| Year 16 | Number 91 | 2008 | January 15th, 2008 |
| "Unshakable
faith is only that which can face reason face to
face in every Humankind epoch." Allan Kardec |
| "Independent as it is of any particular
religious denomination, Spiritism does not favor one over another nor
concerns itself with individual dogmas. Neither does it constitute a
special religion; it has neither priests nor temples. In answer to the
question of whether one should follow one practice or another its only
response is 'Do what your conscience dictates. God always considers the
intention'. In other words, Spiritism imposes nothing to anyone. It
does not address itself to those who have faith and to whom such faith
is sufficient, but rather to the large class of the uncertain and the
disbelieving. It does not separate such people from their churches;
they are already partially or completely alienated from them. In fact,
Spiritism helps them to travel three-fourths of the way towards
returning to their churches; it is up to the churches to do the rest." Excerpt from Allan Kardec's Spiritism
In Its Simplest Expression
[Introduction to the Spiritist Philosophy - Allan Kardec Educational Society, 2nd Edition, 2004] PLATO
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| °EDITORIAL
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| SPIRITISM IS WHAT IT IS AND NEEDS NO
LABEL |
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| ° THE CODIFICATION
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| THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM |
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| CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM by Leon Denis | |||
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| RELIGIOUS TRUTH |
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| INSTRUCTIONS FROM THE SPIRITS |
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| TREND OR TRENDY? THE DEVELOPMENT AND
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PARANORMAL BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY - by James E. Beichler, PhD
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2nd SPIRITIST SYMPOSIUM
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| ° EDITORIAL |
One of the greatest disservices that religious orthodoxy have rendered to mankind throughout millenniums, was the work to deface the purity of the messages imparted from the spiritual world, to satisfy their interests and frailties. The sole essence of these messages is the improvement of the humankind and they are constantly being delivered by superior spirits who know well our condition and our needs. Acting as true messengers of God and absolutely detached from the vain interests that still prevail in our world, these evolved beings, since immemorial times, have granted us with the guidance that we need in order to achieve peace and happiness.
Regardless the purity, the greatness and the benefit that this guidance would bring to the human race's amelioration, if well observed and followed, they have rather been subjected to continuous interpolation and deceit, in order to fit the interests of groups that are fighting for power, rather than for the spiritual progress of the human species. Due in part to the fact that these messages were delivered in an epoch where scientific progress was yet in its dawn, it has been a common and easy practice among the so-called safeguard of the moral values of humanity, the religious orthodoxy, to manage to misrepresent them by attaching their theologian sophistry. One will realize that this is an easy assumption to reach upon, solely by taking a critical and brief look into the history of the main religions.
In his acclaimed work entitled The Outline of History [Garden City Books, New York, 1961], H. G. Wells makes the following assertions in regard to Buddhism, for instance, and the continuous process of interpolations it suffered throughout times:
"The fundamental teaching of Gautama, as it is now being made plain to us by the study of original sources, is clear and simple and in the closest harmony with modern ideas. It is beyond all dispute the achievement of one of the most penetrating intelligences the world has ever known.
We have what are almost certainly the authentic heads of his discourse to the five disciples which embodies his essential doctrine. All the miseries and discontents of life he traces to insatiable selfishness. Suffering, he teaches, is due to the craving individuality, to the torment of greedy desire. Until a man has overcome every sort of personal craving his life is trouble and his end sorrow. [Excerpt from Chapter XXIV The Rise and Spread of Buddhism, Item 3, p. 315].
"In certain other respects this primitive Buddhism differed from any of the religious we have hitherto considered. It was primarily a religion of conduct, not a religion of observances and sacrifices. It had no temples; and, since it had no sacrifices, it had no sacred order of priests. Nor had it any theology. It neither asserted nor denied the reality of the innumerable and often grotesque gods who were worshiped in India at that time. It passed them by." [Excerpt from Chapter XXIV - The Rise and Spread of Buddhism, Volume I, Item 3, pp. 317-318].
"The cult and doctrine of Gautama, gathering corruptions and variations from Brahmanism and Hellenism alike, was spread throughout India by an increasing multitude of teachers in the fourth and third centuries B.C. For some generations at least it retained much of the moral beauty and something of the simplicity of the opening phase." [Excerpt from Chapter XXIV - The Rise and Spread of Buddhism, Volume I, Item 4, p. 320]
"The faith of Buddha, which in the days of Asoka, and even so late as Kanishka, was still pure enough to be a noble inspiration, we now discover absolutely lost in a wilderness of preposterous rubbish, a philosophy of endless Buddhas, tales of manifestations and marvels like a Christmas pantomime, miraculous conceptions by six-tusked elephants, charitable princes giving themselves up to be eaten by starving tigresses, temples built over a sacred nailparing, and the like." [Excerpt from Chapter XXIX - The History of Asia during the Decay of the Western and Byzantine Empires, Volume I, Item 10, p. 473].
In the aforementioned work we will find clear references to the same process of interpolations, to which the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth were also subjected throughout different epochs.
"Jesus had called men and women to a giant undertaking, to the renunciation of self, to the new birth into the kingdom of love. The line of least resistance for the flagging convert was to intellectualize himself away from from this plain doctrine, this stark proposition, into complicated theories and ceremonies, that would leave his essential self alone. How much easier is it to sprinkle oneself with blood than to purge oneself from malice and competition; to eat bread and drink wine and pretend one had absorbed divinity; to give candles rather than the heart; to shave the head and retain the scheming privacy of the brain inside it! The world was full of such evasive philosophy and theological stuff in the opening centuries of the Christian era. [Excerpt from Chapter XXVIII - The Rise of Christianity and the Fall of the Western Empire, Volume I, Item 5, p. 432].
"It is necessary that we should recall the reader's attention to the profound differences between this fully developed Christianity of Nicæa and the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. All Christians hold that the latter is completely contained in the former, but that is a quest5ion outside our province. What is clearly apparent is that the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth was a prophetic teaching of the new type that began with the Hebrew prophets. It was not priestly, it had no consecrated temple, and no altar. It had no rites and ceremonies. Its sacrifice was 'a broken and a contrite heart.' Its only organization was an organization of preachers, and its chief function was the sermon. But the fully fledged Christianity of the fourth century, though it preserved as its nucleus the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, was mainly a priestly religion, of a type already familiar to the world for thousands of years. The centre of its elaborate ritual was an altar, and the essential act of worship the sacrifice, by a consecrated priest, or the Mass. And it had a rapidly developing organization of deacons, priests, and bishops." [Excerpt from Chapter XXVIII - The Rise of Christianity and the Fall of the Western Empire, Volume I, Item 8, pp. 438-439].
