History of Spiritism - Relationship With Traditional Religions

Relationship With Traditional Religions

Spiritism has never claimed to have discovered or mastered mediumship. The basic books of Spiritism clearly acknowledge the existence of mediumship throughout history and gives a rational and natural explanation for Mediumship and other phenomena. They had manifested themselves in man's ancient religions and are closely related to Shamanism. Most other religions also contain them to some degree. The Catholic veneration of the Saints, for instance, which is present in religions like Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism and African tribal religions is not found in Spiritism.

In Ancient Greece it was believed that the dead inhabited Hades and that it was possible to reach them, either by mediumship or by a type of astral projection. Ulysses and Orpheus are two characters who went to the Hades eventually. In the Iliad, Achilles and Ulysses also used a bloody sacrifice to summon the souls of the dead.

The Romans were famously afraid of ghosts and demons and their superstitions formed the bases for most of European witchcraft and sorcery during the Middle Age, added with significant Germanic elements. Spiritists believe that many stories told in Greek and Roman mythology are better explained by the intervention of Spirits.

The ban on the evocation of spirits found in the Bible is a solid evidence that it was extensively practiced among the israelites and the manifestation of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost is explained by Spiritism as a mass manifestation of mediumship. The life of Jesus is moreover filled with circumstances that fit well with the doctrine.

In the Middle Ages it was believed that the dead could eventually come back and haunt persons or places (this being the origin of the legends of ghosts and haunted houses). However, such phenomena were seen as diabolic in nature and the Catholic Church would eventually try to enforce a strict control over them, quoting the Deuteronomy ban. People displaying any signs of mediumship were lynched or executed by the Inquisition, especially during the Witch Hunt crazes.

By the time of William Shakespeare popular belief in ghosts was widespread in Britain, and he used them as plot devices in several of his works, such as Hamlet, Julius Caesar (play) and Macbeth and a lot of other such tales flourished then.