SPIRITISM

I found this on the internet today and I wanted to share it with you all. While I agree with somethings written here, I do not agree with all. From the way how the writer wrote, he was clearly Christian, but he did not allow his biblical teachings to withhold what he learned from his research from spiritualists and mediums alike from the the world. While he was not a medium he interviewed many and had access through them in speaking with spirits. Read on!

This is from the work of Allan Kardec

There are three essential things in human beings:
• The soul or the spirit, the intelligent principle where the thoughts, will and moral sense
are found.
• The body, the material envelope, weighty and rough. The body enables the spirit relate
with the material world.
• The perispirit, the light fluidic envelope, which is the intermediary bound between the
spirit and the body.
When the exterior covering is threadbare and can no more work, the spirit get rid of it, like the fruit
liberates itself from the shell or as one forsake a clothing which is no longer useful. That is what
we call death.

WITHOUT CHARITY THERE IS NO SALVATION
Unbelievers! You can laugh at the spirits, mock in the face of those who believe in their
manifestations. Laugh then, if you dare, at this maxim which they have just stated and which
keeps you alive since, if charity disappeared from earth, people would destroy themselves and
you would probably be among the first victims. The time is coming when this principle, fully
proclaimed in the name of the spirits, will constitute a safe guarantee and a title of the trustfulness
of those who have brought it recorded on their own hearts.
A spirit said: ”They mocked at the turning tables, but they will never laughed at their resulting
philosophy and ethics”. In fact, after a couple of years, we are far from these first phenomena
which entertained curious and lazy for a short while. You say that these ethics is old fashioned:
”The spirits should be clever enough to give us something new” (A witty phrase of several critics).
So be it! If it is old fashioned, it is ageless and people are no less guilty for having practiced it so
sparingly. Only real truths are eternal. Spiritism comes to remember it, and it do so not through a
revelation of a sole person, but through the voices of the spirits which, as a last trumpet proclaim:
”Believe that all those whom you call dead are more alive than yourselves, since they can see
and listen to what is hidden to you. Admit them, who come to talk to you, your relatives, friends
and all those whom you once loved on earth and that you believed forever lost.” Unhappy are
those who believe everything finishes with the body, since they will be fiercely undeceived.
Unhappy are those who are uncharitable, for they will suffer what they had done to others. Listen
to the voices of the suffering who have came to say: ”We suffer because we did not recognize
God’s power and doubt his infinite mercy. We suffer because of our pride, our selfishness, greed
and all bad passions which we had not restrained. We suffer for all evil we did to our fellow
beings through the lack of charity.
Unbelievers! Say if this doctrine which teaches such things is worth laughing at, if it is good or
not! From the point of view of the social order, say if we could be happy or not, better or not if we
practiced it!

2. Outline of the spirit teachings
1. God is the supreme intelligence, the first cause of all the things. God is eternal, infinite, unique,
immaterial, all-powerful, sovereignty just and good. He has to be infinite in all his perfections
since, if we could suppose imperfectness of even one of his attributes, he would not be God.
2. God created matter which constitutes the worlds. He also created intelligent beings called
spirits which are in charge of these worlds according to the creation’s immutable laws. Such laws
are perfect by nature. By improving themselves the spirits approach God.
3. Strictly speaking the spirit is the intelligent principle, its deepest nature is unknown. It is
immaterial to us because it bears no resemblance to what we call matter.
4. The spirits are individual beings housed in a weightless and ethereal envelope called perispirit,
a kind of fluid body similar in form to the human’s body. They inhabit the space and fly quickly
through it. The spirits constitute the invisible world.
5. The spirit’s origin and way of creation are unknown, we only known that they are created
simple and ignorant, that is, without knowledge of good and evil. However they are equally
capable to everything since God, in his justice, could not free some from the work reserved for
others in order to reach perfection. Initially they remain in a kind of infancy, without their own will
and perfect consciousness of their existence.
6. When ideas and free-will are developed in the spirits, God tells them: ”You can reckon on
supreme happiness provided that you acquire the lacking knowledge and fulfill the duties I
impose upon you. You should work for your upgrading, that is your aim and you will reach it by
following the laws sculpted on you own consciences”. As consequence of their free-will some
spirits take the shortest route which is the good while others take the longest one which is the
evil.
7. God did not create the evil. He established the laws which are always good because he is
good. The spirits would have been completely happy had they faithfully observed the law since
the beginning. But, being free to make choices, the spirits have not properly obeyed them so that
evil come as a consequence of this unwillingness. One can then say that good corresponds to
everything which is in accordance with God’s law while evil is everything which opposes it.
8. In order to cooperate in the material worlds as agents of a divine power, the spirits temporarily
have a material body. By the work required in their corporeal lives, the spirits improve their
intelligence and, by observing God’s law, they acquire the merits which will lead them to eternal
happiness.
9. The incarnation was not initially imposed on the spirits as a punishment. It is rather necessary
for the spirits’ improvement and for the fulfillment of God’s works. Everyone has to submit to it, no
matter if one takes the evil or the good path. Only those who take the good path will improve
quickly, they do not delay to arrive at the end in less painful conditions.
10. Imbodied spirits constitute the mankind. It is not restricted to the earth only but instead it
inhabits all the worlds in space.
11. Human soul is an imbodied spirit. In order to help humans, God has given them the animals
whose intelligence and character are according to their needs.

