Federação Espírita Brasileira: what the FEB is, how it began and what it does today

The Federação Espírita Brasileira, the FEB, is the institution that has organised the Spiritist movement in Brazil since 1884. It is the source of the editions of Allan Kardec's works that most Brazilian Spiritists read, it brings together the federations of each state, and it maintains the study material used in a large share of the country's Spiritist centres.

Guatambu Travel organises Spiritist caravans departing from Porto Alegre for the Triângulo Mineiro, and the FEB is present throughout the itinerary: in the editions the group carries in their luggage, in the study programme of the centres visited and in the federative structure that links a centre in Uberaba to one in Porto Alegre. This text gathers what is published in the institution's own sources, with the date on which each page was read.

What is the FEB, in one sentence?

The mission declared by the institution itself is this: “The Federação Espírita Brasileira has the mission of offering the Spiritist Doctrine to human beings through its study, practice and dissemination, through the united solidarity of Spiritists and the unification of Spiritist institutions, contributing to the formation of the good person.” Source: https://febnet.org.br/missao-institucional/, read on 11 September 2026.

When was the FEB founded?

On 2 January 1884. The meeting that decided to create it came earlier: on 27 December 1883, according to the FEB, a group of twelve people came together around the idea of a federation that would broaden the study, practice and dissemination of Spiritism in the country. Source: https://febnet.org.br/espiritismo-historia/no-brasil/, read on 11 September 2026.

There had been an earlier attempt at unification: Augusto Elias da Silva, one of the founders of the FEB, created the União Espírita do Brasil in 1880, described by the institution itself as its first attempt at a unifying association. Source: the same page, read on 11 September 2026.

What Spiritism existed in Brazil before the FEB?

Organised groups, most of them in Rio de Janeiro, all earlier than the federation:

Outside Rio, the FEB records the Grupo Espírita Verdade e Luz, founded in São Paulo in 1890 by Antônio Gonçalves da Silva Batuíra; the Associação Espírita Deus e Caridade dos Aflitos, created in Recife from 1894; and the Grupo Espírita Fé e Caridade, in Ceará, founded on 18 November 1895 by Luiz de França de Almeida e Sá, identified as the first officially structured centre in the state. Source: https://febnet.org.br/espiritismo-historia/no-brasil/, read on 11 September 2026.

How is the Brazilian Spiritist movement organised?

In three levels: the Spiritist centre, the state federation and the FEB, which brings the state federations together through the Conselho Federativo Nacional (National Federative Council).

The Conselho Federativo Nacional, the CFN, was created on 5 October 1949 and installed on 1 January 1950, replacing the former Conselho Federativo da FEB, which had federated the Spiritist centres of the whole country directly. Source: https://febnet.org.br/unificacao/conselho-federativo-nacional/, read on 11 September 2026.

Its composition is also stated: the CFN is made up of the president of the Federação Espírita Brasileira, who chairs it, and one representative from a federative institution in each state recognised by the council. It holds ordinary annual meetings in November at the FEB headquarters in Brasília and, since 1986, has promoted regional commission meetings in the first half of the year, rotating among the states. Source: the same page, read on 11 September 2026.

The stated objectives of the CFN are to unify and energise the Brazilian Spiritist movement, to facilitate exchange between institutions and to promote union, fellowship, harmony and solidarity among them. Source: the same page, read on 11 September 2026.

Were the state federations all founded at the same time?

No. The FEB itself publishes the founding dates of each state federation, and they span more than seventy years. Four examples, as given in the source:

Source: https://febnet.org.br/espiritismo-historia/no-brasil/, read on 11 September 2026. The same page lists the other state federations. In Rio Grande do Sul, the state federation is the FERGS, the Federação Espírita do Rio Grande do Sul, which maintains the state's structure of regional hubs and councils. Source: https://www.fergs.org.br/, read on 11 September 2026.

What does the FEB publish?

The FEB Editora is the publisher of the works of the codification in Portuguese, with the translations that became the standard in Brazil, among them that of Guillon Ribeiro for O Livro dos Espíritos (The Spirits' Book). The federation also maintains a downloads area with the basic works of Allan Kardec as free PDFs, including editions in English, Spanish and Esperanto. Source: https://febnet.org.br/categorias-download/obras-kardec-basicas/, read on 11 September 2026.

This is the area from which come the files used as primary sources throughout the series of articles on doctrine published here, including the ten moral laws of Spiritism.

Besides books, the FEB publishes the magazine Reformador and maintains study programmes used in Spiritist centres, such as the ESDE, the Estudo Sistematizado da Doutrina Espírita (Systematic Study of the Spiritist Doctrine), and the EADE, the Estudo Aprofundado da Doutrina Espírita (In-Depth Study of the Spiritist Doctrine), both with material available for download. Source: https://febnet.org.br/categorias-download/esde/ and https://febnet.org.br/categorias-download/eade/, read on 11 September 2026.

Where are the headquarters?

The administrative headquarters is in Brasília, at SGAN 603, Conjunto F, Avenida L2 Norte, and the historic headquarters is in Rio de Janeiro, at Avenida Passos, 30, 1st floor, in the Centro district. Source: https://febnet.org.br/missao-institucional/, read on 11 September 2026.

Is the FEB the authority on what Spiritism is?

Not in the sense of a religious hierarchy that defines dogma. The doctrine has no clergy, and the codification itself rejects the idea of an imposed truth. The criterion the work proposes for judging a doctrine is a practical one: “It will be the one that makes the most good people and the fewest hypocrites, that is, through the practice of the law of love in its greatest purity and its widest application.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 842)

The role the FEB claims is that of unification and dissemination, not of defining truth. And the work, when speaking of the future of Spiritism, presents dissemination as a slow process: “Ideas change only little by little, according to the individual, and several generations must pass before the traces of old habits are completely erased.” (O Livro dos Espíritos, question 800)

How this appears on a Spiritist trip to Minas

The centres visited by the caravan in Uberaba, Sacramento, Araxá and Conquista are linked to the Minas Gerais state federation and, through it, to the CFN. In practice, this explains why the study material, the format of the meetings and even the vocabulary are recognisable to a visitor from Rio Grande do Sul: the study programme is the same, published by the FEB.

Sources

Can you visit the centres linked to this history?

The history of the Brazilian Spiritist movement runs through cities that still receive visitors all year round. Guatambu Travel operates the Spiritist caravan to Minas Gerais departing from Porto Alegre, passing through Uberaba, Sacramento, Araxá and Pedro Leopoldo. The itinerary is on the Spiritist caravan page.

If the group already exists, the route is different. A Spiritist centre, a study group or a large family wishing to travel together does not need to buy individual seats: Guatambu Travel arranges the bus charter through partner operators, without its own fleet, and puts together the itinerary for that closed group. How this works, what the law requires of the operator and how to check the company is explained in bus charter for groups. Anyone organising a trip in another state who needs support in Rio Grande do Sul will find the equivalent in local reception services for groups.

Keep reading

Cover photograph: entrance of the Federação Espírita Brasileira headquarters in Brasília, by Fran6fran6, CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, via Wikimedia Commons, image resized (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Federacao_espirita.jpg).