Considerations About Prayer in SpiritismEveryone is free to see things as they will, and since we claim such a freedom to ourselves, we cannot deny that to others. However, because an opinion is free it does not follow that one cannot discuss it, examine its strengths and weaknesses, weigh in its advantages and inconveniences. We say this with respect to the denial of the utility of prayer, that some people would like to convert into a system, building a flagship of a dissident school. Such an opinion can be summarized as this:
“God has established eternal laws to which every being is submitted; we have nothing to ask God for as we do not have to thank God for any special favor, thus it is useless to pray. The fate of the Spirits is determined, and consequently it is useless to pray for them. They cannot change the immutable order of things, and therefore it is useless to ask them for anything. Spiritism is a purely philosophical science; it not only is not a religion, but it must not have any religious character. Every prayer said in gatherings tend to feed superstition and self-righteousness.”
The subject matter of prayer has been sufficiently discussed, and that is why we believe it to be useless to repeat here what has already been said about it. If Spiritism proclaims its freedom it is not for systemic reasons, but for the fact that observation has allowed us to attest its efficacy and its modus operandi. If we understand the laws of fluids, we do understand the power of thoughts and prayer, since the prayer is a thought directed to a given objective.
To some people, the word prayer is only related to a request. That is a serious mistake. With respect to Divinity, the prayer is an act of worshiping, humility and submission that cannot be refuted without underestimating the power and goodness of the Creator. By denying a prayer to God one is refusing to pay tribute to God and still a revolt of human pride.
Regarding the Spirits, the souls of our brothers, prayer is an identification of thoughts, a testimony of sympathy. By repealing it we are repealing the memory of those that are dear to us, since that sympathetic and benevolent memory is a prayer on its own right. As a matter of fact, we know that those in suffering ask for prayers insistently, as a relief to their sufferings. If they ask for them it means that they need them. A refusal is like refusing a glass of water to a thirsty miserable.
In addition to the purely moral action, Spiritism shows us a kind of material effect of prayer, resulting from the fluidic transmission. Its efficacy is demonstrated by experience, in certain diseases, as well as by the theory. By rejecting the prayer, one is hindering the utilization of a powerful support in the relief of corporeal illnesses.
Let us now see the result of such a doctrine and discuss if it has any chance of prevailing.
All peoples pray, from the savage to the civilized. They are led by their instinct and this is what distinguish them from the animals. They, undoubtedly, pray in a more or less rational way, but they do pray. Those that do not pray, out of ignorance or presumption, form an insignificant minority in the world.
Prayer is, therefore, a universal necessity, irrespective of cult or nationality. If a person feels weak, she will feel stronger after praying; if she is said, feels consoled. Removing the prayer is the same as subtracting humanity from its most powerful moral support in hardship.
Through the prayer, the soul elevates, enters into communion with God, identifies itself with the spiritual world and dematerializes, an essential condition to its future happiness. Without the prayer, their thoughts remain on Earth and are even more connected to material things. That is a delay in one’s advancement.
By contesting a dogma, one is opposing the sect that professes it. By denying the efficacy of prayer, one is hurting the intimate feeling an almost unanimous feeling of mankind. Spiritism owns its many sympathies, with significant participation, to heartily felt aspirations that found consolation in prayer.
A doctrine founded on the denial of prayer would be denying itself the general sympathy, the main element of success, because instead of bringing warmth to the soul, it would be reducing it. If Spiritism must gain influence is through the summation of moral satisfaction that it entails.
May those that want novelty in Spiritism, to at any price hold their names as flagships, may they strive to do better than Spiritism does. However, they shall not surpass Spiritism by doing less. The bare tree shall always be less attractive than the one bearing delicious and nutritious fruits. It is based on the same principle that we have always told the adversaries of Spiritism: The only way to have it destroyed is to provide something better, more reassuring, that explains more and that it is more satisfying. Nobody has done that so far.
Hence we can consider the rejection of prayer as an isolated opinion of some believers in the Spiritist manifestations, an opinion that may attract some individuals but will never unite the majority. It would be a mistake to impute such doctrine to Spiritism, since it positively teaches the opposite.