12. The spirit’s improvement is a consequence of its own effort. It can not acquire all the
intellectual and moral qualities which will bring it to the end in only one existence. It reaches its
goal through a series of several lives. In each one of them the spirit walks a little further in the
path of progress.

13. In each corporeal existence the spirit has to fulfill a mission proportional to its degree of
development. The rougher and harder it is, the greater the spirit’s merit in fulfilling it. Each
existence is, therefore, a test which leads the spirit to the end. It depends on the spirit’s will to
shorten it, by working harder for its moral improvement, in much the same way a laborer’s will
shortens the number of his working days.
14. When an existence is poorly used, the spirit does not profit from it, and it has to begin again a
new life under more or less painful conditions, as consequence of the spirit’s unwillingness and
bad will. In the same sense, in our life, we may be obliged to do tomorrow what was left to do
yesterday and do again what was not well done.
15. Spiritual life is the normal spirit’s life: it is eternal. Corporeal life is transitory and it is just a
moment in eternity.
16. During the intervals of its lives, the spirit is errant. This state has no definite duration. In it the
spirit is happy or sad according to the good or bad use of its previous life. The spirit studies the
causes which quickened or delayed its progress, and takes proper decisions which it will try to put
into practice in its next incarnation. It also chooses the most adequate tests for its improvement.
Sometimes, however, the spirit makes a mistake and falls, not fulfilling as a man the decisions it
has taken as a spirit.
17. The guilty spirit is punished through moral sufferings in the spirit world and physical penalties
during its corporeal life. Its afflictions are consequence of its faults, that is, of its violation of God’s
law. These sorrows constitute both an atonement for the past and a test for the future. In this way
the proud can have a life of humiliations, the tyrant a servant life and the wealthy oppressor an
incarnation in misery.
18. There are proper worlds to the several spirit’s advancement degrees, in which life exists
under different conditions. The less advanced the spirit is, the weightier and more material is its
body. In so far as the spirit purifies itself, it goes to morally and physically superior worlds. The
earth is not the first nor the last of these worlds but only one of the less developed ones.
19. The guilty spirits are incarnated in less advanced worlds where they atone for their faults
through material life difficulties. These worlds constitute the true purgatory. It depends on the
spirit to get out of them working on its moral progress. The earth is a world o this kind.
20. Being sovereignly just and good, God does not punish his creatures to endless penalties as a
consequence of their limited mistakes. He provides correction and evil repair for them at any
moment. God forgives but also waits for regret, repair and return to good in such a way that
punishment is proportional to the spirit’s insistence in the evil. Consequently penalties would be
eternal only for those who forever remained on the evil side. As soon as a sigh of regret appears
in the guilty heart, God holds out his mercy. Therefore, eternal punishments should be
understood in relative sense only and not in an absolute one.
21. When spirits incarnate they bring together everything acquired in their past lives. For these
reason people instinctively exhibit special skills, good or bad tendencies which seem innate. Bad
inborn inclinations represent the spirit’s imperfection traces from which the spirit has not still
liberated itself. They are also signs of past faults the spirit has committed. This is the true sense
of the original sin. In each existence the spirit must wash itself out from such impurities.

