This thought was mentioned by Ana Maria de Nigris (photo) in the interview he gave us. She is from the Brazilian city of São Paulo and lives in Volta Redonda, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. She a biologist, dentist, artist and one of the directors of the Luzeiros do Mestre Spiritist Group. She has coordinated mediumship groups for the past 20 years. A Spiritist since 1984, Ms Nigris is a researcher of the work of Léon Denis, which is the main subject of this interview:

Where does your passion for the study and dissemination of the work of Léon Denis come from?

Léon Denis was a love at first sight. The first Spiritist book I even ready, recommended by a friend, was The Problem of Life and Destiny: Experimental Studies. As a musician with classical formation and a Biophysics student, I decided to prepare a workshop on the effect of music on our bodies. This workshop went on for many years. Denis’s work Spiritism in Arts played a key role to establish a link between science and religion.

What aspect of the work of this classical author strikes you the most?

Everything. Denis has a deep political and social vision. He manages to analyse the most diverse issues without losing his lyricism or focus. He is a poet, a thinker without boundaries and an amazing researcher! Moreover, he is brave enough to give his opinion without ever going against the essence of the Spiritist Teachings. He is a true apostle of Spiritism. He’s my biggest idol.

For the benefit of our readers who are not familiarised with the work of Denis, could you please sum up his efforts in the dissemination of Spiritism?

Léon Denis was self-taught. He was a Spiritist thinker, with literary and philosophical inclinations and also a medium. He was one of the main followers of Spiritism after the death of Allan Kardec, along with Gabriel Delanne and Camille Flammarion. He went round Europe giving talks, taking part in international Spiritist congresses and speaking about the survival of the soul and its consequences in the fields of ethics and human relations. He is known as “the consolidator of Spiritism” in Europe, as well as “the apostle of Spirtism”. On the electronic magazine,O Consolador, we can find an excellent summary of his life and main activities: click here.

What does he say about willpower in his works?

Willpower, according to Denis and many other authors, is the biggest of all powers. Kardec wrote on The Spiritist Review in December 1868 that “willpower… is thought that reaches a certain level of energy; it is thought that has become the driving force”. In the third part of his book, The Problem of Life…, Denis mentions philosophers who dedicated their lives to the study of willpower, like Nietzsche. He mentions the mechanism of “Mind Cure” and stresses that the presence of birth marks as the proof “that willpower makes an impression on matter and is able to subject it to its orders”. Modern science, like the biologist, Bruce Lipton, confirms the findings of Denis.

What does he say about free will?

Léon Denis says free will is something to be earned. It is not something to be taken for granted. That has given rise to long debates about whether or not we are free to choose and decide. Denis says: “To be free we need to want… We need to make an effort to eventually become free, freeing ourselves of the slavery of ignorance and lower passions, replacing the empire of senses and instincts by that of reason”. How? Is the question that comes straight up to our minds. And he answers with a modern triade:

Physical liberation through the restriction of our appetites...

Intellectual liberation through the conquest of the truth…

Moral liberation through the conquest of virtures…

What does he say about pain?

There is an apparent paradox when he says that “all living beings in this world (…) suffer and yet love is the law of Universe”. We in the West usually see pain as the villain, as something to be extinct. Denis introduces us to the educational role played by pain. He teaches us how to distinguish pain from suffering and says: “Extinguish pain and you will extinguish at the same time what deserves most admiration in this world, which is the capacity to support pain.”

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We are living in very troubled times. Reading the work of Denis, including his book, Socialism and Spiritism, would perhaps help many Spiritists understand the role they have to play in politics. There are extracts that are truly prophetic, written more than 100 years ago, like the following one: “We are living in times of crisis. Noisy warnings will be needed to open the intelligences to the truths, to make the hearts speak. Hard lessons of adversity will be required. We will know dark and difficult periods. Suffering will get men close to each other. Only pain make them really feel that they are brothers. If looks like the nation is going through a path sided by precipices. Alcoholism, immorality, suicide, crime and anarchy are carrying out their destruction. New scandals arise every minute, awakening new curiosities and stirring up a mud where corruptions brew; the thoughts of people are crawling.”