The Spiritist Review was written and published by Allan Kardec from January 1858 to April 1869. In total there are 136 monthly issues of the Review, bundled in volumes of 12 issues per year, yielding 12 volumes. It is the largest Spiritist production of Allan Kardec. In addition to the profound study of the Spiritist theory and the explanations about several questions raised by the Spiritists, the Review shows the evolution of Kardec’s thought during the construction of the Spiritist Science. The Review is indispensable to all those willing to have an in-depth understanding of Kardec’s thoughts.

Allan Kardec wrote about spirits in one of the 1858 editions of his magazine, Spiritist Review. He shared eight main points to remember when dealing with spirits:

1. The spirits are not all equal nor in power, nor in knowledge or wisdom. As they are no more than human souls detached from their corporeal body, they present a variety even greater than that of people on Earth, because they come from all worlds and, among the globes. Earth is neither the most basic nor the most advanced. Thus, there are very superior spirits as there are very inferior ones; very good and bad; very wise and very ignorant; there are those of levity, malevolence, liars, cleverness, hypocrites, polished, sharp, jokers, etc.

2. We are incessantly surrounded by a cloud of spirits that occupy the space around us, despite the fact that we cannot see them They are watching our acts, reading our thoughts, and some to do us good, while others to do us harm.

3. From the physical and moral inferiority of our globe in the hierarchy of the worlds, the inferior spirits are more numerous on earth than the superior ones.

4. Among those spirits that surround us there are those that attach to us; that act more over our thoughts; often giving us advice, and whose influence we follow unaware. Good for us if we hear the voice of good spirits only.

5. The inferior spirits only bond to those that listen to them, and give them access to connect. If successful in dominating someone, they identify them with their own spirit; by fascinating them, obsessing them, subjugating them, and leading them as one does to a child.

6. Obsession can never happen but by inferior spirits. The good spirits do not produce any kind of coercion (the power to impose ones will on another) to combat the influence of the bad spirits. They stay away when they are not listened to.

7. The degree of coercion and the nature of the effects it produces determine the difference between obsession, subjugation (the act or process of controlling something or someone) and fascination.
Obsession is the almost permanent action of a strange spirit that leads the person to be solicited by an incessant need to act by this way or the other and to do this or that.
Subjugation is a moral bond that paralyzes the free will of the one that suffers it, pushing the person to the most reckless attitudes, frequently most contrary to their own interest.
Fascination is a kind of illusion produced by the direct action of a strange spirit or by his cunning thoughts. Such as illusion produces an alteration in the comprehension of moral things, leading to misjudgment and to mistake evil for good.

8. Human beings can always disengage from the oppression of the imperfect spirits by their will power, by making a choice between good and bad. If the coercion achieved the point of paralyzing the will - and if the fascination is such that it destroys all traces of reason - then the will of a third person may replace it.

Therefore, for those in the process or just curious about communicating with the spirit world, one must be on guard and weary to whom you let into your house and mind.