Science, History, and Spirituality
The scientific journal Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, issued in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, published an important study carried out by the Research Center in Spirituality and Health of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (NUPES-UFJF) in partnership with the Department of Psychiatry of the University of São Paulo (USP).
This research analyzed thirteen letters that were psychographed by medium Chico Xavier (1910-2002) and attributed to Jair Presente, a spiritual author who died in 1974. Following the due assessment criteria, the content of the letters was considered authentic.
Jair Presente
The study was signed by doctors Alexandre Caroli Rocha, Denise Paraná, Elizabeth Schmitt Freire, and Francisco Lotufo Neto, supervised by psychiatrist Alexander Moreira-Almeida, the Director of NUPES-UFJF.
A summary of this interesting article, taken from the September-October/2014 edition, is available at www.explorejournal.com/article/S1550-8307(14)00108-6/abstract.
Alcione Giacomitti
These facts remind me of part of the interview I gave in 2000 to journalist Alcione Giacomitti, which he published in the book Os Pilares da Sabedoria de um Novo Mundo [The Pillars of Wisdom of a New World]:
In the 1980s I said: Science, enlightened by Love, elevates man to conquer Truth. The philosophical position adopted by the Religion of God, of the Christ, and of the Holy Spirit in view of the challenges of universal knowledge obeys common sense: the question is not believing or stopping believing, but knowing whether certain facts constitute an absolute truth or not. It is up to Science, obviously, to prove it. As a matter of fact, I often say that what Religion knows by intuition, Science will prove one day in laboratory. . . . Conventional science will (always) have to be re-appreciated in order to absorb the many new data being collected by the so-called leading edge science. It will also need to include among the new findings the acknowledgement of the Spiritual World, but not as the result of chemicals in the brain that excite the human mind in the region of what is illusory, because this conclusion is very convenient. It must do so as a multidimensional reality, in which the conscious and active life of Beings is extended into spheres that are still invisible to our visual sense. . . .
We will get there.
Mary del Priore
Spirituality in its many diverse manifestations is remarkable in the history of Brazil. What is more, no country on the planet is free from this decisive influence. I have told you that the spirit of religiousness, another name for spirituality, is born with each human being. Its development in doing Good is the correct road map to follow.
Even though some people may not want to give it due credit, this topic is always on the activity agenda of academics, researchers, historians, religious people, and scientists at the forefront of things.
Renowned Brazilian historian Mary del Priore recently launched Do outro lado [On the other side], in which she seeks to describe the way in which our forefathers dealt with the Spirit world. According to the synopsis of the her book, “it is an exciting narrative about a subject that attracts both those who believe in everything as well as those who believe in nothing, but who want, above all, to find out a little more about the history of our country.”
My special thanks to the competent author for the friendly dedication note she sent me: “To my dearest Paiva Netto, with admiration and a warm embrace from Mary.”
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