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"The Power of Faith". Speaker: Divaldo Pereira Franco.
And now, we pass the voice to Divaldo and the subject "The Power of Faith".
My dear sisters, my dear brothers,
our best wishes and peace!
Unfortunately, we couldn't be here in time
when we are leaving Munich going to the Zurich, we had problems with traffic jam
which precluded the punctuality,
because we are accustomed to be present at least 1 hour earlier.
This time was not possible and thus we apologize.
When we talk about faith,
we must meditate about natural confidence that all we have.
Allan Kardec in "The Gospel According to Spiritism",
in a beautiful page,
approaches the faith,
resorting to some Jesus parables.
And the remarkable encoder of Spiritism,
when he analyses the faith,
refers mainly, to the natural faith.
"Faith is either human or divine",
because it comes ultimately
from Who is our Sublime Father, the Creator.
And Allan Kardec deepening the matter of faith
evinces that faith may be imposed,
the old faith, traditional,
also named "blind faith";
and faith that we obtain through the logical, the reason, named "rationalized faith".
Quite rightly, Allan Kardec elected as paradigm of Spiritism:
"Unshakable faith is only that which can meet reason face to face in every human epoch".
The remarkable encoder
attempted to infiltrate into the core of human problems
to understand the meaning of life,
which has ever been the challenge for Philosophy.
He realized that the faith, to be legitimate,
must be, above all, logical, rational,
corroborated by facts.
Because Allan Kardec, before being the encoder of Spiritism,
was an emeritus pedagogue,
whose culture has been developing here in Switzerland,
in city Yverdon as Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail,
when he was Heinrich Pestalozzi's disciple,
the eminent master, father of the modern Pedagogy,
who established the necessity of human creature seeks God,
as fundamental for his life.
And boy Denizard Rivail, who was been born in a Catholic home,
in city Lyon, October 3, 1804,
was brought by his mother
to the end that studying with the remarkable pedagogue.
Pestalozzi is a mark of division of studying of human Pedagogy and child Psychology.
From North America and Europe,
the wealthiest families sent their children to the school in Yverdon,
where the eminent master, who loves children,
presents them a deep knowledge about the Truth
and most of all, about the faith in God,
through the Gospel of Jesus.
Later, when Allan Kardec has graduated as teacher,
and he went to Paris carrying Pestalozzi's method of education,
it was natural that French culture in 19th century,
which was entirely grounded in skepticism
at that time, a remarkable philosopher
has been introducing his doctrine
named Positivism.
Auguste Comte's Positivism
was a reaction against religious tradition
and as well a reaction against Materialism.
In 1842, Auguste Comte
created a word which would be fundamental in human solidarity.
This remarkable thinker who was a great mystic
although he did not believe in God,
declared that the love is the fountain of life.
And his philosophy was so important for the world
that the flag of Brazil
has a positivist motto:
"Ordem e Progresso" (Order and Progress),
which is an Auguste Comte's motto.
Positivism is a doctrine, as its name claims,
which ascertains the facts through the experience.
We can only believe in which we see, we touch, we experience.
And professor Rivail adopted this belief,
rational belief.
How could he believe in immortality of soul?
Is the soul abstract?
If the conception was theological,
it had not material basis
to make him believe in it.
So he adopted the positivist behaviour.
And thanks to this positivist behaviour
will arise later Allan Kardec.
Soon after he ascertains the spiritual phenomena,
communication of spirits,
through the renowned Table Turning (Table Tipping or Ouija board),
which were nothing but a rude device of which spirits utilize
for the purpose of offering us this doctrine fundamentally logical,
deeply rational,
based upon the laboratory experience of facts.
Spiritism, as everyone of us know, is a science;
a science that studies origin, nature, destiny of spirits and links between corporeal world and spiritual world.
However, Spiritism is not only a science of observation,
because it contains a philosophical proposal
whereas base support on belief in God,
belief in immortality of soul,
belief in communication of spirits,
belief in reincarnation,
belief in plurality of inhabited worlds,
and fundamentally in ethics moral-religious contained in Gospel of Jesus.
Spiritism is thus a triple doctrine.
It is science that investigates.
It is Philosophy that explains.
It is religion that comforts.
And in this context,
Spiritism corroborates Jesus' promise,
when he was saying goodbye to disciples
and saying that it was coming soon his time of ordeal.
The worried disciples said to him: "Don't leave us orphans!",
according to John 14:16.
And Jesus felt sorry for them who would feel alone and
promised sending them the Ambassador from Heaven.
"I will pray the Father" - said Jesus
"and He shall give you another Comforter,
"the Spirit of Truth (Holy Ghost, advocate).
"He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
"That he may be with you forever."
Allan Kardec comes to fulfill this statement,
when spirits come back,
like stars falling from the sky,
to enlighten the earthly night,
and somehow made way for "to kill the death"
which was the great "ghost" of Philosophy.
Because Philosophy is ancestral.
Based upon the Greek Atomism,
it claimed that the life (specially human life) is result of three factors:
the atoms, the vacuum, and the movement.
When one of these factors were disarticulated
the life was disintegrated and then it returned to chaos of the beginning,
in opposed to Socratic doctrine, Platonism, Aristotelianism
which claimed that the life was made by two essential elements:
the Being (who is the immortal soul)
and the Non-Being (which is the transitory matter).
So these both ideas - Spiritualism and Materialism -
or in other words - Socratic idealism and Greek Atomism -
have been advancing through the history
even when Roman Catholic Church,
when took over the Roman Empire,
imposed the religious faith, without logical,
the dogmatic faith.
Culture of 19th century was completely materialist.
There is a very curious event.
When Hydesville phenomena ensue,
March 31, 1848, in USA,
when Fox sisters keep contact with spiritual world
on the same day in London,
Karl Marx presented his doctrine of dialectic;
presented his "The Communist Manifesto".
And Marx claimed: religion is the *** of the people.
Because, in fact, religion was some kind of ***.
Religion claimed to people: "Bear your pains";
to employees: "Love your boss",
because those who were bad would be punished
and the victims go to the Kingdom of Heaven.
