Greetings and Opening Prayer
Third:
each group should present their work. The spiritist teachers and other young people can ask and/or add information about the character that is being discussed.
Closing Prayer
First:
get the young group in a circle. Place in the centre of the circle five cups with flags containing the following words written on them: REINCARNATION, MATERIALISM, SKEPTICISM, PANTHEISM AND POLITHEISM. For the word REINCARNATION there should only be one flag, while for the other words there must be several flags. A word should then be whispered to each young person. Please note the word reincarnation should be said to most of the young people, while other words should be said to only 4 members of the group. When the spiritist teacher mentions every word, the young people must rise up and seek in the glasses the flag corresponding to his/her word. So when the word REINCARNATION is said, most of the young group gets up and tries to grab the very few flags corresponding to this word. The goal of this activity is to compare the situation to the teaching that came from the spirits when Spiritism was codified, because the same teachings were transmitted in many places around the world. You can then read an excerpt from the Spiritist Magazine dated January 1858, which explains how the communications that gave rise to Spiritism happened.
Second:
split the young people into small groups and distribute to each group books with highlighted passages about some characters who lead up to Spiritism (Joan of Arc, Swedenborg, Andrew Jackson Davies and the Fox Sisters). Give them some time for research and get them to build a "Business Card" (or a passport) containing the character's picture, name, significant dates (birth, important facts, disincarnation), places (where they were born and lived; where something significant happened...), their life milestones and the importance of this person in the history of Spiritism.
Handouts:
Many questions have been addressed about the way in which we obtained the communications that are the subject of The Spirits’ Book. With great pleasure, we will summarize here the answers that we have given in this regard. This gives us the opportunity to fulfil a duty of gratitude to the people who helped us.
Spiritist Magazine - January 1858 - Allan Kardec
As we explained, communication with spirits by means of rapping or typology, are very slow and very incomplete for the work; so we never used this feature: communications were obtained through writing and through various psychographic mediums. We ourselves prepared the questions and coordinated all the work; the responses given by the spirits were obtained in a text format; most of them were written right under our eyes, some were taken from the communications that were sent in by correspondents or gathered by us to be studied from everywhere we went to: the reasons for observation seem to be multiplied before our eyes by the spirits.
The first mediums that contributed to our work were ladies B ***, whose good will were always present: this book was written almost entirely through them and the presence of a large audience that attended the sessions and took part on them with great interest. Later the spirits recommended its complete revision in private conversations to make all additions and corrections they judged necessary.
This essential part of the work was done with the assistance of lady Japhet, who worked with good will and accepted all requirements of the Spirits, since it was them that scheduled the days and hours for their lessons. The Spirits reprove all trade that could be made of their presence: Ms. Japhet, who is also remarkable somnambulic medium, had employed her time usefully, but understood also that she could gain by devoting herself to the dissemination of the Spiritist Teachings.
As for us, we have stated from the beginning, and we like to reaffirm here that we never wanted The Spirits’ Book to become an object of speculation. Its income should be applied to things of general utility; we will always be recognized by those who join hearts and love to goodness; to the work to which we are consecrating.
The communication between incarnate and disincarnate spirits is not an "invention" of Spiritism. We find numerous examples of spiritist phenomena through the ages, when we look at history,: the appearance of the "angel Gabriel" to Mary and the star of Bethlehem which announced the birth of Jesus to the Magi, in the ancient world; mediums who were burned as "witches" in the Middle Ages; the Fox sisters and the "table-turning" phenomena in the Contemporary Age; mediumship groups and Chico Xavier’s mediumship.
Spiritist Teachers: Letícia, Ricardo and Débora
We have among the numerous precursors of Spiritism:
Joan of Arc: born in Domrémy, France (1412-1431), from a poor family of peasants, she was a pastor until 18 years of age. She could not read or write, but said to be inspired by saints and that her destiny was to serve as an instrument to liberate her homeland from the English domain. She commanded several armies and, after many victories, repelled the enemy, recovering part of France. All voices Joan heard referred to her great mission; never to foolish things. Many French, however, feared the respect and authority exercised by Joan. They denied support to her, triggering losses. Joan was declared a heretic and a witch. She was burned in 1431 by the French in the public square.
Emanuel Swedenborg: born in Stockholm, Sweden (January 29, 1688 – March 29, 1772), he was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. From childhood he was a psychic medium. In Gothenburg he observed and described exactly a fire in Stockholm (300 miles distant) while having dinner with 16 guests. In 1741 at the age of fifty-three he entered into a spiritual phase in which he eventually began to experience dreams and visions beginning on Easter weekend April 6, 1744. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758), and several unpublished theological works. In Life on Other Planets, Swedenborg stated that he conversed with spirits from Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus, and the moon. He released several books exposing ideas that came from visions he had of other planes of existence. He presented many ideas that were later proven by Spiritism, many years before the rise of Spiritism as codified doctrine.
Andrew Jackson Davies: born in the United States (1826 - 1910). He developed his hearing mediumship and clairvoyance in adolescence. In 1844, he was transported from Poughkeepsie (where he lived) to the Catskill Mountains (about 55 km distant). In these mountains he met the spirits of the philosopher Galen and the Swedish Emanuel Swedenborg, his mentors. Over time, his mediumship increased with phenomena of xenoglossy (knowledge of a language one has never learned) and erudite mediumship. He predicted the invention of the automobile, the airplane and the typewriter long before they appear in the material world, in his work called "Penetralia". He also saw the overt manifestation of spirits, which almost happened the following year, in Hydesville, with the Fox sisters.
Fox Sisters: in Hydesville (small village near Rochester, New York State, USA) there lived on the Fox family: John and Margaret Fox and their young daughters Margaret and Kate, aged 14 and 11 years. One night the family decides to investigate strange noises that happened in their home. The girls then decide to talk to "who" was causing the disturbance: Kate demanded that those noises repeated in accordance with the noise she made with her hands. They found that it was a spirit known as Charles Kosma, who wanted to communicate. The spirit was able to call the attention of scientists, researchers; many people. The three sisters, Kate, Margaret, and Leah were mediums.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.