As the video is no longer on the link with Divaldo Franco's lecture, to confirm this, we copy the following paragraph of the explanation, contained on the EspiritismoPlay website, for the medium's video under the title Mediumship and scientific investigation”: “It also brings the information that Chico Xavier is the reincarnation of the medium Ruth Celine Japhet, one of Allan Kardec's main collaborators in the codification”. (¹) (emphasis added)

Marks of the past

In Kardec: the biography, the author Marcel Souto Maior, informs that:

The first undesirable reactions came shortly after the publication of the book, and from where the teacher least expected it: from the collaborators themselves. In launching his work - or, rather, the work of superior Spirits -, Rivail had not given any credit to the sisters Caroline and Julie Baudin (²), Ruth Japhet and other mediums who were also consulted.

Ruth Japhet did not conform. According to her accounts, three quarters of the book was due to her mediumship and her manuscripts, and the omission of her name was therefore inadmissible. In an outburst to the Russian writer Alexandre Akasakof, Ruth complained that she had not even won a copy of the book and had not received her manuscripts back when she asked the professor for them.

Akasakof disclosed this in an article published in The Spiritualist Newspaper in 1875. Rivail – deceased six years earlier – could not defend himself, not even through mediumistic messages.

Eighteen years after the publication of The Book of Spirits, Ruth was still unhappy with the lack of credit and consideration, but at no point in her interview did she deny communication with the Spirits or the authenticity of the messages attributed to the hereafter. (³) (italics in the original, our bold)

Supposing Chico Xavier was Miss. Japhet, some things in the medium's life begin to make sense. In all the books he publishes, although they are authored by Spirits, his name appears as the mediator, this provided him with great prestige, which he did not have in the 19th century. In addition, the copyrights of all the works that he psyche-graphed were fully donated to the various Spiritist institutions, with the due Notary registration.

Another mark will be mentioned in the topic below.

Two warnings

On July 10, 1927, Chico Xavier receives a visit from the Holy Queen of Portugal, the venerable Isabel de Aragao; as recorded in Chico Xavier, and Isabel, the Holy Queen of Portugal. From the dialogue between the two, we highlight the following excerpt from Chico's narrative:

The lady smiled and explained to me:

- The time will come when you will have resources. You will write to our peninsular people and, working for Jesus, you will not be able to receive any material advantage from the pages you produce, but we will see to it that the Messengers of Good bring you resources to start the task. Let us trust in the goodness of the Lord. (⁴) (emphasis aded)

This warning that “you will not be able to receive any material advantage from the pages you produce” is unusual, which only makes sense if it has any relation to the spiritual past of Chico Xavier, since it was given during the period that he had not yet started his “book task”.

Be your mediumship as a melodious harp; however, on the day that you receive the favors of the world as if you were selling your chords, it will rust forever. The money and the interest would be shining on its strings.

[…].

Do not regard your mediumship as a gift.

The gift is a blessing and you still do not deserve favors from the Almighty within your imperfection.

I reflected that, if the Truth has demanded a lot from you, it is because your debt is enormous before the Divine Law.

Consider all this and do not deviate from humility. (⁵) (emphasis added)

Chico's mother is another Spirit who warns him about “receiving the favors of the world”, that is, about the possibility of him commercializing his “mediumistic gift”.

Chico Xavier took this warning so seriously that, in October 1995, with 68 years of mediumistic activity, he declared: “[…] I never tried to explore mediumship in a monetary sense or even to obtain values ​​or achievements that go beyond of my simplicity.” (⁶)

The reason why the two noble characters gave the same warning to Chico Xavier is in his past, probably in the 19th century, when he lived as Miss. Japhet.

The researcher Alexandre Aksakof (1832-1903), in his article entitled "Research on the Historical Origin of the French Spiritualist's Reincarnationist Speculations", mentions the medium Ruth-Celine Japhet, with whom he met. From this article by Aksakof, we transcribe:

In 1845 she went to Paris in search of Mr. Ricard, and ended up meeting Mr. Roustan at the home of Mr. Millet, a magnetizer. She then took the name of Japhet for family reasons, and became a professional sleepwalker under the control of Mister Roustan, and remained in that position until mid-1848. Under her new name, she gave medical advice, under the spiritual guidance from her grandfather, who had been a doctor, and also from Hahnemann and Mesmer, from whom she received a large number of communications.

