-“In our opinion, the greatest obstacles to the expansion of Spiritism come from the actions of those who reincarnate, promising to serve it, whether through direct mediumship or indirect mediumship, in the field of inspiration and intelligence, and they get lost in the seductions of physical sphere" , answered Espírito Gabriel Delanne in an interview granted to Espírito André Luiz in the city of Paris, on August 20, 1965, when the mediums Chico Xavier and Waldo Vieira traveled to France , on one of the two exchange trips carried out by them between 1965 and 1966, to get to know the Spiritualism practiced in the United States of North America and some European countries, an experience partially reproduced in the bookAMONG BROTHERS FROM OTHER LAND (1965, Feb). In the evaluation, the attempt made by Spirituality two centuries before to turn on the light of Spiritual Truth in the obscure scenario of terrestrial culture can also be framed, as can be seen from an interview carried out on September 23, 1859, at the Spiritist Society of Paris, fulfilling a commitment assumed after being evoked at the end of the meeting of last September 16, reproduced by Allan Kardec in the November issue of that year , of the REVISTA ESPÍRITA. In focus, a true genius in the conventional assessment of intellectuals, trained in Mining Engineering, scientist, theologian, politician, philosopher and inventor, who lived 84 years between 1688 and 1772. Son of a Lutheran bishop, born in Stockholm, Sweden, at age 56, after a late night dinner in London, England, he had the first of a series of visions with a Spirit who, he later wrote, told him: -“I am God, the Lord, Creator and redeemer. I chose you to explain to men the interior and spiritual meaning of Sacred Scripture. I will dictate what thou shalt write .” Before starting to answer the questions he was there for, he made some comments evaluating his contribution from a century earlier, saying that“a century before, he had preached Spiritism, finding himself faced with enemies of all kinds, but also with fervent adepts ”. He added that “His spiritist morals and doctrine were not exempt from great errors, which he now recognized ”. He recognizes that “ when from his first vision he was already occupied with theological questions, wanting, in some way, the revelations of which he was a witness, although they had occurred spontaneously ”. He stated that “ the Spirit that appeared to him claiming to be God, was not, having thought he had heard this from him, because he had seen a superhuman Being in him, feeling flattered by the appearance ” and that “ the same took the name of God to be better obeyed”. He also considered that the Spirit that made him write things that he recognized today as erroneous, “had not acted with bad intentions, because he himself was mistaken for not being sufficiently enlightened ”, currently understanding that the illusions of his own Spirit and intelligence influenced him, against his will , and, drawing attention to the fact that “in the midst of some system errors, it is easy to recognize great truths ”. Regarding the principle in his theory that there is a correspondence between everything in the material world and everything in the moral world , he replied that it was nothing more than fiction and, about God being man himself, clarified that “God is not man: it is man who is an image of God, representing God on Earth by the power he exercises over all Nature and by the great virtues he has the power to acquire; man not being a part of the Godhead, but only the image of him .” Asked about the way in which his communications were received from the Spirits, he said: - “When I was in silence and recollection, my Spirit seemed to be dazzled, in ecstasy, and I saw clearly an image in front of me, which spoke to me and dictated what I should write. Sometimes my imagination got mixed up there ”. Evaluating Swedenborg's contribution, Allan Kardec says:-“While giving justice to Swedenborg's personal merit as a scientist and as a good man, we cannot constitute ourselves as defenders of doctrines condemned by the most elementary good being. What results more clearly according to what we know of Spiritist phenomena, is the existence of an Invisible World and the possibility of communicating with it. Swedenborg enjoyed a faculty that in his time seemed supernatural. This is why fanatical admirers saw him as an exceptional Being. In earlier times altars would have been built for him. Those who did not believe him considered him an exalted brain or a charlatan. For us he was a clairvoyant medium and an intuitive writer, as there are by the thousands ”.
EM BUSCA DA VERDADE COM O PROFESSOR JOSÉ BENEVIDES CAVALCANTE
A reader called us, leaving the following question: Do you think having a religion is an obligation before God?
Some people understand that it is, because they see God as a human person, the so-called anthropomorphic god (with a human form), by the way very demanding and even violent, when he decides to punish us. Within this conception, being a man or being like a man, God would establish strict rules for everyone to submit to them and would not discard the obligation to be recognized, honored and adored by men.
BThis is not how Spiritism sees it. For the spiritist God is the supreme intelligence, the primary cause of all things. His power and goodness are manifested through his laws, for it is his laws that govern the world and, therefore, govern us. When we become aware of these laws, we adjust to them and lead our lives better in order to meet our need for growth and evolution.
God, who is the supreme provider of life, has already given us everything we needed, but he did not give us perfection – he preferred that we conquer it for ourselves in order to have our own merits and find the most significant reason for our existence. Thus, while we are incarnated, God does not force us to eat, but without eating there is no way to maintain life. Therefore, food is a necessity and not an obligation, because in addition to giving us sustenance for the body, it also gives us pleasure.
The same can be said of religion. However, we prefer to call it religiosity, because religion is usually just the label with which people present themselves; religiosity, yes, is the intimate search for God through our actions, our conduct. In this way, just as food is indispensable to life, religiosity (which must manifest itself through our actions and feelings) is also part of this list of necessity, so that we can reach our fullness in this and the next life.
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