Dated a spiritist girl (Kardecist) for 3 years and learned an awful lot about the “religion”. (They didnt like to term it a religion…) Several of my good friends follow Kardec too. Even thou I am agnostic myself I got a great deal of respect for Kardecist Spiritism.
In Brazil its pretty widespread now among the educated and middle class. Sometimes people mix it with other catholic cults... but not most. From what I have heard its more common in Europe/France and in Brazil.
I read about spiritists in America following more the Fox Sisters that were later proven to be hoaxes. So my question is... how common is Spiritism in the USA and in other places ? Do they follow Kardec or other "lines" ? How are they seen by society in large ? (In Brazil the ignorant view it as demonic).
Thanks for any responses... please avoid debating the validity or not of spiritism itself thou.
As far as I understand it, the Kardec variety isn’t very common in the USA and UK, where such churches are generally called Spiritualist (and would consider “spiritism” a misnomer). This previous thread provides some links and details.
hhmm… that thread doesnt have much. I already know about Spiritualism and that thread doesnt even mention Allan Kardec. Google sure isnt working like it used to.
Still I am more interested in knowing about individuals experience… not the “official” view of organized sites.
By the little attention the former thread got… I take its very rare in the US and other places…
Do you mean Spiritualism, as in the seances that you might see in a really old movie? Or is this some new age variety? The seance-based fad was debunked by Houdini in the 1920s, so I’m a little surprised to hear that it’s still around.
I’d never heard of spiritism, but the Google directory has. It lists spiritist church websites. Apparantly that’s the right term, and “spiritualism” is something different.
Spiritualism I think is the general term to any religion related to spirits and “ghosts” I suppose.
I understood Spiritism was communication with spirits of the dead and departed… christian outview. Allan Kardec being its originator.
Houdini did debunk some fakes… but he could do it all his life and there would still be more. I wont go into the merit since I am not a beleiver myself. Thou I do know that the people over here that do follow this religion are way more open minded than catholics and protestants. It appeals to more educated people I suppose…
Does make we wonder why its so popular in only specific countries. The salvation thru charity part should have certainly have hit a chord with some americans… thou some parts wouldnt fit the protestant mindset too well.
It’s down to nomenclature. There’s the Kardec movement called Spiritism; and the related Spiritualism which, as I said in the other thread, is sometimes called Spiritism (usually by Christian detractors - see, for instance, here or here). I just checked with my wife, an English spiritualist; she’d never heard of the Kardec variety.
I see that there are Spiritist groups in the UK. They just don’t seem to impinge. Perhaps it’s a class thing; you mentioned that Spiritism in Brazil attracts educated middle-class people. Spiritualism in Britain tends to be working-class and often somewhat anti-intellectual in flavour.