The musical mediumship of Jorge Rizzini

Jorge Rizzini (1924-2008).

The different varieties of mediums rest upon special faculties whose principle are still unknown to us. At first sight and to those who haven't made a systematic study of this science yet, it seems easier for a medium to write prose than verses. One would say - mainly if one deals with a mechanical medium - a spirit can both make the medium write in a foreign language and make him sketch or write music. However, that is not so. Although at every moment one can see sketches, verses and music made by mediums who, in the normal state, are not draftsmen, poets nor musicians, it is certain that not all them are able to produce such things. In spite of their lack of knowledge, they have an intuitive faculty and flexibility which transform them into gentle instruments. That is what Bernard Palissy said when he was asked about his choice of Mr. Victorien Sardou, who couldn't draw, to make his admirable sketches (Revue Spirit, April/August 1858). "It is because he is the most flexible one", he replied. The same happens with other skills. And - what an amazing thing! - we have seen spirits refused to write verses using mediums knowing poetry, while dictated lovely poems to others lacking the knowledge of poetic rules. This fact proves once again that spirits have free-will and that futile are our attempts to submit them to our whims. (A. Kardec (1859). Revue Spirite, March, "Study about mediums".)

Musical mediumship is the psychic capability of "execute, compose or write music, under the influence of the spirits." (1). One shoul, however, distinguish between "mediums of musical effects" who "obtain the playing of certain instruments without human contact" and musical mediums. The first ones are much rarer than musical mediums because the action of playing instruments requires "telekinetic" ability as displayed, for example, by the famous Scottish medium D. D. Home (1833-1886). The most extraordinary musical medium of modern times was Rosemary Brown (2) who produced musical pieces of nearly 400 spirit authors.

In Brazil, there are still some musical mediums, the most notorious one was surely Jorge Rizzini (1924-2008). Rizzini was born in São Paulo in a Spiritist family (3) and worked as writer, jornalist, radio broadcaster and advertiser. From 1950 on, Rizzini was actively involved with the Spiritist movement in Brazil, having helped to promote Spiritism alongside spiritist celebrities such as Chico Xavier, Herculano Pires, Yvonne Pereira and Deolindo Amorim. Rizzini launched the first Spiritist TV programm in the Brazil at TV Cultura channel. His greatest heritage is however his musics as a consequence of his ability to write music in trance while not knowing music at all.

Back cover of a rare EME album from 1995 containing psychic compositions by
 Jorge Rizzini after the first psychic music festival in São Paulo in 1982.

Rizzini was able to reproduce a wide repertoire of styles ranging from opera to samba as illustrated by two pieces presented below. His spirit contributors include names such as Lamartine Babo (1904-1963), Ataulfo Alves (1909-1969), Ary Barroso (1903-1964), Francisco Alves (1898-1952), Noel Rosa (1910-1937), Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), Carlos Gardel, (1890-1935) Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and John Philips Sousa (1854-1932).  As for his previous musical knowledge he said

"I never studied music; I don't play any instrument, not even by ear, I don't know to write music, I don't sing and worse of all, I'm tuneless!" (3)

Like Rosemary Brown, Rizzini was flexible enough to the spirits, in spite of lack of musical knowledge. As an communication man, Rizzini organized several musical festivals, inviting professional musicians to play his psychic works. These were known as "Spiritist music meetings" with the aim of spreading the truth of immortality as some of his music lyrics suggest:

Caminhar é uma opção. Walking is an option

De quem quer chegar. Of those wanting to come.

É falar ao coração It is speaking to the heart

De quem quer escutar...Of those who want to listen...

Vamos dar as boas vindas. Let's welcome

Pra quem vem nos assistir. The ones coming to watch us

E cantar com alegria! And sing with joy!

Porque estamos aqui,  Because we are here,

Fazendo o nosso show! To give the concert!

Cantando de verdade Really singing 

Que a vida continua. That life goes on.

Que felicidade! What a happiness!

E você que está me ouvindo, And you listening to me,

Caia na real! Get real!

Ninguém acaba com a morte Death destroys no one

Pois voltamos do astral. Because we are back from the astral

A nossa ponte é Our bridge is 

A mediunidade! Mediumship!

Abençoada oportunidade! Blessed opportunity!

Even so, Brazilian spiritists scarcely supported Rizzini efforts. There is a local tendency to hide prominent mediums fearing misinterpretations. As a consequence, music mediumship is rarely highlighted in spiritit art meetings. Many of Rizzini's works are not available in digital form; although part of the material has been reedited recently (5), past works survive today only through old vinyl records.  Overall even Rizzini's life poorly documented as compared to the richness of his mediumship, and Ref. (3) is surely the best source.

Some Examples of widely different styles

Ary Barroso.

1 - By the Brazilian composer Ary Barroso (who in life made musics to artists such as Carmen Miranda and is the author of "Aquarela do Brasil"), Rizzini-Barroso piece "Brasil luz" (1982) is an interesting reproduction of Barroso pre bossa nova style.

2 - By the famous Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini, "Dolce Maria" with lyrics in Italian. I couldn't find any information about the composition year or further details on this piece, which is however quite beautiful as our readers can judge by themselves.

"Brasil Luz", by Ary Barroso, under Rizzini's mediumship (1982).

"Dolce Maria" by  G. Puccini under Rizzini's mediumship.

