Spiritism is the set of beliefs and practices based on the teachings of Allan Kardec’s The Spirits’ Book, published in 1857. Spiritism teaches that humans are essentially immortal spirits that temporarily inhabit physical bodies for several necessary incarnations to attain moral and intellectual improvement. It also affirms the existence of God, placing an emphasis on moral values and love as the most important aspects of spiritual evolution.
Main Beliefs of Spiritism
Some of the core beliefs of Spiritism include:
- God exists as the Supreme Intelligence and Primary Cause of all things.
- Spirits are immortal – they preexist before birth into a physical body and survive after bodily death.
- Reincarnation occurs as spirits continuously reincarnate into physical bodies to learn and evolve.
- The spirit world coexists with the material world – spirits can influence and communicate with the living.
- Mediumship provides a way for spirits to communicate with the living.
- Life’s true purpose is moral and intellectual improvement.
- Progress occurs through reincarnation over multiple lifetimes.
- Selflessness, charity, love and forgiveness are key virtues to cultivate.
In Spiritism, it is believed that spirits are created simple and ignorant. The goal of multiple incarnations in physical bodies is for the spirit to mature morally and intellectually from accumulated experiences. Higher spirit guides assist in this process. Suffering exists to teach virtues such as compassion, patience and courage.
Origins of Spiritism
Spiritism originated in 19th century France through the work of educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, who wrote under the pen name Allan Kardec. Kardec’s first book on the subject, The Spirits’ Book, was published in 1857 and laid out the doctrine of Spiritism.
Kardec did not claim to be the author of Spiritism, but merely its codifier. The actual source was a series of paranormal experiences occurring in Europe from 1850-1855, mainly unexplained rapping sounds and table-turning attributed to spirits. Kardec interpreted and organized the spiritualist phenomena into a coherent set of beliefs and practices that came to be known as Spiritism.
The Parisian Society of Spiritist Studies was founded in 1858 to promote the study and practice of Spiritism. Kardec’s subsequent books further elaborated on the doctrine, cementing Spiritism’s status as a formal religious movement. Spiritism quickly spread from France to other European countries and eventually Latin America, where it continues to have a strong following today.
Basic Spiritist Practices
Spiritism prescribes certain practices designed to accelerate moral progress and spiritual evolution:
- Prayer – humble and sincere prayer connects humans to God and higher spirits.
- Charity – selfless giving and service to those in need out of true love.
- Study – studying Spiritism doctrine and other subjects leads to intellectual improvement.
- Work – honest work provides structure, financial stability and learning experiences.
- Mediumship – mediums transmit messages between spirits and humans.
- Passive Spiritism – leading a moral life in conformity with Spiritism.
- Active Spiritism – directly assisting others through good works.
In addition to individual practices, group activities play an important role in Spiritism. These include:
- Attending weekly services for prayer, meditation and spiritual healing.
- Lectures and discussion groups to study Spiritism and exchange experiences.
- Charity activities like fundraising drives and visits to hospitals or prisons.
- Spiritist centers offering mediumship sessions and spiritual treatments.
Overall, Spiritists are encouraged to cultivate virtue through good works, spiritual study and practicing mediumship in a serious and religious manner.
Spiritist Views on God and the Afterlife
Spiritism teaches that God exists as Supreme Intelligence, Ultimate Cause and Creator of all things. God is eternal, immutable, immaterial, all-powerful and supremely just and good.
Humans were created by God as ignorant spirits that evolve intellectually and morally over successive lifetimes. The purpose of reincarnation is education and self-improvement. Higher spirit guides assist in this process.
After bodily death, the soul enters the spirit realm for a period before reincarnating once again. The conditions of the next life depend on how virtuously the previous one was lived. Therefore life is a school, not a punishment. Suffering exists to teach important virtues.
The spirit realm is divided into different planes based on moral advancement. The higher planes are characterized by love, wisdom and light. Lower planes are darker and inhabited by suffering souls working to improve themselves. Heaven and hell are symbolic of one’s inner state, not physical places.
Communication between the physical and spirit worlds is possible through mediumship. Mediums transmit messages, teachings and healings from high-level spirits to guide humanity. This interrelationship between the material and spirit realms is central to Spiritism.
Spiritist Views on Moral Values and Virtues
Spiritism places a strong emphasis on cultivating moral values and virtues through human free will. Spiritists believe that good attitudes and actions are imperative for spiritual progress.
Some of the key virtues highlighted in Spiritism are:
- Love – love for God, oneself, others, nature and all creation.
- Charity – generosity, selflessness, voluntary sharing.
- Humility – recognizing one’s imperfections and limitations.
- Compassion – caring for those who suffer.
- Forgiveness – pardoning others’ imperfections and wrongs.
- Patience – endurance and perseverance in adversity.
- Courage – strength and determination in facing difficulties.
