In this issue, we continue the study of the book, What is Spiritism, launched in Paris in July 1859. This study will be divided into 19 parts. The pages cited in the text and suggested for reading refer to the 20th edition published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (Federacao Espirita Brasileira). The answers to the questions suggested for discussion can be found at the end of this text. 

Questions for discussion

A. Where do the words Spiritist and Spiritism come from?

B. Where is the strength that has allowed the development of Spiritism, despite the attacks of its opponents?

C. Does Spiritism also accept the existence of miraculous or supernatural events?

Reading Text 

33. Serious Spiritism is the first to repudiate fraud, deception, quackery, speculation or breach of trust, all practiced in its name. (Chapter I, First Dialogue, page 60).

34. The rotating and turning tables were already mentioned at the time of Tertullian, and no one was able, out of Spiritism, to describe its mechanism. (Chapter I, First Dialogue, page 60).

35. The belief is acquired only with time, through a series of observations made with particular care. The spiritual phenomena differ essentially from the exact sciences: they are not produced at will; we need to reap them as they pass. It is watching much that we discover a lot of evidence that escape the eye. (Chapter I, First Dialogue, page 63).

36. There are a lot of evidences for the constant observer that is alert: a word, a fact apparently insignificant is for him a light, a confirmation. (Chapter I, First Dialogue, page 63).

37. You cannot attend an experimental course of Spiritism in the same way as in Physics or Chemistry, because one cannot produce Spiritist phenomena at will. (Chapter I, First Dialogue, page 64).

38. Spiritism is a science that has just been born and we still have a lot to learn from it. (Chapter I, Second Dialogue, page 65).

39. Spiritism is linked to all branches of Philosophy, Metaphysics, Psychology and Moral. It is a vast field that cannot be covered in a few hours. (Chapter I, Second Dialogue, page 65).

40. It would be natural that, when the first phenomena appeared, and the laws that ruled them were still ignored, each person had a system. Where are those primitive systems today? All fell before a more complete observation. (Chapter I, Second Dialogue, page 69).

41. Spiritists do not keep busy making spectra appear, or reading the buena-dicha. Only evil-speaking and bad faith could have mistaken Spiritism with magic and sorcery. Some even compare the Spiritist meetings with the Sabbath meetings, in which we wait until midnight for the ghosts to appear. (Chapter I, Second Dialogue, pages 70 and 71).

42. Spiritism, far from suffering from such attacks, has grown by so much talking about it. All this publicity helped it to be studied and contributed to increase the number of followers, because it was recognized that, rather than a joke, it is something serious. (Chapter I, Second Dialogue, page 71). (Continues in the next issue).

Answers to the proposed questions

A. Where do the words Spiritist and Spiritism come from?

For new things, Kardec said, new terms are needed; so requires clarity. That's why he adopted the words Spiritist and Spiritism, which express, unequivocally, ideas concerning the Spirits. Every Spiritist is a spiritualist, but not all spiritualists are Spiritist. (What is Spiritism, Chapter I, Second Dialogue, pages 66 and 67).

B. Where is the strength that has allowed the development of Spiritism, despite the attacks of its opponents?

The strength of Spiritism does not come from one source, but from the universality of the manifestations of the Spirits, which arise in all parts of the world to deny the detractors and confirm the principles of the Doctrine. Thus, each person can directly receive communications of the Spirits and through them certify himself of the truth of the phenomenon. (Ibid, Chapter I, Second Dialogue, pages 72 and 73). 

C. Does Spiritism also accept the existence of miraculous or supernatural events?

The supernatural disappears in the light of the torch of Science, Philosophy and Reason. Supernatural is all that is out of Nature's laws. At all times the phenomena, whose cause was not known, were considered like this. Spiritism came, however, to reveal a new law that makes of the conversation with a disembodied Spirit a natural fact in the same manner as any other phenomena object of study in Physics. It rejects, therefore, within its limits, all wonderful effect, i.e., outside Nature's laws. (Ibid, Chapter I, Second Dialogue, pages 74 and 75).