love one another and educate yourselves

Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society - S.W.C.S.S.

Registered Charity No. 1104534

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 About us
Our group was formed on February 13th, 2000. In June 2004 we
became a Registered Charity. Our mission is to help everyone
to carry out their own inner reformation, using as a guide the
doctrine of Jesus Christ seen through the Spiritist perspective,
as codified by Allan Kardec.

What is Spiritism?
Spiritism is a philosophy and science which deals with the na-
ture, origin and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationship
with the corporeal world. It regards Jesus Christ as our Guide
and Model, whose doctrine we follow to reform ourselves and
evolve spiritually. Spiritism was codified by Allan Kardec, a
French teacher and educator.

Jesus’s doctrine emphasizes the importance of our participa-

tion in the improvement of society. As we reform ourselves,
we reform society, and through our attitudes and example we
influence our incarnate and disincarnate brothers and sisters.

Main principles
* God is the Supreme Intelligence, first cause of all things. God
is eternal, immutable, immaterial, unique, omnipotent, su-
premely just and good. The Universe is His creation.
* Jesus Christ is our Guide and Model. The Doctrine He taught
and exemplified is the purest expression of the Universal
Laws.
* In addition to the corporeal world inhabited by incarnate Spir-
its, which are human beings, there exists the spiritual world,
inhabited by discarnate Spirits.
* There are other inhabited worlds in the Universe, with beings
at different degrees of evolution: some less, some equal, and
others more evolved than us here on Earth.
* A Human Being is a Spirit incarnated in a material body.
* What connects the physical body to the Spirit is a semi-material
body named perispirit.
* Spirits are created simple and ignorant. They evolve intellectu-
ally and morally until they attain perfection.
* The individuality of the spirit is an achievement brought about
by the various experiences that the spirit passes through
during and between its incarnations.
* Spirits are always progressing, and reincarnate as many times
as is necessary for their spiritual advancement. The speed of
their intellectual and moral progress depends on the efforts
they make to attain perfection.
* Human Beings are given free will to act, but they must answer
for the consequences of their actions.
* All Spiritist practice is gratis, as Jesus advised us in the Gospel:
“Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8)
* Spiritism does not impose its principles; it expects us to sub-
mit its teachings to the test of reason before accepting them.
Spiritism only requires us follow Jesus’s Golden Rule - to love
our neighbour as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39)
 Who was Allan Kardec?
Allan Kardec is a pseudonym of the French teacher and educator
Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (October 3, 1804 – March 31,
1869). He is the codifier of Spiritism, organising and publishing
results of detailed research with mediums and channellers.

Rivail was born in Lyon, France, in 1804. Rivail was a disciple

and collaborator of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and a teacher
in courses in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy,
physiology, comparative anatomy and French in Paris. For one
of his research papers, he was inducted in 1831 into the Royal
Academy of Arras. He organized and taught free courses for the
underprivileged.

On February 1832 he married Amélie Gabrielle Boudet.

He was already in his early fifties when he became interested in

the wildly popular phenomenon of spirit-tapping. At the time,
strange phenomena attributed to the action of spirits were re-
ported in many different places, most notably in the U.S. and
France, attracting the attention of high society. The first such
phenomena were at best frivolous and entertaining, featuring
objects that moved or “tapped” under what was said to be spirit
control. In some cases, this was alleged to be a type of commu-
nication: the supposed spirits answered questions by control-
ling the movements of objects so as to pick out letters to form
words, or simply indicate “yes” or “no.”

At the time, Franz Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism was

popular in the upper reaches of society. When confronted with
the phenomena described, some researchers, including Rivail,
pointed out that animal magnetism might explain them. Rivail,
however, after personally seeing a demonstration, quickly dis-
missed the animal-magnetism hypothesis as being insufficient
to completely explain all the facts observed (see Chapters VIII
and XIV in the The Mediums’ Book). Rivail was determined to
understand exactly what was causing the physical effects popu-
larly attributed to spirits.
As a teacher with some scientific background (he had never at-
tended a university), Rivail decided to do his own research. Not
being a medium himself, he compiled a list of questions and
began working with mediums and channellers to pose them to
spirits. Soon the quality of the allegedly communication with
spirits appeared to improve.

Rivail used the name “Allan Kardec” allegedly after a spirit iden-
tified as Zefiro, whom he had been communicating with, told
him about a previous incarnation of his as a Druid by that name.
Rivail liked the name and decided to use it to keep his Spiritists
writings separate from his work, basically books for high school
students.

In April 18, 1857 Rivail (signing himself “Allan Kardec”) pub-

lished his first book on Spiritism, The Spirits’ Book, compris-
ing a series of 1,019 questions exploring matters concerning
the nature of spirits, the spirit world, and the relations between
the spirit world and the material world. This was followed by a
series of other books: The Mediums’ Book, The Gospel Accord-
ing to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell, and The Genesis According
to Spiritism. These five books - “the Codification” - define the
basic doctrine of Spiritism. Kardec also published a periodical,
the Revue Spirite.

