Special

por Paulo da Silva Neto Sobrinho

Herculano Pires and the Works of Andre Luiz

(Part 1)

Introduction – Considering that some comrades claim that the journalist and writer Jose Herculano Pires (1914-1979) – correctly named "the best meter that measured Kardec" - began to have a critical view of the works of Andre Luiz, we decided to research in his literary production to know if, in fact, there was any change of opinion.

We did not manage to organize Herculano Pires’ works based on the time they were written; this is why we referred to them according to their date of publication. We chose to copy the content of all texts to avoid some wrong interpretation of the text, in any way, leading the reader to a different conclusion from what he really meant.

Sources for analysis - We will not use as it is usual, regarding quotes, the minor source and the greater distance, according to the ABNT publications standards, because they are long and easy to identify, in which the emphasis added.

1) Spirit and Time, Edicel, 1964.

In the work Vampirism, which will be mentioned later, the years of 1977 and 1979 also appear as dates of publication; therefore, we presume there was some addition to the first version.

 [...] The study and the debates should be confined to the works of the Codification. Replacing the fundamental works by others, whether psychographed or not, is an inconvenience to be avoided. It would be the same as, in a contest of specialization in Pedagogy, to read and discuss subjects of Mechanics, under the pretext of varying the themes. Doctrinal learning requires unity and sequence, so that one can gain an overall view of the Doctrine. All Kardec’s publications must be included in those works, from his first books, to Codification itself, as well as the volumes of the Spiritist Magazine. We need to convince ourselves of this reality that not all understand: Spiritism is Kardec because he was the builder of the Doctrine, permanently assisted by the Spirit of Truth. All other Spiritist books, mediumistic or not, are subsidiary. Studying, for example, a work by Emmanuel or Andre Luiz without relating it to the works of Kardec, on the pretext that these spiritual authors surpassed the Master (whose works we do not yet know enough) is to demonstrate a lack of understanding of the meaning and nature of the Doctrine. These and other respectable authors make their contribution to our greater understanding of Kardec. They cannot replace it. It is good to remember the rule of "universal consensus", according to which no human spirit or creature alone has the resources and knowledge to make personal revelations. This type of individual revelation belongs to the past, to the time before the advent of the Doctrine. A new teaching, the revelation of a "new truth" depends on the doctrinal requirements of:

a) Universal agreement of manifestations regarding it;

b) Agreement of the issue with the basic principles of the Doctrine;

c) Agreement with the cultural principles of the stage of knowledge reached by our world;

d) Consistency with the rational, logical and logistic principles of our time.

Outside of this framework of necessary concordances, which constitute the "universal consensus," nothing can be accepted as valid. Personal opinions, whether of earthly wise men or of the spiritual world, are of no value to the Doctrine. The same is true regarding Science and all branches of Knowledge on Earth, because Knowledge is an organic structure, derived from the outer structure of reality and never subject to individual whims. Therefore, it is temerity to accept and propagate principles of this Spirit or that man as if they were doctrinal elements.

Those who risk this reveal a lack of sense and an absolute lack of logical criteria, as well as a lack of doctrinal conviction. Spiritism is not a closed or static Doctrine, but open to the future. Nevertheless, this openness is necessarily conditioned by the rules of balance and order that sustain the validity and effectiveness of its doctrinal structure. (Pires, 2003, pp. 190-191, emphasis added).

 […] As this process takes place in worlds of different material dimensions, Rhine agreed to call them extra physical, which is not really true, since the spiritual plane also has physical density and physics itself was obliged to presently recognize this reality. [...]. (Pires, 2003, p.194, emphasis added).

 [...] The free Spirit begins to live on the spiritual plane, which is constituted of matter in rarefied state. This semi-material world has several hypostases, the lowest of which exists only with the material plane, interpenetrated with it. That is why the Spirits live with us in the same cosmic space occupied by the planet. Thus, Spirits influence us and we influence them. We cannot perceive them by the physical senses, but we can see and hear them by the Spirit, although we have the impression of perceiving them by the senses. [...]. (PIRES, 2003, p.209)

2) Dialogue of the Living, GEEM, 1974.

The Spiritist Group Emmanuel - GEEM publishes this work, in which Herculano Pires and Chico Xavier participate. From the Preface, by Herculano Pires, we selected:

More than forty years ago, Chico Xavier has served as a mediumistic instrument for the preparation dialogues. The power of dialogue is impressive. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, p.17)

The uncritical critics, who today want to criticize the dialogue form of The Book of Spirits, deserve God's forgiveness, because they do not know what they are doing. The same is true regarding the critiques made to the dialogues of Chico Xavier, who in Uberaba, like the Oracle of Delphi, is placed between men and Spirits, so that the living of the Earth may talk to the living of the Hereafter. Each message received by Chico Xavier is an answer to human inquiries.