But when a rich dies, a powerful person dies, a great businessman dies
or a great landowner dies,
Church forgives them with the "mass for the dead" and they go to Heaven.
So Marx, revolted, said: this is an ***.
Because, in fact, this is a way of deception.
Spiritism comes and claims: the soul continues
and it may prove this through the mediumistic phenomena,
by way of the spiritual communications,
ability inherent in everyone.
As Allan Kardec has demonstrated, mediumship is not a gift, a charisma, a privilege;
it is an organic ability that everyone of us has,
likewise everyone of us got intelligence, memory, artistic and cultural ability;
as well everyone of us got mediumistic ability.
It is an innate ability that everyone of us got
which several degrees during our evolutionary process.
We know that all of us are intelligent;
but there are some who are genius
and those who have mental disorder.
So the intelligence has oscillation,
quality and quantity,
likewise mediumship.
So Allan Kardec divided mediumship in two kinds: intellectual and material.
Intellectual: psychography, psychophony, musical and art phenomena, etc.
Otherwise, physical effects, materializations, transports, all these phenomena are essentially material.
But mediumship features two aspects: an ostensive faculty that we have since childhood,
which features a resounding way
and other that it is natural, soft, subtle,
that we can educate naturally in the course of time.
And when we reach a such level of equilibration,
it might be so precious as the ostensive mediumship.
So faith is fundamental in Spiritism.
But a logical faith,
reasoned faith,
because Spiritism is a doctrine which does not accept any kind of superstition;
which has not any ritual;
which does not feature ceremony;
which has not an organized priesthood;
which has not an "external cult".
It does not need anything outward.
it is the religion between the creature and His Creator.
It does not need nobody who is interceding for us.
We talk to God through the prayer.
God answers us through the inspiration (afflatus)
and through the charity that we can do to neighbor,
God goes to these people who are suffering or needy.
But faith is fundamental
and we will find faith everywhere.
For instance, in the 1940's and 1950's,
there were famous phenomena in "Grotto at Massabielle", in city of Lourdes,
the famous "Grotto of Miracles",
where Our Lady of Lourdes showed up to girl Bernadette Soubirous.
Thenceforth, from a small fountain in a stone, the water gushed.
People obtained help using the water
which become a miraculous place.
where a large cathedral was built.
by Mary's request, of course,
to the young girl.
And it became a place of world peregrination,
similar to "Cova da Iria", in Portugal,
when Fatima appeared to three children
who were a boy, his sister and a cousin.
They were just shepherds.
But these events shook the European Culture
and a great French scientist, Alexis Carrel,
who was doctor,
decided to ascertain if, in fact, it was possible that,
through the faith,
the individual might be cured,
changing his organic structure.
And he decided to perform a peregrination to city of Lourdes.
He took a train in Paris,
train of pilgrims
and he followed the sick people.
He pays attention, especially, at a tuberculous girl.
At that time, in the 1940's, tuberculosis was incurable (Note: these events happened in 1902 and this girl was Marie Bailly)
Tuberculosis was named "white plague"
because it reaped millions of lives around the world.
Thanks to isonicotinic acid,
discovered around in the 1950's,
nowadays, tuberculosis is perfectly curable.
It is no longer a disease which devour populations,
except among people who are miserable, famished or promiscuous.
So, in this train, Alexis Carrel follows this febrile girl.
High fever with incessant hemoptysis.
Lungs with "cavity",
where were "koch bacillus"
and he expected that she would die along the trip.
But she arrived in Lourdes.
And when the sick people arrive in Lourdes,
people with several illnesses,
eczemas, mental diseases, spiritual obsession,
infectious disorders,
and he observes the reactions of girl,
girl who believes in Our Lady of Fatima, I mean, of Lourdes.
And he watches...
He has the first impact when he comes at city,
because there were a great number of volunteers:
the stretcher-bearers,
who carry sick people (paralytics, blind people, people with degenerative diseases) to the large area
where the church has been built.
He asked who were those volunteers.
They were paralytics who recovered their health right there.
And thanking Our Lady, they stayed there to help sick people.
Carrel watches...
It was an awful night that they had been passing in the train.
The pains, the groans, the screams, the superlative sufferings...
And when they come at Massabielle,
the large square filled with a lot of people,
he is still watching the tuberculous girl,
and seeing what is going on.
Was it a deceit?
He has been auscultating the girl
and he knows the tuberculosis very well.
At the moment that the priest was performing the mass,
the girl is lying and watching the altar.
And when the priest lift the Eucharist and blesses,
Alexis Carrel looks at the girl and (he notes that) she shakes.
Her pale face and her cold sweating begin to change.
He notes the change in her face.
And suddenly, a red color arises in her face.
Her cough is over.
The thin line of blood, which was dripping from the corner of her mouth, is also over.
She closes her eyes
and falls asleep...
When the mass is over, he feels girl's pulse: 80 (beats per minute).
He checks her body temperature: 36.5 oC (97.7 oF).
She was absolutely normal.
And then he auscultates her lungs,
and the lungs were in perfect harmony.
He was facing a miracle!
Because this event contradicts the Canon of Medicine (The Rules of Medicine).
But are there miracles?
According to Spiritism, "there is not miracle",
because the miracle is a violence against God's Laws.
And remarkable Alexis Carrel did not know how to explain exactly what had happened,
according to the point of view of science.
He reports these events and others healings.
So he stays there, following groups of sick people who come, recover their health and back.
And he sees that the faith has a "substance" that can produce the organic healing
as Gospel narrates.
Later... Well later...
The Culture will present Albert Einstein's thoughts,
when once day, someone asked him: "Do you think that the miracle is possible?"
And he answered:
"In the society, there are two kinds of people:
"those who trust in miracle and those who don't trust in miracle.
"I belong to first group.
"I believe in miracle.
And somebody asked: "but how? The miracle is a violence against the Cosmic Laws."
And Einstein said: "In fact, it isn't.
"Miracle is an event of which the 'device' we don't understand."
For instance: if we take the cell phone to the 1940's,
it would be a miracle.
This small box talks to the world, shows images, ipod, and others...
It would be a miracle.
