The mediumship of Orlando Noronha

  

“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.

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).

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:

1. 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.
2. Joana, the name of Gabriel's father's grandmother (deceased a long time ago).
3. Shortly before Gabriel passed away, Gabriel's father suggested to the boy, on his deathbed, that he should "follow the light".
4. In her prayers, the mother asked God if her son had gone before his time.
5. 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.
6. Gabriel repeated this phrase to his mother at home all the time before his death.
7. Gabriel loved the trampoline and wanted to practice parkour.
8. 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.

2 - https://www.youtube.com/@MensagensdeLuz-Oficial/videos 

3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2cynPgcbUM 

4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooFoPSfAEuw&t=41s 

5 - https://www.youtube.com/@PortasdoAmorOrlandoNC  

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. 

Why are environmental education and ecology relevant to the Spiritist movement?

Andre Luiz and Aniceto. Scene of the movie "The Messengers".  

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. (Romans 8, 19:21)

Translation from the original post in Portuguese: Por que educação ambiental e ecologia são relevantes para o movimento espírita? (Parte II). Link (2024): https://eradoespirito.blogspot.com/2024/04/por-que-educacao-ambiental-e-ecologia.html

Aniceto's environmental class

Environmental education and ecology are practical duties of the Spiritist (and Spiritualist) movement and not merely a fact of intellectual interest. It is the product of Spiritist ethics applied not just to our fellow humans and our relationship with the Higher Power, but also to creatures that appear lesser than us. To this day, we believe we can dispose of and destroy these beings because they are "our property."  Given that the law of love cannot yet be imposed on the hearts of most men, we must educate ourselves about it. We should start by learning about how we view all of the creatures and natural resources around us. Repeated thousands of times by reason and comprehended by the intellect, this law may find refuge in our hearts one day.

But, are there explicit references in Spiritist literature about the need to preserve the environment? The subject was too new for Kardec in the 19th century. There are, however, some indirect references in it, like Kardec's work Genesis according to Spiritism [1]:

Everything in the Universe is connected, everything is linked, and everything is subject to the great and harmonious law of unity.

Question 750 of The Spirits' Book (read online here: https://www.febnet.org.br/portal/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-spiritis-book.pdf) is another example of this requirement, but it is still formulated as a lesson that challenges the reader to determine whose side he should take in the debate over environmental preservation. We are aware of the argument that Spiritism's goal is not to interfere with any material part of existence, but rather to provide teachings that aid the soul's moral evolution.

Other more recent works have already treated the importance of ecology. André Trigueiro, for example, has recently written Spiritism and Ecology [4], which is an important resource for this consciousness awakening. Other researchers emphasized the importance of the theme to the Spiritist Movement [5]. In Emmanuel's O Consolador [6], an entire section "Biology" (First Part) is dedicated to Nature, with special emphasis on questions 27, 28, and 29.

The Spirit Aniceto's 1944 lecture on "The Gospel in the Rural Environment" in Chapter 42 of Os Mensageiros ("The Messengers") [3] is sometimes overlooked, yet it is a more direct approach. The Messagers is the second book written by the medium Francisco C. Xavier by automatic writing. I'm not sure if the passage was explored in this new movie release The Messengers based on the same book, because I didn't see the movie. Here, I study a piece directly from this book that provides numerous topics for reflection. 

After quoting a passage of the Epistle to the Romans (8:19-21, at the beginning of this post), Anicetus begins his comments:

For millennia, nature has waited for human understanding. She has not only eaten on hope, but he also lives in ardent expectation, waiting for the insight and assistance of the Spirits incarnated on Earth, who are more correctly referred to as children of God. However, natural forces continue to be oppressed by all human vanity. This, my friends, happens because the Lord also hopes for the liberation of the beings enslaved in the Earth crust, so that freedom can be seen in the splendor of man. (My emphasis)

This demonstrates that there is a bond of fraternity that connects Humanity to all beings of Nature and that this collective of beings (and non-biotic resources) awaits our consideration as childrens of God. For now, she is still subjected to the "oppression of all human vanities."

