Fundada el 18 de abril de 1985 por Benjamin Rodriguez B. Afiliada: Federacion Espirita de la Florida   .Email:info@spiritist.com

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El siguiente trabajo se encuentra publicado originalmente en

http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Research/graduate/summer2001/theissen/

© 2004, The Regents of the University of California.

CENTER FOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY

Summer 2001 Research Report

Anna Jessica Theissen
"The Political Awakening of the Spiritist Elite in Brasil"

CENTRO PARA ESTUDIOS LATINOAMERICANOS DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DE CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
VERANO 2001 REPORTE DE INVESTIGACION
AUTOR: ANNA JESSICA THEISSEN
”EL DESPERTAR POLITICO DE LA ELITE ESPIRITA EN BRASIL”
Traduccion parcial del documento para www.spiritist.com por L.S.

Proposito y Metas

El proposito de mi pre-estudio este verano era explorar la viabilidad de mi investigacion sobre Espiritismo. localizar posibles centros de investigacion, evaluar el estado intelectual del Espiritismo en Brasil y crear relaciones con Antropologos y Elites espiritas brasileras.

Purpose and Goals
The purpose of my pre-study this summer was to explore the viability of my proposed research project on Spiritism, to locate possible research sites, to assess the state of domestic (Brazilian) scholarship on Spiritism, and to forge relationships with Brazilian anthropologists and Spiritist elites.

