| Year 14 | Number 78 | 2006 | September 15th, 2006 |
| "Unshakable
faith is only that which can face reason face to
face in every Humankind epoch." Allan Kardec |
|
“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.” Selected Quotations of RABINDRANATH TAGORE. Compilation
by Alan Smolowe http://www.schoolofwisdom.com/tagorequotes.html |
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| °
EDITORIAL
|
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| Blessed are the Poor in Spirit |
|||
| ° THE CODIFICATION
|
|||
| THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING
TO SPIRITISM - CHAPTER VII - INSTRUCTIONS FROM SPIRITS: Mission of the
Intelligent Person on Earth |
|||
| ° ELECTRONIC BOOKS | |||
| CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM by Leon Denis | |||
| ° SPIRIT MESSAGES | |||
| DO NOT JUDGE |
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| ° SPIRITIST STUDIES | |||
| Campaign to Understand Skepticism | |||
|
|||
| First
United States Spiritist Medical Congress |
|||
| Spiritist Lectures in London | |||
| GEAE's Virtual Meetings |
| ° EDITORIAL |
The message "Blessed are the poor in spirit"
was written through a medium in
the XIX century. It is a formidable instruction for all intelligent
people, men and women alike, who are more than capable from the
standpoint of their role of providing guidance and orientation to all.
Today
Science has unveiled extraordinary evidence of all powerful universe,
not only from the structural viewpoint but also by the existence
of highly hierarchical entanglement of laws ranging from the
microscopic,
sub-atomic scale, to the astronomical and cosmological scenarios.
Where do we stand in this picture? We surely are not the smallest
creatures in the Universe, but our total inability to access the vast
cosmic scenarios show that we are among the less important things in
it. Such evidences vividly reinforces the blessings of the poor in
spirit. Those who have never imagined themselves as having all
knowledge
and all intelligence will never be deceived by the plain reality of
the ever powerful Universe and of the existence of more evolved forms
of intelligence. If the range of scale of the material universe
has any analog in the "intelligence scale" of ours and such evolved
forms, we are surely among the less evolved ones. And above all is God, the
supreme intelligence.
What the message "Blessed are the poor in Spirit" wants to say is that the distance between us, if we were allowed to use an "intelligence scale", is not significant to justify any kind of exclusivism and separation. In the spiritual scale we are all bound together because, overall, from the ethical standpoint, we have committed (or are "addicted") to the same mistakes.
These mistakes can only be eliminated by the constant interaction of people in society where the more intelligent ones should always be aware of their role in providing guidance and orientation. This facilitates the task of guiding Spirits because they can count with the assistance of these people who become vehicles of spirit´s actuation.
Ademir Xavier
GEAE Editor
What the message "Blessed are the poor in Spirit" wants to say is that the distance between us, if we were allowed to use an "intelligence scale", is not significant to justify any kind of exclusivism and separation. In the spiritual scale we are all bound together because, overall, from the ethical standpoint, we have committed (or are "addicted") to the same mistakes.
These mistakes can only be eliminated by the constant interaction of people in society where the more intelligent ones should always be aware of their role in providing guidance and orientation. This facilitates the task of guiding Spirits because they can count with the assistance of these people who become vehicles of spirit´s actuation.
Ademir Xavier
GEAE Editor
| ° THE CODIFICATION |
13. Never be prideful of what you know, because that knowledge has very restricted limits in the world in which you live. Supposing you were a prominent intellectual celebrity on this planet, still you would have no right to be proud. If God, within His designs, causes you to be born in an ambient where you could develop this intelligence, then it was because He wished you to use it for the benefit of everyone. You have been given a mission by the fact of God having placed an instrument in your hands, which can be used to develop the retarded intelligences around you, and so conduct them to God. Is not the nature of the instrument an indication as to the purpose it should be used for? Does not the hoe which the gardener gives to his assistant, show to what use it should be put? What would you say if instead of working with the hoe, he raised it against his master with a desire to injure him? You would say it was monstrous, that he should be expelled. Well then, is it not the same for he who uses his intelligence to destroy the idea of God and Providence amongst his fellow men? Does he not raise the hoe, which was given to him to till the soil, against his master? Has he then the right to receive the promised salary? On the contrary, does he not deserve to be expelled from the garden? Do not doubt that he will be! Then he will pass through many miserable existences full of humiliations, until he finally bows down before Him to Whom he owes everything.
Intelligence holds great riches in future merits, provided it is well employed. If all men and women who possessed it used it in conformity with God's wishes, then it would be easy for the Spirits to perform their task of helping humanity advance. Unhappily, many have become instruments of pride and perdition against themselves. Mankind abuses intelligence as it does all the other faculties. But nevertheless, there is no lack of teachings which warn of a powerful Hand that may withdraw what has been granted.