22. The human capacity to forget previous lives reflects God’s grace in so much as he, in his
goodness, makes humans unaware of painful memories. In each new life, man encounters
exactly what he has made up for himself, that is the state from which he has to depart. He knows
his present defects and knows that they are result of his former lives. He comes to conclusions
regarding the evil he has committed and this is enough for him to work and correct himself. If he
no longer has these past imperfections, he does not need to consider them any longer and his
current mistakes are enough to worry about.
23. If the soul does not exist before birth then it is created together with the body. Assuming this
reasoning, the soul would have no relation with those which came before it. How could then God,
who is sovereignly just and good, blame it for the mistakes of the human gender’s father by
blemishing it with an original sin the soul did not commit? One can give original sin a logical
explanation everyone can understand if one says that, through rebirth, the soul holds signs of its
previous life imperfections, that it suffers now exactly the result of its past mistakes, that it is
responsible for its acts.
24. The variety of moral and intellectual inborn aptitudes shows that the soul lived already. The
idea of the soul being created together with the body disagrees with God’s goodness since God
would then have made some souls more advanced than others. Why does one then see wild and
civilized, good and bad, intelligent and foolish people? Everything is otherwise easily explained if
one supposes that some, by living more than others, are therefore more advanced.
25. If the present life were the only one and if it were the soul’s only opportunity to decide on its
eternal destiny, what would then be the fate of children who die very early? If these children have
done neither good nor bad, they should deserve neither reward nor punishment. Following
Christ’s words, if each one is rewarded according to his works, these children have no right to an
angel’s happiness and yet they should not be refused a reward. On the contrary there are no
exceptions if one admits they have several lives and that they can do in a new existence what
they could not in a past short one.
26. By the same reasoning what would be the fate of cretins and idiots? As they are unaware of
good and evil, they are not responsible for their acts. Would God be just and good if he had
created stupid souls and preordain them with no rewards to a miserable life? On the contrary, if
one says that the cretin or the idiot are souls tightly bounded to unsuitable bodies which can not
fully manifest their thoughts, then everything is again according to God’s justice.
27. In its successive incarnations the spirit little by little loses its impurities and improves itself
through work until the end of its corporeal lives. Then the spirit belongs to the pure spirit or angel
order, and fully enjoy God’s complete life and endless unshakable happiness.
28. As good father, God does not leave people to themselves during their earth atonement, butmoffers them instead their guides. These are firstly the protecting spirits or guardian angels which
watch over people and try to make them follow the good way. Secondly there are the great
incarnated spirits which sometimes appear on earth in order to illuminate human paths and make
mankind walk forward. Even if God inscribed his law on human mind, he makes it even more
explicit. Moses came first, but his law spoke only about earthly life, its passing punishments and
rewards and were adapted to the people of his time. Then Christ came to complete Moses with a
more elevated teaching: plurality of lives, spiritual life and moral punishments and rewards.
Moses led through fear while Christ through love and charity.
29.The present and well understood Spiritism adds the evidence to the theory for unbelievers, it
demonstrates the future by obvious facts, it says in clear and unmistakable terms what Christ said
in parables. Spiritism explains unknown and misinterpreted truths, reveals the existence of the
invisible or spirit world and initiates people in the secrets of future life. It also combats materialism which is a rebellion against God’s power. Finally Spiritism comes to establish the reign of men’s
charity and fraternity announced by Christ. Moses plowed, Christ sowed and Spiritism has came
to harvest.
30. Spiritism is not a new light but a brighter one since it appeared in all parts on the world
through those who have lived. By making clear what was hidden, Spiritism gives an end to false
interpretations and will unite all men under the same belief, since there is only one God whose
laws are the same for all. Finally Spiritism represents the time predicted by Christ and the
prophets.
31. The evils with which humans are afflicted on earth are caused by selfishness, vanity and all
bad passions. People become unhappy and punish themselves by the contact with their vices.
Let charity and humbleness substitute selfishness and pride and they no longer will injure
themselves, they will respect each one rights and harmony and peace will reign among them.
32. But how can selfishness and vanity be destroyed since these feelings seems so innate to the
human heart? Selfishness and vanity are in human heart because humans are spirits which have
been on the path of evil since the beginning and which, therefore, are exiled on earth as
punishment for their vices, their original sin to which many have not renounced yet. Through
Spiritism, God has came to make the last plea for the practice of the lessons taught by Christ: the
law of love and charity.
33.Since the time for the earth to became home to peace and happiness has arrived, God does
not wish that bad spirits continue to disturb it at the sacrifice of the good ones. Consequently bad
spirits will have to leave earth: they will atone their heartlessness on less developed worlds where
they will work again on their improvement during several, more painful and less happy lives than
those on earth.
These spirits will also constitute a newer and more enlightened race whose duties will be to take
progress to the less developed beings living on such worlds. They will only go to a better world
when they deserve it and will continue there until they are completely refined. If the earth
represents a purgatory to these spirits, these new worlds will be their hell, but a hell with ever existing hope.
34. While the outlawed generation will quickly disappear, a new one will arise whose beliefs will
be founded upon Christian Spiritism. We are witnessing an operating transition, a prelude to a
moral renewal labeled by Spiritism’s arrival.

