José Raul Teixeira:

“Our biggest priority as spiritists should be to get to know all basic principles of the doctrine and have the courage to talk
about them”

Here it is, the final part of this interview:

O Consolador: Why are there fewer disobssesion sessions nowadays, which have benefited so many people, in the spiritist centres? 

There are lots of reasons why this is happening, but the main ones are spiritist centres it selves and the mediums who work in these institutions.  

We know that these meetings used to be a sacred moment at the spiritist centres. For a person to become part of them, he/she had to be a medium with strong inner moral values. These mediums would then have what we call moral authority, through inner reformation. Most of the mediums at that time were modest and dedicated a lot of their time to others, working continuously to deserve being in contact with the spiritual workers. 

A lot of people nowadays have difficulties to assume personal commitments with the mediumship group due to inner indiscipline with the spiritual work. It became common in some centres for mediums not to turn up for the weekly sessions, and/or arrive late due to their busy personal or professional life. As a consequence, these mediums don’t create strong bonds between them and the spiritual workers. 

In many spiritist centres we can’t see accurate criteria for the selection of the person in charge of the mediumship group. The person usually chosen has good intentions, but might lack the dynamism and/or the level of knowledge needed for this role. Sometimes they might not have a strong voice within the group, which is reached via moral authority and consistent work with its members. This person might not even demand the members’ presence on the studies and/or lectures held by the spiritist centre, which leads people to think they could only be present at the day of mediumship work. Doing so, these members show no consciousness regarding the need for continuous study, analysis, and inner reformation.  

Very few spiritist leaders are aware that not all mediums could be invited to participate on these sessions. It’s not because someone has a certain type of mediumship, they could be part of such serious and important group sessions. I recommend not inviting the following people to these mediumship sessions: smokers, alcoholics, drug users, or sex workers. We should also avoid colleagues who can’t avoid gossiping, as discretion is a must for this type of work. Colleagues who have deep-rooted emotional difficulties are not ideal as they might also not be prepared for this job.  

It’s really sad to see mediums who are working on the same group sessions not talking to each other, or even fighting. It seems to me these are not ‘disobssesion sessions’ but turning into ‘obsession sessions’! One of the main causes for this is down to us, mediums. We are incapable of being more disciplined; desire to do what comes first into our minds or even decide to move away from the group, due to our own lack of knowledge and maturity. We might end up becoming an instrument of spirits who want us to waist our time and reincarnation; developing fascination or mystification in each of us.  

We can change this by working towards continuous study, fraternal behaviour, and helping those in need around us. Let us aim to get back to having group sessions considered to be a sacred moment at the spiritist centres. 

O Consolador: What should be the spiritist leaders’ attitude towards mediumship books that are available in the market but are not very reliable? Do you think Kardec at his time would have left it as it is; or complained about it?  

I believe that we are going through a difficult period in the planet. As Kardec said in Genesis, the Spiritist movement is being constantly tested: either by individuals who are looking for a lucrative means of earning money or by disincarnated entities who are against all efforts made by the spiritual world, who never gave up on spreading Jesus’ teachings in the world.   

As soon as spiritist leaders become more aware of the basic principles of the doctrine, they will understand it’s not worth going public with a workmanship just because it has a title that is related to Spiritism or mediumship, and we can profit from it. First, not all mediumship work is related to Spiritism, since mediumship is available to everyone. Second, the criteria used to select and publish all Spiritist texts should be extremely careful and rigorous. If someone wants to publish and commercialise unreliable material, this person will face the consequences of the impact these materials will have on those who read them. 

Regarding Allan Kardec, I am sure he wouldn’t accept such level of passiveness towards these workmanships. There are lots of spiritist leaders who don’t have the courage to confront the status quo of these workmanships, either not to get annoyed or involved with it; or because they lack critical sense and/or knowledge to see elements that are against the doctrine on these books.   