FERDINAND,
a Protecting
Spirit (Bordeaux, 1862).
| ° ELECTRONIC BOOKS |
CHRISTIANITY
AND SPIRITUALISM
The History of the Gospels
The Secret Doctrine of Christianity
Intercourse with the Spirits of the Dead
The New Revelation
Vitam Impendere Vero
By
LÉON DENIS
Author of
"Après La Mort, "Dans L'Invisible," ETC.
Translated from the French by
HELEN DRAPER SPEAKMAN
LONDON
PHILIP WELLBY
6 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
1904
The History of the Gospels
The Secret Doctrine of Christianity
Intercourse with the Spirits of the Dead
The New Revelation
Vitam Impendere Vero
By
LÉON DENIS
Author of
"Après La Mort, "Dans L'Invisible," ETC.
Translated from the French by
HELEN DRAPER SPEAKMAN
LONDON
PHILIP WELLBY
6 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
1904
This book is out of print indefinitely
1st Electronic Edition by
the Advanced
Study Group of Spiritism (GEAE)
2006
CHAPTER III
HIDDEN MEANING OF THE GOSPELS
HIDDEN MEANING OF THE GOSPELS
A certain school atributes to
Christianity in general and to
the Gospels in particular, an allegorical and hidden meaning. Some
thinkers even go as far as to deny the existence of Jesus; they only
see in His words and life a philosophical idea, an abstraction to which
a personality had been given to satisfy the tradition which foretold a
Saviour, a Messiah for the Jewish people.
According to them, the history of Jesus is only a poetical drama, representing the birth, death and resurrection of the idea of freedom among the down-trodden Jewish people, or else a series of pictures to show to the masses the practical and social sides of Christianity, the union of the divine and human types in a model of perfection offered for the admiration of mankind.
If we accepted this view the Gospels would have to be considered as inventions and fables. The powerful movement of Christianity would have been started by an imposture! This is a very evident exaggeration. If the life of Jesus was only a fiction, how did it come to be accepted, firstly by His contemporaries, then by a long series of generations.
Who were in that case the real founders of Christianity? The Apostles? They were incapable of such a conception.
With the exception of Paul who found the doctrine already formed, they were notoriously unlearned. The grand personality of Jesus stands out against the background of mediocrity afforded by His disciples. The most superficial ecamination will show us the impossibility of this hypothesis.
One can easily distinguish in the Gospels the additions of the Christian Jews, which clearly show their origin, and form a striking contrast to the words and doctrines of Jesus. ¹ It is evident from this fact that authors imbued to such an extent with narrow and superstitious views were incapable of inventing a personality, a doctrine, a life and a death, like those of Christ.
In the sombre and exclusive Jewish world, filled with egotism and hatred, the doctrine of fraternity and love could only emanate from an unusually high intelligence.
If the Scriptures, as a whole, were nothing but a collection of allegories, a pure work of imagination, the doctrine of Jesus could not have maintained itself through the ages, in the midst of the diverse currents which agitated the Christian world. A building without a foundation, it would have crumbled to pieces by the mere force of time. But it is still alive and powerful, in spite of the alterations to which it has been subjected, in spite of all that men have done to disifgure it, to drown it in a deluge of erroneous interpretations.
The belief in a myth would not have been sufficient to inspire the early Christians with the spirit of martyrdom, with heroism in the face of death; it would not have furnished them with the means of establishing a religion which has lasted twenty centuries. Truth alone can defy the ages, and keep its force, its gradeur, in face of all efforts to undermine it.
Jesus is truly the coner-stone of Christianity, the soul of the new revelation.
Besides, historical testimony to the existence of Jesus, though limited, is not wholly missing. Suetonius, in his history of the firs Caesars, speaks of the execution of "Christus." Both he and Tacitus mention the existence of a sect of Christians among the Jews, before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus.
The Talmud speaks of the death of Jesus on the cross, and all the Jewish rabbis acknowledge the value of this testimony.
If need need were, the Gospels themselves would furnish us with the moral proof of the existence and high mission of the Christ. If numbers of apocryphal occurrences have been introduced into them later on, if the Jewish superstitions are found in them under the form of fanciful recitals and superannuated theories, there still remain two things which could not have been invented and which carry in themselves their own stamp of authenticity: the sublime drama of Calvary, and the profound and gentle teachings of Jesus.
These teachings are simple and clear in their essential principles; they are addressed to the people, especially to the poor and humble. They instruct the heart, and elighten and strengthen the conscience. They also contain traces of a secret doctrine. Jesus often spoke in parables. His thought, usually so luminously clear, is sometimes veiled in a semi-obscurity, and one only sees the outlines of a grand idea through the mask of a symbol. He explains this when he quotes Is. VII. 9, and adds: "I speak to them in parables, for it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given." (Matt. XIII. 10, 11.)