These evidences should serve us as a great warning and help us to avoid falling prey to these orthodox systems. Allan Kardec, the codifier of the Spiritist Doctrine, was absolutely aware of the possibility that Spiritism would be subjected in the future to the same type of subtle additions. However, as he was intellectual and spiritual well prepared for the task, he bravely strove to face the prevailing materialistic ideas of his times, as well as the prejudices and the strong opposition of the religious orthodoxy, to bestow us with a well set, clearly defined and rational doctrine.
Amongst the primary and essential characteristics of this doctrine, one that clearly reaches out due to its intrinsic universal approach, is that it cannot be considered as a religion. Although many in the spiritist movement nowadays struggle to prove the contrary, Allan Kardec himself made this matter very clear, especially in his writings in the Revue Spirite. It is intriguing to note that it was exactly the members of the Roman Church, the ones who firstly stepped forward and tried to label spiritism as a religion. In the beginning, because they saw spiritism as a new sect that would eventually compete with them, and later when they ran out on their ridiculous argument that spiritism was a devil thing. The following assertion by Allan Kardec, answering to the arguments in an article authored by the Abode Chesnel of Paris and published on the L'Univers, would be enough to disprove the unreasonable affirmation that spiritism is a religion.
"Spiritism is then not a religion. On the contrary it would have its cult, its temples, its ministries. Undoubtedly anyone may convert their opinions in a religion or interpret at their will the known religion; but from this to the constitution of a new Church we would be far from and I think that it would be not prudent to follow this idea. In summary, Spiritism is concerned with the observation of the facts and not with the particularity of this or that faith; with the research of the causes, with the explanation that the facts can give to the known phenomena, either in its moral order as much as in the physical order and it does not impose cultism to its partisans, in the same manner that astronomy does not impose the cult of the stars, neither pyrotechnics the cult of fire. (...) What does this prove? That we are not atheists. But in no manner does it imply that we are followers of one religion." [Revue Spirite - May 1859 - Resposta a um Artigo de L'univers - pp. 149 e 150 - Translation from Portuguese by the Editorial's author].
Unlike the previous messages imparted from the spiritual world, which have the sole purpose of helping us to reach the possible and relative truth and achieve peace and happiness, the Spiritist Doctrine reached us in an epoch where the scientific progress had already been rooted in our world. It is a doctrine devoid from all the sophistry and subtleties which are entangled with the orthodox religions. Consequently, in order to take advantage of these beneficial teachings and set ourselves free from this constant circle of manipulations, it is solely required that we wake from our childish dream of salvation without work and dedicate ourselves to a serious and persistent study of the matters related with our own existential queries. The Spiritist Doctrine is one option, but it needs no label and here we think it is opportune to quote one of its greatest writers, J. Herculano Pires, who says: "Spiritism is a doctrine that exists in the books and needs to be studied".
It is also opportune to remember the great spiritist philosopher Leon Denis, when he says:
"What mankind needs now is no more a belief, a faith drawn from some particular system of religion, and inspired by texts which though worthy of respect, are of very doubtful authenticity, and in which truth and error are inextricable mixed. What is needed is a belief founded on proofs, on facts, a certitude based on study and experience, from which will come an ideal of justice, a true understanding of destiny, an incentive to perfection, which will regenerate the nations and link together men of all races and all religions." [Christianity and Spiritualism, Chapter VI - The Alteration of Christian Dogmas, p. 117].
Antonio Leite
Editor GEAE
Back to Content
| ° THE CODIFICATION |
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SPIRITISM
BY Allan Kardec
Translation By Janet A. Duncan
[Allan Kardec Publishing LTD - England, 1987]
CHAPTER 2
MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD
THE FUTURE LIFE
Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice (John, 18: 33, 36 & 37).
This doctrine can therefore be considered as the basis of Christ’s teaching. Therefore it has been placed as the first item in this work. It must be the point to be most closely looked at, as it is the only one that justifies the anomalies and irregularities of earthly life and also shows itself to be in accordance with the justice of God.
3. The Jews had only very vague ideas as to the future life. They believed in angels, whom they considered to be privileged beings of the creation; they did not know, however, that men and women could one day become angels and so participate in the same happiness. According to them the observance of God's Law would bring worldly recompense, the supremacy of their nation and victory over their enemies. The public calamities and downfalls were a punishment for disobedience to these laws. Moses could say no more than this to those who were mostly shepherds or ignorant people who needed to be touched, before anything else, by worldly things. Later, Jesus revealed that there existed another
world where God's justice follows its course. This is the world He promises to all those who obey the commandments of God and where the good find recompense. This is His kingdom, where He will be found in all His glory and to which He returned when He left Earth.
However, when adapting His teachings to the conditions of humanity at that time, Jesus did not consider it convenient to give them all the truth, for He saw they would only be dazzled by it and unable to understand. So He limited Himself, in a manner of speaking, to the presentation of a future life as a principle, as a natural law whose action no one could escape. Therefore every Christian firmly believes in a future life. But the idea that many hold is still vague, incomplete, and because of this, quite false on various points. For the majority of people it is nothing more than a belief, void of absolute certainty, so this is why there are doubts and even incredulity.
Spiritism has come to complete this point, as well as many others touched on by the teachings of Christ, now that Man is sufficiently mature as to be able to learn the truth. With Spiritism a future life is no longer an article of faith, a mere hypothesis, but becomes a material reality as facts demonstrate, because those who have described it to us have all been eye witnesses, so that not only is doubt no longer possible, but also anyone of whatever intelligence is able to get an idea of its many varied aspects, in the same way that we can imagine what a country we have never visited is like by reading a detailed description of it. But this description of the future life is circumstantiated to such an extent, the conditions of existence for those who reside there, be they happy or unhappy, are so rational that we are bound to agree that it could not be otherwise, that it represents the true justice of God.
A POINT OF VIEW
place themselves by means of thought in the spiritual life, which is undefined, bodily life becomes a mere temporary stay in an ungrateful country. The vicissitudes and tribulations of this life become nothing more than incidents, which can be supported with patience as they are known to be of short duration and will be followed by a more amenable state. Death no longer has terror attached to it; it ceases to be a door opening on to nothingness and becomes a door that opens to liberation, through which the exile enters into a well-blessed mansion, and there finds peace. Knowing that the place where we find ourselves at the moment is only temporary and not definite, makes us pay less attention to the preoccupations of life, resulting in less bitterness and a more peaceful Spirit.
