“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” – Albus Dumbledore
Psychography is a phenomenon of extraordinary versatility. As Kardec [1] points out, this variety of mediumshp:
It is definitely the simplest, easiest, and most comfortable mode of communication because it requires no preparation and, like regular writing, lends itself to the most comprehensive advances...
This versatility has yet to be fully explored. The tremendous amount of information gleaned from mediumship writings of mediums like Chico Xavier and Divaldo Franco is proof of this statement. If other types of mediumship had nearly vanished (as in the case of physical effects, materializations, and so on), psychography would not face the same fate, fulfilling Kardec's prediction. Orlando Noronha Carneiro is an example of a modern medium that has been able to "channel" (as many would say) hundreds of psychographed letters containing private messages. "Private letters" differ from general-purpose psychographic essays. The latter provides general information that is of interest to the majority. In the former, however, the material is usually directed toward individuals and their private interests. The purpose of these letters channeled by mediums such as Divaldo, Chico, and Orlando is to alleviate family members' grieving by providing information that only close relatives can identify. These family members promptly identify the deceased in the letters, and their suffering is significantly alleviated.
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| Orlando Noronha. |
Orlando is from Osasco (State of S. Paulo/Brazil) and started his voluntary work in the Spiritist Movement around 1980. During visits to the medium Chico Xavier, he informed Orlando that he would continue the work of writing family letters through mediumship. Most information about Orlando's psychographic letters can be obtained on various YouTube channels, the most important one is Mensagens de Luz (Messages of Light) [2], which posts videos of hundreds of messages read by the medium in front of the bereaved family. A recent interview with the medium can be found here [3].
The Portas do Amor (Gates of Love) website (https://www.portasdoamor.com.br/) provides information and Orlando's in-person agenda for the year. Videos from this site can also be watched on YouTube at [5].
Gabriel's case
The videos made available to this date (2024) are amazing in terms of quantity and quality, providing relatives with very relevant content. They also represent an important demonstration of how details are given, both in terms of variety and quantity.
The most important information transmitted in the letters is hidden in the pragmatic content (i.e., context-dependent information), which is only understandable to close relatives and is not publicly available. Drawings (particularly in letters of young diseased authors) and signatures are also present. There are numerous quotations of names, including of deceased relatives who are described as receiving the deceased in the hereafter and, in many cases, assisting him in writing the letter (as in the case of children).
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| Orlando reads Gabriel's message before his parents. |
In a 2018 video [4], the parents of Gabriel, who passed away in May 2018, talk about the letter they received. We summarize their opinion about this as follows: "Everything matched...Everything that was described belongs to Gabriel". According to the parents, the letter revealed facts about their son, including simple family occurrences that were only known to them. Already during their first visit to the medium, the parents were surprised when the medium asked a singer in the psychographic room to sing a song that Gabriel loved.
The letter translated into English [7] is reproduced below along with some of the relevant information, which are numbered:
Daddy friend Ivan, mommy Rose:With much celebration, I came to tell you that the rainbow (1) is more than just beautiful; it is a bridge that connects heaven and Earth.The person who greeted me here identified herself as my great-grandmother Joana (2); she is a very nice lady and a grandma from the heart. When I opened my eyes here, I saw the light (3) of this little grandma and followed her into her arms.I will be eternally grateful to the community who fought alongside me while I was in the ICU. I hadn't come before (4). You are aware that I completed my stage alongside you and my brother Eduardo. Every prayer I received from the community brought me a breeze of peace that calmed me.Dad and mom, you are the best; you battled beside me. But I had to bring a backpack (5), not for a journey with you, but to climb another mountain, on the side I live on today. I've already chased birds that fly happily around here.Mom, you are so beatiful (6), you are everything to me, to dad and Eduardo... Follow in faith, no sadness, and jumping and jumping (7) on the rope of life. I'll come back later, but that is all for today. I am fine. Grandma Joana helps me, okay? Kisses for my grandparents. No jealousy, grandpa Luis (8) is my hand extended to all of my grandparents.Okay? Thank you! From the happy and much better son,Gabriel Lima Silva.
As can be seen, to an outsider, the initial reading of the letter does not appear to reveal anything relevant (the narrated facts are quite ordinary, aren't they?), but this drastically changes in the eyes of the deceased's parents:
- Before Gabriel became ill, the family saw a rainbow in the sky at home, and Gabriel even painted a picture of a rainbow, which his parents kept in the boy's room.
- Joana, the name of Gabriel's father's grandmother (deceased a long time ago).
- Shortly before Gabriel passed away, Gabriel's father suggested to the boy, on his deathbed, that he should "follow the light".
- In her prayers, the mother asked God if her son had gone before his time.
- Gabriel's father bought him a backpack the week he got sick. Gabriel commented that the backpack actually looked like a suitcase for a trip.
- Gabriel repeated this phrase to his mother at home all the time before his death.
- Gabriel loved the trampoline and wanted to practice parkour.
- This is the name of Rose's father, Gabriel's grandfather.
Thus, we can say that the message is encoded in the letter and can only be decoded by those who share pragmatic or contextual knowledge as family members. There appear to be hundreds of such letters, each with an equal degree of detail, addressed to mourning parents and other relatives. At the end of the sittings, the letters are delivered to these relatives, however, their content may be heard in the referenced videos which help to keep the interest in these "anomalous" letters alive.
