Spiritism is a doctrine established upon principles that are harmonically related to each other. It is the result of a revelation. Spiritism aims at studying and understanding the spirit and its several manifestations. The Spiritist revelation occured through mediumship which forms the empirical base of the doctrine. For this reason, it is said that Spiritism is a science, not in the ordinary meaning however, but in the philosophical one, more specifically in accordance with epistemology. Although much has been said about this aspect, the scientific side of Spiritism is poorly understood, thus representing a fertile research field in the future.

The Spiritist principles describe the spirit as the intelligent principle of the Cosmos and its relation with other spirits and God. Such relation is governed by well stablished laws (such as those existing to rule matter). A codification of these laws is found in the Spiritist doctrine in the form of ethical or moral principles. These ethical principles are the same as those found in their purest form in  the Gospel what makes Spiritism a great rescuer of Christianism such as known in its beginning. The religious character of Spirism is naturally related to this aspect: to promote the harmonic relationship between God and the creature through the adjustment of the creature´s acts to the Creator´s laws.  As a consequence, the  religious aspect of Spiritism should not be understood according to the ordinary meaning of the word `religion´. In Spiritism, the relation between creature and God is not based on established rituals, be them instituted by tradition or customs, although the basic precepts of Spiritism  lead us to respect them according to each one´s individual rights. Since Spiritism is structured by principles and contain ethical principles, Spiritism is also characterized as a philosophy. The Spiritis philosophy establishes a perfect harmony among its triple structure: the philosophical pillar - concerning the Spiritist principles and the way they are related to each other;  the scientific pillar - concerning what Spiritism has to say about ther relation of spirits with matter; and the religious pillar - concerning the way creature binds to God.

Introduction

If we were asked to delineate the character of a religous movement which could face all the requirements of reason and logic imposed by modern society, we would surely find many difficulties, since the majority of the so called classical religions would hardly meet these basic demands. What modern world needs is a new conception of the world in which faith (recognized as a basic necessity of all men and women) could be reconciled with reason. What is necessary is a conceptual framework (that is a set of principles established upon logic) in which a dialogue between these two great concepts is possible.

But the dialogue is also only possible if a different definition of faith is available. Gone are the days of blind beliefs when tradition was the sustaining base. The voice of priests and religious men (whose life was entirely dedicated to the service of God) is only heard by a very limited audience almost composed of people who share an idea of faith much different from its generally accepted value by modern society. And this idea of faith disagrees with many of the discoveries of science (as in the famous case of Adam and Eve against Darwinian evolution), being a constant threat against the dreamed dialogue, keeping science and religion on a constant battle field.

Recently it became obvious that a new common denominator must be found since a large part of humankind still lives under the pressure of teocratic systems of government that represent a material threat against the harmonic relation of nations.  An old time seem to be revived when doctrinal disputes almost always were followed by camp fights. We don´t believe that this large portion of humankind will be lead to reformulate their old conceptions at once, but such a new framework of faith would provide all the resources to a better dialogue with that other part of the civilized world which commands the material destiny of the planet. Another consequence of this new faith is a better integration of people to the world where they live, a happier human being. One can say that the state of happiness of a person depends crucially on three basic relationships: the relation of the person with himself, of the person with other people around him and of the person with God. If one of these aspects fails to be effective in life, the person becomes an individual of difficult social relationship, producing less and demanding more. But, most important of all, this new belief will make people understand the meaning of their circle of life, telling them their destiny after the great travel through the life´s end.

But how can a religious belief be reconciled with recent findings of science? The only possible answer is to complete the image of the world provided by science with a set of principles not in conflict with it, organized and interwined in a logical manner. Such set of principles has been sought for centuries and constitutes a new revolution of thought. Many would think that we should start our description with the presentation of some anomalous facts or phenomena that have been registered since the most remote times (when they could be erronously taken as fantasies) until the modern era (when they have been taken as trickery). We should then refer to parapsychology or other "parasciences" in order to explain them, concluding that the possibility of an afterlife world in only a matter of speculation. We obviously could follow this way and arrived to the same end of many past researches who didn´t pay enough attention to the facts they wished to explain or neglected relevant phenomenological aspects.  A number of different reasons force us to belive that such way is wrong. First of all, it doesn´t looks like the way followed in normal science, where facts are objects whose importance is directly proportional to the theories related to them. If there is no theory, there is no way to reconcile observed facts with possible explanations which, by their turn, would lead to useful improvements in the theory in process of scientific evolution. Secondly the number and variety of phenomena can be so great that we run the risk of finding different explanations (that alone don´t constitute a valid science), one for each different phenomenon. If we carefully analyze the history of parasciences ellaborated to explain these facts, we will conclude that they have been uncapable of making things advance beyond the phase of mere speculation. As a consequence, numberless explanations were created within different phenomenological domains. In simple words, by refusing to accept the basic starting point of normal science, parasciences were unable to remove the impression of pre-science period still surrounding the plain existence and occurence of this facts erronously classified as anomalous.

