Spiritism Information (Fox Sisters) @ TheLateShift.com

Spiritism is based on the five books of the Spiritist Codification written by French To be French, according to the first article of the Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion . According to its principles, France has devoted herself the destiny of a proposition nation, a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live educator Hypolite Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Pseudonyms are often used to hide an individual's real identity, as with writers' pen names, graffiti artists' tags, resistance fighters' or terrorists' noms de guerre, and computer hackers' handles. Actors, musicians, and other performers sometimes use stage names, for example, to mask their ethnic backgrounds. Stage names are also used as Allan Kardec Allan Kardec is the pen name of the French teacher and educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail . He is known today as the systematizer of Spiritism for which he laid the foundation with the five books of the Spiritist Codification reporting séances A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma" (& in which he observed a series of phenomena that he attributed to incorporeal intelligence (spirits The English word spirit has many differing meanings and connotations, all of them relating to a non-corporeal substance contrasted with the material body. The spirit of a human being is thus the animating, sensitive or vital principle in that individual, similar to the soul taken to be the seat of the mental, intellectual and emotional powers. The). His assumption of spirit communication was validated by many contemporaries, among them many scientists and philosophers who attended séances and studied the phenomena. His work was later extended by writers like Leon Denis, Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories,, Camille Flammarion Nicolas Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritualism and related topics. He also published the magazine L'Astronomie, starting in 1882. He maintained a, Ernesto Bozzano, Chico Xavier Chico Xavier, born Francisco Cândido Xavier was a popular medium in Brazil´s spiritism movement who wrote numerous books, ostensibly using a process known as "psychography", Divaldo Pereira Franco, Waldo Vieira Waldo Vieira is a Brazilian dentist and physician who first proposed the theories of projectiology and conscientiology, two closely related belief systems which posit that human consciousness is a paranormal phenomenon. Basing his claims on various accounts of out-of-body experiences, Vieira argues that consciousness has an existence independent, Johannes Greber^[1] and others.

Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United States, Canada^[2], Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal and especially in Latin American countries such as Cuba, Jamaica, and Brazil, which has among the largest proportion and greatest number of followers^[3].

Definition

The fundamental principles of Spiritism, enunciated by Allan Kardec Allan Kardec is the pen name of the French teacher and educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail . He is known today as the systematizer of Spiritism for which he laid the foundation with the five books of the Spiritist Codification in his seminal work The Spirits Book, are: (i) A belief in the existence of spirits - non-physical beings that live in the invisible or spirit world - and (ii) the possibility of communication between these spirits and living people through mediumship Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Louisiana Voodoo, Shambala and Umbanda. There is a clear difference, according to Kardec, between the terms "Spiritism" and "Spiritualism Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but with a distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world can be contacted by "mediums", who can then provide information about the afterlife"; the latter is the "opposite of materialism In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance. As a theory, materialism is a form of physicalism and belongs to the class of monist ontology. As such, it is", a belief that "there is something...more than matter" but it does not necessarily follow that a spiritualist "believes in the existence of spirits, or in their communication with the visible world."^[4]

Spiritism had its background in the Spiritualist Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but the distinguishing feature is belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted, either by individuals or by gifted or trained "mediums", who can provide information about the afterlife movement that emerged in the mid 1800s. In its broad sense, Spiritualism is any philosophical or religious movement that opposes materialism ^[5]. In its narrower sense, it is any movement that believes that spirit entities exist and that human beings can engage in spirit communication and mediumship. Therefore, Spiritism is Spiritualist. Spiritualist Churches, however, differ from Spiritist groups in that Spiritualism as a religious denomination doesn't stress Reincarnation as a basic tenet of belief (some Spiritualists believe in Reincarnation and some don't, whereas Spiritists believe in Reincarnation as a basic tenet of their belief system)

Kardec reaffirmed that on the cover of his "The Spirit's Book". Another author in the Spiritualist movement, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, included a chapter^[6] about Spiritism in his book "History of Spiritualism" confirming that Spiritism is Spiritualist (but not vice-versa). As consequence, many Spiritualist works are widely accepted in Spiritism, particularly the works of scientists Sir William Crookes Sir William Crookes, commonly mistaken with Sean Perry, OM, FRS was a chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy,^[7] and Sir Oliver Lodge Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge, FRS was a physicist and writer involved in the development of key patents in wireless telegraphy . Lodge, in his Royal Institution lectures ("The Work of Hertz and Some of His Successors"), coined the term "coherer." He gained the "syntonic" (or tuning) patent from the United States Patent^{[citation needed]}.

