################################################################# GRUPO DE ESTUDOS AVANCADOS ESPIRITAS - GEAE 2(18)/93 09/02/93 ################################################################# SPIRITISM IN BRAZIL In April 18th, 1857 was published the first book which compiled the principles of the Doctrine of the Spirits that is equally referred to as Spiritism. Its author was Allan kardec who made it clear that the Doctrine did not and does not belong to any man, but to the Higher Spirits. His real name was Hippolyte Leon Denizard Rivail but he adopted the pseudonym: Allan Kardec. The objective was to separate the spiritist work from the educational one, since Rivail had been Pestalozzi's pupil (1) and had written a vast educational literature. His motivation to exert such an important task, which is to spread the truth about Immortality of the Soul, can be found in the spirit's manifestation phenomena which ocurred in France and Europe last century, and which can be traced back to the ones in America, which started with the Fox Sisters and originated Modern Spiritualism. The work done by Kardec constituted in the compilation of information given by the Sipritual World to whom he was always loyal. This is the reason why in Brazil he is known as the Codificador that means one who gathers other's ideas and divulges them. The beloved Codificador has never been in Brazil during his earthly life, but from the Spiritual World he has visited us through automatic writting, in a mediunic meeting held on June 14th, 1979 at FEB (Brazilian Federation of Spiritism (1)). His ideas and the Doctrine, however, made him more alive than ever. In Brazil there are thousands of Spiritists Groups legally registred which practice Spiritism according to Kardec and the number of Spiritists can be counted by the millions. Kardec and the Doctrine are so well known here that in 1957, 1964, 1969 and more recently in 1989 during the First International Congress of Spiritism held in Brasilia(Brazil's Capital), commemorative stamps were issued to honor him. The principles of the Doctrine of the Spirits can be summarized as follows and are found in the five books of the Doctrine written by Kardec (2). We believe that: * "God is the Supreme Intelligence and First cause of all things.: * we are all spiritual beings in ascending evolution. * The spiritual world interferes in the material one either in the phenomena of nature or in human behavior. We can communicate with the Spiritual World and receive messages from there through Mediunism which is a free gift and must be freely exerted. The most well known medium of automatic writting in Brazil is Francisco Candido Xavier (Chico xavier) who during his more than 60 years of mediunic work, has been dictated 352 books from many respected by Brazilian Spiritists. The majority o his books are published by FEB and all profit derived from them are donated to Spiritist Institutions which have social programs such as: children and elderly care or hospitals. The principles mentioned above show the many similarities that exist between Spiritism and American Spiritualism. However there are two main differences between them and which must be pointed out: A fourth principle of the Religion of the Spirits (as Spiritism is also known in Brazil, since it is a religon) is that we believe that Jesus is the Highest Spiritual Being that had incarnated on Earth and that by following His teachings in their purest form, explained by the Doctrine, we conquer the title of Chritians in the same way as those who followed Him at His time. What does it mean? It means that we consider Christians those who, as defined in the New Testament, follow Jesus by practicing His teachings. It does not mean we believe that Jesus is an incarnation of God, because we do not. Emmanuel (3), a spiritual guide, in his book "A Caminho da Luz" which was automatically written by Chico Xavier, inform us that Jesus is the Spiritual Guide of our planet, therefore He is our brother in Spirit. We also do not believe in the Vicarios Atonement because we are convinced that we are solely responsible for our attitudes and we believe that our salvation is on practicing His teachings: " Love God with all your heart and your neighbors as yourselves." By teaching us how to understand God and how to promote spiritual progress we can consider the Lord a Savior as much as someone who being lost in a desert, would consider his/her savior a guide who would take him/her by their hands and give them a compass with which they would be able to trace their way back to their safety homes. Because we consider ourselves Christians, we normally start and end our services praying to Jesus so that He will be present among us, represented by the Higher Spirits who work in His name. (to be continued...) ______________________________________________________________________ N.R. O artigo acima e' de autoria de Magda Luzimar de Abreu e sera publicado em duas partes. ______________________________________________________________________ ######################################### C O M E N T A R I O S ######################################### Amigos do GEAE, Segue um artigo (SPIRITISM IN BRAZIL) de nossa autoria publicado em novembro/92 na National Spiritualist Summit dos USA. Ela corresponde ao Reformador da FEB. No futuro tentarei coloca-los 'a par dos contatos que tivemos com a comunidade espiritualista americana, quando ai estivemos durante o nosso programa de doutorado. O artigo e'sobre espiritismo no Brasil e esta' em ingles. Como o artigo foi publicado para um publico nao espirita tivemos que escrever de forma bem simplificada. Gostariamos de ouvir a opiniao de voces sobre o mesmo porque fomos sinalizados com a possibilidade de publicarmos outros artigos na mesma revista, e queremos ser o mais fiel possivel 'a doutrina. Alguns esclarecimentos: O espiritualismo moderno, movimento surgido apos as irmas Fox, nos EU., que se expandiu depois para a Europa, nao aceita Kardec por causa da defesa fiel do Codificador 'a ideia de reencarnacao. Falar deste assunto portanto e' proibido no meio tualista (entende-se espiritualismo moderno). Eles tambem nao aceitam Jesus como colocado pelo cristianismo ( nos EU. normalmente sinonimo de protestantismo). Mediunidade para eles e' uma profissao. Como o artigo e' grande e o tempo escasso escreverei em duas partes. magda@cptec.inpe.br ___________________________________ Caro Raul, Eu vivo na Inglaterra e estou indo embora de volta para o o Brasil em Setembro proximo. Quando nos viemos nos trouxemos muitos livros espiritas e alguns foram trazidos durante o periodo que nos temos vivido aqui. Voce sabe na hora de voltar o tamanho da bagagem e' muito maior do que agente pode carregar Primeiro, porque a mae da minha esposa e minha irma tem a grande maioria dos livros que nos temos e segundo pelo motivo ja exposto. Voce saberia de alguem no reino unido que poderia estar interessado nos mesmos ? Esperando ouvir de voce `a posteriori Abracos Aipore a.moraes@pa.shelf.ac.uk ___________________________________________________________________ N.R. Os amigos que estiverem interessados nos livros, favor entrar em contato direto com o Aipore. ___________________________________ COMENTARIOS: Envie seus textos/comentarios para o GEAE. ############################################## GRUPO DE ESTUDOS AVANCADOS ESPIRITAS - GEAE Coordenador: Raul Franzolin Neto E.mail:INTERNET: franzolin.1@osu.edu BITNET : franzolin.1@ohstmail.bitnet Edicoes Anteriores: Jose Cid jac14@po.cwru.edu ##############################################