What is Spiritism?
'''Spiritism''' is a [[doctrine]] promoted by the [[French people|French]] [[professor]] [[Allan Kardec]]. His first two books were: *''The Spirits' Book'' — Defines the guidelines of the doctrine, covering points like God, Spirit, Universe, Man, Society, Culture, Morals and Religion. *''The Mediums' Book'' — Details the mechanics of the spiritual world, the processes involved in channeling spirits, techniques to be developed by mediums, etc. Other characteristics ideas of his were: * Promoting the dialog between the three classical [[epistemology|forms of knowledge]] ([[science]], [[philosophy]] and [[religion]]) for achieving a more complete comprehension of the reality; * Submitting the fundamental points of the religious systems to a critical and empirical exam, for separating fantasy and reality. This way, men can avoid materialism and dogmatism at once, being critical and spiritual. * Emphasizing human power and responsibility for acting, creating and changing the world around. Although Kardec claimed it was distinct, spiritism is similar to [[spiritualism]]. Kardec's books were based on reporting [[séance]]s in which he claimed to observe phenomena which he attributed to incorporeal intelligence ([[spirit]]s). [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] included a chapter about Spiritism in his book ''History of Spiritualism''. This said that Spiritism is Spiritualist (but not vice-versa).<ref>Arthur Conan Doyle. 1926. ''The history of spiritualism''. New York: G.H. Doran.</ref> As a consequence, many Spiritualist works are widely accepted in Spiritism, particularly the works of scientists [[Sir William Crookes]] and [[Oliver Lodge]].<ref>William Crookes. 1874. ''Researches on the phenomena of spiritualism''. Burns, London</ref><ref>Oliver Lodge. 1930. ''The reality of a spiritual world''. E. Benn</ref> == Other websites == *[http://www.allankardec.com/Allan_Kardec/Le_livre_des_esprits/lesp_us.pdf The Spirits' Book] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180417105431/http://www.allankardec.com/Allan_Kardec/Le_livre_