The Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1860

Allan Kardec

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Formation of Earth Theory of Planetary Incrustation

Our wise comrade from Brussels, Mr. Jobard, sends the text below regarding our article about the pre-adamites, published in last month’s issue of the Review:

“Allow me some thoughts about the creation of the world, with the objective of rehabilitating the Bible to our eyes and to the eyes of the free thinkers. God created the world in six days, four thousand years before the Christian era. That is what is contested by the geologists, based on the study of fossils and on the thousands of incontestable indications of antiquity that throw Earth’s origin to thousands of millions of years back. Nevertheless, the Scriptures tell the truth and so do the geologists, and it is a simple peasant that shows the agreement, teaching us that our Earth is nothing but an incrusted planet, very modern, composed of materials very ancient.”

“After the elevation of the unknown planet, reaching maturity or harmony with what was around in the place that we occupy today; Earth’s soul received a command to gather its satellites in order to form the current globe, according to the rules which governed everything. Only four of those globes consented with the proposed formation; only the Moon insisted in its autonomy, as the globes also have their free-will. In order to proceed with such a fusion, Earth’s soul stroked those globes with an attractive magnetic ray, thus bringing the vegetable, animal and hominid components of the community into a cataleptic state. The sole witness of that operation was Earth’s soul and the great celestial messengers who helped in that enormous endeavor, opening their globes and sharing their innards. Once the fusion was achieved the waters flowed over the voids left by the absence of the Moon, from whom one was supposed to expect a better appreciation of its interests.”

“The atmospheres blended and the awakening, or the resurrection of the germs from the cataleptic state, started. The human being was the last one to be retrieved from his hypnotic state, finding himself surrounded by luxuriant vegetation of the terrestrial paradise and the animals which peacefully grazed around him. Would you believe that all this could have happened in six days, considering such powerful workers to whom God had assigned the task! Planet Asia brought us the yellow race, the oldest civilization; planet Africa the black race; planet Europa the white race and planet America the red race. The Moon would certainly have brought us the green or blue race.”

“Thus, certain animals from which only the remains are found would have never lived here in our current Earth but would have been dislocated from their aged worlds. The fossils that are found in climates where they could not have survived certainly lived in different zones in their original globes. Those remains are found on our Poles while in their planets they would have lived around the Equator. Besides, those huge masses whose existence we cannot conceive in the air, used to live on the bottom of the oceans under the pressure of a medium that facilitated their locomotion. Future studies of the seas will bring us other remains, other germs which will wake up from their long lethargy, showing us unknown species of plants, animals and autochthones, contemporary of the floods, and you will be surprised by discovering new islands in the middle of the oceans populated by plants and animals which cannot come from anywhere, nor can they be transported by the winds or by the waves.”

“Our Science which contests the Bible will end up by restituting its merit as it was forced to do regarding the rotation of Earth, since it is not the Bible that is in error but those who do not understand it. Here is the proof:”

“Joshua stopped the sun by saying: Sun, stand still…! Well, it is still since then because you will find nowhere that he had ordered the Sun to move again; and since the defeat of the Amalekites, if night succeeds day, it is necessary that Earth moves. Then it is not Galileo but the inquisitors who must be reprimanded for not having taken the Bible literally.”

“The existence of the biblical unicorn was also denied and two have just been killed in the Tibetan mountains. The apparition of the spectrum of Saul was denied and thank God you are about to convince the skeptical. Let us always remember this warning from the Scriptures: “Noli esse incredulous sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus”.

“Kind and respectful regards to the author of the Ethnology of the Spiritual World.” Jobard 

The theory of Earth’s formation by the incrustation of several planetary bodies was already given on several occasions by certain spirits and through mediums who did not know one another. We do not support that doctrine, which we must confess, has not been sufficiently studied yet so that we can speak about it, but we recognize that it deserves a certain examination. The ideas that it suggests are nothing but hypothesis until more positive findings may come to confirm or deny them. Meanwhile it is a milestone which can lead to great discoveries, guiding our researches and scientists who may perhaps one day find in them the solution to many problems.

Nevertheless, certain critics will say: “Don’t you trust the spirits? Do you have doubts about their assertions? Since they are intelligences no longer attached to matter, can they not remove all doubts of Science and shed light where there is darkness?”