- Self-sacrifice – giving up selfishness for the greater good.
Cultivating virtue reaps dual rewards – inner growth in the present life and felicity in the spirit realm. Self-improvement is slow and requires perseverance through multiple lifetimes. But Spiritists believe progress toward perfection is the ultimate destiny of all souls.
Spiritist Perspectives on Life Challenges
From a Spiritist point of view, life’s painful circumstances have inherent value. Suffering is neither a punishment from God nor an arbitrary cruelty of fate, but exists for providential reasons.
Life’s difficulties provide opportunities to acquire virtues such as:
- Patience and perseverance in coping with adversity.
- Compassion and benevolence in relieving the suffering of others.
- Humility and detachment from material desires.
- Wisdom and discernment gained from analyzing experiences.
- Courage and resilience in overcoming problems.
Additionally, hardship borne with dignity serves as a restorative act of justice from previous lifetimes when the soul lacked virtue or committed wrongs. Therefore one must accept trials and suffering as natural parts of spiritual learning.
Spiritism teaches that suicide is morally wrong as it interrupts the soul’s incarnation before the prescribed time. Euthanasia is also rejected, as suffering should be borne with courage and dignity for its inherent spiritual value. However, reasonable palliative care to reduce suffering near death is accepted.
Spiritist View of Jesus Christ
In Spiritism, Jesus is recognized as the purest incarnation of divine love and wisdom come down to Earth to serve humanity. However, Spiritism differs from mainstream Christianity in viewing Jesus as a special enlightened spirit rather than God incarnate.
Spiritism teaches that Jesus was an elevated spirit who incarnated as the Messiah prophet to exemplify perfect love and provide teachings revealing new spiritual truths. Jesus possessed immense psychic and spiritual powers, including healing abilities, but differed from common men only in degree of advancement, not nature.
Jesus preached the unconditional love of God and the brotherhood of all humanity. His moral teachings possess universal value across cultures and religions. However, Spiritism diverges from orthodox Christian beliefs in the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, original sin, virgin birth, resurrection, salvation by faith alone, heaven/hell dichotomy and the Apocalypse.
Nevertheless, Jesus retains a central, revered position in Spiritism as model of the highest virtues attainable on Earth. His life serves as a guide and inspiration, though he is not worshipped. The emphasis is on practicing Jesus’ teachings of selfless love, charity, kindness and mercy. Spiritism encourages scientific investigation of Jesus’ life and powers as a spiritually advanced medium.
Mediumship and Spirit Communication
Mediumship involves communication between spirits and living persons through a medium, or sensitive intermediary. Mediums transmit messages, teachings and healings from spirits to recipients on Earth. This temporary communication enlightens humans about the spirit world and life after death.
Mediumistic abilities manifest in several forms:
- Mental mediumship – telepathic impression of spirit thoughts and ideas.
- Trance mediumship – spirits speak through entranced mediums.
- Healing mediumship – channeling of spirit energy for health benefits.
- Physical mediumship – rappings, table tilting, levitation, apparitions.
Mediumship is practiced in Spiritism only for serious purposes – to disseminate spiritual teachings, provide guidance or evidence of survival after death. Commercial shows exploiting mediumship for entertainment are considered unethical.
Spiritism advocates scientific investigation of mediumship and spirit phenomena under controlled conditions. This provides objective proof of the existence of spirits and life after bodily death. Apparitions, past-life memories, near-death experiences and other psychic occurrences also confirm spirit communication.
Mediumship demonstrates the basic unity of the material and spiritual realms. By revealing humans’ immortality, it gives meaning, purpose and direction to earthly existence. Communications received must be carefully evaluated by recipients based on merit of content and moral elevation of ideas expressed.
Reincarnation and the Purpose of Multiple Lives
Reincarnation means the spirit returns to live successive lifetimes in material bodies to fulfill its destiny of perfection. For Spiritists, reincarnation explains life’s inequalities and apparent injustices.
Spiritism teaches that spirits are created simple and ignorant by God. Living in material bodies provides learning experiences that stimulate the spirit’s intellectual and moral development at each incarnation. Growth is gradual and measured across many lifetimes.
Higher spirit guides oversee and assist in the reincarnation process. However, self-determination of action allows for free will and moral accountability. Reincarnation continues until the soul reaches perfection, determined by God alone.
Each lifetime’s conditions correspond to previous conduct. Difficult or oppressed lives result from past wrongdoing, while virtuous spirits incarnate into favorable circumstances. Nevertheless, predestination is rejected in favor of self-perfectibility.
Reincarnation provides the opportunity to remedy past mistakes through new trials. Suffering expiates errors committed in previous existences. But the focus is on learning, not arbitrary punishment. Progress is the result of individual effort to practice love and righteousness.