35. The essential aim of Spiritism is human improvement. In it one should only seek for what can
really help mankind’s improvement.
36. The true spiritist is not one who believes in its manifestations, but he who profits from the
teachings given by spirits. It is useless to believe if this faith does not make one progress
positively and also do the utmost for one’s fellow creatures.
37. Selfishness, pride, vanity, greed, hate, enviousness, jealousy and slander are like venomous
plants to the soul, the stems of which must be pulled daily; their antidote is charity and
humbleness.
38. Spiritism faith is only useful for those who can say: we are better today than yesterday.
39. The value which man gives to its ephemeral goods is inversely proportional to his faith in the
spirit life. His doubts concerning the future make him look for his happiness in this world even at
the sacrifice of his fellow creatures.
40. Earth afflictions are remedies to the soul. They salve for the future like a painful surgical
treatment which relieves a sick person’s life and brings back heath. For this reason Christ said:
”Blessed are the afflicted for ye shall be comforted”.
41. Always look below you and not above you when you are suffering. Think about those who
suffer more than you.
42. Despair is a natural feeling for he who believes everything ends with death. It is nonsense for
those who believe in the future.
43. Man is sometimes the artisan of his own unhappiness in this world. If he went back to the
source of his misfortunes he would see that his pains are the consequence of his unawareness,
pride and avidity and, therefore, his violation of God’s law.
44. Prayer is an act of worship. Praying to God is to think about Him, to approach Him, to get in
touch with Him.
45. He who prays with devotion and trust is stronger against evil’s temptations and God sends
good spirits to watch over him. It is an ever fulfilled request provided if it is honest.
46. Pray a lot is unimportant, but one must pray well. Some people believe that prayer’s merit lies
in its length, while they close their eyes to their flaws. Prayer is an occupation to them, a time
killer, and not a self evaluation.
47. He who asks God to forgive his mistakes is only pardoned if he changes his behavior. Good
actions are better than prayers since acts are more valuable than words.
48. Prayer is recommended by all good spirits. It is also practiced by imperfect spirits as a way of
alleviating their sufferings.
49. Prayer can not change providence resolutions. But suffering spirits feel less deprived of
protection and become less unhappy through praying. Prayer stimulates their courage and will for improvement through regret and repair. It can also change spirit’s inclination from evil. In this
sense, prayer can not only lessen but also shorten sufferings.
50. Let each one pray according to their beliefs and in the manner they consider more
convenient, since form is nothing, but thought is everything. Sincerity and pureness of purpose is
essential. Good thoughts are worth more than thousand words which are like the noise of a mill
and where the heart can not be found.
51. God makes some persons strong and powerful in order for them to help the weak. Powerful
people who oppress the weak are warned by God. In general they receive their punishment in the
present life without impairing their future.
52. Fortune is a bounty whose owner can only temporarily enjoy it, since he can not take it to the
grave. The affluent will be severely called to account for the use of their wealth.
53. Fortune is a more dangerous test than misery since it constitutes a temptation to the abuse
and excess, and because it is harder to be moderate than extravagant.
54. The ambitious person who prevails and the rich one who sustains his material pleasures
should be pitied rather than envied, since one must take into account the consequences. By the
terrible examples of the dead who have communicated to us their experience after death,
Spiritism demonstrates the truthfulness of Christ’s statement: ”He who elevates himself will be
humiliated and he who humiliates himself will be elevated”.
55. Charity is the supreme Christ’s law: ”Love each other as brothers and sisters; – Love your
neighbor as yourself; – forgive your enemies; – Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you”; all this is summed up in the word charity.
56. Charity is not only alms-giving, for there canbe charity in thought, in words and in acts. Hewho is charitable in thoughts is lenient towards his fellowman’s mistakes; he who is charitable in words say nothing against his fellowman, and he who is charitable in acts helps his fellow sisters and brothers according to his capacity.

57. A poor person who shares his bred with someone even poorer is more charitable and has
much more merit in God’s eyes than those who, lacking for nothing, give only that which is
superfluous to them.
58. He who declares himself a Christian and, at same time, feeds evil feelings, hate, jealousy and
lack of charity towards his neighbor, is both lying and offending God.
59. People of all casts, sects and races, you are all brothers and sisters since God is calling all
you to Him. Join your hands in whatever manner you may adore Him. Do not anathematize each
other, as anathema is a violation of the law of charity proclaimed by Christ.
60. Through selfishness, people are in eternal conflict while through charity they will be at peace.
If charity alone constitutes the basis of human institutions, people’s happiness in this world will be
guaranteed. According to Christ words, only charity will also guarantee future happiness, since all
virtues which can lead people to perfection are implicitly contained in it. There will be no room for
selfishness, vanity, hate, jealousy and slander with the true charity that was taught and practiced
by Christ, nor for strong attachment to this world’s goods. For this reason, Christian Spiritism
exhorts the maxim:

Ẹ̀gbẹ́ táa máa fi sùn lálẹ́, kò yẹ ká fi gbọgbẹ́ lọ́ọ̀sán. /
One shouldn’t injure during the day, the body side on which one will lie (to sleep) at night.

[Be proactive; be mindful of the future.]

All Religions are valid as long as it teaches peace and love…Obara Meji