A. How can one know if a principle is taught universally, or if it is only the result of a personal opinion?
B. Is the Spiritist revelation progressive?
C. Why does the superior spirits teach morals that of Christ and not of other prophets?
Text for reading
103. One final characteristic of the Spiritist revelation, and which proceeds from the very conditions in which it is produced, is that, being supported by facts, it cannot help but be essentially progressive like all the sciences of observation. By its essence, it is allied with science, which, being the exposition of the laws of nature through a certain order of facts cannot be contrary to the will of God, the author of such laws.
104. The discoveries of science glorify God rather than demean God. They destroy only what humans have built upon their erroneous ideas about God.
105. Therefore, Spiritism establishes as an absolute principle only what the evidence, has demonstrated, or what has arisen logically from observation. Touching on all branches of social economics, to which it lends the support of its own discoveries, it will continue to assimilate all other progressive faiths of whatever order they may be, which have reached the status of practical truths and which have exited the domain of utopia; otherwise, it would be committing suicide. Ceasing to be what it truly is, it would contradict its origin and its providential purpose.
106. Moving along with progress, Spiritism will never be surpassed, because if new discoveries were to show it to be in error on one point, it would modify itself on that point. If a new truth is revealed, it accepts it.
107. How useful is the moral code of the Spirits, since it is not different of that of Christ? Do humans even have need for a revelation? Can they not find within themselves everything that is necessary for self-guidance? From the moral standpoint, God has without a doubt provided humans with a guide in their conscience, which says: “Do not do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you.”
108. Natural morality is certainly written in people’s hearts, but does everyone know how to read it? Have they never failed to recognize its wise precepts? What have they done with the morality of Christ? How do those who teach it practice it? Has it not become a dead letter, a pretty theory that is good for others but not for themselves? Would you criticize a father for repeating the same lessons to his children ten times or a hundred times if they did not profit from them? Why would God do any less than such a father? Why would God not from time to time send special messengers to humans, entrusted with reminding them of their duties and leading them back onto the right path when they wander from it, and opening the eyes of intelligence for those who have closed them, just as more advanced cultures send missionaries to those that are less evolved?
109. The Spirits teach no other morality than that of Christ for the simple reason that there is no other that is better. But what use would their teachings be if they told us only what we already knew? The same might be said of Christ’s morality, which had been taught by Socrates and Plato five hundred years earlier and in almost identical terms; and of all moralists who have repeated the same thing in all sorts of tones and under all sorts of forms. Very well! The Spirits have come simply to increase the number of moralists, but with the difference that, manifesting themselves far and wide, they make themselves heard in the hut as well as in the palace, by the uneducated as well as the educated.
110. What the teaching of the spirits has added to the morality of Christ is the knowledge of the principles that link the dead and the living, principles that complete the vague notions he gave regarding the soul’s past and future, and which sanction his teachings with the laws of nature.
111. With the help of the new insights brought by Spiritism, human beings comprehend the solidarity that connects all beings; charity and fraternity become a social necessity; they do because of conviction what they would otherwise do only because of duty – and they do it better.
112. One of the most important questions among those set forth at the beginning of this chapter was this: What is the authority of the Spiritist revelation, since it emanates from beings whose understanding is limited and who are not infallible?
113. This would be a serious objection if the revelation consisted only of the teaching of the Spirits, if we had received it from them exclusively and had accepted it with closed eyes; the objection becomes pointless, however, from the moment humans add the concourse of their intelligence and reasoning. Moreover, the Spirits limit themselves to placing humans on the path of deductions that they can derive from observing the phenomena. Now, the manifestations and all their innumerable variations are facts. Humans study them and look for the law in them, and they are aided in that endeavor by all categories of spirits, who are collaborators rather than revelators in the usual meaning of the word.
114. They submit spirits’ statements to the test of logic and common sense; in this way, they benefit from the special knowledge that spirits offer according to their position, but without renouncing the use of their own reason.