This is a serious issue that is related to the foundation of Spiritism and that we cannot solve at this point without repeating what we have already said with that regard. We shall only add a few words in order to justify our reservations. To begin with, we will respond by saying that we would very easily become people of lessor knowledge if we limited ourselves to only enquiry the spirits in order to know everything that is unknown to us now. God wishes that we acquire knowledge through work and God has not assigned the spirits with the task of bringing us that preprocessed knowledge, favoring our idleness. Next, one must consider that humanity, like the individuals, has its infancy, adolescence, youth and maturity. Since the spirits have been assigned by God to instruct human beings, they must then provide teachings that facilitate the development of human beings’ intelligence. They will not say everything to everyone, and before sowing they expect the terrain to be ready for the seeds so that they can bear fruits. That is why certain truths which we are told today were not taught to our parents, who also questioned the spirits; furthermore, that is why truths for which are not mature yet will only be taught to those who will come after us. Our mistake is to consider ourselves to be on the summit when in reality we are only half way through.

Let us say in passing that the spirits have two ways of instructing human beings. They can do it by communicating directly with human beings, a fact that has always happened at all times, as demonstrated by sacred as well as profane history, and they can also incarnate among human beings to accomplish missions of progress. Such are those righteous individuals and geniuses that show up from time to time, like lighthouses to humanity, making it advance a few steps. Observe what happens when those individuals come before the time is right for the propagation of the ideas that they want to spread: they go ignored in life but their teachings remain. These are stored in the world’s archives, like the precious grain that is spared, reaching the ground the day when it can fructify.

From the above it is understandable that if the time were not right to disseminate certain ideas we would then hopelessly interrogate the spirits. They cannot say but that which they are permitted. There is however another reason that everyone who has some experience with the spiritual world understands well.

It is not good enough to be a spirit in order to reach the universal science; otherwise death would make us almost equal to God. As a matter of fact, simple common sense refuses to accept that the spirit of a savage, of an ignorant or evil person, when separated from the body, would be on the same level as that of the virtuous individual. That would not be rational. Hence, there are advanced spirits and others more or less delayed, who still need to pass through several stages, go through numerous filters before leaving behind all their imperfections. As a consequence, all varieties of moral and intelligence existing among human beings are also found in the spiritual world, and some others. Now, experience demonstrates that the bad ones communicate as much as the good ones. Those who are openly bad are easily identified but there are also the pseudo-wise ones, the false wise, the presumptuous, the systematic and the hypocrites. These are the most dangerous ones since they bear a serious appearance, of wisdom and science, towards which they always proclaim the most absurd things amidst some truths and good teachings. They are not afraid of using respectable names in order to better deceive. Separate the true from the false; discover the occult deception out of a cascade of beautiful words; unmask the imposters, that is, without a doubt, one of the greatest difficulties of the Spiritist Science. A long experience is required in order to overcome that; get to know every trap used by the low class spirits; exercise a lot of prudence; see things with the most undisturbed cold blood and particularly abstain yourself from the blinding enthusiasm. With time, experience and a little bit of finesse one can easily figure them out, even under the coverage of the most pretentious language.

Unfortunate, however, is the medium that judges them infallible, deluded by the communications that they receive. The dominant spirit may fascinate them to the point of leading them to believe to be sublime something that is sometimes absurd and obvious to everyone else but them.

Let us return to the subject. The theory of the formation of Earth by incrustation is not the only one given by the spirits. In which one should we believe? This demonstrates that outside the moral world, which cannot have two interpretations, one must not accept scientific theories from the spirits, unless with great reservation, because and once more they do not have the mission of bringing us the final Science; they are far from knowing everything, particularly with respect to the beginning of things; finally, it is necessary to suspect the systematic ideas, that some among them want to make prevail and to which they have no scruples in associating a divine origin. Examining those communications cold-bloodedly and especially without prevention; pondering all words with maturity, we easily find out the signs of a suspicious origin, incompatible with the character of the spirit with whom we supposedly speak.

These are sometimes such clear scientific heresies that one would need to be blind or very ignorant to miss them. Well, how can one admit that a superior spirit may make such absurd mistakes? Other times these are trivial expressions of ridicule, puerile forms, and a thousand other signals which betray the inferiority of the spirit to anyone who is not fascinated.

What sensible person could ever believe that a doctrine contrary to the most positive findings of science could be originated from a wise spirit, even when bearing the name Arago? How can one believe in the goodness of a spirit who gave advices that were contrary to charity and benevolence, even when signed by an apostle of beneficence? In addition, it is a profanity to mix venerable names with communications which show evident traces of inferiority. The more respected the names, the more they must be taken carefully and the more one must be aware of the risks of being deceived by mystification.

