OPAN-OTOL-MSOIA-BGMisms: SPIRITISM

Spiritism is a spiritual and philosophical doctrine based on the belief that spirits—conscious beings who survive physical death—exist and can communicate with the living, primarily through mediums.

🔍 Key Features of Spiritism:

Founded by Allan Kardec
- Codified in the 19th century by French educator Allan Kardec (1804–1869).
- His core works include The Spirits’ Book, The Book on Mediums, The Gospel According to Spiritism, and others.
Belief in Spirits and Reincarnation
- Human beings are immortal spirits temporarily inhabiting physical bodies.
- Spirits evolve morally and intellectually over multiple incarnations (reincarnation).
Moral Philosophy
- Strong ethical focus influenced by Christian morality, especially teachings of Jesus.
- Emphasizes charity, humility, and the spiritual progression of the soul.
Spirit Communication
- Spirits of various levels of moral and intellectual development can communicate via mediumship.
- Such communications are used to gain insight into spiritual truths and moral guidance.
Scientific-Spiritual Approach
- Spiritism considers itself a “science of the soul”, blending philosophy, morality, and evidence-based observations of spiritual phenomena.
Distinction from Spiritualism
- Though similar, Spiritism (especially in Latin America and Europe) has a more structured doctrine and philosophical foundation than the looser movement of Spiritualism, which focuses more on mediumship and phenomena.

🌍 Modern Influence:

Strongly practiced in Brazil, where it is recognized as a religious philosophy.
Influences social work, healthcare (e.g., Spiritist hospitals), and ethics.

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Spiritist phenomena are central to Spiritism, a philosophical and spiritual doctrine codified by Allan Kardec in the 19th century. These phenomena are seen as evidence of the existence, survival, and communication of the spirit after physical death.

Below is an explanation of the main types of Spiritist phenomena, based on the Kardecian framework:

🔮 1. Mediumistic Phenomena

These are interactions between spirits and humans via mediums—people with the ability to perceive or communicate with spirits.

Psychographic (Writing) Mediumship: A spirit uses the medium's hand to write messages. Example: Chico Xavier.
Psychophonic (Speaking) Mediumship: A spirit speaks through the medium’s voice.
Clairvoyance / Clairaudience: The medium sees or hears spirits without physical instruments.
Incorporation: The spirit temporarily uses the medium’s body to act or speak.
Healing Mediumship: Healing energies are transmitted by spirits through a medium.

🌬️ 2. Physical Phenomena

These involve objective, observable effects often caused by spirits interacting with physical matter—sometimes through a physical medium.

Rappings / Noises: Spirits produce knocking sounds, often to communicate.
Levitation: Objects (or people) lifted without visible cause.
Materialization: Apparent temporary formation of a spirit body using ectoplasm (from the medium).
Apports: Objects appearing mysteriously, supposedly transported by spirit agency.
Spirit Photography: Apparent images of spirits captured on film.

📚 3. Intellectual Phenomena

These involve transmissions of thoughts, knowledge, or teachings from spirits.

Inspirations: Thoughts or ideas subtly placed into a person’s mind by benevolent spirits.
Moral Teachings: Spirits of higher evolution offer lessons on spiritual growth, ethics, and life after death.
Revelations: New insights into cosmic laws, reincarnation, or divine purpose.

🌀 How Spiritism Explains These Phenomena

According to Spiritist doctrine:

The spirit survives physical death and retains consciousness.
Spirits exist at various levels of moral and intellectual evolution.
Communication is possible because the soul is never fully disconnected from the material world.
Mediumship is a natural faculty, not a miracle or supernatural gift.
All phenomena occur under natural laws yet to be fully understood by science.

☀️ Key Principles Guiding Spiritist Phenomena

Moral Purpose: Spiritist phenomena are never just for spectacle—they aim at moral, intellectual, and spiritual development.
Discernment: Not all spirits are wise or truthful; hence Spiritism emphasizes the moral elevation of both spirits and mediums.
Progression: Spirits and humans are both on an eternal journey of evolution through reincarnation and experience.