At the Spiritist magazine published by Kardec on May 1863, he examined several mediumship communications that were sent to him. He said when these communications were analyzed, the testimony of the ignorance and the lack of serious observation of the facts were encountered in most of them. Due to this fact, it would be difficult to publish them. This proves to me Kardec very carefully verified all texts. I have seen lots of so called mediumship books mentioning ideas that are against Spiritism from a doctrinal and practical perspective. 

Let’s have a look at what Kardec wrote on that text: everything that is to be delivered to the public demands careful review. Unfortunately, we are inclined to assume that everything that pleases us must please everyone else. There are many spirits who enjoy mystifying mediums. This is one of the reasons it’s best not to work on your own, but to work in groups: multiple opinions would be heard and the most assertive ones would be chosen. If one person refuses what the majority accepted as the real truth, this individual might be under an obsessing influence or dealing with a mystifying Spirit. 

Allan Kardec also stated that, from 3.600 mediumship communications, 3.000 were impeccable. Therefore, 300 could be published and only 100 there were no doubts about the quality of them. From here it can be seen how extremely careful and picky we need to be in terms of the materials chosen to be published as they will have a massive impact on the public.  

We all understand Kardec would not silence about it. Let’s not keep it quiet if we doubt the quality of mediumship books. We need to be more committed to the Spiritist doctrine.   

O Consolador: In the USA and Europe most of the spiritist centres are founded and maintained by Brazilians, whose audience is made of Brazilians as well; very few groups managed to reach locals natives from these countries. What shall we do in order to change this reality?  

We shouldn’t believe that Brazilians living abroad are in any sort of ‘Messianic Mission’. It’s important to be humble and keep this in mind. If we want to work together with the Spiritual world, let’s not feel too proud when comparing ourselves to other countries and/or cultures. We need to realise that in these countries where many Brazilians are living there are already one or more existing cultures. We can’t expect to arrive at any of these countries and impose ideas, just like the Portuguese have done in Brazil. They built altars and celebrated the first mess against the habits and beliefs of the local population. 

It is clear to me that many Brazilians who were spiritists in Brazil decided to start study groups abroad in their own homes as they missed the spiritist activities that happen in their home country. They usually meet other compatriots in these groups, who also wish to get to know Brazilian people as they feel very isolated in a foreign country.  

I believe the main objective of our fellow compatriots should be to live to the basic principles of the doctrine wherever they are. Locals in their native countries should see us Brazilians as people with different habits, but with very balanced, respectful, harmonic and correct behaviour. This would no doubt make a good impression on others and intrigue them to find out more about the way Brazilians live.  They would definitely try to find out how our compatriots live in a foreign country. 

One of the main issues found is the language barrier. If you want to establish a strong relationship and be able to maintain an explanatory dialog in a local language, you need to communicate well. Another issue is the legal situation of a high number of Brazilians living abroad, who do not have full rights to be living in these countries. How do you expect to become a ‘missionary’, if you are living illegally in a foreign country?  

We have other elements to consider. Lots of spiritists outside Brazil didn’t use to be spiritists when living in Brazil. They got to know Spiritism when they went abroad. They might lack knowledge of how to manage a spiritist centre, a mediumship session, or a study group. They start listening and copying information received from other people who might not be able to orientate them well. That’s why we can see spiritist centres abroad not following the rules of the Brazilian Spiritist Federations.   

Our Brazilians compatriots who are living abroad need to improve their knowledge about what is Spiritism. They need to seriously study all basic principles of the doctrine and avoid copying the way we work in Brazil. A closer attention needs to be paid to the culture of the country they are based at. 

It’s common to find spiritist centres outside Brazil which were named after spiritual guides only known in Brazil. As much as we respect and love them, these names don’t represent anything for the country they are based at. It’s important to look for names that could relate to the country we are at, so we can instigate sympathy and support among the public. How many noble spiritists, researchers or spiritualists we know in Germany or in the USA?  Some of the names that come into my mind in Spain are: Amália Domingo y Soler, José Fernandez Colavida (who is known as the ‘Spanish Kardec’), Francisco Ballester Galés, and Angel Aguarod. In France we can find names such as Léon Denis, Gabriel Delanne, Alexandre Delanne, Albert De Rochas, Paul Leymarie, Camille Flammarion, Jean Meyer; in Italy Eusápia Paladino, Ernesto Bozzano, César Lombroso; or in England Arthur Conan Doyle, Alfred Russel Wallace, Stainton Moses, William Crookes, and Florence Cook. 