In summary, the important criterion taught by the spirits is logic. God gave us reason and the capacity to judge so it can serve us. The good spirits recommend it to us and we can use it to give proof of their superiority. The others take great care. They want to be given credit for their words, for they know they stand to lose if there is serious examination.

As seen, we have many reasons for not accepting lightheartedly every theory given by the spirits. When a theory shows up, we position ourselves in the role of the observer. We make abstraction of the spiritist origin, not allowing ourselves to be obfuscated by the light of pompous names. We examine that theory as if coming from a simple mortal and see if it is rational, if it encompasses everything, if it solves all challenges. That is how we proceeded with the doctrine of the reincarnation, which was not promptly adopted by us, although coming from the spirits, but only after we had acknowledged that such theory, and only that theory, could solve what no other doctrine could have ever done before, and abstraction made of all material proofs which are daily given to us and many others about that theory. Hence, never mind the contradictors, even if these are spirits. As long as the theory is logic, according to God’s justice; than nothing else more satisfactory can be presented to us, we will not bother with that more than we would with those who state that the Earth does not turn around the Sun – because there are spirits that defend this idea and consider themselves shrewd – or those who say that human beings came from another world, perfectly formed, riding the back of a winged elephant.

We agree even less with the point of view about the formation and particularly the population of Earth. That is why, since the beginning, we said that for us the issue was not sufficiently clarified, as seen from a purely scientific point of view. We just say that, at first glance, the theory of incrustation did not seem completely unfounded and, not supporting or denying it, we say that this is a subject for examination. In fact, once the physiological characters of the diverse human races are studied, it is not possible to attribute them with a common origin, because the black race is not a bastardization of the white race. Yet, adopting the Biblical text, which yields all human beings descending from Noah’s family, two thousand and four hundred years before the Christian era, one would have to admit not only that such family populated the whole Asia, Europe and Africa in a few centuries but that they had become black. We know well the kind of influence that the climate and habits may have upon the human body. A scorching Sun darkens the skin but it has never been seen, even under the most intense tropical conditions, white families procreating black children, without crossing races. Hence, it seems evident to us that the primitive races on Earth came from different origins. What is the principle? That is the question, and up until there is material proof, one is not allowed to make more than assumptions about the subject. Therefore, it is up to the individuals of Science to identify those which are more in agreement with the facts already attested by Science. Without examining how the welding and fusion of several planetary bodies was possible for the formation of our globe, we must recognize that it is not impossible and then this could explain the simultaneous presence of heterogeneous races, so much different in their habits and languages, that each part of the globe would have carried their germs or embryos; and that perhaps, who knows, the already formed individuals. Under such assumption, the white race would have come from a different world than the one which would have brought the black race. In all cases the fusion would not have taken place without a general cataclysm, yielding the survival of a few individuals only. Thus, according to this theory, our globe would be very old for its constituent parts, and very new for its agglomeration. As seen, this theory does not contradict the geological periods that would date back to an undetermined period, prior to the fusion. Nevertheless, and whatever Mr. Jobard says, if things took place in such a way, it seems difficult that such events had happened and particularly that the equilibrium of such a chaos could have taken place in six days of 24 hours. The motion of the inert matter is submitted to eternal laws that cannot be breached by miracles.

One must still explain the meaning of Earth’s soul since nobody can attribute some sort of will to matter. The spirits have always said that some of them have special assignments. Agents and God’s ministers manage, according to their degree of elevation, events of physical as well as moral nature. Thus, since some of them watch over individuals, of whom they become familiar spirits or protectors, others take under their sponsorship groups of individuals, communities, cities, peoples and even globes. Earth’s soul must then be understood as the spirit called upon by its mission of managing her and making her advance. The governing spirit of a world must necessarily be of a superior order, and the more elevated the more advanced that world is.

If we insisted on several points that could seem strange to the subject, it was precisely due to the fact that they are related to an eminently controversial scientific issue. It must be strongly stated to those who judge things without knowing them that Spiritism, is far from taking everything that comes from the invisible world as an article of faith and that, contrary to what they intend to say, Spiritism is not founded on blind belief, but on reason.

If all adepts of Spiritism do not keep the same circumspection, it is not the Science’s fault but of those who do not endeavor to study it further. Likewise, it would not be more logical to pass judgment based on the exaggeration of a few individuals than to condemn religion based on the opinion of a few fanatics.

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