Allan Kardec's supreme handbook about the world of the spirits and the movement of Spiritism is a valuable and insightful guide to existences beyond our corporeal realm.
In the mid-19th century, Allan Kardec was a noted scholar working in Paris with qualifications in the medicine and the natural sciences. A fashionable trend at the time was seances; something which Kardec undertook with enthusiasm. Struck by the results of the process, he commenced to write several studies which would prove popular among those convinced in the power of spirits to demonstrate influence or power.
Kardec begins this work by delving into the historical significance of spirits, their connection with God and the physical universe. How spirits are situated in the world, and how they move unseen between the planes of existence, is discussed.
The second part concentrates on The Spirit World in greater detail. The types of spirits and how they are incarnated are detailed, with Kardec proposing that several distinct planes of existence are extant, and that most individuals proceed through life without knowing or seeing their influence. A chapter is devoted to how spirits might intervene in our everyday, corporeal world. Often these excursions have a purpose; the spirits are on a mission to inform someone, or change something, that harmony may be restored.
The third part concerns the ten, eternal and unchanging moral laws which govern both humanity and the spirits. Proclaimed by God, these laws offer insight into the behavior of the spirits, who largely seek to conform to these laws. Through spiritual consultations we may learn more about the moral laws, that we grasp the truths behind good and evil. Each of the laws receives a thorough examination by the author.
The fourth, concluding part of this book discusses how people may treat their knowledge of the spirits. Although we are subject to Earthly joys, sorrows, good fortune and misfortune, the knowledge that spirits are present is a consolation from the hardships of existence.
The book is arranged so as to pose a series of questions, which the author then answers. This format is retained for the entirety of the work, with a total of over one thousand questions regarding spirits answered. The reader will emerge knowledgeable and poised to begin their own investigations into the spiritual realms beyond our own.
