The case for reincarnation (by Brian Foster)

The last one hundred and fifty years 

has commenced a quiet revolution, 

which is only beginning. The full extent has still 

not been revealed. The material disseminated so far 

is just the first push, to rebalance the equilibrium 

between materialism and spiritualism. For English 

speakers only a small percentage is yet translated. 

Hence, as each books is translated, new facets 

of spirit life and methods come to light.

Brian Foster, "The Case for Reincarnation - your path to perfection", Chapter 28, "Last Words") 

Brian Foster has just published his book "The Case for Reincarnation - your path to perfection" deserving some comments. Brian Foster is an American Spiritist who has been active in publishing several texts for the "Spiritist Knowledge" (1) blog, our repository of Spiritist articles. He is also the author of NWSpiritism (2) containing many illuminating articles about Spiritist books and fundamental concepts. Such fine analyses contribute to explain Spiritism to a wider audience in English speaking countries and, for this reason B. Foster is probably the American who best know Spiritism nowadays. 

The book scope is to answer some "easy" questions such as:

Why do we reincarnate;
How reincarnation works;
How many reincarnation we must have;
What memories are retained after reincarnation;
What kind of control do we have over the process;
Why suffering is necessary;
How to insure a better next life;
How many one must progress to become a perfect spirit.

Answers are given far from current controversies still existing in the Spiritualist movement and in such a way that they are one step ahead of present tentative explorations that only regard reincarnation as a hypothetical mechanism for anomalistic memories in children or in past life therapy reports. Foster has captured the inherent rational competence of Spiritist principles in explaining hidden aspects of the world around us - an ability requiring the recognition of what should be questioned first. Accordingly, only those who deeply know the principles can make the right questions in order to grasp and understand the true answers. 

Foster analysis are interesting because they show how the Spiritist knowledge can be assimilated worldwide, despite pessimistic views. According to some opinions, Spiritism was able to influence only a very restricted place in the world, namely, Latin America and, in particular, Brazil. The common argument is to invoke the adaptation of Spiritism - popular recognized as a religion - to the cultural Brazilian environment. This reasoning is however flawed because Spiritism is established upon solid philosophical (and not religious) basis. Therefore, Spiritism principles can be appreciated by any serious person, group of people or country, regardless the culture. 

Book Chapters

Brian's book is written as a manual of easy reading for the general audience. Some chapters, however, are even shorter in length than others. 

1. Reincarnation - Why is it important?
2. Why believe in Reincarnation.
3. How do we tie our spirit to our body?
4. Preparation for birth.
5. Childhood.
6. How you map out your trials on Earth.
7. Why we must go through multiple trials.
8. Interlude 1 - The past lives of Camilo Castelo Branco
9. Why are some burdened with disabilities.
10. Interlude 2 - The life of Amadeu Ferrari.
11. Reincarnation and families
12. Why are there difficult people in your life.
13. Interlude 3 - The past life of Joseph Mery.
14. How the process of reincarnation improves us.
15. Introduction to Spiritism
16. The power of thought.
17. The difference between anger and indignation.
18. Interlude 4 - The past life of Alfred and Ismalia.
19. How to ascend.
20. Types of trials which are not due to past wrongs.
21. Interlude 5 - Beggar Woman found by Prince Galetzin.
22. Trials of the rich.
23. Trials of the poor.
24. Trials of the middle class
25. Interlude 6 - Two lifes - Souria-Omar and Epaminondas de Vigo
26. Suicide - An undesirable method to escape your trial.
27. Reincarnation - What have we learned.
28. Last Words.

Chapter 24 was logically included by Brian since the world today is no longer divided between the "rich" and the "poor", there is fast-growing middle class. Also interesting are the "Interludes" where several practical cases are studied, providing a rich content for further discussions. Many of the chapter titles explain why the book may be considered a  "practical guide". 

References used by Foster are taken from the fundamental codification works by A. Kardec besides L. Denis (see "Bibliography"). The author also knows quite a lot about André Luiz whose works are cited in the book. Although the book scope is restricted to reincarnation, the book also touches other subjects of Spiritist interest and may be regarded as an introduction to Spiritism (See Chapter 15). What drew my attention the most was the peculiar way the author explains his understanding about the proposed questions. 

One can feel Brian Foster enthusiasm in his words cited in the beginning of this review once each new Spiritist book is translated into English. Far from confirming the thesis of immiscible cultural environments, the little impact Spiritim may have today on English speaking countries is probably cause by the lack of information transport: as new books are translated, a new world confirming and restating the reality of an American born movement and philosophical doctrine as Spiritualism is revealed (3).  

Such Knowledge together with recent Near Death reports and research on reincarnation will feed a very favorable future environment for a worldwide dissemination of Spiritist/Spiritualist principles - in line with the highest plans of moral reformation of our planet. This will take a lot of time, but the first steps were taken as revealed by Foster's book. 

