A Spiritualist Among the Spiritists

This article was originally published in the National Spiritualist Summit , the official magazine for the National Spiritualist Association of Churches and Yours Fraternal, the official journal for the International Spiritualist Federation.

The spirit manifestations experienced by the Fox family in Hydesville, New York on March 31, 1848 started the Spiritualist movement, which rapidly spread throughout the United States and within the course of a few years to England as well as continental Europe.  While the general mass of people thrived on the superficial thrill and entertainment achieved through holding seances for table tipping and related physical phenomena, others more intellectually inclined were deeply interested in probing deeper into the philosophical and scientific implications of the remarkable spirit messages and manifestations that were taking place.

One such individual was the French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, who as a result of his studies published five major works on the subject, much of which was mediumistically obtained through mediums he had consulted in the course of his investigations.  Rivail, the author of many educational texts, wrote under the pseudonym of Allan Kardec as he wanted to keep his works on Spiritualism separate from his professional work.

Kardec’s books were widely read in Europe and were transported to South America and other countries around the world, where they were translated into Portuguese and Spanish.  Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series and possibly the greatest exponent of Spiritualism ever, devotes a chapter to Kardec and Spiritism in his two volume masterpiece, The History of Spiritualism, there are still massive misunderstandings and a general lack of awareness about Kardec’s works within organized American and British Spiritualism.  The National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the USA and the Spiritualist National Union in the UK exclude the utilization of his brilliant works as educational material and other than the Mediums Book, the typical Spiritualist library rarely contains any other of Kardec’s classic writings.

While a Spiritist is always a Spiritualist, a Spiritualist is not necessarily a Spiritist or follower of Kardec’s works.  The basic definition of the term spiritualism originally pertained to spirituality and the opposite of materialism.  Instead of using the term Spiritualist, Kardec wanted to differentiate the new philosophy being espoused by the spirit world from spirituality in general so he used the term Spiritism.  All the philosophical principles found within Kardec’s Spiritism are the same as affirmed by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches in the USA and the Spiritualist Nation Union in the UK.  The only major difference between Kardec’s Spiritist doctrine and Spiritualism is that the concept of reincarnation is accepted as a natural law.  The reality of the situation is that the majority of the many thousands of Spiritualists I personally know worldwide as well as a number of major Spiritualist organizations accept reincarnation as a fact.  19^th century Spiritualists for the most part came from a mainstream Christian background and as such found the concept of reincarnation difficult to accept. A minor difference is that Spiritist centers in some countries operate in a manner strikingly different than the standard approach of Spiritualist churches as found in the USA, Canada, the UK and elsewhere.

Spiritualist churches typically are structured in a Protestant style format complete with hymnals and worship services officiated by ordained clergy.  Kardec was greatly opposed to this approach as he felt that Spiritist teachings should be scientific in nature and that the inclusion of sectarian rituals, and other external trappings associated with orthodox Christianity, was detrimental to progressive thought

The Spiritist approach in general places more of an emphasis on obtaining higher spiritual philosophy derived through mediumistic exchange and the development of personal character over proving the continuity of life through spirit communication or experiencing  phenomena as emphasized within typical Spiritualist practice.

The translations of Kardec’s works that made their way to South America as well as other locations around the globe led to the establishment of many Spiritist organizations and centers.  The Spiritist approach with its emphasis on higher philosophy has always attracted intellectuals and the upper classes within society as well as those less educated.  It is evident, based on numbers alone, that the Spiritist approach has been more successful in reaching the masses than the approach commonly practiced within the Spiritualist movement.  Indeed the largest Spiritualist church organization in the USA, the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, for a variety of reasons, in the last decade has diminished in size losing many churches, while the United States Spiritist Council, a national association of Spiritist groups established in 1996, has exceeded the NSAC in terms of the number of affiliated bodies in the USA.

The largest country on the planet is Brazil with thousands of Spiritist centers and tens of millions following the teachings.  The second largest Spiritist following is found with the Philippines, where I recently worked for 10 days teaching and demonstrating mediumship and spiritual healing.

The Spiritist movement in the Philippines is massive with over 100, 000 people attending meetings at the nation’s 2000 Spiritist centers, half of which are affiliated with the Union Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, Inc.