Simply by doubting the existence of a future life, Man directs all his thoughts to earthly existence. Without any certainly of what is to come he gives everything to the present. With the mistaken idea that there is nothing more precious than earthly things, Man behaves as a child who can see only his toys and is prepared to go to any length to obtain the only possessions he judges to be solid. The loss of even the least of these causes pungent hurt. A mistake, a deception, an unsatisfied ambition, an injustice to which the person has fallen victim, hurt pride or vanity, to
name but a few, are just some of the torments which turn existence into an eternal agony, so in this manner causing self-inflicted torture at every step. From the point of view of earthly life, in whose center we place ourselves, everything around us begins to assume vast proportions. The harm that reaches us, as well as the good that touches others, takes on a great importance in our eyes. It is like the man, who, when in the middle of a great city sees everything on a large scale, but who, when looking down from a mountain top sees things in only minute form.
This is what happens when we look at life from the point of view of a future existence. Humanity, just as the stars in space, loses itself in the great immensity. We begin to see that great and small things are confounded, as ants on top of an ant hill, that proletarians and potentates are the same stature. We lament that so many short-lived creatures give themselves over to so much labor in order to conquer a place which will do so little to elevate them, and which they will occupy for so short a time. From this it follows that the value given to earthly things is completely in reverse to that which comes from a firm belief in a future life.
6. If everybody thought in that manner, it could be argued that everything on Earth would be endangered because no one would bother about anything. But Man instinctively looks after his own well-being, so even if he knew it was but for a short while, he would still do his best. There is no one who, when finding a thorn in his hand, will not take it out so as not to suffer. Well then, the desire for comfort forces Man to better all things, seeing that he is impelled by the instinct of progress and conservation which are part of the Laws of Nature. Therefore, he works not only through necessity but because he wants to, and because of a sense of duty, so obeying the designs of Providence which placed him on Earth for that purpose. Only a person who occupies himself more with the future can give relative importance to the present. This person is easily consoled in all his failings and misfortunes by thinking of the destiny that awaits him.
Accordingly, God does not condemn all earthly pleasures and possessions, but only condemns the abuse of these things in detriment to the soul. All those who take these words of Jesus for themselves: My Kingdom is not of this world, are guarding against these abuses.
Those who identify themselves with a future life are as a rich person who loses a small sum without emotion. Those whose thoughts are concentrated on earthly things are as the poor man who loses all he has, and so becomes desperate.
7. Spiritism opens up and broadens out the thought process, so offering new horizons. In place of a short-sighted vision concentrated only on the present, which makes this fleeting moment passed on Earth the unique and fragile axis of the eternal future; Spiritism shows us that this life is
nothing more than a link in the magnificent, harmonious assembly which is God's work. It also shows us the solidarity which joins together all the different existences of one being, of all beings of the same world, and all the beings of all the worlds. It offers the base and the reason for universal fraternity, whereas the doctrine of the creation of the soul at the birth of the body, makes each creature a stranger one to the other. This solidarity between parts of a whole explains what is inexplicable when only one of these parts is considered. This entirety would not have been possible to understand at the time of Christ, and for this reason He waited till later to make this knowledge known.
| ° 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
This book is out of print indefinitely
1st Electronic Edition by
the
Advanced
Study Group of Spiritism
(GEAE)
2006
RENOVATION
= First Part =
Year by year, the number of experimenters has increased. Investigation has succeeded investigation, and the results have always confirmed previous conclusions. From these observations, multiplied infinitely, has come a certainty, that of the survival of the human being, and more precise ideas on the conditions of the future life.
By the attentive study of the phenomena, by the permanent communication established with the beyond, modern spiritualism has confirmed the great traditions of the past, the teachings of all religions, of all the high philosophies, touching the immortality of the soul and the existence of a great ruling Cause in the universe. What was formerly a hypothesis and a speculative line of thought, has now become a known fact. The future life is shown in all its striking reality; death has lost its terrifying aspect; heaven has come nearer to earth.
Spiritualism has done more than this. From the numerous investigations, from inquiries pursued during more than half a century, from all the facts, and all the revelations which proceed therefrom, it has constituted a new teaching, freed from all symbolism and obscurity, easily accessible even to the humblest, and which, for the erudite and the thinker, opens up vast perspectives of the higher grades of knowledge, and the conception of a superior ideal.
This teaching can give satisfaction to all, to the most refined as to the most uncultured, but it is especially addressed to those who suffer, who are bowed down under a heavy load or painful trials, to all those who need a living vivid faith to support them in their life, their work, their sufferings. It is especially addressed to the people. The masses have become incredulous and suspicious of all dogma, and religious belief, for they feel that they have been misled for centuries past. Nevertheless there exist always in them confused aspirations towards good, an innate desire for progress, liberty and light, which will help the new teaching and its regenerating action.
Modern spiritualism satisfies all those innate needs of the human soul, as no other doctrine has hitherto done. By the law of successive existences, it shows us justice ruling over the destiny of each. There are thus no more special privileges or exemptions, no more redemption by innocent blood, no more disinherited or favored ones.
All the spirits which people infinity, disseminated through space and the material worlds, are the creatures of their own works; all the souls which animate bodies of flesh, or are waiting for new reincarnations, are of the same origin, and destined to the same future. The merits, the acquired virtues, alone distinguish them, but all may rise by their own efforts and travel the path of infinite perfection. All family, subdivided into numerous sympathetic groups, and spiritual associations, of which the human family is but a reflection, a reduction, the members of which follow and assist each other through their many existences, living alternately the earth life and the free life of space, but always, sooner or later, coming together again.
Death thus loses the lugubrious, terrifying character which we have give it. It ceases to be the "king of terrors," but becomes rather a new birth, one of the conditions of the growth and development of life. All our existences are connected and form a whole. Death is only the passage from one to the other; for the sage, for the good man, it is the golden gate which opens into more beautiful regions.
When the prejudices which haunt our brains shall have faded away, man will understand the serene beauty and majesty of death. It is a mistake to think that it separates us from those dear to us. Thanks to spiritualism, we have the consolation of knowing that those who have preceded us in the beyond, watch over us and guide us in the dark ways of life. They are often at our side, invisible, ready to help us in our distress, to succor us in misfortune; and this knowledge gives us calmness and moral strength in time of trial. Their communications, their messages, soften for us the bitterness of the present, the sorrow of a separation which is only apparent. The teachings of the spirits develop our faculties and our knowledge. They tend to make us better, more confiding in the future and in the goodness of God.
Thus is realized and revealed to our eyes the law of fraternity and of solidarity which binds all men and of which humanity has already had an intuition. No more personal salvation, no more inexorable judgment which will fix the soul for ever far away from those who are dear to it, but instead, ever-possible reparation with the assistance of our brothers in space, the union of beings in their collective and eternal ascension.
