Spiritist Knowledge

P ainter or drawer mediums are people who "paint or draw under the influence of the spirits" (1). They are rarer than other notable kinds of mediumship (as psychography, for example), however, their artistic works can be impressive, mainly if they paint or draw under very particular circumstances. We already presented here the mediumship of Luiz Antônio Gasparetto , however, other Brazilian mediums followed him and are presently active. An interesting case is Florêncio Anton (2). Florencio Anton was born in November 1973 in the city of Salvador (Bahia). Since his first childhood, he was in contact with spirits. One of this entities used to warn him on his misdoings and helped him as a family guide. When he was 14 he was initiated to Spiritism after a battle to understand the many phenomena that took place in his presence. He looked for answers to clairvoyance, out of the body experiences, physical effects and other occurrences he was associated with since they always...

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). "I...

I t 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 animal...

Image of " Almanaque del Espiritismo " (or "The Spiritist Almanac"), an edition of 1873 (first year). Edited in Madrid (1), Spain. Source: Spanish National Library. T he IAPSOP ( International Association for the Preservation of Spiritualist and Occcult Periodicals, 2 ) has recently uploaded a page with many images of old and rare Spiritualist journals (the files are not transcribed but can be read either using OCR or any other method). You can easily acess this material at: http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/index.html  (access february 2016) Among the precious works one can find: " Revue Spirite ":  http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/revue_spirite/ " Light ":  http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/ " The Spiritual Telegraph ":  http://www.iapsop.com/archive/materials/spiritual_telegraph/ " Proceedings of and Journal of the Society for Psychical Research ":  http://www.iapsop.com/archive/m...