Final remark

It is important to study and monitor the work of past and future musical mediums for a variety of reasons, the most important one is to better understand the origin, nature and mechanism of pure mediumship. Musical mediumship hosts a special place in the pantheon of psychic abilities because, being a communication process by excellence, this kind of mediumship attains a high level of expression as derived by the character of music as an universal language. Also,  it seems fair to ask to what point human musical creativity is influenced by the spirits. If, on one hand, psychic flexibility is the source of musical mediumship, on the other, one can ask what someone with musical background and some psychic ability could get in this field. It is thus understandable to view artistic creativity as a kind of cooperation between two planes of life rather than a purely human capability.

References

1 - A Kardec. (1986) The Medium's Book. 2nd Edition by FEB. Transl by A. Blackwell. Cap. XVI, "Special Mediums" P. 189, 190.

2 - See the previous posts:

• http://spiritistknowledge.blogspot.com.br/2012/08/two-new-composition-inspired-by-f.html
• http://spiritistknowledge.blogspot.com.br/2013/11/new-article-about-rosemary-brown-in-skl.html

3 - The text of this post is based on http://jorge-rizzini.blogspot.com.br/ 

4 - See "Compositores do Além" (2006), a DVD launched by Versátil Home video. Directed by Jorge Rizzini and Edson Audi.

How can some animals find their way back to home?

It is presently a mystery how some lost animals - usually cats and dogs - find their way home. A recent case was Pero (1), a four-year sheepdog which was back to home 15 days later after its scape. Somehow Pero was able to find its home 240 miles (~400 km) away.  Many other "anecdotes" accumulate, narrated by many families and now Pero's case seems to have confirmed this surprising ability.

According to the present scientific knowledge, animals are endowed with a multitude of "sensors" (2) used to provide accurate information and supporting the notion that they are able to guide themselves through long distances. Such sensor are not only far superior than the human versions (dogs, for example, have acute smell and hearing, cats see very well in the dark etc), but represent perhaps other sense modes as, for example, magnetic sensing. Birds and bees have their own inner "compasses". Magnetic substances have been found in the retina of many animals, including dogs (see the case of Cryptochrome 1 in Ref. 3). Could dogs and other higher mammals guide themselves using magnetic fields? These are some of the ideas and conjectures, but even if it were absolutely proved that animals do in fact use the north-south line in a complex path, much more is in fact needed in order to completely explain Pero's case. To see that, just imagine yourself lost in a distant place, unable to speak and understand anyone, but having a compass and a sensible scent detector... 

Another conjecture added by Spiritism

In an essay entitled "The mediumship of animals" in "The Medium's Book" (4), A. Kardec published a text by Erastus motivated by some discussions in the Paris Spiritist Society as well as several letters received by Kardec on the question of animals and their mediumship.  This text was originally published in the Revue Spirit (The Spiritist Magazine) in August 1861 under the title "Animal mediums". Essentially, in the original meaning, mediumship is a human ability so that one cannot talk about an equivalent notion for animals. Mediumship is a complex phenomena, requiring a certain  ressonance between two minds of the same status, that is, two spirits of the same "evolutionaly rank". Hence, for the sake of clarity, one cannot truly speak about "animal mediums" and some of the strange phenomena related to animals need another explanation.

However, this does not mean animals cannot detect the presence or, perhaps, receive information from the Spirits (4):

Spirits can render themselves visible and tangible to animals and the sudden terror with which the latter are sometimes seized, and for which you can perceive no reason, is caused by their seeing one or several spirits bearing ill-will towards their owners, or towards some of the persons present. You frequently see horses that will neither go forwards nor backwards, or that rear or shy at some obstacle unseen by you, and which is often a spirit, or a group of spirits, terrifying the animal, out of malice, or by way of a joke. Remember how Balaam's ass, seeing an angel before her, and frightened at his flaming sword, stood obstinately still ; the angel, before making himself visible to Balaam, having appeared first to the animal only. But, though we can render ourselves visible to animals, we cannot medianimise them any more than we can medianimise inert matter ; the conscious or unconscious co-operation of a human medium is always a necessary condition of our intercommunication with men, because, for this, we require the union of similar fluids, which do not exist either in the animals or in inert matter.

The episode of Ballam's ass as narrated in Numbers 22:23 and cited by Erastus in (4).

According to this quote, animals can sense Spirits through the presence of mediums, who are always humans. These mediums may not even know they are acting as intermediaries (that is, the phenomenon is spontaneous). During these episodes, Spirits may remain invisible to humans, however, they are perceived by animals which use their far improved senses.

As a conclusion, Spirits may be involved in Pero's case and many others involving lost animals which find their way home so easily. At least, we should see this explanation as a plausible mechanism, since even with the help of improved senses, it is hard to imagine how animals can do the work. To do so, animals must have many friends among the "invisibles".

Notes and references

1 - See (accessed in june 2016)

• http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-36130437
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_xb97z-taI

2 - http://www.sciencealert.com/how-dogs-find-their-way-home-without-a-gps

3 - Ver http://www.nature.com/articles/srep21848

4 - Kardec A (1986). The Medium's Book. 2nd Edition. Brasília: FEB. Available at: http://www.allankardec.com/Allan_Kardec/Le_livre_des_esprits/lesp_us.pdf (accessed on june 2016).  

Divaldo Franco and Rabindranath Tagore

This life is the crossing of a sea, 

where we meet in the same narrow ship. 

In death we reach the shore 

and go to different worlds. 