Where to find the book

Here is the link for the Kindle version (Amazon): http://www.amazon.com/Case-Reincarnation-Your-Path-Perfection-ebook/dp/B00O6CDV4A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413127158&sr=8-1&keywords=the+case+for+reincarnation (February 2015)

Author's page on Amazon

•  http://www.amazon.com/Brian-Foster/e/B00O6JBO0G/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Notes

(1) See: "Principles of Good Government as implied by the Spirit World" e "On the way to the light: the spiritist story of Earth as told by Emmanuel".
(2) See also: https://www.facebook.com/nwspiritism

(3) On the other side, the "new world" is described in the peculiar way this knowledge is represented and assimilated in the Spiritist movement in Brazil. The principles are however, exactly the same of Spiritualism.

God and his causes III: unfolding a new image of the Universe.

In a series of previous posts, we saw that the Creation and the idea of God as described in "The Spirit's Book" (1) is significantly distinct from the commonly accepted notion of a personal God (according to most religions). The Spiritist notion is an alternative for those ideas in which God is not necessary (Atheism, for example), since the notion of God as a person - which make him an image of the human nature -  is not accepted by Spiritism. We explored the meaning in the concept of "primary cause" that can be applied even to the simplest phenomenon. Very often, the scope of scientific theories is the treatment of causes directly linked to phenomena, but scientific development can also lead to the discovery of more fundamental causes that should be regarded as primary ones.

The existence of a fundamentally distinct element in the Universe (the intelligent principle) has a complementary and paramount rule to play in the understanding of many phenomena around us, that are not directly accessible to our senses (see question #7 in (1)). The existence of such a principle was foresaw in question #23 of (1) as reproduced below:  

23.What is spirit ?

"The intelligent principle of the universe."

a) What is the essential nature of spirit ?

"This is impossible to explain in human language. For you, the spirit is nothing because it isn't tangible. For us, it's an objective reality as substantial as the body is to you. Know however: there is no such a thing as nothingness."

The more the spirit's existence and independence of matter are summarily ignored, the harder is to move forward, since in vain the causes of intelligent phenomena in Nature will be emulated by artificial and clever arrangements of matter. These simulations do not show that information can be generated by matter alone, but only that human intelligence is necessary to the task.  

On the other hand, a new way of understanding such totality - the base for future scientific development - will become apparent with the tacit acceptance of the intelligent principle as a fundamental and irreducible cause in Nature. 

Some comments about the Spiritist image of Creation

Fig. 1

Let us compare Fig. 1 with the equivalent image of the first post that invokes the Big Ban as the primary cause. Science has postulated the Big Bang as the primary cause of all that exist in accordance to the present scientific idea of "all". This cause not only generated the material principal (which is recognized as the only existent), but also the Universal laws at a very special moment of time. For the presently accepted cosmological theories, creation  was well determined process in "time" and "space" - in fact the Big Bang signaled the very creation of space-time.

However, the Big Bang is only an intermediary cause in creation. The origin of all is God, the true primary cause. Moreover, this creation is incessant (question #21, 1). Below God, there are three main causes that can be taken as "secondary": the material principle, the intelligent principle and Nature's laws. We saw that Nature's laws are also part of physical theories and by themselves they constitute a challenge for human understanding since not only an origin for matter is necessary but an origin for these laws must be found.

But, just as Nature's laws exist governing the relations among material ingredients in the Universe, there is also specific laws for the intelligent principle. Such laws dictate how this principle relates to other elements and how it evolves in time. Presently, we are incapable of speculating about the inner nature of this principle, but we know it exists. The attention of future science will be to study these new rules and to explain the spirit phenomena that derive from them. So, in the Fig. 1, we trace a parallel between how the laws relate to the material principle - resulting in purely material phenomena - and equivalent spirit laws that relate to the spirit principle and, therefore, cause the spirit phenomena.

In our present understanding level (2), Universal laws not only determine the relation among the principles, but how they interact. Therefore, we can foresaw an interface between spirit and mater that is governed by specific principles (see fluids, question #27,1).  This interface is full of rich phenomena and their own laws.

The primordial source of information in the Universe.

Acting on a higher level in relation to the principles that regulate matter, the intelligent principle is responsible for the perennial creation of information in the Universe. This information is transferred through a special language and a peculiar communication process convenient to this principle. In constant interaction with matter, which serves as sensory element, the intelligent principle evolves through a process we still do not dare to understand. After billions of years, this principle differentiated itself and became a Spirit, owner of a consciousness, personality and mental cosmos. 

Endowed with a conscience, the spirit starts to ask about its own existence. In an Universe of magnificent effects and infinite little causes, we find ourselves as part of Creation and, at the same time, creators at a microscopic scale. What secrets does Nature still hides from us on regard to our origin? On our level, we still grope in the darkness of our ignorance, but we can foresee our true heritage, the reason and destiny of our life - as far as we can know - an unreproducible act of love beyond any limits.

References and notes

1 - 'A. Kardec (1857), "The Spirit's Book";

 2 - We say "Nature's laws govern certain phenomena", however this is only a way to describe what we observe around according to our present level of understanding and sensory habilities. Very likely, there is a deep relation between the primary cause (God) and all things created so that "Nature's laws" are the way we apprehend tangibly the reality on our level of existence. In our "little world", everything happens as if "God were absent" since we have no special organs to sense him directly. (question #10, 1)

3 - God and his causes I - http://spiritistknowledge.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/god-ans-his-causes-i.html

4 - God and his causes II - Primary and secondary causes - http://spiritistknowledge.blogspot.com.br/2014/07/god-ans-his-causes-i.html