Allan Kardec coined the word “spiritism” and followed modern

scientific methods in its study, which was recognized among
others by Camille Flammarion, a famous French astronomer and
author, who said “spiritism is not a religion but a science”.

Having died due to aneurysm, Kardec is buried at the Cimetière

du Père Lachaise, Paris, France.

Source: Wikipedia
 Who was Sir William Crookes?
Sir William Crookes, OM, FRS (17 June 1832 - 4 April 1919) was
an English chemist and physicist. Sir William attended the Royal
College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy.

Legacy

The work of Crookes extended over several areas: chemistry

and physics, public services, and paranormal phenomena. Its
salient characteristic was the originality of conception of his
experiments, attention to detail, and the skill of their execution.

Crookes discovered the element thallium, a heavy metal used

in nuclear medicine, the manufacture of thermometers, lenses,
electronics, costume jewellery, and fireworks. He also identified
the first known sample of helium.

He was a pioneer in the construction and use of vacuum tubes

for the study of physical phenomena such as energy discharges
on rare gases. He was, as a consequence, one of the first scien-
tists to investigate what are now called plasmas, and performed
important research in X-rays. He also devised one of the first
instruments for the study of nuclear radioactivity, the spinthar-
iscope.

Crookes invented protective goggles to protect the eyes of

glassworkers. These goggles blocked most infrared and all ul-
traviolet radiation. However, they were rejected by conservative
glassworkers. His invention gave rise to the modern sunglasses
industry. He carried out research in sewage disposal and pub-
lic sanitation, and advised the use of nitrogenous fertilizers to
forestall world hunger. Crookes patented designs of light bulbs,
and became Director, then Chairman, of the Notting Hill Electric
Company.
Notably, Crookes was one of the first scientists to carry out me-
ticulous research in the area of the paranormal, under rigidly
controlled conditions. In the company of several witnesses he
proved that the medium Florence Cook and the spirit that she
materialized, Katie King, were separate entities (he even had a
surgeon, Dr James M Gully, record Katie King’s pulse). He noted
the numerous physical differences between the medium and the
spirit. This, as well as the presence of phenomena unexplain-
able by conventional natural laws (such as movement of bod-
ies at a distance, levitation, rappings, the appearance of writ-
ing without human agency, etc.) led him to conclude that “...
Outside our scientific knowledge there exists a Force exercised
by intelligence differing from the ordinary intelligence common
to mortals...”

Early life

William Crookes was born in London, the eldest son of Joseph

Crookes, who was a wealthy tailor of north-country origin, and
Mary Scott, his second wife. William received some instruction
at a grammar school at Chippenham, Wiltshire. But his scientific
career began when, at the age of fifteen, he entered the Royal
College of Chemistry in Hanover Square, London.

Rise as prominent scientist

From 1850 to 1854 he filled the position of assistant in the col-

lege, and soon embarked upon original work, not in organic
chemistry where the inspiration of his distinguished teacher,
August Wilhelm von Hofmann, might have been expected to
lead him, but on certain new compounds of the element sele-
nium. These formed the subject of his first published papers
in 1851.

Leaving the Royal College, he became superintendent of the me-

teorological department at the Radcliffe Observatory in Oxford
in 1854, and in 1855 was appointed lecturer in chemistry at the
Chester training college. In 1856 he married Ellen, daughter of
William Humphrey, of Darlington, by whom he fathered three
sons and a daughter.

From this time his life was passed in London, devoted mainly
to independent work. After 1850, he lived at 7 Kensington Park
Gardens, where in his private laboratory all his later work was
carried out. Crookes’s life was one of unbroken scientific activ-
ity. He was never one of those who gain influence by popular ex-
position. The breadth of his interests, ranging over pure and ap-
plied science, economic and practical problems, and psychical
research, made him a well-known personality, and he received
many public and academic honours. In 1859 he founded the
Chemical News a science magazine, which he edited for many
years and conducted on much less formal lines than is usual
with journals of scientific societies. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society in 1863, and became its President in 1913.

Crookes was knighted in 1897, and in 1910 received the Order

of Merit. He died in London on 4 April 1919, two years after his
wife, to whom he had been much devoted. Crookes is buried in
London’s Brompton Cemetery.

Chemistry

Crookes was always more effective in experiment than in inter-

pretation. The method of spectral analysis, introduced by Bun-
sen and Kirchhoff, was received by Crookes with great enthusi-
asm and to great effect. His first important discovery was that
of the element thallium, announced in 1861, and made with the
help of spectroscopy. By this work his reputation became firmly
established, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in
1863.

Crookes’s attention had been attracted to the vacuum balance

in the course of the thallium researches. He soon discovered the
phenomenon upon which depends the action of the well-known
little instrument, the Crookes radiometer, in which a system of
vanes, each blackened on one side and polished on the other, is
set in rotation when exposed to radiant energy. Crookes did not,
however, provide the true explanation of this apparent “attrac-
tion and repulsion resulting from radiation”.

