he [Jesus] said, Follow me, and he answered, Lord, give me leave to go home and bury my father first.  But  Jesus  said  to  him, Leave the dead to bury their dead; it  is  for  thee  to  go  out  and proclaim God's kingdom."

This extract was commented by Kardec  in  the  "Gospell  According  To Spiritism", ch. XXIII,7, where Kardec writes:

"Life in the spiritual world is in effect the real life, the normal life of a Spirit. Terrestrial existence, being transitory and passing, is a kind of death when compared to  the  splendours and  activity  of  the spiritual life. The body is nothing  more  than a gross covering which temporarily clothes the Spirit."

It proves  that  we  have  been  not  the  first  who  discovered  the sacramental sense of  death  in  the  Bible.  However  our  'biblical' interpretation slightly differs from that of  Kardec:  death  of  soul originates  in  violating  God's  laws  and  unbelief   whence   comes concentrating on terrestrial life and body what Kardec touches in  his turn. Anyway if we return to the whole New Testament we discover  that the very important difference from the previous revelation  is  belief in ... resurrecting the dead!

"...just as the Father bids the dead rise up and gives them  life,  so the Son gives life to whomsoever he will" (John 5:21)

"Believe me, the time is coming, nay, has already come, when the  dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and those who listen to it will live." (John 5:25)

"But this I admit to thee, hat in worshipping God, my Father, I follow what we call the way, and they call a sect. I put my trust in all that is written in the law and the prophets, snaring before  God  the  hope they  have  too,that  the  dead  will  rise  again,  both   just   and unjust."(Acts 24:15) ("So didst thou bring me  back,  Lord,  from  the place of shadows, rescue me from the very edge of the grave."  (Psalms 29:4) )

Here we need to come back  to  the  episode  where  Jesus  talks  with Nicodemus (John 3) that we discussed in a previous article  (Spiritist Messenger, No...).  We suggested that Jesus simply talked about a  new birth, next incarnation. This point was  based  on  the  opinion  that death was meant in its everyday sense, consequently  a  new  birth  is just a new birth [the  return  to  a  new  material  life]  (the  same conception was accepted by Kardec, s. Gospell,  ch.IV).  However  if Jesus was sent to save people from spiritual death, He was supposed to suggest the renovation of spirit that can take place only  once.  Here we are going  to  supplement our first  interpretation  with  a  new emphasis. Obviously Jesus said more than just about moving to paradise - resurrection is an internal process rather than an external  motion. Nicodemus' wondering witnesses that he realized the right direction of Jesus' suggestion but did not understood it exactly or in its literary look. Let us look again at the original text  in  order  to  establish what namely Jesus told Nicodemus:

John 3:4:"Why, Nicodemus asked him, how is  it  possible  that  a  man should be born if he is already old?"  - so if  he  is  young  he  can resurrect? Yes, because he has more time, forces and  age  flexibility to improve himself. Nicodemus'  reaction  helps  us  reconstruct  what Jesus had said before in the speech Nicodemus referred to: Jesus spoke about the spiritual resurrection  that  everyone  will  ever  undergo. Nicodemus educated in old traditions wondered about those who  due  to natural reasons could not succeed to resurrect and were going to  what we call hell.

We do not need to examine  again  the  whole  episode  that  has  been commented by  us  and  Kardec  in  "Gospel  According  To  Spiritism". Nevertheless we want to point out that the right sense of Jesus' words was that anyone can resurrect on earth no matter  how  much  lives  it will take. Jesus says the sentence that rejects  any  suppositions  of the birth in heaven (**):

"You cannot trust me when I tell you of what passes on earth; how will you be able to trust me when I tell you of  what  passes  in  heaven?" (John 3:12)

Yes, He says: spiritual awakening must  happen  on  earth,  things  of Heaven are to be discussed afterwards... If He had said that only  one life is given for the resurrection then why Nicodemus  wondered  about the womb as he must have understood that anyone can  resurrect  within one life? Any opinion that rejects reincarnation actually is  unbelief that "the dead" can become alive. Nicodemus as an  Israelite  really understood this contradistinction of the old and new doctrines. Jesus' words "we testify of what our  eyes  have  seen"  witness  that  Jesus himself had survived various incarnations and may had spoken  of  them to the audience or that He had seen other resurrected people.