A little further on, it reads:

In addition to the above, complementary details on the origin of The Book of Spirits, and the different points of connection, can and should be obtained from living witnesses to shed light on the conception and birth of this book, like Mrs. Japhet, Mrs. de Guldenstubbe, Mister Sardou, and Mister Taillandier. The latter continues, up to the present moment, to work with Mrs. Japhet as a medium; she is still in possession of her somnambulistic powers, and continues to consult. She suggests herself to sleep through objects that had been magnetized by Mr. Roustan. I think it is a duty to take this opportunity to witness the excellence of her lucidity. I asked her about me, and she gave me the exact information about both a localized disease and my general health. (⁷) (emphasis added)

Vital Cruvinel, in his comments on the article “A controversy in detail”, says: “According to the interview, Japhet lived on mediumship, earned for it, and would be one of the pioneers in obtaining communications from the Spirits. […]. ” (⁸) (emphasis added)

In Miss. Japhet & Mr. Roustan, Carlos Seth presents a document that proves the commercialization of mediumship by Miss. Japhet:

Here is the free translation of Celina's ad: “Miss. Celina, Sleepwalker. Gives consultations on all types of subjects, during the week, from 3 to 6 am; Sundays and holidays, from noon to 2 am, and every day at the times requested. Just ask her an oral or written question that is sent to you by your magnetizer, to achieve the objective of your research. People who cannot come, can send someone instead. Note. Miss. Celina attends in your home.” (⁹)

Miss. Japhet’s claim, had some effect, as can be seen in the Spiritist Magazine 1858, in this statement by Kardec:

The first mediums who competed for our work were Miss B ..., whose goodwill we never lacked. The book was written almost entirely by her and in the presence of a large audience that attended the sessions, in which she had the keenest interest. Later on, the Spirits recommended a complete revision in private sessions, having then made all the additions and corrections deemed necessary. This essential part of the work was carried out with the help of Miss Japhet, who accomplished it with the greatest goodwill and the most complete disinterest to all the demands of the Spirits, because they were the ones who marked the days and hours for their lessons.  Disinterest here would not be a special merit, since the Spirits disapprove of any trade that may be made of their presence; Miss Japhet, who is also a notable sleepwalker, had her time usefully employed, but she also understood that she could make a profitable application of it by devoting herself to the spread of the doctrine. As for us, we have already declared from the beginning, and we are pleased to reaffirm now, we never thought of making The Book of Spirits an object of speculation: its result will be applied to things of general utility. For this we will always be grateful to those who, from the heart and for the sake of goodness, associate themselves with the work to which we consecrate ourselves. (¹⁰) (emphasis added)

The impression is that, right between the lines, Kardec addresses the issue of commercialization of mediumship made for Miss. Japhet. In The Gospel According to the Spirit, the Codifier said: "Serious mediumship can never constitute a profession, [...] it is a holy thing, which must be practiced holy, religiously". (¹¹)

Two unpublished facts

Josyan Courte, in Chico Xavier - The most important Brazilian in history, narrates this fact that happened to the medium and his mother in October 1958:

October 10th was my mother Odila's birthday, and I, as a gift, had offered the tour.

At 10 am, Chico came to “Pensao da D. Nana”, where we were staying. He brought a beautiful copy of the Two Thousand Years ago with an expressive dedication for her “blissful birthday”. I later handed the book over to my daughter Sheila as a reminder of her grandmother Odila and Chico Xavier. This meeting with Chico would change our lives forever.

He talked to my mother in French (xenoglossia?), a language she had known since childhood, and told her, among other things, that Allan Kardec had a green leather notebook, where he wrote down the names of the French Spiritists who were most important to him. (¹²) (emphasis added)

Now, this episode could be explained in two ways. The first is that Chico Xavier had incorporated some Spirit that he personally knew or lived with Kardec and that is why he spoke in French and mentioned the detail of the green leather book. The second, more in line with what we are developing in this article, is that the cause of this is, precisely, because Chico Xavier was Miss. Japhet.

In Globoplay there is a video of the program “Terra de Minas”, the special “Friends and relatives always remember Chico Xavier”, shown on April 13, 2013, in which a new and very interesting fact appears in Sidney Pereira Flavio’s testimony; he was Chico Xavier's male nurse for many years. We translate this excerpt that begins with the reporter saying:

We met Sidney again 10 years after Chico's death. He continues to attend the Spiritist Center founded by the medium in Uberaba. He told us a secret that was only theirs, Chico never called him by his name.

- He always called me Antonio, right? One day, some time passed, I said was Uncle Chico, why Antonio? My name is not so complicated that you cannot pronounce it. He said: No, my son, we were brothers in other past incarnations, he even smiled at me for me to understand that it really was a thing of the past. (¹³) (emphasis added)

In the article “Miss. Japhet & Sr. Roustan”, the researcher Carlos Seth Bastos, reports something that can help us to unravel this “mystery”.

