"We are subject to misunderstandings about the meaning
of certain expressions and certain facts, because of the
habit of interpreting others according to our own
conditions." (ALLAN KARDEC)
From the
work What is Spiritism, in Chapter II –
Elementary Notions of Spiritism, topic “Difficulties of
Mediumship”, we highlight the following item:
76. An important fact to consider is that obsession,
whatever its nature, is independent of mediumship,
and that it is found, of all degrees, especially of the
last [subjugation], in a large number of people who
never heard of Spiritism.
In fact, Spirits, having existed at all times, have
always exerted the same influence; mediumship is not
a cause, but a simple way of manifesting this influence; so
we can say with certainty that every obsessed medium
suffers in any way and often in the most common acts of
his life the effects of this influence which, without
mediumship, would manifest itself through other effects,
often attributed to these mysterious diseases that
escape the investigations of medicine. Through
mediumship, the malefic being denounces its presence; without
it, it is a hidden enemy, one who you do not suspect. (1) (our
emphasis)
In principle, this speech by Allan
Kardec (1804-1869) would be in complete contradiction
with the thought that everyone who is influenced by the
Spirits is, for that very reason, a medium, as also said
by the Encoder in the article "Schools of mediums",
published in February in the Spiritist Magazine
1859:
Mediumship is a multiple faculty, and it presents an
infinite variety of nuances in its means and effects. Whoever
is able to receive or transmit the communications of the
Spirits is, for this very reason, a medium, whichever
way is used or the degree of development of the faculty,
from a simple occult influence to the production of the
most unusual phenomena. […]. (2) (emphasis
added)
The question
that we can propose is: would there be any human being
who is not influenced by the Spirits? We all receive influence,
the problem is that, for the most part, it is hidden,
and this is why it is not noticed.
Let's look at these two questions
from The Book of Spirits:
459. Do Spirits influence our
thoughts and actions?
"Much more than you imagine, for they
are often the ones who direct you."
460. In addition to our own
thoughts, are there others that are suggested to us?
Your soul is a thinking Spirit. Do not ignore that many
thoughts occur to you at the same time on the same
subject and often quite contradictory. Well then! In
them there is always a little of you and a little of us,
and that is what leaves you uncertain, because you have
two ideas in you that fight each other. (3) (our
emphasis)
What we observe from Allan Kardec's
questions and from the answers of the Spirits is that it
is not said that the influence of the Spirits is
restricted only to those we designate as mediums, that
is, it is something general and that applies to all of
us. Now, if as said, everybody is subject to the
influence from the Spirits and considering that everyone
who is influenced to some degree is, therefore, a
medium, then it is not improper to conclude that we are
all mediums.
This can no
doubt be corroborated in The Book of Mediums, Chapter
XV – Writing
mediums and psychographers, topic “Inspired
or involuntary mediums, item 182:
Anyone who
receives, through thought,
both in his normal state and state of ecstasy, communications
foreign to his preconceived ideas, can be included in
the category of inspired mediums. […]
The inspiration of the Spirits that influence us for
good or for ill,
but it comes mainly from those who want our good and
whose advice we reject very often. It applies to all
circumstances of life in the resolutions we must
make. In this regard, it can be said that all are
mediums, because there is no one who does not have their
protective and family Spirits, who do everything to
transmit good thoughts to their protected. […]. (4) (our
emphasis)
Thus, it is quite evident that we are
all mediums, and here the concept is in the broad sense
and not in the ostensible one, a theme that we will
discuss a little further on.
In The Book of Mediums, Chapter XXXI –
Spiritist dissertations, message X, entitled “About the
mediums!”, is signed by the Spirit Channing; from which
we highlight:
All men are mediums, all have a Spirit that directs them
towards good, when they know how to listen. Whether
some communicate directly with him, making use of a
special mediumship, or others do not listen except
through the inner voice of their hearts and with
their intelligence, it matters little: it is still a
familiar Spirit who advises them. Call it Spirit,
reason, intelligence, it is always a voice that answers
your soul and speaks good words to you. You just don't
always understand it.