Because they did not know the hertz waves (as nowadays).
Since the moment that hertz waves were identified
and the radio was created, the telephone was created, the television was created, the communications beyond the Earth...
The life has changed completely.
And thanks to high tech,
we can carry it in our pockets,
this little miracle of communication with the world.
I was in Paris, in one of my trips,
about 8 years ago, maybe less,
and I saw a Japanese girl
bearing a cell phone, talking and laughing.
so I approached to her, because I am not curious.
Man is not curious.
Women are curious.
Man is quiet cause he knows that woman will tell everything.
And I noticed that she was talking and watching.
And then I passed by her side quietly
and I saw that she was showing the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe.
She was nearby Louvre,
at wonderful (Avenue) Champs-Élysées.
I noticed that she was saying: "Now, I will show you the Arc de Triomphe."
And I thought to myself: she must be crazy.
So I approached her.
I greeted her with "Bonjour, madame, comment ça va?" and I said to her delicately: interesting!
She said: "I am talking to Tokyo
"and I am showing Paris to my friend who is in Tokyo."
And I replied: - How 'showing Paris'?
"Through my cell phone", she said.
And I thought: she must be completely crazy.
Cell phone is not television.
But nowadays even me can show everywhere
on a computer and Skype.
And we can talk.
For me it was a real miracle.
That little "ridiculous" Japanese cell phone which does not even compare with Brazilian cell phone
and transmitting images!...
So it was a miracle.
Newton (1643-1727) said once
over 300 years ago,
"The miracle is the result of unknown laws."
So which we name "miraculous phenomena"
are normal phenomenon inserted in a sort of standard of laws which we don't know yet.
Both, Quantum Physics and Neuroscience had to demonstrate that
the miracle is truly a law which has link with the phenomena of atomic microparticles.
Two great scientists from Harvard University,
David Bohm and Stewart Wolf,
both scientists,
who ascertained a wonderful thing:
they discovered - as everybody knows - that our neurons produce a sort of hormone
named neuropeptide.
Our communications (neuro communications,)
synapse,
they are result of electrochemical phenomena,
electro and chemical substances,
and then we have the communications.
And the brain becomes this magic box, fantastic, to sustain the life.
Science discovered in the 1970's,
that we have 64 kinds of these neurocommunicators.
I will quote some that everybody knows:
serotonin, noradrenalin,
dopamine.
When someone's got depression
he (or she) needs serotonin, noradrenaline,
which are produced in the posterior part of the brain,
and they give us joy.
Let's remember that formerly - I mean 20 years ago -
we used to say: "I love you from the bottom of my heart".
This is a silliness,
because nobody loves with his heart.
Heart does not love; it is a pump.
Its function is to eject.
And my friends used to say: "But, Divaldo, when I love, I feel such thing..."
And I say: - When you feel hatred and jealousy as well,
- because this "such thing" is emotion.
We love with the serotonin and the noradrenalin.
If here is someone in love, say later: "I love you with all my serotonin and noradrenaline!"
And the person will be dazzled, not knowing what it means.
But when the production of serotonin and noradrenaline decreases, we fall into depression.
The word "depression" is the Latin word "deprimere",
which means "pull to down", "lead the individual to the bottom of the pit".
So these both scientists discovered that when we love
- see what a wonderful thing -
when we love, when we forgive, when we have friendship,
the brain - besides those 64 substances - produces photonic vibrations.
Photon is a micro-particle.
It is an energetic particle.
This particle is absorbed by the central nervous system
that transfers this particle to the endocrine system, which transfers to the immune system
and we are in good health.
Thence people who love are in good health whereas people who do not love are in poorer health.
Who ones keep resentment get sick more than who ones are extroverted.
Carl Gustav Jung, the father of Neurology and Modern Psychiatry,
used to say that the introverted ones get sick more than extroverted ones.
Why?
Because they keep resentment.
I got a brother that since he was a kid - he was my oldest brother - he used to say:
"If someone insults you, keep the anger until the deat.!
"Don't ever forgive!"
My brother was a "caco": he lived only sick.
And when I become adept of Spiritism,
and I talked to him about forgiveness,
he answered: "This is pathological.
"It is lack of honor, it is a shame!
"Who insults me, do this very well, cause it's gonna be forever."
And in the spiritual world, he is still suffering
because he carries "mental trash".
Who one carries "mental trash" poison himself.
The extrovert one doesn't.
Someone insults him and he says: "Ah, let it be! It is his problem. He is a psychopath.I don't care about this."
Because if somebody does not like me, it is his problem, not mine.
Whenever he sees me, he will not feel fine... It is his problem.
I feel good.
I always use a very simple image.
I only receive a gift if I want it.
If someone gives me a gift, I receive it.
If this gift is not good, I refuse it.
Let it with himself.
"Divaldo, Mr. So-and-so spoke bad things about you..."
- Thank you very much, but I don't want to his gift.
- Let it with himself.
So I don't torment myself anyway.
Therefore I am 83 years old well lived
and I don't have any disease.
When I was younger, I had more diseases than nowadays.
I had cardiac arrest.
I had apparent death.
I had a lot of diseases. I had prostate cancer.
And here I am: young, wonderful
So we have the power of the forgiveness. Let us not keep "mental trash".
Those people who hate - said the both scientists -;
those who keep resentments;
these people don't produce photon, but electron.
And as electron disarticulate the particles,
the electron is absorbed by the central nervous system,
which transfer it to the endocrine system,
which transfer it to the immune system,
and the person loses his defence and get sick.
This subject is so serious that a new science has born,
of which name is very complicated.
It is Psychoneuroimmunology.
The mind produces for the central nervous system,
which produces for the glands,
which produce for the immune system,
which produces for the health or for the illness.
Thence we can cure through the action of the mind.
The faith will make us produce, in our mental field, the substance for the cure.
Let's note a detail in the life of Jesus.
Whenever someone approached him, asking for healing,
first of all, Jesus asked him: "Do you really believe that I can heal you?",
because many people ask, but don't believe.
Likewise someone who says: "I just ask... if I don't receive it, that's ok... I did not lose anything".
