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Herculano Pires and the Works of
Andre Luiz
Part 2 (Final) |
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Herculano
Pires, in
the Correio
Fraterno,
1989,
continues:
All who
participate
in the
Spiritist
movement
know that
Spirits
actively
participate
in the
doctrinal
work;
nothing more
natural,
therefore,
than their
intensive
participation
in the
celebrations
of the
centenary. A
concrete
proof of
this has
just been
given by the
publication
of another
book, a
psychographics
by Francisco
Candido
Xavier, a
book in
which the
preface of
Emmanuel
contains the
following
sentences:
"A century
of work, of
renewal and
of light. To
contribute
to the
homage to
the
memorable
event, Andre
Luiz wrote
the pages of
this book".
As it turns
out,
"Action and
Reaction",
Andre Luiz's
new book,
which the
Brazilian
Spiritist
Federation
has just
published,
is a
Spiritual
contribution
to the
celebrations
of the
centenary.And
what an
excellent
contribution! The
title is
sufficient
to indicate
the content.
Andre Luiz
makes an
ample
exposition
of the
problem of
action and
reaction,
through
examples
taken
directly in
the dark
areas where
the
suffering
Spirits
live.
Andre Luiz's
books, which
already
constitute a
large
collection,
are a real
work of
illustration
of the
Spiritist
principles,
through
reports of
episodes
lived in the
Spiritual
planes. In
Our Home or
Astral City,
in the first
volume of
the series,
we have the
detailed
description
of a
Spiritual
city,intended
for the
preparation
of creatures
for higher
Spirituality. In
The
Messengers,
the
Dantesque
description
of the zones
of
suffering,
purgatorial
or infernal
regions -
as you wish
– where the
souls - of
those who
did not
understand
the
opportunities
of the
earthly
incarnation
- crawl.
Messengers
are the
Higher
Spirits who
descend into
the shadowy
areas or
onto the
surface of
the Earth,
to bring
relief to
the
creatures
given to
despair,
anguish,
remorse, and
all forms of
Spiritual
suffering.
In "Action
and
Reaction"
the events
also take
place in a
Spiritual
zone heavily
loaded with
material
influences. In
the midst of
a seemingly
abandoned
region,
where the
"brute and
brave
souls", to
which Dante
refers,
roar, cry,
rage, and
moan, lost
in the
shadows and
rescued by
the gale of
their own
iniquities,
rises an
architectural
ensemble
which offers
asylum,
comfort and
healing to
those who
have been
able to be
helped, that
is, the
Spirits who
have begun
to repent of
their
mistakes.
"The
establishment,"
says Andre
Luiz,
"situated in
the lower
regions, was
a sort of
Saint
Bernard
Monastery in
an area
punctuated
by hostile
nature,
except that
the snow,
almost
constant
around the
famous
convent,
stuck in the
canyons,
between
Switzerland
and Italy,
was replaced
by the thick
shade, which
at that hour
was
thickening
around the
institution,
as if
touched by
unceasing
wind".
For those
who do not
know the
principles
of the
Spiritist
Doctrine and
are
unfamiliar
with
descriptions
of the
Spiritual
zones
closest to
the Earth's
crust, all
this may
seem
illusory,
imaginary,
and
unlikely. But
those who
know that
the Spirits
are nothing
more than
disembodied
men and who,
like earthly
men, live
their lives,
carry out
their work
and carry
out their
constructions,
fully
understand
the
descriptions
of Andre
Luiz.
There are
those who do
not accept
the
existence of
such
concrete
things in
the
Spiritual
plane. Andre
Luiz refers,
however, to
the lower
zones, those
in which
Spirits,
still too
attached to
the forms of
material
life, could
not "free
themselves
in Spirit". It
is edifying
to see, in
"Action and
Reaction,"
how the
Higher
Spirits work
in these
regions,
rendering
their
charitable
assistance
to the
brethren who
have
transgressed
in the
selfish
paths of
earthly
life. (PIRES,
1992, pp.