It is not Chico, nor the Spirits who propose the issues of the great debate. [...]. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, pp. 18-19, emphasis added)

Do you want a proof? It is enough to ask what has been done so far regarding the work of Emmanuel and Andre Luiz.Except for a few naive attempts, where are the deep commentators, the analysts, the scholars of these works in our midst? Where are they? (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, page 20, emphasis added)

[…] The voices of the Hereafter, when legitimate, are not only to console the afflicted, but also and above all to teach, clarify and open new perspectives to the understanding of spiritual problems. To underestimate the importance of mediumistic messages is to deny the value of the selfless work of the Superior Spirits to our benefit. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, p. 22, emphasis added)

Chico Xavier today accomplishes this, with complete self-denial, in the service of the human and divine cause of Spiritism. There is nothing to fear or to complain about. Only one thing we have to do: work! (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, p. 27)

Herculano Pires, writing under the pseudonym "Brother Saulo", writes several articles, of which we highlight the following passages:

The message of Andre Luiz touches on an essential point of the Spiritist Philosophy - its existentialist aspect. [...]. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, p. 78)

It is well known from Sartre's phrase: "Others are Hell." But Andre Luiz proposes the opposite: the others are Heaven. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, p.91)

Chico Xavier received a psychographic, in the series Nosso Lar (The Astral City or Our Home), by Andre Luiz, and in other writings, curious descriptions of the Spirits about the spiritual influence in our lives through dreams. And the episode that he tells us is a spontaneous proof of the legitimacy of the Spiritist theory of dreams, as stated in The Book of spirits. One more test, for indeed there are many spontaneous proofs given all over the world. (XAVIER and PIRES, 2011, page 143, emphasis added)

3) Mediumship, Paideia, Jul / 1978.

One can claim the existence of the mediumship of clairvoyance. But this mediumship is never granted for the adventures of the living Spirits on the spiritual plane, for that would be to condemn the medium to a situation of dangerous duality in earthly life. The mediumship of clairvoyance exists, but for the purpose of aiding the researches or demonstrations of the spiritual truth, but never for the creation of anomalous conditions in the mediumistic field. The mediumistic works themselves - psychographics, which describe with excessive detail the life in the spiritual plane - must be regarded with reserve by the Spiritist scholars. Emmanuel explains, prefacing a book by Andre Luiz that the spiritual author uses analogical figures to explain facts and things that could not be reliably explained in our human language. The two extreme positions are dangerous: those who do not accept these works as valid and those who intend to substitute them by the works of Kardec. The principles of Codification cannot be altered by the work of an isolated Spirit. The Codification is not a work of clairvoyance, but of scientific research carried out by Kardec under the guidance and vigilance of the Superior Spirits. (PIRES, 1987, p.27, emphasis added).

[...] Books such as Dans l’invisible, by Leon Denis, and the books of psychic guidance of Emmanuel and Andre Luiz can also be used as subsidiary, but never placed as basic works of the Doctrine. Without this criterion, many Centers and Groups, and even great institutions, have fallen on a plan of church mysticism and priestly authoritarianism that disfigure and ridicule Spiritism. [...]. (PIRES, 1987, p.55, emphasis added).

4) At the time of testimony, Paideia, Sep / 1978.

The remedy against this morbid state depends on measures that were not taken: the removal of those responsible for the adulteration of the managerial positions of the institution; the immediate reformulation of the courses regarding the Doctrine and mediums, excluding books, pamphlets and adulterating apostilles; the immediate return to Kardec's basic books as the only legitimate sources of Spiritist teaching; the acknowledgment of the subsidiary position of the works of Andre Luiz, now superimposed on those of Kardec; the total condemnation and exclusion of the works of mystification or of an undue mixture of strange doctrines. While this is not done, the bitter roots of adulteration will continue to ferment in the Spiritist milieu and nourish the vanity of the would-be instructors and teachers. We have to choose between being Spiritists or mystifiers of the Doctrine. (PIRES and XAVIER, 1978, p.7, emphasis added).

In the fulfillment of his luminous mediumship, without ceasing to be faithful to Kardec, to the basic principles of the Spiritist Doctrine, Chico Xavier imposed himself in the Spiritist environment of Brazil and the world as an example worthy of admiration and respect.

When certain confreres began to proclaim that the books of Emmanuel and Andre Luiz constituted a doctrinal reform, these two Spirits, followed by Bezerra de Menezes and other luminaries of Spirituality, began to transmit messages of appreciation of the work of Kardec. Emmanuel, before the appearance of currents called emmanuelists and andreluizists came forward to transmit a series of books corresponding to each one of the works of the Codification commenting the fundamental passages of these works.