115. Since spirits are no more than the souls of human beings, in communicating with them we do not leave the sphere of humanity – a crucial fact to be considered. Hence, people of genius, who have been the beacons of humankind, thus came from the world of spirits just as they reentered it upon leaving the earth behind. Since spirits can communicate with human beings, these same geniuses can provide teachings while in spirit form just as they did while in corporeal form. They can instruct us after their death just as they did while alive; they are invisible instead of visible – that is the only difference. Their experience and knowledge must be no less, and if their words as humans had authority, such authority should be no less simply because they are now in the world of spirits.
116. However, not only high order spirits manifest themselves but also spirits of all orders, and such has been necessary in order to initiate us into the true character of the spirit world, showing it to us in all its aspects. In this way, the relations between the visible and invisible worlds are more intimate, and their connection more obvious. We see more clearly where we have come from and where we are going – that is the essential purpose of the communications.
117. All spirits, therefore, regardless of the degree they have reached, can teach us something; but since they are at different degrees of enlightenment, it falls to us to discern what is good or bad in them, and to profit from what their teachings entail. All of them, whoever they may be, can teach us or reveal things of which we are ignorant, and of which, without them, we would never know.
118. The great incarnate spirits were unquestionably powerful individuals, but their actions were restricted and necessarily slow to spread. If only one from amongst them – even if it were Moses or Elijah, Socrates or Plato – were to come in these latter times to reveal to humans the state of the spirit world, who could prove the truth of their assertions in this age of skepticism? Would not he be regarded as a dreamer or utopist? And even admitting that he had the absolute truth, centuries would have to pass before his ideas were accepted by the masses. Wisely, God did not will it to be so; God willed that the teaching be given by spirits themselves and not by incarnates in order to convince humans of their existence, and, furthermore, to enable it to take place simultaneously all over the earth, that it could spread more rapidly or so that we could find in the correlation of the teachings evidence of the truth, thus giving each person the means of being convinced by him or herself.
119. The Spirits did not come to free human beings from the endeavor of study and research and neither to transmit preconceived science. Concerning what humans could discover for themselves, the Spirits left them to their own efforts. This is something Spiritists know perfectly well today.
120. For a long time now, experience has demonstrated the error of the opinion that attributes to spirits all knowledge and wisdom, and that it is enough to address the first spirit who comes along in order to know all things. Having departed earthly humanity, spirits are one of its facets nevertheless, and, as on earth, there are those who are more evolved and those who are commonplace. Thus, many of them know less scientifically and philosophically than certain human beings; they tell what they know – no more, no less.
121. As is the case among humans, the more advanced spirits can instruct us on more subjects and can provide us more judicious counsel than those who are less advanced. Asking for counsel from spirits does not entail addressing supernatural powers, but rather one’s equals, the same ones whom we would address if they were alive: family members, friends, or individuals more enlightened than us. This is what is important to comprehend and it is what is ignored by those who, not having studied Spiritism, have a completely erroneous idea about the nature of the spirit world and the relations with the beyond.
122. So then, what is the usefulness of such manifestations, or if we would prefer, such revelations, if spirits do not know any more than we do, or if they do not tell us everything they do know? First, as we have already stated, they abstain from giving us what we could acquire through our own efforts; second, there are things they are not allowed to reveal because our degree of advancement cannot bear them.
123. However, that fact aside, the conditions of their new existence expand the circle of their perceptions; they can see what they could not on earth. Freed from the shackles of matter and delivered from the cares of corporeal life, they judge things from a more elevated point of view, and, therefore, more sanely. Their perception embraces a greater horizon; they comprehend their errors, rectify their ideas and rid themselves of human prejudices. It is in that fact that the superiority of spirits over corporeal humanity consists, and, depending on their degree of advancement, the reason why their counsels may be more judicious and disinterested than those of incarnates. Moreover, their environment enables them to initiate us into matters regarding the future life unbeknownst to us, which we cannot ascertain from our current environment.
