Spiritist Review - Journal of Psychological Studies - 1866

Allan Kardec

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Spiritism According to the Spiritists



The bi-weekly Brussels publication La Discussion, about politics and finance, is not one of those cheerful brochures that both, in shape and form, seek to entertain the lighthearted public. It is a serious journal, accredited specially in the financial world, now in its eleventh year.[1] The publication of December 31st, 1865 brings the following article entitled Spiritism According to the Spiritists:

Spiritists and Spiritism are now two much familiar and frequently employed words, although they were ignored a few months ago. However, most people that use those words keep asking themselves about their precise meaning, not expressing their doubt to others, for everyone wants to pretend to hold the key that solves the charade. Sometimes, though, intrigued by curiosity, the question escapes the lips and each one explains it, satisfying one’s wishes.

Some pretend that Spiritism is the trick of the armoire of the Davenport’s brothers; others say that it is no more than magic and witchcraft from the past, that people want to promote with another name. According to the loose lipped of the neighborhoods, the Spiritists have mysterious conversations with the devil, with whom they had a preestablished compromise.

Finally, by reading the papers, one learns that the Spiritists are all mad, or at least, victims of certain charlatans called mediums. With or without closets, these charlatans give presentations to whoever wants to pay them, and to value even more their trickeries, they pretend to operate under the hidden influence of the Spirits from beyond the grave.

That is what I had learned lately. Considering the disagreement among those ideas I decided to visit the devil, to enlighten myself, to the price of being defeated or being deceived by a medium, and even if I had to lose my mind. I fortunately remembered a friend that I suspected was a Spiritist and sought him to give me the means of satisfying my curiosity. I explain to him all the multiple opinions I had collected, and the objective of my visit. The friend laughed at what he called my ingenuity and gave me, more or less, the following explanation:



Spiritism is not, as it is commonly thought, a recipe to make the tables dance or the execute tricks of deception, and all those that look for the supernatural and wonderful make a mistake. Spiritism is a science, or better saying, it is a spiritualist philosophy that teaches moral.

It is not a religion because it has no dogmas or cult, or priests or articles of faith. It is more than a philosophy because its doctrine is established on the certain proof of the immortality of the soul. The Spiritists evoke the Spirits from beyond the grave to provide such a proof.

The mediums are endowed by a natural faculty that make them capable of becoming intermediaries to the Spirits and produce with them the phenomena that go by miracles or prestidigitation to the eyes of anyone that ignores their explanation. But mediumship is not an exclusive privilege of certain individuals. It is inherent to humankind, although each person has it in different degrees or different forms.

Therefore, to the eyes of someone that knows Spiritism, all these wonders that are attributed to the doctrine are not but phenomena of physical nature, that is, effect whose causes reside in the laws of nature.

The Spirits, however, do not communicate with the living ones with the only objective of demonstrating their existence: they are the ones that daily dictated and developed the spiritualist philosophy.

As a philosophy, it has its system that consists on the revelation of the laws that rule the universe, and in the solution of many philosophical problems, before which and up until now, humanity was impotent to solve. That is how Spiritism demonstrates, among other things, the nature of the soul, its destiny and the cause of its existence on Earth. It unveils he mystery of death; explains the reason for the vices and virtues of man; it tells what man, the world and the universe are. Finally, it gives you the picture of the universal harmony, etc.

This system rests on logical and irrefutable proofs, that have themselves tangible and pure reason as the judge of their truths. Thus, in every theory that it exposes, it acts like a science and does not skip a point unless the preceding one is completely resolved. Spiritism, therefore, does not impose trust because, to be accepted, it only needs the authority of common sense. Once this system is established, a moral teaching is deduced as an immediate consequence.

That moral is nothing else but the Christian moral, the one written in the heart of every human being; it is that of every religion and every philosophy, because it belongs to everyone. But, since it is detached from any fanaticism, any superstition, any spirit of sect or school, it shines in all its purity.

All greatness and beauty of the doctrine comes from that purity, so much so that it is the first time that moral is engulfed in such a splendid and majestic spark.

The objective of every moral teaching is to be practiced; but, for this one, such a condition is an absolute condition, because it calls Spiritists not the ones that accept its precepts, but only those that practice them.

Should I tell you about its doctrines? I do not wish to teach here, and the enunciation of the maxima would necessarily lead me to their development. I will only say this: the Spiritist doctrine teaches us to withstand disgrace without neglecting it; to enjoy happiness without attachment. I would say that it diminishes us without humiliation, as it elevates us but does not make us proud; it places us above material interests, but does not stigmatize them without vilification, because we learn, on the contrary, that every advantage that was granted to us constitute so many other forces entrusted to us and whose employment to our own benefit or to the benefit of others is our responsibility.

Following that responsibility, it follows the penalties for infringing the duties and the rewards to those that carry out their duties. But even these assertions were taken from facts and may be verified to the fullest conviction.

Such is this philosophy in which everything is great because everything is simple; where nothing is obscure for everything is proved; where everything is nice because each issue intimately interests each one of us. Such is this science that projecting a shiny beam of light onto the darkness of reason, suddenly unveils the mysteries that we considered impenetrable, pushing back the horizon of intelligence to infinity. Such is this doctrine that, by improving them, pretend to make its followers happy, opening to humanity a safe path to the moral progress. Such is, finally, the madness that contaminated the Spiritists and the witchcraft that they practice.

That is how my friend ended, with a smile, allowing me, on my request, to visit some Spiritist meetings with him, where the practice adds up to the teachings.

When I got home, I remembered what I had said, like everybody else, against Spiritism, even before I got to know the meaning of that word, and that memory brought me a bitter confusion. I then thought that, despite the severe denials imposed to human pride by the discoveries of modern science, we hardly dreamed, in the times of progress that we live, to profit from the lessons of experience; and that these words written by Pascal, two hundred years ago, will still be very accurate for many centuries to come: “It is a peculiar disease to man to believe that he holds the truth directly; and that is why he is always ready to deny anything that is incomprehensible to him.”

A.Briquel

As it can be seen, the author of the article wanted to present Spiritism under its true lights, free from the fantasies brought upon it by the criticism, in a word, as it is considered by the Spiritists, and we are glad to say that he achieved that perfectly. In fact, it is impossible to summarize the theme in a clearer and more precise way. We must also congratulate the editors of the journal that showed such spirit of impartiality, that we would like to find in all those that pretend to be liberal and take the position of apostles of free thinking, and welcomed such an explicit profession of faith. Besides, their intention with respect to Spiritism is clearly stated in the following article, published in the issue of January 28th:

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[1] Editorial room in Brussels, Montagne de Sion, 17; Paris, Rue Bergère, 31. Yearly price in France: 12 francs; 7 francs per semester; each issue with 8 pages, large in-folio: 25 cents.

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