At the end
of the message, Channing concludes:
Listen to
that inner voice, that good genius that speaks to you
constantly, and you will gradually come to hear your
guardian angel, from the heights of Heaven, he extends
his hands to you. I repeat: the inner voice that
speaks to the heart is that of good Spirits and it is
from this point of view that all men are mediums. (5) (emphasis
added)
So, if we weren't all mediums, how
would each one of us communicate with his guardian angel
or with the familiar Spirits who show us affection?
In The
Book of Spirits: in answer to question 495, the
Spirits Saint Louis and Saint Augustine state that "Each
guardian angel has his “protégé”,
by whom he watches over, as a father watches over his
son." and adds:
[…] It is these communications of each one with his
familiar Spirit that make all men mediums,
mediums ignored today, but which will manifest later and
will spread like an ocean without limits, to reject
disbelief and ignorance. […]. (6) (our
italics)
From the
message of the Spirit Halevy, entitled “A
Mediumship and Inspiration”,
published in the Spiritist Magazine 1869,
in March, we highlight the following excerpt:
Under its infinitely varied forms, mediumship
encompasses the entire Humanity, like a network from
which nothing can escape. Everyone
being in daily contact, whether they know it or not,
whether they want to or they revolt with it, with free
minds, there is not a man who can say: I am
not, I was not or I will not be a medium. Under the
intuitive form, a way of communication which people
call the voice of conscience, each one is in
relationship with various spiritual influences, which
advise in one direction or another, and often
simultaneously or for the absolute good; or the
accommodation with interests; or evil in all its
nakedness. […]. (7) (italics
in the original, bold ours)
This
condition will be easier to understand, as we continue
the transcription of the paragraph that has only begun,
but without having gone to the end of the explanations.
So, let's go back to the article “Mediums’
Difficulties”,
in the Spiritist Magazine 1859:
However, in its ordinary use, this word has a more
restricted meaning, and it is generally said, when
referring to people endowed with a very great
mediumistic power, either to produce physical
effects or to transmit the thoughts of the Spirits by
writing or by word. (8) (our italics)
In the
following paragraph, Allan Kardec continues: “Although this
faculty is not an exclusive privilege, it is certain
that it finds the unsubmissive, at least in the sense
given to it; […].” (9) (our
italics) If mediumship “is
not an exclusive privilege”,
consequently, it is for the very simple reason that it
is a general faculty, that is, of everyone.
In The
Book of Mediums, Chapter XXI – Influence
of the environment, we read:
232. It
would be a mistake to believe that one needs to be a
medium in order to attract beings from the invisible
world to him. They populate the space, are
constantly around us, by our side, seeing us,
observing us, intervening in our meetings, following us
or fleeing from us, as we attract or repel them. The
mediumistic faculty has no bearing on this: it is just a
means of communication. […]. (10) (our
italics)
Allan Kardec clarifies that it is not
necessary to be a medium to attract the Spirits because
they "are constantly around us, by our side". It is
true, but we have to differentiate between "attracting"
and feeling or receiving influence from the Spirits,
which is already transferred to the field of mediumistic
faculty.
We will
return to what was said in the Spiritist Magazine
1859, now taking from what appears in Chapter V – On
Mediums, from the book Practical Instructions on
the Manifestations of Spirits, so that it is
clear that the word medium, as understood by the
Encoder, has two distinct meanings. The text is unique;
we will divide it into two parts just highlight them:
Broad meaning: Every
person who suffers in any way the influence of the
Spirits is, for this very reason, a medium. This
faculty is inherent in man and, therefore, is not an
exclusive privilege. For this reason, there are few
individuals in which simple rudiments of mediumship are
not found. It can therefore be said that all or
almost all people are mediums.