Although based in the Philippines, the Union is a worldwide organization with a number of affiliated centers in countries such as the USA, Canada and elsewhere.   A member of the International Spiritualist Federation, the Union is the largest Spiritist body in the Philippines, although there are several smaller organizations, which splintered from the Union, and many unaffiliated centers scattered throughout the country.

How big is Spiritism in the Philippines?  Compared to the USA, New Zealand, the UK,  and other European countries, it is massive!  In the city of Tarlac with a population 314,000, there are over two dozen active thirty Spiritist centers.  The larger province of Tarlac with a population of just over 1,000,000 has approximately 100 centers scattered throughout the region.  It is not uncommon to find centers down the street from each other in some towns.   All of the meetings which I served were well attended by people of all age groups. Clearly there is a large interest in Spiritism which attracts people from all walks of life.

One of the major issues on a personal level that I have with organized Spiritualism is that in many churches the emphasis is placed on spirit messages or proving survival, consequently there is little emphasis placed on higher philosophy and the development of personal character. In many Spiritualist churches the age of 55 is young and there is very little involvement or participation on a family level with the involvement of children and young adults.  Not that there is anything wrong with survival evidence or mediumistic phenomena in general, as this is absolutely necessarily depending upon the circumstances, but ultimately it is the application of higher philosophy and personal soul growth that is most important.

My experience in the Philippines only reinforces my observation after three decades in the movement that many people in the US and UK  consider Spiritualism to be only an inexpensive retirement hobby or form of entertainment.  This is not so in the Philippines as I found the movement there to be stronger than any other country in Europe or elsewhere that I have worked in.

Spiritual mediumship and healing has always been practiced by the indigenous tribes that inhabited the Philippine islands.  In 1521 the Philippines were colonized by Spain and as a result the population to this day is largely Roman Catholic.  The teachings of Modern Spiritualism reached the Philippines in the late 19^th century largely through Spanish translations of Kardec’s work.  Around this time Filipinos were actively opposing the oppressive Spanish colonialists and eventually in 1896 launched a full scale revolution.  One of the major social justice issues that motivated the Filipino rebels was the lack of religious freedom that existed under Spanish rule.  Many of these revolutionaries were devote Spiritists who considered it a given right to practice religion without restriction from the government.

In 1898 the Spanish-American war led to the defeat of the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay by the United States Navy. The promise by the United States government to give autonomy and independence to the Filipinos did not take place resulting in their country effectively becoming a colony of the United States.  As a result the revolutionaries divided into three factions.  The first group violently continued to battle against the American occupiers, the second group formed the Philippine Independent Church free from the control of the Roman Catholic Church, and the last group established a religious network based on the teachings of Spiritism as codified by Kardec.

In early 1900 the first Spiritist center was established in the city of Manila by Don Agustin Dela Rosa with regular worship services with the practice of mediumship and healing.  From this center the teachings of Spiritism spread reaching many Filipinos residing in cities and providences throughout the islands.

In 1901 Don Juan Alvear, directed by his spirit teachers, founded a Spiritist Center in his home town of San Fabrian, Pangasinan.  This Spiritist center is still in existence and is the oldest center in the Philippines.  My friend Jugulion, a young 21 year old medium and healer, and a member of this center, accompanied me for much of my tour as my driver and assisted me in much of my healing work. Jugulion is an amazing healing channel and works closely with a team of medical specialists in the spirit world.  It was great to have Jugulion assist me with hands on healing as his spirit helpers and energy blended harmoniously with the team of spirit doctors who regularly work through me.

Jugulion arranged for me to serve this important center as a guest speaker where I demonstrated mediumship and held a healing service.  A great medium, Don Juan Alvear, authored many books about the science and philosophy of Spiritism and the practical development of healing and mediumship.  As a pioneering Spiritist he did much to spread the teachings throughout the country.  Considered by many Filipinos to be the Apostle of Spiritism in the Philippines, a life size bust of him, encased in a wooden viewing box, sits in the back of the center in honor of his significant contributions to the movement.

I found that the experience of delivering spirit messages and channeling healing at this center to be extremely awesome as the energy on the platform was especially powerful as the premises have been used for such purposes for over a century.   The vibrations present reminded me of the incredible energy found at Lily Dale, Onset, Cassadaga, Etna and many of the other older Spiritualist camps in the United States, where I have served, that were established in the 19^th century

After the service the president of the center remarked to me that many overseas visitors have made it at point to make a pilgrimage to see this center as it is the oldest active Spiritist center in the entire country.  It is located across from the same major government buildings that Don Juan Alvear helped to establish when he held political office.

