THE CHAIN OF MANIFESTATION: A SPIRITIST PHENOMENON

Espiritismo is a part of my practice that I have been at for many years. My mom took me to an actual séance many years before I knew this. It was at a Spiritualist Church that met in an upper room. I do not remember all the details of that night super well. But the one thing I remember like yesterday was when they split the people up. I had to sit with someone other than my mom. The facilitator then took us through a spiritual exercise to open our minds and spirits as we sat with a stranger. Then, we had to close our eyes and try to describe the person’s home.

I did that, down to the kind of carpet the guy had. He looked at me, part speechless, part scared to death! I remember the facilitator saying something to him about the power and purity of kids. I didn’t understand most of what was talked about, but I knew I had some ability to see. That was my very first experience of any of this.

When you enter certain Derived African Traditions, Spiritism is the primary way many spiritual houses help those in the house develop relationships with people’s ancestors and ancestral guides. Every single espiritista develops and grows differently and at different paces. It should never be a game or competition because we all (should) understand that we have different gifts and abilities with our spirits that are as unique in how they work as our fingerprints!

There’s this thing you start to experience, though, and that’s what my post is about today. When you are in misas (basically our equivalent of a séance), you begin to notice that one person will receive a message or see something, and then another person seems to pick up that message and see or hear more. This can go on for several minutes with one issue, where the mediums in the room all start to see with increasing clarity whatever the subject is for someone in the room. I call that the “chain of manifestation.” The chain sounds heavy and binding, but I do not intend that. I use chain because, since I have experienced it myself, it always feels like a swift, energetic connection to the initial person having the vision that grows like a rapidly blossoming flower.

What is also cool about it is those less developed mediums (usually because they are new) will begin to ride these same waves. The ability to ride the wave or receive nothing has very much to do with the degree to which you trust yourself. If you have a lot of self-doubt, if too many people along your path have made you feel like you’re worthless, it will be harder for you. More challenging but NOT impossible.

You see, the beauty of Spiritism in any form is that it is our birthright. Every human being has ancestors and ancestral guides, every one of us. We are born with them. We chose them before we came here from wherever we were. So even the oppressive words of others cannot snuff that divine light. My road toward development in this part of my practice was complex and challenging. I had toxic elders. I had people who flat-out taught me wrong stuff. I even had people tell me to throw certain ones of my spirits away.

But not one of them succeeded in stopping my development. They failed because my spirits were several steps ahead of all that drama. And I am not unique. I have heard this same thing from others. But it can take time to recognize the master plan that our spirits have. Sometimes, we will only know why they do something well after the fact. As I have often said, so many of us are eager to learn about fancy, exotic spirits from cultures we don’t even know when we have some of the most potent spirits we could ever imagine in our blood and bones. We are the ancestor altar.

I’m writing about this lesser-known part of espiritismo because it has also come my way that American Spiritualism (a related but different branch of Spiritism) is on the wane. Like other organized religious groups in America, it has struggled to remain relevant to the newer and younger generations. Sure, people like Theresa Caputo can sometimes get people’s attention. Still, some spiritualist friends have told me there is a rigidity in how the Old Guard holds to the tradition that makes it unattractive to the newer folx.

I find that ironic. It’s ironic to me because if you study the life and teachings of Allan Kardec, you can see that there was an experimental, pioneering aspect to what the Good Spirits did through him and those first spiritists. They received the message alright, but it is entirely different than translating that message into an easily reproduced practice. The very nature of Spiritism is to have a pioneering spirit and seek to convey the message of it for the present age. Spiritual phenomena like the “chain of manifestation” drive home this point to me and continually remind me that, as a medium, I am not in control. I am doing my best to open myself to Spirit so what needs to be said and done gets said and done. It is the spirits of the people gathered with me making that chain to come forth and guide us. I can see, however, that there is a tension between this movement of Spirit and pray that the tension becomes a creative one, propelling espiritismo in all its forms into the future while it honors its pioneering past.