Editing Reincarnation (section)

====Spiritism====
[[File:Tombe Allan Kardec.JPG|thumb|upright|Tomb of [[Allan Kardec]], founder of spiritism. The inscription says in French "To be born, die, again be reborn, and so progress unceasingly, such is the law".]]
[[Kardecist spiritism|Spiritism]], a [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualist]] philosophy codified in the 19th century by the French educator [[Allan Kardec]], teaches reincarnation or rebirth into human life after death.

According to the Spiritist doctrine, an "intelligent principle", also called the "spiritual principle", evolves from simpler organisms such as bacteria, plants, then into non-human animals, then into humans, and then into further stages, including the angelical one of higher wisdom and morality. The period in between physical lives is called ''erraticity'', in which a spirit may wander on Earth or in (either good or bad) spiritual realms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=O Livro dos Espíritos » Parte Segunda - Do mundo espírita ou mundo dos Espíritos » Capítulo XI - Dos três reinos » Os animais e o homem |url=https://www.ipeak.net/site/estudo/6671/1/os-animais-e-o-homem |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=www.ipeak.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Prada |first=Irvênia L. S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lYHxDwAAQBAJ&dq=info:qqVTAAWtnioJ:scholar.google.com/&pg=PT10 |title=A Questão Espiritual dos Animais |date=2020-07-16 |publisher=FE Editora |isbn=978-65-990939-6-8 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Spiritism {{!}} Beliefs, Practices, & History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Spiritism |access-date=2025-02-08 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> According to this doctrine, free will and cause and effect are the corollaries of reincarnation, and reincarnation provides a mechanism for a person's spiritual evolution in successive lives.<ref name="Hess2010">{{cite book |author=David J. Hess |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGxsfV-lTtEC&pg=PA16 |title=Spirits and Scientists: Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-271-04080-6 |pages=16–}}</ref> The introduction of reincarnation into Spiritist doctrines was mediated by a series of mediums and "magnetizers", such as M. Roustan, a practitioner of [[animal magnetism]], also known as mesmerism, who believed in reincarnation. Roustan played an important role in the development of the mediumistic abilities of Celina Japhet, a medium who assisted Allan Kardec in the codification of his doctrine.<ref name=":8" />

These ideas were consolidated in France. Their spread was facilitated by a movement to reinterpret spiritualism, strongly influenced by mystical, Hindu, Buddhist and socialist tendencies.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Sharp |first=Lynn L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CsFbaq9ysOIC |title=Secular Spirituality: Reincarnation and Spiritism in Nineteenth-century France |date=2006 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-0-7391-1339-4 |pages=xii, 3, 33 |language=en}}</ref> One of the first groups in France to embrace reincarnation was the Saint-Simonian movement in the 1820s, a group of progressive and utopian thinkers, including [[Jean Reynaud]] and [[Pierre Leroux]], who sought to reform society and integrate socialist ideals with a new spiritual vision. These thinkers, influenced by Eastern philosophies "newly discovered" in the West, such as those of Hindu and Buddhist thinkers, adopted the belief that the soul evolved over multiple lives. Reynaud and Leroux, in particular, popularized the idea of reincarnation, arguing that it was a more rational and progressive explanation for the fate of the soul. They drew on the Catholic thinker [[Pierre-Simon Ballanche]].<ref name=":7" /> This belief was also promoted by other socialist and mystical thinkers, such as [[Henri de Saint-Simon|Henri de St. Simon]], [[Barthélemy-Prosper Enfantin]] and [[Charles Fourier]], who, in addition to discussing the evolution of the soul, saw reincarnation as a key to understanding human progress, both from a spiritual and social point of view.<ref name=":8" /> In an attempt to make the theory more "French", Reynaud stated that the ancient Druids, representatives of the Celtic culture of France, also believed in reincarnation, which gave the doctrine a legitimate ancestral origin and connection with national identity. This belief in reincarnation was appropriated by groups of [[Liberal Christianity|liberal Protestants]], [[Freethought|freethinkers]] and mesmerists, reaching Kardec through the latter.<ref name=":7" />

The doctrine of reincarnation was criticized by spiritualists outside of France. In the United States, [[Andrew Jackson Davis]] considered it a "magnificent mansion built on sand", although he believed in the pre-existence of souls. In England, [[William Howitt]] was one of the main critics, describing the doctrine as pitiful and repulsive, arguing that, if it were true, many spirits would have searched in vain for their loved ones in the afterlife.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Shepard |first=Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iZYQAQAAIAAJ |title=Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology |date=1984 |publisher=Gale Research Company |isbn=978-0-8103-0196-2 |pages=1301 |language=en}}</ref>