The Spirits' Book answered what happens after death. The Mediums' Book answered the following question: how to talk to those who have already left, without falling into illusion. Published in 1861, it is the second of the five basic works of the Spiritist codification and the most practical of all of Allan Kardec's books.
This guide shows what the work is, how it is organized, how Kardec classifies mediums, and what he teaches about obsession. It also indicates where to start, if you have not yet read any of the five.
What is The Mediums' Book
It is the field manual of Spiritism. The full title in French, Le Livre des Médiums, comes accompanied by the subtitle that explains everything: guide for mediums and evocators. In other words, the book was written for those who practice, not for those who only theorize.
The first edition came out on January 15, 1861, in Paris, by the publisher Didier and Company, with a print run of 2,000 copies. They sold out in a few months. Still at the end of that year, a second French edition, revised and expanded, fixed the text that is read to this day.
The work occupies the second place among the five that form the Spiritist codification:
- The Spirits' Book (1857), the doctrinal base
- The Mediums' Book (1861), the practice
- The Gospel According to Spiritism (1864), the morality
- Heaven and Hell (1865), divine justice
- Genesis (1868), the science and the miracles
Anyone who wants to know the author behind the pseudonym can start with who was Allan Kardec, the professor Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail.
The two parts of the book
The definitive edition is divided into two parts with very different temperaments.
First Part, Preliminary Notions, with 4 chapters. Here Kardec disarms the skeptic and the believer at the same time. He discusses whether there are spirits, separates the marvelous from the supernatural, presents the method of observation, and dismisses the competing explanations of the time for the phenomenon of the spinning tables.
Second Part, Of Spiritist Manifestations, with 32 chapters. It is the body of the book, and it is where the practice is: physical and intellectual manifestations, psychography, types of medium, formation, dangers, obsession, identity of the spirits, and evocations. The final chapters deal with the life of the groups, the traps of communications, and the vocabulary.
A detail reveals Kardec's care as an editor. The first edition opened with a Spiritist Vocabulary of 90 pages and about 200 entries. In the definitive edition, this dictionary became a 3 page glossary, with 25 definitions, moved to the end of the book. He understood that the reader needs the phenomenon before the vocabulary.
The complete index, chapter by chapter, is available in the Kardecpedia study guide.
Everyone is a medium to some degree
This is the statement that most surprises those who arrive at the book expecting to find a closed club. For Spiritism, the mediumistic faculty exists in a latent state in all creatures. What varies is the degree and the type, not the possession.
Kardec organizes the mediums into two large families:
- Mediums of physical effects: serve the production of material phenomena, such as noises and the displacement of objects.
- Mediums of intellectual effects: serve as an intermediary for the spirit's intelligence to express itself.
Inside them, Chapter XVI brings a synoptic chart with the species. The most cited are:
- Sensitives or impressionable: they feel the presence through physical impression
- Audients, speakers and seers: they hear, speak and see
- Somnambulists and healers: they act in an altered state or in assistance
- Writers or psychographs: subdivided into mechanical, intuitive and semi-mechanical
- Inspired and of forebodings: they receive ideas and intuitions
Psychography gets its own chapter and is the most well-known modality by the Brazilian public, as we explain in what is psychography. For the general overview of the faculty, it is worth reading what is mediumship.
What Kardec says about obsession
Chapter XXIII is one of the most sought after in the work. Kardec uses "obsession" as a generic term and distinguishes three degrees, from the lightest to the most serious:
| Degree | What Kardec describes |
|---|---|
| Simple obsession | A spirit imposes itself on the medium and interferes in the communications against their will. The defining trait is persistence. |
| Fascination | Illusion produced over the medium's thought, which partially paralyzes their reasoning in the face of communications. |
| Subjugation | Constraint that paralyzes the will and leads the person to act against their own desire. It can be moral or physical. |
Note the criterion he himself offers: someone can be deceived by a spirit without being obsessed. What characterizes obsession is persistence, not an isolated deception.
