With this edition ends the methodical study of the book, What is Spiritism, launched in Paris in July 1859. This study will be divided into 19 parts. The pages cited in the text and suggested for reading refer to the 20th edition published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (Federação Espírita Brasileira). The answers to the questions suggested for discussion can be found at the end of this text.
Questions for discussion
A. What is the cause of the evil that afflicts Humanity?
B. How does Spiritsm explain that some people are born in poverty while others are born in wealth?
C. What is the situation of the soul soon after the death of the body?
Reading Text
183. In natural death, the detachment of the soul occurs gradually and with no shock, beginning sometimes even before life is extinct. In a violent death by torture, suicide or accident, the ties are broken abruptly. The Spirit, surprised, becomes dizzy as a consequence of the changes, and does not find an explanation for his situation. The Spirit often thinks he is not dead. This illusion can last for many months and even years. In this state, the Spirit moves around, believing that he is taking care of his business, and is bewildered because when he talks to someone, the person does not answer him. (Chapter III, item 149, pages 210 and 211).
184. The same illusion post mortem can be seen, when death is not violent, but the person’s life was dedicated exclusively to pleasure and material interests. (Chapter III, item 149, page 211).
185. Free from the body, the Spirit of a child, who dies at an early age, gets back the powers it had before its incarnation. Since it only lived very briefly moments within its body, it suffers no changes regarding its faculties. (Chapter III, item 154, page 212).
186. The Spirit of a boy can speak as an adult because it can be an advanced Spirit. Sometimes he uses the child’s language, not to prevent his mother from living the charm and enchantment that is always connected to the affection of a fragile being, a gentle being with the graces of innocence. (Chapter III, item 154, page 212).
187. When the souls enter the world of the Spirits, they do not receive all the knowledge they lacked on Earth. After their death, they progress more or less according to their will and some progress a lot, but need to put in practice during their bodily life, what they acquired in knowledge and morality. (Chapter III, item 156, page 213).
188. Spirits have duties in the spiritual life related to their degree of development. (Chapter III, item 159, page 214).
189. The Church recognizes today that the fire of Hell is moral and not material, but does not define the nature of suffering. According to the Spirits, these penalties are not uniform: they vary infinitely, according to the nature and extent of their misconduct, and often these faults are the instrument of their punishment. So it is that certain murderers are required to be kept in the very scene of the crime and see their victims unceasingly; the man of sensual and material tastes retains these tendencies with the impossibility of satisfying them; certain misers suffer the cold and hardship they endured in life by their avarice; others remain with the treasures they buried for fear of being stolen, and so on. In a word, there is not a defect, a moral flaw, a bad act that does not have its reverse in the spiritual world, and its natural consequences. Therefore, there is no need for a specific and targeted place. Wherever you find the evil Spirit, Hell is with him. (Chapter III, item 160, page 215).
190. In addition to the material suffering, there are penalties and material evidence that if the Spirit is not yet purified, he reincarnates and is placed in a position where he suffers in the same manner as he made others suffer; he is belittled, if he was proud; miserable if he was a miser; unhappy with his sons, if he was bad son, and so on. This Earth is, therefore, one of the places of exile and atonement, a purgatory, to the Spirits of this nature, from which each one can free oneself by improving so as to deserve to live in a better place in a better world. (Chapter III, item 160, pages 215 and 216).
191. Prayer is always useful to suffering souls. Good spirits recommend it, and those who have not yet reached perfection pray as a means of relieving their sufferings. Besides the comfort that it provides, a prayer leads to repentance. (Chapter III, item 161, page 216).
192. The happiness of the good Spirits is to understand all things, not to feel hatred, or jealousy, or envy, or greed, or any of the passions that make men unhappy. The love that unites them is, for the good Spirits, the source of supreme happiness, because they do not experience the needs, suffering, or the anxieties of material life. The contemplative state would be a stupid and boring thing. Spiritual life is, on the contrary, full of non-stop actions due to the missions that the Spirits receive from the Supreme Being, working as His agents in the government of the Universe. (Chapter III, item 162, pages 216 and 217).
Answers to the proposed questions
A. What is the cause of the evil that afflicts Humanity?
The evil that afflicts Humanity is a consequence of the moral inferiority of most Spirits living here. Through their vices they make one another unhappy and therefore punish each other. (What is Spiritism, Chapter III, item 132).
B. How does Spiritsm explain that some people are born in poverty while others are born in wealth?
Indeed, this has a cause. If the answer is not found in this life, it must be found in the previous life. Spiritism shows that more than one man born in poverty was rich and respected in a previous life, in which he misused the fortune that God entrusted him to manage. Not always, however, a life of suffering is a consequence of atonement. Many times it was chosen by the Spirit, who sees in this suffering a way of progressing more quickly, considering his courage to support it. Wealth is also a test, more dangerous than poverty, due to temptation and the abuses it entails. The example of those who passed through Earth shows that it is a test in which victory is more difficult. (Ibid, Chapter III, item 134).
C. What is the situation of the soul soon after the death of the body?
At death everything appears confused. The soul needs some time to become aware. The period of time of this stage of confusion after death is variable. It can be just a couple of hours, or many days, months and even years. This disturbance is not painful for the good man, but it is full of anxiety and anguish for the individual whose conscience is not pure and who loved more his bodily life than his spiritual life. (Ibid, Chapter III, items 144, 145 and 153).
