With little less repercussion than it should in the Spiritist environment, the series “Life after death” was launched in the first semester of the still troubled 2021, a set of six episodes based on the book by American author Leslie Kean, called “Surviving Death: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife”, a 2017 Best Seller.

I say a little repercussion, because themes related to mediumship have more attention from the lay public, when compared to the Spiritist home silver. However, the series, which is not Spiritist and does not even intend to be one, brings interesting themes, a good quality documentary, the first chapter beginning with the discussion of the so-called near-death experience, for a block of four episodes on themes related to mediumship, ending with the question of reincarnation, in line with the spontaneous remembrance of past lives. Unfortunately, dusty discussions in the Spiritist gallery.

The purpose of these lines is not, in any way, to try to fit the referred series in the Spiritist assumptions, what it does not intend to do. It brings, in the form of a documentary, testimonies and cases related to themes on which the Doctrine is concerned, but which are not its monopoly, seeking, in an investigative way, to bring the scientific and philosophical question of the existence of a conscience to the table of discussions outside the body and how it communicates with the so-called living. Grief, and the phenomenon as a personal journey to deal with it, is the central idea of​​the series.

For didactic purposes, the first block focuses on chapter 1, which deals with the Near Death Experience-NDE, and brings recent cases of situations that confirm the existence of an out-of-body consciousness, the Spirit. These are impressive cases and show people reporting experiences outside the body, having access to information that they would not be able to obtain if they were not unfolded.

Few in Brazil today focus on researching these NDE phenomena, instrumental trans-communication, memories of other lives, or even the mediumistic phenomenon itself, with the exception of the pioneers of the Center for the Study of Spiritual and Religious Problems (Neper) and of the Research Group on Spirituality and Health (NUPES), both linked to federal universities. The analysis of the Spiritist press on a daily basis indicates that this issue does not orbit the lines and mouths, on the line, in my view, of what I already know (I believe) about all this, and there is nothing left to dwell on the theme.

Episode 6 of the series, which I will deal together with episode 1, to leave more of the discussion to the central bloc, also stops at this line of secular scientific experiments and brings the studies of researchers on memories of other lives, with impressive reports. Episodes 1 and 6 do not differ much from documentaries similar to the Discovery Channel style, with the same standard of technical quality, and really have a lot to teach us all.

But the focus of this article is to dwell even on the analysis of the so-called second block, in a didactic division of the series, which contemplates episodes 2 to 5, and which deal with mediumship, with segmentation in physical and intelligent phenomena, in addition to signs of loved ones and apparitions. A view of cases, from a so-called “school of mediums” in the Netherlands, to mutual aid groups for mediums and for people who have lost their loved ones and seek to reconnect with them. For the analysis of this block on mediumship, I will focus on seven specific points and transversal to the episodes, which I found interesting in this debate, respecting the limitations of this article.

Fraud and mediumship: Skepticism and the issue of being a fraud pervades the entire documentary, with one character, in particular, who seeks to test mediums with personal experiments, as well as interviews with university researchers, who always bring the fraudulent hypothesis as considerable. Interesting that the series brings this skepticism, and considers that fraud is possible, since Kardec already had this attitude from the beginning in relation to the phenomena, especially the most extraordinary ones, and ends up being an interesting line during these episodes, from believing suspicious, which is always a current discussion, even in Spiritism.

The view of mediumship as a business: We Brazilians are astonished by this, but it is clear that mediumistic practice, especially in the United States, plays a role as a complementary or main source of income for its practitioners. This is not new for those who follow series and documentaries from that country. The clear stance of the mediums themselves, who see themselves as the provider of a paid service, and which aims to provide authentic communication with the loved one, a service provision. Those who are not so, like the mediums school in the Netherlands, end up having a structure that approaches a church, in the lines and artifacts, even using the expression "ministry".

Lack of doctrinal support in mediumistic practice: Mediums do not mention reference works, and everything seems very empirical in the construction of their knowledge about the phenomenon. The medium herself, from Holland, with a lot of experience, shows herself to be hesitant, with a knowledge clearly derived from her personal experience and not from the study of works, of any nature, that deal with the issues of exchange and their philosophical relations, which might not be Spiritist works, but any other organized doctrinal set that deals with similar issues.

Kardec, not mentioned nominally Yes, Kardec is not mentioned once. The closest to the well-known Spiritist literature mentioned is Camille Flamarion, and in a transversal way. The mention of Charles Richet, which is quite robust, stands out. Professor Rivail is not mentioned, but much of what is discussed in The Book of Mediums appears in the conversations of episodes 2 to 5, especially the issue of fluids and the separation of physical and intelligent manifestations. All this mixed with concepts specific to those places, such as when the medium from Holland frames mediumship as a healing journey, or in teaching methods to connect with your disembodied loved one. But, in basic pillar terms of the Doctrine, relevant discrepancies cannot be attributed to what is shown.

Main motivation in the search for disincarnated beings: One thing that is evident in these four episodes is that mediumship is sought, in a primary way, by people looking for information about their disincarnated beings, remembering the motivation of Chico Xavier's psychographics meetings. There is no search for Spirits to study, understand the knowledge or understand the phenomenon, what life is like on the other side, except in the moments when those who are formally researchers appear. Mediumship is seen as a way of overcoming the phenomenon of death through contact with known disincarnated people, thereby seeking an encounter with oneself, in the search for peace.

Subjects little discussed in the Brazilian Spiritist movement: Psychographics is an illustrious absent, as well as passes and clairvoyance, and the issue of psychophonic and healing mediumship has little prominence. The themes of classic mediumship in Spiritism in Brazil are exchanged in the series for manifestations such as materialization, direct voice, apparitions and photos of Spiritists, very common on internet pages that deal with the so-called supernatural. It is interesting to bring these topics out of hand in the Spiritist literature, as it shows that there are gaps that deserve attention, and that the study is everyone's duty.

“I am from South America, I know, you will not know”: With a little ethnocentrism, many people wanted the NetFlix team to go to Brazil, to talk about our well-known mediums and Spiritism. The series was not about Spiritism, as an anthropological and religious phenomenon, but about a Best Seller book, bringing a vision focused on phenomena, as a personal quest to overcome death. It is not too much to remember that the association with a Doctrine recognized as religious would go in the opposite direction of what was intended in the series, despite the fact that the mediums school in Holland had a very religious trait in it. But, at this point, the series brought a reflection to us Spiritists, that we are not the exclusive owners of the mediumistic phenomenon, as Kardec himself claimed.

The series is interesting, and those who haven't watched it are missing out on a great opportunity for learning and reflection. It should be the object of studies and discussion in the mediumistic groups of the Spiritist houses. Understanding the phenomenon, its nuances, is essential for every medium on his journey with this faculty during his incarnation, and it is surprising to know that such intimate themes of Spiritism have space to be discussed in documentaries, but little in the tribunes and in recent Spiritist works.

Spiritism does not exist for us to waste our time trying to fit reality into it, like a package insert to classify things as doctrinal or not, in our craze for affixing a “Spiritist vision” to everything. Spiritism is a set of knowledge that allows us to interpret reality, and feeds on it. Faced with programs like these, or even with phenomena that appear in newspapers and on the internet, the Kardecian Spirit of curiosity and skepticism needs to invade our soul, to guide our learning and reflection, coming out of boxes in which we imprison ourselves, especially in relation to mediumship, an issue that still needs better treatment by the Spiritist groups.