Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1865

Some people ask what is it new that we owe to Spiritism? Since it has not brought to the world a new productive industry, like the steam engine, people conclude that it has not produced anything. The majority of those that ask such a question, not having done the work of studying it, only know the Spiritism of fantasy, created to satisfy the critics and that has nothing to do with serious Spiritism. Hence, there is no surprise there when people ask about its practical and useful side. They should have sought it in its source and not in the caricatures made by those whose sole objective is to smear it.

Another group of people think differently and, on the contrary, see Spiritism marching too slowly for their taste. Those are surprised by the fact that it has not yet probed all mysteries of nature nor all questions that they believe are in its scope; they would like to see it teaching new things every day or enriching itself with some new discovery. Since it has not yet solved the issue of the origin of all beings, the principle and end of all things, the divine essence and a few other similar things, the conclude that it is still an alphabet of letters; that it has not yet entered the true philosophical path and that it still drags on in common places because it permanently preaches humility and charity. They say: “Up until now it has not taught us anything new, because reincarnation, the denial of eternal penalties, the immortality of the soul, the evolution through the periods of intellectual maturity and the perispirit are not properly Spiritist discoveries; it is then necessary to walk towards more truthful and solid discoveries.”

We believe to be appropriate to provide some observations in that regards that are not new either but there are things that must be repeated in several different ways.

It is true that Spiritism has not invented any of that since the real truth is only the one that is eternal and that for that very reason must have been germinated at all times. However, isn’t that something to have taken those ideas if not from the void at least from the forgotten; created a lively plant from a seed; generated a general belief out of an individual idea, lost in the darkness of times or muffled by prejudices; demonstrated what was only hypothetical before; proven the existence of a law in what was only considered exceptional or serendipitous before; created a practical thing of a vague theory and provided useful applications to what was unproductive idea? Nothing is more truthful than the proverb: “Nothing new under the Sun” and even that truth is not new. Hence there is no discovery from which one cannot find vestiges and principles somewhere else.



Based on that Copernicus would not have the merit of his system because there was suspicion of the movement of Earth before the Christian era. It was something so simple, but it was necessary to have it found. The story of Columbus’ egg will always remain as an eternal truth.

Besides, Spiritism undoubtedly still has a lot to teach us. That is what we have repeated tirelessly because we do not pretend that it has already said the final word. Nonetheless, considering that there is still work to be done, will it follow that Spiritism is still in its infancy? The alphabet of letters was the turning tables and since then it seems to us that it has already moved a few steps; it even seems that those steps were large in a few years if we have it compared to other sciences that required centuries to get to their present condition. None has arrived at their apex in a first impulse; they advance not out of peoples’ will but as the circumstances put them on the way of new discoveries. Now, nobody has the power of controlling such circumstances and the proof of that is that whenever an idea is premature it gets aborted, to resurge later when the time is right.

Still, in the absence of new discoveries will the persons of science remain idle? Chemistry will no longer be Chemistry if new elements are not discovered? Will the Astronomers be condemned to cross their arms if new planets are not discovered? The same applies to all fields of science and technology. Before new things are sought, shouldn’t we apply the current knowledge? It is precisely to give people time to assimilate, apply and spread knowledge that the Providence stalls the march forward. History is here to demonstrate that science does not follow a continuous ascending march, at least ostensibly. The great movements that revolutionize an idea only take place at more or less distanced intervals. Therefore, there is no stagnation but elaboration, application and fruitification of what was learned and that is always a sign of progress.

Could the human spirit incessantly absorb new ideas? Doesn’t Earth itself requires a resting time before reproduction? What to tell of a professor that daily teach new ideas to her students without giving them time to practice what they had learn, to familiarize them with those lessons and apply them? Would God be less thoughtful and skillful than a professor?

In all things the new ideas must fit in with the acquired one. If the existing ones are not sufficiently elaborated and consolidated in the brain; if the mind has not assimilated them yet, then the new ones that we would like to implant would not bear roots. We would be sowing in the emptiness.

It is the same with Spiritism. Have the followers taken so much advantage of what has been taught so far that there is nothing else to do? Are they so much charitable, selfless and benevolent to their neighbor; have they controlled so much their passions, denied hatred, envy and jealousy; finally, are thy so much perfect that from now on it would be useless to teach them charity, humility and abnegation, moral in a word? Such pretension on its own would demonstrate how much still they need such elementary lessons that some consider fastidious and puerile. It is, however, only with the support of those instructions, if well utilized, that they will be able to evolve enough to become worthy of receiving a superior teaching.

