Livro HUEE em Inglês
08-06-2012 17:54
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The Universal Harmony and the
Spiritual Evolution
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Caruso Samel
The Universal Harmony and the
Spiritual Evolution
Outskirts Press Inc
PAGE RESERVED TO THE PUBLISHER
To include:
Original name:
A Harmonia Universal e a Evolução Spiritual
Autor: Caruso Samel
ISBN: 85-98627-33-X
American Edition:
The Universal Harmony and the Spiritual Evolution
Author: Caruso Samel
ISBN: 978-1-4327-2830-4
Translation and Revision by:
Caruso Samel
Benedito Antonio Ribeiro da Silva
Joseph Leite
Cover Art by:
Rodrigo Rojas and (Outskirt to indicate)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
MERITORIOUS HOMAGES
“No man is free who cannot control himself”
Pythagoras
“You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself”
Galileo Galilee
“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility”
Albert Einstein
“Spirit progresses and evolves through reincarnations which it is doing, but
if those past reincarnations were not worthwhile, because the present shows so
much materiality, seek the cause of this state of things, in a way to promote
the evolution of the spirits. It is this preparation, which is
lacking, that brings obsession to the creatures.”
Luiz de Mattos, in Classics of Christian Rationalism, v.1, undated, p. 30
“Man who knows how to use the pen, who can publish what
he writes and does not tell the truth, does not accomplish a duty,
commits the crime of cowardice, is bad citizen”
Júlio Ribeiro, philologist, cited by Luiz de Mattos
in Pela Verdade, 9th. Edition, 1983, p.32
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DEDICATION
This book, written under the primacy of Reason, is dedicated to all free thinkers, to all good-will people and to those who think, one day, to get free from the bad habits, vices, imperfections, obscure mysticism, false believes and superstitions, which so much alienate the human beings.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Meritorious Homage 7
Dedication 9
Table of Contents 11
Foreword 13
Acknowledgements 17
FIRST PART: OUR OBJECTIVE REALITY
Chapter 1 –The Universe 21
Chapter 2 – Force and Matter 35
Chapter 3 – The Roads of Evolution 47
Chapter 4 – Scientific Methodology 65
Chapter 5 – Truth, Reality and Paradigm 79
SECOND PART: A MORE COMPLETE REALITY
Chapter 6 – The Birth of the Spiritism 99
Chapter 7 – The Advent of the Christian Rationalism 109
Chapter 8 – The Intelligent Force 115
Chapter 9 – The Primacy of the Spirit 139
Chapter 10 – The Importance of the Thought 163
Chapter 11 – The Aura: Mirror of the Soul 171
Chapter 12 – The Mediumship 181
Chapter 13 – The Intuition: Our Orientation Compass 199
Chapter 14 – The Free Will Constructs Our Destiny 215
THIRD PART: INDICATIONS AND EVIDENCES
Chapter 15 – Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation 227
Chapter 16 – Near-Death Experiences 243
Chapter 17 – Regression to Past Lives 263
FOURTH PART: EPILOGUE
Chapter 18 – The Awakening for Spirituality 277
Chapter 19 - Ultimatum to Rationality 287
References 299 Structural Index 311 Personalities Index 319
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FOREWORD
This book was not written to describe and explain the inexplicable – God. Many philosophers, scientists, religious, mystics and even mathematicians tried to explain the God’s existence. But, their “explanations”, with very rare exceptions, are not more than “deceptions” without deep foundation, lacking a minimum of rationality and spirituality. Many of these persons created sects and religions based on their creeds or on their preceding masters, materializing, according to their own images, the God’s concepts to better meet their earthly purposes. Others, acting as cunning fellows impose upon the idea of Jesus-God or Jesus-son-of-God to be worshipped by ignorants as the savior of humanity, as it was done during the primitive paganism epochs with idols. Few, very few, through intuitions, to which we assign a larger and deeper sense than meditations, understood the immaterial God’s concept, feeling this universal greatness in its greater context under the universal laws which rule on everything.
This book is indistinctly dedicated to everyone who are free thinkers, even the author recognizing that the principles herein exposed will not be accepted by every people, much less understood, being even so repudiated, a priori, by many. But our greater aim is to attract the attention of physicists, physicians, biologists, psycobiologists, psychologists, physiologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, parapsychologists, philosophers, and even so, skeptics in general, inviting them to dedicate, in their researches, to the phenomena generated by the actuation of the Intelligent Force, which belongs to the invisible world, on the Matter.
Our main message is to stimulate clever intelligences which are behind the discoveries and the wonderful revelations that science has already brought to us, mainly in the 20th century and in the beginning of this current one. We wish to bring their attention, efforts and resources to the research of the immaterial in order to experimentally and definitely demonstrate the real nature of the Intelligent Force. To demonstrate that this is the Force that models and operates the Matter in all natural kingdoms and inserts its attributes in a wonderful way in man, as by example, conscience, thought, reasoning, free will (volition), creativity and several other feelings and emotions which are subjacent to the Matter
Then, the first step is to follow the instruction, already so ancient that the time already wiped it out, written in the Delphos Temple, in Greece: Nosce te ispsum – Know you yourself. Yes, it is fundamental to know what we are – Force and Matter. The second step is to know where we came from – what is in fact this Intelligent Force, which constitutes our “Self” and where it comes from. The third step, necessary to close the cycle of evolution of this Intelligent Force, is to know to where it goes and what happens with it when the human body collapses and its matter comes to change into other substances. Here, detached from any mysticism, we will really look to understand what this Intelligent Force is and to know its attributes, which are not brain products, in short, not derived from the Matter.
By that, we showed in this modest book that it is not necessary to become mystic or condemn the scientific method. What it will be needed is to establish an adequate scientific method to study, to explain and to establish hypotheses, theories and laws applicable to the phenomena that constitutes the incorporeal life, field in which the subject and the searched “object” react between themselves, and in most cases inverts this relation, due to the fact that the searched “object” is an Intelligent Force with all its attributes.
After these first steps and, investing in talent and resources in this direction, it remains no doubt that science will obtain impressive and clearing results on so many and so many phenomena known as paranormal or transcendental, to which, until now, parapsychology has not brought trustable answers. These are the phenomena we are describing in this book, consciously free, inexplicable to science during thousand of years and, up to now, looked as supernatural and miraculous by the common people, leaving them fearful and submitted to the exploration by religions.
This is the challenge to the scientists of the 21st century. The author will feel gratified himself if the information contained in this book might impress all their noble and serious intelligences.
One expects very much from science in case it turns out to use its human privileged minds and material resources to study the existence of the Intelligent Force and of the Spirit. Force and Matter enfolds life in the nature in an endless cyclic and dynamic evolution process. It belongs to science to search and prove for humanity the interactions of both Force and Matter, by using an adequate and unquestionable scientific method that science know how to find it or how to adapt its existing paradigm. Starting and establishing a logical hypothesis, by no doubt, science will arrive at a scientific explanation about many mysteries, considered for long millennia as supernatural, and will transform them into natural phenomena. Such phenomena can seem mysterious or inexplicable still today due to the lasting ignorance of such subjects on the part of the majority of our tormented mankind.
We will observe many reactions to the ideas described in this book, since we are pointing many paradoxes and perplexities still not solved, not because lacking of talents and resources, but due to the purely materialistic treatment that science is adopting up to the present, let it be by idleness or by accommodation of many scientists or even by other interests.
Due to the enormous material progress that occurred in science and technology during the 20th century, we organized the first part of this book aiming to unify a mass of updated information about the exposed subjects. As a result, those who, for the first time, come to know about the discussed subjects in this part, they easily will assimilate them, according to the line of the involvement exposed in the second and third parts of this work.
Based on the introduction of this scientific vision, we follow to the second part to effectively treat the subject suggested by the book title and in its own chapters herein presented. In them, we expose a more detailed study of what is the Intelligent Force, its evolution until reaching the level of Spirit, and its evolution through successive and numberless of incarnations, as well as, its emancipation when every step of incarnation is finished. Also, we have explored here the paths of the continuous evolution fulfilled by spirits in their superior astral worlds, when a Spirit has no more need to incarnate. Then, it will become quite evident that Evolution, either in the physical or in the spiritual worlds, represents the greater law that sustains the necessary explanation to the real sense of life, namely, the same law is applied to both moral and spiritual development of man, and also, how man is inserted in the universal context. Having that in mind, we intend to direct our readers to a greater and better awareness about universality of the evolutionary process and to show the real sense of life on Earth, thus eliminating the fear of death and of so many others from it derived. No doubt at all, our society will be submitted to big transformations in the form that life and death is now seen, with changes in society and in its behavior. But, this is a work for many generations ahead.
In the third part we present signs and evidences of the incorporeal life, or say, we dedicate one chapter to examine the near-death experiences, another chapter to the reincarnation and mediumship and a third one to regression to past lives, as an alternative to the healing of certain psychical diseases and phobias. In fact, the regression phenomena occur, but not all psychologists and psychiatrists accept the reincarnationist explanation. Studies on mediumship are attracting serious researchers, interested in explaining the “mysteries” of life after death. All these researches are being done in the laboratories of some American universities and the results are surprising the researchers, day-by-day.
In the fourth part, we finish our book by putting a strong and sincere ultimatum to scientists and researchers, a true appeal to adapt a scientific method to the study and research of these types of phenomena that be adequate. At last, they should not waste more time in the research of phenomena in which a complete and final explanation is only possible when the actuating cause is taken into consideration – the Intelligent Force, in its numerous levels of evolution. Then, scientists will see that the Intelligent Force and Matter, either in the macrocosmic or in microcosmic worlds, and in every living being of any natural kingdom, are always present, Matter always depending on the primacy of the Intelligent Force. Without the Intelligent Force, Matter disaggregates and transforms itself into elements and other substances, while the Intelligent Force always evolves, organizing and animating other bodies.
In summary, we propose with this book to reach two objectives, which follows: first, to awake the interest of scientists for the incorporeal life, giving to it privilege of science which it is already, and second, to stimulate spiritists and spiritualists to a more profound rational knowledge of the transcendental, abandoning the mysticism, creeds and superstitions embedded in their minds by religions in general, during their lives. It is not necessary to fetch the spirituality and techniques of meditation in the Eastern and Asian countries, as India, Tibet, Japan, China, etc. The true spirituality can be searched in Brazil and may be practiced all over the world: it is enough to search for it. Let this book be like one more seed among so many serious articles and books already written about the subject.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing a book is both an art and science. A book with scientific information demands so hard a work as doing science. This process requires competence, action, love and much patience.
Dear readers! Imagine, then, the amazing role of translating the Portuguese edition of the entire book A Harmonia Universal e a Evolução Espiritual into its English version The Universal Harmony and the Spiritual Evolution, especially when done by non-American born citizens.
This was a true and real feat! This translation work was done by a team of three persons: Mr. Benedito Antonio Ribeiro da Silva, Mr. Joseph Leite and Caruso Samel, the author. The author wants to express special thanks to the English Professor Mr. Benedito Silva for his laborious work so much throughout the translation process as well as along the revisions sessions. Together with the author, Mr. Benedito Silva was also the main reviser of the entire work.
The author recognizes that it will never be enough to thank to both, Mr. Benedito Silva and Mr. Joseph Leite, for their special work and support, the former residing in São Paulo, Brazil, like me, and the latter living in California, USA. They dedicated much their time through 10 long months, day after day, for the English version of this book to come to the light. We never met these fellows before and now we are all good friends.
Sincerely, I warmly wish to acknowledge to both for their effort, patience and lovely dedication to transform something almost impossible into a reality of accomplishment. Without them this book still would stay waiting going to press.
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FIRST PART
OUR OBJECTIVE REALITY
SPECIAL NOTE 1:
Throughout this work, the words Force and Matter written with initial capital letters have a very special meaning. As the readers will perceive, those are the only two principles that permeates everything in the universe, either for microcosmos or for the macrocosmos worlds. We have adopted, as pointed out along this work, the dualistic concept of Force and Matter, which constitutes the foundations for the Spiritism and Spiritualism.
According to the conceptions of these doctrines the Force always evolves and enhances its attributes during the evolution process, while the Matter changes its properties during the long evolutionary process, as atoms and molecules, to serve the Force, which organizes the Matter in its evolving process of the species along the times.
The Force is the active element always acting on the Matter that is the passive element. Sometimes, we used the word Intelligent Force, instead of Force. Matter without Force means the proto-substance, made of atoms and molecules, nevertheless inert.
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CHAPTER 1
THE UNIVERSE
Innumerable suns exist, innumerable earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun. These worlds are inhabited by living beings.
From On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, Giordano Bruno, 1584.
The universe is full of mysterious things patiently waiting that our spirit becomes eager.
Optimistic words by an anonymous philosopher.
1. Astronomy, Cosmology and Astrophysics
It is about certain that astronomy is the eldest of all sciences. Since 3,000 years B.C., the Chinese, Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians already observed the sky having in mind practical objectives, for instance, time measurement, to determine the best time to plant and to crop the grains or even with the objective to foresee the future and determine the astronomical objects influences over the human beings (astrology). One of the most ancient discoveries was the determination, relatively precise, of the duration of the year (including in the Aztec culture), the moon phases and of the four seasons of the year. It is not our purpose to present an historical report of the human culture, but it is valid to remember that the apex of this science in the ancient cultures developed in the ancient Greece (600–400 B. C.), only surpassed in the 16th century.
Presently, astronomy is a technologically very sophisticated science having as object the study of the constitution, relative position, mapping and movement of all astronomical objects existing in the whole universe. This sophistication consists of two large branches: cosmology and astronomy, both on the frontiers of the universe knowledge, operating in an interface not always so clear. (1, 2)
Cosmology has as object the study of the structure and origin of the universe, and beyond that, the discovery of the laws that rules it in a broader sense. The cosmologists developed and follow developing the most different theories and laws in an effort to reveal the enigma of the universe, basing on the resources of modern physics. (3)
Astrophysics, by its turn, is the branch of astronomy that takes care of the physical and chemical constitution of the astronomical objects scattered throughout the space and that, as a whole, fills up the universe. It makes use of radio telescopes, the Hubble’s telescope, the Chandra’s telescope (X rays), spectrophotogrametry, spectral deviations, etc. (4)
On the other hand, modern physics is involved in searching for answers to the big questions about the structure of existing matter and particles (matter and energy) which exist inside the atomic nucleus (strong nuclear force and radioactive decay). Also, physics studies the several forms of energy acting outside the nucleus (weak nuclear force and magnetism), as well as, the gravity force and the laws that rule it among themselves and as whole. Since the 1950´s, physicists are theorizing on the unification of these forces with the objective of defining a possible Theory of Everything, thus making peace between The Quantum Theory that takes care of the microcosm and The General Theory of Relativity, which rules the macrocosm.
2. Theories about the Formation of the Universe
Along the times, since the most remote eras, man not only contemplated the sky a numberless of times, but also, he should have questioned about the form and extension of space and the astronomical objects existing on it, or say, about the cosmos.
They were the Greeks, from whom we have inherited so much culture, be it in the literature, arts and philosophy or in the field of the natural sciences, who transmitted to us the first ideas about the universe. About the year 600 B.C., Anaximandro admitted that the Cosmos had been emerged from water. Very strange idea, but it was not contested during 200 years!
Still in Greece, around the year 400 B.C., Eudoxo from Cnido, using a Pythagoras´ idea, created the Geocentric Model, placing the Earth in the center of the universe. By the year 200 B. C., Ptolemy and Aristotle adopted and propagated this model, which prevailed during 2000 years.
Only in the 16th century appeared the first movements having in view to alter this model. Nicola Copernicus (1473–1543) was the first scientist to suggest that the Sun was the center of the universe and not the Earth, theory which received the name of heliocentric model. Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) added that the universe had no limits, was infinite and, due to contradict the Catholic Church teachings, he was judged and burned by the Inquisition. Galileo Galilee (1564–1642) sponsored this theory and was forced to deny it, under confession, so as to not have the same death as Giordano Bruno.
In the 20th century, it appeared The Finite Model Theory of the universe in constant expansion, proposed by George Lemaître and Alexander Friedman. In 1950, Fred Hoyle laughed at their faces, naming it the Big Bang Theory, model according to which the universe was created from a gigantic explosion of one point, name which came to be adopted by this theory, which also establishes the existence of four dimensions in the universe. Presently, this is the most accepted theory.
In 1960, it appeared the Multiverse Theory, which establishes the existence of more than one universe in the infinite space, since that the Big Bang Theory did not answered two questions, namely, first: what existed before it; and second, what exists beyond the universe space.
In the beginning of the 21st century (2001), it was proposed by Paul J. Steinhardt the Cyclic Theory, which embraces the idea that the universe has emerged from the impact between two cosmic membranes, – the branes, originated from a fourth dimension of space and that this shock had been recognized as the Big Bang. If the Relativity Theory and The Quantum Theory were correct, say a group of physicists, this is a theory which makes sense.
3. A little Bit more About the Big Bang Theory
Presently, as it was told before, this is the most accepted theory about the origin of the universe, proposed by the Russian scientist, naturalized American, George Gamow, in 1948. He theorized that the universe originated between the past 13 to 20 billions of years and came from a unique point (point zero – not dimension zero). At this initial moment, the size of the universe would be near-zero. In it, it was contained all the matter in a so concentrated way that its temperature would be almost infinite. According to this theory, this point would be the beginning of time, and from it, it began the formation and expansion of the galaxies. Physicists present a speculative and detailed description of the events, since the instant zero, or say, from the exact moment of the explosion or Big Bang, but we shall not go worrying about it here. One of the evidences of certainty of this theory is that galaxies are moving apart one from each other, as it is common with the remains of an explosion, as verified by astrophysicists. It is still lacking two great questions to be answered by the scientific community: what is the reason why our universe was structured like it is, and why was it created.
According to this theory, the universe, since its formation, is expanding and getting colder. Physicists and cosmologists admit that, in the first thousandth of one second of creation, it had been formed only a mixture of subatomic particles composed of quarks and electrons, which are the most fundamental forms of matter (particles) known by science.
In this first step of formation, with the resultant cooling due to expansion, the quarks that were initially moving at a velocity near that of light, slowed down in function of the reduction of the temperature and, due to that, gradually disappeared as free particles. This is the moment when they associate themselves to form protons and neutrons, which took place within the first ten minutes of the birth of the universe, there forming the simplest nuclei in the form of hydrogen, consisted of only one proton. At the same time, nuclei of Helium were formed, the second element in the atomic scale, consisted of one proton and one neutron. At this point, all the matter that existed in the universe was in the form of plasma, composed of these two types of nuclei, still without their electrons, in the proportion of 75% Hydrogen and 25% Helium. Even today, these are the two main more abundant chemical elements in the universe, representing more than 90% of all known matter.
The third step of this fantastic history started at about 300 thousands years after the beginning of the great explosion, when the electrons came to attach to the atomic nuclei of the elements in order to form the first complete atoms. Due to the strong gravity force prevailing at that moment, light could not escape from the mass in expansion, until a critical point was reached and the light was born. Up to then, it was part of the mass in expansion in the same rhythm that this was occurring together with the matter, and all was dark.
Thenceforth, the universe becomes transparent and luminous and the photons, which are particles of light, get free and start interacting in a lesser degree with the atoms. These photons leave signs or “fossils”, actually captured by our best telescopes, inclusive the Hubble, of which we will talk later on. After almost one billion years past since the Big Bang, the atoms aggregate and start forming the first stars and galaxies.
4. The Space and Its Content
To have an idea of the greatness of the universe, we present here a short description of the principal astronomical objects, without extending on the subject, because this is not the main object of this book.
The Galaxies
A galaxy is formed by a vast amount of stars, nebulae and interstellar matter. Galaxies are of three types or forms: elliptical, spiral and irregular. By their turn, the galaxies are grouped as clusters. Our galaxy, the Milk Way, has the spiral form and it is said to belong to the Local Cluster, one of the smaller clusters, which contains about 40 galaxies. Despite of belonging to a small cluster, it possesses the form of a disc with a diameter of 130,000 light years and a maximum thickness in its center of about 12,000 light years. One of the largest clusters, the Virgo Cluster, possesses 2,500 galaxies. Clusters of medium size contain about 100 to 500 galaxies. Inside our cluster of galaxies, the Milk Way is the largest, which is of elliptical type. (6)
Our Sun, with its solar system, is situated in one of the spiral arms of our galaxy, at two thirds of the center. To turn one time around the nucleus of the galaxy, the Sun takes 225 millions of light years! (6)
To estimate the number of galaxies, scientists pointed the Hubble telescope in direction of a very small celestial point of the size of a grain of sand as if it was observed at the distance of one meter. The light that came from the stars in that point was so weak that it was necessary ten consecutive days of exposition to obtain a good image. Then, the examination of only that point revealed the existence of 620 galaxies, having different distances, sizes and forms. Based on this and many other information and studies, researchers extrapolated the results and arrived at an incredible estimate that in the whole universe there are about 125 billions of galaxies! This cipher is 50% greater than one previous estimate. Each one of these galaxies possesses between 100 millions and 1 billion stars, similar to our Sun. Some of these stars are located at more than 12 billions of light years, or say, about one billion of years after the formation of the universe. (5)
The Stars
One star may be defined as an astronomical object, generally in the form of a sphere, in the interior of which the temperature and pressure are very high, mainly in its center. In the stars occur thermonuclear reactions with the liberation of considerable amount of energy, which propagates from the center to the surface. From this, the energy is transmitted through the interstellar space in the form of electromagnetic radiations, from which the heat and light are modalities.
Stars are assembled in groups or clusters of the open or globular type. Only in our galaxy there are about 100,000 open groups, from which only about 1,100 are known. Globular clusters are about 10,000 to 1,000,000. (6, 7) As a whole, it is estimated that, only in the Milk Way, there are about 400 billions of stars! (7)
How a star is born? (8) By the action of the gravitational force occurs the agglomeration of the material contained in a nebula, mainly represented by clouds of Hydrogen, Helium and dusts. This process, which takes the gases to contract themselves, also increases the temperature of the agglomerated material, up to a point in which a thermonuclear fusion starts and, since that there is enough gas, a star will be formed. In the case there is not sufficient gas (less than 50 times the size of the planet Jupiter), it is then formed a brown dwarf star. (8)
And how does a star die? The result from the star “death” depends on its mass. (8) If its mass is less than eight times the mass of our Sun, when its nuclear fuel (Hydrogen) is exhausted, a white dwarf star is born, around which may exist or not a planetary nebula, passing before through a phase known as red giant, in which the gases expansion increases considerably the diameter of the star. That is what can happen with our Sun that has already 4.5 billions of years of existence and, from now to more 4 billions of years, its diameter will be arriving near the orbit of the planet Mars! If the mass of the star is more than 8 times heavier than our Sun the process of the nuclear fuel exhaustion may become catastrophic. This happens because, at a certain moment of its existence, it begins the formation of iron and other heavier elements that cool into solid form, taking the star to collapses. The remains impact into the core and are thrown through the space, as well as the gases, to form a new nebula. One of the following situations may occur with the remaining core: if its mass is 2 to 3 times greater than the mass of the Sun, a black hole is formed; if it is less, a neutron star is formed. An uncontrolled explosion of a massive star (mass above 8 times the solar mass) can give place to a supernova, which reflects an intense brightness that may last for months. The last detected supernova was the SN1987 belonging to the Large Magellan Cloud, by the observatory Las Campanas – Chile, on February 24, 1987. Its charge of neutrinos reached the Earth two hours later after being seen. (11)
White Dwarf Stars
When the mass of a dying star turns to less than 2 or 3 solar masses, it becomes a white dwarf. (7) To have an idea, the Sun has a diameter of 1,400,000 km and it may transform, after 3 to 4 billion of years, into a white dwarf of about 10,000 km diameter, or say, approximately the size of the Earth, but with a massive density.
Black Holes
Black holes are black astronomical massive objects with high density and, therefore, with a very great gravitational field, with conditions to sucking all and any matter that comes near the event horizon (near to its edge) and surpass the limit of singularity, not even escaping the light. Black holes are formed from the death of a star with mass eight times or greater above the mass of the Sun and when all the nuclear fuel has been exhausted and of it liberated, only letting its solid core containing iron and heavier elements. Black holes were detected by the Hubble and Chandra telescopes, both operating in satellites in space, which capture its emissions of X-rays. Black holes have a very strong gravitational field; they rotate at very high speed and follow the process of the universe expansion. One example of black hole is the stellar object Cygnus XR-1. (7)
Neutron Stars
Neutron stars are strongly massive astronomical bodies. We know that stars evolve themselves during millions and millions of years. With the stars that have their initial mass ten times above the mass of the Sun, something of special happens. After they explode as supernova, the core remains extremely massive creating conditions to compress the electrons against the protons, forming neutrons. The result will be a neutron star, in which it could compress the mass of one and half Sun in an area of 20 km diameter. (9)
Brown Dwarfs
They are stars that failed in their formation. For that reason, the brown dwarves do not match the idea of a perfect universe. In general, they are considered stars that went wrong, because they had not sufficient mass to start the process of nuclear fusion in their cores. Therefore, they do not emit either their own heat or light: they are cold and dark. Some of them remain isolated; others are part of a binary system in which a brown star rotates around a larger star. Eccentric and rare, they still need to be better studied and explained.
Quasars
Quasars are sources of strong electromagnetic emission (radio waves) looking like the stars, bluish in their colors. Their names come from the initials of Quasi Radio Sources. The first quasar was discovered in 1961. They are also known as black holes existing in the center of some galaxies, and despite of being very compact (very high density) and very bright, some of them show brightness up to one trillion times more intense than the Sun. Quasars masses go from 1 billion to 1 trillion of times the mass of the Sun. They follow the expansion process of the universe in a speed that reaches to one tenth of the speed of the light. (7)
Pulsars
Pulsars are neutron stars with radio-pulse (9). It is estimated that there are about 1 billion pulsars only in the Milk Way, from which about 1,000 are already known. The first pulsar was discovered by Anthony Wewish, in 1967 (Nobel Prize, in 1974). When the mass of a dying star reaches values lesser than 3.2 solar mass, it will transform itself in a neutron star. (7) A pulsar has a period of pulsation of 1.337 seconds with a rotational period of 4.4 seconds when very long and of 0.0016 seconds when very short, for example, one of them turning around with a velocity of 625 turns/second! (7, 10)
Our Solar System
The Sun is our star, being responsible for the temperature, evaporation and heating, besides the several biological processes that takes place with the plants and animals of all species on the Earth.
The solar system is formed by nine planets – Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – besides the sixty-one satellites which turn around the planets and a great number of small objects known as asteroids and comets. A tenth planet, with the name of Sedna and located far from Pluto, was discovered in 2005, being in the process of verification or confirmation. From these planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are gaseous. The orbits of all these planets are elliptical, being that the comets have extremely eccentric orbits. After the year 2007, Pluto was disregarded as planet and it was introduced, in its place, the planet Sedna.
Scientific studies indicate that the Sun should have been formed at approximately 4.5 billion of years. Its mass is about three hundred thousand times heavier than that of the Earth, and its diameter is approximately 1,400,000 kilometers. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is about 150 millions kilometers. The average temperature in the core of the Sun reaches 15 millions degrees Celsius. In this star, in its inner part, it occurs nuclear reactions as, for instance, the fusion of the Hydrogen atoms. In the photosphere or surface, the Sun gives off light, and heat, and other energy forms, as the cosmic rays. The Sun is still composed of a layer of gas that involves the star.
At each cycle of eleven years, the Sun goes by a period of extreme agitation, sending to the Earth solar storms. Thus, the so-called “solar wind”, electrically charged (ionized particles) when arrives at the Earth starts to interfere in the electronic systems, networks of energy, computers, electronic apparatus, communication systems among airplanes, ships and satellites. These same waves of energy and electricity come to create the so-called Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, phenomena in which the air shines in the areas close to the magnetic poles of the Earth, generating a marvelous show of lights and colors in the sky.
Under the chemical point of view, the Sun is formed by the following elements: 73% of Hydrogen, 25% of Helium and 2% of other elements.
Planets outside the Solar System (Exoplanets)
To seek for planets revolving around the stars of our galaxy (Milky Way) and others, became a stimulating task for astronomers and astrophysicists of our time. It is worthwhile to mention here what Giordano Bruno said in the end of the 16th century, in his On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, Giordano Bruno (De l´Infinito, Universo e Mondi, Giordano Bruno, 1584):
Innumerable suns exist, innumerable earths revolve around these suns in a manner similar to the way the seven planets revolve around our sun. These worlds are inhabited by living beings.
It is attributed to Jesus the saying: “in the Father´s house many dwelling worlds exist” – it is worth to notice the similarity of this intuitive statement with the one of Giordano Bruno in De l´Infinito, Universo e Mondi, citation that was inserted in the beginning of this chapter. It is impressive, really extraordinary, how Bruno´s words are becoming reality through the recent racing for the discovery of new planets outside of our solar system, the already so-called exoplanets!
In 1991, it was discovered by the Radiotelescope of Arecibo, a star not similar to our Sun, around the pulsar PSR-1257+12. In 1995, another star, now very similar to our Sun, was discovered by Michael Mayor and Didier Queluz, close to the star 51 Pegasi. In May 1998, the Hubble telescope detected an image close to the star TMRC-1C. Finally, in 1999, for the first time using direct observation, it was discovered visually and telescopically, near the star HD269458, a new planet and its diameter was measured. Until 2001, there were already been catalogued about 21 exoplanets.
From there until today (May 2008), it already surpasses of 230 the number of discovered exoplanets in the short period of eighteen years! (15) With the advancement of the techniques used in those discoveries, in few decades, possibly we’ll have registered thousands of these discoveries. NASA and the European Space Agency have plans to launching future orbital missions, equipped with very sophisticated apparatus. These works will be done, also, in coordination with SETI – Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Also, we can have the chance of visualizing, for the first time, an exoplanet.
Nowadays, the astronomers have already five methods to execute that work and each one serves to confirm the others. This work is possible, due to the progress of the visual methods, because, until recently, the astronomers had to base themselves in accurate measures of the speed of the star, in many cases, accomplished during several years. We will not describe the methods used for this purpose here; however, despite of not being our objective to deepen ourselves in this subject, we can inform that it is already possible to measure and calculate, among other things, the rotational speedy of an exoplanet, its mass, volume, density, the distance from the star and the characteristics of its orbit.
Our knowledge on the new solar systems is enlarging itself in a very unexpected manner, mainly if we take the pattern of the solar system as basis, where the nearest planet to the Sun is small, rocky (solid) and without atmosphere (Mercury). On the other hand, the intermediary planets have medium size, are rocky and have some type of atmosphere (Venus, Earth and Mars) and in one of them there is abundant life in all its plenitude. As to the most distant, they are essentially gaseous and gigantic (Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune). About the last planet of the solar system, discovered in 2005, the so-called Sedna, it is not yet available so much technical information. As mentioned above, the planet Sedna took the place of the planet Pluto as member of the solar system.
Surprisingly, it’s not with this distribution profile that exoplanets were discovered. Thus, “Planets that have 14 times the mass of Jupiter exist and they are closer to their star than the planet Mercury is of the Sun. Others have orbits highly elliptic varying their distances from the star almost as much as the size of the solar system. Most revolves around their stars in amazing speeds: one of them completes its solar year in less than three days. Thus, or it is very near to the star, or it revolves very fast (or both)! The smallest planet found until today is of the approximate size of the planet Jupiter and it revolves around a star very similar to the Sun. It was also found a planet that moves itself in an orbit at a distance almost equivalent to the distance from the Earth to the Sun, what shows the possibility of sheltering living beings.”(15)
Astronomy entered the 21st century with enormous and stimulating perspectives. Everything takes us to believe that “one day we will be able to visualize these planets, or even to determine indirect evidences that they shelter lives similar to ours. In that day, our conception about ourselves and about the destiny of the humanity will suffer an irreversible change.” (15)
5. The Marvelous Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble space telescope was baptized with the astronomer’s name Edwin Powell Hubble (1889–1953), who, in 1924, discovered the existence of other galaxies, beyond the Milky Way Galaxy. This fantastic equipment, which sends about 5 gigabytes of information per day about the universe, has just completed 15 years of existence and it cost next to 2 billion dollars. Just to illustrate, in the year of its launching (1990) it sent more information about the universe than all that it was known on the universe till 1990.
Besides the technical information and astronomical parameters of the most varied nature, until April of 2005, it had sent to NASA about 700,000 photos of almost the whole universe, considerably enlarging the human knowledge on universe. This spectacular equipment was planned and designed in the decade from 40 to 50, constructed in the decade from 70 to 80, and put in orbit on April 24, 1990. Its resolution of 0.1 second of arc can “see” a soccer ball to 500 km of distance or to distinguish the lights of a car located at the Moon! This is a resolution ten times superior to the best telescope on the surface of the Earth.” (16)
If the Hubble had been placed in the ground, it would be a telescope of average power. The “power” of a telescope is indicated by the quantity of light that it can instantaneously receive from an object and this, by its turn, is function of its diameter. The Hubble is a telescope of the reflective type (its principal optical element is a mirror), with 2.40 meters of diameter. The two largest telescopes in the world are at the Mauna Kea Observatory, in Hawaii, which have 10 meters of diameter each. Now, there are twenty-eight telescopes larger than the Hubble in operation in the world. More than a telescope, the Hubble is a true space observatory containing the necessary instrumentation by several observation functions. It carries three cameras (of large field, including the vision of dark objects), an astrometer detector, a spectrograph of high resolution and one of high-speed spectrograph, besides a board computer. The new installed camera weighs 315 kilograms and it is so powerful that allows to register images one million times superior to the ones captured by the human eyes! (17) Besides photographing the objects and to measure with great precision their positions, the Hubble is capable to analyze in details the light that comes from them. The Hubble is in a low orbit at 800 km from the surface of the Earth and it spends only 95 minutes to give a complete turn around our planet. The energy needed for its operation is collected by two solar panels of 2.4 x 12.1 meters each, and it weighs about 11,660 kilograms. (16)
The Hubble telescope was repaired in the open space more than one time to correcting a serious defect in its optical system, because it failed when focusing the objects with the necessary precision (myopia), mainly by the darkest objects. This defect was “diagnosed” as a spherical aberration, an optical distortion caused by an incorrect form in its main mirror. Near the border, the curvature of that mirror was smaller than it should be, or say, approximately 1/50 of the thickness of one thread of the human hair. To change the mirror it would be something expensive and difficult. The adopted solution was to design a corrective optical system for its instruments. That optical system was installed with great success in December, 1993. (16)
Hubble exceeded to all their creators´ expectations, to the point of NASA to announce recently that the Hubble telescope would be deactivated due to lacking of budget and the recent problems with the space shuttle. This NASA statement generated protests in the astronomical community of the entire world. The Hubble’s objectives were all reached; and they could be summarized as being “to investigate astronomical bodies by the study of their compositions, physical and dynamic characteristics, to observe the structure of stars and galaxies, to study their formation and evolution, and to study the history and evolution of the universe. To reach those objectives, the Hubble research is divided into “Galaxies and Agglomerates, Interstellar Space, Quasars and Active Nuclei of Galaxies, Stellar Astrophysics, Stellar Population and the Solar System.” (16)
The Hubble substitute comes next. The great objective of its substitute, called of Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST), and that is also being called of (17) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or, simply WEBB), to be launched between 2010 and 2012, is to arrive to the limits of the space-time, in other words, to arrive to the origins of the universe. This new space telescope will be in a much higher orbit than the Hubble, between the Earth and the Moon, out of the reach of the spacecrafts and it will operate at a temperature much lower than the Hubble.
That will bring a sensibility thousands of times more sensitive than the one of the contemporary telescopes installed in the terrestrial surface. (17). The NGST objectives: “to determine the age and size of the universe, to map its evolution and discover the mysteries of galaxies, stars, planets and of life itself. (18)
Just to complete this information, we could not stop to presenting some data on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (orbital) that, with the Hubble, is responsible for the astronomical revolution of the last five years. Launched in July 23, 1999 by NASA, the Chandra Observatory has its name given in honor to the Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995), who received the Noble Prize in physics in 1983. That Observatory has on purpose to research, to map and to detect sources of emission of X-Rays and Gamma Rays, as for instance, from the black holes, quasars, pulsars, supernovae, etc. Its orbit between the Earth and the Moon, with perigee at 16,000 km and apogee at 133,000 km shows a large eccentricity. It has two mirrors of 1.2 meters and four others of smaller diameters. Besides the detectors of X-Rays and Gamma Rays, it possesses sensitive cameras of Gamma-Rays and Spectroscope of Gamma-Rays. Eighty five percent of its orbit is above the Van Allen Radiation Belt (cloud of charged particles that involve the Earth), permitting 55 hours of observation in each cycle. There are other X-Rays observatories, so much orbital as based on the Earth, but they are far from the importance of the Chandra Observatory (19).
6. The Inflationary Theory
The theory of expansion of the universe, which physicists consider with the whole scientific rigidity, is a direct consequence of the Big Bang Theory. We should remember that physicist Albert Einstein foresaw, in the equations that support his Theory of the General Relativity (1915), the evolution of the universe. That hypothesis was corroborated in 1922 by Russian physicist and mathematician Alexander Friedman (Professor of George Gamow), who discovered a solution for the Cosmological Equations, which point towards a universe in expansion. In 1929, astronomers Edwin Powell Hubble (1889–1953) and Milton Humanson (1891–1972) confirmed the expansion of galaxies, and so the expansion of the universe, all in agreement with the Hubble’s law. According to that law, all the other galaxies stand back of our own galaxy – the Milky Way, in a velocity proportional to their distances from the Earth.
For long years, many evidences about the validity of the Big Bang Theory are being accumulated by astrophysicists, to the point that many of them affirm that this theory has today, 99.9% of validity. This almost certainty results of the discovery, in 1965, by Arno Penzias (1933– ) and Robert Wilson (1936– ), of the so-called “bottom radiation”, which resulted from the formation of the universe, when Light (Force) and Matter became apart one of the other, there about 13 billions of years ago. That because that radiation, which stays still present in the space, captured, not as light, but as a bottom noise in the form of microwaves, having its largest intensity in the frequency of 1.1 mm of wave length. Its name is bottom cosmic radiation and it is uniform in any direction in which we point the reception equipments. For that discovery, Penzias and Wilson were granted the Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1978. More recently, in 1990, the satellite COBE – Cosmic Background Explorer, launched by NASA (National Administration of Space and Aeronautics) mapped the regions where is intense the production of those microwaves. It is treated, therefore, of a fantastic radiography of the universe, 300,000 years after its formation, when the stars still had not begun their formation. From the end of 1998, numerous astronomical observations took astrophysicists to concluding that the rhythm of the expansion of the universe comes accelerating itself at a rate of 5% to 6% at each billion of years. The merit of the determination of that expansion rates has been attributed to the team coordinated by the North Americans Saul Perlmutter and Bryan Schmidt.
Alan Guth, respected physicist of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), begins his work entitled “One eternity of bubbles”, with the following phrase: (20)
If the inflationary cosmological theory of the cosmology is correct, this means that the universe is very far away from being what we have thought to be. Probably the universe is also much older than we thought, and it does not include just one, but an infinity of Big Bangs.
Despite the name, the classic form of the Big Bang Theory is not really a theory of an explosion, entirely. It really describes only the result of the explosion. It describes how the proto universe, hot and dense, it expanded and cooled itself, and it describes how the chemical light elements were synthesized during this expansion, and how the matter condensed to form galaxies and stars. However, the inflationary theory doesn´t say anything on what exploded, or what caused this explosion and, then, it does not make any prediction about the uniformity of the universe soon afterwards from the explosion.
His work is directed to other considerations in search of an explanation by which the physicists called as “void” and “false-void”, what doesn´t fit to be discussed in the context of this chapter. What really interests us to show here is that, despite the great validity of the inflationary theory, many questions still remains without answers.
Then, we should raise two ultimate doubts about that theory. First: which is the reason by which our universe would have been created and, second, why would have been created in the way it was created. It is of considering also that, in the initial instant, still not having created the space, how to expand some thing, be what it was, from the nothing or almost nothing to the everything or the almost everything, which is the current known space, and the one that will still be filled up with the process of its own expansion? That I think to be a great charade, difficult to explain and for which the human mind is still not prepared to understand.
Physicist Einstein, when proposed his Theory of the General Relativity (1915), considered that the expansion of the universe was homogeneous and that the space was finite and curved. Later, Edwin Powell Hubble established a proportionality constant to explain the moving away of galaxies (1929), what implicated in the reformulation of some Einstein’s considerations, since Hubble’s law establishes that the most distant galaxies and with them the universe expand at a higher speed. More recently (2000), astrophysicists are admitting that “The universe is flat as a board.” (11) So, nowadays, the tendency is to not consider a homogeneous expansion and a not curved space, completely the opposite of what Einstein admitted. After all, where the truth is?
On the other hand, in 1975, physicist Murray Gell Mann, responsible for the accelerator of particles at the Stanford University, established the new revolutionary principle in that the atomic particles, by themselves, could never be formed if, over the universal cosmic energy strange agents did not actuate to the material domain, with powers to structure them. (12) Which is the structuring agent then? Werner Karl Heisenberg himself, when formulating, in 1927, the Uncertainty Principle, observed that “particles thrown on a same target, in identical conditions, not always obeyed the same path, suffering an anomalous deviation without letting us to know the cause why they behave this way.” He was accustomed to saying that particles seemed sheep misled with own will. (12) After all, would not be it worthwhile to investigate which "own will" would be this? Who knows if it is not for lack of a deeper investigation of that invisible agent that moves everything and that seems more like an Intelligent Force that The Quantum Theory still didn't find its status of total acceptability on the part of all the modern physicists? They are questions to think about! It’s lacking to us to investigate that other non-material or immaterial domain.
7. Philosophical and Metaphysical Aspects
From what it was said, eminent physicists are working and trying to structure more tens of new theories, trying to adjust them to other patterns, without fleeing to the mathematical rigidity, as well as, to the common man's understanding. But a few physicists have the courage of exploring alternatives closer to philosophy and to metaphysics. With the pointed gaps above, it becomes necessary an approach to the unknown by other routes than not simply material, searching for an intelligent agent to explain facts and phenomena that are out of the exclusive materialism. What I am trying to say is that we need to recover the derived ideas of the duality Force–Matter, almost abandoned since Descartes and Leibniz, for not being considered serious things. Superstitions, groundless creeds and the religions, in general, have much to do with the almost carelessness of the scientists for the concept of duality. We will comment further this subject when treating on the Intelligent Force.
Some of the theories are variations of the Big Bang theory. That is the case of the Italian Paolo De Bernardis´ theory (2002). He is biased to support the Big Bang theory, but he does not accept the Big Crunch. In other words, according to him, there is not enough matter in the universe to revert the expansion backwards. In case the presence of dark matter in the universe turns out to be proven by physicists and cosmologists, De Bernardis theory will be invalidated, since “dark matter” would represent about 90% of the whole matter of the universe (14). The existence of the dark matter worries the physicists and cosmologists, now. According to De Bernardis, the universe would be flat and infinite with an eternal expansion.
Another theory, sponsored by physicists Paul Steinhardt (USA) and Neil Turok (United Kingdom) and published on April 2002 in the magazine Science, speculates that the universe would be cyclic with an endless sequence of Big Bangs and Big Crunches. But for that, it would be necessary the existence of the “dark energy” to be proven and we are very far away from that.
The scientists´ theoretical speculations have the merit of taking to the debate the ideas which are often logic and well based. However, we should not let to a second plan their content of intuition or inspiration, both meaning the same thing, although the last meaning is more accepted by skeptics and materialists persons. Normally, scientific speculations are born as raw hypothesis needing to be worked out. Some of them are transformed in myths, like the myth of the creation of the universe starting from the nothing, for later on to seek an explanation for what is the “nothing” or the “false anything.”
We should not be surprised that Vatican, since 1951, accepted the Big Bang Theory which, mutatis mutandis, is very similar to the myth of the biblical creation. On the other hand, the cyclic creation theory is somewhat similar to the theory of the eternal return, with evolution (phase of expansion) and involution (phase of contraction), but it does not consider the essentially evolutionary concept, always in a same direction, as the human concept of the arrow of the time that points always in direction to the future. This accommodation or coexistence between science and religion won’t resist to the final judgment, where Truth will triumph. While in science several different theories can coexist in a peaceful way, in religion, this is much more difficult. The religious dissentions, for instance, among Christianism, Judaism and Islamism, all monotheists, worshiping a same God, though with different names, are irreconcilable, due to their dogmatic fanaticism.
Therefore, one hopes that the future is reserved to science, where scientists are always disposed to admit their own mistakes when a theory fails and other shows to be better, or say, science is never put in irreducible position. And this is in the essence of science itself, which admits a progressive construction, where its history already showed that the so-called “scientific truths” are many times temporary, subjected always to an evolutionary revision of their theories and laws, in function of new evidences and realities. Of course, there are the stubborn and proud persons, but they always finish by bowing themselves to the truth.
Our conclusion about these concepts is that all human truth is temporary and it evolves in function of the wisdom or knowledge that, by its turn, accompanies the human evolution. In a global world, which is giving its first steps, this becomes more and more true. Having found the true path and respected the own cultures of each person or people, the world will find times of peace and much prosperity and another will be the earthly living.
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CHAPTER 2
FORCE AND MATTER
In the nature nothing is lost, nothing is created, and all is transformed.”
The law of mass conservation – Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1714–1789), Chemist.
We still do not know what energy is. We still do not know why energy is a very strange thing.” – Richard Feynman (1918–1988), Quantum physicist.
A. FORCE
In this chapter we will focus the concept of Force, as much of the point of view of physics as of philosophy, since the most ancient ages until the current days. In the first focus, we’ll present a scientific vision of the Force and, in the second, a philosophical vision.
1. Scientific Vision of the Force
Presently, we know that all bodies and substances are in fact combinations done of atoms, as foreseen by Democritus (460 – 370 B.C.). Each combination of atoms, by its turn, is composed of a numberless subatomic particles kept together by only four fundamental forces of the nature, whose intensities increase in the order as follows.
The Gravity
Gravity is the force that maintains our feet hold to the Earth and also that keeps linked the solar system and galaxies. If the gravity force could be interrupted somehow suddenly, we would be thrown out to the external space immediately at a speed of 1,700 km per hour. Moreover, without the gravity, the Sun, which stays united thanks to this force, would explode in a catastrophic eruption of energy. Without the gravitational force, the Earth and the other planets would revolve outside of the solar system in the profundities of the super-iced space and the galaxies would disintegrate in hundreds of billions of stars. The modern concept of some wise physicists is that the gravity results of a deformation of the space-time. Now, a great scientific dispute exists about this subject. (5)
The Electromagnetism
Electromagnetism is the force that maintains the electrons of the atomic electro sphere of the atoms linked to the atomic nucleus with the energy of ten electron-volts, approximately. This force is responsible for the illumination of our cities and operation of our appliances. The industrial and electronic revolutions gave us the incandescent and fluorescent lamps, television, telephone, computer, radio, radar, microwaves, cellular phones, etc., all of them by-products of the electromagnetic force. Without this force, our civilization would be stagnated for several hundred of years, back to a primitive world illuminated by candle light and torches. It is easy to understand that the dominion of the electromagnetic force by James Clerk Maxwell (1831 – 1879), starting from the year of 1860, revolutionized our lifestyle. For us to feel that, it is enough a blackout to occur, when, for some hours, we are forced to live our lives repeating the habits of our ancestors of the last century. Presently, statistics inform us that, more than half of the industrial wealth of the planet derives, of one way or other, from the use of the electromagnetic force. The modern civilization, without the use of the electromagnetic force, would be unconceivable. (5)
The Weak Nuclear Force
The weak nuclear force is the force that controls the radioactive decay (radioactivity) of atoms. It is the weak force of the radioisotopes utilized in modern hospital equipments in the form of radioactive tracer elements which opened the doors to the nuclear medicine. In this sense, the diagnosis technology and treatment allow to produce images of the live brain, immediately, which are detectable in a computer screen, being possible to observe what is believed to be the processing of thought (not its generation) and emotions (here also, not its production) through the radioactive decay of the sugar carbon atoms carried into the brain by the bloody stream (5, 6).
The Strong Nuclear Force
The strong nuclear force (5, 7) is the force that maintains protons and neutrons united in the atomic nucleus, with energy of the order of ten millions of electron-volts. It is one million times stronger than the electromagnetic force. It is the strong nuclear force that gives the immense power to the Sun; likewise, to all stars, unquestionable and inexhaustible sources of energy. Without the strong nuclear force, stars would fade, and the entire space would be a total darkness. Without the Sun, life on the Earth would perish and the oceans would freeze. It is the nuclear force of the Sun that makes possible the life on the Earth. This force was dominated by the modern human technology and it is the responsible for the electric power generation in the nuclear power plants, but also it is that force which, when exploding an atomic bomb of Hydrogen liberates such a big and devastating amount of energy, which can be compared to a piece of the Sun falling on the Earth. Starting from the discovery of the atomic bomb (1945), the human history, for the first time, faced a new and complicated game of political choices that it was able, besides, to take to the total annihilation of life on the Earth.
With the knowledge of the strong nuclear force, we could finally comprehend and understand the colossal energetic machine that exists inside the Sun and stars, but also we could foresee, for the first time, the risk of exterminating the humanity.
2. The Theory of the Relativity and the Quantum Physics
We can affirm, without any exaggeration that the dominion of each one of these four fundamental forces of the nature has changed the whole face of human civilization during the last three centuries, mainly in the 20th century. For example, when Newton tried to solve mathematically his gravitation theory, by not having applicable conditions of calculation, he was forced to develop a new mathematics (differential and integral calculus) and to formulate his notorious laws of the gravitation and of the celestial movement. (5) These laws of the mechanics, by their turn, helped in the set up of the Industrial Revolution that raised humanity of countless millennia of stagnation, of oppressive work and poverty.
Therefore, it is out of doubt that, whenever scientists discovered the secrets of each one of the four fundamental forces of the nature, it altered the course of the history of the modern civilization. The modern history confirms that some of the largest scientific innovations flowed of the understanding and gradual use of these four fundamental forces of the nature.
Subjected that we are to the precepts of these four fundamental forces, at this stage we have to ask: can they be unified in just one super-force? Will it be that they are the manifestations of a deeper reality, totally unknown by the current science?
Nowadays, there are two physical theories that explain, partially, the mysterious characteristics of these four fundamental forces of nature. The Theory of the General Relativity and The Quantum Theory, on their whole, both of them got to explain the total sum of the physical knowledge at the fundamental level, without any exception. These two theories are the most well succeeded of all times, having passed under the tests of thousands of experiences and scientific challenges. It is this way that the laws of chemistry and physics can be explained by these two theories.
To describe and explain the phenomena of the subatomic world – the microcosm, The Quantum Theory is applied marvelously. However, in contrast, to describe and to explain the macrocosmic phenomena – the starry space, the world of stars, of galaxies, of black holes and of the creation of the universe – the fundamentals, in their essence, remain in The General Theory of Relativity. (5)
It is The Quantum Theory that explains three of the four fundamental forces of the nature (the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force), above mentioned, through the exchange of very small quantities of energy, called quanta. When a lamp is lighted on and a stream of light is emitted, for example, trillions and trillions of photons or quanta of energy start moving from its source – the emitting source. All the electromagnetic phenomena, involving light emission of any type, radiations and waves as the ones applied in radio transmissions, TV, radar, microwaves, X-Rays, laser rays, etc. are caused by the movement of these minuscule photons of energy. Equally, the weak nuclear force is governed by the exchange of the so-called subatomic particles W-bosons, thus avoiding that the great majority of the atoms disintegrates naturally due to the phenomenon of the radioactivity. The strong nuclear force, on the other hand, is explained by the presence of elementary particles known as quarks, thus keeping the protons of the nucleus, well near ones of the others through the exchange of gluons, that is, another type of nuclear particle, responsible for the so-called effect of “gluing” or stabilization of protons. Hydrogen (the first element of The Periodic Table of the Elements), is the unique atom deprived of this mechanism for possessing only a proton in its nucleus. (5, 6)
However, The Quantum Theory is in strong contrast with Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, which postulates a complete different approach to explain the gravity force. Einstein’s theory, which requires the fourth dimension (the space-time), teaches us that every movement in the space is processed according to a curve trajectory, taking us to a complete definition of a new force. According to it, the concept of force is changed by a more elegant concept, which takes into account the curvature of the space: the gravity force is nothing more than the epiphenomenon of the space deformation. According to that theory the Earth moves around the Sun in a curved way, because the space-time, by itself, is curved. In this new context, the gravity is not a "force", but an epiphenomenon of the deformation of the space-time. (5) Thus, in a certain sense, the gravity doesn't exist, what moves planets and stars is the distortion of the space-time, is a continuum of four dimensions: three spatial and one temporal.
Scientists find themselves, for more than fifty years, on a crossroad, trying to solve this scientific enigma represented by the incompatibility between these two theories. Albert Einstein, himself, author of The Special Theory of Relativity (conversion of matter into energy, with the classic formula E = mc²) and of The General Theory of Relativity (which explains the gravity), worked in the solution of this problem during the last thirty years of his life, without success. They are different physical points of view – quantities of energy (quanta) on one side versus the continuum of the space-time on the other side, demanding for different mathematical treatments to describe their behavior. This is the root of the problem. All the attempts done by the best minds of the 20th century with the objective to unify The Quantum Theory with the theory of gravity, failed. Doubtless, the largest problem of the second half of the 20th century faced by physicists of this generation is the unification of these two physical models in just one theory, which was not yet formulated but is customarily named as Theory of Everything.
There was one who compared this sad state of things like a mother nature that has two hands and that none of them communicates with the other. Nothing could be more embarrassing or pathetic than to see somebody whose left hand acted in total ignorance of the right hand", said physicist Michio Kaku, who faces this dilemma. (5)
3. The Superstring Theory
The most renowned physicists in the whole world, including many Nobel Prizes, are incessantly working on this question, searching a solution to the problem, not without facing great discussions and intense controversies among themselves. It is now open to discussion the New Superstring Theory, which will worry scientists in the whole world by the next fifty years of this 21st century, in the same way that The Quantum Theory attracted their attention during the last fifty years. It is a theory “sufficient crazy” for being correct. It postulates that any matter and energy can be reduced to infinitesimal threads loaded of energy that vibrate in a universe of 10 dimensions. (5) But, it is a seductive theory, which sounds beautiful, but it brings too much incoherencies! The strings can vibrate in different frequencies, like the strings of a violin. Each frequency, by its turn, corresponds to one of the almost three hundred subatomic particles already discovered by physicists. The great problem of that new theory is that it is necessary to reinvent a new mathematics to treat of the extreme complex equations necessary to its demonstration. Edward Witten, of the Institute of Advanced Studies of Princeton (USA), considered as Albert Einstein’s successor, is one of them, who are working in this challenging task. (5)
To summarize: the “notes” of the superstrings are the subatomic particles, the “harmonies” of the superstrings are the laws of physics and of “the universe”, and they can be compared to a symphony of vibrating superstrings.
When the string vibrates, however, it makes the continuum adjacent space-time to deform itself. Surprisingly, physicists affirm that a detailed calculation shows that the superstring forces the continuum space-time to be twisted exactly as Einstein originally predicted. If that new theory turns out to be demonstrated, although, only mathematically, physicists would be in the possession of a harmonious description that will unify The Quantum Theory with the theory of the continuum space-time. (5)
4. Philosophical View of the Force
We should not lose of view that the separation between philosophy and science, as a pragmatic content, is very recent and it became a reality in the mid of the 19th century. Thus, previous thinkers to 1850, who dedicated to metaphysical speculation of the unknown or to the study of the nature, all were had as wise people and not as philosophers or scientists or even intellectuals, since these concepts were introduced more recently. Some of them had the knowledge of an encyclopaedist so much profound and diversified was their knowledge. (9) The separation, today accepted, of so many knowledge dissociated from the so-called exact sciences (mathematics, chemistry and physics), or of them differing through specialization for research, or with vocational objectives (philosophy, psychology, sociology, etc.), it was more precisely established after the Industrial Revolution. Thus, the modern philosophy was born as consequence and as necessity to the time of Renée Descartes´ Rationalism (1596 – 1650), by putting together and realigning the most advanced concepts of metaphysics, ethics, moral, politics, force and matter, spirit and body, conscience, causality, substance, etc. These concepts, mainly on the exact comprehension of the duality spirit–body, of the conscience and of thousands of phenomena to them associated, constitute a great challenge for science.
Under the philosophical-idealist point of view, all that exists derives from a Universal Reason, of absolute supremacy. For instance, for Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831), a German philosopher from the post-Kant´s idealistic school, the world (Earth) is the well-succeeded form of realization. Its principle derives from the absolute idea of a rational and ideal superior principle divinized by religions, principle that, in the self-development process, knows its own essence through the nature and of the human history, or say, that principle has being in perennial evolution. There is an indirect approach, here, to the principle of the evolution. (18) Analogous conceptions of the world are due to numerous philosophers of the objective idealism. Already, the subjective idealists consider any objects of the external world as being something derived from the man’s interior world, of his sensations and perceptions. We should remember that objects possess properties, which are characteristics of the Matter itself, while that the Force itself commands the movements and transformations and, in its more evolved forms, possesses attributes.
But, let us come back a little bit more in time. In the second half of the 17th century, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646 – 1716) thought deeply about the concept of substance and, together with it, he introduced the concept of monad, this last one, inspired, by analogy, in Democritus´ atomistic theory and also in Giordano Bruno’s ideas. (8, 13) According to Leibniz, “[…] for a thing to be really a being – a substance – it needs to be really an entity, endowed with a genuine unity. A substantial unity requires an indivisible entity and naturally indestructible.”
Now, the matter as we perceive it, is extensive (it occupies a local in space) and infinitely divisible (including the atom itself – the matter fundamental unity), and therefore it can not be the real substance, or say, its own essence. (8) The essence is unique (in gender – this represented by the fundamental Force) and, at the same time, it can become individualized (species – the physical world, represented by the fundamental Matter), indivisible, eternal and inexhaustible. The true being should possess unity (Force), and, somewhat, the bodies (Matter) are extensive and divisible, and they don’t represent that unit (Force). From that logical reasoning, almost tangible, Leibniz created the monad concept. The unity is in the monads, which are punctual (particles of the Force) and indivisible, and so they respond to the true reality of the things. Force and Matter, when united, represent our physical reality, the Force always acting on the Matter, which is inert regarding the movement. (10) The terms Force and Matter, written with capitalized initials, were by us introduced here and in the considerations which follow with the objective to updating these concepts.
For the attentive observer there is a strong similarity here with the current theory of the superstrings, which we treated at the end of the scientific overview on the Force. The word “monad” means “unity” (it comes from the Greek word monas). The term was used first by Pythagoreans, as the name of the initial number of a series of numbers. Giordano Bruno used the term with the meaning of “real substance” (7), which he would have copied from Plotino and passed to Leibniz, who certainly read his writings.
Let us talk a little bit more of the monads. But, what are the monads made of? Of two elements: a material element (Matter) and a spiritual and dynamic element (Force), that, as a whole, form their specific inseparable nature in the physical worlds (as on the Earth, for example), while a certain Force (individualized) actuates on a determined matter (individualized) and they vary quantitatively, or say, each monad has a different relation of quantity between what it possess of material (properties) and of spiritual (attributes or intrinsic qualities), depending on which body the monad animates, let it be a raw body of one stone (mineral kingdom) or a body of a living being (vegetal or animal, including man himself). (8, 10, 18)
All the monads (Forces) are eternal, immortal. However, every monad (Force), when acting on the mineral or organized matter (living beings), always conserves a certain degree of passivity – its imperfection, from which the created monad (in the united form of Force–Matter) only will be freed as Force by means of the evolution. The raw material (conceived in abstract, because it does not exist without the secondary matter – the form), is the Matter in itself, completely passive, without none movement principle. The secondary matter or “the form” is the one that has in itself one movement principle, which is the vital principle in the most advanced beings, or say, the Force in its more powerful concept. Thus, to the raw matter, completely passive, just endowed of extension (as sponsored by Descartes), Leibniz opposes with the secondary matter or “the form”, which contains the spiritual principle, endowed of action. The material element in the monad corresponds to the passivity of the raw material and the immaterial element corresponds to the activity given by “the form” in the characterization of the substance. This activity is given by the Force actuating on the Matter and its form, as a whole, as in Aristotle and even as in Plato. Therefore, because each monad represents a raw material or passive principle, activated by the active element (Force), which, in the humans, is the soul or the spirit in search of perfection through evolution. (8, 10, 18)
We should point out that Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677), who has also considered the concept of monad, presented the following reasoning:
[...] then, every substance is monad, all the bodies are made of monads and these are rigorously indivisible units and, therefore, inextensive, because the extension is always divisible. These simple monads cannot deteriorate nor they can be dissolved (they have eternal life) and they do not also derive from any composition. They constitute the true substance (essence), but they vary in themselves, in their level of spirituality, and so they can constitute substances different from God and from the own substances of each thing. (21)
And, as he spoke about spirituality, he was referring to man. Leibniz proposed that the world consists only of one single substance (gender), an unique and true being that is the Nature or God, but yet an infinite variety of types of that substances exist (species). The inner duality of the monads, partially material and partially spiritual, makes them to participate, at the same time, of a spiritual world and of a physical world, which is similar to the idea that the material and the spiritual are “the two faces of a same substance”, as proposed by Spinoza. We should remind that Spinoza became atheist already in his youth.
Thus, we see that, the duality for Leibniz (8, 10) and for Spinoza (22) did not have the same meaning, being the Cartesian concept of duality much more radical. Leibniz contests Descartes about two aspects, mentioning that the Cartesians erred by supposing that the two substances are isolated, the extensive substance (Matter) and the spiritual substance (Force), and also erred by simply reducing the Matter to the extension property. As to the first aspect, in the monads, which are the unique substance, the two natures coexist, the material and the spiritual, so that everything contains its materiality and level of spirituality, without this representing a radical duality, as taught by Descartes. As to the second aspect, Descartes (14, 15 and 16) does not study the Force, but only the movement, a mere change of position of an object in relation to its initial coordinates (kinematics, a chapter of Mechanics). The visible movement is not a simple local observed movement; it should be looked as the result of a Force produced by a living force, which is in the monad. Leibniz’s concept is a formulation in which, to the contrary of the conception of the Cartesian Mechanics, the movement is not created by a kinetic energy, but it exists as part of the monad. The so-called matter, in its essence, also contains, force. The idea of a static and inert nature is substituted by a dynamic idea; in contrast with a physics of the extension, he retakes the Greek thought that considers the nature as a principle of movement. Opposing to Descartes, Leibniz (1675) considers the beings as living forces, not as machines. The substance notion was always essentially of an inert thing that does not explain the resistance that the matter offers to the movement. We remind that the three philosophers were contemporary and Leibniz met himself with Spinoza in Holland.
As well as he rejects the dualistic position of Descartes of the independence between a material substance and other spiritual one, Leibniz rejects the materialistic monism position in which the thought and consciousness are in the purely material and mechanic field. In his book Hypothesis Physica Nova (1671), he said that the movement derives from the action of the spirit (God), as already was defended by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Besides, the principle that the monads compose all things in the exterior world, we have the inner experience, the conscience experience, which can not be explained by numbers or movements.
In short, the monad does not have extension, it is not divisible and it is not material. They are units without parts which react to form the chemical compounds, they are the elements of the things. The monad is force, energy, and vigor. The monads are units of force. They are not physical force, but capacity of acting, of working. (8, 10)
After defining the substance as action, Leibniz explained that the substance, as essential action, is the representation. The continuous activity of the monad is the effort to realize, to represent itself as conscience, to always acquire more conscience of what virtually contains in itself. Despite of being infinite in number, each monad is completely different one from the other. It also varies in its representation power. The most primitive form, the perception, understands a confused and obscure representation of itself. The more evolved form, the apperception, consists of a clear representation of itself, or conscience of itself. (8, 10, 22)
B. MATTER
As we know, in the universe an infinite amount of dispersed matter, exists, agglomerated and grouped under the most diverse forms. Equally, in the reality of our world Earth, all matter occupies a place in space (extension), including the Earth itself, which is constituted of matter. It is perceived directly by our physical senses. Matter, in spite of inert, can present itself in movement, activated by the Force. Of the absolute point of view, nothing is immobile in any part of the universe: everything is in continuous and permanent movement. Thence, we can say that there is a dynamic harmony in the entire universe. We’ll examine, to proceed, the matter under two points of view or different visions: the scientific vision and the philosophical vision. Characterizing it as one of the components of the universe, we shall write the initial of its name with capital letter.
1. The Scientific Vision of Matter
Since the most remote ages to the present time, man comes using his mental resources and his creativity to conquer the forces of nature and use them in his benefit. On the discovery of the objective and essential reality of the matter, it was not different. At about 2,400 years ago, at the time of Pythagoras on Earth, the entire knowledge about matter was still reduced to the four fundamental elements: air, water, earth and fire. It was Democritus of Abdera (Thrace), disciple of Leucippus and Pythagoras, pre-Socratic philosopher (460 – 370 B.C.) of encyclopedic wisdom, who taught us the first knowledge about the true nature of matter by means of his Atomistic Theory. For him, matter was constituted of minuscule particles, indivisible and invisible to the naked eyes, to which he gave the name of atoms (in Greek: without division). This belief, which stayed in latent state during more than 2,300 years, only came to spring up in the first half of the 20th century, when the secrets of the atomic nucleus were discovered by science.
We saw therefore that, until then, the atoms, essential basis of matter, were considered indivisible, without structure and immutable. But, well before that, the chemical science worked with the atoms, as primary elements of the matter, invisible and indestructible. The atoms could unite, separate and change its position inside the specific space of their structures, thus determining all the qualitative and quantitative diversity of numerous substances and products that they could create. In this way, the idea of the immutability of the atoms identified itself with the idea of matter as one of the basic components of the universe. In favor of that universal view of the matter, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743 – 1794), in 1774, verified experimentally that, in a closed chemical system, the total reacting mass remains constant. Based on his experimental demonstrations, he established the chemical and philosophical general principle, which received the name of the Law of Conservation of Mass, also known as the Law of Conservation of Matter: “In the nature nothing is lost and nothing is created, all is transformed” or “In the nature matter couldn’t be created or destroyed, but instead is conserved.” This universal principle confirmed the indestructibility principle of the atom, established by Democritus´ Atomistic Theory, 2,300 years ago!
To have an idea of the infinitesimal size of the atoms, let us examine a minuscule wire of copper that is used in the electrical facilities of your house and let us divide it into parts every time minors. You should know that, even if you use a microscope and continue dividing this piece of wire into microscopic parts, you will still be very far from seeing one atom of copper. Then, which is the size of one atom of copper? Well, imagine that, if you could align atoms of copper one after the other, along the extension of one millimeter, there would contain 10 millions of atoms! Another example: a small solid sphere of copper of two centimeters in diameter contains about 25 sextillions of atoms, or say, the number twenty-five followed by twenty-four zeros! This means that, if we maintained the same proportions and we enlarged the diameter of the atoms to the same diameter of the copper sphere (two centimeters), this would now have 200 million centimeters of diameter or 200 kilometers! That is why we call this small world inside the atoms of microcosmos, in opposition to the macrocosmos that is the whole extension of the universe. (23)
Even so infinitesimal as it is, the atom is constituted of much smaller particles that have great utility for us. Several atomic models preceded the actual, as the one of the English John Dalton (1803), the one of the English Joseph J. Thomson (1903) and the one of the New Zealander Ernest Rutherford (1911). Nowadays, since 1913, the basic model is adopted, which was created by the Danish physicist Niels Henrik David Bohr, and it is represented by a small central nucleus involved by one or more layers of particles placed in orbits. In the orbital layers, similar to the planets, particles that have the name of electrons and possess negative electrical charge rotate. In the center, the fixed nucleus, as if it was a small Sun, is much more stable than the orbital layers and contains particles heavier than the electrons, namely: protons, with positive electric charge and neutrons with neutral charge. In the atoms, the number of protons equals the number of electrons, varying their quantity from one type of atom to another, thus determining the atomic number of the element. Atoms, in their normal state, are stable and their charges are electrically balanced. To facilitate the study, the atoms were disposed in a table – known as the Periodic Table of the Elements – formally and logically organized in accordance with their atomic numbers, in which the Hydrogen is the simplest, located in the first place and, the atom of Uranium, numbered as 92 and occupying the last place in the natural atomic table of the elements, is the more complex. With the advent of the atomic energy, this table prepared for the natural elements was extended to also include the transuranium elements, which counts now 21 elements, so that the New Atomic Table of the Elements is composed of 113 elements. In order to have an idea of greatness, a typical atom has a diameter of 10 raised to the power of minus 8 of centimeter and its nucleus has a diameter of 10 raised to the power of minus 13 of centimeter, or say, the entire atom is 100,000 (one hundred thousand) times larger than the nucleus. However, more than 99% of the mass of the atom is inside its nucleus. (1, 3)
All the atoms possess properties, some generic and others specific ones, giving them their own identity. The atoms can agglomerate with one or more identical or different atoms, constituting the molecules that, by their turn, are the smallest portions of a certain substance. Chemistry and its derived technologies refer to the reactions and phenomena that use the matter and, therefore, the atoms and molecules, in their more varied forms, to produce substances and products of great utility in our modern life. To get that, this science only needs to interact in the most external orbital layer of electrons, called the valence layer.
On the other hand, another set of atoms properties that derives from the existence of free electrons, is object of classic physics and activities to it connected. These electrons, supplied by certain materials like the copper of our previous example, and generated by excitement of the referred layer under certain conditions, are used to produce electricity, electrical and electromagnetic fields, as well as, numerous other phenomena that interrelate Force and Matter.
Regarding the interference in the atomic nucleus, the result is much more complex and very expensive, any that is its purpose – researches, electricity generation, production of atomic bombs and production of radioisotopes for use in Medicine. To reach those objectives it is necessary to get knowledge on nuclear physics, presently a technology under rigorous control of the United Nations.
We should still consider the elementary particles which, with exception of the electron, interact in the nucleus or possess independent lives. Nowadays, they were already discovered about three hundred different elementary particles. To the majority of the known particles exists antiparticles (opposed to them in virtue of their electrical charges and other properties), as for example, to the electron (negative charge) it exists the positron (positive charge), and to the proton, it exists the antiproton (negative charge), etc. There are subtle differences among particles and antiparticles that affect only some partial properties of matter, as the signal of the electrical charge, the magnetic momentum, etc., but most of their properties are equal. Possibly, the laws applied to the matter are also applied to the antimatter, such as, the nuclear, electromagnetic and gravitational reciprocal action, and consequently, the laws that govern the formation of the different chemical combinations, of the cosmic systems, etc. Perhaps, instead of using the term antimatter to designate this hypothetical form of matter, it would be more correct to use the term “matter of antiparticles,” because, it is the mass itself in rest that characterizes the substance that also exists in all the antiparticles, except for the antineutrino mass.(2)
More specifically, it is not possible to include in the category of matter elementary particles such as the neutrino and the antineutrino of different types, because its reciprocal action with the matter is weak, but those particles possess a very strong penetration capacity. Neutrinos absorb a considerable amount of energy from the stars and fill up the entire space that surrounds us. Their role in the general transformation of matter in the universe should be of great importance, although science is still very distant of discovering their secrets. And, what should we think about the antineutrinos particles?
2. Philosophical View of the Matter
Many daring thesis and some even deep were formulated along History about Matter. The materialistic conceptions looked for, in the scientific development, their inspiration source being firm in the fundamental properties of Matter (field of study of chemistry) and in the laws that govern the physical movement (field of study of physics). They were the French materialists of the 18th century who argued in favor of the thesis that Matter and the movement are inseparable – in the attempt to bury up the dualism Force and Matter, introduced by Renée Descartes – and that the movement is a very important inherent attribute, a form of existence of Matter. The fundament of the movement inherent to the Matter generated enormous controversies. Then, among so many conceptions of the materialistic philosophy with foundation in Matter, we should present only two.
3. Mechanicist Materialism
Isaac Newton’s (1642 – 1727) laws of mechanics were considered universal laws of the nature and also, the human being’s fundamental principles that condition all the other laws of the nature and of society. These laws constituted the basis of the existing materialism at that time – the mechanicist materialism, which preceded the dialectic materialism of Marx and Engels. The great scientific progress occurred in the Natural Sciences (Theory of Evolution, by Charles Darwin), in the second half of the 19th century (1859), and in physics and chemistry discoveries, were extended along the 20th century. In this period, with the development of the theory of the magnetic fields, the discovery of radioactivity and of the complex structure of the atoms, and many others, the fundamentals of the mechanicist vision of the world were challenged. Therefore, while it didn’t find a wide explanation for the radioactivity phenomenon, used as a proof that Matter disappears, the Law of Conservation of Mass, established by Lavoisier, seemed to have fallen to earth. (2) In spite of these new discoveries, the defenders of the dialectic materialism continued affirming that the destructiveness of the atom, its inexhaustibility, the mutability of all forms of Matter and of their movement were always the pillar of the dialectic materialism.
Then, they appeared many currents of materialistic philosophy with the most varied conceptions; all of them, however, making restricted use of our physical senses and of the instruments created by man himself. The materialists try to explain the world that surround us through the activity of one material organ, the human brain, affirming that even the ideas and the most abstract concepts are produced by the cerebral activity. This way of thinking intend to pass us the idea that the world that surrounds us is nothing else than a concrete form of Matter, a certain state or property of it, one product of its constant and regular mutability. The followers of that concept get to affirm that Matter is the unique universal basis of all that exists, of all the objects and phenomena of the reality and that Matter express the most general essence of the world. (2) Thus, they think and base their justifications in the reality observed in the development of science along man’s History, mainly in the technological use of the last century.
Matter and all the infinite quantity of the most different objects that exist and move in the space and time have inexhaustible diversity of properties. Our sensorial organs can only perceive an insignificant part of all the forms of Matter really existing; however, thanks to the construction of apparatus and measurement instruments more and more perfect, man enlarges the limits of the known world continually. Thus, the elementary particles that science discovered in the 20th century differ qualitatively by their properties in the macroscopic bodies with which man interacts during his daily life and this deepens, in essential manner, our notions of Matter.
4. Dialectic Materialism
For the dialectic materialism, which impregnated the Marxist Socialism adopted by the Soviet Union and satellite countries during the major part of the 20th century, the concept of Matter as objective reality has a wide meaning and characterizes Matter and all their properties, general laws, movement, living laws, etc., to it associated. These “atachés” are, before this concept, true inherent accessories to Matter, as for instance, a certain law of its existence, a movement type, etc., inseparable of Matter, but not identical to it and, therefore, it cannot be considered as Matter itself. Thus, the movement, the space, the time and the laws of the nature possess an objective reality, but we cannot consider them made of Matter itself. Matter exists in the form of an infinite variety of objects and concrete systems, each one of them possessing movement, structure, concatenations and space-time interactions, etc. Matter does not exist out of the objects and systems and, in this sense, there is not “matter as such”, “pure” matter, objectively, as primary and amorphous substance. The dialectic materialism admits the substantiality of Matter, however only in the sense that it is exactly as the only universal base, the substratum of the several properties, concatenations, movement forms and laws. Any form of Matter (included the micro objects) possesses a complex structure, an infinite of internal and external concatenations, as well as, the faculty of changing itself in other forms.
The dialectic materialism (2), that refutes the existence of the “primary Matter” as the ultimate and inalterable essence, recognizes the substantiality of Matter only in the sense that it is precisely (and not the conscience, nor something supernatural) the basic universal faculty of the different properties of the phenomena, and that it determines the unit of the surrounding world. The dialectic materialists affirm that the successive development of the knowledge will allow, without doubt, to penetrating in the inner structural levels of Matter, without invalidating its philosophy. Therefore, the substance concept changed qualitatively its meaning in the Marxist philosophy.
The dialectic materialism and the laws from it derived serves as methodological basis to make scientific investigations, to elaborate a scientific and materialistic conception of the world and to interpret the discoveries of science according to the reality of the world Earth. We should notice that this doctrine improves continually, it deepens itself, it advances with the progress of the scientific knowledge and new categories and laws are formed to reflect, in a degree every time bigger, the reality, which will always be more complex than all our current notions, including the more perfect ones. (2)
However, the dialectic materialism fails when affirming that Matter is the universal substantial base of all the phenomena, it was not created by nothing, it is indestructible, eternal in the time and infinite in the space, it has an objective existence and it is independent of conscience In our understanding, one deals with a vain philosophy that doesn´t resist to a deeper analysis.
CHAPTER 3
THE ROADS OF EVOLUTION
Nothing in the alive world makes sense, unless through the light of evolution.
Theodosius Dobzhansky (1973).
It has elapsed about 150 years since the publication, in 1859, of the work On the Origin of the Species Through the Natural Selection, or briefly, The Origin of the Species, by the English naturalist Charles Spencer Darwin (1809–1882). Darwin made his famous voyage with duration of almost five years (1832–1836) on board of H.M.S Beagle. In that trip, the Beagles´ route included Tenerife, Cape Verde Islands, Brazil (Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, in the departure and in the arrival of the voyage), Uruguay, Argentina (Buenos Aires and Tierra del Fuego Islands), Chile, Peru, Galapagos Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand and Tasmania. But it was at the Galapagos Islands where more scientific information was collected by him (1). Along the trip, Darwin made observations and collected species of a rich and varied flora and fauna and he started studying them during 24 years, for only then to publish his book. It was a serious and conscientious work.
We should remind that, only in the decade of 1830, Karl Ernest von Baer organized the works of cytology and, together with Theodor Schwann and Mathias Jakob Schleiden, they established its bases, showing that animals and plants are composed of the same elements – the cells (2). Almost at the same time, in France, Claude Bernard (1813–1878) developed the works of physiology. The Mendel’s laws of heredity, by its turn, discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), were proposed after Darwin’s works were published. Only in the beginning of the 20th century, the mechanisms of genetic inheritance were known through the studies on chromosomes and genes. After that, it emerged the development of molecular biology by James Watson and Francis Crick, discoverers of the DNA chemical structure and winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1951. In the end of the 20th century, with the discovery of sequencing techniques, it appeared the so-called genomics, responsible for the sequencing of the human DNA. Recently, it appeared the Synthetic Theory of Evolution or Neo-Darwinism, which is based in the mutation and genetic recombination studies. Finally, this knowledge was completely incorporated to Darwin’s theory to explain the differences among individuals of the same species and to oppose strongly to the skeptics´ critics, as well as, to the defenders of Creationism.
Elapsed so many years, without the appearing of another better theory that could dethroned it, the so-called Darwin’s evolutionist theory is the one that better adapts to the observed facts, when explaining evolution of the natural selection among the species. We remind that a very similar theory was, simultaneous and independently, developed by the British scientist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). (1, 2)
More than the work The Origin of the Species, Darwin provoked the anger of the catholic church when he published, twelve years later, his book Descent of man (1871), in which, he reinforced his evolution theory, by affirming that the human being would have descended from the primates. With this work, Darwin entered in confrontation with the biblical history of creation as it is described in Genesis. Conservative persons from the whole Europe also protested against the theory, because they refused to admit that the ancestral of the human species had been animals. At that time, Darwin was very ridiculed by the European press, which published "harder or sarcastic libels against the naturalist and his theories. His theories were considered extravagant, antisocial and atheists. A political cartoon of that time became known of the great public, in which he was represented by a monkey body topped with his long head, serious appearance and long beard.” (3) Darwin knew very well that the popularization of his ideas would cause rejection and, perhaps, it is for that reason that he had delayed more than twenty years the publication of his polemic work. He only went to publish his work "when he became aware of the Alfred Russel Wallace’s researches and conclusions, which were in the imminence of being published.” (3)
It is logical that he had intelligent defenders in his scientific community, such as, Thomas Huxley, Paul Broca and Ernst Haeckel, besides Alfred Russel Wallace himself, who recognized to be of Darwin the primacy of the Theory of Evolution. Before a so revolutionary theory, they were put, on a side, the Darwinists, who perceived in the ideas "[…] of the controversial naturalist, a simple, complete and elegant model, capable to explain the diversity of the species and the origins of the living beings and specifically of man.” (3) On the other side, they were put the creationists, defenders of the faith, of religion and of the so-called sacred books. These antagonistic positions are so different as the water to the wine; they can not combine and can not mix themselves, in such a way that, if the focus of that discussion had happened out of England and had occurred about one century before, Darwin would have been accused of blasphemy and heresy and he would have been burned alive in the bonfire by Inquisition. Painful it is to know that the controversy between creationism versus evolutionism still subsists nowadays, in the beginning of the 21st century. Further on, in this chapter, we will treat of that quarrel which, for religious persons, is a question of faith, and for evolutionists is a question of reason and logic.
As until now the evolution of the species took care only of the plant and animal kingdom, besides man, we will treat here also of the "evolution" that occurred in the mineral kingdom, because this also constitutes a fundamental link of the nature. In 1830–1833, Charles Lyell (1797–1875), the father of modern geology and contemporary of Darwin, of whom he became friend, published his work in three volumes entitled The Beginnings of the Geology. In this work, Charles Lyell introduced the concept of “gradualism”, very similar to the concept of evolutionism created by Darwin. The gradualism is applied to the geological formation of the Earth’s crust. Lyell´s work spread out all over the world and today we have the evolution of the Earth described in eras and geological periods, resultants of events and cataclysms passed by and that is still passing our planet. But, no scientist that is of our knowledge, treated of the evolution of Matter itself, of its organization and structure as initial chain of the evolution of the species. Nevertheless, science has brilliantly studied the Matter on what the intrinsic knowledge of the atom and of the particles and their interactions is concerned, as much in the atomic nucleus (protons and neutrons) as in the electro sphere (electrons). It is undeniable that the results of those studies and discoveries that came from physics and chemistry, mainly in the 20th century, took the humanity to enjoy of an advanced technology; however, they were neglected the being's moral values, or say, science is standing back of philosophy of which science is its legitimate daughter. Also, we will treat of man's evolution, not as a species (Matter), but as a being (Intelligent Force – the Spirit).
1. Evolution of the Force on the Matter
According to cosmology current knowledge, when we make a retrospective look since the origins of the universe, any that may be the theory adopted to explain the origin of the universe and why it exists, there is no doubt that the evolution of Matter started from the simplest to the more complex forms. The direction in which such processes occur, always from the simplest to the more complex, characterizes what we call of Evolution, not only material or somatic, but also of the Force and with it, of the energy in its more diverse forms, known and unknown by science. Initially, they were formed the particles of energy (electrons and quarks) and, almost simultaneously, the matter particles (protons and neutrons) by the action of the Universal Force. It is easy to conclude that both, Force and Matter, were formed in that sequence, because the Force needs the Matter to evolve and to constitute the worlds by them formed. Only millions of years later, after the origin of the universe, were formed the first atoms of Hydrogen (matter) – the simplest, with a proton in the nucleus and an electron in the electro sphere. This element agglomerated itself by the force of attraction of the mass and formed the stars, which are true power plants of energy (nuclear fusion of the Hydrogen transforming itself into Helium). From the Helium fusion through the nucleus synthesis, the heaviest elements appeared. It is necessary to notice that the formation of the chemical elements is not indefinite – this formation produces certain number of natural atomic structures (exactly 92) and it stops thereabout. The combination of atoms of the same element and of different elements, according to the laws of chemistry, produces the molecules, macro molecules and gigantic molecules.
The formation of the planets of the solar system occurred at about four and half billion of years. In what the Earth is concerned, taking into account its cooling to the present environmental temperatures and the performance of numerous factors as weathering, volcanism, etc., they were formed the oceans and the terrestrial crust. These contain, substantially, molecules of inorganic type or minerals, that are numerous, although in very smaller number than the one of organic type (that always contain the element carbon). Geologists to better study the terrestrial crust created the so-called geological eras (pre-Cambrian, Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic), all including well defined long geological periods. Still according to geologists and paleontologists, the known oldest rock is dated to 3.8 billion of years. (5) From the Archean period of the pre-Cambrian era (2.5 billion years – 650 million years ago), the first living beings would have appeared, derived from the colloidal substrata known as coacervates. We know that colloids are complex chemical substances having high molecular weight.
In the terrestrial crust the minerals were disseminated, object of study on the part of a science called mineralogy. The occurrence of numerous elements in pure form (diamond, sulfur, gold, to mention some) and combined (oxides, carbonates, silicates, sulfides and sulfates), be them as amorphous substances, be them in the most varied and beautiful crystalline forms, is known by all. In them, the atoms link themselves to form the molecules, constituted, be them by the same simple elements, be them by different elements, forming binary, tertiary and quaternary compounds, in crystalline structures, many of them found in the nature under the hydrated form. These structures consist of seven crystallographic systems or singonies (regular, tetragonal, hexagonal, rhombohedra, rhombic, monoclinic and triclinic forms), all with their crystallographic constants and the proper symmetry characteristics (symmetry axes). (6)
According to their chemical composition, (6) the crystals are classified in groups, from which originate nine classes and several subclasses that come from pure or native chemical elements (metals like Gold, Silver, Copper and non-metals like diamond, graphite, Sulfur) to the chemical compounds (sulfides, haloides salts, oxides, oxy salts (two types), phosphates-arseniates-vanadates, silicates and radioactive minerals). Those who observe the crystals are surprised by their forms and beauty, many of them with notable shine, color and iridescence. Some of those wonderful substances possess allotropic forms – the same chemical composition and different crystalline structures, like sulfur and carbon (coal, graphite and diamond), which seem to say us that they have their own individuality. They are forms of rudimentary life, intrinsic to the atoms that constitute them. They show us that in them the Intelligent Force acts and interacts organizing their arrangement in symmetry, condition that gives them the form and other properties, characteristics of each mineral species. I used the term species here purposely to mean that actually the minerals are the initial tip of the species in evolution, unhappily not included in Darwin’s work, The Origin of the Species, despite the fact that Darwin was friend of Lyell, as we have exposed previously.
Perhaps, by being the Matter the domain of physics and chemistry and, being geology a different science, although known by Charles Darwin, this notable naturalistic didn't make observations in the mineral kingdom. Darwin lost an excellent opportunity to extend the evolution concept to the Matter under all the forms. Thus, Darwin was limited to the organized matter – that always contains the element carbon, found in the vegetable and in the animal kingdoms, besides man. But, although Darwin had included the organized matter in his evolutionist conceptions, it would lack a global theory of the evolution that turned out to include the action of the Intelligent Force on all the forms of Matter. Nor the modern physicists (20th century), nor the philosophers, until the present moment (2008), have driven their efforts and intelligences to study and to examine the incorporeal life in all its reach and splendor.
The incorporeal life, although felt and known by the wise philosophers of the most remote ages, only came to be studied, demonstrated and verified starting from the mid of the 18th century, with William Crooke’s works and the ones of numerous other independent investigators, as it is thoroughly presented in the Chapter 6 – The Birth of the Spiritism. But, although we limit ourselves to the planet Earth, where life is known just like it is represented in all the kingdoms of the nature, we verify that neither the physicists (physics), nor the biologists and geneticists (biology), and nor the neuroscientists (medical sciences), were not yet disposed to study that field, so essential to the true knowledge of the life on the Earth.
It was Luiz de Mattos, (7) who already in 1910, in a throw of great intuition affirmed that, in the nature, only Force and Matter exist and that the first acts on the second in all of the processes, and he also affirmed that this truth extends itself from the microcosm to the macrocosm. These were his words, taken from page 49 of the book Christian Rationalism, 43rd edition: (7)
The terrestrial globe is a sphere of organized matter impregnated of forces that act directly on the atoms, constituting them, uniting them and maintaining them in balance, in the systematic of a complexity of movements.
The atom is in constant vibration produced by the existent energy in its interior and links to other atom by the cohesion force to compose the molecule. It is also that same cohesion force that unites the molecules among themselves.
It was an insight or intuition, when the knowledge on the atomic model and of the Quantum Physics were still in their childhood, knowledge that were not to the reach of Luiz de Mattos, by not being him a scientist, but an autodidactic philosopher and spiritualist.
Further on, in the same mentioned work, to the page 50, Luiz de Mattos presents an outline, showing the interaction of the Universal Force on the Matter in the three kingdoms of the nature, standing out their fundamental attributes, with the predominance of the Force (mineral kingdom), of Force and Life (vegetable kingdom) and Force, Life and Intelligence (animal kingdom), in this order. And to proceed, he adds (7) this words taken from page 51 of the mentioned work:
One should not infer, then, the life inexistence in the mineral kingdom or the intelligence in the vegetable kingdom. One just mentions the predominance of the pointed fundamental attributes, to facilitate the reader's understanding, given the transcendentality of the subject.
The human being that wants to deep himself in the investigation of this important theme, will find open field to unfold the reasoning, to strengthen his convictions and to conclude that those two substantial sources – Force and Matter – are the beginning and the end, they are units that touch each other in their extremities, and that Force and Matter run parallel and that, in their incommensurability, they include the infinite and penetrate and involve the universe.
Here the employed expressions are just relatives, due to the lack of others, which best can express a conception of absolute order.
It is understood, therefore, that Luiz de Mattos, since the beginning of his work, published his remarkable spiritual book with the name of Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism, today known and published as Christian Rationalism, with almost 100 years of existence, always saw, taught and published a wider concept of life – a non-materialistic concept of life. Luiz de Mattos expressed in doctrinaire terms, and introduced a spiritualistic concept of life, in which supreme expression man is included, as we will see further on. For Luiz de Mattos, Matter does not evolve, but accompany the evolution of the Force that incites all the matter forms. Accordingly, matter forms encompass all substances, from the inorganic or mineral (of the inorganic chemistry), to the organic (of the organic chemistry that has the element carbon as its fundamental basis) and to the biological (that is a refined structure of the organic chemistry), to give origin to the cells and to the biological systems.
In the threshold of the 20th century, science itself had a very simple idea of what would be the Matter. This was had as any substance. Let us take, for instance, still with the knowledge of that time, any stone, when broken or triturated presents itself under the powder form or dust. That dust, by its turn, was formed by molecules, behind which the so-called atoms are linked themselves in the form of smaller spherical balls, something indivisible. For the chemists and physicists of that time, to whom the ideas were absolute, all seemed certainty and the Matter was everything that could be tangible. Only to it, science has driven itself the attention to question about properties of the Matter, inside of the realism reached by the physical senses and allowed by the laboratory instruments. Would there be here a place for the Intelligent Force and for the Spirit (the Force in its more evolved form, active intelligence)? Should the Force be sought as a by-product of the Matter or as something independent out of it and on it acting? This was the dilemma found by Luiz de Mattos and scientists in general.
The path followed by science was the investigation of the Matter, because, as we saw, at this stage, science was already separated from philosophy and put the experimentation as its main investigation tool, leaving in second plan the instrument of the reason, proper of the human being, together with good part of the logic. In the beginning of the 20th century, it was born The Quantum Theory with a revolutionary reformulation of all that was considered as Matter.
Since then, The Quantum Physics pointed to a new physical reality about Matter, living aside the concepts of a solid, concrete and tangible matter. On the other hand, Einstein’s theories played a very important role affirming that space and time are illusions. Around 1927, Heisenberg added to theses concepts his uncertainty principle, according to which a particle can be detected in two places at the same time. All these principles are the back stage of The Quantum Theory, which affirms that the fundamental reality is unknowable.
In that way, all of us are linked to the Real of those so-called quantum entities that transcend the categories of space and time. We should imagine that there is much difficulty to apprehend the nature and marvelous properties of this reality, but persons feel that such properties exist through “something.” But, this intelligent approach stays nearer to the Spirit than to the common Matter. After all, what is under the veil of Matter?
We treated of those great alterations occurred in physics during the 20th century in the chapter 2, which we dedicated to the Force and Matter, under the scientific point of view, exclusively. We will treat now of another alternative, the non-materialistic point of view, in which reality is not limited to the visible Matter, and the concepts of space and time do not pass of simple abstractions, pure illusions of the human senses. As we said, that was the alternative followed by Luiz de Mattos in his philosophical and spiritualistic researches, whose studies took him to consider any force as particle of the Universal Intelligence – the Creative Force. The Quantum Physics almost in the same way acted, considering that reality is neither causal nor local: in it the space and time are abstractions, pure illusions, with the unique difference that science puts everything as a consequence of Matter.
