Antonio Cesar Perri de Carvalho

Humberto de Campos: in Parnaiba and as a national expression

Humberto de Campos was born in 1886 in the Brazilian State of Maranhao, in the city of Muritiba - today called Humberto de Campos after him. He was a poor boy, lost his father at the age of five and struggled to study with a lot of sacrifice. He arrived in Parnaiba (Piaui) in 1896, and there he lived from 10 to 13 years of age. Three years later he went to Sao Luis, then to Belem and Rio de Janeiro. ⁽¹⁾

In his works he tells us some stories that marked him deeply, among them the story of the cashew tree in Parnaiba, which he loved so much. In the chapter “A childhood friend" (Memories, 1933) he wrote:
 

"In 1896, the day after we moved to our little house in Campos, in Parnaiba, that was still smelling whitewash, paint and fresh clay, Nature offered me a friend there. I went to the rough bathroom, next to the well, and my eyes fell on a cashew nut on the floor. It was stuck in between coarse stones and had popped into a swollen bud in its plant desire of becoming a tree. [...] "His mother said:" – plant it, my son ... go and plant it... plant it in the back yard, away from the fence... [...] When I was thirteen and it was three years old, we parted my cashew tree and me. I go to Maranhao, and it stays”. 

In Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the Republic, he became famous as a brilliant journalist and a chronicle writer. His pages became "columns" in all important newspapers in the country. He devoted himself entirely to the art of writing. He joined the Brazilian Academy of Letters in 1919. A year later he was elected federal deputy for his home State and reelected successively until revoked by the Revolution of 1930.

He had several pseudonyms, including Conselheiro XX (Advisor XX). The later he used in Spiritist books. When he fell ill, he changed his style completely. He was loved throughout Brazil, especially in Bahia and Sao Paulo. His suffering increased, and he was partially blind and underwent several surgeries; he lived in a boarding house without the warmth of the family, and his life was a portrait of pain and suffering. But he continued to write for consolation to many hearts. Embodied, he wrote nearly 40 books. One of them was published posthumously: Diario Secreto (Secret Diary) (2 vols.) - Memories - in 1954.

The piece of ground, the house where he lived in Parnaiba, after he died, was turned into a public garden with his name Park "Humberto de Campos".

A remarkable fact

There is a remarkable fact recorded in his diary, quoting excerpts published in the "Diario Carioca" and also quoted in the book psychographics by Chico Xavier, Novas Mensagens:

"Three of these letter writers, pitying my condition, tell me that to come into the presence of God, and receive His graces still here on this Earth, there is another way to do it: they are compassionate souls that wish to see me free, not of the torments of Hell after death, but free from the complete blindness I live in right here in this world. [...] Why not try Spiritism? If the Science of men left you with no hope, why not try the supernatural?

[...] Sunday, August 14, 1932. A month ago, more or less, Mme. F., owner of the inn where I currently live, asked me if I believed in Spiritism. I replied with a vague gesture, but there was more negative than affirmation. I also do not believe in it, she replied; but I have seen so many things and so many cures in Spiritism that I am in doubt, not knowing what to think about it. And she tells me her case, and of some friends and acquaintances of hers, whose diseases were diagnosed and cured with prescriptions provided by "mediums", who sometimes even corrected previously consulted famous doctors.

[...] Why don’t you try Spiritism? If you want, write your name, your age and your address on a piece of paper, and I will give it to my husband and he will ask the question in your name. I gave her the paper with all the personal information. And the first week goes by. The second one follows and the third one ends. I had already forgotten, when this morning Mme. F., gently pushing the door of the room where I was writing quietly, and excusing herself came in, and leaned against the table. You must be angry with me and with F., she begins - while she puts her gloves on, because she is going to the Sunday meeting of her Protestant Church - but my husband did not forget that Spiritism business... He's embarrassed to give you the answer... You are, however, an intelligent man, and do not ignore the seriousness of your illness. So I thought I'd better come and tell you immediately the truth. She catches her breath. Unbuttons her gloves. Buttons them again.

She goes on... (her husband) went to two Spiritist sessions, and in both of them, two “mediums”, that did not know the other one’s answer, said the same thing: you are very ill and can die any moment now; so it is not worth even prescribing… The Spirits say that you abused a lot of your health, but the doctor you go to is very good. And perhaps noticing my reaction to the news: However, it is possible that this is not true… in my case they were right… In the case of S… too, as well as in all others… But in yours they may be wrong… In any case, you are a strong Spirit and it is better for you to know what to expect… I feel an overwhelming cold through my spine.

