CHAPTER 36 SOUTH AMERICAN SPIRITISM
If the spirit is not acknowledged as existing and real, psychiatrists will only pay attention to effect. They will be impeded from divining the root causes and will never cure effectively. . . . New theories—with solid experimental foundation—point at the spirit, illuminating and unveiling. But, we need courage, not only to acknowledge these theories, but also to examine them.
SPIRITIST HOSPITALS AND HEALING CENTERS IN BRAZIL
There is a form of spiritual healing practiced by Spiritists that touches the lives of 20% of Brazil’s people, up to 40 million Brazilians. Although only 3% of the population of 180 million claim formal membership in the 1650+ Spiritist centers in Brazil (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística [IBGE], 2007; Datafolha, 2007), many more come to these ecumenical centers seeking healing. There are also approximately 50 Spiritist psychiatric hospitals in Brazil, founded from the 1930s through the 1970s (Souza et al, 1980), where spiritual healers collaborate with conventional medical doctors.
According to a 2000 census (IBGE, 2000) membership in these Spiritist centers is growing strongly among the most well educated and wealthy in Brazil. There are also 161 Spiritist centers in 31 countries outside Brazil (United States Spiritist Council, 2004) with 70 of these in the United States. The centers in Brazil, which have been functioning since 1865, are the models for the centers in other countries, the majority of which cater specifically to Brazilians who have emigrated.
All of these healing centers and hospitals drew their original inspiration from books written by Léon Dénizarth-Hippolyte-Rivail (1804-1869), a French academic living in Paris who used the nom de plume Alan Kardec. A few Brazilians (Franco, 2004, 2005; Xavier, 2000a, 2000b) have recently become popular Spiritist authors. The main principle of Spiritism is the premise that life does not end at physical death, but our individual spirits go on for lifetimes, alternating between this life and an afterlife. The goal of these lives is for the spiritual self to increasingly become more aware, wiser, and more loving. According to Spiritism, disincarnate spirits can impact the lives of incarnated human beings, either negatively or positively, depending on the level of evolution of the incarnate and the disincarnate. Essential to Spiritism is the encouragement to relate to, think about, and evoke the more evolved spirits in prayer and to practice charity and fraternity. Jesus Christ is considered an important model for the right way to live, and many perceive Spiritism as both a revitalization of Christianity and a practical path of Christianity. At its core, however, Spiritism welcomes people of all faiths.
We distinguish Spiritist centers from other spiritual healing centers in Brazil that have been more frequently described because of the dramatic healing practices by unique individuals (Bragdon, 2002, 2004, 2008; Don et al, 2000; Fuller, 1974; Greenfield, 1994, 1997) or colorful rituals associated with African traditions that were brought to Brazil beginning in the sixteenth century by the African slaves, or the indigenous Amazonian shamanic tribal traditions. Traditional Spiritist healers embrace a form of healing that is performed in small groups by healers who bring a dedication to personal transformation founded on study and discussion of philosophical texts. Kardec (2004) wrote, “You recognize a true Spiritist by their moral transformation and the effort they make to dominate their negative tendencies.” Spiritists prefer not to practice their healing work alone. The possibility of becoming ego inflated as a result of one’s personal success—or deflated if a patient does not improve—can erode one’s ability as a medium, a healer, or be disempowering for a balanced, healthy person.
Spiritist healers are trained at Kardecist spiritist centers and hospitals. In some cases, these healers have already qualified as medical physicians. Spiritist hospitals have integrated the Spiritist healing practices and philosophy into their treatment protocols.
Quantified Success
Statistics currently available in Brazil report unusual success in healing at specific Spiritist centers. The statistics are few, however, and may lack objectivity because they come from members at the centers. In April 2004, the president of the Federation for Spiritism of the State of São Paulo (FEESP), Avildo Fioravanti, remarked in an interview that FEESP has a more than 90% success rate in helping addicts and the suicidally depressed recover normal functioning, without dependence on drug therapy. Another center in São Paulo, Grupo Noel, was formally profiled by Cleide Martins Canadas (2001), a social psychologist. She reported that 70% of the community experienced great improvement and a definite cure of their problems. These included all manner of physical and emotional disease, including cancers. Rigorous scientific studies are needed to confirm what has been reported.
Bear in mind that in the United States in 2002 an estimated 22 million people suffered from substance dependence or abuse (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). A 1999 report by Fuller et al noted that the highest success rate (in outpatient care) for treatment of alcoholism after only 1 year is 35%. Major depressive disorder affects approximately 10 million American adults in any given year (National Institutes of Health, 2001). The most typical therapeutic interventions are pharmaceuticals, which frequently have detrimental side effects. Ascertaining whether Spiritist therapies can improve the outcomes for depressive patients and addicts could be extremely valuable for patients, their loved ones, their employers, and insurance and health care providers.