But when the individual says: "I trust", his mind already began the process of self-healing,
speeding up the particles,
which would be a miracle from an external point of view.
Sometimes Jesus asked them: "Do you really believe that I can heal you? Do you want to I heal you?".
It is natural that when we are asking for the cure, we want it.
But there are a lot of people who "want", but don't "want".
There is a wonderful story in the Gospel
about the Pool of Bethesda.
Bethesda was a place nearby Jerusalem,
where there were the baths, the pools.
It was a Roman work for the bath.
A tradition says that there was a fountain and, once in a while, an angel shakes the water
and the sick person who jumped into the water - the first one - get healing.
From everywhere sick people went to the Pool of Bethesda:
paralytics, blind people, insane ones, lepers, different dermatitis,
all waiting for the water shakes.
And the water was shaking, somebody shouts: "The water is shaking!" and the paralytics jumped into the water.
There was a (paralytic) man who was there for 28 years (Note: 38 years according to Gospel),
and once day Jesus was there.
And when Jesus has come,
the paralytic was touched...
The irradiation of Jesus' lyrical beauty, his magnetism,
his mental power...
and then the paralytic looked at Jesus and felt touched.
He said: "Lord, heal me!"
Jesus asked: "Do you believe that I can heal you?"
"I do."
"Do you want to I heal you?"
"I do."
"So, get up and walk!"
The man gets up and walks.
For 28 years the man was there and he never get healing,
because he did not want to heal himself.
Because he was standing far.
So when someone sees the water shakes,
as he was far, others jumped into the water first,
And the water only heal the first one.
Joanna de Ângelis says that if he wanted to heal himself,
he's supposed to be closer than the fountain, waiting for the moment that the water shakes, and jumps into the water.
But he doesn't because he was sitting far from the water.
When I was civil servant, I had a friend (she was woman) who was the kind of person who is "happy in her disgrace".
Because there are people who love being unhappy.
And they like doing that to inspire compassion.
When somebody says: "Poor him!",
they say: "Ooh!..." and feel fine.
I was sick, I weight loss.
My friends often said: "Oh, Divaldo, poor you!"
And I said: - Why?
In Bahia we used to say: "I don't have wounds in my back",
because who has wounds in his back cannot lie down. So he is a poor one.
"You got AIDS."
- It is not AIDS. It is a heart disease.
People are awful: "You are very thin..."
- But it is not AIDS. It is a heart disease.
So, it is curious because at that time,
several times, I used to observe my friends
and this woman, specially, she came with her "licking hair ", divided in two.
She came - I worked near at the entrance door - and she looked at me and asked: "Divaldo, how am I?"
And I am supposed to know how she was.
As I am optimistic, I answered: - You look great.
- But you should apply a lipstick, a rouge on face...
- Increase your hair...
And she said: "No..."
- You should sunbath... "No..."
- You should go to the cinema... "No..."
And she went away full of joy.
I did not give up.
The following day: "Divaldo, how am I?"
and I said: - Great.
But once day, I was not fine.
And when she came and asked: "Divaldo, how am I?",
I said: - Very bad!
- Who's gonna dating you? Your face looks like a face on the Friday of Christ's Passion day!
- No one wanna this!
She said: "Jesus, you are worst than me!".
Andshe went away and she was healed.
She didn't ask me anymore.
When she came and looked me, she said: "I am pretty fine"
and went away.
Of course, she improved her hairstyle,
got a boyfriend and married.
And I, who was so optimistic, nothing until today.
Oh what! How life is curious...
So it was this phenomenon of the Quantum Physics that occurred in Lourdes.
Person who went there wanted the healing
and as the popular proverb says: "There is a will, there is a way",
if you wanna it, do it.
But if the person wants more or less, he does not do it.
It is necessary developing the rational faith.
The miracle is, therefore, the occurrence of phenomena that escape of the mechanism of our understanding.
However, they exist into the natural laws.
Allan Kardec, studying the beauty of this page,
claimed: "Faith, the mother of charity and hope",
because if we have not faith, we have not hope.
If we have not faith, we have not charity.
"Oh, Mr. So and So does the good, but doesn't trust in anything...".
So this "goodness" is named "philanthropy", "generosity".
When we do the charity is a special touch,
because the bad ones are also philanthropists.
I know evil people who are generous.
They do the good for their friends
but they don't have faith.
Unlike this, they have negative and disturbing feelings.
The faith gives us a such inner beauty.
And the Spiritist faith, which is rational,
it is all based on our experience.
It is not what people used to say; it is what we acknowledge and which is logical.
Allan Kardec claims that if something is not logical, we must leave aside,
and let us continue with our structure.
So the power of faith reveals itself in thousands of our own attitudes.
All of us, Brazilian, Spanish, we are all here
because we believed that if we have been coming to live in Austria,
we should have a better life.
Our faith is so valuable that we left behind our roots
and we have been coming to here,
and we are trying.
The Spanish left their town because they trust in the Spiritist proposal?
(they said:) "No, we are going to there because we will have profit.
"We will have expenditure, we will have to move a lot.
"Each day in a different town,
"because our journey is each day in a different town.
"We lie down at 1:00, we wake up at 5:00, we take a plane, we take a train
"but for us, this is good because we are building a new world...
"So, we trust in this new world."
Spiritism opens for us unattainable horizons of faith.
I had a throat cancer
in 1954,
and the doctors wanted to operate me.
I was in São Paulo, performing conferences
and when I got aphonic,
being unable to speak, feeling a strong pain,
when I did a medical exam,
and it was found a tumor,
(doctors said): "You have to make the biopsy, a check up
"and be prepared for the surgery in which you will lose your voice."
Because it would affect the vocal chords...
So, with too much difficulty, I said that I lived in Salvador
and get back to my roots,
to the department - cause I was civil servant -
to perform a surgery like that, of which my Institute might pay for.
However, I was Chico Xavier's close friend at this time.
We became friends in 1948.
I decided leave São Paulo, passing through Belo Horizonte.
Chico lived in Pedro Leopoldo,
45 km far from Belo Horizonte.
I sent him a telegram.
