Loss and suspension of medianimity

We present in this issue the topic #112 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions

1. Can the medium lose medianimity?

2. What are the causes that lead spirits to abandon a medium?

3. Does Spiritism approve the use of mediums who guess people’s future which is very common in Brazil?

4. When the medianimity is interrupted by the medium’s spirit-protector, which intentions does the spirit-protector have?

5. Can we apply the parable of the talents to medianimity?

Text

Without the guidance of the spirits, the medium is nothing 

1. Medianimity can be lost and suspended, in the majority of the cases, temporarily; not mattering the type of medianimity. This is because the process occurs only with the help of the spirits. Without them, the medium cannot do anything. The medium still has the faculty, but the spirits choose to not use that particular medium, maybe because they can’t or because they don’t want to.

2. Knowing that medianimity is a faculty that God offers to men for their moral transformation and spiritual progress, the spirits can abandon a medium for several reasons:  

I. When the medium uses medianimity toa achieve superficial and ambitious goals;

II. When the medium doesn’t follow the advices and guidance given by the spirits;

III. When the interruption of medianimity happens because of the kindness of the spirit-protector towards the medium;

Medianimity with Jesus transforms men morally

3. By superficial things as mentioned above, we mean the use of medianimity to guess people’s future, which unfortunately is largely used by people. In the future, the persons who use this kind of medianimity will regret especially when they have to give explanations about their wasted talents.  

4. The called “professional mediums” do not mind receiving money, presents, favours or privileges in exchange for the use of their faculty for emotional dependency.

5. It’s always useful to remember these mediums of the words from Manoel Philomeno de Miranda (spirit): “...the medium who gets used to negotiations of medianimity and superficial goals, unbalance themselves. (...) Medianimity with Jesus set men free, transforms morally men for the best, while medianimity with the material world unbalance, tie up and make the person obsessed.”  

6. The spirit-protectors always give us good advices, suggesting good thoughts or supporting us through the difficult times. However, they never disrespect anyone’s free will.  

Medianimity is like one of the talents from the parable 

7. The spirit-protectors abandon the medium when they see that their advice is ignored and that their wards prefers to listen to morally inferior spirits than listen to them. They never completely abandon their wards and they always try to make themselves heard. It’s men then who choose to not listen to them because the spirit-protectors always come when called.

8. When medianimity is interrupted because of the kindness from the spirit-protector, three are the goals to be achieved. First is when the spiritual friend wants to prove that the communication doesn’t happen because of the medium only. And that’s why the medium shouldn’t feel special or better than anyone else. The second goal is when the medium is physically very drained and needs rest. The third goal is to test the patience and perseverance of the medium or give the medium time to reflect about the instructions given.

9. In situations like that, the medium should resign himself/herself and pray a lot to restart the use of medianimity.

10. Emmanuel teach us that the medianimity is a faculty like the talent from the parable of the talents. If this faculty is used to achieve the wrong goals, the bad person becomes untrustful to God. If used to achieve the right goals, this faculty will multiply blessings. But if this faculty suffers the influence of pride, selfishness, vanity and is used for the bad, it can make the medium suffers the consequences of their own actions. These mediums would be adding up debits in their personal accounts when the use of their medianimity is bad.

Answer Key