(R. Tagore, in Stray Birds, 1916 (4))

So I will sing and mine will be poems and songs of immortal kind. 

(R. Tagore, psychography Divaldo Franco, Pássaros Livres, 1990 (5)).

Certain things had happened to me 

when alone in my room which convinced me 

that there are spiritual intelligences 

which can warn us and advise us.  

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939).

According to A. Kardec, mediumship, as the faculty of "people who can serve as intermediaries between the spirits and men" (1), is not simply a hability to communicate and exchange information. Psychography in particular is the ability that mediums have to lend their minds so that spirits can use them for writing including for manifesting artistic content. In this process, the spirit mentally induces ideas and concepts to the medium who can then either write with his own words what he perceives or use entire semantical expressions suggested by the spirit author. In this sense, we conceive the existence of a scale of mental transparency between the medium and the spirit author so that some mediums may faithfully replicate what the author intends to write while others only poorly transmit what they mentally listen or see. The use of poetic language, however, is a good indication of an efficient "channeling" process between the discarnate and the medium because subtle elements of identification may be transmitted. Automatic writing is the name given to a very specific kind of mediumship. The term "psychography" encompass a much broader kind of writing experience than automatic writing. Therefore the preference for this term by spiritists. 

An example of such phenomenon is Divaldo P. Franco (1927-) (2) collaboration with Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). According to Divaldo, he never heard about Tagore when he was first visited by his spirit in the year 1949. The episode is described by Divaldo himself as quoted in the book Semeador das Estrelas (3)  

In the year of the first psychographic works by Marco Prisco in 1949, I was lying on the bed a certain night when I heard a music of indefinable beauty played by a kind of zither. With the sound of such mournful and plangent music, I had a beautiful vision of grassy and flowered gardens severed by a brook of clear water on which a boat was sliding. On the boat a honorable entity dressing a white robe with a dark skin showed me a face with large, black and bright eyes and a blanched beard where silver threads could be seen. - "I'm Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian poet and wanted you to write some of my thoughts", said the spirit. I woke up immediately and got some material for the psychography, entering psychic trance after a while. I could still hear the beautiful and pervasive melody while I was writing. I confess that I never heard about that name before, nor had read anything on that spirit. From that night on, for a certain period, Tagore dictated several messages that were gathered in a book only published in 1965 entitled Filigranas de luz.

The author of "Stray Birds" (4) returned to sing new birds in books like Pássaros Livres ("Free Birds", 5) and Estesia ("Aesthesia"), after the first cited work Filigranas de Luz ("Watermarks of Light") in 1965. There are no English translations for the verses or texts (prose) in these books so I decided to provide rather sketchy versions from some excerpts below.   

It has been said that Tagore works in English do not faithfully represent their original beauty in Bengali (6). The famous Irish poet W. Butler Yeats (1865-1939) said "Tagore does not know English, no Indian knows English" (6 and 7). Is it then possible that, by writing through Divaldo's mind, Tagore managed to convey his thoughts better than if he had used Bengali and then an English translator? Anyway, the original language here is Portuguese and is very probable that some noise exist in the Tagore-Franco "mental link" as in the poor translation that I provide. However, we can imagine the potential use of mediumship in the future when the great discarnate artist of the past could be back to transmit new works in the medium's own language.

For that aim, they need only a faithful medium instrument.

Free Birds

My singings are songs that the heart unfasten with rapture thrill.
My songs are melodies that tenderness liberates from my soul's depths and launches toward travelling winds to reach far distances.
My sensibility is sharpen by love and I release the sweet music of hope standing on the tiny window of my pettiness.
I spread through the air the scores of a pentagram chanted by life from the bottom of my being.
By searching my King and my Lord, I modulate my word, I call, I sing and implore.
Like free birds dressed in light they fly to reach open space toward the infinite.
During either the heavy monsoons or droughts, my birds in the same way sing in freedom, enhancing the landscape with sound and beauty.
My birds are living poems of love that liberate themselves from the narrow cage of emotion where they are born to earn the vastness, like birds of happiness.
Take my songs my Lord and convert them into peace carrying birds heralding the eternal springtime for all the unfortunate ones in the world.
So I will sing and mine will be poems and songs of immortal kind.

R. Tagore (Divaldo Franco's psychography. Original in Portuguese, Pássaros Livres, in Pássaros Livres, 5)

Place of love

In everyone there is
A bare, unfathomed
Soundless, deep
Spotless hedge.

In every being there remains
A holly and ignored
Never encroached,
Enriched of tenderness,
Watchful world.

In the abyss of every soul there is
A rock,
A place, an isle,
A paradise
A corner of wonder
To be discovered.

In every heart
Dawn takes an open space,
A wide field
To be worked on,
Land of God,
Place of dream,
A haven for the future.

In every life
There is place for more lives,
As on every happiness,
A sweet gloom hovers
Presaging distress.

There is a place in me however,
In the isle of my undisclosed feelings,
An abyss of longing,
An ocean of hapiness,
A cosmos of fantasy,
To offer you
My Lord!

Come my beloved
King and Lord
Master my mistress,
Lead me on the way
Of redemption.

And take this odd and lone land,
To reign and cast your heavenly lights upon it
And happily will I move forward
Until the end of my forces
Bound to your redeeming duty.

Come my King
Into my nook
And make my life
A hymn of service
And for you an everlasting
Song of love.