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Theosophist, [Charles] Leadbeater:

Arriving on the astral plane after death, people do not under-

stand that they are dead; and even if they become aware of it,

they do not at first perceive how this world differs from the phys-

ical world. . . . Thus the recently deceased are sometimes seen

trying to eat, preparing for themselves completely imaginary

dinners, while others build houses. In the beyond I have defi-

nitely seen a man build for himself a house, stone by stone, creat-

ing each stone by an effort of thought; he had not understood

that by the same process he could quite as easily have built the

entire house at once without going to any more trouble. Discov-

ering that the stones were weightless, he was led little by little to

understand that the conditions of this new world were different

from those to which he had been accustomed on earth, which led

him to continue his examination. In Summerland10 men sur-

round themselves with landscapes which they create themselves;

however, some avoid this effort and are contented with those that

have already been imagined by others. Men who live on the sixth

sub-level, that is to say near the earth, are surrounded with the

astral counterpart of mountains, trees, and physical lakes, so that

they are not moved to construct their own; those who inhabit

higher sub-planes, who soar over the surface of the earth, create

for themselves all the landscapes they wish.

Here’s a Summary Bullet Quote (SBQ) for the passage you shared, drawn from the ideas of Theosophist Charles Leadbeater on post-death astral experience:

SBQ – The Astral Plane and the Power of Thought after Death

"Upon entering the astral plane after death, most souls do not immediately realize they have left the physical body. Perceiving their new environment as a continuation of earthly life, they often attempt to eat, build homes, or carry on routines, unaware of the changed laws governing this realm. As realization dawns, they learn that in this world, thought creates reality—slowly at first, like shaping stones for a house, but eventually understanding they could manifest an entire structure instantly by thought alone. Souls on lower astral sub-planes encounter familiar landscapes, the astral reflections of Earth, while those on higher planes create sublime, self-made realms. Thus, the afterlife becomes a classroom of consciousness, where thought is power, and perception shapes existence."

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answer, as Papus claimed, but on the contrary made a

formal denial: ‘And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

And he answered, “No”.’35 If it is said that this proves only that he

had no memory of his previous existence, we will respond by point-

ing out another text that is still more explicit: the angel Gabriel,

announcing to Zechariah the birth of his son, declares: ‘and he will

go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of

the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the

just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.’36 It could not be

shown more clearly that John the Baptist was not Elijah in person,

but only that he belonged to his ‘spiritual family’, if this manner of

expression may be allowed. It is in this way and not literally that the

‘coming of Elijah’ must be understood. Allan Kardec does not speak

of the story of the man born blind, and Papus seems quite unfamil-

iar with it, for he takes as a parable what is an account of a miracu-

lous healing. Here is the exact text:

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his dis-

ciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents,

that he was born blind?’ Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man

sinned, or his parents,

Here is the Summary Bullet Quote (SBQ) synthesizing the key message from your passage, which explores themes of reincarnation, spiritual lineage, and misinterpretation:

SBQ – Spiritual Identity vs. Literal Reincarnation

"The Gospel account clarifies that John the Baptist was not literally Elijah reincarnated, but rather came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah'—belonging to his spiritual lineage, not his soul's continuity. This distinction, made explicit by the angel Gabriel, discredits any literalist reincarnation interpretation. Jesus, too, refutes simplistic karmic assumptions in the healing of the man born blind, emphasizing that suffering is not always the result of personal or ancestral sin. Instead, divine purposes may be at work beyond human judgment. True understanding lies in grasping the symbolic and spiritual nature of these truths—not forcing a material explanation where a metaphysical one is intended."

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Kardec himself, this comparison is inapplicable as regards the phase

of decline and decrepitude, why should it be any more valid for the

phase of development? Likewise, if what he calls ‘perfection’, the aim

that all spirits must sooner or later attain, is something comparable

to the ‘adult state’, this perfection is quite relative. In fact, it must be

quite relative if it is to be reached ‘gradually’, even if ‘an immense

time’ is required; but we will shortly return to this point. Finally,

logically and especially metaphysically, what has no end cannot have

a beginning either; in other words, whatever is truly immortal (and

not only in the relative sense of the word) is by the same reckoning

eternal. It is true that Kardec, who speaks of the ‘length of the eterni-

ties’ (in the plural), is obviously imagining nothing but a simple

temporal perpetuity; and, because he does not see the end, he sup-

poses that there is no end. But the indefinite is still finite, and all

duration is finite by its very nature. And there is another equivoca-

tion to dispel: what is called ‘spirit’ and is presumed to constitute

the true and total being, is finally only the human individuality.