I arrived in Belo Horizonte.
And with help of friends, on Friday night, we went to Pedro Leopoldo,
to Chico's session of psychography (automatic writing).
The meeting was very simple - like everything in Spiritism.
There is nothing to impress.
Chico set down at the head of the table closer than a gentleman.
Someone was taking the paper while Chico writes
and around the table, some people commented The Spirits' Book, The Gospel (According to Spiritism )
in two texts read before.
The public was sat
and the meeting began at 8 p.m., and crossed the dawn.
Chico was psychographing non-stop.
At that time, Chico channelling spirit Dr. Bezerra de Menezes, answered the mediumistic prescription.
And this prescription was homeopathic.
He used to answer even 500 or 600 prescriptions each night.
At the end, come the messages.
So I went as usual, I was used to,
and Chico said: "Divaldo, I wanna you interpret the Gospel".
I said: - I can't,
- because it hurts like fire.
He said: "Try."
I could not deny a Chico's requesting.
When they gave me the voice,
I made a big effort, with tears, and I interpreted the Gospel.
When the meeting was over, at dawn,
we went to Chico's brother house,
to drink a coffee, "um café mineiro" (coffee from Minas Gerais)
with "bolo de fubá" (cornmeal cake),
which is delicious.
No one Swiss chocolate compares to "bolo de fubá".
So we went way...
We were walking on street
and he said: "But, my son, can't you talk?"
and I said: - No...
We were being followed by 4 friends from Belo Horizonte.
4 men.
When we arrived at Andre's house (Chico's brother),
Chico looked at me and said: "Let's take 'passes', Divaldo?" (passes = movements with hands to transfer energy).
It was what I wished, but I did not ask.
We entered the room,
with a window - this detail is important - a window and only one front door.
He set chairs, there was a small table
and he set a chair at door, and asked me to sit in this chair.
So nobody could enter cause I prevented.
The window was locked with a "tramela", which is a piece of wood,
and then he set, bowed his head and said: "Turn off the light."
I turned off the light and he said: "Now pray!"
With too much effort, I began to pray,
saying to Jesus that we were there under His orders
and I started to say: - Lord, if it is Your will, heal me!
- I trust you can heal me!
And after a little while, I heard a female voice:
"'Divaldas', open your mouth" (Note: Divaldo is copying her German accent).
And I opened my mouth.
I was not aware and the voice said again: "I will assist you, 'Divaldas'."
I thought: - Curious! there must be a channelling...
I kept my eyes closed.
"I will cauterize."
I thought to myself : - Who's she?
The spirit perceived my thoughts and said: "Ich heiße schwester Scheilla."
(I am sister Scheilla)
"I disembodied in Hamburg, in 1942, during the war.
"I was nurse and I have disembodied on the battle field.
"Open your eyes." And I opened my eyes.
In front of me there was a 16-years-old girl
dressed in red according to World War II clothes.
Blonde hair, totally, hair combed back,
such little round shaped face of the girls from Germany and Austria. She was smiling.
And I thought: - Oh, my God... It is a hallucination!
Because there were 5 men
and that spirit, so young...
Her brightness was so intense that I saw the floor.
And I thought: - My God!...
She looked like a lamp.
And she had in her hand a pointed object, which seemed a pencil (at that time there was no ballpoint pen)
and the point of this object emitted a low noise and a green light.
She said: "I will cauterize with a radioactive substance
"and it's gonna hurt."
The men don't bear the pain.
Pain is for women.
I got a friend who says: "if the childbirth was male, the humanity would be lost, cause only the first baby would be born.
"The second baby, no way."
So when she said that it would hurt, I have repented.
She inserted that object into my mouth
and the object bent.
She pressed a button and... (a low noise).
I cried out so loud that the block quacked.
She removed the object, smiled and said: "I will cauterize again".
I said: - No, no... I prefer the cancer!
And she cauterized again, removed the object, and I cried out again.
And then she asked: "And now?"
I said: - Now it is ok.
I had recovered my voice at that time!
I said: - Oh, Scheilla!...
- It's not possible!...
- When you finish - see the rational faith - when you finish, I will think that it was a dream, a delirium,
- because you will disintegrate, dematerialize.
- So I'd like you give me something to prove that this event has really happened, besides the phenomenon itself.
I was collector of Violates from the Alps,
such little Violates also named "Africans".
She moved her hand like that and it began to fall...
I took my handkerchief and I opened...
It reminds me a Swiss friend who lived in Rio de Janeiro.
She talked once about the Edelweiss.
And she said how beautiful the Edelweiss are...
When she was in Switzerland, in Mont Blanc,
she had the opportunity to collect Edelweiss.
So I asked (to Scheilla): - Have you been in Germany? "Yes, I am German by birth."
- Have you been once in Swiss, Austrian or Italian Alps?
"Many times, Divaldo, even for skiing."
- And do you know the Edelweiss?
"Oh, Divaldo, this?"
And dropped several on my lap.
This Edelweiss is pretty white, with gray color tone
and it makes me remind the Daisy.
So I looked at that... and she lifted her tunic and said: "Tear a piece."
I tore a piece and, under my eyes, the piece recovered.
And then she smiled and went assist other person.
I kept the Violet from the Alps, the Edelweiss, and the tissue.
I bought a small safe-deposit box, made of bronze, to keep them... and I keep them until today.
Which is fantastic in her tissue is that I've sent it to several textile industrial executives
to check whether it was a tissue made in Earth... and it wasn't.
There was not machine to create a tissue so delicate, so lightweight, so tenuous.
And I keep it until today, stained, because of paint of flowers stained the handkerchie.
She went away and I am healed until today.
It is now 56 years since this, and I never had a hoarseness.
I never canceled a lecture because of problems in my throat.
In the days that I have a workshop, in Salvador, for instance,
I speak from 9:00 a.m. up to 6:00 p.m. (with intervals)
and after, I hold a conference yet, but without affecting my voice.
But this is a faith perfectly rational.
Did she make a miracle? - No.
When she cauterized the cancerous cells, she killed them.
And my organism began to copy only the healthy cells.
Because the cancer is the result of the memory loss of cells.
