Mediumship: Study and Practice Program 2 1 Federação Espírita Brasileira Mediumship: Study and Practice Program 2 Organized by: Marta Antunes Moura Translated by: SUMMARY 2 3 Mediumship: Study and Practice - Program 2 Introduction Further to the launch of the Program I: Mediumship Course: Study and Practice, we present to the Spiritist Movement the Program II which completes the doctrinal content planned for the formation of mediumship workers in the Spiritist House. In this program, the study and practical activities have become more compressed and focused on Mediumistic practice, expected to be developed within six months, including the complementary activities, considered optional. The weekly meetings remain up to two hours, and the presentation of each theoretical theme is at maximum between 30-40 minutes, reserving the remaining time (1 hour and 30/20 minutes) to the Mediumistic exercise, developed in the form of a supervised Mediumistic meeting. Upon completion of the course, if the course coordination understands that participants need more time for Mediumistic practice, they may extend the supervised Mediumistic practice to one or two semesters, in accordance with the existing possibilities. Another possibility, always keeping consistency with the existing conditions in the Spiritist institution, is to direct participants who effectively demonstrate spiritual conditions to join a Mediumistic group, assuming their commitment to the work of mediumship. Participants should be aware that the completion of the course does not guarantee them referral to a Mediumistic group, considering that the Mediumistic experience demands of each one, not only doctrinal knowledge itself, but the persevering effort of moral improvement, dedication, attendance and mental health. We emphasize the need of the Mediumship Course: Study and Practice to be applied in full, avoiding completing only the study of the theory - a situation that, by itself, would not promote a good and safe exchange between the two planes of life. In mediumship, we need to know now to combine theory and practice, so the student is prepared to gradually overcome the barriers inherent to their condition of reincarnate and can harmonically and naturally develop the ability to feel, perceive and be in tune with the spiritual plane, regardless if the student has active mediumship or not. It is recommended that those enrolled in this course also study in parallel the works of the Spiritist Codification, especially The Spirits’ Book, The Mediums' Book and The Gospel According to Spiritism, complementing their Spiritist doctrinal knowledge. © Brazilian Spiritist Federation 2016 4 Mediumship: Study and Practice - Program 2 Credits We address our sincere thanks to the following list of collaborators who remained cohesive and dedicated during the review and the preparation of Program 2, Mediumship Course: Study and Practice: Cylene Dalva Guida (operational coordinator of the group) Jacobson Sant’Anna Trovão Manoel Rodrigues Craveiro Nilva Polônio Craveiro Regina Capute Terezinha de Jesus Lima Bezerra Tulia Maria Benites Our gratitude also extends to the leaders of the federations and to the regional, state and municipal coordinators of mediumship activities who participated in the Project for Pilot Testing of the Course prior to its publication by FEB Editora, and provided the data and invaluable subsidies for review and collective development of the contents expressed in both programs. Thank you for the generous blessings of spiritual benefactors who, acting in the name of Jesus, attended to our difficulties and limitations in all phases of the work. Brasília, December 12 2013 Marta Antunes de Oliveira Moura Organizer of Mediumship Course: Study and Practice Toronto, April 25th, 2017 The Toronto Spiritist Society would like to thank the following people who participated in the translation of this course material from the Portuguese original: Translators: Carlos Alberto Piffer Cardozo Danielle Geri Erika Lessa Otto Aulicino Coordination and Review: José Mussi © Brazilian Spiritist Federation 2016 5 Mediumship: Study and Practice - Program 2 Suggestions on how to conduct the course The theoretical study of issues related to Mediumistic meeting is offered in this course, and presented in thirty minute sessions. However, its main focus is the practical activity, characterized by a supervised Mediumistic meeting, which aims to provide favorable conditions for the correct and safe development of Mediumistic faculty, in light of the Spiritist understanding. We emphasize from the very beginning that no content presented in the course resulted from personal opinion or individual experience of any member of the review team. All guidelines, theoretical and practical, are