What kind of connection there is between both sorts of death? The  tie is obvious: the more one is distant from God the deeper he is immersed in animal nature and consequently the more afraid of the dead  of  his physical ("animal") body. So it turns out that the further we progress from our initial state the more sinful we become? But in this  way  we develop our self-awareness that is destined to  help  us  realize  our spiritual nature. However the destination is not  reached  yet;  human self-awareness is only potential and actually shows itself in  egoism, misusing nature and atheism. Any revelation appealed to the  level  of the development of human civilization and  hence  to  its  concept  of death. Moses' laws were destined for undeveloped  people,  they  were laws of self-preservation or how to avoid the usual death. The law  of love introduced by Jesus contradicts that of self-preservation but  it helps realize  eternal  life  and  saves  from  the  spiritual  death; Christ's post-mortal appearances symbolize the result of resurrection. Learning the fact of post-mortal  existence  without  concept  of  the spiritual resurrection lead to contact with dangerous spirits  and  do not help to reach God; this is the reason why  contacts  with  spirits are prohibited in the Old Testament and permitted in the New.  However the way of complete resurrection is not shown clearly in the Bible, it is  being   in  parables,  old  formulae,  symbolism  and  mixed  with hard-readable historical descriptions.

Christianity denying reincarnation and admitting eternal  martyrs  for sinners kills the faith in the dead's resurrection in its  real  sense and automatically generates atheism. And here  we  come  at  the  most actual issue here - Spiritism of Allan Kardec, Leon  Denis  and  their followers. In this doctrine reincarnation becomes apparent - it  shows the outlook of spiritual developing; sin is represented as  a  result of spiritual ignorance whereas every spirit evolves from the  ignorant state to the divine heights through  numerous  lives;  physical  death almost definitely loses its  tragic  look  and  "resurrected"  spirits descend to incarnated people and inspire them every day.

We must admit that we are still very far from the final point  of  our evolution; the great revelations of Moses, Christ and  Spiritism  have shown the outlook but it does not mean that all the way is as easy  as seeing the shining with closed eyes. For those who do not realize  all the difficulty of the way, reincarnation  is  a  pessimistic  reminder about hard work that is expecting everyone. Reincarnation really drops from heaven onto earth both in literary and figurative sense.  May  be it is pessimistic for lazy people or for those who  has  got  a  wrong selfish image of spiritual progress, but fortunately  they  will  need many lives to realize their mistakes and to progress faster make. Only Spiritism  unites  the  concept  of  Christian  love   and   that   of reincarnation as the way to resurrect for the  dead  in  one  integral doctrine. Thus Spiritism destroys the impassable walls between  people having different opinion, faith and  moral  because  it  suggests  the eternal happiness for anyone in face of  which  any  local  difference disappears and thus increases the feeling of universal fraternity:

"Man believes in the future instinctively, but not having found so  far any solid basis for its determination, he allows his own imagination to create systems that generate oppositions among religions.  Not  being a product of a more or  less conceived imagination, but the result of the observation of  material  facts which are presently occurring before our eyes, the Spiritist  doctrine  will  unite the divergent or superficial opinions on regard to this future and will lead to the union of beliefs. This converging faith will not be based solely upon hypothesis,but on a firm certainty.The unification, concerning the destiny of the souls, will constitute the first point of approximation among the believers of different cults, a giant initial  step  toward  religious tolerance and then total fusion."
 

" (Allan Kardec, Heaven And  Hell,  Part One, ch.I, No. 14)

Comments (by A L Xavier, Jr)

(*) There is some contribution  given  by  some  Spirits  (in  medium's communications) on regard to the fear of death: people fear  of  death as  an   unconscious   recollection   during   our   successive   past reincarnations. People have generally died in traumatic  ways  in  the past. This trauma appears in the unconscious mind materialized  as  a strong fear of death (In ordinary people). It is obvious  that  modern psychologists hardly take into account this idea, because the majority do not consider past lives in their explanations.