Our cells have memory.
What is the memory of the cells? To copy always the same.
They always copy the same.
The cells of tooth;
the cells of liver, which is very delicate;
the cells of pancreas (the neuron does not replace);
they have memory for, every 30 days, each cell breaks in 2.
The old cell dies and a new cell is born,
always,
according to our vitality.
But suddenly, because of the law of karma, because of our emotions,
we accelerate this multiplication (of cancer cells)
and instead of being every 30 days, becomes to be daily.
And so the tumor dominates the other cells, cause the other cells don't follow the same march.
And here comes the cancerous tumor,
with several manifestations,
and others pathologies that complicate the individual's life...
So there was the power of faith.
Later I had cardiac arrest.
I was declared practically dead.
I have a son who is doctor, adopted son,
When I fell, he said: "Uncle Divaldo is just dead!"
I sweated a lot, a big transpiration.
Soon after, he auscultated me and said: "Uncle Nilson, uncle Divaldo is dead..."
It was after a meeting, several doctors were there.
They came and begin to cry.
I felt out-of-body.
I saw my body.
I remembered that Joanna de Ângelis said to me: "When you see your body, and you are out,
"if you call somebody and they don't answer,
"you disembodied.
"Don't leave the place and wait for me until I come."
So I approached Nilson and said: - Nilson! Nilson!
And he did not answer.
I called my son Edilton and he did not answer.
So I thought: - I disembodied...
I will be here waiting for Joanna de Ângelis comes.
But it was so logical... as I saw a lot of people crying,
I thought: - Tears of joy?
Yes, because a lot of people have tears of joy when somebody dies.
I was in doubt cause they were crying too much.
Were they free of me?
I went to emergency, I was submitted to all technical and exams.
I had a large area damaged.
My doctor gave to me, the most, 6 weeks of life.
I was lying, I could not talk, I could walk,
I couldn't eat as usual. The menu changed completely.
Doctor said: "If you wanna few more time of life, stay right there: in state of expectation.
On the day of mediumistic session,
our community has 52 buildings,
and it is a large area, with 80,000 m2,
and the center (hall or house where the mediumistic session is performed) was close the administration house.
I was lying, around 8:00 p.m.,
when spirit Joanna de Ângelis comes near my bed and says: "What you have?"
I thought: - Jesus! My spiritual guide does not know what I have?
I said: - My sister, I am 95% dead!
She smiled and said: "And so? Aren't you talking to me who is 100% dead?
"Get up from this laziness and let's go to the mediumistic meeting!"
The mediumistic meeting is a very serious thing in Spiritism.
It is a great responsibility.
The spirits count on us.
Frivolous people, who go today and don't go tomorrow,
are naturally set aside. They may be present, but (the good spirits) isolate them,
because (the good spirits) cannot count on careless people.
They are responsible people.
Therefore, to participate in mediumistic meetings, is necessary study, awareness, responsibility
and above all the punctuality.
She said: "I am just going to the meeting."
I said: - But I cannot go, my sister, because doctor said that if I stand up, I die!
She asked: "How long you will live according to doctor?"
- 6 weeks if I rest.
"And if you don't rest?"
- I got a heart attack and die.
"So, I prefer you die working than die being lazy... I'm just going to meeting."
I had only 10 min.
I said: - My God!...
Nilson had installed a bell. I called my son. He came fast.
I said: - My son, take me to the mediumistic room.
I couldn't down the stairs by my own.
Cardiac pains... Angina is a terrible pain.
And then, I went supported (by my son) and hoping that the door wasn't shut.
Because the door is shut 8:00 p.m.
If Jesus is late, he does not enter.
So there is not this stuff of waiting for Mr. So and So or whoever.
It is hard line, it is military regime, it is a compromise with the spiritual world.
I said: - Miguel, my son, go fast and ask them for wait a little.
I could not walk 80 meters in 10 min.
The dyspnea...
And I finally entered...
I sit here, Nilson sit by my side.
When I sat, he asked me: "Joanna, right?"
- No comments!
We started the meeting.
The meeting is simple.
We read The Spirits' Book, someone reads the question, other reads the answer,
a short text of Gospel (According to Spiritism)
and then we meditate.
We pray, we turn off the lights, we let a soft light
and the meeting ends at 9:30 p.m. on the dot,
because the spirits have tasks.
I have channelled the spiritual mentor;
and then I have channelled a suffering spirit;
I psychographed
and I have channelled Joanna at the end.
Well, when I back to normal;
when the light was turned on,
I breathed...
and I did not feel the angina.
Angina is like whether the heart was ripped by a blade.
So I breathed deeply and I said: - Nilson, I feel pretty fine.
Joanna de Ângelis appeared in the other side of the table and asked: "How are you?"
I answered mentally: - 95% alive!
"Go home now and don't spend the energies that we gave to you."
Well...
Here I am and my doctor died when he was 40 years old due to a heart attack...
I went to his burial
and I performed a nice speech.
Because life is curious!
During my trips, I have been finding people who say: "Divaldo, I came to your lecture cause it is the last one."
I ask: - Are you going to die?
"No, why?"
- So why is the last one? I am not planning die soon.
I've programmed to die when I am 100 years old
and until then, the science will make progress
and I will be alive up to 110 or 115 years, lucid, young, etc.
So faith is exactly this rational logic of life.
It is life to make sense.
It is not to feel bad due to the occurrences.
Any "to feel" is followed by problems.
If, by chance, I have a problem, it is very good, cause only who is alive has problem.
A remarkable American preacher
was walking on the streets, in New Jersey (USA),
and he met a desperate friend.
He said: "What's going on?"
"I can't handle so many problems! Life is full of problems!..."
So the great preacher said: "I know a place where there are 25,000 people without problems."
His friend said: "Wow, where is it?"
"Go straight ahead until the cemetery
"and you'll find 25,000 people without problems."
But it was which the preacher thought, cause there is the place where the problems lie.
Some clinging to the matter,
others disturbed or repentant.
Problem is a challenge.
So we're supposed to find the meaning of life.
What I am doing on Earth?
To have a family, to get money.