I know your sacrifices firsthand, devoted spiritual workers of the earthy soil! Many of you remain here, and in other parts of the world as well, assisting other incarnates who are trapped by the illusions of material greed. How many times has your aid resulted in low-level exploitation in the realm of worldly affairs? (My emphasis)

It is a reference to the assistance of Spirits in human actions (question 459 of The Spirits' Book), which has been distorted by "low exploitation" in Earth's affairs. The lecture proceeds even more vigorously:

The majority of land cultivators wants everything without offering anything back. While you carefully watch over the maintenance of the foundations of life, you have seen civilization function as a vigorous grinding machine, converting men, our brothers, into little Moloches of bread, meat, and wine, completely immersed in the addiction of feelings and excesses of food, unconcerned about the enormous debt to loving and generous Nature. (My emphasis)

This is an explicit reference to exploitative farming methods and the nearly unquenchable human desires that fuel this unsustainable exploitation. Despite technical improvement, civilization continues to dispose of natural resources as a "grinding machine." "Moloches of bread, meat, and wine" is an image and reference to the god Moloch from the Old Testament, a well-known terrible entity who demanded child sacrifice. Aniceto therefore accuses modern society of "addiction to feelings and excesses of food," as well as a disregard for "the loving and generous Nature."

They oppress inferior creatures, harm the benevolent forces of life, are ungrateful to the sources of good, serve rural industries more out of vanity and ambition to earn than out of love and usefulness, and are nothing more than unhappy servants of wild passions. They create false wealth programs that lead to their demise; they write economic policy treaties that lead to destructive war; they develop the trade in undue gain, reaping the international complications that cause misery; and they dominate and exploit the weakest, only to awaken later among the monsters of hatred! (My emphasis)

Even though it was written in 1944, this appears to be a pretty accurate assessment of the current situation. Since then, environmental conditions have only deteriorated, and our globe is now facing potential unforeseen climate disruptions. The corruption that causes pollution and environmental imbalance is the product of these lesser forces seeking "undue gain". In this paragraph, Aniceto also discusses the repercussions of the "compulsory harvest" to which unrestrained exploiters of natural forces are vulnerable to exploitation without due regard for Nature's resources.

Finally, Aniceto describes the spiritual destiny of the "sacrificed beings":

The Lord reserves sublime evolutionary values for sacrificed beings. He will never forget the useful tree, the killed animal, or the humble being that was eaten for the sake of another creature!

I believe these are the most direct remarks ever made in Spiritist literature about environmental preservation and reverence for natural resources.

Final remarks

The formal property relationship as a right, even if transitory, carries with it the duty of preservation. Preserving the environment and living sustainably are thus manifestations of the law of love applied to the "weakest".

In the same way that the current generation suffers the result of previous faulty environmental acts as seen in climate change, the Spirit incarnated or not, will be unable to live up to a better home in the future if these new principles are ignored. Just as there is a "law of cause and effect" in human interactions and affairs, the same law applies to the environment.

If we may attribute some of our past ignorance to a lack of understanding of environmental responsibility, this is no longer possible today. And this is achieved by both accessing the scientific proofs of the consequences of unrestrained material exploitation and denying materialism, which overlooks the affinity relationship that links all beings.

If Spiritism's aim is to eradicate materialism, it is also its mission to explain why it is critical to respect all creatures and natural resources by reducing addiction to unrestrained feelings and excessive food consumption. For the materialist, preservation is important for present survival; for the spiritualist, it is a chance for fresh opportunities on Earth beyond death that demonstrate the brotherhood and links among all things and living creatures.

References

[1] Kardec A. La Genese selon le spiritisme (Genesis according to Spiritism). See version in English here: https://www.oconsolador.com.br/linkfixo/bibliotecavirtual/ingles/Genesis.pdf 

[2] FEB (2023). O Espiritismo e a consciência ecológica (Spiritism and ecology consciousness). Acessado conforme disponível em março de 2024:  https://www.febnet.org.br/portal/2023/04/22/o-espiritismo-e-a-consciencia-ecologica/

[3] Xavier F. C. (2023). Os Mensageiros (The Messengers), Ed. FEB. 47a Edição.

[4] Trigueiro A. (2022). Espiritismo e Ecologia (Spiritism and ecology). FEB Editora; 5ª edição.ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-6555704372

[5] Miguel S. H. (2023). Espiritismo e desenvolvimento sustentável: caminhos para a sustentabilidade (Spiritism and sustainable development: sustainability paths). Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões. ANPUH, Ano XV, n. 45

[6] Xavier F. C (1940). O Consolador. 4a Edition, FEB (Brazilian Spiritist Federation).

