The reasons for which Spiritism repudiates the word
miracle, in its particular aspect, and in general for the phenomena that do not depart from the natural laws, have been developed many times, either in our works on the doctrine, or in several articles of the Spiritist Review. They are summarized in the following passage, taken from the May 1867 issue:
In its usual meaning, the word miracle has lost its original connotation, like so many others, starting with the word philosophy (love of wisdom), that we use today to express the most diametrically opposing ideas, from the purest spiritualism, down to the most absolute materialism. There is no doubt that, in the mind of the masses, miracle implies the idea of a supernatural fact. Ask anyone that believes in miracles if they regard them as natural effects.The Church is so fixated on this point that it anathematizes those that claim to explain miracles by the laws of nature. The Academy itself defines this word as: Act of divine power, contrary to the known laws of nature. True, false miracle, proven miracle, work miracles. The gift of miracles.To be understood by everyone, you have to speak like everyone else; now, it is obvious that if we had qualified the Spiritist phenomena as miraculous, the public would have misunderstood their true character, unless we used a periphrasis each time, and said that they are miracles that are not miracles like they are usually understood. Since it is generally attached to the idea of a derogation of the natural laws, and since the Spiritist phenomena are only the application of these same laws, it is much simpler and above all more logical to bluntly say: no, Spiritism does not work miracles. In this way, there is no misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Just as the progress of the physical sciences has destroyed a host of prejudices, and brought into the order of natural facts a large number of effects formerly considered to be miraculous, Spiritism, by the revelation of new laws, further restricts the realm of the marvelous; we say more: it swings the last blow, and that is why it is not everywhere, with the odor of sanctity, any more than astronomy and geology.”As a matter of fact, the issue of miracles is treated in a comprehensive way and with all the developments that it requires in the second part of the new book that we published with the title “
Genesis, the miracles and predictions according to Spiritism.” The natural cause of the events called miracles is explained. If the author of the article above take the burden or reading it, he will see that the healings of Mr. Jacob, and all others of the same kind, are not a problem to Spiritism, that since long knows how to handle this matter. It is an almost elemental question.
The meaning of the word miracle, in the sense of a supernatural fact, is blessed by the use; the Church claims it to itself, as part of its dogmas. Hence, it seems difficult to us to make this word go back to its etymological meaning, without exposing ourselves to misunderstandings. The author says that a new word would be needed. Since all that is not outside the laws of nature is natural, we cannot see another one capable of embracing them all, but the
natural phenomena.
But the natural phenomena called miraculous are of two kinds: some depend on the laws that rule matter, others on the laws that rule the spiritual principle. The former phenomena are in the field of science, properly speaking; the latter are more specially in the domain of Spiritism. As for the latter, since they are mostly a consequence of the attributes of the soul, the word does exist: these are the so called psychic phenomena; and when combined with the effects of matter, they could be called
psychic-material or
semi-psychic.
The author criticizes the expression “spiritual element”, for the reason, he says, that the only spiritual element is God. The answer to this is very simple. The word element is not taken here in the sense of
simple body,
elemental, of primitive molecules, but as in the part that is constituent of the whole. In that sense, one can say that the spiritual element is an active part in the economy of the universe, as one say that the civil element and the military element appear in a given proportion in the formation of the population; that the religious element enters education; that there is the Arabic element and the European element in Algeria, etc. From our side we tell the author that, in the absence of a special word for this last meaning of the word
element, we are forced to use it. As a matter of fact, since these two meanings do not represent contradictory ideas, like the word miracle, then there is no possible confusion, for the essential idea is the same.
If the author takes the burden of studying Spiritism, against which, we attest with pleasure that he does not have a preconceived idea, he will find there the answer to the doubts that he seems to express in some parts of his article, with the exception though of what is related to the science of the numerical concordances, that we have never handled, and about which we could not consequently have a formed opinion.
Spiritist does not have the pretension of giving the last word about all laws that govern the universe, being that the reason why it has never said:
Nec plus ultra.
[1] By its own nature, it opens the way to all new discoveries, but up until a new principle is attested, Spiritism does not accept it unless as a hypothesis or a likelihood.
[1] Latin expression meaning “the highest point to be attained” – Merriam-Webster dictionary (T.N.)
