It is the set of laws and principles, as revealed by the Superior Spirits, contained in the works of Allan Kardec, which constitute the Spiritist Codification: The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums’ Book, The Gospel According to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell, and The Genesis. “Spiritism is a science which deals with the nature, origin and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationship with the corporeal world.” (1) “Spiritism realizes what Jesus said of the promised Consoling, by bringing knowledge of those things which allow Man to know where he came from, where he is going and why he is on Earth; so attracting mankind towards the true principles of God’s law and offering consolation through faith and hope.” (2)

It reveals new and more profound concepts with respect to God, the Universe, the Human Being, the Spirits and the Laws which govern life itself. Furthermore, it reveals what we are; where we have come from; where we are going; what is the objective of our existence; and what is the reason for pain and suffering.

God is the Supreme Intelligence, first cause of all things. God is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, omnipotent, supremely just and good.

The Universe is God’s creation. It encompasses all rational and non-rational beings, both animate and inanimate, material and immaterial.

In addition to the corporeal world inhabited by incarnate Spirits, which are human beings, there exists the spiritual world, inhabited by discarnate Spirits.

Within the Universe there are other inhabited worlds, with beings at different degrees of evolution: some equal, others more or less evolved than earthly Man.

All the Laws of Nature are Divine Laws because God is their author. They cover both the physical and moral laws.
A Human Being is a Spirit incarnated in a material body. The perispirit is the semi-material body which unites the Spirit to the physical body.

Spirits are the intelligent beings of creation. They constitute the world of the Spirits, which pre-exists and outlives everything.

Spirits are created simple and ignorant. They evolve intellectually and morally, passing from a lower order to a higher one, until they attain perfection, where they will enjoy unalterable bliss.

Spirits preserve their individuality before, during, and after each incarnation. Spirits reincarnate as many times as is necessary for their spiritual advancement.
Spirits are always progressing. In their multiple physical existences, they may sometimes become stationary but they never regress. The speed of their intellectual and moral progress depends on the efforts they make to attain perfection.

Spirits belong to different orders according to the degree of perfection they have attained: Pure Spirits, who have attained maximum perfection; Good Spirits, whose predominant desire is towards goodness; and Imperfect Spirits, characterized by their ignorance, their tendency towards evil, and by their inferior passions.

The Spirits’ relations with Human Beings are constant and have always existed. The Good Spirits attract us towards goodness, sustain us in life’s trials, and help us bear them with courage and resignation. The Imperfect Spirits induce us towards error.

Jesus is the Guide and Model for all Humankind. The Doctrine He taught and exemplified is the purest expression of God’s Law.

The morality of Christ, as contained in the Gospels, is the guidance for the secure progress of all Human Beings. Its practice is the solution for all human problems and the objective to be attained by Humankind. Human Beings are given free-will to act, but they must answer for the consequences of their actions.

Future life reserves for Human Beings penalties and pleasures according to the respect they do or do not show for God’s laws.

Prayer is an act of adoration for God. It is found in the natural law and is the result of an innate sentiment in every Human Being, just as the idea of the existence of the Creator is innate.

Prayer makes Human Beings better. Whoever prays with fervor and confidence grows stronger against evil temptations, and God sends the Good Spirits to assist them. This assistance will never be denied when requested with sincerity.

All Spiritist practice is gratuitous, following the orientation of the moral principle found in the Gospel: “Give for free what you receive for free.”

Spiritism is practiced with simplicity, without any external forms of worship, within the Christian principle that God should be worshiped in spirit and in truth.

Spiritism has no clergy, nor does it adopt or use at any of its meetings or during its practices the following: altars, images, candles, processions, sacraments, concession of indulgences, religious vestments, alcoholic or hallucinogenic beverages, incense, tobacco, talismans, amulets, horoscopes, cartomancy, pyramids, crystals, or any other objects, rituals or external forms of worship.

Spiritism does not impose its principles. It invites those interested in knowing it to submit its teachings to the test of reason before accepting them.

“For new things new words are necessary for the sake of clarity of language so we may avoid the confusion inherent to the multiple meanings of various terms. The words spiritual, spiritualist and spiritualism all have a well defined meaning. To give them a new one, in order to apply them to the Spirits’ Doctrine would be to multiply the already-numerous causes of ambiguity. Strictly speaking, Spiritualism is the opposite of Materialism; all who believe that there is something within them that is more than matter or spiritualists, but it does not follow that they believe in the existence of spirits or in communication with the visible world.

Therefore, instead of the words spiritual and spiritualism for designating this latter belief, we have employed the words Spiritist and Spiritism. These two terms we call their origin and radical meaning, and they therefore have the advantage of being perfectly understandable. We will leave spiritualism to its own signification. Hence, we will say that the Spiritist Doctrine or Spiritism has as its principle the relations of the material world with spirits or the beings of the invisible world. The adherents of Spiritism will be called Spiritists. We say, then, that the fundamental principle of the spiritist theory, or Spiritism, is the relation of the material world with spirits, or the beings of the invisible world; and we designate the adherents of the spiritist theory as spiritists.

In a specialized sense, The Spirits’ Book contains the Spiritist Doctrine; in a general sense, it is linked to spiritualism, representing one aspect of it. That is why we have inscribed the words on the title-page: Spiritualist Philosophy.”