Delusions About Spirits

Delusions About Spirits

by | Feb 1, 2021 | Chico Xavier, Religion vs Spirituality, Spiritist knowledge, Spiritual Evolution | 1 comment

“Since this morning I’ve been dizzy, it must be some bad spiritual energy.”

“We need spiritual healing; my family is beset by dark spirits.”

“Spirits don’t let me sleep.  I can’t get any rest.”

I can’t recall how many times I heard or read such common concerns like these. It always amazes me how much the supernatural is entangled in the lives of Spiritists, especially in Brazil.

When I questioned friends in Brazil, they usually became defensive. Aren’t they able to see that what they call ‘the intermingling with the hereafter’ rings as naiveté for an objective person?  Why do people who seem so well prepared, become so accepting of this parallel reality in their lives? In no way this is a criticism, it’s rather, for me, a statement of fact. I have been interested in the Spiritist ideas, and its conception of Christianity, but being from a different culture, that fact strikes me as mislaid. In some ways, these concerns resonate with me, thinking of worries with the devil and its troupe with which priests and pastors have brainwashed their flocks from time immemorial, even before the beginning of Christianity.

As an American, my personality is defined by a deep sense of independence, self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and esteem for objective thinking. I was raised in a family of Unitarian Universalists, with a grandmother who loved Ralph Waldo Emerson, and from whom I learned that ‘the purpose of life is spiritual transformation and direct experience of divine power, here and now on Earth.’

In no way do I discredit the idea of a hateful, ignorant spirit being at the root of some complex psychiatric disorders, or an actor in some cases of drug addiction, but these are, in my view, abnormal syndromes. However, the idea that we are surrounded by spirits able to easily trample on our free will, and violate the energy barrier that separates the different realms at will, is simply an irrational proposition for me.

Here is my suggestion for those who have taken up the task of promoting the Spiritist thought in the Anglosphere. Focus less on the dark, diseased souls of the spiritual realm, and phase out words such as spiritual possession, obsession, controlling entities, and vengeful beings in lectures and healing treatments. Instead, focus more attention on what matters for a person’s eternity, that is, inner transformation, cultivation of positive thinking, being a good human being, and living with gratitude.

Spiritist leaders in their communities should not stray from the wisdom already revealed in seminal literature, but the times may ask for adoption of the new tools that are part of the modern repertoire for spiritual awareness: meditation, yoga, mindfulness, tai-chi, contemplative prayer, and any other form of meditative activity. 

 These are tools that, together with all other tools utilized in Spiritist activities, will help today’s practitioners to reeducate their minds, change negative behaviors and beliefs, and hear the inner voice that inspires true transformation.

While it may be easy blame the unknown for mishaps in our lives, such concern with occult matters all too often stifles our lives with fear.  For simplicity sake, consider “Love is stronger than fear.” (1 John 4:18)

The Afterlife Through Fresh Eyes

The Afterlife Through Fresh Eyes

by | Oct 3, 2020 | Andre Luiz, Chico Xavier, Life After Death, Spiritist knowledge | 2 comments

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.

Conservative Catholicism

Homophobia

Victorian morality

Divorce prohibition in Brazil

Abortion illegal

Women are homemakers

Institutional racism

Chastity till marriage

Book reading

Fixed phone lines

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

In A Journey of the Soul, Ricardo Petrillo created a book of exploration and self-discovery focusing on his journey in the afterlife. Petrillo dictates his own firsthand experiences after recovering his full consciousness as a spirit. In many regards, his reporting follows the style of Andre Luiz. Andre Luiz is the established and respected recounter, while Petrillo is the cub reporter, but between them there is a gap of more than 70 years. 

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.

H.Bosch, An Angel Leading a Soul into Hell

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.

 

The situation of people who spent a long life on Earth in a body marked by motor disability (e.g. cerebral palsy) or intellectual disability, represents another noticeable difference. AL explains that after leaving their bodies, these spirits quickly recover their normal capacities and, after a brief period of adaptation, resume their normal lives in the spiritual realm. RP offers a much deeper view of their return, describing the work of several institutions to help their readjustment.