During his life Alvear held many prominent social positions such as a Professorship with the University of Santo Tomas, the oldest university in the Philippines, a member of Congress, and Governor General of the Providence of Pangasinan. A large statue of Alvear stands across the street from the center, in a public square, as an honor to this highly respected political leader.

In 1905 Alvear and other prominent Spiritists met as delegates for the purpose of creating a unified organization of Spiritists. They spent several years consulting higher authorities in the spirit world for guidance until under the direction of their spirit teachers in 1909 they incorporated the Union Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, Inc. as a government registered religious organization.

The Filipino approach to Spiritualism officially traces its origins to the mediumship of the Fox sisters and bases much of its philosophy and approach to mediumship and healing on the works of Kardec and the writings of Alvear and other Filipino pioneers.  The Philippines are largely a Roman Catholic country and as such the approach to Spiritualism is highly Christian oriented with terms like Holy Spirit being used commonly in the same manner that the generic term spirit is used by Spiritualists in the USA and UK.   Many of the mediums that I observed working referred to their spirit controls as being archangels such as Michael, Rafael and others.

The major international airport is located just south of Manila, the capital and largest city in the Philippines.  Other than driving to and from the airport at night I thankfully did not spend time there as it resembled any large, polluted city in the United States or elsewhere.

I arrived Friday evening at around 11:30 PM and due to the crowds it took me over an hour to clear customs and I meet my host Jun and a young Spiritist named Elmer both of whom accompanied me for the next ten days as I served Spiritist centers and conducted programs for healing and mediumship.  Born in the Philippines, Jun earned his citizenship in the United States, after serving in the US Navy for over twenty years, including participating in Operation Desert Storm, the first US invasion of Iraq.  Raised as a Spiritist, Jun resides half the year in California where he regularly attends Spiritualist services at the Golden Gate Spiritualist Church in San Francisco and elsewhere.  Jun was happy to arrange for my tour and sponsor me as a guest at the many centers throughout the Philippines.

The drive to Jun’s residence in Bamban, Tarlec took over two hours and after being up for over 24 hours I finally settled in after 3 AM.

Jun resides on a large estate complete with a massive Spiritist center suitable for public meetings and educational conferences, and additional buildings, including a library/healing space and areas for cooking and sleeping.  A former president for the regional Spiritist youth chapter, Jun regularly hosts large gatherings of several hundred Spiritists on his property.

I woke up early Saturday morning after three hours sleep to find the grounds already crowded with Spiritists, who had traveled from all over the region to participate in the all-day seminar/workshop that I was scheduled to conduct.  There were over 100 Spiritists, young and old, who attended the event including a prominent psychic healer from Manila who gave a presentation for part of the morning on healing.

Although I was completely jetlagged, it was a wonderful experience as the majority of the participants were practicing mediums and healers.  While many of the older generation seemed hesitant to participate or ask questions, the younger mediums present impressed me with their enthusiasm and desire to improve their connection with the spirit world.  We concluded the afternoon with a group healing in which I channeled healing assisted by the entire body of participants as we gathered around the seated recipient.  It was a beautiful experience for all concerned and lasted for about two hours as there were so many who wanted to receive hands on healing.

During the next few days I served Spiritist centers throughout the region as a guest speaker, medium and healer.  Spiritist meetings take place in centers and not churches, although I did not see much, if any, major differences in what took place at the meetings that I participated in from worship services at Spiritualist churches or centers in the USA, the UK and elsewhere.

All of the Spiritist center buildings are owned by the membership with the premises utilized strictly for Spiritist activities.   The centers are plainly marked as such on the outside with the inside structure consisting of chairs or pews facing a platform on which were chairs with a rostrum or tables and chairs.  One of the tables is reserved for mediums to sit at while delivering spirit communications during the public meetings.  On this table rests a large round wooden planchette like device, with a metal pointer and carved alphabet and letters and numbers for spirit communication.  The Filipino mediums, I observed working, other than in a few cases, with their hands resting upon it while entranced, did not use this device, although I am told in the past it was a standard practice for obtaining communications.