72-74,
emphasis
added).
7) The
infinite and
the finite,
Correio,
1989.
Spiritist
messages
abroad
confirm
those
received in
Brazil
Books by
Chico Xavier
in
comparison
with French
and English
Works -
"Life in the
Invisible
Worlds", by
the Anglican
Rev. Robert
Hugh Benson,
published in
Portuguese
Many people
find it
difficult to
accept the
descriptions
of life
beyond the
grave, from
Andre Luiz's
books,
psychographics
by Chico
Xavier. Even
among the
Spiritists,
who are
already
accustomed
to dealing
with the
problems of
the "other
side of
life", these
descriptions
found at
first, and
still find,
a certain
dislike.
Emmanuel
explained,
quite
clearly and
fully, in
the preface
to The
Messengersthat
Andre Luiz's
accounts
should not
be taken
literally
but as an
effort to
objectify,
in earthly
language,
the visions
of the
Spiritual
world.
Despite
this, the
extreme
similarity
of life in
space with
life on
Earth still
disturbs
some people
and causes
criticism by
religious
and
materialists.
The
misunderstanding
about this
is natural,
mainly
because of
two
fundamental
motives:
first, the
ingrained
habit of
considering postmortem life
as
mysterious,
inaccessible
to the
understanding
of mortals;
second, the
habitual
confusion
between body
and Spirit,
the source
of
materialism,
which
prevents
many people
from
admitting
the
existence of
life outside
matter. This
second
reason is
the reverse
of the first
and both
represent
extreme
positions in
the face of
the problem
of survival.
Spiritism
shows us
that life
beyond death
is not
inaccessible
to our
understanding
and
clarifies at
the same
time the
materialistic
confusion
between body
and Spirit.
Sir Oliver
Lodge, the
great
English
physicist,
understood
that
Spiritism
carries out
a new
Copernican
revolution.
This
revolution
consists
precisely in
modifying
our attitude
toward the
problem of
life. If
Copernicus
destroyed
the
geocentric
conception
of the
Universe,
Spiritism,
in turn,
destroys the
organocentric
conception
of life.
From an
organocentric
point of
view, which
characterizes
materialism,
life is only
possible in
plant and
animal
organisms.
Spiritism
states and
proves the
opposite,
that is,
life is
independent
of these
organisms
and
manifests
itself in a
thousand
different
forms and
ways, in the
infinite
Universe.
The
religious
who
criticize
the
mediumistic
descriptions
of the
beyond do
not fail to
accept this
decentralization
of life, but
do not
accept their
interpretation
or rational
explanation.
They cling
to dogmas,
to rigid
principles
of faith,
remaining in
the plane of
mystery.
However, if
they studied
for some
more time
the sacred
texts of
their own
religions,
they would
see that the
existence of
Spiritual
cities in
the
beyond-tomb,
of
dwellings,
of plants
and of
animals, is
not, as they
suppose, an
invention of
the
Spiritists.
The Old
Testament
and the New
Testament,
for example,
are full of
descriptions
of this
order. Just
remember
what Isaiah
says (33:17,
20) about
"the land
from afar"
and "Zion of
solemnity,"
and John's
Apocalypse
about the
heavenly
Jerusalem.
With regard
to
mediumistic
revelations,
Andre Luiz's
descriptions
are not new,
except for
what they
bring of
personal,
the way the
author sees
them.
Already in Heaven
and Hell,
Kardec
presents
similar
descriptions.
In the Revue
Spirite,
the Encoder
published
numerous
reports from
beyond the
grave in the
same sense.
Sir Oliver
Lodge
presents a
similar
picture in Raymond,
Denis
Bradley in Star
Trek,
and so on.
Now, Editora O
Pensamento,
located in
this
capital, has
just
launched the
translation
of Life
in the World
Unseen by
Anthony
Borgia, with
the version
of the
title for
Life in the
Invisible
Worlds.
