Alexandre Fontes da Fonseca

Fascination and respect to Science today

Introduction

Chapter XXIII of The Book on Mediums (LM) [1] deals with an important Spiritist issue, which is obsession - defined by Kardec in item 237 of the mentioned Chapter, as "the control that some Spirits manage to exercise over certain people”. Obsession is analyzed from its simplest form (called a simple obsession) to the most serious situation in which the will of the one, who suffers this influence, becomes too weak to fight it back.

Obsession is never practiced by a good Spirit, and when evil Spirits dominate an individual, "they identify themselves with the Spirit of this individual and lead him as if he is a child”. For this reason, Kardec considers that obsession is the most difficult obstacle in the practice of Spiritism. If on the one hand obsession is something with which we should worry, on the other hand, the solutions to prevent it are quite simple as mentioned by the good Spirits in section 252 of The Book on Mediums.

It is not our purpose to repeat the contents of the said Chapter about obsession. Our intention is to make an important note connecting a form of obsession called fascination to a behavior that has appeared in the Spiritist environment, which is to reject or repel the current and orthodox scientific knowledge, with the excuse of defending certain ideas, theories or Spiritist practices that are not backed by Science. We will see later that Kardec was aware of this problem and that he himself made several recommendations on how to deal with these innovations in Spiritism, but that are not supported by Science.  

What is fascination?

First, let us recall the definition of fascination. Unlike the simple obsession, fascination "Is an illusion produced by the direct action of the Spirit on the thinking of the medium and, in a way, it paralyzes his judgment in respect of communications". [Kardec, item 239, The Book on Mediums (1)]. As explained by Kardec, the problem with this type of fascination is that the medium does not believe that he is suffering this evil influence, and “the Spirit has the art to make him blindly trust it, and this prevents him from seeing the trickery and to understand the foolishness of what he writes even when this nonsense can clearly be seen by everyone. The illusion may even go so far as to make him consider sublime the most ridiculous speech" (Ibid). A point of concern is when Kardec comments that regarding this influence, “not even the men with an enlightened Spirit, the ones who have a better education, the more intelligent in other respects are free of it…” (Ibid, emphasis added).

Kardec considers that the consequences of fascination are very serious, because they can cause a person to "accept the strangest doctrines, the most false theories as if they were the only expression of the truth. Even more, they can subject one to ridiculous, compromising and even dangerous situations". (Ibid.).

The tactic used by the Spirits that work on fascination is to pretend they are good Spirits and they use words such as “charity, humility, love of God", which, as Kardec says, "serve them as a letter of credit, however, they pass signals of an inferiority that only those, who are being fascinated, are unable to see”. (Ibid, original emphasis). Because they fear those, who have a little more studies, these Spirits act on “the one they want to influence to stay away from anyone who may open his eyes”. (Ibid). This last issue is also of our greatest interest in this article. 

Profile of the fascinator Spirit

In item 246 of Chapter XXIII of The Book on Mediums, Kardec describes the profile of a type of an obsessive Spirit, who overpowered by pride, purports to convey a false knowledge. This type of profile is precisely what generates the fascination: with no scruples at all they use respectable names, and "seek to dazzle by a lofty language, more pretentious than profound, bristling with technical terms and filled with the resounding words - charity and morality" (Kardec, item 246, The Book on Mediums [1], emphasis added). And more: "Morality is used by these Spirits as a simple passport, and this is what concerns us less. What they want above all is to impose their ideas as much foolish as they may be". (Ibid, emphasis added).

We previously saw that in fascination, amid concepts and good terms, the Spirit, who wishes to deceive, suggests “foolish” ideas by using "technical terms". They use respected terms, such as "charity and moral" to make us think that he, the Spirit that communicates, is good and that the technical terms or foolish ideas that he passes on to us are, indeed, knowledge advances. That is why Kardec clearly stated that it is very important to pass all psychic communication through reason. (Item 248 of The Book on Mediums).