Well done.
What else?
To be happy.
What else?
Because happiness today may be disaster tomorrow.
To have a meaning... My life must have a meaning.
As Jung said: "Life must have an objective",
and this objective is the immortality.
Because life, how long it is, passes - and it passes too fast - and it ends.
But we will still be alive.
If we think about investing in old-age,
having an old-age insurance for advanced age, having an old-age health insurance for sickness,
why don't invest in our spiritual life?
Why don't invest in our meaning?
I will still be alive.
I meet some friends who say to me: "Divaldo, we are friends for 60 years..."
I say: "God's sake, shut up... Not a word!"
60 years of friendship!
But the years rolled by...
I meet friends who say: "Mr. Divaldo, I remember you...
"You stayed in my house... Do you remember me?"
- I confess: I don't remember... When have I stayed there?
"40 years ago."
I say: - We both changed, didn't we?
- You should be 4 or 5 years old, right? "Yes, I was a 4-years-old little girl."
- Now you are 44 years old, yes? You've been changing a little.
My God! 40 years rolled by, 50 years...
I see my children... They came to my birthday (May 5th)...
They came, hugged me and it was "Hi, old man!" everywhere.
We played a lot and I looked at one of them and he looked like "finished".
I said: - My son, what 's going on?
And he answered: "Uncle, I'm 50 years old". I said: - Shut up! Not a word! 50 years old, my son?
And I expected die young...
And my son is 50 years old... I have great-grandchildren... and going to great-great-grandchildren.
And I wanna see my great-great-grandchildren... my great-great-great-grandchildren...
So we have to invest in our spiritual life,
because as we invest... How? Studying Spiritism,
knowing it,
releasing ourselves from superstitions.
I remember people who have so many superstitions,
who suffer because... "Oh, the sunlight illuminates my bed, I must wake up with my right foot."
I wake up with my both feet and I don't care... I jump upside down, head up or down and it works.
I live in Salvador.. And you know how Salvador is... it is the city of magic in Brazil.
I say to people, when they ask: "Uncle Divaldo, black magic affects us?"
- Affects those who have no honor.
Because "low" spirits are in tune with "low" people.
He answered: "But uncle Divaldo..."
I gave him a handkerchief and said: - You may take it and do a "black magic work" for me.
People used to say that if it is something of our personal use the black magic works - Take it and do it.
"Aren't you afraid, uncle?" - Absolutely not, because I have a karma
- and God will not allow no one diverts my karma,
- or else it isn't God's law but somebody's in love law.
A woman falls in love with me, I don't want to, she casts a spell and I die?
Where is the justice? It is illogical.
But there are people who believe, a matter of tradition.
Some people used to say: "Oh, uncle, but people claim that if we cook 'vatapá',
"'galinha de xinxim' (they both are traditional dishes of Bahia),
"put powder of 'pemba' (powder for spells made with minerals or bone of animals)..."
- Bring to me and I eat in front of you.
So perhaps it is not poison,
because our faith overcomes any obstacle!...
So Spiritism releases us of a lot of stuffs.
I had many superstitions. I've been born in a rural town, in a poor family
and I believed in "evil eye", in spells, in black magic.
I had a friend who played cowrie-shell divination.
Oh, my God! she played the cowrie-shell and foresaw my future...
She said once: "Divaldo, you will never leave Feira de Santana (city)..."
I've been visiting over 2500 cities, 64 countries, in 5 continents
and my "super-medium" claimed that I would not leave Feira de Santana?!
And I believed in this...
Once day - as people usually say "I got a hero inside me".
I left my hometown, moving towards Salvador (capital city of Bahia) by my own,
alone and 17 years old. - I will try a better life! So I said to my father: - I want to try a better life.
- I want to leave this small city.
- I don't want to live as shop employee.
What were the jobs there? "Banco do Brasil" and shop.
For "Banco do Brasil' it was necessary public tender.
And then my father said: "Go! My blessing follows you."
My mother said: "I will cry too much, my son, but go."
And then I left... And later I send for them
And she died in my arms...
That superstitious forecast was nothing more than a fantasy,
an atavism,
a tradition.
And several times we are imprisoned in these traditions!...
Spiritism release us because it is a doctrine "fatalist":
it just happens with us what it is better for our happiness.
"Oh, but I got a big accident!"
Maybe you should die.
I have been ascertaining curious things.
An anguished person approached me because of his son had died.
The good spirits said to me: "He died because he deserved it."
I said: - Your son died because, for God, he had merit.
"But Mr. Divaldo..."
- Did you realize if he becomes quadriplegic for the rest of his life,
- there, deformed in his bed killing both himself and you, without never die?
- He would not have merit.
And the individual says: "That is true...
"He had cerebral concussion in the accident
"and never had a normal life no more..."
And I said: - So, by merit, God took him to His kingdom...
Aand then, a bad thing is excellent.
Of course, we suffer,
but for some time,
cause we will re-meet them again.
We will have the sublime opportunity of re-meeting those who left before us,
in this great journey of comeback!...
So in this meeting that we improvised
and we telephoned saying that we had day off...
We began 15 days ago and tonight we have day off.
And she said: "Let's go there to speak to our brothers and sisters!
"I asked Edith to talk to Vânia to you come here to chat about this wonderful doctrine!..."
I'd like to close the first part - because I will just finish 3:00 a.m. -
I'd like to close with a beautiful page
about that incomparable man from Israel.
That man so handsome and so noble that divided the History...
Because Jesus was so great that he did not fit into the History.
He has been born and before or after him, the History narrates events...
It was a spring day in Jerusalem.
The ground expelled perfumes...
The pleasant perfume of flowers.
And the onomatopoeia of nature sang the hymn of praise to life!...
The sun closed its hand-fan of golden plumes in the sunset...
And that man sitting in the staircases of the temple
was contemplating the festive nature of the Kidron Valley,
when an young and pretty woman passed there.
The shoulder-length hair carrying some jewels,
dressing clothes from Babylon.
When she saw that handsome man, she felt her heart warmed, and she approached him and said: "Nazarene,
"I know you are Nazarene because of your hair and your beard.