The
translation
was
entrusted to
J. Escobar
Faria, who
carried out
an excellent
work.
We have in
this curious
book a new
version of
life in the
hereafter,
with details
that fully
confirm the
descriptions
of Andre
Luiz. The
Spiritual
author is
former Rev.
Robert Hugh
Benson, the
son of a
former
Archbishop
of
Canterbury,
who, in the
manner of
Andre Luz,
relates his
passage to
the other
side and
describes
that side.
The second
part of the
book offers
us a kind of
geography of
the
Spiritual
planes
closer to
Earth.
Benson, who
in earthly
life had
written
about
Spiritual
matters,
giving
captious
interpretation
to some of
his psychic
experiences,
seeks to
correct in
this book
his dogmatic
errors of
that time.
The
religious in
general, and
the
Spiritists
in
particular,
will find
in The
Life in the
Invisible
Worlds much
material for
comparison
with the
descriptions
of the
sacred texts
and the
psychic
communications
obtained in
our country.
This
confrontation,
for
Spiritists,
meets one of
the
requirements
of the
doctrinal
method, for
the
acceptance
of Spiritual
information:
that of
universal
consensus,
established
by the
Encoder. (PIRES,
1989, pp.
105-110,
emphasis
added).
8) By Jorge
Rizzini: J.
Herculano
Pires the
Apostle of
Kardec, Paideia,
2001.
Is there a
“Luizine”
revelation?
We begin by
copying a
chronicle
signed with
the
pseudonym
"Brother
Saulo"
entitled "Is
there a
revelation
from Luiz?",
Which
refutes an
article by
Salvador
Gentile
(director of
the "Spiritist
Yearbook",
edited in
Araras,
State of Sao
Paulo),
regarding
the work "Nosso
Lar" (Our
Home or
Astral
City),
psychographics
by Chico
Xavier. The
chronicle of
Herculano
Pires,
printed in
the "Diario
de São
Paulo", is
of
importance
because,
when the
first works
of the
Spirit Andre
Luiz
appeared,
some
leaders,
demonstrating
doctrinal
immaturity,
proclaimed
in the
tribunes and
in the
newspapers
that they
were the
"Fourth
Revelation"...
Let us read
the
considerations
of Herculano
Pires:
"The
publication
in Tokyo of
a Japanese
edition of
Andre Luiz's
book "Nosso
Lar" (Our
Home or
Astral
City), led
the confrere
Salvador
Gentile to
revive in
the 'Spiritist
Yearbook
1969' the
thesis of
the
“revelation
of Luiz”.
This thesis
won a
certain
vogue in the
Spiritist
milieu (some
say “andreluizine”),
but it soon
cooled
because
Emmanuel and
Andre Luiz
were the
first to
throw a wet
blanket. Gentile
resuscitates
it in terms
of doctrinal
revisionism,
of
'overcoming'
Kardec, not
forgetting
to criticize
“the
orthodox
that make
Kardec an
intangible
dogma”. To
respect the
Codification
is to be
dogmatic,
according to
the
accusations
of the
Divinists
and other
renovators.
"Gentile
starts from
the
assumption
that
Kardec's
work was
based on
generalities.
He wants
more
detailed and
concrete
information
that Andre
Luiz
provides
about the
life of the
Spirits. But
if they had
resorted to
Emmanuel's
preface in
the book The
Messengers,
he would see
that this
concretization
is symbolic
and
therefore
abstract. The
work of
Andre Luiz
is
illustrative
of the
Spiritist
revelation,
and not
properly
complementary,
in the sense
of
overcoming,
as the
writer
wants. It is
a great and
beautiful
contribution
in Spiritist
studies,
but its
touchstone
is the
Codification.
"What
impressed
Gentile most
was the “revelation”
of Spiritual
cities in
space.