Spiritism is a “spirit possession” religion that has its origins in 19th century Europe and is characterized by its belief in reincarnation, the possibility of communication between the living and the dead and the continuous influence of spirits in our everyday lives. Spiritism has a strong appeal to the Brazilian middle class and is further marked by a strong belief in evolutionary progress, science and rationality, which was coined as “rational religion and irrational science” (Lynn Sharp, 1996).
Due to financial restraints and a death in the family, I had to reconsider my proposed travel plans to Brazil: instead of travelling three months, I had to squeeze my itinerary into a space of five weeks. Nonetheless, I consider my trip a full success, which helped me tremendously in consolidating my research topic, to confirm many hypotheses and document interesting new developments. I was able to gain an overview over the Brazilian domestic scholarship in the field of Spiritism and religion in general and to interview important representatives of the Spiritist elite. Overall, my project consolidated itself towards the end of my trip, picking up in intensity exponentially, such that I could have easily extended my trip another month to follow all the interesting new leads.
Resultados
Seria imposible condensar la riqueza de informacion en dos paginas, por consiguiente, me concentrare en lo mas importante que respecta a mi futura investigacion de tesis.
Findings and Outcome
It would be impossible to condense the wealth of information into the space of a couple pages, therefore I will focus on the most surprising findings as they concern my future thesis research.
Investigacion sobre Espiritismo es muy escasa, inclusive en Brasil, porque en los ultimos diez años, investigaciones academicas en Brasil referente a religion se han concentrado en el crecimiento dramatico de las iglesias Pentecostales. Los pocos academicos que han trabajado en Espiritismo, comentaron sobre su aislamiento y la ausencia de dialogos sobre el topico entre cientificos sociales. Consecuentemente, la mayor parte de ellos cambiaron sus investigaciones a otros topicos. Fue practicamente imposible obtener tesis sin publicar sobre Espiritismo, hasta trabajos claves fueron dificiles de encontrar, sinembargo, regreso con una maleta llena de libros y articulos.
Research on Spiritism is indeed sparse, even in Brazil, because in the last ten years Brazilian academic research around religion focused on the dramatic rise of Pentecostal churches. The few academics that have worked on Spiritism remarked about their isolation and the absence of dialogue on the topic between social scientists. Consequently, most of them have moved on to other research topics. It was virtually impossible to obtain unpublished theses on Spiritism, and even key works were difficult to locate and out of print (often easier accessible through the University of California library!). Nonetheless, I came back with a suitcase full of books and articles.
Furthermore, personal research was complicated by a federal strike which lasted more than 3 weeks and included universities (UFBA, UFRJ), archives and libraries (arquivo nacional, biblioteca nacional–RJ) and statistical institutes (IGBRA-RJ).
Con persistencia, pude obtener importante informacion estadistica sobre Espiritismo. El porcentaje de Espiritas ha aumentado en años recientes, acercandose al 6%, concentrado en el Sur Este (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo y Minas Gerais). La concentracion mas alta esta en Rio con 8%, mientras la mayoria de la poblacion Espirita se encuentra en Sao Paolo. 37% de los Espiritistas tienen un titulo universitario, el average nacional es de 2%, el cual es unicamente igualado por la comunidad Judia, y claramente marca al Espiritismo como una Elite y practica de hombres blancos de clase media. Esto confirma que la elite espirita son actualmente generadores de opinion en sus posiciones como profesionales, doctores, abogados, periodistas y profesores universitarios.
With a little bit of persistence, however, I was able to obtain some important statistical data on Spiritism: The overall percentage of Spiritists in the population seems to have grown in recent years and currently nears 6 %, centering in the South East (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais). The highest concentration of spiritists is in Rio de Janeiro with 8 %, while the overall highest total number of spiritists is to be found in São Paulo. 37% of spiritists hold a university degree, a staggeringly high average educational level (considering the national average of 2%) which is only paralleled by the Jewish community, and clearly marks Spiritism as an elite and white middle class practice. This confirmed my hunch that spiritist elites are actually opinion makers in their positions as professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, journalists and university professors.
Tambien pude verificar el reciente movimiento hacia mayor envolvimiento politico y visibilidad de Espiritas a traves de la formacion de asociaciones profesionales, como la AMEB (Asociacion medico-Espirita brasilera) y ABRAME (Asociacion Brasilera de Jueces espiritas), cuyo vice-presidente es el ministro de la Corte Suprema de Brasil, Paulo Costa Leite. Estas dos asociaciones profesionales estan colaborando insertandose en la discusion etico/moral sobre Biogenetica y la opinion publica y creando directrices sobre la pena de muerte, matrimonio de parejas homosexuales, eutanasia, aborto y bio-tecnologia. Como el Espiritismo es esencialmente un proyecto moderno, siguiendo el patron positivista y evolucionista, ellos estan en general muy abiertos a la innovacion cientifica y no estan totalmente opuestos a la manipulacion genetica, cuando esto se adapta a su idea de “progreso”. Sin embargo, ellos mantienen una posicion moralmente conservadora acerca del aborto, lo cual lo coloca es una situacion interesante. Con la idea de ganar mayor respetabilidad y legitimidad, intelectuales espiritas y medicos espiritas se han separado de los mediums de cura(tales como Juan de Dios) quienes son responsables por la gran atraccion de la poblacion general hacia el espiritismo, porque sus curas no pueden ser cientificamente replicables y falsificables, cayendo asi en el realm de lo milagroso. Las elites espiritas estan asi creando una separacion entre ellos y sus bases populares, el cual luce caracteristico de la clase media brasilera en general. Esta observacion me ayudo a comprender las diferentes expresiones del Espiritismo.