Restricted meaning:
However, in current usage, this qualification only
applies to those in which the mediumistic faculty is
clearly characterized and is reflected by overt effects,
of a certain intensity, which then depends on a more
or less sensitive organization. It should be noted,
moreover, that this faculty does not reveal itself in
all people in the same way. (11) (our
emphasis)
It is because of these explanations
that the two meanings of the term medium can be
distinguished. We can say that in the broad sense, we
are all mediums, in the restricted sense, only those in
which this faculty is evident, to the point of producing
the phenomena of physical effects or transmitting the
thoughts of the Spirits, that is, it is an ostensive
medium. This is the distinction that most Spiritists do
not make.
We understand that only those who do
not pay attention to this detail, i.e., the two meanings
for the term medium, will be able to judge that there is
a contradiction in the speech of Allan Kardec that we
mentioned right at the beginning.
In Ostensive
Medium, a publication by the Area
ofMediumistic Orientation of UEM – Uniao
Espirita Mineira (Spiritist Union in the State of Minas
Gerais), in topic 7 – Ostensive
Medium, we read:
The word “ostensive” means proper to be seen. Applied to
the word “medium”, it defines that well-characterized
mediumistic faculty, which is shown or translated
“(…) by overt effects, of a certain intensity, which
then depends on a more or less sensitive organization. (12) These
are the cases of writing mediums, speaking mediums, seer
mediums, among other modalities. In addition, the
Encoder explains that the faculty is not identical in
all: "Generally, mediums have a special aptitude for
phenomena of this or that order, as a result of which
they form as many varieties as there are kinds of
manifestations” (13). Thus, it came
to be called medium not those people who generically
record the influence of Spirits, but those who
specifically translate it into physical and intelligent
phenomena. (14) (our italics)
An opinion that we think it is
opportune to mention is that of Jose Herculano Pires
(1914-1979), which appears in the footnote of The
Book of Mediums, translated by himself:
Mediumship is
a human faculty like any other. No one can claim not
to have it, as everyone has feelings, intuition,
extrasensory perceptions, precognitive dreams, and so
on. Like the other faculties, God distributes it
according to the evolutionary needs of each creature.
[…]. (15) (emphasis
added)
The answer to the question in the
title is: yes, we have no doubt that any individual who
is in an obsessive process, since it occurs by the
action of a disembodied Spirit, is a medium, even though
he does not have a mediumship programmed for the psychic
work.
In our e-book Are we all
mediums? (16), we developed this
theme in greater depth, which is why we recommend it to
those interested in this matter.
______________
Notes:
1 – KARDEC, What
is Spiritism. Rio
de Janeiro: FEB, 2001, p.
177.
2 – KARDEC,
Spiritist Magazine 1859. Araras (SP): IDE, 1993, p. 29.
3 – KARDEC, The
Book of Spirits. Brasilia: FEB, 2013, p. 230.
4 – KARDEC, The
Book of Mediums. Brasilia: FEB, 2013, p. 185-186.
5 – KARDEC, The
Book of Mediums. Brasilia: FEB, 2013, p. 393-394.
6 – KARDEC,
The Book of Mediums. Brasilia: FEB, 2013, p.
240-241240-241.
7 – KARDEC, Spiritist
Magazine 1869. Araras (SP): IDE, 2001, p.
94-95.
8 – KARDEC, Spiritist
Magazine 1859. Araras (SP): IDE, 1993,
p. 29.
9 – KARDEC, Spiritist
Magazine 1859. Araras (SP): IDE, 1993, p. 29.
10 – KARDEC, The
Book of Mediums. Brasilia: FEB, 2013, p. 248.
11 – KARDEC, Practical
instructions on the manifestation of Spirits. In:
Spiritist Initiation. Sao Paulo: Edicel, 1986,
p. 251.
12 – KARDEC. The
Book of Mediums, Chapter XIV, item 159. Transcript
Note (TN)
13 – KARDEC.
The Book of Mediums, Chapter, XIV, item 159. (TN)
14 – EMU, Ostensive
Mediums. (PDF). Belo Horizonte: UEM, 2013,
p. 18.
15 – KARDEC, The
Book of Mediums. Sao Paulo: LAKE, 200, p. 183.
16 – SILVA
NETO SOBRINHO, P. Are we all mediums? available
at: click
here
Accessed
on: September 17th 2021.
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