Most of our texts deal with philosophical provocations regarding various subjects related to the Spiritist Movement. Today the theme involves mediumship and we, as of now, apologize for the long text, and thank you for reading it.

The subject can be approached in several ways. Mediumship in society based on existing phenomena (physical or intellectual); mediumship in the Spiritist house; mediumship in assistance and promotion activities regarding the human being; mediumistic literature, among others. The reflection will be around mediumistic literature.

What moves us is a reflection by Allan Kardec in The Book of Mediums. “The true Spiritist will never lack opportunities to do good: afflicted hearts to relieve, consolations to offer, despairs to calm, moral reforms to operate - this is his mission, in which he will also find true satisfaction”. Using Spiritism outside this scope is an error, the result of the human being's selfishness. Spiritism is not a conventional, dogmatic, perfect religion. It is an evolutionary Doctrine, which teaches the progress of the Spirit from its creation to fullness.

The learning process goes through the questions that we often ask, however, in the absence of a teacher or direct instructor, we waste time with peripheral constructions when studying Spiritism. Although, with time and practice, we learn that “there is no waste of time”. There is maturation.

Regarding mediumship is no different. Herculano Pires, who disincarnated in 1971, in his work Mediumship - life and communication, said something that catches our attention, due to its actuality (written probably more than 50 years ago): “the current situation of the mediumistic problem, in this accelerated phase of transition from earthly life, requires new studies and updated reflections on mediumship”.

If in the 1970s, Herculano Pires understood that there was an accelerated transition in earthly life and was already concerned with mediumship, imagine what is happening today? The situation requires attention.

What is mediumship? Mediumship is a human faculty that we all possess, with some having it more ostensibly and others less, which allows a better understanding of the relationship with the spiritual world, coding and decoding the exchange between the two planes of life (material and spiritual).

So that the definition is not only subjective, we stroke the thoughts of some authors about mediumship to enrich the discussion.

Leon Denis, with his wisdom still misunderstood by many, warned of the complexity of mediumship, when he discusses, in a specific chapter in The Invisible, when proposing that “the study, therefore, of mediumship is intimately linked to all the problems of Spiritism; it's really its key. The most important thing, in examining the phenomena, is to distinguish the part that needs to be attributed to the medium's body and personality and that which comes from a strange intervention, and then determine the nature of that intervention”. For Denis, "mediumship presents almost infinite varieties, from the most common forms to the most sublime manifestations".

Herculano Pires, in the aforementioned work, works on mediumship as "the manifestation of the Spirit through the body." There are other considerations, but we will stay with this one.

For Herminio C. Miranda, "mediumship is called the special faculty of the human being incarnated through which the mediumistic phenomenon occurs." And he adds, “it happens, however, that mediumship presents itself in many ways, in different people or in different ways in the same person”, corroborating Leon Denis' notes.

Andre Luiz in the work Evolution in two worlds, says that “mediumship, however, is a faculty inherent in life itself and, with all its deficiencies and magnitudes, successes and failures, is the gift of common vision, peculiar to all creatures, responsible for so many glories and so many misfortunes on Earth.” In another moment, in the same work, Andre Luiz makes an important reflection: “it is necessary to recognize, however, that mediumship, in essence, as to electrical energy itself, has nothing to do with the moral principles that govern the problems of destiny and of the being.”

Carlos and Vera Campetti ratify the thought of Andre Luiz, in a book edited by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, in 2014, when they said that “since mediumship is neutral in relation to morality, it is this (morality), however, that gives it the indispensable quality so that it becomes truly balanced and productive”.

In the work The complexity of mediumistic practice, authored by Waldehir Bezerra de Almeida, also launched by FEB in 2014, a work that, by the way, we consider very good because of the historical research developed and by the researched authors (among them, Herculano Pires, something rare, very rare in any Federation publications, except when the management of that House had an open mind), two points caught our attention.

The first is a picture that the author developed on page 199, when he distinguishes between “human communication” and “mediumistic communication”. Simple, effective and didactic. The second point is what most interests us, when the author says that “mediumistic communication is not done by a mechanical process, in which the Spirit acts automatically, saying what he thinks with extreme ease, through the medium he uses."

We know, however, that Chico Xavier performed “automatic” communications, which would imply that there was an “error” in Waldehir's work. However, in practice, there was no mistake. Historically, mechanical writing is a cataloged phenomenon. Currently, there are almost no works of analysis of mediumistic communications, much less via “mechanical” processes. Therefore, what the author writes, in the context he writes, is correct. The author speaks of the complexity of mediumistic communication since it does not occur through "speech" but through "psychic".

Finally, Emmanuel, considers mediumship as "that light that would be shed on all flesh and promised by the Divine Master to the times of the Comforter, currently taking place on Earth." He also speaks, in the same work, about the mission of mediumship: "if you have your mishaps and your painful struggles, it is one of the most beautiful opportunities for progress and redemption granted by God to your poor children".

But you didn't mention Kardec! He is the main one! Yes, he is. Despite having dedicated a book to the mediums, Kardec works on an interesting definition in The Gospel According to Spiritism, when he says that “to know the things of the visible world and discover the secrets of material nature, God granted man the physical eyesight, the senses and special instruments. [...] To go into the invisible world, God gave him mediumship.”

Based on these reflections, we will move on to provocations.

Chico Xavier gave a seriousness to the mediumistic practice that no medium in Brazil, perhaps in the world, was able to do. Why? Because Chico Xavier's mediumistic production, both in extension and in quality, is superior to what exists today and it will be for a long time to come.

