FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Spiritism – as a science, philosophy and revelatory religion – starts from the Existence and Oneness of God and affirms the Immortality and Communicability of the Spirit: we are all immortal spirits who, after each corporeal existence, return to the spiritual plane.

This reality supports the Plurality of Existences, explaining why we suffer, why we don’t remember our previous reincarnations and what the purpose of reincarnation is: to evolve morally and intellectually according to the Law of Cause and Effect. This law extends to the vastness of divine creation, where the Plurality of Inhabited Worlds reveals multiple dwellings for life at different degrees of progress.

Faced with these truths, essential questions arise: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

Answering these questions is the mission of the Luz, Paz e Amor Association Spiritist Center in Torres Vedras – which studies, practices and disseminates “What is Spiritism”, while at the same time clarifying what Spiritism is not, dispelling common misconceptions and fraternally welcoming all those who seek to understand their own existence.

SPIRITISM

What is Spiritism?

It is a doctrine revealed by higher spirits through mediums and organized by an emeritus French teacher known as Allan Kardec. It complements and explains the teachings of the master Jesus and answers the fundamental questions of human life.

Who are we?
Where do we come from?
Where are we going?
Why do we suffer?

The Spiritist doctrine is not a business, nor is it monetary acceptance. Those who place advertisements in newspapers promising to solve problems for money are not Spiritists, although they may mistakenly use this name to gain respectability.

In Spiritist houses, Jesus’ commandment is fulfilled: “Give freely what you have received freely” (1), meaning that spiritual gifts should not be commercialized, but instead charity and help should be practiced selflessly.

(1) – Jesus’ recommendations to the apostles:

Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 10, vers. 8

The Gospel according to Spiritism, chapter XXVIII, item 1

What is a Spiritist Association?

It is a house dedicated to the study and dissemination of the Spiritist doctrine. It practices, develops and deepens the teachings of Jesus, trying to make all those who attend realize the need for the law of Love and to carry out intimate reform, with the aim of making this a better world.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITISM

Existence and Oneness of God

God is the supreme intelligence and primary cause of all things. He is the creator of the Universe, of time and space, of matter and spirit, of physical and moral laws. He is unique, eternal, immutable, immaterial, omnipotent, sovereignly just and good, omniscient and the most loving Father of all his children.

Immortality and Communicability of the Spirit

The body dies but the spirit lives on. God would never make his creation suffer and perish. So he granted us immortality and created us for good and perfection. God also gave spirits the ability to communicate. Communication between the physical and spiritual planes is carried out through a natural faculty – mediumship – which we all possess, but only a few have in an ostentatious way.

Law of Cause and Effect

God, in his goodness and justice, gives everyone responsibility and merit for the journey they have made. As such, we all reap what we sow and are therefore, today, the heirs of our past and also the architects of our future happiness or misfortune. This is the principle of causality that also applies in the exact sciences.

Reincarnation lifts the veil on the death of the physical body and enlightens us about our own evolutionary journey. Thus, the Spiritist Doctrine emerges as the Comforter that Jesus announced, enlightening us about the immortality of all beings and showing us that the social inequalities of the present are consequences of the past.

Plurality of Existences

The Spiritist Doctrine reveals that we have lived many lives before this one and we will live many more, according to Jesus’ teaching: “Truly, I say to you, whoever is not born again cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (2). God is our beginning and our end, because we are his children, born simple and ignorant, and we will all reach the level of pure spirits. This journey can take more or less time, depending on the progress made in each existence through self-effort and the use of free will.

(2) – Dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus.
Gospel according to St. John, chap. 3, vers. 3
Gospel according to Spiritism, chapter IV, item 5

Plurality of Inhabited Worlds

God would do nothing useless and our intelligence reveals to us that the countless stars play a more important role in the cosmos than simply embellishing the celestial landscape. Thus, there are many inhabited planets, in an evolutionary gradation:

Primitive Worlds
Worlds of Atonement and Probation (including Earth)
Worlds of Regeneration
Superior or Blissful Worlds
Celestial or Divine Worlds

THE JOURNEY OF THE SPIRIT

Who are we?

We are all immortal spirits. God created us for happiness and perfection, and to this end we live multiple existences, learning, working and always progressing through personal effort, thus earning the merit of our achievements.

Where do we come from?

God created us simple. We arrived at what we are today through various existences, in which we worked and learned.

Each organic life is temporary, and death is only the end of the fleshly body and not of the Spirit. Each new corporeal existence is called reincarnation.

Where are we going?

We return to the spiritual plane, our true homeland, to reincarnate again and so on, always progressing until we reach perfection.

REINCARNATION AND LEARNING

What is the purpose of reincarnation?

Evolve! To do this, we must atone for the evil we have done. In each of our existences, we are still tested on the firmness and uprightness of our convictions. These are two particular characteristics of Earth, a planet of atonement and trials.

Once again, God’s wisdom is proven. If we remembered past existences, we would also remember the evil we did and the suffering we endured. We would live with regrets and grudges. Often, our parents, children and siblings are those enemies from the past that Divine wisdom has brought together so that we can learn to love each other.

Why do we suffer?

In our past existences, as well as in the present, we haven’t always been mindful of respect for others and we haven’t always loved as Jesus recommended. God, a sovereignly Just and Good Father, has always warned us, through His messengers of good, of the seriousness of this breach.

Thus, pain arises as a just reaction mechanism and as a consequence of the mistakes made, and never as a punishment. Each reincarnation is an opportunity to evolve, which can only be taken advantage of if we respect the Divine Laws, i.e. Christian principles.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

SPIRITISM

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SPIRITISM

THE JOURNEY OF THE SPIRIT

REINCARNATION AND LEARNING

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