The Twenty-six ways to identify if a communication comes from a benevolent spirit

Spiritist Communication

Whether you are a spiritualist or not, you have probably found yourself in a situation where someone has conveyed a "message" to you, received by a medium, fortune teller, or "psychic," with you as the special recipient. 

It is also very likely that you know people who consult with and receive instructions from spirits in order to obtain quick solutions to their problems or afflictions. There is also the case of that neighbor of yours who "receives" such and such an entity and "works" at home.

Well, you must have been in doubt, unable to discern the content of these messages. Could they really have come from a spirit? Or at least, did this spirit have a superior moral character deserving of your trust?

Taking this question further into the strictly psychic field, of spiritual influence, to which we are all subject and which occurs unconsciously in the routine of our lives, we can observe the nature of our own mental cogitations. What are we considering? Whatever it is, is it worthy of someone concerned with spiritual self-education?

Answers to mediumistic questions can be found in the works of Allan Kardec.

The codifier of Spiritism, Allan Kardec, in his work The Mediums' Book, made all this very clear, and for the scholars of the doctrine, what we are talking about here is no news. But, for those who are just arriving and for those who are interested in reviewing what they have learned, here are 26 ways to identify if a communication is coming from a superior spirit or not:

There is no other criterion for discerning the value of spirits than common sense. We know the spirits by their language and their advice, that is, by the feelings they inspire and the counsel they give. Once it is admitted that good spirits can only say and do good, anything that is evil cannot come from a good spirit. The language of higher spirits is always dignified, noble, and elevated, without any mixture of trivialities. They communicate everything with simplicity and modesty, never boasting, nor displaying their knowledge or their position among others. The language of lower or ordinary spirits always reflects some human passions. Any expression indicating baseness, presumption, arrogance, bragging, or acrimony is a characteristic sign of inferiority, or of fraud if the spirit presents itself under a respectable and venerated name.

It is not by the material form nor by the correctness of the style that one judges a spirit, but rather by probing its inner nature, scrutinizing its words, weighing them coldly, maturely, and without prejudice. Any deviation from logic, reason, and wisdom leaves no doubt as to its origin, regardless of the name with which the communicating spiritual entity is dressed.

The language of elevated spirits is always identical, if not in form, at least in substance. They are not contradictory. Good spirits only speak of what they know; they remain silent or admit their ignorance about what they do not know. Evil spirits speak on all subjects with confidence, without concern for the truth. Any well-known scientific heresy or any principle that shocks common sense reveals the fraud if the spirit claims to be enlightened.

It is easy to recognize frivolous spirits by the ease with which they predict the future and specify material facts that are not given for us to know. Good spirits may provide a sense of future things when such knowledge is useful, but they never specify dates: any announcement of an event with a fixed time period is an indication of a hoax. The elevated spirits express themselves in a simple manner, without verbosity. Their style is concise, without excluding the poetry of ideas, using expressions that are always intelligible and accessible to everyone, not requiring effort to be understood. They possess the art of saying many things with few words because each word carries its own importance. The lower spirits, or false sages, hide their empty thoughts under pretension and emphasis. Their language is often pretentious, ridiculous, or obscure in an effort to appear profound.

But it's not.

The Good spirits never give orders; they do not impose, they counsel, and if they are not listened to, they withdraw. Evil spirits are imperious, give orders, demand to be obeyed, and remain regardless. Any spirit that imposes itself betrays its origin. They are exclusive and absolute in their opinions, and they claim to have the sole privilege of truth. They demand blind belief and do not appeal to reason, because they know reason would unmask them.

Good spirits do not flatter. They approve when good is done, but always with reservations. The bad spirits give exaggerated praise, stimulate pride and vanity, preach humility, and seek to exalt the personal importance of those they wish to captivate. Superior spirits transcend the trivialities of form and in all aspects. Only common spirits may attach importance to petty details, which are incompatible with truly elevated ideas. Any meticulous prescription is a sure sign of inferiority and fraud on the part of a spirit assuming an important name. Be wary of the bizarre and ridiculous names adopted by certain spirits that wish to impose on the credulous. It would be exceedingly absurd to take these names seriously.

