The Spirits' Book (Le Livre des Esprits in French) is part of the Spiritist Codification, and is regarded as one of the five fundamental works on Spiritism. It was published by the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the pen name of 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 spirits, the purpose of life, the order of the universe, good and evil, 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, Thomas Aquinas and writers including Voltaire.
Overview
The basic concepts presented by the book are:
Monotheism (i.e. there is only one Supreme Being, the source of all good and evil alike) Creationism (i.e. God created the principle of everything, not things as they are now) The validity of Jesus' ethics and moral teachings The survival of the soul (spirit) after death (disincarnation) Reincarnation of the souls (plurality of existences) The inherent morality of God and His creation The existence of life all over the Universe (plurality of worlds) The progression of the soul towards perfection by experience through several lives The migration of spirits from one world to another (transmigration) The possibility of manifestation of spirits in the living world by means of mediums Karma (not actually termed such) as an explanation for apparent injustices Good works are important to spiritual realization, not necessarily faith
Contents
The Spirits Book is divided into four parts or "books", each one split into several chapters. Chapters are not regularly subdivided into sections — though most have titles marking the beginning of particularly sought subjects. Book 3's chapters, for some reason, are not numbered.