In item 250 of The Book on Mediums, there is a comment by Kardec that indicates the relation between fascination and the respect for Science. In this item, to help the fascinated psychic, Kardec proposes the clarification of the errors contained in the obsessing Spirit’s ideas. He says: "The only thing to do with the victim is to convince him that he is being deceived and make his obsession go back to a simple obsession”. (Item 250, The Book on Mediums [1]).

Difficulty in dealing with the fascinated medium

Kardec recognizes the difficulty in freeing a medium that is fascinated in such a way that many times he becomes “deaf to all sorts of reasoning, and he can reach the point of - even when the Spirit states some gross scientific heresy – doubting if it is not Science that is in error”. (Ibid, emphasis added). Here is the link between fascination and the respect we must have for Science’s formal knowledge! When, on behalf of believing in an idea, we come to the point of denying the well-established knowledge of Science, then we are in the risk of being fascinated by the idea or its author.

Although Kardec’s analysis above concerns the evil influence of the disembodied Spirits, we see that the situation is identical if the fascination comes from an incarnate. When in our Spiritist environment we open hand of our reason just because these ideas come from companions, who we respect, then we are opening a door to fascination. This happens mainly with concepts, theories and practices that are mentioned as being scientific and that are presented to the Spiritist movement. Below, we copy some of Kardec’s important recommendations.

In Kardec's biography included in the edition of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation of the work What is Spiritism [2] (QE) in a speech to the Lyonnais Spiritists, Kardec makes important recommendations regarding fascinator Spirits in the sense described in The Book on Mediums, i.e., of those who use words like charity, fraternity and humility, to make believe "the most gross nonsense". 

Kardec recommends

Kardec said: "We must therefore avoid being seduced by appearances coming from the Spirits and from men; now, I admit this is one of the greatest difficulties (…). To escape the trap, it is necessary, first of all, to escape the enthusiasm that blinds, the pride that leads certain mediums to believe they are the only interpreters of truth; it is necessary that everything is examined impartially, maturely weighed, and analyzed, and, if we suspect of our own judgement, what is often most prudent, then it is necessary to ask for other people’s help (...)". (My emphasis in bold and underlined). Therefore, Kardec recommends a very careful examination of all the ideas and innovations, whether coming from the Spirits "or from men" as we stress above, i.e., whether they are coming from our incarnate brothers.

In the Spiritist Magazine of July, 1868 [3], Kardec recommends: "Although Spiritism assimilates all progressive ideas, it does not mean that it is a blind follower of all new ideas, as much as they seem enticing at first sight, with the risk of later on receiving a denial of the experience and be exposed to ridicule by having sponsored an unworkable work”.  (My emphasis in bold). Here we see how Kardec is careful regarding novelties, and that it is not because Spiritism is a progressive doctrine that it will accept without criterion any new idea, or any idea or theory that seems to make sense. Kardec was concerned with the exposure of Spiritism and the Spiritist movement to ridicule by disseminating ideas that look good, "seductive at first sight" as he said, but that have no scientific basis.

Therefore, when a new idea, based on Science concepts, appears in Spiritism, besides common sense, one must also adopt the validity criterion of the respective fields of Science when analyzing the idea. If you do not know how to analyze these ideas with the deep knowledge of these sciences, then it is better to inquire more of an expert. This means that "everything should be examined impartially, maturely weighed, and analyzed" as Kardec said in QE. 

Be careful with novelties

By avoiding to give publicity to a novelty in the name of Spiritism is a way to care that Spiritism does not run the risk of "being exposed to ridicule" by having encouraged an unworkable idea. Thus, the scientific rigor has a key role to assess the new idea that uses scientific concepts, and it should only be made on behalf of Spiritism when Science, in fact, checks and approves it.

That's exactly what Kardec says in the Spiritist Magazine, dated July 1868: "That is why it does not immediately accept new ideas, even those which seem fair, but under a lot of reserves, and only in a final way when they reached the state of recognized truths”. (My emphasis in bold).

This is Kardec’s wise and prudent recommendation regarding novelties, especially those involving the concepts of Science.

