Disturbed mediumship
Marcus De Mario

It’s easy to blame the obsessive Spirit for a disturbed
mediumship, but the one who attracts it and tunes up
with it is the incarnated, or else, the medium

 
“If the medium, from an execution standpoint, is a mere instrument, he exerts however, a strong influence upon the moral aspect. For communicating, the disincarnated Spirit identifies itself with the Spirit of a medium. That identification could not happen without a sympathy and affinity between them. The soul wields a kind of attraction, or repulsion, upon the free Spirit, according to the degree of similarity between them. Well, the good have affinity with the good and the evil with the evil, hence the moral influence cast upon the Spirits by the medium with whom they communicate with. If a medium has an addiction, inferior Spirits will gather around him or her, always willing to take over the place of the good Spirits (…) The flaws the drive away good Spirits are: pride, selfishness, envy, jealousy, rage, greed, sensuality and all the passions that slave man to matter.” – Allan Kardec. (The Book of Mediums, chap.20. item 227.)

This text is about the bad use of mediumship, highlighting the way a process of obsession makes life and the work of a medium difficult. Our aim is to understand the responsibility of being a medium and how subtle is the nasty influence of inferior Spirits, Who may evoke, according to one’s conduct, a process of obsession. 

The responsibility of being a Medium              

We begin by bringing up the question of the responsibility of being a medium, and there’s nothing better than the word of the Spirit Tobias, as narrated by the Spirit of Andre Luiz in the third chapter of the book “Os Mensageiros”, where this unselfish spiritual worker explains the function of the Center of Messengers of Communication, in the spiritual colony ‘Nosso Lar’ (Our Home):

“Countless peers are prepared for the diffusion of hopes and consolations, instructions and warnings; in the many levels of planetary evolution (…) We organize compact classes of apprentices for reincarnation. Mediums and doctrinarians leave here by the hundreds, every year (...) Thousands of messengers leave, but few triumph. Some achieve a partial execution of the task, but many fail altogether. (…) A staggering percentage refrains from the ‘fire’. Countless workers retreat when the task offers more valuable opportunities”.

As we see, there is in the spiritual world the preparation of those who will exercise mediumship, and it is taken so seriously that Andre Luiz compares the Center of Messengers to an institution gathering a few universities. And Allan Kardec dedicated an entire work to deal with the subject, “The Book of Mediums”.

We highlight the explanation given by Tobias that the medium should be a promoter of hopes and consolations, instructions and warnings, as a faithful server for the progress of mankind. For that, we must be in tune with the Good, to humbly accomplish all the efforts in the service of Jesus, the planetary governor, trying to fight in himself, relentlessly, all the vices that may put him in league with imperfect Spirits. It is never enough, as emphasized Allan Kardec in the works that comprise the spiritualistic codification, to call the medium’s attention to his or her responsibility and need for self-education.

The talk of the Spirit Tobias is in perfect sync with Kardec’s explanation, that is, if there are many failures in the field of mediumship, they are the medium’s fault, who, because of lack of study or effort in his improvement, attracts to himself, by the laws of attraction and affinity, imperfect Spirits that will steer him away from the task.

To exercise mediumship is not complicated, for it is a natural faculty of man, the incarnated Spirit, but demands a few reflections, such as the one by Jose Herculano Pires in his book “Mediumship”:

“In the medium activity, the Spirit of the medium, as well as the Spirit which he is serving and tending, is manifested. The problems consist simply in the discipline of the relationships between the Spirit and the body. That’s what we call medium education. In the proportion that the medium learns, like the Spirit, to control his freedom and select his spiritual relationships, his mediumship is improved and becomes safer. Thus, the good medium is the one who keeps his psychophysical balance and proceeds in life in a way that he creates for himself a spiritual environment of morality, love and respect for your neighbor”.

Medium education must be understood as an education of the medium, and it must be constant, for the medium that deems himself prepared and lets time go by, departing from doctrinarian studies, is in serious risk, entering a zone of comfort where vices, traits and lack of common sense in the face of the spiritual manifestations sets in a very subtle way, making room for the evolution and the process of obsessions, which, according to Kardec, goes from a simple obsession, to fascination and may end up in subjugation in different degrees.

The subtle influence of inferior Spirits 

A disturbed mediumship, that is, without discipline, discernment, education, is fertile ground for receiveing the influence of inferior Spirits, which happens as long as the Spirit, after tuning in with the medium, gradually dominates his mind, leading him to a state of a negative Spirit, which may be identified when the medium starts developing a tendency for defeatism, gloom, lasting for hours or days.

The medium must realize, in his day-to-day, states of spirit such as a difficulty to concentrate on optimistic ideas; absence of concentration on edifying readings; difficulty in praying; sadness without reason; unexplainable ailments, mainly on days of medium work or study; annoyance with edifying conversations; pessimism; exaggerated sensitivity; depression; place himself as a victim; stubbornness in not accepting advice and constructive criticism, among other similar symptoms that may indicate a subtle negative influence. 

The four weaknesses of man 

The Spirit Manoel Philomeno de Miranda, in the book “Trilhas da Libertacao”, psychographed by the medium Divaldo Pereira Franco, presents in the chapter “The Genies of Darkness” what obsessive Spirits deem as the “four legitimate human truths” that make easy the obsessive process:

1)     Sex – because man easily complies with pleasure.

2)     Narcissism – for being selfishness’ favorite son, and the father of vanity.

3)     Power – when man reveals his instincts and is led by his material interests.

4)     Money – for it buys lives and slaves souls.

Every medium must be especially careful with these four areas, not claiming to be a medium when his private life does not match his public one. This is a great mistake which inferior spirits try to get advantage of, and are successful in many cases, driving a medium away from his sacred duties, making him a puppet in the obsessive process.   

A necessary warning 

The spiritual instructor Alexandre, in chapter 3 of the book “Missionaries of the Light”, dictated by the Spirit Andre Luiz through the medium Chico Xavier:

“It’s necessary to sanctify the medium faculty, making it the active ministry of Goodness.. Most candidates are not willing to cleanse the receptacle. They divide, inexorably, matter and Spirit placing them at opposite sides, when us, students of the truth, still cannot identify the lines between one and the other and are sure that every universal organization is based on pure vibrations. Undoubtedly, (…) the excesses represent a sorry waste of power and box the soul into inferior circles. Well, for those who lock themselves in the prisons of shadow, it’s not easy to develop higher perceptions. One cannot consider constructive mediumship, without the constructive balance of apprentices, in the sublime science of well-living”.

Problems in the exercise of mediumship? Unbalanced private life? Don’t blame the Spirits, because they derive from the natural world. The blame is the medium’s alone, because most of the time we find him driven away from studies, from an intimate reform, from a connection with Good. Laid back, and dividing Spirit from matter, when in fact we are all integral beings, slips easily into the field of fascination, when inferior Spirits make use of it, through magnetic influence, end up leading him to vices of body and soul.

Food for thought 

Would it be possible to achieve good results without medium education?

Can a medium be a worker of Jesus for the regeneration of mankind, without the necessary effort to be a good man?

If Spiritualism is the doctrine with the mission of accomplishing a moral transformation of mankind, how can a spiritualistic medium live without achieving his spiritual advancement?

At last, we urge all mediums to reflect deeply about Allan Kardec’s text, which opens our article, especially the following excerpt:

“The soul (incarnated Spirit) wields a kind of attraction, or repulsion, upon the free Spirit, according to the degree of similarity between them”.

Or else: it is easy to blame the obsessive Spirit for a disturbed mediumship, but the medium is the one who attracts and is in tune with it.

Let’ ponder about it.