The Spiritist Society of Baltimore (SSB) organized and sponsored this event with the goal of bringing the consoling promise of Spiritism to the American public who has undergone challenging times on losing loved ones either through natural calamities or the ones created by Human Beings, the wars. To reach this goal, the SSB established for the first time a bridge between Spiritism and Academia on American soil.

Dr. Raymond Moody began his lecture highlighting the importance of critical thinking when thinking about the great questions of life. Based on the History of Ancient Greece and mainly the Oracle of the Dead, Dr. Moody said that he reproduced a technique to contact the dead found in Greek mythology by building up a room of mirrors in his institute.

In his studies with the technique of the mirrors, he proposed a new methodology to investigate the phenomenon of communication with the dead. Dr. Moody said that he was taken by surprise when he verified that the majority of individuals in his studies reported that they had some type of real experience in communicating with their departed loved ones. Dr. Moody also told about his personal experience with his deceased paternal grandmother.

He observed that his experiments also had extraordinary and diverse results. He said, “In half or so of my work, people say they had a three-dimensional image in full color of the person that they set out to see. But there are plenty of things that I did not expect. The other people report that they feel that their consciousness goes through the mirror and they come out onto the other side into a sort of panoramic, three-dimensional realm where they meet the spirits. Some people tell you that the apparition forms in the mirror then steps forward and comes out of the mirror. Thirty percent of the people tell us that they hear the audible voice of the deceased with auditory quality to it. The others who did not go through these experiences report that they had a heart to heart or mind to mind communion with the person that they saw. Another strange fact related to this, a quarter of those individuals see some other individual known to them who died rather than, or in addition to, the person that they set out to see.”

Despite his 30 years of research on life after death, Dr. Moody stated that he does not think that his research is a definite scientific proof of the existence of life after death. The climax of his talk was reached when he confirmed the need for new scientific methodology to investigate these profound questions of life. He concluded his lecture in a very optimistic way as he stated that he believes that “(…) in the XXI century, we will witness genuine scientific advances towards proving the essential questions of Humanity, among them the continuity of life after death.”

After that, the bright medium and speaker Divaldo Pereira Franco, assisted by the excellent interpreter, Daniel Benjamin (member of the Board of Directors of the Allan Kardec Educational Society), gave a speech on Humankind’s ideas on life after life since Ancient times, the Prehistoric Rock Art drawings. After brief historical remarks on the Human universal belief that life continues after death, Divaldo Franco brought the Spiritist Therapy for those who suffer from the loss of their loved ones by death:

1. Tell your loved ones that you love them while you are together with them. It will not be too much to say that your loved one is important for you. (...)
2. Think of your death, not your neighbor’s death. Because your neighbor is thinking of yours. (...)
3. Solve your relationship problems before death comes. (...)
4. When someone dies, do not lament. Be grateful for the time you lived with that person. Remember the happy moments you spent together. They will receive your mental message and will get closer to you. Make inner silence and you will be able to hear them in an intracranial voice. Gradually, you will be able to hear them directly. (...)
5. Pray for them. Pray to God for them. And be certain that when your time comes, they will be there to receive you. (...)

 “The Spiritist Therapy for the pain of separation is of hope”, said Mr. Franco who proceeded with great joviality, charisma and universal language, telling about cases of people who were skeptical and after communicating with their loved ones, through mediumship, had gotten the consolation and the certainty that life continues after physical death. One of the culminating points of his lecture was when he narrated a true case of a young man who was shot by his friend and died, while they were playing ‘Russian roulette.’ Through the mediumistic writing of the beloved Francisco Cândido Xavier (one of the greatest Brazilian Mediums) the ‘dead’ wrote a letter as a witness affirming that the defendant was not guilty of his death. Such testimonial was accepted by the Judge of the House Court and set the defendant free.

Approximately 70% of the 200 people in the audience were composed of Americans. The public was enchanted with the wise approach that Divaldo Franco used as well as by his eloquent and consoling Spiritist message. Dr. Raymond Moody Jr. also had his prestige confirmed, and at the end he expressed his admiration for the works that the Spiritist Society of Baltimore (SSB) has been leading on American soil. After the event, the SSB received a great number of positive feedbacks from the American public. Some of these testimonials have just been published at the SSB’s Newsletter, SpiritistNews, March/April 2006 issue (www.ssbaltimore.org).  

The unforgettable night was crowned with success also by the launching of new releases: two books (I love myself, I am addiction free; and Happy Life) and three CDs (Living and Loving; I love myself, I am addiction free; and Therapeutic Visualization: Inner Journey), all published in English. These materials were produced in collaboration between the Spiritist Society of Baltimore and Divaldo Franco/Mansão do Caminho (Mansion of the Way).

Certainly, this event of great expression was a historical mark for the beginning of a new era in the world dissemination of Spiritism, in which the dialogue between the Spiritist Science and Material Science was expanded.

Translated by Vanessa Anseloni and Daniel Santos; Revised by Lisa Pellegrino

[1] Vanessa Anseloni is the president-founder of the Spiritist Society of Baltimore, Inc. She is a fifth generation Spiritist and one of the pioneers on the Spiritist talks and workshops in the English speaking language in the Spiritist movement in the USA. Vanessa Anseloni is a neuroscientist and psychologist, currently a researcher and professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, USA.

[2] Daniel Santos is one of the founders of the Spiritist Society of Baltimore, Inc and also its Director of Communications. He is the main responsible person for the SSB website, the Webcasting Spiritism, and one of the first Spiritist newsletters, SpiritistNews, in the USA. Daniel Santos is a neuroscientist and a pharmacologist, currently a researcher at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, USA.