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"Free will
develops as the Spirit acquires awareness of itself."
(LE - The Book of Spirits - q. 122)
Do
Higher Spirits always respect our free will? This issue
deserves a deep reflection by all of us, followers of
Spiritism, which should start with a study on what free
will really means.
The
definition of free will, according to the Houaiss
Dictionary,
is: “possibility to decide, to choose according to one's
will, free from any conditioning, motive or determinant
cause”.
The Superior
Spirits affirmed to Allan Kardec that only in one
condition does man enjoy absolute liberation is “In the
case of a hermit in the desert, since as long as there
are two men together there are reciprocal rights that
they must respect, therefore, neither of them has more
absolute freedom” (1). This although
it concerns freedom, in a very evident way, it also
serves to the question of free will with which it is
very closely related.
Over time,
we realized that, for some people, the Superior Spirits
respect “all” our decisions, due to the postulate that
“The Spirit always enjoys his free will”. (2) In
fact, it is a statement by Kardec and not theirs.
In the Book
of Spirits, the superior Spirits told Kardec
that "free will develops as the Spirit acquires
self-awareness." (3) (emphasis added)
which made us question whether we really are fully aware
of ourselves.
And Kardec
himself, who does not differ from the one mentioned
here, in Genesis, we have: "[...] the
protecting Spirits leave their protégés to themselves,
as they become able to be guided by their own
intelligence." (4) (emphasis
added), So, we would have that our free will becomes
more and more comprehensive, as we evolve.
In The
Problem of the Being, of Destiny and Pain, Leon
Denis, addresses the issue of free will in chap. XXII,
from which we copy the following excerpt: “The Spirit is
truly prepared for freedom only on the day when the
universal laws, which are external to him, become
internal and conscious due to the fact of his evolution.
[…]. ” (5)
We
understand that, in view of the various explanations we
have seen, only pure Spirits have full free will.
Will we be
able to carry out an action that harms someone, if that
someone, in his reincarnation programming, does not have
to go through what we want to do to him? We understand
that no, and therefore, in this case, our free will
would suffer some obstacle so that such death does not
take place. We understand that this is exactly what we
find in these two questions in The Book of Spirits:
528. In
the event that a bad-intentioned person fires a
projectile at another and it just passes him by without
hitting him, could it have happened that a kind Spirit
deflected the projectile?
“If the
targeted individual does not have to perish in this way,
the kindly Spirit will inspire him to deviate, or
else he will be able to overshadow the one who wields
the gun, in order to make him aim badly, because,
once the weapon is fired, the projectile follows the
line it has to travel.”
529 a) - Can
the Spirits who direct earthly events have their action
hindered by Spirits who want the opposite?
“What
God wants is done. If there is a delay in execution,
or obstacles arise, it is because He wanted to do it.” (6) (emphasis
added)
On the other
hand, in natural catastrophes or even those caused by
man himself, several people, due to trivial occurrences
(probable action of the Spirits), are taken away or
prevented from going to the scene of the event.
In the
digital electronic magazine, The Comforter no. 122,
the article “Chance does not exist; life is causal, not
casual”, authored by Angelica Reis, we highlight the
following text:
Kardec made,
in the Spiritist Magazine of 1866, pp. 167 to
171, interesting observations regarding an assassination
attempt that Tsar Alexander of Russia had been the
victim of (photo). At the time of the attack, a young
peasant named Joseph Kommissaroff intervened, preventing
the crime from being consummated.
Here is what
Kardec wrote on the subject:
1) Many will
attribute to chance the appearance of the young peasant
at the scene of the crime. Chance, however, does not
exist. As the time for the tsar had not arrived, the boy
was chosen to prevent the crime from taking place, as
things that seem to be the result of chance were
combined to lead to the expected result.
2) Men are
the unconscious instruments of Providence's designs and
it is through them that it performs them, without the
need to resort to prodigies.
3) If the
young Kommissaroff had resisted the impulse received
from the Spirits, they would use other means to
frustrate the crime and preserve the life of the tsar.