R. Tagore (Divaldo Franco psychography. Original in Portuguese, Lugar de Amor, in Pássaros Livres, 5)

Birds of recollections

My recollections reach the depth that my memory allows. 

They are like migrating birds which often run away from past winter, searching for the pleasant heat of current summer and hovering on greyish landscapes so difficult to be rebuilt. 

In the time of the ever fleeting today, they become the hallmark of permanence, covering the distances created by the relentless passage of time. 

Your presence shade me either with the sadness of commited mistakes or with the lights of ennobled actions like a magic kaleidoscope of returns and evasions. 

Tears of regret run down my eyes that a hot kiss of happiness wipes out when the birds of my recollections arrive. 

Yet, your presence reaches me up as much as the cage of my memories permits, setting them free.   

R. Tagore (Divaldo Franco's psychography. Original in Portuguese, Os pássaros das recordações, in Pássaros Livres)

Far away reality

I dreamed of a dream...

Where all was cheerfull and sweet fascination

Where pain, suffering, sadness and evil were diluted

like soap bubbles in the air of a singing spring.

Cascading rivers were coloured by rays of a long lasting light

and men, in chattering groups, 

Celebrated love.

Unsuspected communion was everywhere

and the work was voluntary.

The poetry of the good declaimed touching verses

that creatures used to better understand and complete themselves.

I recalled war and hate, plagues and punishments. 

But nobody answered me, 

when I asked the happy citizens of the paradise.

Young and wise they were all at their conquered ages,

beyond conquered times...

Neither shadows nor stains could I find

and I realized that the pervading and flickering glare

was born here and there,

never extinguished in a night of lying victory.

I dreamed about a dream of a future,

when the carriage of the King of Youth and Peace

will tear a road in the infinite toward the never end.

Beloved king, whom I wish so much, I always dream of you,

However, today I dreamed about a dream...

Reality came and woke me up,

and told me a song of hope:

Love and wait!

Tomorrow you will no longer dream

because your dream will ever be.

R. Tagore (Divaldo Franco's psychography. Original in Portuguese, Realidade distante, in Estesia)

When I left

When I left wishing to earn the world but never loosing peace, you said: "Go my son, I will be with you".
I was then very young. I strived to conquer everything...
At the door of a lodge adorned with orange blossoms I asked you: "Will you write me, my mother?"
And you replied: "I will send you my news, because I will always be with you".
I took infinite routes of time and waited for your letter that never arrived.
My hands became callous.
My feet bleeded.
My body bent down with the weight of time but your words never reached me.

Pouring monsoons came dozens of times and the burning of land killed the orchad dozen occasions.

I eagerly stood before the gate of hope, waiting for your news.

Now when the snow of the years decorates my head and my sight fades away with the glazing light, I came to realize that I am the letter and message you delivered to the world, my mother, so that hope and beauty never miss in the hearts.

R. Tagore (Divaldo Franco's psychography. In Pássaros Livres)

References

(1) A. Kardec (1861) "The Medium's book", Spiritist Vocabulary. Chapter 32.

(2) http://www.divaldofranco.net/

(3) S. C. Schubert (1989). O Semeador de Estrelas, "The Sower of Stars", 4th Ed., Published by Livraria Espírita Alvorada.

(4) http://www.kkoworld.com/kitablar/Rabindranat_Taqor_Kocheri_qushlar_eng.pdf (access May 2015)

(5) D. Franco (1990). Pássaros Livres. 2nd Edition. Ed. Livraria Espírita Alvorada.

(6) See Amartya Sen opinion cited in Wikipedia: "anyone who knows Tagore's poems in their original Bengali cannot feel satisfied with any of the translations (made with or without Yeats's help). Even the translations of his prose works suffer, to some extent, from distortion." Originaly cited work: Sen, A. (1997), "Tagore and His India", The New York Review of Books.

(7) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore.

Some considerations about the proper use of mediumship

We know that mediumship is a human faculty that allows us to get in contact with the Spirits (1). Mediumship is a neutral ability, that is, it is not attached to the "good" or the "evil" side or, putting in another way, it does not depend on the bad or good use we make of it. Moreover, it is not equally distributed among all people. Organic dispositions make it a gorgeous capacity of some people while , for the majority, it is almost imperceptible.

In the past, mediums were highly regarded and persecuted. It is possible to identify traces of mediumship in many past personalities of the human history. In the Old Testament, prophets were consulted and called "Seers" (see, for example, Isaiah 30:10, Samuel I, 9:18 and 19). In ancient Greece, the Oracle of Delphi listened to all kinds of problems of private and public life. Religious dogmatism, however, in several times, also persecuted mediums who were regarded bearers of unknown and diabolical powers. Even today, we find religious groups that do not accept mediums. Also, skeptical groups in modern times do not recognize the faculty legitimacy and regard mediums as ordinary deceivers.

In general, the public relations with such intermediaries were always commercial in character. For the majority of people, payment of mediumship or psychic service may seem natural. However, the truth they may bring is received freely from elsewhere. Commercial relations with mediums are as old as humankind and are among the main obstacles to the development of mediumship, for the simple reason that, again, the fruits mediums bring to men are not product of their own work. Moreover, mediums have no domain over their faculty.

Therefore, any medium can lose forever his/her abilities and this is the main reason for the onset of trickery and fraud in many mediums who were formerly capable of notable effects.

