The nominal identification and the subsequent confirmation of the respective “signature” of a Spirit, author of a medium message, is not a task taken lightly by incarnated scholars of the medium phenomena. Fascination, which is a common phenomenon within the studies of obsession, consists of a negative influence disguised as a positive spiritual influence, tricking the “assisted”, who often deems the communicating Spirit, sometimes a fake wise man, a great spiritual mentor (frequently with a famous name in some are of knowledge). This phenomenon poses a constant danger in the study of medium messages, making the spiritualistic movement always vigilant in to the study of messages that come from the spiritual world, once name adulteration is the easiest recourse used by mystifying Spirits.

On the other hand, the work done by truly evolved Spirits who aim at bringing messages through a specific medium is even more complex, for the psychic influence of the medium, among others, affects decisively the quality in the receiving of the message. The mentors need to “dodge” a great number of obstacles in order to convey a high level of information of the original work of the spiritual world to the pages of the books we read. In fact, the analysis of the editorial body itself, depending on the publishers, may, later, alter the essence of the spirit’s thought. Of course it can be productive, if the message is “truncated”, prolix, or little informative. However, some really relevant and of a high order can be lost and the mentors, being aware of that, have to overcome such obstacles in order to deliver the best of messages to incarnated brothers.

We, as incarnated spiritualists, have to study more and more in order for our critical analysis to be the most coherent with the Spiritualist Doctrine as it can be.

Allan Kardec verified the complexity of the subject thanks to his deep and broad study surrounding medium communications. Besides the complexity in identifying, the certification, by the Decoder of Spiritualism, of more relevant aspects to be analyzed concerning the message (firstly) and the moral character of the medium (secondly), made Kardec leave as a third priority the studies concerning the nominal identification of the spiritual author.   

The moral character of the medium is an
important reference point 

In fact, the content of the message is what matters most. A message with a high moral content, logical, objective, that informs with a few words, that shows a linguistically correct text, highly didactic, that gathers interesting information about specific topics of spiritual relevance, is always desirable for the study and reading in the spiritualistic movement.

The moral character of the medium, on the other hand, becomes an important reference when the content of the message is of a dubious nature to the scholars of the text. When the information is truly original and, despite some doctrinarian respect, arise doubt as to its credibility and consistency (it happens often when dealing with subjects such as “life in the spiritual world”, medium manifestation processes, reincarnation of famous individuals, among others), the moral character of the medium, even though it doesn’t solve the question completely, is a parameter to be considered. This happens because a medium of a low moral behavior could only receive messages of a high spiritual value in exceptional instances. In fact, spiritual mentors, by divine mercy, may forgive that lack of merit and spiritual affinity by the medium to transmit a message that is important for the medium himself and for the spiritualistic group that will have access to the referred message. However, such recourse tends to happen exceptionally only, or else, if the medium does not make an effort to change his conduct, in a medium to long term, he tends to lose the protection of spiritual friends (Law of Cause and Effect/ Spiritual Affinity) and start to be assisted by Spirits of a lower evolutionary level. Therefore, a morally evolved medium supposes a spiritual “neighborhood” of affinity of thoughts, feelings and objectives of a higher level too, which consists an important pre-requisite for a superior medium work, sustainable in long term.

The nominal identification of the author, mainly of famous ones, whether through medium works, as spiritual authors, or because of works published while they were incarnated authors, is a way to confirm the immortality of the soul and spiritual communication of Spirits (mediumship). 

Not always medium conditions allow for identification 

This evidence is still rather important for those who doubt or disbelieve life after the death of the body and will always be relevant for the studies of subjects related to Spiritualism, such as mediumship, spiritual world, psychography and animism. However, not always the medium conditions allow for such identification due to the limitations faced by the medium and/or his helpers. In this case, the authors prefer to use a pseudonym in order to avoid that the difference is style shown by him (or her) in this new work (through this medium) and previously (by another medium or as an incarnated writer) makes materialistic critics reject the respective authorship, enhancing the rejection towards the medium phenomenon, for they do not know the hardships of such a complex task.

There are many factors that may impair the identification of the spiritual authorship of a message such as:

1. In the case of spiritual authors that were, while incarnated beings, famous writers: the difference in the cultural baggage between the communicating Spirit and the medium, to the point where psychic influence limits the ability of the author to express his literary style.

2. In the case of names that became notable through a specific medium: the transmission of the messages through a different medium may impair the transmission of the characteristic style of the spiritual author. This happens because the psychic influence of different mediums over the process of “medium filtering” of the messages can be significantly distinguished, depending on factors such as medium intensity of each medium, the cultural baggage of each one of them, the specific knowledge about the subject dealt by the Spirit, the vocabulary and the style of writing of each medium, as well as the adaptation of this style to the style of the communicating Spirit.

3. The medium mechanism of receiving (mechanic, semi-mechanic or conscious), which may vary from medium to medium, thus affecting the reproduction of the original thought by the communicating Spirit.