Of course, the acceptance of Luiz de Mattos´ conceptions would bring enormous consequences to humanity due to the fact that it would be necessary many reformulations to our practical daily lives, thus raising the veil of Matter to almost everybody. Hence, it becomes necessary to demonstrate that there is a perfect continuity between the inanimate Matter and the living Matter. These decisive steps are the work for the coming generations.
Before that enigma, they only remain two attitudes to take: one leads us to the absurdity to continue deifying Matter, the other one will take us to the research of the unknowable, whose laws continue challenging science. This dilemma cannot last for more time, because humanity is lacking of information and asking for a safe direction for its evolution. After all, what is real? Why does the human being exist and which is his destiny? We need to lift the veil of Matter for us to discover the unknown. These subjects will be treated in the chapters of the Second Part of this book.
It is an unknown field and opened to the serious and honest investigation, without the mystic rancidity of the religions. It is necessary just courage and value, that every honest scientist possesses, but that is necessary not to hesitate to examine it, with exemption of will, accepting the amazing results but non-miraculous that, with certainty, scientists will find beyond Matter. The hour is now, in the threshold of that new century, because the humanity is tired of so much materialism!
In fact, life itself directly takes its properties from that mysterious trend of Matter to self-organize, spontaneously, to drive itself to states unceasingly more orderly and complex. We already said it: the universe is a vast thought. In each particle, atom, molecule, and matter cell, an “unknowable omnipresence” actuates and lives. It is unquestionable that the Intelligent Force is present in the inner of Matter, and this convinces us that nothing happens “by chance” in the universe. Everything is caused by “something.” What is behind those assertions is that the universe has an axis, an evolutionary, which goes from the most elementary atom to the highest possible intelligence on the Earth and somewhere in the infinite space. This transcendent and intelligent cause is represented by the Universal Intelligence, source of all the intelligent particles that are the life bearers.
When we mentioned that there is an intelligent cause, we are not referring to God of the religions nor focusing the ideas of the religious persons of all the religions about God, nor to an imaginary God, super mathematical (the chance of the theory of probabilities or the Infinite of the infinitesimal calculus or the Universal Infinite). It’s not an entity or super being. We are speaking about causes or agents still not recognized by science. We are speaking about super galactic or inter-galactic causes, non-supernatural, because all is natural, not only what we see with our body eyes. These see the objects and the things that just reflect the visible light, a tiny fraction of the whole wide electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists speak a lot about the reality (see further on, Chapter 5 – Truth, Reality and Paradigm) and they deify this concept as if it is applied just to the material world. How would that reality be, for instance, if our physical eyes could see a larger portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, for instance, if we had penetrating eyes like the X-Rays? For us not to extend ourselves, in our speech, what we want to say is that all reality, be it objective or subjective, is always relative. What we have to say is that the evolution is not just limited to the Matter and all its forms, but also, it applies itself to the Force, to the essence, to the Spirit, which does not possess form, but can assume any form, by using the universal fluid, which is a tenuous matter, rarefied, plasmable by the Force.
The Force (gender), which includes the Spirit (superior species of the Force), always evolves and that evolution begins in the atoms, from the simplest (Hydrogen) to the more complex natural chemical element (the uranium) so much in the mineral kingdom, as in the vegetable and animal, because after all, any of the bodies are atoms, which go structuring themselves in forms more and more complex, under the action of the Force, along that evolution, as we will further on see. After all, the universe and all that exists in it has a history and that history is far, very far away from being known by man. We may be, as human beings, submitted to a super evolution, without us to perceive that, the evolution is a process too much slow and their effects are only observed at a long period. Then, we dare to think in an evolution toward a human "super-species", capable to use, for instance, the telepathy as a biological element of reception and transmission of the thought.
2. Evolution of the Force in the Living Beings
Exceptions done to the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic and bicarbonic acids and their salts – the carbonates and bicarbonates, whose studies are part of the inorganic or mineral chemistry, any substances that contain carbon in their molecules constitute object of the organic chemistry. This concept was born when, in 1828, Friederich Whöler (1800–1882) synthesized the substance urea for the first time. One hundred and forty years were elapsed for Arthur Kornberg (1918 –), Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959, and Mark Goulian to obtain, in 1967, the deoxyribonucleic acid synthesis – the so-called DNA molecule with helix structure, the bearer of the genetic code. (9)
The Origin of Life
During the period that elapsed from the release of the work The Origin of the Species, by Charles Darwin (1859), in which he ignored the origin of life, until the current days (2006), many speculations on this theme were worked without convincing all the specialists, although many of them had received scientific approach. In the last half of last century, biology tried a great progress, to the point of deciphering the genetic code responsible for the cellular multiplication and to promote the cloning of embryos. Laboratory experiences allowed the formulation of coherent, plausible and acceptable theories on the origin of life, obviously without the character of true, as the ones that were presented, almost simultaneously, by J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) and Alexandr Ivanovitch Oparin (1894–1980).
We will examine, very concisely, the hypothesis of the Russian chemist Alexandr Ivanovitch Oparin (1894–1980), published around the year 1936, a version more or less accepted by scientists (biologists) about the first "living" beings´ formation. Oparin had knowledge of astronomy, geology, biology and biochemistry, using them for the supposed solution of this problem. He observed in his studies of astronomy that some planets of the solar system possess reducing atmosphere with the presence of gases such as Hydrogen, methane and ammonia.
By analogy, Oparin admitted that, when the Earth was formed and solidified itself, still hot, frequent storms happened with electric discharges (lightnings) and these would have provoked chemical reactions among the previous mentioned elements and steam, forming more or less complex molecules of amino acids. Thus, it seems very probable that in the origins of the Earth formation, the atmosphere of the planet consisted of Hydrogen, steam, water, carbon dioxide gas, sulfurous vapors, ammonia and methane. There was no Oxygen in the atmosphere, which was reducing (the contrary of oxidizing) par excellence. The steam was originated from the intense volcanic activity that, even today, is brought by the volcanic magma to the surface of the Earth to the proportion of up to ten percent. With the cooling of the Earth, the oceans, seas and primitive lakes were formed, well different from the current ones. In some moment, during the Archean period (3.5–2.5 billions of years ago) of the pre-Cambrian era, the first chemical "bricks" appeared in the form of amino acids and proteins. With the persistence of the rains, during thousands or millions of years, the amino acids and proteins were dragged and taken towards the lakes, seas and oceans. For an incalculable time, these proteins combined and re-combined themselves, multiplying qualitative and quantitatively in the lukewarm waters of the referred lakes, seas and oceans. Dissolved in water, they formed a type of chemical "soup", which could have concentrated itself in some points, who knows, near the beaches and crags, to give place to the formation of colloids. The interpenetration of the colloids took to the formation of the coacervates (10), a special type of colloid.
This hypothesis is plausible because, in the universe, in many stars, the spectral analysis reveals the presence of molecules of ammonia and organic molecules of small size, as the hydrocarbons compounds. Laboratory experiments simulated the conditions probably existent on the Earth in the beginning of the emergence of life, passing electric discharges (simulating the electric discharges of the storms) through a mixture of gases containing Hydrogen, steam, ammonia and methane, thus synthesizing organic molecules of the amino acids type (molecules that contain Carbon, Hydrogen and Nitrogen). These experiments were made by Harold Urey and Stanley Miller, around the year 1952. The following step was to create laboratory conditions for the emergence of the macromolecules that could self-duplicate, producing copies of themselves and this was obtained, although, subjected to many conflicting opinions.
With this information, it was theorized that, with the accumulation of molecules of the type of the indicated ones, subjected to very restrict spaces, it would have given place to the formation of a chemical "soup." This, who knows, by the catalytic action of clays (mud) and other metallic elements, or even certain enzymes or ferments synthesized during a long process, would have formed molecules of nucleoproteins and lipids, coupled to the colloidal structures, known as coacervates. The interaction among coacervates, nucleoproteins and lipids would have created the necessary conditions so that the cells appeared, in the first unicellular beings´ form – the prokaryotes (cells without nucleus). It is suspected that the first oldest already found fossils were carbon-dated as having about 3 billion of years, came from the prokaryotes. A very detailed description of that process can be seen in reference (9) and, mainly, in the reference (11). We extracted from a work by Professor Cynara Chemale Kessler, the following (9):
In this aspect, the colloidal structure of the organic matter would have given place to the cellular membranes. The problem of the great molecule synthesis is subdivided into two, interdependent: the first, just deals with the emergence of the molecules that are known now; and the second, refers to the way by which the transformation of the state of a simple "soup" of organic molecules into the emergence of organized cellular forms occurred.
For the first problem, the answer is apparently paradoxical. Let us imagine a small protein formed by twenty amino acids of fifty varieties. Breaking this protein and rearranging its amino acids, of all the possible forms, the result will be a number very high: the unit followed by 48 zeros. Therefore, if in the primitive seas all the combinations were possible (and no doubt, they were), why then, only some of them have produced life? The paradox is in that such combinations sprout up exactly because they produced life.
Possibly, they appeared other macromolecule types, besides RNA (ribonucleic acid) and DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), but only these last ones got to organize in small units, auto-replicating units, using the other ones as food, in a type of "cannibalism.” With that hypothesis, it is admitted that the prokaryotes (represented by bacteria and algae, whose cells don't contain nuclei), the first living beings, were heterotrophic, like the animals and current fungi that eat other living beings to survive. Only after many years later, at about 1.5 billion of years ago, they appeared the eukaryotes (living beings whose cells contain nuclei) – autotrophic, living beings that create their own foods, like the current vegetables. This would have been possible with the emergence of the chloroplasts, which form the chlorophyll inside the cells. According to this version, the animals (monera kingdom – bacteria and certain algae deprived of chloroplasts, type cianoficeas or blue algae) would have appeared before the vegetables.
Finished the initial cannibalism that lasted millions of years, the unicellular beings evolved to a stage of complexity that allowed them the use of the photochemical reactions. With that photosynthesis mechanism (transformation of the atmospheric carbon dioxide gas by the chlorophyll into organic products that constitute the vegetables, with liberation of Oxygen), the incipient life was avoided of extermination, represented by the prokaryotes, what it would have occurred if the cannibalism among them continued. One should mention that, until the appearance of the eukaryotes, life was organized in the seas, under the waters, because the atmosphere was essentially reducing, with only 0,001% of Oxygen. Only counting from 1.8 billion years ago, the atmosphere would have reached high levels of Oxygen (today, about 21%), in function of millions of years of photosynthesis done by the primitive unicellular beings (green algae), mainly through the oceanic plankton. (10)
Thanks to the improvement of the electronic microscopy, besides other techniques and in agreement with the structural type of the cells (prokaryotes and eukaryotes), Whitaker classified the current living beings in five kingdoms: monera (prokaryotes: current bacteria and certain algae), fungi, protists (protozoa and unicellular algae), animal (multicellular), vegetables (multicellular), the last four mentioned being all eukaryotes. (12)
As we said, the above hypotheses are plausible. But organizing the Matter itself, even in a complex and favorable structure to support life, doesn't mean that life is present and, in this fact resides the difference between to exist and not to exist as a being, even that it is a single cell. It is necessary to start on it the metabolic process, or say, to “ingrain” in it the Intelligent Force, which guarantees to it the existence of the so-called "life", be it as an autotrophic or heterotrophic cellular form. Where life does come from? Or, how did life originate? Will it be that when replicating an amino acid molecule, a nucleotide or even DNA itself, also means the reproduction of life?
Let us take, for example, a real case of just one cell, which contains about 20 amino acids and that have their functions ruled by hundreds or even more than 1,000 specific enzymes. The probabilities that these molecules come to join themselves and form the proteins and the polypeptides needed to create life in the cell is in the order of many billions or even trillions of years to one, which is much beyond the total age of the universe.
This is equivalent to say that this chance is null, or that life was not created on Earth by chaotic chance. It is from Francis Crick, Nobel Prize in Biology and discoverer of DNA structure, the saying: "A wise man, endowed of the whole knowledge at his disposition today, would have the obligation to affirm that the origin of life seems, now, to be due to a miracle, so many are the conditions to make it possible.”
Taking the cell, and therefore, the multicellular beings as systems capable of taking care of themselves, in a countless of special functions, is not enough. The amino acids formation mechanism and their higher compounds, the polypeptides inside the cells, do not mean to explain the mechanism of life in the living beings. There still remains the problem of cells reproduction and a lot more of intricacies. All talk-about of the system biologists are merely mechanical and purely chemical; no life at all is involved.
As it is well known by scientists, it is not easy to elaborate the prototypes of the nucleotides. These are the basic compounds that, by their turn, lead to the formation of the fundamental molecules, bearers of life, which are represented by the emergence of the ribonucleic acid (RNA) and of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). The RNA molecules are responsible for the energetic functioning of the cells and the DNA is the bearer of life code, unique for each living being. Much more difficult is to put these essential molecules to work for explaining life in the cells. After all, what does initiate life and sustain it as a living dynamic system?
Therefore, since the beginning it was necessary that those first cells would have learned how to “replicate themselves" from the linkage of their basic proteins. After that, they themselves were in conditions of manufacturing new proteins, similar to all the precedents. The real subject is to know how the things happened in that apprenticeship: how those very first cells invented the countless stratagems that led to this prodigy of the reproductive process.
How could those precious agglomerates feed themselves? How could those small marvels of the nature guarantee their perennial life? How could they guarantee their replication or reproduction? While these fundamental questions don’t get the right answers, it is necessary to insist on them, once again, that none of the operations above mentioned might have been made at random.
Another necessary consideration is that evolution of the Matter towards life contains in itself an order. Therefore, of what type of evolutionary order are we talking about? It should be emphasized that as the chance tends to destroy the order, the intelligence follows the contrary path to establish the order or organization of the “things.” Thence, we should conclude, by observing the insurmountable complexity of life that the universe itself is "intelligent.” We are speaking of an intelligence that transcends what exists in our plan or reality. Probably, from the primordial flaring forth to nowadays of what is called Creation, the Intelligence organized the Force and the Matter to create life, to put them according to the immutable laws of the universe. Once more, which is the true nature of that "order", of that perceptible intelligence in all of the dimensions of our reality?
It was Carl Jung who said that the emergence of “significant coincidences” necessarily implicates the existence of an Intelligent Force or principle, which should put together space, time and causality. We are talking about the synchronicity principle. The fundamental basis of this great principle is the universal order of comprehension linked to the causality principle. There is no random event in the beginning of the Creation. That means, we can imagine, no chance at all, but a higher degree of order, which is infinitely superior to all that we reasonably can imagine. That supreme order rules the formation and behavior of the atoms, the chemical and physical constants, the formations and movements of stars and galaxies, and so on. This immense free Force is powerfully ordered, infinitely existent, implicit, invisible, sensible and eternal. It is in each particle actuating on all the phenomena of the universe.
From what was exposed in the preceding paragraphs it was verified that we are not a simple product of this small planet, or then, in accordance with Theodosius Dobzhansky's saying: (2, 13) "nothing in the alive world makes sense, unless through the light of evolution."
The Evolution of the Species – Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism
Although Charles Darwin, in his work The Origin of the Species, have not approached the problem of the origin of life directly, with his long journey of more than five years in the Beagle around the world, and after exhausting comparative studies based on the variations of species, he inferred several laws about those variations, establishing the natural selection theory. In truth, it was not easy to theorize on a subject still not explored by the naturalists, since Aristotle.
In spite of being much ridiculed in his time, little by little the theory was accepted and established, receiving credit and becoming firm. Who read his work knows of the difficulties that he found, as for instance, in the imperfections of the geological registrations and in the incoherencies that came and, perhaps for that reason, he has taken so much time to publishing it. Nevertheless, he approached subjects such as the animal instinct, the mutual likeness among species, the hybridism, embryology of rudimentary organs, etc. He admitted many imperfections in his work but in that work it was evident the fight for the preservation of species, based in the natural selection.
Darwin died in 1882 and, after the doubt of many years, the natural selection as evolutionary mechanism was accepted and became a fact, even without him having explained how the variation appeared in the organisms and passed from generation to generation. Only with the emergence of genetics, founded by Gregor Mendel (1822–1884), the inheritance among the species was fully explained in 1865, being retaken at the beginning of last century. Even so, during the first quarter of the 20th century, the evolution theory starts losing ground, for only reacquiring force with the Russian geneticist’s Theodosius Dobzhansky works (1900–1975), from 1936 on, when he proposed the unification of genetics with Darwinism. Many other subjects that were kept open in Darwin’s theory were later explained by zoologists Ernst Mayr and Julian Huxley (Thomas Huxley’s grandson), by the geneticists of populations R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane and by the paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson. The definition of species by Ernest Mayr (37), as a group of organisms that breed among themselves, but that are sexually isolated of similar groups, it is adopted until today. Ernest Mayr, who created the Modern Synthesis of Evolution, also known as Neo-Darwinism, a theory which gathers Charles Darwin's natural selection with genetics and ecology. This way, we see that Darwin's work was not dethroned; on the contrary, it has been completed and finished little by little, what demonstrates that the idea of evolution is well accepted by science and by humanity in general. Ernest Mayr (1904–2005), emeritus teacher at University of Harvard, was the author of the Systematics and the Origin of the Species, published in 1942. Totaling, he wrote 25 books, the last published a little before his death, in 2005, treating on the philosophy of biology.
Besides the dispute Evolutionism versus Creationism, that we will see further on, there is also, at the present time, bitter critics of the physicists to the biology, as science. But, there is no doubt that biology is really an independent science as we observed in Ernest Mayr’s statements: (32)
I show that biology is a serious, legitimate and honest science, like the physical sciences, and that all the ideas that were customarily mixed with the philosophy of biology, like vitalism (belief that life in organisms is caused and maintained by a force that is distinct from all chemical and physical forces), and teleology (study of final causes) came to try to discredit biology, all those eccentric things are out. Biology has the same bases of the physical sciences exactly, composed of natural laws. The natural laws are applied to the biology in the same way that they are applied to the physical sciences. But, people that compare both and philosophers that put biology together with the physical sciences leave many things out. You can see clearly that biology is not the same thing that the physical sciences. I give only two examples – one is the biopopulations. Biopopulation is something that doesn't simply exist in the physical sciences, and, however, it is the base of almost all the concepts in biology. And the second thing is that biology differs, in principle, of the physical sciences, because in the physical sciences, all of the theories, without exception, are based on natural laws. In biology there are no natural laws that correspond to the one of the physical sciences. You can ask: how can you have theories without laws? Well, in biology, the theories don't base on laws, but in concepts – as the one of natural selection, in evolutionary biology, or concepts as the one of resources or of competition in ecology. Clear, ultimately, the physical laws are the base of all, but not directly of ecology.
It is interesting to notice that the Darwinist theory and the Neo-Darwinism have been resisting as theories to the largest progress of science in the area of molecular biology, embryology and genomics., accomplished, since the 50´s of last century to today, as still teaches us Ernest Mayr in the interview already mentioned (37)
When did biology arise? Well, until the 18th century you had several fields of biological activity, as anatomy and taxonomy, but you didn’t have the field of biology. The word "biology", surprisingly, was proposed three times, independently, about 1800, by three authors – two Germans and one French. My proposition, which I did in previous books, was that biology as a field that you can recognize as something different from the physical sciences that you can designate by a unique word, developed itself and became what it is today, in a relatively short period. They were about 40 years since 1828, when Karl Ernst von Baer organized Embryology, and soon after came the founders of cytology. [Theodor] Schwann and [Matthias Jakob] Schleiden, that caused a great rage when they published their work on the decade of 1830, showing that the animals and plants are composed of the same elements, the cells. Then, the great period of physiology arrived with Claude Bernard, in France, and people as Johannes [Peter] Müller and others, in Germany. That was a third field. After some time, came [Charles] Darwin and [Alfred Russel] Wallace and the evolutionary biology, and then, in 1865–1866, genetics. Then, that series of sciences that begin with Embryology and they finish with genetics are the foundations of biology.
You ask about molecular biology. Well, let me to give one or two steps behind. There was a period at the beginning of the past century during which the evolutionary synthesis had place. Until that time, in other words, the period between 1859 and the synthesis, in the years 1940, there was a complete turn in the evolutionary biology, in which they were proposed, at least, four or five great basic theories of evolution, as the one of germinative cells. The evolutionary synthesis, initiated by [Theodosius] Dobzhansky and to which joined people later, Julian Huxley and [George] Simpson, put an end to the theoretical elaborations in the field of evolution. You have [Oswald Theodore] Avery, showing that the nucleic acids, and no the proteins, are the material of evolution, and then came James Watson and Francis Crick and all the developments in molecular biology, later in genomics. Every time that one of those great revolutions happened, somebody waited, for instance, that the evolutionary synthesis would need to be rewritten. But the fact is that none of those revolutions in the structure of the new biology, from Avery to the genomics, nothing of that really affected the Darwinist paradigm. Said that, after Watson and Crick, appeared new books, all them trying to prove that the Darwinism was invalidated. None of them was a success. Now, finally answering to your question, the funny is that molecular biology has a notably small impact in the structural theory of biology. At least it is what I think nowadays. It is clear, the molecular biologists can point to the genetic code and say that the code showed that life as we met it only might have been originated once, or else, we would not have the same code for all the organisms. And there are other contributions of molecular biology, but none of them really altered the structural theory of the Darwinist paradigm, in my opinion.
But, on the other hand, if you were a cytologist, you could say that the demonstration of Schwann and Schleiden that all the organisms consist of cells is a such important foundation of biology as, let us say, the one that all the nucleic acids consist of pairs of bases. I would say that, from the philosophical point of view, the descriptive discoveries of molecular biology are not more important than the conquests in the origin of biology in the period from 1828 until 1866. Those discoveries are as important as any thing in molecular biology.
Regarding the determination of different species with base in DNA, the molecular difference themselves cannot be indicative of such differences, and there are not rules to determine them.
It can be a single gene. You have two schools of evolutionists, those centered in the genes and those centered in the organisms. In the decade of 20 of the last century, when J.B.S. Haldane and R.A. Fisher had great success in molecular genetics, there was a great faith in molecular genetics. There was a great faith in isolated genes, and they had the evolution definition as the change in the frequencies of genes through the generations, a definition that no geneticist who respects himself would give today. In that time, there was a polarization among the so-called geneticists of populations, who are centered in the genes, and the naturalists, who said that the individual is whom is selected and that the gene is just the form through which the individual is selected. This discussion extended until the years 1930. Then, it began to demonstrate, case by case, that all also depended on the context of other genes. Therefore, a sole gene could not be selected immediately. A gene always occurs in the context of a genotype, and in the phenotype produced by that genotype. That was indicated by Dobzhansky in 1937, but not emphasized really by him. There several authors came, some friends of Dobzhansky, standing out that was the combination of genes, and therefore, the individual, the objective of the natural selection. Then, in 1970, it was published an article by Dick [Richard] Lewontin showing that could not be a sole gene to support this combination, and, in 1984, other article by Lewontin together with the philosopher Eliott Sober, confirmed that conclusion. It took 60 years, from 1924 to 1984, for that vision centered in the gene to be discarded. But still today, authors like [Richard] Dawkins insist on it. I have a wonderful citation by Dawkins, in which in a single phrase, he admits that the gene is not the objective of the selection, and later, he ignores this, thereon.
It seems out of doubt that, nothing happens in the evolution without having gone by the roads of the natural selection. Mayr interpretation is that many times what can happen is the elimination of the inferior genes in the natural selection and nor always the selection of the best ones, and of that persons don’t perceive, and finally he affirms that “[…] that selection is well less egoist than the selection of the best one.” In short, in the evolution, two things can happen: selection of the best genes, and also, elimination of the inferior genes, understanding that many genes are not sufficiently good to be selected, although, in the same way, they are not sufficiently bad to be eliminated.
Another international renowned geneticist, Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900–1975), thinking about the biological world, which contains among 1.5–2 millions of classified species and may be other so much still unknown, varying in size of the order of 10 micra (ten millionths of the meter) in the viruses, until 30 meters in length and 135 tons in the blue whale. He calls our attention to this prodigious diversity and he concludes: "[…] all this is comprehensible to the light of the theory of the evolution, but what seems to us an operation without sense is God have created a crowd of species for nothing.” Still, in favor of the selection of species, Theodosius affirms: "[…] the ambient present challenges to the species, which can answer them through adaptative genetic variations.” (13)
Recently, a book was published with the title The Selfish Gene, (14) of Richard Dawkins´ authorship, zoologist with wide knowledge on biology and genetics, respected in scientific communities of the United States of America, but also much refuted by his ideas differentiated from Darwin's natural selection, of whom he is ardent disciple. The main differentiation aspect is that, unlike Darwin, who considered in his theory the survival of the most capable, Dawkins prefers to adopt as regulator of the evolution, the survival of the stable specimen. Unsatisfied by many explanations offered by other respectable thinkers, like Sir Karl Popper, geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist F. T. Cloak and etiologist J. M. Cullen, Dawkins questions: “What, after all, is so special regarding the genes?” (14) And he answers: “The answer is that the genes are replicators.” His main argument is that the genes acquire certain and special qualities, however limited qualities in function of the environment in that they grow and transfer characteristics to their descending genes. But, contrarily of what many people might think, one should not suppose that the inherited characteristics are fixed and unalterable. Another interesting aspect of Richard’s book is the use of the term “survival or genetic machine” to qualify not only the humans, but all the living beings.
3. Creationism versus Evolutionism
It seems incredible that, with all the technological progress of our time, there is still a great current against evolutionism, created by religious persons that are based in the Old Testament and in the New Testament (Bible). Still worse, to those religious fundamentalists joined the scientists who didn’t get rid of the religious believes, giving support to those currents, which don't resist to the well founded arguments of evolutionism.
Many are the creationists´ currents that are making pressure, inclusive close to legislators to gain their opinions, in the United States of America (State of Arkansas and other Southern States), England and Brazil, with the objective of forcing the schools to teach their biblical creationism. But, for the effect of our work, we will just mention the three main currents.
In first place, we detached the Young Earth Creationism (YEC), fundamentalist, without scientific pretension, based strictly on biblical texts. It is a mystic vision, distorted of world in which we live and of the wonderful universe that science is pulling the curtain, and to which their followers insist keeping their eyes closed, in spite of the technological reality of our times. Not even they accept the rational arguments and the ones of the philosophical logic, preferring to maintain their positions based on the archaic understanding of a remote past. It is a religious faith, ingrained at the individual and collective level in the core of the biblical religions that only the school education and the elevation of the cultural level, in long term, can alter.
There is an intermediate position that we can call Intermediate Creationism, also known (15) as Old Earth Creationism (OEC), a little more educated, composed by people's legions, who are adepts of one or other religion, but they are not fundamentalists. They are people that maintain their religions, in general of biblical origin, but without dedicating to them. They keep just the ethical and moral teachings. They do not matter with the divine part that is impregnated on them. For those people, there is no conflict between their religions and science, being more flexible, not adhering to certain religious dogmas. They interpret the deluge as local and non- universal episode and they accept the history of the Earth according to the geological eras and geological periods. There is even, among them, those who accept the theory of the Big Bang on the creation of the universe. In spite of these positioning, they don't accept the theory of the evolution.
The third current is composed of the ones that defend the Scientific Fundamental Creationism. (15) They are people with very strong convictions that want to rescue the religious orthodoxy, however with the appearance of science. For that reason, it would be better that it was denominated of "scientific current", which comes to diffuse itself and to win ground since the fifties of the last century. Their followers intend to give scientific validity to all that is in the Bible, by containing this the word of God, trying, among other things, to prove: (a) the age of the Earth between 6,000–12,000 years, (b) the existence of the Noah's ark, (c) the existence of the Babel Tower, and (d) Joshua’s episode, when God stopped the Sun on Jericho, etc. By all this, this group is also known as Young Earth Creationism. Such group has gained acceptation in the United States of America and got to include a federal intervention in some Southern States for the teaching of the creationism in the schools. Although the defenders of that group present some concepts that could be even considered reasonable, they take the risk of the occurrence of certain corruptions under the mantle of the science to defend a cause that their followers judge fair.
4. The Intelligent Design Group
More recently, a new group appeared under the title of "Intelligent Design" proposed by the biochemical Michael Behe, (16) in his book Darwin's Black Box, who also dealt on the subject in his interview given under the title, The True Question. Behe´s ideas were introduced during the Mere Creation Conference, in 1996 and, ever since, he is recruiting followers. Mike Behe is catholic and he was always exposed to the Darwinism. But, in 1997, when reading the book Evolution: a Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton, Behe perceived that there were still many subjects in the evolutionary theory not yet discussed and explained, for instance, it hadn’t been discussed how life emerged. Behe intrigued, and after much research in the literature, he discovered that, actually there were no documents that treated on the subject of how life had emerged. Then, he developed the idea that, in fact, these systems were the result of an "Intelligent Design.” Little later, Behe with Phil Johnson, researcher that also presented ideas in this same direction, not to refute, but to point that the theory of the evolution left questions to be solved, created The Intelligent Design Group, destined to criticize the evolution under the scientific point of view. Another book that got Behe´s attention was The Blind Watchmaker (Editions, 1970), written by Richard Dawkins. This book and the one of Denton used similar examples, but such books reached conclusions completely different to explain how one can support a theory with evidences and which legitimate extrapolations we can take from them.
According to Behe, the basic theme of his book, Darwin's Black Box, shows us that, "[…] in science, a black box is a machine, device or system that makes something, but you don't know how it works, it is completely mysterious. It can be mysterious because you cannot see inside or because you cannot simply understand it. For Darwin and for their contemporaries of the 19th century, the cell was a black box.” (16) Today, we know that the cell is the base of the physical life and biologists have already discovered its secrets, but the only thing that science of Darwin’s epoch could see with their rude microscopes was just the outline of a cell. Thence, according to Behe, that explains the simplistic vision of Darwin’s contemporary scientists. For that reason, we can say, Darwin was a notable genius and, until today, he was not dethroned.
Taking into consideration the existent complexity inside the cell as base, Behe examines what he calls "miniaturized machines" (the proteins and the nucleic acids) and he argues that Darwin’s natural selection “[…] could not have produced them, because they have a property known and called of irreducible complexity.” Behe compares the irreducible complexity with a mousetrap that has various parts and all the parts should be present before it can work. And, he argues that such systems are better explained as the result of a deliberate intelligent design, since that we behave ourselves like so when we see something very real in our macroscopic world. Thence, the reason for the name "Intelligent Design", with which Behe baptized his idea, proposing to work on it to see whereto his ideas will drive the science.
It is worthwhile to say that there are many reactions and critics to the idea of the intelligent design, affirming that this is a masked creationism. But, Behe rebuts that there is a good difference among reaching conclusions based in the observation of the physical world, as it is expected from a scientist, and to arrive at a conclusion based on the deeds or in religious convictions. It is undeniable that some biochemical systems are too much complex for they be considered work of a simple chance or of the spontaneous generation of life, outdated idea since Pasteur. Any that comes to be the direction that the idea of the intelligent design may lead, it is undeniable that it has obvious implications of the religious or theological nature and its eventual unfolding will still lift much dust. There is, at present, a great progress in molecular biology, sequencing techniques of DNA, embryology, genomics, clonage of cells, etc., but we are far away from explaining the essential subject of how life emerged on the Earth, and much more distant still, of how one could explain man's nature and why he is here in evolution in this insignificant planet. Thus, we thought that it cannot have any obstruction type, be it by science, be it by philosophy, regarding the true knowledge of life.
It is undeniable that Evolutionism and nowadays Neo-evolutionism came to stay, although such theories don’t still have answers to all the questions. Scientists continue offering studies and conclusions on many of them, as science moves forward. It is worth to point out that, even by incentive of the debates that are happening through Internet, through books and in scientific or religious seminars, there will always be gaps to be explored and fails to be investigated of which the scientists will take many advantages, and even the religious persons.
5. The Evolution of the Force in Man
The immediate definitive, crystallized, divine creationism, as it is in the text of Genesis, by which God would have created all of the living beings' species, such as they are at present, doesn’t adjust to the archeological and paleontological discoveries of our times nor to the progresses occurred in other science branches. Nowadays, the creationism doesn't pass of a beautiful allegory and, as such, it should be understood. It is easy to understand this, because at the epoch when the Genesis was written, the humanity was not prepared nor didn’t have the knowledge it has today to comprehend and understand other different cosmogony.
Science, being the search for the truth, have no need to isolate itself of other branches of the knowledge as it has done in the last two centuries, standing back of philosophy, although their investigation methods use different methodologies. Last, but not without less force, there is to consider the progresses occurred in psychology and why not to say, also, in parapsychology, in Spiritism and in Spiritualism, as we put in Chapter 6 – The Birth of the Spiritism, and in Chapter 7 – The Advent of the Christian Rationalism.
The great controversy that today we are observing between the creationists and the evolutionists is in a single discord knot: the understanding that, some and others, imagine about the nature of the Creative Force or Universal Intelligence. To the Muslins people the denomination is Allah, and the Christian religious denominate the Creative Force as God and others have their own denominations. No true knowledge derives from that true greatness if man doesn´t put a shovel of whitewash in the mysticism and undress himself of his sore spots, his selfishness, his vanity and of anything else that considers him like a superior being. While this is happening, we will be exposing our inferior instincts, we won't be rational beings or we will be using the logic that the common sense advises us. It is on this subject that we will treat in the chapters of the second part of this work.
In first place, we need to leave aside the religious dogmas, which will continue serving the most part of humanity because its level of spiritual evolution doesn't reach more than that: to express its faith in what is revealed to humanity, through religions as coming from God. But also, science needs to liberate of its hermetic positions and also scientists need to open the box of their discoveries to the man of medium knowledge, because science and the truths from it derived should be for all and not just for some few privileged people. Also, it is necessary to simplify the things for the common use and for a possible and most general understanding.
It is interesting also to mark that the great controversy has its main fulcrum, besides the purely religious interests, in the appearances brought by what Matter represents, because in it resides almost exclusively the effects and not the causes of all that happens, which in the Force resides. Unhappily, with rare exceptions, science is dedicating its efforts only to the study of Matter and, for that, it counts with great budgets. We can even understand that science will be like this for a long time, but it won't be for the entire time, because the studies about Matter should exhaust in it very soon, and arrive to a blind alley.
If we really want to deserve the title of homo sapiens, we need to consider, profoundly and seriously, the study of the Force in itself and its performance on the Matter, in an evolutionary process of the Force that in man found its appropriate substratum in the planet Earth. Everything that was done here regarding to evolution, only treated about the somatic evolution of the Matter as such, neglecting the most important evolution, or say, the evolution of the Force. To that we will consecrate our work, with the purpose of pointing what is already known and to stimulate the research of what is still lacking to know. Many scientists already arrived near, really very near, of a paradigmatic change, but by one reason or other, they gave up on taking researches ahead in that direction. Few of them made it, but they were isolated cases and their scientific works either didn't have the necessary publication or their authors were put in the ostracism. Therefore, such objective is not being taken forward.
A dictation exists and the evolution is a proof of that: “the nature doesn't give leaps", which can be used to mean that everything has its right time. Thus, this saying is worth for us to put ourselves inside the hominal evolution. It is easy to understand that there are about two million years, and that is almost anything in terms of the somatic evolution of the species, we had the primitivism of our ancestral human beings that came to constitute the first adequate bodies for the evolution of the Spirit, although they were bodies in transition to our current stage of human evolution. But they were necessary and enough, to the time, for us to start what we will call the hominal evolution.
The moment arrived for we to affirm that the beginning of the hominal evolution, that is, of the Force in the human body as incarnated Spirit, also coincides with the beginning of the spiritual evolution on the planet Earth, from which it began to appear, gradually, the different races with their differentiated cultures, like it still happens at the present time. As the somatic evolution progressed together with the respective cultures, it was accomplished as it continues accomplishing, silently, the spiritual evolution that more and more found favorable conditions for its achievement. We will be able to present in the chapters composing the second part of our work that also the spiritual evolution doesn't give leaps and it aims, mainly, the evolution of the intelligence, morals and of ethics. It is worth to emphasize that man’s character is developed through continuous depuration of his most noble feelings, until the complete elimination of the animalistic instincts. As a rule, this evolution is individualized, that is, it is made "per himself", but it takes place, also, in groups.
CHAPTER 4
SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY
Scientific research is the concrete accomplishment of a planned, developed, and written investigation in agreement with the rules of the consecrated methodology by the scientific methodology. It is the method of approach of a problem in study that characterizes the scientific aspect of a research.
Prof. João Alvaro Ruiz, in Scientific Methodology, 1978.
A little bit of history does not do badly to anybody, being healthful to create a background to what is contained in this chapter. From the most ancient times, man interrogates the nature in search of explanations and answers to his questionings. Along the history, the knowledge of the things and of the phenomena has been built in all of the areas of human achievement. Much of that knowledge was established by the method of trying and errors. We also saw, in another part of this work that, up to about 1750, the human knowledge was unified under the philosophy mantle. The separation between science and philosophy that was accentuated starting from the Industrial Revolution, by one side, brought enormous benefits to the scientific specialization and its technological consequence, but on the other hand, this fragmentation left the man aside of other equally important subjects for his evolution. That is what we will deal further in the second part of our book. Before this, we will make a zoom to understand and comprehend why the scientific methodology is an instrument of research of the truth and how it is used having that objective in mind.
A very generic statement would be to say that science derives from facts, basing itself on the facts from experience and experimentation. Another statement also simple will be to affirm that science should base itself on what we could see, hear and touch, supported in the careful and exempt exam of what our physical senses can notice and interpret, never in personal opinions or in speculative fantasies. Whenever the observation of the nature, of the world, and of the universe and their phenomena were impelled forward in an exempt and serious way, "[...] then the established facts of that manner will constitute a safe and objective base for science. If, besides that, the reasoning that takes us from this factual base to the theories and laws that constitute the scientific knowledge is real, then we can consider that the resulting knowledge is established with safety and objectivity." (3) Nowadays this is still valid, but a lot of thing happened since then, as the knowledge expansion, the preparation of scientists and researchers, besides the sophistication each time larger of the researching instruments.
But this was not always so. The true rupture with the Aristotelian’s tradition of facing science was started at the beginning of the 17th century, when Galileo introduced the observations and experiences to base the facts. It was more important to establish an attitude and strategy that became well-known in the history of science. For Galileo, the important was to accept the observed facts and, without any preconceived idea, to build the theory in order to adjust to them. We won't extend ourselves in the details of Galileo’s epoch, his experiences and his afflicted life, but we want to let very visible his value, when expressing clearly the perspective that the scientific knowledge bases itself on the facts established by observation and experience. This thesis is still in force today. In the saying of A. F. Chalmers (3), "Who accepts and explores this history about the birth of science sustains that before the 17th century the observable facts were not taken seriously as foundation for the knowledge. In agreement with the habitual history, the knowledge based itself, in great instance, in the authority, especially in the philosopher Aristotle's authority and in the authority of the Bible. The modern science became itself possible just when the pioneers of the new science, like Galileo, put in question these authorities through the resource of the experience.”
As science developed itself, two schools of thought appeared – the one of the empirists and the other of the positivists that represented attempts of formalizing what we previously affirmed to be a common perspective of science – the one that the scientific knowledge derives from the facts. John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume were the British empirists of the 17th and 18th century supporting that the entire knowledge should derive from ideas implanted in the mind by the sensorial perception. Already the positivists group had a wider perspective of the facts and, with a more pragmatic direction, shared the perspective of the empiricists according to which the knowledge should derive from the facts of the experience. In the 19th century, Auguste Comte introduced the logical positivism. From that school appeared, in the twenties of the 20th century, in Vienna, a philosophical school that tried to follow August Comte's line, giving much attention to the logical form of the relationship between the scientific knowledge and the facts. Thus, we conclude that the empirism and the positivism shared the common perspective, and therefore, the scientific knowledge should derive somehow of the facts selected by observation. It was created the scientific materialism!
1. Fact and Experimentation
It is always necessary to verify which the nature of the facts is, and which means scientists use to access them. A. F. Chalmers (3) dedicated the first three chapters of his book “After All What is Science?” in examining the nature of the facts, and the fourth chapter to the verification of the means used by scientists to access the facts. That is, we can know how the scientific knowledge derives from them. Regarding the nature of the facts, he analyzed three possibilities: (a) the facts are revealed through the senses to the attentive observers, (b) the facts are previous (facts a priori) and independent of theories, and (c) the facts constitute a firm and reliable foundation for the scientific knowledge. We won't go into more details on these theories, we will just say that he analyzed deeply the illusion that the physical senses can cause to the truthfulness of the data. Being nothing unquestionable, he gave prominence to the sense of vision, always advising caution to the scientific observers, when he affirms that (3) "Two normal observers that see the same object from the same place under the same physical conditions don’t have identical visual experiences, necessarily, although the images in their respective retinas can be virtually identical." Neuroscience (6) already proved that in studies on the illusion of the senses. In other words, it is necessary to have in view that the perceptive experiences to which the individuals have in the act of seeing are not defined by the images just in their retinas but, mainly, by what the mind notices as a whole. That phenomenon is known as auto kinetic effect and it happens when the eye muscles become tired. Many children’s games and psychological tests have based themselves on this phenomenon.
Then, we have seen that the scientific practice of experimental facts can be subjected to errors. We cleared out that, in the experimental sciences, what the observers see and the subjective experiences tell them, about what they see, is not determined uniquely by the images in their retinas. We have also mentioned that the scientific practice depends on the auto kinetic effect, on the experience, on the scientific knowledge in the field in which the scientist researches, and on the expectations of the observer himself. Finally, it is unquestionable and undeniable that it is necessary to learn how to be a competent observer in science. It is not enough to have eyes to see, it is necessary to know how to see the truth and to be free of any prejudgment.
It is also necessary to keep in mind very well, which is the linguistic meaning of the word “fact.” It is necessary to distinguish what is an assertion or statement from the state of things that the assertion describes. For instance, the Big Bang Theory cannot be considered a fact because it was not yet proven and it seems little probable that some day turns out to be, given the nature for which it has been described. However, there are already a lot of people referring to it as if it were a fact. Then, when we say that the universe was formed back to 14 billion of years as it is described in the Big Bang Theory; it is not and cannot be a factual assertion. Big Bang is just one of many theories formulated on the emergence of the universe. Knowledge on cosmogony still doesn't pass of mere theory. The same can be said about the origin of life on the Earth; nobody was there to see and to observe. Just to mention the two great problems that science still didn't solve. Those individuals who want to defend that the knowledge was derived from facts have to have in mind the assertions and not perceptions or theoretical descriptions not proven.
All that it was said in the previous paragraph is useful to verify that in the absence of qualifications, these become immediately very problematic. And, for the facts to constitute an appropriate base for science, they have to assume the form of assertions. Thence, one concludes that the facts that are submitted to us directly by the senses can only be an apparent truth or seem to us completely wrong. Therefore, although knowing that the perceptions enter directly by the senses, it is absurd to think that the factual assertions enter in the brain exclusively by the five physical senses. Now, there are studies showing that they are eighteen to twenty the physical senses, and not just the five senses that are commonly referred to. (15, 16)
It is necessary to have a good knowledge of the subject that we are speaking of or experimenting on and its implications with what one already knows, any that is the branch of science into consideration. This is a prerequisite for the formulation of observational assertions that can constitute their factual base. Therefore, before being capable to formulate an observational assertion, an observer has to possess knowledge of the framework of the conceptual reference, and to know how to apply it objectively to the case in question.
Before what it was exposed above, we can affirm that the basic prerequisites to get satisfactory results of an experimentation are a good previous knowledge of the scientific branch at which we are devoted and an appropriate and correct use of our perceptions, that is, of our level of knowledge and of our expectations regarding the observational assertions, which should assure an appropriate criterion of the conceptual reference. Besides, we should be updated in our area of work, in order to significantly contribute to the progress of science, that is, to identify relevant facts to formulate our questionings, correctly.
Therefore, it becomes quite clear that the statement that science derives from facts and sits on a safe base implicates in solid facts progressively and firmly established by the observation. Even knowing that the perceptions are influenced by previous experience and by the observer's expectations, what takes a fact to seem observable for a person and not for another doesn't constitute an obstruction for making science. Also, one should not consider as obstructions the judgments on the truth of the observational assertions that can come from previous or presupposed knowledge, thus making the observable facts as fallible as the previous ones that have served as their base.
Until now, we have spoken of science but, after all, what is science and what for it exists? Are the scientists not like the common people? What means to be a scientist? How to get the truths without any demarked line? Is it possible to reconcile all the truths? It is what we will treat to follow.
2. Science
There is a great difficulty to define something as complex and global as what is meant by science. It is a challenge that continues calling the attention of many philosophers and thinkers in general. What seems to be easier to characterize are the rules and tools on which science has its foundation, among them: the need to test, to prove theories and assumptions, Kant´s law of cause and effect or causality principle, Karl Popper´s falseability principle, the deductive method, the inductive principle or argument, etc. A rule or argument that is rarely mentioned or that worry many scientists, but that is always present, even though intuitively, is the experimental repetitiveness principle, in the way as it is defined by Doctor and philosopher, Alberto Mesquita Filho (1942–): "I see science as the area of knowledge that supports itself not in a method, but yes in the rule of repetitiveness, which I have called of fundamental scientific rule: if in given conditions, a determined phenomenon, always that it is investigated, repeats itself, one should assume that, in future verifications, the same happens.”(1)
We should not leave out of view the rules or criteria of utility, which do not exist for many scientists who are engaged in the pure or basic scientific research, where the search for the truth prevails over the criteria of utility that it intends to give. Another important point is not to impose limits on the action of science. Kuhn’s point of view (2) is that science itself imposes limits, until that, within the limits imposed by the scientific community, arises a very serious refutation, for which there is no exit: then, it occurs a rupture, with new theories that invalidate the previous ones, blocking and establishing new limits (Kuhn’s paradigms theory). According to him it is that interna corporis rupture that generates, to the leaps, the progress of science. In contrast, we have Karl Popper´s concepts, according to which science progresses linearly: "Science, according to Popper, begins with problems concerning the explanation of the world or of the universe, but to solve these problems assumptions are formulated that are ultimately discarded. Therefore, there is a continuous and constant growth of science.” (2)
Still, according to Kuhn’s point of view, science is built by a process of accumulation, within which each theory improves the last one that preceded it, and it is precisely this cumulative concept that Kuhn has questioned.
To close this subject, we see that what is questioned is the concept of truth. Also, there is no doubt that on the proposition of falseability by Karl Popper it is implicit a rationalist hypothesis, because it means the intent of science to seek the truth, which should be the central concern and the fundamental purpose of science. But, paradoxically, it is not easy to formulate a definitive criterion of truth –we can until affirm that this is impossible. In that lies the contradiction, then resulting that science will always be an approximation of the truth, not the truth itself!
Then, after looking at some concepts on the foundations of science, we can try to define it as the summation of efforts undertaken by scientists, based on certain known rules, in its whole, as the scientific method, with the aim of achieving the truth.
3. The Scientist
After all, what is to be a scientist? In order to answer that question we should rely on the definitions and concepts that we presented about science. Thus, we could say that scientist is the person who practice science or who is expert in some science or in sciences in general, what is like saying that the scientist cultivates the scientific knowledge and adopt and uses the scientific method to obtain knowledge; however, scientists often need to use the probability theory in the presentation of their results to fundament their conclusions.
Thus, the scientist cultivates science, taking into account two major objectives, namely: first, to collect, implement and forward the scientific knowledge already known and systematized that contributed to its formation; and second, to produce and spread out new knowledge, having always as final aim to contribute to the progress of science.
Given the wide dissemination of science, especially by text-books and on Internet, in some way, any person duly civilized can absorb scientific knowledge, if so desires. He who has talent for this can behave as a scientist, suggesting assumptions and creating theories to be tested. According to Alberto Mesquita Filho: (1)
To be a scientist is not to exhibit a title, but yes to adopt a scientific attitude; on the other hand, even one who says to be scientist, sometimes he doesn’t assume scientific attitudes and penetrates into areas supported by own rules or, even without rules. The label is often used when one wants to refer to people who use of his scientific talents as a way of life: they would be then professional scientists.
We prefer to replace the word "label" by "title" (Ph. D., Master in Science, Doctor, and Professor). Let us then, examine the scientific terminology.
4. Hypothesis, System, Theory, Law and Doctrine
For better knowing the scientific terminology, we will start by defining what hypothesis is. Hypothesis is always an assumption, a conjecture that serves as an argument to begin an investigation, as in physics, for example, or a demonstration, as in mathematics. The hypothesis is always a point of departure. Already the theory is a collection of elements or hypothesis rationally prearranged, but that requires real support, in which case it can becomes into law, but it can also be refuted by another theory, which best adjust to the data of reality. The theory (3) is intended to "[…] explain, clarify, interpret or unify a given field of knowledge.” Every scientific theory relies on the scientific method, which in turn, is based on observation and experimentation. In the case of scientific theories, the scientific method is the set of procedures (the scientific practice or praxis) used to test them. Theories may also be tested by Karl Popper´s falseability principle, on which we will discuss later.
Thus, it is not enough to simply have a collection of assumptions. One of the aims of science is to systematize theories well concatenated and, if possible, mainly the ones of broad spectrum, covering several areas of knowledge. Some theories are of high complexity and require, on the part of the scientist, full dominion of logic and mathematics. For those who start and are working in the area of pure science, we recommend the reading of the Bunge, Lacey and Bohm´s (9, 10, 10 and 11) works, referred at the end of this chapter.
The main point that supports a scientific theory is, without any doubt, the experimentation. One should take into account, however that, the experimentation, separately, can distort or confirm a hypothesis or even a theory. Thence, Karl Popper (1) says that a "[…] theory will be as much better as more it is biased to falseability tests by which, of course, it will have to pass. When a theory is confirmed by a falseability test we can say that it was corroborated.”
It is always necessary to assume a critical focus on the use of the falseability test, because it may not be convincing or even not receive a consensus. Then, when can it happen? It happens always that the experience, although well and systemic prepared, doesn’t include all the intervenient factors. We know that Isaac Newton’s gravitational theory came to be "distorted", due to the fact of being observed deviations of inexplicable occurrence, at the time, in the orbit of known planets not yet discovered by scientists (the planet Neptune, not yet known, influencing the orbit of the planet Uranus). In fact, what happened was an experimental fallacy and not a distortion itself. We cited this fact to show that we should be careful when using the falseability principle to try to refute a hypothesis or even a theory.
We will try to dissipate some confusion. There is a tendency to confuse doctrine with system and theory with doctrine. Doctrine is a set of principles, rules or regulations that serve as basis for a scientific system, philosophical, religious, political, and social institutions, etc. By its turn, system is a combination of elements, materials or ideals with the aim of ordering and classifying in accordance to an appropriate methodology the understanding, and the scientific and philosophical knowledge, etc. Theory was already previously defined. It is worth noticing that the interface between science and philosophy tends to be clearer than the interface between metaphysics and philosophy, from which physics separated itself and acquired its independent character. Thus, science considers some philosophical principles as mere metaphysical hypothesis, or even, scientific assumptions when and whether they were worked under the optic of science or not. Thence, to pass to the category of theory, these assumptions need to pass through the sieve of the scientific method, which is equivalent to say, they need to be experimented and tested.
Until now, we have talked about fundamental hypothesis, but, we should see that there are secondary hypotheses, or even, the obviousness, which can be used, even that it becomes necessary to take them borrowed from philosophy, in order to support certain works of scientific character, mainly in a pioneering field. Generally, such hypotheses have a temporary character, but they may be the key of the success, when one intends to go beyond the scientific models and to create something revolutionary, contesting with the accepted and firmed "truths", until then. This is what gives to science its evolutionary character, because the entire truth is provisional, and nothing can or should be enshrined. This is something that enhances science!
Normally, at scientific universities, it is observed that nothing is taught about theories, because the majority of these concepts come from philosophy. In scientific universities, there is not intention to produce geniuses. Therefore, to think this way pseudo-scientists has been led to many improvisations and ingenuous postures, and annoyed many serious scientists that hold important positions in those universities. However, to condemn others who really want help is a mistake that could sweep away many future scientists in potential. In fact, it is of stimulation that many people have need, because the genius simply uses enthusiasm, devotion and persistence in the search of the truth.
Finally, a few words about what is considered law. A collection of laws or confirmed theories is a doctrine, status that science intends to, one day, to reach. The law stems from a well tested and confirmed theory. The word law embraces a broad spectrum of meanings in various fields of the human knowledge. The natural laws are immutable truths. The physical law of gravity of Isaac Newton seems to be a natural and immutable truth, as well as the theories of relativity of Albert Einstein; after almost 100 years since they were spoken, they are still resisting any refutation and already are scientifically accepted as laws. Another example, the Kepler´s laws from classical mechanics, and much more ancients, are seen as undeniable. Then, the physical laws have a more lasting character, and some of them may be considered definitive truths.
5. The Scientific Method
René Descartes, in the 17th century, was the first to consider and postulate for the need to establish rules and conditions to question the facts and establish acceptable conclusions to the human reason, what meant to indicate a method for achieving the truth. Etymologically, the word method has the meaning of a way to come at one determined objective, any which is the object of the investigation. Thus, for example, when it deals, specifically, of a scientific investigation, the path followed by the scientist or researcher, in last analysis, is to reach at the scientific truths. These, by their turn, are in direct function of the progress of science as a whole, but we must observe that, when we talk about “scientific truths", we are segregating these truths from other possible ones, is it not truth? Then, how to generalize the truths of all and any type with the scientific truths? Is there a proposal or a well defined and accepted method to develop science? After all, what is the scientific method?
In this chapter, in presenting the different methods to get the truths, be they labeled scientific or not, we will answer some questions, knowing that there are not unique answers to them, and then formulate comprehensive and valid concepts.
It was in the 20th century that the scientific method has gained importance, supported by the proposals of Thomas Kuhn (1) and Karl Popper. (1) These proposals follow different approaches in focusing the scientific method and pointing to different tracks in their conclusions. Karl Popper defends the scientific method, properly said, he assumes a methodological rule in connection with his deduction method of proof, and he rejects the inductive method, vehemently, and ignores even so the inductive route. Nevertheless, he continues proposing the falseability principle as a criterion to be adopted by scientists to test their theories. His philosophy is more comprehensive than the standard scientific method, and he is supporter of free thinking, without restrictions of any kind. Thomas Kuhn, by his turn, deals with the scientific macro method, primordially, and bases his ideas in historical arguments. Based on the historical development of science, he has established a type of behavior pattern to be followed by scientists. Kuhn, in his analysis, considered that the science is cyclical in their behavior: after passing "by the so-called "periods of normal science", in which, scientists would be limited by the present paradigms, it pass through "revolutionary periods ", activated by fallacy of paradigms until then accepted as real" (1). During the periods of normal science, the scientific theories are well protected against the falseability. Thus, "any idea proposed with the objective to distort a paradigm should be bad-seen by the scientific community. To Popper, the scientist must adopt a permanent revolutionary attitude, while according to Kuhn, the scientist must follow to the existing dogmas, on condition to be off the scientific community. The corporativism is inherent to Kuhn’s philosophy. It follows from this corporatism the adoption of "characteristic styles", the emphasis on pseudo-accuracy, in order to justify the "lack of clarity" and the "authoritarianism of the specialist", these themes excessively criticized by Popper. (7)
When we dedicate to discover the natural laws, which bear a set of things, events, phenomena and inter-related events as they usually are found in the proper nature and in universe, we are facing an endless and colossal task. Therefore, there is a need to focus, specifically, the subjects in sub-sets, without losing sight of the concept of the whole, and how the part is placed inside this immense set. It was with this focus, in order to obtain results ever more real and more precise that the human knowledge was diversified – and from this diversification emerged the various branches of specialization. Undoubtedly, however, without the method, no progress would result.
In a simplified way, the scientific method is a program for research that comprehend four main steps that, in practice, follows a more logical order than the chronological, namely, (4) first, to make observations, second, to build a testable hypothesis to explain the observed data, third, to deduct predictions from the formulated hypothesis, and fourth, to seek for confirming the predictions. Case the predictions can’t be confirmed, we will return, then, to the second step to rebuild the hypothesis again. In practice, the four steps are normally practiced at the same time, since scientists are constantly experimenting and making new observations. The major concern of scientists is to adjust the hypothesis to the facts with coherence and consistency.
Induction
The inductivist argument is based on the induction principle that can be stated as follows, according to A. F. Chalmers and adapted (3) by Alberto Mesquita Filho: "[…] if in given conditions, a determined phenomenon were detected and repeated in future checks, the same will occur in future verifications.” It is the principle of repetitiveness, much criticized by A. F. Chalmers himself. By this principle, the inductivist discovers laws and theories, elaborating them on the basis of observed data acquired from others, omitting the use of the deduction of hypothesis, but he allows the use of the deduction for, from the laws and theories by him prepared, making forecasts and explanations. It is a simplistic argument by means of which it is intended to explain universal statements or laws by using more or less simple observations. It is obvious that it doesn´t deal with speculations and baseless conjectures, what would not be correct on the part of a scientist; however, many times they do not result in unquestionable statements. Newton said that he did not make hypothesis, but this was in another context, that may not be repeated again in the majority of the current cases.
The evil of that principle or methodological rule is that it affirms instead of suppose (hypothesis), based on a scarce number of comments and not always well defined, and that does not strengthen the generalizations or conclusions achieved, be it a law or theory. Although being supported by the principle of causation – there is no effect without cause – this principle may lead to the ingenuous conclusions or easily repealed. At last, it is much more a guiding and supporting principle than a methodological one, for being restrictive.
According to this principle, we start from existing facts known through observation, and by the induction method we come to establish laws and theories; and these, by deduction, lead the scientist to his explanations and deductions.
Deduction
The deductive argument is based on the following (3) principle: "If in given conditions, a determined phenomenon, always that it is researched, repeated itself, any affirmation derived from this premise, in order to turn out a hypothesis, will have to be subjected to observational verification." It begins from the observations (that start from the general to the specific), and by means of deduction, assumptions are made, which examined by induction (that starts from the specific to the general) take us to the elaboration of laws. This principle has more internal coherence than the induction principle, since that it uses the logical argument, but also it is subject to criticism. One must emphasize, although it seems obvious like in mathematics, that a hypothesis is what we intend to demonstrate, and not what is already demonstrated. Therefore, it is necessary not to confuse hypothesis with previous evidence. It should be noticed that even the use of the deductive method does not allow us to ensure the emergence of infallible laws. That is what Karl Popper (3) said: "[…] there is no method to determine whether a hypothesis is ´probable´ or probably true.” This principle is based on the observation, and by deduction, the scientist establishes a hypothesis, which in turn, when subjected to the induction, takes the scientist to elaborate the laws.
If we start from the focus that in science all is temporary and there is no absolute truth, as it happens in any area of knowledge, we do not see any problem of using the deductive method. If this were not so, how does science would develop itself? Then, starting with the focus on successive approaches, the truths of today are subjected to two destinations: or they will be refuted or they will be reformulated and improved. For us to confront with one absolute truth that we don’t consider impossible, some day, we would have to admit the validation for a total coverage for the known and unknown world, that is, to be a universal law.
It may seem a contradiction by having criticized the inductivist argument, since it becomes necessary to make probable or corroborate an affirmation proven through the deductive reasoning. We could be introducing here floating concepts like "acceptable", "unacceptable" or "very acceptable" or even, the expression "degree of acceptability” to mean a relative corroboration on a specific hypothesis. According to Siegel (3), “We accomplish researches to determine the degree of acceptability of hypothesis deducted from our theories.”
Finally, despite of some criticisms and restrictions, science progresses and the flaws are well adjusted for the good of the community in general, whose members have the prerogative to debate their works in special forums and seminars with their colleagues in the same scientific area, and therefore not opposing to the constructive criticism. Scientists accept, without reluctance, that not all is irrefutable. From that principle, Karl Popper had the incentive to create his own falsification proposition, which we’ll see later.
To close this part, we’ll mention the following statement (8) made in 1994, which says: “The scientific research starts always with an expectation of one solvable problem. The next step consists in offering one possible solution through the use of one proposition, that is, of one expression, either susceptible of being declared true or false. To this proposition it is given the name of hypothesis. Thus, the hypothesis is a testable proposition that can turn out to be the solution of the problem.
The Scientific Procedure
The scientific procedure is the scientific practice. The forms of reasoning and their application develop themselves in function of a specific experimental real case. Such cases are based on the primary observable phenomena that may be obtained by direct observation of the nature, as well, as by means of an intuitive idea. The necessary steps follow approximately this pattern:
1. Through deduction, one turns out to the hypothesis
2. From the hypothesis and through analysis, one turns out to experience
3. From the experience, by induction, one turns out to the law
4. From the law, by synthesis, one turns out to the result
5. From the result, the cycle is restarted (repetitiveness or recurrence)
Normally, the intuitive process helps to idealize a problem, then visualizing a route of reasoning to be adopted. With this route, one begins to deduct the hypotheses, which are individual enunciations corresponding to a given observed phenomenon and, therefore, more general. It is a characteristic of this stage the development from the general to the specific. The central focus is always the object in study, usually represented by the nature.
Being known at least one hypothesis, we follow to the next stage which is the analysis. It is by means of the analysis that we move to the procedures and to the details. At this point, we select the materials, the instrumental, the variables to be studied, the scope of the variables, etc., needed to test the hypothesis and to make the analysis of errors. The researcher uses his knowledge and his technical skills to try to obtain the best possible results.
After completing the experimental part, or say, finished the stage of analysis, we turn out to the next stage, which uses the inductive reasoning with the aim to confirm the hypothesis or deny it, if the test refers to falseability principle. If the hypothesis was confirmed, we start to write the terms of a specific or general law, according to the case.
Finally, we have the stage in which we will carry the synthesis of a law and compare it with others of the same kind or not. This is the way that science uses to get knowledge and store it as repository in the specific field or area of interest. Thereafter, unless it turns out to be contested by other scientists, it may then assume the role of secondary source of observations. As we said, along the time, this scientific inventory can be enriched by new experiments or refuted.
It is worth to emphasize that the steps induction-deduction and analysis-synthesis are opposed to each other and are complementary, the former starting from the general to the specific, and the latter starting from the specific to the general. In the words (12) of Alberto Mesquita Filho, "The first step represents a pair of mental operations that, in certain stages, requires some degree of abstraction, and the second one, represents a pair of mental operations that requires a stay in the real world.”
6. Evidence and Scientific Proof
From the point of view of science, there is a big difference between "evidence" and "proof.” What is meant by scientific evidence and scientific proof? We have already seen that nothing in science is unquestionable and that it also develops. Therefore, science cannot establish "truth" or "fact" in the sense that a scientific statement can be unquestionable. All and any concept or even a scientific statement must be always open to revaluation to the extent that new data are obtained and new technologies comes to be incorporated to the scientific repository. Thence, we can affirm that a "proof" can exist only in the mathematics realm and in its equations, still so, with certain reservations in many cases. In some cases, even when strongly supported by experimentation, the "proof" may yet not be sufficient. Therefore, in the vast majority of the cases, it would be better to hear the scientist saying that he deals with evidence, backed by a large number of experiments or facts.
Even though, knowing that science formally cannot provide the absolute truth, it is undeniable that it can provide strong evidences in favor of certain ideas, which may not be obvious, even when faced by the common sense. The common sense is much guided by appearances and usually has notions or posits false conclusions on many things and many phenomena that are present in our daily lives. Therefore, common sense is not science.
It is clear that science is the forum to explain us many things and phenomena that happen in the nature, among them, things that we cannot observe and see directly with our physical eyes. Science does not need to show things that we can see with our eyes, unless to better explain their nature and how they work. Since the last century, the great majority of scientific discoveries occurred at the microcosmic level, using the indirect observation, including studies on the atomic nucleus structure, electrons, radio waves, TV waves, microwaves, X-rays, ultraviolet light, polarized light, laser rays, energy forms, entropy, enthalpy, solar fusion, bacteria, viruses, germs, genes, enzymes and the human genome.
In the field of astronomy, it’s enough to think that, until 1961, no one had directly observed the spherical form of the Earth, until then, considered as having flat shape by the common sense. However, since 1,600, that is, since the invention of the telescope by Galileo, the Copernicus’s hypothesis informing that the Earth is round and revolves around the Sun has been recognized by science, although, the direct observation resembles to indicate the opposite. They are "invisible" inferences that have been clarified through the use of the scientific method.
7. The Testability of Hypothesis and Theories
The consistency of hypothesis and theories is a key requirement in any scientific procedure. It is the degree of testability that will ensure whether a hypothesis is scientific or not. The concept of “testable" implies to say that the predictions must include examples of what should and should not be observed if the hypothesis is true. Still, according to reference (4): "A hypothesis that can explain all the possible observations and the data are not testable is not scientific. A good scientific hypothesis must reject some conceivable possibilities, at least in principle. Furthermore, a scientific explanation needs to do risky predictions – the predictions would be necessary if the theory is correct, and few other theories should do the same necessary predictions.”
Thus, a determined hypothesis is valid and useful if it falls in the rigidity of the scientific method and proves the facts that gave origin to it, being however, subject to Popper´s falseability proposition. In other words, a successful hypothesis has to explain the known and observed facts, although some facts have not been included in the experimentation or will only be known a posteriori. Then (4), "the best available hypothesis is the one that explains the majority of facts with few assumptions. It is the one that makes up the majority of the predictions that are confirmed, and that one which is more open to tests and rebuttals.”
Science considers as theory a superior and well founded hypothesis. Thus, one well accepted theory is the one that has resisted the test of time, and the collection of new data trends to make it a scientific and well-accepted fact. Such is the example of heliocentrism or solar system theory, which at the time of its presentation was a mere hypothesis. A series of examples of well-accepted scientific facts is found in quantum physics, although nobody ever has directly observed an electron, one star fusion, radio waves, entropy, etc. As Stephen J. Gould said, one scientific event is not an "absolute certainty", but simply a theory that has been “[…] confirmed in such a degree that it would be perverse to hold the temporary consent .” (4)
We mentioned already, in another part of this text, that Newton’s theory of gravity was contested or "distorted" in virtue of an abnormal movement of the planet Uranus, because at that time it was not known the planet Neptune, responsible for anomalies observed in the Uranus orbit. Therefore, it is good to have in mind that the alternative explanations for "anomalies” should be treated as any other hypothesis: it must be weighed, tested and eliminated or confirmed. Nevertheless, a hypothesis cannot be considered refuted until its tests produce many lines of positive evidences indicating that the previous hypothesis was inconsistent with the empirical data.
The degree of sophistication of modern scientific research leads the scholars of the area to the use of the statistic mathematics, so that the analysis of observed data can be adjusted at the predictions of one theory. It is for that we are accustomed to say that the modern scientific theories are probabilistics. Although many scientists hate statistics mathematics, it is an indispensable tool in the actual scientific experimentation and must be used where the probability is involved.
8. The Falseability Principle
Introduced by Karl Popper in the thirties of the 20th century, the falseability principle (or refutability) has become an important concept in philosophy of science (epistemology). For a statement to be refutable or falseable, in principle, it would have to be possible to make an observation or a physical experimentation trying to show that such statement is false. For instance, the assertion (12) that "all of the swans are white” could be falsified by the observation of the existence of a non-white swan. The thought school that puts emphasis on the importance of the falseability as a philosophical principle is known as falseabilism.
Popper (12), analyzing the types of statements that happen in science, noticed that two types of statements have specific value for scientists. The first type consists of observation statements, such as "this swan is white." With base in the logic reasoning, we call these statements of singular existential statements, once they affirm the existence of one thing in the specific sense. They can be analyzed in the form: "[…] it exists one “x” that is swan and it is white.”
The second type of statement (12) of interest for scientists classifies all of the instances of some thing, for example "all the swans are white." According to the logic of reasoning, we call these of universal statements. They are usually analyzed in the form: "for all “x”, if “x” is a swan, then “x” is white."
Scientific "laws" (more correctly to call them of theories) are usually had as being this way – universal statements. Perhaps, the most difficult question is, in the methodology of science, how can we arrive to the theories starting from the observations? How can we infer, in a valid way, what is a universal statement based on existential statements (by many that they are)?
The inductivist methodology presumed that one can pass from a series of singular statements to a universal statement. In other words, that one can pass from "this is a white swan", "there is another white swan" and, thereabout ahead, for a universal statement like "all of the swans are white." This method is clearly invalid in logic once that it will always be possible to existing one non-white swan which, for some reason, doesn’t have been observed yet. This was the problem of the induction method, already identified by David Hume, in the 18th century, the resolution of which is proposed by Popper, in the manner as described.
Popper defended that science could not be based on such inference. He has proposed the falseability as the solution of the induction problem. Popper saw that in spite of a singular existential statement as "this swan is white", it cannot be used to affirm a universal statement. It can be used to show that a certain universal statement is false: the singular existential observation of a black swan is useful to show that the universal statement, "all of the swans are white" is false.
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CHAPTER 5
TRUTH, REALITY AND PARADIGM
A. TRUTH
In fact, philosophy, concerned in guaranteeing the difference between the simple opinion ("I think", "I like of", "I don't like of") and the truth ("I think that", "I know that", "that is like this because") has considered that the ideas only would be rational and true if they were timeless, perennial, and eternal, the same in all time and in all place. A truth that changed with time or with places would be mere opinion, would be illusory, and would not be the truth. The reason, being the source and the condition of the truth, would have also to be timeless.
Marilena Chauí – Invitation to the Philosophy. São Paulo, Atica, 2000.
The old civilizations – Hebraic, Greek and Latin – are the best sources to discover the conceptions of what "truth” is. Many theories were developed on what is the truth, but for the purposes of this work, we will leave erudition aside and we will consider the concepts that came from the Hebrews, Greek and Roman along the History.
In Hebraic, the word truth derives from emunah, that means trust, entrusted word, people that don't betray the trust and, therefore, they accomplish the given word or a pact made. Regarding God as entity, this has to be true in itself. Thus, who trusts in the truth expects that those who have made a pact with the truth will be faithful accomplishers of theirs commitments. In other words (1), “the truth is a belief founded in the expectation and in the trust referred to the future, to what will be or what will come to be. Its higher form is the divine revelation and its more perfect expression is the "prophecy." Here the religious sense is always present, meaning that “the truth” is an attribute inherited from God by men.
Already in Greek, the word aletheia means non-hidden, non-occult, or no-dissimulated, what is evident to the reason, that is, the true is what manifests itself to the eyes of the body and of the spirit. In this sense, the truth is the manifestation of what it is or exists such as it is. In addition, what is the contrary of truth? It is the deceitful, the hidden, the dissimulated, and finally, what seems to be and it is not as it seems. It is more a practical concept, not linked to the religious sense. Thence, the true is in the things themselves, being them its quality. Thus (1), "to know is to see and to say the truth, which is in the reality itself and, therefore, the truth depends on that the reality manifests itself, while the falsehood depends on that it hides itself or dissimulates itself in appearances."
Finally, in Latin, the word veritas has to do with the rigor, the precision and the exactness of a report. In other words, the truth depends on the description of something, with details and fidelity of what happened, it is happening or it will happen. The language of the true is always the narrative of what is veracious; it serves to enunciate real facts. Moreover, its opposite is the lie or the falsification. Here, different from the Greek concept, the truth depends on the report, of the narration and of the statements of who speaks and, therefore, it is linked to the mental sharpness of who speaks, that is, of his subjectivity. Mentioning again (1), "[…] the things and the facts are not real or imaginary; but the reports and statements made may be either true or false in themselves.”
In short, our current culture regarding the word truth and its meaning is impregnated of the three conceptions, which we summarize in a synthesis: emuna, to mean trust-hope in relation to the future things; aletheia, to refer itself to what the things are (present facts); and, veritas, to refer itself to the facts that happened, or in other words, to the statements on past facts.
Thence, they were associated to the word "truth" other words, such as, to "discover" and to "verify", indicating to look for the truth, "verdict", meaning a true judgment, an accurate judgment, "probable" and "plausible", used to mean what is similar to the truth or that is similar to something true.
1. Theorizing about the Truth
To theorize about the truth seems something contradictory. In fact, we want to show that the philosophical thought doesn't have limits and, to the free thinker, there are no barriers to the free exercise of ideas and of thoughts. Depending on the link that we’ll have to adopt regarding the sources above exposed, we will be facing different philosophical conceptions on the nature of the true knowledge.
To adopting the Hebraic predominance of the term truth, we see that it depends on an agreement or of a confidence pact among the researchers. In this pact, their members define a collection of rules and universal conventions that will be adopted in their investigation field to get the true knowledge, whose pact all members should always respect. To that pact we call paradigm, topic that will be treated at the end of this chapter. Here, the truth is based, therefore, in the consensus and in the reciprocal trust among the researchers´ community and scholars´ members. To move forward, although a little beyond the established rules, can lead to the researcher's disqualification and his banishment of the scientific community in which he works, with the risk of entering a long fight of difficulties and obstacles to his works.
In agreement with our reference already mentioned (1), the consensus is established to follow, based on three principles that will be respected by everyone:
We are rational beings and our thought obeys the four principles of the reason (identity, no-contradiction, third-excluded and necessary reason or causality);
We are beings endowed with language that works in accordance with established logical rules and accepted by a community;
We should submit the results of an investigation to the discussion and evaluation by the researchers´ community who will attribute to it the value of truth or not.
If we adopt the Greek predominance, our truth will derive from the reality that is in the things themselves and in the facts, and the true knowledge will be represented by the intellectual and rational perception of that truth. That theory is known as the principle of evidence, for being in the evidence the substratum of the true knowledge. One treats of an intellectual and rational focus of the reality, just as it is in itself and this truth is obtained by rational operations from the human mind. According to this theory, an idea is true when it corresponds to the thing that is its content and that exists out of our spirit or of our thought. Here, man is a simple observer, since the truth criterion is the adaptation of our mind to the thing or of that to our mind.
Already, under the Latin focus, the truth notion results of the rigor and in how we create and use the rules of the language (1), "[…] which must express, at the same time, our thoughts or our ideas and the events or external facts to us that our ideas transmit or narrate in our mind." We verify that the position is inverted to the previous Greek’s idea because here we see that one thing is not said true when it corresponds to an external reality, but it is said that it corresponds to the external reality because it is true. It is the principle of coherence or rational principle, in which the criterion of the truth is given by the logical coherence of the ideas and its linkage formed through an observer's reasoning. That coherence comes from the strict obedience to the rules and laws of the correct statements, in which the mark of the true is the logical validity of their arguments.
Finally, let us come back our focus to what happens today in science, in which the truth differentiates itself of the other theories or principles already exposed, by defining the true knowledge by means of a more practical criterion than theoretical. One treats of the pragmatic theory, in which knowledge is true in function of its results and practical applications, being verifiable by experimentation and experience. Here, the mark of what is true is the verifiability of the results. One verifies that this version adjust itself with the Greek version – aletheia, which unites reality and thought, in a symbiosis between the observed thing and the knowledge that from it comes, even so previously it treats itself only of a mere hypothesis.
In short, we have the following principles: 1) emunah – the consensus principle, 2) aletheia –the correspondence principle, 3) veritas – the coherence principle, and 4) pragmatic – the pragmatic scientific theory. We have seen that, in the first and in the third principles, the statements, arguments and ideas are the basis to judge what is true or false. In the second principle, the things and ideas are the basis to judge what is true or false. Finally, in the fourth principle or theory, the focus is put in the results to affirm what is true or false.
Consequently, we can reaffirm that, in both the second principle (aletheia) and the fourth theory (the pragmatic scientific theory), the truth is the agreement between the thought and the reality. In the first (emunah) and in the third principle (veritas), (1) “[…] the truth is the complete agreement of the thought and the language, based on their own rules and principles, in accordance with their own nature, which is the same for all human beings (or defined as the same for everyone by a consensus)."
2. Truth - Evidence or Correspondence?
If we reflect well on the Greek’s conception of the truth (aletheia), we will observe in it that the things or the being are the true or the truth. In other words, the truth or the true is what exists and manifests its existence to our thought through the sensorial organs of perception. Thus being so clear, the Greek philosophers ask how can the mistake, the false and the lie exist, or say, how can we think on what is not, it doesn't exist, it doesn't have reality, if it is clear that the mistake, the false and the lie can only refer themselves to the non-being? In accordance with reference (1): "The being is the manifest, what is visible to the eyes of the body and of the spirit, the evident. To err, to falsify or to lie, therefore, is not to see such beings as they are, is not to speak of them such as they are."
It is easy to understand that the mistake, the falsehood and the lie come from the illusory appearance of the things and of the beings, and they emerge whenever we didn't get to reach the essence of the realities. If we speak of something or some being what it or he is not, we will be incurring in mistake for we be attributing to them properties and qualities (predicates) that they, in fact, don't possess. There is, therefore, need of discernment to avoid the mistake and, as its consequence, the evil. From this imperfect feeling, the mistake, the falsehood and the lie pass to the language and to the speech: it (the mistake) derives from the correct or incorrect judgment that we do of the predicates, since these, when true and only when they are true, make part of the things or the beings. Everything else is non-truth or untruth.
In the logical language, the person (observer) affirms or denies the predicate that comes from the being or from the thing. The predicate can be real or false; the problem is to discern which is the reality for us to stay beside the truth. If something is not a predicate of the thing or of the being, we will be unavoidably incurring in mistake, for we not to discern correctly or for we ignore the essence of the thing or of the being. But, if we know the essence of the thing or of the being and, still so, we are making a wrong judgment on it, we will be lying or falsifying the truth.
But, after all what the truth is? It seems that the fulcrum of that question resides in the criterion of evidence, which is the intellectual or mental vision of a being’s own essence, of a thing or of a phenomenon. Henceforth, the truth passes to be the conformity between our reason (thought and reason) with the thought things, formulated by the reason. Then, the necessary condition for us to formulate a true judgment is to know the essence of the things, of the beings and of the phenomena, be it by the intuition, by deduction or by induction. Out of that, it will govern the desire badly oriented, which will take us to the mistake, to the falsehood and to the lie.
In addition, which are the main impediments to the knowledge of the truth? As the truth is the deep knowledge of the essence of the things, of the beings and of the phenomena, and such concept assures to it certain degree of universality, we glimpse three great conditions for that to happen: first, we should get rid of the appearances of the things; second, we should get rid of the established and preconceived opinions; finally, we should get rid of the illusions of our sensorial organs.
For us to reach the first condition we should treat the serious things of life as serious things and dedicate ourselves to the study and improvement of our knowledge and values. Just so, the ignorance that takes to the pure and simple acceptance of what is false will go disappearing.
The second condition take us to discard inadequate opinions that vary from person to person, from place to place and from culture to culture, that is, we need to give to our knowledge condition of universality, being avoided, this way, the changeability and the inconstancy of the opinions, both moving us away from the truth.
The third condition demands that we surround ourselves of certain cares for us not to make a mistake guided by the sensorial organs, that is, by our sensorial impressions. The evaluation of these impressions depends on many individual factors, such as, the real condition of our body – exhaustion, fatigue, stress, as well as, from the conditions of our feelings. It also depends on the dispositions of our spirit to act and to judge with free volition on what, in fact, our group of perceptions informs us. However, we should never forget that those properties and the qualities are inherent to the essence of the things themselves and of the beings, because they are part of our truth
All observations, experiences and facts are reported and accumulated in the form of knowledge and culture, by means of wide or restricted communication. Before the third theory of the truth (veritas), we use the common language, technical, technological, or erudite ones, and so on, to express our conclusions. Therefore, when compared with our previous considerations, we observe that the problem of the truth and of the mistake, of the false and of the lie has moved directly towards the field of the communication. As our reference already mentioned (1), "[…] the true and the false are less in the action of seeing (with the eyes of the body or with the eyes of the spirit) and more in the action of saying. Therefore, the philosophers' question, now, is exactly contrary to the former, or say, the question is: How the truth is possible?”
Still so, the truth is possible, but we should remember that it will be found or not in the speech or in the language, just not depending on the thought and of the own things, but also of our decision to say it, not to say it or to falsify it. Thence, we said above that the serious things need to be treated with seriousness, using our free will for the good, what is equal to not lye or falsify. Thus, we see that the truth depends on not only of the conformity between the fact and the report, but also, it depends on the will of expressing it, as such.
We arrived here to the essential point of our analysis, which should be at the same time, rational, scientific and Christian, the true principles that accompany and guide the human spirituality in the adequate and serious use of the main spiritual attributes: conscience, will, intelligence, creativity, imagination and memory. From the correct equilibrium in the use of those attributes, the truth stands out itself, and only with the truth we should share communion.
We already mentioned in this context and now we reaffirm the need to liberate our conscience of the preconceptions, dogmas and superstitions introduced by the pure and simple submission to the mysticism. Actually, the conscience represents, configures or distort the action of the Intelligent Force, which is our spirit and that, when lucid, doesn't share with the mistake, the falsehood and the lie. Last of all, it is the spirit that is the subject of the knowledge and from it one expects to reach, to communicate and to share the evidences of the truth itself, utilizing the resources of intuition, deduction and induction. .
3. Final Considerations
From the analysis that we have done of what the truth is according to the four principles or theories, we can infer the following "truths" about the truth, accepted partially or in their whole, by philosophers, free thinkers and contemporary scientists. This synthesis, with the adaptations that we introduced, derives from the mentioned (1) reference:
• the knowledge of the truth is made by the evidence obtained by intuition, deduction or induction;
• the knowledge of the truth is made by the expression of a judgment, whose idea should be in accordance with the essence of the things, of the beings and of the facts;
• the contradiction of the truth is in the mistake, in the falsehood and in the lie, always present when of a thing we affirm something that doesn´t pertain to its essence or nature, or when we deny something that necessarily pertain to its essence or nature;
• the mistake and the falsehood and the lie can be caused by the inadequate use that one does of the preconceived opinions, of the bad habits or of the delusions derived from the sensorial perception and from the memory;
• the mistake, the false and the lie can, also, be caused by the improper use of the free will (volition), which frequently is put upon to the thought, but that needs to be controlled by it;
• the truth always refers to the essence of the things or of the beings, being always universal and necessary in opposition to the appearance that is always individual, unstable and mutable;
• the thought submits itself to a unique authority: its own authority, with capacity for the true.
We will finish this topics about truth, reaffirming that it is the conformity or the correspondence between the idea and the thing, and between the thing and the idea, or still, between the idea and what is idealized. We must ponder that the concepts of idea, thing, being, judgment and fact are self-explanatory. However, it is worthwhile to emphasize that the idea is not the thing, in the same way that, the map is not the territory, but a representation of it. Therefore, through the idea, we know the structure of the things in its essence, as well as, the connections that two or more things or beings or phenomena maintain among themselves. Thus, the idea doesn't pass of an intellectual action and what is idealized constitutes an external reality known by the mind.
B. REALITY
Our practical concept of reality seems, therefore, that needs revision, and so much is so that the common and daily literature begins to include the concepts of "super" and "supra" in its mental horizon. I fully agree with this, because our image of the world contains something that is not right entirely, or say, in the theory we scarcely remind, and in the practice, so to speak, hardly ever, of that conscience doesn't have a direct relationship with any material object. We have only noticed the images that are indirectly transmitted to us through a complicated nervous apparatus. – Carl Gustav Jung, psychologist (2)
According to the purely materialistic focus, reality contains all that we need to know, because it is real all that actuates and acts over our physical senses. In face of this materialistic concept (2), "[…] if something doesn't act, we cannot perceive its presence and, consequently we don’t know anything to its respect." Before this concept, the unreal, supra-real or under-real things and phenomena are out of context, and with them the supra-reality and the under-reality – limiting the reality concept widely, which becomes incomplete, fragmented and non-including. It is this limitation that we call material reality or concrete reality of the observed objects by the five senses. It bases itself on the Latin principle that says nihil est in intellectum quod non ante fuerit in sensu, in other words, nothing exists in the intellect that has not passed before by the senses, and also, despite of the fact to exist an immensity of things and of immaterial phenomena – invisible because their intrinsic nature or their tiny dimensions. Our reason tells us that this limitation run away from the common sense, because it is not rational.
We see here two difficulties to conciliate and to include a wider sense for the reality. One of them is of biological nature and it links itself to the mechanism of perception, mainly to the visual, which uses the nervous terminals of the sensorial organs and the sensation that appears in our mind. For instance, between these two extreme points intersects an unconscious process, which transforms the physical fact from the light that it is vibration, into a "light-image” in our mind. Without this complex unconscious process of transformation, the perception doesn't happen. The other difficulty elapses from the own language, that coined the term reality, to preferably meaning what our senses indicate, in other words, a representation of the material world.
In the example of visual sense, what do we understand, then, as immediate reality? Actually, it consists of carefully elaborated images by our senses and interpreted by the mind, which takes us to directly living in a world of images. In addition, still, due the limitation of the own visual sense to approximately determine the real nature of the material things, physicists and chemists makes use of complex equipment and sophisticated instrumentation, which are useful to help the human intellect to see a little bit more deeply the reality that exists inside the matter. This takes us to conclude, scientifically, the existence of the invisible world, which, in its essence, is constituted of Force and Matter, and to establish that our main physical sense, the vision, is insufficient to embrace all the reality or the total reality.
Let us use the words of Carl Gustav Jung (2), withdrawn from the compiled text of his book: The Dynamics of the Unconscious, Items 742 to 748:
Far away, therefore, of being a material world, this reality is a psychic world that only allows us to take indirect and hypothetical conclusions concerning the true nature of the matter. Only the psychic possesses one immediate reality that includes all the forms of the psychic, including the ideas and the "unreal" thoughts, which don't refer themselves to anything of "external." We can call them of imagination or illusion, and this doesn't remove from them anything of its own reality. In fact, it doesn't exist any "real" thought which, sometimes, cannot be put aside by one "unreal" thought which, like this, is shown more powerful and more efficient than the first. Larger than all of the physical dangers are the tremendous effects of the illusory ideas to which our mundane conscience denies any reality.
Our so celebrated reason and our excessively overestimated will, sometimes, are impotent before the "unreal" thought. The cosmic power that govern humanity's evolution, either for the good or for the evil, are unconscious psychic factors, and also, they are the ones that produce the conscience, thus creating the “conditio sine qua non” of the world existence, in general. We are subdued by a world that was created by our psyche.
This allows us to judge the proportions of the mistake that our western consciousness commits when assigning just one reality derived from material causes. The East is wiser, because it finds the essence of all the existing things in the psyche. The reality of the psychic, that is, the psychic reality, the unique reality that we can try directly is found among the unknown essences of the Spirit and of the Matter.
Still inside the purely materialist concept that deifies the physical senses and the scientific apparatus, reality is a word that doesn't admit absolute concept. Then, under this focus, we have to consider it inside a relativistic point of view. In first place due to the quite known popular proverb, “each head, each sentence”, it becomes very difficult to find two or more persons with the same popular understanding or same vision on a same being or on a same thing or phenomenon. Imagine how more difficult it is if we are analyzing something that have a reach of transcendental nature. For that and other reasons of methodological nature becomes necessary to reflect about the varied facets of reality, mainly when we have to examine the essence of certain concepts not equally accepted, in the same way, on the part of different persons that submit themselves to different paradigms.
When we are trying to investigate, or better, to bring to light the knowledge that are not available in any place, when we assume the nature of a visionary, we have to use several resources. Among those resources are the introspection, intuition, induction, deduction, and the logic thinking. When it is the case of putting in evidence to our physical senses the conviction elements, so common in scientific works, we should also include the experimentation.
Therefore, we go to examine, starting from general to the specific, on which way we could consider and apprehend the true sense of the words reality, objective reality and subjective reality, besides others created to throw light in that tremendous confusion of ideas on the world in which we live.
It is regrettable that we are not able to work with just one reality concept, already that we are still farther from the concept of total reality or absolute reality. Then, the need to define and presenting several types of reality that vary in function of many factors. This list may not be complete.
Firstly, we must have in mind that consciousness and perception are two different things. We need to know this distinction, so that, there is not the lowest possibility of confusion between these two concepts. Only this way, we will correlate reality with knowledge.
Let us see, then, the several types and concepts of reality, as follows:
1. Cognitive or Cultural Reality
Even with globalization in which it stands out the communication media, there are still on Earth many so-called wild or primitive cultures that have their own communication mean and language, such as, special signs, screams, gestures, whistles, codes, drums touches, smoke signs and fire signals, ad so on. These people, living in isolated areas, don't have the least knowledge of the existence of our modern transmitting systems, based on radio waves or TV (Hertz waves), that nothing has to do with their primitive methods of communication. For them, these systems don't exist and, therefore, they are not part of their reality, they are unreal. Who tries to explain to them that these things exist is seen as liar or even crazy. They are ignorant of that cultural context that is not part of their reality. However, for us, Hertz waves exist, and they are part of the real context of our daily existence. Therefore, we may conclude that they are part of what we consider to be the reality, and for the savages, they are part of the unreality.
Now, we can consider the cognitive reality as being what comes from our current knowledge, strengthened by its usefulness and frequent use, inside certain culture or group. Nevertheless, it is difficult to collectivize any knowledge because of its great diversity, or say, of the individual knowledge, even so making sense to speak of an individual cognitive reality and a collective cognitive reality.
2. Sensorial or Perceptive Reality
That reality is the one that results of the use of our physical senses, in which vision has a major role. However, our physical senses are not perfect and are subjected to distortions, flaws and mistakes. We can exemplify with the optic illusions, as the one that it is presented in the book (3) Mapping the Mind, by Rita Carter (Ediouro, 1999, p. 258). In it, it is seen either a white chalice on a black background or we can see two black faces on a white background, all depending on what part of this illustration our mind selects as the background plan. After knowing and identifying this trick, it is easier to make our selection persist in our retina, either as the former or as the latter image.
Based on the imperfections of our physical senses, illusionists earn a living in the stages of the entire world, taking advantage of their natural and developed skills through a long and persistent training. And in the spectators' crowd, there are always credulous and simple people that until believe that many of those tricks are true, and until they exalt themselves when we tell them that they let themselves to be deceived.
We could mention many examples of our daily life and even of the human narration book of all epochs and regions, which do not leave doubts of that our senses, all of them, can deceive us, and they are not reliable completely. The lack of knowledge, prevention, distraction and of nervousness, many times take us to make distorted judgments about the reality. There is no doubt that this is the type of reality in which they are. From it they don't get away, in no way, the badly informed, the stubborn, the skeptics and the fanatics that only believe in what they see. To that, we call sensorial reality that can be obtained with none or very little mental and rational effort.
3. Abstract Reality
Although it seems absurd, in our daily activities we work frequently with situations and facts framed inside the abstract sensibility. Curious is that it comes so much of facts and of material events as from our sensations and feelings. For instance, many people consider the map of a region as if it were the territory, what certainly is wrong. To traveling to a foreign country it is necessary a passport, which is the document that proves the personal nationality, it is worth to say, that you are a citizen of some country, well defined in the document. Nevertheless, "nationality cannot be measured, it cannot be counted, it neither has length nor color, but it exists; in short, we are treating of an abstract thing." (4)
Likewise, they are all the words and attitudes that indicate the feelings, such as, longing, anger, love, friendship, fear, altruism, etc. All these words are abstract nouns, something that doesn't have physical or material existence, but they exist. Those who live in the world of the illusions also live in an abstract reality. Then, we can consider the abstract reality as being what is immaterial and is out of the reach of our physical senses, but we can feel it.
4. Psychological or Psychic Reality
The psychological or psychic reality elapses from fear situations and traumas happened in some moment of certain people's life that, even before a concrete situation in the present, similar to the one that he lived in the past, take those persons to imagine as real what is an unreal and threatening situation. Due to such situation, it is unchained a reaction of fear or of despair that may even manifest itself in a traumatic way. Psychologists and psychiatrists´ clinics are full of patients, whose cases are in this typical diagnosis.
However, there is also situations that may be classified as psychological reality, which emerge from certain positive occurrences that happened in the past, in which the persons seem feeling out of themselves, by mentally reliving pleasant events, as a music recital that they have attended, the smell of certain delicacies or of flowers, etc., although they stay, at the moment, in an ambient or in a quite different situation.
5. Scientific Reality
Scientists, mainly physicists, who are making experiences with the quantum physics paradigm, are more than accustomed to the study of the invisible things, imperceptible to our physical senses, such as, the electron, the atomic nucleus and their particles, the several types of electromagnetic waves, the force of gravity, etc. This is what we nominate as scientific reality.
