by Antonio Leite.
Nowadays there is an increasing interest about Spiritism and its view of the faculty of Mediumship and the consequence of its practice. Although Spiritism was born in France in the mid-eighteenth century, it flourished in Brazil at the dawn of the nineteenth century, making the country the number one spiritist land in the world today.
Furthermore, there is also an intriguing and fascinating interest about the way how Spiritsm has affected peoples’ life in Brazil, as well as attracted the attention of the students of the fields of psychology, parapsychology, medicine, and psychiatry, which had given rise to much research related with the so called holistic or alternative therapeutics. Scholarly works such as David J. Hess’s Spirits and Scientists – Ideology, Spiritism and Brazilian Culture, an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Science and Technology Studies Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which derives from the author’s research done for his doctoral dissertation at the Department of Anthropology of Cornell University in 1987, is continually increasing.
On the 19th of July, 2006, at the Eileen J. Garrett Research Library, in Greenport,NY, the Parapsychology Foundation sponsored a lecture aiming to acquire a better understanding of the puzzle behind the constant flourishment of Spiritism in Brazil. There could be no better location to host this event, for the foundation, an extraordinary legacy handed to mankind by the gifted medium and pioneer of psychic research, the late Eileen J. Garrett, is a nonprofit educational organization that for over 50 years had supported research and scientific inquiry into the psychical aspects of human nature.
Alexander Moreira-Almeida, a Brazilian clinical psychiatrist and currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, was invited to speak about the subject of “Spiritism, Mediums and Mediumship in Brazil from 1900 to the Present“. The speaker, who also worked as the Director of the Center for the Study of Religious and Spiritual Problems – NEPER, at the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, obtained his M.D. degree from the Federal University of Juiz de Fora in 1997, completed his psychiatry residency at the Institute of Psychiatry at the University of São Paulo in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Health Sciences in the same university in 2004. His doctoral thesis is focused on the phenomenology and psychology of mediumship and he has published several articles on the subject in such journals as Social Science and Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and Transcultural Psychiatry.
In his talk, Mr. Moreira-Almeida addressed a very focused and engaging audience, one not to be evaluated by its number, but rather by its high amount of interest in the subject of the lecture, and conveyed to them an overview of Spiritism and the most influential mediums in the history of the Brazilian Spiritist Movement. In the first part of his lecture he spoke about education and the unique role played by the French philosopher and scholar Hippolyte- Léon Denizard Rivail, better known as Allan Kardec, who carried out the work known as The Codification. This immense work represents the enterprise undertaken by Allan Kardec in a form of a scientific investigation upon the phenomena of spirits’ manifestations by the study, comparison and analysis of the answers given through mediums from different countries throughout the world and the final compilation of it into the philosophy he called “Spiritism” or “Spiritist Doctrine“. The speaker explained that “Kardec regarded Spiritism as a science and philosophy with moral, not religious, implications – contrary to popular thought” and that it was defined as “a science which deals with the nature, origin and destiny of Spirits, as well as their relationship with the corporeal world”. In the continuation of the first part of his speech, Mr. Moreira-Almeida referred to the basic literature that comprises the Spiritist Doctrine, whose main source, he strongly emphasized, was not Allan Kardec himself, but the Superior Spirits who used and guided him as an intermediary in order to convey a message of extreme importance for the sake of the future of mankind. Then he spoke briefly about the books which comprise the basic teachings of the Spiritist Doctrine, giving special emphasis to The Spirits’ Book, the Revue Spirite and The Mediums’ Book. The first one came into light in the year of 1857 and according to Kardec himself, “In a special sense, [it] contains the doctrine or theory of spiritism; in a general sense, it appertains to the spiritualist school, of which it presents one of the phases.” The Revue Spirite was the Journal for Psychological Studies of the Parisian Society for Spiritist Studies, founded by Allan Kardec in 1858. The twelve volumes of the magazine [1858-1869] was published by Kardec himself, and all the works of the society was under his direct supervision. It was during the weekly meetings of the Society that a good deal of the studies and mediumship activities took place. To The Mediums’ Book Mr. Moreira-Almeida employed much emphasis in his speech, not only for the fact that it held a direct connection with the main aspect of his lecture, but also because of the important role that this work, which was published by Allan Kardec in 1861, played in the understanding of mediumship and the consequences of its practice.
In the second part of the lecture, the researcher spoke about the important role played by a few great spiritist mediums, who greatly contributed with their mediumship activities and helped pave the way for Spiritism to firmly take root in Brazil and become the greatest spiritist country in the world.
