Spiritism

Origin and history

Spiritism as a movement was born in the United States in 1848 with the famous case of the Fox sisters in Hydesville (New York) — three young women who claimed to communicate with a deceased through mysterious "knocks". The phenomenon caused a sensation and triggered the great spiritualist movement that swept the United States and Europe in the second half of the 19th century, with millions of followers, séances at home, parapsychological investigations.

In France, the educator Hippolyte León Denizard Rivail (1804-1869), under the pseudonym Allan Kardec, structured the movement intellectually with five foundational works (The Book of Spirits 1857, The Book of Mediums, The Gospel according to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell, Genesis). His system, called "spiritism" (spiritisme), is more philosophical-religious than the Anglo-Saxon "spiritualism", with explicit doctrine of reincarnation and karma, evolutionary cosmology and progressive ethic.

Doctrine and practice

Kardecist doctrine teaches: 1) the soul is immortal and pre-existed before the body; 2) incarnates multiple times for evolution (reincarnation); 3) can communicate with the living through mediums; 4) there is moral law of cause-effect (karma); 5) the goal is moral and spiritual progress; 6) Jesus is moral master, model of love and forgiveness, but the doctrine integrates Buddhist, Hindu and other elements.

Practical activities: séances (group meeting where a developed medium channels messages from spirits — for therapeutic guidance, healing, contact with deceased relatives), spiritual healing (prayer for the sick, energetic transmissions, magnetic healing), book study (Kardec's works and others), ethical and educational works (many Kardecist centres offer free social services). It does not require initiation rituals nor temples — meets in spiritist centres open to the public.

Spiritism in Brazil

Brazil is today the global epicentre of Kardecist spiritism: between 4 and 5% of the population declares spiritist (millions of people), with thousands of active centres throughout the country and personalities respected (the famous medium Chico Xavier wrote 450+ psychographic books from 1932 to 2002, becoming one of the most loved figures in the country). Brazilian Kardecist spiritism syncretised partially with the African traditions Umbanda and Candomblé, generating a unique national religious panorama. In Spain and Latin America there is also Kardecist tradition, but smaller in scale.