In the face of the power of the Catholic Church, representatives of its various religious orders came from Portugal, with the "official" mission of assisting the settlers, and catechizing and "save" the Brazilian Indians. However, European adventurers, sometimes also as official representatives, arrived here with some kind of personal interests...

It is not difficult to imply that creatures of different mores and religions arrived to live in the Brazil-child. Not only were they different, they were conflicting too. The mixture of races was unavoidable...

Therefore, they lived here in Brazil for about the first three centuries of our History:

- European settlers (not only Portuguese, but also French, Dutch, Spanish);

- Priests (of various religious orders);

- Natives (various tribes) and

- African slaves (from various parts of the great continent).

Power holders, the Europeans forced their religion (Catholicism) and this explains why Brazil is still the largest Catholic country.

When reading the 2002 Census on Internet under "Religions," we came across the information that on the census of the colonial Brazil, all African slaves were considered "Catholic."

The slaves (Bantus, Sudanese, Nagoes, and Yorubas), which lived with their masters for a longer period, were forced to watch and participate in the Catholic cults, obedience obtained by force. However, such obedience was an obligation since the slaves did not follow or believe in Catholicism. Secretly in their slave quarters, they dedicated themselves to their religion, and there, among them, they practiced their psyche, which was an ancient and simple spiritual exercise learnt in their motherland, now a palliative for their cruel reality - slavery.

The Brazil Candomble - Slowly, the slaves started to adapt themselves and began to add Catholic rituals, sacraments, vestments, images, altars, and so on, to their cult, however, maintaining the African characteristics. When slavery was abolished and Constitution allowed free religious belief, many of these people, followers of Candomble, became aware of Allan Kardec's work by attending Spiritist Centers, at the time beginning in Brazil. However, soon, some of them decided to found a new genuine Brazilian religion, called Umbanda. In 1941, in Rio de Janeiro, the First Umbanda Congress took place, the purpose of which was to organize a religious practice of already 30 years. The elements were set out and of this syncretism emerged the Umbanda with its various presentations, being one of them the immediacy (the possibility of the believer solving his problems in a short period).

The withdrawal we mentioned may have occurred due to the difficulty and lack of interest in following the spiritual recommendations of constant study, change in behavior (moral improvement), absence of rituals, ornaments, hierarchy, promises, and so on. However, mostly because the purpose of Spiritism is not to solve material problems, but rather to educate, enlighten and strengthen the Spirit, so it is renewed and supported by his faith in God. God's help is permanent, thus enabling the Spirit to find by himself the sought solution.

Strange practices to Spiritism - True to Kardec, the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, at a meeting of the National Federative Council, dated 05/02/1953 (Practical Spiritism, Peter F. Barbosa, pages 13:14, 4th Ed, 1995 FEB, RJ/RJ), recommends the Spiritist Centers the total absence in their spiritual meetings of:

- Vestments, or any special clothes;

- Wine, or any alcoholic beverage;

- Incense, myrrh, tobacco, or other substances that produce smoke;

- Altars, images, litters, candles and any material objects as an aid to allure the public;

- Hymns or songs in dead or exotic languages​​, only admitting them, in the language of the country, but only on festive meetings organized by infants and youths and in sessions of physical effects;

- Dances, processions and similar manifestations;

- Comply with down-to-earth, inferior, and temporal material interests;

- Payment for any grace achieved;

- Talismans, amulets, miracle prayers, scapulars, or any objects and the like;

- Sacraments, concession of indulgences, distribution of titles of nobility;

- Horoscopes, fortunetelling, hand reading, and Astromancy, and others related;

- Rituals and extravagant performances in order to impress the audience;

- Exotic or eccentric terms to describe things and beings;

- Making promises and spiritual requests (despachos), scratch crosses and dots, and finally, practice a long series of material acts originated from old and primitive religious ideas.

