Allan Kardec wrote about spirits in one of the 1858 editions of his magazine, Spiritist Review. he wrote about a young medium who was fooled by a lessor spirit into performing nonsensical acts.

The United States Spiritist Council, published the entire editions of Kardec’s magazine for the year 1858 and it makes fascinating reading. The title of the book is, Spiritist Review – Journal of Psychological Studies – 1858, published in 2015. The link to the book on Amazon is here.

In the article about the young medium and how he was tricked, Allan Kardec lays out 8 main points to remember when dealing with spirits. Each one is worth keeping in mind when dealing with the “Other World”.

1. The spirits are not all equal nor in power, nor in knowledge or wisdom. As they are no more than human souls detached from their corporeal body, they present a variety even greater than that of people on Earth, because they come from all worlds and, among the globes. Earth is neither the most basic nor the most advanced. Thus, there are very superior spirits as there are very inferior ones; very good and bad; very wise and very ignorant; there are those of levity, malevolence, liars, astute, hypocrites, polished, sharp, jokers, etc.

2. We are incessantly surrounded by a cloud of spirits that occupy the space around us, despite the fact that we cannot see them, watching our acts, reading our thoughts, some to do us good, others to do us harm, whether good or bad spirits, accordingly.

3. From the physical and moral inferiority of our globe in the hierarchy of the worlds, the inferior spirits are more numerous here than the superior ones.

4. Among those spirits that surround us there are those that attach to us; that act more particularly over our thoughts, giving us advice, and whose influence we follow unnoticeably. Good for us if we hear the voice of good spirits only.

5. The inferior spirits only bond to those that listen to them, that give them access and to whom they connect. If successful on dominating someone, they identify with their own spirit, fascinating then, obsessing them, subjugating them, and leading then as one does to a child.

6. Obsession can never happen but by inferior spirits. The good spirits don’t produce any kind of coercion, combat the influence of the bad spirits and stay away when they are not listened to.

7. The degree of coercion and the nature of the effects it produces determine the difference between obsession, subjugation and fascination.

Obsession is the almost permanent action of a strange spirit that leads the person to be solicited by an incessant need to act by this way or the other and to do this or that.

Subjugation is a moral bond that paralyzes the free will of the one that suffers it, pushing the person to the most reckless attitudes, frequently most contrary to their own interest.

Fascination is a kind of illusion produced by the direct action of a strange spirit or by his cunning thoughts. Such as illusion produces an alteration in the comprehension of moral things, leading to misjudgment and to mistake evil for good.

8. Human beings can always disengage from the oppression of the imperfect spirits by their will power, by the choice between good and bad. If the coercion achieved the point of paralyzing the will and if the fascination is such that it obliterates reason, then the will of a third person may replace it. [pp 433-434]

Therefore, for those in the process or just curious about communicating with the spirit world, one must be on guard and weary to whom you let into your house and mind.

Living with spirits all around can be wonderful, as I write about the benefits of being guided by good spirits in my book, 7 Tenets of Spiritism – How They Impact Our Daily Life, but we also must realize that we live on a world of Trial and Expiation, where imperfect spirits go to learn.

Just as you learned to not trust many of your school mates as you were growing up, the same applies to spirits.

Also understand what we must do to improve ourselves and to ascend into greater spiritual bliss, read my book How to Live – Inner Peace through Spiritism.