In the early 20th century, the broad Spiritualist movement Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but the distinguishing feature is belief that spirits of the dead can be contacted, either by individuals or by gifted or trained "mediums", who can provide information about the afterlife faded and the surviving ones in America and England reorganized themselves in a religious movement, incorporating many aspects of a church organization (mass, pastoral leadership, chants, donation baskets). In the USA the name Spiritualism has sometimes been used to address this group only.^{[citation needed]}

Character of spiritism

Allan Kardec refers to Spiritism in What is Spiritism? as a science Science is a systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about nature and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories. As knowledge has increased, some methods have proved more reliable than others, and today the scientific method is the standard for science. It includes the use of careful observation, experimentation, dedicated to the relationship between incorporeal beings (spirits) and human beings. Thus, some spiritists see themselves as not adhering to a religion, but to a philosophical doctrine with a scientific fulcrum and moral grounds. On the other hand, many spiritists don't see any problem about embracing it as a religion as well.

Spiritists pray to God God is the English name given to the singular omnipotent being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism, who is seen as the ultimate cause, or source, of all things and beings^{[citation needed]}. Spiritist doctrine argues that God is perceived as a natural and somewhat necessary hypothesis within the Spiritist paradigm^{[citation needed]}.

The Spiritist moral A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. As an example of the latter, at the end of Aesop's fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, in which the plodding and determined tortoise wins a principles are in agreement with the ones taught by Jesus Jesus of Nazareth , also known as Jesus Christ or simply Jesus, is the central figure of Christianity, which views him as the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God (in the concept of the Trinity, he is God [as] the Son), who came to provide humankind with salvation and reconciliation with God by his (according to Kardec^[8]). Other moral examples like Francis of Assisi Saint Francis of Assisi was a Catholic deacon and preacher. He also was the founder of the Order of Friars Minor, more commonly known as the Franciscans, Paul the Apostle Paul of Tarsus, also called Saint Paul, Paul the Apostle, or the Apostle Paul, (Ancient Greek: Σαούλ , Σαῦλος (Saulos), and Παῦλος (Paulos); Latin: Paulus or Paullus; Hebrew: שאול התרסי‎ Šaʾul HaTarsi (Saul of Tarsus) (c.5 BC - c.67 AD), was a Jew who called himself the "Apostle to the Gentiles". According, Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from ancient India who founded Buddhism. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha ) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." [note 1] The time of his birth and death are uncertain: and Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, pronounced [moːɦən̪d̪aːs kərəmʨən̪d̪ ɡaːn̪d̪ʱiː] ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha—resistance to tyranny are also sometimes considered by the spiritists. Spiritist philosophical inquiry is concerned with the study of moral aspects in the context of an eternal life in spiritual evolution through reincarnation, a process believers hold as revealed by Spirits. Sympathetic research on Spiritism by scientists can be found in the works of Sir William Crookes Sir William Crookes, commonly mistaken with Sean Perry, OM, FRS was a chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy, Ernesto Bozzano^[9], the Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organization in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena in a scientific and unbiased way.&, William James William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a medical doctor. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism. He was the brother of novelist Henry James and of diarist Alice James, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine since 1901. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or winner Charles Richet Charles Robert Richet was a French physiologist who initially investigated a variety of subjects such as neurochemistry, digestion, thermoregulation in homeothermic animals, and breathing, Prof. Ian Stevenson's group at University of Virginia^[10] , and Prof. G. Schwartz at University of Arizona^{[citation needed]}.

The main characteristic of Spiritism is its emphasis on the study and investigation of the Spiritist Doctrine in its triple aspects, scientific, philosophical and religious (moral).^{[citation needed]}

In general, Spiritism does not have an established organization of believers as members^{[citation needed]}. Canadian National Spiritist Church of Alberta, however, is a government-recognized religious denomination and it has a registered and official membership.^{[citation needed]}

Sisters Catherine (1838–92), Leah (1814–90) and Margaret (1836–93) Fox played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The daughters of David and Margaret Fox, they were residents of Hydesville, New York. In 1848, the family began to hear unexplained rapping sounds. Kate and Margaret conducted channeling sessions in an attempt to contact the presumed spiritual entity creating the sounds, and claimed contact with the spirit of a peddler who was allegedly murdered and buried beneath the house. A skeleton later found in the basement seemed to confirm this. The Fox girls became instant celebrities. They demonstrated their communication with the spirit by using taps and knocks, automatic writing or psychography, and later even voice communication, as the spirit took control of one of the girls.