Even if repeated in multiples by reincarnation, it is no less limited

for that. In a sense, spiritists even limit the individuality overmuch,

for they know only a slight part of its real possibilities, and reincar-

nation is not required for the individuality to be susceptible of

indefinite prolongations. But in another sense they give an excessive

importance to the individuality in taking it for the [entire] being of

which it is—with all its possible prolongations—only an infinitesi-

mal component. This double error, moreover, does not rest

uniquely with spiritists, but is shared by almost all the Western

world. The human individual is both much more and much less

than is commonly believed; and if this individual, or rather a

restricted portion of this individual, had not wrongly been taken as

the complete being, the idea would never have arisen that it was

something that ‘evolves’. The individual can be said to ‘evolve’ if it is

understood thereby that it accomplishes a certain cyclic develop-

ment; but in our day, whoever says ‘evolution’ means to say ‘pro-

gressive’ development, and this is contestable, if not for certain

portions of the cycle at least for its totality.

Here's a Summary Bullet Quote (SBQ) capturing the philosophical depth and metaphysical critique of Allan Kardec's Spiritism from the passage you shared:

SBQ – On the Limits of Spiritist Evolution

"True immortality implies eternity—without beginning or end. Kardec’s view of spirit as a gradually evolving human individuality mistakes the infinite for the indefinite. The ‘spirit’ in Spiritism is only a fragment of the total being, and reincarnation as a process of perfection is limited by its focus on an evolving ego, not the eternal Self. Western thought, including Spiritism, errs in both overemphasizing and undervaluing the individual—mistaking its temporal growth for ultimate being. Evolution, properly understood, is cyclic, not necessarily progressive, and never touches the eternal essence beyond becoming."

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All this is in fact quite simple, at least in appearance, or rather quite

‘simplistic’. But there are other healers who find it even simpler to

deny evil: the ‘Christian Scientists’ and the ‘Mental Scientists’ of

America are a case in point, and this is also the opinion of the Anto-

inists, whom we will discuss below. The ‘Fraternists’ go so far as to

call down the ‘divine force’ in their healings, and it is again Béziat

who proclaims ‘the possibility of healing the sick by invisible astral

energies, by appeal to the Great Universal Dispensatory Force which

is God.’25 If this is the case one might ask them why they find it nec-

essary to appeal to ‘spirits’ and ‘astral forces’ instead of addressing

God directly and exclusively. But the character of the evolving God

believed in by the ‘Fraternists’ has already been seen. In this connec-

tion there is still something else that is very significant: on February

,  at Arras, Sébastien Faure gave a conference on the ‘twelve

proofs of the nonexistence of God’, a conference which he repeated

almost everywhere. Béziat spoke next, describing himself as ‘pursu-

ing basically the same aim,’ addressing to Faure ‘his most sincere

felicitations,’ and ‘inviting the audience to associate themselves sin-

cerely with him [Faure] in the realization of his eminently humani-

tarian program.’ Following his journal’s review of this meeting,

Béziat added these reflections:

Those who, like Sébastien Faure, deny the Creator-God of the

Church, in our view draw that much nearer to the true God that

is the Universal Impulsive Force of the worlds. . . . Thus we do

not fear to advance this paradox: that if Sébastien Faure and

those like him no longer believe in the God of the churchmen,

it is because they believe more than others in the true God.

Here's your Summary Bullet Quote (SBQ) for this passage, distilling the philosophical contradiction and metaphysical confusion at the heart of certain modern healing cults and spiritualist movements:

SBQ – The Paradox of Denial in Pseudo-Spiritual Healing

“Some modern healers, invoking 'astral forces' and an evolving God, paradoxically reject the Creator-God yet claim access to a 'Universal Dispensatory Force.' Their denial of the divine becomes, in their view, a deeper belief in a truer God. But by bypassing the transcendent in favor of energies and spirits, they reveal confusion between the Absolute and its reflections. As Béziat illustrates, when denial of God is framed as progress toward truth, the spiritual path risks becoming not clearer—but more obscure.”

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Here’s a Summary Bullet Quote (SBQ) that captures the essence of the critique found in traditional metaphysics regarding the Spiritist Fallacy, especially as seen in Kardec’s system and its derivatives:

SBQ – The Spiritist Fallacy

"Spiritism mistakes the individual soul for the total Self, treating a fragmentary consciousness as the whole being. By imagining this limited self as evolving endlessly through reincarnation toward a relative perfection, it ignores the eternal, unchanging nature of the true Spirit (Ātman). Eternity is not an infinite extension of time but its transcendence. To conflate spiritual growth with temporal progression is the core fallacy of Spiritism."

Would you like a diagram or infographic version of this SBQ summarizing the contrast between Spiritism vs Traditional Metaphysics (e.g., Ātman vs jīva)?

OPAN-OTOL-MSOIA-BGMisms

Thursday, 15 May 2025

SPIRITISM