But the
Bible
already told
us about the
Celestial
Jerusalem
and the
ancient
revelations
are full of
similar
ideas. They
are still
materialized
plans of the
Spiritual
life and not
of the
higher
planes.
The 'Spiritist
Magazine'
presents
numerous
accounts of
this life
that
resembles
earthly
life. But
Gentile goes
further and
states that
certain
concepts of
Kardec are
reformulated
in Our Home,
for example:
the concept
of the wandering
Spirits, the
concept of
camp, the
perispirit
without
material-type
organs.
"Gentile's
criticism of
these
concepts is
not right.
Kardec
explains in
item 226 of The
Book of
Spirits that
all the
Spirits that
are yet to
be
reincarnated,
even the
most
evolved,
are wandering. Erraticity implies
not only
permanence
in lower
planes, but
a condition
of the
Spirit in
its
evolutionary
process. It
is a
relative
concept,
that is, it
concerns the
relationship
of the
Spirit with
its passage
through the
lower stages
of the
earthly
incarnation.
The concept
or notion
of camp does
not have in
Kardec the
application
that Gentile
gave it. It
refers to
the
transient
worlds and
not to the
Spiritual
planes. The
concept of
the
perispirit
without
physical
organs,
which does
not need a
restoration
of its
forces, is
also
relative and
is well
explained in
item 254,
where one
can read
this
clearly:
“The kind of
fatigue that
the Spirits
can feel is
in reason of
their
inferiority,
because the
more they
rise, the
less they
need to
rest”.
"Based on
false
premises,
the writer
could only
arrive to
false
conclusions.
There is no
reason to
say “Luizine
Revelation”,
even though
Kardec's own
thesis is
that of a
continuous
revelation
from the
acceptance
and
knowledge of
mediumship.
Before
thinking
about “new
revelations”,
what we
urgently
need is a
systematic
and in-depth
study of
Kardec's
work,
including
not only the
volumes of
the
Codification,
but also of
the
“Spiritist
Magazine”,
itself
indicated as
necessary
for a good
knowledge of
the
Doctrine. "(RIZZINI,
2001, pp.
244-246,
emphasis
added)
Conclusion
What we saw
was exactly
the opposite
of what is
insinuated,
since
Herculano
Pires was,
in fact, a
defender of
the works of
Andre Luiz;
he fought,
indeed,
those who in
his time
wanted to
transform
them into
the "Fourth
Revelation",
which meant
leaving the
works of
Kardec in
the
background
(or even
rejecting
them); these
works were
largely
recognized
as the
"Third
Revelation";
and thus,
dear reader,
“the Apostle
of Kardec”,
as Riziini
would say,
did not
spare his
criticism on
them.
On the other
hand,
Herculano
did not
appear so
intransigent
to the point
of
considering
all the
information
projected
from the
literature
of Andre
Luiz as
absolute
truths; he
had, as we
have seen,
serious
issues such
as the
existence of
"ovoids", as
can be seen
in one of
the five
texts above.
At first we
thought that
Herculano
had
misunderstood
Andre Luiz's
information,
but no;
based on
this
Spiritual
author, the
Spirits that
are in the
ovoid
condition
have lost
their
perispiritual
body, which,
certainly,
is contrary
to what we
can deduct
from
Kardec’s
Codification.
However, we
must
understand
that all of
us, because
we are not
yet Pure
Spirits, are
subject to
errors, even
Herculano
Pires
himself, in
the same
work in
question - Vampirism -,
ended up by
this
committing
this error:
Homosexuality,
in both
sexes,
because of
its
intensity in
ancient
civilizations
and its
brutal
revival in
our time is
the most
serious of
these abnormalities which
are now
claimed to
be normal.
[...]. Any
justification
for these
abnormalities
is no more
than a
sophistry that
threatens
the very
existence of
the species.
