With little less repercussion than it should in the
Spiritist environment, the series “Life after death” was
launched in the first semester of the still troubled
2021, a set of six episodes based on the book by
American author Leslie Kean, called “Surviving Death:
A Journalist Investigates Evidence for an Afterlife”,
a 2017 Best Seller.
I say a little repercussion, because themes related to
mediumship have more attention from the lay public, when
compared to the Spiritist home silver. However, the
series, which is not Spiritist and does not even intend
to be one, brings interesting themes, a good quality
documentary, the first chapter beginning with the
discussion of the so-called near-death experience, for a
block of four episodes on themes related to mediumship,
ending with the question of reincarnation, in line with
the spontaneous remembrance of past lives.
Unfortunately, dusty discussions in the Spiritist
gallery.
The purpose of these lines is not, in any way, to try to
fit the referred series in the Spiritist assumptions,
what it does not intend to do. It brings, in the form of
a documentary, testimonies and cases related to themes
on which the Doctrine is concerned, but which are not
its monopoly, seeking, in an investigative way, to bring
the scientific and philosophical question of the
existence of a conscience to the table of discussions
outside the body and how it communicates with the
so-called living. Grief, and the phenomenon as a
personal journey to deal with it, is the central idea
ofthe series.
For didactic purposes, the first block focuses on
chapter 1, which deals with the Near Death
Experience-NDE, and brings recent cases of situations
that confirm the existence of an out-of-body
consciousness, the Spirit. These are impressive cases
and show people reporting experiences outside the body,
having access to information that they would not be able
to obtain if they were not unfolded.
Few in Brazil today focus on researching these NDE
phenomena, instrumental trans-communication, memories of
other lives, or even the mediumistic phenomenon itself,
with the exception of the pioneers of the Center for the
Study of Spiritual and Religious Problems (Neper) and of
the Research Group on Spirituality and Health (NUPES),
both linked to federal universities. The analysis of the
Spiritist press on a daily basis indicates that this
issue does not orbit the lines and mouths, on the line,
in my view, of what I already know (I believe) about all
this, and there is nothing left to dwell on the theme.
Episode 6 of the series, which I will deal together with
episode 1, to leave more of the discussion to the
central bloc, also stops at this line of secular
scientific experiments and brings the studies of
researchers on memories of other lives, with impressive
reports. Episodes 1 and 6 do not differ much from
documentaries similar to the Discovery Channel style,
with the same standard of technical quality, and really
have a lot to teach us all.
But the focus of this article is to dwell even on the
analysis of the so-called second block, in a didactic
division of the series, which contemplates episodes 2 to
5, and which deal with mediumship, with segmentation in
physical and intelligent phenomena, in addition to signs
of loved ones and apparitions. A view of cases, from a
so-called “school of mediums” in the Netherlands, to
mutual aid groups for mediums and for people who have
lost their loved ones and seek to reconnect with them.
For the analysis of this block on mediumship, I will
focus on seven specific points and transversal to the
episodes, which I found interesting in this debate,
respecting the limitations of this article.
Fraud and mediumship: Skepticism
and the issue of being a fraud pervades the entire
documentary, with one character, in particular, who
seeks to test mediums with personal experiments, as well
as interviews with university researchers, who always
bring the fraudulent hypothesis as considerable.
Interesting that the series brings this skepticism, and
considers that fraud is possible, since Kardec already
had this attitude from the beginning in relation to the
phenomena, especially the most extraordinary ones, and
ends up being an interesting line during these episodes,
from believing suspicious, which is always a current
discussion, even in Spiritism.
The view of mediumship as a business: We
Brazilians are astonished by this, but it is clear that
mediumistic practice, especially in the United States,
plays a role as a complementary or main source of income
for its practitioners. This is not new for those who
follow series and documentaries from that country. The
clear stance of the mediums themselves, who see
themselves as the provider of a paid service, and which
aims to provide authentic communication with the loved
one, a service provision. Those who are not so, like the
mediums school in the Netherlands, end up having a
structure that approaches a church, in the lines and
artifacts, even using the expression "ministry".