The objective of Spiritism is the regeneration of humanity: that is an attested fact. Since such regeneration can only occur through a moral progress it thus follows that such essential and providential objective is the individual betterment. They mysteries that it can reveal to us are accessory. We would not be more advanced for our future just because it had opened to us the sanctuary of every knowledge. To have us admitted to the banquet of supreme happiness God dos not ask us what we know or what we have but our worth and what we have done. Hence, every sincere Spiritist must work towards their individual betterment, before anything else. It is only the one that dominated their bad tendencies that took advantage of Spiritism and shall receive their reward. That is why the good Spirits, by the commandment of God, multiple their instructions and repeat them abundantly; only a senseless pride may say: I do not need anything else. Only God knows when they will be useless, and it is only up to God to guide the messengers and fit them to our advancement. Let us see, however, if beyond the purely moral teaching the results of Spiritism are as sterile as some pretend them to be.

The merit of an invention is not in the discovery of a principle, almost always known before, but in the application of that principle. Reincarnation, no doubt, is not a new idea, as the perispirit that St. Paul described as the spiritual body, not even the communication with the Spirits. Spiritism, that does not brag about having discovered nature, carefully seeks every trace that can be found in the pre-existence of its ideas and, when found, promptly proclaims them as proof in support of its proposal. Hence, those that invoke such pre-existence as a means of blemishing what Spiritism does go against their own objective and act wrongly since that could raise suspicion of a preconceived idea.

The discovery of reincarnation and perispirit, therefore, does not belong to Spiritism. It is something known. But up until its appearance, what benefit had science, religion, moral taken from those two principles, ignored by the masses, kept in the state of dead letter? Spiritism not only brought it to the open and had them known as laws of nature but also developed them and made them bear fruits; it has already brought fecund and numerous results from that without which one could not understand a large number of things; it daily allows us to understand new ones and we are from exhausting that mine. Taking into account the fact that these two principles were known, why have them remained unproductive for so long? Why, for so many centuries, have all philosophies crashed against so many insolvable questions?

They were brute diamonds that needed to be chiseled; that is what Spiritism has done. It opened up a new path to philosophy, or even better, it created a new philosophy that daily conquers its place in the world. Are then these results so insignificant that we must accelerate the pace towards more truthful and solid discoveries?

In summary, a certain number of fundamental truths, sketched by certain strong minds and kept, in their majority, in a latent state, once studied, developed and demonstrated, from sterile they become fecund from which innumerable secondary principles and applications germinate, opening up a broad field to exploration, new horizons to science, philosophy, religion, moral and social economy.

These are, until today, the main successes of Spiritism, and all we have done is to indicate the most important points. Supposing that it was all we would already be satisfied; now saying that a new science that provides such results in less than ten years is not exactly nullity because it touches every matters vital to humanity, bringing to human knowledge a new contingent that cannot be neglected. Until the time when all those points have received every susceptible application and that people had taken advantage of them, there will still be a long time and the Spiritists that wanted to practice them for themselves and the greater good will not remain idle.

These are focal points from where uncountable secondary truths will irradiate, be developed and applied, as it is done every day because every day facts are revealed that lift up a new tip of the veil. In a few years Spiritism successively provided every foundation of the new edifice. It is now up to its followers to practice that material before new ones are requested. When their mission is accomplished God will know how to have them provided.

Some say that the Spiritists only know the alphabet letters of Spiritism. Be it. To begin with then let us learn how to spell that alphabet but that is not a one day task because even reduced to those small proportions a long time is required before we have exhausted all combinations and harvested all fruits.

Don’t we still have facts to explain? As a matter of fact, don’t the Spiritists still have to teach that alphabet to those that ignore it? Have them already sowed the seed in every possible place? Aren’t there nonbelievers to be converted, obsessed to be cured, consolations to be given and tears to dry? Are we right by saying that there is nothing else to be done when the task is not done, when there are still so many ulcers to be cured? There we have noble occupations that it is worth to get to know better and a bit sooner than the others.

Therefore, let us learn to spell our alphabet letters before we try to read correctly in the great book of nature. God will have it open to us as we advance but it is not up to any one force its way through, anticipating the time of each thing. If the tree of science hangs too high to be reached let us wait to be able to fly up there and that our wings may be ready and strongly fixated so that we do not have the same fate of Icarus.