In this same line of experimentation, are biologists, who examine the cells of living organisms and their components, and geneticists and all the researchers who work with the microcosmic world. They become aware of the existence of such events and objects through super-sophisticated scientific equipment that can be found in the best laboratories in the world. The scientific reality, therefore, is quite different of what the common man gets from the things and events, whose beliefs, many times, puts himself in opposite position to the sense adopted by scientists, because nor always the common sense perceives the subtleties of the scientific reality
6. Transcendental Reality
Certainly, there is a very big series of facts and events that constitute the field of study by metaphysics, parapsychology, Spiritism, Spiritualism, and even of any religions and sects that have foundation in mysticism. Those facts are considered transcendent and they elapse from special states of perception, which psychology classifies as altered states of conscience, and also, from individual or collective experiences out of the scientific community. They are of this type the intuitions, mediumship, telepathic communications, spiritual communications, NDE (Near Death Experience), and out of the body experiences (OBE), in short, all that is linked to the thought and the conscience and that derives indirect or directly from the spiritual existence of the world.
We need to be free thinkers, without preconception of any kind, for us not to deny these facts a priori, either under the effect of the mysticism or under the effect of a preconceived science. Also, we mustn’t stay involved by any foolery that comes to be presented to us. It will be better that we investigate, to the light of the reason and of high reasoning, the true nature of such facts, even to get personal conclusions, in agreement with our level of spirituality. To deny the reach of that knowledge, systematically, as many renowned scientists are doing, is to render a great disservice to the science that they represent in name of humanity.
It is necessary to apply impartiality to the exam of such facts and events, to give to that transcendental reality a forum of total and definitive reality, to the extent that new evidences are coming. Of course, the scientists’ adhesion to the direction of those researches, adapting their methodology, in a way to become sure and convinced in the search and recognition of such phenomena, it is very desirable. With that, humanity would have much to profit, spiritually speaking.
According to (6) Victor J. Stenger, Ph.D., all the declarations, be them from science or from literature, don't pass of narratives and the text meanings are created by the reader in agreement with his ambient and culture. He infers then, that: "The conclusions are then driven so that no narrative can have universal validity and that the "western" science is not an exception." Moreover, further on that: “Science is not sure of anything about the world and it should always expose its results in terms of probabilities or evidences. Frequently, the choice among competitive scientific theories is based on the preference, style or on the subjective notions of simplicity or aesthetic appeal."
But, we should admit that scientists have had difficulty to assume the certainty of the "truthfulness" of many of their theories; although, frequently, they can be next to the certainty, inside of what is possible in the application of the scientific method. If the forecasts are trustworthy, they can conclude or even prove that the concepts in which said theories are supported should have some universal validity, that is, the things should seem as they really are. A classic example and easy to proving, in practical life, is the Newton’s law of gravity, at least, in its qualitative aspects, and then to conclude that the gravity concept is "real." Nobody else has doubt about this.
7. Implications Derived from the Realities
Thus, from what it was exposed, we can infer that, to hearing a statement or assertion, we need to know of what one is treating and to what reality it refers itself. For instance, to get familiar with people that use philosophical concepts, we have to think as the philosophers do, that is, in agreement with the effective paradigm in this area.
A good exercise for us to understand the several types of reality is to introduce a wide concept of being involving all the alive and lifeless things from the kingdoms of the nature, either observable or not, direct or indirectly by our physical senses. Starting from that being conception and of the several types of reality that we have discussed, we can mention (4):
• Inorganic beings or minerals – rock, stone, water, table, door, or any substance;
• Organized beings – any alive being, as an ameba, a vegetable, a man, a woman, etc.;
• Abstract beings – friendship, love, longing, the feelings in general;
• Imaginary or mythological beings – mermaids, fairies, goblins, etc,
• Fictitious beings – they belong to the world of the literature, such as: Romeo, Juliet, Flash Gordon, Super-Man, etc.;
• Archetypes beings – beings that belong to the psychological reality, such as: the Child, the Mother, the Father, the Hero, the Persona, etc., all possible alter-egos of each one of us. These archetypes are accustomed to emerge from the psychologists´ patients, that is, they are assumed by their alter-egos and they behave as such;
• Transcendent beings – souls, spirits, etc. The physicists’ great majority, who are only accustomed to the material world, do not accept their existences. It is the realm of the transcendent.
If you don’t believe on the existence of other physical dimensions, besides our quite known three dimensions, read the book of the English physicist, Stephen Hawking, entitled "The Universe in a Nutshell", in which you will see, practically since the first to the last page of this book all the physics progress, since 1980 to the current days, regarding the much discussed subject of the universal dimensions.
It exist certain phenomena, generically baptized by parapsychologists as psikapa phenomena, which are deeply studied and dissected by parapsychology in the current days, and no parapsychologist has the least shadow of doubt about their existence. And they add: only the uninformed people ignore them and are capable of denying them.
C. PARADIGM
To all this, it is added the belief to it associated that the new is better and substitutes the old, and that technology will supply all our needs. The emphasis is in the technique, in the knowledge, in the power over the nature, in the manipulation, not in the harmony, much less in the wisdom that was kept lost at some place in the past. The knowledge stayed intrinsically linked to the power. Thence, it emerges the belief and attempt to manipulate the abnormal phenomenon.
¬Jalmir Brelaz – Paradigm in Science and Parapsychology (5)
One hears a lot to speak on paradigm. Therefore, we need to understand and comprehend very well what that means for us to understand the deeper ideas that we’ll present in the second part of our book. First of all, the paradigm restricts somewhat the extent of the work of a certain field of knowledge, in which it is applicable, and takes us to direct our efforts in a reductionist or fragmentary form. It is obvious that the study of the phenomena that occurs out of the matter or beyond the matter done by psychology, parapsychology, Spiritism and Spiritualism are influenced and, in the same way, affect the paradigmatic transformations that are happening specifically in the social and in the scientific field.
1. Understanding and Comprehension
The word paradigm comes from the Greek and it means model. Therefore, we can consider the scientific paradigm as being a series of parameters that serves to encompass the activities, values, beliefs and techniques that form the culture performed inside science in certain moment or period of its evolution. Besides the scientific paradigm we can extend the concept to other areas of knowledge, such as, economy, education, medicine, parapsychology, etc. The observation and experimentation with their methods and techniques play important role in the case of physics, chemistry, biology and other vanguard sciences. Also, one should not discard the social necessity and utility, as important factors for its acceptance.
The way of seeing, observing and feeling the world vary in agreement with the adopted paradigm. We have already had, in the past, changes in the focuses of a paradigm as in the renascentist, the industrial and now in the epistemic paradigm, the latter already taking into consideration the importance of ecology. The epistemic paradigm includes in its program an ample cultural transformation that also implicates in the introduction of new words in our language to express certain phenomena under new optics. Otherwise, one could run the risk of seeing the scientific results misunderstood or even not accepted by the current beliefs of the contemporary scientific model. – Jalmir Brelaz (5) expressed that in the following way:
It is known that the scientific paradigm is vital for the development and consolidation of sciences, maximizing and optimizing their results, determining what is, but also, and especially, what cannot be accepted as making part of it. Its influence is either normative as cognitive, containing statements regarding the nature and the reality, inclusive defining also the field of acceptable problems, the methods and techniques of approaches, and the criteria (which can be used) as solution pattern. That guarantees faster success of the normal science, reducing the problem to a workable solution, being its selection guided by the current paradigm.
There is not, with absolute clarity, how to separate the scientific fact from a paradigm: they are intimately interlinked, in the same way that subjectivity and objectivity. In that way, it becomes necessary to make clear that the (5) "pure data of observation are far away from representing the pure perception, since the stimulations should not be confused with perception and sensations, because these are conditioned by the experimentation, education, language and culture", in the same way that a map should not be confused with the territory that it represents. Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize that there is not a neutral language of observation, based exclusively on the impressions captured by the retina. It becomes clear that the images taken to the brain through the optic nerve, as well as, all and any stimulation of the sensorial organs and of their multiple interrelations, when are led to the brain for the due interpretation, reveals us the necessity of a probable perception theory and of the human mind.
From what was above exposed, it is inferred that the scientific objectivity is not so "objective" as they intend and what we observe is not the world that exists "objectively", but a representation of it, a world that is created in the process of knowledge. What we see depends on the way as we look, or say, it doesn´t subsist objectivity without subjectivity, but the reverse of that statement is not true; then, we could affirm that subjectivity has prevalence over objectivity.
In the past, many scientific discoveries were made randomly or intuitively without following any research methodology. We have the example of the discovery of Isaac Newton´s law of gravity that happened in the way we know. Today, according to the paradigm and scientific method, any theory can be refuted by a new theory, if the previous one does not corroborate all the facts. To establish a new theory that substitutes a previous one, the researcher should accept and obey, at least these two main conditions: 1) the condition of consistence – the new hypothesis should explain the facts already explained by the previous theory; and 2) the condition of inconsistence – the new theory should explain the new facts until then not explained by the previous theory.
Each science has its set of rules that characterizes its specific scientific system, based on certain number of statements regarding the reality, known as axioms, which are considered self-evident. And, many of those axioms are discovered directly via intuition, not by the reason or by the logic reasoning. Still mentioning, Jalmir Brelaz (5): "What we want to demonstrate is that facts, observations and even criteria are dependent paradigms; the more important formal properties of a theory are relevant in its contrast, not in its analysis. In science, the reason cannot be universal and the inexplicit cannot be excluded entirely." In short, each science possesses its paradigm, their interrelations and limitations, which denotes its changeability character and constant adaptation to the evolution of sciences.
2. Main Paradigms
The modern scientific conception, which uses the scientific method, resulted from a strong cultural redirection that culminated with the industrial revolution. It had its origin with Galileo and Isaac Newton, who by the first time used mathematical models to comprehend and explain the objective reality. In the beginning of the 20th century, Einstein also utilized mathematical abstractions to explain his relativity equations, that is, the mental elaborations (subjectivity) contributed, in a precise way, to describe the things (objectivity) that were observed in the exterior world in terms of ideas that are mind-elaborated. This type of mathematical reasoning came to establish the belief that the universe is ruled by absolute laws and to pass the image of a machine-universe, synchronized, of dual perception involving person-object. For science, all needs to be quantified.
Thence, science has fragmented almost everything in the search of an objectivity sustained by mechanisms, basic laws, structures and fundamental properties in the form of "basic construction blocks", "fundamental equations" and "fundamental principles." This dynamics of forces and mechanisms interacted to give place to the basic laws to treat the "whole" as result of the summation of the "parts." It tried to fragment all by means of the quantification of the parts, as result of such basic laws.
Would have this procedure of science been a bad thing? No, because science capitalized their basic results in a dynamic technology that, in the 20th century, took to the material progress of people in almost all cultures. True technological marvels are to the disposition of anyone, at a bargain. It is enough to consider the advances of physics, such as, communication systems, astronautics, cosmology, etc., and the progresses of medicine, with its modern and mostly accurate means of non-invasive diagnoses.
Nowadays, the digital technology and the wide-spread informatization (the third-wave revolution, according to Alvin Toffler) conquered the markets. To the consequences of this technological diffusion they were also introduced some adverse factors. These, although apparently solved by the strong standardization (techniques of quality control and total quality), continue causing problems in our fast-growing scientific epoch, taking to a wider and more complex specialization in medicine, requiring a synchronization of results, concentration, maximization and centralization, complicating several human activities. Still, according to Jalmir Brelaz's saying (5):
To all this, it is added the belief to it associated that the new is better and substitutes the old, and that technology will supply all our needs. The emphasis is in the technique, in the knowledge, in the power over the nature, in the manipulation, not in the harmony, much less in the wisdom that was kept lost at some place in the past. The knowledge stayed intrinsically linked to the power. Thence, it emerges the belief and attempt to manipulate the abnormal phenomenon.
Thus, we see that the direction from the current focus rests in the belief that it is possible to quantify all the phenomena, in the self-affirmative expectation that the scientific knowledge can reach the absolute certainty of the things and of the phenomena. The emphasis relapsed and continues relapsing in the objectivity, in the search of the basic laws and mechanisms that explain the laws that govern the nature and the universe. Scientists' expectation is that the knowledge of the mechanisms of the "parts" and of their basic laws, takes to the knowledge of the "whole." Although this set of beliefs has tendency to extinguish in itself, we are still very far away from that. While all adjusts itself, there is still a lot of research and discoveries to be done in the material world. Nevertheless, the occult and immaterial causes are still challenging science and scientists. It is of these causes that we’ll treat in second part of this book.
Certain knowledge as the ones studied by psychology, parapsychology, Spiritism and Spiritualism focus the subconscious and its phenomena, and also, the existence of the incorporeal life; they cannot be treated exclusively to the light of the current scientific paradigm, which emphasizes the "quantitative" in detriment of the "qualitative." The application of the current scientific paradigm to these activities, which are at the same time philosophy and science, needs an enlargement in its concept. This paradigm needs to be adjusted to other conditions in which the subjectivism prevails over the objectivism, represented by the "[…] direct or personal experience.” Moreover, it becomes necessary to get away the distrust emerged from the paranormal phenomena, which are commonly qualitative phenomena, and many times rationally incomprehensible, because they are not yet totally explained to the light of the materialistic science.
We have to recognize that the definition of a specific paradigm or of an extended scientific paradigm to support such activities is an indispensable and urgent need. That would come to reinforce the credibility and the respectability in works, to which one wants to give forum of science, as they were mentioned in the previous paragraph. Much care is necessary in order to remove the mysticism supported by beliefs and superstitions of deceiving doctrines, giving them the seriousness that such activities deserve. To adhere, therefore, to an effort in this sense it would be very desirable, to result from that a more including general model, expanded from the scientific model, which take us to have a more complete knowledge of the world, of the universe and of its natural and immutable laws.
We should, also, recognize that parapsychology has been making a very big effort in the sense of adapting itself to the quantitative and statistical-mathematical focus of the scientific model, initiated by Rhine in the decade of 1930, at the Duke University, in the United States of America. As a result of that, in 1969, the Parapsychological Association was admitted and accepted as member of the American Association for the Development of Science. It was a first step, although that had sacrificed the development of parapsychology itself, which became submitted to the current quantitative paradigm. Then, despite of using the rigorous quantitative method used by other sciences, parapsychology became limited in respect to creating a paranormal theory.
3. Changes of Paradigms
There is a very high resistance of changing the existent scientific paradigm because the modern world is passing by profound changes, introduced by the massive technology in high scale and by the consequent change of values associated to it. Here it is the big paraphernalia of electronic equipments that invaded the companies, government agencies, and homes and makes part of the most creative dreams as an accessible reality to the children of today. The wonderful thing, materially speaking, it is already a reality: transmission and reception of image and voice at long distance, the use of virtual reality and the global communication of computers and satellites via Web. But, the societies and families´ ethical and moral values in all cultures were relegated to a second plan, letting our earthly living much disturbed. The simplicity of old times and the harmony of life disappeared.
Fritjof Capra, eminent North American physicist researcher, in his book, The Tao of Physics (7), when treating of the need to change of paradigms, he presents and analyzes six criteria which, if accepted and adopted, they would contribute very much to a new world of relationships, knowledge and achievements for the humanity, in the fields of science, psychology, parapsychology, Spiritism and Spiritualism. We won't detail those criteria, but concisely they are the following ones:
• Change from the part for the Whole. The properties of the parts can only be understood when starting from the dynamics of the whole. In other words, the emphasis is in the whole and no more in the parts, in a inversion of perspective;
• Change of the structure for the process. It is the process that creates the structure and no more the structure that creates the process. There is here an inversion of the focus. In this focus, the process is the totality of the relationships;
• Change of objective science for the epistemic method, the understanding of the process of the knowledge has to be included explicitly in the description of the natural phenomena. There are no fundamental laws. The observation methods and techniques have to "enter" in the theory. That is the epistemic paradigm;
• Change of construction conception for network conception, while a metaphor of knowledge. There is not something that is more fundamental than any other thing. There is neither the inside nor the outside, neither the above nor the below, but a network to which all are interlinked. The holographic theories represent a step in that direction;
• Change of the certainty of the knowledge for approximate descriptions. That implicates to recognizing that all the concepts and all the scientific theories are limited and approximate, and due to that they are transitory and subject to changes;
• Change of intention and attitude to control and dominate the nature for a cooperative attitude and of non-violence, in respect to the nature and among men, in general. It treats itself of an ethical, moral, and ecological posture, at the same time.
On this subject we do not extend much more. However, we can conclude it saying that is already occurring a change of attitudes in relation to the formation of new paradigms and, such a movement represents a quite significant cultural revolution, which won't happen from night to day. But, this will demand time, perhaps several decades or even one or more centuries. Nevertheless, one thing can be assured as certain, which is the permanence and the invigoration of the analytical rational and scientific methodology, with support in the intuitive elements (direct subjective via of knowledge) and in the experimentation (indirect via of the knowledge by means of experimentation).
4. A New Paradigm
It becomes necessary to establish a general paradigm, more involving that allows us to know the man in all his entireness, be it called of holistic, cybernetic or pluralistic. It is necessary to know certain phenomena had as imagination products, as in the cases of mental diseases and of obsession, which can’t be postponed anymore. To know the true nature of the paranormal phenomena, such as the phenomena of Near Death Experiences (NDEs), and of the phenomena of Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) it becomes necessary much study and experimentation. Moreover, there are so many other phenomena to be scientifically studied, such as: telekinesis, telepathy, premonition, intuitive mediumship, incorporation mediumship, clairvoyance, smelling mediumship, the existence of the spirit and of the conscience, of the thought, of the aura, and of the free will and its consequences. In addition, science should not allege the lack of a paradigm that comes to include the Intelligent Force in actuation on the Matter. It is necessary to include, in this situation, the fields of study of psychology, parapsychology, Spiritism and Spiritualism. Who knows it could be a union or unification of those areas of study with the physical and biomedical sciences to take forward scientific studies of this nature.
We believe that physicists would scientifically be able to investigate these fields with very great benefit to the humanity, if in fact they want to do so, discovering an entire invisible world, where the Intelligent Force, intangible and invisible prevails to the eyes of the vision sense. It is enough, for that, to make a serious and suitable systemic approach to the subject, without preconceptions. First of all, it is necessary to discover and to understand such phenomena – be they called of metaphysical, paranormal, psychical, extrasensory or transcendental phenomena – and their "real" nature. One should understand that they cannot be controlled or be "tamed" to the good pleasure of the experimenter, as it is the case of the "double personality" of the electron as wave and particle put by the principle of uncertainty of the quantum physics, accepted by the physicists. With the knowledge suggested in this paragraph and in the previous one, science will be able to understand where did we come from, what we are doing here on the Earth, and to where will we go after the physical death of the body, as well as, what is the true sense of life, all questions that are studied, but they remain without any solution since the beginning of humanity.
Unhappily, however, it seems that sciences, the society, and the institutions are fallen asleep to see that we need to cross this point of paradigmatic inflexion, in order to have a new vision of the world and of our relationship with it, since inherently we are part of the process in a dynamic and universal system, be it closed or open, the former case, if the universe is finite and in the latter case, if it is infinite. Thus, it seems that physics and the physicists are in a privileged position to study, in a more exact way, the human conscience and the humanity's destiny towards a more profound model of the human being, where certain phenomena "simply are." To finish, we still mention the words of parapsychologist Jalmir Brelaz (5):
Perhaps, our largest paradigmatic difficulty is to recognize the rational as limited, since we postulate it as infinite capacity of understanding on all; and, if it is not possible the knowledge of the existing model, rationally it will be understood in a (new) model, in the future.
We are living the overestimation of man´s rationality. We agree, in the words of Prigogine, that the idea of a limited rationality may express our condition better. We live in a pluralistic world and we should accept it with a limited rationality.
To the extent that society comes to adopt more qualitative and humanistic values, we will have more resources for the study of human’s potentialities, inside models that are not precisely organized, and thence one can move ahead regarding the independence psi over space and time, to the mind surpassing the brain, to the psi existing in the basic organizing processes of the living beings, and if there is a natural force in the PK phenomena, which is the energetic source, which are the factors that affect the intentionality and the selectivity of the paranormal phenomena.
For sure, after moving forward in that direction, science will be much more useful to humanity, answering, with conviction, so many and so many questions, which are currently defined in an incorrect way, and even falsely by many religions, charlatans, mystics, etc.
As observed previously, parapsychology already gave the first step in the direction of coexisting with the physics. We saw also that physics separated from philosophy around 1750, but it is already time for them to come back to each other. Regarding to Spiritism and Spiritualism, physicists don't want to hear speaking in spirit, either by fear or by preconception, or by any other reason, but one day, sooner or later, they will have to face the existence of the spiritual life inside (in the man) and outside, in the incorporeal life (in the space-time, in the spiritual worlds).
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SECOND PART
A MORE COMPLETE REALITY
SPECIAL NOTE 2:
The second part of this work treats of the spirit and its attributes, and also includes specific themes such as mediumship, intuition, free will, thought, aura and others correlated to the spiritual concept of live.
The spirit or soul (religious name for spirit) has no sex; therefore, its gender is neutral and as such it is purposely treated in the second part of this book. Same treatment is given to the inferior astral, the Superior Astral and to Intelligent Force.
Other special feature of the second part texts deals with the use of the words consciousness and conscience. Also purposely, we use the term conscience as one of the most significant attributes of the spirit, being inherent to it; while, the scientific correspondent usage by neuroscientists and psychiatrists employs the word consciousness, having it as a product of the brain. This is a remarkable difference taken into account in this work. Much attention should be given to this distinction on the part of the readers. This is a must to well understand the difference between the spiritualistic and materialistic point of view of human being and life on the Earth.
It is also to be noticed that there is great confusion in the use of the words consciousness, soul, and spirit. The use of the word spirit is consecrated by spiritists and spiritualists instead of soul, while religious people prefer the use of the word soul. Some scientists (physicists and biologists) use the word consciousness as if it were the spirit, but this brings a tremendous confusion, since consciousness being a product of the brain, which is Matter, it cannot be the same as spirit, which is Force.
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CHAPTER 6
THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRITISM
It is the duty of scientists – who learned the correct forms to work and researching – to examine phenomena that attracted the public's attention, to confirm if they were genuine or, if possible, to explain the illusions and tricks accomplished by those who intended to deceive people. (6)
Sir William Crookes – 1854.
Since the second half of the 19th century it was observed, in Europe, mainly in France and simultaneously in the United States of America, an unusual movement of inexplicable phenomena, nowadays, known by science as paranormal phenomena. Other series of invisible phenomena (mediumship, manifestation of occult forces, etc.) emerged and challenged the human understanding. We are referring to the phenomena that, although had as important and transcendental, kept little attention from the part of scientists, with exception of William Crookes, in England and Charles Robert Richet, in France. Therefore, we judged important to rescue the evidences of so many cases studied by those scientists and other honest and notorious researchers, highly respected in the societies in which they lived, around 160 years ago.
While that happened, science, already separated from philosophy since the mid of the 18th century, searched for his own path, studying and explaining a great quantity of physical phenomena, also invisible, of varied nature, such as, electricity, magnetism, electromagnetism, fields of force , etc..
Paranormal phenomena, name given by Charles Robert Richet, came to be scientifically studied by a new science – parapsychology, because the study of the referred phenomena escapes to the explanations of the common physical laws. Paralleling, out of the scientific community, researchers of another formation were also interested in the study of such phenomena, especially in France, whose works culminated with the appearance of Allan Kardec's Spiritism, in 1857. In this chapter we will appreciate Charles Richet´s efforts and to follow Allan Kardec's steps and of some of their followers, who received little or any recognition and merit, until today, for their works on the part of science.
Later, already in the beginning of the 20th century, in Brazil, with philosophical-spiritualist emphasis, it appeared the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism, in 1910, now denominated Christian Rationalism (1). We will dedicate the next chapter to the study and presentation of the knowledge spread out by Christian Rationalism.
We examined, in the chapters of that work contained in the first part – Our Objective Reality, the progress of the scientific researches since Isaac Newton, with base in the observation and in the experimentation methods. Physics, chemistry and biology accomplished, in this period, great feats. The benefits picked up by the society in technological terms were enormous. Cosmology, science that derived from astronomy, received an extraordinary impulse brought by the knowledge generated by those sciences and their technologies, mainly of physics, to the point of appearing, in the second half of the 20th century, more than ten new theories with the attempt to explain the universe, its origin, and why it exists in the form that it exists. Since fifty years ago and now, already in the threshold of the 21st century, physicists look for a "Theory of Everything", with the objective of explaining those great questions and to unify the physics four forces known as gravity, nuclear strong force, nuclear weak force and the electromagnetism in a single mathematical equation. For that, they continue supporting themselves on the two laws of relativity – The Special Theory of Relativity and The General Theory of Relativity, and in The Quantum Theory.
It is true that those theories opened the horizons for a better knowledge of the nature, of the universe and of the atom and their laws. But, we should not forget that they have some tough paradoxes that take off the sleep of many physicists. These are the words of the physicist and astronomer Marcelo Gleiser (2), in his book “The Dance of the Universe” (Brazilian edition):
As a small appetizer of what one will discuss ahead, here are seven "weird" consequences of the new physics: 1) an object in movement suffers a contraction of its length in the same direction in which it moves, 2) a clock in movement moves more slowly, 3) mass and energy can be converted in each other, 4) one can’t determine whether the matter constituents are waves or particles, the known duality wave-particle, 5) when one observes a physical system, we influence its performance; a clear separation doesn't exist between the observer and the observed thing, 6) the presence of the matter deforms the geometry of the space and alters the flow of the time, 7) we can’t determine the location of an object – just its probability of being here or there. In other words, we should abandon a description strictly determinist of the natural phenomena, at least in the atomic scale. And so on.
They are phenomena that go beyond the common sense and they are of difficult understanding by most of the common people, for they demand the knowledge of an advanced mathematics. However, they are had as true, although there is not, for some of them, unanimity on the part of the physicists' community. Nor for that they leave of being respected, until that another theory or facts present better explanation and come to dethrone them. Even so, science progresses through a successive series of true approaches by using the intuition, theorization and experimentation. Further on, same Marcelo Gleiser (2) says: "To the first view, relativistic or quantum phenomena seem bizarre because they are much beyond our immediate reality, inaccessible to our senses, and they are not part of the phenomena embraced by our 'common sense' .”
On the other hand, the class of phenomena on which we are treating (psychic phenomena, intuition, materialization, etc.) requires other perception senses different from our simple five physical senses. Then, we have to appeal for a higher sensibility, by using mediums or inventing electric, electronic and magnetic instruments or a very sensible combination of all them, besides optic and photographic digital instruments. There is an entire open field for that. And it is about that we are treating in this book.
Let us pass, therefore, to the historical exam of the knowledge already accumulated on psychic and paranormal phenomena since the works accomplished by those pioneers under the most adverse restrictions and distrust on the part of science and mankind, in general. The presentation which follows appears in the chronological order of their authors' birth names.
1. Allan Kardec (1804–1869)
Allan Kardec, pseudonym of Hipolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, was born in Lyon, France, of an old family, whose ancestors stood out in the legal profession and magistracy. But Allan Kardec, early, was attracted to the study of sciences and philosophy. His pseudonym was adopted in 1855 by intuitive suggestion.
In his youth, he went to Yverdun (Switzerland), where he studied at the Pestalozzi´s School founded by Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi, 1746–1827, the pioneer that reformulated the educational methods. Kardec became an outstanding Pestalozzi´s disciple and collaborator, taking his knowledge to France, where he divulged that educational system, which exercised great influence on the reform of the teaching in France and in Germany. Having learned the German language, Kardec translated to that language, different educational and moral French books, including the Fenelon´s works (3).
From 1835 to 1840, he founded and lectured, in his house, free courses on chemistry, physics, anatomy and astronomy, among others. He always worried himself about the teaching and the youths' education, having been, in that period, teacher, educator and author of educational books.
From 1855 on, he was taken by a friend to know the well-known experiences with the rapping tables, phenomenon that was promoted by magnetized people (mesmerism) and, also, in sessions which had the participation of mediums. After several sessions focusing the subject of the manifestations of the spirits, Allan Kardec surrendered himself to make persevering observations on those phenomena, aiming mainly to extract from them the philosophical consequences, because for him they were treated as inexplicable facts. Such facts are contrary to the laws of the nature that his reason repelled. In that way, "[...] he glimpsed, at once, the beginning of new natural laws: the ones that govern the relationships between the visible world and the spiritual world. Kardec recognized, in the manifestation of the spiritual world, as one of the forces of the nature, whose knowledge would throw light about an immensity of problems had as insoluble and he understood its reach, under the religious point of view.” (4)
In the period of 1857 to 1868, Kardec wrote and published his main works with the objective of consolidating a doctrine body about the Spiritism:
The Book of the Spirits (1857)
The Book of the Mediums (1861)
The Gospel According to the Spiritism (1864)
The Heaven and the Hell, or the Divine Justice According to the Spiritism (1865)
The Genesis, the Miracles and the Predictions (1868)
What Is the Spiritism (1869)
Post Mortem Works
In 1858, he founded the Spiritist Magazine, monthly newspaper of psychological studies. Passed the experimental phase, he founded, still in 1858, the first spiritist institution regularly constituted under the denomination of Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies, in order to institutionalize the spiritism as life philosophy and religion and, having as objective, the study of the psychic phenomena that could contribute to the progress of the new science.
Allan Kardec, who was much attacked by his opponents, defended himself through the press, with well based arguments, alleging that nothing he had written was under the influence of preconceived or systematic ideas. Kardec was a calm man of fair character, concerned with the facts of his observations, of which he construed the laws that govern them. He was the first to present a theory to such facts.
It is undeniable that, until then, the experimental spiritual phenomena observed in the United States of America and in England were scattered facts, of restricted reach and presented more as curiosities of stages or of laboratory, having been Allan Kardec the first to transform such facts in a doctrine body, which was begun in fact with the publication of his first book – The Book of the Spirits, in 1857.
The material proofs presented by the Spiritism about the existence of the soul and the future life tend to destroy the materialistic and pantheist ideas. One of the most fertile principles of that doctrine and that flows of the precedent is the one of the plurality of the existences, already perceived by several ancient and modern philosophers. (4)
Of him comes the explanation of all the apparent anomalies of human life, all of the intellectual, and moral and social inequalities, allowing man to know from where he comes, where he goes, and what on the Earth he does, and why he suffers. The innate ideas are explained by the acquired knowledge in the previous lives, the sympathies and antipathies for the nature of the previous relationships. (4)
Kardec’s Spiritism has as lemma: "Out of the charity there is no salvation, that is, the equality among the men before God, the tolerance, the freedom of conscience and the mutual benevolence.” And further on, the author adds: “There is no unshaken faith, except the one that can envision face to face the reason in all the humanity’s epochs. To the faith, a base is needed, and that base is the perfect intelligence of what one has to believe. To have faith it is not enough to see, it is necessary, above all, to understand (The Gospel According to the Spiritism).” (4)
2. William Crookes (1832–1919)
In the 19th century, around 1854, with the case of Fox’s sisters in Hydesville, in the United States of America, the spiritualistic phenomena began to gain evidence in the world and to wake up the attention of many researchers. In this context, Sir William Crookes played a fundamental role in the experimental investigation of the psychic phenomena.
William Crookes was one of the most notorious scientists of the second half of the 19th century, so much in the fields of physics as in chemistry. Graduated in electric engineering, autodidactic in chemistry and physics, having inherited a great fortune of his father, he became a scientific researcher with great work freedom. In 1855, he became academical teacher of chemistry at the University of Chester. In 1861, he discovered the chemical element thallium and, in 1875, he invented the radiometer – instrument used to measure the intensity of the luminous and caloric rays. In 1878, Crookes developed the cathodic-ray tube, the so-called Crookes´ tubes, which became the base of the electronic tubes (used in radio devices and later replaced by the transistors), of the apparatus of X-Rays, which is the precursor of the modern fluorescent lamps, of the TV tubes and computer monitors. Crookes, still, as scientific researcher, introduced improvements in the processes of spectrographic analyses and developed numerous formulations for production of photographic plates. For his meritorious works, Crookes received the honorary title of Knight, in 1897 from Queen’s Victory hands. And, also he received the honorary title of Order of the Merit, in 1910, from King James´ VII hands. Crookes was member of the Royal Society of London and also his president in the period 1913–1915 (5, and 6).
Besides, he also played a fundamental role in the development of the scientific researches regarding psychic or paranormal phenomena. He is considered, together with Charles Robert Richet, the pioneer of the scientific period of metapsychic, which later became known as parapsychology. Crookes always refuted all the attacks that he received along his life, without any alteration in their point of view, since he was always right of having accomplished the experiences with the approach and the correct scientific controls. In 1898, he wrote that, “[…] in spite of having passed thirty years since he accomplished and published the results of his first experiences, he didn't have something to reconsider and nothing to alter.” (6)
We can affirm that no scientist was so attacked in the phenomena that he studied and had his reputation as offended as Sir William Crookes had, but he stayed firm and honest in his convictions during all the time.
Since 1854, in Europe and in the United States of America, several mediums began to show off themselves, to demonstrate countless phenomena such as materializations, levitations and many others, for which a physical explanation didn't exist until then. Of great prominence, in 1854, they were the phenomena occurred with the Fox’s sisters. It was in that time that Sir William Crookes, with his international reputation of scientist, entered in scene to verify the so-called "spiritualistic phenomena", scientifically. Initially, Crookes showed himself very skeptical regarding such phenomena. But, he affirmed to be “[…] the duty of the men of science – who learned the correct forms of work and research – to examine phenomena that attracted the public's attention, to confirm if they were genuine or, if possible, to explain the illusions and the tricks accomplished by those who intended to deceive people.” (6)
William Crookes investigated about ten mediums, whose works were accomplished among the years 1869–1875, involving famous mediums like Daniel Dunglas Home, Florence Cook, Mary Marshall, Kate Fox, Charles Edward Williams, Annie Eva Fay, Stainton Moses, and others.
As soon as Crookes began to accomplish experiences with Daniel Dunglas Home, one of the most famous mediums of the time, his skepticism disappeared. He convinced himself that Dunglas possessed a powerful psychic force. When changing his opinion for the evidence of the facts, he began to receive an iron like opposition, and a very strong rejection on the part of the scientific community, which hoped that Crookes could reject the reality of the phenomena. Crookes´ manifestation in favor of the evidences that he picked in his experiences shocked his scientist friends and it was very bad for him.
Crookes informed that, with Daniel Dunglas Home, at least 100 cases of levitation well verified were produced. He mentioned, also, phenomena of the luminous type and of partial materialization, occurred in the presence of many different persons and even to the light of the illumination gas. They were also, verified telekinesis phenomena (movement of objects, as a flower, a hand, etc.). Crookes tried to feel the temperature of a materialized hand, and he declared that in some cases that hand was cold, in others, hot. In an opportunity, Crookes tried to hold someone’s hand, which simply dematerialized itself to his eyes. Crookes´ experiences with Daniel, the spiritual medium, are kept in the files of the Society for Psychical Research, the famous British SPR, in London. Also, his experiences describe physical effects like the movement of heavy bodies, without contact and without mechanical effort on the part of the spiritual medium. Crookes used to build devices to measure the phenomena, as levers, dynamometers and apparatus for graphic registrations.
However, Crookes´ more famous experiences were accomplished with the spiritual medium Florence Cook. In those experiences, Crookes obtained a total of 44 pictures of spiritual materialization. If the previous experiences shocked the scientific community, those provoked a true hostility and he was accused of acting in complicity with Florence Cook (6).
In July of 1869, he investigated Mary Marshall’s case (1842–1884), in which happened phenomena, such as, strokes in the table (raps), levitation and movement of table, direct writing in black board, etc. In December of the same year, Crookes attended the spiritual sessions of J. J. Morse (1848–1919), who was the most important spiritual psychophonic medium of the time.
In July of 1870, Crookes investigated the phenomena produced by Henry Slade, episode that was announced in advance through the local press by an article entitled "Spiritualism Viewed by the Light of Modern Science", published in the Quartely Journal of Science, in London. In this article, he declared that he didn't have preconceived opinions regarding the subject and that the experience had been suggested "[…] by an eminent man who exercised great influence in the thought of the country.” And, he added: "[...] the crescent use of the scientific methods will produce a generation of observers, who will throw the useless residue of the Spiritualism, once and for all, to the unknown limbo of the magic and of the necromancy" (3). Due to such declaration, the scientific community was in the expectation for a negative result of the experiences, but Crookes declared that the result was positive confirming the existence of the phenomena and the truthfulness of the Spiritualism (6). Then, it was born an aversion of the elites for the Spiritualism as science and philosophy. We believed that much of that aversion to the Spiritualism is credited to Auguste Comte's positivism, materialistic doctrine, which at that time, was in vogue for the whole Europe. A report published by the London Dialectical Society, in 1870, which concluded that the linked phenomena to the Spiritualism were true, had a terrible repercussion, so much in the press as among the scientists, in spite of presenting experiences accomplished by people above any suspicion. (6)
In addition, Crookes started to investigate the sensitive Kate Fox. The results of the experiences were published in the Quarterly Journal of Science, in 1871 and that results provoked a series of letters and articles in the local press attacking his work. Crookes refuted, point after point, in the same communication vehicles all the attacks he received.
In 1874, the spiritual medium Florence Cook (1856–1904), after having gone by an incident during a public presentation in that Katie King’s spirit was materialized, by her initiative she sought for Crookes, who accomplished the works with that spiritual medium under the most rigorous control. Katie King was said to be the pseudonym of Annie Owen Morgan’s spirit. What the people witnessed about that demonstration and the photos taken at the occasion didn't leave doubts about the observed phenomena.
Later on, the sessions were organized in Crookes´ laboratory and it was at that place that they were taken the best pictures, which showed at the same time, the materialization and the spiritual medium. According to Crookes´ narration: "Returning to my observation place, Katie appeared again and said that she thought to show to me at the same time that the spiritual medium (Florence Cook). It was stooped down the gas (of illumination) and Katie asked me a fluorescent lamp. After having shown to the clarity for a few seconds, Katie returned the fluorescent lamp to me. And then, Katie said: come in to see my spiritual medium.” I accompanied Katie closely to my library and, to the clarity of the lamp, I saw Miss Cook extended on the carpet, exactly as when I had left her, I looked around myself to see Katie, but she had disappeared" (7)
Hernani Guimarães (7) gave indications of the recognition that Crookes receives nowadays when he said that "[...] after more than one century, William Crooke’s extraordinary figure emerges limpid and majestic, challenging calmly those who still try, in vain, to mud his image. The work of this extraordinary wise person has been resisting to the course of the time and to the unfair and free attacks of his opponents, only because Crookes´ work is all limpid and plainly supported on a vast base of facts. Who studies, without malicious intent and without prejudices, William Crookes' works, stays impressed by the purity, simplicity and meridian clarity of his reports. From his works spring up the honesty, the firm conviction and the serenity of a wise person who calmly proclaims the truth, without disturbing himself with the judgment of others, for being him aware that the error is with those who deny the evidence of the facts."
William Crookes believed that a "force" existed, which is exercised by intelligence different from the common intelligence “[…] of the humans and that the scientific knowledge didn't get to notice.” In one of his important texts regarding the phenomena that he studied, Crookes said to be "[...] absolutely true that a connection was established between this world and the other.” Numerous other references were consulted (8, 9, 10, 11 and 12), given the importance of William Crookes' works.
What is expected is that the actual researchers follow that scientist's example, researching free of prejudices, but at the same time obeying the necessary criteria so that the experiences are not put under fraud suspicion. And, always considering that is quite necessary to be open-minded to receive and publish the results of investigations, any that they come to be.
3. Gabriel Delanne (1857–1926)
Gabriel Delanne was son of a humble merchant family. Born in France, he graduated in technical engineering, having worked little time in the local electricity company. Delanne´s parents had just become Kardec’s spiritist a little before he was born. His great merit was to work for the development of the Spiritism scientific bases, since 1880. In 1883, he affirmed in a conference that Jesus Christ didn't possess any divine and special nature, but Christ was endowed with notable intelligence and evolution. Delanne was Vice Presidente of the French Spiritist Union (1885) and Vice President of the French Society for Studies of the Psychic Phenomena (1898), institution that he helped to found. It is to observe that here he had already removed the name “spiritist” of the institution, showing his intent of standing back of the spiritist mysticism. (13)
In 1919, he founded the National Federation of the Spiritists of France, becoming his first President, society that incorporated the French Society for Studies of the Psychic Phenomena, of which he was Vice President. Gabriel Delanne made some researches assisting Charles Robert Richet (Nobel Prize in Medicine, in 1913, on anaphylaxis). Delanne gave many lectures on Spiritism in France and, in 1900, in the International Spiritist and Spiritualist Congress, in which he participated. In 1905, he also participated of another Congress promoted by the same institution, in Liege, France, occasion in which he gave a lecture on the thought, which had great repercussion. In 1906, he became paralytic of the inferior members (he used two canes) and, in 1918, he started using a wheel chair to move around (14).
Delanne´s first book was published in 1885, and the last one in 1924. He gave to the world seven works (being one in two volumes), all aiming to liberate the Spiritism of its evangelical mysticism and trying to give it mark of science. Only two of his works were not translated to the Portuguese language. In his first work, The Spiritism Before Science (1885), he deepened himself in the study of the perispirit. In the second work, The Spiritist Phenomenon (1896), he treated of the mediumship, materialization and telekinesis. In the third work, The Psychic Evolution (1897), he treated of the memory, madness, hereditariness, universe, etc. In his fourth book, The Soul Is Immortal (1899), which had great repercussion, he treated of the immortality, of the perispirit, of the spiritual unfolding, of the ponderablity and of the spiritualistic pictures. In the fifth book, Researches about Mediumship (1902) – only edited in French – Delanne treated of the cosmic and earthly evolution of the mediumship and of the plurality of the worlds. In his sixth work, in two volumes, which was not translated into Portuguese, and that could have received the title The Materialized Faces of the Alive and of the Deceased Beings (1909 and 1911), he exposed all that until then was learned about Spiritism, from the most ancient times. Finally, in 1924, he wrote his last book with the title of Documents to Serve as Studies to the Disincarnation, translated into Portuguese with the title of Disincarnation and that deals with the spiritual memory (15).
A disinterested vision of his evolutionary path, even for who didn't read Delanne´s books, making comparisons of how much was written on him and his works, takes us to conclude that, really, Gabriel Delanne made a very big effort trying to approximate Spiritism to science.
4. León Denis (1846–1927)
Here is a great idealist and spiritualist. He worked almost exclusively the philosophical ideas of the Spiritualism, and his conferences filled up the auditoriums. During 37 years he produced and lectured about 300 conferences (1873–1910)!
In his book, After the Death, León Denis gave a philosophical approach of easy understanding to the life and to the death regarding the existing materialism, to face the idea of the “anything” that spread out among the beings during the beginning of the 20th century. Some passages of that book expose us his ideas: (16)
The study of the invisible world demands too much prudence and perseverance. Only to the end of many years of reflection and of observation is that one obtains the knowledge of the life, is that one learns how to judge men, to discern their character, to protect oneself of the frauds of which the world is sowed. More difficult still of obtaining it is the knowledge of the invisible 'humanity' that surrounds us and floats above us. (p. 189)
The education, based on an exact conception of the life, would transform the face of the world. Let us suppose each family taught in the spiritualistic faiths sanctioned by the facts and introducing them to the children, at the same time in that the common school taught them the science principles and the marvels of the universe: a fast social transformation would be operated then under the force of that double current (p. 312)
The Spiritism explains the past, illuminates the old spiritualistic doctrines and ties systems seemingly contradictories. It opens new perspectives to the humanity. Starting it in the mysteries of the future life and of the invisible world, it (the Spiritism) shows (to the humanity) the true situation in the universe, makes it to know the double nature – corporal and spiritual – and it pulls the curtain to infinite horizons. (p. 325–326)
Consider that those phenomena will raise larger revolution than the ones that have been registered in history, opening to all persons the unknown perspective of the future lives. (p. 328)
In the book, The Being's Problem, of the Destiny and of the Pain, León reveals us his spirit sharpness for these mortifying questions. Here he reveals a little of his life and of the vicissitudes by which he passed in the end of his existence.
In the book, Christianism and Spiritism, he makes considerations on moral and on the antagonism science–religion, as it will be seen, to proceed:
The new Spiritualism will make to appear, to the eyes of who research and of who suffer, the amazing vision of a world of impartiality, of love and of justice, where all is regulated with order and wisdom, harmoniously. (p. 13)
In the book, The Great Enigma, he deals with the difficulty of allying the Spiritualism and the science. See this passage: "The Spiritism will be what men do of it" (Introduction, p. 9). Here are some other passages:
It is with displeasure that we observed certain followers' tendency in the sense of despising the high feature of the Spiritism, the source of the pure teachings and of the high inspirations to restrict themselves to the field of the experimentation earth-to-earth, to the exclusive investigation of the physical phenomenon. Those followers would intend to accommodate the Spiritism in the shy bed of the science, but this, entirely impregnated with the materialistic theories, oppose to that alliance. With the spiritualistic studies, a new science is going to appear slowly, but it is necessary to ally to the spirit of scientific investigation the “elevation of the thought”, the feeling, the impulses of the heart, without which the communion with the superior beings becomes impossible.
There is no possibility of success or guarantee of result without the attendance and protection of the high, which is not obtained unless through the mental discipline and a pure and worthy life. (p. 10)
The good mediumship is formed slowly, in the calm and silent study, recollected far away from the mundane pleasures and of the tumult of the passions. (p. 62)
The mediumship is a delicate flower that, to blossom, needs to have perfect precautions and attentive cares. It demands method, patience, high aspirations, noble feelings, and, above all, the tender care of the good Spirit that involves the mediumship in its love, in its living fluids. Almost always, however, they want to do it to produce premature fruits and at once the mediumship is influenced by the contact with the late spirits. (p. 67)
Of the book, In the Invisible, to finish up, we transcribed the following passage:
There are, in both sexes, excellent mediums, however, to the woman is granted more beautiful psychic faculties. Then, the eminent role is reserved to her in the diffusion of the new Spiritualism. (p. 75)
5. Charles Robert Richet (1850–1935)
Charles Robert Richet was a man exclusively dedicated to science. He was the founder of metapsychic. His role was fundamental in the process of unmasking the stranger world of the psychic phenomena. Graduated in medicine (1869) and in sciences (1878) by the University of Medicine of Paris, he became professor of physiology at that university with 37 years old. In 1913, he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his researches on anaphylaxis. During 24 years he also, published the magazine Scientific Revue (1878–1902) and, in 1917, he was co-editor of The Journal of Physiology and General Pathology, of Paris. Charles Robert Richet was the discoverer of the serum therapy. In 1905, then president of the British Psychical Research Society, in London, he proposed the name of metapsychic to this field of knowledge, in which he included the study of criptestesia, telekinesis and ectoplasm (17).
Out of his specialty, in philosophy and psychology fields, he left us some works, but his more important work was the Metapsychic Treaty. In that work, Richet included numerous facts and detailed descriptions of psychic experiences, historical and qualifying descriptions that collaborated very much for the understanding of the psychic phenomena in general. But, his largest contribution was to the study of the ectoplasm (fluids emanated from spiritual mediums) and that, according to Richet, was the responsible substance for the feasibility of objective phenomena. Richet made experiences of materialization with the mediums Eusapia Paladino and Marthe Beraud, who woke up the curious people of his time. With this latter medium, he had Gabriel Delanne´s collaboration, occasion in which Richet asked to the "materialization" to blow through a tube the "air of its lungs.” As the result of that “experimentation” the liquid became a white muddy, revealing the presence of carbon dioxide gas (property of the breathing of the living organisms) (17). Still linked to that area of knowledge, Richet wrote several books, namely: The Great Hope, The Sixth Sense, The Door of the Mystery, The Man and the Intelligence, besides others inside of his specialty of scientific medicine.
Richet classified the history of the psychic phenomenology in four periods, to know: 1) Mythical Period, that comes from the historical origins to Mesmer, (1776); 2) Magnetic Period, that comes from Mesmer to sisters Fox, (1847); 3) Spiritist Period, that comes from the sisters Fox, passing by Allan Kardec to William Crookes (1872), and 4) Scientific Period, that extends from Crookes to his present time. (17)
The metapsychic phenomena were classified by Charles Richet in two general groups: 1) subjective phenomena that happen exclusively in the psychic area, without any dynamic action on material objects, phenomena to which Allan Kardec denominated, years before, of intelligent; and 2) objective phenomena, the manifestation of which involves physical action on material objects, known in the spiritist language by the name of physical phenomena. This classification is still currently used by parapsychology. (17)
Charles Richet opened a different path, strictly scientific, without ever he have become spiritist. In fact, he was an experimental follower of Sir William Crookes and Gabriel Delanne´s experiments. We see here, without malicious intention, a certain incompatibility among Richet´s strictly scientific works and Kardec’s doctrine, which until nowadays didn’t get rid of the mystic "rancidity" of the Gospel, which makes it more similar to a religion than a philosophical and scientific doctrine. Similar critic was made by Arthur Conan Doyle, famous English writer, creator of Sherlock Holmes as scientific investigator policeman, in his book The History of the Spiritualism. It is observed that, at that time, the French spiritualist movement was already totally dominated by the rites, being excepted, on this time, just Gabriel Delanne, that, very sick, insisted with his French Society for Studies of Psychic Phenomena and its publications in the magazine The Spiritism. It was natural that Richet, who had become Delanne´s friend, was rigid as for the scientific methodology is concerned; his seriousness as investigator was what gave him the Nobel Prize in Physiology, in 1913.
In the same field of work we found his contemporary Gustave Geley and Ernesto Bozzano, the former, who wrote the book Human Metapsychic. In some occasions Richet and Bozzano diverged in their opinions, but without invalidating the contribution of each one to the studies to which they devoted themselves.
CHAPTER 7
THE ADVENT OF THE CHRISTIAN RATIONALISM
To distinguish the false from the true is the only way to see clear and to keep safe in this life. A perfect knowledge of everything that all man can have is so necessary to rule our habits as the use of the eyes to guide our steps. To work for well thinking, here is the moral principle (1)
Renée Descartes, philosopher and scientist.
The phenomena of the incorporeal life have always caused and continue causing strangeness to everyone who is not interested to verify and to investigate their true nature, looking with perplexity and even carelessness such phenomena.
The knowledge of the incorporeal life is as old as the world. Philosophers and scientists of high evolution, from the most remote epochs and in several countries have thrown the seeds of so necessary information. However, the action of dodgers and powerful people from all of the eras are delaying the diffusion of so necessary teachings. They are persons who were worried only with their material interests, and always opposed to those ideas, taking advantage just for themselves and the minorities that get to gather around them.
In the distant past, spiritualistic teachings of high value, of ethical and moral nature, were spread out in Asian areas and countries (India and China), Middle East, (Palestine) Africa (Egypt) and Europe (Greece and Italy). Krishna, in India, since 2,300 years B.C., had already proclaimed the existence of the Universal Intelligence and the immortality of the soul by means of multiple reincarnations: "the body is finite but, the soul that inhabits in it is invisible, imponderable and eternal (1)." In China, we will find Buddha who, since 2,500 years from now, spread out his noble teachings. In the Low Egypt, we will find Hermes Trismegistus, who proclaimed that the Universal Intelligence is the unique Creative Force of whatever exists in the universe and that its attributes are the immensity, the eternity, the independence, the all powerful will and the will without limits (1)." In old Greece, we will find Socrates and Plato, about 300 years B.C., with their teachings that brought to us that great truth: “The ignorance of the truth is one of the largest evils that afflict the world.” In addition, Jesus, in Palestine endorsed them, when he said that “only the truth will set free the humanity of the ignorance and prepare it for the accomplishment of its own duty (1)." Cicero, in Rome, about 50 years A.C., proclaimed his four principles: perspicacity of spirit or ponderation, justice, value or volition greatness and moderation (1). Moving forward until the 18th century we see René Descartes, in France, in 1750, affirming: “To distinguish the false from the true is the only way to see clear and to keep safe in this life. A perfect knowledge of everything that all man can have is so necessary to rule our habits as the use of the eyes to guide our steps. To work for well thinking, here is the moral principle.” (1)
In the former chapter we treated of the pioneer scientists and researchers, free thinkers, who decided, in the second half of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century, to face the quite adverse being’s opinion, either from the public or from science, to the study of the psychic phenomena.
In Brazil, in 1910, it appeared the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism – an eclectic doctrine with scientific, philosophical and spiritualistic foundations that now has the name of Christian Rationalism, having as objective the spiritualization of humanity.
It is about the founders and about the consolidator of that doctrine that we will treat in this chapter, making a quick historical exam of their personalities. The following presentation appears in the birth chronological order of those brave spiritual researchers.
1. Luiz de Mattos (1860–1926)
Luiz José de Mattos Chaves Lavrador (2, 5), who simply used his name as Luiz de Mattos, was born in Chaves, Portugal, and arrived in Brazil in 1873, with 13 years old. After his arrival, he completed his studies at Colégio São Luiz, in Rio de Janeiro.
After finishing his studies, he settled down later, in Santos – Sao Paulo, standing out as merchant in the purchase and export of coffee from that place, and in Rio de Janeiro, where he founded a branch of his own business. As entrepreneur, he stood out himself also, with other businesses in Rio de Janeiro in the area of garbage treatment and distribution of meats.
During his merchant life, he got great respect on the part of Santos society, having founded several companies. Early, he has always dedicated himself to help any person. Still, as a young, he fulfilled numerous humanitarian works. He founded the Humanitarian Society of the Commercial Employees and the Royal Center of Portuguese Cologne of Santos. Still in this city, he recovered and became President of the Royal Beneficent Society of Santos and he was one of the great benefactors of the Asylum of the Poor Childhood of Santos.
Luiz de Mattos was a great abolitionist and he was a dedicated friend of José do Patrocinio, Júlio Ribeiro, Campos Sales, Bernardino de Campos, Luiz Gama and so many others, all of them, great abolitionists. He gave great importance to the cause for which he fought until the promulgation of the laws of the slaves' liberation. Invited to participate as a politician, he refused. In 1887, he was appointed Vice-Consul of Portugal, in Santos. He received several honorary titles, included one as Commendatore. Regarding honorary titles, he said, "It is preferable not to have them and to deserve them than to have them and not to deserve them."
In his private life, he was a man dedicated to the family. On those hours of restfulness, he surrendered himself to the reading of great thinkers' works of all regions of the world, since that he had a bulky library, and he was always reading a book, to absorb its teachings. He was, also, a great pioneer of the ecological movement, having been a great nature admirer, resting in a farm whenever it was possible. His daughters were treated with austerity, but with a kindness without limits, giving them the formal education and teaching them the good Christian morals. To conclude, he was austere, methodical and yet a disciplined man, always having hours for everything.
Luiz de Mattos didn't have any religion, and behaved himself as a materialistic until he was 50 years old. He studied and analyzed the evolution of various religions through the history and he concluded that either they had been daughters of mythology or of primitive and ritualistic sects. Among about eight thousand sects and religions that exist in the world, he highlighted the Catholic religion. Nevertheless, he didn't agree with the treatment that this religion attributed to Jesus Christ. In this way, he was a free thinker, an honest materialist, creating for himself the religion of the family and of the duty in which he has lived. Luiz de Mattos, at that epoch, was attacked by a heart stroke. He was near to death, but he ended up recovering himself from that crisis. On that occasion, his doctor recommended and suggested him to seek and to know about the Spiritism. He abominated Spiritism to the point of obliging his daughters to copy book texts written against the same, and he resisted to his doctor’s recommendations. But, of so many and so many insistences on the part of his friends, including Luiz Alves Thomaz, also merchant, whose mini-biography is presented below, he ended for deciding to know the Spiritism works.
Certain day, Luiz and his friends went there and arrived at the door of a "little house", where the spiritualistic center had been installed.
There arriving, he was invited to preside the séance, what caused to him great strangeness. But due to the insistence of the presents, he ended up accepting. What then he witnessed took him to reflect on the spiritual phenomena, examining with much concern the written text received through the spiritual medium (psychography). This was the beginning of his reasoning about the incorporeal life.
In the following day, Luiz de Mattos assumed again the presidency of the séance, in which occasion a new message was received. Such communication was given and written in readable French, free of mistakes. This fact caused serious amazement to Luiz de Mattos, who asked to his friends, after the séance was ended, whether the spiritual medium was instructed or not. In addition, Luiz de Mattos asked the spiritual medium to write some thing in French, in order to certify himself if it was true, and he were not being victim of any mystification. Informed about the moral, material, and intellectual conditions of the spiritual medium, he remained convinced that an important phenomenon there had happened.
Talking with Luiz Alves Thomaz and other friends he told them, then, what he had observed had caused great fright and forced him to meditate on the cause of the effects that he had observed. Luiz de Mattos was always interested in the causes in order to obtain a wise and acceptable explanation or not about the produced effects.
Thus it happened in the next séance when other marvelous phenomena occurred. There was a manifestation in English, which Luiz de Mattos analyzed, verifying it to be clearly readable. At this time, he was also informed that his children, who were very sick, attacked of tuberculosis, disease without cure, were already being treated by remedies from the Brazilian flora and prescribed by a spiritual medium. Due to this treatment they reached sensitive relief, and finally this resulted in definitive cure of their disease, what in fact happened. At the end of the séance occurred the manifestation of jesuit Ignácio de Loyola’s spirit, who challenged and insulted Luiz de Mattos barbarously. Immediately, Priest Antônio Vieira, Astral President in that séance, intervened and indoctrinated Luiz de Mattos, and informs him of his mission as indoctrinator:
You, be calm! Observe that the spiritual medium is a simple spokesman of the spirits. Be patient! Learn and I will help you, however, it is upon to you to undertake the indoctrination, not only for this case, but also so for many thousands of others that will appear to you. You should help me to clean the atmosphere of the Earth from these spirits that stay fallen themselves on it for the practice, still more stupid of crimes, which they already practiced when incarnated they were. You woke up late; it was for you to have begun these works with me since 26 years ago. However, you woke up now and it became necessary that the heart attack shook you in order to remind that life doesn't go down to the grave, and yes it ascends to the Space to link to other lives. In addition, you should not waste more time. Help me, therefore, my son, and others will join you to take forward the marvelous Christ's doctrine. That spirit that has just spoken is Inácio de Loyola, who was yours and my fellow in several incarnations. There are 400 years since he was fallen on the Earth atmosphere, as terrible obsessor and chief of great phalanges. It is up to you to indoctrinate him and to show him the mistake in which he has lived. Here, Luiz de Mattos became aware about his true mission!
After this remarkable episode, and finished the séance, Luiz de Mattos didn’t missed the works in that center, which being poor, materially speaking, it was rich of light, intelligence, and knowledge, finally.
In the following séance, again, there was a new manifestation from Loyola’s spirit and, because Luiz de Mattos was forewarned by the Astral President, Priest Antônio Vieira, he left Loyola speaks freely. Suddenly, Luiz de Mattos enters in a long discourse about the nature, referring to God, not as the man's likeness, but as the Universal Intelligence, irradiating to every place where life exists. Loyola got astonished of what he hears from his jesuit former-companion, as Monk Bernardo or Saint Bernardo when incarnated, and he maintains a long dialogue, being enlightened by Luiz de Mattos to ascend to his origin world. We stopped reproducing the long dialogue that followed, and we recommend the interested people to the reading of reference (2), wherefrom we have got those information.
Later, Luiz de Mattos´ companions, who have witnessed that séance, said to Luiz de Mattos that they were impressed with the things they heard from him. Then, he answered them that he couldn’t remember of what he had spoken. Moreover, he added that all came to him suddenly and he didn’t even know how to explain the discourse on the Universal Intelligence, because until then, he was materialist and skeptics, not believing about the deifying of Christ's image on the part of the religions. Now, however, analyzing his work, he had concluded that Christ was a man of courage, brave and capable to react to any insults, when challenged.
Luiz de Mattos, however, was still resentful from the preconception that he had against the low Spiritism. Because he saw those who attended to the low Spiritism ended in the poverty, he thought about the family, and on what would be necessary to spend with the creation of an institution of the magnitude of such beautiful doctrine. And he feared, alone, to hold up so much responsibility. Many other phenomena were necessary so that Luiz de Mattos´ investigating the soul didn’t hesitate any more. Then, by the insistence and assistance of the Superior Astral, he took one and a half years in consecutive studies until he came to undertake, together with Luiz Alves Thomaz, who assumed the material part, the decision of captaining the setting up of so marvelous Doctrine.
Thus, it was raised the Christian Rationalism, in 1910, at the city of Santos with the name of Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism. Today the Doctrine, with the name of Christian Rationalism, is set up and in fast growth in 20 countries, with about 165 branches.
2. Luiz Alves Thomaz (1871-1931)
Luiz Alves Thomaz (3, 5) was born in Portugal and with 15 years old came to Brazil in search of better life conditions, as had already made so many Portuguese immigrants. By the volition of winning, allied to the work capacity, he got to emerge from the poverty to the wealth with dignity and worth, due to his larger vision in the creation and direction of his businesses.
This great, strong and energetic man, extremely simple, with strong personality, productive, controlled and determined, dedicated all his beneficial existence to the hard work in order to his larger earnings were reverted in charities, in aid to asylums, hospitals, schools and humanitarian institutions.
His name was perpetuated in the Christian Rationalism history beside Luiz de Mattos´ higher personality, the encoder of the Doctrine.
After the recognition of the facts and phenomena seen in the first healing séances in the spiritist center, where they began their studies, Luiz Thomaz joined to Luiz de Mattos decided to begin their own spiritualist doctrine. Always following the intuitions received from the Superior Forces, both already conscious of the incorporeal life, put ahead the same noble ideals, and finally they joined their efforts in order to found the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism.
Luiz Thomaz was an unconditional friend of Luiz de Mattos, reserving part of his patrimony in order that nothing could lack to Luiz de Mattos for the codification and setting up of the Doctrine. Luiz Alves Thomaz symbolizes the virtue of friendship. Let us mirror ourselves in the examples of renunciation of this great spirit, for what he was as human being and for what he represented for the foundation of the Christian Rationalism.
He was and continues being one of the pillars of the Christian rationalist thought, serving as guideline to every enlightened creature, not only by the content of his history, but also by the opportune messages that are transmitted to us.
3. Antonio do Nascimento Cottas (1892–1983)
Antonio do Nascimento Cottas (4, 5) was born in Sirvuzelo, Portugal, and came to Brazil still young, having assumed the direction of the Christian Rationalism, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1926, as successor of Luiz de Mattos. He exercised the merchant's profession in Rio de Janeiro. Later on, completely free from his material and professional commitments, he devoted himself, with courage and soul firmness, to the popularization and expansion of the Christian Rationalism Doctrine.
Antonio Cottas – that was his abbreviated name, had an obstinate temperament, and due to the energy of his spirit and the fortress of a privileged organism lived a methodic and disciplined life. His way of life kept him free from vices and from all that was harmful to his health, to the character and to the behavior of the human being in this planet. His virtues were latent and early blossomed, revealing the love to the work and fidelity in the fulfillment of his duties. Antonio Cottas was always a respectful person and everyone respected him. Therefore, his character sparkled, while he maintained discreet and always naked of any vanity, of any prepotency feeling, but he knew how to impose in his actions and ideas. Antonio Cottas was severe, a true person and he did not feed discriminatory feelings. We remind that, in the working ambient, he always received everybody who sought for him, with much respect and humility and such attitude was done with satisfaction and simplicity.
Thus is the men's profile that stands out in the complexity of the human existence, where some of them live dived in the ambition of the power and of the ostentation, while luminous spirits like Antonio Cottas was completely against promotions, honors, titles, etc. with which he was honored many times. Antonio Cottas was a fortress of the Christian Rationalism Doctrine in the difficult years of its setting up, and conducted the doctrine for 57 years, in the period 1926–1983. He left to everyone who knew him, unequivocal examples of proficuus, exemplary and laborious administration, always directed towards the general welfare and the development of the Doctrine, and due to that, being admired and respected by everyone.
4. Vision of Future – Conclusion
All of us know that neither science nor philosophy or any doctrine may be considered finished. The humanity progresses and with it the societies and the cultures that accompany it. Allan Kardec, in The Genesis, wrote: "Walking stepwise with the progress, the Spiritism will never be over passed, because, if new discoveries demonstrate to be in it a flaw, concerning any point, then, the Spiritism would modify in that point. If a new truth reveals itself, the Spiritism will accept it.” Equally, Charles Richet admitted that "his first Treatise on Metapsychic will have the common fate and it will remain backwards, and it will finish in disuse because of the progress of this new science will be faster."
Likewise Kardec and the metapsychic researchers believed in a fast progress of the psychic sciences, also the Christian Rationalism, which is a scientific-philosophical-spiritualist doctrine, and has one of its pillars in the evolutionism, continues explaining to the people and the population about the serious things of life.
Actually, spiritualistic researchers of Allan Kardec, William Crookes, Richet and Luiz de Mattos´ carat do not appear anymore with so much frequency. We have observed that the contemporary scientists diverted the psychic researches for the being's material part in the expectation that they will find in the Matter the explanations for the numerous phenomena of the Intelligent Force actuation, or say, the Spirit. Thence, we come across ourselves with a numberless of works in the metapsychic area – "science that has as object mechanical or psychological phenomena due to forces that seem to be intelligent or due to the unknown powers, latent in the human intelligence", as well as, in parapsychology field, we meet J. B. Rhine’s works, professor at the Duke University, in the United States of America, and others that followed his steps.
Numerous questions such as: which is the nature of the Intelligent Force, what is consciousness, which is the center of our memories, wherefrom we came, whereto we go, what are we doing in this planet, what is spiritual evolution, how the universe began, and many others remain without answer on the part of science. It is not enough to study, to classify, to learn and to teach, it is really necessary to understand and comprehend what are the human being and the life, and what to do of it for the benefit of the spiritualization of the people.
We hope that, in the present century, this situation modifies itself and new lights turn out to be scientifically thrown on all, or at least, on some of man's transcendental quests, in order to accelerate his material and spiritual progress in the planet.
CHAPTER 8
THE INTELLIGENT FORCE
An invisible world of the spirit must exist that makes with that changes in the world of the matter occurs, and the evolution of this planet must receive orientation and external aid of superior and invisible intelligences, to which man is susceptible while spiritual being. Moreover, these intelligences must probably exist in beings of superior degree to us.
World of Life – Alfred Russel Wallace
(contemporary of Charles Darwin)
Science solely based in the organized matter is not science. Matter is the effect and not the cause. The cause, the main object, the main aim, is the Spirit, the Force that stirs up and puts into motion the Matter. Men have minutely studied what the eyes see, the hands touch, but not what the spirit feels and needs to know. Study what one sees, but also, study what one feels. To search, to study and understand the incorporeal life behind the organized matter is a duty of every intelligent scholar and sagacious man.
Carlos Chagas´ spiritual manifestation, received in the Christian Rationalism – doctor and scientist.
1. General Traces
In the chapter on Evolution, we began to deal with the action of the Force in each one of the kingdoms of the nature, but we didn’t emphasize the attributes of this Force, responsible for the diffusion of life in all the kingdoms of the nature, inclusive in the primitive atomic and molecular structures of the mineral kingdom. Here, this Force will be called as Intelligent Force, which is self-controlled, self-expressing and self-manifesting in all the observed forms of life. In this chapter we go into somewhat deeper on the nature and the evolution of the Intelligent Force.
When we mention that there is an intelligent cause, we are not referring to the God of religions, nor to the ideas of religious persons of all the religions about God, much less of a supra-mathematical God (the chance of the theory of the probabilities), or of the infinite of the infinitesimal calculus or the universal infinite. We are referring to another form to understand this intelligent cause. We are talking about causes or agents still not known by science, causes that are supra galactic or among galaxies, non- supernatural, because the natural is not only what is seen here on the Earth with our poor physical eyes.
Our eyes see only the objects and things that reflect the visible light, a minuscule fraction of the entire ample electromagnetic spectrum. Scientists speak a lot about reality and adore this concept as if it could be applied only to the material world. How it would be this reality, for example, if our physical eyes saw a bigger portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – for example, as if we had penetrating eyes like X-Rays? What we want to say is that all reality, either objective or subjective is always relative. This means that evolution is not simply limited to the material and materialized forms, but also to the Force, to the essence, to the Spirit.
The Force (gender), which embraces the Spirit (superior kind of the Force), always evolves and this evolution begins in the atoms, from the simpler (Hydrogen) to the more complex chemical natural element (Uranium). This happens so much in the mineral kingdom as well as in the vegetable and animal ones. Furthermore, all bodies are atoms that are developing their structures, each time, in more complex forms, under the action of the Force, during their transformation, as we saw in Chapter 3, where we treated on Evolution. After all, the universe and all that in it exists have a history and this history is far, very far from being completely known by man. Perhaps, we as human beings are passing through a super evolution without we can notice it; although the evolution is a very slow process, despite of the acceleration of the human evolution, even so its effects will only be observed after a long period. Thence, we are not visionaries when we’re thinking about an evolution towards a human "super-species", capable to use, for instance, the telepathy as biological mean of reception and transmission of thoughts. However the use of telepathy, in this current period of human evolution might bring enormous social implications and, therefore, it will have not to happen from the night to the day.
Man, as spirit and body (Force and Matter), is a perpetual cosmic traveler and he has an evolutional trajectory to fulfill here, on the Earth, participating of the evolution of all cosmic system. Force and Matter are the basic components of all that in the universe exists. These components are present everywhere, in the entire universe in their primordial components or under the organized form. It is the Intelligent Force that shapes the Matter, in an incessant and complex process of aggregation and desegregation. By means of these processes, the Force organizes and transforms the environment to provide the evolution of its intelligent particles that, in their numerous apparent forms, are constantly acting on the organisms giving to them life, specifically to man. In 1910, Luiz de Mattos (1) already proclaimed in his work, For the Truth – The Action of the Spirit on the Matter (p. 231–233), how the action of the Force is processed on the Matter:
The Force, the Universal Intelligence, is the creative vital element of all that exists. This Force, by its particles, is easily observed:
a) In the solid bodies, as in the crystal that reorganizes itself, when fragmented, obeying the geometric lines of its species, what denotes the action of an intelligent and directing element;
b) In vegetables, in its very variable and delicate constitution, since the grassy ones, the flowers, the great trees, […];
c) In the animal kingdom, irrational, from the domestic animal, more docile, to the fierce ones;
d) In putting into motion, to act, to think, to speak, to laugh and to cry of the human being [...];
Each living body contains a particle of the Force in evolution, in ascension, and thence the principle that doesn´t exist two equal things or beings in the nature [...];
It is not necessary to appeal to the miracle – the supernatural or bizarre, or to several doctrines, sources of absurd and entirely contrary theories to the truth and the common and natural laws that all rules, in order to have the certainty of the real existence of the Force, of the intelligence and of the matter, it is sufficient that each being may dominate oneself, and place oneself in good conditions to reasoning, in order to observe everything, and to see, to feel and convince oneself [...];
The diverse states or categories of the force are always in evolution, ascension, even so slowly, because all progresses and nothing retrogrades nor stops. But, this progress is only in relation to the Force, to the intelligence, because the matter already exists, such as it should be and is necessary, in its several states [...].
And, more ahead, in the same work (1), he affirms that:
The Force is also called of Universal Intelligence, Light, source of the life of all the beings, and which, acting as particles in the physical world, it organizes, it stirs up and it puts into motion all the bodies of the kingdoms of the nature.
That Force, this Universal Intelligence that also is called Great Focus, can be observed in the different kingdoms of the nature, and felt by the human being himself, in each moment, as ahead it will be seen, it is not from the Earth and, comes, in particles of diverse degrees, and here is subjected to the laws of the progress of all beings.
In virtue of those common natural and immutable laws, is that this Force stirs up and puts into motion the visible bodies and even the ones not seen by the naked eyes, but that they exist, surrounding us [... ].
To the long and during that entire uninterrupted and endless evolutionary path, the Force passes through all of the kingdoms of the nature – the mineral, the vegetable and the animal. During all this long passage, it always accumulates more and more Force and more Intelligence, passing by multiple and differentiated experiences and livings, until reaching a sufficient level of "information.” Then, the Force meets the requirements to evolve in the human being form, circumstance in which it makes already the use of conscience and of a basic intelligence, developed in all previous periods of apprenticeship. For the first time, the Force becomes capable to use the attribute of the free will, which nothing more is than the will power. With the attribute or faculty of the free will, the Intelligent Force begins to receive the denomination of Spirit, which is the individualized Force in the man, being able, then, among as many and as many options, to make intelligent choices and to assume the responsibility for his actions, what it does not happen in the animal world.
Of what it was exposed, it is intuitive that the Spirit, in the human creature, is the Intelligent Force, individualized and self-determined, that is, it already possess the attribute of the free will. From this outstanding fact, the evolution becomes fulfilled in a faster rhythm, and we may until say that it speeds up. This is proven when we consider the presence of the ancestral of man on the Earth, which counts only about two million years compared to an evolutionary history of three and half billions of years on the Earth. In the evolutionary timeline that figure represents only 0.06% of the total evolutionary time occurring on the Earth. What would have influenced so decisively in the speed of man’s progress? It is clearly that it was the use of the free will, allied to three other most important attributes of the spirit – the intelligence, the reasoning and the creativity. Still more surprising is this comparison when we segment the timeline of the human evolution (about two millions of years) and look at the last three hundred years, in which the evolution of the human knowledge became about hundreds or even thousands times faster, while that of the biological evolution in the man nor closely followed this rhythm! This is an assertion to reflect on the superiority of the Spirit on the Matter.
However, it is good to have always in mind that the free will is a weapon of two edges, being able to be used for the good or for the evil, according to the accomplishment that the human being will get from the lessons of the life. It’s what gave and will continue giving to the human being conditions to advance more quickly or not in direction to the maximum perfection that cannot be obtained in this plan of the existence. It is obvious that, man using his free will for the evil, will delay his evolution, losing a precious time absorbed in the sensations of the Matter. It is, also, easy to understand why the evolution of the emotional intelligence which, in last analysis, consists of the elimination of the animal instincts and purification of the feelings, cannot be obtained in a unique life or incarnation. Normally, it will take hundreds or until thousands of reincarnations, under the most diverse circumstances and until painful conditions to learn, to comprehend and to understand what it could have been done in some tens of reincarnations.
On the other hand, the human being also evolves in groups, societies and cultures of the most diverse. It is also intuitive to perceive that, in the evolution of the human beings made in great groups, many individuals become themselves recalcitrant latecomers, because of the bad use that they had made of their free will or due to the discouragement in the own effort to which they should apply themselves. Thus, throughout many lives, such individuals start to loose contact with those who had initiated their evolutionary trajectory to reach full perfection. We can make a well rational analogy, by observing that, for example, when a student is not approved in a determined school series and sees many of his colleagues passing ahead, he feels a sensation of frustration, remaining behind them. And, because all of them are united by affective links emerged from the common experiences by which they had passed throughout many lives, he feels an enormous pain in this separation or removal. Thence, his desire would be to speed up still more the learning to reach the group to which he belonged.
From this stimulation and occult impulse results the great force that impact us to preserve our own life, striving the person himself to exceed the barriers and obstacles by using his willpower with the aim to surpass his own delay. In order to restart a new course, since the Earth is a scholarship world, the person participates of new experiences that qualify him to surpass his delay and reach greater evolution, and, preferentially, to come and join to his evolutive group. Those that, when reintegrating in a new life, deviate from the conditions and dispositions established by themselves and continue creating new delays, lose time, and not recovering themselves, they stay backwards because the evolution never stops and all the group need to continue. It is therefore due to this that many persons take more time to arrive at full perfection.
This global evolutionary vision is the opposite of the current vision adopted by the scientists. The scientists established that all that exists is made of matter and all can be appropriately reduced to elementary particles of the matter – the improperly so-called building blocks of the universe. In addition, in function of the interactions, the atoms are formed and these come to form the molecules, and in this ascending causation, the RNA (ribonucleic acid) and the DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid or double helix) molecules are formed, the latter being the component of the genes, which, by their turn, are contained in the cells. Very well that it is like so and, materially speaking, so it is, but where the vital force or the Intelligent Force is? They arrive at the point to re-examining the concepts of spontaneous generation, abandoned, since the 19th century, in function of the experiences made by the notorious French researcher Louis Pasteur. Where do they put the free will, intelligence, conscience, thought, feelings, etc., that are incorporeal elements and all attributes of the spirit itself? What do they intend to find in the brain, which is matter and neurons, synapses and neurotransmitters? And, to what condition it was relegated the free will, master spring of the human evolution?
These and other uncountable questions will be examined along this and in the next chapters of the second part of this work, adopting an opposite point of view to science. Through this point of view, herein explained, it is established that it was the Intelligent Force that gave "the first steps" on the Earth by means of evolution in the kingdoms of the nature, and finally, the Spirit that gave continuity to evolution in the man himself. We would like to make, since then, a basic distinction: the evolution of the Force in the kingdoms of the nature has been made and continues being made by means of change in the shapes, that is, the Force evolves and continues evolving to perfecting the bodies that it animated and still animates. However, in the human being the evolution of the shape almost ceased and gave place to the evolution of the spirit by means of the accumulated knowledge, during numerous lives, and that is kept in the perispirit – the subconscious mind of psychologists. What we intend to clarify is that the Intelligent Force precedes the Matter and it livens up it in an incalculable variety of shapes in all that exists in the universe. And here it is a very great field for the research by the scientists, mainly physicists, biologists, physicians, neuroscientists, psychologists, parapsychologists, and, why not to say also, philosophers, whatever it may be the religions they profess.
2. Universal Intelligence
Of all the negative and positive numerous feelings inherited from the animal instinct and that comprise the modern man’s emotional intelligence, we emphasize the selfishness that generates the prepotency. In the struggle for survival, man continues carrying this noxious inheritance. Thence, it is the egoism, directly derived from the instincts, from the bad habits and from the imperfections that directs man to assume a false idea of power, which is contaminated by pride and prepotency. One deals with a presumptuous power, in which the humility of the true scholars does not fit.
Beyond this power feeling, derived from the animal instincts and of man’s bad understanding of himself as Force and Matter, the primitive man was also surrounded of fear by all the sides, once that he did not understand the forces of nature and their effects, catastrophic many times, what it is still today observed. Thus, it was natural that he had the need to imagine or to create a supreme being, superior to all men, made to his likeness, and according to his intellect and will, to which he could direct himself in moments of weakness, fear, afflictions and of physical sufferings, and to which he could deliver his destiny. From there to the idolatry, invention of idols by the wild peoples and gods of the paganism was just a step. Even though, have passed many millenniums, in Egypt and Greece, and even though in ancient Rome, innumerable gods were worshipped and adored.
Although almost all sects and religions (they are about 8,500 in the world) be currently monotheists, the religious continue venerating and adoring their idols or saints, thus keeping an inherited tradition from polytheism. It is easy, therefore, to understand why the faith and the adoration took roots in the cult of almost all the religions that adopted the idea of (2) "[…] a materialized supreme being., that after many denominations began to be called with just one denomination: the "God all-Almighty", but still so, similar to the image of each people.” And, still today, this is what happens in many religions, each people having his own God, varying the name and the cults. It would be difficult to imagine that, for example, a people of the black race, could have his God with aspect of the white race or that the Chinese people presented his God or gods with facial appearance of the white race.
But, on the other hand, there are those who, in very lesser ratio, religious or not, feel the necessity of connecting to the immaterial and imponderable Whole, which the human being does not see and cannot touch. Nevertheless, they can feel it in all its supreme greatness, as Creative Force or Universal Intelligence, that permeates all the things and beings in the entire whole universe and give life to them. That is exactly the opposite of the "[…] idea to adore it, taking as such, what it was invented by the instinct, by the habit and by the disordered desires of all the ignorant beings, limiting all to his image, to its ´Self´, since for religious people God had to be a figure of man or another one with earthly physical form, superior to the man, emerging from this erroneous idea, the materialization of the Force" (2).
Before of the spiritualist vision proposed by Luiz de Mattos that in the universe it only exist Force and Matter, it is in the Force that one finds the explanation for all the transcendent phenomena, which were not yet explained by science. Seen under this approach, it is easy to understand and intuitively comprehend what it is the Universal Intelligence, Creative Force or Great Focus, as such, and not “the God” invented by the religions, because such thing does not exist. The Creative Force, as the own name is saying is the First Principle, the Mother Soul of all that exists and has its life in the entire whole universe.
3. Scientific Vision of Universal Intelligence
With the advent of the quantum physics, many phenomena had brought great embarrassments to their discoverers. These, accustomed to all explain based on the Matter and its fundaments, had started to make use of a vast field for study, outcome from the knowledge of the atomic nucleus and its particles. Despite this, not always they had success and many paradoxes still remain defying intelligences of the best scientists. We go to examine here, the main ideas that have been proposed by some of these scientists about Universal Intelligence or Cosmic Intelligence, without worrying in criticizing them.
It derives from the quantum physics the main theories to explain the universe, and how the life appeared on the Earth, as well as its interrelation with the universe, we go to start with the paradox raised by Alain Aspect’s experience.
Alain Aspect and his Fantastic Quantum Experience
The first ideas that led to the knowledge of the quantum physics had beginning around 1900. In 1925, the equations of the quantum mechanics had been discovered, and the quantum physics became accepted as source of the truth for scientists. Thereafter, the knowledge of the intimate part of the matter and the physical forces that act in the interior of the atomic nucleus have been the main object of the researches of physicists. Many theories had experimentally been confirmed in sophisticated and very expensive laboratories, while others remain insolvable or even represent true inexplicable paradoxes. In 1982, Alain Aspect and his collaborators (3), at the Paris University – France had executed experiments that truly indicated the notion of the intangible and, specifically, the notion of transcendence in the sub-atomic world. In former years to this date, the quantum physics came giving indications that it should be levels of reality beyond the material level. Initially, particles like the electron for example, seemed sometimes to behave as wave, and sometimes, as particle (matter), that is, they seemed to have double "personality", or physically saying, they had a double character. From these comments, Heisenberg inferred his "Theory of the Uncertainty", in which he says to us that it is not possible to establish, at the same time, the position and the speed of an electron in each moment. It is not a usual wave, but a wave in potential. It was when Einstein ridiculed this theory, saying, "God does not play dice.” The potential of these quantum waves passed to be considered as surpassing the matter, or they had a transcendent character.
Until the Aspect’s experience, this concept was not very clear and was until denied by many physicists. Then, the Aspect’s experiment came to confirm that such fact is not just a theory, since this character of transcendentalism really exists in potential, or being, the particles have really connections with the exterior space and time. What this experience demonstrated is that when an atom emits two quanta of light, called photons, launched in opposite directions, in some form these photons instantaneously affect the behavior of each other at a distance, without exchanging any signal throughout the space.
Well, we know that Einstein had demonstrated, in the beginning of 20th century, with his Theory of Special Relativity that two objects cannot instantaneously affect one to the other in the space-time. Such event would takes a certain time to one of them reach the other, even that the space between them went through to the maximum speed of light, or say, approximately at a constant velocity of three hundred thousand kilometers per second. This is the idea of "locality" that derives from the fact that any signal is local in the sense that it should take a certain time to displace to another point in the space. And despite this, if the photons emitted by the atom in the Aspect’s experience (4) influences one to the other, at a distance, apparently without exchanging signals, is because this phenomenon is happening instantaneously, and therefore, to a greater speed than that of the light. Then, we must recognize that this influence should belong to the "transcendent domain of the reality.” This striking experience showed to physicists that something very important is subjacent to the sub-atomic particles, which nothing has to see with the material reality, of which physicists praise themselves so much. However, insofar as physicists are concerned, this experiment points out to new routes for the physical research, besides the creation of the non-locality concept applied to all that can be considered instantaneously. We will see more about this concept on the Amit Goswami ideas, to follow, in this chapter, as well as, in Chapter 10 –The importance of thought. However, to this point, it is enough to cite part of the Amit Goswami interview given, according to reference (4):
Henry Stapp, who is a physicist of the University of Berkeley, in California, affirmed, in one of his works, written in 1977, that the things “[…] out of the space-time affect the things inside the space-time.” It does not have any doubt that this occurs in the substratum of the quantum physics, where you are treating with quantum objects. Now, of course the “X" of the question is that we are always dealing with quantum objects because there is no doubt that the quantum physics is the physics of each object, be either submicroscopic or macroscopic objects, the quantum physics is unique and applies itself. Even so, although it is more applicable to photons and electrons, to submicroscopic objects, we believe that all this is reality and, that all manifested reality and the entire material world are governed by the same laws. And, if so it is, then the Aspect’s experiment is saying to us that we must change our point of view, because we also are quantum objects.
David Bohm and His Theory of the Implicit Order
Deceased in 1992, David Bohm (3) was one of the main American physicists with deep knowledge of The Quantum Theory in 20th century. He worked at the University of California (Berkeley), at the Institute Princeton of Advanced Studies, and as professor of Theoretical Physics at the Birkbeck College University of London. During his first years of study, he also acquired knowledge on history of philosophy and science.
According to David Bohm, the universe is in a continuous process of evolution, pondering that the acceptance of his theory would take the humanity to pass for very great implications. Bohm wrote some books, but the main one is Wholeness and the Implicate Order. Other books were written with the contribution of B. J. Hiley, J. Krishnamurti and F. David Peat. Moreover, he published numerous articles in scientific magazines.
Developed in the decade of 80, his theory of the universe is known as Theory of the Implicit Order (the holographic universe). It has an objective, which is to explain the bizarre conduct of sub-atomic particles that the physicists of The Quantum Theory did not get to explain it. Basically, two sub-atomic particles that have reacted one to each other "answer instantaneity to the movements of one in relation to the other, any that is the distance and the time that separate them", fact this proven by Alain Aspect’s experience , that was done posterior to David Bohm´s theory.
Bohm suggested that sub-quantum forces and particles, still not observed by the science, seem to be acting in the threshold of the matter. This underlying force could be the consequence of a deeper dimension of the reality. His belief was that the space-time could really be part of a still deeper objective reality, which he called of Implicit Order. Inside the Implicit Order all is interlinked. Then, according to this theory, the sub-atomic particles would be acting as if they were amplifiers of the “information” contained in a quantum wave. Then, from these comments he constructed a new and controversial theory of the universe, a new model of reality.
Bohm based his theory on the scientific knowledge on holography, which bases itself in the interference of waves: if two sources of light are of different frequencies they will interfere one with the other, creating an interference pattern. Basically, a hologram is the detailed register of the wave length of the own light, that is, a dense repository of "information.” Thus, in a hologram, each small piece of the holographic film discloses the representative form of an entire three-dimensional object. By analogy, Bohm concluded that the Implicit Order behaves itself in similar way to a hologram.
With this understanding, Bohm extended his theory to an ultra-holistic cosmic vision, in which all the things are connected among themselves. In accordance with this principle, any individual element can contain "[…] detailed information on any other element in the universe.” The underlying central subject of Bohm´s theory is that "[…] the whole indivisible of the totality of the existence is part of an indivisible movement without frontiers.” His theory is saying to us, therefore, that all is involved with all. Thus, spoke Bohm himself. (3):
The real order (Implicit Order) was engraved in the complex movement of the electromagnetic fields, in the form of light waves. Such movement of light waves is present everywhere and in principle it involves the entire universe of space and time, in each region. The folding and the unfolding not only take place in the movement from the electromagnetic field, but also, in the other fields (electronic, proton, etc.). These fields obey the laws of the quantum mechanic giving origin to the discontinuity properties and non-locality. The totality of the folding and unfolding movements can be immensely extended beyond what discloses it to our comments. We call this totality with the name “holomovement.”
According to this theory, the holomovement acts inside a "multidimensional reality", which unfolds in independent sub-totalities (such as, the physical elements and the human being entities), with relative autonomy. For Bohm, the holomovement represents this "[…] incredible and unknown totality", being the "[…] fundamental base of all the matter.”
In other hand, the revealed world is part of what Bohm called the "explicit order", in contraposition to the “implicit order”, from which it derives or flows and, therefore, it is secondary. There is inside of the Implicit Order, "a totality of forms, which possess some sort of approximate recurrence (change), stability and separation." These are the forms that present themselves as our physical world.
Bohm suggests that, instead of thinking about particles as basic reality, the focus should be put in the discrete quanta of energy, similar to the particles in a continuous field. Based in this quantum field, Bohm, starting from the microcosm to macrocosm, unfolds the Implicit Order in three levels and explains them using the concepts of quantum field and continuous field. Inside these fields and in their interfaces it occurs the transference of "information" from the most simple to the most complex and, vice versa from the whole to the more simple in order to liven up, to guide and to organize the original quantum field. The holomovement gives energetic conditions to the particles to act in the three-dimensional world of the matter.
The Implicit Order permeates all. All that is and it will be in the universe is involved inside the Implicit Order. There is a special cosmic movement that puts into motion the process of enfolding and unfolding in the form of explicit order. This process of the cosmic movement, in feedback cycles, creates an infinite variety of forms and mentality. Bohm´s opinion is that the basic Cosmic Intelligence is involved in this process of experimentation and endless creation. This Being, the Cosmic Mind, is moving itself cyclically always and always forward, resulting an infinity of experienced beings (evolved beings).
The structural cosmic model sketched by Bohm includes a detailed examination of the following subjects: the Base of All Existence, the Matter, Consciousness and the Cosmic Apex. We go to summarize, in the following paragraphs, Bohm´s thought on the related subjects, the core of his model of the Implicit Order.
For Bohm, the base of all the existence is a special energy, which he calls it of "plenitude", an "[…] immense original source of energy.” This energy from this source is concentrated in a total and absolute movement that is the "holomovement.” The Implicit Order comes from the holomovement. In turn, it is from the Implicit Order that emanates the order in each perceivable aspect of the world (universal harmony) and, to the end, all the aspects integrate themselves in the indefinable and incommensurable holomovement, and also from them are emerging all the new sets. It is the flow of the manifested and interdependent matter in direction to consciousness.
With relation to the animate and inanimate matter, Bohm considers the particle as being the most essential block of construction of the matter. For him, the particle is basically an "[…] abstraction, which manifests itself to our senses.” The entire universe is made of matter, revealed by means of a totality of sets. These sets "act and interact according to an ordered series of folding and the unfolding steps that, in principle, permeate and interpenetrate one each other by means of the entire space", but Bohm always emphasizes that the explicit order is always derived and secondary. Bohm explain the dimensional showing the relation of two TV images of an aquarium, in which a fish is seen in a frontal image and by side in the other image, simultaneously. What it is seen is a "[…] relation between the images that appear in the two screens.” We know, Bohm affirmed that the aquarium two images are actualities that interact themselves, but they are not two different realities that act, independently. "On the contrary, they refer themselves to a unique present time, which is the common base of both.” For Bohm, this unique actuality is a superior dimensionality, since the television images are mere projections in two dimensions of a reality that exists in three dimensions, and that contains these two dimensional projections inside of it. Those projections are only abstractions; however, the "three-dimensional reality" is not "[…] none of these, on the contrary, it is something different from both images, something like a real nature that exists beyond both.”
With relation to the evolution in the universe, Bohm´s theory affirms that it exists – "[…] because the different grades of dimensions of reality that is already implicit in its structure.” Bohm uses the analogy of the seed being "informed" to produce a living plant. The same can be said of all living matter. "The life is involved in the totality and, even when it does not manifest itself of some form, it is implicit.” The holomovement is the base so much of the life as of the matter. There is no dichotomy.
Regarding consciousness, Bohm appraises that consciousness is more than information and brain; on contrary, it is the information that enters in the brain. For Bohm, consciousness "[…] involves science, attention, perception, the act of the knowledge and perhaps, until more.” Continuing, he says: consciousness can be "[…] described in terms of a series of movements.” Basically, "[…] a movement gives place to the next one, in which the context was implicit and now explicit itself, while that the content of the previous one (movement) became itself implicit.” Consciousness is an interchange: it is a feedback process, which results in an increasing accumulation of knowledge. Bohm also deals with Carl Jung’s collective conscience, calling it of collective consciousness of the humanity and gives greater signification of what is given to the individual consciousness. Enriching the collective conscience, the humanity, to the point that it accomplishes with success its spirituality, will walk integrally towards a larger dimension of the reality – the Cosmic Plenum. Bohm affirms that man has a special prominence in the universe and that this would be incomplete if there was no man to validate it (anthropocentrism).