Skeptics suspected this was nothing but clever deception and fraud. Indeed, sister Margaret eventually confessed to using her toe-joints to produce the sound. And although she later recanted this confession, both she and her sister Catherine were widely considered discredited, and died in poverty. Nonetheless, belief in the ability to communicate with the dead grew rapidly, becoming a religious movement called Spiritualism, and contributing greatly to Kardec's ideas.

Talking boards

Main article: Table-turning Table Turning or "Table Tipping" is a type of séance in which participants sit around a table, place their hands on it, and wait for rotations. The table was purportedly made to serve as a means of communicating with the spirits; the alphabet would be slowly called over and the table would tilt at the appropriate letter, thus spelling

Just after the news of the Fox affair came to France, people became even more interested in what was sometimes termed the "Spiritual Telegraph". In the beginning, a table spun with the "energy" from the spirits present by means of human channeling Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Louisiana Voodoo, Shambala and Umbanda (hence the term "medium"). But, as the process was too slow and cumbersome, a new one was devised, supposedly from a suggestion by the spirits themselves: the talking board.

Early examples of talking boards were baskets attached to a pointy object that spun under the hands of the mediums, to point at letters printed on cards scattered around, or engraved on, the table. Such devices were called corbeille à bec ("basket with a beak"). The pointy object was usually a pencil.

Talking boards were tricky to set up and to operate. A typical séance A séance is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word "séance" comes from the French word for "seat," "session" or "sitting," from the Old French "seoir," "to sit." In French, the word's meaning is quite general: one may, for example, speak of "une séance de cinéma" (& using a talking board saw people sitting at a round table, feet resting on the chairs' supports and hands on the table top or, later, on the talking board itself. The energy channeled from the spirits through their hands made the board spin around and find letters which, once written down by a scribe, would form intelligible words, phrases, and sentences. The system was an early, and less effective, precursor of the Ouija A Ouija board , from French "oui" and German "ja" also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with letters, numbers, and other symbols, supposedly used to communicate with spirits. It uses a planchette (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling boards that later became so popular.

Allan Kardec first became interested in Spiritism when he learned of the Fox sisters, but his first contact with what would become the doctrine was by means of talking boards. Some of the earlier parts of his Spirits' Book were channeled this way.

Franz Mesmer

Main article: Franz Mesmer Franz Anton Mesmer

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815) discovered what he called magnétism animal (animal magnetism) and others often called mesmerism. The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid (1795–1860) to develop hypnotism in 1841.

Spiritism incorporated and kept some practices inspired or directly taken from Mesmerism. Among them, the healing touch, still in Europe, and the energization of water to be used as a medicine for spirit and body.

Doctrine

Spiritism blends together notions taken from Christianity, Positivism and Platonism.

Basic books

Main article: Spiritist Codification

The basic doctrine of Spiritism ("the Codification") is defined in five books written and published by Allan Kardec during his life:

The Spirits' Book — Defines the guidelines of the doctrine, covering points like God, Spirit, Universe, Man, Society, Culture, Morals and Religion.
The Mediums' Book — Details the mechanics of the spiritual world, the processes involved in channeling spirits, techniques to be developed by mediums, etc.
The Gospel According to Spiritism — Comments on the Gospels, highlighting passages that, according to Kardec, would show the ethical fundamentals shared by all religious and philosophical systems. This may be the first religious book to acknowledge the existence of life elsewhere in the Universe, based on Jesus' saying "The houses in the realm of my father are many" (John, 14, 1-3).
Heaven and Hell — A didactic series of interviews with spirits of deceased people intending to establish a correlation between the lives they lead and their conditions in the beyond.
The Genesis According to Spiritism — Tries to reconcile religion and science, dealing with the three major points of friction between the two: the origin of the universe (and of life, as a consequence) and the concepts of miracle and premonition.

Kardec also wrote a brief introductory pamphlet (What is Spiritism?) and was the most frequent contributor to the Spiritist Review. His essays and articles would be posthumously collected into the aptly-named tome Posthumous Works.