subsidized by the experience and explanation of outstanding mentors, incarnate and discarnate, who used as reference the moral taught by the Gospel of Jesus and the knowledge of the works coded by Allan Kardec. In this context, the coordination and assistants of the supervised Mediumistic meetings should be composed of experienced Spiritist workers, committed to the task and capable of assisting the mediumship student with patience, balance and doctrinal security. Thus, some points shown below, are being emphasized in the course, in order to facilitate the process of unification of Mediumistic practice, so that it is undertaken without undesirable distortions, considering that the Spiritist can and should, wherever one is, speak the same language related to mediumship, as long as one assumes the commitment to follow the guidelines universally taught by guiding Spirits committed to the Spiritist Codification. There is also the need to cover the Mediumistic meeting with simplicity that, according to Emmanuel, “(...) should be everywhere, a faithful copy of fraternal cenacle, simple and humble of Tiberius where the Gospel of the Lord was reflected in spirit and truth, without any world convention (...).”1 This is something that should be routinely observed in order to stop any kind of exotic, strange or contrary practice to the Spiritist postulates, seeing that benefactors and spiritual advisors never contradict on this subject, whenever possible reminding us about the instructions consolidated by Allan Kardec: 1 Francisco Cândido Xavier. O Consolador. By the Spirit Emmanuel. 29th ed. Q. 372, p. 242. © Brazilian Spiritist Federation 2016 6 Mediumship: Study and Practice - Program 2 Study, compare and meditate upon the issues. We have constantly affirmed that knowing the truth has its price. How could you expect to reach the truth by interpreting everything according to your own narrow-minded ideas, but which you consider so great? The day is not far off, however, when the Spirits’ teaching will be uniform not only in their details but also in their main aspects (...).2 2 Allan Kardec. The Mediums’ Book. Part 2. Ch. XXVII, item.301. Q. 4, p. 419. © Brazilian Spiritist Federation 2016 7 Mediumship: Study and Practice - Program 2 POINTS THAT DESERVE TO BE HIGHLIGHTED 1. Simultaneous communications should be avoided as possible, during Mediumistic practice. As simple or brief a Mediumistic manifestation is, it aims at teaching all team members, not just one or two participants alone. Regardless if the message comes from an enlightened Spirit or one in need of assistance, the lesson, moral and intellectual is for the group as Allan Kardec points out: “Spiritist instruction does not entail only the moral teachings given by Spirits, but also the study of facts. (...).”3 André Luiz also clarifies this point by stating at “(...) it is inadvisable to make simultaneous clarification to more than two entities in need of aid, so that the order is of course assured.”4 2. The workers of Mediumistic group should act as “(...) a collective being, whose qualities and properties are the sum of all its members, forming a sort of cluster (...).”5 3. The homogeneity of Mediumistic practice is another point that should be pursued persistently. As stated in The Mediums’ Book: “Every Spiritist meeting should try to be as homogeneous as possible. Of course, we are referring to meetings that desire to obtain serious and truly useful results. (...).”6 4. The content of the Mediumistic messages must be permanently evaluated: a brief evaluation after the closing prayer of the Mediumistic meeting and another, more consistent and time- consuming, to be held in the Spiritist House in day and time previously scheduled. It should be verified that Mediumistic messages (psychophonic, psychographic, clairvoyance, inspiration, etc.) are considered to be not only serious, but also instructive, because not everything that is serious is necessarily instructive. In this regard, the Encoder of Spiritism ponders: (...) Every communication which does not display any frivolousness or crudeness, and which has a useful purpose, even though perhaps of private interest only, is naturally serious. However, that does not mean that such communications are always without error, since serious Spirits are not all equally enlightened. They are ignorant of many things and they may be mistaken about them, though in good faith. That is why truly high order Spirits constantly recommended that we submit all communications to the control of reason and strictest logic.7 3 Allan Kardec. The Mediums’ Book. Part 2. Ch. XXIX, item.32, p. 442. 4 Francisco Cândido Xavier and Waldo Vieira. Desobsessão. Ch. 39, p. 159. 5 Allan Kardec. The Mediums’ Book. Part 2. Ch. XXIX, item.33,