History of Spiritism
Encyclopedia
Spiritism
was founded by Allan Kardec
in France in the middle of the 19th century, influenced by Franz Mesmer
, the Fox sisters
and the popularity of table-turning
séances in his time. He did not claim that his doctrine
was entirely new, but conceded that it was based on notions known to mankind since the greatest antiquity.
explanation for the phenomena that he investigated between 1855 and 1856, Kardec
began looking for a way to turn the survival of the human soul
(and communication
with it) into something useful for humankind, in the social
and ethical fields. Moreover, he thought that religions were becoming unable to lead men to effective moral
improvements, due to their failure as human institution
s. Science, concomitantly, grew wider than ever, bringing numerous direct benefits to man. Both factors together contributed to an increasing disbelief in human spirituality
at all levels of European societies
. Kardec saw in it an undesirable social tendency that should be reverted by a new paradigm for understanding reality
. Its main characteristics would be:
Spiritism continued to spread and was internationally famous. Many well educated people from Europe and the United States embraced Spiritism as a logical explanation of reality
, including themes related to transcendence
, such as God and afterlife
. Thousands of Spiritist centre
s were founded throughout Europe, North America and, especially, Brazil and the Spiritist principles were so much disseminated in some countries that Spiritism was considered for inclusion in regular school and college programmes in Europe.
in many European nations, a degree of repression took hold across the whole continent regarding Spiritisim (and many other philosophical
and political
movements).
Among the causes of this loss of popularity in the beginning of the 1900s, are a series of factors:
However the appearance of new leading personalities promoting the Spiritist doctrine like, Francisco "Chico" Candido Xavier, Waldo Vieira, Divaldo Pereira Franco, amongst many others in Brazil, has been reviving ever since the interest in the afterlife communication, moral, charity and self improvement not only in that country but in many other neighbouring countries, Africa, North America, Europe and Asia.
, socialists, and others were also the target of repression by fascist regimes
. Repression to Spiritism was particularly strong in Italy and Portugal.
In South America, on the other hand, none of the above factors was enough to weaken the spreading of the doctrine. Catholicism was losing popular support, the government did not oppose Spiritism, most people were not aware of scientific discoveries and the religion had not spread only among the upper classes. Thanks to the works of a few dedicated preachers it managed to lay solid foundations which allowed it survive as an important movement still today.
Such relocation occurred most successfully in Brazil, where more than 4 million people declare themselves "Kardecist Spiritists", according to the last IBGE
census data, making Brazil the largest Spiritist country in the world.
Survival did not mean, however, remaining entirely faithful to the original practice. Spiritism has since changed into a considerably more religious doctrine there.
Spiritism has influenced Brazilian syncretism
s like Umbanda
, Christian Rationalism, Union of the Vegetal
and Valley of Dawn
, all of them often claiming the name formally or informally.
and other phenomena studied by Spiritism were not "recent". They had manifested themselves in man's ancient religions
and are closely related to Shamanism
. Most other religions also contain them to some degree. The Catholic veneration of the Saints, for instance, is likened to the veneration of the Enlightened Spirits in Spiritism and both are related to ancestor worship, which is found all over the world, being present in religions like Confucianism
, Daoism, Buddhism
and African tribal religions.
In Ancient Greece
it was believed that the dead inhabited Hades
and that it was possible to reach them, either by mediumship or by a type of astral projection
. Ulysses
and Orpheus
are two characters who went to the Hades eventually. In the Iliad
, Achilles
and Ulysses also used a bloody sacrifice to summon the souls of the dead.
The Roman
s were famously afraid of ghost
s and demon
s and their superstitions formed the bases for most of European witchcraft
and sorcery
during the Middle Age
, added with significant Germanic
elements. Spiritists believe that many stories told in Greek
and Roman mythology
are better explained by the intervention of Spirits.
Spiritist phenomena were also present in other places as well. The ban on the evocation
of spirits found in the Bible
is, for instance, solid evidence that it was extensively practiced among the israelite
s and the manifestation of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost
is explained by Spiritism as a mass manifestation of mediumship
. The life of Jesus is moreover filled with circumstances that fit well with the doctrine
.
In the Middle Ages
it was believed that the dead could eventually come back and haunt persons or places (this being the origin of the legends of ghost
s and haunted house
s). However, such phenomena were seen as diabolic
in nature and the Catholic Church would eventually try to enforce a strict control over them, quoting the Deuteronomy
ban. People displayind any signs of mediumship
were lynched
or executed by the Inquisition
, especially during the Witch Hunt crazes.
