Tribute to the dead
Note: This issue has a supplement. It contains 52 pages instead of 32, including the general index.
The Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies met for the first time on November 2nd, 1864 with the objective of offering a pious tribute to their deceased Spiritist brothers and colleagues. On the occasion Mr. Allan Kardec developed the principle of communion of thoughts in the following speech:
Dear Spiritist brothers and sisters,
We gathered here on this day dedicated by tradition to the memory of the dead to give those brothers that left Earth a private testimony of sympathy, giving continuity to the relationships of love and fraternity that existed between them and us while they were alive and to attract to them the benevolence of the Almighty.
But why do we gather? Because we deviate from our occupations? Can’t each one do in private what we propose to do in common? Isn’t that what each one does to their loved ones? Can’t it be done every day and every hour of the day? Therefore what is the benefit to get-together on a determined day? I propose to make some considerations about that point, ladies and gentlemen.
The reception that the idea of this meeting had is the first answer to those multiple questions. It is the indication of the need that we have to gather in communion of thoughts.
Communion of thoughts! Do we really understand the reach of such expression? It is allowed to doubt that at least by the majority. Spiritism that teaches us so many things by the laws that it reveals comes still to explain the cause, effects and the power of such condition of the Spirit. Communion of thoughts means common thoughts, unity of intentions, will, desire and aspirations. Nobody can neglect the fact that thought is force. Is it, however, a purely mental and abstract force? No, because otherwise certain effects of thought could not be explained and even less of the communion of thoughts. In order to understand it we need to know the properties and the action of the elements that constitute our spiritual essence and it is Spiritism that teaches us.
Thought is the characteristic attribute of the spiritual being. That is what distinguishes Spirit and matter. Without thought the Spirit would not be Spirit. The will is not a special attribute of the Spirit; it is thought at a certain level of energy; it is thought transformed into driving force. It is through the will that the Spirit transmits movements in a given direction to limbs and body. But if it has the power to act upon physical organs how much must that action be upon the fluidic elements that surround us! Thought acts upon the fluids in the ambient, like sound acts on the air; those fluids bring us the thought like the air brings the sound. One can therefore and positively say that there are waves and rays of thoughts in those fluids that cross one another without mixing up, as there are sound waves and rays in the air.
An assembly is a focus from where diverse thoughts irradiate; it is like an orchestra, a choir of thoughts in which each one produces a note. It results in a large quantity of currents and fluidic emanations from which each person receives impressions by the spiritual sense like in a musical choir the impression is received by the hearing sense. However, in the same way that there are harmonic or discordant sound waves there are also harmonic and discordant thoughts. If the whole is harmonic the impression will be pleasant; if it is discordant the impression will be painful.
For that it is not necessary that the thought be formulated with words since the fluidic radiation does exist be it expressed in words or not. If all thoughts are benevolent the attendees will have a pleasant feeling and at ease. However if some bad thoughts get into the mix they produce the effect of cold air in a warm environment.
That is the cause of the feeling of satisfaction that one experiences in a sympathetic meeting; it is like a healthy atmosphere that prevails, where one can breathe freely and leaves the place renovated because we are impregnated by healthy emanations. That is also the explanation for the undefined anxiety and indisposition that we feel in a hostile environment in which malevolent thoughts provoke, in a way, unhealthy fluidic currents.
The communion of thoughts consequently produces a kind of physical effect that acts upon the moral world. That is what only Spiritism could make understandable. People feel that instinctively and that is why they seek meetings in which they know they are going to find communion; in these homogeneous and sympathetic gatherings they absorb new moral strengths. One can say that they recover their fluidic losses that happen every day by the radiation of thoughts as they recover the loss of physical weight through food. These considerations, ladies and gentlemen, seem to keep us away from the main objective of our meeting, however, they bring us right here. The meetings that have per objective a tribute to the dead are based on a communion of thoughts. In order to understand its utility it would be necessary to define the effects and nature of that communion.
To explain spiritual things I sometimes utilize very material things and perhaps pushing too much for they must not always be taken literally. Nonetheless it is going from the known to the unknown that we realize, at least approximately, what escapes our senses. It is to such comparisons that the Spiritist Doctrine owns to a large extent have been easily understood, even by the most common intelligences, whereas if I had remained in the abstractions of the metaphysics philosophy it would have been only shared, even today, by a few privileged minds. Now, since the beginning it was necessary to have it accepted by the masses because the opinion of the masses exerts a pressure that ends up making the law and succeeding against the more tenacious oppositions. That is why I strived to simplify it and make it clear to have it to the reach of everybody taking the risk of heaving it contested by certain persons with respect to the title of the philosophy because it is not sufficiently abstract and because it has come out of the foggy cloud of classical metaphysics.
To the effects that I have just described with respect to the communion of thoughts I add another one that is its natural consequence and that we must not lose sight of. It is the power that the thought or will acquires by the sum of thoughts or will put together. Since the will is an active force it is multiplied by the number of identical will like the muscular force is multiplied by the number of arms.
That point made one must conceive that in the relationships established between persons and the Spirits there is, in a gathering in which a perfect communion of thoughts reigns, an attractive or repealing force that an isolated force not always has. If up until now the large gatherings are less favorable it is for the difficulty of finding a perfect homogeneity of thoughts, due to the imperfect human nature on Earth.
The larger the meeting the more mixed up the heterogeneous elements that paralyze the action of the good elements and that are like grains of sand in a gear box. That is not what happens in more advanced worlds and that condition will change in our planet, following the betterment of mankind here.
