The thought above is from our friend, José Lucas (photo), a regular contributor of this magazine. He’s a retired Lieutenant-Colonel of the Portuguese Air Force, a Portuguese citizen born in the Angolan city of Benguela, in 1962. He works now in personal corporate coaching. He’s a member of the Caldas da Rainha Spiritist Centre (CCE) and of Portugal’s Association of Spiritists Disseminators (ADEP) and is contributes with the ADEP’s Jornal de Espiritismo publication, O Consolador (Brazil) and the dissemination of Spiritism in general, as he explains in the following interview:

How did Spiritism come into your life?

I found Spiritism through a university friend who was Spiritist, in the city of Braga. I used to criticise Spiritism as I associated it with commercial mediums. But one day his mother, who was also a Spiritist, lent me Allan Kardec’s The Spirits’ Book. I picked it up to prove that it was all fake, but much to my amazement I found there exactly what I had been looking for. I haven’t stopped since learning, studying and practicing Spiritism.

Has Spiritism changed your life?

It has, completely. It was difficult initially because all my Catholic education crumbled like a castle of cards. All my references were gone. But the rationality of the Spiritist principles prevailed and as I began to learn more, I noticed that my life and my social habits improved and I began to reach the existential goals I aspired to.

Spiritism is still changing my life, as I become more and more aware of how profound it is. I know I will get there one day, step by step… (laughter…)

What could we do to improve the dissemination of Spiritism?

The dissemination of Spiritism is of huge importance to the wider society. The reason why human beings kill, still and get involved in wars is that they don’t know the principle of reincarnation and the law of cause and effect. When people discover that, they will inevitably act in a different way.

Spiritists have access to that information and they have a duty of sharing that light with other people. Don’t be shy about saying you are a Spiritist, try to take good quality Spiritist publications and leaving them in public areas, do the same with good Spiritist books, organise Spiritist centres in the best possible way, in simple manner and prioritising study groups and invite good Spiritist speakers based on their real quality, not on their “star” quality. We must also use the social media, especially YouTube, to give people access to Spiritist talks, study groups, interviews, internet pages, Facebook pages (like www.adpe.pt, which is very clear and concise). I also think we should use the arts to take Spiritism to people but it is important to begin from the beginning: the name of Spiritist Centres. We should avoid church-like, mystical names (such as Peace, Light and Love, as a random example) and use names like Spiritist Culture Centre or Spiritist Cultural Association. We would bear the idea then that Spiritism has nothing to do with superstition, witchery or magic.

How could Spiritism help reduce the incidence of suicide and abortions where you are?

By doing what I mentioned in the previous answer. More specifically, by organising pro-life campaigns, publishing articles on Spiritist and non-Spiritist publications, handing out flyers, organising conferences and debates with influential members of the community, by accessing the media in general and through posters and ads. In sum, by going wherever our imagination takes us, not forgetting Spiritist media, obviously.

People are eager for Spiritist knowledge. They become even more receptive when they realise that Spiritism is not one more religion, one more sect, but instead a lifestyle, a life philosophy that gives a boost to our spirituality.

Is there any particular event in your life that proved to you that Spirits are immortal?

Yes, without a shadow of a doubt. Any person, in any part of the world, will inevitably reach the same conclusions if they put into practice the methodology that Allan Kardec explains in The Book of Mediums.

It couldn’t be different with me. I have seen many cases in which people who had passed away were clearly identified through mediumship. These were people I had never met.

Why do you think Spiritism and Allan Kardec are all but completely ignored in France and other European countries?

I believe that a number of factors contributed to that, including the two world wars, materialism and Positivism, which came as a reaction to the religious fanaticism of the Middle Ages. It became cool, modern, to say you were an atheist. That became associated with the ideas of greatness, culture and knowledge.

With intellectual development, however, people lost the concept of god and that is why people in Europe have in general a distant approach to anything spiritual. But things have changed in the last few decades and people, tired of materialism, began looking for spirituality, without knowing properly where to find it. The growth of mediumistic phenomena and the appearance of Instrumental Transcommunication have come clearly to open the doors to the future.

What could be done to revert that situation?
Through the dissemination of Spiritism at local, regional, national and international level and also through scientific research, which is very popular nowadays in European universities. We have had important research work in Scole, England, between 1993 and 1998, and the science scholarships from Portugal’s Bial Foundation, which has so far sponsored more than 1,000 projects across the world. They are sponsoring, for instance, the work of Dr Jim Tucker at the University of Virginia, in the US, and Dr Anabela Cardoso. We also have the work of the Russian physicist Konstantin Korotkov and other scientists at the University of Arizona who are working on equipment to contact the spiritual world, the “soulphone,” which is like a smartphone for the spiritual world.

What else would you like to say?

I would like to say that we should study Allan Kardec (the 20 books he has left us as well as his Posthumous Works) and that we develop a critical spirit. We must not accept blindly what we read or hear only because some well-respected author or speaker wrote it or said it. There are no leader, bosses or hierarchy in Spiritism. We are all free thinkers. In case of doubt, as Kardec said, put that to a side.

We must also bring simplicity back into Spiritism, put an end to commercialism within Spiritism, to high-cost events that only the well-off can attend. We must find a way of taking Spiritism back to the people.

And paraphrasing the late engineer Hernani Guimarães Andrade (Brazilian Spiritist scientist), opinions are like noses: we all have one, they are all different from one another and no one has the right to punch someone on the nose only because it’s different. (laughter…)

My real friend is not the person who thinks like me, but the one who thinks with me!