At this time no data are available from North American studies examining the efficacy of the healing practices of Spiritist hospitals in randomized controlled double-blind trials. The only such trial of Spiritist therapy completed in Brazil was conducted at an institution for the cognitively disabled and reported by Frederico Leo and Francisco Neto (2007).
Before casting aspersions on Spiritists for rarely employing the holy grail of research, we must recognize that using randomized controlled trials as the standard method of research may not be able to do justice to the subject matter of Spiritist work. Spiritist healers in Brazil work with each individual as a unique entity, in aspects of each person’s body, mind, and spirit covering a span of lifetimes. They also work in a cultural environment in which many people accept notions of reincarnation as well as karmic consequences for actions. It is possible that all the variables in Spiritist healing cannot be considered within the typical confines of randomized controlled trials.
Nevertheless, the standards for establishing the statistics quoted earlier could be further studied to validate their correctness. Judging by the numbers of people attending Spiritist centers, the current expansion of their popularity, and the fact that some centers have been developing their protocols for more than 130 years, we must assume that the protocols used have unusual success. The FEESP serves between 7000 and 10,000 people each day. Most of these people are coming to attend classes and/or obtain spiritual healing. Why would they bother to come if they were not receiving something they find valuable?
Center Activities
My knowledge of Spiritist centers and hospitals in Brazil comes from 30 trips I took to Brazil visiting and participating in Spiritist activities from 2001 through 2008 (Bragdon, 2002, 2004, 2008).
An individual attending a Spiritist center in Brazil has access to a wide variety of free services. Mediums, teachers in study groups and training sessions, physicians serving the poor, and healers see their tasks as charitable work. First, as in many public welfare systems, the individual begins by meeting with a social worker to determine his or her needs and/or the needs of the family. Most Spiritist centers then offer laying on of hands (called “pass,” or transfer of energy), blessed water, counseling, and/or consultations. Physicians, who may give nutritional supplements and therapeutic drugs, as well as lawyers, dentists, and financial counselors are all available for free consultations at many Spiritist centers. Some Spiritist centers also offer classes in life skill training, self-awareness, and acceleration of spiritual evolution. In addition, some centers offer classroom and practical training for those who are naturally gifted so that they can harness their talents to serve others as mediums and healers.
Just as individuals find support for financial, legal, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, the centers also become axes for community and social get-togethers as well as coordination of volunteer service programs. The golden thread weaving its way through all activities is the notion that we, as incarnate spirits in body, are all spiritually evolving through lifetimes in and out of a physical body, and that the most powerful positive step to progress is charitable work. Spiritist centers typically emphasize that the treatment they provide is complementary to conventional medical treatment. Thus, patients are strongly encouraged to seek medical treatment if they have a medical issue.
The educational classes are offered to discuss life principles, awakening the mind and the will through the sharing of many points of view, including those derived from modern science. Attending a basic class is sometimes a prerequisite for those who seek the services of the center. This class emphasizes the concept that every action has a consequence—what the Eastern philosophies refer to as the natural law of karma, or cause and effect. Under the guidance of a teacher, students discuss the most essential life questions: Why are we alive? Is there a God? What happens at death? Does life go on for our loved ones who have passed on? Who models the correct way of living life? The books of Kardec and Chico Xavier are read to stimulate discussion, along with news from contemporary media. Chico Xavier (1910-2002), who wrote more than 400 books, is the most popular author in this lineage of Spiritualism.
Belief that our purpose in life is continued progression and that we are influenced by cause and effect helps the individual to take charge of his or her life. This orientation leads to a positive outlook and mental equanimity. Practicing positive thinking, feeling joy and gratitude for life, grows with the practice of prayer, meditation, and deliberate exercises to attune to the divine aspects of the self. This attunement opens each person to inspiration and guidance. Being positive strengthens the immune system, enhancing physical functioning as well as emotional and spiritual well-being.
Participation in a loving “community learning center” to accelerate spiritual progress keeps attracting more members to these centers. The well-educated people come to learn, to come to terms with pressing life issues, and be of service to others. The poor also come to introspect, learn, find support to establish an independent lifestyle, and become part of a positive community. The activities are not dependent on blind faith, but founded on everyone’s natural desire to progress.
The centers are maintained by private donation. They are not extensions of the government or of any religion. Only a few key administrators and janitorial staff are paid a wage. This keeps operating costs at a minimum. There are no membership dues.