I thank her for the information, pretending to be calm, and Mme. F. left. My heart beats with no control. I feel I am going to faint. I get up and try to breathe. I lie down. I get up. I walk through the two empty rooms, stunned, no control over my thoughts, in the same manner as someone who has just received a violent blow on the skull. After all, do I believe or do I not believe? Here is a sincere and true explanation for the Spiritists, who write to me concerned about my health. Although I had no faith, I knocked at the door or had someone knock for me at the same door through which everybody receives hope and consolation. And what came to me, as you can see, was disappointment and pain”... 

Chronic from beyond the grave 

On December 5, 1934, the writer passed away.

Three months after his disembodiment, he returned from the Beyond, through the young medium Chico Xavier, who was only 24 years old, and he began to write, and the whole country was stunned with his chronicles from beyond the grave. That shook public opinion. The newspapers of Rio de Janeiro and other states published his messages, drawing the attention of everyone. Agripino Grieco and other famous literary critics carefully examined the production of Humberto, now in another plane. And they confirmed the authenticity of the style. "It could only be Humberto de Campos" - They said. Then a new phase for Spiritism began in Brazil. Chico Xavier and the Brazilian Spiritist Federation gained notoriety. Several books were published.

Humberto's family filed a lawsuit against the FEB, requiring the copyright of the dead! The Federation won the case. Humberto, embarrassed, when he began to write again, he used the pseudonym Irmao X (Brother X). The record of this polemical issue is in the book The psychographics before the Courts, written by the jurist Miguel Timponi (Published by FEB).

As a Spirit, he wrote books through the medium Chico Xavier, twelve of them published by the FEB (between 1937 and 1969): Chronicles from beyond the grave; Brazil, the World's Heart, Gospel Homeland; New Messages; Good News; Reports from beyond the grave; Lazarus revived; Light above; Points and tales; Tales and apologists; Tales of this and of another life; Letters and Chronicles; Shelf of Life, and through the Boa Nova Publisher: Stories and Notes (2010).

In late October 1950, the "Caravan of Brotherhood" visited Parnaiba. Besides the activities in C.E. Perseverance in Well, in the Group "Life and Progress", in the Maternity Bastos Marques and the Primary School Father Damien, the caravan also visited the cashew tree, and the urbanization, made by the Mayor, Mirocles Veras, in 1940. 

Brazil in the view of Humberto (Spirit)

Among many timely comments relating to our country, we highlight from the introduction of Novas Mensagens (New Messages) (FEB):

"And it was in this manner that Charity sealed then all the activities of the Brazilian Spiritism. Its Centers, across the country, began to represent the Divine Eucharist Centers for all desperate and for all sufferers. The Comforter’s working tents multiplied, in all its famous cities, and the psychic prescriptions, moral advice, service centers, free homeopathic pharmacies, and the magnetic passes multiplied, everywhere in Brazil, for the merger of all workers in the same ideal of brotherhood and redemption for the purest charity. (Received by the medium Francisco Candido Xavier, on November 5, 1938)". 

In Brazil, the World's Heart, Gospel Homeland (FEB 1938), Emmanuel records in the introduction:
"Brazil is not only designed to meet the material needs of the poorest people on the planet, but also to provide the world a comforting expression of belief and rational faith and to be the largest storehouse of spiritual clarities of the whole orb."
 

"Let us consider the spiritual value of our great fate. Let us magnify the homeland in the line of the duty by order, and let us construe our dedication by the honest work due to its greatness! Let us consider, above all, that all its achievements will earn the luminous sanction of Jesus, before settling on the sidelines of the transient and precarious power of men!  

And the spiritual author of the book highlights:

In the days of ordeal, as in times of fortunes, we are united in a sweet alliance of brotherhood and indestructible peace, within which we should expect the future clarities. It is not for us to stop under any circumstances, but always march with education and guiding faith towards Brazil, in its admirable spirituality and imperishable greatness!"

⁽¹⁾ The above statement is a resume made by the author when honored with the "Medal of Legislative Merit" in a Solemn Session of the City Council of Parnaiba, on 08/29/2015.