Our interviewee today is Irvênia Luiza de Santis Prada (photo),  a veterinary doctor graduated at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil. She is a lecturer on Animal Anatomics and member of the Medical Spiritist Association of São Paulo (AME-SP) and its international equivalent. She is also author and co-author of books on the spiritual issues concerning animals.

When and how did you become interested in studying the links between Veterinary and Spiritism?

When I was still a Veterinary student and began working on ambulatory care, I became increasingly surprised by the number and intensity of lethal illnesses that animals go through. Just like human beings, they suffer from infections, parasites, autoimmune diseases, epilepsy, allergies, cancer, malformations and mental illnesses as well as behavioural changes. I began to ask myself why animals suffer like that. I knew as a Spiritist then that there is no expiation from previous lives for animals (The Spirits’ Book, question number 602). I began seeking for answers in the books of Allan Kardec and other renowned authors, such as André Luiz and Emmanuel. At the same time, when I studied the anatomical aspects of the bodies of animals, focusing mainly on the structure of their nerve system, I realised that the differences to the humans are of a quantitative, not qualitative, nature. In sum, the basic model for the organic structure of all animals and human beings is the same, with variations dictated by adaptation according to the species. The results of my research both on Spiritist and academic literature have been included in my books, A Alma dos Animais (The Souls of Animals)and A Questão Espiritual dos Animais (The Spiritual Issue concerning Animals).

Was there any particular instance when you were surprised by something that Spiritism teaches about the animals?

Yes, there were many times when that happened. Among the many examples, I can highlight question 597 of The Spirits’ Book, which explains that the animals are intelligent and they have an intelligent principle in them that outlives the physical body. In other words, they are spiritual beings. In Allan Kardec’s Genesis, items 15 and 16 of chapter XI, it is considered the hypothesis that the bodies of monkeys would have been adequate for the incarnation of the first human spirits, who were naturally less developed, when they came to incarnate on the Earth. That proposition is nowadays totally backed up by Anthropology. The works of André Luiz also contain valuable information, which was presented before it was accepted by science. They say, for example, that intelligence and the mind act on the cellular cytoplasm and also brought us important reference about the morphological and functional structure of the pineal gland. Also, the Spiritual Benefactor Calderaro, in chapters 3 and 4 of André Luiz’s No Mundo Maior, mentions the triune brain theory before it was accepted in academia.  

Question 601 of The Spirts’ Book says that animals, like man, progress and evolve. Have you had many inquiries and been challenged about this particular point?

Yes, even though many Spiritist books mention clearly the concept of evolutionary process. I believe many people find it hard to accept that animals also progress spiritually because there are still anthropocentric (from the Greek, Anthropos = human being) aspects that prevail in our society. Our species is considered by many as special and better than all the others. It is implied in that way of thinking that all nature must be subjugated and explored to benefit us. High profile scientists and philosophers have adopted anthropocentrism for religious motives and it is attributed to René Descartes, in the 17^th Century, the ideal that sensitivity is an attribute of the (human) soul and could not be admitted to exist in animals. Humankind, therefore, treats animals as things, which becomes clear when we look at the way they are commercially raised and slaughtered for the consumption of their meat and other products, the way they are used in depressing entertainment shows and even how they are used in laboratory tests and trials.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Yes, I thank you for the opportunity and I would like to invite all readers to find out more about the true nature of animals. They are not useful and disposable “things”. On the contrary, they are spiritual beings going through a process of development (as Spiritism shows). They are sentient beings (according to academic literature). With variations according to the species, they are sensitive, they are capable of undergoing physical and mental suffering, they act by instinct as well as by intelligence (like us, humans). They have memory, they can associate ideas, they plan future actions and they have behaviour determined by their own will. We must get to know animals in depth and review all the acts in our lives which relate to them, respecting the right they have to their own lives and well-being. We are not their “owners”. They belong to the same creation of which we are part and the harmony that we aim for our lives depends directly of the harmony of the whole. Let’s do our part then?