Be wary of spirits that readily present themselves with highly revered names and accept their words only with the greatest caution. In such cases, a stringent and indispensable control is necessary, because, frequently, it is a mask they assume to make one believe in alleged intimate connections with exceptional spirits. Through this means, they flatter the medium's vanity and take advantage of it to lead them constantly into regrettable or ridiculous actions. 

The Good spirits are very scrupulous about the attitudes they can advise. In all cases, they never advise if there is no serious and eminently useful objective. All those that do not have this character, or are not in accordance with reason, must be considered suspicious. It is also necessary to carefully reflect on all the advice received so as not to run the risk of exposing yourself to unpleasant mystifications.

The Good spirits can also be recognized by their prudent reserve in all matters that could be compromising. They are reluctant to reveal wrongdoing. Frivolous or malevolent spirits take pleasure in highlighting it. While good spirits seek to soften errors and preach indulgence, bad ones exaggerate and sow discord through wicked insinuations.

The Good spirits prescribe only what is good. Any maxim, any advice that is not strictly in accordance with pure evangelical charity cannot be the work of good spirits. The Good spirits never advise anything but perfectly rational things. Any recommendation that deviates from the straight path of common sense or the immutable laws of nature indicates a limited spirit and, consequently, one that is not very trustworthy.

Evil spirits, or simply imperfect ones, still betray themselves through certain material signs by which they could deceive no one. Their influence on the medium is sometimes violent, causing abrupt and jerky movements, a feverish and convulsive agitation, which contrasts with the calmness and gentleness of good spirits. The Imperfect spirits frequently take advantage of the means of communication at their disposal to give pernicious advice. They incite distrust and animosity against those they dislike; those who can expose their deceit are, above all, the object of their censure. Weak men are their target to induce them to do evil. By employing sophisms, sarcasms, insults, and even material signs of their hidden power successively to better convince, they seek to divert them from the path of truth.

The spirit of men who had a singular concern on Earth, whether material or moral, if they are not freed from the influence of matter, are still under the dominion of earthly ideas and carry with them a part of the prejudices, preferences, and even obsessions they had in this world. This is easy to recognize by their language.

The knowledge with which certain spirits adorn themselves, with a kind of ostentation, is not a sign of their superiority. The unalterable purity of moral feelings is, in this respect, the true proof of their moral superiority.

It is not enough to interrogate a spirit to know the truth. First and foremost, it is necessary to know to whom one is addressing, because inferior spirits, ignorant themselves, treat the most serious matters with frivolity. It is also not enough for a spirit to have had a great name on Earth to possess sovereign science in the spiritual world. Only virtue, by purifying it, can bring it closer to God and develop its knowledge.

From the higher spirits, wit is often fine and keen but never trivial. Among the witty spirits who are not coarse, biting satire is always very timely.

By carefully studying the character of the spirits that present themselves, especially from a moral standpoint, one can recognize their nature and the degree of trust that can be granted to them. Common sense would not be deceived.

To judge spirits, as well as to judge men, one must first know how to judge oneself. Unfortunately, there are many people who take their personal opinion as the exclusive measure of good and bad, true and false. Anything that contradicts their way of seeing things, their ideas, the system they have conceived or adopted, is bad in their eyes. Such individuals obviously lack the primary quality for a fair assessment: the rectitude of judgment. But they do not suspect this. It is the fault about which we most deceive ourselves. We believe that keeping these considerations in mind, it becomes much easier to discern the quality of our own thoughts and to guard ourselves against so much charlatanism that has been distorting the enlightening essence of spiritism out there.

Translate by Márcio Varela

In Portuguese https://lardoespiritismo.blogspot.com/2024/05/vinte-e-seis-maneiras-de-identificar-se.html

(Original Source: Paul Apostle Spiritist Study Center - Ceepa, Mirassol - São Paulo)