Lilies of Hope

The books psychographed by Wanderley Soares de Oliveira seem to share a common origin with those by Carlos Antonio Baccelli. In his works the Spirit who calls himself Ermance Dufaux seems to live along with other Spirits who, like him, seek, by all means, to reduce the value of the spiritist work and of the Spiritist Movement, notably the Unification.

In the pages of his works the same irreverent, mocking, rude in his expressions "Dr. Inacio" appears. There is an abuse of the name of Maria Modesto Cravo, both in this work as in that one titled "Mereca Ser Feliz (Deserve to Be Happy)," whose analysis has long been available to whoever wants to read it. In that work, it is stated that the director of Esperanca (Hope) Hospital is Euripides Barsanulfo. In his works, however, "Dr Inacio" says that he is the director, and even complains of the task: "(...) large hospital, whose management in the Beyond, was under my responsibility (I do not know when I'll get rid of this karma!)" {Na Proxima Dimensao (In the next dimension), pg.12}   

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In the work now under review – Lirios da Esperanca (Lilies of Hope), through the mediumship of Wanderley S. de Oliveira and spiritual authorship attributed to the Spirit Ermance Dufaux - the quoted passages were copied verbatim in bold, including the many grammatical flaws.⁽¹⁾

Mrs Modesta, after a wholehearted prayer, gave notice to all through her mediumship that the Truth Team watched over our meeting. (32)

Which Truth Team would that be? The one who spoke with Kardec in the preparation of "Spirits' Book"? Were those Superior Spirits and Euripides acting in the same circlewhere all those misfortunes verbalized by Dr Inacio were processed? And would this "Mrs Modesta" be that one who so rudely and mockingly attacked the Spiritists at the end of the book "Mereca ser Feliz (Deserve to Be Happy)? Moreover, would an environment in where a scoffing, irreverent, aggressive, boastful, mocking Spirit like the one that presents himself as "Dr Inacio Ferreira" worked be worthy to receive the visit of Mary, mother of Jesus, as reported on pp.40/41?

- Modesta, you know how long I have planned to take to the physical plane frank and fearless news about the situation of the Spiritists in this house. I would love to scare a lot of people... (43)

Would such an assertion be compatible with the superiority and seriousness of the abovementioned Spirits? It is such a tremendous effort made by the Darkness, through the mouth of this and other spirits, seeking to disparage the commitment of the Spiritists in order to improve them. According to him, most Spiritists get there suffering great disturbance.

I'm sure, Inacio, that your connection with the medium from Uberaba will be the right channel for more "direct" messages. That will be the way to go.(46)

By that, one can see that "Ermance Dufaux," "Dr. Inacio Ferreira" and "Maria Modesto Cravo" are the names that or those hexing spirits use, both through the mediumship of Antonio Carlos Baccelli and Wanderley de Oliveira Soares.

However, my dear reader will have time enough to find out that the vast material on immortal life devised for mankind by Andre Luiz, stands for a tiny grain of sand on the endless seashore of the spiritual truths. (60)

It shows us, in a speech attributed to Cicero Pereira, an attempt to diminish the value of André  Luiz's work, hinting that they would be the completers.

That is the reason to rip the veil and disclose to our fellows of cause the spiritual world devoid of untruths fed by the obsession of ignorance and prejudice that they still bear. It is necessary to bring them the message that life planes right after death are not as different as you think, in which the effects of our actions extend naturally and clearly in a regime of continuity. (62)

The above was directed to a disembodied spiritist leader, who devoted himself more than forty years to work on Earth in an attempt to show him that what he had learned so far about the spiritual world was full of untruths. Who has revealed the Spirit World to us with details? One can see, again, an attempt to diminish Andre Luiz's work.

I believed that death would spare me from that bad mood of some cocky Spiritists. Sometimes I wonder if it was a big illusion having been a spiritist. (65)

Here is another message of discredit to Spiritism.

Dear friend, let me tell you the truth about the Truth: the Spiritists are ill with arrogance to imagine that they know everything about the spiritual life.(85)

"Dr Inacio "did not say where he got this "truth" from, but the denigrating message remains...

Unfortunately, the Spiritist Movement is beset by an epidemic crisis. (108)

Again, here is another phrase of contempt towards the Spiritist Movement.

Just today I visited Earth three times. I do not complain about anything, but if I had my cigarette back, I think that I would work fifteen hours without complaining ... (128)

Is that the attitude of a spirit who claims to work with Euripides Barsanulfo? In which Spiritual circle does a spirit who speaks without any reservations about his old smoking habit work and about his bad moods? Is that at all compatible with the attitude a director of a spiritual clinic should have?

- There was another, one of those "encyclopaedist spiritist" who had read everything about the doctrine, who even mocked me the other day. I was going through a corridor already tired, more ill-humoured than usual, after nearly twenty hours of work, and do you know what he told me?

- What?

- Dr Inacio, what's eating you? It even seems that you're tired?! Superior spirits do not get tired, okay? Learn to use your mind!

- And you?

- I gave him tit for tat. I told him I was not tired, I only regretted having died. I should have stayed on earth for a thousand years so wouldn't have to come across any devout anymore. At the spiritist mental institution of Uberaba, at least, I was safe. I was not forced to deal with the intrigues and gossips of a doctrinal movement!

- And what did he say...

- He still asked me if I had something bothering me.

- And you, naturally ...  Mrs Modesta mocked.

- Naturally, I kept silent, because if he had spoken at that time, it would have been a disaster! (128/129)

As you read through the book, you start realizing that this is the same "Dr. Inacio "that presents himself through the medium Baccelli. The outburst, the mistakes and bad language are the same. Just compare them. Even "Mrs Modesta" contributes with debauchery...

