IV. Mechanisms of Mediumship according to Spiritism

The words medium and mediumship are defined in The Book of Mediums (BM). In item 159 of the same book, Kardec says that “everyone who feels, to some degree, the influence of the Spirits is, for this reason, a medium”. This is considered a broad definition of the concept of medium. This is because, in the same item cited, Kardec points out that: “However, usually, this is the only way to qualify those in whom the mediumistic faculty is well characterized and is reflected by patent effects, of a certain intensity, which then depends on an organization more or less sensitive”. In the Spiritist Vocabulary, Chapter XXXII of the BM, medium and mediumship were defined as follows:

"Medium (From Latin - medium, means, intermediate.) - Person who can serve as an intermediary between Spirits and men."

and

“Mediumship - See: Mediumship.

Mediuminity - Faculty of mediums. Synonymous of mediumship. These two words are often used interchangeably. If you want to make a distinction, it can be said that mediuminity has a more general meaning and mediumship has a more restricted meaning. - He has the gift of mediumship. - Mechanical mediuminity”.

Currently, the term “mediuminity” is not used, but the “more general” sense is much better distinguished from the “restricted” sense. Mediumship, in its strict sense, properly speaking, is the faculty that “proves to be well characterized” as Kardec said in item 159 of the BM.

To be, then, “an intermediate between the Spirits and man”, it is necessary that the medium feels and / or perceives not only the presence of the Spirit who wishes to communicate, but also the thought that it wishes to transmit to the medium. The mechanisms by which the medium perceives the thought of the Spirit and transmits it will be described below and will compose the mechanisms of mediumship according to the Spiritist Doctrine.

IV.1 Emission and reception of a thought

Information can be transmitted in several ways. It can be contained in an image, in a sound, or encoded using different symbols. To understand the mediumistic process, we need to verify how the Spiritist Doctrine teaches the way in which the Spirits, first create images, sounds, or other forms of messages / thoughts; and second, how they can transmit and / or feel images, sounds and messages / thoughts. In section II.1, we show that it is through thought and will that Spirits act on fluids, modifying them so that these fluids acquire the qualities of their thoughts. If you want these fluids to contain the information you want to convey in a message, just think and desire it. In section II.2, we identified the various properties of the perispirit. In particular, the properties d) and f), fluid assimilation and irradiation, respectively, combined with function number ii), on the perispirit serving as a vehicle for the transmission of thought, allow us to understand how a Spirit can send or receive a message to another Spirit.

 But the above description is for communication between two free Spirits. How would a disembodied Spirit communicate with an incarnate? The Spirits of Erastus and Timothy, in item 225 of the BM, answer this question by presenting one of the foundations of the mediumship mechanisms according to the Spiritist Doctrine:

"In fact, we communicate with the incarnated Spirits of mediums, in the same way as with the Spirits themselves, just by the irradiation of our thinking." (Our emphasis). 

Erastus and Timothy are very clear in that statement! Spirits act on fluids through thought and will, impregnating them with their qualities. In mediumship, Spirits do not need to carry out any different phenomena, they just need to radiate the thought of what they wish to communicate to the medium.

The word "radiate" means to emit from a point, that is, to make something leave a central position for the periphery in all directions. The lamp is an example of a material object that radiates light. In the case of the Spirit, how does he do to radiate a thought? The Spiritist Doctrine allows us to understand this: it is enough for the Spirit to think about something, that the UF around it will change and acquire the qualities of that thought, and it is enough for the Spirit to wish (will) that this thought be transmitted to someone (the medium, for example) that this modified fluid will move (radiate) towards the medium and whoever else he wishes to transmit his message.

IV.2 Reception of thought: expansion of the perispirit

In the opposite direction, the medium will have to receive the fluids resulting from this irradiation of thoughts from the communicating Spirit. But this receiving process is not trivial because, as we are incarnated, our perceptions are limited by the sense organs. Since these organs are material, they only perceive dense material stimuli, while spiritual fluids are not perceptible to material senses. How, then, can mediumship occur? Is it somehow through the sense organs? No. To understand this, let us see, first, what the Spirit Lamennais says in item 51 of the BM, about the perispirit: 

“The perispirit, for us other wondering Spirits, is the agent through which we communicate with you, either indirectly, through your body or through your perispirit, or directly, through your soul; hence, infinite types of mediums and communications”. (Our emphasis).

We see here that Lamennais presents another foundation of the mechanisms of mediumship according to Spiritism: the perispirit is an agent or intermediary through which Spirits communicate with us. Therefore, mediumship will not occur through the sense organs, but through the medium's perispirit! Just find out how it can happen. The solution can be found in item 17 of Chap. XIV of Genesis, where Kardec clarifies that:

Due to its intimate union with the body, the perispirit plays a predominant role in the organism; by its expansion, it puts the incarnated Spirit in a more direct relationship with the free Spirits. (Our emphasis).

In this simple statement by Kardec, we perceive yet another foundation of the mediumship mechanisms according to Spiritism: the expansion of the perispirit, property c) of it. It is necessary for the incarnate to expand his perispirit to put himself "in a more direct relationship with free Spirits". Kardec also says (item 18, Chap. XIV of Genesis):

As the perispirit of the incarnates is of a nature identical to that of spiritual fluids, it assimilates them with ease, like a sponge that is soaked in liquid. These fluids have an even more direct action on the perispirit because, due to its expansion and irradiation, the perispirit is confused with them. (Our emphasis).

That is, the expansion of the perispirit favors the action or interaction between the fluids of the environment and those of the medium's perispirit.