This revelation gives us a new strength to resist the temptations and evil thoughts which assail us, and which we will avoid more carefully when we know that they cause grief to the members of our spiritual family, to our invisible friends.
In materialism, fraternity is but a word, altruism but a theory without foundation or meaning. Without faith in the future, man perforce devoted his whole attention to the present and to the enjoyments which it offers. In spite of all the exhortations of the theorists and the sophists, he felt little disposed to sacrifice himself, his interests, or his tastes, for the profit of a passing connection formed by ties contracted only yesterday, and which would be broken tomorrow. If death is the end of all things, he thought, why should I impose on myself privations for which I shall not be compensated? What is the good of virtue and of sacrifice, if all ends in nothing?
The inevitable result of such doctrines is the rapid development of selfishness, of the feverish search after riches, the care for exclusively material joys, the letting loose of passions, of violent appetites, of envy. All this is speedily produced. Under the action of this destructive breath, society is shaken to its foundations, and with it all the ideas of morality, of fraternity, of solidarity which the new spiritualism restores and strengthens.
"The belief in immortality," says Plato, "is the bond of every society; break this bond, and society falls to pieces."
In our time, leaning as we do to doubt, to negation, as a result of theological exaggerations, we are losing sight of this salutary idea. Experimental spiritualism gives us back our vanished faith, by placing it on a new and indestructible foundation.
The moral superiority of the doctrine of the spirits appears at every point. With it vanishes the iniquitous idea of the sin of one man borne by all. There is no more collective fall; all responsibilities are personal. Whatever be his condition in this world, be he born into suffering or misery and deprived of physical advantages and brilliant faculties, man knows that he is not experiencing an unmerited fate, but simply the result of his own previous actions. Therefore, wisdom counsels us to accept our fate without murmur, to fulfill our task faithfully, and to prepare ourselves for ever improving conditions.
Thanks to the doctrine of the spirits, man at last understands the object of life; he sees in it the means of education and reparation, he knows the greatness of the part he has to play; he ceases to curse fate and accuse God. He is delivered at one and the same time from the nightmares of annihilation and of hell, and from the illusion of an idle paradise.
The future is not one of useless and beatific contemplation, of the eternal immobility of the elect and the endless tortures of the damned. It is one of gradual evolution; it becomes after the course of trials and transformations, the circle of happiness, but always it is a life active and growing, the acquisition, by work, of an increasing amount of knowledge, of power and of morality; it is the progressive participation in the divine work, under the form of various missions, of devotion and of teaching, in the service of mankind.
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Everyone recognizes today the necessity of a moral education, capable of regenerating society and of saving us from the decadence which threatens to end in ruin.
For long the idea prevailed that it sufficed to generalize instruction, but instruction without moral teaching is powerless and sterile. First of all, we must make a man of the child, a man knowing his duty as well as his rights. It is not enough to develop intelligence, we must form the character, fortify the soul and the conscience. Knowledge must be supplemented by the light which reveals the future and the destiny of each. To make a new society, we need new and better men. Without that, all economic reforms, political combinations, and intellectual progress will be insufficient. The social order will only be as good as we are ourselves.
But this necessary education, on what is it to be based? It is not on negative theories, for they have been partly responsible for the ills of the present. It is not either on worn-out dogmas, on dead doctrines, on superficial beliefs which have no root in the soul.
No, mankind will accept no more symbols, legends, mysteries, veiled truths! It needs the full light, the splendid dawn of truth that the new spiritualism alone can offer him.
It alone can furnish a definite basis to morality and give to modern man the strength necessary to bear worthily his trials, to understand the causes of them, to react against them, to accomplish in all things his duty.
With the new spiritualism, man knows where he is going and his step becomes more firm, more assured. He knows that justice governs the world, that all is linked together, that each of his actions, good or bad, will weigh on him through time. In this thought, he finds strength to resist evil, and a powerful stimulant for good.
The spirit messages, the communion between the living and the dead have shown him the future beyond the tomb in all its living reality; he knows what fate awaits him, what responsibilities belong to him, what qualities he must acquire in order to be happy.
The study of spiritualism teaches us that life is a fight for the light; the struggle and the trial will only cease with the conquest of moral good. This thought fortifies the soul and prepares it for great works, for noble actions. Along with the sense of truth, it awakens in us confidence. Nourished by these principles, we fear neither adversity nor death. With a brave heart, we advance along fearless, without weakness or regret.
The elevating influence of spiritualism penetrates little by little into the most varied centers, from the most cultivated to the most obscure and degraded.
We have a proof of this in the following instance: In 1888, the convicts in the prison of Tarragona sent a most touching address to the International Spiritualist Congress, held at Barcelona, telling of the great moral help the knowledge of spiritualism had brought to them.
We find also in the working centers where spiritualism has spread, a very perceptible improvement in morals and habits, a firmer resistance to all excesses in general, and to anarchist theories in particular. Thanks to the counsels of the spirits, many vicious habits have been conquered, many troubled homes have become peaceful. Their teaching has awakened the lost faith, and with it, those virtues today become so rare.
It is a pleasant sight, for instance, to see, every Sunday, the crowds of spiritualist miners and their families who pour in from all surrounding points to Jumet (Belgium). They gather in a vast building, where, after the accustomed preliminaries, they listen with reverence to the teachings of their invisible guides, through the lips of the sleeping mediums. It is through one of them, a simple, uneducated working miner, who habitually speaks the Wallon patois, that the spirit of Canon Xavier Mouls, a priest of the greatest erudition and nobles character, manifest itself. It is to the Canon that the propagation of spiritualism and magnetism in the "corons" (or habitation of the Belgian miners) is due.
Mouls quitted this earth after having suffered cruel trials and bitter persecutions, but his spirit still watches over his beloved miners. Every Sunday he takes possession of the organs of speech of his favorite medium, and after a quotation from the scriptures, he, with priestly eloquence, discusses before them, for an hour, and in the purest French, the chosen subject, speaking to the hearts and intelligence of his listeners, exhorting them to do their duty, and to submit to the Divine laws. The impression produced on these people is very great, and it is the same wherever spiritualism is practiced in a serious manner by the lowly of the earth.
Sometimes, the spirits of miners known to those present, and how have shared their laborious existence, come and manifest themselves. They are easily recognizable by their language, their familiar expressions, by a thousand psychological details which are proofs of identity. They describe their mode of life in space, their sensations at the moment of death, the moral sufferings resulting from en evil past, from pernicious habits and tendencies to evil speaking and to intemperance, and these descriptions, full of animation and originality, exercise on the audience a great moral effect and produce a vivid and salutary impression, which brings about a distinct improvement in their ideas and habits.
