REGULATIONS OF THE PARISIAN SOCIETY OF SPIRITIST STUDIES
Founded on April 1st, 1858
Society authorized by the decree of Mr. Mayor of Police, dated April 13th 1858, according to the message of the Interior and General Security Minister.
NOTE. Even though this document is the result of experience, we don’t present it as absolute law but uniquely as to facilitate the formation of Societies to those who want to found them, who will find here the elements which may seem convenient and applicable to their peculiar circumstances. Although simplified already, this organization can be even more simplified when not dealing with regularly constituted Societies, but with simple private meetings which only need to adopt measures of order, precaution and regularity of their activities.
We also present it to the awareness of those who wish to maintain a relationship with the Parisian Society, as corresponding members or enjoying full membership of the Society.
CHAPTER I – Aims and Formation of the Society
Art. 1° - The aim of the Society is the study of all phenomena related to the spiritist manifestations and its application to the moral, physical, historical and psychological sciences. Questions related to politics, religious controversy and social economy are prohibited.
It adopts the title: PARISIAN SOCIETY OF SPIRITIST STUDIES.
Art. 2° - The Society is composed by regular members, free associates and corresponding members.
The Society may confer the title of honorary member to persons residing in France or abroad who, by their position or work related matters, may provide the Society with significant services.
The honorary members are submitted to re-election every year.
Art. 3° - The Society only admits those persons who sympathize with its principles and with the objective of the works, those who are already initiated in the fundamental principles of the Spiritist Science or who are seriously considering to be instructed by that Science. As a consequence, excludes everyone who may bring elements of perturbation to the very core of the meetings, be it by the spirit of hostility and systematic opposition or by any other cause, leading to waste of time through useless discussions.
All members have the duty of reciprocal benevolence and positive attitude, having the obligation, in all circumstances, of placing the general well being above all personal questions and those of self-esteem.
Art. 4° - In order to be admitted as a free associate, the candidate must address a written request to the President, endorsed by two regular members, who become guarantor of the petitioner’s intentions.
The request must promptly inform: 1°, if the petitioner has already knowledge of matters related to Spiritism; 2°, the state of his conviction with respect to the fundamental points of the Science; 3°, the commitment to comply with all regulations.
The request will be submitted to the Committee, as referred to in Art. 11 and will then examine and propose the admission, postponement or denial, pending on a judgment of convenience.
The postponement is applicable to every candidate that does not have any knowledge of the Spiritist Science yet and that does not sympathize with the Society’s principles.
The free associates have the right to attend the sessions, to take part in the activities and discussions aiming at the study but under no circumstance will have the right to a deliberative vote with respect to the businesses of the Society.
The free associates will bear that title during the year in which they were accepted and, in order to remain in the Society, their admission will have to be ratified at the end of that first year.
Art. 5° - In order to become regular member it is necessary that the person had been a free associate for at least a year, had attended more than half of the sessions and given, during that time, unequivocal proof of their knowledge and convictions with respect to Spiritism, of their adhesion to the principles of the Society and wishes to proceed with their colleagues, in all circumstances, according to the principles of charity and the Spiritist Moral.
The free associates who have regularly attended, during six months, the sessions of the Society, can be admitted as regular members if, in addition to that, fulfill the other conditions.
The admission will be proposed extra officially by the Committee, with the agreement of the associate if, besides, it is supported by three other regular members. Next, once it has merit, it will be voted by the Society, through secret ballot, after a verbal report of the Committee.
Only the regular members have deliberative vote and enjoy the faculty granted by Art. 25.
Art. 6° - The Society will limit, if judged convenient, the number of free associates and regular members.
Art. 7° - The corresponding members are those who, not residing in Paris, maintain relationship with the Society and provide it with useful documents for its studies. They can be nominated by proposal from one regular member only.
CHAPTER II - Administration
Art. 8° - The Society is administered by one President-Director, assisted by the members of the Board of Directors and one Committee.
Art. 9° - The Board of Directors is composed by: 1 President, 1 Vice-President, 1 Chief Secretary, 2 Assistant Secretaries and 1 Treasurer.
In addition to those, one or more honorary Presidents can be nominated.
In the absence of the President and the Vice-President, the sessions will be presided by one of the members of the Committee.
Art. 10° - The President-Director should employ the best of his abilities to the interest of the Society and the Spiritist Science. His duties are the general direction and the high superintendence of the administration as well as the preservation of the archives.
The President is nominated for a period of three years, the other members of the Board of Directors for one year, eligible indefinitely.