By the time of William Shakespeare
popular belief in ghosts was widespread in Britain
, and he used them as plot devices in several of his works, such as Hamlet
, Julius Caesar (play)
and Macbeth
and a lot of other such tales flourished then.
medicine men
have also claimed the same ability. However, Kardec either was not fully aware of these religions or merely disregarded them as unimportant (a product of his time, he was strictly eurocentric to the point of not giving attention to Hinduism
, a vastly more ancient religion that also features a prominent role for reincarnation
).
clearly forbade the Jewish people all forms of communication with the dead (Deut. 18: 10-14). Some Christians hold that the supposed spirits of the dead are actually fallen angel
s, while others claim that the clear rendering of scripture teaches they are demons (while some equate demons with fallen angels).
Most of the Christian opposition to Spiritism is found among Protestant Christians, who believe salvation is a free gift of God, which we are unworthy of. Contrary to this, Spiritism states that all spirits will eventually attain full illumination. Christian Fundamentalists also reject spiritism following the Mosaic Law
on the subject of the dead. Reincarnation is also a subject for further criticism among many Christian denominations, since several passages in the New Testament
seems incompatible with it (most notably Hb. 9:27).
The Catholic Church clearly forbids its members to take part in mediunic sessions, or any type of reunion concerning the evocation or the communication of spirits. Most religions have a similar position; however, depending on the country, there seems to be more tolerance. This is especially observable in Brazil.
In the United States, where Spiritism is not as widespread as Spiritualism
, there are many Christian Spiritualist organizations and denominations, such as the Progressive Spiritualist Church and the Spiritual Church Movement
.
and Anglo-American Spiritualism
were actually more or less the same thing and existed simultaneously for a long time, each aware of the other and often very close. They were both middle to upper-class phenomena, related to anti-clericalism and secularism
and may be seen as an intermediate step for those who wished to relinquish their relationships with religions they saw as wikt:old-fashioned or wikt:corrupt but did not want to become atheist
s. It waned in popularity as socialism found more acceptance and was later banned in most of Europe by Fascism
.
The doctrine would, however, find elsewhere safe ground to develop. In Brazil, as early as 1900 hundreds of Spiritist centre
s were to be found throughout the country. Spiritism reached its peak of popularity in the 1970s but lost it in the 1990s, being now apparently about to recover.
Afro-Brazilian
religions, which were banned in Brazil until 1950, quickly noticed Spiritism and claimed the name for themselves, as a disguise, as Spiritism was a "white man's" religion that was tolerated, while Candomblé
, Umbanda
, Quimbanda
and others were not. Due to this misuse of the term, there persists a confusion regarding the religion, which is often resolved by referring to Spiritism as "Kardecism" or "Kardecist Spiritism". And yet the terms "Kardecist" or "Kardecism" should not be used by those who really understand the difference and know about the Spiritist doctrine
.
Although the centres are autonomous, they are assembled in unions that are assembled in federations that are linked to the "Conselho Federativo Nacional" (national federate council) in Brasília -Brazil. The "Conselho Federativo Nacional" is presided by the "Brazilian Spiritist Federation" www.febnet.org.br (site in Brazilian Portuguese)
Spiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
was founded by Allan Kardec
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.-Early life:Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804...
in France in the middle of the 19th century, influenced by Franz Mesmer
Franz Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer , sometimes, albeit incorrectly, referred to as Friedrich Anton Mesmer, was a German physician with an interest in astronomy, who theorised that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred between all animated and inanimate objects that he called magnétisme animal ...
, the Fox sisters
Fox sisters
The Fox sisters were three sisters from New York who played an important role in the creation of Spiritualism. The three sisters were Leah Fox , Margaret Fox and Kate Fox . The two younger sisters used "rappings" to convince their much older sister and others that they were communicating with...
and the popularity of table-turning
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...
séances in his time. He did not claim that his doctrine
Spiritist doctrine
This article discusses parallels between the Gospel of Jesus and Spiritism as presented in the works of Allan Kardec, especially in The Spirits Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism.-The teachings of Jesus:...
was entirely new, but conceded that it was based on notions known to mankind since the greatest antiquity.
