The speculations about reincarnation at the Spiritist Movement: examining the possibility of being Chico Xavier Allan Kardec

(Second and final part)

Emmanuel, Chico Xavier’s spiritual mentor, presents only one message in the whole of the work of codification – in The Gospel according to Spiritism. This would not be much for the supposed spiritual mentor of Allan Kardec, if one assumes that it is to do with the same Spirit which animated both Chico Xavier and the Codifier of Spiritism (Allan Kardec).

Chico Xavier, was, probably, the main medium of history, as much if we analyse his mediumistic versatility as if we analyse the works originated from this potentiality. It is worth remembering Emmanuel in the book “Guide”, when he peremptorily affirms: “There is not a good medium without a good man”. Well, according to Bezarra de Menezes, in accordance with the exceptional work of Yvonne A. Pereira “Recollections of Mediumship”, the mediums more ostensive and prepared for the most important tasks in the spirituality field are normally those who manifest such aptitude since early childhood, as they were already prepared for such a task. Such observation suggests that Chico Xavier would already be “trained” in his mediumship, above all, his psychography, in previous stages. In fact, a famous medium like Chico Xavier could not have been improvised by the spirituality. As Allan  Kardec was not properly an ostensive medium; could it be that he developed all his preparation to act as an ostensive medium whilst in spiritual plane, without an effective test during an existence in carnal life where he would act in this very important task for almost a century!?

Many will argue that the Codifier would have had the ability for a change of task of such magnitude, but, anyway, the drastic alteration in the works developed during the two incarnations is something somewhat surprising. In “Posthumous Works”, the spiritual mentors explain to Allan Kardec, in the message entitled “My Successor”, that the successor of the Codifier – who for Professor Herculano Pires is Léon Denis – has different aptitudes from Allan Kardec’s, because the two missions would be quite different in relation to the requirements of spiritual skills.

In “Action and Reaction”, Silas says that the so called “sexual inversion” occurs due to motives of
atonement or mission

Some spiritist comrades, such as Arnaldo Rocha, affirm that Chico Xavier had confided in him that  he had been the medium Ruth Celine Japhet in his last incarnation. If we make a more in-depth analysis of this proposal, we could say that, a priori, such possibility – due to the type of tasks- could be more plausible because Ruth Celine Japhet was a great psychographic medium, having been responsible for the final revision of the text of the first edition of “The Spirits’ Book”, which in its initial structure had been obtained through the mediumship of the famous daughter of Mr. Baudin; Julie and Caroline Baudin. Well, only an instrument which was of higher mediumistic trust could develop a task of great responsibility – to define the final text of the first edition of “The Spirits’ Book”, published in 18^th April 1857. Evidently Chico Xavier could perfectly well have been this mediumistic instrument in a previous incarnation. Anyway, more profound discussions in respect of this possibility are limited due to our very little biographic information about Ruth Celine Japhet.

The above discussion indirectly induces us to a second analysis focused on the gender used by Chico in previous incarnations. Chico said that his present incarnation was  his first incarnation in male morphology in various experiences. Obviously, Chico could have used such artifice to outwit the “researchers” on call, however within this complex puzzle it is something worth mentioning. In “Action and Reaction”, the assistant Silas says that the so called “sexual inversion” occurs for several reasons such as atonement or great mission, which could clearly be the case of Chico Xavier.

Ultimately, apparently, the personalities of Chico Xavier and Allan Kardec would be significantly different, which could be due to the influence of the environment and to the specifics of respective tasks, but, perhaps,  the different peculiarities of each one are overly representative to consider them the same Spirit.

The defence of the proposal carried out to exhaustion, either by the Spirits, or by the mediums of these communications, make us perplexed.

Admitting, once more, that Chico Xavier and Allan Kardec are incarnations of the same Spirit, why has this information suddenly became a point of honour by the advoctaes of this thesis? Why only after Chico Xavier’s death, when he himself could not support or confirm this hypothesis, have the advocates of this thesis started to publicly manifest in such a feverous manner to defend such an idea? Why fight so passionately for this proposition?

The defence of the proposal carried out to exhaustion, either by the Spirits or by the mediums of these communications, makes us perplexed!! Why is this so important? This theme comes to the fore in various books by different spiritual authors! Well, such a hypothesis could be suggested in one or two works and submitted, as with everything that comes from the spiritual world, to the analysis of spiritists than, with the passing of time, a judicious exam could be seriously carried out, in accordance with what Allan Kardec teaches us.

Besides the eventual fascination, we should not neglect the possibility of significant animistic manifestation, as well as a process of self obsessive character. Indeed, we do not know the difference of opinion of the medium and of the Spirits, in function of both exasperatedly defending and similarly the same idea by all available means of disclosure.

In a lecture called "Meeting with Leaders", Divaldo Franco says that once Joanna of Angelis recommended to him not to try to defend the spiritual authors who manifested themselves through him, Divaldo, including herself, Joanna de Angelis.

