The Spirits Book

[TransmutingSoul]

I happened to watch a movie yesterday about "The Spirits Book".

The Spirits Book - Wikipedia

I though it fictional story and was watching for interest until in the movie I heard that the source was the 'Spirit of Truth'. So I thought I would look it up.

It was a book published in 1857.

From what I understand as to what Baha'u'llah has offered, that when a New Message is given by God, its proclamation to all humanity comes from many various sources, by many various paths of inspiration. All those paths reflect the light to the extent they are free of material influence, but the Source is the Messenger, even before they are known in this world. Much like the rays of the sun are seen before it dawns on the horizon.

So some aspects of the doctrine contained in the book are:

• Man is a Spirit with a material body, i.e. our truer selves are not material, but spiritual.
• A living person is made of three entities: the spirit, the body and the spiritual body (the perispirit) that binds both. The perispirit is an original word of Spiritism.
• Spirits pre-exist and will survive matter that was created.
• There are not angels or demons as separate orders in the creation, but only good and evil spirits. Even a beastly person will eventually attain perfection.
• All Spirits are created simple and ignorant. They gradually evolve intellectually and morally, so passing from an inferior order to more elevated ones until finally reaching perfection.
• All Spirits preserve their individuality, before, during and after each life (incarnation). However, the amount of memory one retains depends on one's level of spiritual progression.
• The different corporeal existences of the Spirit are progressive and not regressive. The pace of their progress, however, depends on the effort made towards betterment. Spirits can stagnate for so long that it seems to be an eternity and it can even appear that they have retrograded.
• Spirits pertain to various orders, according to the degree of perfection they have attained, in three major categories (with fluid limits and unknown number of subcategories): Pure Spirits, who have attained maximum perfection; Good Spirits, whose desire towards goodness predominates, and Imperfect Spirits, who are characterized by ignorance and evil impulses. The relationship of Spirits with Man is constant and has always existed. The Good Spirits do their best to lead us towards goodness and uphold us during our trials, helping us to support them with courage and resignation. By contrast, the Imperfect Spirits try to incite us toward evil.
• Everyone has their own spirit-protector, otherwise known as a guardian angel, who is entrusted with keeping watch over somebody as a mission or trial for them. Similarly to our incarnation on the earth, this mission for them can be a way of advancing and purifying themselves.
• Jesus is the guide and model for mankind. The Doctrine which he taught and exemplified is the most pure expression of God's Laws. However, most of the traditional doctrine on him being the Christ (Messiah) is seen under a different light. Aspects regarded as keystones of faith by most denominations, like trinitarianism and the virgin birth are not seen as important, while his resurrection is explained in another way. His death also has a different interpretation: instead of a sacrifice to atone for our sins, it is an example of the importance of being coherent and resisting temptation.
• Man has free will, but must face the consequences of his deeds.
• The future life is in accordance to one's behavior and learning needs.

A lot of this finds teachings given by the Bab and Baha'u'llah.

It never ceases to amaze me how much spiritual outpouring there was in the 1800's and I see Allan Kardec and persons such as William Miller were indeed tapped into a source they could not fully understand.

This is the Netflix movie

https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80997400?preventIntent=true

This is posted in the debate section as I think general discussion would be difficult on RF, given the diversity of thought here.

So the question of the debate is.

Is there any truth in this book?

Regards Tony

 

[Trailblazer]

I happened to watch a movie yesterday about "The Spirits Book".

The Spirits Book - Wikipedia

I though it fictional story and was watching for interest until in the movie I heard that the source was the 'Spirit of Truth'. So I thought I would look it up.

It was a book published in 1857.

From what I understand as to what Baha'u'llah has offered, that when a New Message is given by God, its proclamation to all humanity comes from many various sources, by many various paths of inspiration. All those paths reflect the light to the extent they are free of material influence, but the Source is the Messenger, even before they are known in this world. Much like the rays of the sun are seen before it dawns on the horizon.

So some aspects of the doctrine contained in the book are:

