Time and culture color writers’ interpretation of what they see and experience and therefore play a large role in shaping their view of reality.  Two gifted spirit writers report their afterlife experiences more than 50 years apart and allows us to experience with them these differences in time and culture in their reports: Andre Luis, a Brazilian who wrote, starting in the 1940’s, about his spiritual experiences, and Ricardo Petrillo, an American whose more recent experience he documents in A Journey of the Soul, published in March 2020.

Andre Luiz is the pen name of a spirit who followed a medical career in his last existence.  He lived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the turn of the 19th Century, based on the dates inferred from his works. F.C. Xavier, a medium who lived in a small rural town in the South of Brazil, received via automatic writing the series of more than 10 books, the last published in 1970.

If Andre Luiz, a highly gifted spirit writer, were to write his spiritual series in current times, through a different medium, how would he tell the same stories of life in the hereafter? Would he say the same thing today as he did then?

The answer has to do with culture, that is the knowledge, religion, values, and habits that shaped the outlook on life of both himself and his medium. They both saw life and the world through the lens of a Victorian morality, the then dominant Catholic Church presence, small town rural life, and conservative values.

In contrast, Ricardo Petrillo, born and raised in the northeastern U.S., returned to the spirit life in 2005 at the age of 20, making him a member of generation Y.  How does this young man, writing from the spirit realm today, through a highly educated medium, tell stories about his experience in the hereafter? As expected, in a different and interesting way!

The differences, as they should naturally exist, may in large part be due to societal and cultural changes. Between 1970 and 2005 the world has experienced the greatest transformation in its history. Of course, it all started with the worldwide reach of the Internet. Let’s quickly contrast the ideas and values that defined the 1960s in Brazil and the 2020s in America.

Liberal Christian values

Same-sex marriage

Sexual liberation

No-fault divorce

Women’s right to choose

Women in professional careers

Racial equality (struggle for)

Pre-marital sex accepted

Web learning

Mobile phones

Dante’s Inferno, H. Lachman, 20th Century Fox

Since time and environment play a key role in defining a person’s view of reality, it may be interesting to comment on what may be some noticeable differences in their observations. This is done purely out of curiosity and to help the reader consider how perspectives, even at spirit level, change over time. To make it easy to follow, let’s identify their perspectives by their initials AL and RP.

AL reports on the existence of strongholds and castles in the lower zones. These are typical old European constructions, some with moats, which are rarely seen in the Americas. RP describes the buildings mostly as non-descript conventional structures common in modern cities. The purpose of such buildings is the same, i.e. to assist rescued souls. Another difference regards the description of modes of patient transportation. AL writes about the use of dogs, traction animals, and birds of prey, while RP mentions only the use of a gurney maneuvered by aids. Interestingly both allude to the existence in those facilities of defense centers located in high towers. RP also describes the tower as containing different windows that have energy resonance with various planes of suffering. The viewer could move from one window to another in order to focus his vision on those planes.

In AL the conception of lower zones resembles, in amazing detail, the centuries-old conception of hell promoted by the Church and the purgatory described by Dante. They are portrayed as physical places located contiguous to the Earth crust. RP conveys a more subtle and less gloomy vision of the struggles of those who strayed the right path, by focusing on their states of conscience.

H. Uldal, Silence in Purgatory