An important clarification is needed regarding the meaning of expansion of the perispirit. The word expansion suggests the idea of ​​space, of increasing volume. In the case of the perispirit, this can even occur, that is, the perispirit can expand beyond the spatial dimensions of the medium's physical body. However, it is necessary to abstract the idea a little more. Perispiritual expansion consists of the perispirit becoming less and less connected to the sense organs of the physical body and becoming increasingly sensitive to the fluids present in the environment and, in particular, to the fluids irradiated by the Spirit that wants to communicate. The spatial extent of this expansion cannot be verified since the physical instruments are not able to measure the presence or position of the perispiritual fluids. But the perception of the Spirits is something that ostensible mediums have no difficulty in reporting. In the Spiritist Doctrine, therefore, nothing is said about volumetric expansion of the perispirit.

As we saw above, when the Spirit becomes more free from material organs, it has the perceptions as a whole, through its perispirit. It is through these perceptions of the perispirit that the medium feels the influence of the disincarnated Spirit, captures his thought and transmits it in some of the various forms of mediumship.

IV.3 The importance of concentration

Concentration on the mechanism of mediumship plays an important role. Although there are mediums who are fully aware and are able to see and transmit information from the spiritual world, other mediums benefit from concentration. In these cases, by concentrating, the medium allows himself to disconnect from the perceptions of the organs of the physical body, allowing his perispirit to expand and become more sensitive to spiritual fluids. Perhaps because of this, we see that the word “recollection” appears many times in the BM. We quote some of these passages here. In item 204 of the BM it is said: “Loneliness, silence and withdrawal from everything that may be a cause of distraction favor the withdrawal.” In item 222, he says: "It is also known that withdrawal is a condition without which serious spirits cannot be dealt with." In the message number XIII of Chapter XXXI of the BM, signed by Pascal, it is said that “When you want to receive communications from good Spirits, it is important to prepare yourself for this favor by recollection, pure intentions and the desire to do good, with a view to overall progress”. Although these quotes relate the recollection to the moral character of the mediumistic meeting, the recollection also allows for greater concentration on the part of the medium.

When a mediumistic communication must be terminated, mediums can stop concentrating, that is, change the focus of concentration, paying attention to the sensations coming from the sense organs.

As thought plays an important role in this process of expansion of the perispirit, when the medium is in an environment inappropriate for mediumistic communication, it is enough to focus his mind and his thought on normal matters of daily life, work or leisure, to prevent his perispirit from expanding and, in this way, come into contact with the fluids of the environment. In this, doing good reading, listening to good music, or concentrating on work are examples of ways in which the medium can protect himself from attempts by evil Spirits to communicate at an inappropriate time and place.

IV.4 Link between disincarnated and incarnated

Perispiritual expansion is not the only necessary condition for the success of mediumistic communication. As the Spirits teach in the Doctrine, it is necessary to form a connection between the disincarnated and the incarnated for communication to take place. This connection is necessary both for the mediumistic phenomenon of intelligent effects (see, for example, question 6 of item 223 of Chapter XIX of the BM, on the role of mediums in communications), and for a mediumistic phenomenon of physical effects (questions XIII and XIV of item 74 of the BM). It is important that there is also an affinity between the communicating and medium Spirits (item 225 of the BM).

V. Summary and conclusions

In this article, we present the doctrinal bases to describe the mechanisms of mediumship according to the Spiritist Doctrine. We built a sequence of clarifications that, although extensive, we believe to be didactic and logical enough to make clear the way in which the Spiritist Doctrine explains the mechanisms of mediumship. We summarize, below, the main foundations of the mediumship mechanisms according to Spiritism:

- Spirits, incarnated and disincarnated, modify the UF through thought and will, impregnating it with the qualities and information they desire (Chapter XIV of Genesis);

- Spirits, incarnated and disincarnated, have a spiritual body, perispirit, formed by the condensation of the UF around their focus of intelligence. The qualities of the fluids that make up the perispirit depend on the degree of evolution of the Spirit (Chap. XIV of Genesis);

- The perispirit serves as a transmission to thought, like the electric wire (item 455 of The Book of Spirits);

- Spirits communicate with the incarnated (mediums), in the same way as with the Spirits themselves, just by the irradiation and perception of their thoughts (item 225 of the BM);

- For a disincarnated Spirit to communicate with that of the incarnate, the medium's fluid, through its perispiritual expansion, combines with the perispirit of the disincarnated Spirit. It is necessary to combine these two fluids (item 51 and questions XIII and XIV of item 74 of the BM, question 6, item 223 of the LM, Chapter XIV of Genesis);

- Spirits find it easier to respond, due to the affinity between our perispirit and that of the medium who serves as an interpreter (item 225 of the BM).

The reader - who studies the various works of the Spiritist literature, based on the study presented here - will be able to analyze and compare the descriptions made by other authors, incarnated or disincarnated, about the mediumistic phenomena. We suggest that the references cited throughout the article be studied in the respective original works, to complement the study. We leave it to the reader to analyze other works, whether from the aspect of doctrinal coherence of them, or the need or not to have other explanations for the mechanisms of mediumship.

We hope that this study can serve as a basis for teaching mediumship in Spiritism courses or lectures. The contents of this article can be used for these purposes, even without mentioning the source / author. The most important thing is that the Spiritist movement develops, more and more, the interest in appreciating Kardec – utilizing him instead of other authors - to explain and describe the Spiritist phenomena.

Editor's note:

Article originally published in the Jornal de Estudos Espiritas vol. 8, art. n. 010202 (2020), DOI: https://bit.ly/2WSLpvn

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