The Spiritist phenomenon is universal and so is its doctrine,
because it can be confirmed anytime and anywhere

 
Allan Kardec in his book "What is Spiritism" defines the new science to which he had dedicated himself for the last years of his life. He wrote:

"Spiritism is a science that deals with the nature, origin and destiny of the Spirits, as well as their relationship with the corporeal world."

This was written in 1859, two years after the edition of The Book of Spirits.

In 1893, thirty four years later, Gabriel Delanne in "The Spiritist Phenomenon" also considers Spiritism just as science. 

Let us see what he said:

"Spiritism is a science and its purpose is to experimentally demonstrate the existence of the soul and its immortality through communications with those who have improperly been called the dead."

You see, the purpose of the phenomenon, according to Delanne, was only to demonstrate the existence of the soul and its immortality. That's all, and nothing else.

Why is it that in both definitions there is no mentioning to philosophy and religion? (Later, Kardec will improve the concept, expanding the scope of the doctrine by saying that "Spiritism is a science and a philosophy with moral consequences").

Because no one in those times, not even Kardec, could imagine that behind the phenomena was emerging a new science, a full philosophy and a new way of seeing life.

From the deepening of the questions arose a new foundation, which very clearly brought a new message that would house philosophy, religion, and all branches of human knowledge. 

Religion is, above all, a way of seeing things 

Harold Krushner, in his interesting book "Who needs God", assured with all his rabbi experience that "religion is not just a set of beliefs or a series of rituals. Religion is, above all, a way of seeing things. It cannot change the world of facts in which we live, but it can change our view of these facts and recognitions, which, by itself, makes much difference. Religion is to bring people together so that they can share important moments of their lives". 

The French sociologist and anthropologist, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), after traveling to the islands of the South Seas to study religion in its most primitive form, states that one of the most important things he learned was that one of the essential purposes of religion was not to put individuals in touch with God, but to put them in touch with each other. There are events in the life of each one of us, which we do not want to experience by ourselves alone, happy things, such as births or marriage of a child, and sad things, like the death of a loved one or a war and natural disasters.

Spiritism rescues this original concept of religion by turning their followers into a big family, sharing knowledge, insights, and emotions. And receiving information from those who went to another dimension, made the full philosophy clear, and which, in fact, answers the great questions of the human being: 

Where did we come from?

Why do we suffer?

What is the purpose of our lives?

Where are we going to?

How are we to understand the problem of evil and good?

To which laws are we subject in our evolution path? 

The psychic phenomena have always existed 

Moreover, when it rationally faced the problem of faith and the practice of meditation and prayer, it established rules of fraternal coexistence between this world and the other world, between those who still work with the difficulties of physical realm and those that were already released by the phenomenon of death.

As a science it continues to research the secrets of communication between the living and the dead. As a philosophy it clears our path to avoid shocks and falls and, as a religion, it makes us brothers with the same dreams and the same aspirations. 

But it all started nowadays, in 1848, in an USA village, a small community attached to the city of Rochester in the State of New York, North America.

We said nowadays, because psychic phenomenon has always existed throughout the times. As far as it is known, there is not a nation, a community where the phenomenon has not occurred frequently. But what would trigger the whole process is really modern. Suddenly, at Mr. John Fox', an assumed and extremely religious Presbyterian, noises started to come from the walls. They were sharp raps. It began on March, 1848. Was it the children playing or did it come from the neighbors? Was it the wood clicking? What was it? Insistent beats did not let the family sleep. Curious people came to hear and the beating beats continued. 

"No, I am not the devil", said the author of the strokes 

The police was called and nothing was found. As good evangelicals, they thought it was the devil. This is work of the devil, they all said. Until one day, one of the girls decided to talk to the devil. She said: - You, your split foot (goat's foot, because that was one of the devil's characteristics, given by those who knew him well). - Your cracked foot, she said, do what I do. She clapped three times. And the devil imitated her. She clapped again and again. And the wall repeated. Then the devil was questioned: how old is Kate? And from the wall came a number of strokes equal to the number of years of the girl. There was intelligence behind those strokes. Then Mr. Isaac Post, a friend of Fox, decided to invent a way to talk to the wall. He would call out loud the alphabet. When it was the right letter, the wall gave a blow. Words were being formed, as well as sentences, and the devil's whole story was told like this. The intelligence said, "I am not the devil. I am a being like all of you. I've already been there where you are". And he told his story. 

The author of the blows was a traveling salesman, Carlos Rosma, who had been murdered there, in that house, where he stayed with the trinkets he was trying to sell. The owners of the inn at night, with an eye on the clerk's money and the things we was carrying with him for sale, murdered and buried his body first in the cellar. Later, due to the risk of being discovered, they removed the body and cemented it between two walls, and only fifty years later, when the walls collapsed, the bones of the salesman were found.

This is how it was discovered that the so called dead could make themselves understood by the living. The process was improved. Until it reaches the turning tables that took hold of Europe. 

The turning tables: one of the greatest amusements of Europe 

With the tables the process was the same. People gathered around the table and if there were spiritual entities, who wanted to join the conversation, the conversation began. If something was asked, the table hit back the answer. Madame Girardin invented a lighter table with three feet and called it the table to talk to the Spirits. It was one of the greatest amusements of Europe in the nineteenth century. Important men used the table to talk to the Spirits. One of them was Victor Hugo, who later became a follower of Kardec's doctrinal thinking.

And it is when the wise man, the critic, the researcher comes in, the man of science: Professor Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail. Magnetizer, with over thirty years experience in this art of Mesmer, seeing more than the others, and without any prejudice, studied this matter deeply, improved processes, discovered laws and built the great spiritual foundation of such importance for the growth of men and improvement of mankind.

The doctrine is fully originated from this natural phenomenon that repeats itself whenever there is an intermediate (psychic/medium) and a spiritual entity that wishes to manifest. The phenomenon can occur without any interference of the human will or caused by spiritual evocation. It privileges no one and it does not depend of any belief.  In any house, where there is the existence of two elements: someone with psychic gifts and spiritual beings who wish to appear. The phenomenon is universal as well as the doctrine it gave place to, because it can be confirmed at any time, and anywhere.