After all, who owns The Book of Spirits?

Faced with the vastness of principles covered by the Laws of God, covering not only moral aspects, as well as material or physical ones, there are many points worthy of the attention of those in contact with Spiritism for the first time.

Among so many, in evidence, one of them certainly is the understanding of the existence and nature of the Spirits. It is common to see in the newcomers to the Spiritist movement certain difficulty in understanding such entities; this is one of the reasons that lead those who are interested to the Spiritist Center, i.e., the person wishes to be clarified about the so-called dead, as well as in explanations regarding apparitions of all order.

The Doctrine clarifies initially in The Book of Spirits, the existence of two basic principles in the Universe: the spiritual principle (source of creation of the Spirits) and the material principle. In the Pentateuch’s sequence, a little more is made clear about these foundations, a little here, a little there, and so on, and in the last work, Genesis, Allan Kardec discusses these principles in a broad and detailed manner, which, added to God, form the so-called Universal Spiritist Trinity.

As common perception considers souls or Spirits entities apart, inhabitants of the ethereal plane from where eventually, although "dead", they present themselves to torment and frighten us in view of the widespread concept of the "ghost", exception made to the apparitions of "angels", many find it difficult to understand and accept their own nature. They did not realize that they were also Spirits in essence, individualizations of the spiritual principle previously mentioned, being temporarily linked to a body of flesh, living a small chapter of their lives and, soon, they will also be on the other side, in the improperly called "Kingdom of the Dead."

This point of view represents the truth, since most fear the souls of the other world, and there are even some Spiritists who "die of fear" of seeing Spirits; thus, the beginners resist accepting that the Spirits continue to be part of the Universe, although now without physical bodies; they are not dead resurrecting from the tombs or graves to frighten us and persecute us. However, they still imagine Spirits as entities on the margins of creation. Spirits are mentioned and several questions arise: where do they come from, where do they live, who are they really, and what do they do for such a long time in the beyond?

According to the eternal laws, the beginners will also learn by means of studies, classes or orientations, that some Spirits truly seek to hinder us temporarily, and they are the so-called obsessors; and more, when the beginners – without doctrinal explanations - discover that these obsessors can be numerous, they panic. Fortunately, on the other hand, they will also know about the existence of many other Spirits whose function or mission is to help us, and are our spiritual guides; besides these there are also the familiar Spirits and the friendly ones, all in synthesis desiring only our well and our progress; and those who are curious ask: but who guides them, is there is an organization in these groups of beings which seem to see everything and indicate that they are everywhere?

It is necessary for them to attend continuous doctrinal lectures, to read and to study the Spiritist literature, so as to ensure, to be sure, to convince themselves that they also became immortal from the moment of their individualization by God, also forming part of this group of always alive beings, called Spirits, and these entities are continually created by God, being God the greatest organizer of everything and everyone.

As a result of these temporary and expected misunderstandings, when we talk about doctrinal issues, and mention The Book of Spirits, with a question here, another there, with their respective wise answers from Spirits, then other questions arise: after all, who are the ones who have dictated this immensity of texts, ideas, concepts, formulating countless theories to this Frenchman named Denisard Hipolyte Leon Rivail ⁽¹⁾, born in Lyon, however popularly known as Allan Kardec?

When it is said that it is the Doctrine of the Spirits, they want to know, but was it not Allan Kardec who wrote, organized, codified and published The Book of Spirits? So how can this book belong to the Spirits and not to the Frenchman Allan Kardec? Is he not the author?

It takes some time to socialize and grow within the Spiritist movement, exercising careful readings or even the study of books and messages, continuously participating in doctrinal meetings, to gradually begin to feel part of this universe of spiritual beings.

However, while this does not occur, the beginners feel displaced, and because of the still incomplete understanding of the Doctrine, they even accept the possibility that some incarnated Spirits may be privileged within the creation, the so-called mediums, but we know they are not, since the latter have the ability to speak, see, feel and interact with these other individualities, the so-called disembodied Spirits.

In addition, if they knew it was possible to have mediumistic communication with a Spirit still incarnate, even though the body of this particular entity was far apart, they would probably say: No, this is impossible, there must be some other explanation, for if the Spirit is here, then the person can only be dead!

One can see in the initial phase, when they attend the Spiritist Houses, many of them come in the hope of getting rid of the so-called evil Spirits, who kind of attach themselves onto the person, or accompany it constantly, and many times - due to someone without common sense having told them that such entities, popularly called “Ghosts”, are always accompanying them - they consider these “Ghosts” solely responsible for all the difficulties and hardships faced in their daily lives.

