Maurício Cordeiro Mancini (photo), lives in Seropédica, in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, where he works as a university professor at the Chemical Engineering Department of the UFRRJ university. A Spiritist since 1976, he is a public speaker and the author of several books. He is a volunteer worker at the Paulo de Tarso Spiritist Centre. In this interview he speaks about the Spiritist books he has published, focusing on the issue of spiritual education:

How did you become a Spiritist?

Like most of us who are in the Spiritist Movement, my first contact with the Spiritist Teachings came from the need of dealing with personal problems. My mother, Maria de Lourdes, had begun in 1976 to show disturbing signs caused by her mediumship. We had then to seek help from a Spiritist Centre (Lázaro, Amor e Caridade) in the Méier neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro. As my mother regained her balance and transformed her life, my involvement with the Spiritist Movement came naturally. Only Spiritism provided the answers to the profound questions that I had about life and the world and explained the mediumistic phenomena that I had witnessed from a very young age. From that first contact to the beginning of my studies and mediumship work in 1986, it was a smooth process.

How many books have you published?

I’ve published six books to this date and I’ve contributed a chapter to a seventh book.

What have you learned from your experience as a Spiritist speaker, which has put you in frequent contact with the public?

The Spiritist speaker (1989) came before the university lecturer (1991). I believe that the task of helping disseminate Spiritism is very rewarding. After all, to talk about the message of Jesus and Kardec reading alone is not enough. You must be able to put their Teachings into practice. The possibility of interacting with such a wide range of people is very exciting, as you deal with different needs, different types of pain and many questions and wishes. The personal benefits of this process are also remarkable. It has a positive impact even on my professional life, as I often learn with the Spiritist audience new techniques and values that I take to my classroom and to my dear students.

What could you tell our readers about the process of spiritual education?

I would like to say that we should all make a concerted effort to educate ourselves first. After all, there is only one spirit we are fully capable of educating, correcting and re-educating, and that’s us. May we look up to the good examples, the good ideas and the good advice from incarnate and discarnate spirits. But let’s bear in mind that we shouldn’t delegate this task to them. This process should be our sole responsibility, 100% so. Likewise, let’s not try to lecture other people into changing and re-educating themselves, even if we do it because we love them so much. We shouldn’t hinder their free will. The wish to change other people, to re-educate and redirect them, very often diverts us from our main goals. 

Do you think we have been successful in this spiritual education process, as we are faced with all the distractions that we often succumb to?

As someone who works in the education of young people, I strongly believe that we will achieve that goal of educating or re-educating spiritual beings., even if it takes time. I’ll hold on to the answer to question 784 in Allan Kardec’s The Spirits’ Book, which rejects the premise that humankind has experienced a moral decline. We must look beyond the narrow period of time in which we are living and develop a wider perspective. During these 36 years in which I have worked with young Spiritists, and 32 years as a university lecturer, I have observed that each new generation is very different from the previous one. And the temptations and challenges they face are also different. But I’ve observed progress from each new generation. I suggest that the pessimists, who often say that “This is a lost generation,” take into account the fact that the same was said about our generation. And yet here we are working hard to try to change ourselves and the world around us.

The lack of discipline is one of the major obstacles in our education process. What advice would you give to those who wish to become more disciplined in the different aspects of their lives?