Art. 11° - The Committee is composed by the members of the Board of Directors and five other regular members, preferably chosen among those who have given active support to the works of the Society, served the cause of Spiritism or have demonstrated to have a benevolent and conciliatory soul. These five members are, like those of the Board, elected for one year and re-eligible.
The Committee is, by right, presided by the President-Director or, in his absence, by the Vice-President, or by another member who may have been designated to that effect.
The Committee is assigned to perform a previous examination of all questions and administrative proposals and other matters which may be submitted to the Society; the supervision of its revenues and expenses and accountability of the Treasurer; the authorization of ordinary expenses and the adoption of all necessary measures of order considered necessary.
It is the Committee’s duty, besides, the examination of the works and matters of study, proposed by the several members, formulate them itself and determine the order of the sessions, according to the President.
The President will always be able to oppose that certain issues be treated and placed in the order of the day, having the prerogative to refer his decision to the Society which will have the final resolution.
The Committee will meet regularly before the sessions, for the examination of the current affairs and also whenever it considers convenient.
The members of the Board of Directors and the Committee that, without notice, are absent for three consecutive months, are considered as resignations to their functions, being required their adequate replacement.
Art. 12° - The decisions, be it of the Society or of the Committee, will be taken by absolute majority of votes of the members that are present; in case there is a tie, the President’s vote will prevail.
The Committee can deliberate whenever there are at least four of its members present.
The secret vote will be compulsory if requested by five members.
Art. 13° - Every three months, six members, chosen among regulars and free associates, will be designated to perform the functions of Commissioners.
The Commissioners are in charge of ensuring the good order and regularity of the sessions and to verify the right of attendance of every person that proposes to take part in them.
In order to do that, the designated members will organize themselves so that one of them is always present to attend the beginning of the sessions.
Art. 14° - The social year starts on April 1st.
The nominations to the Board of Directors and to the Committee will take place in the first session of May. The acting members of one and the other will continue in their functions up to that date.
Art. 15° - In order to cover the costs of the Society the regular members will pay an annual fee of 24 francs and the free associates 20 francs.
On being admitted, the regular members will pay, in addition and as a lump sum, as a down payment, 10 francs.
The fee is paid in total per current year.
Those who are admitted will have to pay only the quarters not passed yet, including the one in which the admission takes place.
When husband and wife are admitted as free associates, or regular members, only one fee and a half will be required to the couple.
Every six months on April 1st and October 1st, the Treasurer will report the application and status of the funds to the Committee.
Once the ordinary rental and other obligatory expenses are paid and if there is a positive balance it is up to the Society to determine the application of those funds.
Art. 16° - All admitted members, free associates or regular, will be given an admission card which will attest their category. That card remains with the Treasurer from whom the new member may claim it, once the fee and down payment are paid. The member cannot take part in the sessions unless the card has been collected. If not collected within a month after the admission it will be considered as a resignation.
It will also be considered resignation of every member that would not have paid his annual fee in the first month of the renewal of the social year, as long as a warning to be sent by the Treasurer proves unsuccessful.
CHAPTER III – The Sessions
Art. 17° - The sessions of the Society will be held on Fridays, at 8 pm, unless modified if necessary.
The sessions will be private or general; they will never be public.
Everyone who takes part in the Society, under any title, should sign a list of attendance in each session.
Art. 18° - Silence and reverence are rigorously demanded during the sessions and particularly during the studies. Nobody can have the word without have been given permission by the President.
All questions to the spirits must be made through the President who can refuse to frame them, according to the circumstances.
All futile questions, of personal interest, of pure curiosity, or that have the objective of submitting the spirits to a trial, are specially banned, as are those that do not have a general purpose, from the point of view of the studies.
Equally banned are all discussions capable of deviating the session from its special objective.
Art. 19° - Every member has the right to reprimand whoever moves away from the convenience of the discussions or perturbs the sessions, in any way. The complaint will immediately trigger a vote and if approved it will be registered in the minutes.
Three reprimands in the period of one year rightfully lead to the elimination of the member that has given rise to them, whatever their category.
Art. 20° - No spiritist communication obtained outside the Society can be read prior to its submission to the President or to the Committee which can deny its reading.
A copy of every alien communication whose reading has been authorized should be kept in the archives.
Every communication obtained during the sessions belongs to the Society and the mediums responsible for their production may keep a copy.
Art. 21° - The private sessions are reserved to the regular members of the Society. The meetings shall take place on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month and also on the 5th Friday, if any.
