Did Chico Xavier actually psychograph  books? (Part 1) The greatest ignorance is the one that knows not and believes to know, for it gives rise to all the mistakes we make with our intelligence. (Socrates) As surprising as the naturalness of people in making judgments about something they know little about, is their unwillingness to better inform themselves. (LOEFFLER) Just a single white crow suffice to prove that not all are black (LOEFLLER)

Introduction

This age of information technology in which we live today, with computers booming everywhere connecting people, has brought, as a result, among Internet users, countless debates on a variety of issues. Therefore, one can find a whole lot of websites hosting forums which carry out such discussions. Even though it is an admirable idea, we are amazed to see that some of these forums are actually being used by some people to throw stones.

Many participants are more concerned with making others see things from their perspective, instead of actually putting up a serious debate which should primarily rely on courtesy and respect to others' thoughts. Many owners of the truth have been joining these forums willing to get others to think exactly the way they do and, moreover, they even get angry whenever they cannot achieve their goals and start to attack them verbally, a common practice among those who do not have convincing arguments. It is a paradox, for they do not offer any logical or rational basis to support their point of view, but still think others should take it.

Furthermore, in these forums, some individuals turn up clueless about what to do or say, categorically demonstrating not to possess the essential skills for a debate, as they do not even know the subject in focus.

These forums are becoming, as far as religious issues are concerned, an open door to fanatics. Those blind fanatics who do not tolerate people who oppose their ideas and who scold them for their religious choices, which is, in our view, a disrespect of the sacred right every individual has to follow whatever suits him/her best. It is such an important right that it is sanctified in the Brazilian Constitution, and it is something that did not go past unnoticed by Jesus when he says: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you" (Matt. 7:12), a clear allusion to the fact that the right of each one goes to where the other's begins.

Let's then consider what was published in one of these forums on the Internet.

The proposed question

The following was posted:

Author: Thiago on 01/08/2003, 14:29:25 (email not available)

If the spirits of light can psychograph books as Allan Kardec psycographed many, why have spirits of light such as the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, Jesus himself never psychographed a book? Where in the Bible is there anything about psychographed books?

Firstly, we can pinpoint in that speech that the author actually knows nothing about Spiritism, for, if he did, he would know that Kardec did not psycograph a single book. The books he published, besides containing the answers given by the Spirits through various mediums from various places, also contain his personal opinion, the result of observation and experimentation. Kardec always separated what came from him and what came via mediumistic means, i.e. through the mediums that he utilized to get answers to his questions. As a pedagogue, disciple of Pestalozzi, he impressed in his book his character as a teacher and man of science that he was.

The question "why have Spirits of light such as the Virgin Mary, the Apostles, Jesus himself never psychographed a book, why?", we must clarify (if we understand well the questioning) that, in truth, Spirits do not psychograph; but they only convey their thoughts to mediums who are the ones who actually psychograph. It is worth mentioning, though, that mediumship is not only restricted to the phenomenon of automatic writing (psychography); therefore, we can ascertain on solid grounds that mediumistic phenomena are present in the Bible for anyone with eyes to see. Not so for the fanatics, of course.

On the other hand, if Mary, Jesus and the Apostles did not write the Bible (and there is no evidence that they were literate), how can one believe in it without challenging it? Out of the twelve apostles, only Matthew, being a Publican should be literate; the rest of the group, who were ordinary people and fishermen, were fatally illiterate. We cite the example of Peter and John who were "simple and uneducated" people as mentioned in Acts (4:13).

If there is telepathy among those who are living, why there could not be between us and the Spirits? Or are we likely to stop thinking after our death? After all, was it not Jesus who claimed the Father to be the “God of the living?” (Matt. 22:32). If so, we must retain our individuality as thinking beings after crossing to the other side.

For the studious of the Bible it is easy to cite the episode in which King Saul goes to Endor and asks a Pythoness to evoke the Spirit Samuel who materializes and tells him of his imminent defeat by the Philistines, even telling him that in that same battle the king and his sons would perish, which actually occurred (1 Sam 28). And for those who might argue that it was the demon that had appeared, we ask them to prove it. However, in the Bible itself, we find confirmation of the fact: just read in Ecclesiastes the statement in which Samuel, even after death, foretold (Eccl. 46, 20), ignoring that in the preceding narrative that is already confirmed.

And perhaps the most important passage, usually never mentioned by the fanatics, is the one about the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, where, in the company of Peter, James and John, he talks with the Spirits Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-9). And as once Jesus said that we could do what he did and even more, then we ask: which side is the incoherence?

We can, too, in order to substantiate the communication with Spirits, ascertain that if God forbade the evocation of the dead as it is always argued, one can realize from this fact that the possibility exists. Otherwise, we will be saying that God is banning something that cannot happen. An absurd, isn't it?

Now, if the Virgin Mary, the Apostles and Jesus do not want to use a medium to communicate with us through psychography, they surely must have their reasons. The first one,we believe, is that we would not lend them any credibility. Some would say that the dead do not communicate; others that it can only be the work of Satan. Finally, apart from the Spiritists, almost nobody would believe it. But if there was no prejudice or bigotry, one would be able to see that this has already happened; just study the books of the Spiritist Codification and you will find messages signed by some of them.

The next question, "Where in the Bible is there anything about psychographed books?” is typical of religious fanatics who think that what is not in the Bible does not exist. If we follow this same line of reasoning, we can say that cloning does not exist, that a space probe did not land on Mars, the Internet is a demonic illusion, which only a fool believes that one person can talk to another thousands of miles away etc (and so many more). Nevertheless, we affirm that there is. In the Bible we can cite psychographed books, however only those who have sufficient knowledge of mediumistic phenomena in order to identify it will perceive it. As not everyone can do it, we allow ourselves to present it. This is about the book of Revelation, written by John. We quote LOEFFLER to justify the phenomena: "Just a single white crow suffice to prove that not all are black."Let us read:

"I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the day of the Lord, the Spirit came over me. And behind me I heard a loud voice like a trumpet which said, 'Write on a scroll all you see. Then send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea "(Revelation 1.9 to 11).

Later on, we find John saying: "After writing letters to churches, I, John, had a vision ..." (Revelation 4:1).

We ask, then how can a person "simple and uneducated" as it is said of John (Acts 4:13), write anything? Was it the power of the Holy Ghost? Great: unquestionably a mediumistic phenomenon, whoever he is. But the biblical narrative tells us that it was Jesus himself, obviously in Spirit, who was making the revelations to John

"The Spirit came over me," in other words, the Spirit tuned or, as the saying goes, he entered me."Write on a scroll," i.e., psychograph a book.

However, some might say: but it is not that way in my Bible! That is a fact. Except that we find it very curious that God's "word" has so many different versions, since Bibles have divergent narratives to verse 10. Jerome, the author of the Vulgate, according to the writer José Reis Chaves, said: "The truth cannot exist in things that differ," leaving us in a difficult situation to realize where in fact the true narrative is.

(This article will be concluded in the next issue of this magazine.)