The chapter also brings a section on the means to combat obsession. The central resource is not a ritual of strength, but rather moral ascendancy, prayer, and education of the faculty. The theme has its own development in disobsession.
A necessary caveat: none of this is a diagnosis. Psychic suffering requires professional accompaniment, and the doctrine does not replace health treatment.
The dangers that the book does not hide
It is noteworthy that a work written to encourage practice dedicates an entire chapter to its risks. It is Chapter XVIII, on the inconveniences and dangers of mediumship.
Kardec is direct regarding the moral influence of those who serve as intermediaries. Chapter XX deals precisely with this: the medium is not a neutral pipe, and their own tendencies affect what passes through them. Chapter XXI adds the weight of the environment and the group.
From this comes the guidance that runs through the entire book and remains valid: development is done in a serious group, with a leader and continuous study. It is not a solitary practice, one does not learn out of curiosity, and one does not rush. Whoever wants to understand the doctrine as a whole before any practice can start with what is Spiritism.
Where to start reading Kardec
The order recommended by the Spiritist houses is usually chronological, and it works well for a simple reason: each work presupposes the previous one.
Start with The Spirits' Book, which establishes the foundations. Only then move on to The Mediums' Book, which assumes this vocabulary is known. Then follow with The Gospel According to Spiritism, the most read work in the set.
A correction worth noting, because it circulates incorrectly quite often: the Spiritist Scale, that classification of spirits into orders and classes, is not from The Mediums' Book. It is in The Spirits' Book, in Part Two. The Mediums' Book merely applies it, in the chapter on the identity of spirits.
Frequently asked questions
What is the summary of The Mediums' Book?
It is the practical manual of the Spiritist codification, published by Allan Kardec in 1861. It teaches how communication with spirits occurs, classifies types of medium, guides the formation of the faculty, warns of risks, and deals with obsession. It is divided into Preliminary Notions and Of Spiritist Manifestations.
What is the difference between The Spirits' Book and The Mediums' Book?
The first, from 1857, establishes the doctrine: God, soul, reincarnation, moral law. The second, from 1861, is operational: how to practice without being deluded. One answers what Spiritism teaches, the other answers how it is done. Therefore, reading in chronological order usually yields more.
How many types of medium exist according to Allan Kardec?
Kardec organizes everything into two families: mediums of physical effects and of intellectual effects. Within them, the synoptic chart of Chapter XVI lists species such as sensitives, audients, speakers, seers, somnambulists, healers, psychographs, and inspired ones. It is not a closed list of rigid types.
What does Allan Kardec say about obsession?
He describes three degrees in Chapter XXIII: simple obsession, fascination, and subjugation, in increasing order of gravity. The criterion that distinguishes obsession from common deception is persistence. The means of confrontation that he indicates are moral ascendancy, prayer, and education of the mediumistic faculty.
What is the correct order to read the books by Allan Kardec?
The most recommended is the chronological order of the five basic works. Start with The Spirits' Book and proceed to The Mediums' Book, The Gospel According to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell, and Genesis. Each one assumes the vocabulary of the previous one, and skipping stages leaves gaps.
Where to find articles for your study
At Joia Mística Laroyê, you find what accompanies study and practice at home:
- White candles: for the study environment and for the Gospel at Home
- Incenses and fumigants: rosemary, lavender, and frankincense to harmonize the space
- Frames and images: pieces for the reading and prayer corner
- Glass cups and moringas: for the water used in the home worship
- Towels and tablecloths: to prepare the family study table
Visit our shop in Extrema, Minas Gerais or contact us on WhatsApp with delivery to all of Brazil.
To check the publication data of the work, it is worth reading the entry on The Mediums' Book. The complete index, chapter by chapter, is in the Kardecpedia study guide.
References
- Wikipedia: Basic works of Spiritism
- Wikipedia: article about The Mediums Book
- Kardecpedia: study guide for The Mediums Book