124. So far, humans had formulated only theories about their future, which is why their beliefs on this point have been divided into such numerous and divergent theories, from nothingness to the fanciful concepts of heaven and hell. Today, however, it is the eyewitnesses, the very actors in the life beyond the grave, who have come to tell us what it really is – only they may do so. Consequently, their manifestations have served to enable us to understand the unseen world which surrounds us, and which we did not even suspect. This understanding alone would be of major importance, in the event we were to believe that spirits were incapable of teaching us anything else.
125. If you were to go to a country that was new to you, would you disregard the information given to you by the humblest peasants you came across? Would you refuse to ask them about the state of the roads just because they are only peasants? Obviously, you would not expect to obtain from them information of a higher order, but because of where they are they could inform you better on some points than could learned persons who did not know the country at all. You could draw conclusions from this information that they themselves could not, but they would have been a useful instrument for your observations nonetheless, even if only to inform you about the customs of peasants. The same applies concerning our relations with spirits, where even the naïve may teach us something.
126. A crude comparison will render the situation even more understandable: A ship loaded with emigrants departs for a far-off destination. It carries people from all walks of life, relatives and friends of those who remain behind. It is heard that the ship has wrecked. Not a trace of it remains and no news whatsoever has arrived regarding its fate. It is thought that all the travelers have perished, and all their families mourn for them. Nevertheless, everyone on board the ship – without exception – has reached an abundant and fertile unknown land, where they all live happily under a pleasant sky. However, this fact is unknown. One day, another ship docks at the same land and finds all the castaways safe and sound. The happy news spreads like lightning. Everyone exclaims, “Our friends aren’t lost after all!” And they render thanks to God. They cannot see one another but they can correspond. They exchange testimonies of affection; thus, happiness follows upon sadness. Such is the image of earthly life and life beyond the grave, before and after the modern revelation. Like the second ship, it has brought us the good news of the survival of those who are our loved ones, and the certainty of meeting them again someday. The doubt about their fate or ours no longer exists. Despair disappears before hope.
Answers to Proposed Questions
A. How can one know if a principle is taught universally, or if it is only the result of a personal opinion?
Since isolated groups were in no position to know what was being said elsewhere, it was necessary for one center to bring together all the teachings in order to do a kind of scrutiny of views and to take the opinion of the majority to everyone else. This, according to Allan Kardec, was the object of their publications, which can be considered the result of a labor of investigation. Through them it was possible to verify the agreement between the received teachings and its generality. All opinions were discussed and presented as principles only after having received the blessing of all the evidence, and only with them assertions can be made. That's where Spiritism draws its strength and guarantees the future. (Genesis, Ch. I, items 53 and 54)
B. Is the Spiritist revelation progressive?
Yes. The Spiritist revelation, being supported by facts, cannot help but be essentially progressive like all the sciences of observation. Spiritism establishes as an absolute principle only what the evidence, has demonstrated, or what has arisen logically from observation. Touching on all branches of social economics, to which it lends the support of its own discoveries, it will continue to assimilate all other progressive faiths of whatever order they may be, which have reached the status of practical truths and which have exited the domain of utopia; otherwise, it would be committing suicide. Ceasing to be what it truly is, it would contradict its origin and its providential purpose. Moving along with progress, Spiritism will never be surpassed, because if new discoveries were to show it to be in error on one point, it would modify itself on that point. If a new truth is revealed, it accepts it. (Genesis, Ch. I, Item 55)
C. Why does the superior spirits teach morals that of Christ and not of other prophets?
The Spirits teach no other morality than that of Christ for the simple reason that there is no other that is better. What the teaching of the spirits has added to the morality of Christ is the knowledge of the principles that link the dead and the living, principles that complete the vague notions he gave regarding the soul’s past and future, and which support the Christian teachings with the laws of nature. (Genesis, Ch. I, Item 56)