Dynamics of Spiritist Healing
What kind of healing occurs in these centers? The most often-used form, energy transference, or passes, involves a healer who focuses on transmitting a powerful subtle energy to the patient. The healer sometimes receives the help of benevolent disincarnates who “step down” the power, just as a transformer steps down the electrical current of high-voltage power lines, adapting it to the capacities of ordinary houses. First the healer becomes focused, which usually involves shifting to a deeper state of consciousness (alpha or delta brain wave pattern with a lower frequency). The healer then passes his or her hands 3 to 6 inches above the body of the patient. Although this is typically regimented to circumscribed gestures, individual styles are permitted; however, physical touch is avoided. At times, a second healer will stand behind the patient’s healer, giving energy to the healer by placing a hand above the healer’s head. A variation of this assistance occurs when a group of healers hold hands in a circle with the patient attended by one healer in the center of the circle. Directing their spiritual energy to the patient is thought to break up congestion or strengthen an area of weakness in the patient.
Some mediums perform “psychic surgery” through incisive prayer and positive intention. This can be done at a distance without the patient’s being present. Whether the patient is present or not, healing takes place through the uninterrupted transmission of energy from the spiritual source to the spirit of the incarnate healer, and from the healer to the spiritual body, or perispirit, of the patient.
Kardec (2004) described the perispirit as “a subtle, ethereal, nearly massless covering . . . a kind of energy body that serves as a blueprint for the human form.” This etheric body permeates the physical body in every detail, creating an exact duplicate of every organ and limb. Its main function is to transmit energy to the physical body. Imbalance of energy in the perispirit, or a weakening caused by stress, negative thinking, overly judgmental attitude, lack of forgiveness of self or others, or depression, can link to a particular organ or system in the body, causing a physical manifestation of illness.
Intervention through psychic surgery, passes, and/or prayer focuses a high vibration (associated with pure love) that changes the subtle energetic blueprint in and around the physical body and lays the foundation for the physical body of the patient to become healthy. These same interventions are also practiced as preventative care to stop the development of disease states by maintaining an appropriate flow of energy in the perispirit and, in turn, the body.
The soul . . . forms a single unity with the perispirit, and integrates with the entire body, which constitutes a complex human being. . . . We can imagine two bodies similar in form, one interpenetrating another, combined during life and separated at death, which destroys one while the other continues to exist. During life, the soul acts through the vehicles of thought and emotion. It is simultaneously internal and external—that is, it radiates outwardly, being able to separate itself from the body, to transport itself considerable distances, and there to manifest its presence.
From the point of view of Spiritism, mental illness that does not stem from organic brain disorders or specific psychosocial stressors originates through interaction with negatively motivated spirits who attach themselves to a weakened individual for a period of time, negatively influencing that person’s willpower, thoughts, and feelings (Kardec, 1986; Moreira-Almeida and Neto, 2005; Moreira-Almeida et al, 2008). These negatively motivated spirits are considered confused, not knowing whether they are dead and still attached to the pleasures of material life (e.g., drinking alcohol), or are perceived as seeking retribution for harm caused in previous lifetimes (e.g., having been murdered by the person to whom they are attached). Spiritists believe that when a patient is often motivated to engage in some negative behavior, such as abusing drugs or alcohol, caused by their own weakness accentuated by the attachment of a spirit, they are obsessed. If the obsession progresses to a more severe stage so that the patient has no ability to exercise will over the negative influence, the patient is considered to be possessed.
Although most of the therapies (e.g., laying on of hands, prayer, short lectures,) occur with the patient present, disobsession sessions are performed “at a distance” with the patient not present and often unaware that the treatment is being done. These sessions typically happen in a room similar to a boardroom, around a large table, with approximately eight mediums. Lights are turned low, calming classical music is played on a CD player, and a prayer is said to initiate the session, elevating the thoughts of those present and helping them to make contact with the spirit realm more immediately by decreasing other distractions. While mediums sit focusing, eyes closed, the appointed scribe reads from notes about the person having the problem. One or two mediums inevitably begin to sense the exact obsessing thoughts of the patient through mental telepathy—and also to sense the nature of the spirit that might be “obsessing” the patient. Disobsession is then twofold: the patient is relieved of the obsessor, and the obsessor is guided into its next step in evolution through oral counseling by one of the mediums assigned to the specific task of counseling the spirit.
Another avenue of healing, equally important, is to encourage the patient to make amends for prior negative behaviors and reorient his or her life to more loving action. This path of healing is similar to the protocol in 12-step programs, in which the person seeking healing takes a moral inventory of past behavior and subsequently makes some positive contributions to make amends for prior behaviors that have caused others pain. This may involve changing behaviors and renegotiating relationships. Spiritists believe we must also study books related to Spiritism to deepen our understanding of life and death and the way to accelerate spiritual growth. Without such study, a person does not understand the steps of spiritual evolution and has difficulty staying both focused on and inspired to ethical and charitable action.