(**) There are some modern Spirit writings, mainly  by  Emmanuel  which point exactly in this direction: Jesus' words can  be  interpreted  in two different - but not contradictory - ways; the first as a statement about reincarnation, and the second one, considerably subtler,  as an affirmation about the need of our spiritual awakening. Both oppose  to the most accepted version, that of material baptism. In this sense the "saved ones" are those who already have undergone  the  process. From this comes the new interpretation of  "salvation"  and  "resurrection" quite similar to the one by Melnikov.

Comments write to
editor@geae.inf.br

KATE SILBER'S BOOK: PESTALOZZI - THE MAN AND HIS  WORK
Antonio Leite

In  their  Allan  Kardec's  biography,  Zeus  Wantuil  and   Francisco Thiesen1 (reference # 1) emphasized the great role  played  by  Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in Allan Kardec's educational life. Actually,  the first of the three volumes from this extraordinary biography  is  half taken to describe  the  latter  educational  process  at  Pestalozzi's Yverdon Institute and the influences that the  schoolmaster  had  upon Allan Kardec. In his "Explanations to the Reader", Volume I, page  25, Francisco Thiesen stated (reference # 2):

"The  nineteenth  century  lived  under  the  empire  of  materialism, although from time to time somebody would come out  with  spiritualist ideas trying to save mankind from drowning  into  permanent  darkness. Amongst those rose the bright figure of Pestalozzi, whom turned out to be Rivail's 'spiritual father', enlightening his mind with instruction and consolidating the lights of his spirit through education."

All the explanations and references contained in the  biography  above mentioned show the tools employed  by Pestalozzi  in  order  to build his educational  system.   The   authors   emphasize   his   permanent struggle in order to show that  his  educational  method  was  not  so complicated. Actually, the foundation  of  that  method  rely  on  the family as the most known, reliable and efficient  school  ever.  Under the guidance of a structured family the child would  learn  the  basic values of life, such as love, gratitude, integrity, obedience, charity and responsibility. Through the development of his  own  intuition  he would discover, step by step, the existence of a world that  surrounds him and would learn  how  to  better  relate  with  this  very  world. Undoubtedly the tools for these first movements in this world have  to be given by the family to the young.

Under these perceptions Pestalozzi developed  his  educational  method which made him known as the "mankind educator".  His   influence  upon Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, known as "Allan Kardec", the  man  who codified the Spiritist Doctrine,  was  definitely   tremendous.  Zeus Wantuil and Francisco Thiesen demonstrated that influence  in  a  very clear way through the pages of the first volume of their work.

Much has been written throughout the  world  about  Pestalozzi and his educational ideas. In  addition  to  what  is  written  above  as  an introduction to the matter, the main purpose of these lines is to show in brief words, how Kate Silber, a  Professor  in  the  Department  of Germany at the University of Edinburgh, describes the schoolmaster,  a
man  of  great  stature,  on  the  pages  of  her  outstanding   work: "Pestalozzi - The Man and his Work". (reference # 3)

In fact she starts by assuring that "he is  no longer considered to be only a schoolmaster and inventor of a new teaching  method,  nor merely a kind-hearted lover of children and helper of  the poor. He is now seen in  a  wider context  and  ranked among social critics, political reformers, and  teachers  of  mankind  of  a  large stature. In my view the ups and downs of  Pestalozzi's  development,  the  wide range of  his  experiences,  and  the  inspiring  impact   of   his personality are of greater interest than what goes by the name of  his educational thought". (reference # 4)

Undoubtedly, this is a book that should be read not only  by  teachers and students of education, but also by parents and the general  reader interested in human experience  and  the  lives  of  exceptional  men. Pestalozzi was one among many human beings who came to this Planet and did his best in order to help mankind to move ahead in terms of social and moral progress. To Pestalozzi, education is  the  main  tool  that will drive men and women to be fully  integrated  as  well  as  active participants of their own community. He envisioned education in a wide sense, as a way to extirpate the most  crucial  problems  that  affect nowadays societies.

Many scholars  and  educational  experts  throughout  the  world  have written much about his ideas and teachings. Nevertheless,  it  appears that most of them give too much importance to the technical aspects of his  structured method,  forgetting  about  the  simplicity  and  the essential point in his teachings. According to his ideas,  the  family is an undeniable path in order to acquire education in a wide sense. A healthy family would enable the child to reach  "the satisfaction  of natural wants that creates inner peace" [reference # 5]  and  develops unconsciously his capacities for love, confidence and gratitude,  even before the notions of obligation and duty be understood.

