by Yvonne Limoges.
Before I get started just some words about myself and our Spiritist group. I am a 46 year old, college educated, married, mother of three, and, grandmother of two. I worked for the federal government for 26 years (recently retired) as a professional in the Social Security Administration. I was also very active in the union, and eventually became its president which provided me with the experience of running a large non-profit organization, assisting and providing service to others, conducting membership drives, negotiating contracts, organizing and conducting seminars, and, processing and adjudicating employee legal cases of various types. In 1982, my father, Ed Crespo, and I opened up our home (when I still lived there) to friends and relatives, to the practice, discussion, and study of the Spiritist Doctrine. This developed into The Spiritist Society of Florida. Our membership grew and we now rent space in a metaphysical church for our meetings. My father has assisted the Allan Kardec Educational Society in their work on translations of Spiritist books into English. We correspond with many Spiritist organizations around the world. In addition, we feel honored that Janet Duncan, John Zerio, and Franco Divaldo have blessed us with their visits to our Group.
THE TIME IS RIGHT
In my opinion, the time is ripe in America for exposure to the Doctrine for several reasons:
1) best selling books by Gary Zukov (quantum physics and spirit evolution), Sylvia Brown (books about the spirit world and started her own religion with reincarnation), James van Praagh (medium who will soon have a movie of his life done), John Edward (medium, has his own show Crossing Over), Dr. Brian Weiss (past life regressions), Rosemary Althea (spiritual healing), and Donald Walsch (the Conversations with God books, prayer circles), are working in parallel to us and all support mediumship and reincarnation;
2) these same people have exposed the general public to their messages via the media (Larry King Live, Oprah, etc.), the internet, and seminars and they have been well received;
3) the popularity of shows like Touched by an Angel;
4) the September 11th attack has made many people examine their priorities in life;
5) the aging US population has, and will continue to, search for spiritual meaning in their lives. I firmly believe these are not coincidences.
POSSIBLE OBSTACLES
But, we need to acknowledge that currently most Spiritist groups are composed of Hispanics (myself included, 5th generation American) and/or Portuguese. Language and culture can be a barrier to dissemination and many of our groups seem to attract only others of the same ethnic culture who are already Spiritists or, those who are familiar with it. If we are going to spread the Doctrine to non-Hispanics, non-Portuguese, I believe we should be somewhat familiar with these popular author/mediums and what they are saying. Believe it or not, many of them are saying a lot of the same things that is in the Spiritist Doctrine. Isn’t it wonderful that they now call themselves spiritual mediums instead of “channelers”! They are part of the Divine Plan, they whet people’s curiosity into the things their own religion has no answers for, and start many people on their search for the true meaning of Life.
Another issue that I feel needs to be discussed is, we must stop being afraid to say what and who we are, and, what we believe, out loud. As my long time friend and fellow Spiritist Jackie always says, “the Spanish Inquisition is dead”; there is freedom of religion in America. There is especially great hesitancy to speak of the practices of mediumship. Many people believe in reincarnation and communication with the spirit world. If we present ourselves in a professional manner, we won’t be taken for religious fanatics, or kooks. But, we should not act like intellectual snobs either.
REGARDING TRANSLATIONS
I believe that the other Kardec books should be translated into English, especially Heaven and Hell. In addition, books by Leon Denis offers more of a narrative form of explaining the Doctrine, and, as the famous “Apostle of Spiritism”, he deserves our serious attention.
Secondly, we should take advantage of the fact that most people enjoy reading personal stories, especially those with a moral to it, more so than reading what they may consider a philosophy, or religion book. We want to appeal to the average person for the widest possible dissemination, not just the intellectuals. In addition, we should try to translate a diverse variety of Spiritist books from all countries; let us translate the best Spiritist authors from each. By the way, Jon Azipurua’s recent book is excellent and brings Spiritism up to date. Finally, duplication of translated works should be avoided, we really need to respect each others’ good efforts.
WHO ARE OUR TARGET GROUPS?