Observations in the Field: Spiritist Hospitals
In both 2003 and 2004 I spent several days in Palmelo, a town founded by Spiritists in 1929, at that time serving approximately 3000 visitors who come to Palmelo each month for healing of various kinds. I observed several depossession and disobsession sessions in Euripedes Barsanulfo Hospital, a freestanding Spiritist psychiatric hospital in Palmelo, and spent time interviewing several people on staff. In 2005 I was given a tour of Casa André Luís, a Spiritist residence for more than 300 intellectually disabled individuals, in the suburbs of São Paulo. In 2007 I visited disobsession sessions at the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital of Anápolis and later filmed these sessions and interviewed the physician responsible for this therapy at the hospital (Bragdon, 2008). In 2008 I spent a week in Curitiba getting to know the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital Bom Retiro and a week in Porto Alegre visiting the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital of Porto Alegre. I was also able to spend 2 days observing activities at a Spiritist hospital dedicated to helping those dealing with cancer near Florianópolis, where 35 patients are in residence each week for four days at a time.
The Spiritist movement does not have a central regulatory agency that controls Spiritist practices (like the Vatican for Catholicism). Each Spiritist group is free to behave as it prefers, even if this includes doing things that are not supported by (or are even in contradiction to) Spiritist theory. Thus, I was able to witness several practices that are not necessarily based on Spiritist theory or Kardec’s works because some Spiritist groups combine their practices and theories with African-Brazilian, New Age, or Eastern traditions. I endeavor to report here only on those practices that dovetail with Spiritist theory.
In each hospital the patients were first treated in the conventional manner. They were initially interviewed by a physician for a medical assessment, including an assessment for psychosocial stressors. The interview included questions related to special dietary needs, allergies, and preferences regarding religious and spiritual practices. Those wanting Spiritist therapies were given the opportunity to have them. Those not wanting these therapies were able to be treated using conventional medical practices. Attending nurses and doctors were a blend of Spiritists and people of other philosophies and religions. The only exception was the facility for treating those with cancer, because it was dedicated to serving Spiritists and therefore only Spiritists requested treatment there. Nurses and physicians at this hospital were all Spiritists. In some cases the doctors conducting conventional medical assessment for entering patients were also accomplished spiritual healers in the treatment room.
In April 2008 at the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital of Porto Alegre I observed a well-organized facility on the hospital grounds dedicated to community education, Spiritist therapies, and training. Physicians and psychologists associated with the hospital offered evening classes for students and professionals wanting to study the relationships between quantum physics, medicine, and Spiritist therapies. A meeting room was provided once a week for a group of doctors associated with the Brazilian Medical Spiritism Association to facilitate a deeper understanding of Spiritism. Specific rooms were used each day for disobsession work, accomplished by well-trained mediums under the kind and disciplined eye of a supervising medium. Records noting which patients were treated and the outcomes were carefully kept to support present and future research. Teams of volunteers, all trained healers, would enter hospital wards at specific times to offer “energy passes” to the patients, assembled in rows of chairs. The head nurse, not a Spiritist herself, said to me, “Patients are noticeably more calm for 3 days after receiving these treatments.”
Visiting the day treatment center for patients with chemical addictions at the Spiritist Psychiatric Hospital of Bom Retiro in Curitiba in April 2008 I noticed a remarkable ambience. The lines of authoritarian hierarchy were less rigid than I expected to see. Undoubtedly the presence of many Spiritist volunteers, there to create a fraternal, loving home atmosphere, facilitated this. I believe it was also a product of the Spiritists’ practice of evoking the energy of highly evolved spirits to help staff, patients, and disincarnates in the work of spiritual evolution.
Explanatory Viewpoints
Does this kind of focused, spiritually based attention make a difference in healing mental illness? Arthur Guirdham (1978, 1980), an English psychiatrist, believes so. He is one of a handful of psychiatrists who write that possession may be a contributing factor in mental illness (Grof, 1985; Sanderson, 2008; Weiss, 1994).
I was personally impressed by two interviews I had in Palmelo in 2003 with a patient named Marcel (Bragdon, 2004). Diagnosed with schizophrenia by psychiatrists in São Paulo, Marcel had been brought to Euripedes Barsanulfo Hospital by his concerned parents. At that point Marcel was suffering from delusions and had frequent outbursts of violently aggressive behavior. In the hospital Marcel took psychiatric medication under the supervision of a psychiatrist and, as he was able, began to study Spiritism, participate in disobsession, and be checked regularly by Bartólomo Damo, who is gifted as a medical intuitive. After weeks, Damo saw that Marcel was a natural medium with healing abilities, who needed to learn how to harness his abilities to help others. This gift became increasingly more evident as Marcel was released from obsessing entities. Months later he began training to practice healing while he continued his therapy in the hospital, which still included minimal amounts of psychiatric drugs. His healing necessitated his making amends for prior wrongdoing in this and other lifetimes, as well as deliberately being dedicated to serve others in this lifetime. His parents and the support staff at the hospital were essential to the process. By the time I met him, Marcel was taking a very small amount of antipsychotic medication, still being supervised by a physician and several medium-healers, and was becoming part of the team of healers attending others at the hospital. Inacio Ferreira published descriptions of several similar cases in the 1930s and 1940s (Moreira-Almeida et al, 2008).