It is evident that htere were two doctrines in primitive Christianity, one for the people, presented in a form easily understood of all, and the other a secret doctrine, reserved for disciples and initiates.
The proof of the existence of this secret teachings is found in the words already quoted and in the following ones. After the parable of the sower, the disciples asked Jesus to explain its meaning and He replied: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables; that seeing, they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, may see, and not understand." (Mark IV. 11, 12.)
St. Paul confirms this in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. III., when he draws the difference between the language to be used to the carnal man and that to the spiritual man, namely, to the profane and the initiates.
The initiation was doubtless gradual. Those who received it were anointed, and afterwards entered into the communion of Saints. This gives us the key to these words of John: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written to you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it."
The founder of Christianity never separated the religious idea from its social application. "The Kingdom of Heaven" was to Him the perfect association of spirits of which He wished to create the image on earth. But He met the resistance of already established interests, and thousands of obstacles and danger sprang up around Him, adding a new reason for hiding under a parable or a miracle that which, in His doctrine, was bound to shock old ideas and threaten political and religious institutions. The obscurities of the Gospel were therefore intentional, the higher truths being hidden under the veil of symbolism. Man was taught that which he needed to shape his moral conduct in everyday life, but the profound philosophical meaning of the doctrine was reserved for a small number. ²
Hence the "Communion of Saints, the communion of elevated thought, of high and pure aspirations." This communion lasted but a short time. Earthly passions and ambitions soon destroyed it and politics introduced themselves into the priesthood. Bishops, from humble adepts, and modest overseers, became powerful and proud. Theocracy was established and sson succeeded in hiding the light under a bushel, and the light was extinguished. The deeper thought disappeared and the material symbols alone remained. This darkness rendered easier the task of governing the people. The priesthood preferred to leave the masses plunged in the depths of ignorance rather than elevate them to the heights of intellect. The Christian mysteries were henceforth explained only to churchmen. The thinkers, the earnest seekers who endeavoured to reach the lost truths were persecuted as heretics. The darkness became deeper and deeper over the world after the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and the belief in Satan and hell took on great proportions in the Christian faith. The religion of love preached by Jesus was replaced by the religion of fear.
The invasion of the barbarians also contributed much to this state of things in bringing society back to a condition of childhood, for the invaders were, in intellectual development, mere children themselves. From the vast plains and deep forests, the barbarian world hurled itself against civilisation. These ignorant and rough multitudes caused an intellectual decadence both in the pagan and Christian world. Christianity succeeded in conquering them, but at a great cost to itself. The divine ideal was veiled, and worship became material. To impress the imagination of the masses, idolatrous practices were revived, which were worthy only of the earliest ages of humanity, and to dominate the people and lead them by both fear and hope, the strangest dogmas were combined. The idea of realisin on earth the reign of God and of His justice, which had been that of the early Christians, was lost sight of. The announcement of the end of the world and the last judgement taken literally, the cares of individual salvation, traded on by the priests, and a thousand other causes combined to turn Christianity out of its true channel and drown Jesus' great idea in a flood of superstition.
But against these evils we must set the services rendered by the Church to the cause of humanity. Without its hierarchy and powerful organisation, without the papacy which opposed the power of the sword by that of the mind, however obscured and mistaken, it is difficult to think what would have become of the moral life and conscience of humanity. In the midst of those ages of violence, lawlessness and darkness, the Christian faith inspired these barbarous people with a new ardour which instigated them to generous tasks, such as the Crusades, the founding of the orders of chivalry, and the creation of the arts of the middle ages. In the silence and peace of the cloisters, thought found refuge. Moral life, thanks to Christian institutions, was never completely extinguished, in spite of the brutal habits of the age. These are services for which we must thank the Church, in spite of the questionable means which she has used to ensure her rule over the human soul.
To resume, the doctrine of the Crucified One demanded, in its popular form, the conquest of eternal life by the sacrifice of the present. The religion of salvation, of the elevation of the soul by domination over matter, Christianity, constituted a necessary reaction against Greek and Roman polytheism, which although full of light was nevertheless a hot-bed of sensuality and corruption. Christianity marked an indispensable stage in the march of humanity, whose destiny is to rise from belief to belief, from conception to conception, towards the ever greater and nobler.
The era of Christianity, with its twelve centuries of darkness and trouble, was not one of happiness for the human race, but the aim of earthly life is not happiness, it is the elevation, by work, study, and suffering, in a word, the education of the soul, and the difficult and thorny path leads the more surely to perfection.
Christianity represents a profitable phase in the history of humanity, which would have been incapable of carrying out the social works which will build up its future, if it had not been impregnated with the thought and moral of the Gospels.