In noting these facts, already very numerous, and daily increasing, we can realize how many unhappy souls have been comforted and benefited by spiritualism. It has saved many despairing ones from suicide, by proving to them the reality of survival, and giving back to them courage and the desire for life.
We certainly do not exaggerate in stating that many thousands of human beings belonging to different religions, Catholic and Protestant, and even the official representatives of those religions, who had been crushed and bruised by the trials of life and the death of their dear ones, deriving no help from their familiar doctrines, have found in the communion with the dead, in place of their vague faith, a firm conviction, an unshakable confidence in immortality.
This is what a Protestant clergyman wrote to Dr. A. Russel Wallace, the English scientist, after having discovered for himself the reality of the phenomena of spiritualism: - "Death appears to me now quite different from what it did in the past; after having suffered from deep depression due to the death of my sons, I am now full of confidence and joy; I am another man." ¹ Against these testimonials, so eloquent in their simplicity, there my be objected, it is true, the frauds, the trickery, the charlatanry and mercenary mediumship, in a word, all the abuses arising in certain cases from a wrong practice of experimental spiritualism, of which we have before spoken.
Those who indulge in these practices prove thereby their utter ignorance of spiritualism. If they knew its precepts and its laws, they would understand what a future they are preparing for themselves by acts which are so many profanations. They would realize the risk they run in making of an honorable and sacred rite, which should be approached only in the purest spirit, a means of vulgar gain, of shameless barter.
We shall also be reminded of the influence of evil spirits, the apocryphal communications signed by famous names, and cases of obsession and possession. But these influences have been exercised, these facts have occurred in all ages; men have always been exposed (often without knowing the causes) to the acts of invisibles of an inferior order, and the study of spiritualism comes precisely to furnish us with the means of escaping these influences, of working on the mischievous and evil spirits, and bringing them back to good, by evocation, by prayer, and by teaching.
The beneficent action of spiritualism is not confined to man, it extends to the inhabitants of space. By means of the relations established between the two worlds, enlightened adepts can influence the lower spirits, and by words o consolation and of pity, by wise counsels, redeem them from evil, hatred and despair.
And this is an imperative duty, the duty of every superior being towards his inferior brethren, whether they belong to one world or the other, it is the duty of the man elevated by spiritualism to the dignity of an educator and guide to perverse and backward spirits, sent to him to be helped and ameliorated. At the same time it is the surest way to purify the fluidic approaches to the earth.
It is with this object that every spiritualistic circle of any importance consecrates part of its séances to the instruction and the reformation of guilty souls; and by the interest shown in them, by kindly advice and especially by fervent prayer which brings down on them magnetic influences, the most hardened spirits are frequently brought back to better sentiments, and discontinue the painful obsessions they had been practicing on their victims.
By its erroneous conception of life beyond the tomb, by its doctrine of eternal damnation, the Church has long prevented the accomplishment of this duty. She forbids all communication between men and spirits, and sets a gulf between them. All those who on quitting the earth were considered as damned for their sins, could not look to man for moral help, consolation or prayer. The door was shut.
They met with the same difficulty from the other side, for exalted spirits, from the subtle nature of their envelope, by their ethereal fluids, out of harmony with those of the lower spirits, found more difficulty than men in communicating with them. All the poor wandering souls, torn by anguish, assailed by painful memories of the past, were abandoned to their own devices, without a friendly thought, or ray of sunshine to illumine their darkness. Generally imbued with inveterate prejudices, often convinced, through their mistaken education, of the reality of the eternal torments to which they imagined themselves to be condemned. These horrible ideas of their position often awakened thoughts of rage and fury, and a desire for vengeance which they attempted to satisfy on weak or sinfully inclined men.
The evil influence of these spirits was increased by the solitude in which they were left. Held down by their gross fluids in the atmosphere of the earth, in permanent contact with men, accessible to their influence, and able to exert their own on them, they soon had only one object in view, that of forcing men to share the torments they imagined themselves to be enduring.
That is why, during the Middle Ages, when all relations with the invisible were forbidden, considered culpable and punished by fire, cases of obsession and of possession were constantly on the increase, and the bad influences of evil spirits spread rapidly. In place of endeavoring to convert them by prayer and kindly exhortations, the Church had only anathema and maledictions for them; she used exorcisms, which are worse than useless, for their only result is to irritate the evil spirits, to provoke them to cynical and impious replies and increase the indecent and odious actions they suggested to their victims.
In losing sight of the pure Christian traditions, in stifling the voice of the invisible world by threats of tortures and the stake, the Church has denied the great law of solidarity which unites all God's creatures, and imposes on the more advanced the obligation to work for the instruction and improvement of their brethren. During many centuries she deprived men of the help, the light, the inestimable benefits following on communication with the higher spirits. She deprived them of the loving intercourse with the dear ones who have preceded us to the beyond, an intercourse which is the joy, the supreme consolation of the afflicted, the lonely ones of this earth, of all those who suffer the anguish of separation.
She has deprived mankind of that flood of spiritual life which descends from space, strengthens the soul, and upraises the sad and despairing heart.
Thus darkness settled little by little over men's souls, the most glorious truths became veiled, and odious or childish conceptions grew up. Doubt spread, and the spirit of skepticism and of negation pervaded the world.
The Church, by the mouth of its most accredited theologians, thought herself justified in asserting that no sentiment of pity or of charity remained in the hearts of believers or of the blessed, towards those who had been their relations, their companions, those near and dear to them in this world.
¹ "Miracles and Modern Spiritualism." A. Russel Wallace.
Next: CHAPTER XI - RENOVATION - Second Part
| ° SPIRIT
MESSAGES |
RELIGIOUS TRUTH
Received inspirationally by Yvonne Limoges
The Spiritist Society of Florida
Most of the current major religions have set into stone, so to speak, the basic tenets of their faiths. The ideas and beliefs of these religions were established before the Scientific Age and without the benefit of scientific methods of evaluation and investigation, and when mankind in his ignorance was guided by false notions and trepidation. Therefore, they have prematurely established mankind’s relationship to their Creator and their understanding of the purpose of life in their doctrines, which is why there are so many errors.
But, we see all major religions value: right conduct, accept the existence of an immortal soul, the existence of a Supreme Creator, belief in some kind of afterlife beyond the material world, and some kind of judgement regarding our behavior. Beyond these basic principles, humanity has added their own particular details depending on their level of understanding of the spiritual truths revealed to them, at that particular time and place in history.
Another concept, the so-called "Golden Rule" of Christianity, can be found in all major religions because it is the cornerstone of the Universal Law of Love. God wanted this most important message to reach all His children.
