Marcelo Henrique Pereira (photo), one of the directors of the Brazilian Association of Spiritist Communicators (Abrade), tell us about his work and his efforts to spread the message of Spiritism. He talks about the workings and projects of the association and explains how it can help communicators in spiritist groups across Brazil.  O Consolador: How did you embrace Spiritism?  It was in 1981, after the Catholic priest at the Saint Anthony church, which I used to attend, was unable to provide satisfactory explanation for my queries on immortality,   the   Holy   Trinity,   Mary’s

virginity and mediunity.

O Consolador: When did you join a spiritist group and what tasks have you undertaken since? 

In 1981 I joined a group in the city of São José, in the southern state of Santa Catarina, and soon began attending the regular classes on Spiritism for beginners and for young people. Two years later, at the age of thirteen, I made my public speech to a spiritist audience. 

O Consolador: What style do you have as a lecturer on Spiritism, how do you come about it? 

The lecturer should avoid more than anything to have a “know-it-all” attitude. We’re not in the pulpit or lecturing at a university on a subject the others ignore. Much to the contrary. I tend to pick subjects normally seen as controversially and that to be analysed through a spiritist perspective. I often say any issue can be seen through a spiritist paradigm. That doesn’t mean that Spiritism has all the answers for the human questions. What I mean is that each one of us can develop our potential and find the answers if we use rational thinking and our experience and knowledge. 

O Consolador: You have a long experience with several spiritist organisations and groups. Tell us more about it. 

My best memories are of the work with teenagers and young people, as a lecturer of the principles of the Doctrine for so many years. It was very gratifying to make available to them the basic rationale of the Doctrine, without imposing dogmas or pre-conceived ideas. We went through a very important time in our history in the 80s, when the world was opening up to new ideas. In Brazil, democracy was flourishing in politics and the wider society, old taboos were being broken and we were finally able to have a serious and mature debate about sexuality and human relations in general. Later, at the end of the 90s, the spiritist movement got engaged in the Brazilian social movements and that goes on to our days. We decided it was time to be part of the political debate on social and ideological issues and to demand more attention to issues like health, education, social security and human rights. We’re very happy to have taken part in such movements and for being a part of projects that are now a reality and have yielded good results. At the moment, I’m not directly involved in the spiritist education of youngsters and I’m very concerned about what’s going on. I would say young people are like turning their backs on Spiritism, looking for what they see as more “liberal” groups, away from the “circumspect” atmosphere of spiritist groups. And I must say that most spiritist centres are still reluctant to open themselves to the full potential of the young, to their creativity and enthusiasm. On a more positive note, I’d like to highlight how much I’ve learned since in all these years working in the publication of the Spiritist Magazine Harmony – which has been going on for nearly 23 years, since June 1987. It’s the oldest spiritist periodical in the State of Santa Catarina in continuous publication.  

O Consolador: How did you get involved in the communications aspect of Spiritism?  

I’m completely passionate about it. I believe that it’s a huge task to get different media, people and groups to work together in a policy of spiritist social communication, or public relations. We’re talking about communication. We’re not engaged in proselytising, about attempting to convert others with “the truth”. What we aim to create is a space for interaction, for mutual learning, for personal growth based on the analysis of ideas, different points of views and the experiences of those joining the debate.  

O Consolador: How does Abrade work, what are its goals? 

We’re not an association gathering individual people. We are a gathering of institutions from Brazilian states, regions and cities – mostly what we know as ADEs – which share the goal of taking the message of Spiritism to the wider public. However, on a day to day basis, we rely mostly on the work and collaboration of individuals from all parts of the country. Most of them, but not all, are members of an organisation affiliated to Abrade. They work in projects set up by the Association, normally aimed at making information available to all the members. Our main tool is the internet and the webpage www.abrade.com.br, which we call the Portal of Spiritist Communication. We also have several sites to encourage the debate and the exchange of information, in www.grupos.com.br and www.yahoogrupos.com.br – 15 groups at the moment. 

O Consolador: When was the Association founded and how did it happen? 

