By Geraldo Goulart

“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and He did eat.” — Gen. 3:6

The Catholic and evangelical interpretation about the “fall of spirit” leads us to the understanding that it would have been caused by the disobedience of Adam to eat the “forbidden fruit”, the apple that had been offered by the serpent.

Everyone who has ever read, albeit superficial of THE BOOK OF SPIRITS, knows that the Doctrine does not sponsor such an interpretation.

Indeed, it is difficult to understand why the Creator put something that was forbidden access to man, as if to provoke and challenge his absolute obedience.

When browsing the letters of Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles, we see the statement that “everything is permissible for me, but not everything suits me …” (I Cor, 10:23). That means – as we see – that although there are several things we can, at our disposal, we must, for our own good, select only that which is not harmful to us.

Assuming that at the beginning there have been, in the setting of the biblical paradise, Adam and Eve, and the serpent is near apple tree with the fruit of temptation. What you see in that act, where religion see the “fall of man” is actually the first human specimen which had the opportunity to use one of the greatest benefits with which the Creator has endowed us: free will, the power of decision and choice. If so, they were not guilty; neither Eva nor the serpent; the “fall” would have to be attributed to Adam’s personal decision.

In THE BOOK OF SPIRITS, item 262, the question asked by Kardec: As a spirit, at its origin, is simple,

ignorant, and without experience, how can he make an intelligent choice of an existence, and how can he be responsible for such a choice? We have a crystalline answer from the Entity to the encoder:

“God supplies what is lacking through his inexperience, by tracing out for him the road which

he has to follow, as you do for the infant in its cradle; but he allows him, little by little, to

become the master of his choice, in proportion as his free-will becomes developed; and it is

then that he often loses his way and takes the wrong road, if he do not listen to the advice of

the good spirits, who endeavour to instruct him; it is this which may be called the fall of

man.”

 From this, with detailed information supplied by high spirits to Kardec, it is that the fall of man can occur at any time, and this is very logical!

For every one of us, we are capable of falling at any moment. In various times when we have to decide something, the biggest factor at play in the decision is our own will. Nobody forces us to do or not do this or that. If we do it, or not, it is because we want to or we believe that, we want this way or that differently.

With that, it is obvious that in some of the decisions that we take we expose ourselves to the fall. And how many times have we been already fallen?

The most important for us in the lesson is the reality that our fall will also depend on the use we make of our free will, our sole responsibility depending on choosing the correct course even at the expense of what we wanted.

Nevertheless, always the fault or merit is our own. Never from the Creator.

By: Geraldo Goulart

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Learn more about our place in the spirit realm, who we are, where we come from, our personal destiny, by reading; Explore Your Destiny – Your Path to Perfection.