The Church is nevertheless to blame for having attempted to prolong indefinitely this state of ignorance. After having fed and protected the child, she tried to keep it in submission and intellectual servitude. She saved consciences only to oppress them. The Roman Church did not preserve the divine torch entrusted to her, and in chastisement from on high, or rather by the working of the just law of compensation, the darkness which she tried to spread around now reigns in her own bosom. She has never ceased to oppose the development of science and philosophy, going so far as to proscribe, from St Peter's chair, "progress, that eternal Law, liberality and modern civilisation." (Article 80 of the "Syllabus.")
Therefore it is outside of her, and even in opposition to her, that, starting from a certain moment of history, the whole movement of evolution of the human spirit has been accomplished. It took centuries to dissipate the darkness of the Middle Ages. It required the renaissance of letters, the religious reformation of the sixteenth century, philosophy, all the conquests of science which prepared the ground for the new revelation, for the voices from beyond the tomb which come by myriads, and from all points of the earth, to recall to man the pure teachings of Christ, to re-establish His doctrines, to render comprehensible all the great truths buried in the mists of ages.
¹ See notes 2 and 3, end of book.
² See note No. 4 at end of book.
According to them, the history of Jesus is only a poetical drama, representing the birth, death and resurrection of the idea of freedom among the down-trodden Jewish people, or else a series of pictures to show to the masses the practical and social sides of Christianity, the union of the divine and human types in a model of perfection offered for the admiration of mankind.
If we accepted this view the Gospels would have to be considered as inventions and fables. The powerful movement of Christianity would have been started by an imposture! This is a very evident exaggeration. If the life of Jesus was only a fiction, how did it come to be accepted, firstly by His contemporaries, then by a long series of generations.
Who were in that case the real founders of Christianity? The Apostles? They were incapable of such a conception.
With the exception of Paul who found the doctrine already formed, they were notoriously unlearned. The grand personality of Jesus stands out against the background of mediocrity afforded by His disciples. The most superficial ecamination will show us the impossibility of this hypothesis.
One can easily distinguish in the Gospels the additions of the Christian Jews, which clearly show their origin, and form a striking contrast to the words and doctrines of Jesus. ¹ It is evident from this fact that authors imbued to such an extent with narrow and superstitious views were incapable of inventing a personality, a doctrine, a life and a death, like those of Christ.
In the sombre and exclusive Jewish world, filled with egotism and hatred, the doctrine of fraternity and love could only emanate from an unusually high intelligence.
If the Scriptures, as a whole, were nothing but a collection of allegories, a pure work of imagination, the doctrine of Jesus could not have maintained itself through the ages, in the midst of the diverse currents which agitated the Christian world. A building without a foundation, it would have crumbled to pieces by the mere force of time. But it is still alive and powerful, in spite of the alterations to which it has been subjected, in spite of all that men have done to disifgure it, to drown it in a deluge of erroneous interpretations.
The belief in a myth would not have been sufficient to inspire the early Christians with the spirit of martyrdom, with heroism in the face of death; it would not have furnished them with the means of establishing a religion which has lasted twenty centuries. Truth alone can defy the ages, and keep its force, its gradeur, in face of all efforts to undermine it.
Jesus is truly the coner-stone of Christianity, the soul of the new revelation.
Besides, historical testimony to the existence of Jesus, though limited, is not wholly missing. Suetonius, in his history of the firs Caesars, speaks of the execution of "Christus." Both he and Tacitus mention the existence of a sect of Christians among the Jews, before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus.
The Talmud speaks of the death of Jesus on the cross, and all the Jewish rabbis acknowledge the value of this testimony.
If need need were, the Gospels themselves would furnish us with the moral proof of the existence and high mission of the Christ. If numbers of apocryphal occurrences have been introduced into them later on, if the Jewish superstitions are found in them under the form of fanciful recitals and superannuated theories, there still remain two things which could not have been invented and which carry in themselves their own stamp of authenticity: the sublime drama of Calvary, and the profound and gentle teachings of Jesus.
These teachings are simple and clear in their essential principles; they are addressed to the people, especially to the poor and humble. They instruct the heart, and elighten and strengthen the conscience. They also contain traces of a secret doctrine. Jesus often spoke in parables. His thought, usually so luminously clear, is sometimes veiled in a semi-obscurity, and one only sees the outlines of a grand idea through the mask of a symbol. He explains this when he quotes Is. VII. 9, and adds: "I speak to them in parables, for it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given." (Matt. XIII. 10, 11.)
It is evident that htere were two doctrines in primitive Christianity, one for the people, presented in a form easily understood of all, and the other a secret doctrine, reserved for disciples and initiates.
The proof of the existence of this secret teachings is found in the words already quoted and in the following ones. After the parable of the sower, the disciples asked Jesus to explain its meaning and He replied: "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables; that seeing, they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, may see, and not understand." (Mark IV. 11, 12.)
St. Paul confirms this in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. III., when he draws the difference between the language to be used to the carnal man and that to the spiritual man, namely, to the profane and the initiates.
