In this issue we continue the study of the book Posthumous Works, published after Allan Kardec disembodied and containing texts written by him. The present work is based on the translation made by Dr. Guillon Ribeiro, published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation.
Questions for discussion
107. Is the soul really influenced by music?
108. And does the soul also have an influence over music?
109. How can Spiritism influence musical compositions?
110. What is the soul’s normal life?
111. Not remembering what happened in the past is one of the objections regarding reincarnation. How can someone benefit from previous lives, if he does not remember the faults he committed?
Answers to the proposed questions
107. Is the soul really influenced by music?
Yes, the influence of music on the soul, and its moral progress, is recognized all over the world; but the reason of this influence is usually ignored. The reason is entirely in this fact: harmony sets the soul under the power of a feeling that causes its dematerialization. This feeling exists to a certain extent, but it develops under the action of a similar feeling, however of a higher level. The one, who is deprived of such a feeling, is guided to it gradually: he also ends by letting himself be influenced and accepts to be taken to an ideal world where, for a while, he forgets the coarse pleasures he prefers to the divine harmony. (Posthumous Works – Celestial music and Spiritist music).
108. And does the soul also have an influence over music?
Yes, it is obvious. If we consider that harmony comes from the concert of the Spirit, then we can arrive to the conclusion that, if music exercises a happy influence over the soul, the soul that conceives it, also exercises an influence over music. The virtuous soul, who has a passion for the good, the beautiful and the great, and who acquired harmony, will create masterpieces able to enter the most shielded souls and touch them.
If the composer is down-to-earth, how can he represent the virtue that he disdains, the beautiful that he ignores, and the great he does not understand? His compositions will be the reflection of his sensual tastes, his levity and indifference. They will now be licentious and sometimes obscene, sometimes comic, sometimes burlesque; they will pass to the audience the feelings that they express and will rather pervert them instead of improving them. (Posthumous Works – Celestial music and Spiritist music).
109. How can Spiritism influence musical compositions?
Since it is Spiritism’s purpose to moralize men, it undoubtedly exercises a great influence on music. It will produce more virtuous composers, who, in turn, will communicate their virtues through their music and, therefore, influence those who listen to it. There will be less laughter and more crying; merriment will give place to emotion, ugliness to beauty and the comical will be replaced by grandeur. On the other hand, the listeners that Spiritism will have prepared to easily receive this harmony, when listening to serious music, will be involved by a true enchantment; they will put aside all frivolous and lascivious music that moves the masses. When the grotesque and obscene are abandoned and replaced by beauty and goodness, the composers of this kind will also disappear, because if there are no listeners, then they will earn nothing and they work to earn. (Posthumous Works – Celestial music and Spiritist music).
110. What is the soul’s normal life?
The soul’s normal life is the spiritual life. Physical lives are only intervals, and short periods of the Spirit’s lives. The sum of all those periods is only a minimum part of his normal life, just as if one is travelling for several years, and stops from time to time for a few hours.
If there seems to be continuity during the physical lives due to the lack of memory, the connection is established during the spiritual life, because it has no interruption. Continuity does not really exist, except for the external physical life and of relationship. And the lack of memory is a proof of the Divine wisdom that does not want man diverted from real life, where he has duties to accomplish.
However, when man rests, and during his sleep, the soul flies free and by doing this the interrupted chain when man is awake, is then restored.
111. Not remembering what happened in the past is one of the objections regarding reincarnation. How can someone benefit from previous lives, if he does not remember the faults he committed?
Firstly, we have to understand that the memory of previous unhappy lives, together with the miseries of the present life, would be very painful. This was what God wanted to avoid: additional suffering. If not for this, how often would we feel humiliated by thinking of who we were! For our improvement, the memory of the past is absolutely useless. During each life, we go some steps forward; we acquire some qualities and get rid of some imperfections; each one of them is a new starting point, and we become what we have done for ourselves without having to be concerned about who were in the past.
If in a previous life we were a cannibal, and if we could recall this fact, how would this memory help if we are not a cannibal any longer? If we had any shortcomings and they do not exist any longer, it is then a settled account and we do not have to be concerned about it. Let us imagine, on the contrary, that we only corrected one of our flaws by half. The balance will be outstanding in the following life and we would have to focus in correcting it.
Let us give an example: a man was a murderer and thief. For this he was punished in his physical and spiritual life. He regretted it and he corrected his first tendency, but not the second one. In his following life, he will only be a thief; perhaps a great thief, but not a murderer any longer. Further on and he will become a small thief; and then he will not steal. He might even feel like stealing, but his conscience will counteract. Then, a last effort will follow, and having disappeared all the signs of his moral sickness, he will become a model of honesty.
How would remembering the past help him? Would not the memory of having died in the gallows be an eternal torture and humiliation for him? Apply this reasoning to all vices and habits, and you will be able to see how the soul improves with the successive lives. (Posthumous Works – The Path of Life).