4) A fly
could sting the killer's hand and deflect it from its
target; a fluid stream directed over his eyes could
overshadow him and so on. But if the fatal hour had
arrived for the Russian emperor, nothing could have
preserved it.
Taking the
case to a séance held at the home of a Russian family
residing in Paris, the Spirit of Moki, through Mr.
Desliens, explained that even in the existence of the
tiniest of beings nothing is left to chance. The main
events in his life are determined by his ordeal; the
details, influenced by his free will. But the whole
situation was predicted and agreed upon in advance by
him and by those whom God predisposed to his guard. (7).
It is quite
clear that the free will of the individual who intended
to kill Tsar Alexander of Russia was hampered, by the
action of the Spirits, he was unable to accomplish what
he had planned.
In The
Book of Spirits, the Spirits said to the
Encoder: “God […] can impose a certain existence on a
Spirit, when the Spirit, due to his inferiority or
ill will, is not able to understand what would be
most useful to him, […].” (8) and
“[…] when the Spirit is not yet able to make an
informed choice. By expiation, the Spirit can be
constrained to join the body of a certain child […].” (9) (emphasis
added)
Now, if we
are all subordinate to the will of God, it follows that
our submission to what He desires is indisputable;
therefore, it is one more point from which we conclude
that our free will cannot be full.
Timely, we
bring Léon Denis' considerations, since, in After
Death, he also refers to the question of God's
will, mentioned as a divine plan:
“The
freedom of the being is exercised, therefore, within a
limited circle: on the one hand, due to the
requirements of natural law, […] In no case can the
exercise of human freedom hinder the execution of divine
plans; otherwise the order of things would be disturbed
at every moment. (10) (emphasis
added)
The
embarrassment can also occur in relation to the evil
Spirits who, at times, are coerced by the superior
Spirits to manifest themselves in mediumistic meetings,
as evidenced in these two excerpts from the Spiritist
Magazine 1859 and Spiritist Magazine 1864,
respectively:
[…] You know
that these Spirits do not come to our call except as
constrained and forced, and that, in general, they
find so little of their environment among us, that they
are always in a hurry to go. […]. (11) (emphasis
added)
[…] Only
certain culprits come with disgust, and in that case,
they are not constrained there by the one who summons,
but by the Superior Spirits, in view of their advance.
[…]. (12) (emphasis added)
In Our
Home, through Chico Xavier's psychographics,
Andre Luiz' mother told him: “[…] Regarding unrestricted
freedom, the soul can invoke this right only when it
understands the duty and practices it. […].” (13)
In The
Greater World, we find two situations in which
we believe that the free will of those involved is not
respected.
The first,
in chapter 13, “Affective psychosis”, deals with the
case of Antonina, who, due to love disillusionment,
decides to end her life. She just can't do it thanks to
the intervention of the assistant Calderaro, who, on the
night she intended to commit suicide, subjected her to a
magnetic pass, leading her to deep hypnosis, which
caused her soul to emancipate; and, at that moment, two
Spirits were brought to her encounter - that of her
mother and that of a long-time friend -, who advised her
to give up the idea. After waking up, already more
willing and in a different mood, she no longer thought
about the matter, and decided to carry her cross.
The second,
in chapter 14, “Saving measure”, the one involved was
Antidio, in which Calderaro imposed, as a drastic
measure, a disease for which he would be confined to his
bed for a few months, to prevent him from ending up in a
madhouse, the alcoholism of which he was a victim made
him “delirious” by freeing himself a little from his
body and, with that, having contact with some entities
that tormented him and used him as a “living bowl”. This
action by Calderaro was performed considering the
mediation of Antidio's wife and two children.
We believe
that in both cases the free will of those involved has
been curtailed for their own sake, we believe that, with
the strongest reason, this will happen every time the
collective interest is at stake.