The initiation was doubtless gradual. Those who received it were anointed, and afterwards entered into the communion of Saints. This gives us the key to these words of John: "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written to you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it."
The founder of Christianity never separated the religious idea from its social application. "The Kingdom of Heaven" was to Him the perfect association of spirits of which He wished to create the image on earth. But He met the resistance of already established interests, and thousands of obstacles and danger sprang up around Him, adding a new reason for hiding under a parable or a miracle that which, in His doctrine, was bound to shock old ideas and threaten political and religious institutions. The obscurities of the Gospel were therefore intentional, the higher truths being hidden under the veil of symbolism. Man was taught that which he needed to shape his moral conduct in everyday life, but the profound philosophical meaning of the doctrine was reserved for a small number. ²
Hence the "Communion of Saints, the communion of elevated thought, of high and pure aspirations." This communion lasted but a short time. Earthly passions and ambitions soon destroyed it and politics introduced themselves into the priesthood. Bishops, from humble adepts, and modest overseers, became powerful and proud. Theocracy was established and sson succeeded in hiding the light under a bushel, and the light was extinguished. The deeper thought disappeared and the material symbols alone remained. This darkness rendered easier the task of governing the people. The priesthood preferred to leave the masses plunged in the depths of ignorance rather than elevate them to the heights of intellect. The Christian mysteries were henceforth explained only to churchmen. The thinkers, the earnest seekers who endeavoured to reach the lost truths were persecuted as heretics. The darkness became deeper and deeper over the world after the dissolution of the Roman Empire, and the belief in Satan and hell took on great proportions in the Christian faith. The religion of love preached by Jesus was replaced by the religion of fear.
The invasion of the barbarians also contributed much to this state of things in bringing society back to a condition of childhood, for the invaders were, in intellectual development, mere children themselves. From the vast plains and deep forests, the barbarian world hurled itself against civilisation. These ignorant and rough multitudes caused an intellectual decadence both in the pagan and Christian world. Christianity succeeded in conquering them, but at a great cost to itself. The divine ideal was veiled, and worship became material. To impress the imagination of the masses, idolatrous practices were revived, which were worthy only of the earliest ages of humanity, and to dominate the people and lead them by both fear and hope, the strangest dogmas were combined. The idea of realisin on earth the reign of God and of His justice, which had been that of the early Christians, was lost sight of. The announcement of the end of the world and the last judgement taken literally, the cares of individual salvation, traded on by the priests, and a thousand other causes combined to turn Christianity out of its true channel and drown Jesus' great idea in a flood of superstition.
But against these evils we must set the services rendered by the Church to the cause of humanity. Without its hierarchy and powerful organisation, without the papacy which opposed the power of the sword by that of the mind, however obscured and mistaken, it is difficult to think what would have become of the moral life and conscience of humanity. In the midst of those ages of violence, lawlessness and darkness, the Christian faith inspired these barbarous people with a new ardour which instigated them to generous tasks, such as the Crusades, the founding of the orders of chivalry, and the creation of the arts of the middle ages. In the silence and peace of the cloisters, thought found refuge. Moral life, thanks to Christian institutions, was never completely extinguished, in spite of the brutal habits of the age. These are services for which we must thank the Church, in spite of the questionable means which she has used to ensure her rule over the human soul.
To resume, the doctrine of the Crucified One demanded, in its popular form, the conquest of eternal life by the sacrifice of the present. The religion of salvation, of the elevation of the soul by domination over matter, Christianity, constituted a necessary reaction against Greek and Roman polytheism, which although full of light was nevertheless a hot-bed of sensuality and corruption. Christianity marked an indispensable stage in the march of humanity, whose destiny is to rise from belief to belief, from conception to conception, towards the ever greater and nobler.
The era of Christianity, with its twelve centuries of darkness and trouble, was not one of happiness for the human race, but the aim of earthly life is not happiness, it is the elevation, by work, study, and suffering, in a word, the education of the soul, and the difficult and thorny path leads the more surely to perfection.
Christianity represents a profitable phase in the history of humanity, which would have been incapable of carrying out the social works which will build up its future, if it had not been impregnated with the thought and moral of the Gospels.
The Church is nevertheless to blame for having attempted to prolong indefinitely this state of ignorance. After having fed and protected the child, she tried to keep it in submission and intellectual servitude. She saved consciences only to oppress them. The Roman Church did not preserve the divine torch entrusted to her, and in chastisement from on high, or rather by the working of the just law of compensation, the darkness which she tried to spread around now reigns in her own bosom. She has never ceased to oppose the development of science and philosophy, going so far as to proscribe, from St Peter's chair, "progress, that eternal Law, liberality and modern civilisation." (Article 80 of the "Syllabus.")