I also remember some very important names in Germany such as Johann Fredrich Zöllner, Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Weber; in America Henry Slade, Cora Scott Hatch, Edgard Cayce, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Horace Hambling, Frank Carpenter, Charles Schockle, and Joseph Banks Rhine. I am sure there are many other mediums, researchers, or writers in several countries who would be worth mentioning. 

I believe these Brazilian communities abroad are learning to live in foreign countries, adapting themselves, learning the local cultures and trying to develop studies in local languages as well. I also believe they will instigate sympathy and support among those who would like to find out more about Spiritism, as time goes by. For now, these spiritist centres abroad need to pay attention to Spiritism and the reality around them: their duty is to study, work, serve and, as the Italian leader Chiara Lubich would say, learn to flourish where God placed us… 

O Consolador: There are not many spiritist centres affiliated to its State Federations. What should be done in order to minimise this issue? 

My understanding is that the Brazilian spiritist centres are not obliged to become a member of State Federations. Their decision is based purely on the level of relationship established between both parties. There might be cases where the spiritist centre requires to be affiliated to the State Federation; the centre might want to be closely connected to the teachings of the spiritist doctrine.  

I believe the centres benefit from becoming affiliated to the State Federations. They could establish a strong Spiritist movement, spreading Spiritism within society; get access to more funds and people since they will get to know other institutions; exchange experience and knowledge. The spiritist centres and the State Federations should get closer and build up a fraternal relationship, which will allow them to create a strong bond.   

O Consolador: Should we understand that the Spiritist Movement is responsible for building and maintaining hospitals, nurseries and asylums?  

No, the Spiritist movement is not responsible for that. What we all do is on our own interest not only because we are helping someone, but also because we put into practice some of the aspects learned within Spiritism. 

We, as spiritists, shouldn’t think we are responsible for building and maintaining hospitals, nurseries and asylums. The Government is responsible since society pays a lot of taxes for it. Therefore, it’s our duty to help those around us who are in need as we might be closer to them than the Government itself. Giving food to those in hunger, visiting patients and prisoners are teachings we learned from Jesus. 

What we shouldn’t do is create buildings and spend all our time and concerns around it. We should not just focus our time raising funds. Unfortunately, a lot of people end up organizing charity bingos, lunches, or dinner parties but forget to study, or help those in need around them. We should keep working constantly on our own inner reformation. 

We shouldn’t be complaining about luck, the Government or the indifference of the world. Let’s work according to our capabilities and be loyal servers of the Immortal life.  

O Consolador: One aspect to be discussed is the education given to children. We are faced with virtual communication which brought to parents and teachers a complex reality to deal with. This also had an impact on the spiritist movement, which used to be much more dedicated on spiritist education for children and youth. We can see a lot of spiritist leaders are not very interested in this area. How should we tackle this issue?  

We all have and follow in our whole life scales of value, which indicate what we consider to be most important and what has less value. Education could be more important than anything for one person; whereas for another financial resources would be on top of the scale.  

If an individual believes financial resources and a busy social life are more important than their children’s spiritist education, these parents will be faced with the consequences of their beliefs.  They will be faced with issues raised either via the media, or via their children’s friends. 

We constantly see violence, worldwide economic and social issues…  Therefore, we can still see some colleagues, who have different beliefs from ours, going to their churches together, singing and getting on with their lives. Why can’t we, spiritists, educate our children according to Spiritism and help them become good people, with good intentions? There must be something wrong. For sure there is nothing wrong with Spiritism, but with our scales of value. 