If you still resort to professional mediums to solve your inner problems, it is a good thing to insure yourself against certain practices and beliefs using some simple directions:

1. Know the past history about the medium you are going to consult. It is perhaps the best "certificate of excellence" of that medium. Do not believe in careless opinions people may give you about a certain medium;
2. Regarding payment, pay attention to the relation between what is being asked for and what is being offered in reward. Be suspicious of those who ask large amounts in exchange of information they claim to receive;
3. One cannot force communication with the After Life. Frequently, attempts of this type may lead to information being forged in order to satisfy the client;
4. Be suspicious of mediums who claim to receive resounding and disproportionally assertive information compared to the magnitude of your life facts. Surely, you are responsible for your life and should evaluate rationally if the disclosed information correspond, in fact, to what you would normally expect. It is not the case that great changes may not happen to you, however, for they to happen, great life adjustments require that you change first on your side;
5. Be suspicious of mediums who claim to be in contact with far superior beings than us. Almost always, the medium is a person like us, with all kinds of problems and often commit more serious mistakes. Exchange with elevated spheres may happen indeed, however, never under suspect, continued and forced conditions. It does not make any sense to believe that entities living in a far superior world could, at the same time, be submitted to puerile request of those down on Earth; 
6. Know what to ask. Think about your doubt or request first, if it simply is a problem that may be solved by resorting to other professionals (therapist, psychologist etc). Perhaps, they are in a much better position to help you than mediums of any kind;
7. In general, many spontaneous revelations are preceded by subtle signals in life, incidents that may appear before and after the reading (dreams, coincidences, spontaneous messages received elsewhere etc). It is therefore necessary that you, who ask for help from the After Life, also have the sensibility and insight to realize the existence of these signals in your life by yourself.

Perhaps the loss of a closed relative may lead you to seek a medium. If this is the case, you should also know that you can also receive consolation by invoking him by yourself and asking the most High on behalf of him. Often this is the right attitude before looking for help from the After Life.

Above all, be sure that commerce with the highest spheres cannot be established on earthly grounds. The recipient should have merit in order to receive, which is equivalent to have special credit. Such credit cannot be purchased by any amount. On the other hand, we all have, to a greater or lesser extent, some degree of mediumship. In this way, you may receive the benefit, if you haven't received yet, by being naturally inclined to hear the message content from above. 

Note

(1) Medium - (Latin -  intermediary) - Person who serves as an intermediary between Spirits and men. ("The Book on Mediums", II Part, "On Spirit's manifestations", Chapter XXXII, Spiritist Vocabulary)

Mediumship and art: Psychic Painting

A ballet dancer (*) by Degas through Luiz Gasparetto. 

Painting and Drawing mediums: those who paint and draw under the influence of spirits. (A. Kardec, 1861,"The Book on Mediums", 2nd Part, Chapter XVI, 'Special Mediums'.)

The literature of psychic phenomena has many colorful types of mediumship manifestations, of mediums with amplified human skills. These were the ancient wizards of primordial times, the prophets of the Biblical past. All types of human manifestations are, in fact, possible through mediumship including highly specialized abilities such as music composition, poetry and painting (rarely called psychopictography).

The most notorious example of music composition was Mrs. Rosemay Brown (1916-2001). In English speaking countries the poetic mediumship of Patience Worth (Braude, 2003) became very notorious. However, painting is also a registered feature of mediumship phenomenology. Although both kinds of 'artistic mediumship' are extremely rare, when they occur, they offer us many clues about how the process of 'spirit interaction' with the medium takes place. A good example is the mediumship of Coral Polge. 

First, we must understand that everything that is psychically produced makes use of what is on the medium's mind. Except perhaps for the case of Rosemary Brown (who said to receive music by dictation), all kinds of 'mental mediumship', depend to a high degree on the medium's skills and abilities. Everything happens as if the medium were a chisel, a brush, a pen or whatever tool that the spirit's mind uses to compose, write or paint. In this sense, if the medium is 'imperfect', no matter how much genius there is in the spirit, the final result will not resemble the work of a genius. Therefore, the quality of art produced by such mental mediums is a direct function of the training or previous ability that the medium has shown.

Luiz Gasparetto

L. Gasparetto in trace delivering a message (in Portuguese with a strong French accent) by Toulouse Lautrec on April 1981 during a painting seance. Some scenes of psychic painting are also shown. English subtitles were added.

Besides Coral Polge, another recent example is in the book 'Is that you, Renoir ?' by E. Dubugras. Luiz Antônio Gasparetto was born in 1949 in S. Paulo, Brazil. Today, Luiz Antônio no longer works as a medium, but his story is worth reading. According to Elsie Dubugras:

A new phase in his life started when (...) during one of these (Spiritist) meetings Luiz Antônio began to feel quiver  and pains and suddenly his arms became paralyzed. He was unable to move them until after the meeting was over...After this, he was possessed by an uncontrollable urge do draw. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 93)

Luiz Antônio attended then another Spiritist meeting among well-trained mediums when 'strange things began to happen':

A medium began speaking in a language unknown to her, while Luiz Antônio, in trance, drew rapidly and answered in the same language...He only came out of his trance two hours later. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 94)

It soon became a common feature of his mediumship the production of a large variety of drawings including people, landscapes and abstract compositions with no authorship identification. During a short period of time, Luiz Antônio produced more than 5000 paintings. Then, in 1971 his parents took to Uberaba to attend a meeting with the Brazilian medium Francisco Cândido Xavier:

