Spiritualism is
a religion,
a science and a philosophy.
We believe in
the existence
of God although our ideas
about God are not fixed. We
believe that all mankind should
live in harmonious brotherhood and
we believe that a part of man, his soul or
spirit, exists for eternity.
These concepts
are common to most religions,
however in Spiritualism, we try to give people
evidence that the soul exists and that after death
it continues on into another realm, in the spirit-
world. Spiritualism doesn't tell you what you
should believe or how you should interpret
religious philosophy.
We have no books
that
must be followed,
we have no
preachers whose
word must be
obeyed. As a
guideline to our religious
thinking we have our Seven
Principles, but exactly what
these mean and how they can be
applied to our lives is up to the individual.
The purpose for
our lives and how we should live them are not dictated by Spiritualism.
We have an individual flexible concept of God and beliefs among Spiritualists
are often different. How we understand the world and spiritual matters
depends upon our individual experience and Knowledge.
For all of history
mankind has known of and experienced some form of communication with
a spirit-world. Spiritual beings, or angels, have visited mankind on
many occasional to give knowledge, wisdom and guidance.
During sleep many
people have experienced vivid dreams where spirit people have made their
presence known, renewed their bonds of affection and given information.
In the 1840's
a family in America, was bothered by 'ghostly' noises which grew more
and more troublesome. When the family spoke out and asked questions
the noises seemed to respond, so they realised that a system of communication
was possible. They would ask questions and receive a reply, using alphabeitcally
coded rappings: one rap for A, two for B to 26 for Z. By this method
the family found out who was making the noises. The spirit communicator
gave details of his life and explained that he had been killed and buried
in the cellar.
The publicity
about this incident travelled throughout America, England and other
parts of the world and encouraged others to seek communication from
the Spirit-world. The logical system of 'one knock for yes two for no'
seemed to work well for many thousands of people and formed the basis
of communication.
By this method
spirit people explained about the spirit-world and were able to give
instructions how best to develop and improve the systems of communication
with them