Therefore it is outside of her, and even in opposition to her, that, starting from a certain moment of history, the whole movement of evolution of the human spirit has been accomplished. It took centuries to dissipate the darkness of the Middle Ages. It required the renaissance of letters, the religious reformation of the sixteenth century, philosophy, all the conquests of science which prepared the ground for the new revelation, for the voices from beyond the tomb which come by myriads, and from all points of the earth, to recall to man the pure teachings of Christ, to re-establish His doctrines, to render comprehensible all the great truths buried in the mists of ages.
¹ See notes 2 and 3, end of book.
² See note No. 4 at end of book.
Next: CHAPTER IV - THE SECRET DOCTRINE
| ° SPIRIT
MESSAGES |
DO NOT JUDGE
Spirit Communication received by Yvonne
Limoges
People are imperfect and no one has the right to judge another. We must all accept our brothers and sisters with unconditional love. Focus not on their previous mistakes but forgive them and forget. Look to the future with hope. Help people to change from the present day unto the future with the moral knowledge that Spiritism can bring them.
No one escapes the laws of cause and effect regarding their choices but the past cannot be undone. Condemn no one. But provide the means for future spiritual growth through the teaching of the Spiritist Doctrine in the knowledge of the true realities of life.
Explain that we are all
responsible for our actions (or non-actions) and choices but the
Creator is Perfectly Just and all circumstances are taken into
consideration. All are at their own individualized level of progression
and no one is any better than another in the Eyes of God.
Provide guidance, gentle advice, give consolation, and provide hope. Each soul will reach its highest potential but everyone must follow his or her own path towards purification.
Back
to
Content
In our last issue we started a study called "Campaign to Understand Skepticism" and we promised to present in each following issue an answer to one out of five questions that represent those that skpetics normally ask spiritists about. So, as promised, we have in this issue our answer to the first question.
Question 1
What do you think about the opposition of modern scientists to spiritualist beliefs? Do they provide a strong argument against spiritualist claims?
For more info see: http://www.ussmcongress.org/index.en.htm
Back to Content
October 10th - London
Venue: 212 Whitechapel Road, Ei 1BJ - Whitechapel Mission Hall (close to Whitechapel Sattion - underground - Distric Line)
Lecture by Dr. Decio Iandoli - 6pm to 7.15pm. - Reincarnation as a Biological Law
Lecture by Dr. Marlene Nobre - 7.30pm to 9pm. - Beyond this Life
Translated into English
Information: bussevents@aol.com tel 01323 895979 - www.spiritismuk.org
Lecture by Dra. Marlene Nobre - 6.30pm – 7.45 pm - Spirit Attachment: A Challenge to Psychiatry and to the Health Profession.
Lecture by Dr. Roberto Lúcio V.de Souza - 8.00pm - 9.15pm - The Multiple Faces of Depression
October 12th - London
Lecture by Dr. Roberto Lúcio V.de Souza - 6.30pm - 7.45pm - Patient Care (treatment) at a Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital
Lecture by Dr. Marlene Nobre - 8.00pm - 9.15pm - Proof of Life After Death: Research on Mediumship and Near Death Experiences.
Information: - 0207 244 9648 / 07784840671 - spiritist.association@virgin.net
Back to Content
Join the members of the GEAE-Advanced Study Group of Spiritism to study the Spiritist Doctrine in a monthly virtual meeting at PalTalk, which takes place every second Sunday of each month from 5:00 to 6:30 PM (USA Standard Eastern Time).
Back to Content
| ° SPIRITIST STUDIES |
In our last issue we started a study called "Campaign to Understand Skepticism" and we promised to present in each following issue an answer to one out of five questions that represent those that skpetics normally ask spiritists about. So, as promised, we have in this issue our answer to the first question.
Question 1
What do you think about the opposition of modern scientists to spiritualist beliefs? Do they provide a strong argument against spiritualist claims?
Answer:
The opposition of scientist to certain spiritualist beliefs is something perfect natural, which should be understood within the freedom that they have, while in the condition of men and women, to keep their own creeds. However, many people believe that, by the mere fact of being scientists, give them more authority even on matters that lie totally outside their current professional works.
If a man is sufficiently instructed in music or poetry, his knowledge does not give him any condition to judge on other matters such as chemistry of physics. The same happens to knowledge that Spiritist and Spiritualist have acquired on regard to the spirit manifestation and spirit condition after death. In this reasoning, no pride or self-love is implicit since it is very obvious (Principle 1, see below) that a single man who have acquired any knowledge on any obscure question may have in fact more authority than any other group of individuals (no matter their number) who possess no knowledge.