In truth such emotional involvement, reaching passionate levels, can influence "mediumistic filtration", facilitating animistic manifestation. Which proposal is originated from the medium’s mind and which idea arose from the mind of the Spirit?

It is interesting to note that, despite the fact that mediums live and work in beautiful tuning in with their spiritual protectors, Chico, Yvonne and Divaldo have always enabled us to recognise the difference between their personalities and that of the Spirits who have manifested or manifest themselves by their respective faculties.

In the written work entitled "The Celtic Genius and the invisible world" 13 messages assigned to Kardec were published when Chico had already been born

In this study, it is worth  mentioning recently published works which have been attributed to Chico Xavier/Spirit in which the spiritual author suggests being Allan Kardec. However, Chico Xavier always maintained a deep discretion as to the true identity of André Luiz so much so that until today it has been debated about who this Spirit would really be. For this reason, why would he encourage a discussion, after his passing away, based on the idea of Chico Xavier himself being Allan Kardec? If it were to be registered, wouldn't it be more convenient to communicate such information while incarnated therefore whether one agrees or not, we would know for sure that he was the bearer of this news?

In the work “Celtic Genius and the invisible world" by Léon Denis (1926), the last book published by the Apostle of Spiritism, 13 messages assigned to Allan Kardec are published in the final part of the book. Wouldn't it be interesting to interrogate Chico Xavier/Spirit about the mechanism by which such messages were obtained, once the premise is assumed that Chico and Kardec are the same Spirit?! The reason for the question is that Chico Xavier was born in 1910 and at the time of reception of these messages he was a teenager. Would he have bi-located and taken the personality of Kardec? Would it have been a conscious or unconscious phenomenon? Since when did he know he was Kardec? Or would he have left, before reincarnating, messages to another Spirit in order that it would "bring" them to Earth's crust at the appropriate time? Obviously, it wouldn't be impossible, but would be something unusual at the very least. Considering such a possibility, it would be a very interesting question to be submitted to Chico Xavier/Spirit (assuming that he would be communicating through mediumship) aiming at our philosophic deepening regarding mediumship and spiritual action.

On the same line of reasoning, we ought to consider the message of Allan Kardec psychographed at the National Federative Council meeting during the change of address of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation headquarters to Brasília. The medium was Julius Caesar Grandi Ribeiro.

The work entitled "Chico Xavier Answers", for example, Chico Xavier/Spirit admits the possibility of embryos with serious problems such as anencephaly being aborted. Such an attitude is a position strictly contrary to the spiritist doctrine. Only as an illustration, it is worth remembering that in the book "Action and Reaction," psychographed by Chico Xavier, the assistant Silas is radically opposed to abortion, classifying such act simply as "crime".

Would Chico Xavier be going into a contradiction with his mediumistic written work?! Could such a comment be coming from a figure as loving as Chico, who always fought against abortion?!

The answers attributed to Chico Xavier on "Chico Xavier Answers" do not correspond to the intellectual
acuity of Chico Xavier

Analyzing other issues of the written work, it is clear that the answers attributed to Chico Xavier don't really correspond to the levels of acuity and intellectual depth of Chico Xavier and Allan Kardec. It is worth stressing that from neither of these two, independent of the "possibility" of such personalities being the same spirit. If they were the same spirit, this is probably not the Spirit that answered the questions in the above mentioned work. The ability for work and the Herculean intensity of hours applied into useful tasks constitute some of the most impressive peculiarities of Chico Xavier.  However, it is perfectly permissible that he could visit a friend medium with merely affectionate objectives whilst maintaining a simple dialogue with him, as this kind of attitude is inserted within the context of charity, which has always been practiced extensively by Chico Xavier.  On the other hand, it is difficult to conceive Chico Xavier maintaining a dialogue somewhat superficial and extensive with the objective of filling up the respective content of a book.

It is also worth remembering that Chico, Divaldo and Raul burned bags of psychographic messages as well as remembering that Yvonne Pereira herself did not publish everything that she psychographed.  Assuming that the process of contact mediumistic process is legitimate and that the Spirit in question is really Chico Xavier, should this text be published? Finally, the text "Chico Xavier Answers" suggests that all or at least the vast majority of so-called mediumistic phenomena have animistic predominance, undermining the credibility of the mediumistic works of Spiritism. Divaldo Franco himself says that well-developed mediums working on task of elaboration of didactic contents for the Spiritist movement present a diminished participation in its animistic contribution in relation to the mediumistic phenomenon. The predominance of animism can be common for the majority of mediums in general, but not for mediums that have tasks of amplification of our truly doctrinal sources such as Chico Xavier, Divaldo Pereira Franco, Yvonne Pereira, amongst others.

"It is preferable to reject ten truths than to accept a single lie", Erastus teaches us in "The book of Mediums", because sooner or later the truth is established definitively and a lie can generate correlations and mistaken conclusions about other matters.

We ought to reflect upon and sincerely and humbly seek the Truth.