"All is the work of the mind in space and time, using thousands of forms, in order to purify and sanctify itself for the Divine Glory". - Andre Luiz (Between Earth and Heaven, Chapter XX, page 128).

The issue mediumship is of great importance, since it is part of the great Divine or Natural Law. Everyone possesses it, even if in a primitive way, and it is the capacity to perceive, to impress or simply to be influenced, touched by other minds, whether they are immersed in the physical field or not.

In The Book of Mediums, Chapter 14, Item 159, Kardec explains that "every person who feels the influence of the Spirits, in any degree of intensity, is a medium. This faculty is inherent in man. For this very reason, it is not a privilege. (..). It can be said, therefore, that all are more or less mediums". (2005)

It is worth extending this concept a little more, so that we can make some important differences. The word medium refers mainly to a person's ability to be an intermediate between two planes of life (the corporeal and spiritual worlds). Thus, a medium would be "the one in the middle," which connects with minds or places in another dimension and externalizes what he perceives. It would be the one who brings what he perceived in the other plane of life to the dimension where he is inserted.

From this point of view, we can also say that all have mediumship, but not all act as mediums (I speak here in the sense of mediumistic activity). This is because he who is influenced by other minds will not always serve as a "bridge" between the two planes, nor will he use his mediumship abilities to produce certain phenomena (mediumistic painting, psychographics, physical effects etc.). And even more: most people are not even aware that they are influenced by other minds.

In fact, there is much talk about ostensible mediums, i.e., those who are more subject to spiritual influence, who perceive in a higher degree and concretely the action and presence of Spirits (incarnated or disincarnated), producing, due to their perispiritual predisposition, several phenomena.

Still in the same chapter quoted above, Kardec points out that "this faculty (mediumship) does not manifest itself in all the same way. Mediums generally have a special aptitude for this or that order of phenomena. Thus, they are classified according to many varieties as are the kinds of manifestations. The main ones are: mediums of physical effects, sensitive or impressionable mediums, hearing, speakers, psychics, somnambulists, healers, pneumatographers, clerks or psychographers". (The Book of Mediums, Chapter XIV).

This article does not intend to analyze these types of mediumship, often studied in the Spiritist Centers, through basic and complementary works. Those who wish to learn more about it should seek the means, especially the meticulous reading of The Book of Mediums, as it is the best script for those who perceive themselves to be more sensitive and who wish to develop their perceptual capacities better. Mediumship work is a serious task, which requires more than loving: it also requires the practice of constant study, self-vigilance, and routine dedication, at the risk of serious mistakes and falls.

In this text I will try to highlight the reality of mediumship in our everyday life, the question of the nature of thoughts and the possible attunement and connections established between our mind and that of other beings. This is because much of what we feel, do, and think, as well as some physical symptoms may have in their genesis something more than just the action or feelings of the reincarnated being itself.

The Nature of Thoughts - But, after all, what are thoughts? Where do they come from and what do they cause?

There are various theories regarding this issue. I will not dwell on explaining them (which are many), since the discussion of the mind-brain relationship is still on the agenda of Science in many universities around the world. The academic milieu has not yet reached a consensus on this.

Briefly, and dividing these theories into two large groups, we can say that some neuroscientists - those who rely on a theoretical basis (philosophical) materialist / reductionist - state that the mind is a cortical product, that thoughts are part of this mind that is nothing more than an excretion, a byproduct of complex brain connections.

"They often believe that the human brain is the answer, and that the mind does not exist, or that it is only a product (for some, an epiphenomenon, an inefficient byproduct) of chemistry and brain electrical activity". – explains Dr. Alexander Moreira-Almeida, from the UFJF, at the beginning of one of his articles on such a discussion. For these, everything is matter and nothing exists or survives the body and its processes.

However, a growing number of scholars have argued that there is strong evidence that the mind is external to the body and that it is the mind that sets the tone of the brain and physical processes. Amongst other research fronts, these scientists (a group of which Dr. Alexander Moreira-Almeida himself is part) continue to carry out serious studies on the Near Death Experiences (NDEs). Uniquely materialistic theories fail to explain how people experience complex and vivid thoughts, which are validated as truthful later, at times when brain activity is apparently absent.

For us, who here discuss the question of mediumship and spiritual influences, obviously the mind is external to the body, preexisting and survivable to it, and thoughts are the result of its activity and not the brain. What happens is that the brain - an extremely influential machine with its own plasticity and capabilities, can create repetitive synaptic paths, promoting the continuity of the same thoughts, even when the mind (soul) no longer wants to repeat them. It is worth saying that such "addiction" only occurs after many repeated stimuli of the mind. For example, the person, on account of a marked negative experience with someone, registers in the emotional field the event as aversive and repeats thoughts of anger against one who has committed the alleged evil against him. After some time the whole brain system will be soaked with this nature of thoughts, making them repeat, even when they become harmful to the thinking being. What is more, such repeated thoughts end up forming a specific aura around the person. The fluids are transformed, absorbing the tone given by the authoring mind, externalizing, modified. Kardec said that "evil thoughts corrupt spiritual fluids, as deleterious miasmas corrupt the breathable air". (The Book of Mediums, Chapter 14, Item 16).