Lack of doctrinal support in mediumistic practice: Mediums
do not mention reference works, and everything seems
very empirical in the construction of their knowledge
about the phenomenon. The medium herself, from Holland,
with a lot of experience, shows herself to be hesitant,
with a knowledge clearly derived from her personal
experience and not from the study of works, of any
nature, that deal with the issues of exchange and their
philosophical relations, which might not be Spiritist
works, but any other organized doctrinal set that deals
with similar issues.
Kardec, not mentioned nominally Yes,
Kardec is not mentioned once. The closest to the
well-known Spiritist literature mentioned is Camille
Flamarion, and in a transversal way. The mention of
Charles Richet, which is quite robust, stands out.
Professor Rivail is not mentioned, but much of what is
discussed in The Book of Mediums appears in the
conversations of episodes 2 to 5, especially the issue
of fluids and the separation of physical and intelligent
manifestations. All this mixed with concepts specific to
those places, such as when the medium from Holland
frames mediumship as a healing journey, or in teaching
methods to connect with your disembodied loved one. But,
in basic pillar terms of the Doctrine, relevant
discrepancies cannot be attributed to what is shown.
Main motivation in the search for disincarnated beings: One
thing that is evident in these four episodes is that
mediumship is sought, in a primary way, by people
looking for information about their disincarnated
beings, remembering the motivation of Chico Xavier's
psychographics meetings. There is no search for Spirits
to study, understand the knowledge or understand the
phenomenon, what life is like on the other side, except
in the moments when those who are formally researchers
appear. Mediumship is seen as a way of overcoming the
phenomenon of death through contact with known
disincarnated people, thereby seeking an encounter with
oneself, in the search for peace.
Subjects little discussed in the Brazilian Spiritist
movement: Psychographics
is an illustrious absent, as well as passes and
clairvoyance, and the issue of psychophonic and healing
mediumship has little prominence. The themes of classic
mediumship in Spiritism in Brazil are exchanged in the
series for manifestations such as materialization,
direct voice, apparitions and photos of Spiritists, very
common on internet pages that deal with the so-called
supernatural. It is interesting to bring these topics
out of hand in the Spiritist literature, as it shows
that there are gaps that deserve attention, and that the
study is everyone's duty.
“I am from South America, I know, you will not know”: With
a little ethnocentrism, many people wanted the NetFlix
team to go to Brazil, to talk about our well-known
mediums and Spiritism. The series was not about
Spiritism, as an anthropological and religious
phenomenon, but about a Best Seller book, bringing a
vision focused on phenomena, as a personal quest to
overcome death. It is not too much to remember that the
association with a Doctrine recognized as religious
would go in the opposite direction of what was intended
in the series, despite the fact that the mediums school
in Holland had a very religious trait in it. But, at
this point, the series brought a reflection to us
Spiritists, that we are not the exclusive owners of the
mediumistic phenomenon, as Kardec himself claimed.
The series is interesting, and those who haven't watched
it are missing out on a great opportunity for learning
and reflection. It should be the object of studies and
discussion in the mediumistic groups of the Spiritist
houses. Understanding the phenomenon, its nuances, is
essential for every medium on his journey with this
faculty during his incarnation, and it is surprising to
know that such intimate themes of Spiritism have space
to be discussed in documentaries, but little in the
tribunes and in recent Spiritist works.
Spiritism does not exist for us to waste our time trying
to fit reality into it, like a package insert to
classify things as doctrinal or not, in our craze for
affixing a “Spiritist vision” to everything. Spiritism
is a set of knowledge that allows us to interpret
reality, and feeds on it. Faced with programs like
these, or even with phenomena that appear in newspapers
and on the internet, the Kardecian Spirit of curiosity
and skepticism needs to invade our soul, to guide our
learning and reflection, coming out of boxes in which we
imprison ourselves, especially in relation to mediumship,
an issue that still needs better treatment by the
Spiritist groups.
|