We would like here to complete our answer to the questions above with two simple but powerful principles as stated by the famous French philosopher René Descartes in the 17 century [1]. The first is the principle that we discussed above about the knowledge of the causes:
Principle I - :: "Nor in this perhaps shall I appear too vain, if it be considered that, as the truth on any particular point is one whoever apprehends the truth, knows all that on that point can be known. The child, for example, who has been instructed in the elements of arithmetic, and has made a particular addition, according to rule, may be assured that he has found, with respect to the sum of the numbers before him, and that in this instance is within the reach of human genius." [2]
And the other is a principle that we may call "statistical trustfulness of pooling". It is often claimed that since the majority does not believe in a certain fact, it is very probable that the fact may be false. The argument is applied in the following way: since the overwhelming majority of psychologists, parapsychologist or other scientists does not believe or exclude the principle of survival (which is often call "survival hypothesis") the hypothesis or principle should safely be rejected at all. Nothing is, in fact, farthest from truth:
Principle II - "And, finally, although such be the ground of our opinions, I remarked that a plurality of suffrages is no guarantee of truth where it is at all of difficult discovery, as in such cases it is much more likely that it will be found by one than by many. I could, however, select from the crowd no one whose opinions seemed worthy of preference.(.)"[3]
In other words, in all uncertain or unknown matters, the value of the majority opinion is inversely proportional to the amount of people that believe in them. This is in fact a statistical consequence, since the probability of 2 people being right on regard to a certain unknown question (with chance equal to 50% of being right or wrong) is 2 times smaller than a single person. The probability of N people have the right opinion goes to zero as N increases.
Only a well structured theory which harmonically accommodates all facts observed in Nature can decide or be sufficient to decide about such difficult matters. Therefore, the opinion of scientists, particularly if they are occupied with their own works which have very little to do with spiritualist or spiritist subjects, have the same value of the opinion of any common man.
[1] R Descartes, "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences" :: http://www.literature.org/authors/descartes-rene/reason-discourse/index.html
[2] Reference [1] Chapter II.
[3] Reference [1] Chapter II.
The opposition of scientist to certain spiritualist beliefs is something perfect natural, which should be understood within the freedom that they have, while in the condition of men and women, to keep their own creeds. However, many people believe that, by the mere fact of being scientists, give them more authority even on matters that lie totally outside their current professional works.
If a man is sufficiently instructed in music or poetry, his knowledge does not give him any condition to judge on other matters such as chemistry of physics. The same happens to knowledge that Spiritist and Spiritualist have acquired on regard to the spirit manifestation and spirit condition after death. In this reasoning, no pride or self-love is implicit since it is very obvious (Principle 1, see below) that a single man who have acquired any knowledge on any obscure question may have in fact more authority than any other group of individuals (no matter their number) who possess no knowledge.
We would like here to complete our answer to the questions above with two simple but powerful principles as stated by the famous French philosopher René Descartes in the 17 century [1]. The first is the principle that we discussed above about the knowledge of the causes:
Principle I - :: "Nor in this perhaps shall I appear too vain, if it be considered that, as the truth on any particular point is one whoever apprehends the truth, knows all that on that point can be known. The child, for example, who has been instructed in the elements of arithmetic, and has made a particular addition, according to rule, may be assured that he has found, with respect to the sum of the numbers before him, and that in this instance is within the reach of human genius." [2]
And the other is a principle that we may call "statistical trustfulness of pooling". It is often claimed that since the majority does not believe in a certain fact, it is very probable that the fact may be false. The argument is applied in the following way: since the overwhelming majority of psychologists, parapsychologist or other scientists does not believe or exclude the principle of survival (which is often call "survival hypothesis") the hypothesis or principle should safely be rejected at all. Nothing is, in fact, farthest from truth:
Principle II - "And, finally, although such be the ground of our opinions, I remarked that a plurality of suffrages is no guarantee of truth where it is at all of difficult discovery, as in such cases it is much more likely that it will be found by one than by many. I could, however, select from the crowd no one whose opinions seemed worthy of preference.(.)"[3]
In other words, in all uncertain or unknown matters, the value of the majority opinion is inversely proportional to the amount of people that believe in them. This is in fact a statistical consequence, since the probability of 2 people being right on regard to a certain unknown question (with chance equal to 50% of being right or wrong) is 2 times smaller than a single person. The probability of N people have the right opinion goes to zero as N increases.
Only a well structured theory which harmonically accommodates all facts observed in Nature can decide or be sufficient to decide about such difficult matters. Therefore, the opinion of scientists, particularly if they are occupied with their own works which have very little to do with spiritualist or spiritist subjects, have the same value of the opinion of any common man.
[1] R Descartes, "Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason, and Seeking Truth in the Sciences" :: http://www.literature.org/authors/descartes-rene/reason-discourse/index.html
[2] Reference [1] Chapter II.