In the Spiritist tradition, healing offered to disincarnates can take many forms. In April 2004, I attended a group meeting of healers at FEESP in São Paulo who were helping a spirit who was releasing from the body of a man who had just “died” in Maryland in the United States. His wife informed us by cell phone that the man had died within seconds, unexpectedly, of a critical heart condition, while sitting at his desk. In São Paulo one healer-medium allowed her body to be overcome with the emotions of the spirit of the man who was passing on. She became full of emotion: regret, fear, and anxiety. Another healer-medium verbally counseled the spirit, advising “him” that his physical body had died, and “he” must reach out to the spirits ready to take “him” to the spiritual realm. Five other healer-mediums made a circle around the two who were most actively engaged in the process. The process, including the counseling, took approximately 20 minutes, most of which was taken up with the emotional outburst of the person who engaged the spirit of the man who had died. When it was complete, everyone in the healers’ circle was relaxed and in a peaceful state. They believed that the spirit of the man who had “died” was also at peace.
The problem of the nature of man and his destiny after death of the physical body was relegated to religions. Those religions could not find a solution that would agree with science, consequently man is facing a paradox: he knows more about his environment than about himself and his real destination in time and space.
Limitations of Further Research and Integration
Even though practicing a Spiritist way of life brings benefits of peace of mind and increased well-being to participants, for the most part Spiritists protect the privacy of their affiliation with Spiritist centers. This inhibits collection of data on the demographics of participants. It also inhibits further examining the centers and enlisting participants in clinical trials.
It is easy to sympathize with the reason for wanting privacy. For almost a century in Europe, the United States, and Brazil, Spiritism was regarded as a diabolic phenomenon or a major cause of insanity (Moreira-Almeida, Almeida et al, 2005). In 1861, by order of the Catholic Church, Spiritist books were confiscated and publicly burned in Spain. In the early 1890s Brazil’s penal code banned all forms of Spiritism. Spiritists were legally prosecuted through the 1920s, and their activities were still considered illegal during the 1930s and 1940s. From the 1940s through 1988, Spiritist activities were regarded with suspicion and disfavor.
All forms of Spiritualism have been denigrated in the United States as well. Although Spiritualists are not publicly persecuted today, we can easily recall the horrific graphic illustrations of Puritan women being burned at the stake or drowned if it were even suspected that they communicated with spirits (and thus defied the hegemony of the church and its priesthood).
With this history in our cultural memory, how many of us can easily apply scientific thinking to explore the rationale of Spiritism? First we must make our way through the dense undergrowth of centuries of cultural conditioning, taboos encrusted with deep emotions, which would have us dismiss anything Spiritist.
Pioneering researchers, willing to risk public ridicule, are opening the way to the reconsideration of what happens at death and the real possibility that the spirit survives death. Ian Stevenson, MD, Carlson Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia, has published several books (1980, 1997) reporting on his very credible research of the subject that spans continents. Recently, many researchers combined efforts to renew the conversation about reincarnation in Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century (Kelly et al, 2007). Dean Radin, PhD, laboratory director of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, and Dr. Gary Schwartz, former director of the Yale Psychophysiology Center and currently a professor of psychology, medicine, and psychiatry at the University of Arizona, are finding substantial evidence of life after death and reincarnation (Radin, 1997, 2006; Schwartz et al, 2002). However, the public at large in the United States is still reluctant to make such a conceptual leap.
There are other limitations in integrating Spiritist centers in the United States: the services of these centers in Brazil are free to all, even when professionals are made available for a day at a time. This level of goodwill donation is rare in the United States. Our real estate and overhead expenses are much higher in the United States than in Brazil. We are a materialistic culture. Most people in the United States find it reasonable and right to charge for any service rendered. The view of Brazilian Spiritists that “what is freely given from God should be freely donated to people” is not embedded in our culture. Spiritual healers, medical intuitives, and mediums typically charge for their services in the United States and Europe.
If we find in future research that Spiritist centers offer a viable path for healing, more effective than our own, there is a challenge in finding adequate teachers for classes, mediums, and healers, as well as sufficient written material for classes in the United States. Of the 70 centers in the United States, 10% conduct all their activities in English. Fifty percent have at least one activity per week in English. There are few Spiritists with developed skills as Spiritist mediums and healers in the United States who are as fluent in English as they are in Portuguese—although young Brazilian Americans are already beginning to teach and will soon fill that gap. Many books are available in English and can be downloaded for free at http://www.usspiritistcouncil.com. Spiritist books and research, until now published only in Portuguese, are becoming available in English. At this time the translations of talks and literature are not consistently of good quality, which can obstruct the learning process, but these obstacles are manageable. The U.S. Spiritist Council is encouraging U.S. Spiritist centers to offer more study groups, training, and events in English.
