As early as 1874, the vicar Domingo Rivas warned from his pulpit against the circulation of Allan Kardec's spiritism literature in the country. Although the exact beginning of spiritism in Costa Rica is unknown, since 1896 there was at least one occult circle that published the magazine Grano de Arena, edited by a barber from Alajuela, a painter and a craftsman named Domingo Núñez, Agustín Ramos and Pedro Pérez respectively. The magazine declared itself to be rationalist and was strongly critical of Catholicism. It ceased printing in 1889 due to lack of funds.

Among the people linked to the publication were the Nicaraguan lawyer Salvador Jirón, the educator Amadeo Madriz (tutor of the writers Manuel González Zeledón and Carlos Gagini), General Federico Fernández (brother of the president and Freemason Próspero Fernández and father of the intellectual and theosophist Rogelio Fernández Güell), the politician Francisco Boza, the Colombian Francisco Lamus and the Spanish businessman Antonio Rodríguez, and women such as Celina Fernández Giralt and María Rojas. In 1896 the "Sociedad Benefactora de Estudios Psicológicos" was mentioned for the first time in El Grano, which would connect with international spiritism organisations, particularly in Spain, and distribute the "Revista de Estudios Psicológicos de Barcelona" in the country, as well as publish articles from El Grano abroad.

At the beginning of the 20th century, spiritism attracted the attention of different thinkers, disenchanted with both scientific positivism, of which they were critical because of its materialism, and traditional religiosity, especially Catholicism, which they branded as superstitious. Omar Dengo was one of these, and he wrote an article on the death of the chemist and spiritism William Crookes. Costa Rican spiritists in general sought to apply a scientific and rationalist methodology to spiritism, distrusting what they considered to be superstition. Among the figures who became interested in spiritism were Omar Dengo, the chancellor Ricardo Fernández Guardia, the magistrate Alberto Brenes Córdoba, the painter Enrique Echandi, the future dictator brothers Federico and José Joaquín Tinoco, and the esoteric scholar Rogelio Fernández Güell who, according to Abelardo Bonilla, was initiated into spiritism by the Mexican president Francisco I. Madero.

The Spiritism was quickly denounced by various Catholic clergymen accusing it of Satanism. In 1906 the Franklin Circle of spiritists was formed to study the mediumistic abilities of Ofelia Corrales. In 1911, the "Spiritist Centre Claros de Luna" was formed, directed by the future director of the National Museum (under Tinoco's government) and director of the "Colegio Superior de Varones", Ramiro Aguilar, which published a magazine of the same name from 1923 onwards. Its members included the future Minister of Education Napoleón Quesada, Daniel González Víquez (brother of President Cleto González Víquez), Rómulo Tovar, Moises Vincenzi Pacheco and the future Minister of Education and Director of the Colegio Superior de Señoritas Salvador Umaña.

Between 1921 and 1923 spiritism circles were created in Puntarenas, Limón, Goicoechea and Mora. By 1925 the "Centro de Estudios de Psicología Experimental" was founded and published the monthly magazine "El Estudio" between November 1925 and October 1928.