The law of progress in Spiritism: why the doctrine says humanity does not regress

The law of progress is the eighth of the ten moral laws of Spiritism. It occupies chapter VIII of part three of O Livro dos Espíritos (The Spirits' Book), questions 776 to 802, and it is where the doctrine deals with civilisation, penal laws, the obstacle it considers the greatest of all and the role it assigns to Spiritism itself in this process.

Guatambu Travel organises Spiritist caravans departing from Porto Alegre to the Triângulo Mineiro. Here we describe what the doctrine states, giving the question number for each quotation for anyone who wishes to check.

What does the doctrine understand by progress?

First, what it is not. The work separates natural law from the primitive state: “No, the state of nature is the primitive state. Civilisation is incompatible with the state of nature, whereas natural law contributes to the progress of humanity.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 776)

On the romantic idea that human beings were happier before civilisation, the answer is ironic and short: “What do you expect! It is the happiness of the brute. Some people understand no other. It is being happy in the manner of animals.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 777)

And the possibility of regression is denied: “No, man must progress incessantly and cannot return to the state of infancy. Since he progresses, it is because God wills it so.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 778)

Are intellectual progress and moral progress the same thing?

No, and the distinction is one of the most useful in the chapter. On the relationship between the two: “It follows from it, but does not always follow it immediately.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 780)

The explanation of how one produces the other turns on choice: “By making good and evil understandable. Man can then choose. The development of free will accompanies that of intelligence and increases responsibility for one's acts.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 780)

It is through this difference that the work answers the objection that educated peoples can be cruel, and it is the same reasoning that appears in the law of equality.

What is the greatest obstacle to progress, according to Spiritism?

The answer is short: “Pride and selfishness.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 785)

And the work immediately specifies which progress it refers to: “I refer to moral progress, since intellectual progress always takes place.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 785)

Can progress be halted?

It can be delayed, but not prevented: “No, but it sometimes has the power to hinder it.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 781)

On those who try to make humanity regress, the answer is figurative: “Poor beings, whom God will punish! They will be swept away by the torrent they try to hold back.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 781)

And on those who obstruct in good faith, believing they are helping: “They are like small stones that, placed under the wheel of a great carriage, do not stop it from moving forward.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 782)

If humanity progresses, why does the world seem to be getting worse?

The work answers that the criterion of observation is mistaken: “You are mistaken. Look closely at the whole and you will see that man advances, for he understands better what is evil, and day by day suppresses abuses.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 784)

And it adds a thesis on the role of excess: “It is necessary for evil to reach excess, in order to make the need for good and for reforms understandable.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 784)

On the pace of progress, the work describes two modes: “There is regular, slow progress, which results from the force of things. When, however, a people does not progress as fast as it should, God subjects it, from time to time, to a physical or moral shock that transforms it.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 783)

This same reasoning about collective upheavals reappears, applied to catastrophes, in the law of destruction.

Is civilisation an advance or a decline?

The work rejects both extremes and answers with an intermediate expression: “Incomplete progress. Man does not pass suddenly from infancy to maturity.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 790)

And it redirects the criticism: “Condemn rather those who abuse it, and not the work of God.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 790)

When asked how to recognise a complete civilisation, the answer is the harshest passage of the chapter: “You will recognise it by moral development. You believe you are very advanced because you have made great discoveries and obtained marvellous inventions; because you are housed and clothed better than savages.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 793)

The work also addresses nationalities, and rejects the idea of a single nation: “A single nation, no; it would be impossible, since from the diversity of climates arise different customs and needs, which constitute nationalities” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 789). In the same answer, it names what it considers universal: “Charity, however, knows no latitudes and does not distinguish the colour of men.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 789)

What does the doctrine say about human laws and penal laws?

On the instability of laws, the explanation is historical: “In times of barbarism, it is the strongest who make the laws, and they made them for themselves. As men came to understand justice better, it became indispensable to modify them.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 795)

And on penal severity, the work acknowledges the necessity and points out its limit: “A depraved society certainly needs severe laws. Unfortunately, these laws are intended more to punish evil after it is done than to dry up its source. Only education can reform men, who will then no longer need such rigorous laws.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 796)

What role does Spiritism assign to itself?

The chapter ends with a section on this, and it is worth noting that it is the work speaking about itself. On the contribution it claims: “By destroying materialism, which is one of the sores of society, it makes men understand where their true interests lie.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 799)

And, in the same answer, the social effect it intends: “By abolishing the prejudices of sects, castes and colours, it teaches men the great solidarity that will unite them as brothers.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 799)

The work also does not promise rapid transformation: “Ideas change only little by little, according to the individual, and some generations must pass before the traces of old habits are wholly erased.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 800)

And it explains why, in its view, this teaching did not come earlier: “You do not teach children what you teach adults, and you do not give a newborn food it cannot digest. Everything has its time.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 801)

Where to read this law for yourself

The whole chapter is in O Livro dos Espíritos, part three, chapter VIII, questions 776 to 802, divided into six sections: state of nature, the march of progress, degenerate peoples, civilisation, progress of human legislation and the influence of Spiritism on progress.

The work is available as a PDF, with free access, in the downloads area of the Federação Espírita Brasileira.

Where can you see the progress the chapter speaks of?

The chapter speaks of individual and collective progress, and the Brazilian Spiritist movement is a concrete case of an institution that has grown over more than a century. The Guatambu Travel Spiritist caravan visits some of these centres in Minas Gerais, departing from Porto Alegre. Itinerary on the Spiritist caravan page.

And if the group already exists, the path is different. A Spiritist centre, a study group or a large family that wants to travel together does not need to buy single seats: Guatambu Travel arranges the bus hire through partner operators, with no fleet of its own, and puts together the itinerary for that closed group. How this works, what the law requires of the operator and how to check the company are covered in bus charter for groups. Anyone organising a trip in another state who needs support in Rio Grande do Sul will find the equivalent in ground handling for groups.

Continue reading

This text is part of a series on the ten moral laws of Spiritism, published by Guatambu Travel.

Sources

All quotations in this text were checked question by question against the edition cited above.

Cover image: title page of O Livro dos Espíritos (Le Livre des Esprits), by Allan Kardec, 1860 edition, public domain, scan by Fran6fran6, via Wikimedia Commons, resized image (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Le_Livre_des_Esprits_2.jpg).