Allan Kardec-THE Spirit's Book_ The Principles of Spiritist Doctrine (1989)

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THE SPIRITS’ BOOK
"Assuredly they do; since they give you advice."
- Do they exercise this influence in any other way. than by means of the thoughts they suggest
to us; that is. to say, have they any direct action on the course of earthly events?
"Yes; but their action never oversteps the laws of nature."
We erroneously imagine that the action of spirits can only be manifested by extraordinary phenomena we
would have spirits come to our aid by means of miracles, and we imagine them to be always armed 'with a
sort of magic wand. Such is not the case; all that is done through their help being accomplished by
natural means, their intervention usually takes place without our being aware of it. Thus, for instance,
they bring about the meeting of two persons who seem to have been brought together by chance they
suggest to the mind of some one the idea of going in a particular direction. They call your attention to
some special point, if the action on your part thus led up to by their suggestion, unperceived by you, will
bring about the result they seek to obtain. In this way, each man supposes himself to be obeying only his
own impulse, and thus always preserves the freedom of his will.
526. As spirits possess the power of acting upon matter, can they bring about the incidents
that will ensure tile accomplishment of a given event? For example, a man is destined to
perish in a certain way, at a certain time. He mounts a ladder; the ladder breaks, and he is
killed. Have spirits caused the ladder to break, in order to accomplish the destiny previously
accepted by or imposed upon this man?
"It is very certain that spirits have the power of acting upon matter, but for the carrying out of
the laws of nature, and not for derogating from them. by causing the production at a given
moment of some unforeseen event, in Opposition to those laws. In such a case as the one you
have just supposed, the ladder breaks because it is rotten, or is not strong enough to bear the
man’s weight. But, as it was the destiny of this man to be killed in this way, the spirits about
him will have put into his mind the idea of getting upon a ladder that will break down under
his weight, and his death will thus have taken place naturally, and without any miracle having
been required, to bring it 'about."
527. Let us take another example; one in which the ordinary conditions of matter would
seem, to be insufficient to account for the occurrence of a given event. A man 'is destined to
be killed by lightning. He is overtaken by a storm, and seeks refuge under a tree; the
lightning strikes the tree, and he is killed. Is it by spirits that the thunderbolt has been made
to fall, and to fall upon this particular man?
"The explanation of this case is the same as that of the former one. The lightning has fallen on
the tree at this particular moment,