HISTORY OF SPIRITISM
Belief in discarnate spirits and communication with spirits has been a part of most cultures throughout the world for thousands of years (Krippner et al, 1987). Saints and sages of all religions have demonstrated diverse forms of spiritual healing. Jesus Christ was acknowledged for casting out evil spirits as a form of healing. However, the mid-nineteenth century is considered the birth time of modern Spiritualism (Weisberg, 2004), when communicating with spirits was first practiced in “technologically advanced” society.
Separated from the traditions of shamanic culture and the sanctions of a particular church, Spiritualists believed that death is a time when the physical body dies, but the spirit of the individual continues on in another form, in another dimension. The first Spiritualists developed their own ways of communicating with spirits in living rooms and assembly halls, using musical instruments, pens, tables, and chairs to facilitate communication.
Beginning in 1848, two sisters, both adolescents, Maggie and Kate Fox of Hydesville, New York, invited the public to witness their extraordinary communications with the spirits. The women put themselves on display in public auditoriums and submitted themselves to tests by numerous groups of doctors to establish that the rappings, playing of musical instruments, and moving of furniture, including levitation of heavy tables, came from a nonphysical source. Although these occurrences might be ascribed to psychokinesis (mind over matter), in some of their meetings the Foxes divined messages from the departed containing information to which they could not have formerly been privy. Those who found these displays authentic had to engage the belief in life after death, the idea that our spirits never die but go on to new life, a life that may intersect with human life. Despite the antagonism of many physicians and religious men who could not accept these ideas, many more found the evidence compelling. Horace Greeley, the famous editor of the New York Tribune (who also was known for his interest in exploring new frontiers, as evidenced by his admonition, “Go west, young man”); Charles Partridge, a publisher; Charles Hammond and R. P. Ambler, both Universalist ministers; Judge John Worth Edmonds, chief justice of the New York State Supreme Court; and Nathaniel Tallmadge, former governor of Wisconsin publicly supported Spiritualism and attended related activities. Interest in séances (group gatherings for the purpose of communicating with the spirits) began to expand throughout the United States as well as in Europe. By the mid-1850s there were several hundred thousand Spiritualists in the United States. By 1890, there was estimated to be up to 11 million in the United States.
Like many of his contemporaries in Paris in the 1850s, Rivail became interested in the phenomena of spirit communication. Rivail was an earnest intellectual, a professor of languages, physics, anatomy, and mathematics, dedicated to improving public education. He approached Spiritualism with the discipline of an academic employing the methodology of a scientist.
Rivail crafted over 1000 questions concerning the reason for human life on earth, the nature of the spiritual realms, and the dynamics of spiritual evolution. He then carefully observed, collected, and collated answers to these questions from 10 different mediums, each unknown to the others. More than 1000 Spiritualist centers contributed answers to questions, given to their mediums by higher spirits. Rivail was thus in a position to make note of the answers that were “universal,” that is, repeated by all the mediums questioned. He found that these universal answers created a comprehensive and rational philosophy of life—what he named Spiritism. Soon, he published five books under the pen name Alan Kardec: The Spirits’ Book (1857), which presents the philosophy, based on the existence, manifestations, and teachings of the spirits; The Mediums’ Book (1861), which explains the practical, experiential aspects of Spiritism; and The Gospel According to the Spirits (1864), which illumines the ethical ramifications of Spiritism. What is Spiritism? (1859) and Spiritism in Its Simplest Expression (1865) were booklets introducing the basics of Spiritism. Heaven and Hell (1865) and Genesis (1868) elaborate on the concept that heaven and hell are psychological constructs related to the workings of our own conscience. Together these works formulate the precepts of Spiritism—sometimes known in Brazil as “Kardecist Spiritism” to distinguish it from other forms of Spiritualism that sprang from the indigenous Indians or Africans who were brought to Brazil as slaves.
Why did he call this philosophy Spiritism, as separate from Spiritualism?
Strictly speaking, Spiritualism is the opposite of Materialism; every one is a Spiritualist who believes that there is in him something more than matter, but it does not follow that he believes in the existence of spirits, or in their communication with the visible world. . . . We say, then, that the fundamental principle of the spiritist theory, or Spiritism, is the relation of the material world with spirits, or the beings of the invisible world; and we designate the adherents of the spiritist theory as spiritists.
Kardec’s books advocate a high degree of discipline and perseverance in life—to effect personal transformation (“reforma íntima” in Portuguese) and transcend the selfish desires of more basic motivations. Thus, Spiritists take on a demanding life path. The precepts also advocate communicating with highly evolved spirits for the purposes of healing and the study of deeper truths, rather than communing with spirits who are less evolved for the sake of amusement or curiosity. Spiritists are attending not only to the regulation of their own behavior, thoughts, and will, but doing what they can to assist disincarnate spirits to evolve to higher levels. Knowledge of the spiritual worlds, acquired through study, is regarded as essential in this task.