Instead, the mediums worked in various degrees of trance and allowed their spirit teachers to speak through them.  Most of the communications involved the spiritual teachers speaking higher philosophy or commentary on Biblical passages and their application to everyday life.  At several of the centers the spirit teacher allowed individual members of the congregation to come up onto the platform to receive personal messages concerning spiritual guidance or individual blessings from the spirit control.  While the trance communications were taking place, a scribe sat off to one side on the platform and recorded what was being conveyed.

The typical order of service consisted of an opening prayer, often sung by the congregation, followed by one or more mediums working as described above.  Prayers and songs were sung by the congregation at various points, and at one center this included a wonderful performance of the center’s large youth choir.  Meetings are longer than Spiritualist church service and typically last two to three hours.

Healing in Spiritist centers is practiced generally as magnetic healing, with the use of healing passes as popularized by the teachings of Mesmer.  Prior to his investigation of spirit communication, Kardec studied and practiced Mesmerism, a process of healing involving the transference of the life energy of the healer to the recipient, not necessarily with the assistance of spirit doctors.  Besides working with healing passes the Filipino Spiritists also charge containers of water with healing energy that is distributed to members of the congregation to drink.  I remember years ago attending a Spiritualist circle at an NSAC church in San Francisco where glasses of water were placed under the chair of each circle member to be charged with healing by the spirit doctors.

When it comes to healing, the Filipino Spiritists practice the approach to mediumship and healing detailed in the Medium’s Book.  Trance speaking, automatic writing, and to a lesser degree the use of the Planchette are common phases of mediumship utilized by mediums at Filipino Spiritist meetings.   Although all healing comes from God and involves the assistance of spirit doctors, the approach in the Philippines utilizing passes and charging water with healing energy differs somewhat from hands on healing as practiced in many Spiritualist churches.  Part of the differences in hands on healing as generally practiced in contemporary Spiritualism owes much to the late British medium and healer Harry Edwards, whose writings greatly influenced the application of spiritual healing in the Spiritualist church setting.  Edwards believed strongly that the practice of giving of passes and sweeping the aura were unnecessary and that the attunement to God on the part of the healer was most important for the success of the healing.

Delivery of personal spirit messages or greetings for members of the congregation as practiced in the American and UK Spiritualist church format is rare in Filipino Spiritist centers.  I spoke at one center in which one of the local healing mediums stood up and delivered personal messages containing guidance and diagnosis of health conditions for those attending the meeting.  This same healer included massage, diagnosis and the prescription of herbal remedies as part of his individual healing sessions with people seeking help in the back room of the center.  He also personally applied hands on healing for me, which was a wonderful experience as he had an extremely strong connection with his spirit doctors.  His technique with me included massage and other unconventional approaches.  He would most likely end up getting arrested if he were to practice such technique in the US or UK.  Watching this sincere healer work reminded me of the approach to healing that existed a century ago in American Spiritualism, where healers commonly included such practices as part of their healing treatments.

I asked my Spiritist friends if they knew of any healers who practice psychic surgery.  Psychic surgery is an uncanny phase of mediumship in which the mediums hand and fingers seemingly produce physical incisions on the body of the patient and even enter inside the patient’s body to remove tissue and other objects.  Harold Sherman’s 1967 classic Wonder Healers of the Philippines popularized this form of mediumship resulting in many people traveling to the Philippines to receive treatments as well as many Filipino healers traveling abroad to administer this unique form of healing.  The big question that most people ask in regard to this sensational, if not physically repulsive expression of healing, is whether such healing is authentic psychic phenomena or just a cheap trick utilizing the slieght of hand?

According to several of my Spiritist friends such healing is extremely rare and not practiced to the extent that it would have been 25 or more years ago.  They told me that much of the psychic surgery practiced was completely bogus for the sake of obtaining money from wealthy Westerners.  Instead they mentioned to me how quite a few Filipino healers work through administering etheric injections given by the spirit doctors.  During such a spirit operation the patient will experience the physical sensation of a needle being stuck into their body.  They also described the process of etheric blood transfusions, a bizarre phase of mediumistic healing that I had never heard of before. Apparently as part of the operation the healing medium will press his finger up to the finger of the patient, who will experience the feeling of blood moving from the medium’s fingers up through their finger and into their arm.  I did not experience either of these approaches to healing, but they would certainly be interesting to observe.