Based on these recommendations, which report on the practices contrary to the Spiritist Doctrine, we understand how much Umbanda and Candomble (spiritualist religions and practitioners of mediumship) differ substantially from Spiritism.

In addition, in Candomble animals are sacrificed. In Umbanda, no: it works with herbal baths and prayers. These differences clearly show that, although spiritualists, Candomble and Umbanda cannot be considered Spiritists. And this without any unworthiness because Spiritism - the Doctrine of the Spirits - defends free will, respects and considers the autonomy of all religions, and does not believe to be in any way superior.

Metapsychics and Parapsychology - Laid the foundations that differentiate Spiritism from the respected Candomble and Umbanda religions (as we pointed out), we shall, from now onwards, begin to characterize the Doctrine of the Spirits. First, however, it is necessary to make a brief presentation about two other "almost" religious currents of the human thought, which, somehow, approaches Spiritism. We refer to Metapsychics and Parapsychology. Our readers will understand that we have to synthesize:

a. Metapsychics

- It was founded by Charles Robert Richet (1850-1935), a famous French scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine/1913 (Physiology). Its object was the scientific research and analysis of mechanical or psychological phenomena of all time, said paranormal (mediumship), due to forces that seem to be intelligent or to unknown powers latent in human intelligence;

- Therefore, Metapsychics is not Spiritism - it is a purely investigative science;

- The word metapsychics was not well accepted by researchers, and today it is hardly used.

b. Parapsychology

- Driven by Joseph Banks Rhine (1895-1980), theologian and American scientist, who attached it to science, particularly to Psychology;

- Rhine devoted himself, in particular, to the study of psychic trance in telepathy and clairvoyance; researched the "ESP" (extra sensory perception), term created in 1935 and employed in worldwide Parapsychology treaties;

- The term Parapsychology is most commonly used in the Anglo-Saxon and Germanic countries;

- It may be possible to say that Parapsychology behaves like Metapsychics being her heir in several aspects.

c. General considerations on Metapsychics and Parapsychology

- Both of them, while Science, followed the same footsteps of all the other sciences, i.e., they tried, by using the experimental method, to define laws based on events they observed in Nature;

- They were no longer exponential because a scientist only accepts as true a phenomenon if he can explain and reproduce it, if offered the same environmental conditions in which it occurred - and they failed...

- They came up an insurmountable barrier, because most of the phenomena analyzed are characterized as psychic, i.e., they have their origin in the Spiritual Plan (action of disembodied Spirits), with manifestation on the material plane, through the mediation of mediums (incarnate Spirits). However, spiritual action is something that science cannot handle by using a beaker...

For us, Spiritists, what makes us sad is to see that these researchers (very few today) did not, or do not realize that, in fact, they only appropriate themselves of scientific terms to replace the nomenclature so well delineated, pioneered, by Allan Kardec. Moreover, they will only find what they are looking for, when by using their common sense, they shall be convinced of human disability to explain in vitro those occurrences that originate in spiritus. Then they will humbly go the Spiritist Center, where they will be able to see that there is another kind of laboratory, offering new learning to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Spiritism - Now we shall openly talk about Spiritism, whose codes of morality, science and philosophy were so well structured by Allan Kardec in five of his works: "The Book of Spirits"/1857, "The Mediums' Book"/1861, "The Gospel According to Spiritism"/1864, "Heaven and Hell"/1865 and "Genesis"/1868.

We, Spiritists, are certainly grateful to Kardec for his phenomenal work in establishing contact with mediums from various countries to receive from them lessons from the Spiritual Plane, which were meticulously selected and filtered, producing the Codification. That is why it is said that Kardec codified the Spiritism. Such messages were the bricks with which the "big building," Spiritism, was erected, like a lamp permanently illuminating paths.

Kardec was a teacher par excellence, proving that chance does not exist. Such an important undertaking had to arrive at the material plane via an unusual intelligence, with heavenly inspiration flowing in him. And with only five books! (Currently, the Spiritist literature has already published about ten thousand works - 412 authored by Chico Xavier, and 202 by Divaldo Franco, and several other mediums and writers.)