Nevertheless, the main error of many traditional religions, due to the intellectual and moral limitations of man, is to create man-made concepts which exclude their other brothers and sisters of the planet, in knowing and reaching God, because their sense of justice is too small and morally immature to include all humanity, as compared to the Creator with His Infinite Justice and Mercy. Many peoples cannot comprehend God’s magnanimity on this issue; His unlimited Love and unlimited Compassion. But this is what we would expect, since we are all at different spiritual and moral levels of understanding; not everyone is ready to accept and comprehend the Spiritist Doctrine’s principle of inclusiveness.
Mankind, with its lack of spiritual vision, have restricted God’s Infinite Capacity for Forgiveness and Compassion, by providing for only one material life, in the current Christian, Moslem, and Jewish beliefs. In these faiths, simplistically stated, good people who follow these faiths go to heaven, and bad people, and also with those who don’t profess belief in these particular faiths, go to hell. This concept excludes a huge population of the planet from "salvation" not in keeping with the Supreme Justice of God. But, these religions will eventually understand that their religions’ early concept of "resurrection" essentially represented the idea of reincarnation, and, they will learn that "Judgement Day" occurs continuously and automatically via the law of cause and effect.
Those religions primarily from the East, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. accept the important concepts of reincarnation and the law of karma. But among their followers are many who erroneously believe that release from suffering can only be accomplished solely through meditation, ascetic seclusion and exclusion from earthly duties, or through self torture, in their pursuit of Nirvana.
God’s Laws must be separated from humanity’s prejudices. The tool to accomplish this is use of reason in scientific investigation and research. The laws of the Universe are not supernatural, they are natural; superstition has no place. Man must also learn to reduce his pride which keeps him from accepting spiritual truths when he does find them.
Mankind has reached a certain level of spiritual and moral maturity and he has also advanced in intellectual capacity in using the scientific method, with these together,science will support appropriate religious belief. Then humanity will have reached a milestone in its evolutionary progression wherein, religious faith will be based on reasoned and proven scientific facts, and faith will be stronger for it.
Allan Kardec, through his codification of Spiritism (the science of the laws regarding the interaction between the material and spiritual worlds), has provided a supreme base from which to continue our study of the universal spiritual laws that govern our lives, here and in the spirit world. We have only just begun our work in pursuing understanding of the mysteries of the universe, of God, and the cosmic religion of Universal Truth!
The Gospel According to Spiritism
Chapter 17
BE PERFECT
D U T Y
7. Duty is a moral obligation, firstly to ourselves and then to others. Duty is a law of life encountered in the smallest details as well as in the most elevated acts. Now I wish to speak only of moral duty and not of that duty which refers to the professions.
Within the order of sentiments, duty is a very difficult one to fulfill because it finds itself in antagonism with the seductions of interest and of the heart. Its victories have no witnesses and its failures suffer no repressions. Man's intimate duty is left to his free-will. The pressure of Man's
conscience, this guardian of interior integrity, alerts and sustains him, but shows itself frequently impotent against the deceptions of passion. Duty of the heart, when faithfully observed, elevates Man, but how can we define it with exactitude? Where does duty begin? Where does it end? Duty
begins exactly at the point where the happiness or tranquility of our neighbor is threatened, and therefore terminates at the limit we would not wish to be passed in relation to ourselves.
God has created all men equal in relation to pain; whether we be small or great, ignorant or educated, we all suffer for the same motives so that each one may judge in clear consciousness the evil that can be done. With reference to goodness, in its infinite variety of expressions, the criterion
is not the same. Equality in the face of pain is God's sublime providence. He desires that all of His children, being instructed through their common experiences, should not practice evil with the excuse of not knowing its effects.
Duty is a practical summary of all moral speculation; it is the bravery of the soul which faces the anguishes of battle. It is both austere and mild, ready to adapt itself to the most diverse complications while maintaining inflexibility before temptations. The man who fulfills his duty loves God more than his fellow beings and loves his fellow beings more than himself. It is at one and the same time judge and slave in its own cause.
Duty is the most beautiful laurel of reason, and is born of it as a child is born of its mother. Man should love duty, not because it protects him from the evils of life from which humanity cannot escape, but because it transmits vigor to the soul, which it needs so as to be able to develop.
Duty grows and irradiates under a constantly more elevated form in each of the superior stages of humanity. A person's moral obligations towards God never cease. They must reflect the eternal virtues, which do not accept imperfect outlines, because He wishes the grandeur of His
work always to be resplendent before their eyes. - LAZARUS (Paris, 1863).
| ° ARTICLES |
OF THE PARANORMAL BY THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY
by James E. Beichler, PhD
= Third Part =
The emergence of the Second Scientific Revolution was due in large part to the clash between the electromagnetic theory and Newtonian mechanics, but the revolution went far beyond physics. Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory addressed the sources of electricity and magnetic fields as well as the properties of electromagnetic waves. When attempts were made to apply the electromagnetic model to the production (emission) and absorption of electromagnetic waves by material particles and bodies, the model failed to describe phenomena that were already well known in nature. This clash led to the development of two new theories to correct the problems: The quantum theory and relativity.
Max Planck solved the
problem of
blackbody radiation in 1900, which began the development of the
quantum theory. Planck found that only electromagnetic waves of
specific energies could be absorbed and emitted by ideal blackbodies,
whereas the electromagnetic theory did not place any such
restrictions on blackbody radiation. The specific electromagnetic
wave energies proposed by Planck became quanta of light. In 1905
Einstein expanded on the notion of quantum packets of light energy to
explain the photoelectric effect. The photocells that are so common
today are direct applications of the photoelectric effect. In the
same year, Einstein also explained Brownian motion, the random motion
of molecules in a liquid. This particular effort led to Jean Perrin’s
experiments to verify the existence of atoms a few years later. All
of these events form the foundations of quantum theory, although a
great deal was added in the ensuing decades as other applications of
the quantum hypothesis were used to explain a wide variety of
phenomena in the microscopic domain of nature.
Meanwhile, Einstein also wrote a third paper in 1905 on electrodynamics, which solved the propagation problems between electromagnetic theory and Newtonian mechanics. This paper introduced the notion of relativity and formed the other leg upon which the Second Scientific revolution stood. Einstein’s development of Special Relativity had far reaching consequences that went far beyond the physics at issue. Special Relativity unified the ordinary three-dimensional space and separate time of Newton into a single four-dimensional space-time continuum. Einstein clearly demonstrated that space and time were intimately linked together such that a change in one elicited some form of change in the other. The influence of this effect alone has not yet been fully realized in science. But more to the point, the immediate changes caused by the new theory of relativity were extremely influential.