To the Spiritists the communion of thoughts has an even more special result. We have seen the result of such communion from person to person. Spiritism proves that it is not lower between persons and the Spirits and vice versa. In fact if the collective thought acquires strength by quantity, a group of identical thoughts, if the objective is to do good they will have more power to neutralize the action of the bad Spirits. We see that the tactics of the latter is to drive division and isolation. A man alone may succumb but if seconded by the will of others he can resist, according to the axiom: unity is strength, axiom that is true to the physical as well as spiritual world.
On another hand if the action of the malevolent Spirits may be paralyzed by a common thought it is evident that the action of the good ones may be boosted and its healthy influence will not find obstacles; its fluidic emanations will spread onto all attendees since they are not hindered by contrary currents, precisely for the fact that all would have attracted them through their thoughts, not each one to their personal benefit but to the benefit of all, according to the law of charity. Such emanations will fall upon them like tongues of fire to use a remarkable image in the Gospel.
Through the communion of thoughts, therefore, people help one another and at the same time they assist the Spirits and are assisted by them. The relationships between the visible and invisible worlds instead of individual becomes collective and for that very reason more powerful to the benefit of the masses as well as the individuals. In a word, it establishes a solidarity that is the basis of fraternity. Nobody works for oneself but for everyone and working for everyone each finds its own share. That is what selfishness does not understand.
Every religious gathering, irrespective of the cult, are founded on the communion of thoughts; that is where they can and must exert its full power because the objective must be the liberation of thoughts from the constriction of matter. Unfortunately the majority stays away from that principle as much as they turned religion into a question of recipe. This resulted in each person seeking their own recipe and considering to be good with God and their fellow human beings since the formula was practiced. It results still that each person goes to religious gatherings with a personal thought and on their own and in the majority of cases without any feeling of fraternity with respect to the other attendees. That person is in isolation in the multitude and only thinks about heavens for herself. Certainly that was not Jesus’ understanding when he said: “when many of you are gathered in my name I will be with you.” Gathered in my name means: with a common thought but one cannot gather in the name of Jesus without taking into account his principles, his doctrine. But what is the fundamental principle of the doctrine of Jesus? Charity in thoughts, words and actions. The egotist and proud persons lie when believe to be gathering in the name of Jesus because Jesus to not recognize them as his disciples.
Adopting those abuses and deviations some persons deny the utility of religious assemblies and, consequently, the buildings dedicated to that. In their radical view they think that it would be better to build hospitals than temples given that the temple of God is everywhere and that God can be worshiped everywhere; that each person can pray in their home and at any time while the poor and sick require their place of recovery.
But for the reason that they make such mistakes and move away from the right path does it mean that there is no right way and that everything that is abused is bad? Certainly not. This is a misunderstanding of the origin and benefits of the communion of thoughts that must be the essence of the religious assemblies; it is ignorance of the sources that lead to them.
It is understandable that materialistic persons profess such ideas because they make abstraction of the spiritual world in everything but from spiritualists and in particular Spiritists that would be a nonsense. Religious isolation, like social isolation, leads to selfishness. It is possible that certain persons are strong enough by themselves, very heartful so that their faith and charity do not need to be fed by a common focus but that is not the case with the masses that require stimulus without which they would remain indifferent.
Besides, which person can consider oneself enlightened enough to have nothing to learn with respect to her future interest and perfect enough to prescind from the advices to the current life? Is that person always capable of learning by herself? No. The majority lacks direct teachings about religious and moral issues, as well as with respect to the science. There is no doubt that such instructions may be given everywhere, under the dome of the skies as much as under the roof of a temple. But why people would not have special places to meet heavenly things, like there are those for the earthly ones? Why not having religious assemblies like there are others in politics, science and technology? That does not preclude the foundations to the benefit of the unfortunate ones but we say in addition that when humanity better understand their interests in heavens there will be the need for less people in hospitals here.
Speaking generically and without reference to any cult, if the religious assemblies many times move away from their main primitive objective that is the fraternal communion of thoughts; if the teachings there have not always followed the progressive march of humanity it is for the reason that not everyone realize progress simultaneously. What they do not time in period the do in another. As they learn they see the existing blanks in their institutions and fill them out; they understand that what was good at one time, given the level of civilization, becomes insufficient in a more advanced period and they catch up. We know that Spiritism is the great lever of progress in all things. It marks an era of renovation. Let us learn to wait and let us not claim from a time more than it can give. Like with the plants, it is necessary that the ideas mature to have the fruits harvested. We must also make the necessary concessions to the times of transition for nothing in nature happens in a sudden and instantaneous way.
For the reason that we gather here, ladies and gentlemen, I consider to be proper to take the opportunity to develop the subject of the communion of thoughts, from the point of view of Spiritism. Since our objective is to unite in our intention to together offer a private testimony of sympathy to our deceased loved ones it seemed useful to call our attention to the advantages of the meeting. Thanks to Spiritism we understand the power and the effects of collective thoughts and we can better explain the good feeling that we experience in a homogeneous and sympathetic environment, but we equally know that the same applies to the Spirits because they know how to receive the emanations of every benevolent thought that elevates to them like a cloud of perfume. Those that are happy feel an even greater joy in this harmonious concert; those that suffer feel a greater relief with that. Each one of us, in particular, preferably pray for those of their interest or esteem. Let us have it here that all of them may have their share in the prayers that we address to God.