All questions related to the administrative businesses or studies which require more tranquility and concentration are attained in the private sessions, as with those matters that the Society considers proper to analyze prior to its discussion in the presence of strange persons.
Besides the regular members and the free associates, the corresponding members who may occasionally be in Paris as well as the mediums who serve the Society have also the right to participate into the private sessions.
No strange person to the Society may be admitted to the private sessions unless in exceptional situations and with the approval of the President.
Art. 22° - The general sessions will take place on the 2nd and 4th Fridays of each month.
In the general sessions the Society authorizes the attendance of strange persons who may temporarily observe without taking direct part into the meetings. It is up to the Society to revoke such authorization whenever considered convenient.
No person that had not been introduced to the President can attend the sessions as an observer. The introduction must be carried out by a member who becomes their guarantor ensuring that there will be no perturbation or interruption.
The Society only admits as observer persons who aspire to become associates or who sympathize with its activities and are already sufficiently initiated in the Spiritist Science in order to understand them. The admission should be denied right away to whoever wants to observe by mere curiosity or whose feelings may be hostile to the Society.
Observers do not have the right of speaking except in special cases judged by the President. The person who, by any means, perturbs the order or show ill manners with respect to the works of the Society may be invited to leave and, in all cases, the fact shall be duly registered so that future admission will be prohibited.
The number of observers shall be limited to the available seats and those who may attend the sessions should be registered in advance in a special register, created for that purpose, having the addresses and names of persons who indicated them. As a consequence, every request for attendance should be forwarded, several days before the session, to the President, who shall expedite the admission cards while there is availability.
The admission cards may only be used for the specific date and by the designated persons.
The admission cannot be allowed to the same person for more than two sessions, unless authorized by the President and in exceptional cases. No member of the Society may introduce more than two persons simultaneously. There is no limit to the admissions granted by the President.
The observers will not be admitted after the initiation of the sessions.
CHAPTER IV – General Dispositions
Art. 23° - All members owe full support to the Society. As a consequence, they are invited to collect and point out old and current facts that can be related to Spiritism, in their respective circles of observations. It is also their duty to ensure the notoriety of those events.
They are equally invited to let the Society know about all publications that may be more or less related to the objectives of its activities.
Art. 24° - The Society will submit the several works published about Spiritism to a critical examination, whenever considered appropriate. For that matter the Society will assign one member, regular or free associate, with the task of preparing a report which, if convenient, will be published in the Spiritist Magazine.
Art. 25° - The Society will create a special library composed by donated books and books that it will acquire.
The regular members will be able to consult the library and the archives, at the time and on the days scheduled for that purpose, at the Society’s headquarters.
Art. 26° - The Society, considering that its responsibility may be morally compromised by the private publications of its associates, prescribes that nobody may use, in any written form, the title of member of the Society, unless the Society have had a previous knowledge of the text and given proper authorization for the publication. It is up to the Committee to write a report about it to the Society. If the Society considers the text incompatible with its principles, the author, after a hearing, will be invited to modify it or to renounce to its publication or even to not use the denomination of member of the Society. In case the author does not comply with the decision taken, his exclusion may follow.
Every text, anonymously published by a member, without any indication that can identify a given person as the author, will be included in the category of ordinary publications, that the Society reserves the right to appreciate. However, not willing to obstacle the free voicing of personal opinions, the Society invites its members, who wish to make such kind of publications, to previously request the unofficial Society’s view, in the interest of the Science.
Art. 27° - The Society, wishing to keep the unit of principles in its heart and the spirit of reciprocal tolerance, may resolve for the exclusion of any member that becomes cause of perturbation or openly turns hostile against it, by the publication of compromising writings against the Doctrine, subversive opinions, or through a course of actions that the Society cannot approve. The exclusion, however, cannot be decreed but after a prior unofficial warning, if this becomes ineffective and after having heard the inculpable member, if that one understands that an explanation is due. The decision shall be taken by secret poll and by a majority vote of three quarters of the present members.
Art. 28° - A member that voluntarily leaves during the year cannot claim the difference paid as fees. That difference, however, will be reimbursed in case of exclusion determined by the Society.
Art. 29° - The current regulation can be modified when convenient. The proposals for modification can only be made through the President’s organization and not directly to the Society to which it should be transmitted in case they are approved by the Committee.
The Society can, without modifying its regulations in the essential points, adopt all complementary measures that seem necessary (The Mediums’ Book, Chapter XXX).