I was also able to verify a recent trend toward greater political involvement and visibility of Spiritists through the formation of professional associations, such as AMEB (Brazilian Spiritist Medical Association) and ABRAME (Brazilian Association of Spiritist Judges, whose vice-president is the Minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court, Paulo Costa Leite). These two professional associations are collaborating to insert themselves in the ethical/moral discussion on bioethics and influence public opinion and policymaking around the death penalty, samesex marriages, euthanasia, abortion and bio-technology (reproductive technologies, organ transplantation, cloning, the genome project etc.). Since Spiritism is essentially a modernist project, following an evolutionary and positivistic framework, they are in general very open to scientific innovation and are not all opposed to genetic manipulation, when it fits their idea of “progress”. However, they hold a morally conservative position around abortion, which puts them in an interesting quandary. In order to gain greater respectability and legitimacy, Spiritist intellectuals and MDs have to dissociate from Spiritist healing mediums (such as João de Deus, see below), who are responsible for the great appeal of Spiritism among the general population, because their cures are not scientifically replicable and falsifiable and fall into the realm of the miraculous. The Spiritist elites are thus reproducing a disjuncture between the elites and their popular bases, which seems to be characteristic of the Brazilian middle class in general. This observation helped me to relate and make sense of seemingly disparate expressions of Spiritism. My thesis research will most likely focus on this new political awakening of the Spritist elite and their actuation through professional associations. I will be looking at the insidious influence of religious discourse on politics and the discursive use of the law. Following the currents and sites of power my future project will be multi-sited, which means I will conduct my field work in various locations, such as Abadiania (Goias) and Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Salvador (Bahia) and Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais),
Itinerary
• Brasilia and Abadiania, Goias (2 weeks):
-Casa de Dom Inácio – at the healing center of well-known medium João de Deus, I recorded healing stories and life histories, and documented the concomitant influx of international religious and medical tourism. In recent years the casa has experienced some pressure through the continuous decline of domestic clientele due to the financial crisis occasioned by the “Plano Real” and through accusations of charlatanism and quackery, cumulating in an expensive lawsuit. Consequently, João de Deus has attempted to align himself more with Spiritist ideology to increase his legitimacy and protection. He has greatly decreased his physical surgeries and seems to adapt his prices, services and products to the lesser but more solvent number of international tourists.
-In Brasilia I was following the traces of the (failed) Brazilian utopia and its nationalist imaginary, as well as the prophesies of the Catholic Saint Don Bosco, whose visions gave rise to approximately 200 religious sects around Brasilia.
Givaldo giving a talk in his spiritist center "Caminho da Redencao", Salvador.
• Salvador, Bahia (1 week):
-At the Instituto da Saúde Coletiva, UFBA (Universidade Federal da Bahia) I had conversations with Noamar de Almeida Filho (program director), Monica Nunes, Miriam Rabelo and Claudio Peireira, exploring possible angles on my research topic. They were all very supportive and offered institutional affiliation for my fieldwork.
-Spiritist Contacts:
-I visited Divaldo Peireira Franco, who is next to Chico Xavier the greatest living medium and mouth piece of Spiritism. He is the author of 125 books received in automatic writing and his charitable project “Mansão do Caminho” in Pau da Lima (a very poor suburb of Salvador) services aprox. 2500 children and adolescents and consists of daycare centers, various schools and professional training. His “acervo” is a house full of awards, honorary titles and degrees, which points to the influence of Spiritists in the administrations of city governments and universities.
ernado Loureiro, represents the “scientific” wing of Spiritism, which contests the views and practices from the “evangelical” wing of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. He is therefore considered one of the “black sheep” of Spiritism.
-Andre Luiz Peixinho, MD and Professor at the medical faculty of UFBA, and Edinola Peixinho, his wife and president of the Spiritist Federation of Bahia, were important in helping me to make contact with the Spiritist Medical Association in São Paulo.
• Rio de Janeiro (1 week):
-Prof. Regina Novaes, anthropologist at ISER (Instituto Superior de Estudos da Religião) helped me to locate and obtain rare articles and literature on Spiritism.
-Emerson Giumbelli, anthropologist and authority on Spiritism, wrote “O Cuidado Dos Mortos” (1997), a historical study, which deals with the condemnation and legitimization of Spiritism.
-Prof. Patricia Birman, anthropologist at UERJ (Universidade Estadual Rio de Janeiro), who worked on Umbanda and with whom I had an inspirational discussion about the Brazilian National Project.
-Fundação Getúlio Vargas –CPDOC and IGBRA (Brazilian Institute for geography and statistics) in my search for statistical data and biographical information.
-Spiritist Contacts:
-I visited the famous healing center, Lar Frei Luiz, in Japarepaquá (a suburb of Rio), which performs invisible operations and attends aprox. 3000 people twice a week.
-At the FEB (Spiritist federation of Rio de Janeiro) I met with director Alfonso Soares, who invited me to work in their archives anytime and alerted me to the “Spiritist Military Cruzaders”.
-I visited a “disobsession” session at the Mensageiros da Esperança, a spiritist center in a working class neighborhood of Rio, whose director, Ioah de Paiva Fonseca invited me to do fieldwork there.|
-At the SMERJ (Society for Medicine and Spiritism), a very old and renown Spiritist healing center, which is also a possible research site, I witnessed an experimental séance.
-Tupyara, a popular healing center with strong Umbanda influences, attends aprox. 2500 people on weekends and would be a very interesting research site because of its Amerindian and African influences and its elaborate mimesis of medical procedures in its healing rituals, alas, I was met with absolute resistance when I stated my intentions.
• São Paulo and Campinas, SP (1 week):
-At UNICAMP I met with Prof. José Luiz dos Santos, anthropologist and author of “Espiritismo –uma religião Brasileira”, Prof. Eliane Moura, historian and author of numerous works on Spiritism, and Alexandre Caroli Rocha, author of an MA thesis on the poetry of the famous medium Chico Xavier.
-Spiritist Contacts:
-I visited a session at Grupo Noel, a Spiritist center, to which people come to receive messages from their deceased relatives.
-I conducted interviews with Dr. Marlene Nobre, gynecologist and president of AMEB (Association of Spiritist Doctors), widow of deceased Spiritist congress man Freitas Nobre (PMDB), Julia Nezu, lawyer and vice-president of USE (Union of Spiritist Societies), and Ercília Zilli, psychologist and president of ABRAPE (Association of Spiritist Psychologists). I was able to interview Dr. Durval Ciamponi, lawyer and president of FEESP (Spiritist Federation of São Paulo, which services 7000 people a day!), who is the author of a controversial book about reproductive technologies and Spiritism. Due to a national holiday I wasn’t able to meet with representatives of ABRAME (Association of Spiritist Judges), and more spiritist MDs (psychiatrist Sergio Fellipe and neurosurgeon Nubor Facure).
http://socrates.berkeley.edu:7001/Research/graduate/summer2001/theissen/