In the work Between
Two Worlds, dictated by the Spirit Manoel
Philomeno de Miranda, via a psychographics by Divaldo
Pereira Franco), we have one more example. In order not
to allow the physician to poison his wife, the action
taken by the Spirits was that, by magnetic action, cause
a brain attack (stroke) in him. Of course, there was,
yes, intervention in free will. Let's see the following
excerpt from the conversation between Miranda and his
instructors:
- Within
this reasoning, can spiritual benefactors lead
rebellious patients to disincarnate earlier?
- No doubt!
There are quite a lot of human existences, which, in
order to prevent their nonsense sequences, have their
course interrupted, thus benefiting
these rebellious, stubborn and insane Spirits. The same
occurs in relation to some missionaries of Good, who,
excited by the accomplishments carried out, deviate a
little from the ministry, starting to direct the work
towards the dominant imposts of the Earth. […].
(emphasis added)
It is
interesting that we have always had this thought, that
is, that the Spirits could, if necessary, anticipate the
departure for the spiritual plane of an incarnate who,
more and more, was committing himself before the divine
justice. This explanation solves the question, realizing
that it is possible, yes, that it happens, but it always
aims at the spiritual evolution of the person involved.
In question
459 of The Book of Spirits, Kardec asks
the Higher Spirits: "Do Spirits influence our
thoughts and actions?". The answer was: “Much
more than you think. They influence to such an
extent that they are usually the ones who direct you.” (14) If,
as stated here, “the Spirits usually direct us”, then it
is not inappropriate to conclude that we really are not
as free as we supposed to be; many of our actions are
reflections of their interference in our thoughts and,
therefore, our lives.
In The
Book of Spirits, it is stated that the Spirits
Influence our thoughts and our actions much more than we
imagine: “Influence to such an extent, that,
ordinarily, they are the ones who direct you.” (15) So
it is not inappropriate to conclude that we are not
really as free as we supposed to be; many of our actions
are reflections of their interference in our thoughts
and, therefore, our lives.
From The
Book of Mediums, chapter. XXI, “Influence of the
environment”, we highlight the following excerpt from
item 231:
2. Can not
the Higher Spirits overcome the ill will of the
incarnate Spirit who serves them as an interpreter and
those around him?
- Yes, when
they find it useful, and
according to the intention of the person who consults
them. We have already said it: The Higher Spirits can
sometimes communicate, for special assistance, in spite
of the imperfection of the medium and the environment,
but then they remain completely alien to him. (16) (emphasis
added)
It seems to
us, s.m.j. (save better judgement), that this
just confirms what we think, i.e., that a superior
Spirit overcomes the medium's ill will, when he deems
his manifestation useful.
Therefore,
our free will is very relative and refers only to some
achievements from our experience as eternal Spirits.
Only the pure Spirits have a full free will, since they
already have moral and intellectual knowledge to decide
what is best for them and also for those who follow in
their footsteps, since in this condition they are the
faithful executors of the fulfillment of the will of
God.
References:
DENIS,
L. After Death. Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 1987.
DENIS, L. The Problem of the Being, of Destiny and
Pain. Rio de Janeiro:
FEB, 1989.
FRANCO, D. P. Between
two worlds. Salvador: LEAL, 2005.
KARDEC, A. Genesis.
Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2007e.
KARDEC,
A. The Book of Spirits. Rio de Janeiro: FEB,
2007.
KARDEC,
A. The Book of Mediums. Sao Paulo: Lake, 2006.
KARDEC,
A. Spiritist Magazine 1859. Araras, SP: IDE,
1993.
KARDEC,
A. Spiritist Magazine 1864, Araras, SP: Idem,
1993.
REIS,
A. Chance does not exist; life is casual, not casual. Londrina,
PR: O Consolador (The Comforter), August 30, 2009,
available at: click
here
XAVIER, F. C. In the Greater World. Rio
de Janeiro: FEB, 1984.
XAVIER, F. C. Our
Home. Rio
de Janeiro: FEB, 1995.
7 REIS,
A. Chance does not exist; life is casual, not casual. Available
at: click
here
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