In order to have a more “focused dissemination”, we need to try and target specific groups who are either open minded, of similar minds, or have somewhat been exposed to the basic ideas of reincarnation. Other than our own ethnic groups who are familiar with the Doctrine, I believe we should target members of metaphysical and spiritualist churches (most love to have guest speakers), students at universities, and the general public as scheduled ‘speakers’ in book stores (Barnes and Nobles, etc. which are in all major towns), or, any other place where we can go to speak about the Doctrine (ex. here where I live, one can speak at our local museum) where it does not cost us. These groups are at places where we do not have to rent space. In addition, we should write articles and send them to New Age type papers. Most cities have these and we need to reach out to them with our Spiritist viewpoint. Their audience would be receptive to our ideas.
IMPROVED COMMUNICATIONS AMONG FELLOW SPIRITISTS
It would be wonderful that in conjunction with business meetings, The United States Spiritist Council, should sponsor and help organize a yearly American Spiritist conference (with assistance from each local Spiritist group in the location where it would be held). Volunteer speakers, selected by the Spiritist Council, from among our various Spiritist groups, could give lectures on various Spiritist topics, that Spiritist groups could attend. The meetings and seminars should rotate around each year to different areas of the country. This will encourage communication, a sense of Spiritist brotherhood, and provide for an exchange of ideas. Everything should be done in the English language. On one of the days of these conferences, we should invite local metaphysical and spiritualist groups.
ANOTHER IDEA
The authors Dr. Brian Weiss, James van Praagh, Gary Zukov, and Dr. Raymond Moody know each other and attend each other’s seminars. Dr. Weiss has recently lectured in Brazil and he even has tapes in Portuguese. Mr. van Praagh cites works by Allan Kardec in his books. It is very obvious that these individuals are familiar with Spiritist books and ideas. I think it would be wonderful if we could get an endorsement of Spiritism from one, or all of these gentlemen, which we could use to draw the general public to come hear us. They could do an introductory speech at an important Spiritist lecture, a book endorsement (we could put this on a published translated Spiritist book), or maybe they could start to mention us when they speak with the media. We could appeal to their spiritual goodness and put the rest in God’s Hands.
WHY DON’T WE WRITE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SPIRITIST BOOKS?
I am sure we have many Spiritists out there who are great writers and have experiences, or stories, they could share. We must start our own Americanized version of Spiritists writings. Newsletters are a start.
The Spiritist Council could start its own Newsletter and ask for submitted articles from our Spiritist groups around the county to publish. This would give a voice to those at Spiritist centers with no established newsletters of their own.
WHAT CAN INDIVIDUAL SPIRITIST GROUPS DO TO SPREAD SPIRITISM?
We should be in cordial contact with our local spiritualist churches who are more like minded and provide them with material, or put them on our mailing list. As I said before, we should submit articles to any New Age newspapers in our area. We should encourage our Groups’ membership to not be ashamed or shy, about bringing up our beliefs when the time seems appropriate, and in a diplomatic manner, with those aspects of the Doctrine that others might be receptive to, in their everyday life. We need to encourage children education in Spiritism. We need to pass on our beliefs. We need to encourage our members to bring in friends and relatives (non-Hispanic, non-Portuguese) into our Groups. We should conduct mediumship classes, discussion groups, study groups, and medium sessions, as appropriate. Provide speakers at various public facilities: colleges, book stores, etc.
AMERICAN SPIRITISTS AND DOCTRINAL PURITY
In my 20 plus years of studying Spiritism, visiting different Spiritist Groups, and, reading and analyzing Spiritist correspondence and literature, I have noted many Spiritist groups have their own interpretations of the Spiritist Doctrine. Some groups stress spiritual healing, some only address the intellectual aspects of the Doctrine, some want to preface “Spiritism” with a qualifier, some only emphasize spirit communications, some treat the doctrine mostly as a religious belief, and some groups are very Bible-oriented. Obviously, every group is handling things their own way and have members who have similar views. But in light of the United States Spiritist Council’s goals, if we become more organized and our Spiritists groups came together with frequency, we may be more successful in obtaining a more unified perspective, with similar goals and methods, and, which can relate to the American culture in a positive way, while retaining the purity of the Spiritist Doctrine as codified by Allan Kardec.
Respectfully Yours,
Yvonne Limoges
The Spiritist Society of Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
U.S.A.
Souce: The Spirtist Messenger, 8th Year, Number 35, March 2002
