We explain what Spiritism is, its history, its beliefs, and its types. We also explain its differences with spirituality. Please read other MTV articles for more information. If you share it, it will be of little help to us.
What is Spiritism?
Spiritism is a set of religious or pseudoscientific beliefs, practices, and doctrines that support the immortal existence of the spirits of the dead and the possibility of contacting them through specific actions.
In general, Spiritism believes that spirits can manifest in the real world, and that the living can communicate with them through certain rituals or through the intermediary of mediums, people supposedly specialized in contact with spirits.
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In simple terms, Spiritism believes in the possibility of overcoming 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 reuniting people with a deceased relative.
Spiritism attributes to the spirits of the dead knowledge, powers, and the ability to influence the destiny of the living. From its perspective, these spirits may have selfish or malicious intentions, or offer solutions and advice. They must be contacted in the appropriate manner and, sometimes, offered some kind of favor or compensation.
There is no central institution that standardizes these types of practices, such as a church or formal organization. For this reason, the term “Spiritism” often encompasses various European and American beliefs and pseudosciences that emerged in the mid-19th century, as well as certain religious traditions from Latin America, the Caribbean, and other regions, which believe in the possibility of invoking spirits.
Since its popularization in the West in the 19th century, the field of Spiritism has been particularly prone to deception, fraud, and manipulation. One of the personalities dedicated to exposing the deceptions of Spiritism was the illusionist Harry Houdini, at the beginning of the 20th century. However, this belief remained popular in some parts of the world. Currently, it is especially popular in Brazil.
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KEY POINTS
- Spiritism is a set of practices and doctrines based on the belief in the spiritual existence of the dead.
- It believes that spirits can influence the world of the living and can be contacted by mediums.
- It emerged in the 19th century in the United States and Europe. One of its founders was the Frenchman Allan Kardec. It later spread to the Caribbean and Brazil, where it combined with Catholic beliefs and African and indigenous rituals.
- In general, it is considered a pseudoscience or a superstition.
- During the 20th century, many frauds linked to Spiritism were exposed.
Origin and History of Spiritism
Background
The belief in life after death has accompanied humanity since ancient times. Specters, ghosts, and journeys to the underworld are recurring motifs in mythology and have equivalents in almost every known culture.
In fact, in numerous ancient cults and religions of Asian, African, and American origin, spirits play an important role as guardians of their descendants, occasional advisors, or sources of danger and illness.
For example, in the spiritual sessions of Santería, a Caribbean religion born from the syncretism of the Yoruba religion of Africa and Catholicism, it is common to invoke guardian spirits, belonging to historical figures or souls from the popular imagination. These invocations are performed so that the spirits perform tasks and grant favors, in exchange for offerings of drinks, food, and tobacco.
19th Century
Spiritism proper emerged in the West in the mid-19th century. Generally speaking, two points of origin are recognized, which in turn correspond to two variants of spiritualism.
The first point of origin was the United States, where two young sisters named Fox reported supernatural presences on their farm in Hydesville, New York, in 1848. The sisters claimed to be able to communicate with the spirit of a man through a code of tapping. From then on, they began a career as mediums in the United States and England.
In the séances they led, a group of people sat around a table, holding hands, waiting for signs such as movements, noises, or possessions. These séances became widespread, despite the fact that, in 1888, the Fox sisters confessed to having staged a fraud.
The other point of origin of Spiritism was France, where the Frenchman Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the pseudonym Allan Kardec (1804-1869), published The Spirits’ Book in 1857, the first in a series of publications arising from his research on the subject.
Kardec formulated a Spiritist doctrine that supported the belief in the possibility of communicating with the spirits of the dead and also incorporated the belief in reincarnation. The success of Kardec’s works was such that Spiritist societies soon emerged in numerous European countries and the United States, dedicated to contacting the deceased through various methods and procedures.
Despite the condemnation these practices drew from both the Catholic and Protestant churches, the National Spiritist Association emerged in the United States in 1893. Furthermore, in much of the West, the existence of spirits was presented as a field of study with scientific pretensions. This gave rise to “parapsychology,” which also investigated phenomena such as clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition.
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20th and 21st Centuries
By the beginning of the 20th century, numerous deceptions in the field of spiritualism had already been demonstrated and confessed. Teams of researchers collaborated with professional magicians and illusionists, such as the famous Harry Houdini (1874-1926), to expose the fraudulent methods of most mediums and spiritualists.
The demonstration of frauds and deceptions severely discredited the discipline, which lost ground almost everywhere in the world. Between the 1970s and 1990s, belief in communication with spiritual beings experienced a resurgence in the West thanks to the New Age movement. Currently, the country where spiritualism is most widely practiced is Brazil, where it has millions of followers.
Principles and Beliefs of Spiritism
Spiritism does not have a homogeneous and universal set of precepts or a unified doctrine, so its beliefs and principles may vary from place to place and from one group of practitioners to another. Even so, Spiritism proposes a series of general postulates, which can be summarized as follows:
Immortal Spirits
Living people are incarnated spirits, whose matter tends to die but whose spiritual essence is immortal and eternal, endowed with their own intelligence and personality. Spirits exist outside of material reality and cannot interact with the physical world except on rare occasions, or through the possession of a living body.