His method relies basically on family values under a perception  of  a true relationship among its members, all guided by love.  His  precept [reference # 6] "Love is the eternal basis  of  education"  gives  the direction to be followed by the parents in their effort  to  help  the child with his moral development. The child must be educated to be not only a skilled laborer, or an artisan, or a scholar, he also has to be oriented in order to be a satisfactory husband to his wife, father  to his son, citizen of his country. He must be  able  in  his  particular place in  the  community  to  be  self-reliant  and  to  help  others. Stretching out Pestalozzi's believe on the family as a major influence in the child educational process, Kate Silber emphasizes [reference  # 7]: "Common sense is more important than book learning. This  is  best taught by father and mother. No schoolmaster can be to  a  child  what his parents ought to be." [reference # 8] "And so  it  is  God's  will that all men learn their  most  important  lessons  in  their  homes",
reinforces Pestalozzi.

Pestalozzi had a powerful determination to serve his people in a  very active way. In order to reach that goal he took education for  granted and dedicated his entirely life in developing  permanent  projects  at the cost of his family personal comfort. He had no  major  concern  in creating fancy formulas or scientific treatise  that  would  make  him famous into the eyes of the great figures of the time. As mentioned by the author Kate Silber [reference # 9] "Man and his destiny  were  his main concern. To the improvement of man's inner self and his outer lot Pestalozzi's energies were to be devoted."  He was indeed devoted to a great cause as he emphasized it [reference # 10]:

"I wished  to  do  what  others  only  talked  about.  I  was  vitally interested in all that concerned men's hearts and was naturally led to seek honor and love rather in the path of sacrifice and  charity  than in that of thinking and research".

Pestalozzi also  understood  the  profound  influence  and  the  very important  role  that  religion  plays  in  the  educational  process, although he  did  not  take  any  formal  religion  for  granted,  but acknowledged the importance of a true Christianity, understanding this to be "not only a doctrine but also a way of life". In  his  thoughts, the relationship which exists between mother and child  would  develop the idea of God in the soul of the latter. That is the reason  for  he had stated [reference # 11]: "The feelings of love, trust,  gratitude, and the readiness to obey must be developed in me before I  can  apply them to God. I must love men, trust  men,  thank  men,  and  obey  men before I can aspire to love, trust, thank, and obey God"

"Religious education should not be a matter of formal instruction  but the turning to spiritual advantage of  the  daily  happenings  in  the shared lives of the house father and the children" [reference 12] says Kate Silber when interpreting the religious influence on  Pestalozzi's approach.

At  Pestalozzi's  time,  the  religious  establishment  had  a   great influence over the educational process in Europe, as well as all  over the world, but with  more  intensity  than  in  our  days.  Since  the schoolmaster didn't take any formal religion for granted in  order  to build his ideas in his educational method, it is  easy  to  understand why only after almost a hundred years ahead of  his  time  his  method spread out through Europe and the rest  of  the  world.  In  financial terms, his enterprise performed rather in a very unsuccessful way. One should not  be  surprised  with  this  fact  if  one  recognizes  that Pestalozzi had no interest in playing  according  to  the  educational rules of the religious establishment. His religious point of view  had nothing in common with those that were running in the  mainstream.  He believed in religion as a mean of helping mankind  to  accomplish  his task of acquiring intellectual and moral progress.

"Religion does not call man away  from  earthly  responsibilities  but gives him strength to carry  out  every  human  duty  until  his  last moment. Man is not made for religion but religion is made for man;  it is not a thing apart that diverts him from his  worldly  business;  it teaches and strengthens him to make good use of the world. The way  to
heaven lies in the fulfillment of duties on earth" [reference  #13]

Pestalozzi's  educational  method  envisioned  a  system   where   the connection between physical training, intellectual education and moral attitude should be part of the educational process  as  a  whole.  For this reason, the family environment should be seen as a natural  stage to the development of these skills. Kate Silber concisely  shows  this aspect in Pestalozzi's ideas by mentioning [reference# 14].