Spiritist View of Life on Earth
For Spiritists, life on Earth provides the ideal conditions for spiritual instruction. Here spirits acquire knowledge and experience unavailable in the spirit realm.
By inhabiting physical bodies, spirits are able to:
- Develop character through overcoming trials and difficulties.
- Express themselves through material faculties of thought, speech and action.
- Interact socially for relationships and exchange of ideas.
- Cultivate moral virtues like love, selflessness, charity, patience, etc.
- Study scientific and philosophical subjects.
- Gain wisdom from diverse life experiences.
Relationships with other spirits are deliberately planned, allowing enemies from the past to reconcile through practicing forgiveness. Family ties strengthen bonds across multiple lives.
Forgetfulness of previous existences prevents useless regrets and focuses learning on present circumstances. Life on Earth blends spiritual and material elements to achieve providential aims regarding human destiny.
Spiritist View of Death and the Afterlife
According to Spiritist doctrine, bodily death is only a transition from the physical life to spirit life. The soul survives death and lives on in the spirit realm.
At death, higher spirit guides assist the soul in detaching from the body. This process is usually gentle unless the death was violent or premature. After a period of confusion, the freed soul becomes conscious in the spirit world.
Initial conditions in the afterlife correspond to the soul’s moral state upon dying. Lower spirits may spend time near Earth in darkened, solitude-like planes before improving. More purified souls ascend to higher spirit planes of light and beauty.
Communication with living loved ones is permitted at certain times for consolation. Eventually spirits move beyond relations with those on Earth to broader activities and relationships in the spirit realm. Progress toward reincarnation continues as needed for ongoing education.
Suicide is prohibited as it interrupts the soul’s incarnation before its prescribed time. Euthanasia is also rejected as contrary to respect for life’s natural course. However, reasonable palliative care to reduce end-of-life suffering is accepted in Spiritism.
Spiritist View of Science and Religion
Unlike some faiths, Spiritism enthusiastically embraces scientific discovery and knowledge. Spiritists recognize science and religion as complementary, not adversarial. Both have legitimate domains that enlighten humanity.
Science studies the physical world and its natural laws. Religion examines moral laws and humans’ spiritual nature. When conflicts arise between established science and religion, Spiritists maintain that religious doctrines should adapt to proven scientific facts.
Aspects of Spiritism intersect with science in areas like:
- Investigating psychic and mediumistic phenomena.
- Examining reincarnation memories and near-death experiences.
- Understanding the properties of a hypothesized spirit world.
- Analyzing the physiology of trance mediums.
Far from resisting scientific inquiry, Spiritism actively encourages serious objective research into spiritual realities using reason and logic. This facilitates reconciling material and spiritual knowledge into a unified understanding of life and human destiny.
Spiritism Compared to Other Religions
While sharing some common beliefs, Spiritism differs substantially from mainstream Christianity as follows:
- Does not accept Christ as God incarnate or part of the Trinity.
- No belief in biblical miracles, virgin birth, resurrection or salvation by faith alone.
- No concept of heaven/hell, divine judgment or the Apocalypse.
- No intermediary role for clergy – no formal rituals or sacraments.
- No prayer to saints, angels or Mary.
- Reincarnation as means of progressive spiritual evolution.
Spiritism also differs from European Spiritualism in important ways:
- Highly codified doctrine rather than loose eclectic philosophy.
- Dedicated religious practice with ethical principles.
- Reincarnation as central evolved tenet.
Common points with Eastern faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism include reincarnation and karma. But differences exist regarding the nature of the supreme being, the spirit world, and practices like mediumship.
Ultimately, Spiritism stands as its own unique religious system of spiritualist origin despite some similarities to major world faiths.
Influence and Spread of Spiritism
Starting in France, Spiritism quickly gained adherents in Europe by the late 1800s. Prominent followers included Victor Hugo, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Carl Jung and Sir Oliver Lodge. However, the Catholic church condemned Spiritism as heresy.
Spiritism found particular success spreading to Latin America. Strong spiritualist traditions combined with disillusionment from Catholic dogma created fertile ground for expansion. Brazil has the largest population of followers with around 4 million self-declared Spiritists.
Other countries like Puerto Rico, Cuba, Argentina and Mexico also have significant minorities adhering to Spiritism. The United States, Spain, Portugal, Japan and various African nations contain smaller but active Spiritist movements.
Overall worldwide membership is estimated at around 8-15 million. Hundreds of Spiritist centers, schools and charities operate globally. Spiritism’s appeal continues thanks to its rationalism, compatibility with science, and ethical principles emphasizing love and service.
While not yet a mainstream faith, Spiritism has endured as an influential spiritualist religious system for over 150 years. Its teachings offer unique perspectives on the big questions of human existence – Where do we come from? What is life’s purpose? What happens after death? For its devotees, Spiritism provides compelling answers integrating scientific facts and spiritual insights.