[...]. (PIRES,
1980, pp. 29
and 30,
emphasis
added)
Herculano
Pires
certainly
did not
remember
this speech
of Kardec,
in the
article "Do
Women have a
soul?"
published in
the Spiritist
Magazine1866:
[...] it may
occur that
the Spirit
travels
through a
series of
existences
in the same
sex, which
makes it
possible
that for a
long time it
retains, in
the state of
a Spirit,
the
character of
a man or of
a woman, the
mark of
which
remains in
it. [...].
If this
influence
reflects
from the
bodily life
to the
Spiritual
life, the
same happens
when the
Spirit
passes from
the
Spiritual
life to the
bodily life.
In a new
incarnation,
it will
bring the
character
and
inclinations
it had as
Spirit;
if it is
advanced it
will come as
an advanced
man; if it
is backward
it will come
as a
backward
man. By
changing its
gender, it
can, under
that
impression
and in its
new
incarnation,
keep its
same tastes,
tendencies
and inherent
gender
character. This
explains
some
apparent
anomalies
noted in the
character of
certain men
and certain
women. (KARDEC,
1993, p.4)
Following
strictly
what
Herculano
stated, it
could be
said that
Kardec used
sophistry to
explain some
cases of
homosexuality.
We believe
that the
somewhat
pejorative
form with
which
Herculano
Pires
treated
Andre Luiz
in the work Vampirismo,
even though
we could not
specify when
he took the
pen to write
it, we
consider him
fully
rehabilitated,
for
everything
he says in
his other
works about
him who
exercised
the function
of "reporter
from
beyond."
In J.
Herculano
Pires, the
Apostle of
Kardec,
the author,
Jorge
Rizzini
(1924-2008),
makes a
biography of
Herculano
and mentions
absolutely
nothing
about a
possible
change of
his thought
in relation
to the works
of Andre
Luiz, or
that he
began to
consider him
as a
"neophyte,
enthused by
doctrine",
since his
position is
circumstantial
to the
thesis of
Salvador
Gentile,
published in
the Spiritist
Yearbook
1969,
that this
Spiritual
author is
the bearer
of the "Fourth
Revelation."
We return to
the passage:
"Andre Luiz
manifests
himself as
a neophyte
who is
enthusiastic about
doctrine, sometimes
employing
terms that
deviate from
doctrinal
terminology and
concepts
that do not
always
conform to
Spiritist
principles".
It is good
to emphasize
that this
cannot be
generalized,
since
Herculano
Pires makes
it clear
that it is
only "sometimes"
that Andre
Luiz used
terms that
were not in
accordance
with the
doctrinal
terminology,
and he did
not say that
"everything"
that he
produced was
in
accordance,
as it seems
to be the
understanding
of some
companions.
Bibliographic
reference:
KARDEC, A. Spiritist
Magazine 1866.
Araras, SP:
IDE, 1993.
PIRES, H.
J. Mediumship:
concept of
mediumship
and general
analysis of
its current
problems.
Sao Paulo:
Edicel,
1987.
PIRES, J. H.
and XAVIER,
F. At the
time of
testimony.
Sao Paulo:
Paideia,
1978.
PIRES, J.
H. The
Spirit and
the time.
Sao Paulo:
Edicel,
2003.
PIRES, J.
H. The
infinite and
the finite. Sao
Bernardo do
Campo, SP:
Correio
Fraterno,
1989.
PIRES, J.
H. The
mystery of
good and
evil. S.
Bernardo do
Campo:
Correio
Fraterno,
1992.
PIRES, J.
H. Vampirism.
Sao Paulo:
Paideia,
1980.
RIZZINI, J.
J. Herculano
Pires, the
Apostle of
Kardec.
Sao Paulo:
Paideia,
2001.
XAVIER, F.
C. AND PIRES,
J. H. Dialogue
of the
living. Sao
Bernardo do
Campo, SP:
GEEM, 2011.
Translation:
Eleni
Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br