In short, Celina was born in the commune of Caen, department of Calvados, France, on April 1, 1822 [1], and disincarnated on April 30, 1884 in the 19th arrondissement of Paris [3]. She lived at the time at Impasse Fessart, 14; after the year 1899, at Rue Melingue [46]. Impasse is a dead end street. Celina was the daughter of Francois Bequet and Aimable Julie Le Planquais. She disincarnated on May 21, 1859 in the department of la Manche, as Bequet widow [47]. Mr. Bequet worked as a toy dealer, as we see in Celina's birth certificate and in another source from 1836 [48]. Celina, who was the 2nd, had 3 more brothers: Antonielle Justine from 1819, Georges Alphonse from 1823 and Aimable Hippolyte from 1827. The latter married in 1863 and had Jean Roustan as a witness. Interestingly, Aimable Hippolyte, a street vendor, was convicted in 1846 (for the sale of illicit writings), in 1852 (for contempt of the police force officer) and later in 1872 (for carrying weapons) [49]. The children of this “communard” of Nogent-sur-Marne were born between 1854 and 1863, so before the marriage was made official, the first was born in Belgium (would he have gone into exile and was later amnestied, like Leymarie?). Was this (the events before the arrest in 1846) the reason for Miss. Celina to adopt the surname Japhet? As she said, the change in 1845 was for family reasons. We believe that here we have our 3rd circumstantial test. (¹⁴) (¹⁵) (emphasis added)

Couldn't this Antonielle Justine be Antonio (Sidney), who Chico Xavier said was his brother?

Conclusion

From Memories of Mediumship, authored by Yvonne A. Pereira (1900-1984), we highlight this excerpt from a speech by the Spirit Bezerra de Menezes:

[…] There are mediums that reveal themselves in their cradle, and these are the safest, because they are the most positive, the result of long reincarnating stages, during which their possessors exercised remarkable activities, thus developing forces of the perispirit, headquarters of the mediumship, vibrating intensely in one and another sector of existence and thus acquiring the capacity of vibration of the phenomenon. […]. (¹⁶) (¹⁷) (emphasis added).

If our line of reasoning is correct, then again, we believe it is necessary that Chico Xavier, in his previous lives, was a medium, possibly with a slightly lower mediumistic degree, which happens in the hypothesis that he is Miss. Japhet.

Let us see this excerpt from the article “Chico Xavier was Ruth-Celine Japhet” by Luciano dos Anjos, replicated on several websites:

Ruth-Celine Japhet was actually called Ruth Celine Bequet. The Japhet sobriquet she adopted to identify herself as a professional sleepwalker. He reincarnated in 1837, in the province of Paris, and this exact I was unable to find. In the year 1841, she still lived there, with her parents, when she became seriously ill, unable to walk. Her childhood recalls the misfortunes of Chico Xavier, such as the struggle he went through due to his reduced health. She was a medium since she was a little girl, but only around the age of 12 she began to distinguish the reality between this world and the spiritual one. In childhood, he confused the two. Bedridden for more than two years, it was a magnetizer named Ricard who found that she was a medium (sleepwalker, in the designation of the time), putting her into a trance for the first time. […]. (¹⁸) (emphasis added)

More elements that put Chico Xavier very close to being, in fact, the reincarnation of Ruth Celine Japhet. Miss Japhet was born on April 1st and, almost ninety years later, returns on April 2nd as Chico Xavier, is this a coincidence or is there something more to it?

All of this looked at separately, it may not have much connection, however, when looking to see the whole, it becomes just like a bundle of sticks.

References:

COSTA E SILVA, L. N. Chico Xavier, Mineiro do Seculo. Braganca Paulista, SP: Lachatre, 2004.

COSTA, C. A. B. Chico, Dialogues and Memories ... Matao, SP: Casa Editora O Clarim, 2017.

COURTE, J. Chico Xavier - The most important Brazilian in History. Sao Bernardo do Campo (SP): GEEM, 2017.

COUTTINHO, A. C. In defense of doctrinal principles. in. Spiritist Universe, nº 24, 2005, p. 8-12.

GALVES, N. Love and Resignation - Traits of Joaquim Alves. Sao Paulo: CEU, 2006.

KARDEC, A. The Gospel According to Spiritism. Brasilia, 2013.

KARDEC, A. Spiritist Magazine 1858. Sobradinho, DF: Edicel, 2009.

MAIOR, M. S. Kardec: The Biography. Rio de Janeiro: Record, 2013.

MONTEIRO, E. C. Chico Xavier and Isabel, The Holy Queen of Portugal. Sao Paulo: Madras, 2007.

NETO SOBRINHO, P. S. Kardec & Chico: 2 Missionaries. Divinopolis, MG: Ethos Editora, 2016.

PEREIRA, Y. A. Memories of Mediumship. Rio de Janeiro, FEB, 1989.

RANIERI, R. A. Chico Xavier - The Saint of Our Days. 4th ed. Rio de Janeiro: ECO, s/d.

RANIERI, R. A. Memories of Chico Xavier. Guaratingueta, SP: Edifrater, 1997.

SEVERINO, P. R. Learning from Chico Xavier. Sao Paulo: Fe Editora Jornalistica, 1996.

XAVIER, F. C. Letters from A dead woman. Sao Paulo: Lake, 1981.