Foundation
With his humanistic background, once he was convinced of the spiritualSupernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
explanation for the phenomena that he investigated between 1855 and 1856, Kardec
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.-Early life:Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804...
began looking for a way to turn the survival of the human soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
(and communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
with it) into something useful for humankind, in the social
Social
The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...
and ethical fields. Moreover, he thought that religions were becoming unable to lead men to effective moral
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...
improvements, due to their failure as human institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...
s. Science, concomitantly, grew wider than ever, bringing numerous direct benefits to man. Both factors together contributed to an increasing disbelief in human spirituality
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
at all levels of European societies
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
. Kardec saw in it an undesirable social tendency that should be reverted by a new paradigm for understanding reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
. Its main characteristics would be:
- Promoting the dialog between the three classical forms of knowledge (scientific, philosophical and religious) in order to achieve a deeper and wider comprehension of reality;
- Providing access to knowledge for all peopleComeniusJohn Amos Comenius ; ; Latinized: Iohannes Amos Comenius) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica...
, instead of the "Hermetic" way philosophical and scientific knowledge had been produced; - Human relationship with the SpiritualSpiritualitySpirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
without any institutional mediation. A natural spirituality would be enough and more appropriate for human realisation.
International influence
After the death of Allan KardecAllan 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.-Early life:Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804...
Spiritism continued to spread and was internationally famous. Many well educated people from Europe and the United States embraced Spiritism as a logical explanation of reality
Reality
In philosophy, reality is the state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined. In a wider definition, reality includes everything that is and has been, whether or not it is observable or comprehensible...
, including themes related to transcendence
Transcendence (philosophy)
In philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning , of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages...
, such as God and afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
. Thousands of Spiritist centre
Spiritist centre
A Spiritist Centre, also called Spiritist Society or Spiritist House, is the basic unit of organisation of Spiritism, which is a doctrinally and distinct form of Spiritualism....
s were founded throughout Europe, North America and, especially, Brazil and the Spiritist principles were so much disseminated in some countries that Spiritism was considered for inclusion in regular school and college programmes in Europe.
Declining
This situation continued until the First World War, which would be the beginning of the end of the fame of Spiritism. Later, with the ascension of totalitarian regimesTotalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
in many European nations, a degree of repression took hold across the whole continent regarding Spiritisim (and many other philosophical
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
movements).
Among the causes of this loss of popularity in the beginning of the 1900s, are a series of factors:
- reaction of traditional religions
- death of famous converts, like William CrookesWilliam CrookesSir William Crookes, OM, FRS was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, London, and worked on spectroscopy...
, Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
and Camille FlammarionCamille FlammarionNicolas 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 Spiritism and related topics. He also published the magazine... - development of scientific explanations for spiritual phenomena which were claimed by Spiritism (like the explanation of obsessionObsession (Spiritism)Obsession, also known as spirit obsession, is a technical term within the Spiritist belief and practice defined by the author Allan Kardec as the interference of a subjugating spirit with a weaker spirit...
by PsychoanalysisPsychoanalysisPsychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
) - some scientists are still skeptical about important scientific believes of the doctrine which doesn't use the same nomenclatures ( such as electricity is not a "fluid", "animal magnetism" seems not exist, etc.)
However the appearance of new leading personalities promoting the Spiritist doctrine like, Francisco "Chico" Candido Xavier, Waldo Vieira, Divaldo Pereira Franco, amongst many others in Brazil, has been reviving ever since the interest in the afterlife communication, moral, charity and self improvement not only in that country but in many other neighbouring countries, Africa, North America, Europe and Asia.
Survival of Spiritism
Part of the problems faced by Spiritism were shared by the Internationalist movements, and probably due to this. Besides spiritists, esperantistsEsperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, socialists, and others were also the target of repression by fascist regimes
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. Repression to Spiritism was particularly strong in Italy and Portugal.
In South America, on the other hand, none of the above factors was enough to weaken the spreading of the doctrine. Catholicism was losing popular support, the government did not oppose Spiritism, most people were not aware of scientific discoveries and the religion had not spread only among the upper classes. Thanks to the works of a few dedicated preachers it managed to lay solid foundations which allowed it survive as an important movement still today.
Such relocation occurred most successfully in Brazil, where more than 4 million people declare themselves "Kardecist Spiritists", according to the last IBGE
IBGE
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics or IBGE , is the agency responsible for statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil...
census data, making Brazil the largest Spiritist country in the world.
Survival did not mean, however, remaining entirely faithful to the original practice. Spiritism has since changed into a considerably more religious doctrine there.
Spiritism has influenced Brazilian syncretism
Syncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
s like Umbanda
Umbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....
, Christian Rationalism, Union of the Vegetal
União do Vegetal
União do Vegetal is a Christian religion based on the use of Hoasca in a program of spiritual evolution based on mental concentration and the search for self-knowledge...
and Valley of Dawn
Vale do Amanhecer
Vale do Amanhecer is a religious community located in the Federal District of Brazil six kilometres from the satellite city of Planaltina and 50 kilometres from Brasília....