Once there, he was asked by the person in charge of running the meeting to sit at the medium's table. Luiz Antônio took out the sheets of paper and crayons he had brought along and during the sessions drew the pictures that came through. At the end of the session, fifteen pictures were ready and Chico Xavier, much to Luiz' surprise, said that some were the work of Rembrandt. From then on, other spirits of famous painter started to draw through him, signing their works. (Dubugras, 1979, 'The start of mediumship', p. 96)

Some features of Gasparetto's mediumship

   

We reproduce below the main points summarized by Mrs. Dubugras about Gasparetto's mediumship (Dubugras, 1979, 'Researchers study the phenomenon', p. 100-102):

1. He works in trance. In other words, in an altered state of consciousness;
2. The pictures are done at an unusually high speed. The average for simple drawings was 4 minutes, more elaborate pictures took from 10 to 20 minutes. Some were done in 30 seconds. Not even a trained artist could produce work of such good quality so swiftly. And Luiz Antônio is not a trained artist.
3. The absence of light during sessions, except when they are held for scientific purposes. Bright lights and flashlights cause the medium great discomfort. This has also been found in the case of physical effect mediums when producing materialization or similar phenomena;
4. He paints portraits of discarnates. Some were of relations or friends of people present at the session and recognized by them. Others have been of famous people of different countries - Queen Elizabeth I, of England; Allan Kardec, founder of Spiritism; W. B. Yeats, modern Irish poet; Lawrence of Arabia and many others;
5. The total absence of models, yet the figures are anatomically correct;
6. The variety of styles, each picture corresponding in style with that of the artist signing the work;
7. The ambidextrous techniques, although the medium is not ambidextrous when not in trance;
8. The simultaneous use of both hands, each working on a different part of the same picture, i. e., the strokes done at the same time are not symmetrical;
9. The drawing of two heads at the same time, both hands working simultaneously. At times one of the heads is painted upside down;
10. When drawing two heads simultaneously, each hand will sign the name of the discarnate artist responsible for that picture. When one of the heads is done upside down, the signature is also done upside down and back to front. This happens at the same time that the other hand is signing the portrait which was done right side  up;
11. Painting with his feet or with his feet one of the hand simultaneously;
12. While painting, the discarnate artist often talks with the person helping to hold the paper down. See the case of Portinari who describe what he was doing and the meaning of the picture.

Who were the painters?

At the time, several distinct personalities had manifested themselves through him, some occasionally and other more frequently:

The group of discarnates who paint through Luiz Antônio include Renoir, Degas, Toulouse Lautrec, Delacroix, Portinari, 'Aleijadinho' who was a famous Brazilian painter and sculptor....Also Lasar Segall, Modigliani, Anita Malfatti, Raphael, Rembrandt, Botticelli, Van Gogh, Matisse, Manet, Monet and other who paint occasionally. (Dubugras, 1979, 'Who are the painter, p. 108)

Some posing ballerinas (drawing) by Degas through L. Gasparetto.

The musical project carried out by Rosemary Brown (Brown, 1971) had a discarnate manager in the figure of Mrs. Brown's spirit guide, Franz Liszt. In the case of Gasparetto, the rule was taken by Toulouse Lautrec. As in the case of Mrs. Brown, Gasparetto was able to describe several aspects of the painter's personalities:

When she controls Luiz Antônio, he paints calmly and speaks to those nearby in a gentle way. (about Tarsila do Amaral, Dubugras, 1979, p. 103)

Picasso gets the most easily upset when observers move or whispers. There have been instance where, despite repeated requests for silence, the people walk about and talk in low tones. The painter, without further warning, has crumpled the paper on which he was drawing and put a stop to the work and to the session! (on Pablo Picasso, Dubugras, 1979, p. 104)

When Portinari, the Brazilian painter, is present, Luiz Antônio feels the problems of the impoverished Brazilian peasant which the artist still depicts in his own unimitable style. (on Cândido Portinari, Dubugras, 1979, p. 104)

Toulouse Lautrec... is always  concerned about the pictures he produces through him and once, feeling that the anatomy of the figures was inadequate, he decided to practice during a session. (on T. Lautrec, Dubugras, 1979, p. 105)

Degas seems to have less difficulty in drawing through Luiz Antônio as he paints ballerinas in the most difficult poses imaginable, even though Luiz Antônio's knowledge of anatomy is slight. (on E. Degas,  Dubugras, 1979, p. 106)

'Woman with a glowing head' (*), by A. Modigliani through L. Gasparetto (1983).

What is the message?

At the end of the book 'Is that you, Renoir?' we can find the following passage by Mrs. Dubugras:

Through his mediumship, 5000 psi paintings were produced during the past 8 years and these were in the styles similar to those the discarnate artists used during their lifetime. However, a number of these artists are now adopting different styles, possibly feeling that they came to do through Luiz Antônio, that is, show that life continues after death and that the discarnates can communicate with us through adequate channels such as our young medium,  Rosemary Brown, Chico Xavier, Coral Polge and many others in different parts of the world. These changes in style also show that life after death is not static, that man's spirit evolves; by speaking of their previous lives, they prove that reincarnation is a fact. (E. Dubugras, 1979, p. 112)

Although the phenomenon is poorly understood (least to say, accepted) by mainstream science, it can not be denied nor invalidated by words. Rhetoric is incapable of 'erasing' such facts which will continue to exist, in spite of any academic disdain.