Relativity showed that Newton’s absolute space and time as well as the ‘luminiferous aether’ of electromagnetism were superfluous in the new physics. With this loss of absolute space (and the Absolute) to physics, the older Newtonian relationship between Mind and Matter ended. Both theoretical and speculative physics were freed from any reference to the Cartesian concept of Mind. Fortunately, the new science of psychology was well in place to take up the slack and fill the void in the scientific understanding of mind. The role of Mind in physics and its relationship to Matter were henceforth no longer of concern in physics. On the other hand, the religious establishment was busy debating evolution theory and allowed itself to be forced out of the scientific equation by its association with absolute space and the Absolute.
The situation is far more complex than generally thought with the quantum theory. Quantum theory introduced statistics and probability as a fundamental feature of nature. Statistics was first used in science in thermodynamics, but statistics had only been introduced in thermodynamics because the macroscopic effects of extremely large numbers of microscopic molecules could not be determined by directly measuring the position and momentums of the individual molecules. The case was different with quantum theory where statistics was introduced as a fundamental property of the physical system and did not represent any inability to measure the microscopic elements of the mechanical system of particles affected by wave absorption and emission. The quantum theory also introduced the possibility of a limit to the reducibility of both space and time. Although it was simple and straightforward at first, the theory grew more complicated and paradoxical when it reached its final form after Werner Heisenberg introduced his Uncertainty Principle in 1926.
The Uncertainty Principle formalized the statistical view of nature and changed the emphasis of science to determinism and indeterminism from Mind and Matter. This shift in scientific priorities has plagued science for nearly a century and belittled the boundary problem between Cartesian Mind and Matter, which has now devolved into a simple distinction between objectivity and subjectivity. Uncertainty also placed a lower limit to the reducibility of space and time that has directed science away from the older reducibility problem of space first considered by Patrizi. While scientists and scholars have fully embraced these consequences of quantum theory, they have failed to even consider the full extent and continuing importance of the Mind/Matter and reducibility problems in either physics or general science. Yet there are other crucial consequences of the quantum theory that have not been enunciated at all.
These unforeseen results have had dire consequences for the progress of physics. In particular, the Uncertainty Principle actually maintains the Newtonian split between space and time even though scientists place the quantum (a priori) within a space-time background. According to the Uncertainty Principle, spatial position and momentum are complementary quantities as are energy and temporal position, but it says nothing about the relationship, uncertain or otherwise, between space and time. In uncertainty, space and time are not complementary quantities so they are treated separately. This discrepancy is a major cause of the problems that modern versions of the quantum theory, such as quantum field theory, are now facing. In fact, quantum theory can never be fully unified with relativity theory and give a complete picture of nature and the natural world until this problem is recognized and addressed by scientists. On the other hand, it is common practice among scientists to accept the ‘truth’ that consciousness is necessary to collapse the wave function and thus create material reality. The Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics goes even further and claims that there is no reality until consciousness intervenes in the measurement process and ‘collapses the wave function’. Einstein argued that there is an underlying reality and that the quantum theory is therefore incomplete, but nearly all physicists believe some form, either strong or weak, of the Copenhagen Interpretation and either ignore or misrepresent Einstein’s arguments because they do not understand them.
The vast majority within the scientific community still assumes that quantum theory is complete, guaranteeing that the quantum paradigm remains the major driving force in modern physics and exerts a disproportional large influence on all of modern science. If the wave function can only be collapsed by consciousness to create material reality, then consciousness exists outside of material reality and prior to material reality. Therefore the Uncertainty Principle introduces a new version of the Cartesian Paradox: Consciousness versus collapse (material reality) as opposed to Mind versus Matter.
This new version of the Cartesian Paradox is completely unrecognized within science. The whole of the scholarly community of scientists, academics and thinkers believes that the Mind/Matter problem has been resolved by the addition of psychology to the family of sciences and is now no more than a bothersome historical artifact that will not go away. Psychology refuses to consider the Cartesian Paradox as valid or relevant and does not normally consider studying mind or consciousness directly even though the Paradox is still used to determine what is supernatural, paranormal and perfectly normal within science. In other words, the quantum theory has managed to redefine the primary duality of Mind and Matter on its own terms and thereby obfuscate the central problem of science. Quantum theory then presents the appearance that it has solved the paradox in its own favor. The quantum theory is perfect in every way in its own mind and view.
During the second revolution, psychology denied its historical roots and devolved to a study of behaviorism alone. In a very real sense, psychology lost ‘consciousness’ until the 1960s and then only regained ‘consciousness’ slowly if at all. Behaviorism is a middle-of-the-road solution to the changing Cartesian boundaries and thus offers only a temporary solution to the Paradox. It was influenced by Mach’s middle-of-the-road approach to the problem of Mind and Matter as well as the positivism that Mach influenced. Behaviorism only considers the interactions and the mechanisms of interaction between minds rather than looking at mind and consciousness directly. Clearly, the emphasis by psychologists on behaviorism at the expense of consciousness was a result of rampant positivism in the early decades of the twentieth century and the statistical/probabilistic view of nature advocated by the quantum theory. These factors effectively reduced the Cartesian Paradox to the simple difference between objectivity and subjectivity within the sciences.
In the meantime, study of the paranormal was also changing from its earlier spiritualistic basis. Parapsychology emerged as a laboratory science under the direction of J.B. Rhine in the 1930s. As such, it did not deal directly with the concept of consciousness. Parapsychology developed as the behaviorists’ answer to the paranormal, dealing with human ‘lab rats’ and statistics. In other words, it was directly, if not subconsciously, influenced by quantum theory and positivism. The parallels are uncanny and clearly demonstrate the quantum mechanical influences. For example, in quantum theory the wave function is represented by the Greek letter psi and often called the psi function. The name psi was also adopted to describe the underlying process for all paranormal phenomena in the 1940s and rapidly became popular.
In spite of the parallels and relationship between the quantum theory and parapsychology, only two physicists, Joseph Rush and R.A. McConnell, worked in the field of parapsychology on a regular basis before the 1960s. Even as late as the 1960s, parapsychologists regularly debated whether psi should be regarded a purely mental or partially physical process, a very Cartesian oriented debate that maintained the split between Mind and Matter. Some progress was, however, made during the early decades of research and parapsychology was finally legitimized as a science in 1969 when the Parapsychology Association was admitted to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The legitimization of parapsychology as a real science marked a turning point for the study of the paranormal. The belated recognition resulted from the persistence of a few scientists as much as the successes of parapsychologists, but changing attitudes within the scientific community at large also influenced the legitimization process. Indeed, the whole of the 1960s was marked by cultural changes and changes of attitude in the scientific community that are still causing repercussions today. There was a strong and distinct bell weather change in both science and culture during the 1960s and thereafter that marks the beginning of the pre-revolutionary period of science that we are now experiencing. Once the scientific community recognizes this period of scientific history for what it is, the only questions left to answer will be the direction, characteristics and strength of the coming revolution in science.
