Some people have asked why the Spiritist Doctrine is not the same in the old as well as in the new continent and what is the difference. It is what we are going to try to explain.
As everyone knows the manifestations took place everywhere both in Europe as well as in America and in these days that people are more aware of that they remember a large number of events that had gone unnoticed and that are abundantly registered in authentic texts. Those facts, nonetheless, were isolated. They have recently produced in the United States in a much ample scale to call people’s attention on both sides of the Atlantic. The extreme freedom that exists in that country favored the flourishment of the new ideas and that is why the Spirits chose that country as the first theater for their teachings.
Well, it is common that an idea be born in one country and develops in another as we see in sciences and technology. The American intelligence gave proof of that and must not envy Europe in any way. However if that country sticks out in all matters of commerce and mechanical arts they must not deny Europe its prominence in moral and philosophical sciences. Due to that difference in the normal features of the peoples experimental Spiritism was in its habitat in America while the theoretical and philosophical part found in Europe a more adequate environment for its development. That is how it was born there and soon conquered the first place. The facts there initially attracted curiosity but as soon as curiosity was satisfied people got tired of the material experiments without positive results. The same did not happen from the time when the moral consequences of those events for the future of humanity unfolded. It was the time when Spiritism found its place among philosophical sciences. It advanced at gigantic strides despite the obstacles that were placed on its path because it satisfies the aspirations of the masses and because it was promptly understood that it had come to fill up the immense void of beliefs and resolve what up until then seemed insoluble.
Thus, America was the crib of Spiritism but it was in Europe that it was raised and made its humanities. Should America be jealous for that? No, because was in advantage in other aspects. Wasn’t that in Europe that the steam engine was born and wasn’t in America that it found better conditions? Each one has their role according to their skills and each people theirs according to their own particular ingenuity.
What particularly distinguishes the American Spiritist School from the European one is the predominance of phenomena in the former more specially related to that and the latter that is more relate to the philosophical part. The Spiritist philosophy from Europe spread straight away because it offered a consolidated theory since the beginning; because it showed the objective and incontestably broadened the horizon of the ideas and that is the one that prevails today in the whole world. Up until now in the USA they have not moved away from the primitive ideas. Does it mean that they will remain alone in the back end of the general movement? That would be an offense to the intelligence of that people. As a matter of fact the Spirits are there to push them in the common avenue giving them the teachings that they give somewhere else. They will gradually overcome the resistances that may arise from a national pride. If the Americans repel the European theory because it came from Europe they will accept it when it shows up in their environment by the voice of the Spirits themselves. They will give in not to the opinion of a few people but to the universal control of the Spirits, this powerful criterial as demonstrated in our article about the authority of the Spiritist Doctrine. It is just a matter of time particularly when personal issues have disappeared.
From all principles of the Doctrine the one that found the most opposition in America, and by America here we only mean the USA, is that of reincarnation. It can even be said that this is the only fundamental divergence because the others are more related to the format than the meaning and that because this has not been taught yet by the Spirits there and we have already explained why.
The Spirits proceed with wisdom and caution everywhere. They avoid abruptly shocking pre-established ideas to have their own accepted. The dogma of reincarnation in the USA would crash against prejudices of color that are so much entrenched in that country. The essential was to have the fundamental principle of the communication between the visible and invisible world accepted. Issues of detail would come at the right time. There is no doubt that such an obstacle will end up disappearing and that one of the results of the current Civil War will be a gradual weakening of prejudices that are an anomaly in such a liberal nation.
If the idea of reincarnation is not widely accepted in the USA it is by some if not as an absolute principle at least with certain restrictions that it is already something. As for the Spirits they already start to teach that principle in certain places undoubtedly seeing that the moment is adequate and in other places more openly. Once the issue is raised it will follow its own course. In fact we have in our hands old communications received in that country in which without being formally expressed the plurality of the existences is the obvious consequence of the principles that were taught. The idea can be seen under development there. Therefore there is no doubt that what is called American school today will soon merge with the great unity that is established everywhere. As a proof of the statements above we will cite the article below published in the Union, a San Francisco journal with a summary of the letter that followed it.
“Dear Mr. Allan Kardec,
Although I did not have the honor of getting to know you as a medium I take the liberty of sending you the attached news that those gentlemen from the newspaper summarized a bit. Despite that, however, lots of people seem to want more. All of your books, therefore, spread out and our bookstores will soon have to place new orders.
Sincerely… Pauline Boulay