Doctrine

Main article: Spiritist doctrine

The five chief points of the doctrine are:

There is a God, defined as "The Supreme Intelligence and Primary Cause of everything";
There are Spirits, all of whom are created simple and ignorant, but owning the power to gradually perfect themselves;
The natural method of this perfection process is reincarnation, through which the Spirit faces countless different situations, problems and obstacles, and needs to learn how to deal with them;
As part of Nature, Spirits can naturally communicate with living people, as well as interfere in their lives;
Many planets in the universe are inhabited.

The central tenet of Spiritist doctrine is the belief in spiritual life. The spirit is eternal, and evolves through a series of incarnations in the material world. The true life is the spiritual one; life in the material world is just a short-termed stage, where the spirit has the opportunity to learn and develop its potentials. Reincarnation is the process where the spirit, once free in the spiritual world, comes back to the world for further learning.

Relation to Jesus

Jesus, according to Spiritism, is the greatest moral example for humankind, is deemed to have incarnated here to show us, through his example, the path that we have to take to achieve our own spiritual perfection. The Gospels are reinterpreted in Spiritism; some of the words of Christ or his actions are clarified in the light of the spiritual phenomena (presented as law of nature, and not as something miraculous). It's only because of our own imperfection that we can't achieve similar things; as we evolve, we will not only understand better, but we will be able to do similar things, for all spirits are created equal, and are destined for the same end.

Evolution and karma

Spiritist Doctrine stresses the importance of spiritual evolution. According to this view, we are destined for perfection; there are other planets hosting more advanced life forms, and happier societies, where the spirit has the chance to keep evolving both in the moral and intellectual sense. Although not clear from Kardec's works, later spiritist writers elaborated on this point further: it seems to them that we cannot detect more advanced life forms on other planets, as they are living in a slightly different plane from ours, in the same way the spiritual plane is superimposed over our own. There is still no scientific evidence to back this claim.

Mediumship

The communication between the spiritual world and the material world happen all the time, but to various degrees. Some people barely sense what the spirits tell them, in an entirely instinctive way, while others have greater cognizance of their guidance. The so-called mediums have these natural abilities highly developed, and are able to communicate with the spirits and interact with them by several means: listening, seeing, or writing through spiritual command (also known by Kardecists as psychography or automatic writing). Direct manipulation of physical objects by spirits is not possible; for it to happen the spirits need the help (voluntary or not) of mediums with particular abilities for physical effects.

Spiritist practice

Main article: Spiritist practice

Kardec's works do not establish any rituals or formal practices. Instead, the doctrine suggests that followers adhere to some principles regarded as common to all religions. The religious experience within spiritism is, therefore, largely informal. The exception to this is The National Spiritist Church of Alberta. This Church (which is fully recognized by the government as a religious denomination) has a Holy Communion Worship Service and a Marriage Ceremony in addition to the more standard Kardecist study groups.

Meetings

The most important types of practices within Spiritism are:

Regular Meetings - with a regular schedule, usually on evenings, two or three times a week. They involve a short lecture on some subject followed by some interactive participation of the attendants. These meetings are open to anyone.
Medium Meetings - usually held after a regular meeting, only those deemed prepared or "in need" of it are expected to attend.
Youth and Children's Meetings - once a week, usually on Saturday afternoons or Sunday mornings, are the Spiritist equivalent to Christian Sunday schools.
Healing
Lectures - longer, in-depth lectures on subjects thought to be "of general interest" which are held on larger rooms, sometimes at theatres or ballrooms, so that more people can attend. Lecturers are often invited from far away centers.
Special Meetings - special séances held in relative discretion which try to conduct some worthy work on behalf of those in need
Spiritist Week and Book fairs.
Church Services (in the case of The National Spiritist Church of Alberta - in Canada)

Organization

Main article: Spiritist centre

Spiritism is not seen as a religion by its followers (except in the country of Canada where The National Spiritist Church of Alberta is a government-recognized religious denomination) because it doesn't endorse formal adoration, require regular frequency or formal membership and claims not to be opposed to science, instead trying to harmonize with it. It should be noted, though, that there's no acceptance to Spiritism in mainstream science and that its belief system is largely coherent with the notion of religion (that doesn't include regular frequency, membership, formal adoration or declared opposition to science).

Spiritism is practiced in different types of associations (including a Church format in Canada) formal or not, which can have local, regional, national or international scope.