However, gradually, in the measure of their continuous efforts to learn and to apprehend new concepts, the Spiritist beginners pass from the condition of dazzling and questioning to the condition of attentive observers and some even of active participants in the multiple activities offered in the Spiritist Houses.

The phase of the first “whys” and questions slowly fades, giving way to a more dynamic and secure position, instead of the characteristic passivity, when they came to the Spiritist House only to receive directions, information, advice, laying on of hands, who knows to have a bottle of fluidized water and any type of support possible.

From this new phase onwards, if they have not yet obtained them, they can themselves elaborate answers to many of those intriguing questions formulated in the past, because:

1.    they understand that the so-called dead are nothing more than those who preceded us on the journey to the other side, and may appear, and under certain conditions, to some and not to others, and as they become aware of the existence of them accepting them naturally, it is hoped, they will no longer be frightened, because they are all our brothers, after all;

  2.   they discover that there are many dwellings in the Father's house, these being occupied both by embodied and disembodied Spirits gathering together by the law of affinities, all ruled by the determinations of God, and since the Spirits are continually being created by the Everlasting, they are everywhere ;

3.    they find that the so-called obsessors are not Spirits eternally voted for evil by nature; they have temporarily left the good path, but they are legitimate children of God too; due to this, they will not be misled forever, since, as Jesus warned, no sheep of the flock will be lost;

4.    they understand that Spirits do not come from a special place, a certain forgotten corner of the Universe, they are only the living beings who arrived at the hominal kingdom, simple and ignorant servants many millennia ago by the same God who created us and now, of course, continue the particular journey of evolution, always growing intellectually, though not always morally, towards the acquisition of relative perfection that can be achieved;

5.    they accept that the spiritual home is the one and only true one, for we are all destined to dwell and remain in this plan, the ethereal will be our final dwelling, when we conclude the cycle of incarnations necessary to consolidate our learning in the material worlds. While we do not reach this condition we remain in the spiritual plane, the so-called period of wandering (erraticity), waiting for the most appropriate time to re-enter the flesh, or reincarnate, some waiting passively, others actively, studying, working and strengthening for a new period of trials and atonements in the School called Earth;

6.    they understand that the body is not the owner of the Spirit, but the opposite is true, the Spirit owns the body, so the Spirit can move away or emancipate from the body, its tool of work, partially and temporarily, provoking the phenomena of apparitions recorded in our History, even at a distance from his body, furthermore, they now become aware that we do not have a Spirit, we are Spirit;

7.    and finally they arrive to the conclusion why Allan Kardec - so named when he was incarnated among the people of the Druids in ancient Gaul at the time of Julius Caesar, and that this is the former designation of the current French name Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail ⁽²⁾, - entitled the first book of the Codification as he did, for the wise man of Lyon humbly placed himself as an element of connection between the disembodied superior Spirits - collaborators in the various texts - and all Humanity. These Spirits were of advanced evolution, including Jesus, the Master of the Masters, a Pure Spirit, and the Coordinator of all the work.

This is a very characteristic and expected process of many seeking the Doctrine, nothing to be surprised, either out of curiosity, others still out of necessity, but in the end, if everything goes well during this initial walk, they are also accepted as members of the class of Spirits, being part of this whole, and they see themselves as elements of creation, in short, they end up by seeing themselves as immortal Spirits, children of the same Father.

From this moment, the path is open for them to become more interested in Spiritism; they start to search on their own initiative to increase the knowledge, they recognize to be this set of oceanic information, formed by a religious part, another philosophical and a third scientific, on any subject issuing a coherent opinion, and when mankind is not yet able to receive news explained by the eternal laws, the Spirits leave us with the questions to be elucidated in a suitable future, when it is more appropriate.

This is when many finally understand, and feel inside that the knowledge of the first basic work of the Doctrine is essential for the good conduct of one's life, without prejudice to the other four fundamental works and the subsidiary works. It contains an apparently inexhaustible source of explanations, and at this moment, The Book of Spirits becomes a universal compendium, they begin to love it, why not? This book no longer belongs only to those who dictated it in the backward century; it becomes a daily bedside book of common use; although it is very special because of its content, they also become aware of themselves as Spirits, for in fact we are all, and The book of Spirits then transforms itself from that moment onwards into The book of us all!

Notes:

⁽¹⁾ We maintained the spelling recorded in the two original birth certificates, although this spelling is not used by most of the Spiritist movement.

₍₂₎ This is the spelling normally used by the Spiritist movement.

Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br