Crookes published numerous papers on spectroscopy, a subject

which always had a great fascination for him, and he conduct-
ed research on a large variety of minor subjects. In addition to
various technical books, he wrote a standard treatise on Select
Methods in Chemical Analysis in 1871, and a small book on Dia-
monds in 1909.

Physics

Crookes investigated the properties of cathode rays, showing

that they travel in straight lines, cause phosphorescence in ob-
jects upon which they impinge, and by their impact produce
great heat. He believed that he had discovered a fourth state
of matter, which he called “radiant matter”. But his theoretical
views on the nature of “radiant matter” proved to be mistaken.
He believed the rays to consist of streams of particles of or-
dinary molecular magnitude. It remained for Sir J. J. Thomson
to discover their subatomic nature, and to prove that cathode
rays consist of streams of negative electrons, that is, of nega-
tively electrified particles whose mass is only 1/1840 that of a
hydrogen atom. Nevertheless, Crookes’s experimental work in
this field was the foundation of discoveries which eventually
changed the whole of chemistry and physics.

In 1903, Crookes turned his attention to the newly discovered

phenomena of radioactivity, achieving the separation from
uranium of its active transformation product, uranium-X (later
established to be protactinium). He observed the gradual decay
of the separated transformation product, and the simultaneous
reproduction of a fresh supply in the original uranium. At
about the same time as this important discovery, he observed
that when “p-particles”, ejected from radio-active substances,
impinge upon zinc sulphide, each impact is accompanied by a
minute scintillation, an observation which forms the basis of
one of the most useful methods in the technique of radioactivity.

Spiritualism

In 1870 Crookes decided that science had a duty to study the

preternatural phenomena associated with Spiritualism (Crookes
1870). Judging from family letters, Crookes had developed a
favorable view of Spiritualism already by 1869 (Doyle 1926: vol-
ume 1, 232 - 233). Nevertheless, he was determined to conduct
his inquiry impartially and described the conditions he imposed
on mediums as follows: “It must be at my own house, and my
own selection of friends and spectators, under my own condi-
tions, and I may do whatever I like as regards apparatus” (Doyle
1926: volume 1, 177). Among the mediums he studied were
Kate Fox, Florence Cook, and Daniel Dunglas Home (Doyle 1926:
volume 1, 230-251). Among the phenomena he witnessed were
movement of bodies at a distance, rappings, changes in the
weights of bodies, levitation, appearance of luminous objects,
appearance of phantom figures, appearance of writing without
human agency, and circumstances which “point to the agency of
an outside intelligence” (Crookes 1874).

Crookes’s report on this research, in 1874, concluded that these

phenomena could not be explained as conjuring, and that fur-
ther research would indeed be useful. Crookes was not alone
in his views. Fellow scientists who came to believe in Spiritual-
ism included Alfred Russel Wallace, Oliver Joseph Lodge, Lord
Rayleigh, and William James (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 62). Never-
theless, most scientists were convinced that Spiritualism was
fraudulent, and Crookes’s final report so outraged the scientific
establishment “that there was talk of depriving him of his Fel-
lowship of the Royal Society.” Crookes then became much more
cautious and didn’t discuss his views publicly until 1898, when
he felt his position was secure. From that time until his death in
1919, letters and interviews show that Crookes was a believer in
Spiritualism (Doyle 1926: volume 1, 169 - 170, 249 - 251).

Principal source: Wikipedia (edited)

Other online sources used.

All activities are free of charge

Prayer meetings
Study & discourse, healing, and fraternization
Wednesdays (English): 19:30 – 21:30h
Sundays (Portuguese): 14:30 – 17:30h

Charity Shop and Spiritist Bookshop & Library

Monday to Friday: 10:00 – 18:00h
Saturday: 10:00 – 14:30h

Children’s Moral Education

Course for Parents (Study of the Family)
Saturday: 15:00 – 16:30h

Mediumship Work - Spiritual Treatment

Monday: begins at 19:00h
Mediumship Course & Gospel Course
Tuesday: 19:30 – 21:30h

Choir
Thursday: 19:30 – 21:30h

Counselling and spiritual treatment

Friday evenings by appointment
(call Ivonete – 07878 760 609)

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Send an email to: boletim_sirwilliam@yahoo.co.uk
 love one another and educate yourselves

Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society - S.W.C.S.S.

Registered Charity No. 1104534

Contact
Mrs Ivonete Jessamy
info_sirwilliam@yahoo.co.uk
Tel: 07878 760 609
http://www.sirwilliam.org

Address
269 Caledonian Road
(corner of Story Street)
Islington
London N1 1EE

How to get here

King’s Cross St Pancras station
& bus 259, 17, 91 from stop G
Overground
Caledonian Road & Barnsbury
Buses: 274, 259, 17, 91