Local organizations are usually called Spiritist centres or Spiritist societies. Regional and national organizations are called "federations", as the Federação Espírita Brasileira ^[11] and the Federación Espírita Española ^[12], while international organizations are termed "unions", such as the Union Spirite Française et Francophone ^[13].

Spiritist centres (or Church in Canada) (especially in Brazil) are also often active book publishers and promoters of Esperanto.

History

Main article: History of Spiritism

Spiritism shares its roots with many other religions and denominations, mainly Christianity and Western traditions. It is unknown the extent of the influence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Shamanism over the doctrinal aspects of Spiritism, as set by Allan Kardec because the mentions of such religions are sparse in all his works. Kardec, however, acknowledges the influence of Socrates and Plato, Jesus and Francis of Assisi;^{[citation needed]}.

Spiritism in popular culture

Despite being little known by the population at large; many works or art contain allusions to facts, circumstances and concepts that resemble some spiritist beliefs:

Films

Ghost, with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze was perhaps one of the earliest depictions of an after-life moderately similar to Spiritist teaching. It was highly popular among Brazilian Spiritists too. Swayze plays the role of a man that is killed by a petty thief, leaving his wife (Moore). He, as a ghost, makes contact with a "psychic" played by Whoopi Goldberg and manages to help his wife before finally leaving earth.
The Sixth Sense, starring Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis, is perhaps the better known film approaching the theme of Spiritism. Cole Sear (Osment's role) is a child medium facing the disbelief of everyone.^[14]
Shutter depicts a passably accurate situation of obsession, complete with physical manifestations and materialization of a spirit.
The Others (2001) depicts what happens to spirits who do not realize that they are actually in spirit form, resembling Spiritist doctrine.
Passengers(2008) with Anne Hathaway and Patrick Wilson. Very similar to "The Sixth Sense" in spiritist themes.
Sole Survivor, a 1970 TV-film starring Vince Edwards and Richard Basehart, begins with a B-25 bomber crashing in the Libyan desert during WW2 and all crew members onboard dying. Decades later, the wreck is spotted and an Air Force team is sent to investigate the crash site. The spirits of the dead bomber crew, unaware of their disincarnate condition, are still there, waiting for a salvage expedition to find them. The behaviour of the dead in this story is in accord with Kardecist teachings and Spiritist theory.^[15]

Television

Medium, a medium helps a District Attorney solve crimes.
Ghost Whisperer, a medium helps spirits with 'unfinished business' 'cross over'.

Soap operas

In Brazil four soap operas have used the concepts of Spiritism. Terra Nostra included a subplot of a young man obsessed by the spirit of his mother's youth lover who had been killed by his grandfather.

"A Viagem" (The Journey), produced in 1976/77 by the extinct Tupi TV had a complex plot involving mediumship, death, obsession, reincarnation, etc. It was remade by Globo TV in 1994.
"Alma Gêmea" (Soulmate), produced in 2005/06 by the Rede Globo. This soap tells the story of a woman that dies and is reborn to find her soulmate again.
"O Profeta" (The Prophet), produced in 1977/78 also by Tupi TV and also remade by Globo TV (2006/07) included spiritism as one of the philosophies trying to explain the main character's gifts, including being able to predict the future.
"Duas Caras" (Two-Face), aired by Rede Globo in 2007/8, includes a character, named Ezekiel,^[16] who is a born-again Christian challenged by manifestations of his mediumship.
"Escrito nas Estrelas" (Written in the Stars), ongoing as of July 2010, possesses numerous spiritist themes: reincarnation, spirit evolution, and mediumship.

Criticisms

Before World War I

Spiritism began attracting criticisms almost immediately once formulated. Kardec's own introductory book on Spiritism, What is Spiritism?, published only two years after The Spirits Book, includes a long dialogue between his persona and three idealized critics, "The Critic", "The Skeptic", and "The Priest", which as a whole summed up most of the criticism Spiritism has received since then: of being charlatanism, pseudoscience, heresy, anti-Catholic, witchcraft, and/or a form of Satanism. In further books and articles published in his periodical, the Revue Spirite, Kardec kept addressing these and other criticisms until his death in 1869.