, all of them often claiming the name formally or informally.
Relationship with traditional religions
MediumshipMediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
and other phenomena studied by Spiritism were not "recent". They had manifested themselves in man's ancient religions
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
and are closely related to Shamanism
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...
. Most other religions also contain them to some degree. The Catholic veneration of the Saints, for instance, is likened to the veneration of the Enlightened Spirits in Spiritism and both are related to ancestor worship, which is found all over the world, being present in religions like Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, Daoism, Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and African tribal religions.
In Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
it was believed that the dead inhabited Hades
Hades
Hades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
and that it was possible to reach them, either by mediumship or by a type of astral projection
Astral projection
Astral projection is an interpretation of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it...
. Ulysses
Odysseus
Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
and Orpheus
Orpheus
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music; his attempt to retrieve his wife from the underworld; and his death at the hands of those who...
are two characters who went to the Hades eventually. In the Iliad
Iliad
The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...
, Achilles
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War, the central character and the greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad.Plato named Achilles the handsomest of the heroes assembled against Troy....
and Ulysses also used a bloody sacrifice to summon the souls of the dead.
The Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
s were famously afraid of ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s and demon
Demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
s and their superstitions formed the bases for most of European witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
and sorcery
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
during the Middle Age
Middle age
Middle age is the period of age beyond young adulthood but before the onset of old age. Various attempts have been made to define this age, which is around the third quarter of the average life span of human beings....
, added with significant Germanic
Germanic peoples
The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...
elements. Spiritists believe that many stories told in Greek
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
and Roman mythology
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
are better explained by the intervention of Spirits.
Spiritist phenomena were also present in other places as well. The ban on the evocation
Evocation
Evocation is the act of calling or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent, in the Western mystery tradition. Comparable practices exist in many religions and magical traditions.-Evocation in the Western mystery tradition:...
of spirits found in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
is, for instance, solid evidence that it was extensively practiced among the israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
s and the manifestation of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
is explained by Spiritism as a mass manifestation of mediumship
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
. The life of Jesus is moreover filled with circumstances that fit well with the doctrine
Spiritist doctrine
This article discusses parallels between the Gospel of Jesus and Spiritism as presented in the works of Allan Kardec, especially in The Spirits Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism.-The teachings of Jesus:...
.
In the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
it was believed that the dead could eventually come back and haunt persons or places (this being the origin of the legends of ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
s and haunted house
Haunted house
A haunted house is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property...
s). However, such phenomena were seen as diabolic
Devil
The Devil is believed in many religions and cultures to be a powerful, supernatural entity that is the personification of evil and the enemy of God and humankind. The nature of the role varies greatly...
in nature and the Catholic Church would eventually try to enforce a strict control over them, quoting the Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy
The Book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, and of the Jewish Torah/Pentateuch...
ban. People displayind any signs of mediumship
Mediumship
Mediumship is described as a form of communication with spirits. It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Voodoo and Umbanda.- Concept :...
were lynched
Lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
or executed by the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
, especially during the Witch Hunt crazes.
By the time of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
popular belief in ghosts was widespread in Britain
Early Modern Britain
Early modern Britain is the history of the island of Great Britain, roughly corresponding to the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. Major historical events in Early Modern British history include the English Renaissance, the English Reformation and Scottish Reformation, the English Civil War, the...
, and he used them as plot devices in several of his works, such as Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Julius Caesar (play)
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and a lot of other such tales flourished then.
Spiritism and Shamanism
Asian Shamans have claimed to have fully accomplished the ability to communicate with the dead and the gods and served as intermediates between them and the living people. American NativeNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
medicine men
Medicine man
"Medicine man" or "Medicine woman" are English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples...
have also claimed the same ability. However, Kardec either was not fully aware of these religions or merely disregarded them as unimportant (a product of his time, he was strictly eurocentric to the point of not giving attention to Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
, a vastly more ancient religion that also features a prominent role for reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
).
Spiritism and Christianity
Christianity has traditionally been critical of Spiritism, mostly because Mosaic LawMoses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
clearly forbade the Jewish people all forms of communication with the dead (Deut. 18: 10-14). Some Christians hold that the supposed spirits of the dead are actually fallen angel
Fallen angel
Fallen angel is a concept developed in Jewish mythology from interpretation of the Book of Enoch. The actual term fallen angel is not found in either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament. Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of...
s, while others claim that the clear rendering of scripture teaches they are demons (while some equate demons with fallen angels).