EVP III (Electronic mediumship)

Broadly speaking, mediumship can be defined as a person's ability to get in touch with the spirits. This concept follows very closely a famous definition made by A. Kardec in his treatise on mediumship, published in the heyday of Spiritualism. At the time, it was clear that mediumship manifestations could make use of external objects (as in the case of the celebrated "table-turning" or more generally in the haunting phenomena) or simply transmit elaborate information through the so-called "intellectual mediums".

It is understandable that the invention of electronic communication systems (as new manifestation media) prompted the emergence of new effects under the action of corresponding electronic mediums. As in every mediumship, the new ability can be understood as a more or less developed human skill to communicate with spirits through electronic equipment. "Development'' refers to the observed level of elaboration in the communicated message, or how complex or well-presented the transmitted information appears to the external world. 

Kardec proposed a 4-dimensional characterization of the mediumship faculty based on traits of:

• Passivity: characterizing the extent to which the medium can influence the content of a communication. The extremes of this dimension are complete passivity (e. g., clairvoyance) and active mediums (who have an active role in conveying information as in certain non-mechanical psychography mediums).
• Awareness: or how aware the person is of his or her role as a medium. Awareness is split into two classes: unconscious versus conscious mediums. In the first case, also known as involuntary or natural mediums by Kardec, the person is completely unaware of the ability. This variety is highly frequent among children and teenagers. In the second case (facultative mediums) there is complete awareness of the ability to produce or suppress phenomena through the will.
• Tangibility: referring to the intellectual versus "material'' effect produced by the mediumship. Physical effect mediums produce tangible phenomena (movement of objects, sounds such as raps and noises, healing etc). On the other hand, intellectual mediums produce intelligent, informative, or artistic communications (for example, painting mediums etc).
• Spontaneity: involuntary mediums cannot control the onset, end, duration, and content of the manifestation. The majority of recorded psychic effects throughout history are of this type.  On the other hand, some mediums are able to control (or at least suppress) the manifestation. 

According to such a scheme, one can conceive electronic mediumship as a kind of psychic faculty capable of producing tangible effects (signals in the form of noise or voices) through electronic media almost exclusively. We say "almost exclusively" because it is uncertain if electronic mediums are able to manifest other mediumship types (for example, intellectual effects). EVP are tangible and mostly spontaneous, but the medium is seldom aware he/she is responsible for them. The manifestations are apparently spontaneous mainly in the early stages and remain uncontrollable throughout the medium's life.

No mediumship ability can be dissociated from “animism” which is the manifestation of the spirit of the medium through its own body. In other words, electronic mediums can subtly modify the content of EVP messages. This is true even for purely "mechanical mediums" as pointed out in on the medium's influence in the content of spirit communications:

Do these explanations imply that the spirit of the medium is never completely passive?

“It is passive when it does not mix its own ideas with those of the communicating spirit, but it is never completely nullified. Its cooperation is indispensable as an intermediary, even in so-called mechanical mediums''. (Question 10 of Paragraph  223 of "The Mediums' book").

Thus, the content of many EVP recorded by K. Raudive, a mixture of words many times uttered in different languages Raudive knew very well, might be explained as the result of this influence, despite the unintentional (and unconscious) character. This does not mean that the message content is familiar to the medium, or cannot be attributed to the spirits. 

The most distinguished dimension of electronic mediumship is its unconscious character. It does not seem to require mental concentration, no "trance" is necessary. This principle was put forward by the spirits themselves to Kardec:

Can a spirit act without resorting to a medium?

"It can act without the medium being aware of it; in other words, many persons help spirits to produce certain phenomena without even suspecting it(*). These persons are like fountains from which spirits draw the animal fluid they need. Consequently, the conscious participation of a medium, as you know, is not always necessary, especially with spontaneous phenomena.'' (my emphasis, Part II, ``The action of spirits upon matter'', Paragraph 74, Question 15 of "The Mediums' book.)

Therefore, the presence of a nearby but unknown electronic medium might explain many eventual recordings. 

By relying on special mediums the phenomenon is thus more prevalent in the presence of certain people than among the majority. This explains the futility of trying to "replicate" EVP when an electronic medium is missing. On the other hand, granted their presence, EVP can be replicated although no control over the message length, frequency, and content seems possible. 

Notes

(*) Original in French: "beaucoup de personnes servent d'auxiliaires aux Esprits pour certains phénomènes, sans s'en douter".

Next post:  EVP IV (Intention and physical interface)