"It is in the home, more than anywhere else, that the best  conditions exist for a well-balanced education. Watching his mother's daily  work has a beneficial influence  on  the  child's  moral  development;  his father's example stimulates  his  intellectual  and  physical  powers. These are the truly 'elementary' means of developing all  the  child's faculties in a natural way and of making his sills habitual.  For  the child lives in these conditions from morning till night; his  family's work, joys, and sorrows provide the  first  impression  on  which  all further experiences can be built. The love he receives calls forth his own love; it awakes his other moral faculties. Even  the  checking  by his parents of his faults and misdeeds does not jeopardize this love; on the contrary, it strengthens his  better  powers  in  the  struggle against his animal nature. In a home where 'love  and  action  are  in agreement' the success of education cannot fail; 'the child must -  he cannot do otherwise - become good".

Preceding his most successful experience at Yverdon, Pestalozzi opened an educational institute in Burgdorf in the autumn of 1800.  Within  a few months the household consisted of ninety people and soon  exceeded one hundred. After only eighteen months of  existence  the  experience showed great results and all the visitors remarked on the relationship between teachers and pupils and  the  ease  and  cheerfulness  of  the children. Pestalozzi then invited the Notability of Berne to come  and hold an inspection at the institute. A highly  favorable  report  was issued and later published in the name of  one  of  the  distinguished experts,  J.  S.  Ith,  president  of  the  council   for   education. Emphasizing the difference between  the  deadly  boredom  in  ordinary infant schools and the lively activity in the Pestalozzian  institute, the report suggested [reference # 15]:

"Everything the child learns is acquired by his  own  observation,  by his own experience. It calls this way of teaching essentially new  and therefore a real discovery and considers it a  duty  to  commend  this method because of its intrinsic excellence, to  further  it,   and  to desire its general use as  one  of  the  most  important  benefits  to mankind,  especially  to  their  more  numerous  and  more   neglected sections"

Through the pages of  "How  Gertrude  Teaches  her  Children"  2(1801) Pestalozzi describes his ideas toward a new method for  educating  the infants and proclaimed something entirely new in the field of  popular education. The book brought him fame and  launched  his  revolutionary ideas in the mainstream of one of  the  most  arguable  subjects  ever treated: popular  education.  These  ideas  pointed  to  a  system  of education consisting of three equal parts: intellectual, physical  and moral. It also established the family  as  the  main  stage  where  it should start, being also the  natural  environment  where  the  infant would take the first steps in order to bring out his innate  ideas  of goodness  and cultivate  his  powers  driving  him  to  independence. Summarizing his  thoughts  on  the  subject,  Kate  Silber  emphasizes [reference # 16]:

"Education, then, is the art of bringing to life  and  fortifying  the good which is inherent in every human being; it  consists  in  guiding the child towards the best realization of himself and of the things of the world. It does not impose anything alien upon him  but  draws  out what lies in him,  either  latent  or  obstructed;  it  takes  as  its starting-point the child himself. It cultivates  his  own  powers  and encourages his independence. Thus the educator acts as  Socrates  has said, more as a midwife than as a begetter of men. He merely  prepares the way which the pupil must travel himself."

Such is the spiritual perception that the schoolmaster  envisioned  in his ideas. Foreseeing a new pattern of knowledge that  would  soon  be given to mankind, he managed to make men aware of  this  new  reality; the reality of the spirit, the  eternal  power  in  its  long  journey toward the truth. The human being permanently struggles  in  order  to attain happiness and, as a consequence of this, he is  always  seeking for the truth. As always had been said, the truth lies inside oneself. Here is how Kate Silber shows Pestalozzi's ideas  in  this  particular [reference # 17]:

"The recognition of truth, he declares, comes  from  intuition.  Thus, truth is the aim of development, and intuition,  the  most  elementary power of the human mind, its basis. Only through going  back  to  this fundamental principle which accords with the essence of  human  nature will it be possible to raise man to a state  where  he  can  recognize 'truth and right in the spirit and in truth, as sacred and inviolable, with authority replacing that of his father and mother'. For it is not the intention of  our  Father  that  man  should  perish  through  the corruption of his instinct but rather that he be 'brought to recognize his true nature and be led towards  perfection,  even  as  our  Father which is in heaven is perfect'. This is the religious justification of Pestalozzi's  method  of  education  and  of  its   basic   principle, intuition."

