The Spirits' Book

Publisher Marketing: The Spirits' Book (Le Livre des Esprits in original French) is part of the Spiritist Codification, and is regarded as one of the five fundamental works of Spiritism. It was published by the French educator Allan Kardec on April 18, 1857. It was the first and remains the most important spiritist book, because it addresses in first hand all questions developed subsequently by Allan Kardec. The book is structured as a collection of questions regarding the origin of the spirits, the purpose of the life, the order of the universe, evil and good and the afterlife. Its answers, according to Kardec, were given to him by a group of spirits who identified themselves as "The Spirit of Truth," with whom he communicated in several Spiritist sessions during the 1850s. Kardec, who considered himself an "organizer" rather than an author, grouped the questions and their answers by theme, occasionally including lengthier digressions the spirits had dictated to him on specific subjects, some signed by philosophers such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas and writers including Voltaire. Allan Kardec is the pen name of the French teacher and educator Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail. He was born in Lyon in 1804. He was raised as a Catholic. He was a disciple and collaborator of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and a teacher of mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, physiology, comparative anatomy and French in Paris. For one of his research papers, he was inducted in 1831 into the Royal Academy of Arras. Contributor Bio:  Kardec, Allan Allan Kardec (n. Lyon, 3 de octubre de 1804 - m. Paris, 31 de marzo de 1869) fue el seudonimo del pedagogo frances Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail, quien es conocido hoy como el sistematizador del espiritismo. En 1854 Rivail fue iniciado en un pasatiempo popular de mediados del siglo XIX: intentar comunicarse con los espiritus de los muertos. Quedo convencido de la existencia de una region espiritual habitada por las almas inmortales de los muertos y de que era posible comunicarse con ellas. Su "espiritu familiar" le informo que en una existencia previa, en el tiempo de los druidas, habia vivido en la Galia y se llamaba Allan Kardec. Ademas, los espiritus le anunciaron por medio de diferentes medium que "habian llegado los tiempos fijados por la Providencia para una manifestacion universal y que, como ministros de Dios y agentes de su voluntad, ellos tenian la responsabilidad de instruir e iluminar a los hombres, dando comienzo a una nueva era para la regeneracion de la Humanidad." Profundamente impresionado por todo esto, Rivail comenzo a ordenar una inmensa coleccion de escritos psicograficos que le proporcionaron sus amigos espiritistas. Empezo a asistir con regularidad a sesiones espiritistas, preparado siempre con una serie de preguntas que se le respondian por medio de los medium de "manera precisa, profunda y logica." Desde el mismo principio Rivail dejo claro "que los Espiritus, siendo simplemente las almas de los hombres, no tienen ni conocimiento supremo ni sabiduria suprema; que su inteligencia depende del progreso que hayan hecho y que su opinion no es mas que una opinion personal."