I also traveled several hundred miles north to Baguio City, a university town nestled in one of the country’s mountainous regions.  It was there, sponsored by the Regional Department of Public Health and Population Control, that I conducted two workshops: Master the Power of Psychic Healing and Spiritual Anatomy.  These training programs were attended by government employees including leading physicians, and high ranking government officials.  It was a spiritually enriching experience for me as none of the participants were Spiritists, and all of them were highly educated professionals, who were completely open and receptive to the concepts presented and greatly appreciated learning about the application of spiritual healing.

The highlight of my entire journey took place at a Spiritist center in Baguio City, where my group administered healing on Iris, a terminally ill 13 year old girl, who since last September has resided in the sanctuary of the center with members of her family who care for her 24 hours a day.  Due to the seemingly hopeless nature of her condition, Iris’s parents chose not to proceed further with conventional medical treatments and, instead, with approval of the center’s directors, moved their daughter into the center. We worked with her three times in the one day as she lay in bed smiling at us while her friends and family looked on.  Iris’s father is completely devoted to his only daughter and has given up everything in an attempt to alleviate her cancerous condition.  Iris stayed lying in her bed within the main sanctuary of the center, where meetings and healings take place on a daily basis.  The cancer which had affected her legs made it impossible for her to walk.  I cannot imagine this same sort of arrangement taking place in the US or the UK, but experiencing the love and generosity of the Spiritist center in allowing this young girl and her family to reside within the premises was a great inspiration.  Sadly, not long after my return home to New Zealand, Iris made her transition to the spirit world

The weekend of February 18-21, 2011, the Union held their 106th anniversary celebration and conference at their large headquarters center which holds about 2000 people.  During the weekend the center was packed standing room only with many more outside as around 4-5,000 people attended the weekend from all regions of the Philippines.  The Union is composed of 24 Regions and delegates and groups from these regions began arriving days before to organize and prepare for the annual event.  Around grounds of the main headquarters center are many large roofed sections complete with toilets constructed for members of the various regions to prepare meals and sleep, while attending programs at the headquarters center.  I observed hundreds of participants, who had traveled for vast distances to attend, camped out in tents, buses, vans and motor homes in the fields around the large building.

While at the headquarters I honored to meet many of the board members elected to govern the Union. It is interesting to note that the Filipino Spiritists are the most loving, open hearted and genuinely friendly people I have ever met.  On the other hand when introduced to me, the president of the Union behaved in an impolite manner and walked away.  According to other members of the board and Union, who were embarrassed by his actions, it was because he personally disliked my sponsor Jun due to superficial political differences. I found his behavior to be highly unprofessional considering his leadership position in a major international religious organization. The other board members I met were extremely hospitable and loving.

We erected several tents with educational banners in the field across from the headquarters compound where I lectured on Spiritualism and conducted spiritual healing sessions to many of the thousands participating in the event.  The conference schedule consisted of morning and evening séances and worship services, business meetings and election of officers.

The highlight of the conference took place on Saturday evening with the many youth groups from around the Philippines competing with musical and dance performances.  It was amazing to witness the young Spiritists in action and hear their beautiful voices, and it was refreshing to see such involvement from all ages, especially. The Spiritualist movement does little to attract or involve the participation of families and the younger generations and as a result is no way near as successful as the Spiritism practiced in the Philippines.

As a whole my experience in the Philippines was totally inspiring and makes me want to serve God and work as a medium even more.  When I think of what is lacking in Spiritualism in the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, where I currently reside, I feel uplifted knowing what is taking place in the Philippines as they certainly must be doing things right.

I would encourage Spiritualists interested in experiencing what I have described to visit the Philippines as it will certainly be an uplifting and enlightening adventure.  The mission of Spiritualism that started in 1848 with the mediumship of the Fox Sisters is still in motion and takes many forms as it is expressed by different mediums and cultures throughout the world.  While I have not yet visited Brazil, I am very aware of the marvelous accomplishments of the movement there; it is next on the list for my missionary activity.  Spiritualism is not yet a dead religion, but in order to survive as a viable movement, Spiritualists need to need to examine the success of Spiritists in places like the Philippines, Brazil and elsewhere and assimilate what is working in such locations into its approach.