References

Braude.S. (2003). "Immortal Remains: the evidence of life after death", Chapter 5, Rowman & Littelfield Pub., Plymouth, UK.

Brown R. (1971). "Unfinished Symphonies: Voices from the Beyond". William Morrow; 1st US edition.

Dubugras E. (1979). "Is that you, Renoir?", 1st Edition in Portuguese/English by FEESP, São Paulo, Brazil.

Kardec A. (1861). "The Book on Mediums", Transl. by A. Blackwell. 2nd. edition by FEB.

Oliveira, L. V. P. de. (2009) "Mediunidade e psicopictografia: reflexões preliminares acerca da pintura mediúnica"(Mediumship and psychography: preliminary remarks on mediumship painting). IN: Proa - Revista de Antropologia e Arte [on-line]. Year 01, vol. 01, n. 01, August. Available only in Portuguese at http://www.ifch.unicamp.br/proa/artigos/artigoluisa.htm.

Notes

(*) All  portrayed models represent discarnate entities.

Book review by M. E. Tymn: Chico Xavier, Medium of the Century

By Michael E. Tymn

Although little is known of him outside of Brazil and other parts of the Portuguese-speaking world, Francisco Candido "Chico" Xavier is considered by those who knew him and witnessed him to be one of the greatest mediums ever. His biographer, Guy Lyon Playfair of the United Kingdom, a long-time investigator of psychic phenomena, subtitles his book, "Medium of the Century."

Xavier, who dropped out of school at age 13, produced, by means of automatic writing, 458 books with sales in excess of 50 million. All of the royalties were donated to charity as Xavier lived on a very modest income from his government job and pension. In 2000, a newspaper in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerias asked its readers to vote for "person of the century." With more than 700,000 readers responding, Xavier won the vote over an aviation pioneer, a former president of the country, and the legendary soccer player, Pelé. More than 120,000 people lined up in a queue over two miles long to file past Xavier's coffin and 30,000 joined in the funeral procession. The state governor declared three days of mourning. A stamp honoring Xavier on the 100th anniversary of his birthday on April 2, 2010 was issued by the Brazilian post office. 

Playfair informs us that young Chico began demonstrating psychic abilites at the age of four but it was not until 1927, at age 17, that he became a practicing medium. His 421-page 1932 book entitled "Parnassus From Beyond the Tomb," became a best seller in the Portuguese-speaking world. It contains 259 poems signed by 56 different deceased Brazilian poets, all of them judged by experts to be in the style and character of the individual poets when they were alive. 

Xavier's books include literature, history, science, and Spiritist doctrine, the content going far beyond Xavier's education and knowledge. In discussing one of the science books, Playfair states that "it reveals an immense knowledge of several sciences that no ordinary writer, even a qualified scientist, could have assembled without copious research and note-taking." A book on first century Rome runs to 553 pages. 

Playfair extracts some very interesting passages from Xavier's books. For example, he quotes spirit communicator Andre Luiz, who had been a Brazilian doctor when incarnate, as complaining of the difficulty of finding words to explain the spirit world. "Death merely dilates our concepts and clarifies our introspection, illuminating our moral sense. But in no way does it solve the problems which the Universe poses at every step with its display of grandeur." 

André further communicates that "all matter is essentially energy made visible" emanating from a divine source that even he, in his new environment, was incapable of comprehending. "André Luiz strips the next world of all its metaphysical aspects and presents it as something just as real as this one," Playfair offers. 

Xavier's credibility and reputation were such, Playfair further informs the reader,that messages received through his hand were accepted as evidence in a court of law. 

Xavier did not take credit for the books and in each case stated the name of the spirit person who dictated it to him. Playfair points out that had Xavier taken credit for the writing himself, he would have received much greater acclaim than he did, and he would have been a very rich man. One is left with the impression that Xavier was a very humble and sincere person. 

While the book runs to only 98 pages, it is filled with interesting and intriguing facts about Chico Xavier and about the "other world," as communicated through his hand. It has prompted me to search for books by Xavier which have been translated into English.

Book details

Title: Chico Xavier, Medium of the Century,
Publisher: Roundtable Publishing; 1st edition (October 1, 2010)
ISBN-10: 095644931X
ISBN-13: 978-0956449313

2/2 - Pragmatics and Intention in mediumship works.

To find each of the language levels discussed before in many automatic writtings by C. Xavier is an interesting exercise. Mophology, sintax, semantics, pragmatics and intention all show up vividly in the many psychographic letters, but not with the same intensity and uniformity. Such observation reveals hidden aspects of the mediumship process that are totally in accordance with the notion of interference of the mediumship vehicle. The presence of medium's interference is a strong evidence of a communication process in action, since every communication occurence is affected by interference to some degree. The influence of interference in automatic writtings depends, however, on the linguistic level that is taken into account, but it increases at lower levels. the higher the cognitive functions that are required to manifest certain linguistic features (at higher levels) so the weaker will the interference be.

Pragmatics and intention in F. C Xavier automatic writtings is directly related to the strong impression they have caused on relatives and parents. These people were called to 'decodify' their content, due to the presence of intentional and pragmatic elements that are not publicly available. It is necessary to recognize that in every communication process, the emitter strategy is only effective if a set of beliefs and knowledge is shared among all players in the process. The medium however is far from being able, by any normal means, to access such vast repertoire of memories and past facts that become so deeply intertwined in the pragmatic content revealed a posteriori by the relatives. The emitter (the Spirit or discanate entity) is the agent that has the pragmatic competence and intention, while the medium is the intermediary, that sometimes interferes as an irreducible noise source most clearly apparent at the lower levels of the process. 

