What is Spiritism?

Visitor - One last question, if you please. Spiritism has powerful enemies; couldn't they prohibit its practice and its societies, and thereby stop its spread?

A.K. - They would only defeat themselves a little faster because the use of force is the argument of those who have nothing good to say. If Spiritism is a passing fancy, it will fall by itself without anyone having to go to so much trouble; if they persecute it, it is because they fear it, and they fear only what is authentic. If it is a reality, it is, as I have already said, a part of nature itself, and a law of nature cannot be revoked with the stroke of a pen.

If Spirit manifestations were the privilege of one individual, there's no doubt that if that individual were gotten out of the way, it would put an end to the manifestations. Unfortunately for its opponents, such manifestations are not a mystery to anyone; there is nothing secret or occult; everything happens in the full light of day; they are at everyone's disposal, from the palace to the hovel. One might prohibit obtaining them in public, but we know for certain that it is not in public that they are best produced, but in private. Therefore, since anyone may be a medium, who could prevent a family in their home, an individual in the silence of his or her own study, or the prisoner who is locked away, from communicating with spirits without the henchmen's knowledge and right under their noses? Even if a government were strong enough to put a stop to them, would it be able to stop its neighbors and the entire world since there is not a single country in the two hemispheres where there are no mediums?

Furthermore, Spiritism's source is not to be found among humans; it is the work of the Spirits, who can neither be burned nor put in prison. It rests on individual belief and not on societies, which are not necessary. If they succeeded in destroying all the Spiritist books, the Spirits would dictate them all over again.

To sum up, Spiritism today is an assured fact; it has won its place in the public eye and among philosophical doctrines. Therefore, those who do not appreciate it must be prepared to see it all around them, even though they are perfectly free not to accept it.