Modern Spiritualism
Modern spiritualism started in the 19th century as did
many of the societies, organisations, and churches now
members of the present international spiritual federation.
Congresses have been a feature of ISF work since the
beginning and have announced to the world that spiritualism
exists, demonstrating to delegates and visitors the wide and
varied aspects of its phenomena and philosophy.
Early world spiritualist conferences were held, including
Barcelona (1888) , Paris (1889) and Liverpool (1901). Several
attempts to form an international federation were made and
had almost succeeded when they were interrupted by the
1914-1918 war.
The war lead to the rapid development of spiritualism in many
parts of the world and this in turn provided incentive to
concentrate our forces under a single banner, which was
finally successful in 1923 at Liege, Belgium. Subsequent
congresses were held in Paris, London, the Hague, Barcelona
and Glasgow until the Second World War stopped all the
international work.
It was not until 1947 that a new start was made. In July of
that year a special conference was held in Bournemouth,
England, when when a small number of delegates from Great
Britain, France, South Africa, Canada, and Sweden attended at
the invitation of the Spiritualist' National Union of Great
Britain.
The outlook was far from bright.
All the records of the original organisation had been lost
from the Paris headquarters of the ISF, due to war activity,
and a complete reorganisation was necessary. The enthusiasm
for international unity was demonstrated by the fact that no
fewer than 42 nations were represented at the first post-war
congress, held in London in the following year.
It was on this splendid note of fellowship and accord that
the ISF resumed once more the great task of establishing a
world spiritualism able to help and inspire mankind across
all races and out looks. There are both individual and group
members of the federation in some 35 countries and membership
is growing all the time. The records are packed with the
names of those who have served our great cause. Of particular
note are honorary presidents 1925-1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and Lady Conan Doyle in 1931.