It can thus be concluded that around a person, a family, a city, a nation or a planet, there is a fluidic spiritual atmosphere, which varies according to the moral nature of the Spirits involved.

Fluidic Atmosphere and Tuning - Emmanuel, in the work "Roadmap", clarifies that: "We are obsessed by friends disembodied or not and aided by benefactors, in any plane of life, according to our mental condition. Hence the imperative of our constant renewal for the infinite good".

The question of the nature of the thoughts is something much more serious than some think. Jesus already said that adultery begins in the thoughts and that already the question is serious there. In the book In the Domains of the Mediumship, dictated by the Spirit Andre Luiz, psychographed by Francisco Candido Xavier, the spiritual advisor, Aulus, comments that "we throw from ourselves the active energy of our own thought, establishing, around us our individuality, the psychic environment that is particular to us".(...). "Our mind is a nucleus of intelligent forces, generating subtle plasma that, unceasingly unfolding from us, offers resources of objectivity to the figures of our imagination, under the command of our own designs".

But we do not stop there. In addition to exteriorizing thought-forms, we eventually change fluids and attune ourselves to other minds from the quality of those thoughts. The spiritual advisor also says that "where there is thought, there are mental currents and where there are mental currents there is association. And all association is interdependence and reciprocal influence".

We are here emphasizing the question of mental attunement, a natural Law, which makes us live in a regime of psychic interdependence, as well as organic, as nature already demonstrates to us, day after day. Therefore, the idea of ​​total individuality and absolute secrecy of thoughts is mistaken. To this fluidic atmosphere that we create are associated disincarnated beings with similar moral and vibrational tendencies, through the same Law.

For this reason, the Higher Spirits recommend that our conduct, in the relations with life, be the highest possible. A creature that lives indulged in pessimism and evil thoughts has around itself a dark spiritual atmosphere, from which sick Spirits draw near. Anguish, sadness and hopelessness appear, forming a depressing physical-psychic picture that can be modified under the guidance of Jesus' moral teachings.

Perispirit, mediumship and the various dimensions in which life happens - Kardec was very careful in organizing the Doctrine of the Spirits. One of them was to create new words for new concepts in order to avoid theoretical confusion. Among them, he gave the name of perispirit to the fluidic envelope that gives shape to the soul, constituted of subtle matter, not perceptible to the physical eyes. Before Kardec, various cultures already spoke about this spiritual body, using other names, but highlighting specific properties, such as the Force Centers (Chakras, for the Hindus), which was so well explained later by the Spirit Andre Luiz.

At the beginning of his most famous work, Zimmermann, in the book "Perispirit", explains that "Perispirit is the subtle and perennial envelope of the soul that enables its interaction with the spiritual and physical means"(Chapter I, page 23).

It possesses the property of ponderability (it can be submitted to measurement of weight) and luminosity (it can be more or less luminous, according to the evolutionary characteristics of the soul).

Another property is that of penetrability. On account of it, the Spirits can cross walls or any physical barrier. However, the disincarnates, who are still very attached to matter, may not be able to cross physical obstacles as a result of their low vibratory potential mental state, which conditions their possibilities, since their perispirit is clothed with more dense matter. (This article will be ended next week).

References:

KARDEC A. The Book of Mediums or Guide for Mediums and Evocative, 49^th French Edition translated by Guillon Ribeiro. 76^th Edition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2005.

___________. The Gospel According to Spiritism, translation by Guillon Ribeiro, of the 3^rd French Edition, revised, corrected and modified by the author in 1866. 124^thEdition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2004.

__________. The Book of Spirits: principles of the Spiritist Doctrine. Translation by Guillon Ribeiro of the 86^th Edition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2005.

___________The Genesis: the miracles and predictions according to Spiritism, translation of the 5th French Edition by Guillon Ribeiro. 48^th Edition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2005.

MOREIRA-ALMEIDA, A. Exploring the mind-brain relationship: reflections and guidelines - Exploring mind-brain relationship: reflections and guidelines, Rev. Clinical Psychiatrist, volume 40 no.3 Sao Paulo 2013.

XAVIER, F C. Road Map  by the Spirit Emmanuel. 7th Edition, Rio de Janeiro, RJ: FEB. 1986.

____________. In the Domains of Mediumship, by the Spirit Andre Luiz. 32th Edition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2005.

____________. Between Earth and Heaven, by the Spirit Andre Luiz, 23th

Edition, Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 2005.

ZIMMERMANN, Z. Perispirit, 1^st Edition, Campinas, SP: CEAK, 2000.