In all of Kardec's work, look for the word "unification" and you will not find it (at least, in the sense currently used in the

Spiritist movement). The Spiritist Magazine, Kardec’s most important personal research and exposition laboratory, has in its excellent Portuguese edition a magnificent index organized by its editors Miguel Grisolia, Júlio Abreu Filho and J. Herculano Pires. The general index of reference of the magazine, deserved the edition of a unique volume. It provides, word for word, all the possible and imaginable references in order to facilitate any research that the student of the Kardecist work wishes to carry out. However, there is no mention of the word unification.

Unification, in the popular context, is typical of the Brazilian Spiritist culture. Its clear and undeniable objective is of a genuinely religious nature: the preservation of a series of supposed truths, procedures and forms of organization capable of guaranteeing the hegemony of an order and an authority supposedly emanating from the "High" and delegated to an institution, to be their tutor.

However, words such as union, unity, freedom, and tolerance are often found in Kardec's work. Even when he tried a proposal for the organization of the Spiritist movement, under the coordination of a Central Committee, Kardec immediately warned that he would not be "destined to lead the world and to be the universal arbiter of truth", adding that anyone who had such a claim "...would not have understood the essence of Spiritism, which proclaimed the principles of free examination and freedom of conscience, repudiating the idea of becoming an autocracy.” He added: “To pretend that Spiritism will be everywhere organized in the same way; that the spiritists of the whole world are subject to a uniform regime, to the same way of proceeding; that they will have a light at a fixed point to which they will always direct their eyes, would be an utopia as absurd as to claim that all the peoples of the Earth would one day form a single nation, governed by a single leader, under a single code of laws, adopting the same customs.” (Constitution of Spiritism, in Posthumous Works, chapter VI).

Even rejecting the idea of a single model or a central command, Kardec emphasized the need for unity among spiritists around the world. The union would result from the "communion of thoughts", as defined in his Opening Speech (Spiritist Magazine of December 1868). This communion would operate naturally and spontaneously through the common assimilation of the basic doctrinal principles, defined and analyzed in The Spirits’ Book, since the appearance of the doctrine in 1857, and revised through Spiritist Congresses.

In the document cited above, Allan Kardec envisaged the formation of "general centers in different countries" - what we would call today: Councils, Federations, Confederations, Unions and Associations (Such as what CEPA agreed to call itself since the most recent congress, the International Spiritist Association) - but that there would be no other bond of union between them, but that of communion of belief and moral solidarity, without subordination to one another”, adding later: “The various centers dedicated to true Spiritism must hold hands fraternally, uniting to fight their common enemies: disbelief and fanaticism.”

Unification is a typical requirement of religious organizations. It is the instrument to maintain power. Union is a much broader concept, compatible with pluralism, with humanism, where tolerance and dialogue create and establish bonds of cooperation and fraternity.

In our environment, as the unification projects advance, the ideals of union are weakened, and even the dialogue between the different aspects of spiritist thought and the institutions that coordinate it are difficult. One of the guidelines of the unification project is to pretend that there are no other segments but those that they coordinate. Unification then becomes synonymous with division.

Unification goes from top to bottom. Union is the construction of what is done from reflection, debate, dialogue, and joint work, in an atmosphere of respect and tolerance.

They are different paths that also lead to different goals. Distinguishing one from the other may not be easy or comfortable, but it is vital for the future of Spiritism.