• Man is a Spirit with a material body, i.e. our truer selves are not material, but spiritual.
• A living person is made of three entities: the spirit, the body and the spiritual body (the perispirit) that binds both. The perispirit is an original word of Spiritism.
• Spirits pre-exist and will survive matter that was created.
• There are not angels or demons as separate orders in the creation, but only good and evil spirits. Even a beastly person will eventually attain perfection.
• All Spirits are created simple and ignorant. They gradually evolve intellectually and morally, so passing from an inferior order to more elevated ones until finally reaching perfection.
• All Spirits preserve their individuality, before, during and after each life (incarnation). However, the amount of memory one retains depends on one's level of spiritual progression.
• The different corporeal existences of the Spirit are progressive and not regressive. The pace of their progress, however, depends on the effort made towards betterment. Spirits can stagnate for so long that it seems to be an eternity and it can even appear that they have retrograded.
• Spirits pertain to various orders, according to the degree of perfection they have attained, in three major categories (with fluid limits and unknown number of subcategories): Pure Spirits, who have attained maximum perfection; Good Spirits, whose desire towards goodness predominates, and Imperfect Spirits, who are characterized by ignorance and evil impulses. The relationship of Spirits with Man is constant and has always existed. The Good Spirits do their best to lead us towards goodness and uphold us during our trials, helping us to support them with courage and resignation. By contrast, the Imperfect Spirits try to incite us toward evil.
• Everyone has their own spirit-protector, otherwise known as a guardian angel, who is entrusted with keeping watch over somebody as a mission or trial for them. Similarly to our incarnation on the earth, this mission for them can be a way of advancing and purifying themselves.
• Jesus is the guide and model for mankind. The Doctrine which he taught and exemplified is the most pure expression of God's Laws. However, most of the traditional doctrine on him being the Christ (Messiah) is seen under a different light. Aspects regarded as keystones of faith by most denominations, like trinitarianism and the virgin birth are not seen as important, while his resurrection is explained in another way. His death also has a different interpretation: instead of a sacrifice to atone for our sins, it is an example of the importance of being coherent and resisting temptation.
• Man has free will, but must face the consequences of his deeds.
• The future life is in accordance to one's behavior and learning needs.

A lot of this finds teachings given by the Bab and Baha'u'llah.

It never ceases to amaze me how much spiritual outpouring there was in the 1800's and I see Allan Kardec and persons such as William Miller were indeed tapped into a source they could not fully understand.

This is the Netflix movie

https://www.netflix.com/au/title/80997400?preventIntent=true

This is posted in the debate section as I think general discussion would be difficult on RF, given the diversity of thought here.

So the question of the debate is.

Is there any truth in this book?

Regards Tony

From the website: The Spirits Book - Wikipedia

"The book is structured as a collection of questions regarding the origin of the spirits, the purpose of the life, the order of the universe, evil and good and the afterlife. Its answers, according to Kardec, were given to him by a group of spirits who identified themselves as "The Spirit of Truth", with whom he communicated in several Spiritist sessions during the 1850s. Kardec, who considered himself an "organizer" rather than an author, grouped the questions and their answers by theme, occasionally including lengthier digressions the spirits had dictated to him on specific subjects, some signed by philosophers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas and writers including Voltaire. "

Interestingly, The book entitled The Afterlife Revealed mentions Kardec and a group of spirits who identified themselves as "The Spirit of Truth", with whom he communicated in several Spiritist sessions during the 1850s. Below is about the book from the amazon website and you can Look Inside the book and read some sections of some chapters.

At the very foundation of religious faith and hope is a belief that consciousness will survive death and that we will live on in another dimension of reality. But that foundation easily crumbles when scientific minds are unable to wrap their brains around an afterlife, when they are unable to visualize a non-material world. As the foundation gives way, the philosophy of materialism takes hold and gives rise to moral decadence, egocentricity, hypocrisy, hatred, disorder, flux, strife, chaos, and fear. Such seems to be the state of the world today. There is so much to be found outside the highly guarded boundaries of mainstream science and orthodox religion for those willing to open their minds to it, for those willing to recognize that the dissemination of Truth did not stop with the good books of organized religion and cannot always be found in the laboratory.

Beginning in 1848, a number of sensitive people began developing as mediums, bringing forth communications from the spirit world. One of the skeptics investigating the "popular madness" was Professor Robert Hare of the University of Pennsylvania. Intending to debunk it all, Hare would, after extensive research, become a believer. When he asked an apparently advanced spirit what it was all about, he was told that it was "a deliberate effort, on the part of the inhabitants of the higher spheres, to break through the partition which has interfered with the attainment, by mortals, of a correct idea of their destiny after death." Unfortunately, both orthodox religion and mainstream science, acting out of ego and fear, have rebuked the efforts of those inhabitants of the higher spheres to enlighten us, thus permitting the foundations of both faith and hope to further crumble.

In The Afterlife Revealed, Michael Tymn sets forth some of the most credible messages from the spirits relative to the nature of their world. Instead of a heaven-hell dichotomy, we are told that there are many levels, or as Jesus is quoted, "many mansions," and that we cross over to the "other side" based on what might be called a "moral specific gravity." We discover a Divine plan - one of attainment and attunement, of gradual spiritual growth, of evolution of spirit through progressively higher planes. We see how we are really souls occupying bodies rather than bodies housing souls and how our souls are progressing in finding their way back to Oneness with the Creator through the challenges, the adversities, the trials and tribulations offered us in a particular lifetime.

The description of the afterlife outlined in this book closely parallels the journey of the soul described by Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha, which is one reason it is so credible to me. I have the paperback book and have read it more than once. I was so impressed with it that a couple of years ago I scanned some of the most important chapters which you can read on this pdf I attached.

 

[Trailblazer]

@ SeekingAllTruth

Since you expressed an interest in that book The Afterlife Revealed I thought I would let you know that I have the paperback so some time ago I scanned some of the most important chapters of the book which I saved as a pdf since the book is not available to read online. You can order the paperback on Amazon but if you want a head start I attached that pdf below.