There is within the Spiritist movement, a bit of enthusiasm in adopting theories, practices and ideas that seem to be scientific, but which are not actually. We recognize publicly the good intentions of those who propose these ideas, theories and practices, but Kardec's recommendation is clear: we must observe carefully so that "everything is examined impartially, maturely weighed, and analyzed”. Examples of analysis of some old and new theories are given in references [4, 5, 6, and 7]. This includes topics that although serious and of scientific interest, are not the purview of Spiritism as, for example, alternative practices of medicine, treatment and cure; the study of unidentified flying objects; and other doctrines that use scientific concepts such as Quantum Physics.

Prudence is always recommended

Therefore, we invite you, our reader, to observe how you have approached the scientific objections that can be made regarding spiritualist ideas that may “seem fair”, but that are not able to "view reason face to face" of today’s Science. Are we perhaps acting like the fascinated psychic that puts "in doubt if it is not Science that is in error?" (Item 250, The Book on Mediums [1]).

We do not consider ourselves owners of the truth; this is why the Doctrine invites us to put in practice the reasoned faith. We live in a time of scientific and technological advances, where quality in the disclosure of Spiritism cannot suffer from a kind of "zeal more passionate than reflected" (Kardec, Spiritist Magazine, July 1860 [8]). In the passionate zeal we think we are helping with our enthusiasm, but since it is not a reflected zeal, it can be deceiving and compromise the ideal that we want to defend and spread.

For those who think that this is perhaps an extreme, and that this prudent approach is detrimental to the progress of Spiritsm, let us copy again Kardec’s opinion regarding the disclosure of novelties: “Everything in excess is harmful, but in such a case it is better to be over careful than overconfident”. (Chapter" General Impressions", Spiritist Trip in 1862 [9]. (My emphasis in bold). Finally, this attitude reflects just one of the wisest recommendations of The Gospel According to Spiritism: "It is only an unshakable faith when it can look at reasoning face to face, at all times of Humanity" (Kardec, item 7 of Chapter XIX the Gospel According to Spiritism. [10]).

References:

[1] A. Kardec, The Book on Mediums, Publisher FEB, 71st edition, Rio de Janeiro (2003).

[2] A. Kardec, What Is Spiritism, Publisher FEB, 56th edition, Brasilia (2013).

[3] A. Kardec, "The Spontaneous Generation and Genesis", Spiritist Magazine, Journal of Psychological Studies, July, page 285 (1868), Publisher FEB.

[4] A. F. da Fonseca, "Analysis of the Corpuscular Theory of the Spirit". Published in the following links:

http://eradoespirito.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/13-analise-de-teoria-corpuscular-do.html http://eradoespirito.blogspot.com.br/2012/12/ 23-analysis-of-theory-corpuscular-do.html

http://eradoespirito.blogspot.com.br/2013/01/33-analise-de-teoria-corpuscular-do.html
[5] A. F. da Fonseca, "Scientific Review of the Theory of Apometry" FidelidadESPÍRITA 118, page 9 (2013). Link for an authorized copy of this issue of the magazine:

 http://nossolarcampinas.org.br/site/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Apometria.pdf

[6] A. F. da Fonseca, "What does quantum physics have to do with Spiritism? (Extended version) Link of the "Correio Fraterno”:

http://correiofraterno.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1279:o-que-a-fisica-quantica-tem-a-ver-com-o-espiritismo-versao-ampliada&catid=14:entrevista&Itemid=2

[7] A. F. da Fonseca, "A scientific analysis of some statements of The Great Synthesis," Journal of the Spiritist Studies 2, 010203 (2014). Free access via the link:

https://sites.google.com/site/jeespiritas/volumes/volume-2---2014/resumo---art-n-010203

[8] A. Kardec, "General Comment after the Critical Examination of the various Spontaneous Communications of the Spirit Charlet, the Society of Paris," Spiritist Magazine, Journal of Psychological Studies, July, page 325 (1860) Publisher FEB.

[9] A. Kardec, The Spiritist Trip in 1862, Publisher “O Clarim”, 2nd edition, Matao (1968).

[10] A. Kardec, The Gospel According to Spiritism, Publisher FEB, 120th edition, Rio de Janeiro (2002).