Chapter 3 - Sessions
Article 17 - The Society's sessions are to be held on Fridays at 8:00 p.m. unless changed as needed. Sessions may be either private or general and are never open to the public. Every member of the Society, regardless of status, should sign an attendance sheet at each session.
Article 18 - Silence and concentration are strictly required during the sessions, and especially during study time. No one may speak without the President's permission.
All questions asked of the spirits shall go through the President, who may refuse to ask them, depending on the circumstances.
All pointless questions, or those of personal interest or involving mere curiosity, or those whose aim is to test the spirits are strictly prohibited, as well as all those that do not have a generally useful purpose from a study point of view.
Equally prohibited are all discussions that are off the subject.
Article 19 - Every member has the right to ask anyone who departs from appropriateness during the discussion or who disturbs the session in any way to be brought to order. The request shall immediately be put to a vote, and once approved, it shall be written in the minutes.
Three warnings within a year shall warrant dismissal of the member, whatever his/her status may be.
Article 20 - No spirit communication obtained outside the Society may be read without having been submitted to the President or the Commission, who may or may not approve its reading.
One copy of each outside communication, whose reading has been authorized, must be kept on file.
All communications obtained during the sessions belong to the Society, but the mediums who received them may keep a copy.
Article 21 - Closed sessions are reserved for Society members and shall be held on the first, third, and, if applicable, on the fifth Friday of each month.
The society reserves for individual sessions all questions concerning administration, as well as study materials that require greater peacefulness and concentration, or which it deems proper to delve into before being addressed in the presence of outside individuals.
Besides full members and free associates, correspondence members passing through Paris, and mediums who lend their help to the Society, have the right to attend closed sessions.
No outside person shall be admitted to closed sessions, except in exceptional cases and with the prior consent of the President.
Article 22 - General sessions shall be held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of each month.
During general sessions, the Society authorizes admitting outside observers, who may attend them temporarily without taking part in them. Such authorization may be suspended when deemed appropriate.
No one may attend sessions as an observer without having been introduced to the President by a Society member, who shall be entrusted with ensuring that his/her guest will not cause trouble or interrupt the session.
The Society only admits persons as auditors those who want to become members or those who are interested in its work and have already been sufficiently initiated into Spiritist Science to understand it. Anyone who wants to attend only out of curiosity, or whose opinions are hostile, must absolutely be refused admission.
An auditor is forbidden to speak except in exceptional cases as the President sees fit. Anyone who disturbs the order in any way or expresses ill will toward the Society's work may be invited to leave, and in all cases the fact shall be noted on the attendance sheet. He/she shall be refused entry in the future.
The number of auditors shall be limited to the available seats, and those who can attend the sessions shall be written down beforehand, making mention of who recommended them and their address. Consequently, every request for admittance to a session must be made to the President several days beforehand. The President is the only one authorized to grant admission cards until the list ends.
Cards are only good for the day indicated and for the persons so designated.
Permission cannot be granted to the same auditor for more than two sessions, except by the President's authorization and for exceptional cases. No member may introduce more than two persons at a time. There is no set limit on the number of admissions that may be granted by the President.
Auditors are not to be admitted after the session has begun.
