• What is spiritualism?
• Origin and history of spiritualism
• Principles and beliefs of spiritualism
• Differences between spiritism and spirituality
• types of spiritualism
• Is spiritualism a pseudoscience?

We explain what spiritism is and how it differs from spirituality. In addition, we tell you his story and what his beliefs are.

The invocation of spirits has existed since ancient times but resurfaced as a pseudoscience in the 19th century.

What is spiritualism?

The term "spiritism" normally refers to a set of beliefs, pseudoscientific practices and doctrines religious who share the belief in the immortal existence of the souls of the deceased, which can be contacted through rituals determined (usually with the presence of mediums or priests) and that can even manifest in the real world.

In simpler terms, spiritism is the set of practices and doctrines that aspire to overcome the barrier between the world of the living and the world of the dead, with the purpose of obtaining information, dispelling spells and possessions, or simply bringing the people together. people with a deceased family member.

There is no central entity that standardizes these types of practices, such as a church or a formal organization. Therefore, under the name of "spiritism" can be found from pseudoscience European up to traditions religious of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In general, spiritism attributes knowledge, powers and supernatural abilities to the spirits of the deceased, capable of decisively influencing the destiny of the living. These spirits (deceased recently and long ago) may have selfish or evil intentions, or they may offer solutions and advice, but they must be contacted in the proper way and often offer some form of favor or redress.

The contact with the spirits is made through special sessions, under the guidance of people experienced in dealing with spirits, even capable of giving them their body in possession, temporarily, so that they can speak through their vocal cords. The latter is the task of the so-called "mediums" (or their equivalents in different religions spiritualists).

For this reason, the field of spiritualism has been particularly prone to deception, fraud, and manipulation since its popularization in the modern West in the 19th century.

Origin and history of spiritualism

Harry Houdini helped prove the frauds of most mediums and spiritualists.

It is difficult to fix a universal point of origin for spiritualism, since the belief in the immortal soul and in the existence after death death have accompanied the humanity from very early times. Spectra, ghosts and trips to the underworld in search of some secret or in search of a lost loved one are very recurrent motifs in the mythology and literature of the Antiquity, and have equivalents in almost all cultures acquaintances.

In fact, in many cults and religions of Asian, African and American origin, spirits play an important role, as guardians of their offspring, occasional advisors or sources of danger and illness.

In the santeria sessions of the Caribbean Yoruba religion, for example, it is common to invoke tutelary spirits, belonging to historical figures or souls of the popular imagination, to carry out tasks and grant favors, in exchange for drink, food and tobacco, for example.

However, spiritism played a leading role in the West from the mid-nineteenth century, when it emerged as a pseudoscience linked to the entertainment of young people. bourgeoisie industrial.

Different founding events in France, England and the United States are attributed to him, such as the supernatural presences of the Fox farm in Hydesville, New York, but the truth is that his great popularization was due to the publication in 1857 of the book of spirits by the French Hyppolite León Denizard Rivail, alias Allan Kardec (1804-1869), the first of a series of spiritualist publications, the result of his research on the subject.

The success of Kardec's works was such that there were soon spiritualist societies in numerous European countries and in the United States, dedicated to contacting the deceased through different methods and procedures.

Despite the condemnations that these practices aroused both in the Catholic Church and in the Protestants, in 1893 the National Spiritualist Association emerged in the United States and in much of the West the existence of spirits was presented as a "scientific" field of study. , which also investigated phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition.

However, by the beginning of the 20th century, numerous deceptions in the field of spiritualism had already been proven and confessed. Teams of researchers collaborated with professional magicians and illusionists such as the famous Harry Houdini (1874-1926) to verify the fraudulent methods of most mediums and spiritualists.

This caused a severe loss of prestige for the discipline, which quickly lost ground gained in almost the entire world, with the notable exception of France and Brazil, the two countries where spiritism is most widely practiced today.