Let us go briefly through its assumptions and scope to be able to understand the moral content (revelations and teachings) of the Doctrine of the Spirits - Spiritism. Therefore, we can say that:

"Spiritsm is the set of laws and principles revealed by the Superior Spirits, contained in the works of Allan Kardec. These works constitute what is called the Spiritist Codification."

Now that we have defined it, in general, let us see its moral particularities:

Revelation - It reveals whom we are, where we came from, where we are going to, what is the purpose of our existence, and what is the justified reason for pain and suffering. And it offers for analysis and reflection, exposing consequences, new and more profound concepts about God, the Universe, the Human Being, the Spirits, and the Laws that govern life.

Teachings - God (in the very first place of all considerations) is the Supreme Intelligence, first cause of all things. He is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, omnipotent, supremely just, and good.

And more:

- The universe: is God's creation. It encompasses all rational and irrational beings, animate and inanimate, material and immaterial;

- Divine Laws: all the laws of Nature are Divine Laws because God is their author. They cover both the physical and the moral laws; they are unalterable, perfect, and immutable throughout the Universe;

- The worlds: beyond the corporeal world inhabited by incarnate Spirits, which are men, there is the spiritual world, inhabited by disembodied Spirits;

- Jesus is the Guide and Model for all Humankind - The Doctrine He taught and exemplified is the purest expression of God's Law;

- Christ's morality, contained in the Gospels, is the roadmap for the secure progress of all Mankind, and its practice is the solution for all human problems and Humanity's object;

- Evolution: the Universe contains other inhabited worlds, with beings at different degrees of evolution: the same, more, or less evolved than men;

- Spirits: they are the intelligent beings of creation. They form the world of Spirits, which pre-exists and outlives everything:

a. they are created simple and ignorant, as already mentioned (question 115 of "The Spirits' Book). They evolve intellectually and morally, passing from a lower to a higher order, to perfection, where they will enjoy unalterable bliss;

b. they preserve their individuality before, during and after each incarnation;

c. they reincarnate as many times as is necessary for their improvement;

d. they are always progressing: in their multiple tangible (reincarnations), they can be stationary but they never regress, the speed of their intellectual and moral progress depends on the efforts they make to reach perfection;

e. good Spirits attract us towards goodness, sustain us in our life's trials, and help us bear them with courage and resignation; the imperfect Spirits lead us astray;

- The Perisprit: is the semi-material body that involves the Spirit and unites it to the material body;

- Man: it is a Spirit (involved by the Perisprit) incarnated in a material body:

a. it has the free will to act, but accounts for the consequences of its actions;

                b. life brings you to penalties and pleasures according to the way you respect or not God's Law (Law of Justice, in this case featuring cause and effect, action and reaction);

- Prayer: is an act of worship to God. It makes Man a better being. It belongs to the natural law and is the result of an innate sentiment in man, as it is innate in him the idea of the existence of the Creator. When a request is made with sincerity, God always sends good Spirits to assist;

- Mediumship: the connection between Man and the Spirits always existed.

Only by these revelations and teachings, we can already arrive to the conclusion that Spiritism opens a new era for the regeneration first of a minority, and, then, of the whole of Humanity.

There is much more. The study of the works of Allan Kardec is fundamental for the correct knowledge and practice of Spiritism, within the Christian principle that God must be worshiped in Spirit and Truth.

Conclusion - Spiritism does not impose its principles and it unconditionally respects all religions and their followers.

It invites those interested in learning it to accept its teachings submitting them to reasoning before adopting them. Then, understanding the reason for everything that surrounds him, in all activities, the individual will be able to, based on common sense, understand and live with resignation, dealing with the natural difficulties - the trials or atonement - that come to him in his earthly existence.