[3] Reference [1] Chapter II.
| ° UPCOMING EVENTS |
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2006
|
9am – 12pm |
Spirituality in Patient Care |
|
12 – 1pm |
Lunch break |
|
1 – 1:40pm |
The Spiritist Medical Paradigm |
|
1:40 – 2:30pm |
Why Must I Suffer? - Searching for the Soul in
Psychiatry |
|
2:30 – 3:30pm |
Mental Disease in Spiritist & Medical
Treatment |
|
3:30 – 4:10pm |
Spirituality and its Association with
Cardiovascular
Disease |
|
4:10 – 5:20pm |
The Impact of Reincarnation on the Paradigm of
Change |
|
5:20 – 6pm |
Organic and Psychic Phenomenology of Mediumship |
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2006
|
9 – 11am |
Near
Death Experiences – NDE and |
|
11:10am – 12pm |
Spirit Attachment, Spirit Release and Soul
Integration |
|
12 – 1pm |
Lunch break |
|
1 – 1:40pm |
Forgiveness and Reconciliation |
|
1:40 – 2:20pm |
Transdimensional Physiology |
|
2:20 – 3:20pm |
Universities and Spirituality in the 3rd
Millennium |
|
3:20 – 4pm |
The Multiple Faces of Depression |
|
4 – 4:40pm |
Scientific Evidence of Intercessory Prayer: A
Systematic
Review |
|
4:40 – 5:20pm |
Scientific Evidence for Life after Death:
Research on
Mediumship |
|
5:20 – 6pm |
Love and its Healing Power |
Program
subject
to change without prior notification.
For more info see: http://www.ussmcongress.org/index.en.htm
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October 10th - London
Venue: 212 Whitechapel Road, Ei 1BJ - Whitechapel Mission Hall (close to Whitechapel Sattion - underground - Distric Line)
Lecture by Dr. Decio Iandoli - 6pm to 7.15pm. - Reincarnation as a Biological Law
Lecture by Dr. Marlene Nobre - 7.30pm to 9pm. - Beyond this Life
Translated into English
Information: bussevents@aol.com tel 01323 895979 - www.spiritismuk.org
London's Spiritist Health
Professionals Association
presents
presents
October 11th -
London
Lecture by Dra. Marlene Nobre - 6.30pm – 7.45 pm - Spirit Attachment: A Challenge to Psychiatry and to the Health Profession.
Lecture by Dr. Roberto Lúcio V.de Souza - 8.00pm - 9.15pm - The Multiple Faces of Depression
October 12th - London
Lecture by Dr. Roberto Lúcio V.de Souza - 6.30pm - 7.45pm - Patient Care (treatment) at a Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital
Lecture by Dr. Marlene Nobre - 8.00pm - 9.15pm - Proof of Life After Death: Research on Mediumship and Near Death Experiences.
Information: - 0207 244 9648 / 07784840671 - spiritist.association@virgin.net
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Join the members of the GEAE-Advanced Study Group of Spiritism to study the Spiritist Doctrine in a monthly virtual meeting at PalTalk, which takes place every second Sunday of each month from 5:00 to 6:30 PM (USA Standard Eastern Time).
Our goal in this study is a simple one, where everyone is seen as a student aiming to promote a friendly and salutary interaction of fraternal and mutual help, which will enable each and every one of the participants to boost their level of knowledge and spiritual awareness.
Although we select the topic of study at each meeting, we are open to questions, comments and input of a broader perspective and all the participants are allowed to take part in in the discussions taking place at the meetings. The meetings have already been ongoing for a year and it has been a great and fulfilling experience to all of us.
The group - GEAE-Spiritism to the World - can be found at Paltalk, inside the category Religious. You may join with a simple double click, on the hours and dates above, and the operational process that allows you to actively participate in the studies is very easy and self-explanatory.
We also invite you to keep checking Paltalk, for we may open the group occasionally at no scheduled dates and times in order to handle informal conversation with those interested in learning about Spiritism in general. If you do so and find the group active, just come in and feel free to talk to us and tell us about your experiences and place your questions that we will be glad to answer them according to the view of the Spiritist Doctrine.
GEAE
- Advanced Study Group of Spiritism
Editorial Council
Editorial Council
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GRUPO DE ESTUDOS
AVANÇADOS
ESPÍRITAS
ADVANCED STUDY GROUP OF SPIRITISM
ADVANCED STUDY GROUP OF SPIRITISM
Electronic weekly report in Portuguese - Boletim do GEAE
Monthly
English
report: "The Spiritist Messenger"
The
Spiritist Messenger is sent by email to GEAE subscribers
or to inscricao-en@geae.inf.br with the subject "unsubscribe"
(Free) subscriptions http://www.geae.inf.br/
Send your comments to editor-en@geae.inf.br
or to inscricao-en@geae.inf.br with the subject "unsubscribe"
Editorial
Council - mailto:editor@geae.inf.br
Collection in Portuguese (Boletim do GEAE)
Collection in English (The Spiritist Messenger)
Collection in Spanish (El Mensajero Espírita)