Later, a new source of criticism came from Occultist movements such as the Theosophical Society, a competing new religion, which saw the Spiritist explanations as too simple or even naïve.^[17]

Interwar period

The interwar period saw the development of a new form of criticism towards Spiritism: René Guénon's influential book The Spiritist Fallacy, which criticized both the more general concepts of Spiritualism, which he considered to be a superficial mix of moralism and spiritual materialism, as well as Spiritism's specific contributions, such as its belief in what he saw as a post-Cartesian, modernist concept of reincarnation that is distinct from and opposed to its two western predecessors, metempsychosis and transmigration.^[18]

Post-World War II

In Brazil, Catholic priests Dom Carlos José Boaventura Kloppenburg and Oscar González Quevedo, among others, have since the 1960s written extensively against Spiritism from both a doctrinal and parapsychologic perspective. Quevedo, in particular, has dedicated himself to show that Spiritism's claims of being a science are invalid, having not only written books on the subject^[19] but also hosted paranormal debunking shows on television, the most recent of which a series that ran in 2000 on Globo's hugely popular Sunday prime time news show Fantástico.^[20] Brazilian Spiritists, such as Dr. Hernani Guimarães Andrade, have in turn written rebuttals to these criticisms.^[19]

Scientific skeptics also target Spiritism frequently in books, media appearances, and online forums, accusing it of being a pseudoscience. The ex-spiritist and medium Waldo Vieira, accepting this criticism but not the idea that it cannot become a science, left Spiritism to start a new, Spiritist-inspired movement called Projectiology.^[21]

References

^ Johannes Greber
^ In Canada, Spiritism is an officially-recognized religious denomination (unique in the world) as The National Spiritist Church of Alberta (Church #A145 registered by Department of Vital Statistics, Government of Alberta - under The Marriage Act of Alberta) with government-licensed clergy and legal authority to perform marriages.
^ David Hess. Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism, and Brazilian Culture, Pennsylvania State Univ Press, 1991
^ Kardec, Allan. The Spirit Book, Introduction, I.
^ spiritualism: Definition and Much More from Answers.com
^ DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The History of Spiritualism. New York: G.H. Doran, Co. 1926
^ CROOKES, William. Researches on the Phenomena of Spiritualism, Burns, London 1874
^ Kardec, Allan, The Gospel Explained by the Spiritist Doctrine ISBN 0-9649907-6-8
^ http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Bozzano
^ http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/personalitystudies/
^ FEB - Federação Espírita Brasileira - 2
^ Federación Espírita Española - Espiritismo
^ Redirection en htm
^ The Sixth Sense (1999)
^ Sole Survivor - Vince Edwards, Richard Basehart, William Shatner, Lou Antonio - 1970
^ Duas Caras - BIOGRAFIA - Ezequiel
^ Blavatsky, H. P. (1875-02-16). "Letter to Prof. Hiram Corson". Some Unpublished Letters of H. P. Blavatsky. Theosophical University Press Online Edition. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/corson/cors-lt1.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23. "In my eyes, Allan Kardec and Flammarion, Andrew Jackson Davis and Judge Edmonds, are but schoolboys just trying to spell their A B C and sorely blundering sometimes."
^ Guénon, René (2004-06-25) [1923]. The Spiritist Fallacy. Collected Works of René Guénon. trans. Alvin Moore, Jr. and Rama P. Coomaraswamy. Hillsdale, NY: Sophia Perennis Books. ISBN 0900588713.
^ ^a ^b Machado, Dr. Fátima Regina. "Parapsicologia no Brasil: Entre a cruz e a mesa branca" (in Portuguese). Ceticismo Aberto. http://www.ceticismoaberto.com/paranormal/parapsicologia_brasil.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
^ Guerrero, Cesar (2000-01-17). "Quevedo, o Mr. M de batina" (in Portuguese). IstoÉ Gente. Editora Três. http://www.terra.com.br/istoegente/24/reportagens/rep_quevedo.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-23.
^ Stoll, Sandra Jacqueline (2002). "Religião, ciência ou auto-ajuda? trajetos do Espiritismo no Brasil" (in Portuguese). Revista de Antropologia (São Paulo, Brazil: Departamento de Antropologia FFLCH/USP) 45 (2). doi:10.1590/S0034-77012002000200003.

External links

Books

The Spirit's Book by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
The Mediums' Book by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
The Gospel According To The Spiritism by Allan Kardec (PDF file)
The Spirits' Book in HTML format, translated by Anna Blackwell
All Kardec's books and other related works.