Chico Xavier put his mediumship at the service of others. He practiced resignation and devoted himself to charity. He disciplined his tendencies, to the point of educating himself fully. He lived with detachment. He went through very hard struggles and sufferings - in fact, this is a characteristic of missionaries, just look at the history of Jesus, Paulo de Tarso, Francisco de Assis, Gandhi and many others. He left an example of understanding his evolutionary role. A giant that became small.

Have you noticed that most of the so-called "mediumistic" books are reproductions of Chico Xavier's works? Scenarios, actors change, but the plot remains the same. Important detail: Chico Xavier's most expressive mediumistic literature, such as novels and interpretations of the Gospel by Emmanuel and life in the spiritual world by Andre Luiz, is from the first half of the 20th century (mostly)!

What does that mean? As we said at the beginning: they are philosophical provocations! A moment for reflection!

That is to say a few things and we will address, starting by two of them: the one that refers to the medium and the other that refers to the Spirit. From the medium's point of view, there is a kind of “agreement” that, if you write like Chico Xavier, there is the possibility of being accepted as something serious. It is not a rule, but since Chico Xavier was so serious in his work, any attempt to produce different mediumistic literature can be a risk for the medium.

One of the ways may suggest the medium's animism to the point of controlling production and inducing it to be similar to the work of Chico Xavier. To what extent does this animism blur the essence of the content dictated by the Spirits?

The other way regards the communicating Spirit. Does the Spirit communicate based on what it lives in the spiritual world? Or does it dictate based on an agreement that was established starting from the work of Chico Xavier?

From the point of view of the Spirit, if there is a change and transition taking place on Earth, in erraticity it would not be different, for all that the Spirits have already dictated and which is recorded in the vast mediumistic literature. Do the Spirits all think the same? Do they all communicate in the same way? None of them study at school in erraticity with different thoughts and ways of making the medium understand the currentness of what is being communicated?

In any case, the medium leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to interpreting and being the instrument to receive the messages of the Spirits. Humility is lacking, understanding of its role, dedication to mediumistic life, in short, mediumship requires situations that make the medium different from the others, even if he wants to lead a worldly life.

With this we do not say that the medium has to be celibate, cannot drink wine, or enjoy carnival or other social practices. Far from it: this “religious education” is coercive, arbitrary, contrary to everything that is proposed by the Divine Laws that respect each one's time. However, it is a fact that the medium is more susceptible to spiritual influences and it is essential that he educates his faculty to be able to face everything with maturity.

The poorly made “copy” of Chico Xavier's works can serve as safeness for the medium's exchange. With time and practice, especially reconciling with the study, the medium can make the way of receiving messages more flexible and thereby be more faithful to what is dictated by the Spirits.

Another point that “weighs” in today's medium is that Chico Xavier put into practice the messages he received. He knew how to benefit from the messages, either because he really believed in those communications, or because the communications were deeply intimate, made sense and if applied would help him to be a better human being.

A medium, who writes only for others, does not understand his role. A medium, who is a hostage to an external "discipline", only concerned with the hours of exchange and does not strive to be a faithful translator of the Spirit's thought, he does not help the Spiritist movement, leaving shallow, long-winded, empty books.

Therefore, we understand that if Spirits are present, trying to communicate, opening our eyes to reflections and other ways of looking at life, a greater effort is needed to try to understand the aspects of change, faithfully translating the thought of the Spirit, leaving the analysis of the quality of the communications to the Spiritist leader or to other incarnates.

It is clear, going back to the text by Herculano Pires, that mediumship requires “new studies”, and this requirement involves new ways of understanding the spiritual world.

Do Spirits offer openness to dialogue? If so, it would be opportune to raise new questions about the changes that are happening in the world, the advancement of technology and how this advance impacts the relationship of the disincarnated with the incarnated, among other urgent topics.

Every Superior Spirit opens an opportunity for dialogue, after all, if he has approached and initiated dialogue it is because there is potential. This potential requires the medium to understand his role and his role as "passive" should occur only in the act of exchange work. There is a difference between passivity and subservience. A Spirit - who likes subservient mediums - is not a superior Spirit. The construction of what literature will be like could be agreed between the Spirit and the medium, which occurs most of the time.

Leon Tolstoy used the memory of Yvonne Pereira, when she was reincarnated in Russia, in order to facilitate the translation of his thoughts due to the particularities of Russia, Emmanuel took Chico Xavier to Ancient Rome.

Where have the Spirits taken you to, medium? How have you prepared yourself for mediumship? How have you been dedicated to translating the Spirits’ thoughts?

These questions, with all our due respect, follow the thought of Leon Denis, when he says that the medium has no reason to be flattered, because his role is to be an intermediary between two planes. The protagonist is the Spirit. And if it is vain, he is not a superior Spirit, and it is up to the medium not to open up to this type of influence, and this we know is not easy.

It is always worth remembering that, those mediums who - following an agreement – write similar to Chico Xavier, many of their works are serious and worth reading. However, not all the work of a medium is good, just as not everything is bad. In terms of mediumship, generalization is a temerity, as Waldehir states in his work on the “complexity” of mediumship.

The philosophical provocation remains, seeking that, as Kardec said in The Book of Mediums, the Spiritist always seeks to do good, healing wounds and helping others, as he has helped himself to embrace the Spiritist Doctrine. Mediumship is one of the most sublime gifts that God has given us, and it is up to the individual to moralize it to the point of being a ray of light in the face of the darkness of transition.

Without mediumship there is no Spiritism. It would be utopian to consider the possibility of Spiritism without mediumship, just because its exercise is difficult. The idea is the opposite: the more difficult the exchange, the more the medium prepares and frees himself, helping to free others from the bonds of ignorance.