As private aspects are involved in automatic writtings, higher linguistic levels are involved that are less prone to the medium's influence. Interference acts on lower levels such as syntax and morphology (for exemple, presence of misprints and other morphological mistakes).

Therefore, if communication is not simply 'to transport information', F. C. Xavier automatic writtings can only be explained if he, the medium, was assisted by the discarnate Spirit who is the true author or message emitter. Although pragmatics and intention are less prone to medium's interference, there are equally notable 'xenographic' communications, or automattic writtings in languages that are not known by the medium. These phenomena also shows that the discanate entities can also have control of the lower levels. In a few words, this is a 'draft' of a linguistic model that best explains the phenomenon of mediumship messages produced by F. C. Xavier and we belief that it can also be applied to other mediums as well. 

Our little effort here is part of an initiative that resulted in an article published in Paranthropology. 

I/2 - Pragmatics and Intention in mediumship works.

"Of mediumship there are many grades, one of the simplest forms being the capacity to receive an impression or automatic writing, under peaceful conditions, in an ordinary state; but the whole subject is too large to be treated here." Sir Oliver Lodge.
Read more about this case here (access to SKL repository). 
In simple terms, a communication process is a set of stages that transfers a message from emitter to receiver. This is a very popular image of communication and we can call it ‘information transfer’ model. It is, however, severely limited in spite of its success in a variety of cases, mainly electronic devices. Recently, research about communication has been carried out by modern linquistic theories although other research fields – such as semiotics – study communication of ‘non human’ content (e. g. plants, animals etc). Modern linguistic approaches attempt to explain communication not in terms of information transfer only. An efficient communication process is far from being a process in which information is transferred in chuncks or bits to a receiver which then acquires an image or idea of the message proportional to the amount of information received. There are several ‘hierearchical’ levels in a human messages and, in order to have an idea of such levels, it is sufficient to regard written language.

A handwritten text by someone (emitter) to one of his/her friends (receiver/recipient) is a rich example of the serveral linguistic levels interacting harmonically in order to compose a message that can only be interpreted by the recipient. The first level is morphology, after all, if the emitter is the true sender, it contains graphical elements that identify him univocally (his signature, for example). Once the message is ‘transcripted’ to a morphology independent medium, other signal types appear revealing other levels: syntax (concerning the fulfillment of idiomatic dependent rules) and semantics (concerning the meaning of words and phrases). If the relationship between sender and receiver always uses English, it is then natural to expect that English grammar will be obeyed in the letter. Regarding semantics, the meaning of words or whole phrases may obey the ordinary rules (the so called ‘lexic’) or not. In the latter case, any external analysis attempting to interpret the message without the knowledge of that particular lexic will be severely limited. In this sense, certain dogmatic Christian groups, by literally interpreting the Bible, are in fact building a 'modern' interpretation that is truly ‘meaningless’ since the original semantic and pragmatic content was lost long ago. 

There is however an important level that is many times hidden in a message: pragmatics. Beyond the apparent meaning of semantics, the sender builds his message in such a way that only his target can correctly interpret its content. For example, my friend, living in Autralia, writes me a letter describing the beautiful landscapes of that contry, his aims may be only to change my bad felling about visiting that continent. After all, only he knows that I don´t have any intention of visiting him. Upon reading the letter, any other person will have a very limited impression of the same lines, that is, that my friend is really excited about the natural Autralian beauties. Although morphology, sintax, semantics are apparent to everyone (that is, they are pubicly available levels of linguistic knowledge), pragmatics is hardly visible. In all efficient communication process, pragmatic competence must exist on the part of the emitter. This is only possible if emitter and recipient share common beliefs.

Besides the existence of pragmatic content in many messages, there are other questions related to the aim or objective of a text, that is often sumarized by the word ‘intention’. Among the many aims of a given message, the least important one may be to communicate anything. Messages may be uttered with the aim of causing certain impressions on the recipient. An interesting example is the individual who shows his flat tire in a gas station. His intention is not to communicate the real state of the tire, but to request the service of fixing it. One can then talk about the problem of ‘underdetermination of communicative intention’, in the presence of ‘semantically ill-defined’ expressions and the famous ‘non communicative acts’ (Bach, 1976). They are all private aspect of the communication process.

Francisco Cândido Xavier (1910-2002), most renowned Brazilian medium. 

A fundamental feature that almost all well developed psychic phenomena share is to present themselves as communication phenomena par excellence. Most of the skeptic explanations disregard such important feature or try to fit them as imitations that are born on the medium´s mind. In the later case, skepticism tries to explain the content of a (high quality) psychic message – e. g. as in automatic writing – as a purely private phenomena, born on the medium mind as said above without any external influence. In the case of communication of recently disceased, that can be called ‘private messages’ or ‘psychographic letters’, Francisco Cândico Xavier (1910-2002) works deserve attention and offer a good example of some types of mistakes commited by skeptic groups in easily disregarding subtle details in mediumship works. Using modern theories of communication, one can better describe the many intentional and pragmatic features that are found in them, and that can hardly be explained by the simple ‘information transfer’ models.

In the next post: the 2nd and last part of the present text discussing the several linguistic features in C. Xavier automatic writtings of recently deceased.