Referring to the Cosmic Plenum, the highest level in the universe, Bohm mentions it as being the source of the non-manifested, of the Tenuous non-Manifested, something similar to the spirit, a moving entity, but still matter in the direction where it is a part of the Implicit Order. For Bohm, the Tenuous non-Manifested is an “active intelligence" superior to any "energy defined by thought.” Bohm directly affirms: "[…] there is a truth, the present time, a supreme being that can be reached by thought and this is intelligence, the sacred, ´the saint´.”
There are certain attributes that can be discerned from Bohm´s cosmic model. They are, the Order, the Intelligence, the Individualization, the Creativity and the sense of Perfection. In his work, Wholeness and the Implicate Order, already previously mentioned, Bohm studies these attributes in detail. We present them, to follow, in summary:
The order is the universal law that keeps all interlinked. It is the own cosmic energy that he also calls of the law of the holomovement. His point of view is that the Whole generates new "wholes" or interdependent systems.
The Intelligence is "purely active", nothing more being than the filtered consciousness, by means of which one gets the discernment. Bohm considers the thought as being a mechanic operation. It is the intelligence that turns relevant the mechanical process of the thought. He believes that, if the intelligence is an act of "non- conditioned perception”, then intelligence cannot be found in "[…] structures such as cells, molecules, atoms and elementary particles.” According to Bohm, the intelligence operation must be beyond any factors that can be enclosed in any known law. The "[…] base of intelligence must be in the indeterminate and unknown flow, which also is the base of all not defined forms of matter.” For Bohm, the intelligence always was in the core of the Implicit Order.
The individualization does not receive much attention from Bohm, being to this respect, somewhat reserved. For him, to assume that each human being is an independent reality that interacts with other human beings and with the nature, is a simple projection, but he gives emphasis to the collectivity, that is, he puts value in the collective action of the society as a whole.
With relation to the creativity, he calls it of the "Entity of the Cosmic Process", being pure energy. This "being" is intelligent, conscientious, and creative and is also, a creature! This seems to be a more appropriate definition to the concept of spirit.
On the perfection, Bohm defines it as a "being beyond the one that our thought can imagine", nominating as "perfect", with the meaning that it is the Whole. It is a presence with cosmic energy. Bohm´s cosmic model also suggests that this "perfection" exists since the creation of the cosmos. It is present in the cyclical process of the universe. It is pure active intelligence, from which all that is manifested, from cosmos it comes. It acts through an intromission in consciousness. It absorbs information in many levels of consciousness, in all the life forms. It is the Implicit Order that is the Base of the Whole Existence.
Bohm treats, also, of the concept of cosmic pilgrim, title given to the humanity in general. Humanity is the pilgrim of a cosmic process. About the human being condition and about the evils derived from chaos, which cause suffering and death, Bohm believes that it doesn´t exist chaos to the level of the non-human universality; on the contrary, the disorder exists at the level of the humanity, mainly due to the ignorance. The nature gave to the humanity the power of the luxury to make errors, because humanity must have the "[…] possibility of being creative.” It is our power of escape in this cosmic process that put us in these circumstances of choice and possible chaos. The disorder and the consequent suffering will prevail while all the different elements (of any given system, either of any human being or of the human society) do they "grow chaotically and independently one of the other, and they do not work together.”
Bohm considers the evil of the ignorance a close-minded problem. He considers it as "[…] the blackout of the human brain.” It is the problem of the human “ego" closed to the Universal Mind, to the Supreme Intelligence, which communicates itself through intuition form, which is the pure perception. Because of the low level of development of our ego (revealed by our vanity, our emotional fears and pressures, our ignorant points of view and our super extroversion), the intuition is frequently deviated by a closed mind. The opposite condition to a blocked mind is a mind opened to the interiority. Human beings need to look at themselves to be receptive to the intuition.
Bohm´s global vision on human destination is simple and direct, because for the scientist, "[…] humanity consciousness is unique and not truly divisible. Each person has the responsibility to reach this and nothing more, since “[…] there is not another way. It is absolutely this that has to be done and nothing more can function.”
Bohm believes that only by means of a collective cooperation man can reach the high degree of necessary energy to “[…] reach the Whole Conscience of the humanity – the Plenum.”
Karl Pribam´s Holographic Theory Applicable to the Brain
David Bohm was not the unique to adopt the ideas of a holographic universe. Karl Pribam (5, 6), neurophysiologist and researcher at the Stanford University (USA), also convinced himself about the holographic nature of the reality and applied David Bohm´s model to examine how and where the memories are stored by the brain. Mainly during the second half of 20th century, many researchers of reputation had convinced themselves of that it did not have a specific place in the brain to store memories. Already in the decade of 1920, neuroscientist Karl Lashley carried out works with brains of rats and concluded for the non-locality of the memory, but it did not arrive to present theoretical explanations on the obtained results. Only from the decade of 1960 on, Karl Pribam brought to the light his explanations based on the holographic theory, and since then he comes receiving support from the science men who research the brain. Pribam believes that the memories are found codified not in neurons or small groups of neurons, as many researchers still believe, but yes, as patterns of derived nervous impulses that intercross in the entire brain, in the same way that patterns of interference from laser light intercross an entire area of a film that contains a holographic image. In other words, Pribam believes that the brain itself is a hologram. Pribam´s theory also explains how the human brain can store so many memories in a so small space. The best estimates mention a capacity of storage in the order of 10 billion of bits of information during the average life of the contemporary man. It corresponds to the storage of six British Encyclopedia collections.
Curious it is that, in the holographic experiments, this formidable capacity of information storage varies in function of the angle that the two laser rays strike on a photographic film, indicating us that many different images can be stored in the same surface. On the other hand, using the holographic concept, it becomes simpler to understand the fantastic speed, practically instantaneous, with which the information is recovered from our memories, as well as, to understand the numerous associations of ideas and images that have place in our mental operations. According to Pribam, one of the most significant things of the human thought process is that each part of the information seems to cross instantaneously with any other part of the information, and this characteristic is intrinsic and common to a hologram. It is treated, perhaps, of a supreme example of the nature, which uses a correlated cross system, since, each portion of a hologram is infinitely interconnected with any other portion of all the hologram.
Pribam still affirms that such similarities do not stop thereabout. The memory storage is not the unique neurophysiologic puzzle to have a more acceptable explanation to the light of his theory of the brain model. The other question is how the brain decodes the sudden large amount of physical frequencies that it receives via the physical senses (luminous, sound, smell or osmosis frequencies, etc.) in a concrete world of perceptions. To encode and to decode frequencies are necessarily what a hologram knows how to do. The hologram functions as a species of lens, a mechanism of translation capable to apparently convert blots of frequencies without meaning into a coherent image. Pribam affirms that, the brain also, behaves as if it was a lens and it uses the holographic principles mathematically to convert the frequencies that it receives by means of our physical senses in the interior world of our perceptions. Many researchers who had followed him are sure of this interpretation, among them, the Italian-Argentine researcher Hugo Zucarelli, the psychologist Stanislav Grof and the psychologist Keith Floyd. Several discoveries had been made, proving, for example, that our visual systems has sensitiveness to the sonorous frequencies, that part of our smell sense is dependent of the so-called osmotic frequencies, and that even the cells of our body have sensitiveness to an ample band of frequencies. Such discoveries suggest that it is only in the holographic domain of consciousness that such frequencies are classified in conventional perceptions.
However, the most disturbing aspect of the holographic brain model happens when it is placed face to the Bohm´s theory, since, if the concreteness of the world is only a secondary reality and what "exists" is really a holographic blot of frequencies, and if the brain is, also, a hologram and selects only some of the frequencies of this blot and mathematically transforms them into sensorial perceptions, what happens with the objective reality? Answering in a simple way, it runs down to exist, it is an illusion. Although we think that we are physical beings moving ourselves on a physical world, this also is an illusion.
In this way (5, 6), "[…] we are simple receivers floating in an ocean of frequencies and what we extract of this ocean and we transform it in physical reality is just one channel among many others, extracted from the super-hologram.”
Bohm´s theory, together with Pribam´s, became known as the holographic paradigm, concept that has been attracting the attention of many physicists. A small, but an increasing group of researchers believe that this paradigm is the most perfect model of reality that science already presented until the moment; more than that, some researchers believe that it will be able to solve some mysteries that never before were explained by science and, even though, to establish the paranormal phenomenon as part of the nature. Numerous researchers, including Bohm and Pribam, had also observed that many paranormal phenomena become much more understandable on the light of the holographic paradigm.
One of the mysteries is telepathy, phenomenon that exists, but not in a general way. In a universe, where the individual brains are indivisible portions of a bigger hologram and all are infinitely linked, telepathy is explained by the Pribam´s theory as being merely the access of similar holographic levels. It is much easier to understand as thought can travel instantaneously from person "A" to person "B" in any distance, and help to understand some puzzles still not explained by psychology. According to Grof (5, 6), who makes experiences with transpersonal psychology, related with the diverse states of conscience, since 1960, "[…] if the mind is really one part of a continuum, of a labyrinth which is connected not only to each mind that exists or has existed, but also to each atom, organism and to the immense regions of space and time, the fact that (the mind) is capable, occasionally, to make incursions in the interior of this labyrinth and have transpersonal experiences, does not seem anymore so much strange.”
The holographic paradigm has also implications in biology. Keith Floyd, a psychologist at the Virginia Intermont College, pondered that, if the concreteness of the reality is only one holographic illusion, it is not more truth to say that the brain produces consciousness. To the contrary, it is the conscience that creates the appearance of the brain – as well as the body and all around us that we interpret as being of physical nature. Such overturn in the way to see the biological structures are conducting the researchers to indicate that medicine and our vision of the healing process could also be transformed by the holographic paradigm. If the apparent physical structure of the body is not more than a projection of conscience, it becomes clear that each one of us is much more responsible for our health than the medical wisdom admits. What now we see as miraculous cures of certain diseases can really come from changes in conscience, which, by its turn, make changes in the body hologram. Similarly, new controversial techniques of cure, such as visualization, can answer so well because, in the holographic domain of thought, the images are, after all, so real as the "reality.”
Amit Goswami´s Self-Aware Universe or Monistic Idealism
Natural from India, Amit Goswami is an experienced physicist living in the United States of America. He is a nuclear physicist, professor at the Oregon University, and Doctor at the Institute of Abstract Sciences in Sausalito, California. What we go to present was based on his book The Self-Aware Universe – as consciousness also creates the material world and in the reference (4), taken from one of the Amit Goswami´s interviews given to Craig Hamilton of WMT, entitled What is Enlightenment?
Amit studying the behavior of sub-atomic particles inside of the domain of quantum physics affirms that it is in this context that the non-material reality discloses itself to the eyes of scientists. Amit considers that the creative force of all the physical reality is consciousness, that is, it is the base of all the being, and from consciousness Goswami introduced the idea of the descending causation, in contraposition to the materialist and reductionist theory of the ascending causation. According to him, both of them occur, but the descending causation is the base of its monistic idealism, different from the dualism Force and Matter. In Goswami vision – the free will has a role of prominence in the explanation of the phenomena and of the world.
Although recognizing the pioneering of physicist Fritjof Capra’s work (11), entitled the Tao of the Physics that admits the spiritual aspect of the human beings, Goswami arrives at the point to emphasize that all in him (Fritjof Capra) is still exclusively based on the material aspect of the reality. Thus, Goswami considers himself a pioneer to suggesting that, in his understanding based in a rigorously scientific explanation, consciousness is the base of the being, only excepting the ideas proposed by the trans-personal psychology. Thus, he insists that the application of his ideas and concepts on consciousness as the fundamental base of the being would solve all the paradoxes of the quantum physics. He admits, still, that if his ideas would be accepted, it would be a radical change of paradigm in the integration of science with the spirituality. He emphasize, also, that his ideas are different from Capra and Zhukov’s ideas, since backwards of the ideas of these physicists it remains the causality derived from the matter. Despite these researchers having recognized the importance of consciousness and spirituality, they consider consciousness just as an epi-phenomenon or secondary one, resultant from the chemical and hormonal interactions in the brain. However, this is not the type of spirituality revealed and taught by Jesus or admitted by the spiritists and serious spiritualists of many eastern religions, as the Buddhism, the Taoism, etc. Thus, in our opinion, this knowledge will not lead to any change of paradigm in the scientific thought for not stimulating science to the serious study of the conscience as spiritual attribute.
According to Goswami, other authors come bringing light to the subject and putting more firewood in the bonfire, affirming that (4):
[... ] contemporary science disclosed the quantum paradoxes, but also, it has shown its real incompetence in explaining paradoxical and anomalous phenomena, such as, the paranormal phenomena studied by parapsychology, and even though the creativity. Even the traditional subjects, like the perception and the biological evolution, were not yet duly explained by the materialistic theories. To give an example, in biology one has what we call "punctuated equilibrium.” The meaning of this is that the evolution is not only slow, as Darwin recognized, but also it has periods of fast evolution, that are known as "punctuated marks.” However, traditional biology has not yet explanations for that.
Nevertheless, if we make science based on consciousness, under the primacy of consciousness, then, we will be able to see creativity in this phenomenon – real creativity, derived from consciousness. In other words, we can truly see that consciousness is creatively acting, in such biology as in the evolution of the species. And thus, we can fill those imperfections that the conventional biology cannot explain, because they derive essentially from ideas of spiritual order, such as the consciousness as the creator of the world.
To place conscience, we say – the spirit, as the creative force of the material world, is a reality that physicists do not desire or want to hear about, because this is too much radical. Nevertheless, through this reality it becomes easy to explain why, in the quantum physics, the particles are not seen as defined things, as we are accustomed to see elsewhere in the real life, that is, in the form as were taught by the Newton’s classic physics, in which objects can move in all the directions with well-defined trajectories. The quantum physics does not see objects (particles) this way, but it sees them as possibilities, waves of possibility. Then, it results the question: what converts possibility into reality, because when we see, do we see real events and things? When you see a table, you see a real table, not a possibility of a table. In the quantum physics, this is the "paradox of the quantum measurement theory.” According to Goswami, what is behind this paradox of the matter is the consciousness creative force.
According to the materialists, the human body together with our brain, all is, in its essence, comprised of atoms and elementary particles. Then, according to The Quantum Theory, how can that brain convert the waves of possibility that inhabit exactly in it (the real brain), if lacks the efficacy of the causality? The brain itself is made of waves of possibility and elementary particles, and therefore, theoretically, it can convert its waves of possibility into reality waves, but the brain does not create them. Then, what does convert waves of possibility into reality? It is the consciousness, Goswami answers, because consciousness does not obey the quantum physics; for not being made of matter, but of transcendental nature, the material world is revealed by it. This is the discordance that exists when we compare consciousness with spirit, which is the same one that exists between science and Spiritualism.
So much in his book as in the interview in reference, Goswami, also extends himself in explanations on the universe and on the “anthropic principle", adopted by astronomers and cosmologists, who affirm that the universe has an intention. This belief elapses from the fact of the existence of many coincidences, of many fine adjustments, which take the astronomers and cosmologists to believe that the universe has a purpose – to serve to the living beings, mainly the man. Goswami does not forget to mention, also, the so-called quantum healing, in which the thought has outstanding role.
Finally, we must detach the importance of the "non-locality principle", in order to be able to understand Goswami ideas. According to Goswami, it is the non-place consciousness that all penetrates and permeates, and it is not being contained in any place, it is contained in all the places. It is by means of this non-place consciousness that we can understand and perceive the connection that exists among all the things of the universe. Goswami transmits us the idea that, for backwards of the reality of the material world that we see and we observe, something exists as a matrix, a pattern of all that is created. It is this pattern or network that permeates all that exists and connects all with all.
Sheldrake and the Morphogenetic Field Theory
Rupert Sheldrake (1942–) is son of a traditional English family. He studied vegetal physiology and philosophy, at Cambridge and Harvard (12). He, as a researcher membership of the famous Royal Society, developed a scientific project on aging cells. He was also invited-professor in Germany, U.S.A., and Malaysia. He lived some years in India, where he directed a team that researched the evolution of useful tropical plants, and during this period he absorbed knowledge of the Indian philosophy.
His first book, A New Science of Life, was published in 1981. In this book, which fell as a bomb on the scientific world, Sheldrake presented the theoretical foundation for a new and revolutionary vision of morphologic creation – the emergence of the forms in the organic and inorganic world. From the scientific publications, the commentaries and reactions spread out to periodicals, broadcasting and television media. The scientific establishment banished him, burning his book symbolically, and obstructed the access of Sheldrake to the important scientific magazines, such as Nature that blamed Sheldrake’s book as an "annoying treatise” and his theories as "[…] scientific nonsense aberrations.” Nevertheless, at the time, he had his followers, like Arthur Koestler, who classified Sheldrake’s theories as “[…] unbelievably stimulant and defying.” On the other hand, the Sunday Times Magazine, despite of praising Sheldrake’s language as sober and clear, affirmed that he did not display scientific proofs of his theses.
Ten years later, the disputes on Sheldrake’s theories had not lost the heat from the first hours. His new and including work, published in 2001, The Presence of the Past – excited and comes to exciting new controversies.
His main thesis deals with the capacity of learning of the "creation” and the interaction between the Spirit and the Matter. It is a thesis that he recognizes as being difficult to prove definitively. Despite this, it is as unbelievable as it is simple. According to him, beyond the energy fields that we knew by science, such as, gravitational and the electromagnetic fields, the nature possess morphogenetic fields, too. These fields are defined by Sheldrake as "[…] invisible organizers structures capable to form and organize crystals, plants and animals, determining until their behavior.” As biologist, he affirms that these morphogenetic fields contain the sum of the whole history and the entire evolution, as if it was something similar to Carl. G. Jung’s collective unconscious.
Still, according to Sheldrake’s hypothesis, "[…] all that turns out to happen, at a certain moment, it will show its consequence in the future, in similar processes. In the learning process, for example, the fact that something can be learnt by somebody implies in the fact of this determined thing to turn out to be learned by other person, more easily, wherever the person is.” Several experiences were accomplished regarding the learning process and memorization that presented evidence and conclusions in favor of the Sheldrake’s hypothesis.
Sheldrake stretches his concept of morphic resonance to the entire whole universe, when assuming that "[…] similar structures can be in communication in space and time” by means of their morphogenetic fields. Thus, one verifies that "[…] what is in discussion about the "bomb" thrown by Sheldrake is nothing more nothing less than a scientific hypothesis. Such hypothesis, in case that it turns out to be proven, would knock down all the materialistic conception of the universe.” It is this cosmos vision which seems surrealist that intends to place a shovel of whitewash in the scientific materialism.
In his second book, The Presence of the Past, already previously cited, he advances a little more and conjectures on the hypothesis that the nature possesses a memory with cumulative character. In virtue of this, this memory extends itself in each repetition, to such a point we can say, the characteristics of the things come from a habitual process. The habits would not only be able to construct the nature of all the living beings, but also of crystals, atoms, molecules and, at last, of the entire cosmos.
The amazing provocation of this new book, which caused a true "storm", could be expressed in the following form: "[…] our personal habits might be derived from the accumulated influence of our past behavior, with which we keep a communication by resonance. If this turns out to be truth, our last experiences would not have to be stored in a physical form in our neuro-sensorial system. This will be valid when we remember of a song or of something that happened in the last year. It would be feasible that we had access to the past by direct means. Perhaps, our memory has not been engraved in the brain, as we presupposed so naturally.” In this direction, Sheldrake speaks of reasonable suggestions, of possibilities that still are to be proven, in scientific terms.
To prove his hypothesis that the memory does not find itself in the brain, Sheldrake uses the television example, saying that biologists and geneticists, who defend the materialistic memory, act as if they intended to explain the functioning of the television device exclusively by means of mechanical concepts, restricted to the box of the receiving device. Everybody knows that the information that reproduces the images comes from determined circuits, located inside the TV set. However, each television set receives images from a distant and central source, that is, from the television transmitting studios, which emit them by means of their transmission signals, trhrough an invisible field capable to generate the sound and the images. Therefore, still according to Sheldrake,
[…] our brain functions as a television set and the morphogenetic fields transmit information to us in a similar way, by using non-spatial and non-mechanic means. Our brain, then, would be more comparable to the television set than to the transmitted program. In other words, what we remember is not found in our brain, as well as, the reporter is not found inside the TV set.
Therefore, it is not to surprising that Sheldrake has been declared an enemy of science, especially of the materialism, and he had his theory entitled of "Horse of Troy", because he tried to sneakily reintroduce metaphysics in the modern world, after natural science had banished it definitively.”
Perhaps, the most radical and serious question refers to the concepts and natural laws. For scientists, the natural and immutable laws support science, although Sheldrake does not agree with this truth. For Sheldrake, the cosmos is in a constant transformation and evolution, and the concepts and natural laws are considered as non-temporal and immutable, affirming that, what we usually call "natural laws", perhaps, are regarded as habits of creation. This seems to be the core of the question.
They may call Sheldrake as a metaphysical, hermetic or agnostic, but he is, above all, an empiricist. The experiment is decisive, he strive himself to clarify it. Although his hypotheses are picked by intuition, Sheldrake submits himself to the scientific experiment.
The Intelligent Design
The Intelligent Design is a theory proposed by Michael Behe (6, 7), membership and biochemist at Lehigh University, and author of the book entitled Darwin's Black Box – The Free Press, 1996. According to the Intelligent Design, intelligent causes would be responsible for the origin of the universe and of life, in all its diversity. The followers of this theory, among them, William Dembski, author of the book Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology – Cambridge University Press, 1998, they affirm that, it is a scientific theory offering empirical tests of God’s existence. Behe and Dembski are founders and directors of the Discovery Institute of Seattle, USA, sponsored and supported by Christian foundations. These authors and their followers believe that the nature is an open book that demonstrates the action of the intelligent design in the living systems but, the authors, instead of offering positive indications for their points of view, mainly try to find weaknesses in Darwin’s natural selection theory. However, even that they found strong and successful arguments against the natural selection, this would not become the Intelligent Design more acceptable. They have strongly acted in the United States of America and they already got the teaching of this theory in the science lessons, in some American states, by forcing changes in the state laws, as an alternative to the scientific theory of Darwin’s natural selection.
A great number of opponents, scientists and skeptics, have alleged that ID (Intelligent Design) aims to create arguments that would be used by the Bible creationist followers, of which we have already discussed in Chapter 3 – The Roads of Evolution – when confronting Evolution versus Creationism. This scientists and skeptics have inflexibly rejected the evolution theory, and even though, they have seen it as a very great obstacle to religiosity, as for example, alleged by Professor Johnson, as Professor of Laws at the University of Berkeley.
For Professor Phillip E. Johnson, Darwin’s theory of the natural selection establishes three positions, to know: first, that God does not exist, second, that the natural selection could only have happened according to a randomly way and by chance, and third and last position, whatsoever may have happened, by chance or randomly, it could not have been designed by God. We believe that Mr. Johnson didn’t understand and seems not to understand completely the Darwin’s natural selection theory.
But, we do not go to comment or to refuse the Creationism or Darwin’s theory here, to only evidence that both theories fight a deathly struggle, instead of agreement. All turns around the controversy that exists between religion versus science on the existence or not of God – of the origin of life and duration of the evolution process on the Earth. Religious people and pseudo-scientists disdain of the evolution theory by natural selection, on which Darwin dedicated himself 27 years of his disciplined and careful life to generate his so discussed book, published with the simplified title of The Origin of the Species.
We just comment that any free thinker, scientist or not, will be able to conjecture some hypotheses on the evolution of life on the Earth. For example, God could have created superior intelligent creatures and performed experiences with natural selection in other planets or existential plans of the universe and transferred the result of such experiences to the Earth, or even, any hypothesis that our fertile imagination could dream. What we cannot deny is that the natural selection exists!
Michael Behe, the author of the Intelligent Design theory, argues that "irreducibly complex systems," such as the eye and its components, could not function in case of lacking just one of some of its parts. He affirms that “[…] irreducibly complex systems, cannot evolve in a Darwin’s way" and that, the Intelligent Design must be responsible for these irreducibly complex systems. Currently, this subject comes deserving many discussions by independent scientists and biologists with those linked to Behe´s Intelligent Design. The main biologists´ counter-argument is that a complex and interdependent biological system does not evolve as individual parts, but yes, in its entireness and by means of gradual modifications throughout millenniums of evolution. When Behe is being corralled, he always protects himself in theology, saying (6): "God can make any thing that he wants", or "We are incompetent to judge the intelligence, according to God’s pattern.”
Despite of all this debate or discussion, Darwin himself wrote: "In case that it could be demonstrated that any complex organ exists that cannot have been formed through minor modifications, numerous and successive ones, my theory (of the natural selection) would certainly be refused.” Charles Darwin – The Origin of Species. And that was not yet demonstrated!
The own DNA is a complex macromolecular structure. This complexity grows in the complex cellular organizations, beginning with the simplest to the most complex, gradually, throughout billions of years of evolution, submitted to the natural and immutable laws, from which the physics´ laws are derived. According to Victor J. Stenger (8):
[... ] the probability of the DNA to organize itself by chance is of 1.0 x 1040,000 (10 raised to the power of 40,000) years – according to Fred Hoyle, Evolution from Space [1981]. This is true, but highly deceitful. DNA was not purely organized by chance. It was grouped itself due to a combination of chance with the physics laws. Without the physics laws, as we know them, the life on the Earth, according to what we know it would not have evolved in the short term of six billion of years. It was necessary the nuclear force to link protons and electrons to the nucleus of atoms, electromagnetism to keep together atoms and molecules, and gravity to keep the resultant ingredients of the life imprisoned on the Earth surface.
May these fascinating ideas inspire many physicists to reexamining their points of view aiming to reach the transcendentalism through their studies, and also extending the science scope and placing their clever intelligences to the humanity service.
4. The Invisible World
When we say that the invisible world is much bigger than we think, such affirmation is applicable not only in relation to the diversity presented by the Matter in its diverse forms, inclusive the plasmatic and plasmable, but also, in relation to all types and species of forces, be them physical or purely transcendental, that is, of spiritual nature.
With relation to the matter, it is entirely invisible, when considered in its structural essence, as individual molecules, either formed by the junction of two or more identical atoms (pure substances) or by the combination of different atoms among them to form the more diverse composite substances of the nature. Really, what gives visibility to the matter is its agglomeration in volume and mass superior to the wave length of luminous radiations when in it reflected.
Still as matter, with very little exceptions, all the gases (in which the forces of cohesion are lower than the forces of repulsion), even when agglomerated in great masses, are invisible. Thus, gases such as Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, all the noble gases (Helium, Argon, Neon, Xenon, Krypton and Radon), and combined mixtures of gases (as air), gases as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, etc., all of them, when pure, are completely invisible, under the normal conditions of temperature and pressure. Already the substances in the liquid state (the force of cohesion equals to the force of repulsion) or in the solid state (the force of cohesion higher than the force of repulsion) are all visible. A classic example of a substance that can exist in the three mentioned states is water –it can present itself as much in the solid state (ice or snow), as in liquid (common water) or as steam.
It remains, we can mention, the so-called fourth state of matter, the plasma, which is constituted by ionized gases that exist at very high temperatures. The plasmatic state shows itself in the form of a very great thermal movement, involving positive and negative ions, having properties different of the basic substance of which it came, be it solid, liquid or gaseous. For example, the water above 2000ºC, and at any pressure, changes to its plasmatic state, ceasing all and any possibility of chemical reaction, and at 5000ºC it occurs a total decomposition in its elements – Hydrogen and Oxygen, both in the plasmatic state. We find examples of gases in the plasmatic state in the incandescent atmosphere of the Sun, and stars, in general. As a whole, the plasma is neutral, and it contains an equal amount of negative and positive particles. However, the interaction of these electrical charges gives to the plasma a great variety of properties different of the original gases, and although being neutral, its particles are susceptible to the electromagnetic fields, re-orienting its charges in accordance with the law of physical attraction. The physics of plasma is one of the most advanced branches of the scientific progress. In relation to the visibility, the matter in its fourth state is invisible, or sometimes, visible only in special conditions.
There’s also a new matter – the so-called dark matter, which the physicists suppose to exist in every part of the world, representing about 90% of the universe total mass or even more. This matter interposes in the sidereal and inter-galactic space, without which it would be difficult to explain the gravitational forces that keep the order in the universe and counterbalances its expansion. This is a subject of the highest interest of the physicists of our time.
Finally, there is a type of matter, the so-called cosmic fluid, which physics does not consider or didn’t study yet, but it is intuitive and whose concept is easily admitted by the spiritists and spiritualists persons. We are talking about the plasmable matter by the Intelligent Force, in which the cohesion force between molecules is very weak, becoming it as a kind of subtle matter with very low density. It is treated, evidently, of invisible and non tangible matter, almost imponderable, so tenuous it is. As well as the steam gets dry and becomes invisible (dry steam) or can condense, forming water that with it enters in equilibrium and becomes visible, the cosmic fluid is endowed with the properties of expansibility and condensation, too. We don’t know anything about its singular nature and composition. This type of matter does not possess the properties of the tangible matter, such as it is known by science and, still, it was not submitted to the chemical analysis. A material example, which is similar to the existence of this fluid, it would be the nebula or comet tails. It is visible only, because it was full of cosmic dust. Would it be the dark matter of the scientists the same cosmic fluid of the spiritists and spiritualists?
One admits that the cosmic fluid can exist in two distinct states: at a tenuous or weightlessness state, which can be considered as normal or primitive state, and at a condensation state, in which its materiality becomes perceivable. This is equivalent to say that the cosmic fluid can pass of intangible matter to the state of tangible matter, and in the same way that the invisible steam can be condensed into water, becoming itself visible.
It is easy to understand that each one of these two states (subtle and condensation states) necessarily give place to differentiated phenomena. In the condensation state it would be responsible for the so-called visible world phenomena, while that in its subtle state it would support the invisible world phenomena. The former phenomena, nominated as material phenomena, are subjects of the science field properly said; and the latter, invisible, are qualified of paranormal or spiritual phenomena, because they are linked to the existence of the spirit. It is obvious that the study of one of these states would never be completed without the study of the others, also in order to know how they interact among themselves.
5. Parapsychology and the Inexplicable Phenomena
The word parapsychology appeared for the first time in 1889. Its name is attributed to the German scholarship Max Dessoir, from Stuttgart, and this term came to embrace the study of the inexplicable phenomena – the so-called: occult phenomena, which were not dealt with neither by the classic psychology nor by any existing natural science, with the intention to provide forum of science to it. In accordance with Robert Amadou (9): “Parapsychology doesn´t confuse itself neither with theology nor with a religion, like the Spiritism does; nor with philosophy, like the Occultism does; parapsychology aspires to be recognized as a science.” However, after more than 100 years, only recently, parapsychology was recognized as a science and the majority of the phenomena dealt by it keep without explanation, and very few of these phenomena had been accepted by science. To these phenomena, parapsychology applies, currently, one generic denomination of paranormal phenomena.
Although not being the objective of our work to make one critical essay about parapsychology knowledge, it’s valid to notice that, during the 20th century, three thought schools have survived (9): The first one, among three others, is the conservative French school, represented by Robert Amadou, who has kept the natural versus supernatural dichotomy; the second school, is the Russian thought school, under L. L. Vasiliev´s command, who interested himself for the practical aspects of telepathy; and finally, the American thought school conducted by Joseph Banks Rhine, at the Duke University, aiming to the advancement of this science in the area of the supernatural to reduce it to the natural science. In other words, Rhine intended to give to parapsychology a treatment according to a historical-scientific perspective. There were progress in England (Soal, Price and Watheley Carington), who had developed theories on the mental or psychic survival of the human beings, and in Germany, by Rudolphe Tischner, who studied the same subject that the English researchers did. It is necessary to notice that the Rhine’s thought school reached the most ample results, but since 1965, his research was interrupted under the allegation by the Duke University’s direction that "[…] his researches had not reached practical objectives.” After that, Rhine created his own foundation, denominated Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man.
With the accomplishment of the First International Congress of Parapsychology – Utrecht, in 1953, Robert Thouless and B. P. Wiesner (10) proposed to change the denomination of such paranormal occurrences of PSI phenomena, provoked by the function PSI (from the Greek, psyche, meaning soul). This function was subdivided in two classes. The first one is called function psi-gamma, responsible for the phenomena of subjective nature as the telepathy, clairvoyance, mediumship, pre-cognition and post-cognition, etc, and the second one, called of function psi-kappa, responsible for the phenomena of objective nature, in which it is observed movement, alteration, modification or any other operations on material objects, as the psycho kinesis, ghosts, ectoplasmia, rappings, etc.
Thouless and Wiesner formulated a hypothesis of work concerning the origin of "function PSI.” They admitted the existence of a psychic entity which not only operates in the normal and paranormal cognitive activities, as also it is capable to interact either with external objects and with other brains, as in the case of the brain and the nervous system of the human being, in whose body the “function PSI” insert itself. They gave to this curious entity the name of shin, whose pronunciation corresponds to the twentieth first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. According to them, "shin" would be the cause of all the normal and paranormal psychic functions, meanwhile, as effect, they would have the "function PSI" to designate the paranormal functions as a whole. In that sense, the psi-gamma is the subjective function (ESP, according to Rhine), and psi-kappa is the objective function (PK, according to Rhine). After all, that is as an artifice "[…] to deviating from the old problem of the spirit, in which the religious and metaphysical implications constitute the biggest obstacle for its acceptance by science.” (10)
Nowadays, in general way, we use J. B. Rhine’s nomenclature: ESP, meaning extra-sensorial perception, and in order to signalize the objective phenomena, we use PK as denomination of psycho kinesis.
A great number of phenomena, like premonitory dreams, the cases of near-death experiences, of thought transmission (telepathy), of influences at distance, of extra-sensorial perception, and of some facts that occur at great or small distances were cautiously studied by parapsychology, which already admits the reality of such facts, classifying them as "paranormal phenomena.” But science, although apparently being open to the new facts, keeps rigorous caution regarding to questions that seems to involve problems regarding man spiritual nature.
Would it be “an exterior mind" acting on such objects? That is, would the ESP be a reply to an exterior stimulation, without the aid of the five normal physical senses? Is it valid to imagine, as hypothesis, an "incorporeal mind" capable to directly and mechanically act on material objects, to explain the objective phenomena of the type PK – psycho kinesis? They are questions not yet solved by science.
All phenomena that occur in the invisible world, submitted to the action of the Intelligent Force, are and will continue being inexplicable by science, while it doesn´t have better knowledge of what is the Intelligent Force. For the spiritist and spiritualist beings such phenomena have the generic name of animic phenomena or psychic phenomena, and they are function of the variation of the biopsychic fields of man by the action of the Intelligent Force.
According to this approach, we can classify such phenomena into two types: medianic phenomena and mediumistic phenomena. In the first ones, the Intelligent Force acts on material objects, giving movement to them or, then, materializing of some form the fluids (tenuous and invisible matter to our vision sense). Already in the mediumistic phenomena, the Intelligent Force interacts of some form directly with persons or among persons.
Among the first phenomena, we can cite the psychography, materializations, mediumistic photographs, the rappings, the falling stones on something, appearances or phantoms, etc.
Among the second phenomena we can include the mediumship in its diverse forms and degrees, as the intuitive mediumship or intuition, the smelling, the hearing, the clairvoyance, and the telepathic mediumship. As a mixing or global phenomenon, we find the incorporation mediumship.
The admission of this Intelligent Force would explain, also, the animic phenomena first studied by Mesmer – from there the name of mesmerism to these phenomena, from which the somnambulism is a type, as well as the hypnotism or hypnotic trance, whose knowledge also comes from the mesmerism, originally had as human magnetism or vital force. Mesmer, Charcot and other followers gave the first steps.
6. Spiritualist Vision of the Intelligent Force
In the spiritualist vision, the entire whole universe constitutes itself of Force and Matter, being the latter to form all the substances and bodies, and the former to animate them. But here, the Force concept extends much beyond the concept taught by physics, as shown in Chapter 2 – Force and Matter, which we presented in the first part of this work.
The Intelligent Force is present in the entire whole universe and permeates all and any type of Matter (substance), either inorganic or organic and organized, as well as, all living cells individually and in its whole, in each living being. It is the active agent that, acting on the Matter, which is the passive agent, animates the atomic structure of the Matter and, in the living beings (plants and animals), acts in the inner of the cells, giving life to them. Here, we would need also to extend the life concept to the minerals, as already we advanced when we dealt with the Evolution, in the first part of this book. Thus, according to Luiz de Mattos (2), we would have: "1) in the mineral kingdom – incipient Intelligent Force, as a result of the atomic and molecular vibration in the amorphous matter and in the crystals crystalline forms; 2) in the vegetal kingdom – Intelligent Force and incipient life, stable, without appreciable mobility; and 3) in the animal kingdom – Intelligent Force, full life and intelligence, with mobility."
In man, we have: the Intelligent Force, the plenum life and plenum intelligence, with free will and many attributes of the Force, which, from here on receives the name of spirit.
Still, according to Luiz de Mattos (2), "One should not infer, from there, the inexistence of life in the mineral kingdom or of intelligence in the vegetal kingdom. We just mention the predominance of the pointed basic attributes to facilitate the understanding of the reader, due to the transcendentality of the subject.” In addition, more ahead: "[...] Force and Matter are the beginning and the end, they are units that touch themselves in their extremities, which run parallel and that, in their grandiosity, enclose the infinite and involve the universe.”
CHAPTER 9
THE PRIMACY OF THE SPIRIT
The Spirit is light, intelligence, life, creative and accomplishing power. In it there is no matter in any of its states. It is, therefore, immaterial. It remains as an individualized particle along its entire path in the process of evolution.
The spirit is indestructible, indivisible, eternal, and evolves towards ever greater improvement. As a particle of the Whole, it is inseparable from the Whole, and survives any transformation. Nothing can destroy it.
Luiz de Mattos, Encoder of the Christian Rationalism.
1. The Nature of the Spirit
We saw, in the previous chapter, how the Intelligent Force moves along all the kingdoms of the nature creating, organizing, driving, addressing and accompanying the Evolution of the Species, presented in the chapter 3. Here, we will treat of the Spirit and its evolution, with foundation in the spiritualistic knowledge. In the philosophical and scientific literature, more in this last one, there is much confusion on what are the spirit and the conscience. Now, thousands of works and rehearsals have been written by psychologists and neuroscientists based on the researches made on cognitive conscience, with fulcrum exclusively on the behavior and on the materialist approach. Those researches nothing has to do with the nature of the spirit and its attributes, getting to confuse spirit with conscience. The conscience is just one of the spiritual attributes or faculties of the Spirit.
We also saw in chapter 6, in a historical retrospective, how the pioneers of the Spiritism and their experiences appeared and, in the chapter 7, we presented the encoders of the modern Spiritualism – Luiz de Mattos, Luiz Alves Thomaz and Antônio do Nascimento Cottas, personalities still little known by science, who threw the bases of a philosophy for our time, doctrine practiced through the Christian Rationalism (1).
During the second half of the 20th century, numerous proven cases of reincarnation were studied by Ian Stevenson (3) and collaborators. The studies and researches were followed on the phenomena of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and near-death experiences (NDEs), brought to every people's knowledge by Raymond A. Moody, Jr. (4). These researchers, since 1966, turn out to reveal thousands of proven cases, reinforcing the evidences of the existence of the spirit and of the process of reincarnation, or say, exposing the existence of the spiritual life after its disincarnation. On these and other subjects, we will treat now and in the following chapters.
In the last two decades of the 20th century and during the beginning of this century, some psychologists and renowned psychiatrists established the analytical bases for the so-called phenomena of regression therapy to the previous lives, according to psychologist Patrick Drouot (5,6) and psychiatrist Brian Weiss’s reports and books (7, 8). Their experiences, as told in their books, brought many indications and new evidences about the existence of the soul (spirit) and its immortality. A great number of phenomena, until then, exclusively of the domain of the Spiritism and Spiritualism, were exposed to the great public. Besides the mentioned researchers, numerous other experiences were told at the present time by tens of authors and researchers in hundreds of books of wide popularization, all over the world, and, also published works via special magazines and Internet.
But, after all, what the spirit is? During all the human history there was always philosophical and metaphysical speculations about the existence of a force, associated to the human body, present in people’s life. After traveling all over the kingdoms of the nature, starting from its last apprenticeship as animal, the Intelligent Force, having acquired the attributes of the conscience and of the free will, besides others, passes to be known as Spirit and, thereafter, it begins to actuates itself in human body. On the Spirit, that has a long evolutionary road ahead, the Christian Rationalism, since 1910, expresses as follows to the page 85 of the mentioned work (1):
The spirit is light, intelligence, life, creative and accomplishing power. In it there is no matter in any of its states. It is, therefore, immaterial. It remains as an individualized particle along its entire path in the process of evolution.
The spirit is indestructible, indivisible, eternal, and evolves towards ever greater improvement. As a particle of the Whole, it is inseparable from the Whole, and survives any transformation. Nothing can destroy it.
.
And still, further on, on the field of inclusion of the spirit, when disincarnated, in the same reference so expressed Luiz de Mattos (1):
In the immeasurable space of the universe, where Intelligence vibrates continuously, revealing permanent action and constant manifestation of life, the spirit stirs up its intranuclear power, which is expressed in all activities, by means of vibratory motions.
Such motions radiate from a nucleus of Force, which is the spirit, in an ocean of identical essence, which is the Whole, thus signaling the power of attraction which causes the attributes of the Whole to converge to the nucleus, to develop it and increase its potentiality.
It treats itself of an intuitive and explanatory previous vision about the existence of the incorporeal life (2), title of another explanatory book published in the decade of 20 of the last century. That book aims to explain the people about the psychic phenomena, through numerous and magnificent colored engravings, accomplished by an artist with mediumistic vision, under the orientation of Luiz de Mattos, founder and encoder of the Christian Rationalism.
These two mentioned books (1, 2) constitute the foundation of the spiritualistic teachings generously disseminated by the Christian Rationalism, totally exempted from any type of mysticism. Although taking the risk of being omitted, we tried to generate below a less complete, but quite simple text. In it, the reader will find a clear explanation on what are the spirit and its attributes, as well as, its incarnation and disincarnation.
2. Main Attributes of the Spirit
It is of easy comprehension and understanding that the attributes of the spirit are its faculties and they constitute its predicates. The attributes of the spirit are countless, and according to (1), they "increase and are unfolded in the direct ratio of its growth as an evolutionary being.” All those attributes are inherent to the spirit, which in man constitutes its active force or vital force, individualized particle of the Universal Intelligence, immaterial, invisible and dissociated of the Matter, but that with this, it constitutes our physical body.
As explanation for those who are not used to think in that duality Force and Matter, as we come explaining and defending along that work, we will begin exposing the main attributes of the spirit, namely: the willpower, the conscience of itself, the intelligence, the perception capacity, the power of the reasoning, the creative power, the mental balance, the domain of itself, the logic, the sensibility and the firmness of the character. About the thought, given its vital importance in the human activities so much the ones of purely intellectual nature, as well as, the ones of merely finalistic nature, as it happens in the day-by-day of each one of us, we will dedicate the chapter 10. The same we will do regarding the free will and the intuition, both treated in separate chapters.
Willpower
Willpower is one of the most outstanding attributes of the spirit. Through that powerful faculty the spirit exercises its willpower to reach, in the life, what it wants to achieve. It is the willpower that inputs fortitude to the human creature's achievements, endowing him with force to win the obstacles and to solve the problems that are opposed to him. With its action, the obstacles come undone, in the limit of the capacity and knowledge of each person, overcoming them.
Through that super attribute, consciously driven for the good, the human being accomplishes marvels, subdues all of the passions, all of the vices and he doesn´t let be taken himself by unhealthy desires, accomplishing his material and spiritual progress. The human being victories are done progressively and the successive results reinforce the next steps with the certainty that they will be well succeeded, even in the most arduous upsets of the life. As expression of value the willpower is (1) "[…] an unquestionable fortress of the spirit."
It is necessary to not confuse will with desire, because they are not the same thing and many times assume contrary positions. When that happens, mainly when it is necessary to move away inferior desires of any kind, the will should intervene with enough force to move away the harms that could appear of a bad action.
Conscience of Itself
It is through the conscience of itself (subjective conscience or oneness) that the spirit is rigorous with itself, because nobody better than itself, knows the limits of its capabilities and, therefore, only the spirit can freely measures the energies that it disposes, without dispersing them in any moment.
And, what does it mean? It means to know how to evaluate itself, making a self-appreciation of the true sense of what it is capable. Assuming pondered and fair attitudes the spirit learns how to not shelter vanity or false modesty, and begins to act naturally, according to what it is real and in agreement with the common sense.
That predicate, allied to the self-respect, takes the spirit to respect, also, its fellow creatures as equal to equal, treating all with equanimity, in other words, without haughtiness or arrogance, but with simplicity, knowing that all have the same origin to accomplish the same evolutionary course.
In a wider sense, it is necessary not to confuse the conscience with the spirit. We must consider the conscience as the main inherence of the spirit, because it’s the conscience that individualizes the spirit and gives responsibility to its actions.
It is necessary, also, to know how to differentiate the conscience of itself or subjective conscience with the objective conscience, this last one regarded with our free actions and responsible for the evaluation of our mistakes and successes during our earthly life. But, ultimately, the objective conscience is always subordinated to the subjective conscience, being this the predominant one.
Intelligence
This attribute characterizes the human being's performance remarkably in all the logical and creative activities of the spirit, constituting its main activity. Besides, the intelligence interacts and even interferes in other activities related with the sensorial perception, in the form of emotional intelligence, contributing to become its action always effective.
The intelligence always searches for the knowledge and the improvement of the human spirit, and it has the purpose of waking up the being for the serious things of the life. For that reason, the spirit, through the use of its intelligence, is always in search of the perfection in all of the activities that it looks for to accomplish, trying to correct its flaws and mistakes. Besides, the intelligence itself generates other spiritual attributes that “[…] create, expand, grow up, enlarge and improve, according to the spirit’s evolution (1) .”
It is the intelligence that feeds the reasoning, supplying it with he necessary ideas, for any that it is the context, so that there are the due unfoldings in the processes of discernment on what is wrong and what is right, in order to make the best choices for the attitudes that the human being comes to assume.
Perception Capacity
It is due to the perception capacity that the spirit captures, from the ambient in that it lives, the information that it needs, being this an attribute directly linked to the level of spirituality that the spirit already reached in its evolutionary process. The perception capacity is, therefore, the channel through which the inspiration resources or intuition act freely, reinforcing the own ideas of the thought and influencing on the use of many other spiritual attributes and in the own human actions oriented for the good.
In this capacity, numerous psychological factors intervene, and for which the common language has difficulties to define them accurately, although they represent real values and are easily recognizable and acceptable. It serves so much in the bold attitudes that the person comes to take as in those in which the caution or prudence should not lack.
Among the many derived attributes or intimately linked to the perception capacity stand out the penetration power, the sharpness, the finesse, the discernment and the sensibility of the spirit. All those attributes are epiphenomena of the perception capacity and they exercise, each one or by itself or as a whole, powerful influence in the individual's observational field, revealing him what so many times the conveniences hide, completing its base of information for taking decisions, which it will need to do frequently. The human being can, in this way, to accomplish what is more right and what is less wrong.
The Power of the Reasoning
With this attribute the being analyzes the facts and the problems of the life, offering him safe conditions to collect the best lessons of all that happens spontaneously or not in his life.
The being makes use of the observation, of the induction and of the logic to do the right deductions of the obstacles and of the difficult events of the terrestrial existence, in order to turn them more obvious, clear and understandable.
It is through the reasoning always alert that the spirit is guided during its evolutionary path through this world. It is a powerful instrument that serves for the creature to not let be taken by the false ideas, beliefs, superstitions and, besides, by the mysticism. All of us know that mysticism is responsible for the "[…] blindness of the faith and other subordinations, indicative of sharp or mild forms of obsession." (1)
Creative Power
It is from the creative power or conception faculty that derives the creations of the thought of every gender, the inventive genius in sciences, in literature and in the arts; in short, to it should be credited all of the accomplishments, the improvements and the current transformations of the human activity.
It is the main spring and the element propeller of the whole cultural and scientific development of the humanity, in the most different levels, races and cultures, taking the people to the material progress and to the spiritual development.
It is to notice that when creative power evolves allied with the noble feelings of renunciation, self-denial and renouncement, great benefits result for the humanity in general.
Mental Balance
No other attribute is as relevant for the human creature as the mental balance. It emerges from the rigorous "[…] development of the senses, of the well adjusted temper to the realities of the life, the calmness, the exact understanding of the possibilities and the fair appreciation of the facts.” (1)
Who doesn’t have control on himself becomes easy victim of the existing disturbance in the world Earth, and this can bring serious consequences to the beings' mental and physical health. Many philosophies of self-help take care of that important aspect, with the objective to pass to the human beings the calm, serenity, moderation, pondered and moderated attitudes, reflection, criterion of justice and common sense. They are resources expressed by all those who have mental balance and, therefore, wanted by any person in order to be safe in his actions and to avoid common and noxious mistakes to his well-being and to the living together with their fellow creatures.
There is no redeeming spirituality without the lapidation of that attribute, which should deserve constant effort and cares on the part of all those who look for a better and superior life, with high significance for their evolutionary process
Logics
It is the logic that supports the lucid reasoning, through the coherence that the being exercises in the development of his attitudes, helping him to give the necessary ordering to the thoughts and the formal structure to the constructions of the ideas for the own language of the place where he incarnated.
Invariably, the development of the logic results of the constant study mainly of mathematics and philosophy, besides the observation of the facts, allowing this way the spiritual evolution of the human being. Therefore, the education is his rampart, allowing the rational formulation of the ideas and the transformation of hypotheses in theories with right, clear, real and firm bases, and well accepted by other people.
The well based result of the logic, in all the activities of the life, demonstrates an intelligent spirit, subtle in its arguments, capable to infuse trust and acceptance to its ideas on the part of everybody.
Domain of Itself
We should ask to ourselves: who is in the control? It is through the domain of itself that the spirit assures the full control of its actions. When well used this attribute, the person will avoid to assume impulsive attitudes and to practice thoughtless actions, not committing madness of any nature, of which he turns out to be sorry later, as it happens most of the time.
To assure the full control of him, the human being needs to maintain always aware of his actions and to police himself, constantly. His spirit is unceasingly vibrating, attracting and repelling currents of favorable and unfavorable thoughts that cross the space in all of the directions. They are these vibrations that convey to him the material progress and the spiritual well-being, when well attracted and used.
From what was said it results that the human being has the attribute of the self-control for him not to let be influenced by the adverse and negative vibrations, trying to enter in syntony exclusively in agreement with his will, put to the service of the good.
Sensibility
Without the need to enter in the intricacies of the nature of the sensibility, we can affirm that it is a faculty or attribute through which the spirit gives to the being the capacity to feel and to perceive the vibrations of the environment in that he acts. It is much more than the impulses caused to our five physical senses (vision, audition, smell, palate and touch) by the sensorial perceptions. For that reason, we are referring here to the extrasensory sensibility, the one that allows us to notice what is behind the curtain of the appearances.
The sensibility constitutes the nucleus of the emotional intelligence, including hundreds of feelings and emotions that comes from it. The empathy, for instance, that create brotherliness among beings, without having any scientific explanation for that noble feeling, is revealed by the sensibility, the similar feelings, identical ideas, and the common aspirations.
What will be said, then, only to mention one more example, on the feeling of sincere and true love, which does reveal the compassion for fellow creatures´ pains and sufferings as if they were ours? And, the moral sufferings when well understood and together with the physical pains, do them wake up the spirit for the true sense of the life?
Firmness of Character
The best and nobler feelings of rightness, dignity, honesty and generosity that permeate and base our best attitudes emerge directly from the firmness of character. Those feelings, unequivocally, contribute to accelerate the human being's spiritual evolution. Those that provide for the firmness of character in their fuller form give the most amazing examples of value in all the actions of their life.
This attribute is always vibrating together with the other attributes, forming a harmonic combination that characterizes the noble spirits. It reveals the whole spiritual maturing, giving to the human being conditions of effective ascension to the superior worlds of the spirit, reaching higher evolutionary classes.
3. The Spiritual Worlds
We presented, in the Chapter 1 – The Universe, a short description of the infinite space and their components – the galaxies, the stars, the planets, the satellites, the comets and other transition stars, all of material nature, some luminous, others no. That is the scientific knowledge of the space and of the universe that is taught to us by astronomy and by cosmology.
In agreement with the spiritualistic focus, taking into account the evolution of the Intelligent Force and, also, of the Spirit along its evolutionary path through the universe, the worlds are organized in agreement with its purpose and, in that sense, they become separated into two great categories: apprenticeship worlds and scholarship worlds, as it is shown to proceed.
Apprenticeship worlds
These worlds are organized to maintain the spirits in classes or series and they serve them of evolutionary homes, being spiritually organized in thirty three classes, in accordance with the level of evolution that the spirits present. These classes are mentioned here – such it is the importance of the subject – just to make easy the readers' understanding.
After disincarnating, the spirit that was accomplisher of its noble duties leaves the atmosphere of the Earth and goes to the apprenticeship or origin world, the world to which it belongs, that is, it returns to the world wherefrom it came when it incarnated, in agreement with its level of evolution. Each class of worlds just contains spirits of the same class or degree, as in a school, being slow, however secure, its evolution in those apprenticeship worlds. The spirits that make their evolution on the planet Earth belong to the first seventeen classes, of a series of thirty three.
The spirit incarnates and reincarnates until reaching the seventeenth incarnation class. When the spirit reincarnates, having already reached that last incarnation class (the seventeenth), after being reincarnated as many times as necessary, for its own merit, it returns to the same seventeenth class and there it perceives that it is no more necessary to reincarnate, and then it moves to the eighteenth class. We say, then, that he finished its course here on the Earth. From this class on, the spirit, in the condition of Superior Spirit, doesn't need more to reincarnate and rises to do its evolution in astral body. Thereafter, only eventually, one or other spirit incarnates on the planet Earth, not for demand of its evolution, but in special mission to aid the humanity to get up spiritually, in a beautiful and spontaneous manifestation of self-denial and detachment.
There is a category of spirits that, although belonging to certain categories of the reincarnating classes, they don't incarnate and are devoted to aid, in an astral mode, the progress of their less developed fellow creatures' incarnated in this planet. These spirits, which work as volunteers in the classes of the opaque worlds, lost so many incarnations on the Earth without progress that they are predisposed to recover its lost time in the astral plan, working under the protection of Superior Spirits of the eighteenth class and above (transparent worlds and worlds of pure light).
The spiritual or astral worlds are classified, as we said, according to a series of thirty three classes, in which the spirits are distributed in agreement with the development degree of each one and they do their evolution starting from the following order of worlds:
Materialized worlds: spirits of the 1st to 5th class;
Opaque worlds: spirits of the 6th to 11th class;
White worlds: spirits of the 12th to 17th class;
Transparent worlds: spirits of the 18th to 25th class;
Purely light worlds : spirits of the 26th to 33rd class.
It is intuitive that the spirits of the twentieth sixth to the thirtieth third class, designated as being of pure light, don't maintain more contact with the Earth. The spirits of the thirtieth third class are in the fullness of their evolution and they are omniscient and omnipotent.
In the apprenticeship worlds, the spirit becomes aware of what happens in the worlds of the inferior classes to its own, but it ignores what happens in the superior classes. The spirits of the inferior classes, especially the one of the first five, incarnate under the orientation of other developed superior classes to them. Those spirits need to be protected, as it happens with the children that need to be taken to the school.
The Scholarship Worlds
The scholarship worlds are those that present life conditions as the ones that we know here on the Earth, with the spirit incarnated in physical body. On the planet Earth there is a great diversity of incarnated spirits, coming from the first seventeen spiritual classes as indicated before. Such purpose happens for the spirits to promote, among themselves, the interchange of intellectual, moral and spiritual knowledge. In that way, the evolution of the spirits is processed more quickly than in their own apprenticeship worlds, where it doesn´t exist any diversity to impel to the knowledge.
Being the Earth a scholarship world, in which the incarnate spirits of the first seventeen classes, from a series of thirty three, promote their evolution here, starting on the first class and reaching the seventeenth one. The number of incarnations varies with the moral and spiritual accomplishments of each spirit in each one of its passages for the Earth (earthly life). The total time of all of the added incarnations varies from spirit to spirit, but it rises always, to thousands of years.
The evolution or spiritual ascension is always done immediately from a class to the other above, without privileges or protections. In the evolution of the spirit, it rules the principle of justice that is founded in the law of the equality. All of the spirits have to face identical difficulties and to arrive to the victory for their own effort and merit.
Inexorably, when an incarnation is badly lived, it is necessary to repeat it, having the spirit to pass for the same circumstances of the previous incarnation until it gets to dominate the vices, the weaknesses and the bad feelings and to recover the lost time. As soon as the spirit verifies the enormous advantages of the ascension to higher classes, it lives under the unrestricted desire of passing forward in order to reach new knowledge and to conquer the widest spiritual attributes.
In the world corresponding to its class, the spirit plans its new incarnation (reincarnation), in the way as it ardently wishes, in order to take advantage of it to the maximum. It has as goal to transform its desire into earthly accomplishments and to lose the minimum of time here on the Earth, fulfilling its duties. Its eventual failure can turn useless the sacrifice of its incarnation.
During its numerous incarnations in the scholarship worlds, the spirit will be submitted to a great number of feelings and emotions that are part of the daily life. All of the inhabitants of the planet will have to pass for such experiences, indistinctly. Besides, all will have to pass for the poverty and fortune sensations, alternatively, for the framework of such emotions to be completed. That awakening is necessary for it to consolidate the true sense of the spiritual life, taking the spirit to the enlightment.
The alternate knowledge of the life in a scholarship world, as it happens on the Earth and on the apprenticeship worlds, through numerous incarnations, guides the spirit to the clarification and towards a best and more perfect knowledge of the natural and immutable laws of the universe. It is very true that there are many things on the Earth for it to learn, but it is intuitive that the work field and study in the universe is incommensurably greater, as it is affirmed in reference (1):
For the spirit the Space offers a magnificent field of work and experience. The universe, however, represents the evolution in route. These three expressions: Space, Universe and Evolution hold each other as the links of only one chain. For that reason, to research the Space is to study the Universe and to recognize the Evolution. There is a duty that reaches equally everybody: to work for evolving. Each one needs to occupy his place and to make an effort to give account of his duties, certain that it has in the Space a defined and irreplaceable position. Millions of incarnated spirits in the Planet Earth feel apprehensive for lack of a guiding compass.
Exclusively of subjective nature for the spirit while an incarnated being, this knowledge will benefit millions and millions of human beings still incarnated that need to conclude their course on the Earth, in order for the spirits to exercise their activities in other superior regions of the space.
4. The Incarnation of the Spirit
We saw, in the presentation of the previous item, that the spirits possess their own worlds and they are distributed by classes, in agreement with the evolution already reached by each one. And, also, that the spirits that evolve in this planet come from the first seventeen classes separated some of the others, in the space, in the order of their importance.
The scholarship planets, as the Earth, are not permanent dwelling place of any spirit. Under the focus of the spiritual evolution, the planet Earth is a scholarship world, a true laboratory of working and learning. In it, the spirit (1) "[…] educates, improves itself and grows in a more or less long time and in an appropriate ambient to produce its evolution.” However, the scholarship worlds should not be inhabited temporarily or permanently by any disincarnated spirit. The spirit should return to its origin world so soon it disincarnates and, if not doing that, the spirit will be using its free will badly in disrespect to the natural and immutable laws of the universe.
The heterogeneity or diversity of the inhabitants of the Earth elapses from the intense mixture of the incarnating spirits for the formation of the people, each one bringing, in its spiritual legacy, the impressions of its existences and experiences of previous incarnations. In this immense incarnatory context, it is not difficult to perceive that (1) "[…] the ones that know more, the ones that have larger apprenticeship and larger experience, teach the ones that know less, and these, by their turn, learn of others. It is exactly due to that fact that we frequently see beings of quite different spirituality in a same family.” Then, it is in the family that the persons possess larger proximity and intimacy to interact their best and worse feelings, without any restrictions. Thus, for the people to learn the lessons of the life, in the best evolutionary sense, they need to find in their fellow creature, qualities and knowledge that they still don't possess.
We already know that the spirit is immaterial, invisible and eternal. However, its astral body or perispirit, also known as animic body, is material, like a tenuous matter, of the same nature of the fluidic substance of its apprenticeship world, which is the world wherefrom it comes to incarnate here on the Earth. The more advanced the apprenticeship worlds are the more tenuous, more transparent is the Matter that composes their enclosure. The substance is identical (the same universal fluid), however, the perispirits are so much more transparent as superior are their class or category.
Following the law of evolution, while it is below the eighteenth class, the spirit is always determined to reincarnate. It treats of accomplishing one of its more important missions in agreement with one of the natural and immutable laws – the law of the reincarnation.
5. The Human Being's Composition
Once determined to incarnate the spirit (1) "[…] helps and attends the formation of its physical body during the gestation, until completing the fetal evolution, when the spirit takes full possession, absolute of the body, to the birth, being tied, linked to the same by fluids strings.” By that process, the carnal body in formation becomes involved, molecule by molecule, cell to cell, by the spirit fluidic body, which is acting outside of the pregnant woman's body until the moment of the child's body to come to the light, when of him the spirit takes entirely possession together with its perispirit. During the life of the new being, the spirit is supported on its perispirit or astral body juxtaposed to the carnal body. Thereafter, during its earthly life, the new being is constituted of three bodies and so it stays until the disincarnation of the spirit (death of the physical body):
Mental body (spirit, from the apprenticeship world)
Astral body or perispirit (fluidic matter, from the apprenticeship world)
Carnal or material body (organized matter, from the Earth)
In agreement with our source (1): "[…] the mental body, to which the specialists' attentions are focused, is the living and intelligent agent that governs the other two bodies – the astral and the material – being, therefore, responsible for all the manifestations of the life.” The spirit is not submitted to the law of the transformation of the matter, being indestructible, immutable and eternal in its essence.
The astral body or perispirit is the element that ties the mental and carnal bodies. It is linked, particle by particle, to the mental body, due to the permanent vibration that receives from it. It (1) "[…] involves the whole carnal body to which it is linked by the fluidic strings.” The astral body always accompanies the mental body or spirit. Thus, for instance, during the sleep, when the spirit gets out of the body, it does accompanied by the astral body (1), "[…] which continues transmitting the heat and life through the already mentioned fluidic strings.” There are no barriers, nor limits for the spirit to get out of the body because the connection perispirit–body is not interrupted, due to the (1) "[…] nature of the fluidic strings that can be distended without limits.” The only exception is in the moment of the disincarnation (death), when (1) "[…] the mental and astral bodies leave the carnal body, definitively.”
In agreement with the Spiritualism, the carnal body can be presented as a perfect and finished sculptural piece (1):
The carnal body is an amazing machine created by the Universal Intelligence to provide to the machinist – the spirit – the resources, the elements, the means with which it takes to effect on the planet Earth an improvement course in multiple, in countless incarnations, indispensable to its ascension to ambient of upper spirituality, in a higher plan of evolution.
6. Earthly Existence of the Spirit
Nowadays, medicine disposes of instrumental paraphernalia never seen and many material enigmas of the past left to be mysteries. Great progress has been made by neuroscience in the knowledge of the brain and its several functions. Many physicians and researchers already admit that a great number of physical disorders in the human organism have psychic cause. Due to that, the etiology of numerous abnormalities and diseases, doesn't present more secrets for them, standing out among them the emotional disturbances such as the stress, the anxiety, phobias, etc. Numerous specialties appeared due to that tendency, so that the global vision of the old physicians who exercised general clinic were left behind, with some damage in the global medical focus. Healing the evils of the body exclusively, medicine continues very distant of knowing the human being in its psycho-physical entireness, that is, as Force and Matter, seeking in the brain the presence of the conscience and of other psychic functions.
After the incarnation, the spirit doesn't have memories of its previous incarnation existences, isolating from them, completely. However, it keeps in its subconscious the registration of the experiences and proofs by which it passed. And, besides, it disposes and it can access the resulting vicious tendencies that it brought from its previous lives, due to the bad use that it did of its free will. This vast collection of information comes to the surface, transferring it to the mind, as necessary for the spirit in the present life to correct its mistakes and bad habits.
The intuitive logic comes to tell us that this represents a great good for the spirit. In first place, this deliberate forgetfulness of facts happened in its previous lives, hidden by the veil of the matter, hinders that the spirit comes to recognize, in the present incarnation, old disaffections, that can be very close of him, even inside the own family. That creates conditions so that there is reconciliation among spirits, putting them together without resentments or bad-wills. In second place, being deprived of the vision of his mistakes of the past, the spirit can act freely in each new existence by which it pass on the Earth. With that, it is avoided to have to pass for eventual moral sufferings, such as, humiliations, shame, regret and others that alienate the will and could turn its new life an unbearable life and of little evolutionary advantage for the spirit.
On the other hand, the spirit conserves, forever, all of good that it acquired with its effort and work. That conquest constitutes its moral and virtuous feelings that reinforces its character and "[…] it renders valuable collaboration in each incarnation making easy the acquisition of new knowledge, of new qualities and of better refinement of its attributes.” (1)
They constitute moral and ethics principles, this in agreement with the culture of each people, the incarnated spirit to accomplish with its duties and to respect the own laws of each nation. Among its duties, which vary with the person's age, we mention the self-respect, the respect to their fellow creatures, the self-esteem and the sincere love for their fellow creatures, the friendship, the education (moral, civic and cultural), the honest work, the examples of uprightness and honesty, the meritorious actions in the benefit of its fellow creatures, the intellectual improvement, the development of the mental and emotional intelligence, the fight against the bad habits and against the fear, the elevation of all of the positive feelings and the abandonment of the negative feelings, the zeal for the work, the efficiency, the family coexistence and in society in civilized terms, the integrity of character, the search for the truth of the facts and of the things, and so many others.
Finally, it is in that way that billions of spirits proceed in their evolutionary paths through a long series of incarnations to promote its evolution.
7. The Disincarnation of the Spirit
What the disincarnation of the spirit is? The disincarnation of the spirit is its definitive separation from the physical body, in other words, it is the phenomenon of the death as we know it. The disincarnation doesn't pass of a natural phenomenon in the human beings' life. Actually, it represents the opposite of the incarnation or birth. We saw that the spirit incarnates when it takes possession of the physical body, when the newborn comes to the light, and it disincarnates in the exact moment in that it abandons that body definitively, that is, when the spirit turns off the fluidic strings that linked it to the physical body definitively, and together with the astral body, it moves away from the material body.
When the spirit definitively moves away from its physical body, this is nothing else than inert matter without its life source. Nothing can reverse that process. In consequence, the body enters immediately in chemical and biological decomposition, in accordance to the chemical and biological laws, undoing its basic molecules, being able, besides, to compose the bodies of other inferior living organisms, as worms, earthworms, etc. In the case of cremation of the body, the decomposition is typically chemical (combustion), resulting gases, in the carbonic gas form, and ashes, those last derived from the bones.
8. Facing the Fear of Death
They were the religions that gave to the death moment, actually, of the passage of the spirit of this life to the spiritual life, the meaning of enormous tragedy, represented by a feeling of great loss. Quoting Luiz de Mattos (1): It is "[…] natural the feeling of the ones that stay before the absence of those who pass away. The longing is comprehensible and it is admitted, but the mortification, never.”
Thence, it is of real importance the explanation regarding how the spirit processes its evolution, its incarnation, the life on Earth and its disincarnation. It is this knowledge that allows the human being to face, naturally, the disincarnation, as an evolutionary process as normal as the incarnation is, and that it so perfectly serves to the unfolding of the life. Assimilated that great truth, the fear of death disappears, had as something mysterious and supernatural. It disappears also, the fear that many people have to hear to speak in spirit and only for that, so many people stand back of that knowledge
Focused under the point of view of the disincarnated spirit, this doesn't feel the separation as the incarnated ones, because the spiritual reality allows it to "see” and to "feel" whatever happens with the friends who stayed incarnated, as it saw when incarnated it was. Although it cannot speak to the incarnate, the spirit can use the telepathic attribute that it disposes and transmit thoughts (intuitions) to the incarnate who receives them as if they were of him. Likewise, it happens with all of the feelings, good and bad.
However, in this last aspect, a great evil exists that takes a great number of disincarnated spirits to stay in the atmosphere of the earth, submitted to the earthly influences, where still prevail, due to the poor evolutionary state of the planet, many unhealthy, pernicious, darkening and obsidian feelings. Therefore, it is so necessary that the incarnated beings assist with high, worthy and honest thoughts spirits of their dear beings, so that they can return to their apprenticeship worlds without problems, "[…] where the life is felt realistically, without the disturbing influences of the terrestrial plan.” (1)
9. Premature Disincarnations
Usually, the spirit disincarnation happens in the old age after the creature having passed by the four conventional phases of the earthly life: childhood, youth, maturity and old age. But, for that to happen it is always necessary to take care of the physical and mental health. When that doesn't happen, it leads to the premature disincarnation of the spirit. Many factors can take the spirit to the premature disincarnation, but almost all of them are consequences of the disrespect to the natural and immutable laws. The violation of those laws can cause deep alterations in the natural rhythm of the life, bringing to the spirit profound sufferings.
They contribute to the people's premature disincarnation, the current factors of the own evolution of the planet, as earthquakes, seaquakes, typhoons, gales, storms, abrupt changes of temperature, etc. Besides those factors, we have the air pollution and the unsoundness, epidemic outbreaks, the abundant means of contamination, factors related to the abuse of the technology, the exhibition to the risks of own will or of third parties, negligences in the execution of the duty and the vices, these last ones due to the bad use of the free will. There is, still, to consider, the social conflicts, the urban violence, the guerrillas, and the wars of territorial conquest that harvest so many lives in the flower of the age. That listing would be incomplete if we stopped to mention the crazy and the madness actions of the evil and perverse people that happen mainly in the great cities. All those factors contribute to the creatures' premature disincarnation.
Any that is the reason for a premature disincarnation it corresponds to an interruption in the evolutionary path of the spirit, which can only be repaired by reincarnation to correct and to retake the evolutionary plan. But, "[…] this reincarnation is not an easy problem. Candidates to reincarnate are countless, surpassing the existent possibilities. Then, it is necessary to wait. Many spirits, for not wasting time, decide to incarnate in unfavorable conditions, disposed to face any difficulty.” (1)
There are exceptional cases in that the spirit will be able to disincarnate before it completes the four phases of the earthly existence, without bringing to it any evolutionary damage. It is what happens when a spirit belonging to a superior class to the seventeenth decides to incarnate, inside of a global planning, to bring something of very special to the humanity or to contribute with transformations of moral order that comes to accelerate the rhythm of the evolution on the Earth.
10. Number of Incarnations
There are spirits that, for making much effort and for knowing how better to take advantage of the time of their incarnations, ascend faster to a superior class. That doesn't avoid causing suffering to the recalcitrant ones and latecomers, and for the fact that they could not accompany old friends, they get far away from them in the evolutionary journey. Such embarrassment elapses from the fact of many spirits to incarnate in groups and, still, in their apprenticeship worlds, certain class of spirits can observe the own class and the ones that precede theirs, but none of them can observe the superior classes that follow theirs. According to our reference (1): "The ones that stays behind and trapped to the ground, lose the contact with their old and dear friends, companions of long journeys in many incarnations and they suffer, for that, the same pain that feel any person who see their dear beings disincarnating on the Earth."
However, that contact can be reestablished, as it is of the beings' knowledge in their spiritual plans. Comparing with the conditions here on the Earth, it is natural that, if a person walks more slowly than the other, this one will go away of the first. As the one that keeps ahead not always wants to reduce his steps, the one who is delayed will have to advance his steps, if he wants to reach who is ahead of him. Of that intuitive logic, it can be inferred that many spirits decide to incarnate in conditions the most precarious, facing enormous suffering on the earthly life, which they know to be transitory in order to enrich their knowledge and acquire moral values that enable such spirits to ascend to the immediate class. Thus, "[…] with redoubled effort, they get to recover the time that they lost, brotherly, and they get closer of those that passed them ahead.” (1)
11. Neither Heaven nor Hell
The human being needs to abandon certain groundless beliefs. In the spiritual worlds the life is understood and felt in all its greatness and entire reality, for being complete the lucidity of the spirit and this have full conscience of the necessity of the evolution and of the eternity of the life. To the spirit it is not allowed to neither deceive itself or to deceive any other. Thus, for instance, they verify that neither it doesn´t exist heaven nor hell, and much less, the divine judgment. All this are fantasies invented by religions.
In their origin worlds, freed of confusion and disturbance factors, the spirits analyze their earthly actions, what they did of well and, with true grief, their condemnable actions. They understand that all have as goal the Superior Astral that is (1) "[…] whereto all spirits go, when freed of their connections with the matter and of the original fluidic influences caused by the inferior emotions, of which this planet is saturated."
12. The Obscure Side of the Life
Now that we already know how the disincarnation occurs, we need to know what happens as soon as the spirit leaves its physical body definitely, that is, when occurs the physical death of the body. The individuals, in their great majority, accustomed to the mistakes derived from the faiths that absorbed from the religious practice, they lived an exclusively materialistic life and they surrendered to a messy and vicious life. Those spirits, when disincarnated, for not possessing knowledge of the spiritual life and being so impregnated of the emotions caused by the material life, not even perceived their new reality. Their movement or locomotion is function of their astral bodies, to such a point that many of them move step by step, as if they were incarnated, because their perispirits are impregnated of rude and miasmas elements obtained by the vicious conduct that they had.
In that state, with the astral body or perispirit numbed and "heavy", what gives it the impression of still having its physical body, the spirit “sees” itself suddenly wandering on the surface of the Earth, "[…] walking as any pedestrian, displeased with the lack of attention of the incarnated persons that don't notice, of course, its presence. It does not lack itself, however opportunities to do relationships with other disincarnated spirits, in identical situation." (1)
However, for those that lived a life less materialized and fulfilled with their duties ethically and morally, their spirits slide in the atmosphere of the Earth in agreement with the density of their astral bodies, impelled by the action of the thought. But, for still lacking them the spiritual knowledge, they only return to their apprenticeship worlds with spiritual help.
Meanwhile it doesn't happen and, although those spirits understand with relative easiness the phenomenon of the disincarnation, they continue wandering in the atmosphere of the Earth and approaching the incarnated ones according to the law of the attraction of thoughts, attracting the ones that are similar and repelling the ones that are contrary. That process causes damages so much to the incarnated spirits as to the disincarnated ones, for the astral influence that exercise, many times followed by cruelties and perversities of every type.
In spite of those spirits understand, with certain easiness, the phenomenon of the disincarnation, millions of disincarnated spirits that are with their thoughts tied to the events of the earthly life continue feeling the same emotions and the pleasures that they felt when incarnated they were. Those saturated thoughts of materiality take such spirits to act, by intuition and induction, on the incarnated ones, at such a point that this action, when persistent, ends to becoming obsessive. According to the reference (1) already cited: “[…] it is the desire that takes them to stay in the atmosphere of the Earth, in an activity similar to the one that they had as incarnated. The ones that were physicians, for instance, try to exercise their activities where they find developed mediumship, unprotected by the Christian rationalistic discipline.”
The disincarnated spirits that stay in the atmosphere of the Earth, in disagreement with the spiritual laws, don't have means to enlarge their knowledge and they cannot teach us nothing else than they knew when they were incarnated. They don't know how to get rid of malicious and harmful influences of other spirits that are in identical situations, but for having formed phalanges, these can subdue them, co-opting them to align with the so-called phalanges. Then, the careless mediumistic practices are always harmful to the mediums. The appropriate spiritual knowledge, with rigorous discipline, is needed any that is the level of evolution that has reached the spiritual medium, because such isolated communications will be subjected to mystifications, when received in an inappropriate ambient.
13. The Inferior Astral – the Worst of the Worlds
While the Superior Astral is composed of the apprenticeships worlds or of origin (spiritual worlds), where spirits stay before they incarnate, the inferior astral is a condition spiritually irregular and unnatural existing in the planet Earth (scholarship world) and its atmosphere, where act wildly (1) "[…] spirits that were incarnated in all of the social classes and that in their incarnated life let themselves to thrill for the material emotions.” In the inferior astral ambient it rules the religious mysticism, and also, don’t lack the emotions of low level. In it, they are present all those that deceived their similar with heaven promises and hell threats. And, still, according to (1): it is "[…] the paradise of all of the great materialists and jokers."
It is of fundamental importance to know that no spirit incarnates or reincarnates having as starting point the inferior astral. First, it needs to pass from the inferior astral to the spiritual world corresponding to its class and there it recovers itself to plan a new incarnation. It is, still, in the inferior astral that the spirits verify that there is no God, nor saints, nor heaven, nor hell. Many of those spirits become mocking and rejoice themselves in laughing at the mistakes of the incarnated spirits. There, those that were materialistic keep still more trapped to that idea, because the ambient doesn't favor their reasoning to understand their new reality and to change of idea.
Still more complex is the situation of the religious persons. These, educated in the regime of the fear, infused by the dogmas and by the so-called "sacred books", lose courage, initially, when penetrating in the inferior astral, impregnated that they are with the ideas of the purgatory and of the hell. As soon as they verify that they deceived their legions of faithful followers and they themselves were deceived, in condition of complete disorientation and perplexity, they lose the notion of their purely state of spiritual reality and go to the churches in search of a salvation board, which certainly they don't find any. In those places, they will find many of their relatives and religion companions, incarnated and disincarnated, worsening the situation of all them. Thus, Luiz de Mattos expressed (1):
It is not without deception and suffering that many see to collapse and to undo the castle of fantasies that they built in the mind with the religious mystic's abundant suggestive material. Even so, it is such the attachment to saints and to the gods and so big, so deeply rooted the fear of being punished, that not even in that state of spiritual semi-conscience they are capable to work the atrophic reasoning, for the liberation that so many benefits would provide them. It is relatively small the transformation that the disincarnated spirit observes when penetrating in the inferior astral: it sees that possesses a body similar to the carnal one and it sees the picture of the earthly material life as always it knew.
It can be perceived the big evil caused by the spiritual ignorance. Socrate, Plato and, later, Jesus Christ already said: “The ignorance is the greatest evil that annihilates the humanity.” The disincarnate accommodation in the inferior astral is disastrous for the spirit, which has its evolution paralyzed, and for the incarnate ones that with it maintains conditions of likeness of thoughts. One should still mention that, in function of the activity to which it submits itself in such ambient of low spirituality, the spirit will have a greater or lower moral responsibility to rescue in future incarnations.
14. Vices and Contaminations
One of the most noxious aspects of the action of the spirits of the inferior astral on the incarnated ones resides in the expansion of the vices of all types, whose aspects pass unnoticed to the human beings. Those that were addicted when incarnated they were, today accompany the drug addicts of the same type and induce them to intensify their addictions, be it of drug, tobacco, drink, gambling and until those related to moral vices as, for instance, the slander. It deals of giving expansion to the unhealthy desires. More frequently, they are the addicted obsessors that accompany the creatures inducing and intuiting to satisfy them in their addictions. This doesn't mean that the incarnated ones don't have fault for their addictions, we are just stressing that exists an enormous symbiosis of desires here, between the incarnated and disincarnated spirits of the inferior astral.
But, there are other forms of influences, equally very noxious to the human beings and the humanity in general. When the human being submits himself to the bad intuitive influences of the inferior astral, by the bad use that he does of his thoughts and feelings, it results the madness, obsessions, domestic conflicts, groundless resentments, misunderstandings with the family, forfeitures and infidelities.
There are still many accidents and disasters motivated by the disturbance state in which the inferior astral spirits are and can cause to the human beings the same disturbance. Even, many infectious diseases can be caused or worsened by the spirits of the inferior astral, often taking so many creatures to the disincarnation. Nothing can avoid that such spirits (1) "[…] pick out from the focuses of putrid matter, the miasmas and place them in the victim's body, taking advantage of the lesions or exposed wounds, of the patient's weakness and of all of the favorable elements to the propagation or development of the evil."
However, not always every evil that may happen should be attributed exclusively to the intuition of the spirits of the inferior astral. And that because, each person possesses his own tendencies, temperament more or less messed up, own point of view, individuality and free will to do his choices and to make their own decisions. Therefore, to each individual the responsibility fits for the successes or failures that he comes to have in the life, elapsed from good or bad action.
15. Perversity without Limits
We know that a great contingent of people line up their lives for the roads of the evil, of violence, of transgressions, acting as true recalcitrant criminals. When they disincarnate, that almost limitless perversity is kept by the spirits of the inferior astral, which by harmful action, induce and cause so many and so many misfortunes to the humanity, through those that are incarnated in the same conditions, inclusive almost all the suicide cases. Again, here we have the automatic application of the law of the thoughts and feelings affinities.
Those disastrous actions and atrocities are lessened or even avoided by action of the Superior Astral, when this has vibratory currents strongly addressed for the good, elapsed from the vibrations of incarnated and enlightened beings´ thought about their spiritual duties. They are people that get to maintain calm themselves, safe and capable of conserving their clean minds and in conditions of reacting to the actions of any malicious influence.
We are saying that the struggle of the good against the evil occurs, also, in spiritual level for being necessary, due to the existence of millions of spirits filling up the inferior astral by pure ignorance of their spiritual duties and for having lived a life too much directed to the matter, to the crime and to the fleeting pleasures. Let us mention, still, the reference (1):
The spirits of the inferior astral don't ignore that all of the human beings, without exception, possess intuitive mediumship and take advantage of that fact to infuse in their minds, absurd and foolish ideas. Then, the reason for certain individuals to imagine the persecution habits in their lives, of seeing the things always on the black side, and of many of supposing victims of various diseases.
All this becomes effective by the action of similar thoughts that serve to two purposes, in agreement with the thought of each one. On one side, the inferior astral forces are attracted and intervene in the creatures' life causing the most several evils already mentioned or worsening the already existent. On the other hand, it is also true that the human beings can defend themselves of those same forces of the evil, using the vigorous power of his will and of the thought.
16. Formation of Phalanges
Among the millions of obsessors that disturb the equilibrium of the terrestrial life there are the ones that possess great intelligence, however they were skeptical or ignorant of the own duties of the spiritual life and they lived a life too much messy and materialized. Among these, we have megalomaniac kings, unpatriotic presidents, vain ministers, venal magistrates, etc. On the other end, there are the ones that possess low intellectuality as the mystifiers, the quacks, the fortune tellers, the corrupt of every kind, etc. All of them, however, are with their consciences darkened and they need spiritual aid to leave the atmosphere of the Earth and to ascend towards their apprenticeship worlds.
It is intuitively logical that the spirits that are in the inferior astral are also organized, with the union of their vibratory forces, to accomplish what is better for them. They seek to clone earthly activities. But, by not possessing the physical body and only becoming materialized in very special conditions and with the incarnated co-partnership, they group and form the phalanges, true astral gangs, in order to obtain their aims. For instance, individuals that were on the Earth as chiefs of companies, renowned politicians, etc., if they did not act with clear reasoning, equity, altruism, justice and kindness, finally, with an strictly spiritualist attitude in their positions, when they disincarnate, they enter in the inferior astral, conserving the same inclinations and tendencies of command and prepotency. Others, the ones that were commanded or people in general, tamed as lambs, conserve the inclinations to obedience.
Therefore, nothing is more natural than these phalanges being directed by a boss. The likeness of thoughts and feelings are the union element. The more perverse the boss the more perverse is his commanded fellows. It is, also, easy to understand that, not having their physical bodies, the phalanges coordinate their activities in syntony with the one of the incarnated that surrender to the practice of the evil and, also, with the ones that exercise the black magic activities, candomblé, umbanda and low Spiritism.
There is infinity of phalanges operating on the Earth, with greater or lesser degree of perversity, in function of the level of spiritual inferiority of their members, always in conscious or unconscious collusion with the incarnated ones who feed identical feelings. The reader can infer, by himself, the consequences of the inferior astral actions on the incarnated persons, through the intuitions that the incarnated receive from those astral malefactors. According to the reference (1):
The phalanges that are disposed to collaborate, in the most refined savagery actions, attend the more violent and perverse individuals, in the same way that others, of less aggressive instincts, they intuit the mediums of identical feelings: the followers of macumba, the fortune-tellers, the cheaters, the oracles, the intermediates of businesses, the fortune tellers woman and all of the individuals who deal with the credulity and the ignorance of the persons.
The great majority of the suicides, of the cases of madness, of the disagreements, of the riots, of the conflicts, of the aggressions, of the discussions, of the disorders, of the intrigues and of the convulsions for political passion are provoked by the interference of the forces of the inferior astral.
The spirits that work as a trainee are whole involved in dense and rude fluids impregnated of unhealthy vibratory currents as the envy, the jealousy, the corruption, the hate, the lie, the ingratitude, the hypocrisy, the betrayal, the falsehood and other equivalent feelings.
A great number of such spirits, with the objective of better deceiving their victims, frequently act with much astuteness and softness, insidiously using love’s expressions to the fellow creatures, sweet and honey words in the sessions of low Spiritism, as if they were expressing the purest feelings. Then, it is necessary that the incautious persons search for the truth, clearing up their minds, for not letting themselves fall in the meshes of those astral malefactors. Remember that the spirits get to read their victims' thoughts through their auras, and they take good advantage of that.
A relevant aspect and that passes unnoticed to many spiritualistic doctrines, low Spiritism, umbanda, etc. is that the spirits, fallen in the atmosphere of the Earth and, therefore, residing in the inferior astral, are not fulfilling the spiritual law of return to their apprenticeship worlds, after disincarnating. In this way, they become impeded of accomplishing the duties that they are obliged to, because the fluidic ambient existent in the planet Earth is not favorable to them. And in that way, they continue acquiring more moral debits by the (1) "[…] submission to the vices, to the atrophy and brutalization of the spiritualistic sense and to the expansion of the inferior tendencies brought from the last incarnations, which such spirits were not interested in extinguishing them.” They are still of the same source (1):
In such ambient, the spirits are completely deceived regarding the life, in the dependence of being awakened up for it. And that awakening is not easy, if we take into account the influence of the disturbing fluids that involve them.
Without the indispensable lucidity for the clearing up of the blunt sense of the duty, they vegetate in an inferior situation to the one that they maintained when incarnated, for not disposing in the inferior astral of any possibility of improving their spiritual state.
Deceiving aspects of the material life can confuse the spirit, but just while incarnated or on the earthly ambient.
But this planet is – as it was already said – prepared to receive spirits of seventeen different classes which here they mix, they aid, and they fraternizes themselves, exchanging knowledge.
It is necessary to point out, once again, the role that this inequity of values acts in the humanity's evolutionary process. It is so important, so worth, and so necessary, that even the members of a same family are, in rule, of different spirituality.
17. Well-Intentioned Spirits
Of what it was exposed in the previous statements one should not infer that the whole inferior astral is devoted to promote cruelty and perversity. In it, there are also well conscious incarnated spirits that had the intention of being good creatures, but that didn't arrive to wake up for the spirituality, for the practice of the love, of the justice and of the good. They didn't know how to use their reasoning with intelligence and they let themselves to take by the deceivers of all types on the serious things of the life. In those conditions, they disincarnate in complete unconsciousness and ignorance of what is the spiritual life and, bewildered, stay in the inferior astral with great damage for their evolution.
Even so, while those well-intentioned spirits stay on the Earth, they continue losing time and nothing can do of useful to the humanity. It is easy to understand the reason for that (1): "[…] the best intentions of those spirits are neutralized by the fluidic action of the ambient, ending for producing evils whose intensity varies in agreement with their level of spirituality.”
Even the well-intentioned spirits that stay on the Earth atmosphere consider that the life of the disincarnate creature in that ambient is better than the one of the incarnated ones, because they don't have a series of responsibilities that they had when incarnated and they move well easily with their astral bodies lighter than their physical bodies. Convinced of that, they make an effort to take the friends and relatives left on the Earth to desincarnation, not moving them any animosity feeling. However, in the cases of premature desincarnation, as it was seen, it comes out great delay for the evolution of the spirit.
We stand out, again, that no spirit reincarnates directly coming from the inferior astral. Before that, it will have to return to the own spiritual worlds of its class. Then, there it recovers itself completely of the disturbances that acquired in the atmosphere of the Earth. In addition, having full lucidity, it makes a complete exam of its conscience, for only then, to plan a new incarnation, which can take time in certain circumstances. It is easy to understand that, for shorter than it is that time, the reincarnation will never occur in less time than the one of a well succeeded human gestation.
18. Ascension to the Worlds of Apprenticeship
Many spirits that disincarnate, for being different in their level of spirituality, and due to the ruled and conscious life that they took, they don't stay one moment in the inferior astral and ascend directly to their apprenticeship worlds. They are spirits that knew how to live material and spiritually and that were devoted to the honest and worthy work, and that had pure and limpid thoughts and actions, giving life examples to their fellow creatures.
It is easy to understand that (1), because "[…] the ones (incarnates) that so live and think, frequently attract the Superior Forces that attend them, mainly in the moment of the desincarnation, helping them to return to their worlds.” For that, the spirits of the Superior Astral count with several supporting points on the Earth, through highly spiritualized people, who acting with discipline, facilitate their work of astral cleansing of the planet. They count, also, with the support of the "superior currents" organized at the Christian Rationalist Houses. That capture of obsessors, of the quietest to the most aggressive ones, fallen in the inferior astral is a work of transcendental relevance and it represents a great good for the humanity and for the captured spirits.
The reference (1) teaches us: "The first duty of the spirit, after desincarnation, is to ascend to the world that it belongs, without stopping in the atmosphere of the Earth.” However, to accomplish that duty it is necessary to be spiritually prepared, what unhappily doesn't happen, because the majority of the spirits that disincarnate, are (1) "[…] involved in the intoxicant fog of the material sensations, worsened by the fantasies created by the religious mystics and they pass to be attended by obsessors, to thicken the hosts of the ones that stay in the atmosphere of the Earth."
But, there is also disincarnated spirits that accomplished with their spiritual duties and faced the life with greatness and elevation, being prepared, in the moment of the transition, to ascend directly to their apprenticeship worlds without passing for the impure currents of the inferior astral. And that occurs because those creatures knew how to understand that all of the events unfold themselves inside natural conditions, subjected to the spiritual development of each one. Those creatures, during their earthly lives, were not tortured nor did let themselves to abate for the bitterness and for the despair to which many others surrender themselves.
19. Evolution in the Spiritual Worlds
This chapter would be incomplete if we left of, at least, to refer to some life aspects in the superior space. Such aspects are conditions of life inaccessible to us incarnated. The one that the reader finds, to proceed, was revealed intuitively to the encoders of the Christian Rationalism or transmitted by the spirits of the Superior Astral Pleiad in the public sessions and special ones of the Christian Rationalism, in the last ninety eight years. Those information would constitute tens of books, if they published were!
20. The Real Sense of Life
The life concept just as it is known on the Earth is very limited. In a wide focus and extended to the spirit, life is action and this should be driven with foundation in the accomplishment of the duty. The dynamics of the life happens (1) "[…] without interruptions, the duties that relapse on the spirit are always present and their execution represents a pressing imposition that, in the Superior Astral, is rigorously accomplished.”
In the apprenticeship worlds, where the Matter doesn't intervene in the form as we met it on the Earth but, so only in the form of fluidic matter, (1) "[…] the spirits don't know the fatigue, the laziness, the indolence or the disgust, nor it leaves for later what it should be done in the exact moment. The fatigue results of material works that don't reach the spirit."
Another relevant aspect is that (1) "[…] in the Superior Space it doesn't exist the day and the night. The light that illuminates and saturates it permanently is the Intelligent Force in action in the infinite ocean of the universe."
The spirit once arrived at its apprenticeship world or of origin, for being free from the earthly influences, it "sees" its real life to unfold itself with full lucidity, involving all the previous incarnations through which it already passed. In accordance with the reference (1): "In it, all the Truth prevails and the duties have just one interpretation, without sophisms, points of view, alternatives, dubious situations, hesitations, doubts or uncertainties. Promised duty and accomplished duty are principles that get confused themselves, in only one consummation."
