The Spiritist Review - JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES - 1861

Allan Kardec

Back to the menu
The Mentally Challenged - Cretinism

One of our colleagues, Mrs. Costel, travelled to a region in the Alps where cretinism seems to have established itself as a main health issue and while there, she received the following communication from one of her familiar spirits:


“The mentally challenged with cretinism are punished on Earth for the bad use they made of their once given powerful faculties. Their soul is imprisoned in a body whose powerless organs cannot express their thoughts. Such moral and physical muteness is one of the cruelest punishments on the planet. Regretful spirits who want to make up for their faults frequently chooses it. Such trial is not in vain because the spirit is not stationary in the bodily prison. The blurred eyes can see; the foggy brain can think but nothing can be translated into words or body language and with the exception of their movement they are morally in the same situation as the lethargic and the cataleptic that see and hear what goes on around them but cannot express themselves. When you have terrible nightmares in your sleep and you want to run away from danger; when you scream for help while your tongue remains static in your mouth and your feet stuck to the ground you briefly experience what always happens to a person with cretinism: paralysis of the body that is linked to the life of the spirit. Hence almost every disease has a reason for its occurrence. There is nothing without a cause and what you call injustice in someone’s fate is the application of the sternest justice. Insanity is also a punishment for the abuse of the faculties.


An insane person has two personalities, one that is flamboyant and the other that is cognizant, without the ability of controlling the actions. In the case of cretinism, the contemplative life, isolated from the body, can be as hectic as those lives that are complicated by events. Some revolt against their voluntary punishment; they become sorry for having chosen that and then experience a fierce desire to return to another life, a desire that leads them to forget the resignation in their present life and the remorse for their past life, from which they are aware of since those who suffer cretinism know better than you do and in their physical limitation there is a hidden moral strength that you cannot even imagine.


The acts of fury or stupidity of their bodies are judged by their inner self that suffers and feels ashamed. Thus the ridicule, harm or mistreatment that they sometimes face increases their suffering since it makes them feel even worse for their weakness and misery. If they could, they would accuse those who act this way as being cowardliness since they know that their victims cannot defend themselves.


Cretinism is not a law of God and science may make it disappear since it is the material result of ignorance, misery and filthiness. The new procedures of hygiene made widely available and of more practical use to everyone by science tends to eliminate that. Besides, since progress is the fate of humanity the imposed trials will also modify, following the progress of the centuries; they will all become moral and when the still young Earth has accomplished all phases of its existence it will become a place of happiness like other more advanced planets.


Pierre Jouty, medium’s father


OBSERVATION: There was a time when people had doubts about the soul of those with cretinism and there was the question if in reality they belonged to humankind. Isn’t the manner in which Spiritism sees them not of a high moral character and of a great lesson? Don’t we find subject for serious reflection when we think that those miserable bodies have souls that may have already shone in the world; that they are as much lucid and active in their minds as we are, under the thick cover that muffles their manifestations and that one day the same can happen to us if we abuse our God given faculties?


How else can one explain cretinism? How to reconcile it with God’s justice and benevolence without admitting the plurality of the existences that is reincarnation? If the soul had not lived yet, it means that it was created at the same time as the body. In that case how can one justify the creation of souls as disinherited, as those who suffer cretinism from the part of a just and good God? Here we are not talking about one of those incidents of insanity that can be treated and cured. Those creatures are born and die in the same state. Since there is no notion of good and evil what is their fate in eternity? Will they be happy like the hard working and intelligent people? But then why this favor since they have not done anything good? Will they be in a state called limbo or in a mixed state that is not happiness or unhappiness? We challenge anyone who denies the doctrine of reincarnation to find a solution to this stalemate. With reincarnation, on the contrary, what seems to be an injustice becomes a remarkable justice; what is inexplicable is explained in the most rational way. As a matter of fact we don’t know if those who deny this doctrine have ever presented any more peremptory argumentation than their personal rejection to return to Earth. Are they so certain of having enough virtues to achieve heavens immediately? Good luck to them. But those with cretinism? How about the children who die during infancy? What shall be the titles that they will hold?

Related articles

Show related items