The prayer predisposes reverence and introspection in the Spiritist gatherings, a necessary condition to series communications, as it is well-known. Does it mean that those meetings are religious assemblies? Not at all. A religious feeling is not synonym of religious professionalism; one must even avoid what could give the gatherings such a character. That has been our objective in disapproving prayers and liturgic symbols of any cult. One must not forget that Spiritism must tend to the approximation of multiple beliefs; it is no longer rare to see representatives of different cult in those meetings; thus, nobody must have the arrogance of supremacy. Everyone must pray as they wish, for this is a right of conscience; but, in an assembly founded on the principle of charity, we must abstain from everything that can hurt susceptibility and that tends to feed antagonism, that we must, on the contrary, strive to make disappear. Special prayers in Spiritism do not form a distinct cult because they are not imposed and because everyone is free to pray as thy wish, but they do have the advantage of serving everyone and shocking nobody.
The very principle of tolerance and respect to beliefs of others leads us to say that any sensible person that is led to the temple of a cult whose beliefs that person does not share, must abstain from any exterior sign that may scandalize the attendants; that it must, if necessary, renounce to the use of formalism that cannot compromise one’s conscience. The fact that God must be worshiped in a temple in a more or less logical way is not a reason to shock those that do not believe in such a methodology.
Since Spiritism provides us with a certain number of reassurances and proves a certain number of truths, we said that it could not be replaced by anything else that would provide less and proves less than it does. Let us see if that is at all possible.
The principal authority of the doctrine is the fact that it hasn’t gotten a single principle that is the result of a preconceived idea or of a personal opinion; all of them, without exception, are the result of observation of facts; it was only through the facts that Spiritism got to know the situation and the attributes of the Spirits, as well as the laws, or even better, part of the laws that govern the relationships with the invisible world. This is a point of paramount importance. By the continual observation we build experimental philosophy rather than speculative. Hence, in order to combat the theories of Spiritism, it is not enough to say that they are false; it is necessary to oppose them with facts whose solutions they are impotent to provide.
Even in such a case Spiritism would be held at a higher level because it would be contrary to its own essence to adamantly follow a false idea, always striving to fill the blanks that may eventually appear, since it does not have the pretension of having arrived at the apogee of the absolute truth.
This way of looking at Spiritism is not new; it can be found at all times in our books. Considering that Spiritism does not declare itself stationary nor immutable, it will incorporate all truths that are demonstrated, come from wherever they will, even from its adversaries, and shall never fall behind real progress. It will assimilate those truths, we say, but only when those are clearly demonstrated and not to please someone’s personals desires, or the product of someone’s imagination.
Having this point established, it follows that Spiritism could not lose, unless surpassed by a doctrine that provided more than it does. It has nothing to fear from those that give less, removing what constitutes its own strength and main attraction.
Spiritism may not have said everything yet, however there is a certain amount of truths that were attested by observation and that constitute the opinion of the immense majority of its followers; and if such truths have now conquered he status of articles of faith, here utilizing an expression ironically used by some, it was not by us or anybody else, not even by our guiding Spirits that they were stablished like that, and even less imposed, but by the adhesion of everybody, and therefore everyone may attest them.
Hence, if a sect were formed in opposition to the ideas generally accepted by experience, and admitted in principle, that sect could not attract the sympathy of the majority, whose convictions would be shocked by it. Its transient existence would extinguish with its founder, perhaps even earlier, or at least with the few followers that it could have solicited.
Suppose Spiritism divided in ten or twenty sects. The victorious and long lasting one will naturally be the one that gives more spiritual satisfaction; the one that fulfills more voids of the soul; the one based on the most positive proofs and that positions itself in synchronism with the general opinion.
Now, considering the observation of facts as the starting point of all of those principles, Spiritism cannot be surpassed by a theory; it cannot be overcome since it constantly stays at the level of progressive ideas; it satisfies the aspirations and is supported by the majority; established on such foundations, it is imperishable because that is its strength.
That is also the cause of failure of attempts to stop it. These attempts are based on ideas that are profoundly unappealing to the majority, hence instinctively rejected. By constructing any edifice of hopes on such basis, one is prone to disaster like the one that hangs on a rotten branch of a tree. That is what happens to those that were unable to destroy Spiritism by force and try to destroy it by itself.