Inevitably, Francisco Cândido Xavier, who was born on April 2nd, 1910 and died in June 30th, 2002, better known as Chico Xavier, had to appear as the first one in this list. Even though he was poorly educated, this medium channeled 412 books, whose content touches upon a wide variety of matters, such as poetry, philosophy and science, among other issues. In the year of 1932, at the age 22, he channeled his first book, Párnaso de Além-Túmulo (Poetry From Beyond The Grave), which contained 259 poems revealed to Mr. Xavier by the spirits of 56 deceased Brazilian and Portuguse poets, amongst them, some of the most famous in their own land. His books were translated into many languages and sold over three million copies throughout the globe, which could have made him a millionaire, but the medium never accepted payment and always disclaimed personal credit for their authorship, strongly emphasizing that he was simply an instrument of the spirituality. The proceeds were entirely donated to charity. Mr. Xavier is known to Brazilians of all religious backgrounds as a man of a great moral authority, modesty and sincerity, who devoted his psychic gifts to the service of mankind.
In the course of his speech, Mr. Moreira-Almeida talked about the important work that the Brazilian medium Divaldo Pereira Franco is undertaking in order to spread the good news about Spiritism throughout the world. At the age of eighty, he also is a prolific medium who has channeled almost 200 books, and 70 of them have already been translated into 15 different languages. He has also devoted his entire life to charity, especially to the care of children in need.
In 1952 he founded an institution called Mansão do Caminho (Mansion of the Way), which is located in a poor suburb of one of Brazil’s greatest cities: Salvador, in the State of Bahia. It was established to provide housing and care for orphaned children through a system of foster care and now, after 50 years of operation, it has become a large educational institution that provides assistance fo more than 3,000 children and teenagers everyday, free of charge. His books have sold an impressive 7 million copies and all of its proceeds are used for the maintenance of the Mansão do Caminho. Aside from all of these achievements, Mr. Franco is a renowned international speaker and has given more than 10 thousand lectures and lectured in 52 countries in the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Due to his life of dedication to others, he has received many honorific titles from governments and universities throughout the world, such as the degree of Doctor of Parapsychology Honoris Causa from Cyberam University in Illinois, among others.
In the second part of his speech, Mr. Moreira-Almeida mentioned the name of another great Brazilian spirititist medium, José Pedro de Freitas, most widely known as Arigó, about whom there is an intriguing and interesting book written by the American writer John G. Fuller – Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife, a must-have on the shelves of any student of the phenomena of paranormality.
At last, the speaker referred to the mediumship of Carmine Mirabelli, Luiz Antonio Gasparetto and João Teixeira de Freitas, the latter better known as John of God and currently the most known Brazilian spiritual surgeon/healer, who was subject to an investigation undertaken by Mr. Moreira-Almeida along with two other researchers, whose conclusions was published in the Portuguese article: Cirurgia Espiritual: Uma Investigação (Spiritual Surgery: An Investigation). The speaker stressed the fact that the three mediums mentioned above are not spiritists mediums, and as a result they do not strictly follow the advices indicated by the Spiritist Doctrine in regard to the practice of mediumship.
The third and last part of the lecture was dedicated to a questionnaire session and it was quite easy for one present to come to the conclusion that the audience, although not great in numbers, showed a high level of interest and participation, and sought to absorb the most information about the subject at hand. There were many interesting questions and I would like to share some of them with the readers. – How did you (the speaker) get involved with this studies? – Are some of these mediums consulted by government agents? – How can one become a medium? – How does the Roman Church react to Spiritism? – What are the most interesting research(es) being undertaken now in the field of Parapsychology? – And the list goes on.
The final part of the lecture was indeed transformed into a great moment of a highly motivated interaction between Mr. Moreira-Almeida and the attendees. We will refrain from reporting the answers given by the speaker to all the questions, for the sake of the concision of this notice.
Last but not least, I would like to thank Mrs. Coly, the Executive Director of the Parapsychology Foundation for her kindness and amiability, who managed to make everyone feel at home during the event. She kindly accompanied myself and my son, along with Mr. Moreira-Almeida and family for a delicious dinner at one of the coziest restaurant of Greenport. There, she was able to share with us a glimpse of the extraordinary work of her grandmother Eileen J. Garrett and the legacy that she now carries on with a strong sense of responsibility and devotion, during which we listened in amazement.
Source: The Spiritist Messenger, 14th Year, Number 77, August 2006