Principles and beliefs of spiritualism

Spiritism does not have a homogeneous and universal body of precepts, nor a unified doctrine, so its beliefs and principles can vary significantly from one place to another and from one group of practitioners to another.Even so, spiritism raises a series of general postulates, which have to do with the following:

• The world is inhabited by individual spirits, eternal, endowed with intelligence and personality own, which exist outside the reality known. These spirits cannot interact with the physical world except on rare occasions, or through possession of a living body.
• The Humans who die remain in the world as disembodied spirits, but in a plane of greater or lesser illumination, depending on their personality characteristics and their life lived. Traumatic events of great psychic importance "anchor" the spirits to a place, an object or a person.
• Communication between human beings and disembodied spirits can take place through very specific objects and procedures, or through persons prone to possession (such as mediums, priests, or "matter").
• Reincarnation exists, so that disembodied spirits can be reborn as human beings once they have reached a certain level of enlightenment or have overcome certain ethical, mystical or emotional obstacles.
• Spiritism does not have an official doctrine nor is it a single set of practices, but rather adheres to a universal philosophy: anyone can establish contact with spirits in his way, but by going to a specialist you can prevent the risks that this may bring.
• There are no angels, demons or other supernatural creatures, but rather disembodied spirits that have "involuted" or have lost their way in their personal ailments, becoming specters and causes of evil. This may be different in spiritualistic religions, which contemplate the existence of greater spirits or deities, such as the orishas of the Yoruba religion.

Differences between spiritism and spirituality

In a very broad sense, spirituality is the cultivation of the soul or spirit, that is, the attention to needs other than the biological and corporeal, which are manifested in the human being.

This concept can vary greatly, depending on the philosophical doctrine or point of view, and in religions such as christian, for example, allude to the salvation of the spirit through the moral and ethical code proposed by their doctrine. Therefore, it is a much broader category than spiritualism, since the latter reflects a specific point of view regarding matters of the spirit.

On the other hand, in Allan Kardec's most famous book, the book of spirits, the terminological difference between “spiritism” and “spiritualism” is explained from a strictly spiritist point of view. According to Kardec, it is called spiritualism to the belief in a spiritual dimension of the human being, that is, to the belief that human beings possess a dimension beyond the corporeal. This would be the opposite of the materialism of the doctrines atheists.

For this reason, Kardec baptizes his doctrine as spiritism, and explains that one can be a spiritualist without being a spiritualist (for example, by practicing a religion that proposes the salvation of souls), but that every spiritualist must necessarily be a spiritualist, since he believes in the existence of the spirit.

types of spiritualism

spiritualism crossed unites Catholicism and the cult of the orishas of African religions.

The practice of spiritism can be given according to numerous variants or points of view, since there is not a universal set of procedures to "contact a spirit". Thus, it is possible to distinguish the following spiritualist currents:

• "scientific" spiritualism. Also called table spiritism or White Table, it is the variant closest to what is proposed in Kardec's books, which is why it is often considered "orthodox".Its name comes from the fact that its practices involve sitting around a table covered by a white cloth, usually linen, usually with the medium at the head. They are usually group sessions in which the spirits manifest themselves in different ways, depending on their level of intensity and their intentions.
• Cord spiritualism. Heiress of practices shamanic and religious from different African, American and Asian peoples, this current receives its name from the circle made up of its practitioners, standing and holding hands, while singing chants and performing coordinated movements whose purpose is to induce the trance to those who will "receive" the spirit. In these sessions there are usually no guides or priests, and those present are considered to be much more physically and emotionally involved in the invocation process.
• Spiritism crossed. Typical of some regions of the Caribbean and the continent South American, is a form of spiritualism closely linked to the Bantu traditions that arrived in America with the African slaves of the colonial era. It combines practices of both table and cord spiritism, and many others typical of the syncretism between popular Catholicism and the cult of the orishas of African religions.
• indigenous spiritism. A current very present in the Latin American and Caribbean peoples with the greatest heritage indigenous, especially in Puerto Rico and some regions of Venezuela. It is a current typical of rural environments, which claims the pantheon of major spirits of religion and native traditions of different pre-Columbian peoples such as the Tainos and the Caribs.

Is spiritualism a pseudoscience?

In scientific and academic circles, in general, spiritualism is considered a superstition or a pseudoscience, since its study does not involve the scientific method, nor are the validation and peer-checking standards that are essential for the science. This was considered, for example, by the Argentine epistemologist Mario Bunge (1919-2020) in his book Scientific research .

Spiritualism grew in popularity during the 1970s, hand in hand with the doctrines of the so-called "New age”, along with various holistic and magical healing therapies, such as laying on of hands, crystal healing, among others. All these doctrines are considered pseudosciences or superstitions.