Sandra Regina Ravagnani Duran:

“Many people came to the Spiritist Centre only to get healing”

Our fellow Spiritist from the Brazilian state of São Paulo talks in this interview about her experience at the Spiritist Centre do Além, in the city of São Joaquim da Barra

	Sandra Regina Ravagnani Duran (photo), a Spiritist since 1983, was born and brought up in the city of São João da Barra, where she is a Maths teacher at a local school. She is one of the directors of the Spiritist Centre Do Além. In this interview she talks about the study groups organised by the Centre, which have attracted growing interest from the pu-
blic.  Tell us first a bit about your hometown.

São Joaquim da Barra is in the north-northwest of São Paulo state. Its economy is based on agrobusiness.

How did you become a Spiritist?

My mediumship was very evident since I was a small child. The religion I was affiliated to had no explanation for what was going on. Eventually the phenomena became more intense and frequent and I needed to seek help. That is when I arrived at the Spiritist Centre Do Além, where I was welcomed, helped and where my questions were answered.

How many Spiritist Centres are there in the city and which one is the oldest?

There are 10 Spiritist Groups in the city. The first one is the Spiritist Centre Do Além, which was founded on March 1st 1928. I believe its founders brought Spiritism to the city, but I do not know what their names were.

Where did the idea of using textbooks for studies during the public meetings at the Centre come from?

Many people came to the Spiritist Centre only to get healing and many arrived shortly after the healing sessions, missing most of the talk. Something needed to be done to encourage people to study the Teachings. We began a campaign to explain that the healing process began during the talk and was finalised in the end, during the healing treatment with the imposition of the hands. We also decided to began a structured teaching programme.

What method do you use?

We began with our method in 1999 and added video and sound resources in 2006 after we became familiar with the Auta de Souza method. We study two books a week, The Spirits' Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism. At each meeting we discuss one chapter or issue from one of the books, with the help of audio and video. We ask people to read the chapter in full at home. We normally use videos and songs to complement the lessons.

What is the feedback from those who have attended?

It is very positive. People have come to the meetings more regularly. Some still come in late, but they are not many. There are more people enrolling in the study groups and there is higher demand for books in our library.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

There was a time when we had very few workers available to carry out the work in the Spiritist Centre. But once we adopted the new methodology people began to give more attention to studying and more volunteers began to come forward. We now have training courses for volunteers in several areas, including healing and counselling.  I would also like to say that I gave courses on two very important issues:

1. The pains of the soul, which took a psychological approach to questions in The Spirits' Book;

2. Depression: a course on how to deal with this problem, which affect so many people in our times and benefitted many of our friends who attend regularly to our events and courses.