The right way is therefore to start up with a theory before everything. Accept some definitions, propose leading principles and organize a system thinking is the right path followed by normal science. But this requires giving up prejudice which is very often a hard step for many. The process is specially complicated because it deals with well rooted conceptions feed since the early infacy of people. After all, if we came to know that heaven or hell are only figurative images, that our putative system of afterlife punishment (specially target to our enemies) doesn´t exist, or that Nature hides many facts beyond those supposed by common science, which we used to appreciate and love (and which was developed to study quite a different kind of phenomena), it becomes a challenge to take the right step. He who approaches Spiritism should be aware of our truly reality in the world, not expecting any privilege or remarked position. Finally he will find that reality can be much more fantastic than previous imagined, while the feeling of owe before God´s creation will become even stronger. He will also understand deep mysteries beyond seemingly unusual facts, at the same time that he will be able to plan his existence in advance with much more care and certainty.

Simple facts

We live on Earth, that is a positive fact. Our existence on its surface is an every day experience testified by our physical contact with other people who, like ourselves, have the same experience and impressions. Why don´t we think we are living a great illusion? How are we convinced that the consciousness of others works exactly like ours? People daily awake, go to work, have lunch, return to home and go to bed. During sleep, they are impressed by experiences (again by a absolutely private facts) of life in a different state that is often confusing and misleading upon awakening. How are we sure that the sleep state is false – in the sense that it doesn´t correspond to reality – and  that, while awaken, we are closer to reality? What happens during that brief moments of sleep, if we are unable to remember them fully?  In all of these questions, several poorly defined  words are recognized: consciousness, reality, illusion... In modern science, it is hard to form a consistent image of whatever imaginable phenomenon without accurately defining the words that describe it.

In our world we are also constantly confronted with the phenomenon of death. While we are alive, we witness the birth, life and dead of many who, like ourselves, seem to possess the same experience of life. But they disappear (leaving our circle of existence) after life give up their bodies, something we have learned with science. A exciting question then arise: do these disappearing people continue to experience consciousness - that is the feeling of existence - or are they launched in an empty minded state? Not that we can´t rule out the existence of other´s consciousness after death simply because this is a private experience - not accessible to our own as said before. Such a question is surely the most important of all times because human existence seems too short in face of the image of eternity (or, at least, a life spaning 500, or 2000 years) that we are able to make. Also, the immense majority of people in the world do bother about their future, life being a continous process of negotiations to take place in the future. Why then do we live only up to 70 or 80 years? Why not more? Why some people die so early, having no opportunity to profit from all good things a happy life is able to provide ? Our unique experience of consciousness refuses to despise the importance of these questions and many others. Deeply we know we are independent beings on the surrounding order, that we don´t have anything to do with the outside world except perhaps through the constant impression it has upon us.

Another important fact that contributes to increase the importance of death is our continuous experience with time. The invariance of our feelings in time (even with the weakening of our health as times goes by) leaves us the strong impression that life, that is, our conscious state, might remain invariant with time. The strong independence of our conscious state on external conditions make us believe that it might continuously exist. Someone could argue that during sleep we lose the sense of reality. But what is the base for this statement? A parallel between death and sleep could then be stablished. However it might be possible that in fact we lose memory of the facts of sleep when we awake and that the vigil state is devoid of meaning from the point of view of the sleep state. It is impossible in principle to test (in the sense of a scientific realization) which of the explanations is correct simply because the ‘awaken’ or ‘sleep’ state are private (individual) experiences disconnected from each other. A further analysis will show that everything related to consciousness belongs to a different order of phenomena, quite different from that of matter. In this cases, the thing to be observed is the very observer of the thing.

To try to answer these question at once, without having a reference basis is the same as to enter an  intricate maze with no knowledge of the existence of an exit. Considering these questions as part of a hidden puzzle of Nature, it is also a positive fact that whatever understandable answer must necessary be given within a consistent vision of this same Nature. From the intellectual poin of view, it is the task of the Spiritist Doctrine or Spiritism - represented by its set of principles and not by the organized movement of people - to provide some clues for the unveiling of a yet unknown order which is totally integrated to the material one revealed by science (as we will see, however, some of these principles are part of ancient beliefs encountered in many cultures around the world).

Such task is indeed very difficult one since our common sense is naturally restricted to admit certain class of natural phenomena. The realization of possible mechanisms outside common sense is chiefly an intellectual endeavor an as such we ask the reader to consider these pages.

We therefore need a safe starting point of thought, a conceptual framework for the thinking. Instead of analyzing some abnormal facts from which a plausible explanation could be “deduced” - as if it were indeed possible - we take a different route. We admit a theory beforehand and then, after a careful scrutiny of the consequences predicted by such a theory, we consider the facts at hand. In order to understand this procedure, we need some definitions on what one understands by the word ‘theory’. Then we explain the advantages of the method.

As a rule, we could philosophically divide into three classes the group of people in society:

1- The community of those who simply reject any meaning or importance to the ultimate questioning of life which is a matter of interest of Spiritism. These are the so called  ‘unbelievers’ who disregard any possible answer by simply ruling out the questions;

2- The group that recognize the importance of the ultimate questioning of life, but already have a predefined putative answer;

3- The group that is sincerely convinced about the importance of the ultimate questioning of life and that has no formed opinion about possible answers.

It is tacitally assumed that this new framework is addressed to the third group that is sincerely convinced of the importance of the ultimate questioning of life and that has no preconceived opinion or ready answers. It is useless to argue with the first group which sees no meaning in this kind of questions and with the second one which already has their ready answers (even though they may not follow logic). At this point the empirical facts are of prime importance because they reveal a side of Nature which is unknown for both first and second groups.

Spiritist Principles