Kate  Silber,  as  any  other  scholar,  tries  to fully   interpret Pestalozzi's method and often points to some incorrectness perpetrated by  the  schoolmaster.   Furthermore,  she  even  admits  Pestalozzi's failure  for  the  reason  that   his   practical   enterprises   were unsuccessful  and  his  theoretical   system   remained   fragmentary. Nevertheless, looking  through  a  more  accurate  telescope,  perhaps without knowing this  reality  and  using  the  same  basic  principle discussed above, the intuition, Kate  Silber  recognized  Pestalozzi's remarkable task bay saying [reference # 18]:

"Pestalozzi certainly attempted more than one single man can  achieve. His aim was not merely to establish a new method of teaching, not even to educate children, or to improve the lot of the poor. His dream  was to promote the well-being of all  men  through  the  strengthening  of their own better powers and thereby to bring peace and security to the world - a goal certainly  not  unlike  the  Abbe  St.  Pierre's  'paix perpetuelle' with which it had been compared. In this 'most  ambitious days', as he called them, he tried to achieve no less than  a  harmony between a complete theory of education and practical  policy  for  the happiness of mankind."

In fact, we could mention many who failed in their task of  trying  to show mankind the right path to happiness. The question would rather be if those who attempted this goal really failed. As far as  we  realize that we are responsible  for  our  own  progress,  another  conclusion immediately comes out and we find no failure in those attempts at all. I would rather see a mankind's failure  in  not  taking  advantage  of these teachings in order to speed up its own  progress  toward  a  new level of consciousness.

Under a theoretical point of view, one can find failure  everywhere. Unfortunately this is a field where many are accused of having failed. Pestalozzi, Abbe St. Pierre, Mahatma Ghandi, Socrates,  Joan  of  Arc, you name it. Even Jesus  Christ  is  considered  a  failure.  However, having delivered the simplest message to mankind,  his  teachings  got mixed up many times in the vast mainstream of religious controversy.

Kate Silber's "Pestalozzi - The Man and his Work" is a masterpiece and a moving story about a man who gave his best in order to help  mankind to move forward. It is a book to be read by the layman concerned with his own spiritual progress and those that surround him.

References

Reference # 1:  Z  Wantuil  and  Francisco  Thiesen,  Allan  Kardec  - Meticulosa Pesquisa Biobibliografica - Three Volumes  -  2a  Edição  - Copyright by FEB (Federação Espírita Brasileira ) 1973

Reference # 2: Ref. 1, volume I pp. 25

Reference # 3: Kate Silber, "Pestalozzi -The man and his  Work"  First published 1960 by Routlede & Kegan Paul Ltd, London

Reference # 4: Idem (Ref.3) in the preface pp. x-xi

Reference # 5: Idem, pp. 34

Reference # 6: Idem, pp. 154

Reference # 7: Idem, pp. 45

Reference # 8: Idem pp. 46

Reference # 9: Idem pp. 17

Reference # 10: Idem pp. 11

Reference # 11: Idem pp. 147

Reference # 12: Idem pp. 23

Reference # 13: Idem pp. 45

Reference # 14: Idem pp. 177-178

Reference # 15: Idem pp. 127

Reference # 16: Idem pp. 137

Reference # 17: Idem pp. 153

Reference # 18: Idem pp. 272-273
 

SAN DIEGO STUDY GROUP
Luiza Marques

Dear Friends,

I would like to request if it is a possibility to update the Spiritist Center List that you have for California.

Our San Diego Group has been together for approximately 3 years and  I wanted to find out if there is a way to add our address to your Center list.

San Diego Study Group,
Address: 4431 Paola Way, San Diego, California 92117.
Tel (858) 278-4839

Email: SanDiegoSpiritistGroup@hotmail.com

Attention: Luiza Marques

Your help would be greatly appreciated.
 

There is no point in winning without improving ourselves.

The place where you live is your field of work.

The enemies to conquer are inside ourselves.

The others are always the public who follow us.

Your field of action is your own work.

Relatives and friends are companions and inspectors.

Your  most  efficient  and  important  weapons  are  love,   humility, knowledge and patience.

Orders to followed: Work and serve.

Daily programme: love your neighbor as yourself.

Indication of promotion: duty accomplished.

Mark of victory: inner happiness with the blessings of God,  which  no word in the world can express.