Chico Xavier never intended to overlap Kardec, and he never enlisted among the reformers and over runners of the Encoder. He did not even accept, at any time, that they considered him as a Spiritist leader. He was always in his position as a medium, an intermediary of the Spirits, considering himself a humble servant of Spiritism. The letter from which we highlighted this conclusive passage he addressed to us on June 8 of last year. We do not find it necessary to disclose this new profession of Kardecian faith. But now, when Kardec's work is suffering the first aggression within the Spiritist milieu itself, and when the work of adulteration is announced, we could not leave that statement hidden in our archive, on the pretext of preserving the medium. On the contrary, the preservation of the medium demands this disclosure in the section where he himself always asks for our help, our collaboration in clarifying doctrinal problems. Pressed for the obligations of receiving citizenship titles and commitments to launch new books, Chico Xavier cannot send us the usual message for these columns. His presence in Sao Paulo at the moment - participating in the launching promoted by a group that stood beside the adulteration - could increase the rumors that Chico would approve this absurd attack on the work of Kardec. It was necessary for us to reveal the firmness of his doctrinal position, reaffirmed as eloquently as necessary, in the letter he had sent us.

There are many readers who question us about the position of the medium in this case. We pass to everyone the answer of the medium himself, a categorical, inescapable response. Chico reaffirms that we must preserve the work of Kardec, above all.  Others ask us why we have modified the program on the Threshold of Tomorrow, avoiding the duty of defending in it the work of the master. We inform everyone that we have left the program because we were prevented from dealing with it. Our last but one program on the case was mysteriously discharged and our last program was filed and replaced with another, of which we did not participate and could not participate. Not even the legal right to announce our withdrawal has been granted. What happened to us will not happen to Chico Xavier. The disclosure of his excerpt-message will suffice to show the readers of these columns that the great medium maintains his loyalty to Kardec, eloquently maintaining that the Doctrine must be above all else. (PIRES and XAVIER, 1978, pp. 34-35, emphasis added).

5) Vampirism, Paideia, 1980.

[...] Spiritism puts its emphasis on the study and investigation of human spirits, which are those of our evolutionary plan, endowed with more developed rational intelligence and awareness. The parasites already belong to the human plane. They are considered in Theosophy and other spiritualistic currents as astral larvae. In fact they are not larvae nor elementary; they are entities that need help regarding indoctrination. The Theosophists also attribute the Spiritist communications to the so-called astral casks, which are for them spiritual envelopes, perispirites abandoned by the dead, and which are used by elementary or playful Spirits to manifest in the mediumistic sessions as the Spirits of these dead. The casks theory was created by Mme. Blavatski, after a psychic session she attended in New York. Mr. Sinet states in his book Life Incidents of Mrs. Blavatski that she then made a mistake of observation, to which she never referred again. Sinet, a known Theosophist and companion of Blavatsky, disagrees with the Theosophists who continue to accept this false theory. Andre Luiz refers to the ovoids, Spirits that have lost their spiritual body and are closed in themselves, wrapped in a kind of membrane. This is reminiscent of Sartre's theory of the in-itself, the earlier form of the spiritual being, which breaks it by projecting itself into existence by the necessity of communication. The vampires' action of these ovoids is accepted by many Spiritists who love novelties. But this novelty has no scientific conditions or methodological support to be integrated into the Doctrine. It is only a Spirit’s isolated information. No serious research, by competent researchers, has proved the reality of this theory. It is not enough for the medium to validate it. The doctrinal requirements are much stricter in accepting novelties. Spiritism would be subject to the most complete deformation if the Spiritists indulged in the delirium of the novelty hunters. Andre Luiz manifests himself as a neophyte who is enthusiastic about the Doctrine, sometimes using terms that deviate from the doctrinal terminology and concepts that do not always conform to Spiritist principles. The wide freedom that Spiritism gives to its followers has its limits strictly fixed in the Kardecian methodology.

In the case of parasitism and vampirism, all rigors are minimal, for errors and misunderstandings can lead healing spiritual treatments to dangerous misbehavior. (PIRES, 1980, pp. 14-16, emphasis added).

6) The mystery of good and evil, Correio Fraterno, 1989.

Descriptions of spiritual life in lower areas of space

Regions in which Spirits are still attached to the forms of material life.

"Action and Reaction", by Andre Luiz, a contribution of the Spirits to the celebrations of the centenary.

The first centenary of Spiritism also had its celebrations on the other side of life. It was not only on our material plane, on this reverse side of life in which we drag ourselves, attached to the density of gross matter, that the great event aroused enthusiasm. Although the advent of Spiritism seems to us a specific fact of our world, since the Doctrine came to guide incarnate men, the fact is that this fact also refers to the spiritual planes. And what is more important: this fact has as much meaning for us as for the Spirits.

 

(This article will be completed in the next issue of this magazine.)


Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br

 
 

     
     

O Consolador
 Revista Semanal de Divulgação Espírita