Another important aspect is that, in the world corresponding to its class, the spirit doesn't find, until the seventeenth class, conditions to develop quickly. It is intuitive to understand that, because there practically all possess the same intellectual level and practically the same moral rule, and consequently almost identical development level and spirituality, they couldn’t teach or learn from each other. And, as they still have much to learn and to develop, correcting their imperfections of the last incarnations, they have an unrestricted desire to incarnate again, and they do that in agreement with the natural and immutable laws of the universe.
21. The Recording of Past Lives
Whatsoever the apprenticeship world of the spirit to which it belongs, and so soon it reaches it, the spirit has complete clairvoyance of all its previous lives. Then, it examines and reviews those lives (1) and "[…] careful and thoroughly makes comparisons, observes the lost incarnations, calculates the time lost in the incarnations partially useful, reasons, analyzes and studies the position in which it is, in order to establish a new plan for the next incarnation.” The spirit regrets, intimately, the entire time that it wasted and the evil that it practiced if inappropriately it stayed in the inferior astral. Within the spirit of justice and equity that characterize the spiritual life, it is obvious that its bad actions will influence negatively in its new incarnatory plan.
Spirit actions and memories are recorded in the fluidic matter that has served it of perispirit while the spirit was incarnated, and they are cumulative. Then, it doesn’t escape to the faculties of the spirit any detail, movement, and fact regarding its past life. That recording was made by the vibratory action of the thought, with the most absolute fidelity and it reaches all its past life, from its origin and it continues recording it eternally. Thus, all of the actions of each human being's life are engraved in the fluidic matter as if it was an endless CD-ROM, whose sounds and scenes can be accessed and seen by the spirit at any time and any moment of its spiritual life. It is difficult for us humans to do a precise idea of what that incommensurable inventory represents.
22. Poles of Attraction
It was already mentioned, lines before, in this same chapter, that the spirits accomplish their evolution by numerous incarnations in this world Earth, until they reach the eighteenth level of evolution. Starting from the eighteenth class, the evolution is processed in the Superior Space, denominated Superior Astral. As well as anyone incarnated has duties to accomplish, the spirits of the Superior Astral have duties too, including the one of contributing for the progress of the incarnated beings, respecting, as general rule, the free will of these.
However, this work would be impossible to the spirits of the Superior Astral case they didn't have attraction poles sufficiently strong here on the Earth to attract them. According to the reference (1): "For that, besides the enlightened beings that, in this planet serve as instruments, the Superior Astral count with the help of the spirits of the opaque worlds that are at their service.”
It becomes necessary to explain that the spirits that stay in the opaque worlds (of the sixth to the eleventh class), which usually do their evolution reincarnating, they have the alternative of working in astral body, aiding the spirits of the Superior Astral in their cleansing action on the Earth atmosphere. They choose this option freely, because so many were the lost incarnations, and so great the sufferings by which they passed, without advantage, that they decided to work in the space, although subjected to a slower spiritual progress, but safe. In this way, they don't waste time, as on the Earth, where they would be submitted to the lowest mundane passions and they would let to be dominated by the false pleasures of the material life, facts those accentuated for they be deprived of the memories of their past lives, what may influence negatively their evolution.
Thus, the spirits of the opaque worlds don't waste the precious time of their incarnations. Possessing astral bodies constituted of fluidic matter more or less dense, they can move around, easily, on the surface of the Earth. They are spirits strictly disciplined by the Superior Forces and since they can penetrate in any ambients, for worst than they are, their activity is valuable for the astral cleansing of the planet atmosphere. These spirits help, also, in the sessions of spiritual unfolding for psychic cleansing accomplished by the Christian Rationalism.
23. Space and Time
For the Spiritualism, space and time are two earthly relativities ignored in the Superior Astral, where the reality is absolute and it is unfolded in other dimensions. The field of the human being's view is restricted to the three dimensions. The earthly science knows the light speed (three hundred thousand kilometers per second), but nothing still knows about the thought and its infinite speed, because we live in a world of three dimensions. Science nothing knows, also, regarding the speed with which the spirits of the Superior Astral move, for not being of the interest of the planet Earth inhabitants.
If we abstract ourselves of the relativity conditions, space and time are two expressions that get confused in only one. The human intellect is not yet in conditions of exercising its entire deductive, imaginative and analytical faculty to reach that understanding. When that happens (1), "[…] then, the aspect of the universe will change entirely and the problem of the immeasurable greatness will begin to have new significance. It is exactly under such life modality that the spirits of the Superior Astral move themselves, and they have by field of action, extensions that escape to the existing understanding limits in the mental human's horizon, and they have as duties, in consequence of that, attributions that don't resemble each other to the ones of earthly life. The intricacies of the life of the Superior Astral just interest to those that are in that plan. To the incarnated spirit, no contribution will be able to offer, for the time being.”
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CHAPTER 10
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE THOUGHT
Don't let us be imprisoned by our thoughts and we will be the creators of our future, in fact.
Unknown author
1. Concept
We go to begin this chapter quoting Luiz de Mattos (1): "[…] thought is vibration of the spirit, manifestation of intelligence, spiritual power.” In addition: "[…] to think is to reason, is to create images, to conceive ideas, to construct for the present and the future. It is by the thought that a creature decides, solves, discovers and clarifies his life problems.”
Everything passes by the thought, before any thing happens. If we look around, with exception of the own Earth and all the nature that in it exists, everything was constructed by man and passed before by his thought. Thus, the thought is the support, the foundation of all natural, cultural and psychic evolution of man, since the beginning of the primitive ages until the actual stage of development.
Therefore, it isn’t an exaggeration to affirm that the thought is everything in the life of the creature. The person who does not allow himself to the work of thinking, due to indolence, or due to lack of purpose, does not evolve, stands back, keeps backwards.
2. The Formation of Thought
The thoughts are caught (1):
[...] from currents that cross themselves in all the directions, having as force source the own incarnates and disincarnates beings, that emit them. Moreover, the thoughts keep tied to their origin source while lasting the feeling that generated them. They establish their self-ambient that brings health or diseases, joy or sadness, triumph or failure, the good or the evil.
Beyond what it was said, "[…] many of these spiritual currents are, besides unhealthy, terribly overwhelming. They come exactly to perform an accented predominance on the beneficial spiritual currents, due to the great spiritual inferiority of which the atmosphere of this planet is saturated.” (1)
It is clear, then, that all our thoughts come from outside ourselves, and they emerge from vibrations generated by others, from incarnated individuals or from disincarnated beings (spirits). Among the last ones, we should distinguish the thoughts coming from the spirits of the inferior astral and the ones that come from the Superior Astral spirits. It will not be difficult to understand that those that vibrate in the same frequency enter in tunning of thoughts according to the affinity law: same frequencies of thoughts attract similar frequencies of thoughts, either positive or negative; in short, similar thoughts attract similar thoughts. To place oneself in syntony with vibrations of the Superior Astral spirits, we need a greater effort, represented by worthy and noble intentions.
3. Uses of the Thought
It is also from the reference (1): "[…] the spirit impels to the thought the self force with which it is endowed. As the sound and the light, the spirit also makes its entire path in vibratory waves that are registered in the infinite ocean of the Matter with which the universe is provided and, with easiness, can become known by all the spirits, since the moment in which the thought was emitted. From there, the impossibility of modifying the truth in the spiritual life.” Luiz de Mattos refers here to the cosmic matter or universal cosmic fluid.
This affirmation is of the highest relevance and it tell us that the spirit identifies itself with the pattern of its thought, that is, with the intensity that corresponds to the amplitude of its vibratory waves as well as with its own frequency of vibration – the wave alternation in cycles per second.
4. Think Well to Act Well
Still in accordance with Luiz de Mattos (1): "Any evolutionary process is faithfully imprinted in the Book of Life.” The good actions and the evil actions either the superior or the inferior thoughts, are indelibly recorded in it. Actions are always preceded by thoughts. Thus, all that is done, all the worthy or unworthy acts are the result of worthy or unworthy thoughts, respectively. Who does the evil, for himself he does – the spiritual laws say – and with what reason they say it!
It is intuitive that the thoughts modulated by the evil produce vibratory currents that come to cause serious damages, so much psychic as physical ones; the physical damages caused by the somatization of deleterious vibrations of the thoughts in the human body. It is also intuitive that the human being so much transmits as he catches the thought vibrations that harmonize with his own thoughts. This is the principle of the telepathic phenomenon, which exists incipient in the persons.
The good conduction of our thoughts comes from the education for the earthly life and from the willpower, basic attribute of the spirit. The strength of the will means to fortify oneself with feelings saturated with worth, through which the creature will create around himself a network of protective fluid that serves as barrier to the approach, and even though, to the maleficent action of the obsessive spirits.
The rational and optimistical form of thinking must always predominate to block or, even though, to remove the most serious obstacles. The being needs to control himself all the time, being aware about his good actions. He should not become undecided, as well as, never hesitate when making his choices for the action. It is clear that the occurrence of fears and indetermination will take the creature to the failure. Therefore, to think with haughtiness, to have thoughts of courage and worth will take the creature to be firm and determined to attract thoughts of the same nature, harmonic among themselves, creating an environment that leads to the success.
5. Culture and Thought
It seems there is no doubt on the part of whomever that culture directly influences the quality of our thoughts. It is necessary to give free course to our thoughts, endorsed in the intelligence and in the moral behavior of each one, since that, the behavior is a direct consequence of the thought, having in this process a dynamic feedback thought–behavior–thought. A strong thought is the driving force of the spirit itself, what is equivalent to say that it has a prodigious capacity to overcome the obstacles that the life prefixes us. The force of the thought is a direct function of will education, because the will supports the vigorous thought.
Reasoning on the opposite side are the weak thoughts, which will invigorate where there will be indolence, will weakness and indecision. All becomes until more critical when a creature emits thoughts of envy, rancor, dislike, ungratefulness and perversity, benumbing his mind and of the fellow creatures to which such feelings are directed. All that elapses from the fact that the good or evil thought is just vibratory waves.
6. Learning How to Think
The thought is one of the main attributes of the spirit, in other words, it is inherent to the spirit, being indissoluble part of it. And, as the spirit is always vibrating, we are always thinking. It is easy to perceive that we cannot think on two things at the same time, what let us the possibility of controlling the thought, although this is not so easy. As our reference (1), "The thought cultivates itself, improves itself, perfects itself, and strengthens by the conscious power of the will. Strong thoughts are clear, well reflected and well defined."
With that knowledge one perceives that, when we know how to think firmly, it becomes easy to materialize any ideal, placing the willpower in action with all the energy that the being disposes. In general way, our thoughts are fugacious. Therefore, the thought needs to be well exercised, for us to learn its way of action and well control it. There are a very big amount of aspects and conditions that interfere in the thought. Only through individual exercises, which involve attention and concentration, one can obtain the complete domain of the thought.
The secret of the good concentration is to exactly exercise with a severe control on ourselves, which is obtained by learning how to not deviate our attention, not to leave ourselves to distract or to fall in daydreams. We have to think as if our thought acted as a camera that needs to focus at the object to be photographed to get the best results. Thus, being the thought focused like this, try to perceive the details from the object or the focused scenes. In the case of abstract thoughts, try to use the logics, followed by a lucid reasoning to deeply penetrate and understand beyond the indicated appearances. When thinking, get rid of the selfish, jealous and presumptuous thoughts for not distorting the wanted results, thus avoiding the false and distorted conclusions that take to the failure.
To have sharpened, progressive, well-succeed thoughts and guided to the general good, we have to try to emit altruistic and limpid thoughts, free of spiritual deformities. The method and the discipline on the earthly living provide to the beings conditions for well thinking and acting in correct and independent way of opinions infused by third persons.
When and if one had to act together with other people, try to ally to those who have similar thoughts and common interests. One should try to take from that union, the force that it allows to injecting in your vitality and in your actions, as common benefit, since the union makes the force, as much material as spiritually speaking. We remind, however, of other much known saying that tells us that "a bad sheep takes the flock to lose", to show that, if just one of our allies emits pernicious thoughts (vibrations), the success of any commitment may be prejudiced.
Another great secret to obtain success with our thoughts is to learn how to prepare mentally (1): "[…] whenever we have to enter in any bad ambient. That preparation consists of vibrating the thought with wisdom, elevation, conscience and trust in oneself. The thought vigor, emitted by person mentally healthy and enlightened, grows in the proportion to the moment necessities, and it is enlarged, expanded and overcomes any current of inferior thoughts by the attraction that it exercises on the universal similar Force, the power of which is infinite.”
7. Force of the Thought
The force of the thought depends directly on our evolutionary level. According to reference (1): "[…] the force of the thought has as measure the level of the human being evolution and as limit the capacity that he possess to use his spiritual attributes.”
One of the reasons why we evolve resides in the development of the thought. It is in the force of the thought that a human being finds his safe instrument to make growing the conscience of himself that, as already seen, is another fantastic spiritual attribute. It is through this force that we identify the other latent faculties, all of them necessary to the achievement of our spiritual, moral and material objectives that, in the practical way, protect our physical and mental health. That explains the healing of countless cases of serious diseases, listed by medicine, which happen in a sudden way, and that they were healed due more to the mental action of the own patients than to the remedies properly said.
The adequate use of the thought impel it with force to sublimate it, taking the being towards higher intentions and that, by force of the thoughts attraction and repulsion law, allows him the access to a relative happiness, giving him a relative interior well-being.
All passes by the thought. The thought creates ideas and images and later materialize them into its projects with a specific objective. This is the known mechanism, for example, used by engineers and architects, who finally transform projects into real things, and even though, by the writers and artists. Firstly, everything is mentally conceived with all its details, and only after that, it occurs the materialization. It is in the project that we should correct the errors, because we must circumscribe the errors to the small scale, before carrying out the works in high scale, when it becomes more difficult and more expensive to correct them.
We can, therefore, conclude that all that exists on the Earth and that was not created by the nature it was created by the inventive and creative human’s spirit, without exception, witnessing the immense power of the human thought. With more reason, still, in the Superior Space this is not different, in it remaining the creative capacity.
We came emphasizing, along some chapters of this book that it is through the evolution that the human spirit realizes its creative power, which results increased in each incarnation by which the spirit passes on the earthly living. It is intuitive that, the more evolved the spirit the more powerful becomes its creative capacity. That power, which grows in each incarnation, needs to be always used for the good, because otherwise, it may cause a very big destructive effect in all fields on which man exercises his activities, and globally.
As our reference says (1), "[…] if that is possible in a so modest world, of such reduced spiritual evolution, imagine the immense creative force, and the extraordinary power of accomplishment of the highly evolved spirits, whose activities are performed in higher plans.”
Therefore, the vigor of the spirit is represented by the force of the thought, wherefrom one concludes that, from a strong spirit emanates a vigorous thought. It is through that vigorous thought that the creature has to work to better get his material progress and his psychic personality, more and more. Here, there is a feedback between spirit – thought – spirit, in benefit of the spirit evolution towards the apex of the Creative Force or Universal Intelligence.
Still, according to reference (1):
It is due to this progress that increases the thought power and the capacity of conceiving, of creating, and of accomplishing works, each one more important. The great repository of wisdom is not on the Earth, but in the Superior Space. The progress of the modern technology, it still would not be known if many of its parts had not been transmitted to the human beings via intuition, what it is worth to say, by the force of the thought, which cancels all the distances.
From the spiritual wealthy that the creature has unavoidably of conquering in this planet, it assumes exceptional role the faculty of the thought, whose concentrated and including power depends the rational solution of all the problems of the life.
8. Process of Formation of the Thought
Now we should look at how the thought is formed. For this, it is necessary to consider the thought in its several aspects, to say: reasons for thinking, resources for thinking, confusion factors, methods for thinking and the results of the thought. We will study each one of them, individually.
Reasons for Thinking
The thought, as any other attribute derived from the spirit, does not function automatically. It needs to be activated by the willpower, which is the dynamo of the spirit. After being activated, the thought searches some reason for thinking, started by a speed compatible with the focus, object of the thought, being capable to reach an incredible velocity. Its main reason is to make clear the ideas, to convince exactly its validity, and to go to the action.
The thought looks for the reasons for thinking in one or several of the sources enumerated as follows: feelings, emotions, ideas, intuitions, necessities, responsibilities, ambients, initiatives, ambitions, interests, conscience, etc.
The two first of the list, feelings and emotions, constitute what is currently known by the name of emotional intelligence. They serve of support point for the generation of thoughts applicable to the relationship with our fellow creatures and reflect the moral behavior compatible with the spirituality already reached by the being. Such thoughts occupy most of the time of our daily life.
From the ideas and intuitions emerge our intellectual activities properly said, intimately related with the intelligence and the creative power. They are present in an intense way in the life of scientists, philosophers, writers, entrepreneurs, artists and intellectuals in general. Also, the abstract thought emerges from ideas and intuitions, so necessary to the understanding of the transcendental and of the inherent metaphysical problems in search of the truth.
The needs and responsibilities demanded by our life of relationships with the exterior world, it is worth saying, with our fellow creatures and with society, as a whole, take us to thinking in the rights and duties to which we are now indebted, helping us to establish positions in the defense of what we judge moral, ethical and fair.
The stimulations that elapse from the ambients, be them created by man or the natural ones, take us to exercise the thought in the sense of preservation of all what belongs to us (ownership and attachment feelings) or, in the second case, in the environmental preservation, in defense of the nature and its marvels.
Ambitions and interests hold up intensely the progressist thoughts, when not taken to the extreme limits of the exaggeration. They are essential in the well-succeeded experience in the businesses of all gender and of all type of our material life.
Finally, conscience will be always present in all thoughts, any that is its nature, because the conscience is linked with them. We are speaking about a healthy conscience, not disfigured or corrupted along the life. It is the conscience that gives support to our ideals of justice, reached by complying with ethics and moral principles.
Resources for Thinking
Among the resources for thinking are: intelligence, feelings, will, experience, knowledge, studies, proofs, and results. About intelligence, feelings and will we already treat in this work, being all them, also, resources used to generate or to help in the creation of our thoughts.
The experience, under all the aspects, is fundamental for the exercise of the thought. There is a necessary cycle: studies – experience – thought – consolidation of the experience, which always serves for us to gain knowledge of the things and of the phenomena, and thus to better understand the physical world in which we live. Those resources compose the base for the scientific experiments in physics, chemistry, biology, etc. On the other hand, new knowledge feedback the mentioned cycles in an incessant search for the relative truths and the eternal truth, which comes from the natural and immutable laws.
Finally, we put together the resources of the proofs and the results, when possible, to remove doubts and undefined situations. This helps to rationally and mentally solve many questions and doubts with which we live in our day-by-day. However, the conclusions need to be always presented in an intelligent and persuasive form.
Confusion Factors
During all and any thinking process we need to be sure of having removed all confusion factors that can modify the clarity of our ideas, or that it may come to deviating us from our ideals by which we fight and we give the life. Among confusion factors, we place preconception, intolerance, superstition, mysticism, and the baseless beliefs such as, fears, excess of selfishness, vanity, pride, envy, anxiety, sensuality, nervousness, disease and the wild materialism.
We released ourselves of doing fuller considerations on the noxious influence of those factors in the art of formation of the thought, being enough to mention that some of them remove of ourselves the freedom of well thinking (preconception, intolerance, superstition, mysticism, groundless credence, fears); other factors divert and absorb excessively our attention (self-respect, vanity, pride, envy), and, there are still other factors (such as: anxiety, sensuality, nervousness and diseases) that due to the emotional and physical indisposition that they cause us, block our ideas, clouding them, completely.
Finally, the excess of materialism blocks the use of the thought and of the abstract and transcendental reasoning, related to the being’s problems as “oneness”, such as, to investigate the oldest questions of the world: from where we came, who we are, and to where we go.
Methods for Thinking
The methods for thinking well and taking the best advantage of the obtained results were treated in the chapter 4 dedicated to the Methodology. There, they were considered the methods used by philosophy and mainly by science, which considers the different forms of investigation. In them prevail the thought and the logical reasoning using, according to the case, techniques of analysis and synthesis through definition of the problem, selection of conditions, classification of intervening factors, investigation, experimentation, induction, deduction, etc. We treated, also, in the same chapter, on the principle of falseability. Ultimately, the purpose is always to reach the truth of the facts and to establish theories and valid laws in order to better understand the world in which we live.
Results of the Thought
When analyzing the results of the thought, we have two sources: positive results or noble ones and the negative results or the wrong ones. They are positive results, among others: progress, solutions, benefactions, fraternity, friendships, understanding, serenity, confidence, courage, improvements, perfections, safety, economy, generosity, happiness; and among the negative or wrong results, we have: stagnation, difficulties, preconceptions, conflicts, wars, disorientation, nervousness, distrust, failure, routine, uncertainty, misuse, covetousness, cowardice and sadness.
To solve that enormous amount of situations constitutes the present and future challenges to demand the best intelligences and efforts of each one of us and of the humanity in general. For sure, any that is the followed track, the thought will always be present in the vanguard with the objective of converging appropriate solutions to the human evolution.
9. Mapping the Thought
Since the last decade of the last century, the study of the brain is passing by an extraordinary progress, by the use of techniques of high spatial resolution, applied through ultra sophisticated equipment, as is the case of images with tomography techniques. The magnetic resonance images used in radiological clinics allow the specialists to make the study of the brain neurophysiologic structure.
Nowadays, with the use of the same techniques, it is possible to map or scanning functional aspects of the brain, what is equivalent to say, to track the thought through the neuronal networks. With the development of the magnetic resonance, it became possible to compare images obtained with the active brain and during the sleeping period, settling down correlations among said images, which are object of meticulous interpretations. The coming electric signs of the networks of existent neurons in the neo-cortex are interpreted as neural representations, which are translated as (2) "[…] perceptions, feelings, nervous acts, biological behaviors, biological clocks, production of factors regarding hormone releasing and thoughts activities. The electric activity of neuronal groups that manifest themselves in form of thought produces variations of magnetic properties of the brain tissue that can be shown by the functional magnetic resonance.”
Analyzed under the medical point of view, the thought is an organized mental activity, with high degree of freedom, extended to the aspects of the metaphysical world. The most important is that it treats itself of an organized process of neural representation that (2) "[…] forms a mental model for the planning, definition of strategies, forecasts and solutions of problems. This process involves the correlation and the integration of critical events in time and space." These are common activities to any human being.
It is in the planning phase that the person analyzes the ideas of possible interpretations and tendencies, and then defines the best or more effective course of action to follow.
The forecast phase has place when the being analyzes a complete sequence of events aiming to verify the logic and coherence of the facts, to analyze and verify the hypotheses, and to reflect on the alternative courses of an action, searching to project, formally or abstractly, the result of his action in the future.
Started the process in which a certain thought gave place, it arrives the phase in which a person defines a strategy of action, and through a mental exercise, looks at the alternatives and options of each phase of the process. Thus, during the execution of an idea or project, the person will be prepared to solve the problems that always appear, applying alternatives and real solutions in agreement with the risks that he visualizes and with the effective results that he intend to obtain.
It still depends on the thought the rationalization studies that the person makes about the reality of the life in family, in society and in the group of the nations of this planet. Still, one should emphasize that the thought is important for the communication and integration among individuals, for the analysis of all and any event and metaphysical introspections.
10. Psychological Classification
From the point of view of psychology and as to its nature, the thought can be analytical, verbal, symbolic or abstract. It is through the analytical thought that a person makes use of the logic and of the models logically established to take out conclusions or to get practical results. Already in the verbal thought, the creature seems to hear and to live their own ideas and transfers them to third individuals through the own words in the context of an existing language to his listeners. The symbolic or abstract thought is performed by symbols or formal models, as in mathematics, drawings, projects, music, and the corporal language, etc. The abstract thought is always free and disentailed of the physical world. In the abstract thought the intuition has preponderance over the logic in the process of evaluation of the mental models.
CHAPTER 11
THE AURA: MIRROR OF THE SOUL
The human aura, due to its great variation of colors, offers greater complexity of analysis and therefore, besides disclosing the state of evolution of each individual, portraits his tendencies, the character, the level of intelligence, power of reasoning, the sensitivity of conscience and, finally, the nature of the thoughts. Luiz de Mattos – Christian Rationalism, 1910.
As we will see in this chapter, the aura is formed by a tenuous, subtle and invisible material, ionized in the shape of an emanation or bio-plasma, and turned on by the power of thought. It thus forms a vibrating energetic field surrounding people’s body, with greater density and evidence around the head. It is the mirror of the soul through which the nature of thoughts, feelings and emotions that we emit are revealed. The aura can still capture or repel the vibrations of other thoughts, feelings and emotions, in accordance with the law of affinities, from which similar thoughts (positive or negative) attract each other, and opposite thoughts repel themselves.
For about one hundred and fifty years researchers and serious scientists from Europe and Brazil have studied the aura with the objective of identifying its true nature and function, as well as finding a way of making it visible and susceptible to be photographed. There are also many studies that show its effect in the appearance of numerous psychophysical illnesses. In this chapter we deal with the aura with a scientific and spiritual approach.
1. General Aspects
The aura is an emanation that comes from the vibration of the Force acting on the Matter. It involves all forms of life found in nature, and varies in size, color and intensity as a function of the stage of development of the Intelligent Force acting on them.
It can be seen in people throughout the whole body, having greater density near the periphery, and gradually rendering more diaphanous the further away from the body. The aura can be seen by anyone who has mediumistic faculties of clairvoyance well developed and refined, as well as, naturally, by all disincarnated spirits, whether they are part of the inferior astral or of the Superior Astral.
The enhancement of ‘astral vision’ in people who possess such attribute initiates by observation of the portion of the aura of greater density, that is, the one closer to the body. As this notable mediumistic aptitude develops and refines itself, the aura will be seen in its entirety, in its diverse layers, mainly next to people’s head.
The colors of the aura have different sizes and shapes. In minerals it is a representation of the molecular vibration, each one having its own aura based on the composition and complexity of its amorphous or crystalline structure. In the latter, it is more constant and perfect. This has nothing to do with the phenomenon of radioactivity as known by scientists.
In vegetables, the Intelligent Force excites its bodies with a vital force, stronger than in minerals, and plants display an aura indicating variable and increasing levels of evolution towards more advanced species. For example, one can notice a difference between an aura of a leaf still alive, attached to a plant or tree, and that of a detached one from same tree, showing the transformation it goes through as the process of physical death initiates.
In the animal kingdom, the variation of the aura colors increases in direct relation to evolution, besides being also a function of state of health, nutrition condition, and the more or less state of irritability at the moment.
In human beings, the last stage of animal’s evolution, besides the conditions of health and nutrition, other factors such as age, and attitudes in life, emotional conditions and feelings (all affecting the thought process) also influence the coloration and size of the aura. In the book Christian Rationalism (1), we find:
The human aura, from its great variation of colors, offers greater complexity of analysis and therefore, besides disclosing the state of evolution of each individual, portraits one’s tendencies, the character, the level of intelligence, the reasoning power, the sensitivity of conscience and, finally, the nature of thoughts.
Although it appears to be only one, in reality there are three human auras: of the spirit, of the fluidic body and of the physical body, each one corresponding to the nature of the body it emanates from.
The aura belonging to the physical body, which is the emanation of all particles of organized matter in it contained, it can be watched during the sleep without the interference of the other two, when the spirit and the fluidic body separate from it.
Then, one can notice its whitish and transparent shape, as if it was made of strings of strained hair, if the body is healthy, or arched and bent, if ill.
To the scholars of this subject we indicate a wonderful book published by the Christian Rationalism in the second decade of the last century, (2) called The Incorporeal Life, which, as the name indicates, besides showing the spiritual action of inferior and superior forces and its influence in people’s life, shows the existence of the aura in the nature and in humans, in colored illustrations, observed by clairvoyant mediums in several situations of our daily life.
2. Scientific Investigations
Research on odic emanation, as was known from the traditions of the Old Egypt (3,000 BC) and Old Greece (700 BC), only took place after the mid of the 19th century, with the occurrences of the mediumistic manifestations in the United States of America and in Europe, which gave birth to Spiritism and, in the decade of 1910, to the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism, today known as Christian Rationalism. Both are described in other chapters of this book.
Before Kirlian
In 1679, the Scottish doctor W. Maxwell became the first one to write about the “radiations of human beings.” About one hundred years later, Anton Mesmer, a Viennese (Austria) doctor, returned to Maxwell’s studies and designated the phenomenon, characterized by a luminous magnetic fluid, with the name of “animal magnetism.” The activities aiming the cure of certain diseases through the manipulation of that fluid became known in Europe of that time with the name “mesmerism.”
In 1855, Baron Karl Von Reichenbach, doctor in Natural Sciences in Tubingen, carried out initial experiments on emanations emitted and received by special sensitives in the field of mineralogy and geology. Mediumistic works were also initiated, cited by some authors like W.C. Leadbeater, Paul Joire, and others.
Reichenbach was the one who called the mentioned emanations of odic effluvia. The word odic derives from the Sanskrit word od, which means “what can penetrate everything.” The odic effluvia were observed around human beings by some “sensitive” people, mainly from at tip of animal limbs, and even inanimate objects such as magnets for example. Reichenbach ran these experiences for twenty years, and had as collaborators more than five hundred sensitives from several countries of Europe.
These sensitives, in experiments carried out in a dark room without windows, completely closed, observed at the end of one hour or more, some inexplicable luminous phenomena. In those works, it displayed around the hands a kind of a grey whitish cloud followed by a celestial bluish luminosity on the right side, and orange on the left. Radiations came out of the mouth and nose and, more intensively, from the eyes.
In 1882, Commander Darget, prepared two separate photographic plates isolated by black paper one of the other, and placed a white sheet of paper with some figures drawn in one of them. These two plates, with one containing the drawn figures, were wrapped by another black sheet of paper and placed on the belly of a person for two hours. After developing the upper plate, the figures drawn in the lower plate (next to the belly) were found in it. Darget stated that the figures had been sensitized through the odic emanations from the person. But, this very simple experiment had its opponents (Guillaume de Fontenay, Warcollier, and Saint Albin), who alleged that the result had been obtained due to the intermediate chemical reactions from the ink to the heat, and to the secretions of the skin.
In 1897 Jules Bernard Luys (1828–1897), a French neurologist and Director of the Lunatic Asylum of Ivy, invented a new way of developing the aura’s photography. By keeping the fingers for 10–20 minutes over the gelatinous side of a photographic plate dipped in a solution of hydroquinone, he could get registrations containing certain luminosity. They varied from person to person, and depended upon their psychophysical state. This method also received many criticisms from skeptic people, with explanations based on heat occurrence, secretions of the skin, mistakes on methodology and even occurrence of “remaining luminescence.”
But these techniques were improved by the work done by numerous researchers at the end of the 19th century, among them Henry Baraduc, O.C. Lichtemberg, the Polish Lodco-Narcovitz, and even the Brazilian scientist priest Roberto Landau de Moura with his perianto theory (aura or bioplasmatic body), whose experiments were performed before those of Kirlian. With more sophisticated techniques and less vulnerable to mistakes, it wouldn’t be fare to leave out of this historical cast of researchers the names of Camille Chaigneau, Colomés, Durville, Dardenne, Girod, Adrian Majewski and Gabriel Delanne, who demonstrated by effluviography the existence of this phenomenon.
In this historical trajectory we find, in 1879, Walter Kilner (1847–1920), majored in Medicine and responsible for the Department of Electrotherapy of St. Thomas Hospital in London, who performed experiments based on Reichenbach’s work, to also investigate the phenomenon of odic emanations, the way it was known at the time.
In 1908, Kilner came to the conclusion that any person could observe the cited emanations, as long as assisted by an external stimulant on the vision. He obtained the best results with the use of dicyanine, a coloring derived from aniline that was used in the photographic industry as a sensitizing agent for infrared radiations.
Kilner used a different technique: he observed the person naked, well illuminated by daylight against a black background. The observer stayed with his backs towards the luminous source, and between his visage and the black background was placed a transparent cube, containing a solution of dicyanine. Stories from that time indicate that 95% of the people with normal vision could see their aura, represented by a tenuous and luminous fog around the body. It is curious that this process did not allow observation of the phenomenon in the dark. It is also interesting to notice that, after the experiment, the images remained in the retina of people for some time, due to photosensitive action on the optic nerve. The observed luminescences showed different shapes for men and women.
Kirlian Time
The picture of the energetic halo emanated from bodies of every living person definitively consecrated the Russian researcher Semyon Davidovitch Kirlian (1900–1980) and his assistant wife, Valentina Chrisanfovka Kirlian. They invented a photographic machine and obtained images of the energetic halo in 1939. The attainment and conservation of images of such phenomenon gained scientific recognition and their equipment became known as the Kirlian machine.
The great importance of this discovery is in the fact that the energy emanations photographed by the Kirlian machine are dynamic and vary in color, size, appearance and shape, according to the psychological condition of the person. One can characterize on the photograms states of sadness, joy, love, hate, health, illness, anguish, stress, and many other emotions and feelings reflecting the condition of the person’s soul. These acknowledgements opened an interest for the usage of Kirlian photograph in several professional fields, showing that the “Kirlian effect” (name by which the phenomenon became known) is something very serious.
Kalian’s camera was officially recognized by the Soviet Union in the 1960 decade. From there on, the invention gained the interest of criminologists, doctors, biophysicians and other specialists. S.M. Pavlenko, president of the Department of pathology and physiology of the First Institute of Moscow, recognized at the time that “Kirlian’s photograph can be used in the diagnosis of illnesses, especially cancer.”
Afterwards, the process, identified with the name “kirliangraphy”, was spread out through countries of Europe and the United States of America, and around 1970 the first cameras were introduced in Brazil. Since then, it’s been great the effort set forth by the Brazilian researcher, Prof. Newton Milhomens (5, 6), who developed a machine with his own standard, utilizing the principle of “Kirlian effect.” It is mainly used in parapsychology and in medicine. The standardization of the Kirlian machines became necessary to allow comparisons of photograms taken, for example, throughout several states of health of patients submitted to kirliangraphy.
The Kirlian machine consists of a small box placed inside a high-voltage electromagnetic field. It is therefore a generator of high-voltage electric pulses with a very high frequency. After connecting it to a source of electric power, it is then set up with the film to be sensitized by the object in observation. Among the bodies to be photographed, we can include leaves, plants, small living creatures in general, and the human finger. This was a tremendous enhancement in the registration of the energetic halo. It reduced the size of the machine and, therefore, the cost of the images. With that, the focus of the objects switched to the human finger instead of the whole body or even the head, as it happened with the early Kirlian machines.
Post-Kirlian
Many investigators, using the “Kirlian effect”, gave continuity to his work in the Soviet Union, as was the case of V.M. Inyuschin from the Alma-Ata team in Casakistan, today an independent republic. He made the following comment in a text presented in a seminary organized in Moscow in 1969 (4):
Then the fourth state of matter, called plasma, has been discovered, in which the particles are ionized and charged with free electrons; mixed in them, we can have hot plasma, as it happens in stars, and cold plasma that, according to the doctrines of bioplasma, can be found in organisms of the living creatures. Due to the fact that the particles are charged, they can affect the electric fields used in Kirlian’s photographs, and thus become visible on the photographic film.
We then see that it was V.M. Inyushin who gave the name of bioplasma to this cold plasma (aura) that is found in all living organisms composed of ionized matter, and charged with free electrons. Interesting information is that the team of Alma-Ata investigators, using special photographic emulsions, had registered emissions originated in human eyes, capable of crossing thin metallic blades!
This same team, making experiments on contamination, also discovered the following (4):
The possibility of transporting information from a contaminated culture to a healthy one, through radiation emanated from the first one, would cause damages to the second. Inyushin himself would come to the conclusion that bioplasmic radiation is the basic structure of live organisms, assuring its energetic processes. The basic concept consists on the assumption that it exists in the organisms a plasmatic like substance, the properties of which approach those attributed to crystalline plasmas or to solid semiconductors. In terms of structural organization, the complex mutual relation between electrons and protons creates something like a unique entity.
The engineer Vladimir Maspoust (from Czech Republic) states that the biological plasma exists in all animal and vegetal cells as an irradiation that covers the nuclear cells, which was confirmed through an electronic microscope mounted in a Kirlian machine. The loss of this energy would represent a depression and even death of the referred cells.
In Brazil, many physicians are using the kirliangraphy to diagnose patients. It is the case of the Brazilian Viegás Luis, who applied it to cases of regression to past lives under patient’s hypnosis. This technique allowed the registration of emotions such as fear, joy, sadness and other concerns occurring during the procedure. Many researchers studying paranormal phenomena can only find explanations through the bioplasmatic body.
3. The Nature of the Aura
The aura is a vibrational representation of our physical (physical body), mental (thoughts) and emotional (emotions and feelings) condition. Its shape is formed around the body, mainly circling the head, and it presents itself as created by the thought process. The result of mental and emotional state of people is configured or “portrayed” (3) through these shapes and colors. The figure or image is generated by the thought, and is based on the following factors:
the quality of thoughts, determined by the color;
the nature of thoughts, determined by the shape;
the precision of thoughts, determined by the precision of the contours.
The animic energy, supplied by the spirit, is the active principle that shapes the aura using the fluidic body or perispirit, which is of inferior tenuity compared to the one of the physical body. However, (1) “[…] none of these auras compares with the one of the spirit that, for its intensity and variety of colors, faithfully defines the nature of its vibrations.”
Feelings and emotions have an enormous influence in the formation of colors, to such a point that in the limits of the spectrum of colors, the black color (where all the colors of the luminous spectrum are absorbed) is representative of the lowest and animalized feelings, and the white color (where all the colors of the luminous spectrum are reflected), limpid, crystalline and spotless, represents the pureness and perfection only found in the highest forms of spiritual development. In between these limits one can find auras with an immense variety of colors and nuances, defining (1) “[…] a condition, an emotion, a feeling, imperfect obviously, because the goal to be reached is perfection, translated by the white color.”
It is a well known fact that the colors perceived and distinguished by the physical eye derive from the band of the electromagnetic spectrum containing the vibrations of visible light, which wave lengths extending from 380 to 780 nanometers (nm), whereas those perceived by sensitive or clairvoyant mediums in people’s auras fit in another band of spectrum.
The human aura is the mirror of thought. It varies in color, according to the vibration of thoughts, feelings and emotions of each person. Being naturally calm and serene, for example, is a sign of one’s good spirit evolution.
The purification of one or more feelings and emotions, together with perfecting one or more attributes of the spirit, occurs during the process of spiritual evolution, gradually from incarnation to incarnation. At the same time, the color representative of the stage of evolution will be composed of numerous combinations of colors, each one representing the presence of a specific feeling, emotion or passion.
The process of eliminating the imperfections that characterize the personality of each individual requires great effort and willpower. This, of course, varies from person to person. With time, each well-intentioned person tries to get rid of faults noticed on oneself but, as they are so numerous, many still remain to be eliminated in the following incarnation. Let us take vanity, pride, envy and hate, all very strong negative examples of harmful feelings: If in one incarnation we eliminate pride, the other three still remain, and so on. Controlling our bad feelings and instincts must be a constant concern for all, because only that way we enhance the positive feelings so necessary in the composition of our aura.
Antonio do Nascimento Cottas, a famous Brazilian spiritualist, who led the Christian Rationalism for 57 years, once mentioned the existence of about 900 positive and negative feelings. But he did not list them. The author of this book pointed out about 400 feelings, and presented in his book Reflections on Feelings (7) about 75 feelings, among the most important. All of them appreciably influence the formation of one’s character, gradually changing the usual coloration of the aura with the spiritual enhancement process.
The regular colors of the aura, as we’ve already stated, occur when we are in state of serenity and peace of mind. This basically defines our character. Temporary colors are function of a varying mental state, depending on problems each one faces each moment of the day-by-day life.
The mechanism that affects the coloration of the aura is as follows: as soon as one allows the influence of thoughts, feelings and improper emotions resulting from the variation of one’s attitudes and postures, the aura captures them and immediately affects the color of the emotion produced. This, according to (1): “Emotion produces a corresponding vibration and this, dominating the field of the aura, imposes itself with its own characteristic and latent color.”
We’ve already mentioned that enlightened clairvoyant mediums and spirits of the inferior astral can read the auras of incarnated people with some degree of precision. However, since perfection does not exist on the Earth (1):
The view of the aura can only be taken with total precision by evolved spirits that know all the subtleties of alternation and combination of colors, because in a same color each tone possesses a specific expression or meaning, and each combination of two or more colors or tones demands new definitions. Members of the Superior Astral invariably have a white aura because, after reaching that state, their nature becomes inviolable.
We must excel our actions not by fear that our aura will disclose our intimacy to those who have access to it, but through clarification on the serious things of life and through our conscience, self-respect, respect for the free will of our fellow human beings and for our dignity and character. This (1) “[…] refines, improves, perfects, and solidifies under indestructible structural conditions, so that, in any situation, the attitudes we practice always disclose the high quality of moral attributes.”
4. Colors of Human Aura
In their book Forms of Thought (8), the mediums Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, esoterists, described a great variety of colors and forms of thought, corroborated in the fluidic currents of the Christian Rationalism, as described by Luiz de Mattos (3) in chapter “Forms and Colors of Thought” of his book Scientists Without Science, 2nd edition, 1939, p. 383–385. With the sole intention of making these valuable informations known, we transcribe almost all the content of his conclusions. Much of what is being said here can be observed in the illustrations contained in the book The Incorporeal Life (2):
When a pure, but not well defined affection is felt by someone, the shape of this thought is an irregular cloud, because it was not produced by a strong will, so as to allow the energetic warm impulse to give it a regular form, well outlined, harmonic and firm in all its contours. Its color is pink. But when affection is selfish and poorly defined, the cloud is even more irregular, shaded with a less pure feeling, and so, of a mist of egoism shown clearly in the mix of the carmine color, which is the color of thoughts of materialistic love. This shape and color are typical of those weak in spirituality and education, because egoism in human being’s is the real evidence of inferiority.
However, when a human being feels a well-defined affection, the shape of this thought is distinct, like something powerful and capable of producing a definite result. Its color is pink, intense and brilliant, identical to the affective feeling, and well defined and true.
The shapes created by the feelings, by music and the influence that implement in the human spirit are numerous, well-contoured, harmonics and some very pretty in colors and shapes. As one can see in the book The Incorporeal Life, the engravings of Mendelssohn, Gounod and Wagner stand out among all others.
This means that each thought has its own regular or irregular shape and harmonics, and its colors may be stable or mixed with gray and dark tones, depending on each one’s feelings; thence, colors are classified as follows: black, meaning hate and malice; purple, in all its color tones, from reddish to brilliant scarlet, indicating brutal fury as one manifested by lightning of dark purple crossing dense grey clouds. In addition, honest indignation manifests itself by means of a very live scarlet color, which, although not ugly, is by all means unpleasant on its brightness; a dark and repugnant purple, which is almost exactly equal to the one called of dragon-blood purple, is the indication of animalized passions, of all sensual and disordered desires.
The light brownish colored tone (like the one of burned sienna land) expresses avarice; the dark gray indicates egoism, and unfortunately this color is found with enormous frequency; the dark and gloomy gray is the sign of depression, while the pretty and clear gray indicates fear; the grayish green denotes trick, deceit, fraud, whereas the dark green, spotted with dots and lightning of scarlet color, exhibits jealousy.
The green color always demonstrates capacity of adaptation; in the most inferior case, when it applies to egoism, this feeling converts itself easily into deceit and falseness; later, when evolution advances, the green color turns itself cleaner, purer, denoting on the one who possesses it, the desire of being unaffected, good, even if many feelings of interest are still part of his projects, such as either desire of popularity or good reputation.
In its highest mode, the delicate shiny green expresses the power of sympathy. The affection manifests itself through the whole fine grade from crimson to rose; a carmine or light red, clear and clean color means strong and healthy moral affection; if this pink color turns itself dark with a brownish opaque gray, it indicates a manifesting feeling of egoism; whereas a pale pink color and pure corresponds to absolutely disinterested love, of which evolved souls are endowed.
Similar to the first signs of daybreak, love goes likewise from dark-carmine color proper of the brute feelings to the delicate tones of pink color, milder as one purifies love from all egoism, and grows each time more, embracing all in its love greatness the deprived of love. This admirable color, slightly mixed with the vivid blue, can express the widely accomplished feeling of universal fraternity of all mankind.
Dark tones of orange mean pride or ambition, but all the fine grades of yellow belong to intellectuality; the yellow with stripes of dark gray demonstrates an applied intelligence satisfying egoism, whereas clear yellow indicates a high intellectual personality. The spring-yellow tone, pale and luminous, is an indication of the most brilliant and unselfish intelligence. It is pure reasoning directed to spiritual goals.
The different tones of blue indicate all the pure feelings, scaled from the dark blue of egoistic irradiation to grayish blue of fetishism shaded by fear, up to the intense and shiny blue color that represents the act of pure irradiation of a loving soul, and the splendid pale blue the uppermost of the preceding color that demonstrates renunciation of the ego (the “self”) and the union with the Great Focus. A thought full of love, produced by a merciful soul, gives origin to a series of wonderful bluish tones, similar to the deep blue of Earth’s atmosphere in summer time.
Some times, through these clouds of a splendid blue, fascinating golden stars shine in the form of sparkling rain.
A composite and simultaneous feeling of both affection and adoration manifests itself by means of a dyed violet, of which delicate shades express with great precision the diverse capacities that souls have in responding to the conception of a high ideal.
The brightness and intensity of colors denote, in general, the measure of the force and feelings that generated them.
5. Conclusion
From what was shown in this chapter it is intuitive to conclude that the human aura encompasses the energetic conditions of our thoughts, feelings and emotions, reflecting in it through its colors and shapes the dynamic state of our astral environment and, therefore, of our attitudes and behavior. Nothing goes unnoticed to those that can read our aura, like the spirits of the Superior Astral, the inferior astral and clairvoyant mediums in general. All is known, and nothing is hidden.
It is also worth noticing that a healthy, coherent and luminous aura guarantees a supply of vital energy, and protects us from fields of disintegrating and negative energy coming from evil spirits.
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CHAPTER 12
THE MEDIUMSHIP
The day in which the scientific organizations, free of preconceptions or sectarian influences, dispose themselves to study the mediumship under its diverse aspects and peculiarities, they will come to understand the urgent need to make a campaign for the humanity's enlightment through the widest popularization of the results of those studies, in order to the creatures understand that they need to give a healthy orientation to their lives, so that the number of lunatic creatures turns out to be reduced to the careless, negligent, and inattentive persons.
Luiz de Mattos – Founder of the Christian Rationalism
The lack of study about mediumship on the part of the scientific organizations, with rare exceptions, constitutes, unfortunately, an incomprehensible gap. With the beings' progressive spiritual development and of the humanity in general, we are sure that, in the current 21st century, we will have great scientific surprises in this field.
This chapter was introduced in this work with the objective of informing what exists of more advanced in the knowledge of the mediumship, without mysticisms and without trickeries. It is a notable faculty of the spirit, what doesn't mean that, who has it, is a privileged person.
The mediumship, which exists under several modalities, is an innate faculty in the spirit of all people. Among those modalities, the mediumship of intuition that almost all people possess in higher or lower degree, although many don't feel it consciously, is the most common. Given its importance, of it we will treat fuller in Chapter 13 on Intuition. All the other modalities are latent in many creatures. People that devote themselves to the exercise of the mediumship, in the form as we will inform in this work and, more specifically in this chapter, are known as mediums, psychics or sensitives, that is, true intermediates between the material life and the spiritual life.
The natural development of mediumship is not always a direct function of the level of spirituality of the creatures, which is acquired along their numerous incarnations. It is to remind that the manifestation of the mediumship in the persons varies in function of their temperament (emotions), of their feelings, of their sensibility and of their evolution. We already saw that (1) "[…] the good or bad thoughts are attracted in the direct reason of their likeness and their reception instrument is the mediumistic faculty.” Further on (1): “[…] the mediumship is always useful when well employed, but highly harmful if it were put to the service of the evil."
In Chapter 9 on the Primacy of the Spirit, we showed that the space filled up by the atmosphere of the Earth is full of discarnate spirits and of thoughts that cross it in all directions, and those vibrations stick together into two currents: the current of the good and the current of the evil.
In Chapter 10 on the Importance of the Thought, we showed that all people (incarnated spirits), as well as the disincarnated spirits are continuously emitting their thoughts just under two options: or they are thinking for the good or they are thinking for the evil, never for both, and they don’t have another alternative. In accordance with the law of the likeness of thoughts or the law of attraction of the thoughts, the thoughts of same kind attract themselves and the thoughts of different kind repel themselves.
Being known those principles, it is easy to understand why a person of good character, whose thought is vibrating in search of constructive accomplishments, always nurturing a sincere desire for material and spiritual progress and striving to reach his objectives, he will always be in syntony with the currents of the good, being, then, opened for him the path for the process of the intuitive mediumship aimed to the good.
Reasoning contrary sense, it is clear why a person who has bad character and is predisposed to the practice of the evil, and who is every time involved of malign spiritual tendencies to others, will be in likeness with the currents of the evil, thus keeping himself as an attraction pole for the obsessors of the inferior astral. This explains the numerous intuitive madnesses that happen at every moment in the world.
1. General Guidelines
Nothing of what it was said is supernatural, to the contrary, all the mediumistic phenomena are natural, among which the intuition is the most representative, and obey to the spiritual natural laws. Whenever there are malign intentions, expressed through the people's thoughts, it occurs the juxtaposition of intentions due to the identity of the vibrations of their thoughts with the vibrations of the same nature generated by the spirits of the inferior astral or by other people with their will equally aimed to the evil. See what tells us our source (1):
Those who, big or small, rich or poor, humble or powerful do live at the margin of the good moral precepts; those who hidden or ostensively practice unworthy actions; those who bring buckled to the face the mask of the kindness and hide in the soul the ugliest villainies; the murderers, the thieves, the swindlers, the crooks, the traitors, the disloyal people, the false people, the hypocrites, the liars, the bullies, the rampagers, the pusillanimous beings, the idlers and, in general, all the scoundrels, they don't pass without knowing, of enslaved beings to the obsessor phalanges, becoming themselves docile instruments of the intents of such phalanges, who take them to practicing the most abominable actions.
We should not lose of view that the inferior astral is organized, also, in sophisticated hierarchies that receive the name of phalanges, to accomplish their malign and perverse intentions. It is now easy to understand why those phalanges, which permeate the ambient of our incarnated life, cause a great moral and physical damage to the humanity, in general, supported that they are by the people's mediumship and by the conscious and unconscious conditions that the human thoughts give to the obsessors.
In the conditions of the earthly life, the persons will be so much more exposed to the dangers of an obsession the more developed is their mediumship. Thence, it is of maximum importance that everyone tries to know the degree of development of his mediumistic faculties, with the objective of guiding oneself with rightness in the appropriate control of his thoughts. We remind that we already said, in this work, that all in the creature’s life passes first by the thought. That type of knowledge takes us to affirm that all the lunatics, without exception, are endowed of the mediumship faculty and they arrived to the obsession due to their faculties. In short, that is why the Spiritualism treats the madness as a product of the incorporeal life ignorance.
The Spiritualism is a philosophy that satisfies to our anguish of wanting to know more and more about ourselves and the mediumship is our satisfaction or displeasure instrument, as it is used by us either for the good or for the evil. To close that introduction to this chapter, we transcribe (1):
The day in which the scientific organizations, free of preconceptions or sectarian influences, dispose themselves to study the mediumship under its diverse aspects and peculiarities, they will come to understand the urgent need to make a campaign for the humanity's enlightment through the widest popularization of the results of those studies, in order to the creatures understand that they need to give a healthy orientation to their lives, so that the number of lunatic creatures turns out to be reduced to the careless, negligent, and inattentive persons.
2. Types of Mediumship
It doesn't escape to a good observer, who already has certain information and knowledge of the spiritual life, the existence of several types or modalities of mediumship, which we will analyze, to proceed, with some depth. Among them, there are the intuitive, the hearing, the smelling, the seeing, the psychographic, and the one of incorporation mediumships, with the respective objective phenomena of unfolding, of materialization, of levitation and of transport. In another part of that work, in Chapter 8 on the Intelligent Force, we tried to show that those spiritual phenomena can be classified as subjective (the diverse types of mediumship) and objectives (the diverse phenomena that externalize themselves and act on the Matter).
Intuitive Mediumship
The intuitive mediumship is a direct reflex of the person's psychic sensibility. It seems to be correct to say that the intuitive mediumship is intimately related to the incipient telepathic organ – the pineal gland, which also seems to grow with the spirituality and the telepathy. By its turn, telepathy is still not a faculty sensibly developed in the man, for obvious reasons.
These three spiritual predicates – the intuition, the telepathy and the incorporation seem to operate together under the coordination and complimentary action of the pineal gland, to obtain the best results. The development of those predicates under rigorous control and discipline offers the most perfect results in the reception of the thoughts of the disincarnated and incarnated spirits.
A more complete and deeper study of that theme is presented in Chapter 13 on the Intuition, preferable modality of transmission of intuitions by the superior spirits, in which the mediums don't lose the control of themselves. To complete, we should say that, in this modality, the mediums know how to "filter" the inconveniences and words of low jargon eventually transmitted by spirits of the inferior astral.
Hearing Mediumship
In the hearing mediumship the sensitive or spiritual medium hears strange sounds that the common person doesn't hear. They are sounds produced in higher frequencies (ultrasound) than the audible frequencies of the resonant spectrum (of 10–20,000 hertz or cycles per second) or, then, below those frequencies. These sounds are usually heard directly inside the brain without passing by the hearing system. It is this mediumship type that allows to the mediums to receive and transmit the thoughts of the actuating spirits.
Smell Mediumship
In this type of mediumship the medium has a very high sensibility for smells and aromas, because their smell glands grew up to the point of easily capturing from three thousand to five thousand different aromas, from the rudest to the subtlest. Among the rudest, he feels the odors of "decays" (organic bodies in decomposition or rotting), several pollution types (sulfur, cigarette, cigar, alcoholic odors) and man-made perfumes from the flowers of the field, and also subtle ones as those of the fluids spilled by the spirits of the Superior Astral.
Seeing and Clairvoyant Mediumships
These types of mediumship are rarer, the medium being called of spiritual seer or then, clairvoyant. The seers reach vibrations outside of the spectrum of visible light (the seven basic colors and their combinations), being this a resource of incalculable value to know and understand the incorporeal life and to perceive the several types of auras, etc. See the book The Incorporeal Life (2), which shows, in engravings printed in three colors, the auras of the mineral, vegetable and animal worlds, as well as, of the man in different conditions of thoughts and feelings. It is a wonderful book and we can affirm that there is not another one with so much wealth of information about the incorporeal life.
Already the clairvoyance is the most extraordinary form of mediumship. While the seer reaches the here and now, the clairvoyant “sees” beyond in the future. No doubt, the future elapses from our actions in the present, that is, it depends on the choice of numerous possibilities on the part of the beings. However, the clairvoyant is intuited with perceptions that come from the knowledge that the spirits of the Superior Astral have about the future. For the superior spirits it doesn't exist the present, the past and the future, all is eternal. It is a mediumship modality very much rare.
Psychographic Mediumship
It is the mediumship modality in which the spirit acts directly on the medium’s hands and fingers, allowing the direct writing of messages and communications by the spirits. This is the type of mediumship well accepted by the common people. Then, for curiosity, they seek mediums to receive relatives' messages and others, of deceased friends, what in fact, it can happen, but the possibility of mystification is very high and, even in the case of being true, such received messages don't bring any lesson of value or benefit to the person. The great majority of those messages come from disincarnated spirits that are wandering in the inferior astral. The use of the mediumship to individually assist somebody is condemnable, mainly if for this "work" it is necessary any payment, although spontaneously being made. The mediumship is a very serious thing and we should not make bad use of it.
While the modern processes of electronic recording were not available, the psychographic mediumship was the unique form of registering the mediumistic information. We explain that many works of great value received from the superior spirits by intuitions were psychographed by hearing mediums, but also, a larger number of those intuitions were received from spirits of the inferior astral, these without any moral value.
Incorporation Mediumship
The incorporation mediumship is the one in which the spirit acts directly on the medium's spiritual body, being easily noticed. It is a mediumship form that, in the moment of the performance, it doesn't escape to the view of anybody, because in it, the active spirit keeps the control of the situation. According to (1): "The incorporation medium doesn´t have even need to concentrate for receiving the influence of the spirits of the inferior astral, because his sensibility and the nervous system are in such a way predisposed that it is enough for the medium to be brutally or softly acted by such spirit – according to the feelings brought by the active obsessor – the action of the thought.” The predisposition occurs, mainly, due to the nature of bad thoughts, hate, sorrow, revenge, envy, etc. (see the chapter on the Aura) or even by the spiritual weakness attributed to the heavy fluids of which the person is endowed.
It is more or less common to observe the performance of the inferior spirits in people endowed with that type of mediumship wandering in the streets of the city. Some of them fall to the ground struggling completely out of control or completely "out of him.” It is necessary not to confuse them with others, attacked by epilepsy, that presents similar symptom, but it is a disease of nervous origin, characterized by convulsive attacks and loss of conscience and other specific symptoms. Others are subdued for a long time and are seen "talking alone", "with anybody": actually, they talk with their obsessors. Both are situations in which the common man, without spiritual knowledge, nothing can do in benefit of those unhappy beings. Mentioning (1): “[…] they can give to it other names, to attribute to it other causes to justify the unknown, but the truth is just one and, sooner or later, the recognition of the incorporation mediumship, as a spiritual faculty, will have to impose, for its evidence, as all the tangible things of the Planet."
In special conditions and of absolute control, in organized currents to demonstrate the existence of the incorporeal life, the medium can concentrate himself with the purpose of letting himself to be actuated by incorporation, having the juxtaposition of the active spirit to his body, without the mediumistic instrument comes to lose the conscience. As mentioned in (1): "That spirit serves itself of the mediumship of the instrument of incorporation for exteriorizing its thought, displacing slightly the medium's spirit in concentration from the normal position to facilitate the reception of the transmitted thoughts.”
We believe that such special conditions can happen, analyzing them for the good logic of the rational intelligence and of the understanding, that is, when the perispirit fluid of the active spirit is similar to the medium’s perispirit fluid. This means that it may happen when there is an "almost perfect" identity of fluids, which might only be possible when both spirits, the one of the active spirit and the one of the spiritual medium, both of them belong to the same spiritual world of apprenticeship or of origin. We mentioned "almost perfect" identity because each perispirit, in spite of being made, in the case, of the same cosmic matter of the common world of origin, they differ one of the other for keeping part (memory, feelings, etc.) of the individuality of each one of the spirits in question.
The incorporation mediumship brings great risks, not being advisable to develop it, unless in strictly controlled ambients by the superior spirits. If it exists, it is recommended to conserve it as such, and the medium should just restrict its use as an additional sensibility. This is very useful for the effect of guiding the medium’s perception for phenomena that happen around him, without his knowledge, but that reveal the intentions of other people’s thought. (3)
3. Needed and Desirable Qualities
There are a group of qualities and characteristics, (3) that are necessary and desirable in all those people who come to using and to develop their mediumships, among them:
The precaution quality should always be present in the medium's life. Nor all of mediums know or dispose of safe ambients for the practice of the mediumship. In those cases, the medium must not worry directly with this faculty, but he can discreetly uses his "[...] magnificent sensitive modality to render, with it, precious services in the ambient in which he lives, some times transmitting wise pieces of advice, other times impeding the practice of harmful actions.” (3)
The healthy life is a second quality or primordial condition in the day-by-day of the medium. In other words, he must rule his actions under the inspiration of the true Christian principles, so that he is not actuated or submitted to the acceptance of mystifications on the part of obsessor spirits, in any circumstance. In short, the medium must give example of character rightness and worthy life.
The humility faculty should always be present in all the situations, and the medium should never prevail himself of his mediumistic faculty to impose or even to frighten the persons.
The arrogance must be eliminated of his postures. For that, it is always necessary to ponder on his transitory own condition in this world, and to learn how to face all the situations and things with much realism. Nobody better than the enlightened medium knows how to discern on what is real and what is unreal, because he knows that (3) "[...] the time of duration of an earthly existence, be it of seventy or one hundred years, is comparatively, in face of the eternal life, less than a drop of water in the ocean.” Thus, the medium must be convinced that humility and realism are necessary tools in his life, being necessary to know how to handle them at any time. Due to that reality he will learn that, he must not (3) "[...] give so much importance, as in general is the case, to the positions and absorbent greatness that the earthly life can offer in the material field."
The discretion faculty is another predicate or desirable characteristic to all people, and still with much more reason, on the part of the mediums. With the seer mediums, the discretion should never be ignored, not revealing or telling what they see around the creatures' auras or near them, even when it is a high and positive astral attendance, because this can stimulate people's pride, which is negative. We are referring here to the pride with the much known sense of deceitfulness.
The dedication to the study is another desirable aspect in the exercise of the mediumship. Any medium that really wants to develop needs to study always, in order to enlarge the knowledge that already possesses about mediumship and on the principles of the Christian morals as, for instance, the works mentioned in the reference to this chapter (1, 2 and 3), besides other educational works. Such studies are useful to move away, in general, the ignorance of the true reality of the life.
Finally, the enlightened and brave spiritual medium should face the need to eliminate a concept that is very ingrained in the mind of the great majority of the mediums – the one that the mediumship is a privilege. Before that, he should know and admit that the mediumship is innate in the creatures and that it imposes duties and very serious responsibilities to those who developed it and put it to the service of the good. Mediums, who already made that option, know very well that they made it with renouncement spirit, leaving aside the ephemeral attractions of the world, because they know that they don't pass of fugitive reminiscences of the past.
4. Discipline: the Secret of a Safe Mediumship
To anybody it doesn´t pass unperceived that the thought is fugitive, being always changing from one subject to another. Thence, there is the need to learn and to apply control techniques and discipline to the thought, indispensable practice to all and mainly to the mediums. Although, many times well intentioned, many mediums end to becoming victims of the spirits of the inferior astral and commit madness of serious consequences, by not practicing a rigorous discipline for their thoughts and habits.
It is of fundamental importance for the mediums to know the persons of his relationships, to know with whom he walks or whom he receives at his house. It is necessary to know how to select those friendships. It is necessary to know how to select those friendships. It is necessary for the medium to know how to avoid inappropriate conversations and to learn how to reduce his concerns to the minimum. The medium needs to learn how to have hours for all – work, meals, leisure and sleep. He must learn how to avoid the fatigues due to the excessive work. Special attention should be given to the physical body and mental health. He should always exercise his reaction capacity to the dejection and to the discouragement. Those are valid general rules for anybody and mainly recommended to those who exercise the mediumship.
Among the general rules for all persons and for the mediums in specific is the need to have paid occupation or to be financially independent. Everyone knows that the worthy work is the lever for the individual progress and, also, for the people. It not only constitutes a strong incentive for the physical body, as well as, in many of the so-called intellectual professions, the work serves to the development of the intelligence and of the reasoning. The honest work, exercised in any condition, exception made to the conditions of insalubrity and of slave work, is always profitable to the spirit. The worker should always do his tasks with satisfaction and with attention aimed for the good results, any that it is his profession.
Regarding the sleep and the leisure, it doesn't remain the least doubt that all of us need of the rest, repose and recreation in the due hours. But, everyone should make an effort to not surrender themselves to the idleness, to the indolence, and to the harmful factors, mainly those who perform the mediumship.
Reference (3) lists a great number of pieces of advice and disciplinary norms for the mediums, in order to have and to conserve a disciplined and safe mediumship, without improper interferences by the spirits of the inferior astral. Besides the conditions already referred to, we mention some others: to feed himself moderately, never to let irritating himself in front of mistakes of somebody, never to discuss, to be tolerant to strange opinions, to know how to hear without interfering, not to blaspheme, not to curse never, to combat the revolt feelings, to avoid certain ambients knowingly noxious, to conserve the serenity and the peace of spirit, to be true and loyal, to think before speaking, to know how to hear and to know how to silence, to be comprehensive with the pains of others, to not whine nor to complain, to divide the home work with the spouse, not to scold with the children, to be parsimonious with the expenses, to suppress the waste, to combat the vanity and the pride, to detest the bad-will, to avoid the passion of any type or for any thing, to cultivate good feelings, to know how to resign, to be humble, and to have simple life, etc.
Those recommendations are Christian rules that are valid in any circumstance. They serve to reduce the medium’s vulnerability (3) "[...] to the spirits of the inferior astral, which give preference to the incorporation mediums to exercising noxious action on them, obsessing and annihilating them. Besides, the practice of this discipline favors the formation of a calm personality, confident and enlightened, indispensable to the exercise of mediumship. Evidently, this discipline is advisable to those who possess any of the other mediumistic modalities and to the persons in general, for being the intuitive mediumship common to all persons.”
The mediums that work in serious institutions, as in the Christian Rationalism (1, 2, and 3), follow very seriously the discipline that we described above, and its break cannot be tolerated, once it was set up for their own safety and of everybody. According to this proceeding, they will be giving (3) "[…] demonstration of love to the Cause, knowledge of the doctrinaire principles and intransigence in relation to the fulfillment of the duty. Its break can cause material and moral damages, besides discredit for the Doctrine. This observation doesn't reach only the mediums, but all the militants."
5. Specific Knowledge
The knowledge about the spiritual life was presented in chapters 9, 10 and 11, respectively on the Spirit, the Thought and the Aura. Here, we are recapitulating and completing certain specific spiritual knowledge related to the mediumship.
It is of fundamental importance that the human being knows himself, as Force and Matter, to obtain the best possible use of his earthly life. In the human being, the Force is the Spirit, which acts on the Matter and is invisible to the eyes of the body. Matter is just only the vehicle or instrument used by the spirit to promote its evolution on the Earth. Together with those two elements, a third part exists, also material – the astral body or perispirit, which the spirit brings from its origin world. The perispirit is composed of cosmic matter, tenuous and subtle, also invisible to the body eyes. This astral body, which intermediates between the spirit and the body, has great importance, in general, to explain the mediumship processes, mainly in the so-called incorporation mediumship.
It is interesting to emphasize that the Matter (physical body and perispirit) has properties, but it doesn't have attributes or faculties, while the spirit has countless attributes or faculties, but only some of them are revealed for being necessary to the earthly life. Among those faculties, it is mentioned the mediumistic, innate and common to all persons, at least the intuitive mediumship. The influence that this faculty exercises in the life of all of us is very important. Its study is a must to all the beings that really want to live consciously and not just to vegetate and trying to know a little bit more about its complex nature and its multiple manifestation modalities.
Contrarily to what many persons think, mediumship is not hereditary, it is a faculty or attribute inherent to the spirit. Also, it is not a disease. Heredity and the diseases, as for instance, the syphilis and so many others of similar nature, which are cared by medicine, are proper of the physical body. Being more direct, the mediumship is a tool, a natural talent of the creature. Or, still according to (3):
All [spirits] come to the Earth to incarnate with the appropriated tools to the occupations that they will exercise. The tools are the talents, the skills, the vocations. Some of them bring the commercial sense, others, the vocation to teach, and the artistic or scientific vocations; still others, come to be authors, employers, farmers, businessmen and, besides that, some bring additionally, the mediumistic faculty of incorporation.
The mediumship should be exercised under rigid rules, never as a way of life and material sustenance, but spontaneously and beautifully, aiming the general good of the humanity. The spiritual medium who gets far from that fundamental rule will be committing his incarnation seriously.
The medium's main characteristic is his great sensitivity, which has intimate connection with the nervous system. And such system, once altered, can lead the person to the irritability and to expose him to the obsessor attacks. To the obsessors, the most sensitive and vibrant mediums are easily impressionable with what someone speaks or makes, depending on how these feelings are adjusted or conflicted against the mediums´ own emotions and tempers.
The conclusion that we can take from what it was explained is that the fundamental point for the persons in general and "[…] mainly for whom possesses a more developed mediumistic faculty is the individual control, not letting himself be annoyed by anything, although the irritation manifests itself on them, with strong tendency to act in an impulsive way. The task, surely, is not easy, but the difficulty should not influences the medium, so that the subject here treated, can not be faced by the medium with the seriousness that it demands." (3)
Thence, in the ambient where we live, the need for the medium to instruct, and to learn how to defend himself “[...] of the blows of terrible malicious forces, which involve the world and have as support the millions of ignorant, careless and incautious mediums dispersed in the Planet.” (1)
All the spiritual faculties grow progressively along the incarnations, and the mediumship is not exception to this rule. Our reference (1) describes that situation very well:
From the first evolutionary level in the more uncultured human layers, in the wild rites, in the practice of the magic rituals, certain individuals begin to developing it without their psychic preparation, without knowledge of the risks to which they expose themselves, by the inobservance of the discipline that should accompany such development. That explains the fact of finding the world full of abnormal creatures, disturbed, paranoid and obsessive ones.
For the medium to not become an unconscious instrument to the service of the perverse forces of the evil and of frequent mystifications, it becomes necessary to learn how to protect himself of such disastrous influences by the appropriate compliance to the discipline in the above presented form.
We stand out that the discussions, under any pretext, are always induced by the forces of the inferior astral and they should be avoided at all costs. They are the discussions that take persons to the misunderstanding, to the grief and to the resentments so noxious to the harmony of the homes. We stand out, still that, someone who rules the life without obeying the discipline here presented, runs all risks of enslavement, inclusive of madness.
6. Conditions for Disturbance
In the current conditions of man's evolution, we observe a very big deviation of his ennobling activities to diving in the illusions and fantasies of the material life, taking him to a true deviation of his moral and spiritual duties. With that, we see to reign, in every place, the low feelings and the animalized instincts, creating conditions for the general disturbance of the planet. Therefore, nobody ignores that the conditions for disturbance don't lack.
On the other hand, being juxtaposed to man's earthly life, it exists a spiritual underworld formed by the spirits of the inferior astral that wander on the earthen crust, from where they reign (3) "[…] the discarnate beings of bad temper, snooping, boastful, intriguers, those that like futile jokes of bad taste, gossip lovers, revengeful, jokers, pusillanimous, ignorant, perfidious, idle, bestial offenders and ignoble, that were, when incarnated, liars, informers, villains, sensualistic, scoundrels, traitors, rascals, impostors, perverted, prevaricators, killers, thieves, forgers and immoral."
Those spirits which organize themselves in true phalanges for best accomplishing their malign objectives live in permanent disturbance state, originated from the resulting crimes of the bad use that they did of their free will while they were incarnated. Free to exercise their noxious actions like true criminals, they use all their time to torment the human beings. These beings, unprepared spiritually, attract such spirits and phalanges, unconsciously, because they do not know how to resist to their insistent and insidious intuitions. This action is made present with more intensity on those who were their enemies when they were incarnated, acting in a more effective way for having become invisible, by imposing a recognized revenge against their old disaffections.
One observes, therefore, that the action is unified and it is processed among the persons, whose animalized instincts were described above – people of bad character, ignorant of the spiritual life and the obsessor spirits, which disrespecting the natural laws, stay disturbed in the crust and in the atmosphere of the Earth. How to eliminate the risk of such actions? The answer is only one: by means of the well-guided use of the thought, sustained by a very strong willpower always driven for the good. Also, teaching to the people how to avoid the bad habits and the vices and how to live consciously with full certainty of the existence of the evil, which is supported by their bad thoughts and by the intuitions of the obsessors.
It is obvious that the mediums, having a sensibility quite surfaced, are much more frequently subjected to the risks of a harmful obsession, and for that reason, they need to be very well forewarned of the nature and origin of those risks. The full knowledge of those phenomena and how the mediumship is processed is a duty that is imposed to all mediums who must be enlightened about the true causes of obsession. As this malign action of the obsessors is subtle, slow and gradual and it happens, initially, in an imperceptible way through harmonic vibrations of the obsessors with the thought of the mediums, exploring in them certain tendencies and longings nurtured by the bad use of the free will, only the explanation of those truths will give them conditions of perceiving what is happening and how to repel the evil.
The intense focalization of the obsessors on the mediums cannot be never ignored by them, to such a point that, they must perceive what is happening with him and around him, because who creates the attraction pole are the mediums themselves. All depends on their wills and thoughts to avoid negligences and hesitations, because the obsessor spirits are always attentive and vigilant and they don't lose the opportunity of worsening the evil.
Before the above picture, visualized under the spiritualistic optics of the misery of the earthly life, we detach the following passage of our reference (3): "Those who ignore what we are and what is the incorporeal life don't have means of defenses against such situations, and the ones that possess the mediumship, mainly the one of incorporation, without having the appropriate spiritual knowledge, live unprotected, finishing, not rarely, victims of the obsession or of the madness."
To conclude this part of this theme, we remind that the parents' great majority don't have the knowledge that their children, since the tender age, possess the mediumistic faculty, which can be perceived in many ways, as for instance, through the unexpected and seemingly causeless cry, of the spites, of the disobedience, of the rejection to the teachings, of the faded lies, and so many others that, if not corrected early, they will affect those children's behavior for a lifetime. Thence, this is the great role reserved to the family parents in the process of forging the character and to motivate their children's good feelings and to building a better humanity.
7. The Evil of the Spiritual Ignorance
It is very big, on the part of the humanity in general, the ignorance on the facts of the spiritual life, mainly about the existence of the mediumship in a more or less widespread form. Besides the intuitive mediumship, for incredible that it seems, the incorporation mediumship is more common than many people think. In all the social classes there are people bearers of that mediumship modality. And, (1) "For they to conserve in that ignorance, some end up practicing the suicide, others disappear in disasters, many overload the hospitals, jails and the prisons and the majority of those individuals, with the faculty less developed, live to provoke disorders, to lose themselves in the game, to depress in the alcohol, and to ruin themselves in the uncontrolled sensuality."
And, how does that happen? The main cause of this entire mental disorder relapses on the discarnate spirits of the inferior astral that, to the millions, wander on the atmosphere of the Earth.
These spirits identify quickly the persons who possess the incorporation mediumship, perceiving in them the easiness with which they receive their intuitions, what doesn't happen with the other spirits. They are spirits that, when incarnated, have been discussions lovers, intruders, malevolents, gossipers, disloyal, dishonests, intriguers, scoundrels, pimps, factious, corruptors and corrupts, players, drug addicts, traffickers, bandits, etc. These spirits finding open field use the person’s incorporation mediumship to satisfying their malign desires, and so they can satiate their unbridled passions, over the incautious and imprudent people.
For this simple fact of the spiritual reality, due to the attraction and repulsion law, or the affinity law, the obsessor spirits transform, unfortunately, the endowed creatures with the incorporation mediumship in victims, since that, they don't possess the necessary enlightenment and are not prepared to repel the malicious intentions of such obsessors.
In the intuitive mediumship, the effects can take much time to appear, many times in form of causeless and apparent headaches, sleep loss, several fear types, anguish, psychic stress, bad habits, twitches and even physical diseases. The situation becomes much more serious, still, when it is faced the incorporation mediumship, being the individual subjected to receiving heavy and harmful fluidic loads that incite the creature against their disaffections and even against the own obsessor enemies.
Along the time, with the enlightening and the humanity's evolution, little by little, the person will begin to understand and to comprehend that spiritual reality. While such knowledge is not divulged and thoroughly known, the jails and prisons will continue full of unhappy alienated and the psychiatric hospitals will be full up of crazy of every type (obsessed persons). It is what teaches us the work (3):
The worst evils caused to the collectivity are, still, practiced by the mad persons who wander lost, without the majority of us take notice of them. All of them are mediums, some of them more and others less developed, but always in the first phase of the mediumistic evolution and, for that, defenseless clown’s play of the spirits of the inferior astral for the practice of the evil.
It doesn't commit exaggeration who assures that the disgraces, the crimes or disagreements, the uneasiness, the misfortunes, the forfeitures, the injustices and the personal damages have their origin, direct or indirect, in the unthinkable acts and in the madness of millions of mediums, who act on the Earth unconscious of their true state, and extraneous to the mediumistic faculty that they possess.
8. Phases of the Mediumship
The mediumship develops itself through the constant, disciplined and safe practice of it and not through schools and courses. It is natural that in the first phase, the medium is more exposed, for being less prepared to receive intuitions and incorporations of the spirits of the inferior astral. This mediumistic action is always easier to happen because such spirits are closer, occupying together, with the incarnate ones, part of the earthen surface and its atmosphere. Said in another way, in this first phase of the development, the medium tunes himself more easily with the common ambient, rude and common to all, and the medium harmonizes himself more easily with the inferior spirits that cohabit our planet, contradicting the natural laws, because the Earth is a planet-school just destined to the incarnate spirits. Those spirits, known as spirits of the inferior astral, "[…] when actuating, impose abnegation and sacrifice to the medium, in face of the disturbance state, cruelty or suffering in which they are, while the spirits of the Superior Astral actuate softly and their approach is mild and beneficial to the spiritual medium.” (3)
In a second more advanced and more noble phase of mediumship development, the mediums are qualified to receiving intuitions of the superior spirits, being for these more difficult to execute the communications among the two worlds. The great difficulty remains in the creation of the attraction currents and powerful concentration in order to form attraction poles, in which the mediums are helped by other well-spiritualized persons´ thoughts that are present to the work table and in the attending room. The second great difficulty is to maintain constant the strong intensity of those currents. The third great difficulty consists in the harmonization of the astral connection fluids with the medium's fluids, effort that is completed by the own communicating superior spirit. Satisfied these three conditions the manifestation flows naturally, without troubles. The discipline and the medium's concentration here are put to all proof, being enough one of those factors to oscillate for the superior spirit to interrupt the communication.
It is not an easy task for a spirit of the Superior Astral to maintain itself close to the medium and to keep the communication flowing, naturally, in view of its high purity, incompatible with the rude fluids in which he ends to involve when it arrives at the Earth. To get that, it is necessary to prepare the medium's perispirit with adequate fluidic discharges until the two fluids may become almost identical – the one of the medium’s fluids and the Superior Astral’s fluids. That operation resembles to a disinfection that the Superior Astral does in the medium perispirit in order for it to actuate safely. Even so, it is an entire team work, of union, in that the good and high thoughts of the presents (to the séance) constitute an attraction pole, fundamental to avoid the break of that fluidic current and to hinder or, until even, to interrupt the mediumistic communication.
9. Mediumship Evolution
Due to the inferiority state and spiritual misery in which our planet is, and still, to the sensibility of mediumistic perception, the mediums suffer, sometimes, of deep nostalgia, which comes from the absorption done by them of the vibratory waves of the thoughts, reflected in the atmosphere and that involve our world. For that reason, the medium should take care, trying to develop through the observation and constant study of spiritualist books, to maintain himself conscious of his responsibilities in the fulfillment of his mediumistic faculties, which should always be driven to the general good. Connoisseur that the medium is of the discipline to him recommended, he will know how to move away the nostalgia feelings and others equally noxious, reacting with the whole energy that he disposes.
And how does the medium evolve if he doesn’t attend medium’s specific courses and schools. The answer is simple, and it consists of knowing that all and any evolution of him depends exclusively, by the absorption of new and more and more rational and high knowledge, in order to superimpose automatically in the repository of his memories, always increasing his spiritual legacy. See this transcription (3):
The evolution consists of a succession of new and more and more high knowledge that continually superimpose itself. Where there is effective evolution, place doesn't exist for the monotony, because in every day it is learned an unknown lesson, even in the seemingly banal events.
That evolution, however, demands the medium's conscience and his permanent effort to improve, more and more the mediumistic faculty; the instruction and the culture will help him a lot in the fulfillment of this task.
One of the crucial points to consider is the decision that medium needs to take so soon he discovers his mediumistic faculty. This is a decision very much serious. Being taken as a talent, as we already explained, he should not ignore his mediumship and not take any attitude. Depending on the institution of his choice, he can be accelerating his obsession or his liberation. This deliberation needs to be spontaneous, never constrained, dictated by his intuition and exercised in his own benefit in moment of full lucidity, serenity and spirit peace. The medium needs to know very well the cause that he will "embrace" and dedicate himself sincere and spontaneously to it, and this intent should be based on the doctrinaire principles of the institution. His analysis should be made in an exempt way, as freethinker, thinking over and without letting to involve any religious feeling, otherwise, he can feel very badly.
Chosen the institution and, if such institution is assisted by the superior spirits, then the medium can accelerate his mediumistic evolution in two phases, in the suitable form previously indicated in this chapter, adopting the rigorous discipline recommended to him.
Besides promoting the evolution of his mediumistic qualities, medium needs, in parallel, to absorb the discipline recommended in another part of this chapter, as well as, to give plenty of attention to the purification of his bad feelings. One of those feelings that should deserve the entire medium’s attention is the resentment, which usually is accompanied by sensitive affliction. Many times, these defects of personality and behavior come from long past incarnations and are revealed and emerged purposely by the action of the Superior Astral’s intuitions for the medium to make an effort to eliminate them. Let us see what tells us about the resentment, the reference (3): "The resentment is a flaw of the spirit that should be frontally and naturally faced, for better extinguishing it."
Another aspect that can seem disheartening to the mediums is the routine of the mediumistic works. According to the focus of certain mediums, the routine can seem monotonous to them. But, if monotony exists, the spiritual medium should seek the cause, the reason for the monotony and for sure he will find support for that way of seeing in the indolence, and in the routine habits to which he surrenders himself, which take him to interrupt his evolution. "As the spiritual medium develops, he is going to find new sensations in the own spiritual activity in which his horizons expand, offering him new, wider and interesting perspectives.” (3)
It becomes necessary that, the medium doesn't let to be influenced himself by the manifestations that he comes to receives, not even, to try to judge or to interpret them. It is necessary to have always in the memory the law of cause and effect, since the chance doesn't exist and all has its reason to exist, its justification. Many times, a manifestation, seemingly without sense or without explanation, can contain occult lessons to be revealed or discovered by the reasoning of the present beings.
The mediums need to assure themselves of the responsibility of their works and to actuate with dedication and renouncement, and they must feel the high objectives and the usefulness of their works. In agreement with that reality, they should try to flee the more than possible from the deceiving material illusions, which contrast with the own responsibilities of a very deliberate mediumship and applied exclusively for the good.
10. Mediumistic Works
We saw in this chapter that the spirits of the inferior astral are of different levels of evolution, but all are in the wrong place for pure disturbance, not having returned to their astral worlds of origin as soon as they were disincarnated. All, without exception, are transgressors and obsessors, because they are disrespecting the natural laws that govern the spiritual worlds.
Thus, some are more and others less disturbed. There are the aggressive spirits and the sweet talkers ones (talkers with “honey words”) and the mystifiers, but the enlightened spiritual medium has ways and, therefore, he can and ought to control manifestations or messages that he has to pronounce, for maintaining the morals and ethics of the works. Thus, medium ought to avoid pronouncing bad jargon words or slanders, although of that way he had received the intuition, because, it is of his duty to maintain the necessary respect to the works and a good conduct.
The hypocrite and mystifiers spirits, more obstinate disturbers, can also be unmasked by the own medium. It is enough for the medium to be attentive and be forewarned against their possible manifestations, because they customarily present themselves with the desire of intuiting and they try to utter a babble of false feelings, repeating common known clichés, usual in the religious mysticism.
One of the great fears of the inexperienced mediums is the doubt that can assault them during the works. They feel, sometimes, doubts whether they are transmitting the thought of a spirit or his own. In accordance with reference (3): "However, the doubt cannot subsist, because the medium possesses extreme sensibility and the transmission is very subtly made." When the medium follows the discipline, he stays calm and surrenders mildly to the fulfillment of his work, confident in himself, and "[...] that insidious doubt should be won by the medium, in benefit of his evolution.” (3)
The development of the mediumistic capacity, we already said it, is done by the continuous practice in serious institutions, in especially prepared for this end by the superior spirits, as it happens, for instance, in the Christian Rationalism. In this Doctrine, the mediums know very well that they must follow the discipline, straightly, not being allowed to any medium to concentrate and to receive spirits out of its fluidic currents, for the medium’s own safety and to maintain the credibility of the institution. The spiritualist teachings of this Doctrine show, with necessary determination, (3) "[...] the dangers, which are exposed the mediums who don’t know how to liberate of the inferior astral influences.” It is for that reason that the medium should abstain of the use of his faculty out of the institution ambient where he exercises his psychic activities.
The mediums constitute key-pieces during the accomplishments of psychic works. They are the ones who, through the manifestation of the spirits, offer the most opportune themes for the explanations of the presidency of the works. They take the assistants to hear what more they need for their spiritual guidance; moreover, mediums give the assistants an opportunity for them to meditate and to think about the moral situation of the manifested spirits. The more developed mediums, besides transmitting the common messages brought by the spirits of the inferior astral, transmit also the indoctrinations made by the superior spirits.
Mediums in relation to their own psychic state have to stay calm and confident in the good results of their works. They should try to flee of thinking, during the spiritual works, in the subjects related with their material life, leaving aside their own private problems. They should try to focus their thoughts exclusively in the explanations and in the meaning of the irradiated words, as well as, in the fulfillment of their work and in the control of the spirits performance.
It is important to emphasize that the medium is always in the command of his free will, and thus it is him who disciplinarily allows or not the manifestation of the spirit. For that, he gets ready, being put in a state of relaxation of his muscular tissue, what facilitates the spirit to present its message. On that occasion, the two spirits – the one of the medium and the other of the active spirit stay side by side. "As the brain is similar, by comparison, to a radio receiving apparel, the active spirit thinks about what it wants to say and the vibrations of its thoughts are captured by the medium, who transmits the words that the attendants to the séance will hear." (3)
An important aspect is that the medium can aid in that transmission. For that, he reinforces the vibrations of the active spirit with his own and intervenes, to improve the clarity of the received words, changing them accordingly. In accordance with reference (3): "The more cultured and larger the knowledge of the language on the part of the medium the more limpid and expressive will be his messages, made easy by his culture.”
It influences, still, in the mediumistic transmissions the devotement and the dedication of the mediums that, without fanaticism, are faithful to the cause and they use the spiritualist principles in his daily life with devotion and satisfaction. These make their evolution more quickly, rendering the best possible services. They are never afraid of anything, for they feel themselves safe in the ambient in which they work.
In order to not receive negative influence, the medium should never be in doubt or shy, as well as, he should not be arrogant, unless to transmitting that feeling, when it comes of the own spirit of the inferior astral and by it being manifested.
The mediums should never be afraid of anything, because, in the enclosures of the séances they are always protected of negative influences. In the mediumship, as in the life in general, the union makes the force. It is necessary to maintain the positive thoughts all the time, always convinced that they are giving the best of themselves, without fears or withdrawals. Finally, the mediums should always proceed wisely, with the calm conscience of the accomplished duty.
The mediums should never discuss with anybody, much less with a male or female medium companion. They should maintain the silence and the necessary concentration to the mental preparation during all the period of the works. They should learn how to always count with the esteem of all, conserving the love feelings and friendship to all people. They should not lose of view that the harmonic vibrations of understanding and comprehension act healthfully in the formation of a favorable climate for the attraction of the superior spirits.
11. Mystifications
To discern the false from the true is a duty of the faculty of the reason. It is through reasoning that we can distinguish the right of the wrong and to do the option that suits us, using our free will. To be rational is to be wise, to take care for not being deceived.
A dictation that says that “the money is a necessary evil” exists. I would say that it is indispensable for each individual to live his material life with dignity and decency. But, we know also that it is falsifiable, and nor for that, it fails being important and useful. And so, we could mention numerous things and situations that can be subject to swindle, falsifications and mystifications, without, however, losing their importance and their usefulness. For instance, if a lawyer becomes thief and criminal, we should not condemn the entire class of the lawyers. All this, to say that the mediumship is subject to the mystifications on the part of certain mediums, but that doesn't invalidate mediumship in any way. What is condemned is not the talent of the mediums, but the erroneous form that some of them use it.
All persons that study the mediumship and their effects know very well that many mediums badly formed are framed in the exception to the well done behavior rules, which are not always well accomplished by them. Thence, the importance that we should give to such rules of conduct, as we exposed in this same chapter. The mediums, who transgress the rules established by the spiritualist and spiritist institutions, worry very much their leaders and they are warned by them, constantly, to improve their behavior for their own benefit and safety.
Many times the mystification is not perceived by the own medium in the moment of the mediumistic transmission – and the fraud happens, but it can be perceived by others, institution’s leaders or not, being of the leaders the obligation, in the opportune occasion, to call the medium's attention for his fault, without him opposing any sensitiveness or contrary reaction. When it is a voluntary mystification, then, such medium’s action is still more serious. He should be warned and, if there is continuous backsliding, there will be dispense of the medium, because he assumed the commitment of being loyal and true. The rejection to the mystification should be of constant concern as much of the medium as to the part of the organization’s leaders. There are many characterizing indications and revelations of the mediumistic mystification, all of them in disrespect to the norms and rules or due to the medium's weakness, deviating of the discipline, to which he is subjected. Among those indications, we emphasize some (3):
The use of second intentions on the part of the medium to give expansion to his "ego", without being actuated, in fact. (deliberate falsification);
The misconstruction of the willpower and of the thought, surrendering the medium to mediumistic practices outside of his institution;
The unnecessary extension of the message, not doing it a clear form, neat and precise for comprehension;
The introduction of "something else" as plus, not appropriate with the spiritual content of the own message, taking to the erroneous interpretation on the part of the listeners or, even, to the medium's discredit and also of the entire institution;
The rude corruption of any communication, as well as, to leave of "filtering" words of low jargon inadequate with the nature of the ambient;
The message corruption, or indoctrination corruption of superior spirit, for pure prejudice, ingrained in the medium's mind;
The medium’s choleric submission to the doubt thoughts and of envy, which are driven to him by discarnate spirits or by somebody from the attendance.
It is very important to maintain the pure thoughts and the concentration during the spiritual works, because the lack of concentration can cause oscillations in the energetic field, moving away the presence of the superior spirits, since the law of attraction is being violated. In this case, the misuse of the right words can happen, taking the messages and the received indoctrinations to the discredit, for being subjected to the mystification.
Every medium well formed and spiritualized knows very well that his mediumistic development is reason for tenacious persecution on the part of very ignorant and perverse spirits of the inferior astral with the desire to cause to him every type of evil, reason why he should always maintain his pure thoughts to avoid enslavement or obsession. These spirits makes use of skilled subterfuges to take the mediums to the mystification and to take advantage of each and any medium’s negligence in relation to his thought discipline, postures and inappropriate attitudes.
It is always important to overemphasize the great importance that has in maintaining the necessary thoughts concentration, with double cares in the moments of the superior spirit communication, to avoid the break or weakness of the fluidic currents (of the spiritual energetic field formed close to the medium and in the enclosure). If this break happens, one inferior astral spirit eventually around the medium or there attracted, can approximate of the medium and try to imitate and to actuate as if it were a superior spirit, that is, in its place. That alteration can pass unnoticed to the medium, due to the permanence of residual fluids deposited by the superior astral spirits around the medium and in the environment. They are these residual effluvia that stay present, like the perfume of a much perfumed person who leaves a room, there staying part of the aroma of the perfume that he used.
Finally, although a mystification of that type cannot easily be perceived by the medium when he is transmitting a message or a superior communication, if such communication were mystified, the medium might become depressed and present certain irritability after the end of that transmission, because on him prevails the inferior astral fluid.
12. Conclusion
From what was exposed, it is inferred that the mediums need to know themselves, as Force and Matter and not raising some doubt about the incorporeal life. Nothing happens in the world without passing before by the thought, which emits vibrations that are captured by the disincarnated inferior and superior spirits, as well as, by other incarnated spirits. It was, also, given the necessary prominence to the law of the spiritual attraction. In this context, so much for the good as for the evil, it resides the reality of the mediumship and the importance of its effects, in general, in the humanity, standing out obviously the role of the mediums.
After we have described the several mediumship types, we treated of questions like the knowledge that the mediums should have, of their discipline and work method, of their responsibilities, of the wanted qualities and their mediumistic evolution. It was also given special attention to the evil of the spiritual ignorance and to the great upsets that the humanity is subjected for not trying to know themselves as Force and Matter.
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CHAPTER 13
THE INTUITION: OUR ORIENTATION COMPASS
Everybody, in a moment of life, has already experienced intuition. It can manifest itself through an internal voice, an intuitive act, a sudden creative inspiration, or flashes of images that appear in one’s mind as if they were on a TV screen. Intuition tells us what to do, without making use of reasoning. It’s the illogical part of our existence. In the remote past of human history, man basically used the instinct to survive and dealing with the world. Instinct is a primary form of intuition. Later on, we started to give priority to the use of the intellect – and we did it in an overwhelming way. In my opinion, the next step of human evolution is to give more importance to intuition again.