Ascension or Permanence of Spirits
People who die ascend to a spiritual existence or remain in the world as disembodied spirits, on a plane of greater or lesser enlightenment, depending on the characteristics of their personality and their actions during life. Traumatic events of great psychic significance “anchor” spirits to a place, an object, or a person.
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Communication
Communication between human beings and disembodied spirits can be achieved through very specific procedures involving the use of certain objects or through the intermediary of people capable of establishing contact or being possessed, such as mediums. These often guide spiritualist sessions and can lend their bodies to the spirit to speak through.
Reincarnation
According to some versions of spiritualism, reincarnation exists, so that disembodied spirits can be reborn as human beings once they have reached a certain level of enlightenment or overcome certain mystical or emotional obstacles.
Evil Spirits
There are no demons or other evil supernatural creatures, but rather disembodied spirits who have “devolved” or become lost in their personal suffering, becoming specters and causes of evil. This can vary depending on the beliefs, as some contemplate the existence of greater spirits or deities, such as the orishas of the Yoruba religion.
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Types of Spiritism
The practice of Spiritism has numerous variants or points of view. In general terms, the following Spiritist currents can be distinguished:
Kardecist Spiritism
This is the Spiritist belief and practice based on the codification created by Allan Kardec in the 19th century. It is based on the idea of reincarnation, as a process of spiritual growth, and on the possibility of communicating with spirits through mediums. It is very popular in Brazil, where it is combined with the belief in the possibility of physical or mental healing through spirit channeling.
Table Spiritism
Also called White Table, this is a variant of Kardec’s Spiritism practiced primarily in Cuba. Its name comes from its practices, which involve sitting around a table covered with a white cloth, usually linen. These are usually group sessions, led by a medium, in which spirits are believed to manifest themselves in various ways, including possession.
Cord Spiritism
This is a form of spiritism attested in the Caribbean, which combines indigenous and African shamanic and religious practices with Catholic beliefs and Kardecist principles. It takes its name from the circle its practitioners form, standing and holding hands, chanting and performing coordinated movements, the purpose of which is to induce a trance in the person believed to be the recipient of the spirit.
Crusader Spiritism
This is a form of spiritism characteristic of Cuba, which combines Bantu traditions brought to the Americas by African slaves during the colonial era, with practices derived from table spiritism and cord spiritism, and others derived from syncretism with popular Catholicism and the worship of the orishas of the Yoruba religion.
Indigenous Spiritism
This is a movement present in some regions, with an indigenous heritage from Puerto Rico. It shares many aspects with Cuban crusader spiritism, to which it adds healing practices characteristic of the ancient Taino indigenous peoples.
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Is Spiritism a pseudoscience?
In scientific and academic circles, Spiritism is considered a superstition or a pseudoscience, since its study and practice do not involve the scientific method nor do they apply the standards of validation and verification that are fundamental to science. This was the view, for example, of the Argentine epistemologist Mario Bunge (1919-2020) in his book Scientific Research (1969).
Spiritism grew in popularity during the 1970s, driven by the doctrines of the New Age movement, along with holistic and magical healing therapies, such as the laying on of hands and crystal healing, among others. All of these doctrines are generally considered pseudosciences or superstitions.
ifferences between Spiritism and Spirituality
In a broad sense, Spiritism is a practice based on the belief that it is possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Spirituality, on the other hand, is the cultivation of the spirit, understood as addressing needs outside the corporeal.
This concept can vary greatly depending on the philosophical or religious doctrine. For example, in Christianity, the salvation of the spirit is often pursued through faith or the adherence to a moral code. In other cases, spirituality is associated with an inner gaze that is believed to connect personal experience with the universe or divinity.
On the other hand, in The Spirits’ Book, Allan Kardec established a terminological difference between “Spiritualism” and “Spiritualism.” He called “spiritualism” the belief in a spiritual dimension of the human being, that is, the belief that human beings possess a dimension beyond the corporeal.
And he called his own spiritualist doctrine “Spiritism,” which was also based on the belief in spirits, but also proposed reincarnation and the possibility of communicating with disembodied spirits through a specific series of practices.
Thus, Kardec maintained that one could be a spiritualist without being a Spiritist; for example, if one practiced a religion that proposed the salvation of souls. But he also postulated that every Spiritist must necessarily be a spiritualist, given that they believed in the existence of spirits.
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References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, which ensure reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Ellwood, R. S. & Alles, G. D. (2007). Spiritualism. In R. S. Ellwood and G. D. Alles (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of World Religions (pp. 428-430). Facts on File.
- Hess, D. J. (2008). Spiritism. In J. Kinsbruner (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, Volume 5 (pp. 926-928). Gale. encyclopedia.com
- Melton, J. G. (2025). Spiritualism. Encyclopedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Shulman, D. and Preston, C. (2024). Spiritism. Encyclopedia Britannica. britannica.com
- Spiritism definition, What it is, origin, history, beliefs and types – concept.de
