The International Spiritualist Federation is a worldwide membership organization, based in London, for spiritualist and spiritist associations, churches and individuals.
The federation seeks to promote a dialogue between Spiritualism and Spiritism by providing a structure through which groups can retain their autonomy while meeting on common ground; it also provides a support network for persons in countries “not yet ready to accept” spiritual doctrines and attempts to further those doctrines through a variety of means.
The International Spiritualist Federation (ISF) was founded in 1923, but its origins date back considerably further. The first international conference of Spiritualists was held in 1888, in Barcelona, Spain. In 1912, meetings were held in Liverpool, England, and a committee was formed to begin the work of establishing a federation.
World War I brought these efforts to a halt, but they were revived after the war, and the ISF formally came into being in Liege, Belgium, in 1923. Except for a suspension of operations from 1939 to 1948, due to World War II, the ISF has been in business ever since.
The ISF recognizes the common philosophy of spiritualism and spiritism to be the existence of a creative life force and of a spiritual link between all life forms; the survival of physical death by the individual human spirit; and communication between individual human spirits on different levels of life.
The ISF sponsors an annual Fraternal Week devoted to spiritual teaching, experiments, relaxation, lectures, classes and seminars; organizes teaching teams to visit various countries in order to raise standards in spiritual healing, mediumship and the presentation of spiritualistic philosophy; and operates a Scientific forum to encourage research into mediumship, healing and spiritual philosophy.
It also publishes a quarterly magazine.
SEE ALSO:
FURTHER READING:
- International Spiritualist Federation. Available online. URL: https://www.isf.org. Downloaded on Oct. 5, 1999.
The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits – Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – September 1, 2007
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