Groups and societies

Spiritism at the Open Directory Project

Skeptical views

Channeling - at the Skeptics' Dictionary;
Medium - at the Skeptics' Dictionary;

Spiritualism and Spiritism

Beliefs	Core beliefs : Theism · Survivalism · Mediumship · Séances · Spiritual Healing · Spirit world · Variant beliefs : Reincarnation · Christianity · New Age

Important Figures	Emanuel Swedenborg · Franz Mesmer · Fox sisters · Eva Carrière · Andrew Jackson Davis · Cora L. V. Scott · Achsa W. Sprague · Paschal Beverly Randolph · Emma Hardinge Britten · Allan Kardec · Camille Flammarion · William Stainton Moses · Amy and Isaac Post · Arthur Conan Doyle · W. T. Stead · Chico Xavier · Helen Duncan · Doris Stokes · Colin Fry · Danielle Egnew · Derek Acorah · "Margery" · Harry Houdini · Jane Roberts · Arthur Findlay

Other	History of Spiritism · Spiritist doctrine · Spiritualist Church · List of Spiritualist organizations · National Spiritualist Association of Churches · Spiritualists' National Union · Spiritualist Association of Great Britain · Spiritualism in fiction · Theatrical Séances · Arthur Findlay College

Witchcraft and sorcery

Types	African witchcraft (Witch smeller · Vodun) · Asian witchcraft (Kulam) · European witchcraft (Akelarre · Benandanti · Brujería · Cunning folk · Seid · Völva · White witch · Witch Cult) · Middle Eastern witchcraft · North American witchcraft (Appalachian Granny Magic · Hoodoo · Huna · Pow-wow · Santería · Vodou · Voodoo) · South American witchcraft · Australasian witchcraft (Makutu) · Contemporary Witchcraft (Feri Tradition · Hedge witchcraft · Stregheria · Wicca)

Practises	Animism · Coven · Divination · Familiar animal · Familiar spirit · Flying ointment · Herbcraft · Magic · Necromancy · Occultism · Poppet · Potions · Satanism · Spiritism · Spiritualism · Sigils · Shamanism · Witch ball · Witch's ladder

Folklore and mythology	Agamede · Aradia/Aradia di Toscano · Baba Yaga · Circe · Drude · Elbow witch · Hecate · Huld · Kalku · Medea · Obayifo · Witch of Endor · Sorginak · Spearfinger · Weird sisters · Sea witch ·

Major Historic Treatise	The Bible · Formicarius · Malleus Maleficarum · Summis desiderantes affectibus ·

Modern Fiction	Bewitched · The Blair Witch Project · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Charmed · The Craft · Harry Potter · The Chronicles of Narnia · The Covenant · Halloween III: Season of the Witch · Halloweentown · Hex · Hocus Pocus · I Married a Witch · Sabrina the Teenage Witch · Septimus Heap · Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose · Wendy the Good Little Witch · Wicked Witch of the West · The Witches · The Worst Witch · Practical Magic · Mombi ·

Documentary Film	Häxan · The Burning Times ·

Categories: Spiritism | Spiritual theories

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'Spiritism' News

theaustralian.com.au

Anything's possible in room full of magic - The Australian
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:20:37 GMT+00:00
The Australian But unlike religion it was never interested in metaphysics and spiritism . What it was about was dealing with material things to make them transform. ...

Google News Search: Spiritism,
Fri Jul 16 00:36:27 2010

'Spiritism' Images

towerwatch.com

1924 GoldenAge g Dec 3 150 JPG
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1924 GoldenAge Dec 3

Yahoo Images Search: Spiritism,
Mon Apr 26 23:06:31 2010

'Spiritism' Blogs

inspiritualtime.blogspot.com

In spiritual time: WITHOUT CHARITY THERE IS NO SALVATION

Paty

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:59:00 GM

Spiritism. , in accordance with the Gospel, admits the possibility of salvation for every person, independently of any beliefs, granted that God's laws are observed. It does not say that without . Spiritism. there is no salvation, ...

Google Blogs Search: Spiritism,
Mon Jul 13 16:41:50 2009

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Contents

Definition

Character of spiritism

Precursors

Swedenborg

Fox sisters

Talking boards

Franz Mesmer

Doctrine

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Doctrine

Relation to Jesus

Evolution and karma

Mediumship

Spiritist practice

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