agreed upon general principles and the differences among the different Spiritist centers and practitioners. Third, Dr. Bragdon's very insightful treatment of the commonalities of "theory" among the diversities of "practice" among different brands of centers. I believe that Bragdon's treatment here is both subtle and nuanced. First and foremost as she states "Spiritual healing may ultimately be more important than bodily healing." All of the energized world community now emerging under the banner of "Whole Person Healing" recognize that the key error of allopathic medicine was the single-minded focus on a person as a 'Body' alone. Kardecists, Spiritists, (and all whole person healers) simply state the obvious when they assert that Spirit matters, and profoundly so in health. While Bragdon struggles with the distinction between spirituality and religion (as many theologians are doing today), she ultimately comes down on the correct etymological definition of religion. Religion is indeed to bind again, to re-connect, via practice. All true religions affirm both theory (belief) and experience (practice). 'Faith' and 'works' are hardly a novel idea in all traditions. The Spiritist tradition links belief and practice at the point of the most universally experienced need-for health. The vast majority in the Christian world today simply have forgotten (or never knew) that Jesus was basically a well-known healer. Moreover, his spiritual insights were passed on in profoundly situational ways, for each individual to learn from their own responses. The vagabond son returns and the father rejoices and kills the fatted calf. The stranger in the ditch needs help. No dogma-only practice-but deeply connected to the spirit of caring and its translation into action.
Bragdon carefully dissects the non-sectarian, yet profoundly spiritual nature of the culture of Brazil in which all this occurs. I myself have puzzled over the question: Can the Spiritist experience be duplicated in the U.S.? I believe it works in Brazil (and say the Philippines) because these Catholic cultures are deeply steeped in belief in the reality of the spiritual realm or dimension, not the details of Catholic dogma. Bragdon points out how universally ecumenical (with respect to "dogma") all these centers are. In that respect, they presage the future of all other cultures. But there the relations diverge. Our "advanced"(?) Western culture has (only) in the last fifty years become for the first time in human history a culture of disbelief. There is no coherent mythos, no belief structure, which unifies this culture. If a culture lacks a unifying re-binding together (a religion) can it be a culture at all?? Is "Western culture 2004" an oxymoron? But Bragdon's book is aiming deeper: to provide the "blueprint" as she calls it-for starting a center for the study and practice of Spiritist healing. I heartily endorse the concept, albeit only to provide a channel for accepting reality for our dogmatist, reductionist, body-only practitioners.
Relevant to this Foreword is the challenge in Bragdon's book. How can we not start a center to study and disseminate widely what is learned about these Spiritist Centers. It may help our health care system, but even more importantly it may help our whole culture of disbelief.
Rustum Roy, PhD.
January, 2004
Chairman: Friends of Health
Introduction
In the Spring of 2001 I visited a Kardecist Spiritist Center, called the Casa de Dom Inacio, in Abadiania, Brazil. It was my first experience of "Kardecismo"a spiritual community center patterned after life principles compiled by Allan Kardec (1804 -1869), from channeled teachings. His books are written to help us live by principles that accelerate personal spiritual evolution and healing.
David Hess, an anthropologist, professor, and author, wrote two booksl about Kardec's Spiritism. He sums it up this way: Kardec's doctrine includes beliefs that we associate with esoteric traditions (the astral body, vital fluids, and spirit communication through mediums), East Indian philosophy (reincarnation and karma), reformed Protestant theology (the interpretation of heaven and hell as psychological states), Catholicism (emphasizing spiritual hierarchies who gain position through their stage of spiritual purity), social reformism (emphasizing equality, progress, freedom of thought and education); as well as modern science (parapsychology, metaphysics, the new physics, and the study of subtle energy applied to healing).
A wonderful outline of the philosophy, but Hess did not fully acknowledge the way it has been translated into action. In the following pages you will read about the effectiveness of Kardec's centers. The healing being done, charity being given, and education for life being shared, all of which suggests ways we can improve our own system for health management.
Some Centers have kept general records summarizing how many people have been helped with each service provided and what the success rate is in helping people recover from drug or alcohol addiction. A hospital administrator who teaches classes at the Brazilian Spiritist Federation in San Paulo claims they have a 95% success rate in helping addicts recover from dependency on drugs or alcohol2. When you read about Centro in Chapter Seven, you will read that 87% of people attending that Center claim to receive measurable healing of physical conditions ranging from minor pain to cancer. 70% report great improvement, or a cure. This information was published in a nationally circulated Brazilian magazine, Planeta, in April, 20023. Of course, these statistics are very meaningful and encourage anyone interested in health and healing to take a closer look at what makes Kardecismo so effective.
Approaching my first visit to a rural Kardecist Center in Brazil, the Casa de Dom Inacio in Abadiania, I expected to encounter some archaic rituals. Things that, while they may be interesting, could also be difficult for a Westerner to identify with. Since I don't speak fluent Portuguese, I also expected I would have some difficulty in understanding what I was seeing.
What I saw was clear and simple. It also amazed me-this center is not only addressing the universal needs of today, it is more successful, in many ways, than the resources for health management we have in the "first world." People were healing from cancer and AIDS as well as from psychological diseases, like schizophrenia and manic-depressive disorder-illnesses that modern mainstream medicine is not always capable of curing4. In addition, the consultations and surgeries that resulted in this healing at the Casa are free. The treatments are, for the most part, non-invasive, pain-free and generate no infection. While not every individual experiences a full remission of symptoms (perhaps because their degenerative disease is too far progressed), most visitors have profound spiritual experiences. That means, they have what can only be described as an experience of communion with Powers, such as God or angels, that brings comfort and peace of mind.
After publishing "Spiritual Alliances: Discovering the Roots of Health at the Casa de Dom Inacio" to document the work of John of God, I continued to visit Brazil, exploring other centers, and meeting more people who have been healed.
In October, 2003, I met Beth, a lawyer from Brasilia. She had been fully healed of two medical problems at a Spiritist center in Palmelo. I was especially impressed by her story of cure from ovarian cancer. The healing took one week of rest and seclusion in an inn, where she was from time to time given spiritual healing by visiting mediums. Her brother, unable to function in normal life, diagnosed in his twenties as schizophrenic, also came for treatment to the same center. Now, more than twenty years have gone by. Since being treated this man has no psychotic symptoms, maintains a healthy, stable, intimate relationship with his wife, enjoys sharing parenting their children, and works fulltime. These kinds of healings rarely occur in the USA.
The US Health Care System
Don't we have the best in health care? That assumption is often made. Here are the facts:
•The