As mentioned earlier, Spiritists believe that spiritual healing and the gifts of mediumship originate with God and are given freely to humankind, and that what is received for free must be given for free. Therefore, all Spiritist healing is without charge or “suggested donation.” Furthermore, Spiritists believe that when a spiritual healer or medium charges money for his or her services the healer opens the door to less evolved spirits who downgrade the spiritual work and possibly damage the healer or medium by causing addiction and mental and/or physical disease. Given this belief, it is interesting to note the downfall of Kate and Maggie Fox, both of whom became victims of alcoholism after making a commercial venture of their mediumship.
Why did Kardec’s Spiritism develop in Brazil? In the late nineteenth century it was customary for wealthy Brazilian families to send their male offspring to European universities. Because Kardec’s books were in fashion in Europe at the time, they came to Brazil tucked under the arms of the university students returning home and then passed on to the parents and the upper classes of Brazilian society. Kardec’s philosophy also found an enthusiastic following among homeopathic physicians trained in Europe who were practicing in Brazil. These physicians had already been trained to accept and use some aspects of spiritual healing, because Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843), the founder of homeopathy, encouraged the use of intuition in diagnosis and a form of laying on of hands for healing (see Chapter 24). Charitable homeopaths in Brazil were the first to organize groups to study and practice Spiritism in Brazil. The upper classes were primed to participate, and the lower classes quickly availed themselves of the charity these Spiritist groups offered—free food, free medical services, free dental care, financial and legal advice, orphanages for children and abandoned elders, and institutional living for the intellectually disabled or those suffering from dementia.
According to a recent census (IBGE, 2007), Brazil is 64% Catholic, 25% Evangelical/Protestant, and 3% Spiritist, and 17% declare that they attend religious services of other religions besides their own. Some 44% of Catholics state that they believe fully in reincarnation. In the general population, 37% declare that they believe in reincarnation. Although it is impossible to quantify exactly, the majority of Brazilians are practicing syncretistism, that is, participating in spiritual activities of diverse traditions, including attending ceremonies of their churches. However, deeply embedded in their approach to life is the golden rule of Christian tradition: to practice charity and goodwill. That Spiritism is infused with this same ethic and endorses the continued development of moral values associated with Christianity made Kardec’s precepts easy for Brazilians to assimilate.
In fact, Kardec’s philosophy is considered both a path of revitalization and a path of practical Christianity—but without rituals, priesthood, or churches, and without fear of hell and damnation. Spiritists believe in a loving God, the supreme intelligent force, with whom all people may have direct communication.
Spiritualism’s Progeny
Because of disenchantment with the personal shortcomings of Spiritualism’s first public personalities, North Americans’ fascination with Spiritualism was on the decline by the end of the nineteenth century. Those still intrigued by the afterlife, mysticism, and invisible worlds transferred their loyalty to organizations like the Theosophical Society, which combined study of Eastern mysticism with Western spirituality, and founded Theosophical medicine (see Chapters 6 and 7).
In the twentieth century channeled teachings addressing universal questions continued to be published by some individuals who gained international fame, such as Alice Bailey (1880-1949), who produced more than 23 books; Chico Xavier, the aforementioned Brazilian, who wrote more than 400 books that sold millions of copies (he never received any payment for these books but donated all copyrights to charity institutions) and were distributed internationally in numerous translations; and Helen Schucman, whose Course in Miracles was published in 1975. Channeling of personal advice and the practice of medical intuition (diagnosing accurately without use of physical examination, technical diagnostics, or even meeting the person face to face) was taken up by individuals such as Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) and, more recently, Carolyn Myss, an energy healer, who first gained her reputation by working with C. Norman Shealy, MD. As of 2004, Dr. Shealy offered a doctoral program in medical intuition at his Holos University Graduate Seminary. The practice of laying on of hands continued in various religious ministries, as well as by notable independent healers such as Harry Edwards (1893-1976) and Olga Worrall (1906-1985) and, more recently, practitioners of reiki, a Japanese form of laying on of hands, and therapeutic touch, among others (see Chapter 16).
In the 1930s, Dr. Joseph Rhine coined the term parapsychology as an umbrella for the scientific studies he was conducting to explore psychic phenomena, or “psi.” This research at Duke University continues in the United States and abroad. Hernani G. Andrade (1912-2002), director of the Brazilian Research Institute of Psycho-Biophysics, devoted the last 40 years of his life to research and writing on spiritual phenomena and parapsychology. Dr. Sergio Felipe de Oliveira is presently documenting the biophysics of mediumship at the Pineal-Mind Institute of Health in São Paulo. He is associated with both the Brazilian and international branches of the Medical Spiritist Association (AME). The international organization, founded in 1999, hosts a biannual international convention to stimulate research and cross-cultural exchange among scientists, physicians, and psychologists of all faiths who are interested in the relationship between spirituality and health. AME published a special magazine, Health and Spirituality (Associaço Médico-Espírita, 2003), in English that documents the 2003 convention. Dr. Marlene Nobre, author (Nobre, 2003; Nobre et al, 1994) and president of AME-Brasil and AME-International, finds that Spiritist principles are clearly aligned with quantum physics, pointing to the mind as a key factor in the manifestation of all phenomena. She writes that doctors have a responsibility to teach their patients “that all pathologies originate in the addictions of the mind, and that’s why diseases are opportunities for introspection and resolving imbalances” (AME, 2003).