The final picture, along with the impression on the faces and sayings of these relatives, attests to the truth of the messages' origins and, as a result, to the survival of life after death.
Kardec on the importance of private messages
It is always relevant to review what Kardec says about the "utility of private evocations", which is in Chapter 25 of "The Book of Mediums" [6]:
Now, the superior spirits are the luminaries of the spirit world; their very elevation places them so far above us that we are frightened by the distance that separates us from them. More bourgeois spirits (allow us this expression) make the circumstances of the new existence in which they find themselves more palpable. In them, the connection between corporeal life and spiritual life is more intimate, we understand it better, because it touches us more closely. By learning with them what they have become, what they think, what men of all conditions and of all characters feel, the good men and the vicious as well, the great and the small, the happy and the unhappy of the century, in a word the men who lived among us, whom we have seen and known, whose real life, virtues and failings we know, we understand their joys and their sufferings, we connect with them and we draw from them a moral teaching all the more profitable as the relationships between them and us are more intimate. We can more easily put ourselves in the shoes of those who have been our equals than of those we only view through the haze of celestial glory.A strong scenario emerges as the letters accumulate. We may apply an analogy here. In the first episode of "Harry Potter" (Philosopher's Stone, 1997) written by British writer J.K. Rowling, Harry, the main character, is invited to initiate himself as a wizard at Hogwarts School via a letter sent by special mail employing owls. It turns out that his jealous relatives intercepted the messages. Many missives were intercepted in an attempt to prevent Harry from fulfilling his destiny. But the retaliation that followed from the wizarding world was devastating: thousands of letters piled up at Harry's nasty family's home before he could read at least one.
This is how private psychographed letters work: if a few messages aren't enough to persuade us of the great truth of life beyond death, what can we say about thousands? Nothing can prevent them from continuing to arrive and pilling up through the hands of dedicated mediums to comfort people mourning their loved ones temporarily moved to the hereafter.
References
All references as available in 2024.
1 - A. Kardec. Practical Instructions on Spiritist Manifestations, Chapter IV – Different modes of communication, Psychography. Translated from the Portuguese version available at www.ipeak.net. Original in French:
De tous les moyens de communication, c'est, sans contredit, le plus simple, le plus facile et le plus commode, parce qu'il n'exige aucune préparation et qu'il se prête, comme l'écriture courante, aux développements les plus étendus. Nous y reviendrons en parlant des médiums.
6 - A. Kardec. The Medium's Book. Second part - Spiritist manifestations, Chapter XXV - Evocations. The usefulness of particular evocations. Translated from the original in French available at www.ipeak.net:
Or, les Esprits supérieurs sont les sommités du monde spirite; leur élévation même les place tellement au-dessus de nous que nous sommes effrayés de la distance qui nous en sépare. Des Esprits plus bourgeois (qu'on nous passe cette expression), nous rendent plus palpables les circonstances de leur nouvelle existence. Chez eux, la liaison entre la vie corporelle et la vie spirite est plus intime, nous la comprenons mieux, parce qu'elle nous touche de plus près. En apprenant par eux-mêmes ce que sont devenus, ce que pensent, ce qu'éprouvent les hommes de toutes conditions et de tous les caractères, les hommes de bien comme les vicieux, les grands et les petits, les heureux et les malheureux du siècle, en un mot les hommes qui ont vécu parmi nous, que nous avons vus et connus, dont nous connaissons la vie réelle, les vertus et les travers, nous comprenons leurs joies et leurs souffrances, nous nous y associons et nous y puisons un enseignement moral d'autant plus profitable que les rapports entre eux et nous sont plus intimes. Nous nous mettons plus facilement à la place de celui qui a été notre égal que de celui que nous ne voyons qu'à travers le mirage d'une gloire céleste.
7- Translated from the original in Portuguese:
Papai amigo Ivan, mamãe Rose:
Com muita festa, chego aqui para lhes dizer que o arco-íris não é só belo, é uma ponte que liga o céu e a Terra.
Quem me recebeu aqui é aquela que se identificou como sendo a minha bisavó Joana, ela é uma senhora boa demais, e uma avozinha do coração. Quando eu abri os olhos aqui, vi a luz dessa avozinha e a segui nos seus braços.
Sou eternamente grato pela comunidade que lutou comigo, enquanto eu lutava lá na UTI. Não vim antes não. Vocês sabem que cumpri a minha etapa ao lado de vocês e de meu irmão Eduardo. Cada oração que recebi da comunidade foi uma brisa de paz que me acalmava.
Pai e mãe, voces são o máximo, lutaram comigo. Mas eu tinha que pegar uma mochila, não para uma viagem com vocês, mas para subir uma outra montanha, que é o lado em que vivo hoje aqui. Eu já corri atrás de pássaros aqui que voam felizes.
Mão você é linda, meu tudo, do pai e do Eduardo. Sigam na fé, nada de tristeza, pular e pular, com a corda da vida. Volto depois, mas hoje é isso. Está tudo bem comigo. Bisa Joana me ajuda, tá? Beijão para os meus avós. Sem ciumera que o vô Luis seja a minha mão enviada para todos os meus avós.
Tá certo? Valeu. O Filho feliz e bem melhor,
Gabriel Lima Silva.