"And I know you are traveler and you have just came,
"because your feet are marked by thorns acquired along the way
"and your forehead is sweaty..."
The Nazarene looked at her...
She continued: "Nazarene, I am a seller of illusions.
"I sell perfumes.
"I sell caresses.
"I am very rich.
"Men pay a truly wealth to keep me by their side!
"Today is my birthday.
"I've just refused a priest.
"I refused a Prince from Edom.
"I refused a Roman legionary.
"Today I will choose my partner to sleep with me.
"And I meet you... I want to invite you to my house
"because today it is my party.
"Will you come?"
Jesus looked at her and said: "Today I cannot."
"Oh, Nazarene, I won't collect cash of you!
"My donkeys are carrying a lot of jewels.
"I have power and gold.
" I won't collect any cash of you.
"I just want to invite you to come to my house
"and stay in my party as special guest.
"Will you come?"
He looked at her...
Under the wonderful musical background of nature at twilight,
he said: "Today I cannot..."
"Let me tell you something: men dispute my caresses!
"I sell them with high price.
"But I won't collect anything of you.
"Come with me to my house!...
"I won't request for anything
"I will place a naked slave girl from Nubia to dance for you...
"I will wash your feet in a silver bowl and I will dry your feet with my own hair
"and I won't request for anything.
"Come!"
He stands up and his beauty let the woman even more in love...
And she said: "Forgive me!...
"I act like that because I love you.
"I see in your eyes a strange flame
"and I act like that because I love you!... Come!"
"I cannot..."
"Oh, Nazarene, at least come to my house and sit down by my side!...
"I will be looking at you from my door...
"And someday I will say that I had the man who was good as the happiness, noble as the flame
"and pure as the naked sword;
"who has passed through a fallen woman's house and did not make her worse...
"Will you come?"
"Today I cannot, but I will attend your appeal someday!...
"This day is not near or far...
"But I will go to your house
"and I will attend your appeal!..."
"I don't want to! I want you today!
"I am capricious woman and I want you today!"
"Today I cannot..."
The woman went away blaspheming and disappeared...
Two years later,
Jesus was in the neighborhood of Jerusalem
and teaching the crowd...
Meanwhile, an old woman approached him
and talked something in his ears.
and pointed to a grotto.
She asked him: "Will you come?"
"Yes, I will."
And then, the woman took him by hand, crossed the way, and reached the grotto.
She said: "It is there inside, Lord."
He felt smell of putrid flesh.
He stretched the arms.
The grotto was dark.
He went towards someone who groaned and cried...
His fingers touched a head of which hair was filled with pus.
He opened the eyes and... an ulcerated body,
a shapeless head
and open wounds in the face...
A hoarse voice said: "What do you want?
"Run way! I am leprous!
"If you come to buy perfumes, run way!
"Let me die, cause I don't have anything else to sell...
"And if you come due to pity, let me die!...
"It's too much late...
"I'm leprous...
"And those who see you leaving here, will pursue you..."
And Jesus said: "I cannot.
"Once day, you have invited me to your birthday party
"and I told you that I couldn't,
"but someday I would come."
And then the woman moved back
cleaning his wounded eyes.
"Oh, handsome Nazarene,
"it is you!...
"Why were you so long?
"I was waiting 2 years for you...
"From the day I met you,
"I had not peace...
"I've been losing the joy of living...
"Every night I put a lamp lightened in my window
"to light the night and you might come to my house
"and you didn't come...
"Now it is too much late...
"I am all rot...
"I don't have anything to give you..."
"I have promised you. I said that someday I would come."
And he took her in his arms and left the grotto.
While they were leaving, she covered the face, ashamed...
But he was holding her with his strong arms
and remembered the sentence that she had told to him in Jerusalem...
He looked at her wounded eyes and said, smiling:
"Let not your heart be troubled. I love you!...
"And now I see in your eyes a strange flame
"and I act like that because I love you!...
"Die in peace!...
"If your body is no use at all,
"give me your soul.
"'Ego sum pastor bonus' (I am the good shepherd)
"and those who give me their soul, even dying, will enter in life!..."
The woman bowed and died in Jesus' arms...
The power of faith leads us to change our attitude before life,
releases us from the passions, from the problems,
from the challenges, from the difficulties!...
We are so small...
So I'd like to say: Lord, I'd like to say to you that I love the life!...
I'd like to be a "Via Lactea" (Milky Way) filled of stars
for the nights of Earth would be most beautiful...
But in my small way...
I say to you now:
since I cannot be a star,
let me be the firefly that in the dark night,
lighting up the bitterness of those who walk in the solitude!...
I'd like to be the generous rain
that falls on the ground and supplies the ground!...
But if I couldn't,
I want to beg you
to be a glass of cold water
to quench someone's thirst who lives in agony and solitude!...
I'd like to be the garden filled with flowers
of all colors to embellish the Earth!...
But due to my poor soul,
if I could not be the garden,
let me be a lonely rose in front of a stone setting beauty in the altar of Nature!...
Lord, I'd like to be a plantation of wheat
to fill with bread the humanity's table!...
But due to my fragility,
if I couldn't be that,
let me be one grain,
which falling into the ground
becomes 1 million
and get humanity rich of blessed bread!...
I'd like to be the high mountain
from where I had the sight of whole planet
but poor and alone I couldn't ever be!...
Let me be a rock paving the road in which the heroes march towards the crowd...
I'd like to be an orchard with ripe fruit
to end humanity's hunger!...
But I am nothing but a branchless tree casting shadow on the ground...
And then when somebody crosses my path alone,
I might ask: "Hello! where are you going to?"
And if he asks back: "Who are you?"
"I am your brother! I am your friend! give me your hand!
"I will go with you, side by side!..."
And I will shout: Lord, I'd like to be a poet, musician, artist, speaker
for claiming the beauty of your Gospel!...
But I am so poor...
I lack skill, magic, arts, candor...
Let me, at least, tell you: Thank you Lord, because I've been born!
Thank you Lord, cause I trust in you!
And thanks to your love, thank you Lord!
And thanks for your attention, Ladies and Gentlemen!