Most of the Christian opposition to Spiritism is found among Protestant Christians, who believe salvation is a free gift of God, which we are unworthy of. Contrary to this, Spiritism states that all spirits will eventually attain full illumination. Christian Fundamentalists also reject spiritism following the Mosaic Law
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
on the subject of the dead. Reincarnation is also a subject for further criticism among many Christian denominations, since several passages in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
seems incompatible with it (most notably Hb. 9:27).
The Catholic Church clearly forbids its members to take part in mediunic sessions, or any type of reunion concerning the evocation or the communication of spirits. Most religions have a similar position; however, depending on the country, there seems to be more tolerance. This is especially observable in Brazil.
In the United States, where Spiritism is not as widespread as Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
, there are many Christian Spiritualist organizations and denominations, such as the Progressive Spiritualist Church and the Spiritual Church Movement
Spiritual church movement
The spiritual church movement is an informal name for a group of loosely allied and also independent Spiritualist churches and Spiritualist denominations that have in common the fact that they have been historically based in the African American community. Many of them owe their origin to the...
.
Syncretic religions
Kardec's SpiritismSpiritism
Spiritism is a loose corpus of religious faiths having in common the general belief in the survival of a spirit after death. In a stricter sense, it is the religion, beliefs and practices of the people affiliated to the International Spiritist Union, based on the works of Allan Kardec and others...
and Anglo-American Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...
were actually more or less the same thing and existed simultaneously for a long time, each aware of the other and often very close. They were both middle to upper-class phenomena, related to anti-clericalism and secularism
Secularism
Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...
and may be seen as an intermediate step for those who wished to relinquish their relationships with religions they saw as wikt:old-fashioned or wikt:corrupt but did not want to become atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
s. It waned in popularity as socialism found more acceptance and was later banned in most of Europe by Fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
.
The doctrine would, however, find elsewhere safe ground to develop. In Brazil, as early as 1900 hundreds of Spiritist centre
Spiritist centre
A Spiritist Centre, also called Spiritist Society or Spiritist House, is the basic unit of organisation of Spiritism, which is a doctrinally and distinct form of Spiritualism....
s were to be found throughout the country. Spiritism reached its peak of popularity in the 1970s but lost it in the 1990s, being now apparently about to recover.
Afro-Brazilian
Afro-Brazilian
In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...
religions, which were banned in Brazil until 1950, quickly noticed Spiritism and claimed the name for themselves, as a disguise, as Spiritism was a "white man's" religion that was tolerated, while Candomblé
Candomblé
Candomblé is an African-originated or Afro-Brazilian religion, practised chiefly in Brazil by the "povo de santo" . It originated in the cities of Salvador, the capital of Bahia and Cachoeira, at the time one of the main commercial crossroads for the distribution of products and slave trade to...
, Umbanda
Umbanda
Umbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion that blends African religions with Catholicism, Spiritism and Kardecism, and considerable indigenous lore....
, Quimbanda
Quimbanda
Quimbanda is an Afro-Brazilian religion practiced primarily in the urban city centers of Brazil. Quimbanda practices are typically associated with magic, rituals involving animal sacrifice and marginal locations, orishas, exus, and pomba gira spirits. Quimbanda was originally contained under the...
and others were not. Due to this misuse of the term, there persists a confusion regarding the religion, which is often resolved by referring to Spiritism as "Kardecism" or "Kardecist Spiritism". And yet the terms "Kardecist" or "Kardecism" should not be used by those who really understand the difference and know about the Spiritist doctrine
Spiritist doctrine
This article discusses parallels between the Gospel of Jesus and Spiritism as presented in the works of Allan Kardec, especially in The Spirits Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism.-The teachings of Jesus:...
.
Although the centres are autonomous, they are assembled in unions that are assembled in federations that are linked to the "Conselho Federativo Nacional" (national federate council) in Brasília -Brazil. The "Conselho Federativo Nacional" is presided by the "Brazilian Spiritist Federation" www.febnet.org.br (site in Brazilian Portuguese)
Further reading
- Kardec, AllanAllan KardecAllan 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.-Early life:Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804...
. The Gospel According to SpiritismThe Gospel According to SpiritismThe Gospel According to Spiritism , by Allan Kardec is a book published in 1864 that relates the teachings of Jesus to Kardecist Spiritism, the moral and religious philosophy that Kardec had been publishing. It is intended to demonstrate that Spiritism clarifies and extends the most important...
. - Kardec, Allan. The Spirits BookThe Spirits BookThe Spirits' Book is part of the Spiritist Codification, and is regarded as one of the five fundamental works of Spiritism. It was published by the French educator Allan Kardec on April 18, 1857...
.