Sharon Franquemont – American psychologist – Rev. See Nº.21 – 35 Feb 17 2002. (4)
In the frontier between thinking and feeling the conscious ego has no clue about things that happen.
Thomas Goschke, from Technical University of Dresden, Germany – Rev. To live Mind & Brain p. 40, year XIV, nº 156, Jan. 2006.
As we could see from Chapter 12 on The Mediumship, intuition is the most common of all forms of mediumship. Everybody has that capability, in greater or lesser degree. In this chapter, we’ll focus on this subject in a fuller and more profound way, given its importance in the processes involving people’s creativity. The formal discussion about intuition, with regards to spirituality, was done when we dealt about mediumship.
Firstly, based on (1) Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary – Unabridged 2nd Edition, we’ll examine the etymological meaning of the word “intuition”, when used as a noun: 1.the immediate knowing or learning of something without the conscious use of reasoning; instantaneous apprehension; 2. something known or learned this way. In short, we would interpret as an act to knowing and learning, to perceive, to discern, clear and immediate perception, instantaneous discernment, a clear and direct apprehension of something without reasoning. For the spiritualists it is an intuitive faculty. Thus, intuition occurs when one has a sudden understanding of something, which represents a knowledge obtained directly, without the aid of reason, many times after appealing to it in a persistent and continuous way to attempt the solution of a problem. The more is our capacity to face the problem through an approach much different than the common way of observing things, the more receptive we will be to intuition. In psychology, the word insight (flash or flare) is frequently used as synonymous of intuition, but for us there is a remarkable difference: intuition is the capacity to foresee possibilities, whereas insight is the way by which intuition is disclosed.
Accustomed to propose and solve mental problems, the great Einstein was always very intuitive. He received frequent intuitions in the form of true insights tied to his logical thought. Together with the knowledge of physics, he applied the insights that he received to solving problems that otherwise would require to make experiments in the laboratory. Thus, as an open-minded, he had the capacity to contemplate physical problems in a different way than the usual. Really, what occurred was a complete freedom that allowed him to abandon certain principles and presumptions, taken as irrefutable until then. In other words, Einstein had the gift of restructuring the problems in different ways, to search and find solution for them, and this brought him great intimate satisfaction, besides strengthening his self-confidence.
1. Psychological Approach
The concept of restructuring ideas in the solution of problems began with Max Wertheimer, since the second decade of the 20th century, together with Wolfgang Köhler, Karl Duncker and Kurt Koffka. These psychologists applied the restructuring concept in the study of ideas that occurred frequently in the intellectual production of great geniuses, in order to perform their revolutionary inventions and discoveries. Their conclusions had nothing of uncommon, since that they were truly convinced that they had to do with a fundamental process of thought. Currently, one knows from the cognitive sciences that anybody has and can have sudden and original perceptions. These perceptions or insights are the final responsible elements for the rearrangement of the parts of a puzzle, leading to the structuring of thoughts, or correct “configuration” for the solution of the problem in question. Putting these ideas in practice, those philosophers created the gestalt psychology – a psychology school that had its prominent position until the decade of 1980.
But, already since the decade of 1950, many psychologists had started to turn their attention towards other phenomena that could not be rejected, known as cognitive processes. These processes gave place to the cognitive psychology in the decade of 1980. As it is known, the cognitive processes, as in a computer, operate step by step and not by leaps in an unpredictable way, like it occurs when one experiences a sudden discovery. Thus, since 1980, the cognitive psychology had a great boom of development and retook the research of the insight. Since then, the literature of the works produced regarding the subject of insights is vast, but the advances that were reached have not yet concluded how intuition operates. According to reference (2):
We all know by own experience that sometimes the solution of a problem comes into mind in an absolutely sudden way. Suddenly, the knot is undone, the play falls over, a light appears and the solution seems so obvious that we wonder why it was not reached before. But in the study of this phenomenon the researchers already come across with a difficulty in methodology: how to produce such flashings in a systematic way, so as to investigate them in psychological experiments?
The scholars of intuition understood, since the first moment that, prior to the intuitive process, the phenomena related to memory, intelligence and consciousness intervene in the cognitive process, which, looked at as a whole, take part on the own cognitive process. Many tests were created and experimented to prove the existence of intuition and its importance in the solution of many problems, solved after a sudden flashing. This is an indication that we got the solution of the problem not from a logical thought, but through intuition, showing that there was a restructuring of the data of our previous knowledge. When one less expect it, the perception of the elements that compose the problem is organized in a different way and, eureka, the solution shows up. Then, we say that there was a well-succeeded restructuring of the ideas and data.
When intuition comes up as a solution for a problem that, for long time, “hammered” our thoughts, we live a moment of great joy, due to the surprise that causes on us – it is the sensation of having discovered something that looked cloudy before. It is an emotional experience and, therefore, subjective and difficult to describe it.
Therefore, we see that the solution of many problems via intuition has nothing to do with the step-by-step resolution of logic and computers. In intuition, knowledge comes up in an abrupt and involuntary way, since that the flashings or insights are of a different nature.
2. Carl G. Jung´s Psychological Approach
Carl G. Jung (1875–1961), famous psychoanalyst, who shared same ideas with Freud until 1912, breaking relations with him after that, was always interested in the study of the different ways of expression of the life, including themes related to intuition. With Jung, the subject of intuition becomes important. He was the one who considered it as one of the activities of the psychism deep-rooted in the human being. He always treated jointly thought, feeling, sensation and intuition as qualities capable of characterizing creatures by the predominance and interaction of each one of those functions. He stated that only through the significant faculties of intuition and feeling we will be able to understand the human psyche.
It is necessary to consider that it was Jung who, through his book Psychological Types, highlighted the topic about intuition, as well as thought, feeling and sensation as indispensable components in the formation of man’s personality. He still emphasized that intuition is a component originated and processed through the unconscious plan. In spite of changes and advances in psychology, today Jung is still respected and venerated.
Jung also emphasized the role of intuition and sensation together, as ways of acquiring information but not of taking decisions. The difference is that sensation derives from the physical senses of vision, hearing, smell, touch and taste, which provide direct experience with the perception of details, that is, concrete facts. Already intuition consists of processing information related with our passed experience, future objectives and unconscious processes.
Jung also elaborated the concept that a combination of four functions results in a balanced approach of the world, where: the sensation assures us that something is here (objective world); a second function, the thought assures us that we can control that “something” with our actions; one third function, the feeling that tells us whether it is adequate or not, whether we want to accept it or not; and finally, the fourth function, the intuition that indicates wherefrom this “something” came and to where it goes.
He still introduced the attribute of dominant function and auxiliary function, because nobody develops all four functions equally. Each person has a strong dominant attribute and an auxiliary one partially developed. The other two attributes are, in general, unconscious and they have much less effectiveness actions. According to (3) “The more developed and conscious the dominant and auxiliary functions are, the more deeply unconscious their opposites will be. Jung called the less developed function in each individual as an inferior function. This function is the least conscientious and the most primitive and undifferentiated.”
An aspect highlighted by Jung is that the very intuitive people consider the implications of experience much more important than the real experience, properly said. This, because intuitive people receive and decode all information much faster than reason (thought), and they automatically relate the previous experience with the relevant informations of the immediate experience.
It is not in vain that marketing propagandists give prominence to the dominant function, ignoring the inferior function regarding the public that they intend to influence or reach out. But, the language and the different idioms of each one have their effects in the preparation of the messages oriented to the media. Nevertheless, to reach out a broader audience, it is most likely that a decision might be made taking into consideration the four functions related to the observation (sensation–intuition) and decision–making (thought–feeling).
The socio-economic organizations that operate in our modern society took great advantage of Jung’s teachings, with basis on the two types of intuition: the so-called ‘intuition–thought’ that emphasizes generic problems, concepts, and the more flexible and globalizing ‘intuition–feeling’. On the first one, the main approach falls over on discovery, invention and production, that is, in new technologies and, therefore, must have a high degree of flexibility; on the second one, goals and personal accomplishments are emphasized, proper of organizations that exist with the objective to serve people, such as hotels, hospitals, ONGS, etc.
3. Modern Psychological Approach
These are the words from the American psychologist Sharon Franquemont (4):
Everybody, in a moment of life, has already experienced intuition. It can manifest itself through an internal voice, an intuitive act, a sudden creative inspiration, or flashes of images that appear in one’s mind as if they were on a TV screen. Intuition tells us what to do, without making use of reasoning. It’s the illogical part of our existence. In the remote past of human history, man basically used the instinct to survive and dealing with the world. Instinct is a primary form of intuition. Later on, we started to give priority to the use of the intellect – and we did it in an overwhelming way. In my opinion, the next step of human evolution is to give more importance to intuition again.
What’s happening in the modern world? We live in an era of massive information, without precedents in the history of mankind, and this, in all areas of activities, without exception. As consequence, our mind is overloaded all the time and our brain does not take account of all this. After going through a very long period of evolution, leaving behind the human instinct, this practically got lost during that process. In other words: our intellect (mind and brain) is overloaded.
Thence, one can foresee that intuition will occupy a place every time larger in the person’s life, because the intellect is not enough to understand many things that are to demand our attention. The intuition is fundamental for being directly associated to the emotional intelligence and the creativity. In that field, the Brazilian takes advantage, for being a quite intuitive people and, therefore, creative.
Scientists and artists are the professional categories that know how to make use of intuition more than others. These professionals are excellent creators and are transformers of our tendencies, with great implications in the habits of society. They transform the world in which we live. For that reason, creative intuition is much more accepted today than some decades ago. Many scientific discoveries came up from a dream, an idea, an insight or flash of creativity. It is obvious that the heavy and hard work of the day-by-day is essential.
Another tendency being observed is in the medical field, in which nowadays professionals look at their patients with a more emotional approach, more humane, like it used to be in a past not so long ago. It is necessary to have a better understanding of what’s happening with the patients, including people with psychic or psychosomatic illnesses. It is not enough to trust only in the instrumental diagnoses. Besides the personal and emotional approach, it is necessary to use the intuition to have a more direct and close relationship with the patients.
Psychologist Sharon Franquemont (4) does not believe that intuition is a gift. She says that we are all intuitive, some more, some less. But she realizes that certain people were born with talent for certain areas, and this tendency directs the person to a profession. What happens is that these people know how to explore better their talents, and therefore, it does not mean that it’s a special gift. The persons who put enthusiasm in what they do are in general very intuitive. Albert Einstein, the German physicist creator of the theory of relativity, was the most famous intuitive person in history. He said, frequently, that even before examining and equating a problem, he already perceived the solutions. That is, the ideas sprouted in his mind. Why did this happen? Because, among other factors, Einstein loved space like nobody, and he used to imagine in space traveling on a ray of light. In short, Einstein exercised his intuition in a useful way for humanity.
It is a known fact that women are more intuitive than men, but this is because they’ve always had more freedom to exercise it, due to using more their emotional intelligence. On the other hand, men feel more at will with their creative intuition, which is related to rational intelligence. The persistence, that is, the love that each one dedicates to his activity influences enough.
Unfortunately, not even logic is taught in our educational system. Thence, what to say about intuition? For that reason, it is an attribute little known and almost never perceived or used. Our education does not provide elements for us to free ourselves from the ties that prevent us from being intuitive. If we don’t pay attention to the surprising things that happen to us, intuition goes unnoticed. For example, a friend of mine who saw one of her friends whom he didn’t see for long time, he didn’t perceived it was an intuition, and the opportunity of getting together was lost, because when he thought about the subject she had already gone away. Here is the case of a lost intuition.
Many people go by significant intuitions, but treat its occurrence as a mystic act. Some consider it as a divine event, as it was the case of Giácomo Puccini when he created his wonderful opera Madame Butterfly. But there’s nothing neither mystic nor divine in intuition. It’s simply a psychic quality of the human being.
Physically, we’ve already spoken about the role played by the cerebral hemispheres, making it clear that the left side catches the rational and the right the emotional one. As soon as the right side catches a message, the left side looks for rationalizing it. From there on, the brain liberates neurotransmitters that travel to the nervous extremities of the blood vases, heart and lungs, process well described by Daniel Goleman, professor of Harvard and author of the book Emotional Intelligence (6)
Commonly, there’s doubt among people who want to know the difference between intuition and hunch. This is a task that has to be done by the person himself. It is necessary to try to discover in the situations where no types of risk or danger are present. For as long as one has not yet learned to identify a good intuition from a bad intuition, one must be very careful with regard to one’s choices. It’s from attempts and mistakes that the persons learn how to distinguish intuitions and use them in their own advantage.
To the extent that intuition becomes more known and people learn to give more value to it, what one must not do is to lose the common sense and think that all is result from intuitions. Rational thought and reasoning will always have a predominant place in people’s mentality. Persons need to know how and when to establish limits, so not to become obsessive. If they ever get to this point, it’s time to search for help.
Finally, there aren’t any scientific studies capable of identifying someone with intuitive characteristics, but they can identify some common traces in those more intuitive. For example, where others fail, the intuitive is endowed with a sharper panoramic vision to discover more easily what to look for. But, if asked how he found the solution, he will not know how to explain. In the memorization tests, intuitive creatures present a higher punctuation. Their capacity of observation is very high and they can interpret with greater precision the intuitive images they receive.
4. Philosophical Approach
We saw that intuition works jointly with thought and feeling and those who have sharp intuition are very imaginative and creative people. Therefore, a decision based on intuition may seem to be magical, but it is not. We also saw that people can activate intuition using prior knowledge and having clear objectives, but they must know to discern the objective information from the subjective ones, and have capacity to make associations, connections and analogies.
In the Old Greece, in philosophical terms, predominated the basic principle inscribed at the entrance of the Delphos´ temple dedicated to Apollo (the most venerated god after Zeus, father of heavens): “Know yourself.” Indeed, another one followed this phrase: “[…] and you will know the universe and the gods.” Then, the complete sentence was: “Know yourself and you will know the universe and the gods.” Nobody more practiced this teaching than the philosopher Socrates (469–399 B.C.), who used to addresses it to people and his disciples. The diving in your inner is a form of increasing spirituality and intuition. Some traditional religions adopted this principle, written in a different form, such as in Islam: “[…] the one who knows himself knows the lord”, and in the Buddhism: “[…] look inside yourself, you are a Buddha.” The phrase of Delphos´ oracle was a warning to the visitors who consulted with the fortune teller or pitonise (name given to the mediums at that time, females in general): those who desired to know the aims of the gods, would have to start knowing themselves. So much wisdom in a simple phrase!
Greece had several oracles, but the Delphos´ oracle kept its significance and importance since the 7th century B.C. until the Hellenistic time. In the oracles, pitonises (today’s mediums) acted, entering in trance and receiving messages from the gods. The clerics interpreted these messages (medium intuitions) and transmitted them to the people in verse form.
In Greece we still find Plato (427–347 B.C.), who was Socrate´s disciple. Plato was son of a rich family of politicians, but he was not predisposed for the politics; rather, for the philosophy. He emphasizes four forms or degrees of knowledge, going from the inferior degree to the superior: belief, opinion, reasoning and intellectual intuition. He did not admit that the first two made part of philosophy. For him, these were illusive knowledge from appearances, such as, prisoners on the cave were. Thus, the last two remained and only these must be considered valid in the scope of philosophy. He concluded that (4) “[…] the reasoning trains and exercises our thought, preparing it for an intellectual purification that will allow it to reach an intuition of ideas or of the essence that form reality or constitute the human being.”
Plato cites in his books, that the pre-socratic Anaxágoras had an intuition about the need to introduce a Universal Intelligence in his studies in order to be able to explain the reason of things. Unfortunately, he did not move forward his intuition. Although attributing a preponderant weight to the physical causes, he continued to state that the direct and evident truth was the one that the person received from a transcendent plan, without any mediation from the material world.
The medieval age of darkness comes next, in which theology sprang out like weed, intervening on an illiterate and ignorant population about the serious things of life, and dogma and religious mysticism started to reign in. But even so, it remained the idea that the direct contact with the sacred being promoted the religious ecstasy, or the sensation of enlightenment and plenitude, a kind of experience of pure intuitive nature.
About one thousand and nine hundred years after Plato, in the 17th century, we find René Descartes (1596–1650), who dealt with the intuition as one of the basic subjects in his books Speech on Method and Metaphysical Meditations.
A century later, Kant (1724–1804) considered intuition as a thought that comprises truths and knowledge independent of the acquired experience, which is equivalent to say that, for the German philosopher, a person is born intuitive.
In England, the intuitionist movement had in the Scottish philosopher William Hamilton (1788–1856) its main support. He stated that the first manifestation of knowledge was a sudden enlightenment that widened human understanding. He was the author of the theory of the conditional being and of the unconditional one (the Supreme Being).
Isaac Newton (1643–1727), who, besides being a scientist, was also a philosopher, when he was twenty-four years old, observing apples falling on the ground at his small farm of Woolsthorpe, had the intuition of the Law of Gravity. How many before him observed a scene like this and nothing happened? He then passed the remaining time of his life working to verify those concepts that he determined as laws. These were his words: "If we research with intuition and act with love to the nature, we will be able to make a fantastic journey and to rediscover the art of discovering."
Although not being a philosopher, the physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) always placed intuition side by side with creativity. Let’s observe his words in the following text he wrote (4):
If you want to study the methods that theoretical physicist used, I suggest to you to base yourself in the following basic principle: do not give any credit to what he says, but judge what he produced. Because the creator has this characteristic: the productions of his imagination impose to himself, so indispensable, so natural, that he cannot consider them as spirit image, but knows them as evident realities.
There are many eastern philosophies that apply the concept of intuition in connection with transcendental wisdom, considering it as something intimate of each person, although, paradoxically, they state that intuition can be acquired through teachings and appropriate techniques.
5. Spiritual Approach
To better understand the exposition on the nature of intuition, how it is generated and how it occurs, and at the same time why it does occur in certain situations and does not in others, it is necessary to assimilate the teachings displayed in this book in the chapters on the Spirit, Thought, Mediumship and Aura. Moreover, the reader will learn how to have beneficial or malefic intuitions, as well as how to distinguish one from the other.
We will develop the theme of intuition grounded on the ideas already presented on some chapters of this book, summarized to proceed.
The human being is made up of three elements: mental body (or spirit), astral body (or perispirit), and physical body (or human body). The mental body (or spirit) prevails over the astral and physical bodies, and it is responsible for the generation and emission of the vibrations of thought. These are decoded and interpreted by the brain, after inevitable passage through the perispirit, which is the intermediate subtle way which records the memories derived from thought.
Thought is vibration of the spirit, manifestation of intelligence, spiritual power saturated by force. The waves of force and power of thought spreads through the atmosphere of the Earth in all directions and also reach the high distances in space, in a similar way that it occurs with the hertzian waves used in radio and TV transmissions. These waves have different purposes and are generated and modulated in function of the enormous amount of feelings that each human being exerts during his daily activity. By their turn, they add themselves and agglutinate in accordance with each type of feeling and intention. Through a process that follows the known law of attraction and repulsion of thoughts, similar feelings attract themselves and contrary ones repel themselves, differentiating in positive feelings and negative ones. It is easy to understand the enormous amount of different waves of thought that are emitted at each moment in space (from their original spiritual worlds), not only by all the inhabitants (incarnates) of the Earth, but also by the spirits of the inferior astral (that are disincarnated and wander the surface of the Earth) and by the spirits of the Superior Astral.
In the same way that a thought is generated by the spirit of a person, it can also be received. Then, in the process of thought, it not only can be generated and emitted, but also received by any of the mentioned sources. One just needs to be in tune with other similar thoughts. The secret lies on the affinity of thoughts that the law of attraction and repulsion brings, in which affinity acts as a tuning device, in the same way that a TV or radio station is syntonized. The sharp tuning becomes complete through the attention and concentration in the subject of our thought. We receive or transmit what we want.
According to the teachings of this book, based on the highest Spiritualism, and derived from the principles spread out by the Christian Rationalism (7), “All human beings are endowed, among others, with the faculty of intuition – more receptive and sensible in some than in others. Through it, disincarnated spirits that wander on atmosphere of the Earth, in a state of disturbance (generically designated in this book as ‘inferior astral’), interfere with the lives and thoughts of incarnated people, taking them – when these don’t react by means of thoughts geared by conscientious will – to commit the worst actions, and frequently leading them to obsession.”
Thus, we have two great thought currents vibrating around the planet Earth: a current that carries the negative thoughts (current of the evil) and another one that carries the positive thoughts (current of the good). According to the types of thoughts emitted at any time by a certain person, thus he or she allows to be influenced by one or another person, but never by both. By this principle, and also based on the explanations we made when we dealt with the subject of the aura in the chapter of same name, it is formed around the person (with bigger intensity around the head) a multicolor image of different intensities and shades, revealing the thought that is being formed and emitted.
This aura varies as our thoughts modify it; and it allows the reading of our thoughts by spirits and clairvoyant persons using the law of attraction of similar thoughts. That is why it is said that there are no secrets among spirits, all is transparent like an open book, and it’s not possible to hide thoughts or feelings. This is also the principle that bases telepathy as way of reading, transmission and reception of thoughts. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, due to the current state of evolution of humanity, this faculty is still incipient on us, and it’s not possible its general use because the physical organ (believed to be the pineal gland) is not yet sufficiently developed.
From what has been said it’s easy to understand how intuition works and how it’s accessible to people. For example, intuitions directed to bad habits and vices can be understood by Luiz de Mattos´ explanation (17, p. 237 – Moral Upsets): “It is never enough to insist on the following point: the language of the disincarnated spirits is the thought. In the thought (via aura) they identify our feelings, our intentions and tendencies, and of that the obsessors prevail, stimulating through intuition the human vices and weaknesses.”
But the intuitions directed for good actions and for positive thoughts, whatever the profession exerted by the person, without privilege, can be accessed from the mentioned vibratory current of thought, including from the superior space, as Luiz de Mattos describes in his (17, p.145 – Force of Thought): “The great repository of wisdom is not on the Earth, but in the Superior Space. The progress of modern technology would not still be known if many of its knowledge had not been transmitted to human beings by means of intuition, what is worth to say, by the force of thought, before which all distances are nullified.”
In the scientific world, all those who inspire good ideas directed towards the well being of humanity as a whole, have conditions of receiving good intuitions from the Superior Space. Look for example at what Dr. Glaci Ribeiro da Silva says (8, p. 56): “However, only a relatively small portion of this community – the so-called visionaries – is capable of having really innovative ideas. These people possess a very developed mediumistic sensitivity, and therefore are capable of capturing such ideas from the superior space through the intuition.” In this chapter, we will mention some visionary scientists, such as Newton, Mendeleev, Descartes, and Kant, and also in the business world, Akio Morita and Bill Gates, and, based on the spiritualist approach of intuition, Luiz de Mattos.
To conclude this approach, we remind the great intuition that Luiz de Mattos, the founder of Christian Rationalism, had (9):
Luiz de Mattos, considered himself atheistic, before studying the scientific Spiritualism, and he was the one who later on codified the Christian Rationalism, mentioning the existence of 33 classes of evolution. How did he know about this? In the first place, as we all know, he was a much evolved spirit, and after knowing of the existence of the incorporeal, memories of his mission on Earth might have arisen on his mind through intuition from the Superior Forces. On the other hand, his study involved mediums, who are instruments that put us in contact with the astral world. They were certainly the ones who made Luiz de Mattos acquainted with the existence of 33 classes of spiritual evolution.
In chapter 9 on The Spirit, we developed and deepened about the existence of these spiritual worlds, which constitute the worlds of origin or apprenticeship for spirits while disincarnated, and later on, after no longer needing to incarnate, to continue their evolution acting as superior spirits.
6. The Dilemma of the Specialists: Previous Knowledge
When the solution of a problem depends on intuition and we don’t have it, we become very frustrated. It is common to arrive to a dead-end, reacting with much frustration and discouragement. Our thoughts wander and loose focus on the problem, leaving aside the subject. We then dedicate less time in search of systematic attempts to solve the problem, or we waste much time using our capacity of reflection going over what was already proved to be inadequate. Nothing else occurs to us and all turns to be recurrent.
In order to overcome these frustrating situations, numerous studies and works have been done in many universities, with the objective of explaining what intuition is. One of these researchers is the Canadian Janet Metcalf, of the Columbia University in New York. Studying volunteers in laboratory, taken to situations of insights, she noticed that people never know when they are close to finding solution for the formulated problems. Frequently, the volunteers felt lost, even when they were close to finding the solution.
Research made by Daniel M. Wegner, psychologist at the Harvard University, explains that “[…] the moment we have the flashing, intention and action disassociate themselves completely”, where “action” means the upcoming of the idea. We never have the impression of having produced the genius idea. It is common to consider it as own knowledge”.
Would the insights be involuntary then? From our reference (2) “If the idea that leads to the solution of the problem does not come from the voluntary diligence of our thought, what leads us to it after all? Why do problems of this nature seem to be unsolvable in the beginning, if really we have the knowledge necessary to solve them?”
According to Stellan Ohlsson, researcher of the phenomenon of insight at the University of Illinois, Chicago, the answer is in the restructuring caused by constant failures to solve the problem. The occurrence of these failures initiates several unconscious processes that tend to modify our interior representation of the problem. This leads to the opening of other possibilities that, totally unexpected, brings us the expected solution, passing from there on to be considered as banal solution. Based on this kind of observations, Ohlsson developed a theory which (2): ”[…] upon contemplating a problem, the first thing we do is to construct a mental representation – that is, a kind of an interior image – in which only certain aspects come in. It is like a map of the subway, that gives us the sequence of stations and the eventual stop points, but does not reproduce in true scale the distances between them: therefore, only those important aspects of the reality for the use of the service stand out. In order to guide us through the city streets, the map is of little value for sure.”
Will it be that previous knowledge, accumulated for long years, does have some influence? For some researchers the answer is positive, for others, including professor Ohlsson, previous knowledge blocks perception and prevents us from looking at the problem from new angles, making it difficult the occurrence of the insight. But it is also undeniable that the specialist, knowing more about the subject, has certain conditions that an ignorant person wouldn’t have. Contrary to professor Ohlsson, we think that his position is somewhat forced, and even contradictory. If Einstein had to follow Ohlsson’s opinion, he would’ve failed in his wonderful intuitive conceptions on the special and general relativity. Thus, it seems very clear to us that knowledge is necessary and indispensable, mainly when we have to face (2) “[…] efficiently and routinely problems already known. Harmful influences are only disclosed when the past experience solidifies itself in such a way that it ends up blocking new ideas.”
But, the thing is not so easy. It seems that, in those who hold previous knowledge, the adoption of certain steps in the resolution of the problem leads to the exclusion of certain strategies, perhaps simpler. It is the case of the “problem of predisposition” or even submission to certain methods, what can make us blind to more efficient procedures, impeding the emergence of the insight. That was what Abraham Luchins, disciple of Wertheimer, discovered.
Jennifer Willey, of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, showed in a study of 1998 that not always the specialization (previous knowledge) is capable to see its own deficiencies. Such conclusions derived from the application of tests of intelligence and creativity on volunteers, whether specialized or not in a certain subject.
Other researchers were interested in determining if previous knowledge has influence in the identification of the “crucial point” for the resolution of a problem. That is, in what way and in what degree it prevents us from discovering where this crucial point could be, after all. Thence, it is important to identify that previous knowledge has a relevant influence for the researcher to directing the attention to the most critical aspects of the problem to be solved.
7. Advices to Get Results
We can even learn techniques for the use of intuition, but we cannot force the appearance of the flashings, because they are unintentional in the day-by-day of our lives. We know that in the solution of many daily problems we use the intuition unconsciously. When we feel that we are in a dead-end and a solution for the problem we are facing doesn’t occur to us, a good decision would be to leave it aside for some time. Many times this indicates that we are close to getting the solution, that is, we foresee when we are near a sudden discovery. Experience in life teaches us that we’re not always able to advance and obtain the desired solution. That is the right moment of doing a pause, or who knows, not to resist taking a nap, or to the recovering sleep and to return to the subject the following day. The amount of stories related to the occurrence of insights during sleep and through dreams is impressive. Let us mention two of them, very famous.
First, let us make use of a dream told by the German biochemist Friederich August Kekulé Von Stradonitz (1829–1896), who lived in the 19th century, and that took him to one of the most important discoveries in organic chemistry. Here’s the story: “I turned my head and fell asleep… once more, the atoms were gamboling in front of my eyes. That time, the smaller groups stayed in the bottom, modestly. My mental eye, that became sharper due to the repeated visions of this type, could now distinguish bigger structures, with multiple shapes, long rows, sometimes more firmly assembled with each other, all folding and bending over themselves, in a similar movement as that of a snake. But, look! What was that? One of the snakes had bitten the own tail and the entire snake circled mockingly in front of my eyes. I woke up as if I had been awoken by lightning.” This dream helped him to understand how molecules of diverse organic components organized themselves in a hexagonal ring kind of structure – the benzenic ring, base of the aromatic organic chemistry, discovery that made him famous. (10)
Another famous experience of this sort occurred with Dimitri Mendeleev, Russian chemistry, honored by scientists for the brilliant idea of grouping the chemical elements in a logically organized table according to the atomic numbers of the elements, which became known as the Periodic Table of the Elements. This was a representative discovery of a notable example of synthesis occurred in science. It was through this table that many chemical elements were discovered later, because their existence had been predicted by Mendeleev, who had left “spaces” or empty “positions” in his table of the elements not known at the time, when he prepared it. What few people know is that this notable discovery appeared from a dream that Mendeleev had, when he was not thinking logically. Unfortunately we do not have the story of this dream! (12)
Stories of cases like this with famous people in all professional areas are numerous. Imagine then, when we refer to cases of the common life. For this reason, studies on the influence of sleep and dreams in the solution of problems of all types, and in human creativity, have deserved appreciable attention on the part of psychologists and fortune tellers, these opportunists and tale-tellers of the human being credulity. Volunteers are submitted to problems of creativity involving knowledge and logic relations before and after the sleep. It’s much larger the number of solutions that appear after the sleep due to strategies in which the intuition is involved, when compared with the ones obtained by those who didn't have a pause for sleeping. According to our reference (4): “The researchers explain this amazing difference relying on consolidation processes that take place in the hippocampus during the sleep: this way, the new informations received are associated with the knowledge previously stored in memory. And that can make us discover simpler strategies of resolution of problems much faster.”
Another aspect that helps in obtaining insights is to allow our thoughts to wander a little, dedicating us to other tasks or leisure that will keep us in good-mood. It has to do with resting the mind and adopting a positive attitude. This will allow the subconscious to work out the problem with other points of view or approaches, leading then to the solution. But, whatever the topic of the problem is, no solution emerges easy, if it is not based in previous knowledge of the subject.
8. Practical Aspects
In the last decade of the 20th century and more recently there has been great interest for the subject of intuition, to a point of, besides the on going cognitive researches, taking many institutions to ascertain public opinion on the subject. It is the case, for example, of a survey made in 2003 by IMD – International Institute for Management Development, with headquarters in Switzerland, stating that (5) “[…] 80% of the 1,312 executives interviewed in nine countries, declared that intuition became important to formulating the strategy and enterprise planning.” And still, according to reference (5): “From these, the majority (53%) says that, in the day-by-day, they rely on intuition and logic reasoning in equal proportion. Intuition is an old friend of artists and scientists. In a recent study divulged in the United States of America, 82 of 93 Nobel Prizes emphasized the important role of this capacity in creativity and human discoveries.”
Besides the cases mentioned in the previous item concerning Kekulé and Mendeleev (both scientists), we will mention some other cases related with other areas of the human activity, where famous people and leaders of business and administration unanimously state the excellent role played by intuition. In classic music, Beethoven and Mozart attributed their prime compositions to the use of intuition. In businesses, Akio Morita, president of Sony, started on in 1979 the famous product walkman, based on comments he made about people walking on the streets of Tokyo and New York carrying enormous heavy sound equipment on their backs. He presented the problem to his team but they found that nobody would have interest in a product of that nature without a recording device. Morita insisted and made his intention take precedence due to his intuition. We all know the success of such product that lasts until the current days, although using more modern technology (CD player and MP3). Today, there are more than 250 brands in the market using the same principle, represented by a light, portable, and low cost product. Another famous case is played by Bill Gates who, when he had the brilliant intuition to start on a personal computer, did not have finished his academic degree and, when presenting his incipient model to IBM technicians, this product was rejected with the following remark: who’s going to want a computer at home? In the current days, only 30 years after this fact occurred, there are about 25 million personal computers in operation in Brazil, alone. In the United States of America, on March 2005, there were about 225 millions of PC, and in the world, about 822 millions of PC. Today, in the world, this statistics reach around one billion of PC! These are ideas that worth billions of dollars, for their full acceptability and practicality!
Many entrepreneurs are currently giving more attention to intuition, including by opening vacant positions of command for women that were downgraded to secondary positions before. Today it is not enough to count, to measure, to weigh and to analyze numbers, which many times take a long time and they delay marketing decisions that need to be strategic ones. All in life is an accelerated race. For example, the preference for a new tennis model lasts only six months and a generation of computers gets obsolete in 18 months. This way, consumers become, each time, more and more demanding and unpredictable, and pressures to make decisions require less time from the entrepreneurs, thus leaving to the intuition a role each time more relevant in the definition of strategies. It is to observe that in those cases, intuition and creativity walk hand by hand.
9. The Role of the Brain
Since all studies and scientific work carried by psychologists have confirmed the concept of restructuring and sudden perception via insights, the objective is to discover through indirect procedures which regions of the brain endorse the mentioned concept. The first question is to know if the brain hemispheres act equally or in different way. It is what the cognitive neuroscience has been trying to do, via sophisticated instrumentation that consists of using the electroencephalography (EEG) and the scan for functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI); these devices measure neuronal processes, in a fraction of milliseconds to a few seconds. It is however necessary to refer that, in general, solving problems is something that frequently takes minutes or even many hours. Moreover, a multiplicity of cognitive processes takes part in this operation.
In this line of investigation are the works made by Marc Jung-Beeman and Edward Bowden, of the Northwestern University of Chicago, who tested the hypothesis that the left hemisphere would be responsible for the logic reasoning, organized and analytical by means of the conscientious use of language, while the right hemisphere would answer for emotion, imagination and creativity, which implies in the unconscious and spatial attention, although (2) “[…] more recent discoveries on brain research show that the rigid separation between ‘conscientious left hemisphere’ and ‘right unconscious hemisphere’ is of difficult acceptation. Even so, it still seems to be a certain division of tasks.”
Nevertheless, those researchers started from the principle that the solution of known problems occurs step by step in the left hemisphere, by means of conscientious application of logical rules, and to the right hemisphere they imputed important role to solve problems that demand insight. In those researchers' opinion, the insights surprise those who have them because the restructuring happens in the right brain hemisphere. But, only when the result is transmitted to the left side of the brain, a light shines subjectively in our mind. In summary, the insight occurs in the right hemisphere but its perception happens through the left one. How did they get to this conclusion apparently controversial?
Well, as it is known, in the process of vision there is an inversion: the perceptions of the left eye are sent to the right hemisphere of the brain and the one of the right eye are sent to the left hemisphere. Then, during the experiences this fact was taken into consideration, such that the images in question were perceived either only by the left eye or only by the right one. Proceeding this way, many volunteers who had failed visualizing with both eyes opened, had insights when their perceptions were directed through the way it was explained. Still, according to (2): “The result was clear: the solutions identified with more frequency were the ones coming from the left eye towards the right hemisphere. This indicates that the unconscious processes that lead to sudden perception occur predominantly in the right hemisphere of the brain.”
10. Psychology of Intuitive Judgment
An important work was presented by the cognitive scientist Thomas Goschke (11), of the Technical University of Dresden, Germany, with the title Psychology of Intuitive Judgment. According to him, intuition is a kind of a spontaneous inspiration, whether applicable in the solution of an intellectual task whether related to any inexplicable apprehension that we may have. Carl G. Jung counterpoised the intuition – as immediate and integrated comprehension of diverse relations – to the logical –analytical decomposition. For the American winner of the Nobel Prize, Daniel Kahneman, intuitions would be “[…] fast, effortless, and similar to perception.” But it is clear that intuitive impressions are based in processes more or less complex – the so-called ‘implicit’.
It is clear that feelings play an important role in this process because, many times, judgments are expressed by feelings, and the emotions also influence the decisions. There are good indications that a positive attitude leads to good intuitions more directly, whereas a negative attitude, for example, represented by bad-mood and sadness does not favor intuition.
Experiences conducted by serious researchers seem to confirm the thesis of neurologist António Dalmasio, who states that unconscious corporal signals inform us if a planned behavior is desirable or not. Frequently, the corporals signals like, for example, the electric conductivity of the skin, which varies in certain circumstances, indicate that emotional consequences link themselves to a chosen action. New researches are being made to confirm or to deny this hypothesis.
There is no doubt that we allow ourselves to be guided by intuitions in certain situations. This is confirmed by laboratory tests in the so-called coherent judgments through distant semantic connections. In such tests, three words are demanded, and one asks for a fourth word, so that it becomes a “common denominator.” Those who are in good-mood usually reach more points than those who are in neutral mood. Sad people are not able to make points.
And, how does anybody is put of good or bad mood in laboratory? It is simple: just ask the volunteers to think about a happy event in their life, or then a sad passage. All this leads us to believe that (11), “[…] in a state of positive mind, an ample network of meanings is activated involving even fragile or distant associations. And that manifests clearly in an intuitive sense of coherence, even that the correct word is not rescued in a conscientious manner.” That is, (11): “Creative ideas have much to do with the capacity to establish uncommon associations, and that way, escape to the usual track of thought and action. According to the results we got, it becomes clear that this happens with more frequency as happier or more relaxed we are.”
With regard to the so divulged difference between the right and left hemisphere, Goschke believes that there is much more pseudoscientific speculation than safe empirical evidences. But also, he recognizes that there is in fact certain division and connection of work between both. Studies done using the functional magnetic resonance have proven, with regards to intuition, the existence of certain semantic coherence in the frontal regions of the right superior lobe. These regions are still associated with other intuitive capacities, among which, to guess people’s intentions, as well as, for example, to evaluate the degree of trustworthiness in an unfamiliar face. But, Goschke´s opinion is that the occurrence of intuition certainly does not depend only on a specific region of the brain, but on an entire network widely distributed. Studies made by other researchers have also shown that emotional feelings and reactions may be contributing to the problem, indicating that the implicit judgment has relation with the activity of deeper centers of emotion, as the amygdala (there are four amygdalae at the base of cerebral hemispheres).
For Goschke, it seems unquestionable that the specific knowledge of the work field where intuition is desired makes a big difference, so that it can be revealed in the form of an apparent spontaneous feeling. This is because it is necessary to ally with intuition the logical analysis of the known facts. That is, without the correspondent specific knowledge, intuition also fails.
There are cases where intuitive reactions contradict the rational evaluation, but the intuitive impression ends up being corrected by the person’s conscientious attitude. In interview granted to the publisher Steve Ayan of the magazine Gehim & Geist, referred in reference (2), he tells us the following case (11): “If, for example, you quickly show black faces to white Americans, so fast that they cannot be identified, this will activate the amygdala, which allows inferring a negative spontaneous emotional reaction – even if these people do not have any conscientious prejudice against blacks. But, as soon as the faces are perceived by the consciousness, the activity of the amygdala shows a clear reduction.”
11. Does Intuition Contribute to Our Happiness?
We saw that the state of people’s spirit (attitude) in good mood has to do with the quality of intuitions received, that is, these people are more open to the uncommon associations of good ideas than those people in bad mood.
It is, therefore, at least reasonable to give a positive response to the question that entitles this item. We know that some motivated psychologists admit that our psychic well-being depends on the level of coincidence between our conscious goals (fulfillment of our duties) and the implicit or unconscious goals, these coming from our spiritual planning. We also know, for example, that we all have the need to control ourselves or be better than others, values that we acquired still in infancy and partially accessible to our conscience. If we adopt a posture that moves far away from this reality, obviously we will feel less joy with our successes.
12. Does Intuition Have Moral Connotation?
If we face, as it is convenient, that intuition is an excellent tool in guiding us to take decisions, when we come across with two or more choices that the simple use of logical reason still leaves us in doubt, taking us to hesitate, then the answer is positive. In fact, from our understanding, all in life has a high moral direction. But we should not have to say that ethics or intuitive moral exist, because we would be exaggerating.
When we have to confront certain situations or dilemmas in our daily life that include taking decisions, involving alternative risks regarding other people, our reasoning is not always a good advisor. When this happens, some times in a fraction of a second, we may be moved by an intuition that tells us what to do. For example, in an imminent disaster, between preventing the death of three or more people or only one, and it is in our reach to do it, our reasoning makes us to take action in the direction of saving three or more and not just one. But if this “one” happens to be our relative, son or daughter for example, our intuition may hang for this side, but somehow turning our consciousness upside-down. Well, in the very inner, each one has his scrupulous, and for that, our emotional centers are always vigilant,
13. Conclusion
Thus, we finish this appealing theme for its high content and of great significance in people's life. We saw that, intuition is an indirect form of knowledge that manifests itself through insights, flashes or sparks. The capture of images thus apprehended, occurs very quickly and the reasoning that then emerges is of the intuitive type, taking the person to an instantaneous discernment with the integrated perception of the problem.
People who are always open-minded to something new and who like to try are not very common. For those people, unable to developing any analytical thought, intuition is a sudden resource and even instantaneous that always brings solution to problems, since that the person convinces himself and places intuition in practice, without hesitating. Being intuition a wide perception, it is necessary not to get lost in trifling and tiny details.
CHAPTER 14
THE FREE WILL CONSTRUCTS OUR DESTINY
Spiritualistic vision of this attribute
No one is required to give more than he is able to give. Good use of free will is under everyone's capacity. Why, then, make mistakes that torment oneself?
Luiz de Mattos in Christian Rationalism. (6)
All the themes presented inside Part Two of this work are, on purpose, impregnated with the philosophical spiritualist concepts of life, and the free will could not escape to this orientation. The context of that presentation is based on the theme published by the author with the same title in his work Reflections on Feelings (1), having been enlarged his reasoning line.
We foresee the day, although so far from now, in which the majority or even all mankind will have access to these philosophical-spiritualist knowledge, in which the good use of this spiritual attribute may be considered as one guiding compass and able to impel the persons to practice the good, leaving aside their animal instincts brutalized by the sick minds of many humans. Good use of free will in the material life conditions the success of the incarnations, making them less repetitive and reducing the suffering derived from its misuse. Having the support of a clever reasoning, the practice of free will must conduct the person to his plenitude and making him enjoy a relative happiness during his life on the Earth.
1. Basic Premises
To get the real etymological meaning of free will (composite noun) we consulted the Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary – Unabridged 2nd Edition, and found: “1) the human will regarded as free from restraints, compulsions or any antecedent conditions, freedom of decision or choice, and 2) the doctrine that people have this: opportunity to determinism.” When referring to freewill (joined words as adjective), we read: “1) voluntary, spontaneously given or choice, and 2) in theology and philosophy, of or holding the doctrine of free will.”
According to these definitions, free will is mainly freedom of decisions or choice, but impaired by certain restraints and compulsions, that is, just a capacity of choice among opportunities that occurs in our daily life. Nothing is told about the power of the free will and its motivation for people to live in accordance with their consciences. Does it work alone or associated with our willpower and reason? Is a man endowed with motivation to act freely under certain circumstances or objectives different from his own conscience? The reason for this theme is to understand and explain these questions to the light of the philosophical and spiritualist point of view.
To understand what is free will and to perceive its important role in all that happens in the creature’s life and even to comprehend the own process of the man’s spiritual evolution, it is necessary to invoke the knowledge spread out by the high Spiritualism, by schools of high psychism, which teach us that just a single passage through life on the Earth is not enough. By its own essence, life is composed of Force and Matter, the first having evolved as Intelligent Force until it reached the condition of Spirit. In this condition, the Force incarnates in a human body to continue the process of evolution, at this stage, no more limited to the evolution of the species as it was well explained by Darwin through his well known theory presented in his book The Origin of the Species, but as the evolution of the spirit in the human beings, as the last material link through this millenary evolutive chain. This evolution is processed in man as an incarnated being, passing his spirit through several earthly lives until it reaches levels of high spiritual and moral value, essentially pure, enlightened and omniscient of the fundamental truths and universal laws, when no more he needs to incarnate to continue evolving.
2. A Little Bit of History
The first essay on free will was written by Aurelius Augustine (354 – 430), in the 4th century. This wise person, who was canonized later on by the Catholic Church as Saint Augustine, intended with his work entitled The free will (2) to reconcile Plato’s (427–347 B. C.) ideas and philosophical teachings with those of Aristotle (384–322 B. C.) about the virtues related to the good and the evil, with those diffused by Catholic Church, of which intention he ended well succeeded. The dead knot of disagreement was raised upon the existence or not of destiny, because this implicated in a previous knowledge of facts and, therefore, in accepting the predeterminism postulates. In that way, the question of predeterminism (destiny) versus free will lasted long for more than 1,600 years, that is, until reaching the beginning of the 21st century, but that is not yet a peaceful subject!
This subject was, also, about 850 years after Saint Augustine, retaken by Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), another Catholic Church doctor, canonized as Saint Thomas, who extended and completed Saint Augustine ideas in his Suma Teologica book (3).
After a greater liberalization of ideas, which occurred by the time of Renaissance, René Descartes came into play (1596 – 1650). Descartes, who have concluded his work entitled Teachings on the Method, in 1619, with the age of 23 years, treat the question of the free will by the year 1649, when he was already a mature man, and almost in the end of his life, in his work entitled Principles or, more precisely, in the 4th Meditation, in which, treating of the will he express as cited in (4, 5): “[…] Then it only consists in that we can do a thing or leave to do it (that is, to affirm or to deny, to pursue or to flee), or even so, only to affirm or to deny, pursue the (sic) things that our understanding proposes to us, we act in such a way that we do not feel, in no way, any external force that compel us to that.” There is in this sentence an indirect allusion to the free will or deliberate will of choice. Further on, we have again the following sentence of Descartes in which he “[…] affirms to be the free will the power to refuse the truth and the good even in the presence of the evidence that it manifests” (4, 5), what, as we see, it is quite explicit. And finally (4, 5), “[…] then, if I always knew clearly what is true and what is good, I will never have difficulty to deliberate which judgment and which choice should I do, and, thus I would be entirely free, without never being indifferent.”
These concepts, sometimes controversial or badly interpreted, prevailed until the beginning of the 20th century, when Luiz de Mattos (6), without the passion of the philosophical vanities, completed them, in a clear and unquestionable way in his work Scientific and Rational Christian Spiritism, in 1910. This work contains the foundation of the doctrine of same name, established having as basis the reincarnation, the duties of the incarnated spirit and the Christian moral principles. The author pointed out to us the need of the good use of free will and of reasoning about duties and moral principles when treating of the serious things of life. According to him we are in face of an attribute of the spirit or arbitral faculty that people can use for good or for evil, and thus in consonance with metaphysics. Therefore, firmed in the fundament that all in life are possibilities, we will treat this subject of the free will deeply.
3. Philosophical Spiritualist Concept
The discussions by philosophers about the concept of free will became subject of inexhaustible interest. Practically, each philosopher is attracted to think on this subject and to present his own ideas. Metaphysical discussions always point out to confirm that this question is connected to human moral responsibilities, which implicate to comprehend the sense of conscience and, in consequence, the sense of people’s responsibilities. In a practical sense, we are facing the power of choice and it has a lot to do with the accomplishments and the creature’s success or failure. Persons need to continually do a sustained self-effort to keep their autonomy and dignity, that is, to conserve their values such as friendship, self-love, love to the others, etc.
Many philosophers distinguish freedom of will from freedom of action, because in practice many of our acts are not entirely free, depending upon certain restrictions which can be out of our control. These restrictions are originated from physical, environment, psychological, biological and theological nature. At the end of this chapter we will present these types of restrictions. In consequence, many philosophers think that free will is restricted to our “choices” and “wills.” According to René Descartes, the faculty of the will is perfectly identified with the freedom of choice. The focus that we will give to the theme of the free will is, before all, of spiritual order, but without deviating from the practical sense of their implications and consequences
Free will is a spiritual faculty or attribute oriented by the adequate use of reasoning and controlled by the will. It serves to control our choices and actions and its efficiency will be as much greater as greater the power of reasoning is. In conclusion, free will means complete freedom of thinking and action either for the good or for the evil.
When the person acts for the good, he does good actions, improving his life habits and customs, his behavior improves, what, by its turn, results in a faster spiritual evolution. On the contrary, when a person, be by thoughts, be through actions, insists in the practice of the evil, his spiritual evolution is injured and retarded. That concept does not represent a threat or pre-condemnatory coercion, but the understanding for the strict fulfillment of the moral duty.
It is that faculty that characterizes the transition of the Intelligent Force, active in the three kingdoms of the nature, into spirit, acting in man, that is, the intelligent particle is put in conditions to incarnate in human body, a more complex and evolved organism. This transition means that the Intelligent Force individualizes itself and acquires the conscience of the good and of the evil, discerning one from the other.
4. The Mental Process of Free Will
In this context, free will is a spiritual faculty, that is, an attribute of the spirit. It is the power to acting with total freedom, oriented by the will and controlled by the reasoning. Shortly, the process that precedes each action of the creature happens in the sequence that is described to proceed. The ideas and stimulus that reach us from the environment, that is, from the exterior (in relation to the person) are processed and elaborated in the form of thoughts. The thoughts, by their turn, are worked by the reasoning that purify them for us, to stay in accordance with what the person wish to transform into words or to do. Still at this stage, the person utilizes his previous available experience stored in his memory. After that, comes into action the will, which is also an attribute of the spirit. The will, with greater or lesser force, depending on the spiritual evolution endowed by the person, has the function to put the thoughts into action using the attribute of the free will as a secondary filter. This filter runs as a sentinel of judgment, orienting the desired action for the good or for the evil. In this process, the reasoning acts as a primary filter, since that, when the person does not reason, the thoughts are put into action without an adequate depuration regarding the effects that they can produce. The lack of the primary depuration induces the person to use his free will in an irrational way, senseless, and therefore, under the dominion of the animal instincts, most of the times, causing irreparable damages to third parties or to himself.
5. Relationship of the Free Will with the Good and the Evil
Children, even at very early age, already possess the conscience of the good and of the evil. Early, they begin to learn the first teachings from their predecessors and parents, in a process of acquisition of moral knowledge. Well formed families seek, with love, affection, and dedication, self-denial and renouncement of spirit to transmit to their descendants the best that they can do. Here, the moral values speak higher and they are the parents´ home duties to the children, with the objective of forging their characters.
Knowing therefore, the good and the evil and the manner to distinguish one from the other, free will offers to the persons two options and only two: to use it for the good or to drive it for the evil. When free will is driven towards the good the benefits relapses on the ones who practiced it over those to whom the action was driven. Otherwise, when the free will is guided towards the evil, it returns the bad result of its action for who practiced it, besides prejudicing his fellow creatures. The evolutionary normal spiritual course takes place only for the first case and we should always take care of it in our actions. This is obvious and intuitive and it comes to confirm the Christian precept that says: “Who the good does, for himself he does it .”
To think highly and deeply, using the precepts of logics, such as induction and deduction, in a concise way, is the first right step. Further, one analyzes the problem or subject through constructive reasoning on the validity of the thought and its real application. It follows then the use of the willpower oriented for the good to assure the practice of free will in a way unequivocally correct. With actions like this, rationally thought, generated and applied, we will walk faster and safe to complete our earthly evolutionary path with success and spiritual progress.
If, on the contrary sense, we hesitate and close our eyes for our problems, not trying to solve them in a rational way, we will become liable to the bad use of our willpower, when we want to transform our thoughts into actions, and from that, resulting a bad use of our free will, with all its serious consequences. The low reasoning capacity found in many people, many times even with good character and gentle in their behavior and in their relationship, can result in misery, disgraces and much suffering, all due to the bad use that they come to do of the free will.
It is sufficient to have little perception to understand that, the summation of the forces of all actions of thought and free will that occur in a certain moment, in the world, have very opposite and intense effects of inestimable greatness and magnitude. In one side, the effects that comes from the bad use of free will directed towards the evil will carry intense confusion of opinions, disagreements among persons in the mid of the families, among people and nations, taking the persons to incomprehension, to racial hate, to religious intolerance, to anger, to violence, to intolerance, and to perversity, in short, to hundreds of negative feelings, usually issued with emphasis by the modern media. On the other hand, the effects of the good use of free will directed for the good are naturally constructive and altruistic. These effects conduct the persons to welfare, to confraternization among people and nations, to the feelings of friendship, love, peace, agreement, and harmony, as well as, to hundreds of other noble feelings which take to the material progress and to the spiritual human evolution. Thence, we can characterize, with certainty, what the current of the good is, and what the current of the evil is.
Of the balance or unbalance of these forces it results the spiritual progress or the retreat, advance in the spiritual evolution of the creatures or retard in the process of the spirit ascension. Due to that, it is of transcendental importance to work and to influence more and more towards the unbalance of these forces, but in the direction of the good and not of the evil. To obtain this effect, it is necessary, however, that the optimistic and progressist actions prevail, oriented to the general welfare of humanity and supported by the prevalent role of free will.
6. Consequences of the Bad Use of the Free Will
What does it take people to do the bad use of the free will? Among many factors, we would like to mention the low reasoning capacity, tendency to bad habits and vices and the inferior feelings, mainly perversity. Those tendencies, when not eliminated during the childhood, period in which the children are under the safeguard and orientation of their parents, are always saturated with inferior and animalized vibrations, being harmful to the good mental health and to the spiritual evolution. When that happens, the person loses the respect of himself, and due to his weaken conscience, he commits insanities disapproved by every person who has self-respect. As our reference (6): “All evil grows up when practiced consciously, and those who act this way will have, without any doubt, a sad and painful awakening. To use free will as a weapon against the fellow creature, to utilize of it to injure, to intrigue, to deride, to slander and demoralize the other fellows constitutes crime of the highest condemnation.”
Every crime needs and must be repaired, but we know very well that the earthly justice is imperfect and, therefore, it fails in the appreciation of the mistakes that we commit. In the spiritual world, the justice never fails and it is applied by the own spirit through the retrospective that it will always have to do of all their actions, because it is its own conscience that judges it. Nothing escapes to the appreciation of the spirit and to its judgment, but it is necessary to observe that there is not an astral court to judge the spirit’s acts, in disagreement with what many religions preach.
There is a feeling that is the fault, and of which comes another feeling that is the remorse. When the conscience accuses a feeling of fault, this is chewed and “hammered” many times by the conscience until such feeling be transformed into remorse. The creature feels then a deep need to repair the committed mistake. If the fault regarding this condition is not repaired while the spirit is incarnated, the spirit in his astral world, having total clairvoyance, dominated by repentance and by remorse, feels the need for a new reincarnation. It is this disposition that takes to the reincarnation of the spirit, many times in very difficult conditions.
7. The Borderlines: Goodness and Perversity
As well as the goodness is one the most noble feelings of the creature, taking the person to the general welfare and demonstrating high spirituality, the perversity is a harmful feeling, which takes the persons to spiritual inferiority. This feeling demonstrates that the spirit still needs to win a lot of steps, to track many paths in numerous incarnations, to complete its evolution on the Earth. And, as this does not process without suffering, person needs to develop private mechanisms to protect himself against the evil, so that the progressive effort that he needs to do comes to find the minimum possible obstacles.
When the noxious tendencies are not repressed and the person takes them to the extreme of badness, one faces the perversity, situation in which the conscience reaches its lower level. In these conditions (6,):
Perversity is an unequivocal sign of spiritual inferiority. It reveals a spirit not yet sufficiently polished and makes clear that its vibrations are identical to those of the less developed spiritual strata of mankind.
Under such circumstances, free will, with its behavioral distortions, reflects the spiritual state of ignorance.
8. Free Will and Evolution
We have already seen that the spirit is light, that its own intensity is compatible with his degree of progress and evolution. It is intuitive to infer that the greater is the intensity of this light, the greater is the vibration of the spirit, and this means also that greater it will be the knowledge of life. This implies in a greater control of reasoning and of the action from it derived, resulting in the good use of free will. It is, also, intuitive that, the more intense the vibration of the spirit is, the lesser it is submitted to thrill by actions that its conscience reproves. Thence, we can emphasize (6):
The evolution – it is never too much to repeat – is controlled by natural laws that never alter in Time and Space. To its imperative rules nobody can escape.
These laws put all humans at the same level of equality in relation to the means that each one disposes to make use with all freedom, of the spiritual repository conquered by them, in a faster or slower manner, in accordance with the direction that they have given to the free will.
By putting himself in syntony with the natural and immutable laws, the human creature get rid of his weaknesses, bad habits and vices and always steps ahead towards the Light, the Universal Intelligence, and thus to reach his evolution in a shorter time. Not delaying his evolution, the human being can, in the day-by-day of his life, in all situations that he has to pass, to not acquire more moral debts. At the same time, the spirit should rescue the debts that he brings from the past in a more profitable way, renewing and cleaning his conscience and enriching the moral attributes which are own to him.
9. Determinism versus Destiny
At this stage, the reader has already perceived, by the reading of the preceding chapters, that Evolution is the greatest law of spirituality. He perceived, also, that the spirit self determines to pass through its evolutive trajectory in each incarnation. The spiritual evolution can be delayed or even paralyzed by the human being’s indolence, displacency or negligence. These situations emerge from the relaxation and deviation of duties, that is, derives from the false notion that the creature has to be subordinated to (6) “[…] one presumed predestination or an inexorable and cruel destiny, against which many people think that it would be useless to struggle.”
The determinism, and in consequence, the concept of destiny is a false way to face the life’s serious things, transforming it in disastrous situations. With the free will the person has the power to alter the direction of his life towards the good when he wants, facing in a correct way his actions and fulfilling with his real duties. Therefore, we ourselves are responsible for our future, which we prepare by doing good or bad actions at the present moment.
We live in a material world and we have to be always careful and alert to not make mistakes and flaws, because these, when practiced consciously, bring great damage to our present incarnation, since they produce vibrational and harmful fluids.
We all know that we must not permit to be dominated by sufferings, opposing immediate reaction to them. The same must be told in relation to weakness thoughts that are responsible for depression symptoms, and which may result in spiritual obsession. This is not difficult to happen, and to avoid obsession, we need to learn how to use our thoughts and free will, always to do the good.
Life always occurs in the exact dimension of our necessities, because we cannot ask person to give more than he can afford. The conclusion to this affirmation is that the good use of free will is always according to the capacity of each person, and neither more nor less is demanded. Therefore, if persons do struggle seriously for life, they have all conditions to make mistakes in small scale, and not having to pass for unnecessary sufferings and torments. Nothing of this will happen to them, unless they will be involved with deceiving conditions of false friends and bad fellows.
There is no way to practice well the free will without responsibility. And it is this responsibility that guarantees the good results of our actions. According to our reference (6):
This responsibility is an integral part of life and is therefore irrefutable and non-transferable. It is useless to deny it as it is useless to try to escape of its consequences.
The mystic of forgiveness for the crimes, swindle and evasions of duty makes no sense whatsoever in the spiritual life.
With the sense of wanting to avoid that responsibility, many persons who practice the most condemned acts, do frauds and cause public disorder, deny the existence of the free will and try to obtain refuge under the idea of the pardon, which does not exist, because, on the contrary sense, how to attribute merit to those who acts with responsibility? Then, nothing is more correct than to struggle with courage, determination and to valorize all the problems of life.
10. Restrictions to the Free Will
Having in mind the principle that there is no excuse for the evil, mankind always can resist to injunctions and obstacles which obstruct their acts, even when the people come to find restrictions to the use of their free will. This implies be conscious of the evil, Otherwise, without the free will man wouldn’t be more than a robot or machine without any responsibility with his practices.
The main restrictions to the free will are of physical-causal, environmental, psychological, biological and theological nature. A good analysis of this subject was done by Thimoty O`Connor (7) in his highly classified work, and by Ted Honderich (8), who presented several links in the Web dealing with the theme. We will present some of them to follow:
In Function of Age
The parents´ main duty is to form their children’s character and give them the education in accordance to their real gains. The children need to learn how to trust on their parents since the early age in order to prepare an ambient to offer them the best possible moral and ethical education. For that, children must be put in conditions of good learners, but not under submission, because this always causes alienation. It should be understood that, before this framework, in the childhood’s phase, the use of the free will is always limited. This is due to the prevailing laws, which varies from country to country, where the parents´ responsibility on their children may reach up to twenty-one years. However, in many countries one can already observe, for the ages above fourteen years, a growing liberalization for a relative freedom, what allows to the young, gradually, to be aware of the responsibilities that they must assume in the use of their free will inside and outside of their homes.
Brainwashing
There are situations that occur in the person’s life that bring them to a complete submission to others´ ideas, to the thoughts and religious doctrines that alienate their volitions and, therefore, their capacities to use their free will. This is what happens with the so-called brainwashing. This is reached through alienating techniques, bringing persons to an irresistible submission, in such a way that many persons put in a second plan the fulfillment of their duties, including familiar duties, becoming true puppets, as if they were hypnotized by their gurus. It is a shameful form of “spiritual slavery.”
How to revert this crazy process? For this question, there aren’t easy answers. To abdicate of his will himself is a very serious thing. It removes the freedom and the free will and, in consequence, the moral responsibility by his actions, all attributes correlated among themselves. This triangle of force becomes weakened and debilitated, that is, impregnated of vulnerability, from which the profiteers and explorers of the human weaknesses know how to take good advantage in benefit of their stingy personal interests
I would say to treat itself of a strong mental indolence, lack of reasoning to make a primary filter of the intentions of such profiteers, because it is well known that without a strong reasoning, how the person comes to ‘become himself’, that is, how to reacquire his personality and willpower? In those cases, there is no way to get rid of a psychological treatment and a too serious spiritual counseling. There are cases in which they include the police intervention as necessary to carry away the person from their aliening profiteers.
The brainwashing occurs, also, in several other fields out of the religious communities, as in the modern techniques (subliminal effects) used by television media, by political organizations (political allurers), in the subversion of habits (sexual allurers), in spying activities, in terrorist actions and in war, in which the prisoners start to collaborate with the enemy, as it happened in the war of Korea, in 1950, from where the name “brainwashing” came. Since our objective is not to analyze the “brainwashing” in detail, we will not extend anymore about this subject.
Authoritarian Subordination
Many persons, who abused their free will, had to face the prevailing penal laws in each country, and to pay for the crimes that really practiced, since they were penally condemned. Thus, when in the prisons, submitted to the hard rigor of the laws and to the penitentiary rules, they have their free will almost totally blocked. All this is done with the sense of preserving the good of the society and to recover, if possible, those who present a good behavior in the fulfillment of their faults. But, not always that is possible, because many recalcitrant malefactors return to the prisons due to their new flaws or faults. This is a work of the earthly justice
Political, Law Enforcement and Religious Oppression
In countries where democracy is not adopted as a form of government, persons live scenery of restrictions of the individual freedom. Under oppression and police violence, person does not live in the best of the worlds, being watched in their freedom of thinking and acting. Thence, one concludes the existence of a restricted free will.
The same occurs in countries where religion and political power are shared together. Such countries show restrictions to free thinking, as it occurs in some political-religious dictatorial government of many eastern countries. But, worse than all that is to surprisingly observe the discriminatory treatment given to the women, submissive to the men, being treated like object, as if women were their private properties.
Biological Conditions
Many persons are born with physical defects or of mental nature, like the bearers of the Down’s syndrome, or they acquire alienating mental diseases.
We do not see necessity to extend in these cases, because it is not difficult to imagine the different types of restrictions that we have found in persons bearing blindness, deafness and dumbness, and physical and mental deficiencies. Those persons deprived of one or more of their physical senses are also deprived of many choices, what limit the use of their free will.
It is very sad and degrading to observe the cases of crazy persons (persons bearing obsession), abandoned without pity by their relationships, wandering through the streets of the cities or being let in precarious and badly equipped sanatoriums, where their recovery, in the great majority of the cases, is impossible, for they ignore the real cause of their madness.
Extreme Cases
There is also, the occurrence of extreme cases, in that the freedom of choices stays reduced to two alternatives or possibilities, taking the person to a situation in which “If he runs away the bad wolf catches him, if he stays the bad wolf eats him", as it happens in the cases of violence by force of guns, rapes, kidnappings, etc. For us to save our own life, we are obliged to submit, temporarily, to humiliating, degrading and traumatic situations. It is evident that in these conditions there is no free will.
11. Conclusion
They are, still, a few persons that keep the exact notion of the free will value and know how well to use it with responsibility. It is still big the number of people who are caught by (1) “[…] false conceptions, thoughts and vicious habits and they do not apply, due to those limitations, the plenitude of reasoning power, what limits or conditions what they could choose, being upset the exercise and the reach of that faculty.”
They are many evils caused by the ignorance of what is the free will for human life. For that reason, many are the lost incarnations in successive stages. Much it would be moved forward, if humanity tried to understand that the pardon doesn’t really exist; and changed that absurd idea by comprehension of what is the free will, and tried to use it with coherence and responsibility. Thus, many reincarnations, for which humanity pays a very high price, would be avoided.
In summary, the free will, together with the act of thinking, is one of the best instruments at the disposal of a person to learn and to teach the life lessons with greatness of spirit, with humility and much love, thus abbreviating the necessary time for the full and total spiritual evolution.
THIRD PART
INDICATIONS AND EVIDENCES
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CHAPTER 15
SUGGESTIVE CASES OF REINCARNATION
Breaking the barriers of the scientific paradigm
Science is leading to the conclusion that all in the universe is eternal, alive, and evolving. Discovering the existence of the living soul may be one of humankind’s greatest gifts.
Gary E. Schwartz, in his book The Afterlife Experiments – 2002.
I think a rational person can believe in reincarnation based in evidence.
Ian Stevenson, researcher of the phenomena of reincarnation, cited in Old Souls, by Tom Shroder.
Reincarnation is the process of one same spirit to pass through numerous and successive incarnations, that is, to change of body and of life conditions in another time and different environments. All that was said in the chapter 9 about the spirit and its incarnation applies equally for the reincarnation, which occurs in the process of a human being’s birth. Thus, we understand that incarnation of the spirit only occurs in the first time, and reincarnation many times. After the Intelligent Force particle acquires the condition of spirit, some new attributes are activated, among them, the conscience, the intelligence and the free will, that is, it became individualized and self-determinant, and it will incarnate hundreds or even thousands of times to promote its evolution. After having completed its evolutive trajectory on Earth, the spirit no more needs to incarnate. From there on, it follows its evolution exclusively as Spirit, in the superior spiritual worlds.
We’ve shown in the chapter 6 how the pioneers of the Spiritism appeared in the second half of the 19th century and, in the chapter 7, how the advent of modern Spiritualism took place in 1910, codified as a doctrine with the name of Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism by Luiz de Mattos and Luiz Alves Thomaz, currently known as Christian Rationalism.
We presented, also, the chapter 16 about Near-Death Experiences (NDE), brought to everybody’s knowledge by Raymond. A. Moody Jr. This researcher, since 1966, comes to revealing thousands of proven cases of near-death experiences, reinforcing the evidences of the spirit existence and of the reincarnation process, that is, he is exposing to the world the life existence of the spirit after the physical death.
In the chapter 17 are presented the regression phenomena to the previous lives as told by the psychiatrist Brian Weiss and several psychologists such as, Helen Wambach, Edith Fiori, Patrick Drouot (physicist), Maria Peres (doctor and psychologist) and others, whose experiences described in their articles and books, brought many indications and new evidences about the soul (spirit) existence and its immortality, exposing to the public through the past life regression therapy (PLRT) a great number of phenomena through therapy of return to past experiences, until then exclusively belonging to the domain of the Spiritism and Spiritualism.
Besides the cited researchers, numerous other experiences have been reported at the present time by tens of authors and researchers in hundreds of books of wide popularization in the entire world, including via Internet. Those phenomena, involving numerous proven cases of mediumistic manifestations have been firstly studied by the scientist William Crookes, in the second half of the 19th century, as plentifully presented in the chapter 6. One hundred years later, in the second half of 20th century, more precisely starting from the decade of 1960, numerous proven cases of reincarnation were studied by Ian Stevenson (1, 2) and collaborators. Almost at the same time it has occurred the studies and researches about the phenomena of out of the body experiences, and near-death experiences. This chapter shows, also, the most impressive studies about mediumship that science is already researching since the end of the last decade of the past century, under Gary E. Swartz’s coordination through the “Veritas Research Project.” (3).
What we are going to present in this chapter refers to the awakening of some scholars – researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists and scientists totally disengaged from any doctrine about reincarnation. They were attracted to the study of this question always present in the mind of so many people: does life exist after death?
1. Ian Stevenson’s Research
Ian Stevenson, psychiatrist of the University of Virginia, who died in 2007, was one of the pioneers of the modern investigation about current and suggestive cases of reincarnation, verified mainly through descriptions done, in most of the cases, by children. His studies began around the year 1960, and accumulated in his data base more than 2,500 cases or memories of reports supposedly about reincarnation.
If in the case of near-death experiences it was more or less easy to set up a complete or almost complete typical case with common characteristics, for the evidences of reincarnation, this procedure is not so easy due to the sui generis characteristic of each case. It is not our intention to describe some cases, because we did not make field research. However, generically, we verify that in many cases, Stevenson tried to guide himself from the indications of the stories, taking the children to the places where they would have lived before. Stevenson gave preference to the cases in which such places had never been visited before by the children, in order to prove the veracity of their indications, sceneries and situations that they reported, at first hand. He perceived that when these children were taken to the indicated places, they seemed to be familiar with the cited places and scenes, identifying the houses where they had lived, their relatives and other characteristics verified by the researcher. Given the importance of Stevenson's pioneerism and the persistence with which he had researched this field of the highest scientific interest for more than 40 years, until his death in 2007, we will consecrate more attention to his works, as told in his books, that we started to comment on.
Twenty Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation
All the books of the Dr. Ian Stevenson are important in the study of the phenomena of reincarnation. In his book of 596 pages, entitled (1, 2) Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, he presents seven cases occurred in India, three in Ceylon, two in Brazil, seven in Alaska and one in Lebanon. This book will be commented on more below, under the heading of “Interview given by Ian Stevenson”, because the content of that interview refers, mainly, to the cases described in his first book about reincarnation. With this procedure, we will not run the risk of introducing many repetitions in our text.
Children Who Remember Previous Lives –a Question of Reincarnation
In his book (4), Children Who Remember Previous Lives – a Question of Reincarnation, Stevenson presented thirty eight pages of summaries of fourteen cases, of which thirteen had not been included in the previous book. The cases included several people, of different religions and countries, namely: two in India, one in Alaska, one in Burma, one in Sri Lanka, one in Lebanon, one in Turkey, one in Thailand, one in England, one in Finland and four in the United States of America. In this same book, Stevenson dedicated, also, about fourteen pages to an analysis of the types of explanations on the cases he studied, namely: reading of past lives, hypnotic regression, dejá vu experiences, dreams and nightmares, effect of illnesses and drugs, meditation, strong emotion, adults’ scenes (flashings) in full conscience, and spontaneous experiences with children. Here, Stevenson unveiled us his reservation in the appreciation of these explanations, exception made to the last one, which constituted the base of his works. For more details, see References (4) – Chapter 3 – Types of Evidence for Reincarnation, p. 41–55 of Ian Stevenson`s book.
Experiences with “Reading” of Previous Lives
Stevenson stated that this was the weakest of the explanations of evidences about reincarnation. They came from people who declared to be able to describe or “read” the previous lives of other people (false mediums, in search of financial earnings and fame in the media, etc.). For the incautious ones, who admit to have so much faith in those people’s stories, Stevenson recommended that they make the experience, with exemption of will, using two or three of those mediums, each one at his time and without the others become aware and confront the results presented by them, so that such credulous people comes to perceive they were deluded. Almost all predictions from those false mediums refer to remote past lives, which cannot be proven and, therefore, such facts are deprived of scientific value.
Experiences with Regression to Previous Lives
For cases of hypnotic or induced regression to previous lives Stevenson was, also, very critical, although he considered them to be endowed with a little more of evidence than the one previously described. He told about three experiences that he carried out himself with his patients, and he made a self-criticism. The great majority of cases, framed under that initial heading, are of names and or places of difficult registrations and evidence, because it is well known that, previously to the 19th century, the certificate of death and burial of people were very precarious. One of his strong criticism was that, by means of hypnosis, the patient is previously induced to return to the past, in a place where he admits that it might have originated his current traumas, and that, after being hypnotized, the patient’s tendency is to obey to the therapist’s command, taking off the spontaneity of the therapist’s observations. In that way, the patient believes that many of the “observations” are indeed fantasies. Stevenson advised that, even in the wrong ways of the specialists’ recommendations, the use of children between 5 and 8 years old would give more spontaneity and it would diminish fantasies, because they would have been much less exposed beforehand to the average information of our current culture. We should observe that the regression techniques have as main goal to cure certain traumas and to reestablish the psychic sanity of the patients than to serve properly as reincarnation evidences.
Experiences Known as Dejá Vu
Many people believe to have seen or visited a place previously seen, that is, a place they’ve already known about. A research that was done unveils that 76% of people already have passed through this type of experience. Many of the children from the cases brought up by Stevenson recognized the places of their past lives with great amount of details. There are other explanations for the phenomenon such as, precognition, neurological effects, etc. These cases are very subjective and, separately, they do not constitute evidences by themselves, unless for the own person.
Experiences Derived From Dreams and Nightmares
Among several types of dreams, the ones that interest to this analysis are of the recurrent types, that is, dreams that repeat themselves, being more commonly recognized as nightmares. Recurrent dreams are mostly found among children, and their periodicity gradually decreases as they become adults. Those dreams seem to leave a fixed mark in the memory, well different from the ordinary dreams, and are usually deprived of details to allow significant verifications aiming to give basis to the theory of reincarnation.
Experiences under the Effect of Illness and Use of Drugs
Many diseases that take to a very intense feverish state produce strong mental images, similar to deliriums, of difficult interpretation. The same can be said with regard to the use of certain drugs, such as, for example, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which, according to its users and adepts, allows them to revive memories of this life and of others, many times mixed and confused, with the aggravating circumstance of causing very serious and dangerous side effects The use of LSD is not recommended for the study of previous lives nor to evidence the reincarnation process. However, many researchers and psychiatrists, such as, Stanislav Grof, cited by Amit Goswami in his new book Physics of the soul (5), p. 97, taken from its Brazilian version, provoked memories of past lives under the effect of the use of LSD in many patients. These are Goswami´s considerations:
They [the memories of other lives] are extremely realistic and authentic, and are used to mediate access to necessary information on historical periods, cultures and even historical events that the individual could have not acquired by means of common channels. In some cases, the precision of these memories were evidenced objectively, with impressive details at times. The criteria for evidence are the same as the ones used to determine what happened in the last year: to identify specific memories and at least get independent evidences for some of them. I observed and published several notorious cases, personally, of which the most uncommon aspects were confirmed by an independent historical research (Grof, 1992).
Experiences with Meditation
The meditation experience is much used by the followers of certain eastern religions, such as the Buddhism and the Hinduism. The siddhis have much ability to remember previous lives. This occurs spontaneously during the meditation practice. They do not contribute to the reincarnation evidence, but they have personal value. Compared with hypnosis, in both cases, people have “tasks to do” in search of the events; but not finding them, they end up being victims of mental fantasies.
Experiences under Strong Emotion
People who receive news of disaster, or attend to the unexpected death of a dear close relative (husband, wife, son, etc.), without an apparent cause, enter a process of very acute depression that can take months to disappear. During the period of depression they seem to see scenes of past lives and they consider them as such.
Experiences in State of Normal Conscience
Many people witness, spontaneously and with relative frequency, scenes, flashings or insights that seem to invoke memories of previous lives. Unless carefully verified, they have little value as evidence, but have a very intriguing subjective value for non-spiritualized persons.
Spontaneous Experiences with Children
These are more reliable and the researched facts can be verified and confronted with the family’s reports and with other family friends´ stories that the child understands to be of his previous life and that, in general, they don’t live very far away one of the other. This is the research line in which Ian Stevenson and collaborators had been working for more than forty years.
Regarding the characteristics of a typical case, the following topics are discussed: cultures that believe and don’t believe in reincarnation, the parents' influence, origin of the information about the cases, the parents' socio-economic conditions, the appearance of recurrences, predictions on the part of the person deceased before death, premonitory dreams, birthmarks, the common characteristics between the two personalities, etc. The analysis of those factors is very extensive and comprehensive, nothing having of uncommon, which takes us to the conclusion that Stevenson was a serious researcher and interested in the search of the truth about the incarnation. Here, it stays clear that many parents try to dissuade their children about reincarnation ideas, mainly if the previous life refers to somebody of bad reputation or even of a well-known murder, and this parents’ attitude cannot be condemned. The pressure put over the children is such that they end up simulating amnesia from their memories, and when they get older, more confident and with less fear of reprimand, they don’t give up, and end up revealing their memories. The birth marks had preponderant role in his researches to the point of, later on, Stevenson have published a book entitled Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (6, 7), with special emphasis in this subject.
However, the most important in the above mentioned work of eleven chapters, is the exposition that Stevenson made about the scientific methodology applied to the research he undertook. The remaining of that book, about 280 pages, was dedicated to the historical analysis of the belief in the reincarnation throughout the times, characteristics of a typical case, analysis and interpretation of the cases, variations of the cases in function of different cultures, the explanatory value of the reincarnation idea and some speculations on his own research. One cannot deny the validity of those researches made in the vast laboratory of the life, in the most varied cultures. Each one must take out his own conclusion.
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect – Convergence between Reincarnation and Biology
Stevenson, in his book mentioned in the reference (6, 7) – Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect – Convergence between Reincarnation and Biology, dealt with the existence of certain birthmarks or acquired marks along the life of some of the cases by him studied, mainly when violent deaths occurred in the previous reincarnation. It’s a sui generis work that tries to correlate the cited marks and signals with wounds due to existing accidents or marks in the previous life of the interviewed persons. The book has 203 pages and thirty five illustrations analyzing such facts. In the 26 chapters of the book he analyzed the localizations of the birthmarks, scars and wounds, as well as defects of birth and other abnormalities such as positions, involuntary gestures and movements (twitches or tics). He also analyzed cases of twins who presented memories of other lives.
Writing as a specialist in psychiatry, and worldwide known as scientific investigator of stories of paranormal events, Stevenson makes an appeal so that we forget our incredulities and old tendencies of discrediting reincarnation, and we pass to start considering the reality of the avalanche of cases, now available and well documented. His book contains 112 cases out of 225 studied in his original monography.
Many of the indicated marks are areas without hair (on the head) well differentiated from the rest, areas of scars that almost always stand out or are in form of depression of adjacent tissues. The deaths remembered by those children were, in the majority of cases, violent. The key evidence results of the straight relationship that exists between (6) “[…] the nature of the wounds causing the death of the previous personality, and the presence of birth marks in the same body locations of the children who remember their previous life, and how it ended.”
To finish these comments on the book in reference, we highlight the main results of those investigations (6, 7):
A series of cases is described whose strong reincarnation evidence exceeds the cases told previously by Stevenson.
When it is established the correlation between the child’s previous life and the current one, the evidence is found usually in the causa mortis of the previous life, either through informers who had known the person, or through medical registrations taken, when the death occurred.
Six cases are described where birthmarks in two places in the child’s body correspond exactly with the entrance and exit of wounds that had occurred in the body of the previous personality.
The incorporation of physical-biological factors (birthmarks and birth defects) in this series of cases of reincarnation evidence practically eliminates the fraud possibility, communication between the families or extrasensory perception as explanations for such cases.
A fatal wound that might have occurred shortly before the death of the previous personality facilitates its appearance, as birthmark afterwards.
Some people demonstrate the capacity to create changes in their own body, as in the case of stigmata, or through certain phenomena, induced hypnotically.
About 35% of the cases demonstrate the phobia existence that is, almost always, related to the causa mortis in the previous life.
Stevenson highlighted and indicated the existence of a stronger belief in reincarnation than the one that it was indicated in his previous works: “Reincarnation is the best explanation for many cases.”
Interview Given by Ian Stevenson
In interview (8) given by Ian Stevenson to Dr. K.S. Rawat, Director of the Reincarnation Research Foundation, in Faridabad, India, in 1986, in contribution to the Reincarnation Forum, referring to colleague scientists, who defended the geneticist and environmental-geneticist point of view for the cases by him researched, Stevenson defended the reincarnationist point of view, saying that reincarnation provides a better explanation for the cases researched by him and described in his book Twenty Cases of Suggestive Reincarnation. Stevenson confirmed to be true the reported cases that occur well early in the core of the families and, frequently persist throughout life. Such behavior is uncommon in the life of the families. The child could not invent it, nor even inherit it of other members of the family.
References (1, 8), tell the story of 20 cases of children, who demonstrated knowledge, well early in their lives, of facts of other people’s lives that had already died. They are cases verified in India, Ceylon, Brazil, Alaska and Lebanon. It is described, to follow, the general pattern of those cases. The case initiates when a child of 2 up to 5 years of age begins to speak to his parents or relatives of a life that he had in another time and another place. The child normally feels a considerable impulse towards his previous and troublesome life, and bothers his reluctant parents to take him to the place or community where he affirms to have previously lived. Of so much the child to insist, their parents begin, even for curiosity, to search on for the veracity of their son’s or daughter’s story; however, those verifications, in general end up occurring only some years after the parents have taken the first knowledge about the story. If some of those verifications result positive, family members visit each other and ask the child to recognize places, objects and people he knew in previous life. Sometimes, the case is publicized in the media or newspapers. When Stevenson became aware about it, he tried to investigate it with the whole scientific rigidity possible, by means of a selective inquiry that more seemed the one of a detective to unfold the facts. He organized interviews with reliable interpreters of his choice, filled out questionnaires, prepared evaluation tables and collected commentaries that reflected or not the veracity of the memories revealed by the child. Finally, he prepared a narrative of each case, publicizing the most remarkable ones.
In this interview (8), the author of the mentioned book, (1) concluded by presenting a general discussion of the several hypotheses suggested by psychologists and psychiatrists, in general skeptical, to explain the phenomenon. But Stevenson´s main conclusions in the mentioned references, took him to adopt the view point of reincarnation hypothesis in detriment of the ones that were presented above, based:
In the large amount of witnesses and lack of motivation to deceive, what guarantees that the possibility of fraud is practically inexistent.
In the large amount of information non-consistent with the child's hypothesis to have obtained such information through previous contact with the families.
In the existence of similar characteristics and skills not learned in the current life, being unlikely the hypothesis of extrasensory perception due to lack of motivation for an identification, which is in general difficult and costly, from the memories and behaviors related with the previous life.
In the unlikely hypothesis of the occurrences, at random, of congenital deformities and birthmarks that a child may bring from his previous life.
Then, Stevenson’s conclusions: they are cases suggestive of reincarnation, so much under the point of view of each case studied as of all of the cases collectively. In favor of all this, it is the large mass of information that he researched and analyzed along 40 years involved in this type of scientific work.
The importance of his work can be inferred from the citation inserted in the reference (9), done by Dr. Harold Lief in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease: “Or Dr. Stevenson is making a colossal mistake, or he will be known as the Galileo of the 20th century.”
It’s very interesting the content of Stevenson’s conclusions regarding to several cases that he researched children that have opposite sex to the one of their previous incarnation. These children dress themselves frequently with clothes of the opposite sex and behave as if their bodies really went of the opposite sex and, even some of them want to submit themselves to surgery for transsexual transformations. In other words, they are unhappy with their current physical bodies. In Lebanon, Turkey and Alaska they believe in reincarnation, but not in the change of sex. In other countries, Dr. Stevenson found a high sex variation of, as in Thailand (16%) and in Burma (25%), for example. In other studied cases, that variation oscillates around 5%. They are cultural differences present in the people's minds.
In the more than 2,500 cases that Stevenson had stored in his database other variations occur due to the cultural aspect, as for instance, the details related to people’s names. Some children get to mention 20 to 30 details that usually include the people’s names of their family and of others with whom such children coexisted previously. These are confirmed during families’ visits. The cases he researched with children from Sri Lanka and from the United States of America don’t reveal the proper names of the deceased and reveals much less details. Therefore, in the United States of America, many cases are classified as “not solved”, while in India, only 20% of the cases are classified as “not solved.” Of the vast file of cases, Stevenson researched and studied about one third; the remaining part around of two thirds, were kept under the responsibilities of Stevenson's colleagues and collaborators.
Stevenson’s conclusion is that (8):
[...] reincarnation is not the only explanation for these cases, but that is the best explanation we have for the stronger cases, by which I mean those in which a child makes a considerable number of points (say 20 or 30) of correct statements about another person who lives in a family that is located quite remote from his own and with which his family has had no prior contacts. When we talk about remoteness, we don’t necessarily just mean physical distance. We know that two families can live 10 kilometers apart and yet they can be very remote because they belong to different economic and social classes.
Stevenson continued in the pursuit of an ideal or perfect case that he imagined not being easy to find. The most perfect cases are those where the two families don’t have met before of being investigated, not being, since the first meeting must be part of the research. An ideal case would be the one in which one could investigate a certain person who would predict that he’s going to incarnate in a near family, and indicated the main characteristics of the new person, including birthmarks, if that were the case.
Following this line of thought, Stevenson exemplified with the case of a man, Corliss Chotkin – Alaska, described in the reference (4), pages 259–269, who predicted to his niece that after the death he would incarnate in a son of hers, and he would be born with two scars in his body originated from surgical operations. One of them, it would be on the nose, next to the right eye, and the other on his back. And yet, he said to his niece: “[…] you will be capable to recognize me because I will have those scars reproduced in my body as marks.” Eighteen months after his death, his niece had a baby, who was born with the two birthmarks. The boy was between 8 – 10 years old when Stevenson interviewed him and verified the birthmarks, one of them well clearer on his back, but both of them with the aspect of surgical scars. It deals with an impressive story, and it was a pity to have happened in the core of a same family, what weakens the reincarnation evidence, scientifically. But it becomes evident to treat itself of two marks with scars appearance in the two previously appointed places by the disincarnated uncle to his niece
Stevenson gave much importance to the evidence of birthmarks, to the point of having written the book Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (6), as we analyzed, previously. One of the questions that appear refers to the mother’s mental effect on the fetus while it developed itself in her womb. In the pointed case, which it occurred with Corliss Chotkin, described in the previous paragraph, the niece (the child’s mother) obviously saw the scars of her uncle. In other cases that he investigated, the mother saw the place of the shot that the deceased took. Both situations can take the future mother to envision such wounds or scars and to influence their occurrence during the gestation.
When asked by the interviewer on the importance of his studies and researches, that is, of the importance of the research about reincarnation in the current world, Stevenson said (8):
Well, I think it has much importance. I think it promises to throw light, as I said earlier, on certain psychological problems. I think it has also some implications for biology and medicine through the study of birthmarks and birth defects. Some children, as you know, have some birthmarks, or missing fingers on a hand, or deformed ears, or other birth defects. And, science still knows very little about the cause of birth defects. I think reincarnation will shed light on that. Then, of course, it also has a very wide implication for the whole question of life after death, the meaning of life. [At last] why am I here?
He mentioned, in the interview that he gave, some of cases that approached the ideal pattern to which one referred previously in this interview, as, for instance:
Swarnlata Mishra – India, described in the reference (1), case no. 4, p. 67–91.
Corliss Chotkin. Alaska, described in the reference (4), p.259–269.
Imad Elawar. Lebanon, described in the reference (1), p. 274–380.
Jagdish Chandra. India, described in cases of reincarnation types (CORT), vols. 1–4. 1975–1977, 1980 and 1983. CORT 1. Bishen Chand. India, referenced in CORT 1.
Kumkum Verma – India, referenced in CORT 1. (8)
We’ve read three of the cases cited in the English edition of the books above mentioned. The Corliss Chotkin’s case (Alaska) was already mentioned in the interview (with birthmarks) and the Imad Elawar’s case (Lebanon) is very long and complex, but well explained. The Swarnlata Mishra’s case (India) was also investigated by Sri N. Banerjee, an Indian researcher on reincarnation. We’ll give some brushstrokes on this case, to proceed. (Reference 1, pages 67–91):
Swarnlata Mishra, a girl, was born in Shahpur, north of India, in March of 1948. Her father, Sri M.L. Mishra, was an inspector of colleges and he traveled a lot, visiting cities and villages around the city where he lived. In one of his trips, he took his daughter Swarnlata with him, when she was about 3 years old. Near the Katni locality, she asked to the driver to deviate to a road she indicated and that led to “my house.” But, she was not attended. When they stopped in Katni to take some tea, she affirmed that if they had gone to her house, they could have taken “a better tea.” Her father ignored, also, that second insinuation. Later, living in Panna, closer place of Katni, about 160 kilometers away, her father knew that she had said that in her previous life she had lived in Katni and the name of her family was Pathak. Later on, they lived in Newgong, district of Chhatarpur, for five years, occasion in which she began to dance a strange dance and to sing songs unknown by her parents. Her father went making the annotations as he found strange the statements of Swarnlata and verifying what he could do. After that, they moved to Chhatarpur, and in March 1959, she was interviewed by the Indian researcher Sri. N. Banerjee, who stayed in their city for two days and later went to Katni to visit the Pathak family. There, he verified that the stories of Swarnlata indicated that in her previous life she had been Biya, daughter of the Pathak family. Biya had died in 1939, in Maihar, and was born again as Sylhet in the city of Bakes (today, Bangladesh – Pakistan), before being born as Swarnlata, in Katni. In the summer of 1959, the members of the Pathak family and those of the Biya´s husband family visited the family of Swarnlata in Chhatarpur. Swarnlata recognized some people and showed great affection for them. Investigations showed that the strange songs and dances referred to the period when Swarnlata had an intermediate life as Sylhet, but the investigations on this person were not completed. Both families denied any previous contact between them, including during the research by Banerjee.
Out of forty-nine indications and recognitions done by Swarnlata, only three had been incorrect (about 94% of rightness). Ian Stevenson, as had always done in his researches, presented a complete tabulation of that information, which does not leave any doubts on the veracity of the facts, as indicated by the commentaries there presented. The interesting thing about this case is that it involves two reincarnations, one of them “transitory” (Sylhet would have died prematurely, about 7 years old, in Bangladesh, Pakistan).
Finally, in that interview (8), Stevenson pondered on the implications that his studies and researches would have on philosophy, on the nature of the mind and its effect on the body, as well as, on the controversy materialism versus Spiritualism, and on the individuals' ethical behavior.
2. Works Told by Amit Goswami
Many other researchers have gathered cases well documented about other children. Amit Goswami tells us in his Brazilian edition book Physics of the Soul (5), of a case that occurred in the end of the 19th century with a Japanese boy named Katsugoro, of 8 years old, in which his father in a previous life had died when he was 5 years old and he, Katsugoro, had died one year later, of smallpox. This child gave many details of his previous birth, as, for example, his parents’ description and of the house where they had lived. Taken to the village of his previous life, he was able to find the house where he had lived, without anybody’s help. In the total, sixteen items of his memory of previous life were confirmed, as narrated by Hearn (1897) and by Stevenson himself (1961).
Another case of proven reincarnation, also referred by Amit Goswami in the book already mentioned, is the one of Nicola Wheater, studied by two researchers, Peter and Mary Harrison (1983). We transcribe their words, taken from the Brazilian edition (2005, p. 96) of Amit´s referred book (5):
Nicola remembers his past life as a teenager called John Henry Benson, who lived in a small town of Yorkshire, England, in the second half of the 19th century (one hundred years before Nicola). When he was 2 years old, Nicola used to say things such as: “Why am I a girl now?” and “Why am I not a boy like before?” to her parents. It did not take long for the girl to remember many other things on her previous life, expressing them in so coherent and consistent way that her mother felt compelled to take her to the town of her previous life. There, Nicola led the mother to the house where she had lived in the previous century. And, to her great surprise, the mother found the birth certificate of a boy called John Henry Benson in the church book.