The exercise of mediumship is going through a serious process set off a few of decades ago, which led to the break with spontaneity. With the excuse ofincluding extra care, which was needed - a fact which no one can deny - very strict rules and standards were created. The mediumistic exercise needs to be reframed. (149)

What does this process set off a few decades ago mean? By whom? Does he criticize the strict standards established on "The Mediums' Book," in André Luiz’s and other serious writers’? Would it now be re-established (sic) by "Dr Inacio" and "Mrs Modesta" through this discourse that is meant to be humorous?

- Patients housed here in this sector...

- They are leaders of the unification. With rare exceptions, the friends of unification that arrive here are exhausted by the weight of grief. Their stories, like my own, almost always are aggravated by anguish, when they find out they are not as essential as they thought to the offices of Jesus. (228)    

Now he attacks not only the Spiritists in general, but particularly those who work for the unification of Spiritism.

- Where do we come from? "Where are we going to?" What are we doing on Earth? These are famous questions that deserve to be reconsidered in their subtleties. What do the reincarnated Spiritists know about them but some peripheral information? Which fellow worker is sufficiently instructed on the spiritual roots as of his return to the flesh? Where do they stem from? With what sort of program? What was their real moral and mental condition before the return? Which previous causes led them to go through this or that state in the spiritual world? (170)

These words, attributed to Cicero Pereira, clearly incite the reader to investigate his past, which flatly opposes to what Kardec teaches in "The Gospel according to Spiritism," chap. V, item 11: "If God considered it convenient to cast a veil over the past it is because it is to our advantage that this be so."

What kind of information do the friends enrolled in the ranks of the doctrine have about the future that awaits them in the afterworld? Which cogitationsor probabilities can they surmise about their arrival in the immortal life? Which bonds do they maintain with the spiritual world? Who are their guides, their familial spirits, their affinities and their opponents? (170)

Tricky questions designed to confuse the reader, for those who study and follow the Spiritist teachings know exactly what awaits them in the afterworld. They know the ties that they keep with the world of the spirits. They do not need to know the identity of the protecting spirits. They are certain that, if they are in the path of good, they have nothing to fear, for the benefactors will protect them.

It clearly denotes the guiding towards diversion from the mediumistic activity - which is mainly the evangelization of disembodied spirits - a program for consultation of the past and predictions of the future, so much in the taste of tipsters and frivolous spirits through mediums uncommitted to the truth. The remainder of the chapter is the same blabbering combatting the serious leaders and mediums.

- I myself, when I disincarnated, joined a similar group in the spirit world. I was missing the unification ambience! The spiritist movement with all theirquarrels! (229)

- It looks like there is a collective illusion in the field regarding the figures of Spiritism! I could not (sic) imagine him in that condition.

- No doubt about it, Marcondes. For your consideration, I will give you what I have learned about it. The figures of Spiritism whose services deservedhonourable biographies were not always in Christ's service. (...)

You will find that even here some unforgettable bastions of the cause, creditors of tributes and biographies, carved by the doctrinal movement on earth, are atrociously suffering in the most troubled caves of pain... (230/231)

Throughout the work, there is always the repetitive discourse attacking the Spiritist Movement, the Unification and even the Spiritists themselves. No word of appreciation, encouragement...   

- Kardec made Spiritism possible in his time. Without denying him the condition of missionary of the New Era, the codifier was a man of his time subject to the culture of his nation. You can see that the Codification books themselves contain broad influence from Positivism and even from the Church. While he was an unparalleled investigator, he was subdued, as it should be, by the "cultural broth" of his time. Coming to Brazil, the doctrine assimilated, in turn, the religious and social traits of our country.

- What do you mean by that?

- That the so called pure Spiritism is just a creation of a human mind, totally biased and that the Spiritists of today are a "Catholic cultural yarn," a social and historical phenomenon. The doctrinal practices and concepts were carved by an ancient religious man's carcass. (262)

This attempt to diminish the figure of the Codifier is not exclusive to "Mrs Modesta," since it is also in the work "Chico Xavier Answers," psychographed by Carlos Antonio Baccelli. It becomes clear for those who analyse the two works that the source of fascination is the same.

There is such a great amount of facetiousness of this or these spirits as they refer to the Codifier and to Spiritism that it would take many pages to analyse all the assertions. We prefer to let the readers draw their own conclusions.

The spiritist group must leave the porch of the temple of beliefs and assume its feature as a school that enables virtues and makes man good, regardless of whether or not to convert the bystanders into Spiritists and make them assume formal religious designation. (299)

At the conclusion of the book, there is a repetition for the third time of the above passage, that contains a purported Bezerra de Menezes Programme, now enhanced and placed in the mouth of Cicero Pereira, who deserves to be observed, for it consists of another attack against the spiritist groups, because it is not true that the Spiritist Groups are considered to be temples of beliefs, let alone that they seek to proselytise.

There is now a just desire to pay homage to Chico Xavier. But what is the best way to show him our appreciation for his work, if not by the study of his works? To read them and to study them will be the best way to honour him at the same time as we acquire knowledge that may also enable us to analyse fairly and lucidly what is produced in the field of mediumship today, so that we are able to turn down those assaults on to the reader's common sense and to the dignity of the Spiritist Doctrine, present in this work.   
 

⁽¹⁾ Also read about the analysis of the work Lirios da Esperanca (Lilies of Hope) published by the team from the Spiritist Federation of Mato Grosso, coordinated by Saulo Gouveia Carvalho, in which the reader can access by clicking the following link - http://www.orientacaoespirita.org/critica_16 . htm