The sentence above is by Júlio Cesar Pimentel Ferreira (photo), our interviewee. He was born in Igarapava and lives in Ipuã, both towns in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. He is a volunteer worker at the Nova Era Spiritist Centre, where he directs the mediumship studies. He is also a radio host in a Spiritist programme at a local radio station. Born into a Spiritist family, Júlio has studied electro electronics and mechatronics technology. He has also studied marketing and emotional coaching at the Augusto Cury Institute. He is a public speaker with a busy agenda around the country and author on Mediation of Knowledge, or MOK, as he explains in the following interview:

Where does your passion for public speaking come from?

I always admired people who spoke in public. When I was a child, I used to look at the teachers and be mesmerised.

How do you balance your volunteer work as a Spiritist speaker and your professional work in motivational talks and lectures?

I manage to switch naturally between the two, with the experience I have acquired. It has become easy for me to address any audience, taking the principles of Jesus and love without the religious jargon. I have taken part in conferences of Catholics, Protestants, Evangelical Protestants and followers of Afro-Brazilian denominations, gathering valuable experiences of love. In my professional talks, I manage to discuss the principles and lessons of Jesus Christ from a psychological perspective. I get people to look at the history of the Master to realise how he acted on his daily life. People are able then to see Jesus as a true model, someone who deserves to be followed.

Which Spiritist themes motivate and inspire you the most? And which techniques do you use to grab the public’s attention? 

The issues that are closer to my heart are motivational themes linked to emotion and in line with the proposal set out by Jesus. These days, with the information technology available, we manage to draw the attention of those who are linked somehow to those themes. The Spirits have often advised us to focus on issues that will help people look at themselves and work on forgiving themselves. I use in my talks playful concepts, with musical background, as well as illusionism and story-telling techniques. That is done not only to raise awareness and grab the public’s attention, but also to make it easier for them to truly absorb the concepts of love proposed by Our Master Jesus.

What is your best memory from your experience in the Spiritist Movement? 

It was one of the last conversations I had with Chico Xavier, in which I dared asking the following question to a man who was the essence of love: “Chico, once you told a journalist that Spiritism wouldn’t be the religion of the future, but the future of religion... What did you mean by that, Chico?” The great medium took a deep breath, as though he was looking for the energy of his youth, and sort of whispered in my ears, as his voice was already weak: “The principles of Spiritism can fit into any area of human knowledge and that is why they can be easily assimilated by any religion; there will be a day when there will be Spiritist concepts in all religions, according to the capacity of assimilation of each one of them.” I asked, then: “So there won’t be other religions anymore?” Chico replied: “No, son, the denomination of each religion doesn’t matter. What is important is the guidelines they offer for enlightenment and how much they can contribute to make us better people.”

I embraced that enlightened man and at that moment I wasn’t sure if I was embracing Chico Xavier or the human shape of love.  

What else would you like to highlight to our readers about the Spiritist Teachings?

We have at our disposal one of the most comprehensive guidelines for inner enlightenment. If we follow it with love and faith in ourselves, we will be able to return to the Spirit World in a better way than when we arrived here. That is, after all, the main aim of our reincarnation: to live the earth as better people than when we were born. If we follow the right pathway, which goes through the narrow trails and beautiful scenery of our lives, we will certainly be on the way that leads towards perfection.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would like to say that we all have huge potential inside us, that we are all capable of achieving amazing things in any field that we choose in this life. So, as the Bible says, “You are gods”. Do the best that you can in the given conditions. But remember that there is a God inside you. You are a human being and it is amazing, to start with, that you have been given the opportunity to reincarnate in an era of so much knowledge and development. Let us, therefore, make a great learning opportunity of each and every hurdle or challenge that we face.