Abrade is a non-profit spiritist organisation. Its goals are similar to those of ABRAJEE, which from 1976 to the end of the 1980s gathered so many spiritist writers and journalists, with the likes of Deolindo Amorim and Jose Herculano Pires. Our official aim is “to promote and improve the use of the media to spread the message of Spiritism, to get the various spiritist organisations to work together in with fraternity and ethics, contributing to the moral transformation of humankind, to celebrate the happiness of human beings and respect to nature.” We are a small, decentralized body. We don´t have a president, we have a cabinet model, with five members, three of whom have executive powers (administration, finances and coordination). Decisions are taken by a majority vote among the five. Above us, there´s a body which issues general rules and validates the decisions taken by us – the CNDE. 

O Consolador: How can Abrade help the various spiritist groups to improve their PR and media activities? 

We have a wide range of experts, who can help the various groups with advice on all the media. However, we can only act once help is requested. We need to be contacted with specific requests, and when that happens our experts try to often the best possible advice within a short time. 

O Consolador: What´s your view on the growing interest on spiritist themes in the media, especially on the cinema and television? 

That is the result of individual development of the people who are currently living on the Earth. The reincarnation of people with a higher degree of commitment to spiritual matters, people who come with specific plans to improve themselves and help improve the planet, they naturally will be more interested in more detailed information on the Spiritual World. As we know, the memory of the Spiritual World is largely absent at a conscious level once we are incarnated. And an active interest is, as Kardec put it, what prompts human acts. So it´s only natural that the entertainment industry – cinema, TV and other media – offer products that will meet the needs of the market, the needs of consumers looking for something new. But one should bear in mind that a great number of the people who go after information on spiritual matters, attracted initially by certain characters and plots in soap operas, for example – remain genuinely interested and end up gathering a spiritist group. Those in charge of spiritist groups should make the most of the “trend”, and even ignore some theoretical misconceptions in those films and TV programmes, to spread the principles of the Doctrine. They should organise specific events using those characters and plots people are familiar with, showing DVDs for example of some of the recent soap operas shown on Brazilian TV with a spiritist theme. And they should use those opportunities to introduce the Doctrine to a wider audience. 

O Consolador: What are the main challenges and opportunities offered by the growth of interaction online? 

There are many challenges. The dynamics of life in our times can only be fully understood through hard work and dedication. We need to study and we need a broad perspective if we are to understand what we are going through. On the positive side, we know there´s a group of spirits being born who are coming back to Earth with the commitment of progressing, of improving. That makes the task of spreading the principles of spirituality easier. But we need a filter to sieve through all the miscellaneous ideas that have become available in our times. We have our filter, the house built by Kardec, the array of principles the great master of Lyon left us, in a huge task which he carried on almost alone on this planet – relying, of course, on the help of various mediums and disincarnated superior intelligences. We must look at the development of online communication at two aspects. It allows people who are physically apart to communicate. You are now able to perform tasks and achieve fast results in a way you just couldn´t dream of a few years ago. But on the other hand, it creates artificial relationships, with people hiding behind their user names, shying from any sort of physical contact. And what´s worrying here is the replacement relationships involving real contact and affection with virtual connections, setting apart people from the real world and often bringing about new troubles and illnesses. 

O Consolador: How much has the internet helped Spiritism? What else can be done? 

The experts at Abrade are almost unanimous in saying that Spiritism could make a much better use of the internet. The only exception is the use of email, which is quite widespread and has been an efficient and cheap way of keeping people informed of coming events. But most spiritist groups still see their webpages as an address for reference only – usually for the publication of texts explaining the principles of the Doctrine. That´s why Abrade has pushed for people to understand the concept of a portal, a Portal of Spiritism, which we have in our site. The webpage should be a portal, opening the doors for the internet user to interact, for questions and answers, to establish a dialogue, a conversation. We´d also like our web address to become a data base, with projects and proposals which could potentially be adopted by spiritist organisations throughout the country, based on models successfully applied elsewhere.  

O Consolador: What else would you like to add? 

I´d like to thank O Consolador – a well respected publication, reaching so many people in so many countries – for this incredible opportunity to put our ideas across. I hope this interview will lead to new projects and partnerships, with spiritist groups who work for the propagation of the message of Kardec. Our projects are aimed at helping all of those who are with us, on our journey on Earth, trying to be happy, to improve themselves and the world around them.