H. Uldal, Silence in Purgatory

He relates a series of exercises and activities they take up to gradually recover or relearn how to function in the spirit realm. It seems that these spirits experience an atrophy of the senses (movement and balance) after a long stay in a constrained condition and need the assistance of specialized helpers for their re-assimilation.

By comparing and contrasting Petrillo’s recently published A Journey of the Soul with the well-established series by Andre Luiz, we share a perspective on the role that time and culture play in shaping the writers’ view of reality and their interpretation of what they see and experience. By logic, a writer writes for their time, not for people in the past or in the future. The spirits do not escape this reality. Their perceptions and ideas are defined by the environment and culture of their time. As a new generation of spiritual writers begins to share their new perspectives, our view of life in the hereafter will gain new colors and interpretations.

 

Chico Xavier, A Life With Christ Within

Chico Xavier, A Life With Christ Within

by | Aug 28, 2020 | Allan Kardec, Chico Xavier, Spiritist knowledge

Millions of Brazilians adore and revere him as a disciple of Christ, medium, and human being. As he followed his heart, Francisco Xavier became a living message of Christian love.

“Charity is the force that sustains me; everything [I suffered] was worth it.” That’s how Chico, at ninety years of age, summed up his earthly life. This statement seems to be brief and simple, still it sounded quite impressive when he said it. In seventy years of mediumistic and public service, he published more that 400 books which sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The millions of dollars his work generated were and still are the livelihood and sole support to more than thirty charities; they guarantee sustenance and shelter for thousands of needy children, mothers, and the elderly. The result of his life’s work could have been the heart of a publishing empire but in Chico’s hands it became a permanent lifeline demonstrating that Christ lived in him.

His amazing paranormal abilities were used by spirit authors to focus on a vast range of subjects, from poetry to historical romances to scientific commentary. His first book, a collection of poems that was published in 1932, was dictated by former literary masters of the Portuguese language. 

For a countryman with a fourth-grade education, poetry was the unlikeliest subject, yet the book created a literary revolution in Brazil and Portugal at the time. It was not imagined by anyone that in the years that followed Chico’s greatest contributions to a new vision of Christianity would be an extensive series of historical romances authored by Emmanuel as well as a highly educational series on the afterlife authored by Andre Luiz.

As years went on, Chico became a ‘transcendental antenna’ for the spirit-world, a valuable element in a greater plan that would make him an oracle of love and spirituality. Chico’s life and commitments, unlike those of other mediums throughout history, were meant to be a pivotal component in the transformation of humanity’s social conscience. In the millions of messages he received and the hundreds of books he channeled, a single theme was brought to light: unconditional love for humanity and life itself. One of his partners in this phenomenal task was Emmanuel, an illuminated being who had once squandered the gift of a meeting with Jesus in Palestine. Andre Luiz was another brilliant contributor and together they became beacons of light. Chico’s life and deeds were indeed powerful phenomena, not the cheap psychic kind, but of transformation in the light of Christ.

“We are all looking for new paths,” Francisco said. “Yet, none is more significant than the one Jesus opened for us. This path has not changed; it’s still the only way; the one that goes from the manger to Golgotha! Everything else is an illusion…”

Guided by a philosophy of humility, service, and devotion to Jesus he was able to overcome an incredibly harsh childhood, a lifetime of poverty, and relentless personal attacks from the media after he became a household name in the country.

“‎Though nobody can go back and make a new beginning… Anyone can start over and make a new ending.”

Chico Xavier

And as he taught so, he lived. “I cannot solve society’s problems; however, I must not fail to offer a bowl of soup or a blanket to the homeless.”

In 1989, in public recognition for his monumental contributions and charitable work, Chico was recommended for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2002, Chico returned to the Spirit. During his remarkable life, he succeeded in making a home for Christ in the hearts of millions.