We also need to review in detail this issue within the spiritist centres and the spiritist education for children and youth. A careful analysis needs to be done in terms of the quality of the classes, for example, in times where virtual communication is available via internet, blogs, Facebook, etc... We can’t just expect to get the same result with classes that are based around Storytelling or using chalkboards. We are aware that not all spiritist centres have resources available to offer the children the best pedagogical material available. We need to invest on the best qualification possible for our teachers so they can reach the children, gain their trust and sympathy, to keep their attention within class.  

When I look it from a different perspective, I can see why children don’t like to go to the spiritist centres. They can see that their parents not going there or carrying out their own inner reformation. Parents must realise they need to set up a good example for their children.  

O Consolador: We consider Spiritism as a religion that requires education and reincarnation as a process carried by the spirit in order to improve itself. Don’t you think an important activity, such as spiritist education for children and youth, lack support from the spiritist centres?  Why isn’t there a bigger push from the Spirits in order to clarify this department’s importance, and give it a better foundation and support?  

Yes, it’s difficult to find support from the spiritist leaders for spiritist education for children and youth. It’s important to remember each individual has different scales of value.  It’s based on their beliefs they will handle their institutions and/or departments, and establish what we call the mission of the institution. 

While the spiritist’s objectives are not in line with Spiritism objectives, these departments won’t develop as well as they should. I have noticed a lot of leaders give a greater value to the mediumship sessions or to social economic activities involving the poor. They possibly can’t see why there is a need to orientate children, who happen to be just restarting their experiences in the planet. 

However, people don’t realise that many of the spirits who are helped via mediumship meetings or public meetings at the spiritist centre lacked spiritual education and orientation. That’s why we mustn’t forget about our children and youth. We can’t just leave them without guidance of the doctrine of Jesus through the Spiritist perspective. It seems non-sense to me not to value this department.  

As far as the spirits are concerned, they can’t try harder than they already have tried to reach us, incarnated souls. The spirit Stephen, who was the spiritual guide of the medium Júlio Cezar Grandi Ribeiro wrote a phrase years ago that the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB) adopted as a slogan for Spiritist Education campaigns: Children and Youth require orientation to become good people, with good intentions. Teach, cooperate with Jesus. We have received a high number of instructions from the spiritual world emphasising the need to educate children and youth, either via texts from Emmanuel, Joanna de Ângelis, Stephen and many others. It’s down to the spiritists to pay a detailed attention to these messages, reflect about them and put them into practice.  

O Consolador: A recent research done by an important Brazilian magazine raised a very sad issue. Most of youth spiritists approve abortion and death penalty. How do you see this topic? What is lacking for our youth to assimilate the spiritist principles, which clearly are against abortion and death penalty?  

I think it’s normal for youth spiritist centre attendees to have this type of opinion. They have been discussing this issue at schools, universities, with friends, but not at the spiritist centres. We can see that a lot of the youth spiritists are full of energy, enthusiasm and open to talk to at the centres. Therefore, youth teachers avoid talking about these issues due to lack of knowledge of the basic principles of the doctrine. That’s why we find lots of groups, who are being trained to sing, play instruments or get involved with theatre lessons but lack a deeper understanding of the spiritist principles. 

Everything we used to dislike in other religions in happening with Spiritism. We used to complain about individuals who wouldn’t apply religious teachings to orientate their lives; or even have access to information through religion about death and their role as eternal spirits in life with need for instruction and love. We have seen this happen nowadays with Spiritism.  

The younger generation is facing difficulties involving drugs, sex, and/or violence, and having a futile life. They carry difficulties from past lives and reincarnate around Spiritists so they could be guided accordingly, with better moral teachings. You can see lots of youth lost at night clubs, tattooed and pierced, taking no good care of themselves.  

The spirit Emmanuel wrote through Chico Xavier on chapter 151 of his book The Pathway, The Truth and Life: let’s not forget that youth hood is the period in which the individual needs much more direction and guidance that on others. Why can’t we dialog with youth people anymore? What is going on through the parents, teachers, spiritual leaders’ minds? These are spiritual commitments that we need to consider. We urgently need to study and reflect on this, in order to understand reasons for our life in earth. Let’s not waist such indispensable opportunities!  