3. Dr. Gary E. Schwartz: The Afterlife Experiments
Dr. Gary E. Schwartz, William L. Simon and Dr. Pretty G. Russek, in their book (10) The Afterlife Experiments provide us with scientific evidences of numerous studied cases of mediumship in laboratory experiments rigorously controlled. Referred book contains 374 pages, divided in four parts and distributed in 19 chapters, exposing the mediums’ revelations acting under the most rigorous laboratorial controls. It is the first and notable scientific study on mediumship carried out in the end of the 20th century and beginning of 21st century, about one hundred and forty years after the studies of Sir William Crookes, in the 19th century.
This project opens a vast domain of knowledge that continues restricted to many current followers of Spiritism and spiritualist doctrines. More than this, he does it by rigorously applying the scientific method, in laboratory researches, evaluating the existence of mediums and the mediumship, challenging the established system of beliefs by the religions and by the materialistic science. He starts, a priori, from the hypothesis of the existence of the soul (spirit) and he applies procedures of logical and rational experimentation, strictly according to the scientific method, not leaving margin for any counter argumentation on the part of skeptics. This project intends to prove, beyond any doubt and in a convincing way that the concept of life just as we know is restricted and limited to the appearances of matter.
The continuity of this project, now under the name of “Veritas Research Program”, is centered in a first stage in The Mediumship Communication Research Project, with the following scope (3, 10):
The first aim is to develop the capacity of mediums to obtain targeted information identifying a discarnate as well as information regarding the afterlife. According to this aim we will investigate scoring methodologies and the screening of potential mediums.
The second major aim is to examine the conditions affecting a medium's reading. This includes comparing non-blinded, single-blinded, and double-blinded readings between the same sitters and mediums, examining conditions that impair or enhance the performance of the medium (i.e., trance mediumship, factors about the sitter, factors about the discarnate, factors about the medium), and investigating the source of errors in a reading (or say., using electroencephalographs). This aim will also examine the explanation behind these findings.
The third aim involves mediumship training. We will investigate the development of mediumship, predisposing factors, age-related factors, and mediumship instruction answering the question: can mediumship be taught?
The fourth aim of the project is to examine the source of a medium's information (i.e., discerning between telepathy with the living, reading “dead” information stored in the universe, or getting information from a discarnate).
The fifth aim will compare genuine and false (fraud) reading, “cold,” or computer-generated readings.
Dr. Schwartz is well aware of the thousands of false mediums that exist in the United States of America, whose tricks do not escape the simplest analysis. They are deceiving and charlatan mediums who make a cold reading of their sitters. These have not even been enrolled in their research projects, for fear of being demoralized.
A typical experience conducted by Schwartz and his collaborators (10) takes into consideration many aspects, not only regarding the medium but also on the sitter’s part. In it, the same sitter is submitted to reading by several mediums (up to five) and the results are compared with the ones obtained by other common people who assume the spiritual medium's place, but they don't act as mediums and yes, as "control." It is a “control” like the placebo, much used for testing medications. Mediums are requested to act with both eyes open or with one blindfolded eye, or both blindfolded eyes. Other conditions are:
The medium sits down with his back to the sitter, in an isolated room.
The medium is chosen by the researchers’ team among many candidates to the experimentation.
The medium has no knowledge of the sitter, nor had ever any possibility of knowing her before.
It is asked to the medium to include in his revelations the name, initials, sex, age, relationship, profession or background, city where he was born, description, historical facts, temperament, opinions and many other details of the life of the dead person. All this is tabulated, and revelations by the medium can reach up to 100 items.
The sitter stays silent or to her is allowed to answer one or more questions (number settled by the research team) on the part of the medium with yes or no.
The experiences are monitored, recorded and even filmed.
Schwartz tabulates and displays in graphs the obtained results. In a typical graph are displayed the percentages of rightness of each one of the mediums and of a common person (“control”), who was tested as if he were a medium, all referred to a same sitter. In some cases, very sensitive mediums were verified, reaching up to 100% of rightness in cases in which the probability was of 1:1,000,000 (one to one million). An average of 80% rightness has been common in the great majority of the cases. The “controls”, persons who are not mediums reach average results around 36%. Another typical graph is presented, by plotting the answers obtained by the medium in categories such as: names, initials, descriptions, historical facts, temperament and opinions against a scale of percentages. In some categories (name, initials and descriptions), the best mediums arrive to reach 100% of rightness! So much in a case as in the other, the results are intriguing even for Schwartz, being common to see him commenting on: “This can’t be true” or “There should be a mistake!” His advice to the sitters is: “[…] be prepared for surprises.”
We put, on purpose, at the beginning of this chapter two statements picked in the foreword of the mentioned Schwartz’s work (Ref. 10, p. XVI): “Science is leading to the conclusion that all in the universe is eternal, alive, and evolving.” and “Discovering the existence of the living soul may be one of humankind’s greatest gifts.”
4. The Transformation of a Skeptic
Another book that got great popular prominence was the one written by the awarded American journalist Tom Shroder and it has the title (11, 12) of Old souls. This journalist accompanied Ian Stevenson in three trips of studies and verifications, first to Lebanon, soon afterwards to India and, finally to the south of the United States of America, and he wrote his memories of those trips. His book of 250 pages, divided in four parts and 18 chapters, starts with a prologue in that Tom Shroder tells how he met Dr. Ian Stevenson. The other three parts, including fifteen chapters, are dedicated to the cases visited at the countries: eight in Lebanon, four in India and three in the United States of America. Schroder, who was skeptics and believed that we live just once, after the evidences that he had the opportunity to know and to witness in his trips, he changed completely the reach and the understanding that he turn out to have about life. Those extraordinary experiences transformed his skepticism into reverence and admiration. His work sold more than thirteen million books, being best seller in several countries of the world! More than thirteen million of his books were sold, becoming bestseller in several countries in the world!
Stevenson studied cases of reincarnation in many countries, covering the five continents. In some, the idea of reincarnation is culturally accepted, as in India, Sri Lanka, Burma and Lebanon, and in the tribal groups of the north of Canada. However, many of these cases occurred in Muslim families that did not believe in reincarnation, and even restrained their children from giving continuity to their memories. Four cases in the United States of America and two in Brazil were also studied.
Stevenson got his doctorate degree at McGill University, in Montreal, in 1943, as best student of his classroom. In 1939, with thirty-nine years old, he became the Head of the Department of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine of the University of Virginia. From there on, he left his administrative activities and became a researcher of children who said to have lived in other lives. He was supported by Chester Carlson’s donations, the man who invented the Xerox process, who, inclusive after his death, left to Stevenson funds for the continuation of the researches.
With the exception of the presentation of his positive initial researches on reincarnation in the Journal of American Medical Association, the vanguard scientists practically had ignored him completely. Only much later on, they started giving him credit for his works in the Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research and, more recently, in the Journal for Scientific Exploration. Currently there’s even a scientist, who compared him to be the Galileo of our time.
Of course, Stevenson received many criticisms. Paul Edwards (1996) was one of his fiercer critics, through his book Reincarnation: a Critical Examination, an Energic Attack, although they had never met. In his book, Edwards wrote “He [Stevenson] has written more fully and more intelligently in defense of reincarnation than anybody else, and this is the only reason he features so prominently in my discussions." In his criticism, Edwards alleges mainly the “human failure” and that many informers lie as reason to doubt of the guaranteed evidences by Stevenson in his works. He emphasizes still, that Stevenson did not make any effort to explain what the soul is, and what happens with the “entity” while it does not incarnate, and still, which is the mechanism of conservation of the part of the memory that one had in the previous life. Edwards is correct on this, because no scientist has made it in final form, although, the spiritualists explain these topics, satisfactorily.
In his most somber moments, Stevenson felt as one banished, a heretical one condemned by their insults to the scientific orthodoxy. But Stevenson was always a man determined, reserved, conscientiously honest and willing to reveal the truths that he was obtaining in his researches. Finally, he was a scientist, whose purposes deserve all good faith
About parapsychology, Stevenson admitted that many parapsychologists were much isolated. These are his words said to Tom Shroder (11 12), in 1995, when Stevenson was interviewed by Shroder:
I thought that most parapsychologists were too isolated, he told me once. They were just talking to themselves and not talking enough to other scientists, and far too inattentive to the fact that the rest of the world wasn't listening to them. They were too locked inside a rather narrow laboratory program and they tended to be neglectful, if not contemptuous, of what happened in the field of spontaneous experiences.
Those interested me more. Modern psychologists imitated physicists by only being interested in what happened in a lab, not in things like love and death, and parapsychologists imitated psychologists. That is, you have tight control of conditions. But it seems to me that it's far better to be 90 percent certain of something important than 100 percent certain of something that is trivial.
5. Statistics of Cases Presented by Dr. Helen Wambach
Dr Helen Wambach, who doesn't have any link with the spiritualistic doctrine is a renowned researcher and American psychologist. She published several popularization books containing stories obtained by regression of their patients to the previous lives, among them, Lives after life and Remembering past lives. Her conclusions were based on a database with more than 1088 cases of regression to the previous lives. In statistics obtained from her observations, she presents impressive and conclusive data, as follows (13):
25 percent of people reincarnate to learn about themselves and about life.
18 percent of people reincarnate to harmonize with their relatives.
18 percent of people reincarnate to learn the love-donation to the fellow
creatures
27 percent of people reincarnate to grow spiritually, dedicating to people’s
orientation.
12 percent of people reincarnate with various objectives.
This data constitute a good reference for us to affirm that the Earth is a world-school, as we made it in the Chapter 9 – The Primacy of the Spirit. The following picture shows the feelings that the patients manifested about reincarnation (12):
81 percent said that reincarnation is a personal decision, whereas 19 percent did not remember.
68 percent revealed reluctant, tense or resigned regarding reincarnation, and 32 percent didn’t know.
26 percent assumed reincarnation with optimism, with hope of evolution, but 74 percent do not demonstrate such feelings.
What these data show to us in first place is that there is the prevalence of the free will of each one, also, in the spiritual world: the decision of reincarnating is proper of each spirit. The data of the second quest are somewhat dubious, but it ends up for indicating that the true reason to reincarnate only the spirit knows it in the spiritual world, and that the memories related to its plan of reincarnation result numbed .
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CHAPTER l6
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Vision to the light of the Spiritualism
It exists a very great deal of incidental evidences that the conscience survives the death of the body. There are so strong evidences that they would be taken into account in a legal trial. Some persons believe that science needs better instruments to quantify what is the conscience. Maybe, when we discover what conscience is, we will be in condition of providing absolute scientific evidence that there is the life after the death.
Kevin Williams – specialist in near-death phenomena (2006)
Starting from 1969, with the publication of the first edition of the book Life after life by Raymond A. Moody, Jr. – M.D. (l), which had its first edition in Brazil in 1975 and it was republished in 2004, thousands of interviews telling cases of near-death experiences (NDEs) were recorded and described in more than one hundred books, ever since. Nowadays, thousands of references exist on the Internet and even people’s associations that went by these experiences.
The NDE – near-death experience is a lucid experience associated with the perception of the conscience as a dissociated element of the body that occurs in the moment of an imminent current risk of death, which, due to some reason, it ends up not happening. It is a real phenomenon very different from the dreams and from the current hallucination effects due to experiences with drugs (LSD, marijuana, etc.).
The own book herein mentioned that introduced the popularization of the near-death experiences, from now on designated here simply by the acronym NDE, is a classic in that field. As our objective isn’t to prepare reports on NDE cases, because that task doesn't constitute the purpose of our book, we used, among others, the information originating from Dr. Moody’s experience. He studied 150 cases, from which he selected in his mentioned work about l05 cases, and from which we picked up some information that served as base for the preparation of this chapter. In them, the near-death experiences (NDEs) fall into the following categories (l):
l. The experiences of persons who were resuscitated after having been thought,
adjudged or pronounced clinically dead by their doctors.
2. The experiences of persons who, in the course of accidents or severe injury or
illness, came very close to physical death.
3. The experiences of the persons who, as they died, told them to other people
who were present. Later, these other people reported the content of the death
experience to me.
The cases of NDEs of the first type, when the clinical death really happens, are more dramatic than the one of the second type, in which it just happens near to the death. In both cases, the experiences are similar. The cases of the third category were not included in his work. In any way, those experiences are fantastic and present great similarity in the cases reported, what gives them forum of truthfulness, confirming the fact of the soul survival out of the physical body.
The uncertainty that exists, since the most ancient civilizations and cultures about the life after the death, is responsible for the fear of thinking and reflecting on what death really means for each one of us. The death fear is present in almost all people of the most different cultures and religions, independently of the age in which death comes to happen and in the way how it happens.
It is not difficult to find thereabout persons that already went by the near-death experiences, but they are afraid of being considered crazy when they tell their experiences to their friends and relatives, and receiving from them slanted glances of distrust and little attention. Other persons are always very hurried to waste time with "absurd fantasies" or they are not accustomed to doing a reflexive and different mental effort about the serious things of the life.
For many persons, it is very difficult to talk about death, for the most diverse reasons, but the main two ones are of psychological and cultural nature. Any that may be the alleged reason; a true taboo exists when the subject death is approached. Some people flee from any discussion regarding it. Death, for a very simple reason, is always associated to the fear of dying, fear of accepting the death, because this fact one day will happen with us. Others think that to talk about death can seem somewhat so awful, capable of attracting negative thoughts.
Inserted in the cultural argument are the elements of our own earthly life and that surround us, such as, objects, things, persons and events. In our subconscious it is ingrained the idea that death means the removal of all this, inexorably, when all is annihilated and turns into dust. In other words, we are just or mainly accustomed with our objective world and death doesn't have objective explanation. In any way, ultimately, death is had as something unpleasant and not desirable, except for the suicides.
There is a belief that affirms that death is annihilation of all, and that after the death, all turns into dust and the consciousness is annihilated: they are thoughts ingrained in the materialistic world. But, there is other focus that is as old as the world, which conceives the existence of the soul, psyche, mind, conscience or spirit, it doesn't matter the name, but to know that something exists – the Intelligent Force which is immortal, to animate the human body and that it continues living after the physical death. People that have this vision live an including reality – the spiritual reality, besides the material reality.
It is comprehensible that science, materialistic in all its conceptions of what the human being is, has not presented an acceptable explanation for the death phenomenon. As we will see, to the light of the Spiritualism, this is a phenomenon as natural as the birth, being it its reverse. To understand it in all its simplicity, it is necessary to understand what is the Intelligent Force – in the man, the spirit, what is the incarnation, how the incarnation (birth) and the disincarnation (death) are processed, and which is the reason of being of the incarnatory process that, by its turn, is intimately linked to the spiritual evolution and the material progress. All this consists of the existent knowledge, since 1910, which can be learned from the Christian Rationalism works (2, 3, and 4). Those knowledge will be used by the author to explaining, also, what happens in the NDEs.
Even the millenarian oriental religions of spiritualistic base, as Buddhism and Taoism, practiced mainly in India and in Tibet and that still didn't get rid of the rancidity of the ritualistic mysticism, they don't explain, with absolute safety, what is the spirit, its incarnation and disincarnation and which is the purpose of that process, which involves the human beings' psychic and physical aspects, as we treated in the chapter on the Spirit. Those religions base their explanations about incarnation and disincarnation on the teachings presented in The Tibetan Book of the Dead (5) that leaves many questions in open to solve, and treats some of them in a completely mystic way. In any way, this book seems to have inspired all of the theosophical knowledge encoded by Lady Helena Blavatsky, since l868, whose teachings include the reincarnation concept and of karma. Later, those teachings were assimilated and expanded by Allan Kardec's Spiritism.
Only after the 8th century A. C., it appeared the first The Tibetan Book of the Dead, in the written form, having been until then, transmitted vocally among the Tibetan yogis. It was C. G. Jung – the psychologist of the archetypes, who published it in the Occident, since l927, having introduced in his publication, his own "Psychological Comment.” The Tibetan Book of the Dead (5) establishes that there is a continuum between the life and the death, such as we know it; the experiences, by which we have passed, so much in this side of the life as on the other one, are called of passages or "bards.” Passages or "bards" that happen while we didn't die are three: the first "bard" is the birth, the second, goes from the childhood to the death, and the third one is the death of the physical body. From the fourth "bard" on begins the journey beyond the death: during the fifth "bard" occurs the liberation of the spirit and its encounter with the karma (the rescuing idea of bad actions) and through the sixth "bard" there is the preparation for reincarnation. All those "bards" are described with plenty of details, but with much mysticism; thence, the literal interpretation or exoteric which is the most popular and the symbolic interpretation or esoteric, which is the knowledge of the Lamas of Tibet.
This is, also, the interpretation that supports the Buddhism in its doctrine of the rebirth. But, it should be stood out that for Buddhists the soul is ephemeral, unreal. If we have to summarize, we would say that The Tibetan Book of the Dead has its essential mark on the idea of the life and of the death, as a continuous journey, so that all of the karmas are rescued.
The scientists' great majority, including researchers who study the consciousness and have international recognition fame, affirm that death is the end of the consciousness. For them, death is as turning off the television set, containing a program that was being presented. Using that same example, we affirm that the scientific explanation is false. To turn off the television set doesn't affect the signal that is in the aerial waves (vibrations) that comes from the transmitting TV station – the origin of the programs. How many and how many televisions are turned off at the same time and the signal still continues in the air going into other television sets, in the several channels in which they are tuned on. Only when someone turns off the TV set, we cannot see images and hear sounds anymore, likewise, the body that falls inert, after the conscience (we say, spirit) gets off the body. While the transmission studio is with the program on the air, the television sets to it linked or with it tuned on will be capturing signal and converting it into sounds and images. If the same apparel that was turned off were turned on again, and tuned on in the same channel in that previously it was, scenes and sounds will continue to be exhibited, what would not be possible with the example of the conscience (spirit), but with exception made to the near-death experiences. In this case someone feels an apparent death or, spiritually speaking, a spiritual unfolding that happens under several modalities and it has several purposes
In the analogy that we did, the conscience (inherent to the spirit) is the transmission signal individualized for the body in question, and when it ceases of vibrating and to feed the body with its energy (life), the body falls inert. In other words, in the popular conception happened death and, in the spiritualistic conception, it occurred disincarnation of the spirit that, free of the Matter, returns to its origin world, that is, to the own world from where it came to incarnate. What occurred is the death of the body simply, due to the disembodiment of the spirit, for being this, an active agent that incites the human body and transmits to it life. Then, for materialists and skeptics, the death of the body exists, and nothing else, for spiritualists it occurs death of the body and the disincarnation of the spirit, that is, the two phenomena, being the first of them, a consequence (effect) of the removal of the spirit (cause). In this process, for leaving the spirit of animating the body to which the own spirit transmitted the life (energy), then, the body enters immediately in physical, chemical and biological decomposition, which is the death attested by the doctors or physicians.
Therefore, with base in the mentioned analogy, the contemporary scientific theories (materialistic) claims that the near-death experience is a product of “the television set”, in other words, of the brain. Using this same analogy, we say that, such information is false, because the true source (cause) is the signal originated from the TV station, which fed the television set. The only and exclusive function of the television set is to convert the received signal (Hertzian wave ) into scenes and sounds, that is, the television just interprets signals, in the same way that, the brain interprets vibrations (energy) received from the spirit.
l. Typical Description of a Complete Case
Before thousands of accumulated reports in more than one hundred books published on the NDEs and, also, of many thousands of existent articles on the Internet and in the organizations created to study the phenomenon, it is possible to idealize and to create a complete typical case of NDE. Among those associations they are, for instance, the IANDS – International Association for Near-Death Studies and the NDERF – Near-Death Experience Research Foundation. There are, it is true, many variations in reports and in the circumstances that gave place to such experiences, but about fifteen to eighteen recurrent elements are, partial or totally, always present in the registered descriptions. Raymond A. Moody, Jr. M. D., author of the best seller book, entitled the Life After Life, previously referred to, idealized, also, a typical case. For that reason, to follow the schedule of that chapter it is indifferent to take one or other as reference, but the "typical report" that we present, to proceed, was taken from the Moody’s work (l), pages 11 – 12 which data venia, we are reproducing here:
A man is dying and, as he reaches the point of greatest physical distress, he hears himself pronounced dead by his own doctor. He begins to hear an uncomfortable noise, a loud ringing or buzzing, and at the same time feels himself moving very rapidly through a long dark tunnel. After this, he suddenly finds himself outside of his own physical body, but still in the immediate physical environment, and he sees his own body from a distance, as though he is a spectator. He watches the resuscitation attempt from this unusual point and is in a state of emotional upheaval.
After a while, he collects himself and becomes more accustomed to his odd condition. He notices that he still has a "body," but one of a very different nature and with very different powers from the physical body he has left behind. Soon other things begin to happen. Others come to meet and to help him. He glimpses the spirits of relatives and friends, who have already died, and a loving and warm spirit of a kind that he has never encountered before – a being of light – appears before him. This being asks him a question, nonverbally, to make him evaluate his life and helps him along by showing him a panoramic, instantaneous playback of the major events of his life. At some point he finds himself approaching some sort of barrier or border, apparently representing the limit between earthly life and the next life. Yet, he finds that he must go back to the Earth, that the time for his death has not yet come. At this point he resists, for by now he is taken up with his experiences in the afterlife and does not want to return. He is overwhelmed by intense feelings of joy, love, and peace. Despite his attitude, he somehow reunites with his physical body and lives.
Later, he tries to tell others, but he has trouble doing so. In first place, he can find no human words adequate to describe these unearthly episodes. He also finds that others scoff, so he stops telling other people. Still, the experience affects his life profoundly, especially his views about death and its relationship to life.
As it is not a real report but a "model" or typical narrative, we verified in the mentioned work the existence of about l05 real cases, told and thoroughly commented, case by case, by the professional author of the book, whose professional experience is unquestionable and respected by their peers and by the world public opinion.
To base his explanations in the real cases that he reports, the author mentions at the pages 12 – 15 of his book (l) a series of facts that, a priori, places parameters, in order to make the necessary explanations to well understand the content of the near-death experiences. These parameters are:
l. Despite the striking similarities among various accounts, no two of them are precisely identical (though a few come remarkably close to it).
2. I have found no one person who reports every single component of the composite experience. Very many have reported most of them (that is, eight or more of the fifteen or so) and a few have reported up to twelve.
3. There is no one element of the composite experience which every single person has reported to me, which crops up in every narrative. Nonetheless, a few of these elements come fairly dose to being universal.
4. There is not one component of my abstract model which has appeared in only one account. Each element has shown up in many separate stories.
5. The order in which a dying person goes through the various stages briefly delineated above may vary from that given in my "theoretical model." To give one example, various persons have reported seeing the "being of light" before, or at the same time, they left their physical bodies, and not as in the "model," some time afterward. However, the order in which the stages occur in the model is a very typical order, and wide variations are unusual.
6. How far into the hypothetical complete experience a dying person gets seems to depend on whether or not the person actually underwent an apparent clinical death, and if so, on how long he was in this state. In general, persons who were "dead" seem to report more florid, complete experiences than those who only came close to death, and those who were "dead" for a longer period go deeper than those who were "dead" for a shorter time.
7. I have talked to a few people who were pronounced dead, resuscitated, and came back reporting none of these common elements. Indeed, they say that they don't remember anything at all about their "deaths." Interestingly enough, I have talked with several persons who were actually adjudged clinically dead on separate occasions years apart, and reported experiencing nothing on one of the occasions, but having had quite involved experiences on the other.
8. It must be emphasized that I am writing primarily about reports, accounts, or narratives, which other persons have given to me verbally during interviews. Thus, when I remark that a given element of the abstract, "complete" experience does not occur in a given account, I do not mean necessarily to imply that it did not happen to the person involved. I only mean that this person did not tell me that it did occur, or that it does not definitely come out in his account that he experienced it. According to this framework, then, let us look at some of the common stages and events of the experiences of dying.”
2. Cases in the Literature
Still giving sequence to this fundament in which we need to base our explanations on such phenomena, we are presenting, to follow, the case l05, which consists (l) of pages 95 – l02, presented as a complete and real case that corroborates what was exposed in the parameters of the previous citation. It exposes a long and exceptional report that almost incorporates all of the constant elements of the typical case and of the observations done above. Here is that man's report (l):
At the time this happened I suffered, as I still do, with a very severe case of bronchial asthma and emphysema. One day, I got into a coughing fit and apparently ruptured a disk in the lower part of my spine. For a couple of months, I consulted a number of doctors for the agonizing pain, and finally one of them referred me to a neurosurgeon, Dr. Wyatt. He saw me and told me that I needed to be admitted to the hospital immediately, so I went on in and they put me in traction right away.
Dr. Wyatt knew that I had bad respiratory dis¬eases so he called in a lung specialist, who said that the anesthesiologist, Dr. Coleman, should be consulted if I was going to be put to sleep. So the lung specialist worked on me for almost three weeks until he finally got me to a place where Dr. Coleman would put me under. He finally consented on a Monday, although he was very much worried about it. They scheduled the operation for the next Friday. Monday night, I went to sleep and had a restful sleep until some time early Tuesday morning, when I woke up in severe pain. I turned over and tried to get in a more comfortable position, but just at that moment a light appeared in the corner of the room, just below the ceiling. It was just a ball of light, almost like a globe, and it was not very large, I would say no more than twelve to fifteen inches in diameter, and as this light appeared, a feeling came over me. I can't say that it was an eerie feeling, because it was not. It was a feeling of complete peace and utter relaxation. I could see a hand reach down for me from the light, and the light said, "Come with me. I want to show you something." So immediately, without any hesitation whatsoever, I reached up with my hand and grabbed onto the hand I saw. As I did, I had the feeling of being drawn up and of leaving my body, and I looked back and saw it lying there on the bed while I was going up towards the ceiling of the room.
Now, at this time, as soon as I left my body, I took on the same form as the light. I got the feeling, and I'll have to use my own words for it, because I've never heard anyone talk about anything like this, that this form was definitely a spirit. It wasn't a body, just a wisp of smoke or a vapor. It looked almost like the clouds of cigarette smoke you can see when they are illuminated as they drift around a lamp. The form I took had colors, though. There was orange, yellow, and a color that was very indistinct to me–I took it to be an indigo, a bluish color.
This spiritual form didn't have a shape like a body. It was more or less circular, but it had what I would call a hand. I know this because when the light reached down for me, I reached up for it with my hand. Yet, the arm and hand of my body just stayed put, because I could see them lying on the bed, down by the side of my body, as I rose up to the light. But when I wasn't using this spiritual hand, the spirit went back to the circular pattern.
So, I was drawn up to the same position the light was in, and we started moving through the ceiling and the wall of the hospital room, into the corridor, and through the corridor, down through the floors it seemed, on down to a lower floor in the hospital. We had no difficulty in passing through doors or walls. They would just fade away from us as we would approach them.
During this period it seemed that we were traveling. I knew we were moving, yet there was no sensation of speed. And in a moment, almost instantaneously, really, I realized that we had reached the recovery room of the hospital. Now, I hadn't even known where the recovery room was at this hospital, but we got there and again, we were in the corner of the room near the ceiling, up above everything else. I saw the doctors and nurses walking around in their green suits and saw the beds that were placed around in there. .
This being then told me – he showed me ¬"That's where you're going to be. When they bring you off the operating table they're going to put you in that bed, but you will never awake from that position. You'll know nothing after you go to the operating room until I come back to get you sometime after this." Now, I won't say this was in words. It wasn't like an audible voice, because if it had been I would have expected the others in the room to have heard the voice, and they didn't. It was more of an impression that came to me. But it was in such a vivid form that there was no way for me to say I didn't hear it or I didn't feel it. It was definite to me.
And what I was seeing-well, it was so much easier to recognize things while I was in this spiritual form. I was now wondering, like, "Now, what is that that he is trying to show me." I knew immediately what it was, what he had in mind. There was no doubt. It was that that bed – it was the bed on the right just as you come in from the corridor – is where I'm going to be and he's brought me here for a purpose. And then he told me why. It came to me that the reason for this was that he didn't want any fear when the time came that my spirit passed from my body, but that he wanted me to know what the sensation would be on passing that point. He wanted to assure me so that I wouldn't be afraid, because he was telling me that he wouldn't be there immediately, that I would go through other things first, but that he would be overshadowing all that happened and would be there for me at the end.
Now, immediately, when I had joined him to take the trip to the recovery room and had become a spirit myself, in a way we had been fused into one. We were two separate ones, too, of course. Yet, he had full control of all that was going on as far as I was concerned. And even if we were travel¬ing through the walls and ceilings and so forth, well, it just seemed that we were in such close com¬munion that nothing whatsoever could have both¬ered me. Again, it was just peacefulness, calmness, and a serenity that have never been found any¬where else.
So, after he told me this, he took me back to my hospital room, and as I got back I saw my body again, still lying in the same position as when we left, and instantaneously I was back in my body. I would guess that I had been out of my body for five or ten minutes, but passage of time had nothing to do with this experience. In fact, I don't remember if I have ever even thought of it as being any specific time.
Now, this whole thing had just astounded me, took me completely by surprise. It was so vivid and real – more so than ordinary experience. And the next morning, I was not in the least afraid. When I shaved, I noticed that my hand didn't shake like it had been doing for six or eight weeks before then. I knew that I would be dying, and there was no regret, no fear. There was no thought, "What can I do to keep this from happening?" I was ready.
Now, on Thursday afternoon, the day before the operation the next morning, I was in my hospital room, and I was worried. My wife and I have a boy, an adopted nephew, and we were then having some trouble with him. So I decided to write a letter to my wife and one to my nephew, putting some of my worries in words, and to hide the letters where they wouldn't be found until after the operation. After I had written about two pages on the letter to my wife, it was just as if the floodgates had opened. All at once, I broke out in tears, sobbing. I felt a pres¬ence, and at first I thought maybe that I had cried so loud that I had disturbed one of the nurses, and that they had come in to see what was the matter with me. But I hadn't heard the door open. And again I felt this presence, but I didn't see any light this time, and thoughts or words came to me, just as before, and he said, "Jack, why are you crying? I thought you would be pleased to be with me. "I thought, "Yes, I am. I want to go very much." And the voice said, "Then, why are you crying?" I said, we've had trouble with our nephew, you know, and I'm afraid my wife won't know how to raise him. I'm trying to put into words how I feel, and what I want her to try to do for him. I'm concerned, too, because I feel that maybe my presence could have settled him down some."
Then the thoughts came to me, from this presence, "Since you are asking for someone else, and thinking of others, not Jack, I will grant what you want. You will live until you see your nephew become a man." And just like that, it was gone. I stopped crying, and I destroyed the letter so my wife wouldn't accidentally find it.
That evening, Dr. Coleman came in and told me that he was expecting a lot of trouble with putting me to sleep, and for me not to be surprised to wake up and find a lot of wires and tubes and machines all around me. I didn't tell him what I had experienced, so I just nodded and said I would cooperate.
The next morning the operation took a long time but went fine, and as I was regaining my consciousness, Dr. Coleman was there with me, and I told him, "I know exactly where I am." He asked, "What bed are you in?" I said, "I'm in that first bed on the right just as you come in from the hall." He just kind of laughed, and of course, he thought that I was just talking from the anesthetic.
I wanted to tell him what had happened, but just in a moment Dr. Wyatt came in and said, "He's awake now. What do you want to do?" And Dr. Coleman said, “There’s not a thing I can do. I’ve never been so amazed in my life. Here I am with all this equipment set up and he doesn’t need a thing.” Dr. Wyatt said, “Miracles still happen, you know.” So, when I could get up in the bed, and see around the room, I saw in that same bed that the light had shown me several days before.
Now, all this was three years ago, but it is still just as vivid as it was then. It was the most fantastic thing that has ever happened to me, and it has made a big difference. But I don’t talk about it. I have only told my wife, my brother, my minister, and now you. I don’t know how to say it, but this is so hard to explain. I’m not trying to make a big explosion in your life, and I’m not trying to brag. It’s just that after this, I don’t have any doubts anymore. I know there is life after death.”
3. Existing Explanations
The existing explanations in the scientific literature regarding the near-death phenomena are numerous. There is already a considerable literature with reports presented by psychologists, psychiatrists, physicians, neuroscientists, psychobiologists and philosophers. To proceed, we present the main fundamentals (6):
Dying Brain Theory
This theory was popularized by Dr. Susan Blackmore in her book Dying to Live (7). According to her, all the NDEs present the same profile and this “sameness” is the weak point for them to be considered real. In agreement with that theory, it is not because the patient is traveling towards a beautiful life after-death, but because the neurotransmitters are collapsing and creating the same illusions for all the ones who are about to die. But, the fundamental question is: are we individuals with souls, personalities, thoughts and minds that are exclusive ours or are we simply bodies controlled by our brains, like the computers, although differences exist among an IBM, an Apple or a common PC?
Neuroscientists and researchers are divided. Some of them accept the reality and validity of the near-death experiences and admit to research these experiences rigorously, while others neither want to hear about and continue researching the conscience in the brain, but they respect the opinions of those who went by the experience. Nevertheless, the question is: which is the cause and what does it mean somebody have a NDE?
Thus, there are two currents of researchers on the NDEs: one that adopts the psychological approach and search the reasons of that strange and brave behavior, the other, the one that takes the physiological approach and search in some part of the brain its malfunctions on these occasions. The problem is that the great majority of the ones who went by a NDE don’t accept the physiological approach. For these, to reduce a deep and transforming experience to nothing more than "blinking" of neurotransmitters in exhaustion it would be the same as to imagine a statue by Michelangelo as nothing more than pure and simply marble.
If there isn’t the other side of the life, the post-death, and all is nothing more than effects of a dying brain, why so much interest in the NDE? If all, soul and personality, and brain and body will change into dust and gray, why then does the brain express itself in that flashing way to those who pass for the NDE, who relaxes in peace and describe wonderful visions?
If it is just a question of hallucination, why does a great number of persons tell experiences in which they heard expressions such as, "His mission is not yet complete", or, "His time to die has not arrived yet", in their NDEs? Why those same messages are always made by "a light being”? All hallucinations could have always a same answer or question by the “light being”? For that reason, many people who went by one or more NDEs do continue believing in a life after the death and not in a hallucination in mass. See more arguments and counter-arguments in (8).
Charles Darwin’s Theory
The foundation of that theory is the desire that emerges from the human race who wants to help those who are in difficulty in the moment of the inevitable ending of their lives. Darwin’s theory, based on the survival of the most capable, tell us that each species is struggling to maintain its own life and to guarantee its descendants' survival in this planet. Animals help each other in the moment of their deaths, as it is well-known in the case of elephants. Also, in the moment of a human death, why not man does not help each other, too? Why not the survival of something that man does have (the soul or spirit) and he still ignore and he would not be consoled by other disincarnated spirits? This theory is applied mostly to aged persons (9).
Hallucination Theory
Some scientists, who believe firmly that one day the NDE will be explained by means of brain functions, suggest that the endorphins production by the brain during the dying process induces the dying person to those mind hallucinations. But, endorphins just provoke a euphoria state followed by relaxation, as it happens with the athletes in the gyms. However, it is also known that endorphins are not hallucinogenic and cannot recreate a mental state as in the NDE, although they can until be involved in the pain relief process, but they would not be alone.
It is known also that certain anesthetic substances of the ketamine groups of the (cyclohexanones) provoke a state of lightness similar to the one that happens in the NDE, and a theory is that such substances would be liberated by the brain in the death moment and they could link to certain neurotransmitter receptors and be responsible for the whole the NDE process, by the blockade of the referred receptors (l0).
Psychologist professor Dr. Ronald Siegel of the UCLA, (University of California, Los Angeles) rejects the mystic and spiritual importance that happens in the NDE and he declares to have almost provoked all the NDE effects in laboratory tests with LSD. Other researchers, although agreeing that the frame of symptoms induced by this drug is similar, such phenomena are not the same ones; because the drug destroys the reality and the NDE phenomena are described as they were a hyper-reality.
Temporal Lobe Theory
Some visions similar to the ones that happen in the NDE appear, also, in the epilepsy associated with damage in the temporary lobe of the brain. Researchers discovered that, stimulating this temporary lobe with electric discharges, they can reproduce some of the NDE symptoms as the ones of leaving his body, the regression of the memories, etc. They think that the stress of being near to the death stimulates this lobe. But, that is only valid for persons that had tumors or received wounds in this brain area.
However, some scientists think that the presence of chemical reactions in the brain doesn't mean that the NDE is strictly the result of a chemical reaction. Science may only be describing some aspects of the physical death that link them with the brain (11).
Lack of Oxygen Theory
Other possible explanations relate the NDE to the lack of Oxygen in the brain or to the carbon dioxide presence. But this doesn't explain the descriptions that some patients do of what happens at the surgery room in the moments in which the NDE happens. Dr. Michael Sabom tells us a case in which the analysis of the patient’s blood, collected in the moment in which the NDE revealed high degree of Oxygen in the blood and low degree of carbonic gas, while such patient revealed to him, inclusive the details of that analysis during his out-of-body experience. Other experiences with lack of Oxygen in the blood leave the person in a chaotic state as in the cases of psychotic hallucination (confusion, disorientation and fear) instead of calm, tranquility and with a sense of order, as it happens in the cases of NDE. In fact, persons that passed already for both say that there is an unmistakable difference
Another question is that the hallucinations induced by drugs or by lack of Oxygen have room with the awaken persons, while, in the cases of NDEs, persons are unconscious or even without any registration on the electroencephalograph (line zero, without cerebral waves). There are, also, the cases of accidents in which the victims present NDEs that happen in the own place of the disaster and not in the hospital. In such cases the victim has not ingested any drug or anesthetic, and probably, he is not without lack of Oxygen in the brain (12, 13, l4). This theory is far from explaining those cases.
Depersonalization Theory
The first modern attempt of explaining the NDE in psychological terms appeared in 1930 by a psychologist, who defended the idea that when a person faces the unpleasant reality of the disease and of the death, his first attempt is to alternate it with pleasant fantasies to protect him. According to mentioned psychologist, the patient is "depersonalized", removing his "me" of himself – what would explain the floating away of the body, as told in the NDEs. Although the argument may have its reason of being, it can be counter-argued that many facts that happen in the NDE are not fit in the criterion of the "depersonalization", such as the very strong mystic and spiritual feelings and the sharp readiness and awareness of the occurrence of the phenomena on the patients’ part (l5).
Memory of Birth Theory
This theory intends to compare the NDE with what happens in the moment of the birth. When a child is born leaves the womb and travels through a tunnel (the uterine channel) towards the light and what waits for her in the light is usually plenty of human warmth and love. Thus, what would happen in the moment of the death is pure memory of when the life began. The counter-arguments are: when a baby is born he doesn't float away in high-speed through the tunnel, but it is pulled or pushed along with his mother's strong and painful contractions. And how does this model intend to explain the encounter with friends and relatives of the "dead"? Here, the midwife or the physician is looked as the “light being” that appears in the NDEs, what seems us ridiculous. Another counter-argument is that the baby's nervous system is not sufficiently developed, to such a point that he can assimilate birth memories and to reveal them in the NDEs cases.
The defenders of the memories of birth theory allege that those children's memories refer to the peace and the comfort that they had while in their mothers' womb, not to the eventual traumas of the birth’s process. However, being born is not a pleasant process because usually the babies do it crying, as if they were in an agony process. In contrast, the NDEs are described as one of the most pleasant experiences that a person can have (l6).
After-Death Theory
To illustrate what do think some scientists who don't accept the materialistic explanations, we will insert some renowned researchers and physicians' comments on the NDEs, to follow.
Dr. Melvin Morse (l7), who did all the breaking researches with new born babies, affirms categorically: There is "[…] no explanation for the light.”
Dr. Kenneth Ring (l8), perhaps the most respected researcher of all the NDEs researchers and who more struggled to put that subject in the academic program, published together with Sharon Cooper, the book Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in the Blinds, says:
Any adequate neurological explanation would have been capable to show how the entire complex of phenomena associated with the core experience [that is, the out-of-body state, paranormal knowledge, the tunnel, the golden light, the voice or presence, the appearance of deceased relatives, beautiful visions, and so forth] would be expected to occur in subjectively authentic fashion as a consequence of specific neurological events triggered by the approach of death ... I am tempted to argue that the burden of proof has now shifted to those who wish to explain the NDEs in this way.
Dr. Kevin Williams (6, l8) affirms:
There exists a mountain of circumstantial evidence that consciousness survives bodily death. This is the kind of evidence that would stand up in a court of law. Some people believe that science needs better tools to quantify what consciousness is. Maybe when we discover what consciousness is we will be on the road to providing absolute scientific evidence that there is life after death.
Our conclusion for Dr. Ring’s statements is that there are so many solid characteristics in the NDEs that it would be very difficult to find a good explanation for all of them as being derived from the physical action of the brain. In other words, Dr. Ring believes that the evidences on the NDEs are so strong for the researchers who believe in the survival of the consciousness that these should not feel responsible for proving how the NDEs happens, but they should let the obligation of the proof to relapse on the skeptics.
4. Explanations Commented by Moody
At the pages 140 – 161 of his already mentioned book, Raymond Moody Jr. presents five explanations for the NDE phenomena, classifying them in three types: l) supernatural, 2) natural (scientific) and 3) psychological.
4.l Supernatural
Moody declares never having heard reports on which the patients referred to the invisible beings' appearances of the demoniac type, ever since there were them the phenomena would be driven for the feelings of hate and destruction. On the contrary, what the patients observe are the so-called divine forces or “beings of light" that drive the course of the phenomena for the good, love and compassion.
4.2 Natural (scientific)
Moody puts in this category the pharmacological explanations (hallucination), physiologic (lack of Oxygen in the brain) and neurological (temporary lobe). Let us see, concisely, each one of them.
Pharmacological
It is the hallucination theory that we described with details above. It is based in the drugs administered during the surgical intervention as anesthetics. Certain medicinal drugs cause a state of mental confusion, delusion and hallucination: those effects can be assimilated to the NDE phases. Moody mentions the case of the ketamine (anesthetics of the group of the cyclohexanones), whose derivatives are used as intravenous anesthesia. He mentions a case of the use of the nitrous oxide by a surgeon dentist, occasion in which the patient had a state similar to the NDE. Moody affirms that outstanding differences exist among the hallucinatory states caused by drugs and the ones caused by the NDE, and he discards this explanation. The variety of the administered drugs is enormous: aspirin, antibiotics, hormonal adrenaline, local anesthetics and inhalator. Many of the drugs don't reach the central nervous system, and therefore they would not produce the effects alleged by the defenders of this theory. Besides, many cases of the NDE didn't go by the surgery rooms (accidents, drownings, etc.). The use of drugs such as LSD and mescaline (Mexican cactus or peyote) serves to reach other superior dimensions according to the users, but they don’t leave of being hallucinatory.
The Physiologic Explanation
It is the same lack of Oxygen theory that we described before. Physiology deals with the functions of the organs and systems and the relationships among themselves. This theory tries to attribute to the dying brain for lack of Oxygen the explanation for NDEs. It is not cerebral stress or something physiologic, because many cases of NDEs happened without body injuries.
The Neurological Explanation
This is the same theory of the temporary lobe that was previously described by us. Neurology deals with the cause, diagnosis and treatment of the nervous system diseases, that is, the brain, spine and nerves. According to the defenders of this theory, two of the most important events would be explained by neurology: the instantaneous revision of the life events (panoramic retrospective look) and the out-of-body phenomena. They intend to look the NDE as similar to the cases of epilepsy. Moody describes a case at p. 148 – 150 of his book. The images presented by the patient are randomic, out of order and have little significance, what takes us to think in mental confusion, with time distortions. Finally, they are disordered trivial images, very different from a NDE.
Moody describes, also, what is an “autoscopic hallucination" at p. 152 – 153 of his book, as being a vision of "himself" projected out of the patient's body. The person can hear and can talk with his autoscopic vision. It doesn't have any similarity with the physical body that is seen from above in the NDEs. The autoscopic hallucinations were not yet explained by science. "So, to try to explain all out-of-body experiences as autoscopic hallucinations would only be to substitute a frustration for an enigma", concludes Moody.
4.3 Psychological explanations
These explanations depend on the organization to which the psychologists belong, not having any unanimity among them.
Isolation Researches
They are cases similar to the depersonalization theory, which we already presented above. They are psychological experiences conducted with persons in isolation state or submitted to repetitive and monotonous tasks for long time. Moody refers to lost person’s examples, castaways, etc., who had similar visions to the NDEs. The phenomena are of the type time notion distortion, sensation of being partially dissociated of the body, sensations of “being one" with the universe, not wanting to return to the civilization, etc. If they return, they present a sensible change of values. Similarities exist with some cases of NDEs, the patient presenting isolation signs, solitude and contact privation with other persons, what also happens in Intensive Care Units. Moody tells about a case of a person’s vision, friends and fellows, inclusive already dead ones.
Dreams, Hallucinations and Illusions
The defenders of this hypothesis present the NDEs as if they were illusions. Moody discards that possibility, because the persons that told their cases were normal beings, non-bearers of any type of psychosis – they are common persons of the society, who guarantee emphatically that the NDEs by which they passed were not dreams.
Finally, Moody says not to propose any explanation or preference for the indicated explanations, but he alleges that they are, at least, questionable and he adds: "In fact, all I really want to suggest is this: Let us, at least, leave open the possibility that near-death experiences represent a novel phenomenon for which we may have to devise new modes of explanation and interpretation."
5. Explanation to the Light of the Spiritualism
With the true knowledge of the phenomena, all can be explained, even for the most demanding minds. The intention here is to give an explanation more or less brief for the two cases previously presented and taken from Dr. Moody’s book, to the light of the Spiritualism, with base in my life experience as freethinker and in the Christian Rationalism principles, described with details in other chapters of this work, mainly the ones regarding the spirit, thought, aura, etc.
Firstly, we should mention that they are two cases that present certain common characteristics and other different ones, once that, in the typical case, it was tried to be the more including than it was possible as to the near-death phenomenon, while, in the second case – a real and long case, the interviewed person put his focus in telling what had happened days before the surgical intervention and not properly during the intervention.
5.1 First Case
Although the typical case take us to inferring that we are treating with a man already in advanced age, a statistics done with the 105 cases presented by Dr. Moody’s book, indicates that they went by the NDE 26 men (25%), 37 women (35%), 8 children (8%) and 34 not informed (32%). That shows us a very representative distribution. It was not possible to analyze the religions and faiths that the individuals professed, although knowingly of varied nature. In regard to the hospitalization causes and surgical interventions, when these became necessary and that happened most of the time, we could infer: cardiac arrest: 13 persons (12%), car accidents (in the highways and in the urban traffic): 13 persons (12%), breathing stops: 2 persons (2%), other causes: l4 persons (13%) and causes not informed: 63 persons (64%).
Before that picture of wide spectrum, we thought that the typical example reflects very well the majority of the events that happen in a NDE and, therefore, it is representative and in it we can trust for the objective of the analysis that we are doing.
In the Spiritism vision and in Christian Rationalism’s spiritualistic vision, as we dealt when we described the incarnation and disincarnation of the spirit, the human being, the person or the individual, as we may wish to call, is constituted of three elements – the mental body or spirit that is the Intelligent Force bearer of the life, the astral body or perispirit and the physical body. And in addition, the perispirit is also a tenuous matter, diaphanous and it always accompanies the spirit, proper of the world from where the spirit came to incarnate here on the Earth and of which the own spirit always serves itself. Well, the physical body is our material body originated from the Earth itself.
To the light of what was put, let us start to analyze the main aspects and phenomena of NDEs, which we summarized in the following points:
Hears Noises and Irritating Shrill Sounds
For all of us know, a surgical room is not quite a place free from sounds and noises. In the cases of accidents, it is very common, many persons to agglomerate themselves beside the body, to making comments with intense and nervous shouting, horns of other cars, etc. And, still, there are persons more or less sensitive to the sounds and noises, for instance, as it happens regarding the sleep. Some of them have a so heavy sleep that doesn’t care with noises and sounds around them, while others wake up to the smallest noise.
Goes by a Narrow and Dark Long Tunnel
The narrow and dark long tunnel can be representing an "archetype", as it happens, also, in the birth, when the babies and their mothers go by the difficulties of the childbirth. That memory, as well as, all of the memories, is stored in the perispirit.
Finds himself out-of-body
Spirit links to the body through the tenuous and transparent material elements of its perispirit. When the spirit moves away itself and stays out of the body, it takes with itself its perispirit, which continues maintaining with the body a conductive strand through which the spirit transmits its flow of energy, as it happens, also, during the sleep and in dreams. It is the phenomenon of the spiritual unfolding. If, under the will of the spirit, the energy is turn off, then the definitive death of the body occurs, irreversibly. The conditions of the unfolding as in the NDEs, are reversible
Perceives and See All Around
All of the perceptions are own vibrations and self-vibrations and, therefore, modulated by the spirit. They are inherent to the assemblage spirit–perispirit. Brain is just the instrument of the material world (of the human body) that converts the stimulations and reflexes, that is, that decodes all the information felt and recorded in the perispirit by the spirit in a comprehensible information to our physical senses. This flow of energy, modulated by the spirit, has double route, so that nothing escapes of registration (recording) in the perispirit. The route spirits – perispirit – brain – physical senses is the transmission one, while the route physical senses – brain – perispirit – spirit, is the receiving one and both operate in fractions of one second, almost instantly. Then, being in the vigil state or in any other altered state of the conscience is always the spirit that is in the command.
Finds “Persons”: Relatives and Friends Already “Dead”
Here it is the revelation of a problem spiritually very serious. The great majority of the spirits that disincarnate stay a time more or less long in the surface of the Earth. Those spirits stay lost on the Earth in function of several factors, among them, the spiritual ignorance, the religious mysticism, the attachment to the material things and even so, to practicing the evil by means of malign intuitions to their fellow creatures, attracted that they are, by similar thoughts. They get to form phalanges to practice the whole sort of cruelties, by mediumistic induction close to the incarnate creatures. They are, also, the promoters of frauds in many spiritualistic sessions. It is clear, for obvious reasons that the intuitions of such disincarnated spirits go preferably to their closer relatives and their friends that remained on the Earth, when such spirits disincarnated. Another factor of attractiveness of such spirits, due to the larger materiality of their perispirits and of the vices that practiced when incarnated is to approximate of drug addicts of the same species and degree, in order to satisfy their desires by induction. It is what we call in the Spiritualism of spiritual disturbance, which can take people to the most serious states to the obsession with all the known symptoms. These spirits need to be helped in order to return to their origin worlds, what is done, whenever possible, by the "beings of light" of the Superior Astral. While they don't return to their origin worlds, they stay disturbed and disturbing all those people that they besiege and attend. Also, they cannot incarnate directly while being on the Earth atmosphere, for that, they have firstly to return their origin worlds, to rebalance their consciences and to program a new incarnation.
Finds the “Light Being”
When the incarnate spirit (person), who possesses a superior level of spirituality due to having gone by numerous incarnations, knew and practiced the spiritual knowledge while incarnated, dedicated himself to the fulfillment of his duties, practiced the good actions and stood back of the evil and of the vices, and when such spirit disincarnates, surely, it will be helped direct and immediately by one or more “light beings”, that the Christian Spiritualism designates with the name of spirits of the Superior Astral. It is easy to intuit that equal phenomenon, even for advice reasons and consolation (“it is not at the time, your mission still didn't finish, you have merit to continue to live,” etc.), happens in cases of the NDE.
We explain that spirits of the Superior Astral are those that, for their wisdom, intelligence, noble feelings, love and kindness dedicated to their fellow creatures, already finished their course here on the Earth and they no more incarnate. In the superior worlds where they continue to evolve, without the need of human bodies, they are, nevertheless, engaged with the Earth inhabitants' evolution. They can be accessed when we emit thoughts and feelings similar to those mentioned, and this attitude will cause harmony of vibrations. Thousands of persons, who know the Christian Rationalism, practice that procedure, naturally.
Do a retrospective analysis of his life
Nothing is more natural than the report of actions of that type. It is not an illusion. We as human beings when we have judgment and fulfill our duties with the expected responsibility of all of us, we act with seriousness and we give value to the life, we always make a balance of our consciences, some eventually, others, every night before they prepare to sleep. In other words, we make a retrospective look of the activities of the day and, we think about their consequences for us, our family and our fellow creatures. It is obvious that the same happens with the spirit when it sees itself free from the body, although temporarily, as in the cases of the NDE, and that such reflections and memories reach other past lives. But, only when it arrives to its origin world, free from any disturbance originated from the world Earth, the spirit will be able to, calmly, access any and all memories of its previous lives, without restrictions of space and time and to program a new incarnation, if it is the case and it still needs of it.
Final Barrier
The incarnated spirit feels itself like a prisoner in a prison. In the cases in which it is not contradicting the natural and immutable laws of the universe, spirit can and even should stand back temporarily of the body, as it happens in the different conscious spiritual unfoldings (with the Astral Superior to accomplish works of great significance and relevance for humanity) and unconscious spiritual unfoldings (as in the case of sleep and dreams and out-of-body experiences – OBE). Likely, in the NDE the spirit stands back of the body, always with the perispirit, in situation of light or deep unconsciousness, this unconsciousness reaches the limit of the phenomenon, beyond which a definitive disincarnation can happen. When this is about to happen and this was not to happening, it appears the "light beings” intervention above referred to, intuiting in them, by telepathy, a recommendation to return to the body. It is the final barrier mentioned in the cases of NDEs, that is, a “marking line” taken in the figurative sense.
Return to the Body
We remind that the transition of this life to the purely spiritual one is a natural phenomenon, when it arrives the hour and the spirit so commands and orders to itself. However, we cannot tell the same of the NDE, being this, as the own name is saying, a human creature experience, of temporary nature and of very short duration. Finished the NDE phenomenon, as we saw, the spirit only finds two alternatives: or to disincarnate (definitive death) or to return to the body. In the NDE, finished this, the spirit returns to the body.
5.2 Second Case
Here, we have a typical case of out of the body experience – OBE, which happened days before the surgical intervention and that gathers very similar aspects to a NDE. In truth, both cases refer to the spiritual phenomenon known as spiritual unfolding. Thus being, all that was part of the explanations that we did in the first case applies here equally.
There is a peculiar singularity to that report and, for that reason we should give the necessary prominence. It is a pre-cognitive knowledge, common to the cases of premonition, in which the spirit or the conscience seems to live places and events that are still to happening, involving or not other persons. Such example refers to the own person that, fearful of what it could happen to him during the surgery, since his case was very delicate for suffering also of lung emphysema, he unfolds himself (he "leaves the body") with a “light being’s help” or superior spirit and he is taken to the intensive care unit, crossing doors and walls through the hospital corridors. At this place, the “light spirit” shows to the "unfolded" creature, details of the arrival to the intensive care unit and the bed position in which he will be after the operation, so that he memorizes them, and tell them to his doctors later, leaving doctors surprised on that knowledge on the part of the patient, because nobody knew about that before happening, except the own patient. It seems a fantastic story, but it deals with a common phenomenon, well studied and practiced in the Spiritualism.
Another aspect of that report that is worthwhile to highlight is the presence of luminous colors in the form that the own "unfolded" assumed, (of a ball) during his out-of-body experience: orange, yellow and blue colors in several nuances. These and other colors present, all the time, in the persons´ aura, elapse from the feelings and they vary in function of these and of the thoughts, which are vibrations, emitted in agreement with the persons´ level of spirituality. Those colors are registered in the persons´ perispirit and, as this always accompanies the spirit, they were seen by this spirit during the patient’s walk along the corridors.
The occurred episode, still before the operation, and due to a deep reflection that the patient did and felt on his recent existence out-of-body, sharpened the patient’s conscience and the emotions, taking the patient to cry and to take a decision of writing one letter for his wife and other for his nephew, to whom he had always had a noble intention to make of him a man of character. Reading the patient's aura (of his "attendee"), the “light spirit” observes that after the unfolding by which the patient had passed, it still remained residues of the feeling of the death fear. At once, the “light spirit” shows to the patient its presence, at that time intuitively, through the dialogue (the patient heard voices), and with the objective of comforting him and to assure him that everything would run well. Full of courage, the patient tears off the letters written by him, and wait confidently the events that took him to a happy end. This case shows the value of the positive and altruistic thought in the creatures' life, taking them to the fulfillment of their duty with the free will always directed for the good, what guarantees them the merit for their actions.
Our intention when inserting this chapter in our book was the one of corroborating the reports of the near-death experiences (NDEs), giving them a crystalline spiritualistic meaning and without mysticism, not yet observed in the vast consulted literature.
6. Conclusion
About 20% of all persons clinically declared dead pass for the near-death experiences – NDEs, with all the characteristics or with some part of them. This is the result of a research done by Dr. Pim Lommel of the Dutch Group of IANDS – International Association for Near-Death Studies. He studied and interviewed 344 persons declared clinically dead. Of those, 18% went by the NDE and 12% had a deep NDE, that is, with all the characteristics described in the typical case presented in this chapter.
NDERF – Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (20) is another organization that receives, via Internet, reports carefully prepared by persons who went by the NDE. Jody A. Long (21), using a quite expressive universe of reports of 626 cases, of which 324 cases were rejected in first hand, being reduced to 302 cases and, later, those cases were refined to 280 cases, studied and analyzed the attitudes of the ones that passed by the NDE, before and after their experiences. Referred study is very complex, but we extracted some numbers: about 220 (88%) of the persons narrated their religious preferences before passing by the NDE, out of those, 199 persons (90.45%) said that they changed of faith after the experience. The faiths and attitudes alterations before several religions were presented in a table, standing out: 17% moved for the spirituality, 5% for the Christian religions, 5% for the Catholic religion, 3.5% for the paganism and 3% for the Buddhism. Surprisingly, there was no alteration (0%) among the agnostics. The other people that indicated religious preferences, after passing by the NDE, had smaller alteration of less than 2% or they didn't present significant alteration.
The main conclusion that we can get from those and of numerous other careful, serious and representative studies are that the near-death experiences leave a deep mark in the people’s mind, taking them to think about aspects of the incorporeal life, of the Intelligent Force (call it, of soul, of spirit or of conscience) that each one of us is and of the preponderance of that Force on the Matter (our body and our brain). In another focus, it reinforces the creature's moral and ethical values.
It is a must to highlight that, practically in all the reports, the "persons" or parts of them conserve their perceptions and senses, although moved away from the physical body. In the spiritualistic doctrine, the explanation lives in the second body or perispirit, which not only keeps the memory and the perceptions, but it sharpens them with extreme clearness. There are cases of persons completely deaf that hear during the NDE without needing the physical ears and, also, of persons completely blind that see during the NDE, without needing the ears or the eyes of the matter. (20)
Another important conclusion, which takes us to think over, refers to the loss of the fear of the death, because the creature starts to understand that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new spiritual life and it just represents a limiting line between the ponderable world (of the Matter) and the imponderable world (of the Spirit). But, these spirituality notions are just the beginning of many revelations that must come in the proportion that science comes to ponder in the studies of the invisible phenomena, which happen out of the matter and come from the being's spiritual reality.
Scientists don't doubt any more on the colossal amount of evidences observed in the NDEs reports. It remains, only to adapt their scientific methodology for those and other paranormal and transcendental subjects that are demanding science confirmation, among such subjects, the study of the mediumship, the nature of the spirit, the thought, etc.
It doesn't matter if the own science comes to interfere in the philosophical field and vice versa, what interests is to give exact and unquestionable answers to those subjects of so much relevance for humanity that is lacking of those knowledge.
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CHAPTER 17
REGRESSION TO PAST LIVES
The memory of a past event let it be of another life or not, possesses three main elements: thought, emotion and sensation. In other words, every memory is composed of the memory of the facts that happened and of what we thought about them, of the emotions felt on that same moment and of the sensations experienced in the body. Mind records all that happens in its minimum details. Once engraved this past may continue echoing in the present.
Morris Netherton, PLRT (Past Lives Regression Therapy) introducer in Brazil.
The specialists of that subject, so in evidence nowadays, consider that the aspects regarding the regression of memory remount to very old times. In ancient Egypt, the priest-doctors, like Hermes used it, to promote the patients' spiritual unfolding, through magnetic induction techniques of relaxation, enlarging the patients’ perception. In that way patients got to arrive to the extra-cerebral memory (subconscious) and to take knowledge of the deep causes of their psychological evils, and to explain many causes seemingly of physical nature..
Eugene-Auguste Albert de Rochas d´Aiglun, Count Engineer, (1836–1914), stands out (1) as one of the pioneers in the introduction of the memory regression techniques, knowledge that he published in his work Les Vies Sucessives – The Successive Lives. Other great psychologists and psychiatrists of our time followed his steps, like Stanislav Grof, Helen Wambach, Edith Fiore, Roger Wolger, Patrick Drouot (physicist) and Brian Weiss (psychiatrist). Count Rochas served, therefore, of referential in the different cultures, by having used, for the first time, induction techniques, as the hypnosis, which is the one that addresses therapists more directly to take contact with other realities until then unknown, guiding many persons to the reformulation of their life ideologies. Many of those therapists wrote popularization books and became best sellers, like Brian Weiss, Edith Fiori and Helen Wambach.
Those psychologists and psychiatrists started to adopt psychotherapeutic techniques that allow taking the patient to an altered state of conscience, with the objective of rescuing memories or traumatic reminiscences of his past. They theorize that these memories are blocked by the conscious and repressed or blocked in the unconscious and that they cause upsets of psychosomatic order, certain organic problems, as well as, problems that hinder the interpersonal relationship. Therefore, the use of the memory regression is a resource, working method or technique based in the hypothesis that there are traumatic facts of the past that influence and bring maladjustments, problems and conflicts of varied nature in many people’s present life. That technique passed to be known with the acronym of PLRT that has the meaning of Past Lives Regression Therapy or Past Life Regression Therapy, or simply, Past Life Therapy, or still, Regression Therapy.
The way how these researchers were lead to discovery and use, today quite spread out, of the therapeutic techniques of past existence regressions (PLRT) varies, but in its essence it links to the intuitive process. It is what the reader can infer of what proceeds.
Dr. Helen Wambach (1), American psychologist at the Medical Center of Monmouth of Long Branch, New Jersey, USA, and professor at the local University, dynamic and active researcher, tells us that, when going up the staircase of a library, she felt the sensation that she was at another place and in another time. She got a fright, and recovered herself; and, soon afterwards, she entered the library and went direct and automatically to pick a book that she had felt to be hers´. She got surprised when noticing, through a vision projected in her mind that she was riding a mule that traveled a long prairie with that book supported on the harness of the mount. It was a sunny place and the sun burnt her backs and heated up her simple clothes. While that vision happened, she read about a priest's life that was close to death, in a period in which he was in coma.
Dr. Edith Fiore (1), American, professor at the University of Miami, Florida, USA, author of the book You Have Been Here Before, tells us that, when she was taking care of a hypnotized patient who suffered of sexual nature inhibitions, such patient would have stated: "two or three existences behind I was a Catholic priest" and, soon afterwards, he narrated his existences as an Italian priest who would have lived in the 17th century. What was more surprising for Dr. Edith Fiore was that such patient, after analyzing his own existences, was cured of his own inhibitions.
Dr. Patrick Drouot (2, 3, 4), who is a French physicist, author of several popular books treating about spirituality, reincarnation, spiritual unfolding and therapy of past lives, and adopting the reincarnationist explanation, wrote We Are All Immortal (2), Reincarnation and Immortality (3) and Memories of a Time Traveler (4).
Dr. Brian Weiss (5), who is an American psychiatrist doctor, graduated in 1966 by the University of Columbia and, in 1970, by the Yale University School of Medicine, and began his career as resident doctor in the Hospital Mount Sinai of the Miami University tells us that he was a skeptical. As researcher, he published 37 essays in the psychiatric area, when he began his studies on regression. His studies and his past didn't prepare him for the surprises that he would find in his work as psychiatrist. He knew about the studies of parapsychology that were being done in the United States of America and in the world, but they never woke up his interest for they seemed to him very superficial.
With the conventional methods of therapy, until then used by him with few progresses, he submitted to the therapeutic treatment for 18 months a patient, whom Dr. Weiss named with the pseudonym of Catherine, and who he presented in his first best seller, Many Lives, Many Masters (5). When nothing seemed to work, Dr. Brian Weiss used the hypnosis and which was not his surprise, when verifying, through a series of hypnotic ordeals, that his patient had remembered of facts linked to her existences happened in past lives. But, Dr. Brian Weiss’ skepticism only collapsed definitively when the same patient started receiving messages of spiritual nature with revelations about his personal life, which he verified to be true.
We read, in the foreword of his mentioned book, taken from the Brazilian edition, (5):
I don't have a scientific explanation for those facts. There are many things concerning the human mind that are beyond our understanding. Maybe, hypnotized, Catherine has been capable to focus part of her subconscious, which stored real memories of past lives, or, who knows, she has intercepted what the psychoanalyst Carl Jung denominated of the collective unconscious, the source of energy that surround us and that contains the memory of the entire mankind.
The scientists are beginning to seek those answers. While society, we have a lot to win on the mysteries of the mind, of the soul, of the continuation of the life after the death and of the influence of the experiences of last lives in our current behavior. It is obvious that the ramifications are limitless, mainly in the fields of the medicine, psychiatry, theology and philosophy. As a society, we have a lot to learn on the mysteries of the mind, of the soul, of the continuation of the life after death, and of the influences of experiences on past lives in our current behavior. It is obvious that the ramifications are limitless, mainly in the fields of medicine, theology and philosophy.
Other books followed to this work (5) that helped to divulge and to call the attention for the reincarnation hypothesis of those phenomena, as: Meditating With Brian Weiss (6), The Divine Masters' Wisdom (7) and Same Soul, Many Bodies (8), also published in Brazil. In those works, fruit of the observation of about 10,000 cases of individual regression and in group regressions, Brian Weiss confirms his understanding about the spiritual nature of the phenomena. From the reference (6) of the Brazilian edition, we highlighted, taken from p. 11:
Today, I believe that, we are not only humans, not even we are human beings who eventually enjoy spiritual experiences, but we are spiritual beings who have human experiences. We possess several dimensions that we can live and of which we can enjoy. We have in our spirit possibilities above the time and above the physical limitations. And there are many forms to get in touch with the “Superior Me” that we shelter. It is a path in which the more we move forward the more we become capable, each time, to reach levels of higher spirituality.
From the reference (7) of the Brazilian edition, we detached the issues contained in the message extracted from the inside cover of his book:
I believe that the largest objective of our lives is to reach the intimate knowledge that we are immortal souls, brought to this great school called Earth to learn lessons about love, compassion, patience, equilibrium and harmony, no-violence, faith and hope, loving relationships and so on. The learning of those lessons is the only hope for the mankind.
Finally, still with Brian Weiss, in his last work published in Brazil in November of 2005, Same Soul, Many Bodies (8), he ventures himself in the planning of future lives, through the patient's conditioning and choice of one among several possibilities. Actually, his vision takes us to question about free will use, one of the spiritual attributes that we are endowed and that is treated in our work in a proper way in a separate chapter. Brian Weiss’ words, extracted from the inside cover of his mentioned book, referring to the progression to the future existences says: (8)
I discovered that those people [his patients] started to make wiser decisions and to do better choices. They could look at a next crossroads and think: If I choose that way, what will happen? And, what happens if I choose that other one? Sometimes, the vision of the future was possible.
We can go until the future if we do it with wisdom. The future, close or distant, can be our guide, echoing in the present and influencing us to make decisions and to do better choices. We can change what we are doing now with base on what the future show us. And that changes our destiny positively.
We are interested in examining more closely the question of the regression to the past lives, because the future in this life depends on the use of what we do with our free will and of so many other factors, of the spiritual planning previous to the reincarnation, done in other plan or dimension.
1. PLRT and the Hypnosis
It is wise not to lose of view that, in general, all of therapies are regressive and their objective is to make the patient to regress to the traumatic fact, origin and cause of his present problem. When that point is reached, patient tries a great organo-sensorial content, moment in which therapist uses a relaxation technique, deprogramming the emotions that cause the trauma, and curing patient through a work of auto-resolution of living conflicts. All this is according to the line of transpersonal psychotherapeutic orientation. Even so, the cure is not so easy and fast: it can take from ten to twenty sessions of two hours each.
On the other hand, it is known that one of the main objectives of the hypnosis is to provoke altered states of conscience. It has several levels of performance: superficial, medium, deep and somnambulant. Only in the last two cases, patient is not aware to know what he is living. The regression therapy uses the hypnosis in the superficial-hypnotic state and in some cases, in the medium state, just enough to promote a physical and mental relaxation in which the cerebral waves would be vibrating in the alpha mode. It is something similar to the torpor state that precedes the sleep.
2. Regression Techniques
The regression therapy was introduced in Brazil (1) by Dr. Morris Netherton (Ph. D.), in 1981. His studies on the influence of the past lives in the current life, in the United States of America, began in the sixties of the last century. Starting from these studies, he developed his accepted access method to these past memories. In 1978, he published in the United States of America his first book entitled Last Lives – a Psychotherapeutic Approach. From this year on, he started teaching the Therapy of Past Lives (TPL) in several countries, among them, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Canada, India and Brazil, besides the United States of America.
Nowadays, he manages in California the AAPLE – Association for the Alignment of Past Life Experience. In these more than 30 years of experience in TPL he accumulated one of the most respectable curricula of the psychology history. Based on this experience he affirms that TPL "[…] is not, in any way, associated to the occultism, exception made to the fact of sharing of the acceptance of the possibility of reincarnation.” He also affirms that "[…] events of past lives can produce such devastating effects in a patient's current behavior as any thing that happens to him in this existence", and that the Therapy of Past Lives is efficient even for those that don't believe in reincarnation. They are still from him these words (9): “The TPL doesn't accomplish miraculous cure. Patient is responsible for his own recovery. He can, through an intense work and concentration, leave his past backward and stop of interfering in the present, making it possible that all the force of his human potential becomes real."
Just as an illustration, we present how it happens a typical session of regression therapy to past lives (10), to proceed. At the beginning, the therapist tries to assure to the patient a calm and pleasant ambient. Already in the first consultation, the therapist will discuss with the patient, the thoughts and goals he wants to reach with the therapy that will be applied. Soon afterwards, therapist will encourage the patient to close the eyes and to relax. It is common to suggest images to help the patient to relax and to enter in a state of alpha or delta mental vibration. This will allow the patient to become more receptive to images that come from the subconscious – the place where his memories of past lives are kept. Patient’s subconscious stores millions and millions of memories, but just some of them have interest in the case. The one that imports is to access those that link with the problem that is present in his current life. This relaxation phase is reached by a modular orientation, guided by the therapist's voice.
As soon as the total relaxation is reached, therapist guides the patient to explore his past life. During that phase the patient is requested to explore scenes in other time and place of his life. The patient will be driven through several incident-keys of his life (lives), focusing the experiences that he had with unresolved emotions, problems and conflicts. This process uses half of the time of the session; the other half is dedicated to cure the effects of the patterns of negative thoughts, emotions and physical traumas that are disturbing the patient in the current life. Most of the regression sessions last among ninety minutes to two hours.
Of course, elapsed long years of the TPL application in other countries, with techniques more and more perfect, many therapeutic techniques of regression emerged in Brazil. One of the available techniques in Brazil is known as the Peres Technique (11), developed, systematized and improved along twenty-five years with base in the Netherton Technique, having been applied in about 10,000 patients.
The Peres’ Technique, according to the psychiatrist and psychologist Maria Julia Pereira de Moraes Prieto Peres, her developer (1), "[…] uses psychoanalysis resources derived from the following sources: transactional analysis, therapy centered in the person, of the gestalt, of the rogerean therapy, neurolinguistic programming, autogenous training, sophrology, creative visualization, active imagination and other resources that, in accordance with the necessity of my the experience, I came to adopt."
As author Maria Peres lectures, also, specialization courses, teaching her Technique of Regressive Therapy to Past Existences to psychologists and psychiatrists. However, any that is the technique, the objective is to provoke an altered state of conscience and to apply the regression therapy to the past existences. Maria Peres was President of the INTV – Instituto Nacional Brasileiro de Terapias Regressivas a Vivências Passadas (Brazilian National Institute of Regressive Therapies to Last Existences).
3. Past Lives and Past Living Existences
Some psychologists see a difference to be considered between “regression to past livings” and “regression to past lives.” This difference happens because the traumas of the past don’t have to be necessarily originated from supposed past lives. They can have been originated, also, from the intra-uterine life, from problems occurring during the birth and from the childhood and youth problems; they can until have (11) “[…] occurred yesterday, in the last week, in the last month, in the last year, finally, in any phase of the actual life and not, obligatorily, from supposed past lives.” The word “supposed” serves to protect those who are not reincarnationist.
4. Explanatory Models
Consulting the literature on the explanatory models of memory regression we will find many explanation hypotheses. In the Course lectured by Maria Peres (5) she points out 31 explanations, but she herself adopts the reincarnationist model. There is, still, much controversy about them. Among spiritists and spiritualists there is much divergence and they line up two currents. There is one current that defends this theory (reincarnationist model), even being in disagreement with one of its principles (the forgetfulness of past lives, after reincarnation, is a natural law), there is other current that alleges to treat of a spiritualistic therapy, and therefore it should be exercised indoors the spiritualistic doctrine. Let us see what Maria Peres said in (11):
Well, we do not live a complete life, the person “remembers” only of the traumatic episode related to the problem in which we are working. The other group defended that it dealt with a spiritual therapy, and that it should, as such, be done in spiritist centers. I then defended the thesis, and I started to propagate it, up to now, that this is not a spiritual therapy. This is a therapy as any other one, just exercised by doctors and psychologists, very well trained in this area and, as such, exercised in clinic level, with the maximum respect for the patient for the secrecy and for the professional ethics.
In both cases, it deals with different opinions on the reincarnationist theory, but there are other explanations, as we saw.
Therapist can not be reincarnationist and to use other explanatory theoretical models of the memory regression. Each therapist has his own convictions to explain the phenomenon, because the objective of memory regression is simply therapeutic and not of transforming the patient’s convictions. Each one, therapist and patient, have the free will to choose their own convictions. But the reincarnationist influence prevails among the members of the group of therapists in the INTV – Instituto Nacional Brasileiro de Terapias Regressivas a Vivências Passadas.
One of the big questions, having many explanatory answers and without any definitive, it is to know where this memory is stored. There are materialists who argue that all is in the brain and in the neuronal reactions. Jung proposed the collective unconscious model, some kind of memory storing all the memories that occur in the world, wherefrom someone who needed a certain memory it was enough to access it. Freud proposed and adopted a psychodynamic model. Kenneth Ping introduced a model based in the transpersonal philosophy. At last, there are many models to explain this subject. There is a current phrase in psychology that says “[…] that the unconscious is just the map, and a map is a representation of the territory, it is not the territory itself.”
It is not our intention to explore all the explanatory current models. We know that many therapists and patients constrain themselves in adopting the reincarnationist theory as a base of the regressive therapy, which is not yet recognized by the scientific associations to which the trained psychologists and psychiatrists are affiliated. They adopt, then, the model supported on Freud’s model, Jung and other notables, working with the idea of the unconscious, so much that instead of “Therapy of Past Lives”, they prefer “Therapy of Past Livings”, being very subtle this conceptual difference.
Although many people adopt the theory of reincarnation as a base for the regressive therapy, which it is not yet recognized by the conventional scientific communities, some constrain themselves to adopting ostensively such model, creating another alternative, supported in Freud, Jung and other notables and working with the idea of the unconscious.
5. Reached Objectives
There is not a therapy one hundred per cent well succeeded, but the best and most trained therapists (psychologists and psychiatrists) reach (11) “[…] high percentages of success, respected its indications and counter-indications, because it is not a panacea that comes to solve all problems of all people The therapist well aware of his role accomplishes the therapy with the aim of guiding his patients to win the difficulties that they are living, and for that reason, regression should not be informative nor interpretative, but only existential.
6. Living Existence Types
There is a general idea that patients, during the presumed regression to past lives, play the role of personalities that have been important in the past, such as kings, queens, notable and historical personalities, war heroes, etc. Therapists tell us that there is nothing more incorrect than this thought and those professionals` statistics inform us that patients rarely regress as being personalities such as the referred ones. On the contrary, the types are the most common, of all social and cultural classes that someone can imagine.
The most important and that happens, it is that patients regress to painful ambient and situations of fear, such as, of torture, war, deaths due to accidents, fires, drownings, buryings, rapes, passional crimes, etc. The fear situations are much common: darkness fear, height fear, of deep waters, of closed ambients (claustrophobia), of crowds, and many others. It is curious that some of the situations are due to the birth conditions (use of forceps which leaves birthmarks or cause chronic headache).
7. Techniques and Methods
In general, the professional institutes aggregate specialists who adopt a common explanation, although there is no obligation to be so. It is natural that it be so, since there is a natural law which tells us that the similar attract each other. Due to the great variety of explanations, it is also natural that other institutes exist in many countries. Also, it is not uncommon that certain specialists adopt their own line of explanations without connection to any institute or association. It is also known that having elapsed so many years of the introduction to the techniques of regression to past lives until nowadays, there is a larger opening and the procedures to which they refer to are more acceptable by the scientific community and by the population in general. In the case what it counts are the results obtained by the patients.
Institutes and class associations perform, also, a relevant role to avoid that unqualified persons come to practice those procedures, as for instance, people that are not doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists. Even so, there are therapists who don’t have university degree, because some technical courses were spread out all over. Many learn those techniques in books of good quality, which are translated in Brazil. Thus, anybody who may access such books can frivolously start doing regressions and thence it can result the appearing of certain aberrations, worsening the patient’s problems instead of correcting or curing them.
It is possible to prevent that certain counter-indications may occur, combating or minimizing them, by the use of an ethical code. Many regression therapists do, in the first consultation only a pre-evaluation of the patient’s conditions, occasion in which it is verified if there are counter-indications. Some cases of counter-indications include pregnant women, hyper active people, and children up to 16 years. An extensive psycho-medical evaluation card is made during the first sessions to evaluate if the treatment should stop or continue. It is common in the first three sessions to discover conditions of extreme tension due to punishments and injustices that the patient received from their parents. In a general way, the therapy lasts 10 to 20 sessions, what is very fast in relation to the common therapies. Patient receives recommendations and orientations to get rid of his suffering situation as quickly as possible, learning how to act during the interval of the sessions. In that way, he will modify his standard behavior for a new life model.
Another aspect to consider is certain distress which theoretically could happen during regression, as for example, difficult to “regress”, that is, patient does not accept or become refractory to the programming techniques. Those need to separate the emotion from the trauma that the patient lived. Situations of this type can not be avoided by inadvertent therapists, of the autodidactic type, who were already mentioned before. Still more serious it would be to practice the self-regression that can be surrounded of dangers, what (5) “[…] would come to worsen the problem and to unchain another problem that up to now was repressed and unknown by him.”
8. The Dangers of Self-Regression
It is possible to carry out the self-regression, but it is not advisable. It is always a dangerous procedure or risky proceeding, although there are books that recommend it. If a very uncommon situation happens during the self-regression, therapist would be alone and the eventual procedures that he could need may not be at his reaching. How to achieve, by himself, the deprogramming and the necessary return in a regression session? The deprogramming is a “switch off” obtained by using certain commands, especially elaborated for that, sentences told by the therapist to the patient and, such patient in an altered state of conscience, assimilates and engraves them in his subconscious. One example is (11):
Thus, for instance, imagine a patient who lived traumatic fact, he fell down a cliff, and as the result of that he suffered a skull traumatism, from which he came to die. Due to that he fears heights and he suffers chronic headache. If this patient, for example, is in the street, at a window or in any dangerous place, even reminding such fact, he can calmly remind the circumstances without feeling fear. Without the deprogramming, he would continue to feel the painful “memory.” After the deprogramming, we do a positive programming, by using induction through other sentences for the patient to assimilate them, aiming to improve his way of life.
According to the code of ethics, therapist never can program the patient in a malign form. The patient’s programming should always be well done and to respect the principles, the moral values and the patient’s system of creed, for not inducing him to things that he doesn’t want, as for example, to try to change his religion. Commands have to be generic and useful to the patient and to any person. They are sentences of self-confidence, self-help, serenity, peace, calm, etc. In other words, his free will should be respected and this is part of the therapist training.
Usually, after the return and finalization of the regression, patient is called by the name, in fact, that is the unique moment in which he is called by his name, being mentioned the date and the local in that he is, in order to not stay as if he was in a past situation. The session is concluded inducing the patient to leaving the session perfectly well and feeling any parts of his body to eliminate the sensation of relaxation by which he had gone, during the regression session.
9. Counter-Indications
Due to the emotional content that certain traumatic situations can carry out to the patient, it is common sense among psychotherapists to avoid doing the regressive treatment in the following conditions:
Children aged less than sixteen years
Old people aged sixty years or more
Pregnant women (the emotional discharge affects the fetus)
Psychotic persons
Cardiac persons
Obseded persons (they can be unbalanced even more by the obsessors’
interference, in view of his syntony with discarnate spirits)
About people suffering of obsession, obviously there is no consensus. The same happens regarding onlookers, without any trauma, because the therapy should be used by trained professionals with the objective of curing certain traumas and not for research or to satisfy the curiosity of third persons.
Another aspect of the question is what has been discussed by many therapists of spiritualistic formation, in which some defend the point of view that the therapy should be made in spiritist centers, remaining the counter-argument that if there it were made, it should be costless, and anything could be received. The problem warms up more when it is considered that Spiritism pleads the complete forgetfulness of past lives, for best to happen the evolution in the present incarnation. This subject is very controversial.
10. Two Confirmed Cases
To proceed, two regression cases are presented, which were duly documented and widely published as confirmed by the investigations made, and they are referred to as good evidences of the reincarnation existence.
Case Ray Bryant (journalist)
This case of regression, happened in England, in 1983, provides us good evidence for convincing of the existence of the reincarnation (12). Certain day, Dr. Joe Keeton was sought by Ray Bryant, journalist of The Evening Post, of London, for which he worked. This newspaper had ordered him a series of articles on the paranormality theme, inclusive to focus, in one of those articles, the reincarnation evidences. To give to the subject a personal focus, the journalist proposed to Keeton to hypnotize him, although Bryant had never been submitted to hypnosis. Keeton accepted the challenge, because he was also interested in putting to proof his own abilities.
Under effect of the hypnotic regression, Bryant remembered several personalities that he had been in the past, inclusive the one of the soldier Reuben Sttaford, who struggled in the Crimea War. In agreement with Bryant’s memories, this soldier, when returned to England, in the last years of his life he passed working as boatman in the Thames River. Still, in agreement with the regression memories, Stafford’s life began in 1822, when he was born in Brighthelmston and it finished in the year of 1879, when he died drowned in an accident, in London. In the last personality of this British journalist, he acquired an accentuated accent of the Lancashire area, detail that reflected the fact of Stafford to have passed great part of his life in the north of England. Although it treated of something impressive, the fact by itself didn't constitute proof of anything, and being so, after they testify the Victorian soldier's manifestation, two members of Keeton’s team, Andrew and Margaret Selby, went to look for evidences of that man's real existence.
In London, in the Guildhall library, the couple, Andrew and Margaret had the luck to find a list with the victims' names of the Crimea War. This list contained sergeant Reuben Stafford’s name, who had served in the 47th Regiment of Infantry of Lancashire and he had been hurt in the hand, in the Battle of the Quarries – a combat of little importance happened during the siege of Sebastopol. The document also supplied details of the sergeant’s subsequent career, who had received decorations for bravery before being retired.
In the following hypnosis session, those information left Ray Bryant's mouth spontaneously. The date, the place and the name of the battle were remembered by “Sttaford”, as well as other facts of his military career. All (the facts) were quite correct.
But the Selby couple's research didn't finish here. Working some days in the registrations of the registry office, they discovered the register of Reuben Stafford’s death, and they verified that the military had died of drowning, being buried in East Ham.
Will it be that those facts could be known without any reincarnation form? In the journalist's regression the possibility that, the “hidden memory” has been activated practically doesn't exist, therefore Stafford’s biographical data, as soldier, were not known openly. Unless Keeton and his volunteers were considered as impostors, the return of the veteran of the Crimea War in the journalist's body, in the 20th century, is much more than a mere hypothesis.
Case James Johnston (the submarine man)
This case is related to the investigation of the life of a personality, James Johnston, who died early in the World War II aboard of a United States submarine. This past life was described by a patient who suffered of claustrophobia and fear of water, submitted to the hypnotic regressive therapy, in 1987. As if the patient were James, he told the story as crew member of USS Shark (SS–174), anchored in Manila Bay in the beginning of the hostilities with Japan. He described his life before entering the Navy, as well as, the pre-war operations of Shark. He identified the crew's other members and the nature of the operations in the sea. On February 11, l942 the submarine Shark was sunk by a depth load bomb thrown by the enemy. James described the immediate sequence of activities during the attack of a Japanese destroyer and the progressive flood that occurred during the sinking of Shark. The detachment of the spirit from the James´ body was reported. This patient was born in 1953, well after of the told episode.
Rick Brown, the hypnotherapist, who accomplished such therapy and its subsequent investigation, obtained documents of the Civilian Conservation Corps, of the American Navy, as well as, the personal data and date of birth in the school where James had studied. Brown accomplished the research on the naval operations described by James at the Naval Historical Center and Operational Archives. He visited James´ hometown, in Alabama, where he interviewed several friends and relatives. Most part of the James’ memories was obtained during the hypnotic regression and they were verified through those sources. It was made a documentary video of that case after the investigation.
11. Conclusion
To finish, we can make some important reflections on those techniques, today so spread out in our culture as one of the processes known as alternative medicine, used to cure certain traumas and phobias. They indicate that we are preexistent beings, because numerous are the cases that could be proven and, that, surprises even the therapists. In a general way, they reveal the importance of the cares during the gestation that may introduce psychosomatic effects on the fetus, extensive to the children's life and it shows us that we are surviving beings to the biological death. Plus than that, these experiences alert us about the reality of the inter-lives, in other words, of living in the world of the spirits or spiritual plan before we could decide to return to a new material body (to reincarnate) for the learning of new experiences and improvement of our spiritual individuality.
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FOURTH PART
EPILOGUE
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CHAPTER 18
THE AWAKENING FOR SPIRITUALITY
Synthesis and objective of the content of this work
Know you as you are.
Engraved in the Delphos Temple – Greece, attributed to Socrate
The only thing I know is that I don’t know anything – Socrate
We traveled a long journey to arrive to this point of our work, coming back to about 3,500 years B.C. along the history of science and of philosophy. We run back upon the millenarian teachings of philosophy, metaphysics and science. We passed in revision some aspects before and after science have separated from philosophy and we followed the unfolding of the natural science in several branches, such as physics, chemistry, biology and others very specialized and reductionist sciences.
Our work is composed of four parts. In the first part, we went through the meanders of science enough for the good understanding of its purposes and merits.
Nevertheless, the real objective of this book is contained in the second part of the work, where we exposed the knowledge of the modern Spiritualism, free of any rancid sectarian effects, mystic and of religious traditions. We also showed that, to recognize and acquire spirituality is not necessary to invoke any religion or eastern cult, in general, full of mystics and out-dated terms for the actual state of culture of the world. In addition to, we alerted not to confuse mysticism with the true spiritual knowledge and spirituality. In the third part, we showed indications and evidences presented by scientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists who aren’t compromised with Spiritism or modern Spiritualism, so being, they are all independent researchers and have not been submitted to any influence or interference of any type. For example, we have considered the cases of reincarnation, near-death experiences and regression to past lives.
Finally, in the fourth part, we took out a conclusion that all was seen and we pass our message to the public in general, of readers and scientists, of whom much is expected in this 21st century about a scientific approach to the phenomena that constitute the incorporeal life. After this, we have made a leveling flight to form an objective synthesis about all the work.
1. Our Objective Reality
When going through the five chapters of the first part, we got to know that, in spite of the limitations that science and scientists imposed themselves, they are always disposed to admit their own errors when a theory fails and another reveals itself better, that is, science never placed itself in a irreducible position. Moreover, that is the own essence of science, which admits a gradual construction, in which its history already showed that the so-called "scientific truths" are often temporary, they are always subjected to an evolutionary revision of their theories and laws in function of new evidences and realities. To follow, we present a synthesis of this introductory part of each chapter of our work.
The Universe as Force and Matter
The first part – our objective reality, containing five chapters, was dedicated exclusively to show a more complete scientific vision of the universe and to demonstrate how science inserts us as human beings before this wonderful universal context. We are delighted and we feel ourselves so tiny before the universal greatness. We verified that all that exists in the universe is made of Force and Matter and we gave a little glance in the very inner part of atoms and we examined the four physical forces that act in the nature. We tried to know facts and paradoxes of the Quantum Physics. We verified the contemporary concern of the quantum physicists in the search of a "Theory of Everything”, which may unify the four forces of the nature.
The Roads of Evolution
Regarding to biology and to the study of the origin of species and of Man, we dedicated a considerable space in the presentation of the emergence of life on the Earth, under the focus of the Darwin's The Origin Theory of Species and of Neo-Darwinism. We focused, also, the controversy that already lasts long and in the current days, which is fought between the evolutionism and the creationism.
Scientific Methodology
Still in this first part, we tried to focus what is science, how it works and what is the scientific method. Moreover, we treated about tools that the science has used and its limits. We studied the scientific method and the scientific praxis with their different resources used to sustain a scientific theory, including the Irrefutability Principle.
Truth, Reality and Paradigm
Finally, we still frame according to the context of the first part, the understanding and comprehension that philosophy and science intend to get, when they talk about subjects of subjective nature, such as Truth and Reality. At last, still inside this part, we focus the concept of paradigm that internally restricts science action within certain limits of study, which makes it more and more reductionist.
Our conclusion from these concepts, and the history of science confirms us, is that all human truth is temporary and it evolves in function of knowledge or reasoning, which, by its turn, accompanies the human being evolution. In a worldwide, which is already giving its first steps this becomes more and more real. Found the true road, respected the specific cultures of each people, the world will find times of peace and much prosperity, and another will be the life on the Earth. But, in this long road of science, man's knowledge as Force and Matter, that is, as spirit and body and the interaction between the two, due to a broader reality, practically remained stopped.
2. A More Complete Reality
This part of our work was dedicated to the incorporeal life and its implications about the creature’s life. Composed of nine chapters, this second part begins aiming to explain a series of phenomena until then inexplicable, which almost happened simultaneously in the United States of America and in Europe around of the second half of the 19th century. Readers will find a synthesis of its chapters, as follows.
The Birth of the Spiritism
For the first time in the Humanity’s History, the transcendental or paranormal phenomena passed to be studied, also on the part of the science, having ahead of this movement, remarkable scientists such as, William Crookes and Charles Robert Richet, this latter, the founder of the parapsychology. But, unhappily, science placed many obstacles to the works of those famous pioneers, taking them to the discredit. The same thing did not happen with other independent researchers, whose works culminated with the appearance of Allan Kardec’s Spiritism about 150 years ago.
The Advent of the Christian Rationalism
Later, in the beginning of the 20th century, in Brazil, with philosophical-spiritualist emphasis, it emerged the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism, in 1910, currently denominated as the Christian Rationalism. We dedicated a whole chapter to the study and presentation of the knowledge spread out by the Christian Rationalism, through their founders, encoder and consolidator, respectively, Luiz de Mattos, Luiz Alves Thomaz and Antonio do Nascimento Cottas.
We saw in the second chapter of the first part that many phenomena of the Quantum Physics are beyond our immediate reality, inaccessible to our physical senses. To examine and explaining those phenomena physicists have used proceedings of advanced mathematics. One deals with relativistic phenomena or quantum, which seems bizarre, out of the "common sense.” The same happened with scholars of the phenomena known as paranormal and transcendental, who had to work with persons having a more sharpened sensibility, the so-called mediums. The attempt of using more accurate electric and electronic instruments, such as, optic and digital instruments, although useful, it was not until now, well succeeded. But, there is an entire open field for science to track.
Phenomena of the incorporeal life always caused and are causing weirdness to everyone who has no interest to discover and investigate their true nature, looking with perplexity and even disregard of such phenomena. However, the knowledge of those phenomena is as old as the world. Philosophers and scientists of higher evolution, from the most remote epochs and in several countries, threw the seeds of so necessary knowledge.
