Kardec's Roadmap to Spiritist Learning
According to Allan Kardec, the learning process of the Spiritist ideas is not the traditional one, that is, from teacher to student. Although it may be thought that someone may be able to teach others to be a spiritist, in reality this is not the case, since a full understanding of spiritist teachings makes the one who accepts them an adept, thus provoking a profound moral and behavioral transformation.
“Adherents need not be frightened by the word ‘teaching’; it is not solely the product of the lecture stand or podium, but it also occurs in simple conversation.”
– Allan Kardec
In spiritist teaching, adherents are those who are already convinced of spiritist ideas and disbelievers are those who are in the process of exploring spiritist principles and still forming their opinion. As someone can teach mathematics or history without being convinced of what they are teaching, in Spiritist teaching this is not possible. Conviction cannot be imposed, and the transformation proposed by the Spiritist Teachings only occurs from self-will.
“Those who would desire to become thoroughly familiar with it must first of all submit to a serious study of the subject and become persuaded that, more than any other science, it cannot be learned without commitment.”
— Allan Kardec
Academy (noun)
mid-15c., Achademie, “the classical Academy,” properly the name of the public garden where Plato taught his school, from Old French (Modern French Académie) and directly from Latin Academia, from Greek Akadēmeia “The Academy”;
The Spiritist Academy can be the virtual ground where adherents and skeptics meet each other in order to learn and progress.
This is the order indicated by Kardec to start your learning:
This booklet of only a hundred pages or so presents a summary of the principles of the Spiritist Doctrine, a general overview that enables one to see the whole in a condensed picture. In only a few words, one can ascertain its objective and judge its scope. Furthermore, it presents the principal questions or objections that newcomers are usually inclined to raise. Such an initial reading, which requires but little time, is an introduction that will facilitate a more in-depth study.
Provided by the International Spiritist Council
This book contains the complete Doctrine as dictated by the Spirits themselves, and contains their entire philosophy and all its moral implications. It reveals humankind’s destiny and provides an initiation into the understanding of the nature of spirits and the mysteries of life beyond the grave. By reading it, one comprehends that Spiritism has a serious objective and that it is not a frivolous pastime.
Provided by the International Spiritist Council
This book is intended to guide those who wish to become involved with the manifestations, and provides an understanding of the most appropriate means for communicating with spirits. It is a guide for both mediums and evokers, and supplements The Spirits’ Book.
Provided by the International Spiritist Council
This journal is an assorted collection of phenomenological incidents, theoretical explanations and separate excerpts, which supplement what is found in the other previously mentioned works, somewhat comprising their practical application. It may be read simultaneously with the others, although it will be more profitable, and especially more intelligible if one reads it after having read The Spirits’ Book.