History of Spiritism - Survival of Spiritism

Survival of Spiritism

Part of the problems faced by Spiritism were shared by the Internationalist movements, and probably due to this. Besides spiritists, esperantists, socialists, and others were also the target of repression by fascist regimes. Repression to Spiritism was particularly strong in Italy and Portugal.

In South America, on the other hand, none of the above factors was enough to weaken the spreading of the doctrine. Catholicism was losing popular support, the government did not oppose Spiritism, most people were not aware of scientific discoveries and the religion had not spread only among the upper classes. Thanks to the works of a few dedicated workers it managed to lay solid foundations which allowed it survive as an important movement still today.

Such relocation occurred most successfully in Brazil, where more than 4 million people declare themselves "Kardecist Spiritists", according to the last IBGE census data, making Brazil the largest Spiritist country in the world.

Survival did not mean, however, remaining entirely faithful to the original practice. Spiritism has since changed into a considerably more religious doctrine there.

Spiritism has influenced Brazilian syncretisms like Umbanda, Christian Rationalism, Union of the Vegetal and Valley of Dawn, all of them often claiming the name formally or informally.