The Intelligent Force
In another chapter, we dedicated plenty of attention to the research and knowledge on what is the Intelligent Force, how it acts in all the kingdoms of the nature, giving life to Matter. The knowledge of the ideas there exposed has outstanding role for understanding of the unified performance of these two unitary constituents – Force and Matter – in the constitution of all the living beings, in which, when ceased the performance of the Intelligent Force, life ceases, too. It is the Intelligent Force that is the responsible for the diffusion of life in all the kingdoms of the nature, also in the primitive atomic and molecular structures of the mineral kingdom. We showed that, the Intelligent Force is self-determinant, self-expressive and self-manifested in any form of the existent life. Unhappily, the Intelligent Force has been ignored by science, which works with the hypothesis that all derives from Matter, letting without deeper studies a vast field of the entire knowledge.
We explained, also, that in its path and during the entire endless evolutionary chain, the Force, particle of Universal Intelligence, travels all the kingdoms of the nature –mineral, vegetable and animal. During the whole long course, it always accumulates more and more Force and Intelligence, through differentiated and multiple experiences, until reaching a degree of "sufficient information”, what makes it capable to activate and to give life to the beings having more and more complex organisms, every time. Since then, the Intelligent Force is enabled to evolve in the human form, circumstance in which it already has conscience and a basic intelligence, developed in all of the previous periods of apprenticeships and, for the first time, capable to use attribute of the free will, which is nothing else than the own will. With this attribute or faculty, the Intelligent Force has denomination of Spirit, that is the individualized Force in the human being, capable then, among so many and so many options, to do intelligent choices and to assume responsibility for its duties, what does not happen in animals that preceded the man in the evolutionary chain.
The Primacy of the Spirit
We dove deeply, soon afterwards in the entitled chapter – The Primacy of the Spirit, in the study and knowledge of the Spirit, its incarnation and reincarnation, as well as, its disincarnation. The main attributes of the spirit were presented and we outstood the role of the conscience and intelligence among them. Regarding to our “Spiritual Self”, different from our ego, we explained from where we came and to where we will go every time that a disincarnation occurs in accordance with the natural and immutable principles of the universe.
Still about spirit, we demystified its existence, giving it the rationality pattern that it is endowed. We explained the existence of spiritual worlds, inferior and superior, to which we called of Inferior Astral and Superior Astral, strictly in accordance with the modern spiritualist point of view, for being Spiritualism an eclectic, philosophical and evolutionistic science. We showed how it is quite noxious, and even though a misfortune, for a disincarnating spirit to keep retained in the atmosphere of the Earth, that is, in the inferior astral and, worse than that, causing so many evils to humanity, what means to tell, to other incarnate spirits that are promoting their earthly evolution.
We explained the true composition of the human being, as spirit and body (Force and Matter), having in the mid of both, the perispirit or astral body, also, tenuous and subtle substance, that always follows the spirit. We compared the spirit to an eternal cosmic traveler, who has an evolutionary path to accomplish here on the Earth, participating in the Evolution of the whole cosmic group. Force and Matter are the basic components of whatever in the universe exists. These components are present everywhere, in the whole universe, in their primordial components or under an organized form. It is the Intelligent Force in the man, the Spirit, which models the Matter, in an incessant and complex process of aggregation and disaggregation. Through those processes, the Force organizes and transforms the environment in order to provide the evolution of their intelligent particles, which, in their numerous apparent forms are constantly acting on the organisms giving them life, specifically in man. Then, once recognized and accepted those truths by science, it is necessary to extend the life notion, which has a more complete comprehension than simply biological inclusion, that is, endowed with a material and organic metabolism that replicates itself.
It is comprehensible that the spirit is in the human creature, the individualized Intelligent Force and self-determinant, or say, that it possesses the attribute of free will. From this outstanding fact, evolution takes place to a faster rhythm. We can even say that man’s evolution was accelerated, and this can be proven when we compare the Earth evolution against the ancestors of man’s evolution, the latter having only about two million of years against an evolutionary history of three and half billion of years of the Earth evolution. Therefore, using the above figures of the evolutionary timeline, they represent only 0.06% of the entire man’s evolution on the Earth. What would have influenced so decisively on the speed of humankind progress? Of course, clearly it was the use of his free will allied to mainly three other attributes of the spirit – the intelligence, reasoning and creativity, supported in its larger attribute – the conscience of himself, exactly.
Still on the Primacy of the Spirit, we made a basic distinction between the evolution of species and the evolution of the spirit. The evolution of the Intelligent Force in the kingdoms of the nature was made and it still continues being made through the forms (biological evolution); in it the Intelligent Force evolved and it continues evolving to improve the bodies that it always livened up and still livens up. However, in man, the biological evolution almost ceased and gave place towards the evolution of the spirit during successive lives (reincarnation), is which the accumulated knowledge are kept in the perispirit – the subconscious mind of psychologists. What we intend to make clear is that the Intelligent Force precedes the Matter and livens it up in an incalculable variety of forms in whatever exists in the universe. Moreover, there is a very big field for the scientists' research, especially by the physicists, biologists, physicians, neuroscientists, psychologists, parapsychologists, and, why not to say also, the philosophers, any that is the religion that they profess.
We showed, also, that humanity is still much lacking spirituality and to be a spiritual creature it is not necessary to be mystic or to act esoterically as many organizations and so-called "secret" institutions are doing. The healthy Spiritism – the demystified Spiritualism is not a religion, being free of any evangelical rancidity or mysticism of any nature. We identify, for whom wants, that the Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism was encoded in Brazil and it has today the name of Christian Rationalism. Its diffusion is quickly spreading throughout several countries of Europe, Africa, South America and North America. In spite of new, encoded in 1910 by Luiz de Mattos and Luiz Alves Thomaz, it irradiates through the entire world conveying the flag of the spirituality and of the Christian morals with the lemma "A philosophy for our time.”
The Importance of the Thought
In the logical sequence of the knowledge, in the Chapter 10 – The Importance of the Thought – we went by the study and by the spiritualist explanation of what is thought, which derives from the volitional action of thinking. To think is to reason, to transmit modulated vibrations by ideas and images of conception of the spirit, creating, solving, deciding, discovering and clarifying the problems of the life. It is intuitive to know that all comes from the thought before any thing may happen. If we look around us, being excepted the Earth itself and the whole nature that in it has existed, everything else was built by man and came from his thought, firstly. Thus, thought is the support, the foundation of all the natural, cultural and psychic evolution of man, from the origins of the primitive eras until the present stage of development. Therefore, it is not exaggeration to affirm that the thought is all in the creature’s life. The human creature that does not grant himself to the work of thinking, due to indolence or for lack of will, does not advance and stays behind.
The Aura: The Mirror of the Soul
Another linked subject to the spiritualistic knowledge is the aura. In the chapter about this subject we explained that aura is formed by tenuous matter, subtle and invisible, ionized under the form of an emanation or bioplasma and activated by the force of the thought. It expresses itself as being a vibrational energetic field surrounding the persons` body, being denser and more perceptible around the head. It is the mirror of the soul, through which is revealed the nature of thoughts, feelings and emotions that we emit. It can capture or repel vibrations of other thoughts, feelings and emotions, in accordance with the law of the affinities, through which; the similar (positive or negative) thoughts are attracted and opposite thoughts are repelled. There are about one hundred and fifty years that aura has been studied by researchers and serious scientists of Europe, the United States of America and Brazil, with the objective of identifying its true nature and function, as well as, making them visible and photographable. There is, also, many studies defending its effect in the appearance of numerous psychophysical illnesses. In the chapter in question we treated of the aura under a scientific and spiritualist focus.
The Mediumship
This chapter was introduced in this work with objective of informing what exists of more advanced in the knowledge of the mediumship, without mysticisms and without pilferings. We are facing a notable faculty of the spirit, what does not mean to say that, who is endowed of the mediumship is a privileged person.
It is incomprehensible that the lack of studies about the mediumship, on the part of the scientific organizations, with rare exceptions, constitutes, unfortunately, an incomprehensible omission. Parapsychology practically lost a century of opportunities to not dedicate itself with the whole scientific rigidity to the study of this subject, interrupted after Charles Robert Richet´s studies, his founder. We have seen with satisfaction that the research about mediumship was retaken at the end of the last decade, of the last century, by a team of scientists led by Gary E. Schwartz, who have studied the mediumship in laboratory, as we described in the Chapter 15. With the being’s progressive spiritual development and of humanity in general, and of the progress of science, we are sure that, in the present 21st century, we will have many scientific surprises in this field.
We showed that mediumship, which it shows itself in several modalities, is an innate faculty in all people’s spirit. Mediumship is shown in several modalities and sensitiveness degrees, being the more common of them, the mediumship of intuition, which almost all persons possess in a major or minor degree, although many do not perceive it consciously. Due to its importance we treated, deeply, in a separate chapter. All the other modalities are latent in many creatures and persons who are devoted to the exercise of mediumship are known as mediums or sensitive, that is, true intermediaries between the material life and the spiritual one.
We still explained that, the natural development of mediumship accompanies the level of spirituality of the creatures, acquired in the continuation of their multiple incarnations. We stressed that the manifestation of mediumship varies in persons in function of their temperament (emotions), feelings, sensitivity and evolution. Moreover, that the good or bad thoughts attract each other in the direct reason of their affinity, and their receiver instrument is the mediumistic faculty. We cleared up, also, that mediumship is always useful, when it is well used, but highly harmful when it is put to the service of the evil.
The Intuition: Our Spiritual Compass
We dedicated the entire Chapter 13 to the study of intuition. There, intuition is focused in a more complete and deep form, in terms of its importance in the processes that involve the people’s creativity. The formal treatment that we gave to the intuition, under the point of view of the spirituality, we made it when we presented the mediumship.
Intuition happens when a sudden understanding is had of something, what represents a knowledge that is directly obtained, without the aid of the reason, many times after having recurred to the reason in a persistent and continuous way for solution of some problems. The bigger is our capacity to face the problem under a focus very different from the common way of seeing the things, more receptive we will be to intuition. In psychology, it is used with frequency, the word insight or flashing as synonym of intuition, but there is a great difference: the intuition is the capacity to foresee possibilities, while the insight is the form as the intuition is revealed.
We remind here that, accustomed to propose and to solve mental problems, the great Einstein was always quite intuitive. He received frequent intuitions in form of true insights, linked to his logical thought. He applied the flashings that he received together with the knowledge of physics to solve problems that, in another way, he would need to use laboratory experiences. Thus, as freethinker, he had capacity to contemplate physical problems in a different way of the habitual one. Actually, what occurred was a complete freedom that allowed Einstein to abandon certain principles and presuppositions, until then had as irrefutable. Told in another way, Einstein had talent of restructuring the problems in different ways to seek and to give them solution and that brought him a very big intimate satisfaction, besides reinforcing his self-confidence. We emphasized that, in the same way, most of us can use this marvelous and useful spiritual faculty like the prominent scientists and the brightest incarnated intelligent persons, here on the Earth, have done and continue doing.
The Free Will Builds Our Destiny
All that we put in evidence in the second part of this work is, purposely, impregnated with the philosophical-spiritualist life concepts and the free will has not escaped from that orientation. It deals with a manifested faculty by the free and determined will in the accomplishment of goals that creature programmed for his evolutionary path. Its good use in the material life gives place to the success of the incarnation, becoming it less repetitive and lessening the suffering coming from its bad use. With the support of a lucid reasoning and exercise of the free will, a creature can reach his fullness and obtain a relative happiness in his earthly life.
We have foreseen the day, although still distant, in which the majority of humanity, if not the entire one, will have access to those philosophical and spiritualist knowledge, in which the good use of this spiritual attribute constitutes a orientation compass, which is capable to stimulate people for the good, letting aside the animalistic and brutalized instincts of the unhealthy mind of many.
Indications and Evidences
What we present in the third part of our work refers to the awakening of some scholar thinkers, researchers, psychologists, psychiatrists and scientists, totally disentailed of any reincarnationist doctrine, attracted for the study of that always present question in so many people’s minds: “Does life exist after death?” Their works offer us strong indications and evidences of existence of the spirit and of the reincarnation process.
Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation
In the chapter about the Primacy of the Spirit, we showed that all that was explained about spirit in respect to its incarnation is equally applied to reincarnation that happens in the process of a human being’s birth. Reincarnation is the process of one same spirit to incarnate through numerous and successive incarnations, that is, to change of body and of life conditions in another time and at different environments. Therefore, we perceive logical and intuitively that incarnation of the spirit occurs just in the first time and the reincarnation happens hundreds or even thousands of times.
Besides scientists and researchers mentioned in the second part of our work, numerous other experiences were related by dozens of authors and researchers in hundreds of books of wide popularization, all over the world, including articles shown on the Internet.
Thus, out of the spiritualist environment, about a hundred years after William Crookes´s experiences, in the second half of the 20th century, more precisely, from the decade of 1960 on, numerous proven cases of reincarnation were studied by Ian Stevenson and collaborators. Almost at the same time, it had occurred studies and researches about the phenomena of out-of-body experiences (OBE) or spiritual unfolding and near-death experiences (NDE).
The collection of the field information of suggestive cases of reincarnation, obtained by Ian Stevenson and collaborators already exceeded 2,500 cases. Ian Stevenson’s three main books and his interview given in 1986 were the basis of the information we presented. The reincarnation evidences by him studied under rigorous methodology and scientific conditions, in several countries of the world, are irrefutable. Ian Stevenson analyzed, also, a series of nine explanations for the observed phenomena; however, he preferred to adopt the reincarnationist theory.
That chapter showed, also, the most impressive studies about mediumship that science is already researching, since the end of the last decade of the last century, under Gary E. Schwartz’s coordination, through "The Veritas Research Program .” The first results were analyzed and published in 2002 in the book “The Afterlife Experiments” and they were also disclosed by the American media and are unquestionable. This work continues. "The Veritas Research Program" opens a vast domain of experiments that continue restricted to some few followers of the contemporary spirit and spiritualist’s doctrines.
Near-Death Experiences (NDEs)
We presented, also, in the Chapter 16 – NDE – Near-death experiences, brought to the knowledge of all persons by Raymond A. Moody Jr. This researcher, since 1966, has disclosed thousands of proven cases of near-death, reinforcing evidences of the existence of the spirit and of the reincarnation process, or say, exposing to the world the existence of the spiritual life after death.
In 1969 in the United States of America, and in 1975 in Brazil, it was published the pioneering work of Raymond A. Moody Jr – M.D. entitled Life After Life. This book was republished in Brazil in 2004, with the same heading – informing and explaining a little more than one hundred cases. Other initiatives were followed through thousands of interviews, telling cases of near-death experiences recorded and disclosed in more than one hundred books, ever since published. Nowadays, thousands of references exist on the Internet and even people’s associations who already went by these experiences.
The NDE – Near-death experiences is a lucid experience associated with the perception of the conscience as a dissociated element of the body, and which occurs at the moment of an imminent current threat of death that, due to some reason, it ends up not happening. It is a real phenomenon very different from the dreams and of hallucination effects that derive from experiences with drugs (LSD and others).
The NDE experiences are fantastic and they present great similarity in the reports, what gives them a forum of truthfulness confirming the fact of the survival of the soul after the physical body death.
We informed in this chapter that we approached the problems associated to the fear of the death to conclude that death doesn´t exist: only the physical body dies.
The uncertainty that exists, since the oldest civilizations and cultures, about life after death, is responsible for the fear of thinking and reflecting about what the death really means for each one of us. The fear of death is present in almost all people from the most different cultures and religions, independently of the age in which the death happens and in the way how it occurs. Thus, many people have true fear of speaking about death, because one day it will inexorably happen with them.
In the cultural ambient are inserted the elements of our earthly life, which surround us, such as, objects, things, people and events. In our subconscious is rooted, deeply, the idea that death means a removal of all this, inexorably, when all is annihilated and turns back into powder. That means we are only accustomed or mainly accustomed to our objective world, and death doesn´t have objective explanation. In any way, ultimately, death means something, unpleasant and nothing desirable, exception for the suicidal persons.
A materialistic focus that affirms that death is the annihilation of all that exists, and after death all turns into dust and the conscience is annihilated are thoughts deeply rooted in the materialistic world. However, there is another focus that is as old as the world that conceives the existence of the soul, psyche, mind, conscience or spirit, it does not matter the name, but yes to know that something exists – the Intelligent Force, which is immortal, livens up the human body, and continues living after death. People, who have this vision, live a more complete reality – the spiritual reality, besides the material reality.
It is understandable that science, materialistic in all its conceptions of what the human being is, has not presented an acceptable explanation for the phenomenon of the death. As we saw, to the light of Spiritualism, this is a phenomenon as natural as the birth is, being the inverse of it. To understand it in all its simplicity, it is necessary to understand what is the Intelligent Force – in the man, the Spirit, what is the incarnation, how the incarnation (birth) and the disincarnation (death) are processed, and which is the reason of the incarnation process and why, by its turn, it is intimately linked to the spiritual evolution and the material progress. All this consists of the existent knowledge, since 1910, and taught in the works of the Christian Rationalism that were used by the author to explain, also, what it occurs in the NDEs.(Near-death experiences)
Regression to the Past Lives
To complete the group of experiences consecrated to the study of life after the death, we passed in review, in the Chapter 17, the regression to past lives phenomena. Hundreds of reports by psychiatrist Brian Weiss and by several psychologists were examined, as the ones by Helen Wambach, Edith Fiori, Patrick Drouot (physicist), Maria Peres, (Brazilian Doctress and psychologist) and others, whose experiences were told in their articles and books. These authors presented cases containing many indications and new evidences about the existence of the soul (spirit) and its immortality. They disclosed to the public, through the regression therapy to past lives (RTPL) a great number of phenomena, until then, exclusively of the domain of the Spiritism and of the Spiritualism.
The way those researchers were taken to the discovery and to the use, today quite spread out, of the therapeutic techniques of regression to past lives (RTPL), also denominated by other current of psychologists and regression psychiatrists as regression to past existences, it varies, but its essence links to the inductive process.
We must, however, remind that these psychotherapeutic techniques are done with the objective of taking the patient to an altered state of conscience, with the objective of rescuing memories, longings or traumatic reminiscences from his past. They have theorized that these memories are blocked up by the conscious and repressed or kept in the unconscious and, that they cause upsets of psychosomatic order, specific organic problems, as well as, problems that embarrass the interpersonal relationship. Therefore, the use of memory regression is a way, working method or technique based on the hypothesis that there are traumatic facts from the past that influence and that bring maladjustment, problems and conflicts of varied nature on the actual life of many persons.
We were succeeded in finding and to describing two proven cases of regression in which the conditions, the ambient and the referred persons could be investigated and proven, as belonging to their patients´ last lives.
CHAPTER 19
ULTIMATUM TO RATIONALITY
An appeal toward spirituality
Wise is the one who knows the limits of the own ignorance.
Socrate
Through this chapter we are ending our long journey, whose main motivation was to seek awake all those, who are really interested in searching answers to humanity's eternal questions: from where I came, what I am doing here, and to where I am going after death (disincarnation). More objectively, we tried to motivate physicists, biologists, psychologists, parapsychologists, psychiatrists and scientists in general, to which we are doing a heartfelt appeal and exhortation for the study and investigation of the incorporeal life, beginning with a serious study about mediumship, of the reality of the spirit, and of the spiritual world. We have tried to document the conclusions, chapter by chapter, in the form how they came in the body of the book, even knowing that, with this proceeding, we were running the risk of some repetitions.
The Universe
There are many theories to explain the universe. Even the Big Bang theory, with high acceptance degree, even on the part of the Catholic Church, it is not a fact, but a theory that implicates in evolution (current phase of expansion) and involution (contraction phase) of the universe. Curiously, it is noticed that this theory has an evolutionistic character. We see here that there is a certain accommodation or coexistence between science and religion, which is not known how long it will resist. Therefore, while in science several different theories can coexist in peaceful way, in religion this is well more difficult. Religious dissensions, for example, between Christianism, Judaism and Islamism, all of them monotheists, worshipping the same God, although with different names, are irreconcilable, because the dogmatic fanaticisms of all them.
Force and Matter
Before the dilemma Intelligent Force and Matter it only remains two attitudes to take: one of them leads us to the absurd of continuing to deify the Matter, the other will take us to the research of the transcendental unknowable, whose laws continue challenging science. This dilemma cannot last long for more time, because humanity is lacking of information and asking for a safe direction for its evolution. After all, what is real? Why does the being exist and which is his destiny? We need to lift the veil of the matter for us to discover answers. These questions were treated in the chapters of the second part of this book, especially in Chapter 8 –The Intelligent Force, and Chapter 9 – The Primacy of the Spirit.
The research of the transcendental unknowable is a mysterious field and opened to serious and honest investigation, without the mystic rancidity of religions. It is necessary only courage and value that all honest scientist possesses, but that is necessary not to hesitate in examining without malicious intent, accepting the astonishing results, but not miraculous that, for sure, they will find inside the Matter. The hour is now, in the threshold of this new century, because humanity is tired of as much materialism and mysticism!
The Roads of Evolution
The great controversy that today we see to be fought between the creationists and evolutionists is situated in a single discord knot: the understanding that some and others do of the nature, of the Creative Force or Universal Intelligence, which Muslim call of Allah, Christian followers denominate of God and other people have their appropriate denominations. No true knowledge can have of that true greatness if man does not put a shovel of whitewash in the mysticism and does not undress of his sore spots, of his selfishness, of his vanity and of all the more that abases him as a superior being. While this does not happen, we will be exposed to our inferior instincts, we will not be being rational creatures, nor will we be using the logics supported by the common sense. It was for that and about that subject that we dedicated our attention in the elaboration of the chapters of the second part of this work.
Being the search of the truth the maximum goal of science, it does not have to be isolated of other branches of the knowledge as it has positioned in the last two centuries, standing back itself of philosophy, although its investigation methods uses different methodologies. Last, but not without less force, there is to consider the progress that was obtained in psychology and why not to say, also, in parapsychology, in Spiritism and in Spiritualism, as we put in the Chapter 6 – The Birth of the Spiritism and in the Chapter 7 – The Advent of the Christian Rationalism. In first place, we should let religious dogmas aside, which will continue to serving the most part of humanity for some centuries ahead, because its level of spiritual evolution doesn´t reach more than that: to express its faith in what is revealed by religions, as coming from God. However, also, science needs to get rid of its hermetism, and scientists need to open the series of their discoveries for people of medium knowledge, because science discoveries must not be kept only for a few privileged, but yes, for everyone. There is need, also, of simplifying the things for common use and for most possible understanding, in general
All that was studied and explained, until here, as regards to evolution, it just dealt with the somatic evolution of the body as such, neglecting the most important evolution that is the evolution of the Intelligent Force. To the spiritual evolution, we consecrated our book, in the direction of pointing what is already known and to stimulate the research in what is still lacking to know. Many scientists had already arrived close, really too close, of a paradigm change, but for a reason or other, they gave up of taking the researches ahead in this direction. Many few scientists made it, but they were isolated cases and their works or these cases didn’t have the necessary popularization or their authors were put in the ostracism. Therefore, it is resented of its continuation.
There’s a dictation and evolution is a proof of that, which says: “[…] the nature doesn't give leaps", that can be used to mean that all has its correct time to happen. Thus, this dictation is applied to man to assume his position in the evolutionary process.
It is easy to understand that, thereabout two million of years, and that is almost nothing in terms of somatic evolution of species, we had the primitivism of our predecessors. They came to constitute themselves the first appropriate bodies for the evolution of the Spirit, although they represented bodies in transition for our current stage of human evolution. However, they were necessary and enough, at that time, to give beginning to what we have affirmed as the man’s spiritual evolution.
It arrived the moment of affirming that the beginning of the hominal evolution, that is, of the Intelligent Force in the human body as an incarnated Spirit, also coincides with the beginning of the spiritual evolution in the planet Earth, and from here on, it began to appear, gradually, the different races with their differentiated cultures, as it still happens at the present time. Together with the somatic evolution that occurred with the respective cultures, it took place, as it still continues taking, quietly, the spiritual evolution that more and more finds favorable conditions for its accomplishment.
We stood out in chapters of the second part of our work that also the spiritual "[…] evolution doesn't give leaps", and it aims at, mainly the evolution of the intelligence, of the morals and of the ethics, which it is worth to say, of the character, by the continuous purification of the more noble feelings of the men, until the complete elimination of their animalistic instincts. This evolution is individualized, that is, it is made "by itself", but it takes place, also, in groups.
Scientific Methodology
Science considers as theory a superior hypothesis and well supported. Thus, a well accepted theory is the theory that has resisted to the test of the time, and the collection of new data tends to make it a scientific fact, as the example of the solar system heliocentrism, which at the time of its presentation, was a mere hypothesis. Examples of well accepted scientific facts are found in the Quantum Physics, although never anybody has directly observed an electron, a stellar fusion, radio waves, entropy and so much other particles of material nature or energy. We pointed in this chapter that we should always have in mind that the alternative explanations for "anomalies" or discrepancies of a given hypothesis should be always treated as any other hypothesis: they should be pondered, tested and finally they should be eliminated or confirmed, but, a hypothesis cannot be considered refuted, until its tests produces many lines of positive evidences, indicating that the previous hypothesis was inconsistent with the empirical data.
We know, also, that the degree of sophistication of the current scientific investigations takes the scholars of the area, to the use of the statistical mathematics, so that analysis of the observed data may be adjusted to the predictions of a theory. Due to that it is common to say that the modern scientific theories are probabilistic. Although many scientists dislike statistical mathematics, it is an indispensable tool in the current scientific experiments and must be always used wherever the probability makes part of the experimental context.
In the analysis that we did on the scientific method we did not let aside the principle of the falseability, introduced by Karl Popper in the years 1930. The falseability principle became itself an important concept in philosophy of science (Epistemology), and consists of doing an observation or a physical experience that try to show that a certain assertion or theory is false, that is, it is not confirmed by the tests made. Already scientific laws have more universal character, for instance, Isaac Newton's gravitational theory, and many scientists have tested it along times and it behaves itself as a physical law.
Truth, Reality and Paradigm
The inclusion of our texts on Truth, Reality and Paradigm, grouped under a same chapter, became necessary to consider the new inclusions and to extend the limits of our understanding and knowledge. It becomes itself necessary to establish a more complete picture of what is a paradigm for us to know the man in his whole entireness, be him called holistic, cybernetic or pluralistic man. Nowadays, it is necessary to know certain phenomena had as products of imagination, like the cases of insanity and obsession, whose knowledge cannot be more postponed.
There is an entire and a vast field of phenomena, of which nobody doubts, but that were not rationally explained by science, among which are the following ones: near-death experiences (NDEs), out of the body experiences (OBEs), telekinesis, telepathy, premonition and all of the mediumship modalities. The study of the mediumship is essential to give credibility to the researches about the existence of the spirit, perispirit, conscience, thought, aura, free will, and the consequences of the good and bad use of them. All those studies are being delayed by science due to lack of definition of a new paradigm that includes them, who knows, inside of a wider and general concept that includes the Intelligent Force in actuation on Matter. Psychology, parapsychology, Spiritism and Spiritualism and their fields of study are in that definition. Then, a union or unification of these areas of study would occur together with physics and biomedical sciences, in order to take forward the scientific studies of that nature.
We believe that physicists will scientifically be able to investigate these fields with great benefit for humanity if, in fact, so they want it, discovering an entire invisible world where the Intelligent Force, intangible and invisible, prevails to the eyes of the body. It is enough that we make a serious and appropriate systemic approach of the subject, without preconceptions. First, it is necessary to discover and to understand such phenomena, be they called metaphysical, paranormals, psychics, extra-sensorial or transcendental, and their "real" nature to comprehend that they cannot be controlled or "be tamed" at the own desire of the experimenters, as it is the case of the "double nature" wave-particle of electron and the principle of the uncertainty of the Quantum Physics, already, accepted by physicists. With the knowledge suggested in this paragraph and in the previous ones, then science will be able to understand from where we came, what we are doing here on the Earth and to where we will go after physical death of the body, as well as, the true sense of life, questions which have been approached, without satisfactory answers, since the humanity's beginning.
Unhappily, however, it seems that the sciences, society and institutions are fallen asleep for them to see that we need to cross this point of paradigmatic inflection. If that be accepted, we will have a more complete vision of the world and of our relationship with it, because inherently we are part of the process in a dynamic and universal system, closed or open, in the first case, whether the universe was finite, or in the second case, infinite. Thus, it seems to us that physics and physicists are in a privileged position to study, in a more exact way, the human conscience and the humanity's destiny towards a more complete model of the human being, in which certain phenomena simply "are.”
As society comes to adopt more qualitative and humanistic values, certainly, science will move forward in that direction and it will become much more useful to the humanity, answering with conviction many and many questions, which now are approached in an incorrect way and until falsely by many religions, fakers and mystics, etc.
As it was seen in the body of this work, parapsychology already gave the first step in the direction of coexisting with physics. We already saw also that physics separated from philosophy around the year of 1750, approximately, but, it is already time of looking themselves one to the other. Regarding to Spiritism and to Spiritualism, some physicists had already given the first steps, but the scientists´ community does not like of listening persons saying about phenomena such as extra physical, extra sensorial, and spiritist phenomena. Scientists avoid to speak on those subjects, either by fear, or by preconception or for any other reason, but one day, sooner or later, they will have to face the existence of the spiritual life inside (in the man) and out of the matter (in the space-time, in the spiritual worlds).
The Birth of the Spiritism
In spite of Allan Kardec's pioneerism and his followers, whose mini-biographies were presented, the true scientific phase of the Spiritism came from the works of Sir William Crookes and Gabriel Delanne, followed by Charles Robert Richet works, founder of parapsychology. The latter gave continuity to Delanne´s works who classified the history of the psychic phenomenology in four periods, presented in this chapter. He was, also, who classified the meta-psychic phenomena, in two general groups: subjective phenomena and objective phenomena, also studied in the Chapter 6, and still today used by parapsychology.
We remind that Charles Richet tracked a different road, strictly scientific, without never have become himself a spiritist. Actually, he was an experimental continuator of Sir William Crookes and Gabriel Delanne´s experiments. We saw here, without malicious intent, a certain incompatibility among Richet´s strictly scientific works and the Kardec’s doctrine that, until the present, didn't get rid itself of the mystic "rancidity" of the Gospel, which seems more a religion than a philosophical and scientific doctrine.
It is observed that, at that time, the French spiritist movement was already totally dominated by rites. Gabriel Delanne was just an exception, who very sick, kept his French Society for Studies of Psychic Phenomena and his publications in the magazine “Le Spiritisme.” It was natural that Richet, who became himself friend of Delanne and was a rigid researcher, as the scientific methodology is, had been awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physiology, in 1913.
The Advent of the Christian Rationalism
We saw in the Chapter 7 – The advent of the Spiritualism the steps followed by Luiz de Mattos and Luiz Alves Thomaz as founders and encoders and, later, followed by Antonio do Nascimento Cottas, as consolidator, in setting up a doctrine originally instituted with the name of Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritualism. Now, this doctrine has the name of Christian Rationalism and it has as base the scientific, philosophical and spiritualist concepts of universal reach. This doctrine and its principles are exempt of mysticism and of the religious rancidity. Such principles are supported in the knowledge of the incorporeal life, in the high ethics teachings and morals preached by Jesus Christ past two millennia; thus restoring the purity of his teachings, which were not religious, to our time and for the posterity. The mini-biographies of the founders and consolidator of the Christian Rationalism were presented.
Christian Rationalism is a philosophical doctrine that is not religion and that coined the slogan "A philosophy for our time" for its popularization, as it can be seen in its portal on the Internet: https://www.racionalismocristao.org.br. Its basic book “Christian Rationalism”, as well as, its entire works, can be downloaded without cost from the Internet
All of us know that neither science nor philosophy or any doctrine can be considered finished. Humanity evolves together with the societies and cultures that accompany it. Christian Rationalism, being an evolutionist doctrine follows this rule, because the roads of the spiritual evolution are continuous and eternal.
Numerous questions such as, which is the nature of the Intelligent Force, what is conscience, which is the center of our memories, from where we came, to where we go, what we are doing in this planet, what is spiritual evolution, which was the beginning of the universe and so much other remain without answer on the part of science. It is not enough to study, to classify and to teach, it is really necessary to understand and to comprehend what is the human being and what is life and what to do of it for the benefit of the spiritualization of people.
We hope that in the present century this situation will modify itself and new lights will come to be thrown scientifically on all, or at least some of the man's transcendental questions to accelerate his material and spiritual progress in the planet.
The Intelligent Force
In the spiritualistic vision, the whole universe is constituted of Force and Matter, the latter forming all the substances and bodies and the former animating them. However, here the concept of Force was considered much beyond the concept taught by physics.
We saw that, in the Chapter 8 – The Intelligent Force, is present in the whole universe and permeates all and any type of Matter, be it inorganic, organic or organized, as well as, all living cells individually and conjointly, in each living being. Intelligent Force is active agent that acts on the Matter, which is passive agent, subjacent to the atomic structure of matter and, in living beings (plants and animals), is subjacent to the cells, giving them life. Here, we presented an extension of the life concept to the minerals, as we had already anticipated when we treated of Evolution, in the first part of this book.
In man, we have the Intelligent Force, the plenum life and plenum intelligence with free will and other attributes of the Force, which from that point on, receives the name of Spirit.
It is an unknown field, open to the serious and honest investigation, without the mystic rancidity of religions. It is necessary just courage and value, that every honest scientist possesses, however, it is necessary not to hesitate in examining, without malicious intent, and accept the surprising results, but no miraculous that, certainly, he will find inside the Matter. The hour is now, in the threshold of this new century, because humanity is tired of so much materialism!
We mentioned plentifully the work of the Christian Rationalism coded by Luiz de Mattos here, and in all the chapters of the second part of our work, for being the Christian Rationalism, a coherent synthesis, putting side by side philosophy and science in the knowledge related to the incorporeal life and spirituality. According to Luiz de Mattos, "it should not infer, then, the inexistence of life in the mineral kingdom or of the intelligence in the vegetable kingdom. Only, it was mentioned the predominance of the indicated fundamental attributes, in order to facilitate the reader's understanding, due to the transcendentalism of the subject.”
The Primacy of the Spirit
Chapter 9 – The Primacy of the Spirit was entirely dedicated to the presentation of the knowledge about the incorporeal life in what it respects to the nature of the spirit, its main attributes, its incarnation and disincarnation, showing the spiritual reality of the reincarnationist theory, of the spiritual worlds and of the Universal Intelligence.
For Spiritualism, space and time are two earthly relativities ignored in the Superior Astral, where the reality is absolute and it is involved in other dimensions. The field of the human being's view is restricted to three dimensions. The earthly science knows the speed of the light (three hundred thousand kilometers per second), but nothing knows, still, about the thought and its surprising speed, for we live in a world of three dimensions.
We don’t know anything regarding the speed with which the Superior Astral spirits move themselves, for not being of interest to inhabitants of the Earth. However, we know that spirits of the Superior Astral move in the continuum Space-Time, in an instantaneous way and that they have as field of action, extensions that escape to the existent understanding limits of the mental human’s horizon, and they have for duties attributions that don't resemble to the earthly living.
The Importance of Thought
Our analysis about the thought in the Chapter 10 – The Importance of the Thought gave emphasis to the spiritualistic knowledge, but, we didn’t also let of analyzing it under the point of view of psychology.
Under the spiritualistic focus we showed that the thought is a vibration of the spirit, having by foundation the volitional action or the willpower. We presented its form of generation and reception of ideas and information by the attraction of existent current of thoughts on the Earth and in the Superior Space, where intuition plays outstanding role. In humans the transmission of the thought is made primordially through written words and spoken, and among spirits through telepathy, directly.
According to psychology, regarding its nature, thought can be analytical, verbal, symbolic or abstract. We showed that is through the analytical thought that person uses the logic and the models logically established to take its conclusions or to obtain practical results. Already in the verbal thought, creature seems to hear and to experiment his own ideas and transfers them to third persons through the own words of each idiom, in the context of a written and spoken language appropriate to its listeners. The symbolic or abstract thought is exercised by symbols or formal models, as in mathematics, in drawings, in designs, in music, and in corporeal language, etc. The abstract thought is always free and disentailed from the physical world. In it, intuition prevails on the logic in the process of evaluation of the mental models.
The Aura: The Mirror of the Soul
Of what was exposed in the Chapter 11 – The Aura: mirror of the soul, it becomes intuitive to conclude that the human aura gathers the energetic conditions of our thoughts, feelings and emotions, reflecting in it, through its colors, the dynamic state of our astral ambient and, therefore of our attitudes and behavior. To those who can read our aura, such as spirits of the Superior Astral, spirits of the inferior astral and clairvoyance mediums in general, nothing pass unobserved; all is known, nothing is hidden.
It is worth to notice, also, that a healthy aura, coherent and luminous guarantees us a supply of vital energy and it protects us of negative and disintegrative energetic fields against obsessor spirits.
The Mediumship
From what it was exposed in the Chapter 12 –The Mediumship, we infer the need of knowing ourselves as Force and Matter, not feeding any doubt about the incorporeal life. Nothing passes in the world without before having passed by thought and this emits vibrations that are captured by the inferior and superior disincarnated spirits, as well as, by incarnated ones. It was also emphasized the necessary prominence to the law of the spiritual affinities. In this context, so much for the good as for the evil, it inserts itself the reality of the mediumship and the importance of its effects, in general in humanity, standing out obviously the role of the mediums.
After we described the several types of mediumship, we treated of questions, such as, knowledge that the mediums should have, their discipline and working method, their responsibilities, wanted qualities and mediumistic evolution. Special attention was given, also, to the evil of the spiritual ignorance and to the great upsets that humanity is subject for not trying to know itself as Force and Matter.
The Intuition: Our Spiritual Compass
We saw that intuition is an indirect form of knowledge and that it shows itself through insights, flashings or sparks. Thus, capture of the images happens so quickly and the reasoning that then elapses is of the intuitive type, taking person to an instantaneous discernment with the integrated perception of the problem.
We learned, also, that persons who are always minded-open to innovation and like of trying are not very common. For those persons, without developing any analytical thought, intuition is a sudden and even instantaneous resource that always brings solution to problems, because person is convinced that it treats of a good intuition and put in practice, without hesitating. Being intuition a wide perception, it is necessary not to lose in minuteness and details.
The Free Will Constructs the Destiny
Still we saw that are few persons who have the exact notion of the value of the free will and know how to use it well, with responsibility. There are still many persons who don't know how to reason, letting to be involved by old thoughts, bad habits and false conceptions, without an adequate filtering. Those people don't apply reasoning because of these limitations and, difficultly they will reach the fullness of the power of reasoning. That limits or conditions the power of choice, becoming worse the exercise of the free will.
They are many evils caused by the ignorance of what is free will for the human living. For that reason, many are the lost incarnations in successive stages. If humanity tried to comprehend that the pardon doesn´t really exist, and tried to change this absurd idea by the perception of how worth is the free will, and apply it with coherence and responsibility, much knowledge would be acquired by the humanity. Thus, many reincarnations, for which humanity pays a quite high price would be avoided.
In short, the free will, together with the thought, is one of the best instruments that person disposes to learn and to teach the lessons of the life with spiritual greatness, with humility and much love, thus abbreviating the time needed for the complete and total spiritual evolution.
Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation
Here, in that chapter, we gave much emphasis to Ian Stevenson's works that, since the decade of 1960, studied cases of reincarnation in children, in several countries of the world. We analyzed some cases reported in three of his books and we had access to the data of one of his interviews. Of course, Stevenson received many critics. His more ferocious critical was Paul Edwards (1996), who emphasized that Stevenson didn't make any effort to explain what is soul and what happens with the "entity" while it doesn't incarnate, and still which is the mechanism of conservation of part of the memory that had in the previous life. In our present work, under the spiritualistic focus, we explained these subjects, satisfactorily.
Stevenson, in his forty years of work, gathered a vast collection represented by more than 2,500 cases, of which he researched and studied almost a third of them, leaving the remaining for his collaborators and followers. In many cloudy moments, Stevenson felt as a banished, a heretical condemned man due to the insults he received from scientific orthodoxy. Nevertheless, he was always a man determined, reserved, conscientiously honest and willing to reveal truths that he went picking in his field researches. Finally, he was a scientist, whose purposes deserve all our good faith.
In this same chapter, we showed the important works that have been accomplished by Gary E. Schwartz and his team, examining mediumship and testing mediums in laboratory experiences. The obtained results, under rigorous experimental control, are surprising.
We presented, also, a statistics researched by Doctress Helen Wambach, American psychologist, who doesn't have any link with any spiritualistic doctrines. Her statistics has origin on interviews accomplished with 1088 patients, to which it was applied the regression therapy to the past lives. According to her the collected data reveals the existence of life after death.
Near-Death Experiences
They were numerous the works consulted in books and on Internet issues. Statistics done by Dr. Pim Lommel, in Holland, hearing 344 persons clinically declared as dead indicated that 18% of them pass by near-death experiences. Another statistics done with 626 cases of persons clinically declared deceased, in the United States of America, under Jody A. Long coordination, indicated that 90% passed for an experience of near-death, and from these, 17% changed their believes for spirituality.
The main conclusion that we can get from those and from numerous other careful, serious and representative studies is that the near-death experiences leaves a deep mark in the people's mind, taking them to thinking about the aspects of the incorporeal life, and of the Intelligent Force (call it of soul, spirit or consciousness).
We highlighted that, practically in all of the reports, "persons" or part of them conserve their perceptions and senses, although being apart of the physical body. In the spiritualist doctrine, explanation resides in the second body or perispirit that not only keeps the memory and senses as it sharpens them with extreme clearness. There are cases of completely deaf persons who hear during the near-death experience without the need of the physical ears, and also of completely blind persons who see during the near-death experiences without the need of the eyes of the body.
We highlighted, also, another important conclusion that takes us to reflect, and that refers to loss of the fear of the death, because creature starts to understand that death is not the end, but the beginning of a new spiritual life and death just represents a dividing line between the world of the ponderable (of the Matter) and the word of the imponderable (of the Spirit). However, these spiritualistic notions are just the beginning of many revelations that must come in the extent that science comes to give attention to studies of the invisible phenomena that occur in the incorporeal life and comes from the being’s spiritual reality.
Many scientists don't have doubt anymore of the colossal amount of evidences observed in reports of near-death experiences. It remains just to adapt their scientific methodology to these and other paranormal and transcendental subjects that are demanding confirmation on the part of science; among them, study of the mediumship, nature of the spirit, thought, etc.
It doesn't matter if science comes to interfere in the psychological field and vice-versa, what it matters is to give complete and unquestionable answers to those so much relevant subjects for humanity that is lacking of that knowledge.
Regression to the Past Lives
We conclude making some important reflections on those techniques presented in the Chapter 17 – Regression to the past lives of our work, today so spread out in our culture as one of the known processes of the alternative psychology, used with success to cure certain traumas and phobias. They indicate that we are preexistent beings, because numerous are the cases that could be proven and, even so, they surprised therapists. We narrated two proven cases.
In a broad and general way, those techniques show us that we are surviving beings to the biological death. Plus than that, these experiences alert us about reality of the inter-lives, that is, we live in the world of spirits or spiritual plan before we decide to return to a new material body (to reincarnate), for new learning experiences and improvement under the same spiritual individuality. However, many persons face their regression to the past lives only as reincarnation signs and not as evidences of them.
REFERENCES
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19. Stevenson, Jay. O Mais Completo Guia Sobre Filosofia. São Paulo: Mandarim – 2001.
20. Mattos, Luiz de. Racionalismo Cristão. 42nd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Redentor, 1991.
21. Leibniz, W. F. Monadalogia. In:_ Vergez, André, Huisman, Denis. História dos Filósofos. 3rd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Freitas Bastos, 1976. p. 187–197.
22. Spinoza, Baruch. In:_Vergez, André, Huisman, Denis. História dos Filósofos. 3rd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Freitas Bastos, 1976. p. 170–184.
23. Coelho, Aristides Pinto. O Que Você Deve Saber Sobre a Energia Nuclear. CNEN –
Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear. Rio de Janeiro: Graphos, 1977, 32 p.
Chapter Three
1. Sakall, Sergio. Darwin. Retrieved on 08 August 2005 from:
https://www.sergiosakall.com.br/montagem/5darwin.html
2. Leite, Marcelo and Mirsky, Steve. Para Ernest Mayr, Biologia Não Se Reduz às
Ciências Físicas. (Entrevista aos 100 Anos). Retrieved on 28 August 2005 from:
https://zoo.bio.ufpr.br/diptera/bz023/ernst_mayr.htm
3. Alves, Cláudia Aparecida. Criação e Evolução. Retrieved on 08 August 2005 from: https://www.cacp.org.br/Evolucao-2.htm
4. Tiagho, Paulo de Tarso São. Evolucionismo e Criacionismo à Luz do Espiritismo. Retrieved on 08 August 2005 from:
https://www.terraespiritual.locaweb.com.br/espiritismo/artigo1614.html
5. Anonymous. Eras, Períodos e Épocas Geológicas. Retrieved on 08 August 2005 from: www.avph.hpg.ig.com.br/eras.htm
6. Altaba, M. Font. Atlas de Mineralogia. Rio de Janeiro: Livro Ibero-Americano, Ltda., 1963. Ed. Especial.
7. Mattos, Luiz de. Racionalismo Cristão. 43.edição. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Redentor, 2001 p. 49.
8. Guiton, Jean. Deus e a Ciência. Retrieved on 08 October 2005 from:
https://www.plenitudeonline.com.br/noticias/news/index_noticias.php?id=16
9. Kessler, Cynara Chemale. Origem da Vida. Retrieved on 16 August 2005 from:
https://www.logic.com.br/prof.cynara/origemvida.htm
10. Wilkipedia. Teoria de Oparin. Retrieved on 29 August 2005 from:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teoria_de_Oparin.
11. Araujo, Jorge. Gênese da Vida. Retrieved on 28 August 2005 from:
www.ateus.net/artigos/ciencias/genese_da_vida.html
12. Meio Ambiente – Os Grandes Reinos. Retrieved on 18 August 2005 from:
https://www.geocities.com/kinren12000/reinos.htm
13. Dobzhansky, Theodosius. Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of
Evolution, Retrieved on 26 August 2005 from:
https://people.delphiforums.com/lordorman/light.htm
14. Dawkins, Richard. O Gene Egoísta. Belo Horizonte: Itatiaia, 2001. p. 22.
15. Valério Jr., Marcos. Criação x Evolução. Retrieved on 28 August 2005 from:
https://www.evo.bio.br/EVOXCRIA.HTML.
16. Flávio, João e Cristiano, Paulo. A Verdadeira Questão – uma entrevista com
Michael Behe. Retrieved on 27 August 2005 from:
https://www.cacp.org.br/critica%20a%20darwin.htm
Chapter Four
1. Filho, Alberto Mesquita. Theory on the Scientific Method. Retrieved on 04
September 2005 from:
https://www.ecientificocultural.com/ECC 2/articles/metcien1.htm#Ret11
2. Maya, Isabel M. Magalhães R. L. Santos. The Development of the Science in
Thomas Kuhn. Retrieved on 04 August 2005 from:
https://www.consciencia.org/contemporanea/kuhnisabel.shtml#conclusao.
3. Filho, Alberto Mesquita. Theory on the Scientific Method. Retrieved on 08
September 2005 from:
https://www.ecientificocultural.com/ ECC2/articles/metcien2.htm
4. Theobald, Douglas. Scientific Proof? Project Developing – Bio-science.org.
Translated by Rubens Pazza. Retrieved on 04 September 2005 from:
https://www.evoluindo.biociencia.org/prova.htm, 2004.
5. Chalmers, A. F. The Science as Knowledge Derived from the Facts of the
Experimentation. Retrieved on 07 September 2005 from:
https://www.criticanarede.com/cienciaefactos.html. Translated by Pedro Galvão. In:
Chalmers, Alan. What is this Thing Called Science? – Open University Press, 1999.
6. Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. (Brazilian edition: O Livro de Ouro da Mente).
Translated by Vera Paula Assis. Rio de Janeiro: Ediouro, 2002, p. 208–210.
7. Filho, Alberto Mesquita. The Scientific Praxis. Retrieved on 08 September 2005
from: https://www.ecientificocultural.com/ECC2/FilCien/referencia09 #referencia09
8. Gil, A. C. How to Elaborate Researches´ Projects. São Paulo: Atlas, 1994, p. 35
9. Bunge, M. Theory and Reality. São Paulo: Perspectiva,1994.
10. Lacey, H.M. The Language of the Space and Time. São Paulo: Perspectiva, 1972
11. Bohm, D. Peat, F. D.: Science, Order and Creativity. Lisbon: Gradiva, 1989.
12. Wikipedia. Falseability. Retrieved on 14 September 2005 from:
https://pt.wikipedia.org /wiki/Falseability
13. Popper, K. R. Concerning the Inexistence of the Scientific Method. Retrieved on 08
September 2005 from:
https://www.ecientificocultural.com/ECC2/FilCien/filosien.htm
14. Wilkins, John S. In Evolution Science, and what does "Science" mean? Retrieved on
04 September 2005 from: www.talkorigens.org/faqs/evolphil/falsify.html
15. Heck, J. G. How Many Senses Really Have? – 1997. Retrieved on 23 January 2006
from:
https://www.watchtower.org/languages/portuguese/library/g/2003/3/8/article_01.htm
16. Editorial. Magazine Superinteressante – June, 2005.
17. Ruiz, João Álvaro. Scientific Methodology, São Paulo: Atlas, 1978. p. 48.
Chapter Five
1. Brelaz, Jalmir. Paradigm in science and in parapsychology. Retrieved on 22 July
2005 from: https://www.parapsicologia.org.br/artigo08.htm
2. Capra, Fritjof. The Tao of Physics. São Paulo: Cultrix, 1983, p. 244–248.
3. Carter, Rita. Mapping the Mind. (Brazilian edition:The Golden Book of Mind). Rio de
Janeiro: Ediouro, 1999, p. 258.
4. Chauí, Marilena. The Truth and the Conceptions of the Truth. Retrieved on 27 July
2005 from:
https://www.armazem.literario.nom.br/autoresarmazemliterario/eles/martinhocarloshost/filosofia/22_modul22.htm
5. Chauí, Marilena. Invitation to Philosophy. São Paulo: Ática.
6. Chauí, Marilena . Invitation to Philosophy. Retrieved on 23 October 2005 from:
https://www.panoramaespirita.com.br/artigos/artigos_04/real_supra_real.html.
7. Jung, Carl Gustav. The Real and the Supra Real. Retrieved on 23 October 2005 from:
https://www.panoramaespirita.com.br/artigos/artigos_04/real_supra_real.html
8. Milhomens, Newton. The mysticism to the Light of the Science – São Paulo: Ibrasa,
1997, p. 27–38. Milhomens, Newton. Also, Retrieved on October 15, 2005 from:
https://www.kirlian.com.br/info_por_0014_2e.asp.
9. Stenger, Victor J. Stenger – Post-Modern Attacks to the Science and the
Reality.(Original in Portuguese: Ataques Pós-modernos à Ciência e à Realidade.
Retrieved on 23 October 2005 from:
https://www.geocities.com/quackwatch/realidade.html
Chapter Six
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43.ed., Rio de Janeiro: Redeeming Center,
2004, p. 20.
2. Gleiser, Marcelo. The dance of the Universe. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras,
1998, p. 251–252.
3. Kardec, Allan. Retrieved on 01 August 2005 from:
https://www.universoespirita.org.br/allankardec/kardec_biografia_inicial.htm.
4. Kardec, Allan – FB - Transcribed of Posthumous Works. – 16th.ed. Retrieved on 01
August 2005 from: https://www.cvdee.org.br/ak.asp
5. Shroeder, Gilberto. Sir William Crookes. Magazine spiritism and science. Center
Redentor. Rio de Janeiro 2004, v. 2, n. 8, 38/44
6. Roll, Michael. Sir William Crookes Proved Continuing Life Scientifically. Retrieved
on 26 July 2005 from: https://www.rense.com/general32/proved.htm
7. Andrade, Ernani Guimarães. William Crookes. Magazine of Spiritism, n. 35, July–
August–September 1997. Retrieved on 24 August 2005 from:
https://www.espirito.org.br/portal/artigos/fep/william-crookes.html
8. Inglis, Brian. Sir William Crookes (Transcription by Sir William Crookes Spiritist
Society). Retrieved on 26 July 2005 from:
https://www.sirwilliam.org/html/Sir%20_William.htm
9. Anonymous. WilliamCrookes. Retrieved on 26 July 2005 from:
https://www.kardec.com/bio/williamcrookes.htm
10. Nandor, Fodor. How Sir William Crookes Came to Believe in Spirits: History of
Florence Cook. Retrieved on 27 July 2005 from:
https://www.survivalafterdeath.org/experiments.htm
11. Roll, Michael. Tawdry New Efforts to Attack Sir William Crookes. Retrieved on 26
July 2005 from: https://www.rense.com/general27/will.htm
12. Hinshellwood , Cyril Norman. William Crookes Biography – Dictionary of National
Biography. Retrieved on 26 July 2005 from:
https://www.sirwilliam.org/html/Sir%20_William.htm
13. Regis,MarceloCoimbra.GabrielDelanne. Retrieved on 30 July 2005 from:
https://www.espiritnet.com.br/Biografias/biogabr.htm
14. Anonymous. Gabriel Delanne. Retrieved on 24 August 2005 from:
https://sgny.org/main/Biographies/bio_GD.htm
15. Anonymous. Gabriel Delanne, Apotre du Spiritisme. Retrieved on 20 July 2005
from: https://spirite.free.fr/csl-delanne.htm
16. Saucer, J. Herculano. Leon Denis, Apostle of the Spiritism. Retrieved on 24 August
2005 from: https://www.universoespirita.net/edicoes/1999/ed36/p4.html
17. Anonymous. Charles Robert Richet. Retrieved on 30 August 2005 from:
www.terraespiritual.locaweb.com.br/Espiritismo/biografia28.html
Chapter Seven
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. Redeeming Center. 43rd ed. Rio de Janeiro:
House Publisher, 2004, p. 20.
2. Cottas, Antonio do Nascimento. Assim Nasceu o Racionalismo Critão (So Came the Christian Rationalism). – Christian Rationalism – Retrieved on 08 February 2005 from:
https://racionalismocristao.org/ and https://www.racionalismo-cristao.org.br
3. Gomes, João. Luiz Alves Thomaz. Newpaper A Razão, Rio de Janeiro, 01 August,
2004, p. 1.
4. Gomes, Maria Teresa. Antonio do Nascimento Cottas: A Luminous Trace –
Newspaper A Razão, 01 June, 2005.
5. Cottas, Antônio do Nascimento. Practice of the Christian Rationalism, 12nd ed., Rio de
Janeiro. House Publisher 1989, p. 31–34
Chapter Eight
1. Mattos, Luiz de – Pela Verdade – A Ação do Espírito Sobre a Matéria (On the
Truth – the Action of the Spirit on the Matter). 9th ed. Rio de Janeiro: Centro
Redentor, 1983. p 216
2. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 1st. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeemer Center,
1984.
3. Bohm, David. The Implicate Order. Retrieved on 25 October 2005 from:
https://www.bizcharts.com/stoa_del_sol/plenum/plenum_3.html
4. Goswami, Amit. An interview with Amit Gosvami: The Self Aware Universe.
Retrieved on 25 October 2005 from: https://twm.co.nz/goswam2.htm .
5. Talbot, Michael. The universe as hologram. Retrieved on 28 November 2005 from:
https://twm.co.nz/hologram.html
6. Bohm, David. The Holographic Universe. Retrieved on 28 November 2005 from:
https://twm.co.nz/gozwam2.html
7. Anonymous. Intelligent Design Network. Retrieved on 28 November 2005 from:
https://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org
8. Stenger, Victor J. Intelligent Design. Retrieved on 28 November 2005 from:
https://www.talkorigin.org/faqs/sosmo.html
9. Amadou, R. Parapsicologia – Um Ensaio Histórico e Crítico. (Parapsychology –
A Historical and Critical Essay). São Paulo: Mestre Jou – 1966, p. 29
10. Andrade, Hernani Guimarães. O que é PSI? (What is PSI?). (Magazine The
Spiritism, SãoPaulo, n.27, 2,1995. Retrieved on 26 November 2005 from:
https://www.espírito.org.br/portal/artigos/fep/o-that-eh-psi.html
11. Capra. Fritjof. The Tao of Physics, Brazilian edition, 2nd ed. São Paulo: Cultrix,
1983.
12. Sheldrake, Rupert. Sheldrake e os campos morfogenéticos (Sheldrake and the
morphogenetic fields). Retrieved on 18 December 2005 from:
https://www.pfilosofia.pop.com.br/03_filosofia/03_07.leia_tambem/09.htm.
Chapter Nine
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43rd. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeeming
Center, 2004, p. 71–82, 85–91, 95–106, and 117–136.
2. Mattos, Luiz de. The Incorporeal Life. 21st. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeeming Center,
undated.
3. Stevenson, Ian. Twenty Cases of Suggestive Reincarnation. 2nd. Edition.
Charlottesville, University Press of Virginia, 1974.
4. Moody Jr., Raymond A. The Life After Life. São Paulo: Buterfly, 2004.
5. Drouot, Patrick. We Are All Immortal. Rio de Janeiro: New Era, 1996.
6. Drouot, Patrick. Reincarnation and Immortality. 7th.ed. Rio de Janeiro: New Era,
1998.
7. Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Many Masters. Rio de Janeiro: Salamandra Consultoria
Editorial, 1991.
8. Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Only One Soul. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante, 2005.
Chapter Ten
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeemer Center.
Chapter 8, p. 139–145, 2004.
2. Gattass, R. et al. The Thought – Mapping of Images by Functional Magnetic Nuclear
3. Gattass, R. et all. Resonance (FMNR). Retrieved on 28 December, 2005 from:
https://www.cerebromente.org.br/n10/mente/pensamento1.htm
Chapter Eleven
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43st. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Redentor,
2004.
2. Mattos, Luiz de. The Incorporeal Life. 21st. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Redentor, 1996.
3. Mattos, Luiz de. Scientists Without Science, Shapes and colors of thoughts.
Retrieved on 20 February 2006 from:
https://www.racionalismo-cristao.org.br/gazeta/diversos/corespens.html
4. Chambel, Luis. Around the body – The aura – Religion and Science. Magazine
“A Razão.” July–August –September 94, p. 1, 12–17.
5. Milhomens, Newton. The Energetic Model of Man – Kirlian Effect. 3rd .ed. São Paulo: Ibrasa, 1994.
6. Milhomens, Newton. Kirlian Photos – How to Interpret. 7th. ed. São Paulo: Ibrasa,
1992.
7. Samel, Caruso. Reflections on Feelings. 4th. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Centro Redentor, 2006.
8. Besant, Annie e Leadbeater, C. W. Thought Forms. Adyar. Retrieved on 20 February
2006 from: https://www.anandgholap.net/Thought_Forms-AB_CWL.htm.
Chapter Twelve
1. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43rd. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeeming Center,
2004.
2. Mattos, Luiz de. The Incorporeal Life. 21st .ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeeming Center,
1996.
3. Mattos, Luiz de. Scientists Without Science, Forms and Colors of the Thoughts. 2nd.
Edition. Redeeming Center, 1939, p. 380–385. Retrieved on 20 February, 2006
from: https://www.racionalismo-cristao.org.br/gazeta/diversos/corespens.html
Chapter Thirteen
1. Webster, Noah and McKechnie, Jean L. Webster´s New Twentieth Dictionary, 2nd.
Edition – Collins World (1978)
2. Knobilich, Günther and Ölinger, Michael. Sudden Perception. Magazine Life, Mind
and Brain, p. 32–39, v. XIV, n. 156 – Jan. 2006.
3. Theofilo, Roque. Intuição. Retrieved on 09 February from:
https://www.dominiofeminino.com.br/eles/intuicao/intuicao.htm
4. Teophilo, Roque. Sharon Franquemont interview. Magazine. Veja v. 35, n. 21,
February 29, 2002.
5. Theiss, Felix. Intuition, What Animal Is It? Retrieved on 27 January from:
https://www2.brasil-rotario.com.br/revista/materias/rev943/e943_p6.html.
6. Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence (Brazilian edition: Inteligência Emocional.
6th. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 1995.
7. Mattos, Luiz de. Racionalismo Cristão. 43rd. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Redeemer Center,
2004, p. 112, 145 e 237.
8. Silva, Glaci Ribeiro da. Christian Racionalism and the Experimental Science. São
Paulo: Íbis, 2004, vol. 1, p. 120.
9. Site, Publisher of Questions and Answers – 2001. p. 13. Retrieved on 10 February
from: https://www.racionalismo-cristao.org.br
10. Aguilar, Marcelo. Acorde a sua intuição. Retrieved on 27 January from:
https://vocesa.abril.com.br/aberto/voceemacao/pgart_03_14052003_5010.shl.
11. Ayan, Steve. Think With Intuition. Magazine Life, Mind and Brain p. 40–42, v. XIV, n. 156, Jan. 2006. (Interview given to Steve Ayan, editor of Gehim & Geist, translation by Sérgio Tellaroli. w.d.
12. Pigliucci, Massimo, Intuition. Retrieved on 27 January from:
https://www.scifidimensions.com/oct02/onintuition.htm
Chapter Fourteen
1. Samel, Caruso. Reflexions on the Feelings (Reflexões sobre os sentimentos). 2nd ed.
Rio de Janeiro: Lidador, 2001, p. 205–209.
2. Agostinho, Santo. The free will, version from the original Latin. (O livre-arbítrio) by
Antônio Soares Pinheiro) 3rd ed., Faculdade de Filosofia de Braga, 1998.
3. Domenechi I, Manuel Maria. Suma Teologica, in Contrast to Science). (Suma
Teológica contrastada com la ciência). Retrieved on 30 January 2006 from:
https://personal3.iddeo.es/mmdomenechi/STCC.HTM
4. Descartes, René. The Philosophers´World (O mundo dos filósofos). Retrieved on 30
January 2006 from: https://www.mundodosfilosofos.com.br/#
5. Nascimento, J. C. The free will (O Livre arbítrio). Gazeta do Racionalismo. Rio de
Janeiro, jan. 2006. Retrieved on 30 January 2006 from:
https://www.racionalismo-cristao.org.br/gazeta/artigos/o-livre-arbitrio.html
6. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism (Racionalismo Cristão). 42nd ed. Rio de
Janeiro: Lidador, 2004. p 147–153.
7. O´Connor, Thimoty. Free Will. Retrieved on January 17 2006 from:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/
8. Honderich, Ted. The Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website. Retrieved on
January 30 2006 from: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm
Chapter Fifteen
1. Stevenson, M.D, Ian. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. 2nd. Edition.
Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia , 1974.
2. Stevenson, Ian. Twenty Cases of Suggestive Reincarnation (Summary). Retrieved on
20 March 2006 from: https://www.afterlife101.com/Reincarnation.html
3. Schwartz, Gary E. Veritas Research Project. Retrieved on 14 March 2006 from:
https://veritas.arizona.edu/research.htm and https://www.openmindsciences.com/
4. Stevenson, M.D., Ian. Children Who Remember Previous Lives – a Question of
Reincarnation. Jefferson:.Mc Farland & Company, Publishers, 2002.
5. Goswami, Amit. Physics of the Soul (BrazilianEdition). São Paulo: Aleph, 2005.
6. Stevenson, M.D, Ian. Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect. Westport:Praeger
Publishers, 1997.
7. Stevenson, Ian. Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (Summary). Retrieved on 21 March 2006 from: https://www.afterlife101.com/BiologyIntersect.html
8. Stevenson, Ian. Interview given to Dr. K. S. Rawat, Director of Reincarnation Research Foundation in Faridabad, Índia, in 1986. Venture Inward Magazine, September-October – 1995. Retrieved on 10 March 2006 from:
https://www.childpastlives.org/stevenson_intv.htm
9. Bowman, Carol. Website of Carol Bowman. Dr. Stevenson. Retrieved on 20 March 2006 from: https://childpastlives.org/stevenson.htm
10. Schwartz, Gary E., Simon, William L. and Russek, Linda G. The Afterlife Experiments. New York: Pocket Books, 2002.
11. Shroder, Tom. Old Souls (Brazilian Edition). Rio de Janeiro: Sextante, 2001.
12. Shroder, Tom. Old Souls (Summary). Retrieved on 20 March 2006 from: https://www.childpastlives.org/oldsouls.htm
13. Wambach, Helen. The Need for Reincarnation. Apud Miranda, H. Our Children Are Spirits, p.46. Retrieved on 10 March 2006 from:
https://www.annex.com.br/pessoais/confrariahpe/encarnacao.htm
Chapter Sixteen
l. Moody Jr., Raymond. Life After Life. lst. ed. San Francisco. HarperCollins and
HarperSanFrancisco. 200l.
2. Mattos, Luiz de. Christian Rationalism. 43rd.ed. Rio de Janeiro. Redeeming Center,
2004.
3. Mattos, Luiz de. The Incorporeal Life. 2lst. ed. Rio de Janeiro. Redeeming Center,
l996.
4. Mattos, Luiz de. Practice of the Christian Rationalism. l2nd. ed. Rio de Janeiro:
Gráfica Portinho Cavalcanti, l989.
5. Evans-Wentz, W. Y (Org). The Tibetan Book of the Dead – with introductory studies
by C G. Jung and others. São Paulo: Editora Pensamento, l960.
6. Williams, Kevin. Scientific Theories of the NDE. Comments of the book Door of the
Death by Jean Ritchie. Retrieved on l4 December 2005 from:
https://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts0l.html
7. Blackmore, Susan. Dying to Live. Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.near-death.com/experiences/articles00l.html
8. Stone, Greg. Dying to live. Susan Blackmore: Criticize. Retrieved on 0l April 2006
from: https://www.visitunderthetree.com/NDE/NDEa.html
9. Goldsmith, T. C. The Aging Evolution. Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.azinet.com/articles/Aging_Evolution.html
10.Jansen, Karl l. R.. The Ketamine Model of the Near-Death Experience. Retrieved on
0l April 2006 from: https://www.mindspring.com/~scottr/nde/jansenl.html.
11.Anonymous. Storm Lobes. Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.neuroskills.com/index.html?main=tbi/btemporl.shtml
12.Bethesda: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Cerebral
Minds Hypoxia Information. Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/anoxia/anoxia.htm
13.Sabom, Dr. Michael. Light and Death (Statistics). Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts07.html
14.Anonymous. Schizophrenia: Pshycotic Hallucinations. Retrieved on 0l April 2006
from: https://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/18995-1.asp
15.Steinberg, Marlene and Schnall, Maxine. Strangers to Ourselves. Retrieved on 0l
April 2006 from: https://www.depersonalization.info/overview.html
16.Dougherty, Sarah Belle. Mysteries of Prenatal Consciousness. Retrieved on 0l April
2006 from: https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/issues/sx-sbd2.htm
17.Morse, Melvin. Where God Lives (article on Dr.Melvin Morse). Retrieved on 0l
April 2006 from: https://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts06.html
l8. Ring, Kenneth. Mindsight (Blinds). Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.near-death.com/experiences/experts04.html.
l9. Lommel, Pim. Dutch NDE Study (Comments by). Retrieved on 0l April 2006 from:
https://www.mikepettigrew.com/afterlife/html/dutch_study.html
20.Authors, Several. Site Contents/Index. Retrieved on 0l August 2006 from:
https://www.nderf.org/site_index.htm
2l. Long, Jody A. Near-Death Experience, Religion and Spirituality. Retrieved on 0l
August 2006 from: https://www.nderf.org/religion_spirituality.htm
Chapter Seventeen
1. Lima, J. L. Niederauer de. Therapy of Last Lives. Retrieved on 20 March 2006 from:
https://paginas.terra.com.br/religiao/confrariaconsolador/terapia.htm
2. Drouot, Patrick. We Are All Immortal. São Paulo: Record, 1995.
3. Drouot, Patrick. Reincarnation and Immortality. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Era, 1997.
4. Drouot, Patrick. A Traveler's Memories in the Time. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Era, 1997.
5. Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Many Masters. Rio de Janeiro, Salamandra, 1998.
6. Weiss, Brian L. Meditating With Brian Weiss. 6th.ed. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante,
1998.
7. Weiss, Brian L. The Masters' Divine Wisdom. 11th. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante,
1998.
8. Weiss, Brian L. Many Lives, Only one Soul. Rio de Janeiro: Sextante, 2005.
9. Mesquita, Regis. Morris Netherton. Retrieved on 20 March 2006 from:
https://t-v-p.vilabol.uol.com.br/artigos.html
10. Site, Editorial. Fact or Fiction? Retrieved on 28 March 2006 from:
https://www.castlenightstar.com/pastregression.html
11. Chambel, Luis. To Go to the Past and to Return. Magazine “A Razão"(Portugal),
jul–ago–set/1996, p. 6–10.
12. Site, Editorial. Reincarnation. Retrieved on 29 March 2006 from:
https://www.fenomeno.trix.net/fenomeno_fenomenos_1_ar-reenc.htm
13. Brown, Rick. The Journal of Regression Therapy. v. V, n. 1, 1991, p. 62–71.
Retrieved on 29 March 2006 from: https://www.afterlife101.com/Submarine.html
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STRUCTURAL INDEX
Chapter One: The Universe, 21
1. Astronomy, Cosmology and Astrophysics, 21
2. Theories About the Formation of the Universe, 22
3. A Little Bit More About the Big Bang, 22
4. The Space and Its Content, 23
The Galaxies, 24
The Stars, 24
White Dwarf Stars, 25
Black Holes, 25
Neutron Stars, 25
Brown Dwarfs, 26
Quasars, 26
Pulsars, 26
Our Solar System, 26
Planets outside the Solar System (Exoplanets), 27
5. The Marvelous Hubble Space Telescope, 28
6. The Inflationary Theory, 30
7. Philosophical and Metaphysical Aspects, 32
Chapter Two: Force and Matter, 35
A. FORCE, 35
1. Scientific Vision of the Force, 35
The Gravity, 35
The Electromagnetism, 35
The Weak Nuclear Force, 36
The Strong Nuclear Force, 36
2. The Theory of the Relativity and the Quantum Theory, 36
3. The Superstring Theory, 38
4. Philosophical View of the Force, 39
B. MATTER, 42
1. The Scientific Vision of Matter, 42
2. Philosophical View of the Matter, 44
3. Mechanicist Materialism, 44
4. Dialectic Materialism, 45
Chapter Three: The Roads of Evolution, 47
1. Evolution of the Force on the Matter, 49
2. Evolution of the Force on the Human Beings, 53
The Origin of Life, 54
The Evolution of Species – Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism, 57
3. Creationism versus Evolutionism, 60
4. The Intelligent Design Group, 61
5. The Evolution of the Force in Man, 63
Chapter Four: Scientific Methodology, 65
1. Fact and Experimentation, 66
2. Science, 68
3. The Scientist, 69
4. Hypothesis, Systems, Theory, Law and Doctrine, 69
5. The Scientific Method, 71
Induction, 72
Deduction, 72
The Scientific Procedure, 73
6. Evidence and Scientific Proof, 74
7. The Testability of Hypothesis and Theories, 75
8. The Falseability Principle, 76
Chapter Five: Truth, Reality and Paradigm, 79
A. TRUTH, 79
1. Theorizing About Truth, 80
2. Truth – Evidence or Correspondence? 81
3. Final Considerations, 83
B. REALITY, 84
1. Cognitive or Cultural Reality, 86
2. Sensorial or Perceptive Reality, 86
3. Abstract Reality, 87
4. Psychological Reality, 87
5. Scientific Reality, 88
6. Transcendental Reality, 88
7. Implications Derived from the Realities, 89
C. PARADIGM, 90
1. Understanding and Comprehension, 90
2. Main Paradigms, 93
3. Change of Paradigms, 93
4. A New Paradigm, 94
Chapter Six: The Birth of the Spiritism, 99
1. Allan Kardec, 101
2. William Crookes, 102
3. Gabriel Delanne, 105
4. León Denis, 106
5. Charles Robert Richet, 107
Chapter Seven: The Advent of the Christian Rationalism, 109
1. Luiz de Mattos, 110
2. Luiz Alves Thomaz, 112
3. Antonio do Nascimento Cottas, 113
4. Vision of Future – Conclusion, 114
Chapter Eight: The Intelligent Force, 115
1. General Traces, 115
2. Universal Intelligence, 119
3. Scientific Vision of Universal Intelligence, 120
Alain Aspect and his Fantastic Experience, 120
David Bohm and His Theory of the Implicit Order, 122
Karl Pribam´s Holographic Theory Applicable to the Brain, 126
Amit Goswami´s Self Aware Universe or Monistic Idealism, 128
Sheldrake and the Morphogenetic Field Theory, 130
The Intelligent Design, 132
4. The Invisible World, 134
5. Parapsychology and the Inexplicable Phenomena, 135
6. Spiritualist Vision of the Intelligent Force, 137
Chapter Nine: The Primacy of the Spirit, 139
1. The Nature of the Spirit, 139
2. Main Attributes of the Spirit, 140
Willpower, 141
Conscience of Itself, 141
Intelligence, 141
Perception Capacity, 142
The Power of the Reasoning, 143
Creative Power, 143
Logics, 143
Domain of Itself, 144
Sensibility, 144
Firmness of Character, 145
3. The Spiritual Worlds, 145
Apprenticeship Worlds, 145
The Scholarship Worlds, 146
4. The Incarnation of the Spirit, 147
5. The Human Being’s Composition, 148
6. Earthly Existence of the Spirit, 149
7. The Disincarnation of the Spirit, 150
8. Facing the Fear of Death, 150
9. Premature Disincarnation, 151
10. Number of Incarnations, 152
11. Neither Heaven Nor Hell, 152
12. The Obscure Side of the Life, 152
13. The Inferior Astral – The Worst of the Worlds, 153
14. Vices and Contaminations, 154
15. Perversity without Limits, 155
16. Formation of Phalanges, 156
17. Well-Intentioned Spirits, 157
18. Ascension to the Worlds of Apprenticeship, 158
19. Evolution in the Spiritual Worlds, 159
20. The Real Sense of Life, 159
21. The Recording of Past Lives, 159
22. Poles of Attraction, 160
23. Space and Time, 161
Chapter Ten: The Importance of the Thought, 163
1. Concept, 163
2. The Formation of Thought, 163
3. Uses of the Thought, 164
4. Think Well to Act Well, 164
5. Culture of the Thought, 165
6. Learning How to Think, 165
7. Force of the Thought, 166
8. Process of Formation of the Thought, 167
Reasons for Thinking, 167
Resources for Thinking, 168
Confusion Factors, 168
Methods for Thinking, 169
Results of the Thought, 169
9. Mapping the Thought, 169
10. Psychological Classification, 170
Chapter Eleven: The Aura: the Mirror of the Soul, 171
1. General Aspects, 171
2. Scientific Investigations, 172
Before Kirlian, 173
Kirlian Time, 174
Post-Kirlian, 175
3. The Nature of the Aura, 176
4. Colors of Human Aura, 177
5. Conclusions, 179
Chapter Twelve: The Mediumship, 181
1. General Guidelines, 182
2. Types of Mediumship, 183
Intuitive Mediumship, 183
Hearing Mediumship, 183
Smell Mediumship, 184
Seeing and Clairvoyant Mediumship, 184
Psychographic Mediumship, 184
Incorporation Mediumship, 185
3. Needed and Desirable Qualities, 186
4. Discipline: the Secret of a Safe Mediumship, 187
5. Specific Knowledge, 188
6. Conditions for Disturbance, 189
7. The Evil of the Spiritual Ignorance, 191
8. Phases of the Mediumship, 192
9. Mediumship Evolution, 192
10. Mediumistic Works, 194
11. Mystifications, 196
12. Conclusion, 197
Chapter Thirteen: The Intuition: Our Orientation Compass, 199
1. Psychological Approach, 200
2. Carl G. Jung’s Psychological Approach, 201
3. Modern Psychological Approach, 202
4. Philosophical Approach, 204
5. Spiritual Approach, 206
6. The Dilemma of the Specialists: Previous Knowledge, 208
7. Advices to Get Results, 209
8. Practical Aspects, 210
9. The Role of the Brain, 211
10. Psychology of the Intuitive Judgment, 212
11. Does Intuition Contribute to Our Happiness? 213
12. Does Intuition Have Moral Connotation? 214
13. Conclusion, 214
Chapter Fourteen: The Free Will Constructs Our Future, 215
1. Basic Premises, 215
2. A Little Bit of Story, 216
3. Philosophical Spiritualist Concept, 217
4. The Mental Process of Free Will, 217
5. Relationship of the Free Will With the Good and the Evil, 218
6. Consequences of the Bad Use of the Free Will, 219
7. The Borderlines: Goodness and Perversity, 220
8. Free Will and Evolution, 220
9. Determinism versus Destiny, 220
10. Restrictions to the Free Will, 221
In Function of Age, 222
Brainwashing, 222
Authoritarian Subordination, 223
Political, Law Enforcement and Religious Oppression, 223
Biological Conditions, 223
Extreme Cases, 223
11. Conclusion, 224
Chapter Fifteen: Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation, 227
1. Ian Stevenson’s Research, 228
Twenty Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation, 228
Children Who Remember Previous Lives, 229
Experiences with Reading of Previous Lives, 229
Experiences Known as De Jà Vu, 230
Experiences Derived From Dreams and Nightmares, 230
Experiences under the Effect of Illness and Use of Drugs, 230
Experiences with Meditation, 231
Experiences under Strong Emotion, 231
Experiences in State of Normal Conscience, 231
Spontaneous Experiences with Children, 231
Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect – Convergence between Reincarnation and Biology, 232
Interview Given by Ian Stevenson, 233
2. Works Told by Amit Goswami, 236
3. Dr. Gary E. Schwartz: The Afterlife Experiments, 237
4. The Transformation of a Skeptic, 238
5. Statistics of Cases Presented by Dr. Helen Wambach, 240
Chapter Sixteen: Near-Death Experiences, 243
1. Typical Description of a Complete Case, 246
2. Cases in the Literature, 248
3. Existing Explanations, 250
Dying Brain Theory, 250
Charles Darwin Theory, 251
Hallucination Theory, 251
Temporal Lobe Theory, 251
Lack of Oxygen Theory, 251
Depersonalization Theory, 252
Memory of Birth Theory, 253
After-Death Theory, 253
4. Explanations Commented by Moody, 254
4.1 Supernatural, 254
4.2 Natural, 254
Pharmacological, 254
The Physiologic Explanation, 255
The Neurological Explanation, 255
4.3 Psychological Explanations, 255
Isolation Researches, 255
Dreams, Hallucination and Illusions, 256
5. Explanations to the Light of the Spiritualism, 256
5.1 First Case, 256
Hear Noises and Irritating Thrill Sounds, 257
Goes by a Narrow and Dark Long Tunnel, 257
Finds Himself Out-of-Body, 257
Perceives and See All Around, 257
Finds “Persons”: Relatives and Friends Already “Deads”, 257
Finds the “Light-Being”, 258
Do a Retrospective Analysis of His Life, 258
Final Barrier, 259
Return to the Body, 259
5.2 Second Case, 259
6. Conclusion, 260
Chapter Seventeen: Regression to Past Lives, 263
1. PLRT and Hypnosis, 266
2. Regression Techniques, 266
3. Past Lives and Past Living Existences, 267
4. Explanatory Models, 267
5. Reached Objectives, 269
6. Living Existences, 269
7. Techniques and Methods, 269
8. The Dangers of Self-Regression, 270
9. Counter-Indications, 271
10. The Confirmed Cases, 271
Case Ray Bryant (journalist), 271
Case James Johnston (the submarine man), 272
11. Conclusion, 273
Chapter Eighteen: The Awakening for Spirituality, 277
1. Our Objective Reality, 277
The Universe as Force and Matter, 278
The Roads of Evolution, 278
Scientific Methodology, 278
Truth, Reality and Paradigm, 278
2. A More Broad Reality, 279
The Birth of the Spiritism, 279
The Advent of Christian Rationalism, 279
The Intelligent Force, 279
The Primacy of the Spirit, 280
The Aura: The Mirror of the Soul, 282
The Mediumship, 282
The Intuition: Our Spiritual Compass, 283
The Free Will Constructs the Destiny, 283
3. Indications and Evidences, 284
Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation, 284
Near-Death Experiences, 285
Regression to Previous Lives, 286
Chapter Nineteen: Ultimatum to the Rationality, 287
1. The Universe, 287
2. Force and Matter, 287
3. The Roads of Evolution, 288
4. Scientific Methodology, 289
5. Truth, Reality and Paradigm, 290
6. The Birth of the Spiritism, 291
7. The Advent of the Christian Rationalism, 291
8. The Intelligent Force, 292
9. The Primacy of the Spirit, 293
10. The Importance of the Thought, 293
11. The Aura: The Mirror of the Soul, 293
12. The Mediumship, 293
13. The Intuition: Our Spiritual Compass, 294
14. The Free Will Constructs the Destiny, 294
15. Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation, 295
16. The Near-Death Experiences, 295
17. Regression to Previous Lives, 296
PERSONALITIES INDEX
A
Abdera, Democritus of, 42
Aigun, Eugene-August Albert de Rochas d´, 263
Albin, AlexanderRousselin of Saint, 173
Allen, James Alfred van, 28
Amadou, Robert, 135, 136
Anaxágoras of Clazomenas, 205
Anaximandro, 22
Aquinas, Thomas (Saint), 176, 216
Aristotle, 22, 40, 57, 66, 216
Aspect, Alain, 120, 121,122
Augustine (Saint), Aurelius, 216
Avery, Oswald Theodore, 59
Ayan, Steve, 215
B
Baer, Karl Ernest von, 47, 58
Banerjee, Sri N., 236
Baraduc, Henry, 173
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 210
Behe, Michael, 61, 62, 132, 133
Benson, Johm Henry, 237
Berkeley, George, 66
Bernard, Claude, 47, 59
Bernardo, Monk Saint, 112
Besant, Annie, 177
Blackmore, Susan, 250
Blavatsky, Lady Helena, 245
Bohm, David, 69, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127
Bohr, Niels Henrik David, 43
Bowden, Edward, 211
Bozzano, Ernesto, 108
Brelaz, Jalmir, 90, 91, 92, 95
Broca, Paulo, 48
Brown, Rick, 272
Bruno, Giordano, 21, 22, 27, 39, 40
Bryant, Ray, 271
Buddha, Guatama 109
Bunge, Mario, 70
C
Campos, Bernardino, 110
Capra, Fritjof, 93, 128
Carington, Whateley, 136
Carter, Rita, 86
Catherine, 266
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L., 60
Chagas, Carlos, 115
Chaigneau, Camille, 173
Chalmers, A. F., 66, 72
Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan, 30
Charcot, Jean-Martin, 137
Chauí, Marilena, 79
Chotkin, Corliss, 235, 236
Christ, Jesus, 13, 27, 105, 110, 112, 154, 291
Cicero, Marco Tulio, 109
Cloak, F. T., 60
Collomés, 173
Comte, Auguste, 66, 104
Copernicus, Nicola, 22,75
Cottas, Antonio do Nascimento, 113, 139, 177, 279, 291
Crick, Francis, 47, 56, 59
Crookes, William, 50, 99, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108, 114, 228, 237, 279, 284, 291
Cullen, J. M., 60
D
Dalton, John, 43
Damasio, António, 212
Darget, Commander, 173
Darwin, Charles Spencer, 45, 47, 48, 50, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 66, 115, 129,
132, 133, 216, 251, 278
Dawkins, Richard, 60, 62
De Bernardis, Paolo, 32
Delanne, Gabriel, 105, 106, 108, 174, 291
Dembski, William, 132
Democritus of Abdera, 35, 39, 42
Denis, León, 106
Denton, Michael, 62
Descartes, René, 32, 39, 40, 41, 44, 71, 109, 205, 207, 216, 217
Dessoir, Max, 135
Dobbzhanski, Theodosius, 47, 57, 58, 59, 60
Drouot, Patrick, 139, 227, 263, 264, 286
Duncker, Karl, 200
Durville, 173
E
Edwards, Paul, 240, 295
Einstein, Albert, 7, 30, 31, 32, 38, 39, 52, 71, 91, 121, 200, 203, 205, 208, 283
Elawar, Imad, 235
Engels, Friedrich, 45
Eudoxo of Cnido, 22
F
Feynman, Richard, 35
Filho, Alberto Mesquita, 68, 69, 72
Fiore, Edith, 227, 263, 266, 277, 286
Fisher, R. A., 58
Floyd, Keith, 127
Fontenay, Guillaume, 173
Franquemont, Sharon, 199, 202, 203
Freud, Sigmund, 201, 268
Friedman, Alexander, 22, 30
G
Galileo, Galilee, 7, 22, 65, 66, 75, 91, 234, 239
Gama, Luiz, 110
Gamow, George, 22, 30
Gates, Bill, 207, 211
Geley, Gustave, 108
Girod, 173
Gleiser, Marcelo, 100
Goleman, Daniel, 203
Goschke, Thomas, 199, 212, 216
Goswami, Amit, 121, 128, 129, 130, 230, 236
Goulain, Mark, 53
Gould, Stephen J., 76
Gounod, Charles, 178
Grof, Stanislav, 127, 230, 263
Guimarães, Hernani, 104
Guth, Alan, 31
H
Haeckel, Ernst, 48
Haldane, J. R. S., 54, 58, 59
Hamilton, Craig, 128
Hamilton, William, 205
Harrison, Mary, 237
Harrison, Peter, 237
Hawking, Stephen, 89
Hearn, 237
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 39
Heisenbergh, Werner Karl, 31, 52, 121
Hiley, B. J., 122
Holmes, Sherlock, 108
Home, Daniel Dunglas, 103
Honderik, Ted, 222
Hoyle, Fred, 22, 133
Hubble, Edwin Paul, 28, 30, 31
Humanson, Milton, 30
Hume, David, 66, 77
Huxley, Julian, 58, 59
Huxley, Thomas, 48
I
Inyuschin, V. M., 175
J
James VII, King, 102
Johnson, Phillip E., 62, 132, 133
Johnston, James, 272
Joire, Paul, 173
Jung, Carl Gustave, 57, 84, 85, 124, 131, 132, 201, 202, 212, 245, 264, 268
Jung-Beeman, Marc, 211
K
Kahneman, Daniel, 212
Kaku, Michio, 38
Kant, Immanuel, 39, 68, 205, 207
Kardec, Alan 99, 100, 101, 102, 105, 108, 114, 245, 279, 291
Keeton, Joe, 271, 272
Kekulé (von Stradonitz) August, 209, 210
Kepler, Joahnes, 41, 71
Kessler, Cynara Chemale, 55
Kirlian, Semion Davidovitch, 173, 174, 175
Kirlian, Valentina Chrisanfovka, 174
Koestler, Arthur, 130
Koffka, Kurt, 200
Komberg, Arthur, 53
Krishna (God), 109
Krishnamurti, J., 122
Kuhn, Thomas, 68, 71, 72
L
Lacey, H. M., 70
Lashley, Karl, 126
Lavoisier, Antoine Laurent, 35, 42, 45
Leadbeater, W. C., 173, 177
Leibniz, Gotfried Wilhelm, 32, 39, 40, 41
Lemaitre, George, 22
Leucipus of Miletus, 42
Levontin, Richard, 59
Lichtemberg, O. C., 173
Lief, Harold, 234
Locke, John, 66
Lodco-Narcovitz, 173
Lommel, Pim, 262, 295
Long, Jody A., 260, 295
Loyola, Ignacio, 111, 112
Luchins, Abraham, 209
Luis, Viegás, 175
Luys, Jules Bernard, 173
Lyell, Charles, 48, 50
M
Majewski, Adrian, 173
Mann, Murray Gell, 31
Marx, Karl, 45
Maspoust, Vladimir, 177
Mattos, Luiz de, 7, 50, 51, 52, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 116, 120, 137, 138, 139,
140, 150, 154, 163, 164, 171, 177, 181, 207, 215, 216, 227
279, 281, 291, 292
Maxell, W., 173
Maxwell, James Clerk, 36
Mayor, Michael, 27
Mayrm Ernest, 58, 60
Mendel, Gregor, 47, 57
Mendeleev, Dimitri, 207, 209, 210
Mendelsshon, 178
Mesmer, 108, 137, 173
Metcalf, Janet, 208
Michelangelo, 251
Milhomens, Newton, 174
Miller, Stanley, 54
Mishra, Swarnlata, 235
Moody Jr., Raymond A. 139, 227, 243, 246, 254, 255, 256, 285
Morgan, Annie Owen, 104
Morita, Akio, 207, 210, 211
Morse, J. J., 104
Morse, Melvin, 253
Moura, Roberto Landau de, 173
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 210
Muller, Joannes Peter, 59
N
Netherton, Morris, 263, 266, 267
Newton, Isaac, 37, 45, 70, 71, 72, 76, 89, 91, 99, 129, 205, 207, 289
O
O´Connor, Thimoty, 222
Ohlsson, Stelan, 208
Oparin, Alexander Ivanovitch, 54
P
Pasteur, Louis, 62, 119
Patrocínio, José do, 110
Pavlenko, S. M., 174
Peat, F. David, 122
Penzias, Arno, 30
Peres, Maria, 227, 267, 268, 286
Perlmutter, Saul, 31
Pestalozzi, Johan Heinrich, 101
Plato, 40, 109, 154, 204, 205, 208, 216
Plotino of Licopolis, 40
Popper, Karl, 60, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77
Price, George R., 136
Prigogine, Ilya, 95
Ptolemy, 22
Puccini, Giacomo, 203
Pythagoras of Samos, 7, 22, 42
Q
Queluz, Didier, 27
R
Rawat, K. S., 233
Reichenbach, Baron Karl von, 173, 174
Rhine, J. B., 93, 114, 136
Ribeiro, Júlio, 7, 110
Richet, Charles Robert, 99, 102, 105, 107, 108, 114, 229, 279, 282, 291
Ring, Knneth, 225
Rivail, Hyppolyte León Denizard (see Kardec, Alan), See Kardec
Rochas d´Aigun, Eugene August Albert, 263
Ruiz, João Álvaro, 65
Russek, Pretty G., 239
Rutherford, Ernest, 43
S
Sabom, Michael, 252
Schmidt, Bryan, 31
Schwann, Theodor, 47, 58, 59
Schwartz, Gary E., 227, 237, 238, 239, 282, 284, 295
Selby, Margareth, 272
Sheldrake, Rupert, 130, 131, 132
Shroder, Tom, 227, 239, 240
Siegel, 73
Siegle, Ronald, 251
Silva, Glaci Ribeiro da, 207
Simpson, George Gaylord, 58, 59
Sleiden, Mathias Jakob, 47, 58
Soal, Samuel George, 136
Sober, Eliot, 60
Socrate, 42, 109, 154, 204, 277, 287
Spinozza, Baruch, 41
Stapp, Henry, 121
Steinhardt, Paul J., 22, 32
Stenger, Victor J., 88, 133
Stevenson, Ian, 139, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235,
236, 237, 239, 240, 242, 284, 295
T
Thomaz, Luiz Alves, 111, 112, 113, 139, 227, 279, 281, 291
Thomson, Joseph J., 43
Tischner, Rudolphe, 136
Toffler, Alvin, 92
Touless, Robert, 136
U
Urey, Harold, 54
V
Vasiliev, L. L., 136
Victory, Queen, 102
Vieira, Priest Antonio, 111, 112
W
Wagner, Richard, 178
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 47, 48, 59, 115
Wambach, Helen, 139, 240, 263, 264, 286, 295
Warcollier, René, 173
Watson, James, 59
Wegner, Daniel M., 208
Weiss, Brian, 139, 227, 263, 264, 265, 286
Wertherheimer, Max, 200
Wewish, Anthony, 26
Wheater, Nicola, 237
Whitaker, 56
Whöller, Friedrich, 53
Whyatt, 248, 250
Wiesner, B. P., 136
Willey, Jennifer, 209
William, Kevin, 243, 253
Wilson, Robert, 30
Witten, Edward, 38
Wolger, Roger, 263
Z
Zhukov, 128
Zucarelli, Hugo, 127
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