The
authority often ignored
Marco
Milani
Text published in Revista Dirigente Espírita, ed. 196, Jul/Ago 2023, p. 32
In
the introduction of The Gospel According to Spiritism, one of the most read
works among those published by Allan Kardec, an essential aspect of the
theoretical-doctrinal framework stands out. This is the method of validation of
mediumistic information known as the Universal Control of the Teaching of
Spirits (UCTS), which forms the foundation of the authority of the Spiritist
Doctrine.
Any
mediumistic communication, individually, is characterized merely as an opinion,
regardless of who signs the message or who serves as an intermediary. The
medium's name, by the way, was a secondary detail for Kardec, as numerous
communications contained only the respective initials. The most important
aspect was the analysis of the message's content.
Another
fundamental work, unfortunately not as widely studied by followers in general,
is The Genesis, whose initial chapter deals with the nature of Spiritist
revelation and emphasizes that the only authority of the teachings from Spirits
is their connection to the whole, in other words, it reaffirms that no
mediumistically revealed information becomes more than an opinion if it is not
confirmed by the UCTS.
Illustrating
this simultaneous teaching, Kardec states that every time mediumistic groups
attempted to address premature issues, they obtained nothing more than
contradictory and inconclusive responses. When, on the contrary, the opportune
moment arrives, the teaching becomes generalized and unified across the
majority of centers.[1]
As
the UCTS is the central element of doctrinal authority, no opinion from the
incarnate or the disincarnate, however interesting and respectful it might be,
integrates the Spiritist theoretical body solely due to being new or a supposed
advancement in knowledge.
As
a spiritualist philosophy, Spiritism opposes the materialistic worldview and
adopts reasoned faith as an aphorism in the face of objective reality. Any
premise or new doctrinal information should, conditionally, be rooted in
critical analysis of facts and, in the context of mediumistic exchange, in the
analysis of content with the methodological prudence of diverse sources.
Vigilance
towards new ideas is justified for the validation and legitimization of any
information and is corroborated by the disincarnate participants themselves in
the structure of Spiritist doctrine. Erasto, for example, takes the following
position:
(...) It is better to
reject ten truths momentarily than to admit a single lie, a lone false theory,
for upon that theory, upon that lie, you could build an entire system that
would collapse at the first breath of truth, like a monument erected on shifting
sands. Whereas, if today you reject certain truths, certain principles, because
they are not logically demonstrated to you, soon a brutal fact or an
irrefutable demonstration will come to affirm their authenticity.[2]
Strangely, what underlies the
authority of Spiritist Doctrine seems to be ignored by a significant portion of
the very followers who fail to grasp the importance of the universality of
teaching. Hastily, opinions contained in mediumistic communications are
accepted using the argument of authority as the sole criterion for validation.
Prudence
and critical attitude in the acceptance of any 'revelation' are necessary
methodological conditions for the practice of reasoned faith.
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