Emmanuel says that a young person can and will be able to do a lot if the experienced aged spirit doesn’t abandon the work. Nothing new will rise if no efforts preceded it. Everything relies on what has been done previously. 

O Consolador: How could spiritist leaders help youth hood in channeling their energy and youth vigor into the construction of a new world?  

First of all, we need to create a fraternal and pleasant environment at the spiritist centre in order to attract them.  We don’t need to build a swimming pool or a court yard there but a place where they can express themselves, question, give their opinion, present their problems without feeling awkward about what the others might think.  Second of all, we need to engage them into the activities held within the centre. These activities should always be in accordance with their own level, which could mean the older ones getting to know and helping the younger ones within the institution.  

The young generation won’t engage in a centre where there is nothing to be done, or where he/she just needs to be there to listen to people who supposedly know more than them. They are much more dynamic, and are usually willing to participate actively and cooperate. There might be more complicated cases but most of them would like to get involved. We should also invite them to visit nurseries, hospitals and asylums. These visits will engage them with helping those in need; let alone touch their soul on those early years of life.   

It’s so nice to see a healthy relationship between older and younger workers at a spiritist centre since some need the strength and help of the younger ones; whereas they need the knowledge and experience from the older ones. If this happens with friendship and respect, a great conquest is achieved for freedom, ethical experience and work with Jesus.  

O Consolador: One of the biggest concerns we are faced is the course of the spiritist movement. Due to its quantitative growth, there have been serious distortions on the way. It’s very interesting to see that a growing interest on the genuine spreading of Spiritism. Are we living in the middle of a paradox? Or are these the ways of maturing the human mentality, or the spiritist movement?  

It’s historically proofed that when a movement becomes massive, it ends up loosing in quality. This happened with Buddhism, Christianity and it won’t be any different with Spiritism. I can see a very worrying issue within our movement, which is the lack of commitment of a lot of colleagues who are ahead of the spiritist activities. If these leaders, coordinators, presidents, etc. felt more passion for Spiritism, the movement wouldn’t loose its quality. They need to realize we are the ones who grow when place the Spiritist Doctrine on a higher level. 

Spiritist centres need to be managed by individuals who know in detail the basic principles of the doctrine, and apply them into their life. They also need to pay respect to audience, who come to the centre eager to learn and/or in need of some sort of help. It’s indispensable for them to understand what the spirit Bezerra de Menezes wrote through Chico Xavier: the spiritist centre is an educational establishment for the popular minds. It has a very important mission of educating the human mind, orientation the human spirit so that he can follow the path chosen for this reincarnation.  

In the meantime, we can’t avoid the spiritist movement getting involved with individuals who don’t really care about our good cause; the development of Jesus’ message through the world. 

Even if we notice loss of quality, as our movement grows on the number of people, those who rank the genuine spread of Spiritism should keep it going. Each of us will be asked what we have done with the talents of the Doctrine, based on the orientation giving by Jesus to the disciples (Lc. 16,2). The person responsible for managing of a man’s wealth was accused of robbery. He was called by his boss and asked: What am I hearing about you? Please show me how you are administrating my wealth… We will all need to give account of what we have done with this treasure: the Spiritist Doctrine.  

O Consolador: How do you see the Brazilian Spiritist movement? Is it advancing as it should or is it below the expectations? E mais: considerando os problemas que a sociedade terrena está enfrentando, qual deve ser a prioridade máxima dos que dirigem o movimento espírita, aqui e no exterior?  

Our Brazilian Spiritist movement has been growing in proportion with its leaderships. The more knowledgable, dynamic and polished, our moviment becomes the more it will grow. 

Our biggest priority as spiritists should be to get to know all basic principles of the doctrine and have the courage to talk about them on a day-to-day basis.