Three physicians have recently been especially prolific in writing about the crossover between spirituality and medicine. Koenig cites evidence in numerous books that a strong spiritual life is an indicator of longer life span and increased well-being (Koenig, 2004; Koenig et al, 2004). Benor (2001, 2004) documents scientific validation for spiritual healing. Dossey (1993) cites evidence for the positive effects of prayer on healing.
Currently, there are almost 4000 members in the National Spiritualist Association of Churches—the most prominent association of Spiritualists in North America. A truer indicator of the popularity of mediums and healers is the results of a Gallup poll. In 1996, a Gallup poll concluded that 52% of North Americans believe in mediums and ghosts.
At its birth, modern Spiritualism was mainly a commercial phenomenon that amused or aggravated the public in North America but never took root. The process of fascinating and disarming the public who seek the dramatic phenomena produced by charismatic mediums and healers continues in large groups today. These healers, like TV evangelist Bennie Hinn in the United States and John of God in Brazil, may attend a stadiumful of people in a day, displaying phenomena that convince people that spiritual healing is effective. These are the strong personalities who stand at the portals of the field of spiritual healing—they introduce it to others.
Once through the portals, one finds a different field, related less to drama and personal ego and more to steady, humble, personal work. Those who follow Spiritism have created a deeply rooted tradition that continues to spread today, quietly engaged with profound personal transformation and anonymous charitable giving. There are millions of Brazilian Spiritists who go about the work of “reforma íntima,” channeling, healing, praying, and doing charity work—without commercialization, self-serving promotion, or flamboyant display. Some of them consider Spiritism their religion. Call it what you will, their way of life may, in fact, be the essence of a healing life of the spirit. It is a way of life that allows the individual to become whole, more healthy, more knowledgeable, more giving, and more connected to community and “higher power,” and consistently to progress on the path of spiritual evolution.
SUMMARY
In their healing centers and hospitals Spiritists employ highly developed spiritual healing techniques to complement allopathic medicine. These may be more effective than the therapeutic practices such as reiki and therapeutic touch that are more familiar to us in the United States. Although some reports indicate extraordinary successes in healing both mental and physical diseases at the centers that use Spiritist techniques, there is need for more rigorous research.
Spiritism addresses many of our current socioeconomic needs. Because the therapies are given by highly trained volunteers (as part of their spiritual practice), Spiritist therapies provide a partial answer to the skyrocketing costs of our current health care system. They can also nourish those looking for a philosophy of life and spiritual practice distinct from conventional religion. Spiritists answer the need of those natural mediums and healers who wish to harness their gifts. This is particularly significant for those who may be misdiagnosed as having mental illness when, in fact, they are suffering from a “spiritual problem”—namely, mediumistic abilities that need to be channeled positively, to help others. These natural mediums need the direction and spiritual community that Spiritist centers offer.
Several organizations are bringing Brazil’s Spiritism to the United States. The International Medical Spiritist Association in Brazil increases dialogue about spirituality and health through annual conferences. The Center for the Study of Religious and Spiritual Problems in São Paulo, founded by Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD, and Francisco Lotufo Neto, MD, is furthering scientific research and publishing in Portuguese and English. The Foundation for Energy Therapies in the United States offers mobile classrooms in Brazil to introduce Spiritist therapies to students and health professionals outside Brazil and collaborates with Brazilians in research studies in Spiritist hospitals. Although there are independent researchers in the United States who have been looking into spiritual healing in various cultures, there is a need and opportunity to generate a more organized effort that includes the Kardecist Spiritist tradition. Fortunately, many Spiritists are encouraging this initiative by translating more of the seminal books into English and welcoming English-speaking participants into their activities.
Acknowledgments
The author gratefully acknowledges the kind support of J.L. Grobler, MD, as well as the editorial comments on earlier versions of this chapter by Alexander Moreira-Almeida, MD; Vanessa Anseloni, MA; Ily Reis, Esquire; and Joby Thompson.
Research for this article was funded by Laurance Rockefeller, Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Kellogg, the Lloyd Symington Foundation, the Foundation for Energy Therapies, Inc., and the Marion Institute.
Chapter References can be found on the Evolve website at http://evolve.elsevier.com/Micozzi/complementary/