Rise of spiritism

Spiritism is a doctrine based on the belief that the spirits of the dead survive and can communicate with the living through mediums. It was set out in the middle of the nineteenth century by the French educator Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, who wrote under the name Allan Kardec, in works beginning with The Spirits' Book. It drew on the wave of spiritualist practices, such as table-turning, which spread in Europe and America in the 1850s. Kardec's version stresses reincarnation, moral progress and charity. Spiritism did not become large in France, but it grew strongly in Brazil, where it has millions of followers and is linked to charitable and medical work.

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