Emotional inconsistencies may interfere
in the communication

4. Emotional oscillations of the medium during the phase in which he is an instrument in the receiving of messages from a certain Spirit (it may be Just one Day, when it’s about an isolated message or may involve a bigger time gap, up to several months, when it’s about the receiving of bigger works and, mainly, with a continuous flow of information, such as in a romance). These emotional instances may hamper the reproduction of the original thought by the communication Spirit.
 

5. The difference of vibration between the communicating Spirit and the medium, whose lower spiritual affinity translates in more difficulties experiences in the transmission of ideas by the communicator.

6. The negative spiritual experiences, including obsessions that may be affecting the medium and/or spiritualist group frequented by the medium (which may the support group for this specific medium task). Such difficulties lower the “medium shield”, which consists in an important protecting factor, mostly when receiving medium romances.

7. In the case of spiritual authors that were famous incarnated writers: the emotional oscillations and the sheer intellectual and, mainly moral evolution of the disincarnated author himself may change the areas of interest and style in relation to what the author wrote while incarnated. That would hamper his identification by part of incarnated critics. Similar processes are common even to incarnated authors, who often change their styles at different phases of their physical life. In reference to disincarnation, it could manifest itself with greater emphasis, considering the possible occurrence of disincarnations and/or adaptations to the spiritual world that may seem traumatic to the disincarnated author. It’s worth adding that many times the spiritual author is writing decades or even centuries after his celebrity phase while a incarnated writer, which tends to enhance the difference in style of those two phases of the author (as incarnated and disincarnated Spirit).

The lack of intellectual preparation of the medium may affect the message 

8. Vocabulary and different linguistic fashions according to the times of the physical life of the spiritual authors in relation to the medium, allowing for a psychic influence that change the character of the style of the spiritual author.

9. In the case of spiritual authors that were famous writers in a foreign language to the mother tongue of the medium, the reproduction of the writer’s style may be hampered by the difference in styles and literary construction between the native language of the spiritual author when incarnated and the native tongue of the medium. Such influence may end up being accentuated by the difference in the times of the physical life, which may make the “old” foreign language of the communicating Spirit stay farther away of the more straight-forward “translation” in relation to the “recent” native language of the medium.

10. In the case of the defense of philosophical-doctrinarian postulates that do not correspond to the opinions of the medium there nay be some influence in the medium filtering, in case the medium is not very able to receive (“passively”) the thought of the communicating Spirit.

11. In the case of subjects in which the medium has a great cultural baggage and more decisive opinions, the psychic influence may generate a reproduction of mental clichés particular to the personality and points of view of the medium.

12. In the case of subjects in with the medium is a total layperson, the lack of knowledge by the medium of technical terms associated to the jargon of the subject approached by the Spirit may hamper the objectivity and the use of words chosen by the spiritual author.

13.  Some spiritual authors who are more demanded by the use of prayer and conscious (and unconscious) evoking often send their spiritual messages through “secretaries”, intermediates who have the job to bring about the thinking of the mentor straight to the medium, due to the great number of tasks and assisted groups by the benefactor.

There are cases in which the author
takes up a pseudonym

The shock of the survival of the Spirit from the death of the body ends up having a great impact on the ideals of these writers. In this case, the personal writing style can be observed, but the content is not so different from the previous ideas of the author which cause rejection by scholars of the referred body of work of the author, while a incarnated writer.

Such difficulties, far from undermining, extol the great number of works whose spiritual authors are certified by specialists and literary critics. We must not forget the famous “Parnasus of Beyond Grave” from different authors through the medium work of Chico Xavier; the works by Humberto de Campos, also through Chico Xavier; of “Christ Awaits You” by Honoré de Balzac by the medium Waldo Vieira; “Memories of a Suicidal” by Camilo Castelo Branco/ León Denis through Yvonne do Amaral Pereira; of “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, which was started by the famous English writer Charles Dickens, as an incarnated writer, and finished by the same author, after his disincarnation, through a practically illiterate American medium, whose work was translated to Portuguese by Herminio C. Miranda.

Very often, when the communicating Spirit realizes that it will not be possible to imprint his literary style through a specific medium, in order to prove the evidence of the immortality of the soul and the communicability of Spirits, he prefer to use a pseudonym, in order for the work to reach us with the objective of our spiritual edification through the content of the message itself. Something similar happened when Victor Hugo refrained from personally sending one of his works through Dona Yvonne do Amaral Pereira and suggested that Charles did it, for them both knew the content of the narrative to be told. Dona Yvonne had a greater affinity to the style of writing of Charles in relation to Victor Hugo’s, what would impair the attempt by the latter, mainly because it is about a well-known writer from Universal Literature.

Other times, the Spirit prefers to use a pseudonym in order to avoid the medium to be attacked by the lack of belief from the family, like what happened to Chico Xavier in the “Humberto de Campos Case”. That would have been, as well, one of the reasons for the Spirit Andre Luiz not to use his real name to sign his work. In these cases, a second aim in the publishing of these works would not be made viable, which is mainly to provide additional proof of the immortality of the soul through the identification of a spiritual author well-known on earth.