The sentence above was said by Layrton Alves Vargas, a medium and businessman in Rio de Janeiro. Layrton was an adept of Umbanda, an Afro-Brazilian religion, for 30 years, before becoming a Spiritist 10 years ago. He is the founder and current president of Casa de Frei Fabiano and Casa Social de Cáritas, in the Méier area of Rio. He also works with Spiritist surgery at the Regenation Spiritist Group, also in Rio.

When did you realise that you had made the right choice by becoming a Spiritist?

When I received three messages from a Spiritual Benefactor who told me to go through Spiritual treatment and said that it was backed up by Spiritism, which was completely absurd to me until then. I didn’t know anything about Spiritism at the time and was a volunteer at an Umbanda centre. It was a difficult time and I was very anxious about the right choice to make.

Can you tell us a bit more about Casa de Frei Fabiano, the Spiritist Centre you direct now?

Casa de Frei Fabiano says that faith cannot remain restricted to the books and speeches. The best way to put into practice the principle of love towards other people is through concrete action to help those in need. That is why we have a number of charitable events and we teach our members to love one another, not only those who are close to us or belong to our group.

What about Casa Social de Cáritas?

It was founded in February 2016 after we organised a number of small events to help the homeless, with donation of clothes and food for those in need in the Méier neighbourhood. We knew then that we have to start on a more structured and comprehensive project to provide better care for children, teenagers and the elderly. Daniel Sumar helped us turn that dream into reality. We established a partnership in 2016 and offer lessons on violin, singing, keyboard and arts for children, teenagers and young men in the area.

How did your work with mediunimic painting began?

We are facing severe financial problems in September 2010. We were two months behind with the rent and during a spiritual treatment meeting, the medium suggested that we held a mediunimic painting session to help raise funds for our group. I didn’t know what she meant and she explained: the Spirit of a painter, like Claude Monet, paints during a session through a medium. We would sell the painting and help the Spiritist Centre meet its financial demands. On the day we agreed, we got together, prayed and asked for the Spirits of painters to help us if that was what God wanted. It was an amazing moment. They came, the paintings were produced and our work began. I have since been invited by other Spiritist Centres in Brazil and abroad. The coordinator of the work is Renoir. He is always the first one to paint. But we have had so far more than 70 painters with us. The money raised from the sale of the paintings is given to social projects.

What have you learned with them?

The main goal here is to prove that the soul is immortal. Our painter friends produce wonderful pieces of art, expressing the beauty of the universe and nature in such particular ways that we get deeply touched.

What does it mean to be a pictographic medium?

Mediumship when practiced with responsibility is and will always be healthy. I understand that the medium’s formation is very important for its spiritual and mediunimic development. When that happens, they are able to carry out the work in a more reliable way. The theoretical knowledge of Spiritism will always help the outcome of the work carried out by the medium.

What else would like to say to mediums in Spiritist Centres?

Mediumship can come up at any time of our lives. It may come as the result of suffering, because we are paying for something we did in a previous life, as emotional imbalance or even as a spiritual mission, which is my case. Mediumship, however, is a gift that we must accept. I have come to the conclusion that no one will be forced to accept their mediumship, as we have free will. We need to make our choices along the way. We need to acquire theoretical knowledge, especially in the beginning, and that is as important as responsibility and discipline.

What gratifies you the most from your work with mediumship?

It is the possibility of acting as a tool of the Spirit World to do good and to help other people through my mediumship.