Author's
Biography
Dr. Beichler received
his PhD. in 1999 from the Union Institute and University. He combined
previous work in science and Master Degrees in Physics and the History
of Science with hew research in Parapsychology to design his own
program in Paraphysics. He presently holds the only advanced degree in
Paraphysics in the world from an accredited school. He is an Associate
Professor of Physics at West Virginia University at Parkersburg. His
areas of expertise include the historical and philosophical foundations
of Non-Euclidean geometries, late nineteenth-century science and Modern
Physics. Dr. Beichler also conducts theoretical research in the Physics
of Consciousness and has developed a unified field theory based on a
five-dimensional Einstein-Kaluza model of space-time that can explain
life,mind and consciousness. Dr. Beichler has published articles
through and given presentations before the Society of Scientific
Exploration, the U.S. Psychotronics Association, the Academy of Spirituality and
Paranormal Studies, Inc. and the Tucson conferences "Toward a
Science of Consciousness" and Quantum Consciousness. He is presently
completing a book, "To Die
For: The Physical Reality of Conscious Survival", which
offers the first ever scientific theory of death and the afterlife. The
book is expected to be published in about three months.
Note
from the Editor: Mr. James E. Beichler is also a member of the
Publications Committee of the Academy
of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies.
We are in the midst of a crisis. As always happens before a birth there is much pain. The birth of a new order means much pain, and there will be growing pains. But there has been implanted into our world a seed that will grow, and the efforts of those in higher places to destroy that seed, will fail.
Each day we pray “Thy will be done, as it is in Heaven”. That is going to happen. There will be many changes; there will be many break-ups, upheavals and difficulties. There is, however, a Power which is making for the progress of the world.
There is arising a new race that will recognize that all politics, religion, science and knowledge, are part of the same thing. Then pain, sorrow, fear, mourning and unhappiness, will be banished, and our world will be a place of smiles and happy laughter. The greatest teacher that could come to our world today would be one who would lift the sorrows of others, and make the lives of others better.
We have built a world where, when one man has something, instead of using it to help others, he tries to keep it for himself. Because these foundations are wrong, the system must collapse. When we have people who use their gifts for the benefit of all others, then there will be built a system founded on eternal truth.
We have these gifts already, but they have been neglected and lie dormant, so it is necessary for us to develop them again. We have nearly destroyed our world by the folly of our ways. Slowly, however, it is coming back.....
We have people who have too little to eat, and we have people who have too much to eat. That of course is totally wrong. We have to divide the things we have amongst everybody. People will say that it is impossible, but it is possible, and it is the only way.
The Law of God is perfect and cannot be cheated. We must learn these Laws and put them into operation. If we live our lives seeking to serve others, then God works through us.
Slowly the Light of God has been penetrating the darkness of our world, and out of the ruins of chaos and disorder, there is being built up a new world, where there can be no inequality, no injustice, no division of those who have too much from those who have too little, and where all will be evenly spread. These are the things our world needs, the simple truths that will enable spiritual, mental and material freedom.
Great work will be achieved when all those who are conscious of spiritual truth band themselves together and use their power to dissipate the fog of darkness that has arisen in our world. Let us go forward with great confidence, knowing that all the forces of goodness, helpfulness and service are at our side.
Let us seek to make our world realize the great Power of God, so that, armed with that knowledge, we can fight all superstition and all that belongs to the mists of darkness, and allow the light of spiritual truth to radiate it’s glorious beams.
It matters not what we call this new world, but it is the World of God coming into fulfillment, accompanied by His Power and the service of faithful hearts, who seek to bring new joy, new life and new happiness into our world. That is why you are urged to help. We will all work together and the work will go on.
It cannot be stopped now.
| ° NEWS,
EVENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS |
On April 19, 2008 the American Spiritist community will come together again for the 2nd Spiritist Symposium. This time, the event will take place in New York, NY at the New-York Historical Society next to Central Park. The Spiritist Society of San Diego is one of the many Spiritist Groups supporting this event.
1- To promote the English speaking Spiritist movement.To strengthen and value the efforts of all Spiritist centers that promote Spiritism in the English language.
2- To propel unity among the Spiritist centers in the USA while giving each other the needed support in all matters regarding the dissemination of Spiritism in the English language.
3- To boost the regional and local English speaking Spiritist movement where the symposia shall take place.
4- To provide common
grounds for the exchange of ideas and insights concerning the
dissemination of Spiritism.
P R O G R A M
11AM
– OPENING CEREMONY
Art, Spirituality &
Terapeutic Moment
12PM
– INTRODUCTORY
LECTURE
The Spiritual Laws of the
Spiritist Practice
12:45PM – Lunch Break & visit to the museum collection (optional)
1:45PM
– PANEL
DISCUSSION:
Immune Surveillance of the
Soul
- Photography of the
Thought
- Mediumship and its
therapeutic features
- Christ
consciousness and its miracles
2:30PM
– INSPIRATION
MOMENT:
The role of the spiritist
therapy in my life
3:00PM
– POSTER
SESSION:
The Spiritist Foundation
and Its Therapeutics
3:45PM – Coffee Break
4:00PM–
ROUND TABLE
DISCUSSION:
Why American Spirituality
needs Spiritism
4:45PM–
FINAL LECTURE:
Genesis: Kardec’s
masterpiece
A NEW SPIRITIST
CENTER IN NEW YORK
On August 7th, 2007, a new spiritist center was born in the USA. The Inner Enlightenment Spiritist Society was founded by Eduardo Guimaraes and friends. This is the second spiritist society in New York to offer all of its services in the English language only.
The Inner Enlightenment Spiritist Society (IESS) is a non-profit organization whose goals are the study, practice and dissemination of Spiritism in its triple aspects: scientific, philosophic and moral, as codified by Allan Kardec.
The group holds meetings and workshops at Pearl Studios in Manhattan, located at 500 8th Ave., 4th floor according to the following schedule
Every Tuesday, 7pm to 9pm - Spiritism Study group followed by passes [Study of the Allan Kardec Codification of Spiritim]
Every Sunday, 6pm to 7pm - Self-discovery study group [Study of The Gospel According to the Spiritsm]
Every Sunday, 7pm to 8pm - Mediumship study group [Study of the Medium's Book]
First Sunday bi-monthly, 3pm - Workshops [Study of a daily life topic based on the spiritist point of view]
ADVANCED STUDY GROUP OF SPIRITISM
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